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The Making of a Giller Winner

Wednesday, June 23, 2021 7:00 PM – 8:30 PM EDT via Zoom

Join us for a lively summer conversation between author Ian Williams and his editor Anne Collins.

To close out the 2020–21 season, Canadian Authors–Toronto and Editors Toronto are joining forces to bring back our popular series showcasing award-winning authors in conversation with their exceptional editors. On Wednesday, June 23, at 7:00 pm, our Zoom program event will feature Ian Williams, winner of the 2019 Scotiabank Giller Prize, and Anne Collins, his editor.

Ian Williams is a multiple award–winning poet and fiction writer. His work explores the complicated inequalities of race and class with compassion, intelligence, and wit. Anne Collins, a renowned editor and author herself, and recipient of the Ivy Award, is the executive editor of Random House Canada and VP of Penguin Random House Canada.

Join us for an illuminating conversation exploring the author–editor relationship from acquisition through to the submission of the final draft. Ian Williams will read from Reproduction and offer a sneak peak of his upcoming nonfiction work, Disorientation, which will be coming out in September. This event will be moderated by Editors Toronto co-chair Catherine Dorton. Q&A to follow.

More about the speakers:

Ian Williams is the author of the novel Reproduction, winner of the 2019 Scotiabank Giller Prize; Personals, which was shortlisted for the Griffin Poetry Prize and the Robert Kroetsch Poetry Book Award; Not Anyone’s Anything, winner of the Danuta Gleed Literary Award for the best first collection of short fiction in Canada; and You Know Who You Are, a finalist for the ReLit Prize for poetry. In 2020 he published his latest poetry collection, Word Problems, winner of the Raymond Souster Award. In fall 2021 he will release Disorientation: The Experience of Being Black in the World.

Williams is associate professor of English at the University of Toronto, where he completed his doctorate. He spent four years teaching poetry in the Creative Writing Department at the University of British Columbia. In 2014–2015 he was the Writer-in-Residence for the University of Calgary’s Distinguished Writers Program. He has held fellowships or residencies from Vermont Studio Center, the Banff Center, Cave Canem, and the National Humanities Center. Born in Trinidad, Williams grew up in Brampton, Ontario, and has worked in Massachusetts and Ontario.

Anne Collins is the executive editor of Random House Canada and VP of Penguin Random House Canada. Before she was hired to rebuild the Random House Canada imprint in 1998, she was a magazine editor, a journalist, and an author who won the Governor General’s Literary Award for nonfiction for In the Sleep Room: The Story of the CIA Brainwashing Experiments in Canada. In 2009 she became publisher of both Random House Canada and Knopf Canada, stepping down in January 2021 to concentrate on editing.

Her work as an editor reflects her admiration for writers who push themselves to the brink of their capacities and creativity, no matter the form. She publishes and edits a broad range of authors including Jann Arden, Julian Barnes, Gary Barwin, Celina Caesar-Chavannes, Douglas Coupland, Roméo Dallaire, Cherie Dimaline, Chris Hadfield, Wayne Johnston, Robert Kolker, Shaena Lambert, Amanda Leduc, Annabel Lyon, Linden MacIntyre, J.B. MacKinnon, Ami McKay, Tessa McWatt, Sean Michaels, Alexandra Morton, Jo Nesbø, Jodi Picoult, Richard Powers, Eden Robinson, Sarah Weinman, Ian Williams, and Alissa York. In 2019 she became the eighth recipient of the Ivy Award, which honours extraordinary contributions to Canadian publishing.

Schedule:

7:00 pm — Zoom meeting opens

7:05 pm — Authors and Editors in Conversation: Ian Williams and Anne Collins

8:00 pm — Q&A

Want to join us?

To reserve your spot, follow the link: https://www.tickettailor.com/events/editorstoronto/535988

Editors Canada and Canadian Authors Association members can reserve their ticket for free using the promo code at checkout. The code will be emailed to all members before the event. Please check your junk file if you haven’t received it.

Non-member admission is $7.

Having trouble with the promo code? Follow these steps:

Select “Buy Tickets.”
A prompt will come up, allowing you to choose your number of tickets and a suggested donation. If you do not wish to donate, simply change the amount to $0.
Click “Next.”
Enter the code in the promo code box on the following screen. Your total should show as $0.
Enter your name and email address.

You will receive an email confirmation, which includes the link and passcode to the event.

Still having trouble? Email TOpresident1 at canadianauthors.org.

Planning ahead

Stay tuned to the Authors–Toronto “Events” web page for regular programming and event updates.

As always, we welcome your feedback on all of our activities. Email co-president Lee Parpart at TOpresident1@canadianauthors.org with comments, questions, or ideas about our programs and events.

We’re working to expand the number of writing circles that we can offer to members. We’re looking for branch members to launch and moderate new Authors–Toronto writing circles outside of the downtown core. Our Annex Writing Circle meets the second Thursday of every month at the CSI Annex and is at capacity, but we are open to working with new members to start another monthly group at the same location. Please email Lee at TOpresident1 at canadianauthors.org for more details about writing circles.

And if you know any writers who are not already members of Canadian Authors Association, please talk to them about the benefits of joining. To join Canadian Authors Association or renew your membership, click here.

Thank you for your interest! We look forward to seeing you.

Archived information for past events held in 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018