Explore " toronto public library" with insightful episodes like "Shelve Under: Distancing (Part Six)", "On Civil Society: #MeToo", "Shelve Under: Distancing (Part Five)", "Austin Clarke: Doing Right" and "Barry Lopez: Surviving What’s Coming" from podcasts like ""Shelve Under: Podcast", "Live Mic: Best of TPL Conversations", "Shelve Under: Podcast", "Writers Off the Page: 40 Years of TIFA" and "Live Mic: Best of TPL Conversations"" and more!
Books discussed:
One More Thing: Stories and Other Stories by B.J. Novak
The Book With No Pictures by B.J. Novak
The Journey Prize Stories: The Best of Canada's New Writers
The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg: and Other Stories by Mark Twain
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain
That Time I Loved You by Carrianne Leung
Library services discussed:
Overdrive (Getting Started with Overdrive Guides)
*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, and available at home to anyone with a current Toronto Public Library card.
Why are wait time for ebooks or audiobooks sometimes so long? Learn more about limits on the number of eBook copies and the length of time they can be borrowed.
Books by Robyn Doolittle
Had It Coming : What's Fair in the Age of #MeToo?
Crazy Town : The Rob Ford Story
Books by Megan Towhey
She Said: Breaking the Sexual Harassment Story That Helped Ignite a Movement
Other Related Materials
Unfounded: Why Police 1 in 5 Sexual Assault Claims as Baseless (Series from the Globe & Mail)
With Weinstein Conviction, Jury Delivers a Verdict on #MeToo (Article from the NY Times)
A Year of Reckoning (Article from the NY Times)
Live Mic: Best of TPL Conversations features curated discussions and interviews with some of today’s best-known and yet-to-be-known writers, thinkers and artists, recorded on stage at one of Toronto Public Library’s 100 branches.
Episodes are produced by Natalie Kertes, Jorge Amigo, and Gregory McCormick. Technical support by Michelle De Marco and George Panayotou. AV support by Jennifer Kasper and Mesfin Bayssassew. Marketing support by Tanya Oleksuik.
Music is by The Worst Pop Band Ever.
Books mentioned:
The Murder at the Vicarage by Agatha Christie
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
Wish You Were Here by Rita Mae Brown and Sneaky Pie Brown
The Cat Who series by Lilian Jackson Braun
If Walls Could Talk by Juliet Blackwell
Ducks, Newburyport by Lucy Ellman
Library services discussed:
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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Works by Austin Clarke
‘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
Other Related Books or Materials
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)
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, and available at home to anyone with a current Toronto Public Library card.
Why are wait time for ebooks or audiobooks sometimes so long?Learn more about limits on the number of eBook copies and the length of time they can be borrowed.
Book by Barry Lopez
Arctic Dreams: Imagination and Desire in a Northern Landscape
About This Life: Journeys on the Threshold of Memory
Books by Alissa York
If you like Barry Lopez…
Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin by Timothy Snyder
The Plains Across: The Overland Emigrants and the Trans-Mississippi West by John David Unruh
Dersu Uzala by Vladimir Arsenyev
The Ice: A Journey to Antarctica by Stephen J. Pyne
Fisherman's Blues: A West African Community at Sea by Anna Badkhen
Other Related Materials
How Climate Change has Influenced Travel Writing (article from The Atlantic)
Why the World Needs Barry Lopez (article from Outside Online)
Live Mic: Best of TPL Conversations features curated discussions and interviews with some of today’s best-known and yet-to-be-known writers, thinkers and artists, recorded on stage at one of Toronto Public Library’s 100 branches.
Episodes are produced by Natalie Kertes, Jorge Amigo, and Gregory McCormick. Technical support by Michelle De Marco and George Panayotou. AV support by Jennifer Kasper and Mesfin Bayssassew. Marketing support by Tanya Oleksuik.
Music is by The Worst Pop Band Ever.
Books and music discussed:
Tabula Rasa (Fratres - version for cello ensemble) by Arvo Pärt
From Sleep by Max Richter
M Train by Patti Smith
Just Kids by Patti Smith
Deep Field by Eric Whitacre
The Flyer Vault: 150 Years of Toronto Concert History by Daniel Tate and Rob Bowman
The Magic Flute by W.A. Mozart
Library services discussed:
Naxos Music Library (Jazz) (Getting Started with Naxos Music Library Jass Guide)
*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, and available at home to anyone with a current Toronto Public Library card.
Why are wait time for ebooks or audiobooks sometimes so long? Learn more about limits on the number of eBook copies and the length of time they can be borrowed.
