COVER STORY
MEET THE MINDS BEHIND THE BOOKS YOU LOVE
Afghan-Canadian writer Jamaluddin Aram’s debut novel, Nothing Good Happens in Wazirabad on Wednesday, won the 2024 Rakuten Kobo Emerging Writer Prize in Literary Fiction. Image credit: DEREK O’DONNELL.
TIFA presents over 100 events in Toronto with some of the world’s most beloved authors and celebrated thinkers.
By SHAGORIKA EASWAR
The Toronto International Festival of Authors (TIFA) is Canada’s largest and longest-running literary festival, and TIFA 2026 brings the world’s most compelling writers into conversation with one another, and with you.
From author conversations to electric readings and intimate masterclasses, the Festival is where stories cross borders, ideas find each other, and readers discover that literature is very much alive.
TIFA 2026 spans multiple genres, including literary fiction, non-fiction, and poetry, with a dedicated horror stream on Saturday, October 31, and the return of The Festival of Indigenous Stories. Closing the festival is East/West Street: A Song of Good & Evil, a multimedia stage production that has sold out around the world.
Joining previously announced headliners Barbara Kingsolver, David Szalay, Marie NDiaye, Patrick deWitt and Philippe Sands are Dave Eggers, Ann-Marie MacDonald, David Shribman, Carol Off, Jesse Wente and Andrew Sean Greer, with so much more to discover.
Festival highlights include:
Jamaluddin Aram, an Afghan-Canadian writer. Aram’s works have appeared in Numero Cinq, The New Quarterly and The Globe and Mail among others. His short story, This Hard Easy Life, was a finalist for the RBC Bronwen Wallace Award in 2020. His debut novel, Nothing Good Happens in Wazirabad on Wednesday, won the 2024 Rakuten Kobo Emerging Writer Prize in Literary Fiction. Aram is the associate producer of the Oscar-nominated film Buzkashi Boys. He lives in Toronto.
Roots & Routes: Jamaluddin Aram and Raoul de Jong. Join the two authors as they discuss their latest novels. Sun, Nov 1, 11:30 am.
Omer Aziz is the author of Brown Boy and Shadows of the Republic.
Omer Aziz is a writer, lawyer, and former foreign policy advisor. He is the author of Brown Boy and Shadows of the Republic. He has held residencies at MacDowell and Yaddo and was most recently a Fellow at Harvard’s Radcliffe Institute. His essays have appeared in The Atlantic, Harper’s, New York, and the New York Times, among other publications. Born to a working-class immigrant family, Aziz earned his BA with honors in politics from Queen’s University, his MPhil in international relations from the University of Cambridge, and his JD from Yale Law School.
Award-winning author Carol Off.
Carol Off is the award-winning author of At a Loss for Words: Conversation in an Age of Rage, an instant number one Canadian bestseller. Her new book, True Patriot Love: Reporting from the Frontlines of Canadian Sovereignty, chronicles Canada’s progress as a maturing nation, celebrating its spirit of resistance and its role as a symbol of tolerance in a changing world. Carol spent decades as a TV and radio journalist. For 15 years, she was the co-host of the multi-award winning CBC radio program As It Happens where she did more than 25,000 interviews.
The Politics of Patriotism: Omer Aziz and Carol Off. Hear from these two voices on Canadian politics. Thu, Oct 29, 7:30 pm.
Asha in Her Garden is Anita Rau Badami’s latest novel.
Anita Rau Badami is the author of the beloved bestsellers Tamarind Mem and The Hero’s Walk. The novels that followed, Can You Hear the Nightbird Call? and Tell it To The Trees, received great acclaim and were both longlisted for the prestigious IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. She lives in Montreal. Asha in Her Garden is her latest novel.
Award-winning Trinidadian-Canadian author Rabindranath Maharaj.
Rabindranath Maharaj is an award-winning Trinidadian-Canadian author of five novels and four short story collections. His novel The Amazing Absorbing Boy won the Trillium Book Award and the Toronto Book Award. His fiction has also been shortlisted for the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize, the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize, and the ReLit Award. A co-founder of Lichen literary magazine, Maharaj has been a writer-in-residence and mentor at institutions including the University of Toronto, Humber School for Writers, and the Banff Writing Studio. He lives in Ajax, Ontario.
