Results tagged “zadiesmith”

Things are going great for previous Torontoist interview subject Howard Akler. His debut novel the City Man has been getting rave reviews and was recently nominated in the first-time authors category for the Commonwealth Writer's Prize (Caribbean and Canada Region). Akler joins a list which includes long-time poet and writer, but first-time novelist George Elliot Clarke and Calgary author Jacqueline Honnet. The winner of the regional prize goes on to compete against other fine books from the Commonwealth.

On Tuesday night we took in Marsha Lederman's interview with the hilarious David Rakoff (we just finished his latest, and you should too) and Jonathan Safran Foer. Both fellows were witty and articulate, deftly turning Lederman's occasionally awkward questions around into well-spoken, thoughtful answers. Rakoff discussed his recent acquisition of American citizenship, but explained that he feels less like an American and more like a New Yorker, especially now that America is over its brief sympathy for New York and back to thinking of it as a "nest of pervs." Foer stopped the proceedings at one point to charmingly announce that he had just noticed that he'd stepped in dog poo and felt it best to draw it to everyone's attention so that no one thought he'd let out a nasty. We were especially taken by his stripey socks, until we noticed that he was wearing an identical pair the next day. Perhaps he should pay a visit to Chocky's before the festival is over.

When tipsters aren't writing in to tell us that local weekly editors were spotted eating burritos, they write in to tell us even more mundane things - On Monday David MacFarlane was seen walking down College Street, possibly exiting a dry cleaning shop. But fresh on the heels of Zoilus' announcement that a NYTimeser was in town to do a piece on this town's musical lights, we get word that a certain Vanity Fair writer has also been traipsing around the IFOA, gathering materials for a piece on Toronto's writerly lights. Other than that, Shinan tell us that Zadie Smith (not to be confused with the new Zadie Smith, or the new, new Zadie Smith) came to hear a Mac-toting Candace Bushnell do her thing, and frowned. The low celeb wattage matches the weather, and the weather makes us want to curl up with a good book. Author Julian Barnes gets interviewed by the Globe's Marty Levin tonight.

Canadians know that we have to pack in all our activities before the weather gets too cold for us to leave our houses, which is why this weekend is just jam-packed with stuff to do.

In this issue, our crack musical theatre reporter, C. Andrew Courtice, ventures deep into the theatre district, and unearths the following: