Ottawa Writers Festival Presents: Ebola, Bombs, and Migrants with Dr. Joanne Liu

In Ebola, Bombs, and Migrants: Humanitarian Crises in a Security-Obsessed World, Dr. Joanne Liu, former International President of Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières, draws on frontline experience to examine three major humanitarian crises of the 2010s, revealing the global obsession with national security and its capacity to overshadow our responsibility to protect vulnerable populations.

Since the early 2000s, a world shaped by 9/11 has retreated into fear, strengthening borders and eroding the mechanisms of international cooperation. From West Africa to the Mediterranean and into Afghanistan, Dr. Liu shows how, despite the best efforts of frontline responders, the international community has repeatedly chosen containment over compassion, and politics over principle.

This urgent, authoritative work urges readers to connect past tragedies to current circumstances, reckoning with the cost of disengagement to ultimately reclaim a vision of shared humanity in the face of global crisis.

Dr. Joanne Liu has spent most of the last thirty years working for Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders, where she also held term as international president. In 2015, Liu was made an Officer of the Ordre national du Québec and was recognized by Time Magazine as one of the 100 Most Influential People of that year. She is a recipient of several recognitions, the Légion d'honneur of the French Republic, and the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) Award for Health Services Management and Leadership (2021), and the Meritorious Service Cross of Canada.

Tickets are available on the Ottawa Writers Festival website. 

Book signing with Mike Martin

Stop by the store on Saturday, November 7th to chat with Mike Martin about his latest, A Capital Mystery Vol. 2. 

Through the eyes of 23 local authors. A Capital Mystery Vol. 2 is the newest anthology release of short story mysteries set in Ottawa, following last year’s highly successful A Capital Mystery. From Kanata to Orleans, from Britannia Beach to the Mer Bleue Blog, these lawyers, piano teachers, photographers and puppeteers uncover mischief, mayhem and even murder in modern-day Ottawa. They also bring us back to our collective past to recall the live music at Le Hibou or to imagine the awe felt as new carillon bells rang out from Parliament Hill after the Great War.

Night of Lights presents: GROTESQUE Book Launch

Head to Swizzles Bar & Grill, for a drag show and book launch in celebration of Elliot Dunston’s new book “Grotesque” - a darkly erotic fairy tale of death and redemption. ($15 cover).

Elliott Dunstan is a trans novelist, poet and historian based out of the Ottawa Valley. Author of several chapbooks and zines, including the long-form poem GULA, he also moonlights as a drag performer and visual artist. Grotesque is his first full-length novel. 

Ottawa Writers Festival Presents: A Noble Profession with Peter Mansbridge

Join legendary broadcaster and author Peter Mansbridge for a deep dive into his latest, A Noble Profession: Inspiring Stories of the Teachers Who Shape Our World, co-written with Mark Bulgutch.

Few people make more of an impact on young people’s lives than teachers. Parents, of course, are vital for a child’s future, but it is our teachers who choose to devote their daily lives to illuminating the world around them, selflessly spending their careers changing the trajectories of the young people in their charge. Teaching can be a thankless job, but these homeroom heroes dedicate themselves not only to following the curriculum but to protecting their students, recognizing their struggles, and intervening when necessary, helping to shape them into productive members of society and the leaders of our future. From elementary and secondary schools, to post-secondary and even in hospital and prison settings, these stories will inform, entertain, and grab you by the heart.

Through dozens of profiles of teachers, and some students, Canada’s most authoritative news voice, Peter Mansbridge, along with veteran journalist Mark Bulgutch, recount true stories of teachers on the front lines of this vital profession as they contend with students’ challenges with their course material, mental health, language skills, sexuality, and many other matters.

A Noble Profession celebrates the experiences of teachers and students, making an ideal gift for any teacher in your life and any students and parents who want to understand the challenges and witness the triumphs in the classrooms that dot the country.

Reserve your tickets on the Ottawa Writers Festival website.

Book signing with Carolyn Y. Nakagawa

Join author Carolyn Y. Nakagawa for a meet & greet and signing of her debut book, Asahi: Japanese Baseball Heroes!

Asahi: Japanese Canadian Baseball Heroes tells the true story of the beloved Vancouver Asahi baseball team for fans of all ages. It shares stories of individual team members, collective experiences of anti-Asian racism, and the legacy made together with their fans in the Japanese Canadian community and beyond. 

Carolyn Y. Nakagawa is a fourth-generation Anglo-Japanese Canadian writer of books, articles, museum exhibits, poetry, and plays. She grew up in Coquitlam, BC, and continues to live in Greater Vancouver. She has an honours degree in English Literature and Asian Canadian and Asian Migration Studies from the University of British Columbia. During her time working at the Nikkei National Museum & Cultural Centre, she led tours introducing thousands of kids to Japanese Canadian history and heritage, including the story of the Asahi baseball team. One day, she hopes to see the musical she is writing about The New Canadian newspaper performed onstage. 

Book signing with Rod Carley

Join Rod Carely as he signs copies of his latest book The Great Catsby!

