Appearances Archives - Shaena Lambert

Going Under the Words

As part of the Victoria Festival of Authors, I’m delighted to be leading a 2 ½ hour master class on revision on October 18^th, at 9:30 am. If you are in Victoria, or can make the trip for this workshop, I hope you will come for this deep dive into the most creative, rewarding and harrowing part of writing a book! Please bring 3 pages of a work in progress. More below, with a link to register.

Going Under the Words: The Art and Craft of Revising

Camosun College Lansdowne Campus, Victoria, BC
Sunday, October 18 • 9:30 AM – 12 PM

Workshop by Shaena Lambert

Revision is the longest, most creative, and most intense phase of writing a book. It’s the place where a thin draft thickens, where multiple revelations take place that make a work sing. Join award-winning author and highly-regarded mentor Shaena Lambert, as she takes writers step by step into their writing—teaching crucial revision tools that enable writers to redraft with confidence and excitement. Learn how to “slide sideways” into your work-in-progress in order to go deeper, how to find the living core of action in your manuscript, and how to create a “juicy larder” of materials in a process of free-form thickening. Participants will explore Lambert’s revision tools, learning playful ways to give depth, surprise, and meaning. Please bring three pages of a work in progress.

Register here.

Going Under the WordsShaena Lambert2026-09-12T01:49:30-07:00

In Conversation with Ruth Ozeki

Also at the Victoria Festival… October 18^th. I’m thrilled to be moderating this conversation about the story form, and Ruth’s unique take on it, and her new collection, The Typing Lady, where auto-fiction meets fiction…Ruth’s book is enchanting and very funny. I hope you can be there! Get tickets through the link below.

Langham Court Theatre, Victoria, BC
Sunday, October 18 • Starts at 7:30 PM

Moderated by Shaena Lambert

What happens when Ruth Ozeki—novelist, film-maker, memoirist, and Zen Buddhist priest—turns her focus to short stories? Her new book The Typing Lady has won stellar reviews, with her “atmospheric tales that radiate with intelligence and wit” (Publishers’ Weekly). Join Booker Prize finalist Ruth Ozeki, and award-winning novelist and short story writer Shaena Lambert, as they explore the electricity of the short form, its constant lure for novelists, and how stories can dive deeply into the most difficult questions of today, surfacing with joy and humour. This is an exploration of craft, politics, metafiction, the writing life—and the powerful Zen of Ruth Ozeki’s unique writing and process.

Get tickets at Eventbrite.

In Conversation with Ruth OzekiShaena Lambert2026-09-12T01:49:25-07:00

When Life Meets Fiction

I’ve just begun to read these 3 delicious books for the Vancouver Writers Festival, a panel called True Life Fiction. This event promises to be a candid, deep and intimate conversation. There is always such a fascinating territory, where life meets art. Hope you can join us!! October 23rd at 5 pm on the Revue Stage at Granville Island. Event description and link to tickets below.

True Life Fiction

Is it fact, fiction, or a malleable third category, somewhere in between? Three authors join us with standout works of autofiction, offering a kernel of truth, a dash of myth, and a profusion of luminous writing. Shani Mootoo offers her most intimate work yet in Starry Starry Night, following a young girl and her family as they navigate life in 1960s Trinidad during its movement for independence. In Ten Clear Days, Eric Beck Rubin shares the extraordinary story of his grandmother, a Holocaust survivor, who requests medical assistance in dying in her final days. Damien Wilkins joins us from New Zealand with his award-winning novel Delirious, in which an aging couple faces questions about how to care for others and our many past and present selves. Moderated by Shaena Lambert.

Participation of Eric Beck Rubin made possible thanks to the generous support of Sam Znaimer in memory of award-winning novelist Nancy Richler. Damien Wilkins’ attendance generously supported by Creative New Zealand Toi Aotearoa.

Get tickets for this event on the Vancouver Writers Fest website.

When Life Meets FictionShaena Lambert2026-09-12T01:50:22-07:00

Literary Giants in Short Form

I’m thrilled to be moderating what I expect will be a powerful, funny and riveting panel on the short story for this year’s Vancouver’s Writer’s Festival, with renowned writers Jonathan Lethem, Andre Alexis and Curtis Sittenfeld. Here is the description from this year’s program. I hope you can join us! You can connect to buy tickets through this link.

Three luminaries of contemporary literature grace our stage with their new short story collections that brilliantly reflect the tensions and foibles of our modern lives. Hear from three acclaimed authors at the height of their powers: André Alexis (Other Worlds), Curtis Sittenfeld (Show Don’t Tell), and Jonathan Lethem (A Different Kind of Tension). Moderated by Shaena Lambert.

Literary Giants in Short FormShaena Lambert2026-09-12T01:21:01-07:00

A fascinating conversation with Heather O’Neill at the Waterfront Theatre

Shaena Lambert speaking with Heather O'Neill on stage at the Waterfront Theatre as part of Vancouver Writers Fest

Talking about the genesis of her latest novel, The Capital of Dreams, powerful mothers, defiant daughters, the creation of artistic selves, and how O’Neill’s own childhood on the streets of Montreal influences her fiction… “women never liked being mothers,” the daughter in The Capital of Dreams muses, “they only liked the idea of motherhood beforehand.”

A fascinating conversation with Heather O’Neill at the Waterfront TheatreShaena Lambert2025-08-15T07:23:46-07:00

Two events at the 2024 Vancouver Writers Fest, Oct. 21-27

Graphic for Vancouver Writers Fest with a blue and a red hand, one tossing a book to the other. The date of the event, October 21-27, 2024, is displayed under the name of the event.

