How, in a culture saturated with violent images, have words — and, occasionally, cartoons — retained the power to harm, exclude, objectify and disparage others? Should writers police themselves and distinguish between legitimate representations of violence and those which merely titillate, amuse, or provoke? Joseph Boyden and Andrew Pyper will discuss the challenges of writing intelligently about hateful subjects, and they will consider which taboos should be questioned, or broken, and which should be observed. Moderated by Becky Toyne.
Tickets on sale from May 11.
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Joseph Boyden is a Canadian novelist and short story writer. His first novel Three Day Road was shortlisted for the Governor General’s Award in 2005, and won the Rogers Writers’ Trust fiction prize, the McNally Robinson Aboriginal Book of the Year award and the Amazon/Books in Canada first novel award. His second novel, Through Black Spruce won the 2008 Scotia Bank Giller prize. The Orenda, his most recent novel, won Canada Reads and was nominated for the Giller Prize and the Governor General’s Award for Fiction. Boyden divides his time between Northern Ontario and Louisiana. |
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Andrew Pyper is the author of seven internationally bestselling novels, including the recently publishedThe Damned. His prior book, The Demonologist, won the 2014 International Thriller Writers Award for Best Hardcover Novel, and was a #1 bestseller in Canada. He is the recipient of the Grant Allen Award for contributions to Canadian mystery and thriller writing. Both The Damned and The Demonologist are in active development for film with Universal Pictures. |
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Becky Toyne is a freelance books columnist, editor and literary event publicist. She is the “Should I Read It?” columnist for Day 6 on CBC Radio One, and her writing about books, publishing and Toronto’s literary scene has appeared in the Globe & Mail, National Post and Open Book: Toronto. Becky is a regular host and interviewer at literary events including Word on the Street, the International Festival of Authors, and the Toronto Literary Salon, and a freelance publicist for the Writers’ Trust of Canada. Find her online at beckytoyne.com. |
Photo credit: “Francisco de Goya y Lucientes – Duelo a garrotazos” by Francisco Goya – [1]. Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons