Dan Misener's unstoppably rad reading series, Grownups Read Things They Wrote As Kids, is moving to new digs for its fourth installation next Monday. The little event that could—wherein grownups read their grade school stories, diaries, and poems to a bunch of people they've never met before—is picking up from its former home at the Victory Cafe and bopping over to the Gladstone to accommodate its ever-increasing audience of believers. Even with the bigger venue,......

Photo of Julie Wilson, courtesy of Julie Wilson. Julie Wilson has become a favourite in literary entertainment over the past few years. Since 2006, her popular blog Seen Reading has been keeping Toronto book geeks amused by tracking the city's public reading habits. The concept is both simple and ingenious—Wilson spots a stranger reading, guesses where they are in the book, transcribes the passage onto her blog, and then lets her imagination run wild.......

Photo of d’bi.young.anitafrika and her son, Moon, courtesy of Women’s Press. Last week’s literary listings featured a number of events celebrating one man (Michael Redhill, who is likely exhausted and has since gone back to Narbonne, France) and One Book (Consolation). This week the obvious literary picks are two very talented, very different women. Recent winner of the Toronto Arts Council Foundation Emerging Artist award and one of Canada’s most celebrated young performers, d’bi.young.anitafrika......

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......

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.......

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......

As part of the always interesting (and now delicious) This Is Not A Reading Series, U of T history professor Steve Penfold and noted food writer Christine Sismondo are joining forces this week to discuss snack food patriotism and Canada’s unofficial deep-fried culinary icon, the donut. All this in celebration of Penfold’s new book, The Donut: A Canadian History. The 256-page hardcover study “examines the history of the donut in light of broader social,......

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......

As the subject for a serious music book, Céline Dion––amazing or not––seems like an odd choice. In the latest book in the 33⅓ series, however––a series which typically looks at albums like the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds or Joy Division's Unknown Pleasures or the Rolling Stones' Exile on Main St.––Carl Wilson, probably Toronto's pre-eminent music critic, takes it upon himself to "[strive] to understand Céline's global popularity," in the process "fac[ing] the question of what......

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......

Originally published by Viking Press in 1957, Jack Kerouac's On the Road has been wearing holes in the back pockets and floppy canvas knapsacks of gaggles of come-find-yourself road trippers and college-aged who-am-I types ever since. To coincide with the 50th anniversary of its publication, Wednesday night will see the Gladstone play host to something of a symposium on the life and legacy of their main man, Kerouac. Authors Ray Robertson and David Creighton will......

Michael Winter's next novel, The Architects Are Here, is set for serious serial hype on Facebook. Beginning today, Michael will make forty-seven posts with chapter summaries, commentary, and notes until the book’s publication in September. Each installment will include videos and photos of the people and places that inspired the novel's characters and settings. To access the serial, contact Michael with a friend request via The Wall at Penguin Canada's Facebook page, and you’ll be......

Photos of trey anthony, Dawn Whitwell, and Gein Fence courtesy of Get Your Lit Out. Dear readers: please help give an author a chance to get married on the midway at this year’s Calgary Stampede. Really! While living in Toronto, Scarborough-raised Natalee Caple wrote many fine books, among them The Plight of Happy People in an Ordinary World (Anansi), and Mackerel Sky (Thomas Allen). We are sad we’ve lost her to Calgary, but thrilled......

Tonight, DRAFT Reading Series presents its season finale with an impressive list of writers: George Elliot Clarke, Flavia Cosma, Phyllis Gottlieb, Pasha Malla, Merle Nudelman, and Ottawa's rob mclennan. Please go buy rob a beer for us: he's a tireless promoter/publisher of Canadian poetry, a prolific poet himself, and a wonderful soul. He keeps an always interesting blog of reviews and articles about books, writers, and events across the country. Honour him with multiple beverages,......

The good news: tonight, there are three great literary events happening in our fair city. The bad news: you’re going to have to choose. Mark Truscott’s Test Reading Series presents Reg Johanson and Jordan Scott at Mercer Union, A Centre for Contemporary Art (37 Lisgar Street) tonight at 7:30 p.m. Reg Johanson has traveled from East Vancouver for tonight’s performance. His first book, Courage, My Love was published by Line Books last year. Reg’s critical......

