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......

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......

"Coach House Alley" by chelseagirl We're in the middle of the fall book launch season, and this week we can look forward to some promising new titles being put out by publishing houses such as Coach House Books, Pedlar Press, Quattro Books, Seraphim Editions, Type Books, and plenty of others. The IFOA continues for another strong week with its massive literary buffet of events. The festival will officially conclude on Saturday evening with readings......

Photo by Word Freak So, the shortlist for the Giller Prize is out. And whether you think it's rigged or based on talent, we still have to wonder: who's it going to be? Aside from that, the 28th International Festival of Authors officially kicks off tomorrow evening with a PEN Canada benefit event, featuring Margaret Atwood in conversation with Ian Rankin. And if you don't have any tickets, well, you're out of luck, as......

Monday morning, amidst a first-rate buffet of coffee, chocolate chip cookies, and fresh orange juice at the Four Seasons Hotel, a disheveled group of journalists and bankers gathered to hear the shortlist announced for the 14th annual Scotiabank Giller Prize. Only the second year that the final contenders were culled from an initial longlist of 15 books, this annum the task fell to the jury of staunch decipherers David Bergen, Camilla Gibb and Lorna......

Photo by EIFF. Next week on October 17th, the International Festival of Authors will kick off its 28th year since its inception in 1980 at the Premiere Dance Theatre (207 Queens Quay West). Incorporating some of the best contemporary world literature, the festival is comprised of eleven days and nights of readings, interviews, round-table discussions, lectures, and book signings—not to mention special event readings by Scotiabank Giller Prize and Governor General’s Literary Awards finalists.......

"March of the Penguins" by BrynJ. This week's LitTO is chock full of reading events, mainly from the Factory Theatre's national-made-local reading series. In collaboration with several play development centres situated throughout the country, the Factory Theatre's Trans-Canada Edition presents new playwrights and their plays from British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Alberta, Quebec, Manitoba, and the Maritimes. All reading events are free and will take place from October 3–6, with varying times. On Wednesday, Penguin Group......

An overflowing pile of books by paolo_dlk from the Torontoist Flickr Pool. The summer months may have left us a little dehydrated, a little sun burnt, a little flaky, and a little wordless, but after a long break, LitTO is returning to inform you how this fall season will revitalize your sense of word wonder. Yesterday the longlist for the 2007 Scotiabank Giller Prize was officially announced. A record of 108 books were submitted......

A big congratulations goes out to Toronto-based press House of Anansi for publishing this year’s ReLit short story winner, Bill Gaston’s Gargoyles. The ReLit award is set up to give well deserved attention to books produced by the independent presses throughout Canada. House of Anansi’s winning entry is joined a number of its other publications on the poetry and novel short list. (Also nominated for the long list was Torontoist’s very own Sharon Harris for......

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......

While trolling Craigslist, we came across an intriguing apartment listing. Does your heart belong to the Annex -- home to sushiterias, frat houses, and highbrow cultural elite like Margaret Atwood and Adrienne Clarkson? Move to the neighbourhood, and you too could be closer to a Giller Prize win. And in the heart of this stylish mecca, we found this beautiful apartment. It's a ground-floor palace in an old heritage building, with two bedrooms, hardwood......

Award-winning Toronto author (and emergency physician) Vincent Lam will give his first public reading since winning the Scotiabank Giller Prize this Wednesday as Diaspora Dialogues teams up with the Harbourfront Centre’s International Reading series. Diaspora Dialogues, which is about to enter its third year, is joining forces with Harbourfront's International Readings series to host a slew of events in 2007, including a mini-festival in June right before Book Expo. While the chance to hear Vincent......

Torontoist, in reality being totally above caring about the Britney Spears divorce, is only excited that Toronto Doctor Vincent Lam won the Giller Prize for his first collection of short stories, Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures. Torontoist reviewed the book way back in the day. Meanwhile, a survey suggests that 4% of Ontarians aged 18-34 believe they can make a living playing poker, while another survey would have us believe that violent crime is the number......

Who's going to come out on top of the strangest Giller Prize shortlist in years? While the smart money is on Rawi Hage's DeNiro's Game, which is also nominated for the Governor General's Award, writers from the Globe raised a convincing argument for Gaetan Soucy's the Immaculate Conception. Sadly we won't get to see Canada's literati ogle Justin Trudeau but that doesn't mean that you can't celebrate Canada's biggest literary prize, go to a great......

The Ryerson Review of Journalism is one of the most acclaimed magazines in the country – and it’s run entirely by the students of Ryerson University’s school of journalism. Running a national magazine is a costly endeavour, so to fill the coffers the RRJ is hosting a black-tie fundraiser this Tuesday night. It promises to be a good one. In honour of the 40th anniversary of Truman Capote’s Party of the Century, the RRJ is......

No time…Must get back down to Harbourfront…IFOA in full swing…Here are some other literary events taking place this week…. Monday The Test Reading Series returns on Monday night, 7:30pm, with readings from Rob Read (that could be the best name for a writer I’ve ever heard) and Souvankham Thammavongsa. This night is also doubling for the launch of the new issue of Carousel, one of the best lit mags in the country – Mark Laliberte......

Here we go. The biggest week of the year for book lovers, the International Festival of Authors, is upon us. Torontoist will have extensive coverage of this year’s IFOA. For now, here are a few non-IFOA events taking place this week. Monday Tonight, you have the choice of heading over to the Smiling Buddha Bar – 961 College – for this week’s Freedom Readings, starting at 6pm (and free) or checking out Margaret MacMillan......

If film buffs get the TIFF, art buffs get the Queen West Art Crawl, and hockey buffs get the NHL playoffs, then literary types get the IFOA. This year's fest packs in dozens of authors and into 10 days worth of readings, panel discussions, interviews and parties. Yes, once in a while literary types put down their books and drink. Torontoist lists the five events that piqued our interest in chronological order. 1) Mark Z.......

Today Joe Fiorito launched his new book, Union Station, at the Nicholas Hoare book store. The launch was full of the older literati crowd in their slightly rumpled clothes who muttered things like "Charlie! I haven't seen you since the Giller Prize!" So we did our best to mingle and sip the wine, chomp the asparagus sandwiches and smoked salmon fillet, flip through Andy Goldsworthy coffee table art books and enjoy the people sightings......

So, the shortlist for the new and improved Scotiabank Giller Prize was announced this morning. TOist will cut to the chase: Joseph Boyden wuz robbed. Not only could we not put Three-Day Road down, the novel also straddles the literary and commercial quite nicely (it was Isabel Allende’s pick for this major book club, fer Pete's sake). While delighted that David Bergen made the cut, TOist worries that the literary establishment may once again have......