Friday, April 16, 2010

Literary doin's are a transpirin'

The weekend is upon us, and if you happen to live in the Toronto area and are looking for some bookish activities to take in over the next several days or so, allow me to make some recommendations.

There is of course my reading as part of the Draft Reading Series this Sunday, April 18, at the Merchants of Green Coffee, 2 Matilda Street, Toronto. The fun starts at 3 pm. Other readers include Michael Bryson, Ellen S. Jaffe and Dani Couture. More info here. The theme of the afternoon is "rejection", one of my absolute favourite topics. And yes, I will be reading stuff from the new novel-in-progress.

Then, the following night (Monday, April 19), M&S launches its spring poetry line featuring Dionne Brand, Paul Vermeersch, and John Steffler. The event takes place at The Dora Keogh (one of the few genuinely Irish pubs in this city), 141 Danforth Ave. I'm sure all of the presenters will be amazing, but I'm comin' out especially for Paul. I've heard him read from this new book several times now while it was still in manuscript, and a fantastic poem of his appeared in a recent issue of The Walrus. His new collection is called The Reinvention of the Human Hand, and I can't wait to get my hairy little fingers on it.

Last and certainly not least, RR is reading next Wednesday (April 21) as part of the HEAR/HEAR Reading Series, an adjunct of the Now Hear This program, which helps place Toronto writers at Toronto high schools as writers in residence. The reading takes place at the Free Times Cafe, 320 College St., and starts at 7 pm. RR hasn't told me what she'll be reading, but I'm hoping it'll be the fantastic short story she recently published in the literary journal Room. Funnily enough, we'll be jaunting to her reading after taking in another one earlier in the evening by Russell Smith, who has just published a new novel called Girl Crazy. You can check out this very helpful article Smith did earlier this week for The Globe & Mail on writing sex scenes. Wot!

Okay, enough talk about readings. It's time for me to get back to writing the novel. Damn thing still hasn't learned to write itself ...

Cheers,
M

No comments:

Post a Comment