If you're into the idea of kids with bigger, shinier brains and programs that facilitate such things, you might be familiar with Now Hear This!, Toronto's very own not-for-profit literary outreach organization. With a mandate of education through the arts, they do good things like hold Satire and Fake News Writing workshops for kids, complete with handouts from The Onion. Kind of idealistically akin to Dave Eggers' ass-kickingly progressive nonprofit, 826 National. Anyhow, these......

From left to right: Ox, Morning Gothic: New and Selected Poems, The Mechanical Bird, and Sympathy for the Couriers. On Monday October 29, more books will be heading into town via Véhicule Press. The Montréal-based publishing house will be kicking back in Toronto, boasting four new poetry titles: The Mechanical Bird by Asa Boxer, Morning Gothic: New and Selected Poems by George Ellenbogen, Sympathy for the Couriers by Peter Richardson, and Christopher Patton's Ox.......

On Sunday afternoon, over 150 independent publishers, writers, artists and bloggers from across the continent will pack Toronto’s Gladstone Hotel for Canzine, Canada’s largest celebration of small press publishing and alternative culture. The affair is organized by Broken Pencil, a quarterly magazine devoted to mobilizing the scattered community of small-circulation art. This year, to coincide with the release of its Horror Issue and, well, Halloween in general, the theme is Indie Horror. That means the......

"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......

Today Apple offered us a refresh of their entire iPod line, making us want to blindly toss our money at the company once again. One Torontonian, however, is getting some coin thrown her way—big time. Indie darling Leslie Feist has found her track "1234" at the core of the new worldwide iPod nano television spot. Even better, Apple is touting the device's new ability to play video, and prominently features the "1234" clip, directed......

"Bookstore on Queen" by Trachsi from the Torontoist Flickr Pool. Since August is perennially the quietest literary month, LitTO will take the rest of it off. We look forward to the fall launches, and are planning book reviews, author interviews, contests, and more coverage of lit news. Did you hear? In October, Open Book: Toronto will launch its first annual celebration of new books by Ontario publishers, with events and “special initiatives” geared to......

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......

There are things that go on in this city at night that are far weirder than the leather-clad teenagers on Queen West. Did you know that vampires stalk High Park? Or that Toronto Police Services crossed into another dimension to investigate a suspicious death? No? Then you should check out Karen Bennett’s Fantastic Toronto project. Cory Doctorow on Boing Boing drew our attention to Bennett's labour of love. Bennett, a writer, photographer, panelist, and......

Would you want to read a book about the middle-aged agoraphobe son of a dead rock star whose life is transformed by a nine year old girl who wants to be a dog? Tish Cohen thinks you will, and Torontoist agrees. The Toronto native has just published her first novel, Town House, which she describes as an “urban anxiety tale”. There’s been a lot of buzz about it, not only in the musty halls of......

What if by chewing gum you could eliminate your body odor, cure yourself of cancer and take pictures with your eyes? You’d do it, wouldn’t you? Of course there may be a few side effects, but you don’t need to worry about that now, do you? Open your mouth and say ah! In writer and director Jim Munroe’s first feature, Infest Wisely, a chewable nanotechnology gives people who gnaw on the tech some amazing......

Wednesday evening, join This Is Not A Reading Series, musical guests Stella Panacci and The Michael Brennan Band, and Toronto Star books columnist Phil Marchand as they celebrate the launch of Brad Smith’s newest novel, Big Man Coming Down The Road. The novel concerns the last will and testament of Everett Eastman, who laves each of his children one of his companies: Ben receives an auto parts company, Ethan takes charge of a distillery, and......

With the lamented demise of Toro, we continue to weigh in on the future of men’s magazines (for a past example, read this). Will they last? Do all middle-class men aspire to have a walk-in humidor? If you accidentally look at UMM, will you turn into one of these guys? In many ways, the talk surrounding their legitimacy is part and parcel of the fact that masculinity, now more than ever, is in crisis. Manhood......

CS Richardson is a prize-winning book designer who has worked in publishing for over two decades. His work has been showcased at both the Leipzig and Frankfurt Book Fairs. Richardson's awards include being the recipient of numerous Alcuin Awards, the highest honour for book design in Canada. You've no doubt seen his work on the shelves on your favourite neighbourhood bookstore: his award-winning designs include Wayne Johnston's The Navigator of New York and Wayson Choy's......

Tomorrow night, the Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design is welcoming Yoshiharu Tsukamoto to lecture about the Practice of Lively Spaces as part of their spring 2007 lecture series. Tsukamoto was born in Kanagawa, Japan and obtained his doctorate in Architecture at the Tokyo Institute of Technology. He and his partner Momoyo Kaijima established Atelier Bow-Wow publishing several books investigating the urban landscape in Tokyo. Their practice has also won several awards, including the NAX......

Ah, convergence. It's a word fraught with different meanings, competing motives, and opinions up the proverbial wazoo. To some, convergence is a paradise of synergy, cross-promotion, and massive profits. To others, it's confirmation that more and more information is being disseminated by less and less people. Wherever you stand, however, the world of Toronto media overlords might be on the verge of becoming a whole lot smaller, as Alliance Atlantis confirmed today that one......

