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International Festival of Authors: Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize Finalists Reading
A Review of the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize Finalists Reading Featuring Clarke Blaise, Michael Christie, Patrick deWitt, Esi Edugyan and Dan Vyleta; hosted by Rabindranath Maharaj. Wednesday, October 26, 2011. The Brigantine Room. This past Wednesday, the TRB attended the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize Finalists Reading at the International Festival of Authors. The…
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“The Normal Heart” At Buddies in Bad Times Theatre
For a brief period of time, Larry Kramer was known as the angriest gay man on the planet. The Normal Heart, his molotov cocktail of a play about AIDS in New York in the early 1980s, was angrily hurled in the face of theatregoers in Manhattan as the disease was silently ravaging thousands of people…
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International Festival of Authors: Book City 35th Anniversary Reading
A review of the Book City 35th Anniversary Reading Featuring Linwood Barclay, Amitav Ghosh, Nancy Huston and Heather Jessup; hosted by Zoe Whittall Tuesday, October 24th, 2011. Fleck Dance Theatre Zoe Whittall, author of Holding Still for as Long as Possible and host of the Book City 35th Anniversary Reading, lacked the playful badinage displayed…
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Samizdat: Material Texts and Extra-Gutenberg Publics
On January 20, 2011, University of Toronto Professor Ann Komaromi spoke in the Toronto Centre for the Book lecture series on “Samizdat: Material Texts and Extra-Gutenberg Publics.” (Samizdat is a form of grassroots and DIY publishing that circulated dissenting texts in Soviet Europe.) [audio:annkomaromi.mp3]
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Cameron Bailey’s Briliant Take on Toronto’s Festivals
When we went to watch TRB author Shawn Micallef pick up his prize at the Heritage Toronto Awards on October 4th (huzzah, Shawn!), we were stunned by TIFF Co-Director Cameron Bailey‘s William Kilbourn Memorial Lecture on the meaning of this city’s festivals. We thought you might like to take a look:
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Tonight! City WIDEN on Social Fabric! A TRB event at the Textile Museum!
Tonight is the very first event of City WIDEN, the speaking series curated by The Toronto Review of Books in affiliation with www.widentoronto.com. All are welcome! Details are as follows: Presented by The Toronto Review of Books in affiliation with www.widentoronto.com, City WIDEN (Workshops for Interest, Discussion, Exchange, & Novelty) gathers three people with different…
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A TRB Q&A with Charles Foran, author of Mordecai: The Life and Times
Last night, Charles Foran won the Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Nonfiction Prize, the richest prize in Canadian literature. Foran’s book, Mordecai: The Life and Times is the unauthorized biography of one of Canada’s great, and somewhat controversial, novelists, Mordecai Richler. Since its release in October 2010, Mordecai has won both the Charles Taylor Prize for Literary Non-fiction and the Helen…
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Charms of the Indie Bookstore
1. Knowledgeable staff People who work at independent book stores tend to be actively involved in book culture. They attend launches and readings, keep up-to-date on book news and reviews, and many also work in publishing. Some of them may even be friends with local authors. They are your fellow readers, and may remember…
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Bollywood-Hollywood: Nitin Mirani at the Lightbox
For 90 minutes last Sunday afternoon, the TIFF Bell Lightbox set the stage for Dubai-based Nitin Mirani who has a history in business but a penchant for the spotlight and yuk-yuks. The comedy routine itself was built around the theme of the clichés of Bollywood and was a veritable pastiche of 70s film clips, skits…
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Klausen on the Danish Cartoons
On February 11, 2011, Brandeis Professor Jytte Klausen gave a retrospective on “Al Qaeda’s War on the Danish Cartoons” at the University of Toronto Political Science Department. [audio:klausen.mp3]
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Joni Mitchell’s The Circle Game
A recent offering from Cormorant imprint Dancing Cat Books, The Circle Game is a beautiful if bittersweet rendering of Joni Mitchell’s classic, eponymous song in storybook form. Mitchell’s lyrics provide the book’s text and act in tandem with Brian Deines’ accompanying illustrations; together, they attempt to transform the tale of a boy’s journey to adulthood…
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A TRB Q+A with Charlotte Gill, author of Eating Dirt
Charlotte Gill started tree planting as a summer job during university. That first summer turned into a 17-season career that saw Gill plant over 1 million trees all over Canada. When not on the cut blocks, Gill started writing. Her debut short story collection Ladykiller was shortlisted for the 2005 Governor General’s Literary Awards and won…