Book by Emily Nussbaum
I Like to Watch: Arguing My Way Through the TV Revolution
Books by Rachel Giese
Boys: What it Means to Become a Man
Books on TV mentioned in I Like To Watch
I’ll Be There for You: The One About Friends by Kelsey Miller
Sex and the City by Candace Bushnell
I Think I’m Outta Here: A Memoir of All My Families by Carroll O’Connor
The Sopranos Sessions by Matt Zoller Seitz
Other Seminal Books on TV
TV (the book) by Alan Sepinwall
The Platinum Age of Television: From I Love Lucy to The Walking Dead, How TV Became Terrific by David Bianculli
Sitcom: A History in 24 Episodes by Saul Austerlitz
Other Related Materials
I Love Top Ten Lists (article from The New Yorker)
Critic Emily Nussbaum on the charms of modern television-watching (article from Vox)
Critic Emily Nussbaum Weighs In on Best TV shows of the Decade (clip from NPR)
Live Mic: Best of TPL Conversations features curated discussions and interviews with some of today’s best-known and yet-to-be-known writers, thinkers and artists, recorded on stage at one of Toronto Public Library’s 100 branches. Episodes are produced by Natalie Kertes, Jorge Amigo, and Gregory McCormick. Technical support by Michelle De Marco and George Panayotou. AV support by Jennifer Kasper and Mesfin Bayssassew. Marketing support by Tanya Oleksuik.
Music is by The Worst Pop Band Ever.
*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, and available at home to anyone with a current Toronto Public Library card.
Why are wait time for ebooks or audiobooks sometimes so long? Learn more about limits on the number of eBook copies and the length of time they can be borrowed.
Books by Benjamin Moser
Sontag: Her Life and Work (ebook)
Clarice Lispector: The Hour of the Star by Clarice Lispector (translated by Moser) (ebook)
The Besieged City by Clarice Lispector (edited by Moser) (ebook)
Books by Sheila Heti
Women in Clothes (ebook)
Motherhood (print book available when branches reopen)
“My Life is a Joke” (link opens a 2015 story by Heti in The New Yorker)
Materials by or about Susan Sontag
Debriefing: Collected Stories by Susan Sontag
As Consciousness is Harnessed to Flesh: Journals and Notebooks (of Susan Sontag), 1964-1980
Regarding the Pain of Others by Susan Sontag
On the Eve of the Met Gala, Andrew Bolton Takes Vogue on a Walking Tour of “Camp: Notes on Fashion” (link opens a Vogue magazine article from May 2019)
Writers Off the Page: 40 Years of TIFA podcast
A four-part Interview with Susan Sontag (can be listened to in any order)
Episode One: This God-Damned Celebrity Culture (23 mins)
Episode Two: The Little Illness Book (19 mins)
Episode Three: The Arts Give Humans Dignity (19 mins)
Episode Four: Make Something Better (19 mins)
Live Mic: Best of TPL Conversations features curated discussions and interviews with some of today’s best-known and yet-to-be-known writers, thinkers and artists, recorded on stage at one of Toronto Public Library’s 100 branches. Episodes are produced by Natalie Kertes, Jorge Amigo, and Gregory McCormick. Technical support by Michelle De Marco and George Panayotou. AV support by Jennifer Kasper and Mesfin Bayssassew. Marketing support by Tanya Oleksuik.
Music is by The Worst Pop Band Ever.
Books and articles discussed:
Stroll: Psychogeographic Walking Tours of Toronto by Shawn Micallef
"Even if you're locked down from COVID-19, you can still explore the city. Here's how" by Shawn Micallef
The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach
"How Do We Read When Words Fail Us" by Kerry Clare
The Truth About Stories: A Native Narrative by Thomas King
The 2003 CBC Massey Lectures, "The Truth About Stories: A Native Narrative"
OverDrive Cooking & Food Collection
Kitchen Sink Cookies by Julia Moskin
Library services discussed:
Overdrive (Getting Started with Overdrive Guides)
Contact us at: shelveunder@tpl.ca
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.
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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)
Other Related Books or Materials
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.
Books discussed:
What I Talk About When I Talk About Running: a Memoir by Haruki Murakami
The Couple Next Door by Shari Lapeña
Agency by William Gibson
Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata*
*Correction: we used the wrong pronouns when referring to Sayaka Murata. She is a woman. We regret the error.
Library services discussed:
Overdrive (Getting Started with Overdrive Guides)
TPL Reading Challenge 2020 Facebook Group
Contact us at: shelveunder@tpl.ca
Portions of this episode contain dialogue in the Innu language. For reasons of length, we have shortened the portions in Innu for English speakers. The transcript for the episode is available here.
If you would like to hear the episode with the full Innu language dialogue left intact, please click please click here (link to YouTube video - audio only). Unfortunately, we can't yet offer a transcript of the portions that are in the Innu language.
*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, and available at home to anyone with a current Toronto Public Library card. All TPL print and other in-branch materials will be available once we re-open and are operating under normal conditions.
