Save the dates! Across the country, organizers and volunteers extraordinaire are programming epic celebrations of books and the amazing people who write them. Find out what's happening in your literary neighbourhood.

****

The spring festival season season kicks off with the Growing Room Literary & Arts Festival in Vancouver, BC, running March 11–15, with Aisha Sasha John, Alex Leslie, Alicia Elliott, Amanda Leduc, and Andrea Warner...and these are only a handful of exciting artists at the top of their alphabetized list—just wait til you check out the rest!

*

Versefest 2020, Ottawa's International Poetry Festival, takes place March 24–29, with Karen Solie, Armand Garnet Ruffo, Ben Ladouceur, Canisia Lubrin, Gwen Benaway, Kaie Kellough, Robin Richardson, Shazia Hafiz Ramji, Sheree Fitch, and many others.

*

A spectacular list of events take place with Calgary's Wordfest throughout March, April and May, with Megan Gail Coles, Bill Richardson, Tessa McWatt, Vivek Shraya, Amber Dawn and Jillian Christmas, Perdita Felicien, Jordan Abel, Billy-Ray Belcourt, Eva Holland, and more.

*

Details on the The Blue Metropolis Festival in Montreal, QC, are coming soon.

*

gritLIT returns to Hamilton, ON, from April 16–29, with speakers including Margaret Atwood, Mona Awad, Ted Barris, Gwen Benaway, Lynn Coady, Robyn Doolittle, Terry Fallis, Rebecca Fisseha, Jesse Thistle and many more.

*

The Frye Festival takes place in Moncton, NB, from April 17–26.

*

The 2020 Edmonton Poetry Festival will run from April 21 to May 3, 2020, with more details coming soon.

*

The North Shore Writers Festival runs April 24 and 25 at the North Vancouver City Library in North Vancouver, BC, with the schedule coming soon.

*

From April 24–26, the 1000 Islands Writers Festival, in Gananoque, ON, featuring authors of books for children and adults including Giles Blunt, Michael Christie, Tim Cook, Katie Daubs, Alicia Elliott, Terry Fallis, Andrea Gunraj, Missy Marston, Barbara Reid, Heather Smith, Amy Spurway, Jesse Thistle, and more.

*

The Vancouver Island Children's Bookfest takes place on April 25 in Nanaimo, BC, with presenters including Mike Deas, Marianne Dubuc, Kevin Sands, and other great authors and illustrators.

*

The Festival of Literary Diversity takes place in Brampton, ON, April 30–May 3, with featured authors including Sheema Kamal, Lindsay Wong, Billy Ray Belcourt, Canisia Lubrin, Casey Plett, Dorothy Ellen Palmer, Danny Ramadan, Gwen Benaway, Helen Knott, Perdita Felicien, Sonya Lalli, Rinaldo Walcott, and many more.

*

The spring season of the Ottawa International Writers Festival takes place April 30–May 5 in Ottawa, ON.

*

The Wakefield Writers Festival takes place May 28–31 in Wakefield, QC, with Kim Thúy, David Goudreault, Mishka Lavigne, Albert Dumont, Phil Jenkins, David Bergen and Samra Zafar.

*

Is your event missing? Email us at Editor AT 49thShelf DOT com, and we'll get it added.