Books(in140) & Other Things

Here’s a look at the literary happenings in Toronto today!

Stories That Bind Festival

Hart House Library | 11am-6pm| free
7 Hart House Circle

Come celebrate authors, poets, storytellers, presenters and more with readings from Rishma Dunlop,
Flavia Cosma, Charles Seidlecki, Al Moritz, Lien Chao, Anthony DeSa, Patrica Rivera, Dae Tong Huh,
Jennifer Duncan and more. Creative performances and artwork will be there for you to enjoy too!

Public Demystification workshop with Karen Connelly

Toronto Reference Library | 1pm | free
789 Yonge Street

Karen Connelly, TPL’s Writer in Residence, will be leading a workshop on Publication Demystification.

Toronto Poetry Slam

Drake Hotel | 7:30pm | $5.00
1150 Queen Street West

Dave Nichols, a member of the Black Pearl Poetry National Slam Team will be a featured guest at tonight’s slam. Expect tons of fun and a competition or two!

Here’s a round-up of all the literary happenings today in Toronto!

University of Toronto Bookstore presents David Hackett Fisher and Peter MacLeod

Robert Gill Theatre | 7:30pm | free
214 College Street

David Hackett Fischer (Champlain’s Dream) and Peter MacLeod (Northern Armageddon) will be reading as part of the U of T reading series. There’s limited seating, so get there early!

Image by swamibu. Licensed via Creative Commons.

Here’s what’s happening lit-wise in Toronto today!

The Heliconian Club | 6:30pm | $10
35 Hazelton Avenue

HarperCollins and the Cookbook Store present the Globe and Mail’s Amy Verner in conversation with Tana Ramsey. As in Gordon Ramsey’s wife. Yeah, I want to go too.

Get Lit 2008

Gladstone Hotel | 7pm | $100
1214 Queen Street West

Readers for this year’s Get Lit include mayor David Miller, Vincent Lam, George Stroumboulopoulos, Amy Verner (she’s having a busy evening!) and Elvira Kurt. Proceeds will help the Running & Reading Club. Ticket info is available on the website.

Harbord House | 7:30pm | free
150 Harbord Street

Enjoy readings with Christopher Doda, Karen Connelly, Halli Villages, and Leigh Nash as we celebrate the multiculturalism of Canada, presented by KCLF-21 Press.

Art Attack!

University of Toronto Visual Studies building | 7pm | free
1 Spadina Crescent

Okay, so this has nothing to do with books. But it sounds like tons of fun and it’s free! Toronto Public Space Committee wants you to help create a foliage installation.I think that’s a fancy way to asking you to come play in the leaves with them, resulting in wheat pasting and leaf mobiles for all!

Image by aldinegirl12. Licensed via Creative Commons

Here are the literary happenings in and around Toronto day. If you go, let me know!

Toronto Public Library Reading: Edo van Belkom

Fairview Branch | 10:30am | Free
35 Fairview Mall Drive

Edo van Belkhom will read from Wolf Man (Tundra Books).

Young Hunting Launch

Seeley Hall, Trinity College | 5pm | Free
6 Hoskin Avenue

ECW will be celebrating the launch of Young Hunting by Martin Hunter.

Into the Drowned World Launch

Mitzi’s Sister | 7pm | free
1554 Queen Street West

Insomniac Press will be celebrating the launch of Into the Drowned World by Ryan Kamstra.

TINARS: Belonging and Banishment: Being Muslim in Canada

Gladstone Hotel | 7:30pm | free
1214 Queen Street West

A panel discussion about the integration and identity of Muslims in Canada, lead by the editor of Belonging and Banishment, Natasha Bakht. Should be an interesting night, especially in light of the recent Toronto Life cover and controversy.

York’s Canadian Writers in Person presents Djanet Sears

York University | 7pm | free
Accolade West Building, Room 109

Djanet Sears, author of Adventures of a Black Girl in Search of God (Playwrights Canada Press) is giving a lecture.

Book Thug Launch Party

Supermarket | 7:30pm | free
268 Augusta Ave

Come celebrate the launch of a whole bunch of new books, including In Stereo by Paul Hegedus, The SubWay by Philip Quinn, MAL ARME by Victor Coleman, After Rilke by Mark Goldstein, Welcome to Earth by Amanda Earl and This &That Lenin by Steven Zultanski.

Art Bar Poetry Series: David Clink, Maurice Mierau and Margaret Christakos

Clinton’s | 8pm |free
693 Bloor Street West

David Clink, Maurice Mierau and Margaret Christakos will all be reading their work.

Image by Crystl. Licensed via Creative Commons.

Here’s a few book-related events happening in and around the great city of Toronto. Planning to go to any of them?

TINARS: Emily Holton and JR Carpenter

Gladstone Hotel | 7:30pm | free
1214 Queen Street West

This book launch comes equipped with an interactive element-animation, commentary and much more! It promises to be tons of fun. Emily Holton is the author of the reversible novellas Our Starland/Dear Canada and JR Carpenter penned Words the Dog Knows.

If you go, I’d love for you to share pictures, videos, stories and more!

Image by jekinthebox. Licensed via Creative Commons.

For months I’ve been meaning to post some insightful meta-crap about living in Toronto and what it means to be a small-town Nova Scotian living in Toronto. It’s supposed to blacken my soul and harden my heart; a horror I don’t realize it until some family tragedy forces me home and I open my eyes and see that a community of high unemployment, low population and little to do is really the way to the good, the truth and the light.

I always hated Toronto growing up. Hated it for having the things Digby didn’t, hated it for appearing to have economic and political clout, hated it for the fact my parents’ income couldn’t buy them a one bedroom condo downtown there, hated it for being smug and superior, hated it for being smoggy, hated it for being there.

Then I moved here. It wasn’t intentional, it was just the path my life took. It made sense to live here and no sense not to. I still can’t fully embrace living in Toronto (hell, living in Ontario), because somewhere I’m convinced a little part of me will die.

I don’t even like Digby. And I still can’t do it.

However, I’ve realized a few things. Toronto gets the short end of the stick most of the time. I can take the subway regularly (during rush hour!) and not want to kill myself. It’s actually nice to be able to shop at three different Gaps in a single day if I really wanted to. Saying hello to the hooker who works the corner is a nice thing to do. That even though I live in the downtown core–within walking distance of all those icons that make Toronto what it is–it bugs the hell out of me that my walk to school is routed so that I can’t see the CN Tower.

The fucking Soctiabank building is in the way.

So yeah. This wasn’t profound at all. But then, neither is living in Toronto.