Hope in the Face of Loss: Vancouver Writer's Fest Online
Radical Acts of Love: Twenty Conversations to Inspire Hope at the End of Life. Paperback published February 4, 2021 in UK by Canongate and in Canada March 30, 2021 by Doubleday, Canada.
How do we find hope at the end of life? Facing death, or the death of a loved one, is undoubtedly one of the loneliest and frightening periods we as humans face. And yet, death and dying are an ever-present and ever-avoided topic in our lives. In a special Incite event, the Vancouver Writers Fest brings these topics to the fore, bracing the dark with the lights of hope, love and acceptance with authors Liz Levine and Janie Brown.
A veteran oncology nurse and community organizer, Janie Brown’s Radical Acts of Love: Twenty Conversations to Inspire Hope at the End of Life (Penguin Random House Canada) is a profound collection of twenty conversations with people nearing the end of their lives. Stephen Fry has called Brown’s work transformative, “turn[ing] death into life, despair into hope, sorrow into joy, and pain into love with these astonishing encounters.”
Liz Levine’s Nobody Ever Talks About Anything But The End (Simon and Schuster) is a powerful, Hubert Evans Nonfiction Prize-nominated memoir on deep personal loss, exposing the “raw truths about grief and mourning that we often shy away from.” Hailed by the Globe and Mail as “an honest and calm look at the chaos of life,” Nobody Ever Talks About Anything But The End is poignant, revealing not only Levine’s own journey, but “uncovering a path we can all follow in our own lives” (Tegan Quin).
Join us Wednesday, May 12 at 7 pm (PT) for this special Incite, moderated by France Perras, friend of the Festival and award-winning voice, film and stage actor.
Incite is a free event series, and is presented in partnership with the Vancouver Public Library.
This event is also available through the TELUS Optik network.
Please RSVP for this free event.
Janie Brown is an author, a leader in oncology nursing, the founder and executive director of a nonprofit organization, the Callanish Society (www.callanish.org), based in Vancouver, Canada, offering retreats and programs for people living with, and dying from, cancer. Janie is a visionary for new global conversations about living, healing, death and dying.
She began writing about her work in 2011, and in 2018 "Radical Acts of Love" found its first home at bks Agency, UK, and was published by Canongate, UK, in March 2020. Doubleday Canada followed suit also publishing in March 2020 at the start of the pandemic. She has also been published in Holland, Taiwan and China and has written for the Telegraph, the New Statesman, Nursing Standard, & the Scotsman Magazine.
Janie presents nationally and internationally and writes a widely read blog. www.janiebrown.com @janieebrown
Liz Levine is a producer, transmedia ideator and writer whose 2 decades of creative contributions span platforms and genres.
Liz’s produced films include Kyra Sedgwick’s directorial debut Story of a Girl starring Kevin Bacon (DGA Nom), Jason Banker’s critically acclaimed Toad Road and Across My Land (Palme D’or nominated, Cannes) and most recently she executive produced Two Sentence Horror Stories season 2 (CW/Netflix). Liz has also developed television at SonyTV, CBStv, TBS and is currently developing a film with Disney Channel.
She completed her master of journalism degree at the University of British Columbia and has written for the National Post, The Walrus, Playback magazine, and The Vancouver Sun. She is a Finalist for the Hubert Evans Non-Fiction Prize, for her book “Nobody Ever Talks About Anything But The End”.
She is currently executive producing TWO SENTENCE HORROR STORIES season 3 (CW/Netflix) with Stage 13.