Explore every episode of the podcast Writers Off the Page: From the TIFA Archives
| Title | Pub. Date | Duration | |
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| Hilary Mantel: Experiments in Love | 18 Sep 2024 | 00:48:06 | |
This audio recording of Hilary Mantel in conversation with Rosemary Sullivan was recorded on stage at Harbourfront Reading Series in 1997. It is used with the kind permission of the Toronto International Festival of Authors. Thanks to TIFA for allowing us access to their archives for this series. Find out more about the Festival and its annual festival along with many other activities at FestivalOfAuthors.ca. Click here check out Season One of Writers Off the Page where you'll be able to listen to all 26 episodes featuring some of the 20th century's most beloved writers, including Umberto Eco, Susan Sontag, Nikki Giovanni, Grace Paley and more. Works by Hilary Mantel in Toronto Public Library's collection: An Experiment in Love (print edition) (ebook) Other Related Books or Materials in our collections: The Betrayal of Anne Frank by Rosemary Sullivan (print edition) (ebook) (audiobook) About the Host Randy Boyagoda is a novelist and professor of English at the University of Toronto, where he serves as advisor on civil discourse and vice-dean undergraduate, in the Faculty of Arts and Science. He has written seven books, including four novels. His work has been nominated for the Scotiabank Giller Prize and the IMPAC Dublin Literary Prize and named a Globe and Mail Best Book of the Year and New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice selection. He regularly contributes essays, opinions and reviews to publications including the Atlantic, the New York Times, the Financial Times of London, the Times Literary Supplement, and the Globe and Mail, and appears frequently on CBC Radio. A former president of PEN Canada, Boyagoda lives in Toronto with his wife and their four daughters. Music is by Yuka Thanks to the Toronto International Festival of Authors (TIFA) for allowing TPL access to their archives to feature some of the best-known writers in the world from moments in the past. Thanks as well to Library and Archives Canada for generously allowing TPL access to these archives. | |||
| Umberto Eco: The Name of the Rose | 15 Oct 2020 | 00:36:26 | |
Works by Umberto Eco
Other Related Books or Materials Signs and Secrets: the Worlds of Umberto Eco (2013 documentary) Always Narrating: The Making and Unmaking of Umberto Eco (link opens a 2020 Los Angeles Review of Book article) The Man Who Loved Books: Interview with Umberto Eco (link opens a 2020 Counterpunch article) Umberto Eco, The Art of Fiction, No. 197 (link opens a 2008 Paris Review article) Umberto Eco, 84, Best-selling Academic Who Navigated Two Words (link opens a 2016 New York Times obituary) __ About the Host Novelist Randy Boyagoda is a professor of English at the University of Toronto and principal of St. Michael’s College, where he holds the Basilian Chair in Christianity, Arts, and Letters. He is the author of three novels: Original Prin, Beggar's Feast, and Governor of the Northern Province. His fiction has been nominated for the Scotiabank Giller Prize (2006) and IMPAC Dublin Literary Prize (2012), and named a New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice Selection (2012 and 2019) and Globe and Mail Best Book (2018). He contributes essays, reviews, and opinions to publications including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, First Things, Commonweal, Harper’s, Financial Times (UK), Guardian, New Statesman, Globe and Mail, and National Post, in addition to appearing frequently on CBC Radio. He served as President of PEN Canada from 2015-2017. Music is by Yuka
From the Archives Writers Off the Page: 40 Years of TIFA is the first series associated with the Toronto Public Library’s multi-year digital initiative, From the Archives, which presents curated and digitized audio, video and other content from some of Canada’s biggest cultural institutions and organizations. Thanks to the Toronto International Festival of Authors (TIFA) for allowing TPL access to their archives to feature some of the best-known writers in the world from moments in the past. Thanks as well to Library and Archives Canada for generously allowing TPL access to these archives.
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| Lee Maracle: The Raven | 14 May 2020 | 00:22:42 | |
Note: given the current temporary closure of TPL due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we have made our best efforts to offer suggestions below for materials which are part our online collections (indicated) and available at home to anyone with a current Toronto Library card.
Books by Lee Maracle Memory Serves (ebook) My Conversations with Canadians (ebook) Celia’s Song (ebook) Hope Matters (ebook)
‘We Have the Same Language, But Definitely Different Rules’: An Interview with Lee Maracle (link opens a Hazlitt article) High-schooler Catricia Hiebert reads the poem “War” by Lee Maracle for Les Voix des poésie competition (link opens a Youtube video) Activist Lee Maracle On Why Every Question Is Worth Answering (Even If It's Racist) (link opens a Chatelaine article) Lee Maracle Reflects on her Legacy as One of Canada's Most Influential Indigenous Writers (link opens a CBC site)
Novelist Randy Boyagoda is a professor of English at the University of Toronto and principal of St. Michael’s College, where he holds the Basilian Chair in Christianity, Arts, and Letters. He is the author of three novels: Original Prin, Beggar's Feast, and Governor of the Northern Province. His fiction has been nominated for the Scotiabank Giller Prize (2006) and IMPAC Dublin Literary Prize (2012), and named a New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice Selection (2012 and 2019) and Globe and Mail Best Book (2018). He contributes essays, reviews, and opinions to publications including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, First Things, Commonweal, Harper’s, Financial Times (UK), Guardian, New Statesman, Globe and Mail, and National Post, in addition to appearing frequently on CBC Radio. He served as President of PEN Canada from 2015-2017. Music is by Yuka
From the Archives Writers Off the Page: 40 Years of TIFA is the first series associated with the Toronto Public Library’s multi-year digital initiative, From the Archives, which presents curated and digitized audio, video and other content from some of Canada’s biggest cultural institutions and organizations. Thanks to the Toronto International Festival of Authors (TIFA) for allowing TPL access to their archives to feature some of the best-known writers in the world from moments in the past. Thanks as well to Library and Archives Canada for generously allowing TPL access to these archives. | |||
| Austin Clarke: Doing Right | 30 Apr 2020 | 00:43:13 | |
Note: given the current temporary closure of TPL due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we have made our best efforts to offer suggestions below for materials which are part our online collections (indicated) and available at home to anyone with a current Toronto Library card.
‘Membering (ebook) The Origin of Waves: a Novel (ebook) Choosing His Coffin: the Best Stories of Austin Clarke (ebook) Where the Sun Shines Best (ebook) The Polished Hoe (audiobook) Love and Sweet Food: a Culinary Memoir
Austin Clarke: Essays on his Work by Camille Isaacs The Passions of Austin Clarke by Donna Bailey Nurse (link opens an article from The Walrus from Jun 2016) Remembering Author Austin Clarke by Andrea Baillie (ink opens McLean’s article from Jun 2016) Austin Clarke: a Frank and Thoughtful Critic (link opens CBC Archives interview from 1963) Austin Clarke (link opens a 1969 photo by Boris Sprimo from TPL’s Special Collections of the Toronto Star Archives; all of Clarke’s images from the Toronto Star Archives can be found here)
Novelist Randy Boyagoda is a professor of English at the University of Toronto and principal of St. Michael’s College, where he holds the Basilian Chair in Christianity, Arts, and Letters. He is the author of three novels: Original Prin, Beggar's Feast, and Governor of the Northern Province. His fiction has been nominated for the Scotiabank Giller Prize (2006) and IMPAC Dublin Literary Prize (2012), and named a New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice Selection (2012 and 2019) and Globe and Mail Best Book (2018). He contributes essays, reviews, and opinions to publications including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, First Things, Commonweal, Harper’s, Financial Times (UK), Guardian, New Statesman, Globe and Mail, and National Post, in addition to appearing frequently on CBC Radio. He served as President of PEN Canada from 2015-2017. Music is by Yuka
From the Archives Writers Off the Page: 40 Years of TIFA is the first series associated with the Toronto Public Library’s multi-year digital initiative, From the Archives, which presents curated and digitized audio, video and other content from some of Canada’s biggest cultural institutions and organizations. Thanks to the Toronto International Festival of Authors (TIFA) for allowing TPL access to their archives to feature some of the best-known writers in the world from moments in the past. Thanks as well to Library and Archives Canada for generously allowing TPL access to these archives.