The Great Catsby is a playful parody poking fun at love foiled and ambitions foisted set within the mad, uncertain world of cats in 1920s Mew York. Jay Catsby, the feral son of impoverished barn cats, has built his kibble fortune selling illegal catnip, When Nick Cattaway moves in next cat-door, it seems like Catsby's only a whisker away from winning back his beloved Daisy, the beautiful Persian he lost to the arrogant Tom Cay Burmese two lives earlier.

Gary Barwin book launch

Join Gary Barwin in celebrating his new novel The Comedian’s Book of the Dead, on Monday, November 16! The launch will include a reading and live music, and will be hosted by Conyer Clayton (author of lake-shaped excuse).

Death is a comedian and devoted family man, but everything falls apart when the Fates choose him to guide departed souls to the Beneath. Having to perform this new role erodes his humanity and causes him to do some perhaps unforgivable things, and when his only son dies by suicide, Death realizes he’s likely the one to blame. Attempting the impossible, Death goes into the Beneath to beg the Fates to allow him to bring back his son. Naturally, things are not what they seem, and Death is forced to reevaluate everything he knows—everything except the deep love he has for his child.

Blending Barwin’s celebrated wit with deeply moving scenes of empathy and compassion, The Comedian’s Book of the Dead is a heartbreaking and humorous journey into the joy and pain of parenthood, and a thoughtful exploration of choice and agency, sacrifice and love.

Gary Barwin is a writer, musician, and multimedia artist and the author of thirty-five books of poetry, fiction, and essays. His novel Yiddish for Pirates was a national bestseller, was shortlisted for the Giller Prize and the Governor General’s Literary Award for Fiction, and won the Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour and the Canadian Jewish Literary Award for Fiction. Nothing the Same, Everything Haunted: The Ballad of Motl the Cowboy was chosen for Hamilton Reads, won the Canadian Jewish Literary Award for Fiction, and was shortlisted for the Vine Award for Canadian Jewish Literature for Fiction. The winner of the League of Canadian Poets’ Life Membership Award, he has been twice shortlisted for their Spoken Word Award. Barwin lives in Hamilton, Ontario.

Ottawa Writer Festival Presents: True Patriot Love with Carol Off

Join Carol Off, the #1 bestselling author of At a Loss for Words, for a conversation on her latest book, True Patriot Love: Reporting from the Frontlines of Canadian Sovereignty, a passionate and sweeping examination of who we are as Canadians, where we’re going, and why Canada is becoming a beacon of hope in an age of cynicism.

Since she stepped down from CBC’s As It Happens, Carol Off has been on the road talking to Canadians about their country and listening to their questions about its future. With True Patriot Love, she's ready to offer answers, drawing on lessons from the crises of the past sixty years that have prepared Canadians to seize the current moment and become a mature country.

Off has witnessed nation-defining events during her lifetime, from the first unfurling of the Canadian flag to the explosion of cultural nationalism in the 1970s. As a journalist she covered the Canada-US Free Trade Agreement; Quebec sovereignty politics; Western alienation; the country's fraught relationship with Indigenous Peoples; and Canadian military missions around the world.

In True Patriot Love, she takes us on a journey through that history, weaving it with personal experiences, to finally reveal, as she says, “How I learned to truly, patriotically, love this country.” She shows us that through all our efforts—imperfect as they may be—we have forged a nation out of our compassionate, caring and accommodating impulses, our desire to include and not exclude, to welcome and encompass rather than reject and demonize. Canadians aren’t saintly, Carol Off concludes, but we have mostly tried to be decent. And that is a rock worthy of building a national identity upon.

Tickets can be reserved on the Ottawa Writer Festival website. 

Andrew LaFleche book launch

Join Andrew LaFleche for his launch of Polaroids of Tomorrow, hosted by Rob Corbett - award-winning journalist, broadcaster, and author of the Frank Yakabuski crime novels. 

Polaroids of Tomorrow is not a gentle collection. It’s a confession caught mid-collapse—sharp, restless, and unflinchingly honest. Moving through addiction, fractured relationships, spiritual hunger, masculinity, and the quiet violence of modern life, Andrew Lafleche writes like a man documenting himself in real time—before the story can be cleaned up, before the lie can settle. These poems read like snapshots taken seconds before impact: hotel rooms, foreign streets, bar stools, hospital memories, and the long echo of choices that don’t quite feel like choices anymore.

Andrew Lafleche is an Ottawa-based poet, novelist, and actor. He has published two novels and six poetry collections, with work appearing in more than 100 literary journals. A John Newlove Poetry Award recipient, he holds an MA in Creative and Critical Writing and previously served in Afghanistan as an infantry soldier with the Canadian Armed Forces.

Korean Literature Soju Club

A night of Korean literature over soju tastings, Korean snacks, and conversation with author and translator Jinwoo Park at Perfect Books.