Memory & Migration: Anita Rau Badami and Rabindranath Maharaj. Hear from these best-selling authors. Sat, Oct 31, 1:30 pm.
Novelist Randy Boyagoda.
Randy Boyagoda is a novelist who writes about books and ideas for publications including The Atlantic, The New York Times, and the Financial Times. He is a professor of English and director of the Jackman Humanities Institute at the University of Toronto. To learn more, visit www.randyboyagoda.com.
The Price of a Better Life: Randy Boyagoda and Priya Guns. Join for a conversation on wealth, class, immigrant families. Sat, Oct 31, 4:30 pm.
Patrick deWitt is the author of the novels The Librarianist (an instant #1 national bestseller and winner of the Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour), French Exit (an international bestseller and a finalist for the Scotiabank Giller Prize), The Sisters Brothers (winner of the Governor General’s Literary Award for Fiction, the Atwood Gibson Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize, the Leacock Medal for Humour, and a finalist for the Booker Prize and the Scotiabank Giller Prize), and the critically acclaimed Undermajordomo Minor and Ablutions. Born in British Columbia, he now resides in Portland, Oregon.
Dodge City: Patrick deWitt. Join the bestselling author for a talk on his latest novel. Oct 29, 4:30 pm.
Dave Eggers.
Dave Eggers is the author of The Circle, The Monk of Mokha, A Hologram for the King, What Is the What, and The Museum of Rain, among other books. He is the co-founder of 826 National, a network of youth writing centers, and Art + Water, a nonprofit visual art hub on San Francisco’s waterfront. A classically trained artist and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Eggers has been a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, and the National Book Critics Circle Award, and is the recipient of the Dayton Literary Peace Prize and the American Book Award. In 2024, The Eyes and the Impossible was awarded the Newbery Medal.
Contrapposto: Dave Eggers. Join the bestselling author for a talk on his latest novel. Thu, Oct 29, 7 pm.
Terry Fallis is a two-time winner of the Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour, and the award-winning author of ten national bestsellers – six of them #1 bestsellers – all published by McClelland & Stewart/Penguin Random House. His debut novel, The Best Laid Plans, won the 2008 Leacock Medal, the 2011 edition of CBC Canada Reads, and was adapted as a six-part television miniseries, as well as a stage musical. He won the Leacock Medal a second time in 2015 for No Relation. His eleventh novel, An End in Itself, will be released November 3, 2026.
Some Assembly Required: Glenn Dixon and Terry Fallis. Find the humour in humanity. Sun, Nov 1, 1:30 pm.
Mohammed Hanif will appear at the Festival to present Rebel English Academy, a sharp, darkly funny novel set against the charged realities of contemporary Pakistan. The Booker-longlisted author turns his wry eye to the business of English and the complicated promises of education and social mobility. At its heart is a cast of unforgettable characters navigating a world where language can open doors, reshape identities and challenge authority. Join Hanif for a lively conversation about language, political power, religion, education, and dissent – and discover why he remains one of contemporary literature’s most distinctive voices.
Sat, Oct 31, 3:00 pm.
A critically acclaimed author for adults and teens. Farah Heron.
Farah Heron is a critically acclaimed author for adults and teens. Her books have been named as best books of the year by CBC books, USA Today, and NPR. She writes romance novels full of South Asian families, delectable food, and most importantly, brown people falling stupidly in love. Farah’s adult books include A Little Holiday Fling and Accidentally Engaged, and her young adult books include Remember Me Tomorrow, and The Bad Boyfriend Curse. Farah also writes paranormal romances under the name Farah Halliwell. She lives in Toronto with her family and has been teaching romance writing for many years.
Writer’s Craft: Finding the Funny in Romance with Farah Heron. Learn from the best in a Creative Writing Masterclass. Fri, Oct 30, 5 pm.
Tamil writer Bahuleyan Jeyamohan, one of India’s most prolific and acclaimed literary voices.
Bahuleyan Jeyamohan is one of India’s most prolific and acclaimed literary voices. Born in 1962, and fluent in Tamil and Malayalam, his vast body of work spans over 80 books, including novels, criticism, philosophy, and screenplays for major films like Ponniyin Selvan and Naan Kadavul.
His masterworks include Vishnupuram, Kotravai, and the epic Venmurasu – a 26-volume retelling of the Mahabharata recognized as the longest novel ever written. Drawing on Indian philosophy, ecology, and Sangam literature, Jeyamohan’s honours include Singapore’s Tamil Author of the Year (2013) and NTU Writer in Residence (2016).
