The Word On The Street is coming up, and we're partnering with Toronto WOTS to bring you author interviews, contests, and lots of snaps on the day!
When: Sunday, September 23, 2012—11:00 a.m.
Where: Queens Park Circle
, Toronto, ON
M5R 2E8
As part of 49th Shelf's #Fest2Fest, Julie Wilson is speaking with authors across the country (and abroad) who are appearing at literary festivals to promote their latest books.
For all our #Fest2Fest updates, bookmark www.49thshelf.com/Festivals.
Miranda Hill (Sleeping Funny) will appear at Word on the Street Toronto 2012 in the Great Books Marquee at 12:00 p.m.
Julie met with Miranda at Random House Canada to talk about her path to publication, her "rock star" editor, Lynn Henry, and her love of performance.
About the book: Sleeping Funny is that rare book—a debut that introduces us to a fully mature writer, one who instantly draws you in with her lean style, empathy and wit, and keeps you reading, with growing admiration and delight, from first page to last. These stories showcase Miranda Hill's astonishing range and virtuosity, introducing us to a protean variety of characters, each as well-realized as the next. Here is a writer who can seamlessly inhabit the consciousness of a sixteen-year-old navigating an embarrassing sex-ed class, a middle-aged minister experiencing a devastating crisis of faith in a 19th century rural village, a pilot's widow coping with her grief by growing an unusual "victory garden" during World War II, and well-heeled modern professional women juggling jobs, kids, and husbands, and trying to cope with the arrival of a beautiful bohemian neighbour, on a gentrified street in downtown Toronto.
The qualities that unite these remarkable stories are a pervasive sense of mystery and magic, a wonderful wit and sophistication, and most surprisingly, the slight disorientation implied by the title: In Miranda Hill's beguiling universe, the "real world" is recognizable and slightly askew, as if you were experiencing one of those strange dreams where you think you are awake—or as if you've been "sleeping funny" and are on the cusp of waking into the everyday world you thought you knew.
About the author: Miranda Hill's writing has been published by The New Quarterly, The Dalhousie Review and The Fiddlehead. She received her BA in drama from Queen's University, and her MFA in Creative Writing from the University of British Columbia. Hill has worked in television and as a freelance writer and communications consultant. She is the founder and executive director of Project Bookmark Canada. She lives in Hamilton with her husband Lawrence Hill. Sleeping Funny is her first book of fiction.
Visit Miranda Hill's official author website: www.mirandahill.com
Follow Miranda Hill on Twitter: @miranda_hill_
More about Word On the Street: Toronto
As always, WOTS will celebrate readers and literacy by hosting authors and speakers in a variety of venues.
The Nothing But The Truth Tent features authors talking about literary non-fiction. The Great Books Marquee features the buzz spring and fall titles. The Penguin Pavilion showcases some of their upcoming and favourite releases, as does Random House at the Remarkable Reads Tent. And there's always a huge crowd for the Scotiabank Giller Prize Bestsellers Stage and the Toronto Book Awards Tent where you'll hear newly-nominated authors read from their works.
The Humber School Of Writers hosts a day of writing working shops at the Scribendi.com Workshop Marquee.
Young adults will enjoy This is Not The Shakespeare Stage, a new venue featuring sessions with Canadian young adult authors and artists, while KidStreet is back, as always, along with the Children’s Activity Tent featuring activities, crafts, entertainment, and appearances from some of your favourite children's authors and illustrators! Same goes for the Children’s Reading Tent and the TVOKids Stage! Family fun!
Finally, be sure to stop by The Toronto Start Tent and Open Book's Vibrant Voices of Ontario Tent, which celebrates Canadian fiction, non-fiction, and poetry.
Visit The Word On The Street website for all venues, locations, and schedules.