The books event season is truly starting to rock as spring approaches. Hang on to your headgear: here’s what’s happening in the city this week.
On Monday night fans of factoid-heavy books espousing the merits of counterintuitive sociology (can you say Malcolm Gladwell?) should gather at the Bay and Bloor Indigo store (55 Bloor Street West) to hear CEO Heather Reisman in conversation with Dan and Chip Heath, authors of Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard (7 p.m. FREE). Over at the Magpie (831 Dundas Street West), chapbook publisher The Emergency Response Unit celebrates its sophomore season with readings by in-house poets David Brock, Elisabeth de Mariaffi, Jacob McArthur Mooney, and Aaron Tucker (7:30 p.m., FREE). If it’s fiction you’re after, head to This Ain’t the Rosedale Library (86 Nassau Street) at 8 p.m. for a free event featuring local authors Jeff Parker, Lisa Foad, and Pasha Malla reading from recent works of prosedy. And for a little high-brow porn with your literary edification, check out “Oral: Adventures in Erotica” at Renegade (1266 Queen Street West, FREE).
Tuesday is the night for the Artbar Poetry Series at Clinton’s (693 Bloor Street West), this week’s gathering showcasing the poetry of Suzanne Buffam, Aislinn Hunter, and Yehuda Fisher (8 p.m., FREE). Ben McNally Books (366 Bay Street) plays host to a reading and signing with Anthony Dalton, author of Adventures with Camera and Pen (6 p.m., FREE). For Books@Torontoist’s profile of Ben McNally Books go here. This Ain’t the Rosedale Library (86 Nassau Street) gets busy again tonight with a poetry reading by Fred Wah (7 p.m., FREE), who will joined by fellow poets Camille Martin and Jim Smith at 8 p.m. The Dora Keogh Traditional Irish Pub (141 Danforth Avenue) is the site for the launch of Todd Babiak’s fourth novel, Toby: A Man (7 p.m., FREE). The Gladstone Hotel (1214 Queen Street West) features two literary events tonight, the first a panel discussion in honour of Alan Borovoy, this year’s recipient of the Freedom to Read Award. Panelists Kathy English (Toronto Star), columnist Rick Salutin (Globe and Mail), and media lawyers Brian MacLeod Rogers and Paul Schabas will be lead by author Erika Ritter in a discussion on the impact of libel and other laws on creative expression (Ballroom, 6:30 p.m., FREE). The second event, sponsored by Torontoist and Books@Torontoist, features authors Andrew Kaufman (All My Friends Are Superheroes) in conversation with Quill & Quire editor and author Nathan Whitlock (A Week of This) about the perils of writing the second novel (2nd Floor Gallery, doors open 7 p.m., $5, free with book purchase). The event is part of This Is Not a Reading Series.
On Wednesday the Authors at Harbourfront Centre series (235 Queens Quay West) continues with readings by Matthew Hooton (Deloume Road), Ali Eteraz (Children of Dust), and Michelle Wan (Kill for an Orchid). Tickets are $8, or free to members, and the event begins at 7:30 p.m. in the Brigantine Room. For our profile of Authors at Harbourfront Centre go here. The Pivot Readings get going at the Press Club (850 Dundas Street West) at 8 p.m. with authors Peter Dubé, Maggie Helwig, Kate Marshall Flaherty, and Aislinn Hunter, while the weekly (In)side the Veins poetry open mic and workshop gets started at 8 p.m. at Culturshoc (1205 Queen Street West, FREE). Authors Jonathan Vance, Joy Fielding, Christopher Dewdney and Bonnie Burnard gather at the Roof Salon of the Park Hyatt (4 Avenue Road) for a benefit in support of World Literacy of Canada. The event is $60 (it’s for a damn good cause) and gets started at 7 p.m.
If all that weren’t enough, The Dora Keogh Traditional Irish Pub (141 Danforth Avenue) hosts a reading and discussion with Robert Wright (Our Man in Tehran: Ken Taylor and the Iran Hostage Crisis) on Thursday night at 6 p.m. (FREE). Poets David Day, Bill Howell, and Rod Weatherbie headline the Livewords reading series at the Black Swan Tavern (154 Danforth Avenue), a PWYC event that features an open mic segment (8 p.m.). And finally, the Tertulia Reading Series happens tonight at at Holy Oak (1241 Bloor Street West), with poets Michael Stone and Ronna Bloom, both of whom moonlight as psychotherapists. The poet-therapists will discuss the relationship between their practices and read from their work (7:30 p.m., FREE).
