Canadian literature has long been steered by its big publishing houses, and for much of that history by the men at the helm of them. But some of the country’s most inventive writing takes root elsewhere, in the small presses, many of them led by women building something of their own on their own terms. […]
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TIFA is celebrating local with a curated vendor market, presented by Toronto Made Market. This new addition brings together local makers and artisans whose work speaks to book lovers and literary minds — think bookish goods, hand-bound journals, literary-inspired art, and gifts for the reader in your life. A perfect way to extend your festival […]
Is reading dead? In an age of AI slop, declining literacy levels among children, and increased book banning in schools, is our culture slowly abdicating the skills and freedom necessary for sustained reading—especially with material that challenges us or voices opinions that may conflict with our own? What are the consequences of this shift from […]
Writers Collective of Canada invites you to explore the power of your own voice in a FREE community writing workshop. Our workshops are celebrated for their ability to ignite imagination, broaden perspectives, and inspire connection with self and others. No experience needed. Everyone is a writer. This is a FREE event. No registration required. Arrive […]
In this literary conversation, Jeremy Tiang and Daniel Hahn will be discussing the challenges and joys of the art of translation. How do translators capture tone, rhythm, and cultural nuance while bringing new life to literature in another language? How do they find balance between the original work and something new? Through dialogue and shared […]
Join the Practicing Refusal Collective for a conversation about Thinking From Black: A Lexicon, a collection that brings together creatives, scholars, and thinkers to explore the many dimensions of Black life. Moving across disciplines and forms, the book takes words such as Anarchy, Care, Laughter and Sound as starting points for new ways of thinking […]
What does it mean to craft literature outside the Arab world while remaining deeply rooted in its histories, landscapes, and ongoing realities? Led in conversation by filmmaker and poet Hind Shoufani, writers Saleem Haddad, Nyla Matuk, and Ashraf Zaghal gather for an intimate, artist-to-artist discussion on their individual journeys as Arab creators working abroad. Moving […]
A century ago, the idea of a Canadian literary canon — and who might belong in it — looked very different. Women have moved from the margins of Canadian publishing to become many of its most celebrated and widely read voices, but that transformation has not happened equally for everyone. Who has been published, reviewed, […]
As traditional publishing programs shrink, workplaces evolve, and career pathways become less predictable, mentorship has become both more important and more elusive. This timely conversation examines how knowledge, opportunity, and professional networks are passed on across publishing today—from editorial and rights to agenting, bookselling, and author careers. How do publishers foster mentorship formally and informally? […]
History is never simply a record of what happened: it is shaped by who was there to document it, whose accounts were preserved, and whose experiences were considered worth remembering. Women writers today are widening that lens, recovering lives and perspectives pushed to the margins and challenging assumed versions of the past. Panelists will explore […]
This session explores what it means to write in a language other than English or French in Canada, where most literary opportunities, resources, and audiences are concentrated in the country’s two official languages. How do newcomer and refugee writers writing in languages other than the two official languages, continue to develop their practice and reach […]
This session explores oral history as a way of challenging the stories that institutions, archives, and dominant cultures tell about communities. Bringing together Indigenous and immigrant approaches to oral storytelling, it asks who gets to decide what is remembered, whose knowledge is treated as history, and what gets lost when complex lives are reduced to […]
Murder. Romance. Dragons. Domestic suspense. Women aren’t just writing genre fiction — they are driving some of the biggest publishing phenomena in the world. From crime and thrillers to romance, romantasy, horror and speculative fiction, women writers and readers have transformed genres once dismissed as formulaic or frivolous into cultural and commercial powerhouses. But why […]
Younger women writers are entering a world in which traditional boundaries — between literary and commercial, page and screen, fiction and memoir, writer and creator — are increasingly porous, while questions of representation, appropriation, authenticity and access have become more complicated, not less. Panelists look at the stories their generation wants to tell, the assumptions […]
This session uses butter chicken—and food more broadly—as a lens for examining how immigrant identities are made palatable, marketable, and legible to dominant audiences. Moving beyond cuisine, the conversation explores the many ways immigrants learn to translate and repackage themselves: adjusting how they speak, describe their experiences, present their qualifications, and perform culture in order […]
