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1000 Poems Per Night: TRB Live, January
Happy New Year! 2017 begins with a packed list of Toronto readings and events. Rowers Reading Series gets things moving on January 10 with a night of poetry and prose by Joan Crate, Adebe DeRango-Adem, Jacob McArthur Mooney, and Hoa Nguyen (6:30pm, Supermarket, 268 Augusta Avenue). Circle January 11 on your calendar for back-to-back readings. At 6:30pm at…
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TRB Live: October
With TRB Live I’m going to be posting monthly roundups of literary events you might enjoy. Get in touch with me (@kathmcleod) or the TRB (@TorontoReview) on Twitter if you’d like to suggest an event to include next month. Toronto The Coach House Books Fall Launch ushers in autumn with the launch of six new books: Lisa Robertson’s 3 Summers, Jordan…
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Freedom to Read Week in Toronto: A guide
Though some of you will no doubt choose to celebrate Freedom to Read week in Toronto by exercising your freedom to stay home and read (for which we would never fault you), the week of Feb. 24-Mar. 2, 2013, does promise a thrilling roster of events about censorship and books to draw you out of…
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Bookishness: Week of May 7, 2012
Frankenbooks Inkle’s just released Frankenstein, an interactive novel/mobile app, may have descended from the Choose Your Own Adventure stories you checked out of your school library every Thursday morning, but the resulting work is one marked by an unexpected artistry and nuance, according to early reviews. Salon’s Laura Miller says of the… novel/app/thing, it “is a…
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A Little to the Left: LeftWords Festival Celebrates Alternative Authors and Publishers
To be publicly scorned by the infamous Glenn Beck is perhaps not such a rarity in this era. Still, for famed scholar Frances Fox Piven, who was recently dubbed “an enemy of the constitution” by the radio and television personality for her vocal involvement in the Occupy Wall Street movement, such ire can only be…
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Bookishness: Week of April 30, 2012
A “bipolar rabbit hole of past and present” This Findings interview with Brainpicker Maria Popova about the future of reading taught me about fifteen things, as any encounter with Popova is wont to do. In other doings (she lives in hyperdrive): Popova’s book spine poetry (inspired by National Poetry Month and the delightful Sorted Books). On the intimacy of Draw Something “Draw…
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The Ghosts of Europe: Q & A with Anna Porter
As part of its Eh List Author Series, The Barbara Frum Library welcomed acclaimed author Anna Porter on November 17 to discuss her latest book, The Ghosts of Europe (Douglas & McIntyre, 2010). Marking twenty years since Central Europe wrenched itself free of its various Communist dictatorships, The Ghosts of Europe is a sobering glimpse…
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Franzlations at the Ossington
A small crowd gathered last Thursday night at The Ossington for the book launch of Franzlations: The Imaginary Kafka Parables (New Star Books, 2011). A collaborative work between poets Gary Barwin and Hugh Thomas and featuring illustrations by Craig Conley, the book – as its title suggests – takes the paradoxical and absurd prose of…
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Giller Prize Shortlist Reading
The reading event for the Scotiabank Giller Prize shortlisted finalists, on Saturday, October 29th, was entirely sold out. With the Fleck Theatre filled to capacity, it was immediately clear that this was one of the most highly anticipated events of the International Festival of Authors’ schedule. Carol Off of the CBC’s As It Happens hosted,…
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International Festival of Authors: Michael Ondaatje
There was a flutter of excitement when Michael Ondaatje walked onto the stage of the Fleck Theatre: this is a writer of serious calibre, and the auditorium filled nearly to capacity attests to his popularity. He was at the International Festival of Authors on October 29 to be interviewed by Eleanor Wachtel; the interview was…