The International Festival of Authors (IFOA)’s Lit On Tour is once again coming to Thunder Bay! This year, Lakehead University, the Northwestern Ontario Writers Workshop (NOWW), the Thunder Bay Art Gallery, CBC Radio and the Thunder Bay Public Library have all partnered with the IFOA, bringing four authors to our region on October 30th to read from their latest works at the Thunder Bay Art Gallery. We’re bringing in a great line up of Canadian authors this year: Gary Barwin, the author of Yiddish for Pirates; Terry Fallis, the author of The Best Laid Plans; Grace O’Connell, the author of Magnified World; and Thunder Bay’s Jean E. Pendziwol, author of Once Upon a Northern Night. Here’s a little more about each of these authors (courtesy of the Lit On Tour site, litontour.com):
Gary Barwin is a writer, composer, multimedia artist and the author of twenty-one books of poetry, fiction and books for children. His recent books include Scotiabank Giller Prize and Governor General’s Award shortlisted Yiddish for Pirates and the poetry collection Moon Baboon Canoe. Barwin teaches creative writing in the Mohawk College Continuing Education program and will be the writer-in-residence at McMaster University and the Hamilton Public Library for 2017–2018. Born in Northern Ireland to South African parents of Ashkenazi descent, Barwin moved to Canada as a child. He lives in Hamilton, Ontario.
Terry Fallis earned an engineering degree from McMaster University. Drawn to politics, he worked for cabinet ministers at Queen’s Park and Ottawa. His first novel, The Best Laid Plans, began as a podcast, then was self-published, won the Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour, was re-published by McClelland & Stewart to great reviews, was crowned the 2011 winner of CBC’s Canada Reads as “the essential Canadian novel of the decade,” and became a CBC Television series. His next two novels, The High Road and Up and Down were finalists for the Leacock Medal, and in 2015, he won the prize a second time for his fourth book, No Relation. He lives in Toronto with his wife and two sons. He will be presenting One Brother Shy.
Grace O’Connell is the author of The Globe and Mail Best Book Magnified World and 2014 winner of the Canadian Authors Association Emerging Writer Award. She holds an MFA in creative writing, and her work has appeared in various publications including The Walrus, Taddle Creek, The Globe and Mail, National Post and Elle Canada. She teaches creative writing at the University of Toronto and works as a freelance writer and editor. She will be presenting Be Ready For The Lightning.
Jean E. Pendziwol was born in Thunder Bay and spent much of her childhood aboard her family’s sailboat. After working as a freelance writer and photographer, she spent several years raising her three children before publishing her first book for young people. She is now the author of eight children’s books. She was shortlisted for the Governor General’s Literary Award for Children’s Literature and the TD Canadian Children’s Literature Award for Once Upon a Northern Night, illustrated by Isabelle Arsenault. She lives in Ontario with her husband, two of her three adult children, a lovable mutt and three temperamental chickens, who sometimes lay eggs. She will be presenting The Lightkeeper’s Daughters.
For more information on this event, please visit the IFOA’s Lit on Tour site at litontour.com. You can also visit the Thunder Bay Public Library’s blog, TBPL Off the Shelf (tbplofftheshelf.com), to read interviews with each of these authors
I hope we’ll see you at the Thunder Bay Art Gallery tomorrow evening to hear these authors read from their new work. The event starts at 7pm.
Shauna Kosoris
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