If last week’s key word on the literary scene was “big,” as in prizes, galas, festivals, sold-out readings, visiting writers, and BookExpo, we get back to normal-ish this week. In fact, we’ve not had such a low-key stretch since March. Fear not. The Scream Literary Festival is adding more information to their website every week. On July 3rd, the festival kicks off with readings by Dennis Lee and Souvankham Thammavongsa, films by Shapour Shahidi, and......

Toronto’s Small Press Book Fair runs from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. today at the Trinity St. Paul Centre, 427 Bloor Street West (just west of Spadina on the south side). Now in its twentieth year, the fair presents about 70 micro to medium-sized publishers and magazines. An archive of some of the fair's past and present exhibitors links to many of Toronto's small presses. You'll find comics, fiction, zines, word sculptures, artist's books,......

A long-awaited book of poetry, Blissful Times, gets launched tonight at Clinton’s by writer, multimedia artist and activist Sandra Alland. We’d like to call Sandra Alland the sweetheart of the Toronto small press scene, but she might kick our asses, so forget that we had that thought. We can safely say that Clinton’s will be full of good cheer tonight for BookThug’s spring launch. Sandra has written three collections of poetry, performed all over......

Everyone sufficiently recovered from Word on the Street? Over 200,000 people braved the wind and rain and descended upon Queen’s Park for a celebration of books. I have a book hangover, thus the lateness of this week’s listings. Tomorrow night, This Is Not A Reading Series goes Hollywood! Journalist and filmmaker Bruce Yaccato launches Screen Legends, a chronicle of the “Canadian film pioneers who helped build the Hollywood we know today.” Joining Bruce will be......

At first glance Pride is all about the dancing and the parties and the parades. Au contraire Torontoist readers, Pride is also about events like this reading at Art Metropole tonight. The Toronto Women's Bookstore has invited half-a-dozen great queer writers to read at Get Your Lit Out! Readers include funny gal Mariko Tamaki, poet Zoe Whittall, Sandra Alland and others. The event is tonight at Art Metropole (788 King St. W), 7pm. Photo: Zoe......

Tonight Pontiac Quarterly unleashes its second issue this year at The Drake Hotel (8pm). For those of you unfamiliar, PQ is a performance magazine where writers read their fiction, feature stories - even advice columns - on stage in front of a live audience. Coming around only four times a year (it's right there in the title!), The Torontoist looks forward to it like our mom looks forward to gardening season. This issue's theme......