STARFest Presents Madeleine Thien in conversation with Matthew Stepanic

STARFest Presents Madeleine Thien in conversation with Matthew Stepanic

Tickets can be purchased at shop.sapl.ca

Madeleine Thien is the author of the story collection Simple Recipes (2001) and three previous novels: Certainty (2006), Dogs at the Perimeter (2011) and Do Not Say We Have Nothing (2016). Do Not Say We Have Nothing was shortlisted for the Booker Prize, the Women’s Prize for Fiction and the Folio Prize, and won the Governor General’s Literary Award for Fiction, among other honours. Born in Vancouver,  Madeleine lives in Montreal and teaches part-time at Brooklyn College at The City University of New York.

The Book Of Records

Set in “The Sea,” a mysterious enclave, a staging-post for waves of migrants coming and going, a building made of time where pasts and futures collide. Here, Lina cares for her ailing father.

Having arrived carrying her few possessions by hand, Lina grows up with only three books to read — about the lives of famous “voyagers” throughout history. As she goes about daily life in the building, she befriends three eccentric neighbours, each with a story to share.

Matthew Stepanic is a queer writer who lives and works on Treaty 6 Territory in Edmonton. They are a co-author of the collaborative novel Project Compass and the author of Relying on that Body, a poetry chapbook about the queens of season 10 of RuPaul’s Drag Race. They edit and design chapbooks for Agatha Press, and they host and co-organize VERS/E, a monthly queer poetry open mic.

Date:
Thursday, October 16, 2025
Time:
7:00pm - 8:00pm
Location:
Forsyth Hall (Downtown Library - 5 St. Anne Street)