IFOA: Meet this year’s International Visitors Programme participants

Publishing professionals from around the world will soon arrive for the fourth annual International Visitors Programme, an industry-networking event running Oct. 23–27 in conjunction with Toronto’s International Festival of Authors at Harbourfront.

Click on the thumbnails for a pre-cocktail party primer of who’s in town for the festival.

Seth wins Harbourfront Festival Prize

Organizers at the International Festival of Authors have named cartoonist and graphic novelist Seth the winner of the 2011 Harbourfront Festival Prize. The $10,000 prize honours an individual whose work has substantially contributed to the state of literature and books.

According to a press release issued by the Harbourfront Centre, the jury — John van Driel, vice-president of programming and operations at Classical 96.3FM; Denise Donlon, former executive director at CBC Radio; and Geoffrey Taylor, director at IFOA — selected Seth based on the “diversity and range of his illustrations and designs” throughout his career.

In the statement, Seth says a few decades ago he couldn’t have envisioned the acceptance of comics in the literary world, that “the idea of winning something like this was not within the realm of possibilities,” and so “it goes without saying that I am deeply honoured.” Past winners of the prize include Dionne Brand, Wayson Choy, Paul Quarrington, Jane Urquhart, and recent Q&Q cover profile Guy Vanderhaeghe.

Seth will receive the prize at an IFOA event in Toronto on Oct. 29.

Event photos: Forest of Reading and Stroll

The annual Forest of Reading event took place at Toronto’s Harbourfront Centre on May 12 and 13. Above, some of the authors nominated for the various awards prepare to read to the audience, while showing remarkably uniform taste in jacket colour. (Photos courtesy of Authors at Harbourfront Centre)

Authors at Harbourfront director Geoffrey Taylor addresses a Forest of Reading reception held on May 13 at Il Fornello restaurant. Now that’s a jacket, people!

“One small table and two microphones….” Shawn Micallef launched his book Stroll: Psychogeographic Walking Tours of Toronto (Coach House Books) on May 18 at Toronto’s Lula Lounge. Above: EYE Weekly senior editor Ed Keenan (left) and Micallef get their skinny nerd on, duet-style. (Photo by Rick/Simon/Courtesy of Coach House)

Atwood, Hornby, and Ellroy kick off 36th season of Authors at Harbourfront

In advance of the 30th anniversary of the Harbourfront International Festival of Authors (IFOA XXX) this October, Authors at Harbourfront has announced the first group of events for the fall season, featuring on-stage interviews, readings, and other special events.

Highlights of the first half of the season include:

• Nick Hornby (Sept. 13): The best-selling British author of High Fidelity, About a Boy, and others, will read from his new book, Juliet, Naked, and be interviewed by author and Globe and Mail editor Carl Wilson.
• Stephen Finucan, Victor Lodato, and Damian Tarnopolsky (Sept. 23): Three debut novelists will take the stage to read from their new works. Finucan will read from The Fallen, Lodato from Mathilda Savitch, and Tarnopolsky from Goya’s Dog.
• Margaret Atwood (Sept. 24, Cathedral Church of St. James): In a special off-site event, Atwood will perform a dramatic reading of her new novel The Year of the Flood. The author will be accompanied by a choir singing hymns written by Atwood for the performance.
• Tess Callahan, Liz Jensen, and Lorrie Moore (Sept. 30): A trio of female writers will read from their new books. Callahan will read from her debut novel April Oliver, Jensen from her latest book, The Rapture, and Moore will read from her first novel in more than a decade, A Gate at the Stairs.
• James Ellroy (Oct. 5): The author of L.A. Confidential and The Black Dahlia will read from his first novel in eight years, Blood’s a Rover, and will be interviewed by film critic Richard Crouse.

Also included in the first half of the Authors at Harbourfront season is the previously announced 30th birthday party for indie bookshop This Ain’t the Rosedale Library, which will be held on Sept. 16.

