Austin Clarke: Doing Right

Works by Umberto Eco

The Name of the Rose

Foucault’s Pendulum

The Prague Cemetery

On the Shoulders of Giants

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)

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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.

Works by Austin Clarke

In This City

They Never Told Me and Other Stories

The Polished Hoe

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)

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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.

Works by Doris Lessing

The Golden Notebook

Stories 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)

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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.

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 

Soccer in Sun and Shadow

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)

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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.

Works by Angela Carter

Nights at the Circus

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.

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)

Collections/Anthologies Containing Stories from Luisa Valenzuela

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.

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)

Indian Horse
 

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)

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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.

Works by John Irving

A Prayer for Owen Meany

The World According to Garp (book in various formats)

The World According to Gary (1982 film starring Robin Williams, Glenn Close and John Lithgow)

Avenue of Mysteries

The Cider House Rules

Last Night in Twisted River

Other Related Books or Materials

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.

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. 

Read: Why are wait times on ebooks or audiobooks sometimes so long?

Works by Bruce Chatwin

The Songlines

In Patagonia

Anatomy of Restlessness: Selected Writings, 1969-1989 (ebook)

On the Black Hill (ebook)

Utz (ebook)

Books About Bruce Chatwin

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

Other Related Books or Materials

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)

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.

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. 

Read: Why are wait times on ebooks or audiobooks sometimes so long?

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Books by Lee Maracle

Memory Serves (ebook)

My Conversations with Canadians (ebook)

Celia’s Song (ebook)

Hope Matters (ebook)

Other Related Books or Materials

‘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)

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.