The Abyss: Jeyamohan. Join the bestselling author for a talk on his latest novel. Sat, Oct 31, 5 pm.
Barbara Kingsolver award-winning author. This special event on her highly-anticipated novel Partita is not-to-be-missed. In the beautiful Winter Garden Theatre. Included with a Full Festival Pass. Friday, Oct. 30 at 8 pm.
Ann-Marie MacDonald is an award-winning novelist, playwright, actor, and broadcast host. Her writing for the stage includes the plays Goodnight Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet), Belle Moral: A Natural History, and Hamlet-911, along with the libretto for the chamber opera Nigredo Hotel, and book and lyrics for the musical Anything That Moves. She is the author of the bestselling novels Fall on Your Knees, The Way the Crow Flies, and Adult Onset.
Ann-Marie is a graduate of the Acting Program of The National Theatre School of Canada. In 2019 she was made an Officer of the Order of Canada in recognition of her contribution to the arts and her LGBTQ2SI+ activism.
She is married to theatre director Alisa Palmer, with whom she has two children.
Anne Michaels is a novelist and poet. Her books are translated into fifty languages and have won dozens of international awards, including the Orange Prize, the Guardian Fiction Prize, the Lannan Award for Fiction, and the Commonwealth Poetry Prize for the Americas. In 2024, her novel Held was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and Prix Femina. Her novel Fugitive Pieces was adapted as a feature film and was chosen as one of the BBC’s 100 Novels that Shaped the World.
10 years on: A celebration of Leonard Cohen with Britta Badour, Anne Michaels, Ann-Marie MacDonald, and Michael Christie. Thu, Oct 29, 8 pm.
Marie NDiaye joins TIFA 2026 on Halloween to discuss her haunting novel The Witch, shortlisted for the 2026 International Booker Prize. Based in Paris, NDiaye has won the Prix Femina, the Prix Gongourt, and is a recipient of the Gold Medal in the Arts from the Kennedy Centre International Committee on the Arts. Included with a Full Festival Pass. Saturday, Oct. 31, 6 pm.
Shyam Selvadurai was born in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Funny Boy, his first novel, was published to immediate acclaim in 1994.
It was shortlisted for the prestigious Giller Prize, was a national bestseller, won the W. H. Smith/Books in Canada First Novel Award and the Lambda Literary Award, and was named a Notable Book by the American Library Association.
In 2020, it was made into a feature film by director Deepa Mehta. His second novel, Cinnamon Gardens, was shortlisted for the Trillium Award.
His third, The Hungry Ghosts, was shortlisted for the Governor General’s Literary Award.
Selvadurai is also the author of an acclaimed novel for young adults, Swimming in the Monsoon.
Creating Vivid Characters with Shyam Selvadurai: Learn from the best in a Creative Writing Masterclass. Sun, Nov 1, 11:30 am.
Vivek Shraya is an artist whose body of work crosses the boundaries of music, literature, visual art, theatre, TV, film, and fashion. A three-time Canadian Screen Award winner, Vivek is the creator and writer of the CBC Gem Original Series How to Fail as a Popstar, which had its international premiere at Cannes. She was nominated for the Polaris Music Prize and has collaborated with musical icons Jann Arden, Peaches, and Jully Black. Her best-selling book I’m Afraid of Men was heralded by Vanity Fair as “cultural rocket fuel”. Vivek has been a brand ambassador for MAC Cosmetics and Pantene, a guest host on The Social and CBC’s q, and she is a director on the board of the Tegan and Sara Foundation.
Women, Grief & Resistance: Harriet Alida Lye and Vivek Shraya. Hear from these best-selling Canadian authors. Wed, Oct 28, 5:30 pm.
David Szalay. The Booker Prize winning author presents his novel Flesh on the opening night of the Festival, in Isabel Bader Theatre. Included with a Full Festival Pass. Wednesday, Oct. 28, 7:30 pm.
Jesse Wente, Storyteller in Residence at Toronto Metropolitan University.
Jesse Wente is a husband and father, as well as an award-winning writer and speaker. Born and raised in Toronto, he is an off-reserve member of the Serpent River First Nation. Jesse’s books include the bestselling and award winning, Unreconciled, the children’s book Danger Eagle, and Tough Lies, which is out now. Jesse is currently serving as Storyteller in Residence at Toronto Metropolitan University.