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| Gloria Naylor: Mama Day | 16 Apr 2020 | 00:34:04 | |
Note: Given the current temporary closure of TPL due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we have made our best efforts to offer suggestions below for materials which are part our online collections (indicated) and available at home to anyone with a current Toronto Library card.
Works by Gloria Naylor The Women of Brewster Place (ebook) The Novels of Gloria Naylor: Mama Day, Linden Hills, Bailey’s Café (ebook) Mama Day (print book) The Women of Brewster Place (DVD of 1989 mini-series starring Oprah Winfrey and Cicely Tyson) Bailey’s Café (print book)
New York Times Obituary of Gloria Naylor (link opens NYT article from Oct 2016) Unsolved Problems: Rachel Harper on Gloria Naylor (link opens Los Angeles Review of Books article from Mar 2017)
About the Host Novelist Randy Boyagoda is a professor of English at the University of Toronto and principal of St. Michael’s College, where he holds the Basilian Chair in Christianity, Arts, and Letters. He is the author of three novels: Original Prin, Beggar's Feast, and Governor of the Northern Province. His fiction has been nominated for the Scotiabank Giller Prize (2006) and IMPAC Dublin Literary Prize (2012), and named a New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice Selection (2012 and 2019) and Globe and Mail Best Book (2018). He contributes essays, reviews, and opinions to publications including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, First Things, Commonweal, Harper’s, Financial Times (UK), Guardian, New Statesman, Globe and Mail, and National Post, in addition to appearing frequently on CBC Radio. He served as President of PEN Canada from 2015-2017. Music is by Yuka From the Archives Writers Off the Page: 40 Years of TIFA is the first series associated with the Toronto Public Library’s multi-year digital initiative, From the Archives, which presents curated and digitized audio, video and other content from some of Canada’s biggest cultural institutions and organizations. Thanks to the Toronto International Festival of Authors (TIFA) for allowing TPL access to their archives to feature some of the best-known writers in the world from moments in the past. Thanks as well to Library and Archives Canada for generously allowing TPL access to these archives. | |||
| Nikki Giovanni: Road Tripping | 12 Mar 2020 | 00:29:00 | |
Works by Nikki Giovanni The Collected Poetry of Nikki Giovanni: 1969 - 1998 Rosa (a short video) Rosa (a kids biography)
Other Related Books or Materials Nikki Giovanni: In her Revolutionary Dream (link opens Los Angeles Review of Book article)
About the Host Novelist Randy Boyagoda is a professor of English at the University of Toronto and principal of St. Michael’s College, where he holds the Basilian Chair in Christianity, Arts, and Letters. He is the author of three novels: Original Prin, Beggar's Feast, and Governor of the Northern Province. His fiction has been nominated for the Scotiabank Giller Prize (2006) and IMPAC Dublin Literary Prize (2012), and named a New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice Selection (2012 and 2019) and Globe and Mail Best Book (2018). He contributes essays, reviews, and opinions to publications including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, First Things, Commonweal, Harper’s, Financial Times (UK), Guardian, New Statesman, Globe and Mail, and National Post, in addition to appearing frequently on CBC Radio. He served as President of PEN Canada from 2015-2017. Music is by Yuka From the Archives Writers Off the Page: 40 Years of TIFA is the first series associated with the Toronto Public Library’s multi-year digital initiative, From the Archives, which presents curated and digitized audio, video and other content from some of Canada’s biggest cultural institutions and organizations. Thanks to the Toronto International Festival of Authors (TIFA) for allowing TPL access to their archives to feature some of the best-known writers in the world from moments in the past. Thanks as well to Library and Archives Canada for generously allowing TPL access to these archives. | |||
| Grace Paley Saves the World | 27 Feb 2020 | 00:24:00 | |
Works by Grace Paley The Little Disturbances of Man
Other Related Books or Materials Grace Paley, the Saint of Seeing by George Saunders (link opens a New Yorker article) Grace Paley’s Crowded World (link opens article in The Nation) The Value of Not Understanding Everything: Grace Paley’s Advice to Aspiring Writers (link opens Brain Pickings article)
About the Host Novelist Randy Boyagoda is a professor of English at the University of Toronto and principal of St. Michael’s College, where he holds the Basilian Chair in Christianity, Arts, and Letters. He is the author of three novels: Original Prin, Beggar's Feast, and Governor of the Northern Province. His fiction has been nominated for the Scotiabank Giller Prize (2006) and IMPAC Dublin Literary Prize (2012), and named a New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice Selection (2012 and 2019) and Globe and Mail Best Book (2018). He contributes essays, reviews, and opinions to publications including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, First Things, Commonweal, Harper’s, Financial Times (UK), Guardian, New Statesman, Globe and Mail, and National Post, in addition to appearing frequently on CBC Radio. He served as President of PEN Canada from 2015-2017. Music is by Yuka From the Archives Writers Off the Page: 40 Years of TIFA is the first series associated with the Toronto Public Library’s multi-year digital initiative, From the Archives, which presents curated and digitized audio, video and other content from some of Canada’s biggest cultural institutions and organizations. Thanks to the Toronto International Festival of Authors (TIFA) for allowing TPL access to their archives to feature some of the best-known writers in the world from moments in the past. Thanks as well to Library and Archives Canada for generously allowing TPL access to these archives. | |||
| Nikki Giovanni: Soothing the Longings | 13 Feb 2020 | 00:25:51 | |
Works by Nikki Giovanni A Good Cry: What We Learn from Tears and Laughter The Collected Poetry of Nikki Giovanni, 1969-1998 Lincoln and Douglass: an American Friendship Vacation Time: Poems for Children Nikki Giovanni: “Martin Had Faith in People” (link opens article from The Atlantic)
About Nikki Giovanni Nikki Giovanni: a Literary Biography Poet Nikki Giovanni on the Darker Side of Her Life (link opens an NPR article)
About the Host Novelist Randy Boyagoda is a professor of English at the University of Toronto and principal of St. Michael’s College, where he holds the Basilian Chair in Christianity, Arts, and Letters. He is the author of three novels: Original Prin, Beggar's Feast, and Governor of the Northern Province. His fiction has been nominated for the Scotiabank Giller Prize (2006) and IMPAC Dublin Literary Prize (2012), and named a New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice Selection (2012 and 2019) and Globe and Mail Best Book (2018). He contributes essays, reviews, and opinions to publications including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, First Things, Commonweal, Harper’s, Financial Times (UK), Guardian, New Statesman, Globe and Mail, and National Post, in addition to appearing frequently on CBC Radio. He served as President of PEN Canada from 2015-2017. Music is by Yuka From the Archives Writers Off the Page: 40 Years of TIFA is the first series associated with the Toronto Public Library’s multi-year digital initiative, From the Archives, which presents curated and digitized audio, video and other content from some of Canada’s biggest cultural institutions and organizations. Thanks to the Toronto International Festival of Authors (TIFA) for allowing TPL access to their archives to feature some of the best-known writers in the world from moments in the past. Thanks as well to Library and Archives Canada for generously allowing TPL access to these archives. | |||
| A Life of Activism: Larry Kramer in Conversation with June Callwood | 30 Jan 2020 | 00:43:32 | |
Works by Larry Kramer The American People: Volume 1: The Search for My Heart The American People: Volume 2: The Brutality of Fact: a Novel The Destiny of Me: a Play in Three Acts Larry Kramer: What Pride Means to Me (link opens Salon.com article from June, 2019)
About Larry Kramer We Must Love One Another or Die: the Life and Legacies of Larry Kramer Larry Kramer: In Love & Anger (2015 documentary)
Other Related Books or Materials The Normal Heart (2014 film starring Matthew Bomer) Larry Kramer is Still the Angriest Man in the World (link opens an Interview Magazine article from Dec 2019)
Books by or About June Callwood It’s All About Kindness: Remembering June Callwood
About June Callwood June Callwood, often dubbed, “Canada’s Conscience,” was a journalist who wrote over 2,000 articles in her career, spanning six decades. Her work as a social activist made her a champion of free speech and intellectual freedom and she was the founder or co-founder or many Canadian charities including Casey House (Canada’s first hospice for those suffering from AIDS) and Jessie’s, the June Callwood Centre for Young Women. She also founded the Toronto Public Library’s annual lecture series, the June Callwood Lecture, which honours each year an activist who provides a platform for the exploration and discussion of contemporary social justice issues. Recent lecturers have included Albert Woodfox, Ahmad Danny Ramadan and Clara Hughes. Born in 1924 in Chatham, Ontario, Callwood died, in Toronto, in 2007, leaving a legacy as one of Canada’s most important champions of social justice.
