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The Stories That Change Us

with Ian Williams and Souvankham Thammavongsa
Host, Omar Dabaghi-Pacheko

Saturday, October 17, 2026, 7-9pm
Centre Wakefield La Pêche

Giller Prize winners Ian Williams and Souvankham Thammavongsa bring wit, tenderness and sharp observation to the complexities of change and identity through two very different works. In You’ve Changed, Williams explores what happens when the people we love—and believe we understand—begin to change. Thammavongsa’s 2025 Giller Prize-winning novel Pick a Colour, set over the course of a single day in a nail salon, explores immigrant experiences, class and the subtle power dynamics of everyday life.
 
In conversation with journalist Omar Dabaghi-Pacheco, they will explore:
 
~ How relationships change when our assumptions about the people closest to us no longer hold true.
 
~ How family, culture, class and the expectations of others shape our sense of identity and influence the choices we make.
 
~ The tensions between who we have been, who others expect us to be and who we are becoming—and what we choose to hold onto along the way.
 
~ What we leave behind, what we carry forward and how we make sense of who we are becoming.
 
A thoughtful, lively and deeply human conversation about identity, belonging and transformation—one that may leave you seeing yourself, and the people around you, a little differently.
 

Centre Wakefield La Pêche
38 Chemin de la Vallée-de-Wakefield, Wakefield QC J0X 3G0
Tickets: $30

Photo by Zackery Hobler 2025

Ian Williams

IAN WILLIAMS is the author of seven acclaimed books of fiction, poetry, and nonfiction. He delivered the 2024 CBC Massey Lectures, What I Mean to Say, on rehabilitating conversations. His previous book, Disorientation, was selected as a best book of the year by the Boston Globe. Williams’s debut novel, Reproduction, won the Giller Prize. His poetry collection, Word Problems, won the Raymond Souster Award, and his previous collection, Personals, was shortlisted for the Griffin Poetry Prize and the Robert Kroetsch Poetry Book Award. Williams’s short story collection, Not Anyone’s Anything, won the Danuta Gleed Literary Award for the best first collection of short fiction in Canada. He is a trustee for the Griffin Poetry Prize and a professor of English and director of the Creative Writing program at University of Toronto.

Souvankham Thammavongsa

SOUVANKHAM THAMMAVONGSA is the author of four acclaimed poetry books, the short story collection How to Pronounce Knife, winner of the 2020 Giller prize and 2021 Trillium Book Award, finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the novel Pick a Colour, winner of the 2025 Giller prize. Her short stories have won an O. Henry Award and appeared in The New Yorker, Harper’s Magazine, The Paris Review, The Atlantic, Granta, McSweeney’s and NOON.

Omar Dabaghi-Pacheco

OMAR DABAGHI-PACHECO is a Canadian Screen Award-winning journalist and the host of CBC Ottawa News at 6. Born and raised in Ottawa, with deep Ecuadorian and Lebanese roots, Dabaghi-Pacheco brings a wealth of lived and learned experience to his role as anchor of CBC Ottawa’s flagship news show.

Omar joined CBC in 2010. Bringing his knowledge of Ottawa’s diverse cultures and fluency in four languages to cover the city’s diverse communities and its biggest breaking news stories.

As a reporter, Omar is known for his pursuit of documentary storytelling. This work has taken him inside the life of a family doctor struggling to take on clients in small communities, to Ontario towns ravaged by Fentanyl, to remote areas of Africa fighting for basic mental health care. From his background as a video journalist and his time as a national breaking news presenter to hosting network specials on Radio One, the common thread for Omar has always been his passion for telling stories from a community perspective and his ability to connect with people.

Omar splits his time between Ottawa and the Edelweiss Valley with his partner and two young children. When he’s not running around the park with his kids, or chasing the latest story, you can find Omar in the sky, riding thermal currents as a paragliding instructor.

