8 Authors Talk About Finding Joy in Turmoil

The eight authors with Abdelmahmoud (front) at the Playhouse

The 37th Vancouver Writers Fest officially kicked off today and this evening I attended one of the first events with the intriguing title: Finding Joy Amid Turmoil.

It was held at the Vancouver Playhouse and understandably sold out with attendees wanting to find out from eight authors how to find job amid turmoil.

CBC Radio Commotion host Elamin Abdelmahmoud was the emcee for the evening and he's funnier than he is on the radio. He explained that the festival changed its format for the grand opening event, which usually entailed a talk with a Giller Prize author.

But for some reason that did not happen, and the next suggestion was to present something on Alice Munro, but that was soon nixed, as it was revealed by her daughter that she was sexually abused by Munro's second husband, but did nothing about it.

So Abdelmahmoud joked that tonight's event was Plan C.

We appreciated this third option. Eight authors came up one by one to give their interpretation of finding joy amid turmoil.

Kim Thuy talked about how her family was very poor when they came to Canada from Vietnam, and how they scraped together money to put food on the table. But she and her uncle spent C$12 on the French novel, The Lover. She described how he explained the words to her and she would read the book over and over to the point where she could do dictation perfectly, down to the commas. 

As a 14-year-old she didn't make many friends because she talked like the book, "Your face, devastated".

Tanya Talaga is Anishinaabe and Polish, and talked about her latest book, The Knowing, researching her family's Indigenous stories, and told us how she gave a talk to high school students and reframed Canadian history from the point of view of aboriginals, how their land was arbitrarily taken away from them by the British. But she sees hope in the next generation who understand, but also embrace their indigenous classmates.

Irish author Roddy Doyle also talked about his 14-year-old self being beaten by the priest with a leather strap at school. Doyle still vividly remembers the searing pain, but says it was worth it because they had made fun of the priest for his sexual urges that he displayed during class (rubbing himself against the desk). One day the boys left chalk marks on the desk so that there would be white marks on the priest's groin area...

Heather O'Neill explained she did research for her book, The Capital of Dreams, spending time in Gaza just before the October 7 attacks. She read entries from her journal of her observations, some funny incidents, mostly at a human level.

After a short break the talks continued with John Valliant, speaking with no notes, but weaving a true story about when he first heard about the September 11 attacks, trying to process this shocking news, and then his nine-month old son crawling by and giving him joy. He also talked about how months later, cellist superstar Yo-Yo Ma was performing at the Orpheum and Valliant was amazed at how people were not concerned about their safety, but there for the concert. He said Ma was only focused on making music for people to enjoy, much like what we were doing right now.

Sadiya Ansari's book is Exile: Rupture, Reunion, and May Grandmother's Secret Life, where she described how her father only saw his mother twice, 18 years apart due to partition between Pakistan and India -- thanks to the British. 

Ukrainian journalist Andrey Kurkov wasn't able to make it -- his flight was delayed and he was in Portugal. But another author, Conor Kerr, who is part Ukrainian, read an excerpt from Kurkov's book, The Silver Bone, about the Ukraine-Russian war going on now. He described what it was like to celebrate New Year's Eve in Kiev, unsettling, but trying to make the most of it.

Finally Bill Richardson came on stage. He still talks like his CBC Radio days, linking together bizarre facts and stories. He joked that he was doing a Ted talk, having researched that while we all know Elizabeth Taylor the actress, in history there have been numerous other Elizabeth Taylors. He recounted some of their lives that were hilarious when he read them out. At one point there is Elizabeth Taylor the actress with a tiara on her head in a room full of balls. Richardson explained he had asked AI to find a picture of her in a ballroom. Ha ha.

His Elizabeth Taylor yarn went on a bit long, but he had us laughing, with joy.

The picture above (from left to right): Bill Richardson, John Valliant, Conor Kerr, Roddy Doyle, Sadiya Ansari, Tanya Talaga, Kim Thuy, and Heather O'Neill