About the Host Novelist Randy Boyagoda is a professor of English at the University of Toronto and principal of St. Michael’s College, where he holds the Basilian Chair in Christianity, Arts, and Letters. He is the author of three novels: Original Prin, Beggar's Feast, and Governor of the Northern Province. His fiction has been nominated for the Scotiabank Giller Prize (2006) and IMPAC Dublin Literary Prize (2012), and named a New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice Selection (2012 and 2019) and Globe and Mail Best Book (2018). He contributes essays, reviews, and opinions to publications including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, First Things, Commonweal, Harper’s, Financial Times (UK), Guardian, New Statesman, Globe and Mail, and National Post, in addition to appearing frequently on CBC Radio. He served as President of PEN Canada from 2015-2017. Music is by Yuka From the Archives Writers Off the Page: 40 Years of TIFA is the first series associated with the Toronto Public Library’s multi-year digital initiative, From the Archives, which presents curated and digitized audio, video and other content from some of Canada’s biggest cultural institutions and organizations. Thanks to the Toronto International Festival of Authors (TIFA) for allowing TPL access to their archives to feature some of the best-known writers in the world from moments in the past. Thanks as well to Library and Archives Canada for generously allowing TPL access to these archives.
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| Gwendolyn Brooks: The World Might Continue | 02 Jan 2020 | 00:17:21 | |
Works by Gwendolyn Brooks The Essential Gwendolyn Brooks Gwendolyn Brooks (Poetry Foundation article)
Other Related Books or Materials Conversations with Gwendolyn Brooks The Importance of Being Ordinary (New Republic article from July 2017) On Gwendolyn Brooks’ Birthday, a Statue of the Powerful Poet (Chicago Tribune article from June 2018) A Short History of South Africa
About the Host Novelist Randy Boyagoda is a professor of English at the University of Toronto and principal of St. Michael’s College, where he holds the Basilian Chair in Christianity, Arts, and Letters. He is the author of three novels: Original Prin, Beggar's Feast, and Governor of the Northern Province. His fiction has been nominated for the Scotiabank Giller Prize (2006) and IMPAC Dublin Literary Prize (2012), and named a New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice Selection (2012 and 2019) and Globe and Mail Best Book (2018). He contributes essays, reviews, and opinions to publications including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, First Things, Commonweal, Harper’s, Financial Times (UK), Guardian, New Statesman, Globe and Mail, and National Post, in addition to appearing frequently on CBC Radio. He served as President of PEN Canada from 2015-2017. Music is by Yuka From the Archives Writers Off the Page: 40 Years of TIFA is the first series associated with the Toronto Public Library’s multi-year digital initiative, From the Archives, which presents curated and digitized audio, video and other content from some of Canada’s biggest cultural institutions and organizations. Thanks to the Toronto International Festival of Authors (TIFA) for allowing TPL access to their archives to feature some of the best-known writers in the world from moments in the past. Thanks as well to Library and Archives Canada for generously allowing TPL access to these archives. Audio and transcript used with the permission of the Brooks Estate. | |||
| “Traveling” with Grace Paley | 19 Dec 2019 | 00:15:28 | |
Works by Grace Paley
Other Related Books or Materials The Art and Activism of Grace Paley (link opens a New Yorker article from 2017) Margalit Fox’s 2007 obituary of Grace Paley (link opens New York Times article) Grace Paley: the Art of Fiction (link opens a Paris Review interview from 1992)
About the Host Novelist Randy Boyagoda is a professor of English at the University of Toronto and principal of St. Michael’s College, where he holds the Basilian Chair in Christianity, Arts, and Letters. He is the author of three novels: Original Prin, Beggar's Feast, and Governor of the Northern Province. His fiction has been nominated for the Scotiabank Giller Prize (2006) and IMPAC Dublin Literary Prize (2012), and named a New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice Selection (2012 and 2019) and Globe and Mail Best Book (2018). He contributes essays, reviews, and opinions to publications including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, First Things, Commonweal, Harper’s, Financial Times (UK), Guardian, New Statesman, Globe and Mail, and National Post, in addition to appearing frequently on CBC Radio. He served as President of PEN Canada from 2015-2017. Music is by Yuka From the Archives Writers Off the Page: 40 Years of TIFA is the first series associated with the Toronto Public Library’s multi-year digital initiative, From the Archives, which presents curated and digitized audio, video and other content from some of Canada’s biggest cultural institutions and organizations. Thanks to the Toronto International Festival of Authors (TIFA) for allowing TPL access to their archives to feature some of the best-known writers in the world from moments in the past. Thanks as well to Library and Archives Canada for generously allowing TPL access to these archives.
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| Gwendolyn Brooks: Poems That (Don't) Cough Lightly | 05 Dec 2019 | 00:19:38 | |
Works by Gwendolyn Brooks The Essential Gwendolyn Brooks Bronzeville Boys and Girls (children’s picture book by Brooks) Other Related Books or Materials A Surprised Queenhood in the Black Sun: the Life & Legacy of Gwendolyn Brooks Conversations with Gwendolyn Brooks Gwendolyn Books (Poetry Foundation article and poetry) Remembering the Great Poet, Gwendolyn Brooks, at 100 (NPR audio news story) A Song for Gwendolyn Brooks by Alice Faye Duncan
About the Host Novelist Randy Boyagoda is a professor of English at the University of Toronto and principal of St. Michael’s College, where he holds the Basilian Chair in Christianity, Arts, and Letters. He is the author of three novels: Original Prin, Beggar's Feast, and Governor of the Northern Province. His fiction has been nominated for the Scotiabank Giller Prize (2006) and IMPAC Dublin Literary Prize (2012), and named a New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice Selection (2012 and 2019) and Globe and Mail Best Book (2018). He contributes essays, reviews, and opinions to publications including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, First Things, Commonweal, Harper’s, Financial Times (UK), Guardian, New Statesman, Globe and Mail, and National Post, in addition to appearing frequently on CBC Radio. He served as President of PEN Canada from 2015-2017. Music is by Yuka From the Archives Writers Off the Page: 40 Years of TIFA is the first series associated with the Toronto Public Library’s multi-year digital initiative, From the Archives, which presents curated and digitized audio, video and other content from some of Canada’s biggest cultural institutions and organizations. Thanks to the Toronto International Festival of Authors (TIFA) for allowing TPL access to their archives to feature some of the best-known writers in the world from moments in the past. Thanks as well to Library and Archives Canada for generously allowing TPL access to these archives. Audio and transcript used with the permission of the Brooks Estate.
