IFOA Book Club Returns with Zoe Whittall, Farzana Doctor & More!

The International Festival of Authors is bringing back their popular book club, a unique literary event that features Canadian writers discussing not their own work, but a book that has influenced and inspired them. The 2017 season will include a terrific line up of eight authors discussing a variety of genres. 

The 2017 IFOA Book Club authors are:

• Award winning author of 6 novels Lisa de Nikolits
• 2014 Emerging Writer of the Year Cherie Dimaline
• NOW Magazine's "Best Author" winner Farzana Doctor
• Poetry NOW 2014 winner Catherine Graham
• Prolific mystery writer Peter Robinson
• 2016 Toronto Book Award winner Cordelia Strube
• Author, biologist, primatologist, and teacher Andrew Westoll
• 2016 Giller Prize shortlisted author Zoe Whittall 

Book Club meetings will take place at the IFOA headquarters at Harbourfront Centre (235 Queen Quay West) on the last Wednesday of every month from 6:00-7:00pm. The books will be announced monthly on ifoa.org/book-club.

The meetings will kick off on March 29, 2017 with Catherine Graham discussing Lynn Crosbie's raw and creative Life Is About Losing Everything (House of Anansi). Graham said of her selection: "This book defies categories. I admire its fierceness, its emotional range, its natural mix of poetry and prose, its blend of biography and fantasy. It brings everything in, just like life."

In addition to Crosbie's work, IFOA Director Geoffrey Taylor has promised that book club members will get to dig into works by the likes of Kate Caley, Leonard Cohen, Katherena Vermette, and others. In announcing the author line up, Taylor said "For Canada150, we wanted to showcase Canada’s diverse and rich literary tradition as well as its contemporary creators."

Registration for the Book Club is $50 for the year and can be purchased through ifoa.org or by calling the Harbourfront Centre Box Office at 416 973 4000.