If you’d like weekly emails full of Toronto literary listings, sign up at Patchy Squirrel, a new offering from Stuart Ross and Dani Couture. Stuart launches a new collection of poetry, I Cut My Finger (Anvil Press) with Kate Sutherland's All In Together Girls (fiction from Thistledown Press) Sunday, April 22, 8 p.m. at Clintons Tavern (back room), 693 Bloor West.

For a monthly overview of the Toronto scene and beyond, Word: Canada’s Magazine for Readers and Writers offers an online calendar, reviews and columnists.

Former Torontoist editor Alison Broverman's play, Expiry Dating, is being excerpted in the National Post. The work won the Toronto Fringe Festival's Best New Play award last summer and premieres at the festival this year. Excerpts will appear each week until the debut. If you pick up the print copy, you’ll also get illustrations by Torontoist co-founder Sarah Lazarovic. Two ex-Torontoist editors for the price of one!

Tickets for The Griffin Poetry Prize's Shortlist Readings are now on sale. The readings take place Tuesday, June 5, 2007 at 7:30 pm (MacMillan Theatre, Edward Johnson Building University of Toronto, 80 Queen’s Park). Last year's event sold out, so if you're going, you may want to purchase early. Enjoy poetry excerpts, many including audio and video clips, from past Griffin Poetry Prize shortlisted poets at their excellent See and Hear Poetry archive.

The Scotiabank Giller Prize announced its 2007 jury: poet, writer and artist Lorna Goodison, Vice-President of PEN Canada Camilla Gibb, and 2005 Giller winner David Bergen. The long and short lists will be announced this fall, and the winner will be named at a black-tie dinner and awards ceremony at Toronto's Four Seasons
Hotel on November 6.

Cute squirrel image courtesy of Patchy Squirrel.