Writers Off the Page: From the TIFA Archives

In this electrifying episode of Writers Off the Page: From the TIFA Archives , travel back to October 1992 to hear Martha Gellhorn — novelist, journalist, and witness to nearly every major conflict of the twentieth century — read from the newly revised conclusion to her landmark book The Face of War , first published in 1959 and updated across five editions as Gellhorn found herself, again and aga...

Content Warning : This episode contains references to suicide. Listener discretion is advised. Please take care of yourself and seek support if needed. In this moving episode of Writers Off the Page: From the TIFA Archives, travel back to October 1994 to hear Linda Gray Sexton speak candidly about the complex legacy of being Anne Sexton's daughter. Her intimate presentation at Harbourfront, allows...

In this captivating episode of Writers Off the Page: From the TIFA Archives, step back in time to 1990 Toronto and immerse yourself in the lyrical world of Nobel Prize-winning poet Seamus Heaney. The recording captures Heaney in an intimate reading at the Harbourfront Reading Series, where his distinctive Irish voice brings to life some of his most beloved poems, including "Digging," "Follower," a...

This conversation between Mexican writer Carlos Fuentes and Bob Rae, recorded in 2000, offers a time capsule of North American relations at a pivotal moment. The interview captures Fuentes just after Mexico's historic election that ended the PRI party's 71-year rule—a seismic political shift that he explains with characteristic depth and nuance. While Fuentes delves into Mexican politics with a de...

In October of 2000, Ursula K. Le Guin sat down with CBC's Marilyn Powell to discuss her novel, The Telling . Listening to their conversation now feels like opening a time capsule – one that paradoxically contains prescient observations about how we both preserve and erase our past. Le Guin speaks of editing with razor blades, of physically cutting away words from paper – a practice that feels almo...

EPISODE SUMMARY Listening to this 1988 conversation between Nobel-prize winning American writer, Saul Bellow, and former Canadian Governor General, Adrienne Clarkson, we possess the advantage of hindsight. In the midst of a US presidential election, Bellow bemoans the vapid discourse between candidates George H.W. Bush and Michael Dukakis—their language constrained by groupthink and moral rigidity...

The best kinds of conversations should meander and detour, trip over delicate areas, double down when a point must be emphatically asserted. After all, the ostensible subject of this 1997 on-stage chat between Dionne Brand and Jamaica Kincaid is the release of Kincaid's memoir, My Brother. But this book gets only a brief nod early on and the subject is largely abandoned for other thoughts and digr...

In 1988, when Mario Vargas Llosa sat down on a Toronto stage with Adrienne Clarkson, he hadn't yet won his Nobel Prize for Literature (that came in 2010) so he wasn't yet a "central" figure in the world of writing. In this conversation, he teases out the hazy line between being an artist (who inhabits the world of the imagination), and being a professional politician (who inhabits the world of pra...

This audio recording of Hilary Mantel in conversation with Rosemary Sullivan was recorded on stage at Harbourfront Reading Series in 1997. It is used with the kind permission of the Toronto International Festival of Authors. Thanks to TIFA for allowing us access to their archives for this series. Find out more about the Festival and its annual festival along with many other activities at FestivalO...

Works by Umberto Eco The Name of the Rose Foucault’s Pendulum The Prague Cemetery On the Shoulders of Giants   Other Related Books or Materials Signs and Secrets: the Worlds of Umberto Eco (2013 documentary) Always Narrating: The Making and Unmaking of Umberto Eco (link opens a 2020 Los Angeles Review of Book article) The Man Who Loved Books: Interview with Umberto Eco (link opens a 2020 Counterpu...

Works by Austin Clarke In This City They Never Told Me and Other Stories The Polished Hoe   Other Related Books or Materials Odetta’s 1960 recording of “Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child” (link opens a Youtube video) Austin Clarke’s Harlem (link opens part of a CBC audio documentary produced by Austin Clarke in 1963 about the Civil Rights Movement) Why Literary Critics Failed to Define and...

Works by Doris Lessing The Golden Notebook Stories by Doris Lessing The Grandmothers: Four Short Novels The Grass is Singing (ebook)   Other Related Books or Materials Doris Lessing: A Biography by Carole Klein Doris Lessing: First Visit to Toronto (link opens a 1984 photo by Reg Innell, courtesy of Toronto Star Archives at Toronto Public Library) Doris Lessing, Author Who Swept Aside Convention (...

Works by Eduardo Galeano Memory of Fire Volume One: Genesis Memory of Fire Volume Two: Faces and Masks Memory of Fire Volume Three: Century of the Wind Children of the Days: A Calendar of Human History  Soccer in Sun and Shadow Las venas abiertas de américa latina (ebook)   Other Related Books or Materials The Pan American: The World of Eduardo Galeano (link opens an August 2018 article from The N...