Discover your next favourite Korean book over soju tastings, Korean snacks, and good conversation. Jinwoo will introduce a curated selection of Korean literature available in English translation, sharing the stories behind the books, their authors, and why you should read them. Whether you’re a longtime reader of Korean literature or curious about where to begin, there’s something for you.

Along the way, we’ll explore the history and culture of soju, share a few pours, and open up the conversation for questions and discussion. Guests will also have the opportunity to browse and purchase the featured Korean literature titles from Perfect Books.

The evening includes:

Two soju tastings
Korean snacks
An introduction to the history and culture of soju
A curated selection of Korean book recommendations
Q&A and conversation with Jinwoo Park

Alcohol tastings are for guests aged 19 and over. Please bring valid photo ID. Non-alcoholic refreshments will also be available.

With support from the Literature Translation Institute of Korea, through its International Exchange Grant program.

ABOUT THE HOST

Jinwoo Park is a Korean Canadian novelist and literary translator based in Montreal. Born and raised in Seoul, he has lived in various parts of North America and the UK since the age of 11. He earned his master’s in creative writing at the University of Oxford in 2015 and won the Jim Wong-Chu Emerging Writers’ Award in 2021. In 2023, he received the Emerging Translator Award from the Literature Translation Institute of Korea. His debut novel, Oxford Soju Club, is published by Dundurn Press.

Reserve your spot here!

Book Launch: Ghost of Ortona by Ian Cosh

Join Library and Archives Canada for a conversation with writer and anthropologist Ian Cosh about his new book, Ghosts of Ortona: Reckoning with the Traumas of Canadian World War II Veterans.

More than fifty years after the Battle of Ortona, Cosh began listening to the people who had lived through it. Based on extensive conversations with Canadian veterans, German veterans, and Italian civilians, Ghosts of Ortona explores what happens to memories of war over a lifetime and the tensions between lived experience and public remembrance. It is also a reflection on listening, the relationships formed through research, and what can be understood differently when we return years later to the stories we have been told.

Ian Cosh is a writer and anthropologist based in Toronto. His work brings together oral history, ethnography, archival research, and literary nonfiction. His first book, Ghosts of Ortona: Reckoning with the Traumas of Canadian World War II Veterans (Sutherland House, 2026), draws on extensive conversations with Canadian veterans, Italian civilians, and German veterans to examine the long aftermath of war and the uneasy relationship between lived experience and public memory.

Register for the event on the Library and Archives website.

Book talk with Jen Agg

Join us for a book talk on November 19th with Jen Agg to discuss their latest work Table Boss (How to Build a Restaurant When Your Life Falls Apart (A Love Story).

Jen Agg had a thriving restaurant group, a beautiful marriage to a handsome artist husband, and extremely good skin. If anyone could give advice on living well in your forties, it was her. Then, disaster struck. As a global pandemic threw the restaurant business into chaos, Jen’s husband Roland suffered a catastrophic stroke. 

In her new memoir, Jen uses her characteristic blend of humour and raw honesty to capture what it felt like to rethink everything just when she thought it was all working out as she’d planned. This book makes you understand what her friend Anthony Bourdain loved about her—her singular combination of wry humor, unflinching honesty, and real depth. Readers will love the book for its painful rendering of what it’s like to care for a loved one through a health nightmare, its witty analysis of restaurant culture, and its insights into building a business on your own terms. Get a look inside the process of launching a new restaurant successfully and learning everything

Jen Agg is a restaurateur in Toronto, owner of Bar Vendetta, Grey Gardens, Rhum Corner, Le Swan, General Public and Cocktail Bar. She’s the author of I Hear She’s a Real Bitch. Her writing has appeared in the New Yorker, the New York Times, and more. Jen will also co-host Restaurant Impossible: Last Call on the Food Network and City+ premiering on July 23rd. Jen lives in Toronto, On.

The Women's Summit 2026 hosted by The Honest Talk

This full-day event – built by women for women – goes beyond traditional panel discussions and advice; it’s an outlet where we tackle difficult conversations, delve into taboo topics, and champion women’s issues and empowerment.

Together, we inspire, lead, and connect to build stronger networks, enhance resilience, and unlock our full potential.

Join us on November 20, 2026, for an unforgettable day of networking, learning, and fun!

This event is now sold out. Join their waitlist to be the first to hear if tickets become available! 

Apt. 9 Press Chap Book Launch with Monty Reid and Phil Hall

Join us in a reading of new works published by Apt. 9 Press, from Monty Reid and Phil Hall, featuring special guest Sandra Ridley, and hosted by Cameron Anstee. 

Apt. 9 Press publishes handmade chapbooks of poetry, short fiction, and non-fiction in limited editions by new and established writers. Their first titles were launched in August 2009. To date, they have published dozens of books, broadsides, and other pieces of small press ephemera, including two winners of the bpNichol Chapbook Award and the first chapbook to win the Nelson Ball Prize. Apt. 9 Press is based in Ottawa on the traditional unceded territory of the Algonquin Anishnaabeg people. Apt. 9 Press is also a member of the (Ottawa) Small Press Almanac.