For Immediate Release
IFOA WEEKLY PRESENTS BRILLIANT READINGS, STIMULATING ROUND TABLES AND CANADA’S LARGEST LITERARY EVENT FOR CHILDREN May participants include Heather O’Neill, David Adams Richards and Plum Johnson
TORONTO, April 10, 2014 ---- IFOA Weekly ’s 40 th season continues next month with four exciting events: readings by acclaimed authors Shani Mootoo , Heather O’Neill and Alexi Zentner (May 7); Canada’s largest literary festival for children, Forest of Reading (May 14 –15); an evening with Canadian writers David Adams Richards , Nadia Bozak and Krista Foss (May 21) and a conversation with memoirists Plum Johnson , Lynn Thomson and Priscila Uppal (May 28).
May 7 : Scotiabank Giller Prize nominee Shani Mootoo reads from her latest novel, Moving Forward Sideways like a Crab , a moving tale about the complex realities of love and family set in both the tropical landscape of Trinidad and the muted winter cityscape of Toronto. Governor General’s Literary Award finalist Heather O’Neill reads from her new book The Girl Who Was Saturday Night , an unforgettable coming-of-age story about twins, fame and heartache, set on the seedy side of Montreal's St. Laurent Boulevard. Critically acclaimed Canadian-born author Alexi Zentner shares The Lobster Kings , a novel of sibling rivalry, love lost and won, art history and the sometimes deadly adventure that is lobster fishing off the windswept Atlantic coast.
May 14 –15: The Ontario Library Association’s (OLA) Forest of Reading ® and the Festival of Trees ™ is Canada’s largest literary event for children, with more than 8,000 in attendance. At this two-day awards celebration, the winners of each Forest of Reading ® category are announced and celebrated alongside young readers. Each day has energetic ceremonies with live entertainment, as well as workshops with the nominated authors and illustrators. The event is open to the public, and tickets are $15 each.
May 21: The celebrated author of numerous fiction and non-fiction works, David Adams Richards brings his latest novel to the stage, Crimes Against My Brother , a brilliant and heartbreaking tale that tackles the theme of debt, and what we owe each other. Canadian writer Nadia Bozak reads from the second novel in her Border Trilogy, El Niño , which tracks the survival of one woman and a young, undocumented migrant as they journey through the no-man’s-land of a remote southwestern desert. Former journalist and finalist for the Journey Prize, Krista Foss presents Smoke River, an accomplished debut that follows two families on different sides of a crisis through one fateful summer.
May 28: Three talented female writers read and discuss their memoirs with the editor of Quill & Quire , Stuart Woods. Award-winning author Plum Johnson presents They Left Us Everything , a funny, touching memoir about the importance of preserving family history to make sense of the past, and nurturing family bonds to safeguard the future. Debut author Lynn Thomson discusses Birding with Yeats , her memoir about meditating on a different way of life and bird-watching with her son, Yeats. Internationally acclaimed author Priscila Uppal reads from Projection: Encounters with My Runaway Mother , which was shortlisted for the Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Nonfiction and the Governor General’s Literary Award. It is a brutally honest look at a very unusual mother-daughter relationship.
Bios of all participants are available at ifoa.org .
Events take place at 7:30pm in the York Quay Centre (235 Queens Quay West). Tickets are $10 to the general public, FREE for supporters, students and youth 25 and under with ID. Box Office/Information: 416-973-4000 or ifoa.org .
Since its inception in 1974, IFOA has hosted over 8,500 authors from more than 100 countries, including over 20 Nobel Laureates. Our season runs from September to June and includes the annual International Festival of Authors (October 23–November 2, 2014), including YoungIFOA and IFOA Ontario, and the annual ALOUD: a Celebration for Young Readers with Forest of Reading® Festival of Trees™ (May 14– 15, 2014).
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MEDIA CONTACTS: Maeve O’Regan : [email protected] ; 416-973-5836 Meghan Gribben : [email protected] ; 416-973-4395
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