Two Events in Toronto!

If you listen to either of our podcasts, you probably know that I’ve been traveling a whole lot this fall. Spain, Poland, Minneapolis (twice!), and Brazil. All of these trips have been fantastic, and you can expect some posts about Poland and Brazil in the near future, but in the meantime, I wanted to tell you about my final trip of a fall: a two-day jaunt to Toronto to participate in two panels at the Toronto Public Library.

First up:

Granta on Canada

Thursday, November 16 at 7pm
Toronto Reference Library
Bram & Bluma Appel Salon
789 Yonge Street, Toronto, ON

UK-based Granta Magazine launches their first ever Canada edition, upending the ways we imagine land, reconciliation, truth and belonging. A discussion with Catherine Leroux and Madeleine Thien, hosted by publisher of Open Letter Books, Chad Post. Featuring readings by some of Granta 141’s contributors including Dionne Brand, Falen Johnson and Anakana Schofield.

This is going to be great. I read the issue already, and am really excited to talk with Leroux and Thien about their editorial vision, the array of pieces included, multicultural Canada, and more. (Especially cool that the authors of three of my favorite pieces from the issue will be reading . . .)

I’ll write something more specific about the issue later, but for now, you might want to check out the contributions that are available for free onlind: Margaret Atwood’s The Martians Claim Canada, Larry Tremblay’s The Book Tree, and Nadim Roberts’s Mangilauk’s Highway. Also, you should definitely check out the introduction, which points to a lot of the larger issues at play.

And if you happen to be in Toronto, come see us!

Landing that Dream Deal: A Writer’s How-To

Friday, November 17 at 7pm
Toronto Reference Library
Atrium
789 Yonge Street, Toronto, ON

To commemorate 150 years of US/Canada relations, three literary and publishing insiders, a publisher, agent and a writer and festival organizer, talk about recent developments in the US and Canadian markets for getting your work published. How can Canadian writers find agents that help get deals in the US? How should writers identify a public for their work? What role do literary and book festivals play in putting a writer’s work on the radar of publishers in the US and Canada? With Jael Richardson (writer and Director of FOLD), Sam Hiyate (President of The Rights Factory) and hosted by Chad Post (publisher of Open Letter Books).

This should also be fun! More nuts and bolts than the Granta event, but I’m really curious to talk about this top with Richardson and Hiyate. I suspect that this is going to end up being like a Three Percent podcast, but live, and with guests.

Again, if you’re in the Toronto area, come to the library on Thursday and Friday for these two great events!