61. Highway to the Danger Zone: Lyrics Night

Receive a 50% discount to 64. Night Fever: Dance Party if you purchase them at the same time!

Can You Feel The Love Tonight? Following our highly successful Lyrics Nights celebrating various decades, and the Endless Love we’ve received from our authors and audience since their launch, we’re returning with the same concept… But on a trip to the movies! Come get Footloose with host Elamin Abdelmahmoud and hear your favourite authors take on dramatic readings of classic songs from movie soundtracks. It’ll be a Whole New World of songs you know and love, brought to life by brilliant readers. And don’t forget that the fun continues with a dance party following the event. You Won’t Want to Miss a Thing. Hosted by Elamin Abdelmahmoud.

More information about the Festival:
Box Office | Accessibility | Venue Map

Event Participants:

Elamin Abdelmahmoud

ELAMIN ABDELMAHMOUD’s work has appeared in the Globe and Mail, Maclean’s, Rolling Stone, and others. He is the author of the number one national bestseller Son of Elsewhere: A Memoir in Pieces. He was the 2023 Guest Curator for the Vancouver Writers Fest.

Kate Black

KATE BLACK’s essays have been published in The Globe and Mail, The Walrus, and Maisonneuve. In 2020, she was selected as one of Canada’s top emerging voices in non-fiction by the RBC Taylor Prize and the National Magazine Awards. She grew up in Alberta, and lives in Vancouver.

Nick Cutter

NICK CUTTER is the author of the critically acclaimed national bestseller The Troop (which is currently being developed for film with producer James Wan), The Deep, Little Heaven, and The Handyman Method, cowritten with Andrew F. Sullivan. Nick Cutter is the pseudonym for Craig Davidson, whose much-lauded literary fiction includes Rust and Bone, The Saturday Night Ghost Club, and, most recently, the short story collection Cascade. His story “Medium Tough” was selected by author Jennifer Egan for The Best American Short Stories 2014. He lives in Toronto, Canada.

Elliott Gish

ELLIOTT GISH is a writer and librarian from Halifax, where she lives with her partner. A graduate of Simon Fraser University’s Writer’s Studio, Gish’s fiction has appeared in many journals, including the New Quarterly, the Baltimore Review, and the Dalhousie Review, and was nominated for a 2022 Pushcart Prize.

Drew Hayden Taylor

DREW HAYDEN TAYLOR has done many things, most of which he is proud of. An Ojibway from the Curve Lake First Nations in Ontario, he has worn many hats in his career, from performing stand-up comedy at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., to being Artistic Director of Canada’s premiere Native theatre company, Native Earth Performing Arts. He has been an award-winning playwright (with over 100 productions of his work), a journalist/columnist (appearing regularly in several Canadian newspapers, magazines, and news networks), short story writer, novelist, television scriptwriter, and has worked on over 20 documentaries exploring the Native experience including the popular Searching for Winnetou. His documentary series on APTN, Going Native, is in its third year. The author of 34 books, he looks forward to finding out where his imagination will take him next.

Kirsten McDougall

KIRSTEN MCDOUGALL is a novelist, short story writer and creative writing lecturer. Her 2017 novel Tess was longlisted for the Ockham NZ Book Awards and shortlisted for the Ngaio Marsh Award. She’s a Killer was longlisted for the Ockham NZ Book Awards 2022. She lives in Wellington, New Zealand.

Rajinderpal S. Pal

RAJINDERPAL S. PAL is a critically acclaimed writer and stage performer. He is the author of two collections of award-winning poetry, pappaji wrote poetry in a language i cannot read and pulse. Born in India and raised in Great Britain, Pal has lived in many cities across North America and now resides in Toronto. However Far Away is his first novel.

Andrea Warner

ANDREA WARNER lives in Vancouver, BC, on the territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations. Her books include The Time of My Life: Dirty Dancing, Rise Up and Sing! Power, Protest, and Activism in Music, and Buffy Sainte-Marie: The Authorized Biography.

Robert J. Wiersema

ROBERT J. WIERSEMA is the author of three novels, a novella, a collection of short stories, and a book of nonfiction. He is one of Canada’s most recognized and respected book reviewers, with his work appearing regularly in The Toronto Star, Quill & Quire, The Globe and Mail, National Post, and numerous other publications. Wiersema lives in Victoria where he is a professor of creative writing at Vancouver Island University. (BRITISH COLUMBIA)

Jenny Heijun Wills

JENNY HEIJUN WILLS is a transnationally and transracially adopted Korean Canadian writer who currently lives in Winnipeg (Treaty 1). She is the author of Everything and Nothing at all: Essays and the Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Nonfiction prize winning Older Sister. Not Necessarily Related. A memoir. She is professor of English at the University of Winnipeg.