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| Austin Clarke: Sometimes, A Motherless Child | 24 Sep 2020 | 00:42:51 | |
Works by Austin Clarke They Never Told Me and Other Stories
Other Related Books or Materials Odetta’s 1960 recording of “Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child” (link opens a Youtube video) Austin Clarke’s Harlem (link opens part of a CBC audio documentary produced by Austin Clarke in 1963 about the Civil Rights Movement) Why Literary Critics Failed to Define and Understand Austin Clarke (link opens a National Post article from 2016) Austin Clarke Quotes (link opens a Twitter account devoted to the quotes and other aspects of Clarke’s work) __ About the Host Novelist Randy Boyagoda is a professor of English at the University of Toronto and principal of St. Michael’s College, where he holds the Basilian Chair in Christianity, Arts, and Letters. He is the author of three novels: Original Prin, Beggar's Feast, and Governor of the Northern Province. His fiction has been nominated for the Scotiabank Giller Prize (2006) and IMPAC Dublin Literary Prize (2012), and named a New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice Selection (2012 and 2019) and Globe and Mail Best Book (2018). He contributes essays, reviews, and opinions to publications including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, First Things, Commonweal, Harper’s, Financial Times (UK), Guardian, New Statesman, Globe and Mail, and National Post, in addition to appearing frequently on CBC Radio. He served as President of PEN Canada from 2015-2017. Music is by Yuka
From the Archives Writers Off the Page: 40 Years of TIFA is the first series associated with the Toronto Public Library’s multi-year digital initiative, From the Archives, which presents curated and digitized audio, video and other content from some of Canada’s biggest cultural institutions and organizations. Thanks to the Toronto International Festival of Authors (TIFA) for allowing TPL access to their archives to feature some of the best-known writers in the world from moments in the past. Thanks as well to Library and Archives Canada for generously allowing TPL access to these archives. | |||
| Jim Harrison: “Don’t Make Me Dirty, Darling” | 21 Nov 2019 | 00:19:58 | |
Works by Jim Harrison
Other Related Books or Materials “Alfresco” a poem by Merrill Gilfillan (Poetry Foundation) Cloudbursts: Collected and New Stories by Thomas McGuane Gallatin Canyon: Stories by Thomas McGuane Driving on the Rim: a Novel by Thomas McGuane Thomas McGuane remembers his friend, Jim Harrison (LitHub article from Aug 2017) Ranier Maria Rilke: Letters to a Young Poet
About the Host Novelist Randy Boyagoda is a professor of English at the University of Toronto and principal of St. Michael’s College, where he holds the Basilian Chair in Christianity, Arts, and Letters. He is the author of three novels: Original Prin, Beggar's Feast, and Governor of the Northern Province. His fiction has been nominated for the Scotiabank Giller Prize (2006) and IMPAC Dublin Literary Prize (2012), and named a New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice Selection (2012 and 2019) and Globe and Mail Best Book (2018). He contributes essays, reviews, and opinions to publications including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, First Things, Commonweal, Harper’s, Financial Times (UK), Guardian, New Statesman, Globe and Mail, and National Post, in addition to appearing frequently on CBC Radio. He served as President of PEN Canada from 2015-2017.
Music is by Yuka
From the Archives Writers Off the Page: 40 Years of TIFA is the first series associated with the Toronto Public Library’s multi-year digital initiative, From the Archives, which presents curated and digitized audio, video and other content from some of Canada’s biggest cultural institutions and organizations.
Thanks to the Toronto International Festival of Authors (TIFA) for allowing TPL access to their archives to feature some of the best-known writers in the world from moments in the past. Thanks as well to Library and Archives Canada for generously allowing TPL access to these archives. | |||
| Jim Harrison: “You’ve Made Quite a Living From Your Fibs” | 08 Nov 2019 | 00:23:03 | |
Works by Jim Harrison
Works about Jim Harrison Jim Harrison, the Art of Fiction, No. 104 (Paris Review article, summer 1988) Jim Harrison, the Mozart of the Prairies (New Yorker article, March 2016)
Other Related Books or Materials The Raw and the Cooked: Cooking Your Life by Jim Harrison (Esquire article, June 1991)
About the Host Novelist Randy Boyagoda is a professor of English at the University of Toronto and principal of St. Michael’s College, where he holds the Basilian Chair in Christianity, Arts, and Letters. He is the author of three novels: Original Prin, Beggar's Feast, and Governor of the Northern Province. His fiction has been nominated for the Scotiabank Giller Prize (2006) and IMPAC Dublin Literary Prize (2012), and named a New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice Selection (2012 and 2019) and Globe and Mail Best Book (2018). He contributes essays, reviews, and opinions to publications including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, First Things, Commonweal, Harper’s, Financial Times (UK), Guardian, New Statesman, Globe and Mail, and National Post, in addition to appearing frequently on CBC Radio. He served as President of PEN Canada from 2015-2017.
Music is by Yuka
From the Archives Writers Off the Page: 40 Years of TIFA is the first series associated with the Toronto Public Library’s multi-year digital initiative, From the Archives, which presents curated and digitized audio, video and other content from some of Canada’s biggest cultural institutions and organizations. ** Thanks to the Toronto International Festival of Authors (TIFA) for allowing TPL access to their archives to feature some of the best-known writers in the world from moments in the past. Thanks as well to Library and Archives Canada for generously allowing TPL access to these archives. | |||
| Susan Sontag: "Make Something Better" | 24 Oct 2019 | 00:19:25 | |
Works by Susan Sontag Tuesday, and After: New Yorker Writers Respond to 9/11 (New Yorker article from Sep 2001)
Works about Susan Sontag Sontag: Her Life and Work by Benjamin Moser Robert Fulford: A Sojourn With Susan Sontag (National Post article from 2012) Susan Sontag: The Complete Rolling Stone Interview Susan Sontag: A Biography by Daniel Schreiber
Other Related Books or Materials Theatre of War by Lewis Lapham
About the Host Novelist Randy Boyagoda is a professor of English at the University of Toronto and principal of St. Michael’s College, where he holds the Basilian Chair in Christianity, Arts, and Letters. He is the author of three novels: Original Prin, Beggar's Feast, and Governor of the Northern Province. His fiction has been nominated for the Scotiabank Giller Prize (2006) and IMPAC Dublin Literary Prize (2012), and named a New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice Selection (2012 and 2019) and Globe and Mail Best Book (2018). He contributes essays, reviews, and opinions to publications including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, First Things, Commonweal, Harper’s, Financial Times (UK), Guardian, New Statesman, Globe and Mail, and National Post, in addition to appearing frequently on CBC Radio. He served as President of PEN Canada from 2015-2017.
Music is by Yuka
From the Archives Writers Off the Page: 40 Years of TIFA is the first series associated with the Toronto Public Library’s multi-year digital initiative, From the Archives, which presents curated and digitized audio, video and other content from some of Canada’s biggest cultural institutions and organizations.
Thanks to the Toronto International Festival of Authors (TIFA) for allowing TPL access to their archives to feature some of the best-known writers in the world from moments in the past. Thanks as well to Library and Archives Canada for generously allowing TPL access to these archives. | |||
| Susan Sontag: “The Arts Give Humans Dignity” | 10 Oct 2019 | 00:19:05 | |
Writers Off the Page is a biweekly podcast series produced by Toronto Public Library that presents the best of 40 years from the archives of the Toronto International Festival of Authors (formerly known as IFOA: International Festival of Authors). Between 10-20 minutes long, episodes feature interviews, readings and discussions with some of the 20th century's best-known writers.
Works by Susan Sontag “Godot Comes to Sarajevo” (New York Review of Books article)
Books about Susan Sontag Swimming in a Sea of Death: a Son’s Memoir by David Rieff Sempre Susan: a Memoir of Susan Sontag by Sigrid Nunez Sontag: Her Life and Work by Benjamin Moser
Other Related Books or Materials Waiting for Godot: Tragicomedy in Two Acts by Samuel Beckett Ubu Roi: Drama in Five Acts by Alfred Jarry Regarding Susan Sontag: a 2015 documentary
Novelist Randy Boyagoda is a professor of English at the University of Toronto and principal of St. Michael’s College, where he holds the Basilian Chair in Christianity, Arts, and Letters. He is the author of three novels: Original Prin, Beggar's Feast, and Governor of the Northern Province. His fiction has been nominated for the Scotiabank Giller Prize (2006) and IMPAC Dublin Literary Prize (2012), and named a New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice Selection (2012 and 2019) and Globe and Mail Best Book (2018). He contributes essays, reviews, and opinions to publications including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, First Things, Commonweal, Harper’s, Financial Times (UK), Guardian, New Statesman, Globe and Mail, and National Post, in addition to appearing frequently on CBC Radio. He served as President of PEN Canada from 2015-2017.
Music is by Yuka
From the Archives Writers Off the Page: 40 Years of TIFA is the first series associated with the Toronto Public Library’s multi-year digital initiative, From the Archives, which presents curated and digitized audio, video and other content from some of Canada’s biggest cultural institutions and organizations. ** Thanks to the Toronto International Festival of Authors (TIFA) for allowing TPL access to their archives to feature some of the best-known writers in the world from moments in the past. Thanks as well to Library and Archives Canada for generously allowing TPL access to these archives.
