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The Magic Among Us: Myth Music and the Stories That Transform Our World

with Amal El-Mohtar and Charles de Lint
Host, Kate Heartfield
Sunday, October 18, 2026, 2-4pm
Motel Chelsea

Award-winning authors Amal El-Mohtar and Charles de Lint invite us into worlds where the boundaries between the ordinary and the extraordinary begin to blur. Through her luminous, genre-defying storytelling, El-Mohtar explores the intersections of myth, love, memory and time. Fresh from her win of the Hugo Award for Best Novella for The River Has Roots, Amal brings this celebrated new work, and her remarkable imagination, to the conversation. De Lint, an acclaimed pioneer of contemporary urban fantasy, draws on folklore, music and the magic woven into everyday life to create stories in which the extraordinary feels tantalizingly close at hand. He will share from his newest book, Dog Sisters, bringing another captivating story from his richly imagined world to the festival.
 
In conversation with Kate Heartfield, they will explore:
 
~ How myth, folklore and music continue to shape the stories we tell—and the ways we understand ourselves.
 
~ Where magic lives in the everyday, and what becomes possible when we allow ourselves to see the world differently.
 
~ The ways stories can cross boundaries between past and present, the ordinary and the fantastical, the personal and the universal.
 
~ Why we turn to stories to make sense of our lives, connect with one another and imagine worlds beyond the one we know.
 
~ The transformative power of imagination—and how the stories we create can, in turn, transform us.
 
A captivating conversation between two extraordinary imaginative minds about myth, music, storytelling and the magic that surrounds us—sometimes hidden in plain sight.
 
Motel Chelsea
Tickets: $30

Photo credit: Ainsley Coghill

Amal El-Mohtar

Amal El-Mohtar writes fiction, poetry, and criticism. Her acclaimed novella, The River Has Roots, was recently awarded the 2026 Hugo Award for Best Novella. She has also won the Hugo, Nebula, and Locus Awards for her short story “Seasons of Glass and Iron” and again for her novella This Is How You Lose the Time War, written with Max Gladstone, which also won the BSFA and Aurora awards, became a New York Times bestseller, and has been translated into over ten languages.

She’s a three-time winner of the Rhysling Award for Best Short Poem for her poems “Song for an Ancient City,” “Peach-Creamed Honey,” and “Turning the Leaves,” and in 2012 she received the Richard Jefferies Poetry Prize for “Phase Shifting.” She has an M.A. in English Literature from the University of Ottawa, where she taught for several years, launching and running the creative writing program. She has been the science fiction and fantasy columnist at the New York Times Book Review since 2018. Her reviews and articles have also appeared in the Los Angeles Times and on NPR Books. The River Has Roots is her solo debut, and Seasons of Glass and Iron: Stories is her debut collection. She lives in Ottawa, Canada. (amalelmohtar.com)

Charles de Lint

Charles de Lint is a Canadian author with more than eighty published adult, young adult and children’s books. Widely recognized in his field, he has won the World Fantasy, Aurora, Sunburst, and White Pine awards, among others. He has been inducted into the Canadian Science Fiction & Fantasy Association Hall of Fame and received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the World Fantasy Organization. De Lint is also a poet, musician, songwriter, performer and folklorist, and has written a monthly book review column for The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction for decades. He makes his home in Ottawa, Ontario, with his pup Joey Strummer (“The Only Dog That Matters”). For more information, visit his website at www.charlesdelint.com, join him on www.patreon.com/charlesdelint or hang out with him and like-minded souls at the Mythic Café (https://www.facebook.com/groups/114379772019551).
 

Photo credit: Robert de Wit

Kate Heartfield

Kate Heartfield is the author of historical fantasy novels including Mercutio (2026), in which Shakespeare’s best character opens a rift to Faerie; The Tapestry of Time (2024), about clairvoyant sisters in WWII; The Valkyrie (2023), a retelling of Norse and Germanic legends; and the Sunday Times bestseller The Embroidered Book (2022), about Marie Antoinette and her sister Maria Carolina. Her debut novel was rereleased as The Chatelaine in 2023. Kate has published two novellas about a time-travelling highwaywoman, Alice Payne Arrives and Alice Payne Rides. She has also written interactive fiction through Choice of Games, and Assassin’s Creed novels. She has a novel coming in late 2026 called The Swordmaster, part of the Vampires of Dumas series from Solaris.

She won the Aurora Award for Best Novel three times, and her fiction been shortlisted for the Aurora, Nebula, World Fantasy, Crawford, Locus, Sunburst, Scribe and Ottawa Book awards. A game she co-wrote, A Death in Hyperspace, won the Nebula Award for Game Writing in 2025. In 2024, she was the Writer in Residence for the University of Ottawa.
A former newspaper journalist, Kate was a finalist for the National Newspaper Award in editorial writing in 2015. She lives in Canada.

Perfect Books Ottawa and Bouquinart Librairie & Galerie d’art offer an excellent selection of books by 2026 Writers Fête authors. Meet the authors and have your books signed!

