A new chapter Renamed Winnipeg Book Festival takes to The Forks this fall By: Ben Sigurdson Posted: 4:22 PM CDT Tuesday, Aug. 11, 2026

Winnipeg’s long-running annual literary festival returns this fall, once again featuring a slate of authors, local and beyond, ready to engage with readers.

New this year is pretty much everything else, including a new name, executive director and team of staff — as well as a shift to a tight, condensed timeline and a move to hold all events under one roof.

The festival formerly known as Thin Air/Livres en fête is now the Winnipeg Book Festival; the event takes place Oct. 1-4 at The Forks Market, with most events offering free admission.

It’s a lot of changes for the stalwart literary festival, which was run for more than two decades by Charlene Diehl, who stepped away in late 2025.

Enter Laura Meuckon, who took over as executive director of Plume Winnipeg, the organization that runs the festival, earlier this year.

Meuckon comes to Plume Winnipeg after years as a producer at Shaw TV before a stint at Downtown Winnipeg BIZ, where she co-ordinated events and programming.

“I found this opportunity and thought, ‘Yeah, this is where I want to be.’ It’s creative, it’s leadership, it’s representing an important community, an important festival for this city, and for the interest in and love for reading and writing,” she says.

And while her background and skill set differs from Diehl’s, Meuckon reckons it will be equally relevant and valuable.

“I’m a media person, a storyteller in the non-fiction sense. I started as a community producer, telling stories. I may not ask the most deep literary questions to an author, but I know how to get people in seats,” she says.

“I’m a media person, a storyteller in the non-fiction sense. I started as a community producer, telling stories.”

Meuckon and the Plume Winnipeg team unveiled the festival’s new name and dates at a First Fridays event in the Exchange District on Aug. 7.

“The launch event was really eye-opening for the team, to see how many people were excited about our festival,” she says.

The event also offered the chance to reveal a portion of the festival’s lineup of authors. Among the writers appearing at the Winnipeg Book Festival are locals Philipp Schott, Sam K MacKinnon, Catherine Hunter, Margaret Sweatman and Lindsay Wong, along with out-of-towners including Bill Gaston, Michelle Good, bill bissett, Richard Van Camp and Nick Cutter. There will also be French programming, and McNally Robinson Booksellers will be on site for book sales.

Given the reputation of Thin Air/Livres en fête among authors, changing the name of the festival came with some potential risks, but Meuckon reckons it will pay dividends.

“One interesting realization I had is how prestigious the Thin Air brand is to an international and national audience,” she says. “Every author we invited was like, ‘Yes, we’re going to figure out how to get there.’ It’s really revered and loved, so it was a risky move to change the festival name. But I stand by it. I think it’s the way forward.”

Meuckon also believes centralizing and condensing the festival will foster more chances for writers and readers to connect more meaningfully in a more immersive environment.

“It was important to me and to our board to build our audience, and to build community and atmosphere around our literary festival,” she says. “One of the things I gleaned from looking at other writers festivals was that ambience, camaraderie and community were really important to the audience, so I wanted to bring that here.”

For her team’s first festival, Meuckon is hoping keeping it simple, with a shorter, more streamlined event at a single venue will get any first-year jitters out of the way.

“I wanted to make our first festival as a team a little easier; The Forks is obviously a wonderful location that comes with its own audience.”

And the plan is for bigger and better things to come.

“Our 30th anniversary is in 2027 — I want it to be huge, to be able to get some of those really big international authors in and build fun events around them,” Meuckon says.

But for now, the priority is to make the first Winnipeg Book Festival under the new banner and with the new crew one that’s welcoming and inclusive.

“If you pick up a book once a year at the airport, this festival’s for you. Or if you’re writing your first novel, this festival’s for you as well,” Meuckon says. “Anyone who has any interest in reading or writing or anything in between, I think they’ll enjoy the Winnipeg Book Festival.”

“If you pick up a book once a year at the airport, this festival’s for you. Or if you’re writing your first novel, this festival’s for you as well.”

The full festival lineup and website will be rolled out by September — until then, visit thinairwinnipeg.ca or the Winnipeg Book Festival social media pages for the latest.

ben.sigurdson@winnipegfreepress.com