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.......

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......

Torontoist got a little tip for XYYZ.ca, a new site "for guys in Toronto." We fit both of those criteria so we figured the site is totally for us! Sadly, we're sure we're not quite in the income bracket that the site's advertisers are looking for. The site's got articles on everything from why undershirts are a must in the summer (they keep sweat away from that nice dress shirt) to how to get your......

Eye contributor Liisa Ladouceur helps run the Royal Sarcophagus Society a neo-gothic collective that makes and sells crafts, organizes readings and more. The group's latest event is Wanderlust,an evening of raunchy road-trip tales, provocative poetry and more tonight at the Gladstone art bar. The RSS will be joined by it-girl of the month Sarah Slean (her Victorian inspired art show with Louise Upperton is still on at Spin Gallery, just down the street), poet and......

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......

Since there hasn't yet been an article that really articulates what we're about here, Torontoist has decided to submit our own. And this isn't some monthly fluff piece, this is really indicative of our culture and personal constitutions. Two months ago in Toronto Life, Globe writer and Queen's University alumni Russell Smith planned out 24 hours of activities in Toronto without regard to cost or plausibility. Last month, impish designer Joeffer Coac told Toronto......

- Word on the Street this Sunday. And this year's line-up looks great. The site doesn't say when each author will speak (annoying) so you'll just have to make a day of it. TOist crush D Bez will be at the Toronto Book Award tent, along with Paul Smith spokesman Russell Smith. Sheila Heti, David Layton and numerous others will read. And TOist, along with a handful of great local bloggers, will participate in......

There's a new foodie glossy coming out, and TOist is hungry for more information. City Bites will be a free bi-monthly, that "will be delivered primarily to select neighborhoods in the urban core, inside copies of NOW magazine." Contributors to the first and second issues include the usual suspects (Leanne Delap, Jacob Richler, Anita Stewart and Russell Smith), but no James Chatto, who still dispenses crumbs of wisdom at Toronto Life. Which, of course, makes......

Forget what all those bleeding hearts tell you about the evils and soullessness of rampant capitalism. What capitalism really gives you is the freedom to choose. Take this weekend's music offerings. Tonight you can choose to see the Inbreds play a reunion show at Santa Cruz. You probably remember listening to them while you were smoking outside the school in grade 9. If reliving some of those high school memories might be too traumatic check......

Due to the overwhelming popularity of TOist's first foray into boldfaced naming, we'll be taking the backslash b-ing to any event where we see more than two brand-name Torontonians, and reporting our findings back to you, dear readers. This Sunday, over brunch at one of the city's greatest brunch spots (so long as you don't eat the dill patates), Aunties & Uncles, Torontoist beheld a veritable conga line of quiet celebrity. There was crowd-hating, puffy-vest......

- Accordion Guy writes a truth to power post on Russell Smith, fashion columnist (mostly, these days!), and alerts to a metafilter discussion of his latest, where people, surprisingly, tend to agree with him. - TO blogger, intern, writer and bon vivant's mom sends her first email. Bloody cute that. - CBC3 has a cool photo essay on Canadians and their social clubs. And next week marks their hundreth issue. - Shameless editrix Nicole Cohen,......