The Western Frontier is arguably one of the most widely misrepresented histories, rife with inaccuracies and stereotypes. Black Mi’kmaq and Anishinaabe author Tristan Jones powerfully and critically reimagines and reclaims a historical retelling of the Frontier. With a focus on the historically missing Indigenous narrative, Jones manages the enormous feat of creating a link to […]
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When the North American dream meets traditional Japanese conformity, two cultures collide. Does the past define who we are, who we become? In April 1942, Suzanne’s mother was an eight-month-old baby when her family was torn from their home in Victoria, B.C. Arriving at Vancouver’s Hastings Park, her family bunked in horse stalls for months […]
A hilarious middle-grade graphic memoir about boyhood, toxic masculinity and a shark named Jaws. For fans of Guts and New Kid.In the summer of 1975, 10-year-old Paul Gilligan doesn’t have a whole lot to worry about other than keeping his comic books untarnished, getting tennis balls off roofs and keeping up with the increasingly bold stunts of his […]
A raw, beautiful memoir of a girl born missing an ear, a medical system insistent on saving her from herself, and our culture’s desire to “fix” bodies. When Kate Gies was four years old, a plastic surgeon pressed a synthetic ear to the right side of her head and pulled out a mirror. He told […]
Hello world, meet Edweena! Edwin loves his sister Patsy’s closet. He adores dresses and earrings and boots with high heels. And when he’s finished getting dressed, Edwin is transformed…into the fabulous Edweena! Today is a big day. It’s the figure skating competition at school and Edwin has decided to compete as Edweena. What will people say […]
September 1984, Thornton College private school. After 15-year-old Zahabiya’s father remarries, she can’t wait to leave home and convinces him to send her away to boarding school. But will she fit in? She joins a clique of smart students but isn’t sure if she measures up or how to read the mixed messages from a […]
The post-alien abduction trauma memoir we’ve all been waiting for “Ah, there’s that famous lip quiver!” says Jackie’s abductor and student. Jackie has been determined to be the “saddest living person in the entire world” by a mysterious team of alien abductors. His earthly musical celebrity is nothing compared to his emotional superstar status in […]
From the bestselling author of Drunk Mom and Possessed comes Monster, a mesmerizing, brave new work of autofiction. Monster is a shattering, feminist manifesto exploring sexual awakening, motherhood, immigrant trauma, and the power of female rage. Yoveeta is angry. But her rage is quiet, internal, festering inside and forming a mysterious creation that she refers to as “Monster”, something that began as […]
A songwriter wrestles with instant stardom and his bisexuality in this raw and propulsive novel for fans of If This Gets Out and Alice Oseman’s I Was Born for This. After one of his songs goes viral, Ollie Cheriet gets the opportunity of a lifetime: a cross-country tour, an album deal, and a chance to help his family […]
Join us September 8 at 2pm ET for an afternoon as we celebrate the launch of Loop de Loop: Circular Solutions for a Waste-free World by Andrea Curtis (Groundwood Books). Presented in collaboration with DESIGNwith, enjoy a special reading from the author followed by an expert-led visible mending workshop. Learn creative techniques to give your […]
Join us at the Centre for Social Innovation on Spadina for the launch of Clarissa Trinidad Gonzalez‘s debut novel, Celestina’s House (Dundurn Press). The author will be joined for a conversation with Thom Ernst. The event will begin at 6pm. Books will be for sale from Another Story Bookshop. Toronto Lit Up is a multi-year initiative, […]
On September 3 at 7pm ET, join us at Society Clubhouse for the launch of K.J. Aiello‘s The Monster and the Mirror: Mental Illness, Magic, and the Stories We Tell (ECW Press). The author will be in conversation with Christine Estima and the event will have live music by Colin James Gibson. Books will be available […]
Fresh-faced Jonno is looking to make a splash in the literary scene when he encounters celebrated novelist Kilworthy Tanner at a party. Having sold first editions of her works to Toronto’s book dealers, he’s immediately star-struck and more than a little surprised when she takes an interest in him. Could this be the break he’s […]
Triangulated against the backdrop of a deteriorating world, In the Key of Decay pushes past borders both real and imagined to attend to those failed by history. Attuned to scientific racism, systemic medical failures, and climate change, Em Dial’s poems incisively carve out space for interrogation. Their place-finding and place-making is often surprising, centring care […]
Jean Marc Ah-Sen is the author of Grand Menteur and In the Beggarly Style of Imitation. His writing has appeared in Literary Hub, Catapult, The Comics Journal, Maclean’s, Hazlitt, The Globe and Mail, The Walrus and The Toronto Star. The National Post has hailed his writing as “an inventive escape from the conventional.” Jean Marc Ah-Sen’s […]
Em Dial is a queer, Black, Taiwanese, Japanese, and white, chronically ill writer born and raised in the Bay Area of California, currently living in Toronto, Ontario. Em is a Kundiman Fellow and recipient of the 2020 RBC/PEN Canada New Voices Award and 2019 Mary C. Mohr Poetry Award. Their work has been described by […]
The House of the Spirits meets Mexican Gothic in a tale of love and betrayal, belonging and exile, and the supernatural forces that pervade life in the Philippines. The secrets of the house are the secrets of the heart. It begins with an act of betrayal that destroys the tenuous bonds of Celestina Errantes’s family. […]
A tourist town folk tale of stifled ambition, love, loss, and the bird women who live beneath the lake. Every summer the peaches ripen in Port Peter, and the tourists arrive to gorge themselves on fruit and sun. They don’t see the bird women, who cavort on the cliffs and live in a meadow beneath […]
Growing up, K.J. Aiello was fascinated by magical stories of dragons, wizards, and fantasy, where monsters were not what they seemed and anything was possible. These books and films were both a balm and an escape, a safe space where Aiello’s struggle with mental illness transformed from a burden into a strength that could win […]
A.G.A Wilmot (BFA, MPub) is an award-winning writer and editor based out of Toronto. Their credits include myriad online and in-print publications and anthologies, and their first book, The Death Scene Artist, was published by Buckrider Books in 2018. Find them online at AndrewWilmot.ca. A.G.A Wilmot’s Festival appearance is generously supported by Toronto Lit Up.
Devan Rajkumar, aka “Chef Dev,” is a classically trained and award-winning chef who has plowed his way through top-tier kitchens, marquee events and much-lauded television programming, pushing boundaries of innovation and creativity at every step of the way. Proudly Guyanese-Canadian with strong East Asian roots, Chef Dev celebrates the food traditions of East and West […]
Jess Taylor is a Tkaronto (Toronto) writer and poet. She is the author of Pauls, the title story of which won the 2013 Gold Fiction National Magazine Award, and Just Pervs, a finalist for the 2020 Lambda Literary Award in Bisexual Fiction. Her story “Two Sex Addicts Fall in Love” was longlisted for the 2018 […]
Award-winning Guyanese-Canadian chef Devan Rajkumar believes the world needs more love and is here to offer it—through food. Born in Toronto into a Guyanese household, Devan Rajkumar grew up surrounded by diverse communities and cuisines. After training in the hospitality industry and chasing new flavors around the world, he found himself reconnecting with his culinary […]
You can call him Cockroach, or Roach for short. He’s a catnip-smoking city slicker living in the dark corners behind the toilet. After diving into the diaper of a Chinese baby, Cockroach watches the boy grow up to lose his sense of identity. Understanding what it means to live in a world not built for […]
