"March of the Penguins" by BrynJ. This week's LitTO is chock full of reading events, mainly from the Factory Theatre's national-made-local reading series. In collaboration with several play development centres situated throughout the country, the Factory Theatre's Trans-Canada Edition presents new playwrights and their plays from British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Alberta, Quebec, Manitoba, and the Maritimes. All reading events are free and will take place from October 3–6, with varying times. On Wednesday, Penguin Group......

The Toronto Book Awards were established by City Council in 1974, and have honoured Torontoish books of literary or artistic merit ever since. The Awards Committee, Camilla Holland, Brian Jantzi, Winona McMorrow, Sarah Rotering and Herman Silochan, recently announced this year’s nominations. Your 2007 shortlist is: Sally Gibson’s Inside Toronto: Urban Interiors 1880s to 1920s (Cormorant) Geoffrey James’s book of photographs, Toronto (Douglas & McIntyre) Vincent Lam’s novel, Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures (Doubleday Canada)......

For every prestigious award shows there will be people who complain that the prize is rigged. The Gillers, Canada's most prestigious literary award, is no stranger to this. In its 13 year history the prize has been criticized for its bias towards larger publishers, to Ontario authors and any number of other shortcomings. Geist magazine columnist Stephen Henighan throws another log angrily onto that fire with his latest missive that accuses the prize of a......

It's 1:42 a.m. You're finally finished replying to e-mails.You settle down to continue that novel that you've been writing for, what, six, seven years now? But now you have a headache. The faucet is dripping and you can't concentrate. You eye the "To File" pile of papers on your desk and figure it wont hurt to make the stack smaller. By the time you're finished, it's pushing 3 a.m. and you didn't write a single......

Award-winning Toronto author (and emergency physician) Vincent Lam will give his first public reading since winning the Scotiabank Giller Prize this Wednesday as Diaspora Dialogues teams up with the Harbourfront Centre’s International Reading series. Diaspora Dialogues, which is about to enter its third year, is joining forces with Harbourfront's International Readings series to host a slew of events in 2007, including a mini-festival in June right before Book Expo. While the chance to hear Vincent......

Torontoist, in reality being totally above caring about the Britney Spears divorce, is only excited that Toronto Doctor Vincent Lam won the Giller Prize for his first collection of short stories, Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures. Torontoist reviewed the book way back in the day. Meanwhile, a survey suggests that 4% of Ontarians aged 18-34 believe they can make a living playing poker, while another survey would have us believe that violent crime is the number......

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......

Ok, so the city is in the grip of full-blown festival mania. Red carpets, Gala screenings, and celebrity sightings are all great, but so are poetry readings, right? Right? Anyone??? Tonight at 8pm, head north to Zemra Lounge – 778 St. Clair W. – for this month’s installment of the Diamond Cherry reading series. Stephen Humphries and former director of the Art Bar, Allan Briesmster (The Other Seasons), will be reading. It’s free, and you......

Torontoist isn’t sure where Vincent Lam finds the time to write. The 31-year old author just recently published his first book of short stories, Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures, he’s got a novel and a non-fiction book about pandemic influenza coming out next year. Oh, he’s also an emergency room physician at Toronto East General. Well, whatever he’s secret, we’re glad that Lam is writing. His short stories are inspired by his experiences in medicine;......