Animals of the Body

Corinna Chong, Paola Ferrante and Anuja Varghese

Animals of the Body

Corinna Chong, Paola Ferrante and Anuja Varghese

4:30pm

Sunday, September 24, 2023

Studio Theatre

60 mins

Three debut short story collections challenge genre and form as they explore themes of queerness, womanhood, sexuality and the body.

In Paola Ferrante’s Her Body Among Animals, toxic masculinity, motherhood and the ongoing repression of outdated sociopolitical systems are examined in a collection influenced by everything from pop culture to sci-fi to the climate crisis.

Similar themes underpin Anuja Varghese’s Chrysalis, which puts women of colour at the centre of a collection that dives deep into the intersections of family, cultural expectation and power.

Corinna Chong‘s The Whole Animal grapples with the self-alienation and self-discovery that make us human, as flawed characters wrestle with the complexities of relationships and struggle to find identity, belonging and autonomy. Fans of the short story won’t want to miss an intriguing conversation with three writers unafraid to blur the lines between reality and surreality as they interrogate the frameworks of society.

Moderated by Nancy Lam.

This event will be followed by a book signing.

Conversation
Poetry

How to attend

$39.99

Single Day Pass

$69.99

Weekend Pass

$249.99

Full Festival Pass

Students and youth save up to 50% on passes.

Three debut short story collections challenge genre and form as they explore themes of queerness, womanhood, sexuality and the body.

In Paola Ferrante’s Her Body Among Animals, toxic masculinity, motherhood and the ongoing repression of outdated sociopolitical systems are examined in a collection influenced by everything from pop culture to sci-fi to the climate crisis.

Similar themes underpin Anuja Varghese’s Chrysalis, which puts women of colour at the centre of a collection that dives deep into the intersections of family, cultural expectation and power.

Corinna Chong‘s The Whole Animal grapples with the self-alienation and self-discovery that make us human, as flawed characters wrestle with the complexities of relationships and struggle to find identity, belonging and autonomy. Fans of the short story won’t want to miss an intriguing conversation with three writers unafraid to blur the lines between reality and surreality as they interrogate the frameworks of society.

Moderated by Nancy Lam.

This event will be followed by a book signing.

Conversation
Poetry

Featured Authors

Corinna Chong
Corinna Chong’s first novel, Belinda’s Rings, was published by NeWest Press in 2013, and her reviews and short fiction have appeared in magazines across Canada. She won the 2021 CBC Short Story Prize for “Kids in Kindergarten.” The Whole Animal, a collection of short stories, published in spring 2023 with Arsenal Pulp Press. She lives in Kelowna, BC, on the traditional and unceded territory of the Syilx/Okanagan people, where she teaches English and fine arts at Okanagan College. corinnachong.com

Read more about Corinna Chong

Paola Ferrante
Paola Ferrante is a writer living with depression. Her debut poetry collection, What to Wear When Surviving a Lion Attack (2019), was shortlisted for the Gerald Lampert Memorial Prize. She has won Grain Magazine’s Short Grain Contest for Poetry, The New Quarterly’s Peter Hinchcliffe Short Fiction Award, Room Magazine’s Fiction Contest, and was longlisted for the 2020 Journey Prize for the story “When Foxes Die Electric.” Her work appears in After Realism: 24 Stories for the 21st Century (2022), Best Canadian Poetry 2021 (2021), North American Review, PRISM International and elsewhere. She was born, and still resides in, Toronto. 

Read more about Paola Ferrante

Anuja Varghese
Anuja Varghese is a writer and editor whose work has appeared in Hobart, the Malahat Review, the Fiddlehead, Plenitude Magazine and others. Her stories have been recognized in the PRISM International Short Fiction Contest and the Alice Munro Festival Short Story Competition and nominated for the Pushcart Prize. She lives in Hamilton, Ontario. Chrysalis is her first book. 

Read more about Anuja Varghese

4:30pm

Sunday, September 24

Studio Theatre

60 mins

How to attend

$39.99

Single Day Pass

$69.99

Weekend Pass

$249.99

Full Festival Pass

Students and youth save up to 50% on passes.

What to read

The Whole Animal by , Her Body Among Animals by , Chrysalis by ,
TIFA 2023

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