4:00 PM
Ted Daigle Auditorium
Edmund Casey Hall
Writer, critic and scholar Dr. Randy Boyagoda will deliver this yearâs Bishop Dollard Lecture on Thursday, November 21 in the Ted Daigle Auditorium at 4 PM.
In his talk, "Laughing in Church is a Difficult Virtue,â novelist and professor Randy Boyagoda considers the stakes of writing comedy in times of tragedy. He does so by way of reflecting on the Easter Sunday bombings in Sri Lanka alongside the premise of his new novel, Original Prin, which is about a Sri Lankan Catholic academic and begins âEight months before he became a suicide bomber, Prin went to the zoo with his family.â
About the speaker:
Novelist Randy Boyagoda is a professor of English at the University of Toronto, where he also serves as Principal of St. Michaelâs College and holds the Basilian Chair in Christianity, Arts, and Letters. His most recent novel, Original Prin, was named a Globe and Mail Best Book of 2018 and a New York Times Editorâs Choice Selection (2019). His work has been nominated for the ScotiaBank Giller Prize, IMPAC Dublin Prize, and appeared in publications including the New York Times and Guardian. A regular contributor to CBC Radio, Boyagoda lives in Toronto with his wife and four children.