HARBOURFRONT 2009 - PRESS RELEASE
For Immediate Release
PARRY SOUND, August 24, 2009 ---- This year, the world renowned International Festival of Authors expands its touring programme, IFOA Ontario, to include festival events in Barrie, Don Mills, Midland, Orillia and Uxbridge, in addition to those already established in Burlington and Parry Sound.
Says Geoffrey Taylor, Director of IFOA: “We are delighted to continue the expansion of IFOA programming in order to reach audiences throughout the province.”
Don’t miss IFOA Parry Sound on Sunday, November 1, 2009 at 2:00pm at the Charles W. Stockey Centre for the Performing Arts. Presented in partnership with Parry Sound Books, this event features readings by Alan Bissett, John Brady, Diana Fitzgerald Bryden and Miriam Toews. Charlotte Stein of Parry Sound Books hosts.
Tickets are $10 and can be purchased through the Charles W. Stockey Centre Box Office at 705-746-4466 or Parry Sound Books at 705-746-7625.
Alan Bissett’s (Scotland/UK) acclaimed first novel, Boyracers – based on his adolescent experiences growing up in Falkirk, Scotland – was published while he was still a student. He is a former English teacher and has lectured in creative writing at the Universities of Leeds and Glasgow, and is now a full-time writer, playwright, and performer of his own work. Death of a Ladies’ Man, Bissett’s third novel, is a dark, funny and deliciously erotic portrait of male vanity, written with verve and emotional rawness. Alan Bissett appears at IFOA as part of Writing Scotland.
A native of Dublin, John Brady (Canada/Ireland) is the author of the Arthur Ellis Award-winning Inspector Matt Minogue series and the Dashiell Hammett Prize-shortlisted novel Islandbridge. He is currently working on a historical novel, The Burning Tower, which follows a family of exiles in Babylon, through the Inquisition to Ireland in 1938. Brady presents the latest installment in the Inspector Matt Minogue series, A Long Hard Look, a story that begins with the discovery of a missing person’s body near the sea just south of Dublin.
Diana Fitzgerald Bryden (Canada/UK) is the author of two books of poetry, Learning Russian, nominated for the pat Lowther Award, and Clinic Day. Her fiction and non-fiction has been nominated for numerous awards. Bryden presents her debut novel, No Place Strange, which follows the lives of four individuals – a young Jewish Canadian; Farid, a Lebanese man living in Greece; and Farid’s mother and cousin – affected by the actions of one beautiful Palestinian terrorist named Rafa Ahmed. A powerful story examining how ordinary people, politically motivated or not, react to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Miriam Toews (Canada) is the author of three previous novels – Summer of My Amazing Luck, A Boy of Good Breeding, and the Governor General’s Literary Award-winning A Complicated Kindness – and one work of non-fiction, Swing Low: A Life. Toews presents her latest novel, The Flying Troutmans, winner of the 2008 Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize. Following an SOS call from her niece, Hattie returns to Canada only to find her sister on her way to the psychiatric ward. The three set off on a wild road trip to find the kids’ long-lost father.
The 30th anniversary International Festival of Authors (IFOA) takes place in Toronto from October 21 to 31, 2009, with extended events throughout Ontario until November 3, 2009. The IFOA brings together over 100 participants from 20 countries for 11 days of readings, talks, interviews, round table discussions and award presentations. For more information visit www.readings.org.
Media Contact:
Charlotte Stein: parrysoundbooks@cogeco.net; 705-746-7625