Authors at Harbourfront Centre (AUTHORS), located on Toronto

Toronto

Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...

, Ontario's waterfront, plays an important role in the cultural life of Canada by presenting the finest international novelists, poets, playwrights, short story writers and biographers in a wide range of literary arts events, while simultaneously providing Canadian writers with an internationally recognized forum in which to present their work.

History

Since its inception in 1974, the mission of AUTHORS programming is to promote interest and enthusiasm in writing and reading on both a local and international level; to showcase the excellence and variety of Canadian literature; to introduce young readers to the wonders, pleasures and possibilities of reading and writing; to provide Canadian and international authors with an opportunity to meet and to exchange ideas; and to offer programs and events for a wide range of communities and age groups that increase the awareness of all forms of literature.

Incorporated in 1986 as a non-profit organization with a mandate to ‘cultivate and advance the cause of literature,’ the organization operates, year round, under the principal sponsorship of Harbourfront Centre

Harbourfront Centre

Harbourfront Centre is a key cultural organization on Toronto, Ontario's waterfront, situated at 235 Queen's Quay West. Established as a crown corporation in 1972 by the federal government to create a waterfront park, it became a non-profit organization in 1991. Funding comes from corporate...

, Toronto’s leading multidisciplinary centre for contemporary arts. AUTHORS is home to a weekly literary event series (September to June), the annual International Festival of Authors (IFOA) (October), including YoungIFOA and IFOA Ontario, and ALOUD: a Celebration for Young Readers with Forest of Reading® Festival of Trees™ (May).

The Festival and weekly series together have held readings, round table discussions, interviews and performances involving over 7,500 authors from more than 100 countries. Annually, AUTHORS’ programs attract over 80,000 audience members. The majority of attendees come from the Greater Toronto Area, but there is a growing percentage of audience members that come from across Ontario, the United States and internationally.

Programming

AUTHORS programming runs throughout the year with several different categories of programming. Each AUTHORS event is digitally recorded on photo, video and audio. Beginning in 2006, these recordings are sent to the holdings of the Library and Archives Canada. This not only allows researchers and documentary makers extensive use of the archives, but acts as a permanent documentation of AUTHORS’ extensive programming.

Authors at Harbourfront Centre Weekly Event Series

Running from September to June, the weekly event series includes authors taking part in events like readings, round table discussions and interviews.

International Festival of Authors

The International Festival of Authors (IFOA), one of the most celebrated literary festivals in the world, was inaugurated in 1980 with a mandate to bring together the best writers of contemporary world literature. Like the weekly series, IFOA includes readings, interviews, round table discussions and talks, as well as public book signings and a festival bookstore. IFOA also continues to present readings by Scotiabank Giller Prize

Scotiabank Giller Prize

The Scotiabank Giller Prize, or Giller Prize, is a literary award given to a Canadian author of a novel or short story collection published in English the previous year, after an annual juried competition between publishers who submit entries...

, Governor General’s Literary Award and Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize finalists, the Charles Taylor Prize for Literary Non-fiction recipient, and the awarding of the $10,000 Harbourfront Festival Prize.

IFOA Ontario

Beginning in 2007, AUTHORS sought to grow their audience base by introducing the IFOA’s touring program, IFOA Ontario. This touring program visits communities in numerous cities and towns across Ontario. In 2010 IFOA Ontario featured 16 events in 14 towns and cities, from Windsor to Picton and Hamilton to Sudbury.

YoungIFOA

An integral part of the IFOA, YoungIFOA was born as a way to include a younger generation of readers in a festival of international repute.

ALOUD: a Celebration for Young Readers

ALOUD: a Celebration for Young Readers was also introduced in 2005, featuring some of the world’s leading authors for young people. In 2010, ALOUD was incorporated as part of the Forest of Reading® Festival of Trees™.

In May 2007, AUTHORS hosted the first annual Forest of Reading® Festival of Trees™ on the 10-acre Harbourfront Centre site. Now Canada’s largest children’s literary event, attracting 8,000 audience members annually, this action-packed festival celebrates the shared experience of reading through award ceremonies, workshops and activities. The Festival of Trees™ is presented with the Ontario Library Association

Ontario Library Association

Ontario Library Association , established in 1900, is the oldest continually operating library association in Canada. With 5,190  members as of January 1, 2007, OLA is the largest library association in Canada....

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Harbourfront Festival Prize

Established in 1984, the Harbourfront Festival Prize ($10,000 CDN) is presented annually in recognition of an author's contribution to Canadian letters – based on the merits of their own published work and/or the time they have invested in nurturing the next generation of literary talent.

2010 Harbourfront Festival Prize

Peter Robinson was selected for the 2010 Harbourfront Festival Prize based on the merits of his own published work and his substantial contribution to the world of books. Robinson was selected by a jury comprising John van Driel (VP Programming & Operations, Classical 96.3 FM), Mark Medley (Journalist, National Post) and Geoffrey E. Taylor (Director, AUTHORS & IFOA).

Past Recipients

2009 Helen Humphreys

Helen Humphreys

Helen Humphreys is a Canadian poet and novelist who has written several books. She was born in London, England, and now lives in Kingston, Ontario. When she was younger she was kicked out of high school and had to attend an alternative school to finish her education...

2008 Wayson Choy

Wayson Choy

Wayson Choy, CM is a Canadian writer.-Early life:Choy was born in Vancouver in 1939. A Chinese Canadian, he spent his childhood in the city's Chinatown...

2007 Christopher Dewdney

Christopher Dewdney

Christopher Dewdney is a Canadian writer and poet.He was born in London, Ontario, and presently lives in Toronto, where he is a professor at York University. He is the long-time partner of writer Barbara Gowdy. Winner of the 2007 Harbourfront Festival Prize, he is the author of four books of...

