The amount of events this week are bursting at the seams. Keep Toronto Reading is kicking it into full gear this month with various readings across library branches, Lit Lunches, and various One Book events. There are just too many to list here. Visit the KTR calendar to see all event details and plan out your literary excursions. And if you have any kids, you can join Gisèle from TVOKids for various library tours, as... [continue]

Next Monday, February 4, Keep Toronto Reading will launch its One Book program at the Toronto Reference Library. There will be performances by Soprano Mary Lou Fallis, who will sing popular songs from the 1850s, and Ross Manson who will perform two dramatic readings from Consolation. The event will be hosted by Tina Srebotnjak, who will interview Michael Redhill, author of Consolation. You can check out all One Book events here. As part of Keep... [continue]

Kensington Market's Left Feet and Heart On Your Sleeve will be hosting its first annual vegan chili cook-off this Saturday, January 26 in support of homeless outreach. Amateur foodies, in addition to local restaurants Urban Herbivore, Sadie's Diner, and the Magic Oven will compete to find who's got the best vegan chili in Toronto. The cook-off will be held from 2–6 p.m. (with ballots counted and prizes awarded at 5:30 p.m.) at 88 Nassau... [continue]

Photo by Sidereal The week is looking very light in anything literary around the city. If anything, you've got your three poems (no longer than three minutes each) in hand and will be heading down to Clinton's to show what you've got at the Art Bar's 9th annual Art Bar Discovery Night. Nancy Bullis will be guest hosting. For everyone else, be sure to help yourself to some free donuts to make up for... [continue]

Photo by moonwire from the Torontoist Flickr Pool The English Students' Union at the University of Toronto is hosting The Poetry Massacre tomorrow. Bring and perform your idea of a "bad" poem and ponder questions such as "what makes bad poetry?"; "can one enjoy a poem because of its 'bad-ness'?"; and "how do you perform a poem you despise?" Then if you're feeling kind of poetic yourself, you can start writing some poems for... [continue]

Photo by Stig Nygaard. The Art Bar returns tonight with its annual Audience Appreciation Night with readings by the Art Bards, live music, and free poetry chapbooks for all audience members by the Art Bar Team. Also returning for the new year is This Is Not A Reading Series. For the first event of the year, join Carl Wilson and Mark Kingwell for an on-stage discussion where they will be talking about love and... [continue]

In addition to some upcoming online renovations based on some questions they are asking, the Toronto Reference Library has announced a revitalization project that will physically transform the library throughout the next five years. Being the first renovation of its kind since the library opened its doors in 1977, the project will cost $30 million. Original architects Moriyama and Teshima will be responsible for the library's redesign. The first phase of the project will... [continue]

Torontoist is ending the year by naming our Heroes and Villains of 2007––the people, places, and things that we've either fallen head over heels in love with or developed uncontrollable rage towards over the past twelve months. Get your dose, starting Boxing Day and running into the new year, three times a day––sunrise, noon, and sunset. The only place where a church full of people comfortably packed together behind rows of tightly jammed primary school... [continue]

Torontoist is ending the year by naming our Heroes and Villains of 2007––the people, places, and things that we've either fallen head over heels in love with or developed uncontrollable rage towards over the past twelve months. Get your dose, starting Boxing Day and running into the new year, three times a day––sunrise, noon, and sunset. Chapters/Indigo/Coles/Smithbooks/World's Biggest Monolith of Public Book Fear. Getting the company names straight is a task in itself and can... [continue]

Over the past little while, Torontoist has been quietly absorbed in The Alphabet Game: a bpNichol reader. Edited by Darren Wershler-Henry and Lori Emerson, The Alphabet Game is an essential anthology for any reader of bpNichol, and is a great starting point for those who have yet to discover his work. Nichol, who is probably most well-known for his concrete and visual poetry, had achieved many things before dying at the age of 44. He... [continue]

