Event photos: Heather A. Clark, Yasuko Thanh, and Cheryl Rainfield

Spring book launch season is well underway. Click on the thumbnails to view photos from three recent events.

Quillblog is looking for photos from literary events across Canada. Send your photos to scflinn@quillandquire.com

Canadian literary event roundup: April 20-26

• Fan Expo Vancouver celebrates science fiction with Spider Robinson, D.D. Brant, A.M. Dellamonica, and Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Vancouver Convention Centre (April 21-22, check website for times)
• Blue Metropolis Festival offers readings, panel discussions, master classes, literary performances, slams, and awards, Opus Hotel, Montreal (April 20-23, check website for times)
• Michael Christie reads from The Beggar’s Garden, Waverley Resource Library Auditorium, Thunder Bay (April 23, 7 p.m., free)
• Seven Readings for Seven Masters, University of Toronto Masters of Arts in creative writing graduates read, Supermarket, Toronto (April 23, 6 p.m., free)
• This Is Not a Reading Series presents the launch of Richard Stursberg’s The Tower of Babble: Sins, Secrets and Successes Inside the CBC, Gladstone Hotel, Toronto (April 24, 7:30 p.m., $5)
• Gary Geddes reads from his travel memoir Drink the Bitter Root, Runnymede Library, Toronto (April 24, 7 p.m., free)
• The Anansi Press Poetry Bash features readings by Erin Knight, Dennis Lee, A.F. Moritz, and Erin Mouré, Tranzac, Toronto (April 25, 6:30 p.m., free)
• John Gould reads from 7 Reasons Not To Be Good, Christianne’s Lyceum of Literature and Art, Vancouver (April 26, 7 p.m., free)

Quillblog is looking for photos from literary events across Canada. Send your photos to scflinn@quillandquire.com

Slideshow: A Weekend with Jane Austen

Toronto’s Pride and Prejudice fans will don their finest gloves and gowns for A Weekend with Jane Austen (April 20–22), a three-day event that celebrates the 1812 Regency era with workshops, lectures, tours, and period costumes.

The event is organized by Karen Millyard, a dance teacher and academic who discovered a love of English Country Dancing – popular during Austen’s time – while recovering from a bone marrow transplant. Millyard, who runs dance events throughout the year and is an enthusiastic advocate of the activity, says it’s not just romantics and English-lit majors who show up at her costumed events. “We get a lot of computer programmers – my theory is that they’re attracted to the dance patterns. They’re very mathematical and balanced,” she says.

Millyard admits that there are people who are drawn to the events because of BBC’s 1995 Pride and Prejudice mini-series starring Colin Firth. “It’s possible that there’s a certain false gloss over it – we tend to romanticize the past,” she says.

Click on the thumbnails to see photos from Millyard’s Midwinter Masquerade Ball, which took place on Feb. 18, 2012.

Canadian literary event roundup: April 13-19

• Binnie Brennan launches her debut short-story collection, A Certain Grace, The Company House, Halifax (April 15, 4 p.m., free)
• Art, storytelling, performance, and film at the launch of Close Encounters: The Next 500 Years, Gladstone Hotel, Toronto (April 16, 7:30 p.m., $5 or free with book)
• Razorbill launch with Jay Asher, Hiromi Goto, and Carrie Mac, Chapters Metropolis, Burnaby, B.C. (April 17, 7 p.m., free)
• Mansfield Spring Poetry Party with Nelson Ball, Alice Burdick, Jaime Forsythe, and David W. McFadden, Monarch Tavern, Toronto (April 16, 7:30 p.m., free)
• Gord Hill launches The Anti-Capitalist Resistance Comic Book, Spartacus Books, Vancouver (April 19, 7 p.m., free)
• Alyx Dellamonica reads from her new novel Blue Magic, UBC Bookstore, Vancouver (April 19, 7:30 p.m., free)
• Lawnya Vawnya music festival with poetry readings, literary panel discussions, and small press fair, Eastern Edge Gallery, St. John’s (April 18–22, check website for times)

Quillblog is looking for photos from literary events across Canada. Send your photos to scflinn@quillandquire.com

U.K. and U.S. celebrate World Book Night; plans for a Canadian version in the works

Just Kids by Patti Smith. Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card. The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien. Q Is for Quarry by Sue Grafton. While these books may appear to have little in common, they are in fact among the 30 titles on this year’s list for World Book Night U.S., to be celebrated on April 23.

Founded in the U.K. in 2011, World Book Night is an annual event billed as “a celebration of reading and books which sees tens of thousands of passionate volunteers gift books in their communities to share their love of reading.” According to the World Book Night U.K. website, book gifters can apply to give away one title from a pre-selected list (25 titles in the U.K. and Ireland as opposed to the 30 in the U.S.). The specially designed World Book Night editions will be given away on April 23. The only stipulation is that those distributing the books “must commit to give away to those who don’t regularly read to share and spread their love of reading.”

This is the first year that World Book Night has featured a U.S. component. Other participating countries are Italy and Germany.

According to a press release from Jodi White, senior manager of the Canadian Booksellers Association, there are plans in the works to inaugurate an official Canadian version of World Book Night in 2013; in the meantime the CBA is “working with World Book Night” on a “plan of action for CBA members” who wish to get involved in the celebration. The CBA advocates that members select one book from the U.K. list to promote in-store. “Depending on the book, you can have readings, a costume contest and guest speakers.”

April 23 was selected as the date for the event because it is UNESCO’s International Day of the Book, and also marks the anniversary of Shakespeare’s birth and death, and the death of Miguel de Cervantes (who died on the same date as Shakespeare in 1616.)