Toronto graffiti artist Toivo (Finnish for "hope") has painted an eponymous rainbow around town for the past two years. Her optimistic messages span the downtown, but are most easily located on cement tree planters in The Annex and Little Italy. You’ll also find them in the quietest of laneways. Please excuse Torontoist for not obtaining or publishing the artist’s biographical details, as her chosen medium of expression is currently punishable by law. The following......

Sunday. Usually, a quiet, contemplative day in the Blogosphere. But not here in the Ist-a-Verse. Nonono! Just look below and see all of the wild and crazy stuff our staffs are up to. In Austin, bands are beginning to confirm for SXSW and the rumor mill is up and running. Good thing, too, because we all know how much Austinites love live performances. Austin also found itself in the national spotlight, with Longhorn Legend......

Ever dreamed of running your own magazine? Then Nicole Cohen wants to talk to you. In a candid announcement on Shameless magazine's blog, the co-founder and co-editor expresses the joys of indie publishing -- and the sober realities. And sadly, the heartaches are winning: The world of small magazine publishing is not as glamorous as you might think. Sure, we get to air our opinions in the media, spend time with smart, creative folks......

We've admired the work done by the people at WorldChanging for a long time. The blog has opened our eyes to the hundreds if not thousands of creative solutions out there to some very pressing problems. The fact that the blog is cautiously optimistic about the possibility of a green future is refreshing. So we were thrilled when we found out earlier this year that they were publishing a book. We've seen the handsome volume......

Bookninja pointed us to Julie Wilson's Seen Reading blog. Wilson works in the publishing industry here in Toronto but on her blog she becomes a literary spy of sorts. She makes a note of what people are reading in public, guesses where you are in the book and concocts a blog post that riffs on that. We think it's a little like Overheard or Streeter, but for the literary crowd. We like it.......

A man is put into a coma by a falling object. He goes on to receive an 8 million pound settlement and with his newfound wealth obsessively tries to recreate a scene that he may have once witnessed. This is the premise for Tom McCarthy's Remainder, possibly one of the most imaginative novels to come out of the UK in the last few years. It's also a mesmerizing story of one man's struggle to come......

And where can we get some? 110 Spadina Ave. is the building that houses the House of Anansi Press among other things. The medium-sized publisher is having an amazing year. First was the news that two of their books, Rawi Hage's De Niro's Game and Gaetan Soucy's the Immaculate Conception, made it on to the weirdest Giller shortlist in years. Then this morning the boys and girls at Anansi got even more good news. Hage's......

We learnt from DB Scott's Canadian Magazines blog that after 10 years Toronto Life is pulling the plug on its Summer Fiction Issue. Scott, who gets his copy of Toronto Life even earlier than Torontoist does, quotes from TL editor John Macfarlane's editors column: "I wish I could say that in publishing such stories we were creating an appetite for fiction. But, while I’m certain they found an appreciative audience, there’s no evidence it was......

Who needs an excuse to visit a pretty new bookstore? Type, the new bookstore near Trinity Bellwoods which we've mentioned before on this blog is having a very appropriate art show. Nano - Nano is the graduation show from OCAD’s “Nano-publishing: Independent Publications” program taught by Torontoist pal Shannon Gerard. The works explore the cultural place of the book, everything from threatened, obsolete artifact to beautiful art form. The opening of the show will......

Strong Words, the indie reading series put on by Indiepolitik, is celebrating its first year anniversary. Why, it seems like just a few months a go we were coddling baby Strong Words, burping it, changing its diapers and now it's all grown up and publishing anthologies. People who'll be reading at the event include award winning writer George Elliot Clarke, indie-culture Emilys Schultz and Pohl-Weary and more. The book will actually include works by the......

Why else would she go to all the effort of documenting "I love you" graffiti all over the city. We wrote about that project here and through the grapevine we heard that she's publishing a book and now even has a blog where she tracks permutations of "I love yous" on the interweb. photo from Squiddity.......

The Guardian Angels hold their first recruiting session and vow to be on the streets by the summer. The mayor and the chief of police gave them the cold shoulder last time but criticism is a little more muted this time around. Torontoist remains lukewarm on the volunteer crime-prevention group. We'd prefer to see trained police officers doing the job of crime prevention and community policing but can understand how people in the city feel......

Pro-choice, pro-stem cell research, anti-war. His name is Christopher Walken, and he wants to be the next president of the US of A. See Frank Black White's bid for 2008 Presidency. Fats Domino's "I'm Walking" should be his campaign song (because it sounds like Walken). Swords, traditional or non-traditional, are not allowed on VIA Rail. The Strokes involved in a freaking leak controversy? Blog marketing, or marketing to blogs? How well do you know Burt......

The Governor General Literary Award nominations were announced yesterday morning at the Nicholas Hoare bookstore on Front Street. The joint was packed to the gills with media and publishing types, sucking back java and nibbling at fruit trays as Russell Smith announced the English-language shortlist. Torontoist was pleased to see that retribution was in store for Joseph Boyden's Three Day Road, previously (and, the general consensus is, egregiously) overlooked on the Giller shortlist. Most......

Descanter Mark sends us this post about the literary mag's swish fundraiser tonight: Descant Magazine has been bringing out the literary noise for the past 36 years with a commitment to publishing new and emerging writers, and visual artists, alongside such established names as Barbara Gowdy, Alberto Manguel and Edward Burtynsky. And now Descant is throwing a party to celebrate its writers and readers. The Descant Book Ball 2 takes place TONIGHT at Sorauren Studios......