A Real Page-Turner

Wordfest adds to its 22-year legacy with a get-together that begins on holiday Monday. For book lovers, the chance to talk turkey gives new meaning to Thanksgiving.

Dennis Lee His Alligator Pie remains decidedly silly and oddly affecting. It serves as the centrepiece of the free kickoff event, which includes Andrew Larsen ( Tales

from a Carnegie Library) and cast members of ATP’s Charlotte’s Web. Monday, Oct. 9 at Memorial Park Library, 2nd Floor, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Alexis Okeowo A Moonless,

Starless Sky, the New Yorker staff writer’s debut, is the result of five years of reporting. Okeowo looks at four African conflicts by focussing on a handful of individuals caught up in the events. Her narrow lens is no less revealing. Friday, Oct. 13 at the Big Secret Theatre, 7 p.m. $20.

Deborah Willis Her short-story collection The Dark and Other Love

Stories recently made the Giller Prize long list. She appears with Camille Bordas, Eva Crocker, Kevin Hardcastle and Eliza Robertson for further discussion of the long and short of short stories. Saturday, Oct. 14 at John Dutton Theatre, 1 p.m. $17 - $20.

Chelsea Vowel The Métis legal scholar and public intellectual brings Indigenous Writes to the festival. The book is both a long-overdue corrective to long-standing myths concerning Indigenous people and a call to action. Saturday, Oct. 14 at Memorial Park Library, 2nd Floor, 4 p.m. $17 - $20.

Brunch with Ruth Ware Ware is a suspense writer who, in books such as The Woman in Cabin 10 and The Lying Game, regularly conjures oppressive, foreboding atmospheres. The warm confines of Deane House may have met their match. Sunday, Oct. 15 at the Deane House, 8:30 a.m. $50.