Writersfest Familiar Creatures
Familiar Creatures
Who shares our cities, our homes and our lives? At Familiar Creatures, part of Kingston WritersFest 2026, authors Dan Werb and Nadja Lubiw-Hazard explore the many ways humans and animals inhabit the same world. Join them, along with Mark Medley, for a Saturday morning conversation that approaches this relationship through both nonfiction and fiction.
In Our Wild Familiars, Werb turns his attention to urban “synanthropes”—animals that live alongside people and adapt to the environments we create. Rabbits, squirrels and foxes may seem like ordinary sights on a city street, but their lives are often hidden in plain view. Drawing on his background in epidemiology, Werb asks readers to look more closely at the creatures navigating our neighbourhoods and the complicated connections between their survival and our own.
Werb is a winner of the Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize. His work brings a researcher’s curiosity to animals many of us pass every day without a second thought. After hearing about Our Wild Familiars, you may find yourself paying fresh attention to the movement in a garden or a glimpse of wildlife on your morning walk.
Nadja Lubiw-Hazard takes a different route into the subject. A veterinarian as well as a writer, she brings her knowledge of animals to The Life of a Creature, her debut collection of stories. Through fiction, she explores how our fellow creatures can shape experiences of love, loss and healing—and how sharing an environment does not always mean we fully understand those who live within it.
Together, these books offer two ways to think about a familiar question: what do animals reveal about the places we call home and the people we become? One author looks to the wildlife of city streets; the other uses stories to explore emotional connections. Their perspectives promise a thoughtful conversation for readers, animal lovers and anyone curious about the living world just beyond the doorstep.
Kingston WritersFest thanks Harriet Waterman, Author Patron of Nadja Lubiw-Hazard, and Doriana Bisegna, Author Patron of Dan Werb.
Event Details
Date: Saturday, October 3, 2026
Time: 8:30–10:00 a.m.
Venue: Limestone C, Kingston Marriott, 285 King Street East, Kingston
Featuring: Dan Werb and Nadja Lubiw-Hazard, with Mark Medley
Category: Arts & Theatre
Tickets: Kingston WritersFest event page
