About

Join editors Myra Bloom and Kasia Van Schaik, along with contributors Lily Cho, Robert Zacharias and Sophie Feng, for the launch of Shelter in Text: Essays on Dwelling and Refuge (University of Alberta Press). The collection features an engaging blend of academic essays and creative works that examine how writing can create, illuminate, and complicate ideas about dwelling, belonging, or finding safe harbour. There will be complimentary food and drinks, as well as books available for purchase.

The event will take place November 12, 5-7 PM at Centre for Creativity at the University of Toronto (VC 102). RSVP on Eventbrite.

Toronto Lit Up is a multi-year initiative, started in 2016 by the Toronto International Festival of Authors and the Toronto Arts Council, to spotlight Toronto writers and empower local artists with career-building opportunities. Between April 2016 and March 2025, Toronto Lit Up has presented over 200 events featuring over 250 Toronto authors and illustrators. Toronto Lit Up book launches take place throughout the year at venues across the city. They are open to the public and free to attend. Click here for more information.

This event will be followed by a book signing.

Shelter in Text: Essays on Dwelling and Refuge

Echoing the pandemic-era phrase “shelter in place,” and extending beyond it, this collection examines how writing can create, illuminate, and complicate ideas about dwelling, belonging, or finding safe harbour. Through an engaging blend of academic essays and creative nonfiction, contributors interrogate the connections between the concepts of shelter and text, ... Read more

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Myra Bloom

Myra Bloom is Associate Professor of English at York University’s Glendon College. Her scholarship and criticism are published in various academic and popular venues, including in a recent issue of The Walrus dedicated to the best arts and culture writing of the past 20 years.

Read more about Myra Bloom

Kasia Van Schaik

Kasia Van Schaik is the author of the Giller-nominated story collection We Have Never Lived On Earth and the forthcoming book of memoir and cultural criticism, Women Among Monuments. With Myra Bloom, she is the co-editor of the essay collection, Shelter in Text: Essays on Dwelling and Refuge.

Read more about Kasia Van Schaik