Books by Tsaukuesh Elizabeth Penashue:
Nitinikiau Innusi: I Keep The Land Alive
Books or Materials About Activism
When They Call You a Terrorist: a Black Lives Matter Memoir by PatrisseKhan-Cullors (audiobook) (ebook available here)
She Takes a Stand: 16 Fearless Activists Who Changed the World (ebook)
Indigenous Women, Work and History (ebook)
Violence Against Indigenous Women: Literature, Activism, Resistance by Allison Hargreaves (ebook)
Books or Other Materials about the Innu
Innu of Labrador (link opens an article on the Virtual Museum of Labrador)
Innu People: A History (link opens a Youtube video on Indigenous Americans)
Peoples: Innu (link opens an article on Circum-Arctic Gallery)
Live Mic: Best of TPL Conversations features curated discussions and interviews with some of today’s best-known and yet-to-be-known writers, thinkers and artists, recorded on stage at one of Toronto Public Library’s 100 branches.
Episodes are produced by Natalie Kertes, Jorge Amigo, and Gregory McCormick. Technical support by Michelle De Marco and George Panayotou. AV support by Jennifer Kasper and Mesfin Bayssassew. Marketing support by Tanya Oleksuik.
Music is by The Worst Pop Band Ever.
"I've tried to, at every step of the way, reject the traditional true crime lens. Whether it was the podcast, the book I'm working on, any of the stories I worked on, it was always supposed to be one that put the police process and the victims first."
- Justin Ling, journalist, author and host of Uncover: The Village
Content Warning: this episode discussed violent crimes. The topics are sensitive in nature and may be difficult for some people.
Books discussed:
In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
Missing from the Village by Justin Ling (out in September 2020)
Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI by David Grann
Ghettoside: A True Story of Murder in America by Jill Leovy
I'll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer by Michelle McNamara
Tokyo Vice: An American Reporter on the Police Beat in Japan by Jake Adelstein
The Billionaire Murders: The Mysterious Deaths of Barry and Honey Sherman by Kevin Donovan
Underground: The Tokyo Gas Attack and the Japanese Psyche by Haruki Murakami
The Billionaire's Vinegar: The Mystery of the World's Most Expensive Bottle of Wine by Benjamin Wallace
Podcasts discussed:
Books, movies and comics discussed:
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle
A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson
The Nix by Nathan Hill
French Exit by Patrick deWitt
The Sandman series by Neil Gaiman
Library services discussed:
Overdrive (Getting Started with Overdrive Guides)
Hoopla (Getting Started with Hoopla Guide)
Kanopy (Getting Started with Kanopy Guide)
Flipster (Getting Started with Flipster Guide)
Contact us at: shelveunder@tpl.ca
Book by Phillipa K. Chong
Inside the Critics’ Circle: Book Reviewing in Uncertain Times
Books co-written by Johanna Schneller
Mayor Rob Ford: Uncontrollable: How I Tried to Help the World's Most Notorious Mayor
Woman Enough: How a Boy Became a Woman and Changed the World of Sport
Other Related Materials
7 of the Most Vicious Book Reviews (article from Electric Literature)
Is Book Reviewing a Public Service or an Art? (article from the NY Times)
Live Mic: Best of TPL Conversations features curated discussions and interviews with some of today’s best-known and yet-to-be-known writers, thinkers and artists, recorded on stage at one of Toronto Public Library’s 100 branches.
Episodes are produced by Natalie Kertes, Jorge Amigo, and Gregory McCormick. Technical support by Michelle De Marco and George Panayotou. AV support by Jennifer Kasper and Mesfin Bayssassew. Marketing support by Tanya Oleksuik.
Music is byThe Worst Pop Band Ever
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.
Book by Emanuele Coccia
The Life of Plants: A Metaphysics of Mixture
Books by Adria Vasil
Ecoholic Body: Your Ultimate Earth Friendly Guide to Living Healthy and Looking Good.
Check out more about Adria and her work on her website.
Other Related Materials
What If Plants Were One of Us (link opens an article from The Nation)
Emanuele Coccia: philosophe de la métamorphose (link open a broadcast interview in French from France Culture)
Live Mic: Best of TPL Conversations features curated discussions and interviews with some of today’s best-known and yet-to-be-known writers, thinkers and artists, recorded on stage at one of Toronto Public Library’s 100 branches.
Episodes are produced by Natalie Kertes, Jorge Amigo, and Gregory McCormick. Technical support by Michelle De Marco and George Panayotou. AV support by Jennifer Kasper and Mesfin Bayssassew. Marketing support by Tanya Oleksuik.
Music is by The Worst Pop Band Ever.
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.
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.
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
Trial Without End: A Shocking Story of Women and AIDS
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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