Thanks to all who attended the Balham Literary Festival, the Dulwich Literary Festival and Festival America in 2018 and 2019. We won’t be running any of these in 2020 for obvious reasons but do keep a look out for updates about next year.

Canadian women from West to East

Tuesday 25^th September: 1200

Authors: Chérie Dimaline, Nancy Lee, Andrée Michaud, Chair: Leslie Hurtig

Chérie is from the Métis community and her book The Marrow Thieves explores a world in which First Nations people have their bone marrow harvested to heal the white races; Nancy is from Vancouver and her stories in Dead Girls skewer women in all their guises; Andrée is French-speaking Québecois and her latest book The Last Summer is an elegaic tribute to teenage beauty.
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Cundill History Prize shortlist 2018 announcement

Tuesday 25^th September: 1700 – 1815

Authors: Peter Frankopan, Mark Gilbert, Antonia Maioni

Run by McGill University in Montreal, the international Cundill History Prize rewards the best history writing in English. Chosen by an eminent jury of world-leading historians, the shortlist to be revealed at Festival America will represent the finest history books of the year.
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Exploring the violent underbelly of North America

Tuesday 25^th September: 1830 - 1930

Authors: Michael Farris Smith, Ivy Pochoda, John Vigna Chair: Karen Sullivan

These fierce and vivid writers – Michael Farris Smith, author of the brutal and brutalising The Fighter, Ivy Pochoda, author of the shimmering Wonder Valley, and John Vigna - take you viscerally into a world of violence and disorder and will be discussing crime, social conditions, drivers such as poverty, deprivation and displacement with one of the UK’s leading publishers of crime fiction, Karen Sullivan of Orenda Books, who is herself Canadian.
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Are all happy families really the same?

Tuesday 25^th September: 1930 – 2030

Authors: Patrick DeWitt and Ben Markovits Chair: Lisa Appignanesi

Patrick DeWitt, shortlisted for many awards including the Man Booker Prize, the Scotiabank Giller Prize and the Governer General’s Award, returns on sparkling form with French Exit, a wonderful novel of manners, a tragicomedy that travels from New York City to Paris. Ben Markovits’ Essinger family, the focus of A Weekend in New York, gathers for the US Open to see a beloved scion play for the final time.
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Highballs and High Society

Tuesday 25^th September: 1900 – 2000

Authors: Jonathan Ames, Kelleigh Greenberg-Jephcott Chair: Matt Gilbert

Jonathan Ames is the creator of TV series including Blunt Talk and Bored to Death; he is also the author of the novel You Were Never Really Here, made into a movie starring Joaquin Phoenix. His 1998 novel the Extra Man riffs on New York high society and is a tale of friendship and frustration, cocktails and cross-dressing.
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