Author Talks

Friday Author Talk: Lev Grossman

I was raised by two English professors, and expensively educated — first at Harvard, then as a graduate student at Yale — in the highest possible traditions of the Western literary canon. But it wasn't until I began writing fantasy that I found my voice as an author. Why, and how, would a writer educated in the temples of Western literature deliberately abandon the world of literary fiction for the disreputable netherworld of fantasy? And what is it like on the other side? And is it possible that the two worlds aren't as far apart as they seem?

Lev Grossman is a senior writer at Time Magazine as both the book critic and lead technology writer. He's also a bestselling author himself. Drawing on his own expertise and extensive conversations with major cultural figures, Grossman brings a uniquely qualified, humanistic eye to the complex and unprecedented ways in which technology and culture are merging.

Saturday Author Talk: Todd Babiak

In late March, 2012, Todd Babiak started researching the Edmonton Public Library. He thought he had almost a year, to finish a book about the library to celebrate its centennial. In fact, he had a little less than four months. Then his editor called, to ask for a rewrite of his upcoming novel. He gave up on sleeping and dove into the stories of the Edmonton Public Library. He learned more — in an intense and concentrated fashion — about the library and its people, and the soul of the city that created it, than he could have imagined.

Todd Babiak has published four novels, three of them bestsellers. They have been nominated for the Scotiabank Giller Prize, the Rogers Writers Trust Award and the Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour. The Garneau Block won the City of Edmonton book prize and Toby: A Man won the Georges Bugnet Award. His next novel, published later this year, is called The South of France.