#BOOKS: TORONTO INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL OF AUTHORS 2026 PROGRAMMING

The 2026 edition of the Toronto International Festival of Authors (TIFA) will take place October 28 to November 1, 2026, at Victoria University in the University of Toronto, bringing some of the world’s most compelling writers together for five days of interactive literary programming. Alongside a spectacular line-up of fiction, this year’s Festival delves into politics and history, discovers the wonders of the natural world, is inspired by adaptation and translation, and shares magical performances combining music and poetry. Saturday October 31 will see a devilishly delicious day of horror events. For the first time, full festival passholders will have exclusive early access to a series of special pre-festival events hosted throughout October.

Today’s preview announcement also unveils TIFA’s new creative branding. Turning the page to a new chapter, the updated branding represents the organization’s distinct identity as a hub for thought-provoking ideas and cultural conversations, while honouring its legacy, and commitment to continuous evolution.

“TIFA 2026 represents another new chapter for the Festival,” said Roland Gulliver, TIFA’s CEO and Artistic Director. “Our new identity reflects an organization that is ambitious, international, and deeply connected to Toronto–a city known for its exceptional storytelling. At a time when the world can feel increasingly fractured, we want the Festival to be a place for curiosity, conversation, and connection. Working with our guest curators, we are inviting exceptional writers and thinkers from Canada and around the world to bring their experiences, perspectives, and imaginations to some of the questions shaping our lives today. Through stories and ideas, we hope to create unexpected conversations, open up different ways of seeing the world and, above all, celebrate the extraordinary power and pleasure of literature.”

The programming highlights below mark the first wave of events and participating authors, with the full festival lineup to follow on September 3, 2026.

In Conversation with David Szalay on Flesh

Time: Wednesday, October 28 at 7:30 PM

Venue: Victoria University in the University of Toronto

The Booker Prize-winning Flesh was named a Best Book of the Year by the New York Times, and the Globe & Mail. Author David Szalay is a British/Canadian/Hungarian writer whose six works of fiction have been translated into more than 30 languages.

In Conversation with Patrick deWitt on Dodge City

Time: Thursday, October 29 at 4:30 PM

Venue: Victoria University in the University of Toronto

Dodge City tells the harrowing and oftentimes darkly humorous tale of a student who flees the Vietnam War draft in 1967 by driving cross-country in a Jaguar while visiting his eccentric, dysfunctional family before escaping to Canada.

In Conversation with Barbara Kingsolver on Partita

Time: Friday, October 30 at 8:00 PM

Venue: Winter Garden Theatre

Partita, the story of a life-changing love affair, is one of the year’s most highly anticipated novels, following the wild success of Kingsolver’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Demon Copperhead.

In Conversation with Marie NDiaye on The Witch

Time: Saturday, October 31 at 4:30 PM

Venue: Victoria University in the University of Toronto

The Witch is a haunting novel shortlisted for the 2026 International Booker Prize. Based in Paris, NDiaye has won the Prix Femina, the Prix Goncourt, and is a recipient of the Gold Medal in the Arts from the Kennedy Center International Committee on the Arts.

One-Night Only Performance of East West Street: A Song of Good & Evil

Time: Sunday, November 1 at 5:00 PM

Venue: Winter Garden Theatre

Based on Philippe Sands’ award-winning book East West Street, this multimedia stage production has sold-out to audiences around the world. It blends the voice of Metropolitan Opera star Laurent Naouri and music by Bach, Rachmaninoff and Leonard Cohen with narration by Sands and French soprano Natalie Dessay.

The East West Street performance is the culmination of Philippe Sands’ Guest Curator programme at TIFA. The international human rights lawyer and acclaimed author (East West Street; The Ratline; 38 Londres Street) has curated a series of events exploring the theme of Rupture / Justice with historians, academics, journalists, artists and authors to examine the fault lines that are fracturing our times: when the world breaks, how are wounds healed, how is meaning found? Who will bear witness and who will tell the story?