Sintering: Performances and Readings, Part of the Festival of Indigenous Stories. Quill Christie-Peters, Nardi Simpson, Bebe Oliver, Jesse Wente, Jasmin McGaughey and Jessica Johns. Wed, Oct 28, 7:30pm.
Imagining Resistance Beyond Colonies: Quill Christie-Peters, Nardi Simpson and Jesse Wente. Fri, Oct 30, 6:30 pm.
Who Gets to Tell the Story? Oral History Against Erasure, presented in partnership with Qissa Festival. 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 familiar narratives.
Featuring Jingshu Yao, Anam Zakaria, Sara Sinclair. Moderator: Luis van Isschot. Sat, Oct 31, 1:00 pm. This is a free event.
Beyond Butter Chicken: Making the Immigrant Culture Palatable. Presented in partnership with Qissa Festival. 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 to be understood or accepted. It considers the line between adaptation and assimilation, and asks what is simplified, concealed, or lost when complex identities must be presented in familiar and consumable forms. Featuring Ahmer Naqvi, Mohammed Hanif and Maya El Helou. Moderator: Val Duarte. Sun, Nov 1, 11:00 am.
Curated Festival streams include:
Rupture/ Justice. Human rights lawyer and acclaimed author Philippe Sands guest-curates a Rupture/Justice stream at the Festival, gathering historians, journalists, artists and authors to examine our era’s fault lines. It culminates in East/West Street: A Song of Good & Evil – a one-night performance blending the voice of opera star Laurent Naouri, music by Bach, Rachmaninoff and Cohen, and narration by Sands and French soprano Natalie Dessay. All Rupture / Justice events are included with a full Festival pass.
Festival of Indigenous Stories. Award-winning poet Evelyn Araluen (Goorie/Koori) and Jessica Johns (nehiyaw, Sucker Creek First Nation, author of Bad Cree) will co-curate The Festival of Indigenous Stories. With support from Melbourne Writers Festival and Canada Council for the Arts, their programme unites nine Indigenous authors and artists from Canada and Australia through conversations and commissions exploring yearning, futurity, resistance, and intergenerational memory. All curated events in this stream are included with a full Festival pass.
Special Pre-Festival events
TIFA Presents Bonnie Garmus. An evening with Bonnie Garmus, author of the New York Times bestselling novel Lessons in Chemistry. Garmus will present her second novel, Peck & Peck, which follows young poetry lover Batter Gray, who gets a job at a prestigious – albeit dysfunctional – New York literary journal, and must navigate eccentric staff, a bitter feud between twin editors, and life’s dualities. Thurs, October 15, 7:30pm at Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema. Included with Full Festival Pass.
TIFA Presents Emily St. John Mandel. An evening celebrating Emily St. John Mandel’s latest novel, Exit Party, a breathtaking novel of doubles, shadow worlds, and fractured timelines as a man disappears from a glittering Los Angeles party, and a woman – a gunrunner, an art collector, an operative of the State – searches for answers. She will be joined in conversation by Mattea Roach, host of CBC’s Bookends. Tuesday, October 20 at 7:30 pm. Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema. Included with full Festival pass.
TIFA Presents Ann Cleeves. Join bestselling and prolific author Ann Cleeves as she presents the latest instalment of her gripping Two Rivers series, The Dying Light. Detective Matthew Venn must solve a mysterious death in a luxury holiday home while caught between a powerful family’s secrets and a powder keg of local tensions. Monday, Oct 26, 7:30 pm. Isabel Bader Theatre. Included with Full Festival Pass.
PEN Canada Graeme Gibson Talk with Evan Gershkovich. The PEN Canada Graeme Gibson Talk is an annual conversation between writers whose insights, experiences and expertise offer valuable perspectives on the urgent political, social, cultural and economic issues of our time. The 2026 edition will be led by American journalist and reporter for The Wall Street Journal, Evan Gershkovich. Tuesday, Oct 27, 7:30 pm. Winter GardenTheatre. Included with full Festival pass
5-Day Festival Pass: Regular, $159; Under 30, $79.
2-Day Weekend Pass: Regular, $69; Under 30, $39.
Weekday Day Pass: Regular, $29; Under 30, $15.
Weekend Day Pass: Regular, $39; Under 30, $29.