Author Talks: Inspiring ideas and in-depth conversations with the world's leading writers and thinkers.
"With luminous clarity and unsentimental grace, Kate Bowler delivers a meditation on the sacred, vivid, and heartbreaking absurdity of being alive... A deeply moving everyday masterpiece." -
Elizabeth Gilbert, #1 New York Times bestselling authorJoy won't cure you, but it will carry you.
After surviving a stage-four cancer diagnosis, bestselling Canadian author and Duke University professor Kate Bowler knew she was supposed to be grateful. Alive. Blessed. But she still ached—for more connection, more surprise, less resentment on an ordinary day.
So she went looking for joy. Not the toxic positivity kind. Not a 5-step plan. But the type that sneaks in unexpectedly, seemingly out of nowhere. A lemur sunbathing. A belly laugh at a funeral. A dive into the Atlantic with a shark wrangler.
In Joyful, Anyway, Bowler takes us on a hilarious and tender journey through big questions and small delights. With wry wit and deep honesty, she explores how joy can surprise us even in the middle of pain, boredom, and longing. This is not a book about fixing your life. It is about how we can all find more—feel more—by making room for small extraordinary moments.
For anyone who has ever felt stuck, who is achy for meaning, who feels undone by loss, who feels that joy is just out of reach, who wants, simply, to have more fun, Joyful Anyway is a delicious, insightful tour through the questions that sit in the deepest part of our souls. It proves that for every time we ask: Is this it? Joy will answer: there is more.
Join Kate Bowler for a conversation about her new book Joyful, Anyway, moderated by author and comedian Rick Mercer.
Books are available online (follow the prompts when purchasing your ticket) or in-person at the event. Books will include a signed bookplate.
Doors will open 45 minutes prior to the screening.
TICKETS (+HST)
General: $15
Members: $10, $8, FREE