Filipino-Canadian Book Festival
Festival Schedule
Aug 14 | VS Creative Lab | RSVP
6:00-9pm - Opening Party!
Aug 15, Saturday | Museum of Vancouver | RSVP
1030am-11am - Welcoming Ceremony
11am-1230pm - The Future Has Ancestors
1230-130pm - Across the Page, Across Canada
1:30-3pm - Writing in the Apocalypse
4-5pm - Keynote: Stories that Carry Us Home: Keynote Speaker Adrian De Leon | RSVP
Aug 16, Sunday | Museum of Vancouver | RSVP
10:30am-12:00pm - A Stage Across Time: Writing for the Ephemeral
12:30-2pm - The Archive of Home: Personal History as Collective Memory
2:30pm-4pm - The Stories that Raise Us
Aug 17, Monday | VS Creative Lab | RSVP
5:30pm-9:00pm - SULAT COLLECTIVE Baybayin Workshop
About the Festival
Our mission is to celebrate Filipino and Canadian heritage and the unique culture that we are living and creating every day in our diaspora. We hope to honour our ancestral roots and artistic lineages, as well as build and grow revolutionary literary and artistic safe spaces for our kapwa.
2026
We are honoured to welcome such a prolific and celebrated writer to the 2026 Filipino-Canadian Book Festival: Adrian De Leon will be joining us as this year’s keynote!
Across poetry, nonfiction, memoir, criticism, and public history, Adrian’s work has helped shape urgent conversations around Filipino history, diaspora, migration, memory, and belonging. With an incredible body of work published over the years, Adrian continues to expand how we understand our stories across generations and geographies.
Adrian De Leon is a writer and public historian. His most recent books are Bundok: A Hinterland History of Filipino America (2023), Balikbayan: A Revenant History of the Filipino Homeland (2026), and Notes from a Wayward Son: A Memoir (2026). Born in Manila and raised in Scarborough, he has lived and worked in Honolulu, Seattle, Los Angeles, and Vancouver. He now lives in New York, where he teaches American and Philippine histories at New York University.
We can’t wait to celebrate Adrian’s incredible work with our community.
More details coming soon. For now, please join us in giving Adrian the warmest welcome!
2024
On July 12-14, 2024 we celebrated Filipino culture, and had a keynote by award-winning author, Catherine Hernandez; there were book signings and panel talks with Fil-Can authors; family-friendly workshops; open mic readings to showcase both emerging and established literary talent; musical entertainment; a marketplace & book fair for Filipino local businesses and our partners, and more that happened this weekend!
The Canada Council for the Arts mandate is to foster and promote the study and enjoyment of, and the production of works in, the arts. Through its grants, services, prizes, initiatives, and payments, the Canada Council supports a dynamic and diverse arts and literary scene. These activities generate a meaningful cultural, social and economic impact for over 2,000 communities in all parts of the country and beyond. The investments and leadership of the Council help advance public engagement in the arts from coast to coast to coast while also contributing to the international recognition of artists and arts organizations from Canada.
We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts.
Thank you to our community & partners
