Join Tanya Turton on September 15 at 5:30pm ET to celebrate the release of Jade Is a Twisted Green (Dundurn Press)! The debut author will be in conversation with Pascale Diverlus, followed by a Q&A and book signing, at A Different Booklist (779 Bathurst St, Toronto).

Appetizers will be provided at this free Toronto Lit Up event.

Jade Is a Twisted Green is a coming-of-age story about queer Black identity, love, passion, chosen family and rediscovering life’s pleasures after loss. Jade Brown, a twenty-four-year-old first-generation Jamaican woman living in Toronto, must find a way to pick up the pieces and discover who she is following the mysterious death of her twin sister. Grappling with her grief, Jade seeks solace in lovers and friends during an array of hilarious and heartbreaking adventures. As she investigates some of life’s most frustrating paradoxes, she holds tight to old friends and her ex-girlfriend, lifelines between past and present. On the journey to turning twenty-five, she finally sees that she belongs to herself, and goes about the business of reclaiming that self. Through a series of whirlwind love affairs, parties, and trips abroad, Jade stumbles toward relinquishing the weight of her trauma as she fully comes into her own as a young Black woman and writer. Get your copy from A Different Booklist here.

Moderator:

Pascale Diverlus is born of a lineage of Haitian freedom fighters. She is an award-winning community organizer, storyteller, communications specialist, digital strategist and educator. Pascale’s practice is rooted in reimagining, redefining and rebuilding a different, better world— liberation through all methods. As an educator, she supports organizations, agencies and businesses to develop and adopt organizational transformation rooted in anti-oppressive frameworks. This includes unpacking and unearthing anti-Black racism, misogynoir, cissexism and other systems of oppression within the workplace and society. She creates equity-based assessments, conducts internal reviews, and assists in the implementation of practices, policies and protocols centred on equity and human rights practices. She is a freelance writer whose words have been featured in the Toronto Star, Flare Magazine and Chatelaine Magazine amongst others. With pen and mic, she is instrumental to today’s social movements for marginalized people to attain joy, love, revolution and freedom.

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 June 2022, Toronto Lit Up has presented 137 events to launch 161 books by 236 Toronto authors. 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.