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| Susan Sontag: “The Little Illness Book” | 26 Sep 2019 | 00:19:12 | |
Books by Susan Sontag Illness as Metaphor/AIDS and Its Metaphors
Books about Susan Sontag Sontag: Her Life and Work by Benjamin Moser
Other Books or Materials Mentioned Great Expectations by Charles Dickens Film: David Lean’s 1946 version of Great Expectations (Criterion Collection) The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
About the Host: Novelist Randy Boyagoda is a professor of English at the University of Toronto and principal of St. Michael’s College, where he holds the Basilian Chair in Christianity, Arts, and Letters. He is the author of three novels: Original Prin, Beggar's Feast, and Governor of the Northern Province. His fiction has been nominated for the Scotiabank Giller Prize (2006) and IMPAC Dublin Literary Prize (2012), and named a New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice Selection (2012 and 2019) and Globe and Mail Best Book (2018). He contributes essays, reviews, and opinions to publications including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, First Things, Commonweal, Harper’s, Financial Times (UK), Guardian, New Statesman, Globe and Mail, and National Post, in addition to appearing frequently on CBC Radio. He served as President of PEN Canada from 2015-2017.
Music is by Yuka.
This podcast series is produced by Toronto Public Library, in collaboration with TIFA (Toronto International Festival of Authors) and Library and Archives Canada.
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| Susan Sontag: “This God-Damned Celebrity Culture” | 11 Sep 2019 | 00:23:44 | |
Books by Susan Sontag: Illness as Metaphor/AIDS and Its Metaphors Fascinating Fascism: Susan Sontag on Leni Riefenstahl (The New York Review of Books) Books about Susan Sontag: Sontag: Her Life and Work by Benjamin Moser About the Host: Novelist Randy Boyagoda is a professor of English at the University of Toronto and principal of St. Michael’s College, where he holds the Basilian Chair in Christianity, Arts, and Letters. He is the author of three novels: Original Prin, Beggar's Feast, and Governor of the Northern Province. His fiction has been nominated for the Scotiabank Giller Prize (2006) and IMPAC Dublin Literary Prize (2012), and named a New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice Selection (2012 and 2019) and Globe and Mail Best Book (2018). He contributes essays, reviews, and opinions to publications including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, First Things, Commonweal, Harper’s, Financial Times (UK), Guardian, New Statesman, Globe and Mail, and National Post, in addition to appearing frequently on CBC Radio. He served as President of PEN Canada from 2015-2017. Music is by Yuka. This podcast series is produced by Toronto Public Library, in collaboration with TIFA (Toronto International Festival of Authors) and Library and Archives Canada.
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| Doris Lessing: Homage to the New Man | 10 Sep 2020 | 00:41:06 | |
Works by Doris Lessing The Grandmothers: Four Short Novels The Grass is Singing (ebook)
Other Related Books or Materials Doris Lessing: A Biography by Carole Klein Doris Lessing: First Visit to Toronto (link opens a 1984 photo by Reg Innell, courtesy of Toronto Star Archives at Toronto Public Library) Doris Lessing, Author Who Swept Aside Convention (link opens New York Times obituary from November 2013 Doris Lessing, The Art of Fiction (link opens Paris Review interview from 1988) ___ About the Host Novelist Randy Boyagoda is a professor of English at the University of Toronto and principal of St. Michael’s College, where he holds the Basilian Chair in Christianity, Arts, and Letters. He is the author of three novels: Original Prin, Beggar's Feast, and Governor of the Northern Province. His fiction has been nominated for the Scotiabank Giller Prize (2006) and IMPAC Dublin Literary Prize (2012), and named a New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice Selection (2012 and 2019) and Globe and Mail Best Book (2018). He contributes essays, reviews, and opinions to publications including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, First Things, Commonweal, Harper’s, Financial Times (UK), Guardian, New Statesman, Globe and Mail, and National Post, in addition to appearing frequently on CBC Radio. He served as President of PEN Canada from 2015-2017. Music is by Yuka
From the Archives Writers Off the Page: 40 Years of TIFA is the first series associated with the Toronto Public Library’s multi-year digital initiative, From the Archives, which presents curated and digitized audio, video and other content from some of Canada’s biggest cultural institutions and organizations. Thanks to the Toronto International Festival of Authors (TIFA) for allowing TPL access to their archives to feature some of the best-known writers in the world from moments in the past. Thanks as well to Library and Archives Canada for generously allowing TPL access to these archives. | |||
| Eduardo Galeano: Memory of Fire | 27 Aug 2020 | 00:24:11 | |
Works by Eduardo Galeano Memory of Fire Volume One: Genesis Memory of Fire Volume Two: Faces and Masks Memory of Fire Volume Three: Century of the Wind Children of the Days: A Calendar of Human History Las venas abiertas de américa latina (ebook)
Other Related Books or Materials The Pan American: The World of Eduardo Galeano (link opens an August 2018 article from The Nation) Women of the Mine - Les Mujeres de la mina - 2006 Film My Hero: Eduardo Galeano by Tariq Ali (link opens an April 2015 article from The Guardian) Eduardo Galeano (photo) "His vivid survey of the Latin American past is an impressive achievement." (link opens a photograph by Reg Innell in 1988 from TPL’s Special Collections, part of the Toronto Star Archives) ___ About the Host Novelist Randy Boyagoda is a professor of English at the University of Toronto and principal of St. Michael’s College, where he holds the Basilian Chair in Christianity, Arts, and Letters. He is the author of three novels: Original Prin, Beggar's Feast, and Governor of the Northern Province. His fiction has been nominated for the Scotiabank Giller Prize (2006) and IMPAC Dublin Literary Prize (2012), and named a New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice Selection (2012 and 2019) and Globe and Mail Best Book (2018). He contributes essays, reviews, and opinions to publications including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, First Things, Commonweal, Harper’s, Financial Times (UK), Guardian, New Statesman, Globe and Mail, and National Post, in addition to appearing frequently on CBC Radio. He served as President of PEN Canada from 2015-2017. Music is by Yuka
From the Archives Writers Off the Page: 40 Years of TIFA is the first series associated with the Toronto Public Library’s multi-year digital initiative, From the Archives, which presents curated and digitized audio, video and other content from some of Canada’s biggest cultural institutions and organizations. Thanks to the Toronto International Festival of Authors (TIFA) for allowing TPL access to their archives to feature some of the best-known writers in the world from moments in the past. Thanks as well to Library and Archives Canada for generously allowing TPL access to these archives. | |||
| Angela Carter: Nights at the Circus | 13 Aug 2020 | 00:33:54 | |
Works by Angela Carter The Bloody Chamber, Wise Children, Fireworks Writers Talk: Angela Carter with Lisa Appignanesi (evideo) The Infernal Desire Machines of Doctor Hoffman (ebook)
Other Related Books or Materials Angela Carter: A Literary Life by Sarah Gamble Nights at the Circus is Feminist... (link opens an article from The Guardian from Feb 2017) Taking Flight with Angela Carter’s Nights at the Circus (link opens a piece from Tor.com from Apr 2017) Angela Carter: a staggering command of language (link opens TPL Special Collections page of the Toronto Star Archives featuring a 1988 photo of Carter by John Mahler)
About the Host Novelist Randy Boyagoda is a professor of English at the University of Toronto and principal of St. Michael’s College, where he holds the Basilian Chair in Christianity, Arts, and Letters. He is the author of three novels: Original Prin, Beggar's Feast, and Governor of the Northern Province. His fiction has been nominated for the Scotiabank Giller Prize (2006) and IMPAC Dublin Literary Prize (2012), and named a New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice Selection (2012 and 2019) and Globe and Mail Best Book (2018). He contributes essays, reviews, and opinions to publications including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, First Things, Commonweal, Harper’s, Financial Times (UK), Guardian, New Statesman, Globe and Mail, and National Post, in addition to appearing frequently on CBC Radio. He served as President of PEN Canada from 2015-2017. Music is by Yuka
From the Archives Writers Off the Page: 40 Years of TIFA is the first series associated with the Toronto Public Library’s multi-year digital initiative, From the Archives, which presents curated and digitized audio, video and other content from some of Canada’s biggest cultural institutions and organizations. Thanks to the Toronto International Festival of Authors (TIFA) for allowing TPL access to their archives to feature some of the best-known writers in the world from moments in the past. Thanks as well to Library and Archives Canada for generously allowing TPL access to these archives.
