#BOOKS: TORONTO INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL OF AUTHORS (TIFA) RETURNS OCTOBER 29-NOVEMBER 2, 2025

The Toronto International Festival of Authors (TIFA) today announced the lineup for its 46th annual Festival taking place October 29 – November 2, 2025. This fall, TIFA welcomes acclaimed writers, passionate readers and book lovers from around the globe for Canada’s largest and longest-running literary festival. With a new 5 day format over and 100 events ranging from conversations, masterclasses, talks, and readings, the festival will take place at new venues in partnership with Victoria University at the University of Toronto. Passes for the festival are on sale now at Festivalofauthors.ca.

Each year, TIFA brings people together to share stories, exchange ideas, and celebrate a love of literature. In 2025, this mission is more urgent than ever. TIFA has the unique ability to place Canadian and international writers together on a global stage, celebrating their stories and perspectives with audiences in Toronto, Canada and beyond. This year, the Festival welcomes authors from Japan, Taiwan, Korea, New Zealand, France, Germany, Portugal, Ireland, USA, Brazil and more, with many writers having roots and stories that span the globe.

After 50 years, TIFA has become an independent organization, offering its audience of readers new and exciting ways to access and experience writers, books and stories, all year round.

With the help of a transformational gift from the Weston family, TIFA is writing a new chapter. This gift lays the foundation for the next 50 years, renewing the Festival’s focus on bringing writers and readers together, with an emphasis on imagination, excellence, diversity, global conversation and connection.

“This extraordinary gift is truly transformational for the Toronto International Festival of Authors,” said Roland Gulliver, Artistic Director of the Toronto International Festival of Authors. “In TIFA’s first year of independence, the generosity of the Weston family helps support our vision to write the next 50 years of TIFA as a place to bring authors to audiences, and to celebrate the stories and ideas that connect us all. As the 2025 TIFA Festival programme highlights, we are building spaces for readers to find joy, connection and inspiration, creating new opportunities for Canadian writers and welcoming more international voices to Toronto.”

Below is a list of select TIFA programme highlights and guests attending over the course of the Festival. For the full Festival programme and schedule, please visit FestivalofAuthors.ca.

INTERNATIONAL HIGHLIGHTS

TIFA welcomes leading writers from around the world:

Rachel Maddow (host of The Rachel Maddow Show on MSNBC) and Rebecca Solnit (author of No Straight Road Takes You There) in conversation with Nahlah Ayad (CBC Ideas). Introduced by Margaret Atwood. This special conversation is the Festival’s opening event at Koerner Hall on Tuesday, October 28, 2025

Kōtarō Isaka in his first North American appearance. His new novel, Hotel Lucky Seven, features the characters made famous in The Bullet Train, recently adapted for film starring Brad Pitt

Kiran Desai: The 2006 Man Booker Prize Winner presents her new novel The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny (Booker longlisted for 2025) in her only Canadian appearance

André Aciman: author of Call Me By Your Name (which became a hit film), presents his new memoir, My Roman Year

Richard Armitage: TV star of The Hobbit and many Harlan Coben adaptations on his new novel, The Cut

Serhii Plokhy: one of the world’s foremost writers on Ukraine and Russia presents his new book The Nuclear Age; his book Chernobyl is a television hit

Nathan Harris: his new novel Amity; his debut The Sweetness of Water was one of President Obama’s Favorite Books of 2021

Cho-Nam Joo (Kim Ji-Young 1982), Chris Pavone (The Expats, The Doorman), Catherine Newman (Sandwich), Jonas Hassan Khemiri (The Sisters), Susan Choi (Flashlight), Eimear McBride (The City Changes its Face), Alka Joshi Six Days in Bombay) & more

CELEBRATING CANADIAN VOICES

A spotlight on Canada’s most acclaimed authors:

Giller Prize winners Ian Williams, Michael Redhill, and Souvankham Thammavongsa launch their new novels

Much loved Canadian authors Thomas King, Madeleine Thien, Emma Donoghue, and Guy Gavriel Kay present their new books

Festival of Indigenous Stories, co-curated with Niigaan Sinclair: Brian Thomas Isaac, David A Robertson, Katherena Vermette, Kyle Edwards and Tracey Lindberg

ELBOWS UP CANADA!

