The Toronto International Festival of Authors (TIFA) returns this fall with a program that includes names such as Ian Williams, Brandi Morin and Michael Ondaatje.
TIFA celebrates writers, readers and the arts through a series of readings, panel discussions, exhibitions and performances. This year, the festival’s theme is “Writing Home”, presenting stories, conversations and ideas around place and culture, and what home can mean to different people.
The Canadian representatives include Ondaatje, literary legend and author of The English Patient. He began his writing career with poetry and won two Governor General’s Awards before trying his hand at fiction. Since then, he has won many awards, including the Governor General’s Literary Award, the Giller Prize, and the CBC Short Story Prize.
Ondaatje was the first Canadian to win the Man Booker Prize in 1992. His most recent book A year of last thingshis much-anticipated return to poetry, explores his life through themes of displacement, love, grief and discovery.
Morin, a Cree, Iroquois and French writer and journalist from Treaty 6 territory in Alberta, will be featured at the TIFA Festival of Indigenous Stories. She won the 2024 Freedom to Read Award, which recognizes work that advocates for freedom of expression. Her work has been featured in publications such as the New York Times, Al Jazeera and CBC, and she was recently a reader for the CBC Non-Fiction Prize 2024.
Morin’s memoirs Our Voice of Fire explores her journey through foster care, abuse, and her career to discover her calling in journalism.
CBC’s 2024 Massey Lecturer, Ian Williams will speak with the director of TIFA about connection and community in the digital age. Williams is a writer and poet whose works include the 2019 Giller Prize-winning reproductionPoetry collection Personals And Disorientation: Being Black in the World which was shortlisted for the Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Nonfiction 2021.
Other Canadian authors at TIFA include Jackie Lau, author of the romance novel Love, lies and cherry pie. The book explores family pressures, love and life in Toronto from the perspective of Emily Hung, the last single daughter in her family. Lau is co-written with Lily Chu, author of workplace romances, The takedownin a panel discussion about writing romantic comedies and strong Asian female characters.
Senator Murray Sinclair will speak at the Festival of Indigenous Stories about his personal experiences, justice and his upcoming memoir. Who we are.
Sinclair is a former activist, judge, senator, co-chair of the Aboriginal Justice Inquiry and Chief Commissioner of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Who we are traces his life story through his own oral tradition, which focuses on indigenous storytelling.
The next chapter18:54Senator Murray Sinclair announces new book
Senator Murray Sinclair, Manitoba’s first Aboriginal judge and the second in Canada, writes his memoirs about his remarkable life and career.
Also on the TIFA program are other Canadian authors, including Mason Coile, author of the horror novel Williamand CBCs Quirks and Quarks Moderator Bob McDonald, author of memoirs Just say yes.
The international authors at this year’s TIFA include Big little lies Author Liane Moriarty, historical war author Ben Macintyre and Sapiens Author Yuval Noah Harari. TIFA will also present the multilingual program “The World In Other Words” this year, which focuses on Arab voices.
TIFA runs from September 19th to 29th. Tickets can be purchased at the website from August 15th.
