About

Featuring an introduction by Margaret Atwood, the 2024 PEN Canada Graeme Gibson Talk will have bestselling non-fiction writer John Vaillant, author of the multi-award-winning Fire Weather: The Making of a Beast in conversation with Catherine Abreu, one of Canada’s most influential thinkers on global climate policy, discuss the burning questions and challenges facing our fast-warming world.

Their conversation, moderated by CBC Radio IDEAS host Nahlah Ayed, will be the fourth annual PEN Canada Graeme Gibson talk at TIFA, a series founded in 2021 to honour the legacy of renowned Canadian author and writers’ advocate, Graeme Gibson (1934–2019).

Generously supported by Penguin Random House and produced in partnership by PEN Canada, Toronto International Festival of Authors (TIFA) and CBC Radio IDEAS.

Fire Weather

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Margaret Atwood

Margaret Atwood, whose work has been published in more than forty-five countries, is the author of more than fifty books of fiction, poetry, critical essays, and graphic novels. In addition to The Handmaid’s Tale, now an award-winning TV series, her novels include Cat’s Eye, short-listed for the 1989 Booker Prize; Alias Grace, which won the Giller Prize in Canada and the Premio Mondello in Italy; The Blind Assassin, winner of the 2000 Booker Prize; Oryx and Crake, short-listed for the 2003 Man Booker Prize; The Year of the Flood, MaddAddam; and Hag-Seed.

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Photo credit: Luis Mora

John Vaillant

John Vaillant’s acclaimed, award-winning non-fiction books, The Golden Spruce and The Tiger, were national bestsellers. His debut novel, The Jaguar’s Children, was a finalist for the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize and the International Dublin Literary Award.

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Photo credit: John Sinal.

Catherine Abreu

Catherine Abreu is an internationally recognized, award-winning climate justice advocate with 15 years of experience in the heart of the global climate movement. She is the newly appointed Director of the International Climate Politics Hub, a global network of influential actors working to accelerate climate action by engaging in multilateral fora like the UN.

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Nahlah Ayed

Nahlah Ayed, the host of CBC Radio’s Ideas, is an award-winning veteran foreign news reporter who spent nearly a decade in the Middle East covering the region's many conflicts, and later in London where she covered major stories from Russia's annexation of Crimea, Europe's refugee crisis; and the Brexit vote and its fallout. In 2012, her memoir, A Thousand Farewells: A Reporter's Journey From Refugee Camp to the Arab Spring, was shortlisted for the Governor General's Award.

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