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| Luisa Valenzuela: Love of Animals | 30 Jul 2020 | 00:18:19 | |
Works by Luisa Valenzuela The Lizard’s Tail (print book) The Wanderer by Luisa Valenzuela, translated by Marguerite Feitlowitz (link opens a short story from The Brooklyn Rail's InTranslation) He Who Searches Latin American Literature Series (link opens Dalkey Archive Press site with two translated works - print on demand)
Sudden Fiction Latino: Short-Short Stories From Latin America and the United States (print book) Brevity by David Galef The Will to Heal: Psychological Recovery in the Novels of Latina Writers (print book)
Other Related Books or Materials Luisa Valenzuela, The Art of Fiction No. 170 (link opens an article from The Paris Review from 2001) Luisa Valenzuela on Writing, Power and Gender (link opens an article from the Cervantes Virtual Library
About the Host Novelist Randy Boyagoda is a professor of English at the University of Toronto and principal of St. Michael’s College, where he holds the Basilian Chair in Christianity, Arts, and Letters. He is the author of three novels: Original Prin, Beggar's Feast, and Governor of the Northern Province. His fiction has been nominated for the Scotiabank Giller Prize (2006) and IMPAC Dublin Literary Prize (2012), and named a New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice Selection (2012 and 2019) and Globe and Mail Best Book (2018). He contributes essays, reviews, and opinions to publications including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, First Things, Commonweal, Harper’s, Financial Times (UK), Guardian, New Statesman, Globe and Mail, and National Post, in addition to appearing frequently on CBC Radio. He served as President of PEN Canada from 2015-2017. Music is by Yuka
From the Archives Writers Off the Page: 40 Years of TIFA is the first series associated with the Toronto Public Library’s multi-year digital initiative, From the Archives, which presents curated and digitized audio, video and other content from some of Canada’s biggest cultural institutions and organizations. Thanks to the Toronto International Festival of Authors (TIFA) for allowing TPL access to their archives to feature some of the best-known writers in the world from moments in the past. Thanks as well to Library and Archives Canada for generously allowing TPL access to these archives.
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| Richard Wagamese: A Quality of Light | 16 Jul 2020 | 00:27:27 | |
Works by Richard Wagamese A Quality of Light (ebook) One Drum: Stories and Ceremonies for a Planet (all formats) One Drum: Stories and Ceremonies for a Planet (audiobook) Starlight (ebook) Other Related Books or Materials Honouring Richard Wagamese (link opens a 2017 article from Indian Horse) Richard Wagamese’s final novel ‘a captivating and ultimately uplifting read.’ (link opens a 2018 article from Toronto Star) Richard Wagamese, Whose Writing Explored his Ojibwe Heritage, Dies at 61 (link opens a 2017 New York Times obituary) Three ‘Meditations' from Richard Wagamese (link opens a 2016 article from The Tyee) ___ About the Host Novelist Randy Boyagoda is a professor of English at the University of Toronto and principal of St. Michael’s College, where he holds the Basilian Chair in Christianity, Arts, and Letters. He is the author of three novels: Original Prin, Beggar's Feast, and Governor of the Northern Province. His fiction has been nominated for the Scotiabank Giller Prize (2006) and IMPAC Dublin Literary Prize (2012), and named a New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice Selection (2012 and 2019) and Globe and Mail Best Book (2018). He contributes essays, reviews, and opinions to publications including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, First Things, Commonweal, Harper’s, Financial Times (UK), Guardian, New Statesman, Globe and Mail, and National Post, in addition to appearing frequently on CBC Radio. He served as President of PEN Canada from 2015-2017. Music is by Yuka
From the Archives Writers Off the Page: 40 Years of TIFA is the first series associated with the Toronto Public Library’s multi-year digital initiative, From the Archives, which presents curated and digitized audio, video and other content from some of Canada’s biggest cultural institutions and organizations. Thanks to the Toronto International Festival of Authors (TIFA) for allowing TPL access to their archives to feature some of the best-known writers in the world from moments in the past. Thanks as well to Library and Archives Canada for generously allowing TPL access to these archives. | |||
| John Irving: A Prayer for Owen Meany | 02 Jul 2020 | 00:37:48 | |
Works by John Irving The World According to Garp (book in various formats) The World According to Gary (1982 film starring Robin Williams, Glenn Close and John Lithgow)
13 Facts about A Prayer for Owen Meany (link opens an article from Mental Floss from Apr 2015) John Irving in 1990 (link opens TPL Special Collections page of the Toronto Star Archives featuring a 1990 photo of Irving by Doug Griffin) Episode 162: A Prayer for Owen Meany (link opens a podcast episode by Overdue Podcast) John Irving: A Prayer for Owen Meany (link opens a podcast episode by BBC Radio 4 Bookclub)
About the Host Novelist Randy Boyagoda is a professor of English at the University of Toronto and principal of St. Michael’s College, where he holds the Basilian Chair in Christianity, Arts, and Letters. He is the author of three novels: Original Prin, Beggar's Feast, and Governor of the Northern Province. His fiction has been nominated for the Scotiabank Giller Prize (2006) and IMPAC Dublin Literary Prize (2012), and named a New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice Selection (2012 and 2019) and Globe and Mail Best Book (2018). He contributes essays, reviews, and opinions to publications including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, First Things, Commonweal, Harper’s, Financial Times (UK), Guardian, New Statesman, Globe and Mail, and National Post, in addition to appearing frequently on CBC Radio. He served as President of PEN Canada from 2015-2017. Music is by Yuka
From the Archives Writers Off the Page: 40 Years of TIFA is the first series associated with the Toronto Public Library’s multi-year digital initiative, From the Archives, which presents curated and digitized audio, video and other content from some of Canada’s biggest cultural institutions and organizations. Thanks to the Toronto International Festival of Authors (TIFA) for allowing TPL access to their archives to feature some of the best-known writers in the world from moments in the past. Thanks as well to Library and Archives Canada for generously allowing TPL access to these archives. | |||
| Bruce Chatwin: The Songlines | 18 Jun 2020 | 00:46:54 | |
Note: given the current temporary closure of TPL due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we have made our best efforts to offer suggestions below for materials which are part our online collections (indicated) and available at home to anyone with a current Toronto Library card.