Works by Angela Carter Nights at the Circus The Bloody Chamber, Wise Children, Fireworks Writers Talk: Angela Carter with Lisa Appignanesi (evideo) The Infernal Desire Machines of Doctor Hoffman (ebook)   Other Related Books or Materials Angela Carter: A Literary Life by Sarah Gamble Nights at the Circus is Feminist ... (link opens an article from The Guardian from Feb 2017) Taking Flight with Ang...

Works by Luisa Valenzuela The Lizard’s Tail (print book) The Wanderer by Luisa Valenzuela, translated by Marguerite Feitlowitz (link opens a short story from The Brooklyn Rail's InTranslation) He Who Searches Latin American Literature Series (link opens Dalkey Archive Press site with two translated works - print on demand) Collections/Anthologies Containing Stories from Luisa Valenzuela Sudden Fic...

Works by Richard Wagamese A Quality of Light (ebook) One Drum: Stories and Ceremonies for a Planet (all formats) One Drum: Stories and Ceremonies for a Planet (audiobook) Starlight (ebook) Indian Horse   Other Related Books or Materials Honouring Richard Wagamese (link opens a 2017 article from Indian Horse) Richard Wagamese’s final novel ‘a captivating and ultimately uplifting read.’ (link opens...

Works by John Irving A Prayer for Owen Meany The World According to Garp (book in various formats) The World According to Gary (1982 film starring Robin Williams, Glenn Close and John Lithgow) Avenue of Mysteries The Cider House Rules Last Night in Twisted River Other Related Books or Materials 13 Facts about A Prayer for Owen Meany (link opens an article from Mental Floss from Apr 2015) John Irvi...

Note: given the current temporary closure of TPL due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we have made our best efforts to offer suggestions below for materials which are part our online collections (indicated) and available at home to anyone with a current Toronto Library card.  Read: Why are wait times on ebooks or audiobooks sometimes so long ?   Works by Bruce Chatwin The Songlines In Patagonia Anatomy o...

Note: given the current temporary closure of TPL due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we have made our best efforts to offer suggestions below for materials which are part our online collections (indicated) and available at home to anyone with a current Toronto Library card.  Read: Why are wait times on ebooks or audiobooks sometimes so long ? __ Books by Lee Maracle Memory Serves (ebook) My Conversation...

Note: given the current temporary closure of TPL due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we have made our best efforts to offer suggestions below for materials which are part our online collections (indicated) and available at home to anyone with a current Toronto Library card.  Read: Why are wait times on ebooks or audiobooks sometimes so long ? __ Works by Austin Clarke Nine Men Who Laughed ‘Membering (eb...

Note: Given the current temporary closure of TPL due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we have made our best efforts to offer suggestions below for materials which are part our online collections (indicated) and available at home to anyone with a current Toronto Library card.  __   Works by Gloria Naylor The Women of Brewster Place (ebook) The Novels of Gloria Naylor: Mama Day, Linden Hills, Bailey’s Café...

Works by Nikki Giovanni The Collected Poetry of Nikki Giovanni: 1969 - 1998 The Sun Is So Quiet: Poems Rosa   (a short video) Rosa (a kids biography) I Am Loved     Other Related Books or Materials Nikki Giovanni: In her Revolutionary Dream (link opens Los Angeles Review of Book article)   About the Host Novelist Randy Boyagoda is a professor of English at the University of Toronto and principal o...

Works by Grace Paley Later the Same Day Just As I Thought A Grace Paley Reader The Little Disturbances of Man   Other Related Books or Materials Grace Paley, the Saint of Seeing by George Saunders (link opens a New Yorker article) Grace Paley’s Crowded World (link opens article in The Nation) The Value of Not Understanding Everything: Grace Paley’s Advice to Aspiring Writers (link opens Brain Pick...

Works by Nikki Giovanni A Good Cry: What We Learn from Tears and Laughter The Collected Poetry of Nikki Giovanni, 1969-1998 Lincoln and Douglass: an American Friendship Bicycles: Love Poems Rosa Vacation Time: Poems for Children Nikki Giovanni: “Martin Had Faith in People” (link opens article from The Atlantic)   About Nikki Giovanni Nikki Giovanni: a Literary Biography Poet Nikki Giovanni on the...

Works by Larry Kramer The American People: Volume 1: The Search for My Heart The American People: Volume 2: The Brutality of Fact: a Novel The Normal Heart The Destiny of Me: a Play in Three Acts Larry Kramer: What Pride Means to Me (link opens Salon.com article from June, 2019)   About Larry Kramer We Must Love One Another or Die: the Life and Legacies of Larry Kramer Larry Kramer: In Love & Ange...