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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Back to all events
October 17, 2026 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm Centre Wakefield La Pêche $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 Stories That Change Us
$30.00
Quantity: 0
Total: $0.00

The Stories That Change Us

with Ian Williams and Souvankham Thammavongsa
Host, Omar Dabaghi-Pacheko

Saturday, October 17, 2026, 7-9pm
Centre Wakefield La Pêche

Giller Prize winners Ian Williams and Souvankham Thammavongsa bring wit, tenderness and sharp observation to the complexities of change and identity through two very different works. In You’ve Changed, Williams explores what happens when the people we love—and believe we understand—begin to change. Thammavongsa’s 2025 Giller Prize-winning novel Pick a Colour, set over the course of a single day in a nail salon, explores immigrant experiences, class and the subtle power dynamics of everyday life.
 
In conversation with journalist Omar Dabaghi-Pacheco, they will explore:
 
~ How relationships change when our assumptions about the people closest to us no longer hold true.
 
~ How family, culture, class and the expectations of others shape our sense of identity and influence the choices we make.
 
~ The tensions between who we have been, who others expect us to be and who we are becoming—and what we choose to hold onto along the way.
 
~ What we leave behind, what we carry forward and how we make sense of who we are becoming.
 
A thoughtful, lively and deeply human conversation about identity, belonging and transformation—one that may leave you seeing yourself, and the people around you, a little differently.
 

Centre Wakefield La Pêche
38 Chemin de la Vallée-de-Wakefield, Wakefield QC J0X 3G0
Tickets: $30

Photo by Zackery Hobler 2025

Ian Williams

IAN WILLIAMS is the author of seven acclaimed books of fiction, poetry, and nonfiction. He delivered the 2024 CBC Massey Lectures, What I Mean to Say, on rehabilitating conversations. His previous book, Disorientation, was selected as a best book of the year by the Boston Globe. Williams’s debut novel, Reproduction, won the Giller Prize. His poetry collection, Word Problems, won the Raymond Souster Award, and his previous collection, Personals, was shortlisted for the Griffin Poetry Prize and the Robert Kroetsch Poetry Book Award. Williams’s short story collection, Not Anyone’s Anything, won the Danuta Gleed Literary Award for the best first collection of short fiction in Canada. He is a trustee for the Griffin Poetry Prize and a professor of English and director of the Creative Writing program at University of Toronto.

Souvankham Thammavongsa

SOUVANKHAM THAMMAVONGSA is the author of four acclaimed poetry books, the short story collection How to Pronounce Knife, winner of the 2020 Giller prize and 2021 Trillium Book Award, finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the novel Pick a Colour, winner of the 2025 Giller prize. Her short stories have won an O. Henry Award and appeared in The New Yorker, Harper’s Magazine, The Paris Review, The Atlantic, Granta, McSweeney’s and NOON.

Omar Dabaghi-Pacheco

OMAR DABAGHI-PACHECO is a Canadian Screen Award-winning journalist and the host of CBC Ottawa News at 6. Born and raised in Ottawa, with deep Ecuadorian and Lebanese roots, Dabaghi-Pacheco brings a wealth of lived and learned experience to his role as anchor of CBC Ottawa’s flagship news show.

Omar joined CBC in 2010. Bringing his knowledge of Ottawa’s diverse cultures and fluency in four languages to cover the city’s diverse communities and its biggest breaking news stories.

As a reporter, Omar is known for his pursuit of documentary storytelling. This work has taken him inside the life of a family doctor struggling to take on clients in small communities, to Ontario towns ravaged by Fentanyl, to remote areas of Africa fighting for basic mental health care. From his background as a video journalist and his time as a national breaking news presenter to hosting network specials on Radio One, the common thread for Omar has always been his passion for telling stories from a community perspective and his ability to connect with people.

Omar splits his time between Ottawa and the Edelweiss Valley with his partner and two young children. When he’s not running around the park with his kids, or chasing the latest story, you can find Omar in the sky, riding thermal currents as a paragliding instructor.

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 - 86 Places Left