Canada’s top literary festival, the International Festival of Authors, announced its author line-up for this year's edition, to be held at the Toronto Harbourfront Center, October 19-29.
The 11-day festival will feature over 60 fiction writers and poets, with nearly half coming from abroad. Among this year’s headliners are Torontonians Andre Alexis, winner of this year’s Canada Reads, the CBC’s annual “battle of the book" and Windham-Campbell Prize-winner, and Barbara Gowdy, whose new novel Little Sister, published this April, was her first in ten years. Among other notable Canadian authors attending include are Frances Itani, Pasha Malla, Lee Maracle, and Anne Michaels.
As suggested by its name, the event also focuses on international talent. To that end, this year is bringing in an eclectic range of authors from abroad, including Roddy Doyle, Colm Tóibin, and John Boyne from Ireland; Mary Gaitskill, Adrian Tomine and Kia Corthron from the United States; as well as numerous writers presenting works of translation, such as Germany’s Norbert Gstrein; Italy’s Nicola Lagioia, Portugal’s David Machado; and Spain’s Eduard Márquez.
This year will be the 38th edition of the festival, which was founded in 1974. Recently, the organization has partnered with the Toronto Arts Council to run book launch events in and around the city for Canadian authors, and have hosted 25 events for 60 authors so far this year.