Across non-fiction and fiction, capturing the state of our nation in 2025:

Andrew Coyne, Globe & Mail columnist, on Canada’s democratic institutions

Brian Stewart on his life as a foreign correspondent with CBC

David Shribman on the future of history in the USA

Susan Swan and Cathrin Bradbury on being a woman in the ‘troisieme age’

The Hilary Weston Non-Fiction Prize: celebrate the shortlisted authors

Kanata Classics: explore the CanLit canon with David Chariandy, David A Robertson and Claire Cameron

Alex Neve: 2025 Massey Lecturer in conversation on Universality & Human Rights

Rogers v Rogers, from Page to Stage: with director Chris Abraham, playwright Michael Healy and author Alexandra Posadzki, in partnership with Crow’s Theatre

WELCOME WORLD: INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVES

Offering access to global conversations and perspectives:

Singapore: Jeremy Tiang (State of Emergency) and Jemimah Wei (The Original Daughter), acclaimed Singaporean writers and translators

Taiwan: Lin King (Taiwan Travelogue) and Terao Tetsuya (Spent Bullets)

Korea: Cho-Nam Joo (Kim Jiyoung Born 1982), Bo Young-Kim (I’m Waiting for You: And Other Stories) and Jinwoo Park (Oxford Soju Club)

Arabic Voices: including Ziyad Saadi (Three Parties), Fadi Zaghmout (A Man of Middling Height) and Ibtisam Azem (The Book of Disappearance)

Diverse US authors: Alejandro Heredia (Loca); David Wright Faladé (The New Internationals), Michel Nieva (Dengue Boy), Adam Haslett (Mothers and Sons), Samrat Upadhyay (Darkmotherland) and more

IDEAS IN ACTION

A nonfiction lineup exploring imagination as a force for change and creativity, including:

Francesca Wade (Gertrude Stein: An Afterlife) on Gertrude Stein, the salonista and modernist literary legend

Garth Risk Hallberg (The Uncollected Stories of Mavis Gallant) on Mavis Gallant, iconic Canadian writer

Susan Aglukark (Kihiani: A Memoir of Healing) and Natalie MacMaster (I Have a Love Story) on music, memory, and resilience

Ira Wells (On Book Banning: Or, How the New Censorship Consensus Trivializes Art and Undermines Democracy) on censorship and book banning

Victoria Hetherington (The Friend Machine: On the Trail of AI Companionship) on AI & emotion

PARTNERSHIPS & PROGRAMMES

Writers Collective of Canada workshops on writing and wellbeing

Masterclasses in partnership with Humber School for Writers

Yoga & Journalling sessions

About TIFA:

The Toronto International Festival of Authors has been inspiring readers and celebrating books and storytelling for 50 years. The charitable organization presents its flagship literary Festival each fall, while offering year-round programming including the MOTIVE Crime & Mystery Festival, the TIFA Romance Festival, the TIFA Presents series of high-profile author talks, Toronto Lit Up book launches, and the International Visitors Program. Since 1974, TIFA has welcomed thousands of authors from more than 100 countries, including 22 Nobel Laureates and countless award winners. The organization is a proud member of the Canadian Association of Literary Festivals (CALF) and the Global Alliance of Literary Festivals (GaoLF).

TIFA gratefully acknowledges our Season Supporter, the Weston Foundations; 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, Ontario Cultural Attractions Fund, the Toronto Arts Council, the Work In Culture Catalyst and Transformation Fund, the Centre for Creativity at Victoria University, and TIFA’s generous donors and supporters who understand that great literature is worth investing in.