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TRB Podcast: John Baird on Dickens and Great Expectations
On September 20, lauded U of T professor John Baird visited the Deer Park Branch of the Toronto Public Library to give a reading and lead a discussion of Charles Dickens’s Great Expectations. As part of the TPL’s lecture series “Celebrate Dickens,” which commemorates the bicentennial of the author’s birth, Prof. Baird addressed the social mores…
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Indigenous Writers’ Gathering A Smashing Success
Renowned authors Lee Maracle, Daniel Heath-Justice, Richard Wagamese and award winning Metis poet Marilyn Dumont all descended on the U of T campus for the one-day Indigenous Writers’ Gathering last week. After a breakfast with the writers, panels kicked off with traditional Metis Rogarou stories. Other workshops included discussing fiction with Richard Wagamese, “Declaring and…
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IFOA: Round Table on Social Critique in Literature
[View the story “IFOA: Round Table on Social Critique in Literature” on Storify]
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Sci-lenced: A PEN Canada Evening on Scientists’ Freedom of Expression
Wednesday evening, October 17, marked the end of the 2012 edition of PEN Canada’s “Non-Speak Week,” a series of events on the role of freedom of expression in Canada. Together with the Canadian Science Writers Association (CSWA), PEN had invited a panel composed of Professor Danny Harvey from Department of Geography, University of Toronto, Stephen Strauss,…
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Record Store Review: Viva La Vortex
Nestled in the heart of Midtown (2309 Yonge Street, 2nd floor), Vortex Records and its owner, Bert Myers, have been supplying Torontonians with second-hand CDs and vinyl for almost 30 years. The store carries all kinds of music but specializes in rock and pop and is currently building up its jazz and country stock. They…
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With voices raised: Tamil artists get their due at the TPL
It is appropriate that Saturday’s event was named Tamil Literary Voices, in the plural, because in a cross-section of some of the language’s more prominent Torontonians, it was indeed a remarkable spectrum of voices—both in terms of political perspective and artistic media alike.
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TRB Issue Five Launch Party!
Issue Five of The Toronto Review of Books is soon to make its appearance. Subterranean book markets in Armenia, tiny model ships at the AGO, Internet maps, and David Foster Wallace all take the stage in this most auspicious of issues. We’ll toast its arrival on November 13, 8pm until late, at the Poetry Jazz Café (224…
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Bookishness: October 22, 2012
The Toronto Reference Library has binders full of women too Catalogued and everything. Another thing they’ve got? Study carrels for exhibitionists. Scribbles In recent Internet meanderings I came across this little app and subsequently lost hours making little drawings that looked suspiciously like art. 10 best films of the 90s Alas, no Clueless. It’s the best films…
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Rohinton Mistry and PEN Canada at IFOA, Tweeted
Last night a rare appearance by Rohinton Mistry opened the 2012 International Festival of Authors at Toronto’s Harbourfront Centre. The evening was a benefit for PEN Canada—and featured the author giving an enchanting reading about his childhood, several of his incredible and unexpected bursts into song, as well as a chat on stage with the CBC’s…
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TRB Podcast: Lynn Coady and The Antagonist on the Eh List
On May 17, the Toronto Public Library invited Lynn Coady to speak at the Barbara Frum Branch as part of the 2012 eh List Author Series, which highlights Canadian writers. Reading from her novel The Antagonist, Coady raises questions regarding who has the right to tell stories and considers the ethics of writing a life. Listen…
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Art and document: A review of the ROM’s “Observance and Memorial: Photographs from S-21, Cambodia”
In 1975, Cambodian dictator Pol Pot began purging the country of citizens accused of undermining his Khmer Rouge party. By 1979, over 2 million people had been arrested, tortured and killed. During that time, 14,000 men, women and children had been filtered through Security Prison-21 (S-21), an old high school-turned-prison used for interrogating detainees. Of…
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Reflecting on Amy Hempel’s “In A Tub”
After reading Amy Hempel’s “In a Tub,” I felt inspired to reflect on the story. Two years ago, I posted this essay on my blog, A Long Story Short. I eyed my grey, suede moon boots and my white ski jacket in the front closet, smelled snow on the draft seeping through the front…