MEET THE STORYWALLAHS!

The 2021 Toronto International Festival of Authors (TIFA) returning for its 42nd edition, October 21 to 31, to celebrate resilience, reconnect communities and dive into important issues, invites book lovers to reshape the world through stories.

The Festival will feature over 300 local and international authors and artists, including over a dozen South Asians, who will take part in more than 200 events and activities. The Festival will return in a fully digital format for its second year in a row, to deliver a full schedule of live-streamed conversations, video readings, dance and musical performances, podcasts, workshops, children’s events and more.

Multilingual conversations, original writing commissions, interactive audio tours, and a Critical Conversations series on the events affecting people most today. TIFA will celebrate the languages of the city and connect with new international audiences through a series of events in authors’ own languages – Bengali, French, Greek, Japanese, Portuguese, Spanish and Tamil, with English translations provided. Audiences will hear from authors who have gained international recognition for their bestselling work.

The Festival lineup, curated by TIFA Director Roland Gulliver, includes international headliners Margaret Atwood, Paul Auster, David Baldacci, Anthony Doerr, Omar El Akkad, Karl Ove Knausgaard, Alexander McCall Smith, Colm Toibin and Colson Whitehead; as well as national favourites Douglas Coupland, Esi Edugyan, Shari Lapena and Eden Robinson; and YA super couple David and Nicola Yoon. TIFA will also spotlight over 25 emerging writers gaining acclaim, such as Asha Bromfield, Therese Estacion, Cheluchi Onyemelukwe-Onuobia and Mohamed Mbougar Sarr.

“This past year has emphasized our need for culture to offer connection, resilience, solace and entertainment; and books, in all their forms, play a fundamental role,” said Gulliver. “For our second virtual Festival, and my second as Director, I’m excited to build on the digital potential to develop our programming vision, ensuring TIFA is accessible, diverse, inclusive, innovative and ambitious. I am looking forward to celebrating and sharing with our audiences the stories and people who are reshaping our world. We have one Booker shortlistee, four National Book Award longlistee, four Hilary Weston non-fiction prize shortlistee, and nine of the 12 Giller Prize winners, among others!”

Author interview highlights include Indian actress and children’s rights activist Nandana Dev Sen in discussion with film director Deepa Mehta about the poems of Dev Sen’s mother, Nabaneeta Dev Sen (Acrobat), followed by readings in Bengali and English.

Exiled Sri Lankan author Devakanthan will present his latest book from the award-winning quintet series Prison of Dreams, in Tamil with English subtitles.

Indian-Australian author Kavita Bedford (Friends and Dark Shapes), shortlisted for the Queensland Literary Awards, will join up with Scotiabank Giller-prize longlister Aimee Wall (We, Jane) to discuss their debut novels; while Bangladeshi-born British writer Tahmima Anam (The Startup Wife) and Vancouver-based Genki Ferguson (Satellite Love) will discuss their books’ common theme of love versus technology. Meanwhile, a double interview with US-based authors Kazim Ali (Northern Light: Power, Land, and Memory of Water) and Kerri Arsenault (Mill Town) will explore the environmental impact of 20th century industrial practices, as presented in their latest books of nonfiction.

TIFA has also expanded its TIFA Kids program in 2021, bringing together over 40 authors, including Toronto’s Uzma Jalaluddin (Hana Khan Carries On), to take part in more than 30 readings, draw-alongs and Q&As for young people. TIFA Kids! books include middle-grade novels, picture books, graphic novels and novels for young adults.

Among its new offerings, TIFA will present two of Daniel Hahn’s internationally acclaimed Translation Duel events, including a French installment with translators Bilal Hashmi and Jessica Moore presenting head-to-head interpretations of Laurent Binet’s Civilizations. Adding to the spirit of playful competition are two Literary Death Matches – one for adult readers and one for kids. This American Idol of the written word presents authors competing with performances of their most electric writing to reach a comic finale.

Returning to TIFA, are its popular poetry slams, which will feature spoken word artists from Toronto and around the world, including Shagufta Iqbal, founder of the YoniVerse Poetry Collective. TIFA’s Write in the Neighbourhood podcast also returns for a second season of audio journeys through Toronto neighbourhoods that inspired popular books, and will feature local authors Silmy Abdullah, Uzma Jalaluddin and more.

The Festival has commissioned a new slate of 11 original works from international authors. This year’s writing prompt is Can You Hear Me Now?, responding dually to the age of digital meetings and to global movements for change that call for marginalized voices to be heard. Contributing authors include Maki Kashimada, Scholastique Mukasonga, Max Porter, Clayton Thomas-Muller and illustrator Ashley Spires. Video readings of the pieces will be recorded – in some cases, in the language of origin plus an English translation.

TIFA welcomes literary voices that reflect contemporary issues including racial justice, climate change and the devastation of Canada’s residential school system. Dr. Yusef Salaam, a member of the Exonerated Five, will introduce his gripping memoir Better, Not Bitter, advocating for prison reform and racial justice; and Anishnaabe writer, broadcaster and Chair of the Canada Council for the Arts Jesse Wente will discuss the flawed concept of reconciliation penned in Unreconciled.

For curious thinkers, TIFA’s daily Critical Conversations series returns for candid discussions with experts on real world topics. Among the lineup is Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha with Petra Kuppers and Syrus Marcus Ware to discuss the overlap between climate activism and improving inequities in disability worldmaking. TIFA has also partnered again with Humber College’s annual Liberal Arts and Sciences Conference to offer a series of free plenary sessions with industry experts. This year’s conference theme is The Big Hoax: The Anatomy of Anti-Intellectualism, Denialism and Conspiracy Theories, Past and Present, and will include a keynote presentation by Indian author and political and literary essayist Pankaj Mishra. The Humber College School for Writers is also bringing back its popular TIFA masterclasses for aspiring writers, facilitated by acclaimed authors, such as David Bezmozgis, Michelle Good and Sheila Heti.

Each evening of the Festival will feature performances such as poetry readings, storytelling, dance and music. Those taking part include Indigenous scholar and artist Leanne Betasamosake Simpson (Noopiming), Icelandic writer and documentary filmmaker Andri Snær Magnason (On Time and Water) and U.S. Girls frontperson, musician Meg Remy (Begin By Telling).

Superheroes will also appear in all guises, with Justin A. Reynolds’ tingling spidey-senses with his new Miles Morales graphic novel and British author-illustrator Sophy Henn unmasking her reluctant superhero character, Pizazz. Toronto drag artists Fay and Fluffy will join for a Halloween spooky lineup with their trademark Drag Storytime. There will also be a virtual ceremony celebrating the 2021 Canadian Children’s Book Centre Book Awards.

For more information, and to sign up for the 42nd edition of the Toronto International Festival of Authors, visit FestivalofAuthors.ca.

To view the Festival calendar: https://festivalofauthors.ca/calendar/

To view the participants list: https://festivalofauthors.ca/festival-participants/