Susan Aglukark at Ottawa Writers Festival

Ottawa Writers Festival presents Susan Aglukark, in partnership with the Ottawa Public Library and Library and Archives Canada.

Kihiani is the uplifting story of an Inuk artist’s journey to healing and self-discovery. Born in Fort Churchill, Manitoba, but raised in Arviat, a predominantly Inuit community on the western edges of Hudson Bay, Susan Aglukark and her six siblings grew up in a humble but loving home. But while living in Rankin Inlet, when she was eight years old, Susan’s life was disrupted by a life-changing event, a distinct separation that created a schism inside her for many years and from which she continues to heal.

With book sales by Perfect Books. This is a free event. Register here!

Heather O'Neill and Arizona O'Neill at Ottawa Writers Festival

Ottawa Writers Festival presents Heather O'Neill and Arizona O'Neill together to celebrate Valentine in Montreal!

This is the unforgettable story of Valentine, a lonely orphan working in a depanneur at a Montreal metro station, who spots her look-alike. As Valentine follows this seeming twin onto the subway and out into the city, her world is changed—she meets gangsters, composers, ballet dancers, and a cricket playing a mournful tune, and she experiences the city in all its teeming energy.

Valentine in Montreal is the playful, moving, and surprising story of a young woman who finds connection and the courage to break free of what has been holding her back. It’s also a celebration of Montreal and its artistry and vibrancy, both above and below ground. Illustrations by graphic artist Arizona O’Neill run throughout.

With book sales by Perfect Books. More details and tickets here!

Karin Wells, Women Who Woke Up the Law

We are excited to welcome award-winning author, CBC radio documentarian, and lawyer Karin Wells to the store for the launch of Women Who Woke Up the Law: Inside the Cases the Changed Women’s Rights in Canada (Second Story Press). Hosted by Alison Crawford, former senior communications advisor to the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada and host/producer of the Canadian Bar Association podcast, Modern Law.

From the award-winning author of The Abortion Caravan and More Than a Footnote, Karin Wells once again pulls us into the lives--and this time, the legal trials--of a group of women integral to the advancement of women's rights in Canada. Eliza Campbell, Chantale Daigle, Jeannette Corbiere Lavell. These Women Who Woke Up the Law often had no idea what they were facing in the courts, or the price they would have to pay. Some never saw justice themselves, but they left a legal legacy. Their bold determination is something we need now more than ever to guard the hard-won gains in women's rights. 

Jack Stilborn, The Tyranny of Good Intentions

Join us for the launch of public-servant-turned-writer Jack Stilborn’s novel, The Tyranny of Good Intentions!

Warm and witty, The Tyranny of Good Intentions captures central challenges of politics: it involves people, and the people need to agree about decisions. It’s a story about second chances, the complexities of democracy at its most grassroots level, and finding hope in life’s unexpected detours - even if that detour leads straight to the president’s chair.

LiterAsian Presents...From the Margins to the Centre: Asian Writers Reclaim the Page

We are so excited to welcome these three fantastic authors to Perfect Books for an event presented by LiterAsian! From the Margins to the Centre: Asian Writers Reclaim the Page, moderated by local favorite Wayne Ng!

About the writers:

Jinwoo Park is a Korean Canadian writer based in Montreal. He completed a master's degree in creative writing at the University of Oxford, and currently works as a marketer in the tech industry. In 2021, he won the Jim Wong-Chu Emerging Writers Award. Oxford Soju Club is his first novel. Oxford Soju Club weaves a tale of how immigrants in the Korean diaspora are forced to create identities to survive, and how in the end, they must shed those masks and seek their true selves.

Rachel Phan is a Chinese Canadian author who was born and raised in a small town in Southern Ontario, where she was one of only two racialized people in her class. A graduate of Toronto Metropolitan University’s Master of Journalism program, she’s shared her stories on CBC, HuffPost, the National Post and Maclean’s. She now lives in Toronto, ON. Her memoir, Restaurant Kid, is a Canadian bestseller. A warm and poignant narrative about finding one’s self amidst the grind of restaurant life, the cross-generational immigrant experience, and a daughter’s attempts to connect with parents who have always been just out of reach.

Jennilee Austria-Bonifacio is a Filipina-Canadian author, speaker and school board consultant who builds bridges between educators and Filipino families through her initiative, Filipino Talks. After completing her master’s degree in Immigration and Settlement Studies, she graduated from the Humber School for Writers and completed a residency at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity. She was a finalist for the Jim Wong-Chu Emerging Writers Award and has been published in various anthologies. She lives in Toronto, ON, where she is writing her second novel. Her novel Reuniting with Strangers was a 2024 Canada Reads Finalist. Inspired by the work of Souvankham Thammavongsa, Catherine Hernandez and Wayson Choy, this unforgettable novel follows the reunification of Filipino caregiver families over one Canadian winter—and the mysterious progress of Monolith, who appears and disappears in their lives.

