Two-time Giller Prize winner Souvankham Thammavongsa is one of the seven authors participating in the 2026 Lakefield Literary Festival on July 17 and 18.
Along with Thammavongsa, the lineup of Canadian authors at this year’s festival includes Kate Cayley, Plum Johnson, Merilyn Simonds, Loretta Garbutt, Marcus Cutler, Terry Fallis, and Rod Carley.
Over two days at the Bryan Jones Theatre at Lakefield College School, each author will present their latest work, engage in spirited conversations with a moderator, respond to audience questions, and sign their books. There will also be a reception with the festival authors, as well as a children’s tent at Cenotaph Park.
The festival kicks off on Friday, July 17 at 7 p.m. in the Bryan Jones Theatre with “Looking Back, Facing Forward,” where authors Plum Johnson and Merilyn Simonds will discuss their very different books that delve into women’s intimate lives.
The bestselling author of They Left Us Everything, Johnson will present her memoir The Trouble with Fairy Tales, which is about reclaiming identity beyond traditional roles. Simonds will present Walking with Beth, a moving account of a three-year conversation with her 100-year-old friend. The conversation will be moderated by Scucog poet laureate and 2023 Canadian Bookclub Award winner Hollay Ghadery.
The festival continues at 10 a.m. on Saturday, July 18 with the children’s tent at Cenotaph Park featuring Loretta Garbut, an award-winning author and storyteller with a background as an animation voice performer for Max and Ruby and Sailor Moon, and Marcus Cutler, the author and illustrator of I Think We’re Upside Down! and I Do Not Eat Children who is known for his “silly and weird” characters.
Back in the Bryan Jones Theatre at 3 p.m. on Saturday, “One Day Wonder” will see authors Souvankham Thammavongsa and Kate Cayley explore how the events of a single 24-hour period can define a lifetime.
Thammavongsa, a Laotian-Canadian poet and author who won the $100,000 Giller Prize in 2020 for her short story collection How to Pronounce Knife, will discuss her debut novel Pick a Colour, a sharp look at class and intimacy set within a nail salon that earned her a second Giller Prize win in 2025.
An award-winning Canadian author, poet, playwright, and theatre director, Cayley will talk about her 2025 novel Property, a gripping narrative of interconnected lives in a changing Toronto neighborhood that builds toward an unforgettable climax.
The conversation with Thammavongsa and Cayley will be moderated by Canadian writer and Order of Canada recipient Charles Foran.
At 5 p.m., festival-goers can gather at Lakefield College School to mix and mingle with all the authors and enjoy served hors d’oeuvres and a wine and beer cash bar.
The festival concludes in the Bryan Jones Theatre at 7 p.m. on Saturday with “Light Hearts,” described as “an evening of wit and zany storytelling” with humorists Terry Fallis and Rod Carley.
A two-time Leacock Medal winner, Fallis will discuss his 2025 novel The Marionette, where a world-famous thriller writer is thrust into a real-life world of espionage, and Rod Carley will present his 2024 novel Ruff, a hilarious reimagining of William Shakespeare’s mid-life crisis as he struggles to pen a “Scottish supernatural thriller.” The discussion will be moderated by bestselling novelist and Northern Lit Award Winner Amy Jones.
Admission to individual events at the Lakefield Literary Festival is $30 (except for the reception, which costs $50), with a $75 pass available for all the events except the reception and a $115 all-access pass for all events including the reception. Admission to the children’s tent is free.
Tickets and passes are available now at lakefieldliteraryfestival.com. Tickets are also available at Happenstance Books and Yarns in Lakefield.
The Lakefield Literary Festival was established in 1995 as a celebration of Margaret Laurence, who lived in Lakefield from 1974 until her death in 1987, but has since become a celebration of the rich literary heritage of Lakefield and the surrounding area, including the works of Catharine Parr Traill, Susanna Moodie, and Isabella Valancy Crawford, all of whom also lived and wrote in Lakefield.