Photo by Larsz Tonight the Art Bar poetry series will host its last event for 2007. Ending the year off with their annual Dead Poets Society night, this year's event will be hosted by David Clink and feature poets Ian Burgham, George Elliot Clarke, Karen Connelly, Barry Dempster, and more. Readers will cover poets such as A. R. Ammons, Margaret Avison, Cheng Sait Chia, Robert Herrick, Irving Layton, Dylan Thomas, and others. Reading series...... [continue]

Photo courtesy of WordFest. This Thursday the Toronto Reference Library will host a LongPen event with Margaret Atwood—inventor of the device—who will interview BBC personality and author Kate Mosse (not the model), who will be in Sussex, England. Conducted via video conferencing, Mosse will read from her newest work, Sepulchre, and answer audience questions, and will be able to sign books with the LongPen. Mosse's book will be available through Nicholas Hoare Books at...... [continue]

Photo by 826 Chicago Today, TINARS will present Dave Eggers, founder of McSweeney's, to launch the paperback edition of his book, What Is the What. Here in Toronto for one day only, Eggers' book, written as a "novelized autobiography" about Sudanese war refugee Valentino Achak Deng, will be complemented with a multimedia presentation during the event. Also don't forget that Taddle Creek will be having their tenth anniversary party tomorrow. They'll be celebrating with the...... [continue]

Next week, Taddle Creek, a Toronto-based literary magazine that publishes Toronto authors exclusively, will be celebrating their tenth anniversary. Expected to release a "giant-sized" Christmas 2007 Issue, the 72-page magazine has writing from Alex Boyd, Emily Schultz, Camilla Gibb, Stuart Ross, and many, many others, for the simple price of $4.95. The anniversary party will be at the Gladstone Hotel on November 28th, with readings, music by the Eradicators, door prizes, and maybe cake....... [continue]

Photo courtesy of TYPE TYPE Books is expanding! Building on the success of their Queen Street West location, TYPE Books will be opening a second store in Forest Hill Village. Located at 394 Spadina Road, the store will be smaller than the one on Queen, but you can definitely expect a carefully curated "best of the best" approach to book selection, with the characterized and personalized sections that TYPE Books is known to offer. Aesthetically,...... [continue]

Well, it's official. This year's Giller Prize has been awarded to Elizabeth Hay for her novel, Late Nights on Air. The announcement was made at a black-tie gala event that began earlier tonight. It was hosted by Seamus O'Regan of Canada AM, and aired live on Bravo! But if you're like Torontoist and don't have cable and missed it, don't worry. The event will broadcast again on CTV tomorrow at 8 p.m. The now co-sponsored... [continue]

It's going to be a busy couple of weeks in Toronto, and you may have a tough time deciding just what bookish thing to attend. If anything, Torontoist recommends you check out this year's second Toronto Small Press Book Fair this Saturday. The twice-yearly event features a variety of micro to medium-sized presses offering zines, books, chapbooks, journals, hand-made crafts, and many other wonderful things. And if you've got any time and energy left... [continue]

For anyone who missed this year's Massey Lecture last Friday at U of T, don't fret. The City of Words, by celebrated writer, essayist, novelist, and anthologist Alberto Manguel, will be broadcast on CBC Radio One's IDEAS each night at 9:00 p.m. beginning Monday, November 5 running to Friday, the 9th. As a new feature this year, each of the five lectures (unedited and complete with audience discussion) will be available for download starting... [continue]

Photo by ilkrender. The Toronto Reference Library will be celebrating the big 30 this Friday, and you're invited to its open house birthday party. Beginning at 10:30 a.m. with Breakfast Television host Kevin Frankish, Mayor David Miller, and architects Raymond and Ajon Moriyama, the event includes poetry readings, music, artist demonstrations, library tours, workshops, etc. The library will also launch Your Stories, a collection of personal narratives about the library's role in the lives... [continue]

For some, November is the month to begin bundling up against the inevitable bombardment of the holiday season. For others, November is the time to anxiously welcome the frenzy of National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo for short. In just a few short days, thousands upon thousands of NaNoWriMoists from all over the world—both new and veteran—will take the plunge and attempt to write a full-length novel (about 50, 000 words) in just 30... [continue]