Ann-Marie MacDonald and Tara Thorne in conversation with Laurie Brown—SOLD OUT

 

Ann-Marie MacDonald is an author, actor and playwright. She was born in the former West Germany, where she lived her first years on Royal Canadian Air Force Station, 4-Wing. Her parents were from Cape Breton Island – her father of old Scottish stock, her mother the child of Lebanese immigrants. Her paternal grandparents spoke Gaelic as their first language, and her maternal grandparents’ mother tongue was Arabic. Ann-Marie is proud of all sides of her heritage.

In 1996 Ann-Marie’s first novel, Fall on Your Knees, was published by Knopf Canada as part of their inaugural “New Face of Fiction”. A critically acclaimed international best seller, it won the Commonwealth Prize, the People’s Choice Award, the Canadian Booksellers Association Libris Award for Fiction Book of the Year, and was short-listed for the Giller Prize. In 2002 it became an Oprah’s Book Club selection.

Ann-Marie’s second novel, The Way the Crow Flies, was published in 2003. An international bestseller and finalist for the Giller Prize, it was a Good Morning America Book Club pick.

In 2014, her third novel, Adult Onset, was published and became a number one national bestseller.

In fall 2022, her latest novel, Fayne will be published.

In 2023, the stage adaptation of Fall On Your Knees, will premiere with a four-city tour.

Ann-Marie is married to theatre director, Alisa Palmer with whom she has two daughters. In 2014 the family moved from Toronto to Montreal where Alisa took up the post as Artistic Director, English Section, of The National Theatre School of Canada – Ann-Marie’s alma mater.

In Montreal, Ann-Marie enjoyed being the inaugural Mordecai Richler Reading Room Writer in Residence at Concordia University. She continues to coach students in the Acting and Playwriting Programs at the National Theatre School. In 2019 she was made an Officer of the Order of Canada in recognition of her contribution to the arts, and her activism and advocacy for LGBTQ2S+ rights.

 

Tara Thorne has been an arts advocate and journalist in Halifax since 2000. She leads the rock band Dance Movie, hosts The Tideline podcast, and coordinates the Halifax Independent Filmmakers Festival. Her feature debut as writer and director,  Compulsus, is currently on the film festival circuit.

A self-proclaimed “gay feminist harpy since before it was cool,” Tara Thorne is situated somewhere between the sharp-eyed urban commentary of Nora Ephron and ribald cultural analysis of Lindy West. In her debut book of essays, the Halifax-based filmmaker, arts critic, and recovering journalist gives readers her unvarnished take on the films and music that made her a feminist, how the #MeToo reckoning led her to write a misandrist vigilante film, what it’s like being the only woman in a band, and the snarky tweet that made her lose her position as CBC Radio’s arts and culture columnist. Alongside are musings on coming out later in life, remaining resolutely child-free, and why she’s decided to step back from being professional to the point of erasure: after two decades, it’s time to take the low road.