Lit On Tour in Thunder Bay This Tuesday!

On Tuesday, October 30th, head to the Thunder Bay Art Gallery for the Toronto International Festival of Authors (TIFA)’s 8th annual Lit On Tour event here in Thunder Bay. Lit On Tour brings Canadian authors of contemporary literature to various events across Ontario. Lakehead University, the Northwestern Ontario Writers’ Workshop (NOWW), the Thunder Bay Art Gallery, CBC Radio and the Thunder Bay Public Library have once again partnered with TIFA; this year we’ll be hosting Arjun Basu, author of Waiting for the Man, Ann Y.K. Choi, author of Kay’s Lucky Coin Variety, and Kim Moritsugu, author of The Showrunner. Tickets cost $15 and are currently available at the Brodie Resource Library, the Waverley Resource Library and the Thunder Bay Art Gallery, but on October 30th they will be available only at the Thunder Bay Art Gallery.

“I love that books can inspire change and create opportunities for meaningful and entertaining conversations,” says Choi. “TIFA is important because it brings together both readers and authors to do that. For me, Lit On Tour is incredibly valuable because it allows for readers and writers who might not have otherwise been able to connect, to come together.” Lit On Tour is a wonderful opportunity for readers to engage with their favourite authors and to discover someone new. The event starts this Tuesday at 7pm with each author reading a passage from their work. After that, the audience is invited to ask questions of the authors about their books or writing in general. This is followed by book signings; the Lakehead University Alumni Bookstore will have copies available for sale at the event, or you’re welcome to bring your own copies from home.

Here’s a little more about the three authors who are coming to Thunder Bay this year (courtesy of litontour.com):

Arjun Basu is a writer and editor. In 2008, he published Squishy, a collection of short stories that was shortlisted for the ReLit Prize. In 2014 he published Waiting for the Man, which was longlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize. He also used to write 140-character short stories on Twitter, for which he won a Shorty Award. Arjun lives in Montreal, Quebec, where he is working on his book.

Originally from South Korea, Ann Y.K. Choi immigrated to Canada in 1975. She is a graduate of the Humber School for Writers and the Creative Writing Certificate Program at the University of Toronto. Most recently, she completed an MFA in Creative Writing at National University in San Diego, California. Her debut novel, Kay’s Lucky Coin Variety, was a finalist for the Toronto Book Award. The story, set in the 1980s, was inspired by her experiences working in her family-run variety store. A teacher with the York Region District School Board, Ann lives in Toronto with her husband and daughter.

Kim Moritsugu holds a BA and MBA from the University of Toronto, and worked several years in a corporate setting before becoming a novelist. Moritsugu’s novels include Looks Perfect, a romantic comedy shortlisted for the Toronto Book award; The Glenwood Treasure, a literary mystery shortlisted for the Arthur Ellis Best Crime Novel Award; The Restoration of Emily, a coming of middle age story (serialized on CBC Radio’s Between the Covers); The Oakdale Dinner Club, a comedy of suburban manners about food and sex; and her seventh novel, The Showrunner, a work of darkly humourous suspense. She has built an international online following for her TV recaps and food writing at her blog The Hungry Novelist. She lives in Toronto.

For more information on this event, please visit TIFA’s Lit On Tour website at litontour.com. You can also read the interviews on this blog with Ann Y.K. Choi and Kim Moritsugu.

Shauna Kosoris – www.tbpl.ca. If you have a comment about today’s column, we would love to hear from you. Please comment below!