Exciting News International Festival Directors Attending Trade Day 2023

Roland Gulliver, Toronto International Festival of Authors (TIFA)

Roland Gulliver is the Director of the Toronto International Festival of Authors (TIFA), Canada’s leading literary festival, taking up the position in February 2020 and presenting TIFA’s 41st edition in October 2020, it first digital festival and one of the biggest digital book festivals in the world, presenting conversations, performances, masterclasses, multilingual events, podcasts, animations and more. 2022 presented the inaugural Motive Crime & Mystery Festival in June, and the 43rd edition of the 11-day flagship festival presented in person with new dates in late September, alongside an annual programme of special events, Toronto Lit Up celebrating Toronto’s writers year-round, in-person and online book clubs, as well as special international projects. Gulliver is on the Board of Directors for the Toronto Arts Council (TAC) as Chair of the TAC’s Literary Advisory Committee. He has served on several prize panels, and previous to coming to Toronto, he had over 12 years’ experience at the Edinburgh International Book Festival, where he was Associate Director.

Nicola Tuxworth, Sunday Times Cheltenham Literature Festival

Nicola is Head of Programming at the Times and the Sunday Times Cheltenham Literature Festival, which celebrates its 75th anniversary in 2024. Leading a team of 6 she is responsible for the content of the Festival programme and for its artistic and strategic direction. Her background is in teaching, publishing and copywriting.

Yukiko Duke, The Norwegian Festival of Literature

Yukiko Duke was born in Stockholm, Sweden. She is a literary critic and an organizer of international literary festivals in the. Nordic countries, specializing in events that combine literature with other art forms. Yukiko was the artistic director of Stockholm Literature and is one of the founders of the Swedish-Finnish annual festival Gränslöst. Currently, she is the artistic director of the Norwegian Festival of Literature in Lillehammer, the largest literary festival in the Nordic countries. Of Swedish-Japanese origin, she has written four critically acclaimed books on Japanese culture and has translated over 20 literary works from Japanese into Swedish, among them works of Haruki Murakami and Nobel laureate Kenzaburo Oe.

Marit Borkenhagen, The Norwegian Festival of Literature

Marit Borkenhagen is the Managing director of The Norwegian Festival of Literature. Member of the Board of Norwegian Literature Abroad (NORLA), World Expression Forum (WEXFO), the Sigrid Undset Society, Lillehammer UNESCO City of Literature and member of the Adjudication Committee for the Bjørnson Prize.

Jenny Niven, Edinburgh International Book Festival

Jenny Niven is Director of Edinburgh International Book Festival. A producer and director with an extensive track record leading innovative international and Scottish projects, in 2021 Jenny founded the award-winning Push the Boat Out, a festival of poetry, spoken word, and language. Her previous roles include executive producer of Dandelion, an epic programme of sowing, growing, and sharing across Scotland; executive producer of the Edinburgh International Culture Summit; and head of literature, languages, and publishing at Creative Scotland. She has created and directed book festivals and ideas programmes in Beijing and Melbourne, including as Head of Programme at the Wheeler Centre for Books, Writing and Ideas and participated in literature festivals around the world. As a critic and interviewer she has hosted conversations with Nicola Sturgeon, Armando Iannuci, Jenny Erpenbeck and winner of the Nobel prize for literature, Mo Yan.

Leslie Hurtig, Vancouver Writers Festival

Leslie Hurtig is the Artistic Director for the Vancouver Writers Festival and has worked in a range of senior positions across the Canadian literary landscape for the last 30 years. She has held roles of sales representative, publicist, rights manager and book buyer for some of North America’s great publishers and bookstores. In addition to curating year-round and Festival events, Leslie regularly moderates literary events, acts as juror for a number of prizes, and guest lectures on publishing and literary festivals at Simon Fraser University. She sits on the board of the Canadian Association of Literary Festivals and organizing committee for The Global Association of Literary Festivals. In addition to curating year-round and Festival events, Leslie regularly moderates literary events, acts as juror for a number of prizes, and guest lectures on publishing and literary festivals at Simon Fraser University. She sits on the board of the Canadian Association of Literary Festivals and organizing committee for The Global Association of Literary Festivals.

Marie-Andrée Lamontagne, Blue Metropolis Montreal International Literary Festival

Marie-Andrée Lamontagne is a writer, as well as the Executive Director, Programming and Communications, of the Blue Metropolis Montreal International Literary Festival. A journalist and editor, she is also a member of the editorial board of the magazine Argument, writes the foreign literature column for L’Inconvénient, and hosts the literary program Parking nomade on Radio VM. Lamontagne is a member of the l’Académie des lettres du Québec and Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres de la République française. Her latest book, the biography Anne Hébert. Vivre pour écrire(Boréal, 2019), won the 2020 Canadian Committee on Women’s and Gender History French-Language Book Prize and the 2019 Gabrielle Roy Prize.

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Information about speakers curtesy of Dublin Book Festival.