2006 Dionne Brand

Dionne Brand

Dionne Brand is a Canadian poet, novelist, essayist and documentarian. She was named Toronto's third Poet Laureate in September 2009.-Biography:...

2005 Guy Vanderhaeghe

Guy Vanderhaeghe

Guy Clarence Vanderhaeghe, OC, SOM is a Canadian novelist and short story writer, best known for his two Western novels, The Englishman's Boy and The Last Crossing, set in the 19th century American and Canadian West...

2004 Jane Urquhart

Jane Urquhart

Jane Urquhart, OC is a Canadian novelist and poet.-Biography:Born 200 miles north of Thunder Bay, Ontario in Little Longlac , Ontario, Jane Urquhart is the third of three children and the only daughter of Marian and Walter Carter, a prospector and mining engineer...

2003 Linda Spalding

Linda Spalding

Linda Spalding is a Canadian writer and editor. Born in Topeka, Kansas, the daughter of Jacob Alan Dickinson and Edith Senner, she lived in Mexico and Hawaii before moving to Toronto, Ontario in 1982....

2002 Paul Quarrington

Paul Quarrington

Paul Lewis Quarrington was a Canadian novelist, playwright, screenwriter, filmmaker, musician and educator.-Background:...

2001 Daniel David Moses

Daniel David Moses

Daniel David Moses is a First Nations poet and playwright from Canada.Moses, of Delaware descent, was born in Ohsweken, Ontario, and raised on a farm on the Six Nations of the Grand River. He has an Honours BA from York University and an MFA from the University of British Columbia. Moses was the...

2000 Victor Coleman

1999 Matt Cohen

1998 Marty Gervais

Marty Gervais

Charles Henry "Marty" Gervais is a Canadian poet, photographer, professor, journalist, and publisher of Black Moss Press.Gervais has also published plays, children's books, non-fiction and, a book of photography, A Show of Hands: Boxing on the Border...

1997 Ken Gass

1996 Timothy Findley

Timothy Findley

Timothy Irving Frederick Findley, OC, O.Ont was a Canadian novelist and playwright. He was also informally known by the nickname Tiff or Tiffy, an acronym of his initials.-Biography:...

1995 Douglas George Fetherling

George Fetherling

Douglas George Fetherling is a Canadian poet, novelist, journalist and essayist. One of the most prolific figures in Canadian letters, he has written and edited more than fifty books, including more than a dozen volumes of poetry, two novels, and a multi-volume memoir...

1994 M.G. Vassanji

1993 Graeme Gibson

Graeme Gibson

Graeme C. Gibson, CM is a Canadian novelist who lives in Toronto, Ontario. He is a Member of the Order of Canada , and was one of the organizers of the Writer's Union of Canada . He has a long term relationship with the novelist and poet Margaret Atwood.In 1996 he decided to stop writing novels...

1992 Alberto Manguel

Alberto Manguel

Alberto Manguel is a Canadian Argentine-born writer, translator, and editor. He is the author of numerous non-fiction books such as The Dictionary of Imaginary Places , A History of Reading , The Library at Night and Homer's Iliad and Odyssey: A Biography ; and novels such as News...

1991 Nicole Brossard

Nicole Brossard

Nicole Brossard, O.C. is a leading French Canadian formalist poet and novelist.She lives in Outremont, a former city in Montreal, Quebec. She wrote her first collection in 1965, Aube à la maison. The collection L'Echo bouge beau marks a break in the evolution of her poetry...

1990 Howard Engel

Howard Engel

Howard Engel CM is a Canadian mystery writer and CBC producer who resides in Toronto, Ontario. He is well known to Canadian readers for his series of Benny Cooperman detective novels, set in the Niagara Region in and around the city of Grantham, Ontario...

1989 Tomson Highway

Tomson Highway

Tomson Highway, CM is a celebrated Canadian and Cree playwright, novelist, and children's author. He is the author of the plays The Rez Sisters and Dry Lips Oughta Move to Kapuskasing, both of which won him the Dora Mavor Moore Award and the Floyd S...

1988 Michael Ondaatje

Michael Ondaatje

Philip Michael Ondaatje , OC, is a Sri Lankan-born Canadian novelist and poet of Burgher origin. He is perhaps best known for his Booker Prize-winning novel, The English Patient, which was adapted into an Academy-Award-winning film.-Life and work:...

1987 Barry Callaghan

Barry Callaghan

Barry Morley Joseph Callaghan is a Canadian author, poet and anthologist. He is currently the editor-in-chief of Exile Quarterly.Born in Toronto, Ontario, he is the son of late Canadian novelist and short story writer, Morley Callaghan...

1986 Margaret Atwood

Margaret Atwood

Margaret Eleanor Atwood, is a Canadian poet, novelist, literary critic, essayist, and environmental activist. She is among the most-honoured authors of fiction in recent history; she is a winner of the Arthur C...

1985 John Robert Colombo

John Robert Colombo

John Robert Colombo, CM is nationally known as the Master Gatherer. He is among Canada's most prolific authors of serious books...

1984 Dennis Lee

Dennis Lee (author)

Dennis Beynon Lee, OC, MA is a Canadian poet, teacher, editor, and critic born in Toronto, Ontario. He is also a children's writer, well known for his book of children's rhymes, Alligator Pie.-Life:...

Venues

• Fleck Dance Theatre
• Brigantine Room
• Studio Theatre
• Lakeside Terrace
• Sirius Satellite Radio Stage - outdoor concert venue
• Miss Lou's Room

External links

• Authors at Harbourfront Centre
• Authors at Harbourfront Centre Flickr page
• Harbourfront Centre