About us
Vancouver Literature and Film is for people who still think books, poems, plays, essays, and movies can bite.
Most months, we do a mix of:
- book club discussions
- short story and poetry nights
- Shakespeare and classic literature
- film and documentary discussions
- cinema outings
- gallery, theatre, and art-adjacent meetups
- silent reading parties
This is not school. No one is here to perform being smart. The best rooms are serious without becoming stiff: people bring real questions, strong reactions, disagreements, favorite scenes, and the one line that would not leave them alone.
If you want art to feel alive instead of assigned, this is probably your room.
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/raincouvereventsgroup/
Upcoming events
5
🧛♂️😂 Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors - Preview Theatre Outing
Lindsay Family Stage at Granville Island, 1585 Johnston Street, Vancouver, BC V6H 3R9, Vancouver, BC, CAImportant: A Meetup RSVP does not include or reserve admission. Everyone must buy their own official theatre ticket.
We’re going to the October 24 preview of Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors, a playful farce by Gordon Greenberg and Steve Rosen.
This version of Dracula leans fully into the spoof: the official synopsis includes a cowardly hero, an adventurous heroine, and a vampire who bakes cakes. We’ll meet outside the main entrance at 7:00 PM, then head in for the 7:30 performance.
Tickets
Tickets currently start at $53, including per-ticket fees. Prices and availability may change.
There is no reserved seating block or group rate arranged, so everyone needs to choose and purchase their own seat:
https://tickets.artsclub.com/smart-seat/?itemNumber=24839
Show page:
https://artsclub.com/shows/2026-2027/dracula-a-comedy-of-terrors
Content advisory: the production may contain flashing lights and water-based haze or fog.
When and where
📅 Saturday, October 24, 2026 - preview performance
🕖 Meet outside: 7:00 PM PDT
🎭 Performance: 7:30 PM
Meetup window: 7:00 PM–10:00 PM
📍 Lindsay Family Stage at Granville Island - main entrance
1585 Johnston Street, Vancouver, BC V6H 3R9
Arts Club has not published the runtime, so 10:00 PM is a provisional Meetup end time, not a confirmed performance finish.1 attendee![The Return of the King [Book Club Discussion]](https://secure.meetupstatic.com/photos/event/c/e/4/1/highres_536452801.jpeg)
The Return of the King [Book Club Discussion]
UBC Learning Exchange, 612 Main St, Vancouver, BC V6A 2V3, Canada, Vancouver, BC, CARSVP on the original event page
This is the same discussion across our groups, with a total cap of 12. Please reserve your place on the original event page: https://www.meetup.com/vancouver-fantasy-scifi-meetup-group/events/316830335/
Registration on this cross-post is closed; it does not reserve an additional place.
Book club discussion - Book VI only.What this is
This follows the previous Book V session.
For this one, read Book VI only: all nine chapters from The Tower of Cirith Ungol through The Grey Havens.
Any edition works. No appendices assigned.
This is not a movie discussion.
Book VI is where the quest reaches the point where courage stops looking grand and starts looking exhausted. Frodo, Sam, Gollum, the Ring, the return home, and the strange grief of an ending that does not simply let everyone go back to who they were.A few questions for the room
- “What does Tolkien think victory actually costs?”
- “Who changes most by the end?”
- “Does the ending feel comforting, heartbreaking, or both?”
When and where
🗓️ Date: Sunday, October 25th, 2026
🕒 Time: 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM PDT
📍 Location: UBC Learning Exchange
612 Main St, Vancouver, BC V6A 2V3, Canada
Meeting point: Main entrance at 612 Main Street.
Please arrive 10 minutes before the event starts. Doors close 10 minutes after the start time.
Cap: 121 attendee
🌙🪓 The Dream of a Ridiculous Man - can compassion survive the world?
UBC Learning Exchange, 612 Main St, Vancouver, BC V6A 2V3, Canada, Vancouver, BC, CARussian short story discussion - read beforehand.
What this is
Dostoevsky does not exactly sneak up on you.
The Dream of a Ridiculous Man starts in despair and ends somewhere stranger: a vision of innocence, corruption, compassion, and whether a person can come back from total indifference to the world.
It is short, strange, and very Russian in the sense that one man has a spiritual crisis large enough to inconvenience the entire universe.
We are reading only this story, not the whole collection.A few questions for the room
- “What does indifference do to a person?”
- “Is the dream a vision of truth, madness, guilt, or grace?”
- “Why does compassion sometimes arrive only after despair?”
Reading
Fyodor Dostoevsky - The Dream of a Ridiculous Man
Read only this story:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/40745Content note: the story includes suicidal thoughts.
When and where
🗓️ Date: Sunday, October 25th, 2026
🕒 Time: 12:00 PM - 2:00 PM PDT
📍 Location: UBC Learning Exchange
612 Main St, Vancouver, BC V6A 2V3, Canada
Meeting point: Main entrance at 612 Main Street.
Please arrive 10 minutes before the event starts. Doors close 10 minutes after the start time.
Cap: 126 attendees
❄️🎭 The Winter’s Tale - jealousy, false certainty, and repair
Trees Organic Coffee 738 Granville, 738 Granville St, Vancouver, BC V6Z 1G3, Canada, Vancouver, BC, CAShakespeare play discussion - read beforehand, no reading aloud.
What this is
Shakespeare has a language barrier. Let’s deal with that early.
Modern English is available. Use it. Side-by-side is fine. Original text is fine. Whatever gets you into the play without pretending the old language is effortless.
We are not reading the play aloud in the room.
The Winter’s Tale is a strange one: jealousy, false certainty, broken families, time, forgiveness, and the hard question of whether repair can ever undo what suspicion destroyed.A few questions for the room
- “Why does false certainty become so dangerous in this play?”
- “When does jealousy stop being emotion and become a worldview?”
- “Can forgiveness repair harm, or only make life possible after it?”
Reading
Original text:
https://www.folger.edu/explore/shakespeares-works/the-winters-tale/Modern English:
https://www.litcharts.com/shakescleare/shakespeare-translations/the-winters-taleWhen and where
🗓️ Date: Sunday, October 25th, 2026
🕒 Time: 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM PDT
📍 Location: Trees Organic Coffee 738 Granville
738 Granville St, Vancouver, BC V6Z 1G3, Canada
Meeting point: Inside the cafe at 738 Granville Street; look for Rza.
Cap: 209 attendees
Past events
128