Additionally, TIFA invites award-winning Goorie and Koori poet Evelyn Araluen (The Rot; Dropbear), born and raised on Dharug Country and in the broader Western Sydney Black community, and Jessica Johns, a queer nêhiyaw aunty with English-Irish ancestry, member of Sucker Creek First Nation and author of the bestselling Bad Cree, to co-curate The Festival of Indigenous Stories. Produced in partnership with Melbourne Writers Festival (MWF) and supported by the Canada Council for the Arts, their co-curated programming at TIFA follows a series of events held at MWF in May, bringing together nine Indigenous authors and artists from Canada and Australia for a programme of conversations and new commissions exploring themes and subjects including Indigenous yearning and futurity through story, imagining resistance beyond colonies, and intergenerational archives of culture, memory, and connection.

Pre-Festival Special Events

An outstanding slate of special events lead up to the Festival throughout October, including:

TIFA Presents Bonnie Garmus

Date: Thursday, October 15 at 7:30 PM

Venue: Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema

Bonnie Garmus, author of number-one global bestseller Lessons in Chemistry, presents her second novel, Peck & Peck. A young man’s life is turned upside down when he is hired by New York’s most prestigious, secretive and dysfunctional poetry journal.

TIFA Presents Emily St. John Mandel

Date: Tuesday, October 20 at 7:30 PM

Venue: Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema

Emily St. John Mandel is the author of seven novels, including Sea of Tranquility, The Glass Hotel, and Station Eleven. Mandel joins CBC Bookends host Mattea Roach in conversation on her latest novel, Exit Party.

TIFA Presents Ann Cleeves

Date: Monday, October 26 at 7:30 PM

Venue: Isabel Bader Theatre

Join prolific, bestselling author Ann Cleeves as she presents the latest instalment of her gripping Two Rivers series, The Dying Light (Raincoast). 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.

PEN Canada Graeme Gibson Talk with Evan Gershkovich, Carol Off and Philippe Sands

Date: Tuesday, October 27 at 7:30 PM

Venue: Winter Garden Theatre

In conversation with CBC Ideas’ Nahlah Ayed, introduced by Margaret Atwood

Evan Gershkovich, Carol Off, and Philippe Sands in conversation with Nahlah Ayed on the challenges confronting writers and reporters in our world’s fast-changing geopolitical landscape

In March 2023, Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich was dragged into an unmarked van by FSB agents and imprisoned for 500 days; a pawn in a geopolitical chess match. His extraordinary memoir This Cursed Beautiful Land (2026) chronicles his arrest, imprisonment and eventual release.

Passes & Tickets

TIFA 2026 Full Festival Passes go on sale August 13, 2026, offering early access to this year’s programming. The full programme announcement, along with additional ticketing options for the Festival will be released on September 3, 2026. Festival passes can be purchased at tickets.festivalofauthors.ca/

About TIFA:

The Toronto International Festival of Authors (TIFA) is a vibrant celebration of the stories that shape our world. As Toronto’s premier literary organization, TIFA offers a breadth of immersive, one-of-a-kind events that connect readers and authors alike.

TIFA is the proud host of its signature annual festival, an ambitious multi-day celebration that sets the standard for Canada’s literary landscape by bringing the world’s most compelling writers to Toronto each year. Drawing a diverse community of passionate readers, the festival delivers an unparalleled live experience through intimate conversations, creative masterclasses, and a rare opportunity to look past the page into the creative minds of writers.

TIFA gratefully acknowledges our Season Supporter, the Weston Foundations; our Presenting Donor, The Marilyn and Charles Baillie Family Foundation; our Global Authors Club, for providing additional philanthropic support; the Government of Canada, Canada Council for the Arts, the Government of Ontario, Ontario Arts Council, the Toronto Arts Council, the Centre for Creativity at Victoria University, and TIFA’s generous donors and supporters who recognize that great literature is worth investing in.

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