bill bissett is Canada's world champion hippy poet freak. Best known for his phonetic (funetik) spelling, it's fair to say that bissett's poetry anticipated the text messaging age by several decades. What once seemed like an avante garde approach to language now seems like the inevitable evolution of communication. He's the poet laureate of SMS. Tomorrow night, bissett launches his latest book of poetry, ths is erth thees ar peopul, at the This Ain't......

Among book collectors, zines are what's known as ephemera -- written matter meant to circulate and serve a purpose, but not to last. They tend to wind up in recycling bins instead of libraries, and so there's a danger that the entire history of zine-making over the last two or three decades could simply vanish. A few avid collectors have formed the Toronto Zine Library -- collected hundreds of zines, and organized them by......

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......

Shameless magazine--"For girls who get it", of course--is launching their spring issue in style this Friday night at This Ain't the Rosedale Library (483 Church). The all-ages party features the comedy stylings of Sabrina Jalees, a bake sale and lotsa music and dancing. Having gone to a couple of these things before, we can honestly say that we've never seen girls have so much freakin' fun. And the $5 cover gets you a copy of......

Torontoist was walking past This Ain't The Rosedale Library (obviously not pictured here) and noticed that it had been tapped by Canadian ex-pat Jeremy Mercer in the Guardian (the best paper in the English speaking world, sorry NYT) as one of the top 10 bookstores in the world. TATRL clocked in at eighth place and had some truly mindboggling competition. Shakespeare and Co. in Paris (no. 2 on the list) is a "a socialist utopia......

Mayworks runs til May 8th, so you only have a few days left to get in on the festival that 'celebrates working class culture.' Tonight, they offer up a provocatively-titled performance piece called Poetry is Not a Luxury, which will attempt to answer the question 'Is poetry for bored rich people?' They will answer this question through a three-person performance installation using to-do lists, medical bills and bank balances that the audience may peruse. You......