Library and Archives Canada - Bibliothèque et Archives Canada

A Short History of the New World Order
With Ronald Wright
Hosted by Adrian Harewood
Library and Archives Canada, 395 Wellington Street
$15 General, $10 Student or Senior, Free for Members

Join CBC Radio’s Adrian Harewood and Ronald Wright, the award-winning, #1 bestselling author of A Short ... (more)History of Progress, for a fresh, passionate look at the past and future of the world’s most powerful nation. His new book, What Is America?, reframes the debate about our neighbour and ourselves. The USA is now the world’s lone superpower, whose deeds could make or break this century. For better and worse, America has Americanized the world. How did a marginal frontier society, in a mere two centuries, become the de facto ruler of the world? Why do America’s great achievements in democracy, prosperity and civil rights now seem threatened by forces within itself?

The Gift of Thanks
With Margaret Visser
At St. Brigid's Centre for the Arts and Humanities
$15 General, $10 Student or Senior, Free for Members

Margaret Visser, the award-winning author of Much Depends on Dinner and The Geometry of Love, shares her exploration of gratitude as a key to understanding ... (more)the assumptions, hopes, preferences and fears that underlie our everyday behaviour. Her new book, The Gift of Thanks, reflects on North American customs and argues that our own notions of gratitude influence a wide range of traditions, such as the wrapping of gifts, the ritual of Remembrance Day ceremonies and even the exchange of compliments. Join us for an evening of extraordinary insights into gratefulness that will leave you both thankful and newly aware of the power of those two important words.

What is Food?
A Fundraiser for Children's Literacy
with Adam Leith Gollner and Taras Grescoe
Hosted by Kate Heartfield

Details coming soon! As we examine our relationship with the food we eat, we'll need to stimulate the palate as well as our imaginations, so expect some fantastic appetizers ... (more)and desserts from some of the region's top chefs. More on this as the menu develops!

September 17
Book Launch
7:30 p.m.
Room A
Free

Award-winning novelist Mark Frutkin presents his latest book, entitled: Erratic North: A Vietnam Draft Resister's Life in the Canadian Bush. His first non-fiction work, it describes how he came to Canada as a draft resister in 1970 and lived for ten ... (more)years in a log cabin, without electricity or running water.

Freehand Books Launch
Featuring Marina Endicott, Jeanette Lynes, Saleema Nawaz and Susan Olding
Hosted by Melanie Little, Editor of Freehand Books
A Free Event

Join the Writers Festival in celebrating the debut of Freehand books!

In Good to a Fault, a novel reminiscent of the work of Penelope ... (more)Lively, Ann Tyler, and Alice Munro, acclaimed author Marina Endicott gives us one of the most satisfying, most profound, and most memorable reads of the year.

In It's Hard Being Queen, her fourth book of poetry, one of Canada's best-loved poets takes on one of the most compelling divas of our time. In sixty-one audacious poems, Jeanette Lynes re-imagines and reanimates the peripatetic art, life, and times of Dusty Springfield.

The seven stories and two novellas in Mother Superior are a heady blend of misfits and mothers, of sisters and complex, mysterious others. Saleema Nawaz traces the scars left by family secrets and sings the complex, captivating language of lust and of love.

In Pathologies, a collection of fifteen searingly honest personal essays, debut author Susan Olding takes us on an unforgettable journey into the complex heart of being human. Each essay dissects an aspect of Olding's life experience, written with lyricism, detail, and artfulness.

September 19-21
The Friends of Library and Archives Canada:
14th Annual Used Book Sale
St. Laurent Centre, Ottawa

A must-see event for book lovers. This three-day event will sell thousands of used books. Proceeds from this major fund-raising initiative enable The Friends of Library and Archives ... (more)Canada to acquire rare and valuable archival and library materials for the collections of Library and Archives Canada.

Kenneth Oppel (grades 4-6)
Library and Archives Canada Auditorium -

Space in the auditorium is limited: call to reserve your seats.

Jay Ingram and Andrew Weaver