VancouverGREATER VANCOUVER EVENT
Barbara Kingsolver in Conversation
Vancouver Writers Fest presents novelist Barbara Kingsolver in conversation with journalist and author Marsha Lederman about Kingsolver’s new book, Partita, with piano performances by Allen Ding.
- Date and time
- Location
- Orpheum · 601 Smithe St · Vancouver · V6B 3L4
- Organizer
- Vancouver Writers Fest
About this event
Vancouver Writers Fest presents Barbara Kingsolver in Conversation with Marsha Lederman. Kingsolver, author of The Poisonwood Bible, Demon Copperhead, and The Lacuna, will discuss her new book, Partita, with the award-winning journalist and author.
Partita follows a former music conservatory student whose settled marriage and modest livelihood are disrupted by a phone call from an old lover. The novel considers class barriers, ambition, and the human longing for art and beauty. Kingsolver is also a pianist and music lover; Allen Ding, an award-winning pianist and student at the Vancouver Academy of Music, will perform piano pieces. The event begins at 7:30 pm and opens the 39th annual Vancouver Writers Fest.
The October 18 conversation runs from 7:30 to 9 p.m. at the Orpheum. Standard tickets start at CAD 50; eligible youth under 25 can buy CAD 25 tickets. The organizer says there will be no book signing.
Doors open at 6:30 pm. Current Showpass seating legend: Standard $50, Premium $70, Ultra-Premium $90; Youth under 25 $25. Books are sold on-site by Book Warehouse, part of Black Bond Books; there is no book signing. Tickets cannot be exchanged or refunded unless the event is cancelled. For tickets or accessible seating, contact boxoffice@writersfest.bc.ca or 778-658-0462; Showpass order support: 1-844-307-7469. Cologne, perfume and other strong scents are discouraged. HarperCollins Canada supports Kingsolver’s appearance, with Vancouver Academy of Music as community partner.
Kingsolver has written ten bestselling works of fiction, as well as poetry, essays and creative nonfiction, with translations into more than 30 languages. An American Academy of Arts and Letters member, she has received the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, the National Humanities Medal and the National Book Foundation’s Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters.
Lederman is a Globe and Mail columnist and former Western Arts Correspondent, and the author of Kiss the Red Stairs: The Holocaust, Once Removed and October 7th: Searching for the Humanitarian Middle. Born in Toronto, she has lived in Vancouver since 2007.
Allen Ding, a Grade 11 student at St. George’s School, studies with Ian Parker at VAM. He placed third at the CMC National Finals in 2018 and 2022; received the 2023 National Gold Medal for Level 10 Piano and performed at the RCM national celebration in Toronto; won the 2024 Kay Meek Scholarship and performed Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 3 with VAM Symphony the following year; and earned a 2025 Provincial Gold Medal for ARCT Piano. He is the pianist in the award-winning Pi Trio, coached by Ian Parker and Jenny Lim. The trio has organized and performed concerts raising tens of thousands of dollars for charities including Doctors Without Borders and the Canadian Cancer Society.