Fall into reading, and take flight at the 2023 Toronto International Festival of Authors

As the season turns to autumn, get ready to indulge in literary delights! 

From September 21 to October 1, 2023, the Toronto International Festival of Authors (TIFA) returns to the Harbourfront Centre for an extensive roster of indoor and outdoor events. This year’s theme is “Taking Flight”, and the festival offers the prospect of high-flying literary discoveries to satisfy and surprise the devoted bookworm, the occasional or new reader, or the teacher looking for student reading recommendations. 

Indeed, the abundant lineup for TIFA and TIFA Kids practically guarantees something of interest: captivating interviews, book signings, live readings, lively parties, and diverse events and activities for all ages. You’ll rarely have so good a chance to meet a favourite author, discover a new one, and find the perfect story for cozy comfort – shivers, tears or thrills – in the chilly evenings to come.

As the festival opens, TIFA’s director Roland Gulliver is excited. 

Upon concluding his more than a decade-long tenure as the associate director of the Edinburgh International Book Festival, he became director of TIFA in February 2020, just weeks before the world took its unexpected pandemic pause. Under his visionary leadership, TIFA successfully pivoted to virtual festivals in 2020 and 2021. Last spring, he unveiled Canada’s inaugural MOTIVE: Crime & Mystery Festival, which celebrated its second successful iteration this past June with the third one slated for June 7-9, 2024. And last fall, TIFA made a triumphant return to in-person programming at Harbourfront Centre. 

SesayArts Magazine caught up with Gulliver to chat about the 2023 festival’s highlights and must-see events, the expanded (and mostly-free)TIFA Kids program, how TIFA mirrors the multicultural and plurilingual tapestry of Toronto – and why he loves his job leading TIFA.

Sesayarts Magazine: What events or authors are you especially excited to host at this year’s festival?

RG: There is so much to choose from in this year’s programme with some of Canada’s best writers launching new books this September like Sean Michaels, MG Vassanji and Charlotte Gray; as well as US big hitters like Richard Ford and Paul Harding, alongside incredible international writers like Anne Enright from Ireland, Kevin Chen from Taiwan, and manga sensation Makoto Yukimura from Japan. Yukimura’s Vinland Saga event will be the centrepiece of our POP Fiction event stream celebrating popular and bestselling genres of all kinds. 

We have a range of new programme streams like this including Bite the Book, which will give you a taste of brilliant food writing. And with this year’s theme being “Taking Flight”, the centrepiece of the Festival will be our 5m sky-high swingset installation that will offer interactive aerial storytelling performances for all ages.

Sesayarts Magazine: Would you like to speak a little about how this year’s programming reflects Toronto’s diverse audiences and communities?

RG: Toronto is remarkable for its combination of neighbourhood communities and linguistic cultures. It makes the city unique, and we are proud to celebrate its rich diversity of storytelling. This year, we will have a focus on Arabic writers on the opening Saturday (September 23) with events in Arabic and English featuring Canadian-based authors and culminating in a musical performance of the Canadian Arabic Orchestra. The programme has been created with the Toronto-based writer Kamel Riahi, an acclaimed Tunisian author who came recently to Canada after his books were banned in his home country.

We continue to have a selection of events exploring Bengali writing in Canada in all its forms. And we will welcome back the Tam Fam Lit Jam for an evening celebrating Toronto’s Tamil culture. Alongside that, we will have writers like Siddartha Deb, Priya Guns, Leila Aboulela and V.V Guneshananthan.

It is important for the Festival to represent as many voices as possible, and we will offer a day of free, exploratory writing workshops with the Writers Collective of Canada, who work with underrepresented communities in the city empowering them through writing.

This year’s programme will also explore what it means to live in Toronto through our interactive installation for all ages called “Toronto, Je t’aime” , which includes a new writing commission project that invites a range of local authors to write a love letter to their neighbourhoods.

Sesayarts Magazine: As a longtime enthusiast and advocate of children’s literature, I am always excited to learn about the TIFA Kids programme. What programming have you and Janet Smyth created for young readers that they must not miss this year?

RG: Obviously, The Swings aerial dance performance and interactive installation will be a must-see for any young person (and grown-ups too!), and we have created a programme full of free events and activities, which include bread-making, city- building and letter-writing, alongside a wealth of storytellers, authors and illustrators. Our StoryDrop returns each weekend of the Festival, in partnership with the Children’s Book Bank, to offer free, drop-in activities all day long. On the weekend of September 30 and October 1, we will have Canadian Geographic’s Indigenous Peoples Atlas of Canada (the size of half a gymnasium!) with Indigenous storytellers representing everything from picture books to YA.

There will also be wonderful performances to wow younger audiences: from the Canadian institution of Sharon & Randy Hampson (of Sharon, Lois and Bram fame) with Peanut Butter & Jelly! to the new CBC stars of Jeremy & Jazzy.

Sesayarts Magazine: The events by established authors are always well-attended at TIFA, though that is not necessarily the case with new or emerging authors. Who are some up-and-coming authors whose works you would like to put on our radar?

RG: For me, it is always fantastic bringing in the headline writers, the heroes you dream to meet, but the real kick comes from discovery the wealth of incredible new writers from Toronto and around the world. That is the joy of the job, and I hope for many people the joy of the Festival, and our new pass system gives people lots of opportunity to enjoy both their favourites and discover their next best read.

Some emerging writers that audiences should check out include Jamaluddin Aram, Moez Surani, Geoffrey D Morrison, and Camille Hernández-Ramdwar. 

Sesayarts Magazine: What’s happening in the landscape of literature in Canada that excites you and that you want readers to know about?

RG: What is exciting is the journey that Canadian literature is on as further diversifies. A couple of years ago we had an explosion of incredible memoirs for authors who are Indigenous, Black and People of Colour telling vital stories and bringing their voices into the mainstream. Now that has moved into different genres from romance with authors like Farah Heron and Uzma Jalaluddin, horror with Jessica Johns and Adriana Chartrand, historical fiction with Janika Oza and Amanda Peters and fantastical speculative fiction with Anuja Varghese, Paola Ferrante and Corina Chong.

Sesayarts Magazine: What titles are on your fall reading list? What books should we plan to read?

RG: My ‘to read’ pile is already growing as I look forward to the winter months and catching up on reading. There will be many Festival books that I began but had to put down due to time demands that I will return to with the additional knowledge of now having met the writer. With TIFA’s MOTIVE Crime & Mystery Festival happening in June 2024, I am excited to dive into that genre, with the new Mike Herron novel just published and Nita Prose’s much anticipated second novel coming later in the year; and I have Shari Lapena’s new novel to catch up on! Plus many, many more!!

Sesayarts Magazine: What is the absolute best thing about being the Director of TIFA, in your opinion?

RG: There are many, many best things about being Director of TIFA. There is the simple pleasure of being able to discover books from around the world and then have the privilege to share those books with our audiences and invite those authors to Toronto. There is the joy of creating events and ideas and projects that celebrate the power of books and stories in our lives; to create experiences that will entertain and inspire people; creating communities of organisations who can work together to create something special that opens up the world to our audiences. 

And what I always return to, I can read a book as my job; that is the best thing.

To browse the complete schedule of events and to register, visit festivalofauthors.ca.

© Arpita Ghosal, SesayArts Magazine, 2023