 |
 |
Presented in partnership with Vancouver Public Library and BC and Yukon Book Prizes. |
Note about the venue: This event takes place in the Montalbano Family Theatre on the 8th floor of VPL Central Library, rather than the Alice MacKay room. It is accessible by elevator.
Meet acclaimed local writers and celebrate their trailblazing new books at this Incite event, featuring authors shortlisted for this year’s BC and Yukon Book Prizes! We’re thrilled to once again feature finalists of the 2026 Jim Deva Prize for Writing That Provokes, which recognizes writing that challenges or provokes the ideas and forces that shape what writing, art, and/or society can become.
Books shortlisted for this prize blaze new paths within their genre. They give voice to underrepresented stories, or challenge conventional formats, content, genre and structures. Megan Cole, Executive Director of the BC and Yukon Book Prizes, will be joined on-stage by two authors whose works do all that and more.
Jen Sookfong Lee’s The Hunger We Pass Down is a horror-tinged novel about the relentless spectre of intergenerational trauma, following a single mother as she confronts the demons passed down through five generations of women in her Chinese Canadian family.
The essay collection This Book Is a Knife: Radical Working-Class Strategies in the Age of Climate Change explores the origins and dangers of climate change through a critique of capitalism, rooted in author L.E. Fox’s background as a science journalist. This passionate series of missives offers new possibilities for saving the world.
The event will also feature a video message from Ruby Smith Diaz, the author of Searching for Serafim—a new biography of Vancouver’s first lifeguard, Serafim “Joe” Fortes.
Join us in-person or online to hear from writers whose work embodies a spirit of perseverance, and a commitment to pushing boundaries and changing the status quo.
About Incite
Presented by the Vancouver Writers Fest and Vancouver Public Library, Incite is a free quarterly series offering fascinating conversations with celebrated authors and emerging talents. Incite is open to all, in-person at the VPL’s central branch or online. Books will be for sale at the event, and most events will have a signing after the talk. Can’t make the date? Sign up for the livestream to receive the recording in your inbox!
Participants and Speakers
Jen Sookfong Lee
JEN SOOKFONG LEE was born and raised in Vancouver’s East Side, and she now lives with her son in North Burnaby. Her books include The Conjoined, nominated for International Dublin Literary Award and a finalist for the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize, The Better Mother, a finalist for the City of Vancouver Book Award, The End of East, The Shadow List, and Finding Home. Jen acquires and edits for ECW Press.
L.E. Fox
L.E. FOX is a queer, non-binary, working-class writer and journalist. Their work, which focuses on issues of class, gender, sexuality, the environment, and the messy places where these things intersect, has appeared with The Guardian, Vice, and The Globe and Mail, among many other outlets. This Has Always Been a War is their first book.
Megan Cole
MEGAN COLE is a tattooed food enthusiast with an obsessive reading habit. As a journalist Megan has worked for community newspapers, CBC Radio, and Canadian Press. Her creative nonfiction has appeared in The Puritan, Invisiblog, untethered, Hungry Zine, Chatelaine, and is forthcoming in The Fiddlehead. Megan is working on her first creative nonfiction book titled Nice Boys Don’t Kiss Like That: Womanhood Explored through ‘90s Rom-Coms, MSN Messenger, and First Loves. When Megan isn’t writing, reading, knitting or cooking, she’s working as the Executive Director for the BC and Yukon Book Prizes. She lives and works on the territory of the Tla’amin Nation in BC.