This panel features writers Sanita Fejzić and Jumoke Verissimo, whose works, Blissful State of Surrender and Circumtrauma, examine and parse the impact of war on identity and community in two different genres and two different forms. Moderated by Denise DaCosta Diaspora Dialogues (DD) supports emerging voices from across Canada to turn their craft into a […]
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Grab a slice of cake, a cup of tea, and step into a dialogue between two powerful contemporary voices, exploring cultural inheritance and the universal search for meaning and connection. Fatma Aydemir and Jonas Hassen Khemiri will look deeply at family dynamics, generational memory, and the ties that bind us across time and place. In […]
Serhii Plokhy is one of our preeminent Cold War historians, with his book Chernobyl winning the Baillie Gifford Non-Fiction Prize and subject of a hugely successful television adaptation. His new book, The Nuclear Age is a sweeping history of the geopolitics that have defined the 20th century: the nuclear arms race – from the fallacy […]
In 2025, the second Presidency of Donald Trump has ripped up the rulebook of what we understand the United States of America to be, dismantling many of the institutions that have been the pillars of the country. He also has sought to rewrite and shape Americans’ understanding of the past. David Shribman has spent a […]
Brian Stewart was for decades one of the Canada’s most prominent television journalists and was acclaimed for his foreign coverage for the CBC. He interviewed many of the historic figures of his time, including Nelson Mandela, Margaret Thatcher, Salman Rushdie, and Henry Kissinger. Now, for the first time, in On the Ground, he is sharing […]
Garth Risk Hallberg, author of the bestselling City of Fire, has edited The Uncollected Stories of Mavis Gallant, a new collection by one of Canada’s great writers. Gallant wrote over 100 short stories, many published in the New Yorker, her craft honed through her work as a journalist living in Montreal, New York and Paris. […]
The Toronto Poetry Slam returns with a high-energy spectacle of original content to leave you feeling inspired! Since 2005, TPS has featured some of Canada’s best and most engaging spoken word artists and next generation stars. Presented in partnership with Toronto Poetry Project, this hit slam is a competition in two rounds with multiple contestants, […]
Join emerging writer-performers for a thrilling night of cabaret, readings and performance from Toronto’s creative stars of tomorrow. The evening will showcase the work of new voices from OCAD U and other university creative writing communities working in a variety of forms and styles including performance, spoken word, poetry, storytelling and music.
While viewers were gripped by Succession on television, the real boardroom battle for control of the Rogers telecom family empire played out on the public stage with equally dramatic plot twists and revelations. The bestselling book, Rogers v. Rogers: The Battle for Control of Canada’s Telecom Empire by Alexandra Posadzki has now been adapted for […]
Join two of Canada’s notable Indigenous authors as they discuss their two non-fiction titles geared towards Indigenous education and healing in the community. Inuk artist Susan Aglukark dicusses her memoir, Kihiani: A Memoir of Healing, and her experience healing from a traumatic event and how music helped the process. From bestselling author of the Misewa […]
What do you do when your past comes back to haunt you? Hear from novelist and actor Richard Armitage as he discusses his latest thriller The Cut. Thirty years after his group of friends is involved in the murder of a classmate, Ben is a successful architect and seems to have everything under control – […]
THIS EVENT HAS BEEN CANCELLED What are the Canadian books that shape us as readers and writers? Join three of Canada’s most eloquent authors Claire Cameron, David Chariandy, Niigaan Sinclair, and Stephanie Sinclair to interrogate and celebrate the complexities of this nation’s literatures, and explore what it takes to make a classic. Each has contributed […]
As the days grow shorter and the air cools, it’s time to slow down, turn inward, and take stock. This 90-minute workshop blends grounding yoga with journaling using prompts inspired by our festival programme. Led in a welcoming, mixed-ability environment, the session draws on the long tradition of autumn as a season for storytelling, quiet […]
The conversation continues on the impact of AI on our lives. AI software like ChatGPT are becoming part of our daily lives, governments talk of using AIs for economic growth and efficiency, fears continue around the threats to copyright and creativity, as well as to simple understanding of reality. How do we balance the fears […]
Join us in conversation with Pete Crighton, whose work explores memory, desire, and identity. Crighton’s The Vinyl Diaries: Sex, Deep Cuts, and My Soundtrack to Queer Joy blends memoir and music, celebrating queer life with humor, honesty, and rhythm. He’ll be reading, reflecting, and discussing the power of art – literature, memory, and music – to […]
What does it take to escape a life of crime?
Join Ramona Emerson and Órjan Karlsson for a chilling conversation about what happens when the missing refuse to stay silent. In Emerson’s Exposure, the follow-up to the National Book Award-longlisted Shutter, Navajo forensic photographer Rita Todacheene grapples with a fanatical serial killer—and the ghosts he leaves behind. Karlsson’s Into Thin Air, the first in a […]
Loyalty shatters. Codes break. And deadly skills turn against those once trusted. New York Times bestselling author Gregg Hurwitz brings you the explosive latest installment in his acclaimed Orphan X series. Join us as Hurwitz reveals how he turned his own series on its head by forcing deadly assassin Evan Smoak into unimaginable territory: hunting […]
Two gripping literary thrillers where memory deceives, truth hides in plain sight and justice is dangerously subjective. In Sweet Fury, Sash Bischoff spins a razor-sharp psychological thriller set against the glamorous, cutthroat world of Hollywood. As beloved actress Lila Crayne prepares for a role in a feminist adaptation of Tender Is the Night, therapy sessions […]
From an exclusive island retreat to a high-stakes destination wedding, location can be more than a backdrop – it can be the engine of suspense, the pressure cooker for characters, and the perfect stage for surprise twists. Eliza Reid and Catherine Mack in their latest novels use isolated or insular settings – whether physical, emotional, […]
Canada has long been a quiet front in the global theatre of espionage, first in the shadows of the Cold War, and now in the ever-expanding battleground of digital surveillance. This conversation examines what’s changed and what hasn’t in the murky world of surveillance, state power, and civil liberties, bringing together two insiders who have […]
Are you the kind of reader who can’t resist solving the mystery before the final page? Then this is the event for you. From cryptic riddles to choose-your-own-adventure clues, Max Nightingale (a.k.a Jonathan Whitelaw) and Bianca Marais reinvent the crime novel by handing the magnifying glass to the reader. In Murder in Tinseltown, Nightingale invites […]
Venture into deceptively quiet communities where nothing – and no one – is quite what they seem with these masterful literary mysteries. Booker-nominated Graeme Macrae Burnet’s A Case of Matricide is the final instalment of his trilogy, featuring Chief Inspector Gorski. As Gorski investigates an elderly woman’s fears that her son plans to kill her, […]