You still have a few hours left, but Torontoist's Poetry Contest closes tonight! At the beginning of the new year, Torontoist launched a poetry contest to encourage the penning of new poems about our fair city. After judges Carly Beath, Stephen Cain, and Jay MillAr deliberate, we'll announce the winner plus five honourable mentions on April 10. We hope you've enjoyed our series of previously published Toronto poems, and look forward to presenting the winning......

Admirers and connoisseurs of adult films mark this down on your calendar: Ron Jeremy, the “hardest working man in showbiz” brings his, er, talents, to Toronto tomorrow evening. This Is Not A Reading Series presents the Canadian launch party for Ron Jeremy’s memoir, The Hardest (Working) Man in Showbiz, published by HarperCollins. Over the past two decades, Jeremy, known as The Hedgehog, has appeared in more than 1700 porn films and directed 250 of them.......

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......

Although it may be Valentine’s Day – don’t worry, there’s still time to buy flowers or chocolates - Christopher Moore still thinks you suck. Join This Is Not A Reading Series tonight as they celebrate the launch of the cult writer’s latest novel, You Suck. The prolific American author – he splits his time between San Francisco and Hawaii – is probably best known for the novel Lamb. His books often merge horror and comic......

Tomorrow night promises to be a great time for book lovers in Toronto. This Is Not A Reading Series presents what is perhaps their most anticipated event of the season as author Vendela Vida comes to town. Vida is in town to launch her new novel, Let The Northern Lights Erase Your Name. The book concerns a young woman who learns the man she thought was her father really wasn't. She embarks on a journey......

If you happened to read The Toronto Star on Sunday, you may have seen a short excerpt from novelist, historian, and journalist Lawrence Hill’s new novel, The Book of Negroes. Tonight, This Is Not A Reading Series invites you to the Gladstone Hotel to celebrate the book’s launch. The novel concerns Aminata Diallo, who is sent to South Carolina to work as a slave, eventually wins her freedom – signing her name in the Book......

Torontoist Poetry Contest Reminder! At the beginning of the new year, Torontoist launched a poetry contest to encourage the penning of new poems about our fair city. To inspire you, we are presenting a series of previously published Toronto poems that will run until the final week of the contest. Our second poem is “Girls who eat flowers and fail their IQ tests” by Hugh Thomas. Its title comes from a mis-overheard conversation at Healey's......

With the National Bridal Show just around the corner, there have been a number of literary tie-ins in the city this month. Tomorrow night, This Is Not A Reading Series helps Siri Agrell launch her new book, Bad Bridesmaid: Bachelorette Brawls & Taffeta Tantrums, What We Go Through for Her Big Day, published by HarperCollins Canada. The book is billed as “part memoir…and part cultural analysis” and chronicles Agrell, a National Post reporter and columnist,......

Fresh from their holiday break, the fine folks at This Is Not A Reading Series kick off the Winter/Spring 2007 season with…a film? Well, partly. This evening, join TINARS at the Royal Cinema as they celebrate the launch of Annabelle Gurwitch’s new book, Fired! Tales of The Canned, Canceled, Downsized & Dismissed. As the title would suggest, the book is comprised of tales of getting the axe from a host of contributors, from Bill Maher......

This Is Not A Reading Series wraps up 2006 with its final two events of the year. With the temperature dropping every day and water soon turning into ice, what better topic than hockey? Tomorrow, join Rheostatic/author Dave Bidini (On a Cold Road; Tropic of Hockey; The Best Game You Can Name) as he launches his new book of hockey erotica (Indigo will need a new section) The Five Hole . Joining Dave to celebrate......

When Coach House Books launched uTOpia: Towards a New Toronto last year we were absolutely, positively thrilled. The book brought together a group of people in love with the city and its potential. A year later, we're just days away from the launch of the State of the Arts, the sequel to that fine volume. With many of the same contributors as the first volume, we know that Coach House will pull off a fine......

Simon Houpt, New York correspondent for The Globe and Mail's Review section, is in town this evening to launch his new book with the help of This Is Not A Reading Series. Museum of The Missing: A History of Art Theft explores the shady and secretive world of art theft and chronicles “some of the most audacious and fascinating art heists of our times.” The book features a section entitled “Gallery of Missing Art” which......

Apologies for the lack of listings last week. The combination of the previous night’s Halloween party and an encroaching deadline on another project left little time for me to gather all the literary happenings in the city. Monday This Is Not A Reading Series presents Ben Schott (pictured), author of Schott’s Almanac. There will be a trivia pop quiz, surprise guests, and more – it’s a TINARS event, so you know it won’t be your......

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......