This Ain’t the Rosedale Library’s 30th birthday bash at Harbourfront

Authors at Harbourfront Centre will host a 30th birthday tribute to Toronto indie bookstore This Ain’t the Rosedale Library on Sept. 16. Torontonians are invited to celebrate the store’s longevity with readings from bill bissett, Lee Ann Brown, Eileen Myles, Stuart Ross, and Jowi Taylor. Jazz FM’s Jaymz Bee will host the event, and storeowner Charlie Huisken will talk about his three decades of bookselling.

The celebration will kick off at 7:30 p.m. in Harbourfront Centre’s Brigantine Room, and an after party will be held in the bookstore’s new neighbourhood of Kensington Market at Supermarket. (This Ain’t moved from its longstanding location in the Church and Wellesley neighbourhood in May 2008.)

It’s worth noting that the celebration will come only eight days after a more sober 30th birthday celebration: Pages’ send-off bash, Afterword: A Celebration of 30 Years, which will be held at the Gladstone Hotel on Sept. 8.

IFOA goes XXX with Alice Munro, Margaret Atwood, Eoin Colfer and more

The International Festival of Authors has just announced the preliminary lineup for this year’s edition, which will mark the festival’s 30th anniversary. (In the press release, the festival is dubbed “IFOA XXX,” which suggests the usual schedule of readings, panels, and onstage interviews will be enlivened by literary mud wrestling and peep shows. Alas…)

Though it seems a wee bit early  for the announcement – the festival runs Oct. 21-31 – the list of confirmed authors is impressive.

Already confirmed are Alice Munro, Margaret Atwood, Barry Callaghan, Anne Michaels, Lisa Moore, Miriam Toews, Daniel Poliquin, Leon Rooke, Jane Urquhart, John Irving, Nicholson Baker, Debra Adelaide, Denise Mina, Tash Aw, Paul Theroux, Sarah Waters, Audrey Niffenegger, Kyle Buckley, Paul Durcan, Jacob McArthur Mooney, Linwood Barclay, John Brady, Hal Niedzviecki, Tim Cook, Sherman Alexie, John Bemrose, Diana Fitzgerald Bryden, Bonnie Burnard, Dani Couture, Michael Crummey, Anne DeGrace, Margaret Elphinstone, Robert Girardi, Jason Guriel, Jennica Harper, Jim Lynch, Linden MacIntyre, Jean McNeil, James W. Nichol, Kate Pullinger, Boualem Sansal, Ingo Schulze, Olive Senior, Adam Thorpe, Michael Turner, and Alexis Wright.

In other words, more writers than you can shake a stick at.

There will also be an appearance by Anne Murray – yes, that Anne Murray – and fans of the late Douglas Adams’ Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series will get a look at a new, 6th installment, penned by U.K. kidlit favourite Eoin Colfer.

(We are also happy to note that Q&Q‘s own Meaghan Strimas will be reading at the festival.)

Jacob McArthur Mooney wins Harbourfront’s Poetry Idol

Last Wednesday, Authors at Harbourfront Centre in Toronto sponsored an open stage poetry smackdown at which 20 poets under the age of 35 were invited to read their poetry in front of an audience and a jury comprised of Authors at Harbourfront Centre director Geoffrey “Randy Jackson” Taylor and the National Post‘s Mark “Simon Cowell” Medley.

This morning, Harbourfront issued a press release announcing that Nova Scotia-born poet Jacob McArthur Mooney, who now resides in Mississauga, has been named the winner of last week’s verse-off, and receives an invitation to read at the 30th anniversary of the Harbourfront International Festival of Authors, to be held this October. Mooney is the author of the collection The New Layman’s Almanac, published last year by McClelland & Stewart.

But Mooney was not the only poet to benefit from Harbourfront’s largesse: as a result of Wednesday’s reading, five of the other participating poets have been extended invitations to read at IFOA. The other five are: Kyle Buckley, Dani Couture, Jason Guriel, Jennica Harper, and Q&Q‘s own Meaghan Strimas. Says Taylor: “Any one of these six authors could have been the winner on any given night.”