The Vancouver International Writers & Readers Festival is under way, bringing together authors from across town and around the world–and, more importantly, putting them in contact with the readers who make the whole thing worthwhile. Tickets remain for several promising events–if you can't find something to bestir you, you just aren't trying. Starting with the biggest profile, CBC broadcaster Eleanor Wachtel (pictured here) presents the annual Bill Duthie Memorial Lecture on Sunday (October 21) at the Stanley Theatre, beginning at 8 p.m. Backing up, Friday (October 19) kicks off at 10 a.m. with Gift of the Gab, an unlikely but loquacious meeting of Nuala O'Faolain, Ray Robertson, and Michael Winter, all spun to the conversation stylings of moderator Vicki Gabereau at the Arts Club Theatre. In between, on Saturday (October 20), you can choose between evening ceilidhs with a panoply of poets (The Poetry Bash, Performance Works) and a feast of fictioneers (Polyphony, Waterfront Theatre). My pick? Alistair MacLeod–in conversation with Barry Callaghan, Patricia Robertson, and Seán Virgo–at the Waterfront on Saturday at 2 p.m., with Three Masters, One Mistress of Short Fiction. For tickets and details, www.writersfest.bc.ca/.