$30.00 Purchase Now

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The Magic Among Us
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Back to all events
October 18, 2026 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm Motel Chelsea $30.00 $30.00 Purchase Now

Tickets

The numbers below include tickets for this event already in your cart. Clicking "Get Tickets" will allow you to edit any existing attendee information as well as change ticket quantities.
General Admission
The Magic Among Us
$30.00
4 available
Quantity: 0
Total: $0.00

The Magic Among Us: Myth Music and the Stories That Transform Our World

with Amal El-Mohtar and Charles de Lint
Host, Kate Heartfield
Sunday, October 18, 2026, 2-4pm
Motel Chelsea

Award-winning authors Amal El-Mohtar and Charles de Lint invite us into worlds where the boundaries between the ordinary and the extraordinary begin to blur. Through her luminous, genre-defying storytelling, El-Mohtar explores the intersections of myth, love, memory and time. Fresh from her win of the Hugo Award for Best Novella for The River Has Roots, Amal brings this celebrated new work, and her remarkable imagination, to the conversation. De Lint, an acclaimed pioneer of contemporary urban fantasy, draws on folklore, music and the magic woven into everyday life to create stories in which the extraordinary feels tantalizingly close at hand. He will share from his newest book, Dog Sisters, bringing another captivating story from his richly imagined world to the festival.
 
In conversation with Kate Heartfield, they will explore:
 
~ How myth, folklore and music continue to shape the stories we tell—and the ways we understand ourselves.
 
~ Where magic lives in the everyday, and what becomes possible when we allow ourselves to see the world differently.
 
~ The ways stories can cross boundaries between past and present, the ordinary and the fantastical, the personal and the universal.
 
~ Why we turn to stories to make sense of our lives, connect with one another and imagine worlds beyond the one we know.
 
~ The transformative power of imagination—and how the stories we create can, in turn, transform us.
 
A captivating conversation between two extraordinary imaginative minds about myth, music, storytelling and the magic that surrounds us—sometimes hidden in plain sight.
 
Motel Chelsea
Tickets: $30

Photo credit: Ainsley Coghill

Amal El-Mohtar

Amal El-Mohtar writes fiction, poetry, and criticism. Her acclaimed novella, The River Has Roots, was recently awarded the 2026 Hugo Award for Best Novella. She has also won the Hugo, Nebula, and Locus Awards for her short story “Seasons of Glass and Iron” and again for her novella This Is How You Lose the Time War, written with Max Gladstone, which also won the BSFA and Aurora awards, became a New York Times bestseller, and has been translated into over ten languages.

She’s a three-time winner of the Rhysling Award for Best Short Poem for her poems “Song for an Ancient City,” “Peach-Creamed Honey,” and “Turning the Leaves,” and in 2012 she received the Richard Jefferies Poetry Prize for “Phase Shifting.” She has an M.A. in English Literature from the University of Ottawa, where she taught for several years, launching and running the creative writing program. She has been the science fiction and fantasy columnist at the New York Times Book Review since 2018. Her reviews and articles have also appeared in the Los Angeles Times and on NPR Books. The River Has Roots is her solo debut, and Seasons of Glass and Iron: Stories is her debut collection. She lives in Ottawa, Canada. (amalelmohtar.com)

Charles de Lint

Charles de Lint is a Canadian author with more than eighty published adult, young adult and children’s books. Widely recognized in his field, he has won the World Fantasy, Aurora, Sunburst, and White Pine awards, among others. He has been inducted into the Canadian Science Fiction & Fantasy Association Hall of Fame and received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the World Fantasy Organization. De Lint is also a poet, musician, songwriter, performer and folklorist, and has written a monthly book review column for The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction for decades. He makes his home in Ottawa, Ontario, with his pup Joey Strummer (“The Only Dog That Matters”). For more information, visit his website at www.charlesdelint.com, join him on www.patreon.com/charlesdelint or hang out with him and like-minded souls at the Mythic Café (https://www.facebook.com/groups/114379772019551).
 

Photo credit: Robert de Wit

Kate Heartfield

Kate Heartfield is the author of historical fantasy novels including Mercutio (2026), in which Shakespeare’s best character opens a rift to Faerie; The Tapestry of Time (2024), about clairvoyant sisters in WWII; The Valkyrie (2023), a retelling of Norse and Germanic legends; and the Sunday Times bestseller The Embroidered Book (2022), about Marie Antoinette and her sister Maria Carolina. Her debut novel was rereleased as The Chatelaine in 2023. Kate has published two novellas about a time-travelling highwaywoman, Alice Payne Arrives and Alice Payne Rides. She has also written interactive fiction through Choice of Games, and Assassin’s Creed novels. She has a novel coming in late 2026 called The Swordmaster, part of the Vampires of Dumas series from Solaris.

She won the Aurora Award for Best Novel three times, and her fiction been shortlisted for the Aurora, Nebula, World Fantasy, Crawford, Locus, Sunburst, Scribe and Ottawa Book awards. A game she co-wrote, A Death in Hyperspace, won the Nebula Award for Game Writing in 2025. In 2024, she was the Writer in Residence for the University of Ottawa.
A former newspaper journalist, Kate was a finalist for the National Newspaper Award in editorial writing in 2015. She lives in Canada.

Perfect Books Ottawa and Bouquinart Librairie & Galerie d’art offer an excellent selection of books by 2026 Writers Fête authors. Meet the authors and have your books signed!

$30.00 Purchase Now - 4 Places Left