I’m so delighted to be holding two on-stage conversations at the Vancouver Writers Festival this year. One on short stories — with Caroline Adderson, Shashi Bhat and Aaron Kreuter — where we will talk about the extraordinary range of characters these three authors have dreamed up, the writing of short stories, why the genre can often offer more thrill than a novel, openings and closings — and all things craft and character….

The other event is an hour-long intimate conversation with author Heather O’Neill about all her books, but particularly focusing on the new, and brilliant The Capital of Dreams. Heather O’Neill is the author of a wide-ranging and extraordinary series of novels, from Lullabies for Little Criminals to The Lonely Hearts Hotel, to the fairytale, kafka-esque The Capital of Dreams. I had a deep dive into her work, reading all her novels this fall. It was deep and rewarding treat. Hope you can join us! You can buy tickets and find out more at the Vancouver Writers Fest website.

Event 25: Short Stories, Infinite Identities
Wed. Oct. 23, 5:30 p.m. — Performance Works Theatre, Granville Island

From the VWF program: “Good short stories can share expansive truths with the smallest details. Each of these authors offer mesmerizing insights into what it means to be human in their collections. Bestselling author and Festival favourite Caroline Adderson considers what it means to find happiness — and how we so often seem to understand it through our encounters with others — in A Way to Be Happy. Shashi Bhat shares the everyday trials and impossible expectations that come with being a woman in the sharply funny Death by a Thousand Cuts. Aaron Kreuter’s Rubble Children tackles Jewish belonging, settler colonialism, Zionism, and anti-Zionism, love requited and unrequited, and cannabis culture, all drenched in suburban wonder and dread. Discover more about the intricate craft of short stories, which offers a necessary tapestry of humanity. Moderated by Shaena Lambert.” GET TICKETS →

Event 44: Heather O’Neill in Conversation
Thurs. Oct. 24, 8:30 p.m. — Waterfront Theatre

From the VWF program: “Few authors can transport us quite the way Heather O’Neill does. Whether gritty, small town Quebec, or strange circuses or — in the case of her latest work — the magical woods of a forgotten country — we are immersed in vivid worlds of heightened emotions and possibility. Savour a conversation with this multi-award-winning author. In conversation with Shaena Lambert.” GET TICKETS →

Two events at the 2024 Vancouver Writers Fest, Oct. 21-27Shaena Lambert2024-10-16T14:58:25-07:00

Interview on How I Wrote This

I’ll be interviewed February 8th on the podcast series, How I Wrote This, with writer and host Pamela Hensley. Other authors in the series include: Heather O’Neill, Anita Rau Badami, Mikhail Iossel, Sean Michaels, Baharan Baniahmadi, Kim Thúy, Neil Smith, H. Nigel Thomas, and Michelle Syba. Details at the How I Wrote This website.

Interview on How I Wrote ThisShaena Lambert2024-02-03T10:41:58-08:00

Launch of Breathing the Page

I was honoured to participate in the launch of Betsy Warland’s Breathing the Page, a seminal book on writing, along with authors Darrel McLeod and Wayde Compton. If you haven’t read Breathing the Page, it’s a fascinating exploration of the craft of writing. You can watch the launch here:

Launch of Breathing the PageShaena Lambert2024-02-03T03:35:36-08:00

Looking forward to 2023…

Recently got word that The Walrus will publish my new short story, “Antonius Snorp” in 2023. “Antonius Snorp” was one of those stories that just landed one morning – and which I wrote quickly (for me), though the editing went on for months.

Editing 101. January 25^th, 7:00-8:30 pm PT. By Zoom. Danielle Geller, Cadence Mandybura and I will give mini-lectures and then have a rousing conversation on various aspects of editing. There will be a Q and A. We’ll explore substantive editing, line editing, copy editing, proofing.

Fernie Reading Series – BOOKED! So delighted to be part of Fernie, BC’s, reading series, where from 7:00 to 8:30 renowned author Angie Abdou and I will talk about writing, publishing, my most recent novel, Petra, and what is coming next from both her and me. Hope you can join us. I’ve read so much about Fernie in Angie’s fascinating memoirs.

Tapping the Stream – May 21-28 at Hollyhock on Cortes Island. This is a unique seven-day retreat that allows writers to work in a sustained way on their manuscript-in-progress, free from interruption, but meeting regularly with other writers by fireside, to discuss craft, publishing, and other key aspects of the writing life. I am co-facilitating with Betsy Warland, who created the Writers’ Studio at SFU and the Vancouver Manuscript Intensive, and won the mayor’s arts award for literary excellence.

Looking forward to 2023…Shaena Lambert2023-05-21T07:21:50-07:00

Tapping the Stream, May 2022

Amazing writers, rich conversations, bonfires, swims and hot tubs, and deep and passionate discussions about fiction and character. Old work got burnt and new plans got planned. What a cornucopia. Sign up for the 2023 event here.

Tapping the Stream, May 2022Shaena Lambert2023-05-21T07:21:51-07:00

Appearances

Going Under the Words: The Art and Craft of Revising

True Life Fiction

Event 25: Short Stories, Infinite IdentitiesWed. Oct. 23, 5:30 p.m. — Performance Works Theatre, Granville Island

Event 44: Heather O’Neill in ConversationThurs. Oct. 24, 8:30 p.m. — Waterfront Theatre

Event 25: Short Stories, Infinite Identities
Wed. Oct. 23, 5:30 p.m. — Performance Works Theatre, Granville Island

Event 44: Heather O’Neill in Conversation
Thurs. Oct. 24, 8:30 p.m. — Waterfront Theatre