International Festival of Authors

I grabbed a copy of the brochure for the IFOA at the library last week. Its being held at the Harbourfront Centre in Toronto, from October 22 to November 1st 2008.

2008 IFOA confirmed authors include:

Julie Angus
Nadeem Aslam
Stéphane Audeguy
Ken Babstock
Deborah Baker
Joan Barfoot
Lynda Barry
David Benioff
David Bergen
Mark Billingham
Neil Bissoondath
Dermot Bolger
Pan Bouyoucas
Amanda Boyden
Joseph Boyden
John Brady
Herménégilde Chiasson
Austin Clarke
Harry Clifton
Andrew Cohen
John Connolly
Lorna Crozier
Jeffery Deaver
Lewis DeSoto
Christopher Dewdney
Junot Díaz
Don Domanski
Emma Donoghue
Hélène Dorion
Roddy Doyle
Joe Dunthorne
Paul Durcan
David Ebershoff
Leif Enger
Anne Enright
Cary Fagan
Ildefonso Falcones
Karen Fastrup
Diarmaid Ferriter
Elena Forbes
R.F. Foster
Cornelia Funke
Rivka Galchen
Damon Galgut
Bill Gaston
Amitav Ghosh
Victoria Glendinning
Linda Grant
Charlotte Gray
Lauren Groff
Arnon Grunberg
Richard Gwyn
Rawi Hage
Hugo Hamilton
Mohammed Hanif
Maggie Helwig
Aleksandar Hemon
Oscar Hijuelos
C.C. (Chris) Humphreys
Helen Humphreys
Chip Kidd
Mia Kirshner
Hari Kunzru
Rachel Kushner
Amara Lakhous
Patrick Lane
Nam Le
Dennis Lehane
Margot Livesey
Eugene McCabe
Kathleen McCracken
Patrick McGrath
Patti McIntosh
Don McKellar
Andrew Miller
Rohinton Mistry
Simon Montefiore
Donna Morrissey
Farley Mowat
Dervla Murphy
David Park
Louise Penny
Richard Price
Francine Prose
Andrew Pyper
Paul Quarrington
Ross Raisin
Nino Ricci
Nathaniel Rich
David Adams Richards
Peter Robinson
Richard Russo
John Ralston Saul
Owen Sheers
Anita Shreve
Sue Sinclair
Josef Škvorecký
Gillian Slovo
Tom Rob Smith
Adam Sol
Andy Stanton
Leonie Swann
Don Thompson
Colm Tóibín
M.G. Vassanji
Sarah Vowell
Dan Vyleta
Andrew Westoll
Frank Westerman
Nathan Whitlock
Rudy Wiebe
Meg Wolitzer
Ronald Wright

Those names that are bold, are the ones I have heard of. I may or may not have read any of their stuff, but I have heard of them.

It is pure coincidence that I am currently reading a biography of Farley Mowat written by James King. I will review it when I have finished.

Just to highlight that Cornelia Funke who wrote the Inkspell and Inkheart books will be there. And there is an Inkheart movie due out in January 2009.

I'd completely forgotten about the Extraordinary Canadian Series as well. I blogged about it in September last year. So it surely must be time for an update.

There were supposed to be 18 names - 6 books per year. I had 12 of them listed in last years post. There are 6 names outstanding. The website lists 5 names. These books are supposed to appear in 2010.

René Lévesque
Wilfrid Laurier
Glenn Gould
Marshall McLuhan
Tommy Douglas