Wayne Ng was born in downtown Toronto to Chinese immigrants who fed him a steady diet of bitter melons and kung fu movies. Ng works as a school social worker in Ottawa but lives to write, travel, eat and play, preferably all at the same time. He is an award-winning author and traveler who continues to push his boundaries from the Arctic to the Antarctic. Author of The Family Code, Letters from Johnny, Finding The Way: A Novel of Lao Tzu, and his latest, Johnny Delivers. Eighteen-year-old Johnny Wong’s dead-end life consists of delivering Chinese food and holding his chaotic family together in Toronto. When his sweet but treacherous Auntie, the mahjong queen, calls in their family debt, he fears the family will lose the Red Pagoda restaurant and break apart. Dripping with 1970s nostalgia, Johnny Delivers is a gritty and humorous standalone sequel to the much-loved and award-winning Letters From Johnny.

Miriam Toews at Ottawa Writers Festival

Ottawa Writers Festival presents Miriam Toews, as she tells her own story for the first time in A Truce that Is Not Peace.

“Why do you write?” the organizer of a literary event in Mexico City asks Miriam Toews. Each attempt at an answer from Toews—all unsatisfactory to the organizer—surfaces new layers of grief, guilt, and futility connected to her sister’s suicide more than fifteen years ago. She has been keeping up, she realizes, an internal correspondence with her beloved sibling, attempting to fill a silence she can barely comprehend. As Toews turns to face that silence, we come to see that the question “why I write” is as impossible to answer as deciding whether to live life as a comedy or a tragedy.

A Truce That Is Not Peace explores the uneasy pact every creative person makes with memory.

With book sales by Perfect Books. More details and tickets here!

Fifteen Dogs Unleashed, From Page to Stage: A Creative Discussion

The National Arts Centre presents what is sure to be a fascinating discussion about the adaption of book to plays. Join author Andre Alexis of Fifteen Dogs and playwright/director Marie Farsi for an in-depth look at the creative journey. Moderated by Nina Lee Aquino.

With book sales by Perfect Books.

Ottawa Public Library presents Jenny Kay Dupuis

The Ottawa Public Library presents an author talk and discussion with Jenny Kay Dupuis, the author of I Am Not a Number and Heart Berry Bling. This event is in English only. 

Dr. Jenny Kay Dupuis is of Anishinaabe/Ojibway ancestry and a proud member of Nipissing First Nation. She is an educator, researcher, artist, and speaker who works full-time supporting the advancement of Indigenous education. Jenny's interest in her family's past and her commitment to teaching about Indigenous issues through literature drew her to co-write I am Not a Number, her first children's book. She lives in Toronto.

With book sales by Perfect Books.

Emma Donoghue at Ottawa Writers Festival

Ottawa Writers Festival presents Emma Donoghue for a conversation about her latest bestseller, The Paris Express.

The Paris Express is set over a single day, as the morning train travels from the Normandy coast to the capital. Men, women, and children from all over the world take their seats in the passenger cars, which are divided by wealth and status. Among the passengers is an anarchist intent on destruction, a young boy travelling alone, a pregnant woman fleeing her home village for the anonymity of the big city, a medical student who suspects a girl may have a fatal disease, and the railway crew, devoted to the train, to the company, and to each other.

Based on an 1895 catastrophe that was captured in a series of surreal photographs, The Paris Express is a thrilling ride, full of the politics, fears, and chaos of an era not unlike our own.

With book sales by Perfect Books. More details and tickets here!

Joanna Cockerline and Kevin Andrew Heslop Cross-Canada Book Tour

Two Canadian authors, CBC Literary Awards prize winning writer Joanna Cockerline, author of the new novel Still, and internationally-renowned filmmaker and writer Kevin Andrew Heslop, author of The Writing on the Wind’s Wall: Dialogues about Medical Assistance is Dying, are offering a free public reading at Perfect Books on September 29, 2025, open to all. They will be joined by special guest poet Kevin Shaw.

Cockerline and Heslop—both releasing their books in September with the Canadian indie press The Porcupine’s Quill, which has enjoyed decades of award-winning success—are touring across Canada to connect with audiences about issues close to their hearts.

Heslop’s The Writing on the Wind’s Wall: Dialogues about Medical Assistance is Dying is a testament to what a Canadian community felt and believed in 2020 about living, and dying, together. Informed by his familial connections and Heslop’s decade of experience facilitating long-form dialogue with writers and artists around the world, the non-fiction work listens to the voices of those affected by Medical Assistance in Dying.

Cockerline’s novel Still is set amid the vibrancy and precarity the unhoused and street-level sex work communities, and follows the story of a woman who lives and works on the streets of Kelowna, BC, who is looking for a fellow sex worker who has gone missing. The novel explores survival, friendship, and what it means to find a home—especially within one’s self. Ultimately, Still is a story of resiliency, community, and hope. The novel is informed by Cockerline’s own experiences as a long-time street outreach volunteer and co-founder of a non-profit street outreach organization.