Canadian literary event roundup: April 5-12

• Stuart Ross launches his new poetry collection, You Exist, Magpie, Toronto (April 5, 7:30 p.m., free)
• Launch of Mark D. Dunn’s new poetry collection, Fancy Clapping, Art Gallery of Algoma, Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario (April 5, 7 p.m., free)
• Ben Stephenson launches his debut novel, A Matter of Life and Death or Something, The Khyber, Halifax (April 7, 7:30 p.m.)
• Carmen Aguirre reads from Something Fierce: Memoirs of a Revolutionary Daughter, Vancity Culture Lab, Vancouver (April 9, 7:30 p.m.)
• Treehouse reading series open mic with poet John Barton, Arts Court, Ottawa (April 10, 8 p.m., free)
• Elena Lamberti discusses her book, Marshall McLuhan’s Mosaic, with Nino Ricci and Philip Marchand, Italian Cultural Institute, Toronto (April 11, 6:30 p.m., free)
• Robert Sawyer launches Triggers, Audreys Books, Edmonton (April 11, 7 p.m., free)
• Alex Boyd celebrates the release of his new poetry collection, The Least Important Man, Dora Keogh, Toronto (April 12, 7 p.m., free)
• Erin Mouré launches The Unmemntioable, Librarie Drawn & Quarterly, Montreal (April 12, 7 p.m., free)

Quillblog is looking for photos from literary events across Canada. Send your photos to scflinn@quillandquire.com

Canadian literary roundup: March 30-April 5

Here are just a few events happening across the country this week:

• Munyonzwe Hamalengwa launches The Politics of Judicial Diversity and Transformation, A Different Booklist, Toronto (March 30, 7 p.m., free)
• International Children’s Book Day celebration, A.C. Hunter Public Library, St. John’s (March 31, 2 p.m., free)
• Maggie Helwig reads from Girls Fall Down, Toronto Reference Library (April 2, 7 p.m., free)
• Trillium Book Award 25th anniversary reading with Jeramy Dodds, Maureen Scott Harris, Jeff Latosik, Adam Sol, and Karen Solie, Gladstone Hotel, Toronto (April 4, 7 p.m., free)
• Robson Reading Series presents a National Poetry Month celebration with Margaret Christakos, Leigh Kotsilidis, and Steven Price, University of British Columbia, Vancouver (April 3, 7 p.m., free)
• Calgary Spoken Word Festival featuring C.R. Avery, David Bateman, Lisa Pasold, and others, Calgary, various locations (April 4-22)
• Lawyer David Whellams launches his debut thriller, Walking Into the Ocean, Collected Works, Ottawa (April 4, 7 p.m., free)

Alice Munro’s out, Annie Proulx in at Toronto’s Luminato Festival

Organizers of Luminato, one of Toronto’s biggest cultural festivals, have announced that its high-profile event with CanLit icon Alice Munro has been cancelled, due to a “family commitment.”

Munro, who has not made an appearance on a public stage since a 2009 PEN Canada fundraiser at the International Festival of Authors, was to be interviewed by The New Yorker’s fiction editor Deborah Treisman at an event on June 10. Instead, Treisman will chat with Pulitzer Prize–winning author Annie Proulx.

Slideshow: Toronto Public Library workers on strike

Sunday marked one week that Toronto Public Library workers have been on strike. To recognize the occasion, The Writers’ Union of Canada hosted a rally and read-in to support CUPE Local 4948 (the Toronto Public Library Workers’ Union). Chris Dart, a reporter with Torontoist, describes the tone at the gathering as one of “cheerful rage.”

After months of negotiations and a number of pushed deadlines, on March 18, TPLWU president Maureen O’Reilly announced that the union could not come to an agreement with the municipal government. The bone of contention, she said, was job security for TPL’s 2,300 library workers. With a significant proportion of staff made up of part-timers, O’Reilly said any deal that doesn’t protect workers from library closures, layoffs, and privatization would leave 70 per cent of TPL employees vulnerable.

All library branches and dropboxes have been closed since March 19, and all library programming and events have been cancelled until further notice. The library has encouraged patrons to keep materials until strike action has ended (late fines will not be charged for the duration of the strike).

The TWUC rally is just one of many events that took place over the past week in support of library workers. Click through the slideshow below for highlights from the week’s strike action.

Canadian literary event roundup: March 23-29

• Doug Harris launches paperback version of You Comma Idiot, Librarie Drawn & Quarterly, Montreal (March 23, 7 p.m., free)
• Graeme Burk and Robert Smith? launch Who Is the Doctor: The Unofficial Guide to Doctor Who, The New Series, Bakka Phoenix Books, Toronto (March 24, 3 p.m., free)
• Pilot Reading Series with Jacob Wren, Heather Birrell, and others, Sparrow, Montreal (March 25, 9 p.m., free)
• Reading with Amy Jones and Rebecca Rosenblum, Saint Mary’s University, Halifax (March 27, 7 p.m., free)
• Coach House Books spring launch with Tamara Faith Berger, Heather Birrell, Walid Bitar, Karen Hines, and Susan Steudel, Dance Cave, Toronto (March 28, 8:45 p.m., free)
• Pay It Forward book-reading flash mob, Union Station, Toronto (March 28, 4 p.m., free)
• Kevin Chong launches his memoir, My Year of the Racehorse, W2 Media Café, Vancouver (March 28, 7:30 p.m., free)
• Get the Lead Out: symposium of letterpress printers, Massey College, Toronto (March 28, 3 p.m., free)
• Gaspereau Press’s Andrew Steeves discusses the “ecology of the book,” Jackman Humanities building, Toronto (March 29, 1 p.m., free)
• Slideshow and launch for Jennifer Cockrall-King’s new book, Food and the City: Urban Agriculture and the New Food Revolution, The Cookbook Co. Cooks, Calgary (March 29, 6:30 p.m., free)