The Toronto International Festival of Authors (TIFA) inspires and connects through the art of stories, offering book lovers a breadth of bold, ambitious and accessible literary experiences. As Canada’s largest literary festival, the charitable organization provides engaging opportunities to meet, hear and learn from the world’s best authors and artists across the range of literary genres, and to celebrate the power of stories. 

For over 40 years, TIFA has presented an annual 11-day festival, and also offers year-round events, activities and mini-festivals. Literary highlights on TIFA’s calendar include:

• Toronto Lit Up, a series of book launches celebrating new and emerging writers in the city and providing them with career-building opportunities.
• A new crime and mystery writing festival, launching in 2022.
• Touring programmes to bring literary events to book lovers across Ontario, and also to take Canada’s brightest literary talent into new markets of readers across the globe.
• In May, with the Ontario Library Association we present the Forest of Reading Festival, a three-day celebration welcoming over 10,000 children for readings, workshops, presentations and award ceremonies in both official languages.
• Every June TIFA partners with the Book and Periodical Council to host the annual Book Summit, a day-long industry event involving writers, publishers, librarians, educators, booksellers, literary agents, policy makers and publishing students.

Since its inception in 1974, TIFA has welcomed thousands of authors to its stages from more than 100 countries, including 22 Nobel Laureates and countless other award winners. Events range from keynote addresses, book launches, conferences, workshops, performances, special award celebrations, alongside artists’ talks, readings, interviews and discussions.

TIFA has partnered with major literary awards, including the Governor General’s Literary Award for English-language Fiction, the Rogers Writers Trust Award and the RBC Taylor Prize for Non-fiction. TIFA has also facilitated the Ivy Award and Harbourfront Festival Prize, and is host to the Toronto Book Garden at Harbourfront Centre – a year-round representation of the Toronto Book Awards.

Alongside the public celebrations, TIFA runs an internationally renowned professional programme: the International Visitors (IV) Programme sees TIFA working with Canadian publishers to create a bespoke programme for international publishing and festival representatives to engage in Canadian literature and enable promotion overseas.

Legally known as International Readings at Harbourfront (IRAH), the Toronto International Festival of Authors receives support from a range of public funders including Canada Council for the Arts, Ontario Arts Council, Ontario Creates and Toronto Arts Council, and from a patron and membership programme, plus support from corporate businesses and international cultural funding programmes.

Visit Our History page to learn more about the origins of TIFA.

Word Alliance

The Toronto International Festival of Authors is proud to be a member of the Word Alliance, a collaboration of eight of the world’s finest literary festivals. The Word Alliance creates a platform for artistic partnership; further expansion of online content; professional, audience and organizational development and an international touring programme for authors.

TIFA will engage with:

• Organizations
• Industry
• Funders
• Authors
• Audiences

TIFA will represent:

• Celebration
• Representation
• Innovation
• Investigation
• Experimentation
• Transformation

TIFA will be built upon the following:

• Ownership
• Accessibility
• Visibility
• Integrity
• Creativity
• Ambition

Mandate

The Toronto International Festival of Authors is a charitable, cultural organization mandated to inspire and empower audiences and visitors with a breadth of bold, ambitious, accessible and engaging literary experiences.

Mission

The Toronto International Festival of Authors is on a mission to reflect our city to its residents, its literature to the nation and its creative ambition to the world, through the celebration of authors, books and stories.

How We Do This

• Creating literary festivals, programmes and events across fiction, non-fiction and more, that bring together people of all ages (virtually or in person) to be inspired, empowered and connected;
• Generating diverse and exciting conversations across communities in the city, the nation and internationally, to foster new thinking about what it means to be living in today’s world; and
• Championing the best of Canadian and international publishing to audiences and industry.