Tanja-Tiziana
Vivek Shraya
THE WORD ON THE STREET at various Harbourfront Centre venues (235 Queens Quay West), Sunday (September 25), 11 am to 6 pm. Free. thewordonthestreet.ca.
Any festival that uproots itself to a new location is bound to encounter a few problems, and The Word On The Street’s move to Harbourfront Centre last year was no different.
Lots of people griped about how the site seemed cramped, they sometimes felt trapped in some of the venues, and a few of the indoor locations got way overheated.
This year, the Cooks ’n’ Books slate – one of the hottest last year in both senses of the word – is moving outside, the exhibitors marketplace has been expanded to South Queens Quay, and the Amazon Bestsellers stage has some breaks programmed so people are free to move in and out.
What remains the same is the exceptional lineup of writers. Here’s a list of can’t-miss appearances.
The Giller longlister discusses her funny, edgy novel 13 Ways Of Looking At A Fat Girl.
2 pm, Wordshop marquee
André Alexis
Last year’s Giller Prize winner has already cranked out another novel, The Hidden Keys, inspired by Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island.
2:45 pm, Amazon Bestsellers stage
Tim McCaskell
The queer local hero, journalist and AIDS activist comes to the festival with Queer Progress, his history of LGBTQ politics from the 70s to 2014.
12:30 pm, Nothing But The Truth tent
Oh, yay, the former NOW writer has released This Is A Book About The Kids In The Hall, his long-promised opus on Canada’s comedy heroes.
2 pm, Nothing But The Truth tent
John Sewell
The former mayor looks back on his tenure at City Hall in How We Changed Toronto.
12:30 pm, Toronto Book Awards tent
The wildly versatile novelist, singer and 2016 NOW Pride cover subject joins Word’s poetry slate, presenting Even This Page Is White.
12:45 pm, Great Books marquee
The Ojibway scribe and NOW contributor known for writing about First Nations with clarity and hilarity presents Take Us To Your Chief, his first foray into science fiction.
11:30 am, Genre Zone stage
Heather Tucker/Adwoa Badoe
Tucker, whose debut, The Clay Girl, is turning heads, and the always fascinating Adwoa Badoe (Aluta) discuss their books about young people facing hard decisions too early in life.
2:15 pm, Great Books marquee
The local author reads from The Best Kind Of People, fresh off her appearance on the Giller longlist.
3 pm, Great Books marquee