The Lunenburg Lit Festival is a celebration of storytelling on the South Shore. There’s no better way to get inside a storyteller’s head than have them read to you. We’re very excited to be one of the only live and in person literary events of the season.
Join us this fall to enjoy world-class literary presentations, Q&As, and stories, in historic Lunenburg.
SHARI LAPENA is the #1 internationally bestselling author of eight suspense novels including The Couple Next Door, A Stranger in the House, An Unwanted Guest, Someone We Know, The End of Her, Not a Happy Family, Everyone Here is Lying, and What Have You Done?
A former lawyer and English teacher, Shari now writes full time from a farm in Ontario, where she lives with her husband.
Her first thriller, The Couple Next Door, was a runaway global bestseller, selling 4 million copies worldwide. It was WHSmith’s “Book of the Year” in 2016 and the #1 Adult Fiction Title in the UK for 2017. All of Shari’s novels have been New York Times, UK Sunday Times, and Globe and Mail bestsellers. Three of her books have been Richard & Judy Book Club Picks. Her books have sold into forty territories around the world and have been optioned for film and TV.
She doesn’t want you to be able to put her books down.
Stephen Maher has been writing about Canadian politics since 1989. As a columnist and investigative reporter for Postmedia News, iPolitics, and Maclean’s, he has often set the agenda on Parliament Hill, covering political corruption, electoral wrongdoing, misinformation, and human rights abuses. He has also won many awards, including the Nieman Fellowship at Harvard University, the Michener Award for meritorious public service journalism, the National Newspaper Award, two Canadian Association of Journalism Awards, a Canadian Hillman Prize, and has been nominated for several National Magazine Awards.
Chad Lucas has been in love with words since he attempted his first novel on a typewriter in the sixth grade. He has worked as a newspaper reporter, communications advisor, freelance writer, part-time journalism instructor, and parenting columnist.
YOU OWE ME ONE, UNIVERSE, a sequel to Chad’s debut, released in November 2023 and has been named a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection. His fourth book, THE VANISHED ONES, will be released in January 2025.
A proud descendant of the historic African Nova Scotian community of Lucasville, Chad lives with his family in Nova Scotia. In his spare time, he enjoys coaching youth basketball, and he’s never far from a cup of tea. Chad is also a musician and played on the 2008 East Coast Music Award-winning album New Beginnings from artist Chelsea Amber.
Tom Ryan is an award-winning author, screenwriter and producer. His books have been Junior Library Guild and ALA Rainbow List selections, and have been included on several best-of-year lists. He was a 2017 Lambda Literary Fellow in Young Adult Fiction. His 2019 release Keep This to Yourself was the recipient of the 2020 Arthur Ellis Award, the 2020 ITW Thriller Award, and the 2021 Ann Connor Brimer Award, and was nominated for the Amy Mathers Teen Book Award and the John Spray Mystery Award. It was also chosen by the Globe & Mail as one of the ‘Globe 100: Books that shaped 2019’ and is currently being adapted for television. His young adult mystery I Hope You’re Listening was the recipient of the 2021 Lambda Award for Best LGBTQ Mystery. Tom, his husband, and their dog live in Nova Scotia.
This C.S. Porter’s debut novel. A solitary writer who lives near the Atlantic Ocean, it is rumoured he or she was once involved in crime investigation; that Porter suffered an immense personal loss; that they came from US or UK, or grew up in these parts. Age unknown.
Donna Morris, originally from the Indian Brook First Nation, has been working as an interpreter/coordinator at Kejimkujik since 2000. Part of her duties include offering tours of the Mi’kmaq petroglyphs, one of the park’s main attractions, to visitors and campers several times a week during the spring and summer months.
Kejimkujik, as Told by Mi'gmaq Guide Donna Morris - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjjG6jWtMUY
November 7
Thursday Afternoon, 1:30 pm
Kids Event Chad Lucas – You Owe Me One Universe
Thursday Night, 7 pm Celebration of Mi’kmaq Storytelling
with Donna Morris, from Indian Brook First Nation and an interpreter at Kejimkujik, in an story telling event presented in partnership with the Lunenburg Academy Foundation.
November 8
Friday Night, 7 pm
Will He or Won’t He?
Stephen Maher discusses his nationally bestselling book, The Prince: the Turbulent Reign of Justin Trudeau, with TBA, and brings fresh insights into the question everyone is asking. Host: Stephen Kimber
November 9
Saturday Afternoon, 2 pm
Elevator Pitch
In the hopes of landing a publisher, local authors offer pithy summaries of their manuscripts to Karen Brochu, Publisher of House of Anansi Press, Simone Thibault, Non-Fiction Acquisitions Editor at Goose Lane Editions, and TBA of Nimbus. Host: Bruce Walsh
Saturday Night, 7 pm
Murder in a Small Town Internationally bestselling author, Shari Lapena, headlines the evening with and her latest novel, What Have You Done?, with Tom Ryan with his new adult novel The Treasure Hunters Club and CS Porter and their debut novel, Beneath Her Skin.
