Celebrating 33 years, the International Festival of Authors (IFOA) has just announced that an additional 69 names have been added to the existing line-up of 66 authors announced in the preliminary line-up for this year’s Festival, which runs from October 18 to 28, 2012. With hosts, moderators and interviewers, this brings the total number of participants to 188. Further to those authors and events previously announced, this year’s IFOA audiences can expect to see:
Literary legend Louise Erdrich; international stars Anita Amirrezvani, Simonetta Agnello Hornby, A.L. Kennedy, Erlend Loe, Wayne Macauley, Véronique Ovaldé, Olga Slavnikova, Morten Søndergaard and Irvine Welsh; Canadian talent Liam Card, Kyo Maclear, Emily St. John Mandel, Christine Pountney, Corey Redekop and Cordelia Strube; prize-winning authors Shauna Singh Baldwin, Hiromi Goto, Rawi Hage, Beatrice MacNeil, Donna Morrissey, Ron Rash, C.S. Richardson and Joey Slinger as well as Eva Stachniak, who will participate in a Master Class presented by IFOA and the Humber School for Writers; authors who have written either a debut novel or their first collection of short stories include Miranda Hill, Liza Klaussmann, Arno Kopecky, Ben Lerner, Alen Mattich, Alix Ohlin, Robin Sloan, Amor Towles, Karen Thompson Walker and Claire Vaye Watkins; Ned Beauman, longlisted for the Man Booker Prize; University of Guelph MFA graduates Matt Lennox, Stacey Madden, Aga Maksimowska and Grace O’Connell, who discuss writing their debut novels and getting published; non-fiction writers Barbara Arrowsmith-Young, Mario Beauregard and Claudia Hammond; poet Max Layton; funny man Jonathan Goldstein; crime and mystery writers Hilary Davidson, Mons Kallentoft, Jo Nesbø and Peter Robinson; memoirist James Clarke; House of Anansi alumni Lynn Crosbie, Graeme Gibson and Dennis Lee, who celebrate the publishing house’s 45th anniversary; foodie and traveller Naomi Duguid; actor Gordon Pinsent, who shares his autobiography; and Sigmund Brouwer, who joins the rest of the Seven: The Series authors as part of YoungIFOA.
Also a number of unique partnerships culminate in several special events including:
- Found in Translation (Oct. 28), a series of events paying tribute to the art of literary translation and the importance of making literature available in multiple languages and platforms — and how this affects readers across the globe. Participants in these events include Dr. Anamika, Fabio Geda, Nora Gomringer, Hubert Haddad, Hiromi Ito, Hiromi Kawakami, José Luís Peixoto, Mukunda Rao, Subodh Sarkar and Motoyuki Shibata. The IFOA partners with the Alliance Française de Toronto, Consulate General of France, Goethe-Institut, Istituto Italiano di Cultura, Insituto Camões, Sahitya Akademi and Japan Foundation (Toronto) for these events and others throughout the city.
- Edinburgh World Writers’ Conference: Toronto in partnership with the Edinburgh International Book Festival and the British Council presents a keynote address by China Miéville on the Future of the Novel and Miriam Toews on National Literature (Oct. 25). Also under this umbrella is an interview with Chan Koonchung (Oct. 28) on censorship, in partnership with Human Rights Watch. For more information on the EWWC visit edinburghworldwritersconference.org.
- The International Visitors (IV) Programme presents Jonathan Galassi, president and publisher of Farrar, Straus and Giroux, who gives this year’s keynote publishing speech. An interview with Galassi and David Kent, president of HarperCollins Canada, follows (Oct. 22). This event is free. For more information about the IV Programme visit ivprogramme.com.
For a complete list of participants and a full schedule visit readings.org.
Events take place at Toronto’s Harbourfront Centre: 207 & 235 Queens Quay West. Tickets to most events are $18/$15 supporters and free for students and youth under the age of 25 (subject to availability). Some exceptions apply; please refer to individual event listings. The public may purchase tickets through the Harbourfront Centre Box Office at 416-973-4000 or online at readings.org.
Photo credits: Miriam Toews photo © Ekko von Schwichow/China Mieville photo © Kate Eshelby/Rohinton Mistry photo © F. Mistry/ All other images courtesy of IFOA