We are delighted to host a stellar line-up of writers from Canada at the Festival this year.

Spanning Vancouver to Saskatchewan, Ottawa to Winnipeg, as well as fiction, non-fiction and writing for young people, are:

Esteemed Booker Prize-winning novelist of Life of Pi Yann Martel (Son of Nobody)

Leading political commentator and writer David Moscrop (Too Dumb for Democracy?, Elbows Up!, On Nationalism)

2025 Booker Prize-longlisted Ukrainian-Canadian author of Endling and Good Citizens Need not Fear Maria Reva

Double Governor General’s Literary Award-winning writer for children and adults and member of Norway House Cree Nation David A. Robertson (The Misewa Saga, 52 Ways to Reconcile, All the Little Monsters)

They join Artistic Director Lyndsey Fineran for introductory interviews about their work, share insights into their writing lives in their respective corners of Canada, and discuss what conversations they’re looking forward to having at AWF.

With thanks to our friends at Vancouver Writers Fest.

From Nothing to Envy, her seminal book on North Korea, Eat the Buddha, which chronicled life in Tibet, to Besieged, her account of wartime Bosnia, Barbara Demick’s rigorous reporting and empathetic portraits of life in some of the world’s most closed or politically febrile places have earned her the Samuel Johnson Prize and been shortlisted for Orwell and Pulitzer prizes.

A former foreign correspondent who covered Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Asia, The Economist wrote that “few writers have done more to illuminate isolated parts of the world than Barbara Demick”.

In her first Aotearoa New Zealand appearance, she discusses her lauded career and new book Daughters of the Bamboo Grove, about twin girls separated by China’s one-child policy, with Anna Fifield.

Supported by Platinum Patrons Joséphine and Ross Green.

Esteemed Canadian novelist Yann Martel’s Booker Prize-winning Life of Pi was a global phenomenon: selling 15 million copies worldwide, publishing in over 50 territories, spending more than a year on major bestseller charts, and adapted by Ang Lee in a four Academy Award-winning adaptation.

It was just his second novel, but it set the tone of Martel’s wider oeuvre: powerful, inventive fiction with a deeply philosophical approach to life’s big questions.

His major new novel Son of Nobody bridges the 3000-year gap between a Trojan War soldier and a modern-day Oxford scholar to explore the universality of homesickness, regret, ambition, love and grief.

Paula Morris meets him to discuss the novel expected to be one of 2026’s biggest books.

Supported by Platinum Patrons Patricia & Gary Holden.

How do journalists do their work while covering countries such as China, North Korea, Iran, Russia – and increasingly the United States under the Trump administration?

As authoritarian regimes hone their means of control, journalists have to up their game.

In this unique masterclass, Samuel Johnson Prize winner and Orwell and Pulitzer Prize shortlisted journalist Barbara Demick (Daughters of the Bamboo Grove, Eat the Buddha, Nothing to Envy) reveals some of the techniques modern journalists employ: from defector interviews, to open source intelligence, to social media.

Don’t miss one of the world’s leading journalists sharing tricks of the trade used to bring stories from some of the globe’s most restricted areas to light.

Last year, the trial of Erin Patterson for three murders, deemed “the Mushroom Murders”, took over newsfeeds and rejuvenated a cultural craving for crime.

In the wake of Erin’s sentencing, multi-award-winning writer and critic Sarah Krasnostein co-wrote The Mushroom Tapes: Conversations on a Triple Murder. In this panel discussion, Sarah joins journalist Debbie Whitmont whose latest book The Man Who Couldn’t Wait investigates the Vietnamese refugee Phuong Ngo’s conviction for Australia’s first political assassination in 1994.

Join Sarah and Debbie in discussion about the appetite for crime and how to write it well. With host Rosemarie Milsom.

The story of the Trojan War, like so many wars real and imagined, is a story most often told by the victors, the princes and the powerful.

In this new imagining of the ancient legend, Son of Nobody, Yann Martel tells the familiar tale from an unheard perspective: that of a commoner and goatherd who becomes a soldier, Psoas, the son of nobody. Acclaimed for his Booker Prize–winning Life of Pi, adapted into an Oscar-winning film, Yann’s first novel in a decade sings a universal song about the power of story.

Unravel ancient traditions with Yann, in conversation with ABC Radio National’s Claire Nichols (The Book Show).

A favourite Festival event for historical fiction buffs returns with stories from near and far.

Robbie Arnott’s Dusk, set in the mountains of Tasmania, and Tasma Walton’s I Am Nannertgarrook, based on a true story from Tasma’s family, were both awarded the ARA Historical Novel Prize for their brilliant stories from Australian history. While Booker Prize–winning writer Yann Martel’s first book in a decade, Son of Nobody, features the discovery of a new perspective from the Trojan War.

Sink into these stories of the past with Robbie, Tasma and Yann, in conversation with ABC Radio National’s Kate Evans.

Readings and conversation from Michael Winkler, Wayne Marshall and Rhett Davis

Hear from three authors pushing boundaries in contemporary Australian fiction: Michael Winkler, Wayne Marshall, and Rhett Davis. The evening will including readings and conversation, wine and nibbles, book sales and signings. Attendees will also enjoy 10% off any other titles they wish to purchase on the night. 

Michael Winkler, Griefdogg (Text Publishing): When Jeffrey Watson-Johnson inherits a small fortune from an obscure aunt, he decides to change everything... and live as the family pet. The second novel from the Miles Franklin-shortlisted author of Grimmish, Griefdogg is a funny, sad, entrancing story about identiy, love, family and forgiveness.

Wayne Marshall, Henry Goes Bush (Picador): In 1892, New South Wales' most promising writer and least promising teetotaller, Henry Lawson, is banished to Bourke to 'find the real bush'. The goal: sober up, gather fresh material, and stop being such a disappointment. But what Australia's favourite literary son discovers in the river town is less a glorious national frontier than a collective nervous breakdown.

Rhett Davis, Arborescence (Hachette): An imaginative and deeply-felt answer to the question: how much would you sacrifice to save the world? From the award-winning writer of Hovering, Arborescence is a compelling novel about connection and disconnection, ambition and apathy, loss and hope, and how we don't always know what we have until the damage is done.

In a novel, the words on the page are our entrance into another’s mind. But sometimes it’s the space between the lines that define a character.

In David Szalay’s 2025 Booker Prize–winning Flesh, István is caught between the boundaries of Hungary and England, his teenage years and adulthood, his body and sense of self and desire and indifference. With spare, propulsive prose, David paints an intimate portrait of a man slowly unravelling as he asks profound questions about the strangeness of being.

Hear David trace the evolution of his singular novel and its protagonist, in conversation with Michelle de Kretser.

In the Writers Who Made Us series, Festival guests highlight the writers who have influenced their writing life and work.

Crime fiction author and filmmaker Michael Bennett (Carved in Blood) discusses Truman Capote and David Bowie. Former Sydney Swans player Brandon Jack (Pissants) explores the work of fellow footy fan Helen Garner and journalist Sarah Krasnostein (The Mushroom Tapes) shares the influence of Peter Carey on her writing career.

Hear writers Michael, Brandon and Sarah reflect on the influence of esteemed writers in this free talk series.