7. CANADA READS REUNION
Virtual Event
Finalists from Canada Reads discuss the process of being selected for the show and the process of navigating the debates. In conversation with FOLD Executive Director and Canada Reads superfan Jael Richardson, this is a panel you definitely do not want to miss.
Date: April 30, 2023
Time: 7:30pm – 8:30pm ET
The 2023 festival will run from April 30 – May 7. Dedicated virtual programming on our innovative, online platform will run April 30 – May 3, while in-person events — many of which will also be live-streamed and available on-demand for virtual audiences — will run May 4-7.
A Virtual Festival Pass gives guests access to more than 20 virtual events which can be viewed from the website or through our festival app designed for mobile devices. In addition to festival events, virtual passes provide users with direct access to more than a dozen vendors in our festival exhibitor hall. Guests who purchase a virtual pass can also participate in trivia times, roundtable discussions and our new festival after-parties, which will follow all of our evening events.
An In-Person Festival Pass gives users access to all of our virtual events as well as our standard in-person events in Brampton, Ontario on Saturday, May 6.
This year, the festival includes three in-person Specialty Events – the Dine N’ Draw on May 4, the Literary Cabaret on May 5 and our Historical Fiction High Tea on May 7. Tickets for these events are not covered with our passes and are only available until April 30.
On a Budget? Check out our Patron Pass program.
Kate Beaton was born and raised in Cape Breton, where she lives with her family. After graduating from Mount Allison University, she moved to Alberta to pay down student loans. During the years she spent out West, Beaton began her webcomic Hark! A Vagrant, quickly drawing a worldwide following. She has published five books: Hark! A Vagrant, Step Aside Pops, King Baby, The Princess and the Pony, and the graphic memoir Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands which was named a New York TImes Notable Book and one of Barack Obama’s favorite books of 2022.
Michael Christie is the author of the internationally best-selling novel Greenwood, which was a finalist for Canada Reads, was longlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize, and has been translated into 10 languages. His previous novel, If I Fall, If I Die, was longlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize, and selected as a New York Times Editors’ Choice Pick. His linked collection of stories, The Beggar’s Garden, was longlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize, shortlisted for the Writers’ Trust Prize for Fiction, and won the Vancouver Book Award. A former carpenter and homeless shelter worker, he lives in Victoria, BC, on the unceded territory of the Lkwungen speaking people, and the Songhees, Esquimalt, and WSÁNEC First Nations.
Silvia Moreno-Garcia is the author of The Daughter of Doctor Moreau and Mexican Gothic. She won the Locus and British Fantasy awards for her work as a novelist, and the World Fantasy Award as an editor.
Dimitri Nasrallah is the author of four novels. His most recent, 2022’s Hotline, is a national bestseller that’s been nominated for the Scotiabank Giller Prize and CBC’s Canada Reads. He was born in Lebanon in 1977, and moved to Canada in 1988. His previous books include The Bleeds, Niko, and Blackbodying. He lives in Montreal, where he serves as fiction editor for Véhicule Press’s Esplanade Fiction imprint and teaches creative writing at Concordia University.
Jael Richardson is the author of Gutter Child, The Hockey Jersey, Because You Are, The Stone Thrower, and the founder and Executive Director of the Festival of Literary Diversity (FOLD) in Brampton, Ontario. Gutter Child was shortlisted for the Amazon First Novel Award and was a finalist for the Forest of Reading White Pine Award. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Guelph and lives in Brampton, Ontario.