On Tuesday, the Vancouver Writers Fest announced that Leslie Hurtig has been appointed its next artistic director.Handout
Leslie Hurtig grew up around books and publishing and has been a lifelong champion of CanLit. Now she is preparing to take over leadership of one of the country's most important book festivals – the Vancouver Writers Fest. On Tuesday, the festival announced that Ms. Hurtig has been appointed its next artistic director.
Ms. Hurtig, 47, has extensive knowledge of the festival, having been on the board from 1999 to 2016, including four years as board chair, from 2004 to 2008.
She says she worked her way through university (at the University of British Columbia) by working in bookstores, and has been involved in publishing ever since. Prior positions include bookseller with Munro's Books and Blackberry Books, freelance publicist with McClelland & Stewart, publishers' representative with Michael Reynolds and Associates; and foreign-rights and contracts manager with Raincoast Books.
You could also say publishing is in her blood; her father was Mel Hurtig, the renowned Canadian bookseller and publisher.
"I was born into a bookstore; my parents owned a bookstore when I was born," says Ms. Hurtig. "My house was always full of authors and publishers and that has been my life, to be honest."
Mr. Hurtig, after selling first Hurtig Books and then Hurtig Publishers Ltd., also established the Council of Canadians. He died just over a year ago.
"He would be very proud and he would have been thrilled," says Ms. Hurtig of her appointment. "That makes this even more wonderful."
Ms. Hurtig will replace Hal Wake, who is retiring from the festival after this fall's event (which runs from Oct. 16 to 22).
"Her familiarity with the festival and commitment to the festival is unparalleled," says Mr. Wake, who has been with the festival since 2005. "At the board level … she's been involved and seen the festival from all angles and perspectives. I think she'll need to work at programming, which is more sophisticated than some people imagine, but I have every confidence that she'll hit the ground running and I will be there to give her every kind of help I can."
The VWF marks its 30th anniversary this year and Ms. Hurtig is only its third artistic director, following Mr. Wake and festival founder Alma Lee.
"I just want to build on the great work that both Alma and Hal have done to make this festival what it is," says Ms. Hurtig. "We just need to continue making it stronger, continue building dialogue. It seems to me that people right now are hungry for dialogue and that is what we do best. We bring the best minds to [the] stage to have conversations. And people leave with a feeling of hope and enlightenment and sometimes anger. It's what we do. So I just want to build upon that."
Ms. Hurtig begins her position Oct. 2 and will work with Mr. Wake through October and November. She takes over as artistic director as of Dec. 1.
Marsha Lederman