The last 10 days have been a great time to be a film nut, but now Christmas comes early for book nerds as over the next few weeks two of the biggest events of the year take place, starting with next Sunday’s Word on the Street, which will be followed by the start of the International Festival of Authors in mid-October. A few events taking place today. Poet Lorette C. Luzajic launches her first book,......

We bet few of you have been to the Toronto Archives. We didn’t even know where it was until last night, when we attended theToronto Book Awards. But stepping into the foyer to be greeted by a room covered in photos and maps of our city’s history, it struck us at just how fitting it is to hold the ceremony here -- books honoured for their fluent portraits of Toronto stories in a building that......

Murmur, the green-eared audio art project that allows Torontonians to listen to neighbourhood stories through cellphones, goes literary and teams up with the City of Toronto Book Awards. They're recording stories with the five nominees at various locations in the city. Head down to Kensington Market to listen to Howard Akler read from his hard-boiled reporter meets thief story set in the dirty '30s, head to U of T to hear Stephen Marche read from......

The finalists for the City of Toronto Book Awards have been announced. The biggest name of the bunch is Giller winner M.G. Vassanji for his short story collection When She Was Queen. We're also happy that former Tall Poppy subject Howard Akler has been nominated for his hard-boiled reporter meet sexy pickpocket love story set in 1930s Toronto and pleased that the brains behind uTOpia weren't forgotten. The list is rounded out by Dionne Brand......

Things are going great for previous Torontoist interview subject Howard Akler. His debut novel the City Man has been getting rave reviews and was recently nominated in the first-time authors category for the Commonwealth Writer's Prize (Caribbean and Canada Region). Akler joins a list which includes long-time poet and writer, but first-time novelist George Elliot Clarke and Calgary author Jacqueline Honnet. The winner of the regional prize goes on to compete against other fine books......

Tall Poppy Interview - Howard Akler, Author...