IFOA roundup

• Who attends the International Festival of Authors? Youngish couples who barrage fellow audience members with Julian Barnes trivia questions, and male pensioners worried they’ll be accused of shoplifting the uncracked books they brought from home. [jZepp]
• Zadie Smith overcomes a barrage of ridiculous questions to provide a fan with two flavours of her penmanship. [Something Slant]
• John Irving ruminates on the gothic nature of life while reading from a work-in-progress about a French-Canadian cook who serves meals to loggers in 1954, then excruciating interview triggers fast food-induced thirst among audience members. [Friends, Romans]
• David Rakoff twists occasionally awkward queries into deft answers, which doesn’t absolve Jonathan Safran Foer of scrutiny for not changing his loud stripey socks the next day. [Torontoist]
• Chip Kidd, the cover artist appearing on an illustrative IFOA panel on Saturday, speaks at the Designthinkers conference about applying his talents to famous gays Bret Easton Ellis, Augusten Burroughs and David Sedaris, plus Dick Grayson and Bruce Wayne. [Fawny.org]