Toronto is full of great stories and great storytellers who can convey every feeling and every action into words. To celebrate the city's literary pedigree, Torontoist sat down with Judy Fong Bates and Terry Fallis, two acclaimed Toronto-based authors, for a four-part series to discuss their journeys as writers and their visions for the future of storytelling. Photo of Terry Fallis by Tim Fallis. Photo of Judy Fong Bates by Michael Bates. Judy Fong Bates......

Michael Ondaatje, with Art of Time violinist Julia Wedman. "Words and Music," Art of Time Ensemble's newest production now on at the Enwave Theatre, is, in a word, inspired. The company is marking its tenth anniversary this year, and if the season premiere is any indication, they've got a great deal to celebrate. First off, a bit of explanation, since the troupe doesn't fit neatly into any genre. Art of Time is an ensemble......

Every Tuesday afternoon, Torontoist rounds up the city's literary news, including book deals, events, local sales, author happenings, and insider information from the book industry. The Scream Literary Festival is hitting Toronto in a big way—there are a number of great events about town that book lovers will want to catch. Torontoist's picks this week include Thursday's Scream Alumni Night, featuring an amazing line-up of Ken Babstock, Priscila Uppal, Kevin Connolly, Stuart Ross, and the......

This Saturday, Pride Toronto has teamed up with The Word On The Street for the second annual Proud Voices Reading Series. It's a talent-packed day-long celebration of queer writers, showcasing the best of Canada's literary skill by bringing both established veterans and emerging authors to the James Canning Gardens Stage (Gloucester and Dundonald). The series starts at 3:00 p.m. and features back-to-back readings by a variety of authors, including the award-winning Ivan E. Coyote, celebrated......

Oh, the seemingly endless toil and frustration of being an underpublished and underappreciated writer. There's the mailbox full of polite, predictable rejections and the depressing rite of passage otherwise known as "open mic night." When you finally emerge from it all, it's certainly time to rejoice. Thankfully Pages Books & Magazines’ This Is Not A Reading Series has stepped up to celebrate some of the lesser-known but soon-to-be-well-known players in Toronto’s vibrant literary scene.......

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. Michael Redhill’s had a big year. His novel Consolation, in addition to being nominated for the Man Booker Prize......

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......

Photo by Pete Nema from the Torontoist Flickr Pool. It's hard to believe it's already been over six months since the Rheostatics played their final show at Massey Hall. You may be wondering what each of the members have been doing since, and in Dave Bidini's case the answer is easy: he has already found the time to travel the world, write about his journeys, and get his book published by McClelland & Stewart.......

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.......

Running from June 1–10, Luminato takes over our fair city, with over 100 events spanning just about everything arts-and-culture-related. As they boast on their website, "Luminato was created to bring Toronto's best to the world, and the world's best to Toronto." A noble goal, and one they seem to have accomplished: Leonard Cohen! Philip Glass! Uh...Stephen King! Dancers! Artists! An Art Boat! Many things! Luckily, Torontoist (in the form of contributors Sharon Harris, Stephanie......

Now that National Poetry Month is over, it’s time to recover from the full schedule of festivities (spring detox cocktails, anyone?), and to share poems which garnered Honourable Mentions in Torontoist’s Toronto Poetry Contest. Watch out for five new Toronto poems and poets in May. Our first poem, by Matthew Tierney, was written at the intersection of King and Yonge streets. Of "The Man Who Knew from Cool," Matthew says: I could argue that this......

How is National Poetry Month treating you? On the second week of celebration, Torontoist is beginning to buckle a little under the strain of too much fun, but it warms our hearts to witness the large number of bookish events offered this April. We are happy to announce the winners of our poetry contest as part of the nationwide festivities. Back in January, Torontoist launched a Toronto poetry contest to encourage the writing of......

Nicole Brossard is one of Canada’s most prolific and avant-garde writers, with more than thirty books to date and a dizzying list of awards to match. Her work is often sharply self-referential: saturated with the impossibility of a seamless translation and the problem of writing in a language already loaded with meaning, Brossard’s work is a meditation on how to write outside of a coded imaginary. While Brossard’s oeuvre has been associated with a postmodern......

In a bizarre and tragic scene yesterday, former Toronto Blue Jay (and current New York Yankee) pitcher Cory Lidle perished after flying his plane into an apartment building in New York. The United States heads to the United Nations hoping for a UN resolution that will impose sanctions on North Korea. And North Korea threatens retaliation if Japan goes ahead and imposes sanctions in response to last weekend’s nuclear test. And George W. Bush denies......

Does Toronto’s literary scene have a massive insecurity complex? Judging from the three panelists to Toronto Life’s recent fiction roundtable the answer would have to be yes. Panelists Sheila Heti, Shyam Selvadurai (pictured here) and Andrew Pyper, all very good authors, ooze self-doubt through the first part of the panel (the second should be appearing on the Toronto Life website soon). It’s not that they don’t think they’re capable writers, it’s an insecurity about Toronto......

Traditionally Canadian literature has been divided into two very logical halves, English and French. But within English Canadian Literature there really should be another division, one that reflects this city’s overwhelming dominance in English Canadian letters. The bulk of the country’s publishers are here. The country’s influential critics, journalists and chattering classes live, write and pontificate in the cafes and bars of the Annex, the Beaches and Queen St. West. This dominance translates into a......

Toronto's very own Margaret Atwood has made the list of nominees for the worst named award ever! The Man Booker International Prize will be awarded every two years to an author writing in English or whose works have been widely translated into English. The award was created after criticism that the annual Man Booker prize was only awarded to authors in the UK and the Commonwealth. Torontoist wishes that the wealthy backers of the awards......