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In Other Words is the site blog for Globe Books. It is written by Peter Scowen and by guest bloggers from the literary world.
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Monday, June 22, 2009 12:50 PM

Athill v. Munro, one night only!!!

Two of the world's most fascinating female writers -- Diana Athill, 91, and Alice Munro, 78 -- top the bill on the opening night of the 30th annual International Festival of Authors, organizers announced today.

Athill and Munro will be "in conversation" on Oct. 21 in an event entitled "Too Much Happiness!", a tip to Munro's forthcoming new collection of short stories of the same name and, one hopes for Athill's sake, to Athill's recent accumulated-wisdom-packed memoir called Somewhere Towards the End. The event will be hosted by CBC personality Bill Richardson.

Munro will be launching her collection at the Toronto festival; organizers stress (in bold type, no less) that this will be her only onstage appearance this fall. Athill, meanwhile, is making her first Canadian appearance, organizers say.

The $100 event is a benefit for PEN Canada; the price of a ticket includes cocktails and hors d'oeuvres beforehand. The tickets are now on sale.

Other marquee names confirmed for IFOA XXX are Margaret Atwood, Jane Urquhart, Anne Michaels, Paul Theroux, Sarah Waters and John Irving. The singer Anne Murray will be launching her new autobiography, as well.

More names: Barry Callaghan • Lisa Moore • Miriam Toews • Daniel Poliquin • Leon Rooke • Nicholson Baker • Debra Adelaide • Denise Mina • Tash Aw • Audrey Niffenegger • Kyle Buckley • Paul Durcan • Jacob McArthur Mooney • Linwood Barclay • John Brady • Hal Niedzviecki • Tim Cook • Eoin Colfer • Sherman Alexie • John Bemrose • Diana Fitzgerald Bryden • Bonnie Burnard • Dani Couture • Michael Crummey • Anne DeGrace • Margaret Elphinstone • Robert Girardi • Jason Guriel • Jennica Harper • Jim Lynch • Linden MacIntyre • Jean McNeil • James W. Nichol • Kate Pullinger • Boualem Sansal • Ingo Schulze • Olive Senior • Meaghan Strimas • Adam Thorpe • Michael Turner • Alexis Wright

For more information, visit www.readings.org.

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In Other Words Contributors

Peter Scowen

Peter Scowen is a communities editor with the Globe and Mail and is responsible for the Globe Books website. He is a veteran reporter and editor who has worked for a number of dailies and alternative weeklies in Toronto and Montreal. He is the author of Rogue Nation: The America the Rest of the World Knows.

 
 

Judith Fitzgerald

Judith Fitzgerald -- poet, editor and cultural critic with 30 works (including poetry, biography, anthologies and children's books) to her credit -- writes about poetry for In Other Words and is a contributing reviewer for this newspaper as well as a Poetry Fellow of the Chalmers Arts Foundation. Short-listed for (or recipient of) several major honours including the Fiona Mee, Trillium, Governor-General's Poetry and Writers’ Choice Awards (among others), she recently completed The Adagios Quartet. The ex-Torontonian now calls the Almaguin Highlands home.

 
 

Linda Leith

Linda Leith is the founder and artistic director of the Blue Metropolis Montreal International Literary Festival. The annual festival was the world's first multilingual (including English, French, Spanish, Arabic, Farsi, Italian, Urdu...) books festival when it was launched in 1999. Linda's most recent book is Marrying Hungary (2008).

 
 

Brian Joseph Davis

Brian Joseph Davis is an artist and writer based in Toronto. He's the co-founder of Joyland.ca and has written for Arthur Magazine, The Utne Reader, and Eye Weekly. He's the author of the books Portable Altamont (Coach House, 2005) and I,Tania (ECW, 2008), which Slate.com called "the book of your fever dreams."

 
 

Ben McNally

Ben McNally has been a bookseller in Toronto for more than 30 years and has been operating his own store, Ben McNally Books, in the heart of Toronto's financial district on Bay Street since September 2007. In partnership with the Globe and Mail, he co-ordinates the popular Sunday Authors Brunch Series at the King Edward Hotel, and has, for the past two years, been the bookseller at the International Festival of Authors.