Diaries: Reality and Fiction. A Dialogue Between Literature and Arts

Once debated as a literary genre in its own right, the diary has evolved into an influential creative form across literature, cinema, visual art, music, comics, and journalism. Its distinctive sense of time, intimacy, and subjective perspective continues to shape how personal experience is transformed into artistic expression.

Building on its inaugural edition featuring writers and thinkers including Margaret Atwood, Alberto Manguel, and Philippe Lejeune, the second Toronto International Forum for the Art of Diaries explores the relationship between diaries and other art forms.

This year’s Forum also celebrates diaries rooted in lived experience through guest of honour Ian Brown and his books Sixty and Seventy, which explore ageing through daily observation, philosophical inquiry, and personal reflection.

9:00 a.m. | Welcoming Remarks and Introduction to the Forum

Opening remarks by Kamel Riahi (author, Massey Fellow) in Arabic and Dr. Walid El Khachab (Professor of Arabic Studies, York University) in English.

M.C. Mostafa Al-A’sar (author)

9:30 a.m. | Dr. Walid El Khachab, York University

The Maid’s Diary as an Act of Liberation: From Literature to Film

A brief academic comparison between the figures of the Maid in Arabic and European literature and cinemas.

10:00 a.m. | Roula Taher, Filmmaker, Co-Founder of Toronto Arab Film Festival

Reflections on Diary Filmmaking

Testimony, Preceded by a screening of Roula Taher’s film diary Sira.

10:30 a.m. | Conversation with Kamel Riahi, conducted by Walid El Khachab

Kamel Riahi will share insights about his two books The Art of Diaries and Samuel Beckett in Tunisia, both written during his 2025–2026 writer’s residency at Massey College.

11:00 a.m. | Keynote Address: Ian Brown

My Experience in Keeping a Diary

Our guest of honour, renowned author and journalist Ian Brown will reflect on his experience of diary writing in his books Sixty and Seventy. A Q&A with the audience will follow.

12:00 p.m. | Book Signing

Ian Brown will sign his book: Seventy.

1:00 p.m. | Closing Remarks