Literary Death Match – TIFA Kids Edition

Joseph Coelho, Ruth Ohi, Ashley Spires, Basil Sylvester, Kevin Sylvester and Ophira Eisenberg

Literary Death Match – TIFA Kids Edition

Joseph Coelho, Ruth Ohi, Ashley Spires, Basil Sylvester, Kevin Sylvester and Ophira Eisenberg

2:30pm

Sunday, October 24, 2021

Experience text off the page like never before, as the internationally acclaimed Literary Death Match brings its circus to TIFA Kids! A thrilling mix of famous children’s authors will compete with performances of their most electric writing to reach a comic finale! It’s the writing world’s American Idol (without the meanness). This event features readers Joseph Coelho, Ruth Ohi, Ashley Spires; and Kevin and Basil Sylvester. Performances will be judged by comedian, writer and actress Ophira Eisenburg, with the support of Mrs Minor’s grade six book lovers at Hawthorne Village School in Milton, Ontario.

English captioning is available for this video. Please click the ‘CC’ button in the video toolbar to turn it on.

TIFA Kids is generously supported by Gail and Mark Appel.

Reading

Experience text off the page like never before, as the internationally acclaimed Literary Death Match brings its circus to TIFA Kids! A thrilling mix of famous children’s authors will compete with performances of their most electric writing to reach a comic finale! It’s the writing world’s American Idol (without the meanness). This event features readers Joseph Coelho, Ruth Ohi, Ashley Spires; and Kevin and Basil Sylvester. Performances will be judged by comedian, writer and actress Ophira Eisenburg, with the support of Mrs Minor’s grade six book lovers at Hawthorne Village School in Milton, Ontario.

English captioning is available for this video. Please click the ‘CC’ button in the video toolbar to turn it on.

TIFA Kids is generously supported by Gail and Mark Appel.

Reading

Featured Authors

Joseph Coelho is an award-winning poet, playwright and writer from London. His first poetry collection, Werewolf Club Rules!, won the CLPE Children’s Poetry Award and he has been writing and performing ever since. His picture books include If All the World Were... illustrated by Allison Colpoys and the Luna Loves series illustrated by Fiona Lumbers. His poetry books for children include Overheard in a Tower Block illustrated by Kate Milner and A Year of Nature Poems illustrated by Kelly Louise Judd. The first in the Fairy Tales Gone Bad series, Zombierella, published in 2020. Follow him on Twitter as @Poetryjoe and on Instagram as @josephcoelhoauthor. 

Read more about Joseph Coelho

Ruth Ohi has illustrated more than sixty children’s books — several of which she has also written, including Choose Kindness, Friends for Real (written by Ted Staunton), No Help Wanted!, the Fox and Squirrel series and Scribble. Her books have been nominated for many prestigious awards, including the Marilyn Baillie Picture Book Award, Amelia Frances Howard-Gibbon Award, Mr. Christie’s Book Award, the Chocolate Lily Award, the Shining Willow Award, the Blue Spruce Award and the Governor General’s Award. She lives with her family in Toronto, Ontario. Visit her online at www.RuthOhi.com.

Read more about Ruth Ohi

Ashley Spires is the author and illustrator of many books including the bestselling The Most Magnificent Thing, now an award-winning animated short film; and The Binky The Space Cat series, currently in its second season as an animated TV series called Agent Binky. Her book Small Saul was selected for the Canadian Children’s Book Centre’s TD Grade One Giveaway and was given to over half-a-million children. She is a drinker of tea, eater of candy and fosterer of cats. Ashley lives just outside Vancouver, British Columbia with her dog and far too many felines.

Read more about Ashley Spires

Basil Sylvester is a non-binary writer and bookseller. They live in Toronto.

Read more about Basil Sylvester

Kevin Sylvester is an award-winning writer, illustrator, reporter, radio sports host, producer and documentary maker. He writes and illustrates everything from picture books to murder mysteries, science fiction to books on sports and financial literacy. His books include the bestselling Mucus Mayhem in the The Almost Epic Squad series, the MiNRS and Neil Flambé series, and The Fabulous Zed Watson, co-written with Basil Sylvester. Visit him at www.kevinsylvester.online.

Read more about Kevin Sylvester

Ophira Eisenberg is a standup comedian, writer, and the host of the new comedy podcast Parenting Is A Joke with iHeart Radio and Pretty Good Friends. She also hosted NPR’s Ask Me Another where she interviewed hundreds of celebrities including Sir Patrick Harris, Rosie Perez, Yo-Yo Ma, Awkwafina, Roxanne Gay, Nick Kroll, Chelsea Handler and more. She’s appeared multiple times on CBS’s The Late Late Show, Comedy Central, HBO, The New York Festival, Just For Laughs, Moontower, SXSW, and is regular host and teller on The Moth Radio Hour and her stories are included in three of The Moth’s best-selling collections, including the most recent: How To Tell A Story: The Essential Guide to Memorable Storytelling from The Moth. Her memoir, Screw Everyone: Sleeping My Way to Monogamy was optioned for a television series, and her new comedy special Plant-Based Jokes is streaming on YouTube. Her solo show Leaving A Mark: A Comedy About Scars recently made its Off-Broadway review to rave reviews and won the Women in the Arts & Media Award for Solo Show Scripts.

Read more about Ophira Eisenberg

2:30pm

Sunday, October 24

To top