Works by Bruce Chatwin Anatomy of Restlessness: Selected Writings, 1969-1989 (ebook) On the Black Hill (ebook) Utz (ebook)
Bruce Chatwin by Nicholas Shakespeare Anywhere Out of the World: the Work of Bruce Chatwin by Jonathan Chatwin Under the Sun: The Letters of Bruce Chatwin, Edited by Elizabeth Chatwin and Nicholas Shakespeare
Bowie’s Bookshelf: the Hundred Books that Changed David Bowie’s Life (ebook) Walking With Bruce Chatwin by Rory Stewart (about the importance and influence of The Songlines] (link opens a New York Review of Books article from June 2012) Travel and Endless Talk Connected me to Details of Chatwin’s Songlines Missed (link opens an article from The Guardian from Oct 2017) Bruce Chatwin, the Forgotten Travel-Writer is At-Last Being Remembered by Nicholas Shakespeare (link opens an article from The Oldie)
Novelist Randy Boyagoda is a professor of English at the University of Toronto and principal of St. Michael’s College, where he holds the Basilian Chair in Christianity, Arts, and Letters. He is the author of three novels: Original Prin, Beggar's Feast, and Governor of the Northern Province. His fiction has been nominated for the Scotiabank Giller Prize (2006) and IMPAC Dublin Literary Prize (2012), and named a New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice Selection (2012 and 2019) and Globe and Mail Best Book (2018). He contributes essays, reviews, and opinions to publications including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, First Things, Commonweal, Harper’s, Financial Times (UK), Guardian, New Statesman, Globe and Mail, and National Post, in addition to appearing frequently on CBC Radio. He served as President of PEN Canada from 2015-2017. Music is by Yuka
From the Archives Writers Off the Page: 40 Years of TIFA is the first series associated with the Toronto Public Library’s multi-year digital initiative, From the Archives, which presents curated and digitized audio, video and other content from some of Canada’s biggest cultural institutions and organizations. Thanks to the Toronto International Festival of Authors (TIFA) for allowing TPL access to their archives to feature some of the best-known writers in the world from moments in the past. Thanks as well to Library and Archives Canada for generously allowing TPL access to these archives. | |||
| Saul Bellow: Wires not Roots | 19 Dec 2024 | 00:49:18 | |
EPISODE SUMMARY Listening to this 1988 conversation between Nobel-prize winning American writer, Saul Bellow, and former Canadian Governor General, Adrienne Clarkson, we possess the advantage of hindsight. In the midst of a US presidential election, Bellow bemoans the vapid discourse between candidates George H.W. Bush and Michael Dukakis—their language constrained by groupthink and moral rigidity and the fact that neither one says anything worth listening to. One almost wants to say aloud: "Bellow, stop! Be careful what you wish for!" After the election we've just had—36 years later—it seems almost quaint to think that US presidential candidates are plagued with the problem of not saying enough. Clarkson delicately puts pressure on Bellow to claim a tribe: not only in terms of his Jewishness, but is he really a misogynist, and what's the deal with the accusations of racism against him? Bellow's defense that these questions feel "McCarthyite" in their demand for loyalty is both incisive and ironically blind to its own implications. Though he stands as one of America's most significant literary voices of the 20th century, Bellow emerges here as a figure suspended between eras, embodying both timeless insight and the beautiful limitations of his age. *** The audio recording of Saul Bellow in conversation with Adrienne Clarkson was recorded on stage at Harbourfront Reading Series in 1988. It's used with the permission of the Toronto International Festival of Authors. Find out more about all of TIFA’s Canadian and international author events, both virtual, in-person and on-demand, at FestivalOfAuthors.ca. Click here to check out Season One of Writers Off the Page where you'll be able to listen to all 26 episodes which feature Umberto Eco, Susan Sontag, Nikki Giovanni, Grace Paley and many more. SHOW NOTES Works by Saul Bellow Works about Saul Bellow Saul Bellow: I was a Jew and an American and a Writer by Gerald Soring (print edition) Other Related Books or Materials The Adventures of Saul Bellow: a video featuring Martin Amis on Bellow's life and career About the Host of Writers Off the Page Randy Boyagoda is a novelist and professor of English at the University of Toronto, where he serves as advisor on civil discourse and vice-dean undergraduate, in the Faculty of Arts and Science. He has written seven books, including four novels. His work has been nominated for the Scotiabank Giller Prize and the IMPAC Dublin Literary Prize and named a Globe and Mail Best Book of the Year and New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice selection. He regularly contributes essays, opinions and reviews to publications including the Atlantic, the New York Times, the Financial Times of London, the Times Literary Supplement, and the Globe and Mail, and appears frequently on CBC Radio. A former president of PEN Canada, Boyagoda lives in Toronto with his wife and their four daughters. Music is by Yuka Thanks to the Toronto International Festival of Authors (TIFA) for allowing TPL access to their archives to feature some of the best-known writers in the world from moments in the past. Thanks as well to Library and Archives Canada for generously allowing TPL access to these archives. | |||
| Jamaica Kincaid: Brothers, Mothers and Antigua | 20 Nov 2024 | 00:53:56 | |
The best kinds of conversations should meander and detour, trip over delicate areas, double down when a point must be emphatically asserted. After all, the ostensible subject of this 1997 on-stage chat between Dionne Brand and Jamaica Kincaid is the release of Kincaid's memoir, My Brother. But this book gets only a brief nod early on and the subject is largely abandoned for other thoughts and digressions. You can't for a moment fault either of these vital writers for that fact, as important and provocative as Kincaid's book is, for even when planned, a conversation best works when the unexpected comes out, when an anecdote or a memory surfaces that opens up a new avenue for exploration. There is a striking chemistry here between these two very different kinds of writers (though on the surface they seem to share a number of similarities): they agree, they laugh, they riff on each other's thoughts, all to wonderful effect. The chemistry is so strong, one suspects, that any subject they choose to explore would be worth listening to. So pay close attention because another great thing about good conversations: they are fleeting and may only happen once. Works by Jamaica Kincaid My Brother (print edition) Works by Dione Brand Salvage: Readings from the Wreck (print edition) (ebook) (audiobook) Other Related Books or Materials
About the Host of Writers Off the Page Randy Boyagoda is a novelist and professor of English at the University of Toronto, where he serves as advisor on civil discourse and vice-dean undergraduate, in the Faculty of Arts and Science. He has written seven books, including four novels. His work has been nominated for the Scotiabank Giller Prize and the IMPAC Dublin Literary Prize and named a Globe and Mail Best Book of the Year and New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice selection. He regularly contributes essays, opinions and reviews to publications including the Atlantic, the New York Times, the Financial Times of London, the Times Literary Supplement, and the Globe and Mail, and appears frequently on CBC Radio. A former president of PEN Canada, Boyagoda lives in Toronto with his wife and their four daughters. Music is by Yuka Thanks to the Toronto International Festival of Authors (TIFA) for allowing TPL access to their archives to feature some of the best-known writers in the world from moments in the past. Thanks as well to Library and Archives Canada for generously allowing TPL access to these archives.
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| Mario Vargas Llosa: Literature Can Help People Live | 16 Oct 2024 | 00:49:03 | |
In 1988, when Mario Vargas Llosa sat down on a Toronto stage with Adrienne Clarkson, he hadn't yet won his Nobel Prize for Literature (that came in 2010) so he wasn't yet a "central" figure in the world of writing. In this conversation, he teases out the hazy line between being an artist (who inhabits the world of the imagination), and being a professional politician (who inhabits the world of practical problem-solving) in a way that reflects a very different vision for the role for the artist in a society. In North America, we're more ambivalent about professional practitioners of literature who stray too far into the world of politics, as if political life will sully them and contaminate the artistic vision. But in Vargas Llosa's native Peru (as in many countries), it's expected that writers will be asked to comment on politics, and not doing so undermines the role of the public intellectual. As he so aptly notes, literature "... is something that can help people to live, that can help people to solve problems [...] literature is important, [and] rooted in life. And this idea is one of the reasons why writers are pushed in Latin America to be involved in political problems and in the public debate." It's a symbol, perhaps, of the marginal role that artists in general (and writers in particular) play in contemporary North American society. And in the background a series of important questions about the role of the artist: What does a society look like when writers are more actively involved in political discussion and even political contests? What does it do to politics when writers are central players? And more importantly, what does it do to literature? *** This audio recording of Mario Vargas Llosa in conversation with Adrienne Clarkson was recorded on stage at Harbourfront Reading Series in 1988. It is used with the kind permission of the Toronto International Festival of Authors. Thanks to TIFA for allowing us access to their archives for this series. Find out more about the Festival and its annual festival along with many other activities at FestivalOfAuthors.ca. Click here to check out Season One of Writers Off the Page where you'll be able to listen to all 26 episodes which feature Umberto Eco, Susan Sontag, Nikki Giovanni, Grace Paley and many more. SHOW NOTES Works by Mario Vargas Llosa (in English) Works by Mario Vargas Llosa (en Español) La civilización del espectáculo (print edition) (ebook) Other Related Books or Materials About the Host of Writers Off the Page Randy Boyagoda is a novelist and professor of English at the University of Toronto, where he serves as advisor on civil discourse and vice-dean undergraduate, in the Faculty of Arts and Science. He has written seven books, including four novels. His work has been nominated for the Scotiabank Giller Prize and the IMPAC Dublin Literary Prize and named a Globe and Mail Best Book of the Year and New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice selection. He regularly contributes essays, opinions and reviews to publications including the Atlantic, the New York Times, the Financial Times of London, the Times Literary Supplement, and the Globe and Mail, and appears frequently on CBC Radio. A former president of PEN Canada, Boyagoda lives in Toronto with his wife and their four daughters. Music is by Yuka Thanks to the Toronto International Festival of Authors (TIFA) for allowing TPL access to their archives to feature some of the best-known writers in the world from moments in the past. Thanks as well to Library and Archives Canada for generously allowing TPL access to these archives. | |||
| Ursula Le Guin: Don't Push the River | 30 Jan 2025 | 00:44:25 | |
In October of 2000, Ursula K. Le Guin sat down with CBC's Marilyn Powell to discuss her novel, The Telling. Listening to their conversation now feels like opening a time capsule – one that paradoxically contains prescient observations about how we both preserve and erase our past. Le Guin speaks of editing with razor blades, of physically cutting away words from paper – a practice that feels almost mythological in our age of ephemeral keystrokes and vanishing digital drafts. Yet within this seemingly dated discussion emerges a timeless truth: that our past exists only through the artifacts and stories we choose to keep. As she weaves between discussing myth-making and the tactile nature of writing, Le Guin reveals how community-held stories become the framework through which we understand our history. These aren't just tales, she suggests, but rather the very architecture of human memory, the scaffolding that holds our collective past in place. There's something haunting about hearing the author, now herself part of our literary past, contemplating how we maintain connections to what came before. Yet in her voice, we hear not anxiety but wonder at how each generation finds new ways to tell its stories, to make sense of where it's been. Perhaps that's the most enduring message from this conversation across time: that while the tools we use to record and share our stories may change, the essential human need to weave meaning from memory remains constant, evolving and adapting like a living thing. *** The audio recording of Ursula Le Guin in conversation with Marilyn Powell was recorded on stage at in Toronto in October of 2000 and is used with the permission of the Toronto International Festival of Authors. Find out more about all of TIFA’s Canadian and international author events, both virtual, in-person and on-demand, at FestivalOfAuthors.ca. Click here to check out Season One of Writers Off the Page where you'll be able to listen to all 26 episodes which feature Umberto Eco, Susan Sontag, Nikki Giovanni, Grace Paley and many more.
