R.I.P. Alma Lee (1940 – 2025)
April 16th, 2025
Alma Lee (May 4, 1940 – March 28, 2025)
Described by author and poet, Lorna Crozier as “powerful as a bundle of dynamite,” Alma Lee, the founding artistic director of the Vancouver Writers Fest, died on March 28, 2025 at the age of 84.
Originally from Scotland, when Lee arrived in Vancouver in 1984, via Toronto, she already had many contacts in the CanLit field after helping establish the Writers’ Union of Canada and the Writers’ Trust of Canada.
She quickly saw Vancouver was in need of a Canadian writers’ showcase for their many readers here. Lee had a vision of what a writers’ festival could be on Granville Island but it took years to make it happen.
The festival launched on the third week of October, 1988, with Lee as its founding artistic director. The first writer to confirm their participation was Alma’s friend, Timothy Findley; the lineup went on to include Anne Cameron, Angela Carter Tomson Highway, Ursula K. Le Guin, Margaret Atwood and the BC publisher/author Howard White.
“Alma was one of those essential figures in the arts who work tirelessly in the background making things happen,” says White. “In her case, big, important things like the Writers Union and the Vancouver Festival. She leaves an admirable legacy.”
Alma Lee, founding artistic director of the Vancouver International Writers Festival (now the Vancouver Writers Fest), circa 2004
Lee ran the Vancouver Writers Fest for the next 18 years growing it into a thriving and internationally recognized literary extravaganza. Some of the special events that she created include the Afternoon Tea and the Literary Cabaret—still going strong after almost 40 years. The festival draws 30,000 attendees annually, according to its website.
Past authors who have graced the festival stages include Martin Amis, Margaret Atwood, Maeve Binchy, John Irving, P.D. James, Frank McCourt, Rohinton Mistry, Alice Munroe, Michael Ondaatje, J.K. Rowling, Salman Rushdie, Carol Shields and Miriam Toews.
Lee not only forged invaluable connections in the literary world with well-known national and international icons, she helped launch the careers of local writers such as Kevin Chong, Billeh Nickerson, Aislinn Hunter and Ivan E. Coyote.
She retired in 2005, but was never far away from the event she created.
“Long after her retirement, Alma was a constant presence at the festival, sitting in the front row for most events, and often showing up for a cup of tea on Tuesday afternoons when she’d be at Granville Island to do her weekly market shop,” says Leslie Hurtig, the current artistic director of the festival. “She remained, until the end, beautifully opinionated, admirably activated for the right causes, and keenly interested in new books and authors. I shall miss her a great deal.”
Alma Lee’s awards and accolades include the Order of BC, the Order of Canada, an Honorary Doctorate of Letters from Simon Fraser University, and the Commemorative Medal for Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II’s Golden Jubilee.
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