Toronto Lit Up: Sami Alwani

June 03 at 7:30pm

Join award-winning Toronto artist Sami Alwani on Thursday, June 3 at 7:30pm to celebrate the launch of The Pleasure of the Text with Conundrum Press. This Toronto Lit Up event will include a multi-media reading of the book, accompanied by animations, a voice actor and at least one puppet. Audience members will be able to participate via chat and social media, and can be entered to win a “party favour” bag containing some of Alwani’s favourite things.

The Pleasure of the Text weaves together themes of art induced dissociation, queer intergenerational polyamory, racial capitalism and esoteric mystical experiences into 20 slice of life comic stories that are equal parts comedy and tragedy. There’s something for everyone in this cheerful volume collecting all of award-winning Alwani’s previous work to date with plenty of never-before-seen material.

Purchase your copy of The Pleasure of the Text from The Beguiling, the event’s official bookseller, here.

Register Here!

Sami Alwani is a cartoonist and illustrator based in Toronto. His comics have appeared in Best American Comics, on Vice and he received a Doug Wright Award in 2018 for his story The Dead Father. His work was exhibited in the Canadian alternative comics survey exhibition “This is Serious” at the Hamilton Art Gallery in 2019. His first collection of stories, The Pleasure of the Text, will be published with Conundrum Press in May 2021. Photo credit: Kirk Lisage.

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 to December 2020, Toronto Lit Up has produced 107 events to launch 131 books by 177 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.