Works by Ursula K. Le Guin: Other works about Le Guin and other materials mentioned: About the Host of Writers Off the Page Randy Boyagoda is a novelist and professor of English at the University of Toronto, where he serves as advisor on civil discourse and vice-dean undergraduate, in the Faculty of Arts and Science. He has written seven books, including four novels. His work has been nominated for the Scotiabank Giller Prize and the IMPAC Dublin Literary Prize and named a Globe and Mail Best Book of the Year and New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice selection. He regularly contributes essays, opinions and reviews to publications including the Atlantic, the New York Times, the Financial Times of London, the Times Literary Supplement, and the Globe and Mail, and appears frequently on CBC Radio. A former president of PEN Canada, Boyagoda lives in Toronto with his wife and their four daughters. Music is by Yuka Thanks to the Toronto International Festival of Authors (TIFA) for allowing TPL access to their archives to feature some of the best-known writers in the world from moments in the past. Thanks as well to Library and Archives Canada for generously allowing TPL access to these archives. | |||
| Seamus Heaney: Death of a Naturalist | 02 May 2025 | 00:31:04 | |
In this captivating episode of Writers Off the Page: From the TIFA Archives, step back in time to 1990 Toronto and immerse yourself in the lyrical world of Nobel Prize-winning poet Seamus Heaney. The recording captures Heaney in an intimate reading at the Harbourfront Reading Series, where his distinctive Irish voice brings to life some of his most beloved poems, including "Digging," "Follower," and "The Railway Children." Heaney's verse resonates with the earthy cadence of his native countryside, conjuring vivid tableaux of his heritage—his father's calloused hands excavating potatoes from resistant soil, his aunt's practiced movements transforming flour into sustenance, and his boyhood self gazing skyward, convinced that rain-slicked telegraph wires conducted not just electricity but human connection itself. With characteristic warmth and humour, Heaney considers his creative process, discussing how his Irish upbringing and English literary education influenced his distinctive poetic voice. This rare archival recording reveals not just Heaney's masterful command of language, but also his generosity of spirit and deep humanity. Whether you're a longtime admirer of Heaney's work or discovering his poetry for the first time, this episode offers a remarkable opportunity to hear one of the 20th century's greatest poets bringing his words to life in his own voice. *** This audio recording of Seamus Heaney, recorded on stage at Harbourfront Reading Series in 1990, is used with the kind permission of Faber & Faber and the Estate of Seamus Heaney, as well as the Toronto International Festival of Authors.Find out more about all of TIFA’s Canadian and international author events, both virtual, in-person and on-demand, at FestivalOfAuthors.ca. Click here to check out Season One of Writers Off the Page where you'll be able to listen to all 26 episodes which feature Umberto Eco, Susan Sontag, Nikki Giovanni, Grace Paley and many more.
SHOW NOTES Works by Seamus Heaney Death of a Naturalist (print edition) Other works about Heaney and other materials On Seamus Heaney by R.F. Foster (print edition) About the Host of Writers Off the Page Randy Boyagoda is a novelist and professor of English at the University of Toronto, where he serves as advisor on civil discourse and vice-dean undergraduate, in the Faculty of Arts and Science. He has written seven books, including four novels. His work has been nominated for the Giller Prize and the IMPAC Dublin Literary Prize and named a Globe and Mail Best Book of the Year and New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice selection. He regularly contributes essays, opinions and reviews to publications including the Atlantic, the New York Times, the Financial Times of London, the Times Literary Supplement, and the Globe and Mail, and appears frequently on CBC Radio. A former president of PEN Canada, Boyagoda lives in Toronto with his wife and their four daughters. Music is by Yuka Thanks to the Toronto International Festival of Authors (TIFA) for allowing TPL access to their archives to feature some of the best-known writers in the world from moments in the past. Thanks as well to Library and Archives Canada for generously allowing TPL access to these archives. | |||
| Carlos Fuentes: From Illusion to Reality | 20 Mar 2025 | 00:45:30 | |
This conversation between Mexican writer Carlos Fuentes and Bob Rae, recorded in 2000, offers a time capsule of North American relations at a pivotal moment. The interview captures Fuentes just after Mexico's historic election that ended the PRI party's 71-year rule—a seismic political shift that he explains with characteristic depth and nuance. While Fuentes delves into Mexican politics with a detail that might seem excessive to casual listeners, his purpose is profound: he's illustrating how Mexico's complex political evolution deserves the same serious consideration given to more dominant nations. What's particularly striking, viewed from today, is Fuentes' perspective on North American identity and free trade. Speaking when NAFTA was relatively new, he offers insights that feel remarkably prescient as we witness the pendulum swing from the market-linked regional identities of the 1990s toward the more protectionist national boundaries of today. As a cosmopolitan intellectual fluent in Spanish, English, and French, Fuentes represents a vision of North America that transcends borders while acknowledging deep cultural differences—"the differences are huge," he admits. Despite his global perspective, Fuentes finds his deepest meaning in the personal: "Grandmothers are the best novelists," he tells Rae, suggesting that family storytelling contains more authentic truth than official histories. This tension between grand political narratives and intimate personal stories runs throughout their conversation, as Fuentes discusses his disciplined writing routine, his diplomat father's influence, and the powerful female protagonist of his then-new novel, The Years with Laura Diaz. Throughout this exchange, we witness Fuentes' remarkable ability to weave together cultural creation and political engagement, offering a unified vision of human experience that remains relevant despite—or perhaps because of—the dramatic changes in our world since 2000. *** The audio recording of Carlos Fuentes in conversation with Bob Rae was recorded on stage in Toronto in October of 2000 and is used with the permission of the Toronto International Festival of Authors. Find out more about all of TIFA’s Canadian and international author events, both virtual, in-person and on-demand, at FestivalOfAuthors.ca. Click here to check out Season One of Writers Off the Page where you'll be able to listen to all 26 episodes which feature Umberto Eco, Susan Sontag, Nikki Giovanni, Grace Paley and many more. SHOW NOTES Works by Carlos Fuentes The Old Gringo (ebook) (print edition) Other Related Books or Materials
About the Host of Writers Off the Page Randy Boyagoda is a novelist and professor of English at the University of Toronto, where he serves as advisor on civil discourse and vice-dean undergraduate, in the Faculty of Arts and Science. He has written seven books, including four novels. His work has been nominated for the Scotiabank Giller Prize and the IMPAC Dublin Literary Prize and named a Globe and Mail Best Book of the Year and New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice selection. He regularly contributes essays, opinions and reviews to publications including the Atlantic, the New York Times, the Financial Times of London, the Times Literary Supplement, and the Globe and Mail, and appears frequently on CBC Radio. A former president of PEN Canada, Boyagoda lives in Toronto with his wife and their four daughters. Music is by Yuka Thanks to the Toronto International Festival of Authors (TIFA) for allowing TPL access to their archives to feature some of the best-known writers in the world from moments in the past. Thanks as well to Library and Archives Canada for generously allowing TPL access to these archives. | |||