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 celebration, bringing together readers and writers from all over the globe to Harbourfront Centre every fall, to explore and celebrate the joy of stories. TIFA also offers year-round events, activities and mini-festivals. Highlights include:

• Toronto Lit Up, a series of book launches celebrating new and emerging writers in the city and providing them with career-building opportunities.
• The MOTIVE Crime & Mystery Festival, launched in 2022, and held every June.
• TIFA Kids literary events and activities to introduce young readers to live authors in fun and interactive ways.
• The official TIFA Book Club, connecting book-lovers in intimate, author-guided conversations about contemporary books of diverse themes and genres.
• The International Visitors (IV) Programme, since 2008, which provides a valuable cultural and economic exchange between Canada’s publishing community and some of the most influential publishing figures from around the world.
• Special literary presentations and headline performances, accessible virtually and on location, all year long.
• Historic partnerships to support and amplify the work of like-minded literary organizations, including the Book and Periodical Council’s 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.