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DTSTART;TZID=America/Vancouver:20260402T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/Vancouver:20260402T200000
DTSTAMP:20260607T003210
CREATED:20260122T012505Z
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SUMMARY:A Reading of the Play El Terremoto by Christine Quintana
DESCRIPTION:Touchstone Theatre and Neworld Theatre present a reading of Christine Quintana’s play El Terremoto (directed by Daniela Atiencia). Twenty years have passed since the three Jurado sisters lost their parents\, and life just seems to continue on in their East Vancouver home. \nA birthday party\, a failed proposal\, and a missed connection fill the days and months until an earthquake nearly destroys the city\, and brings forward a shocking turn of events that splits their world wide open.\nFrom Dora-Award winning playwright Christine Quintana\, El Terremoto is a dramatic comedy about how nothing matters\, so everything matters. \n— \nA reading of the full play by seven actors will be followed by a Q & A at the end of the evening with Christine and Lois Anderson\, Artistic Director at Touchstone Theatre. Join us for a delightful evening around the playwriting process and the Canadian theatre scene. \n— \nChristine Quintana was born in Los Angeles to a Mexican-American father and a Dutch-British-Canadian mother. Christine grew up as a grateful visitor to the unceded lands of the Musqueam\, Squamish\, and Tsleil-Waututh people. Christine is an actor\, playwright\, and co-Artistic Producer of Delinquent Theatre. In these various capacities\, she has worked with Tarragon Theatre\, the Arts Club Theatre Company\, Bard on the Beach\, The Cultch\, Neworld Theatre\, Electric Company Theatre\, Rumble Theatre\, Boca Del Lupo\, Zee Zee Theatre\, Caravan Farm Theatre\, Ruby Slippers Theatre\, Playwrights Theatre Centre\, Pi Theatre\, Gateway Theatre\, Nightswimming Theatre\, Belfry Theatre\, Stratford Festival\, and Young People’s Theatre. Her writing has been translated and performed in Spanish\, French\, ASL\, and German. \nDaniela Atiencia is the Artistic Associate at Touchstone Theatre and a Latinx-Canadian theatre artist born and raised in Colombia. She has a BFA in Theatre Performance from SFU’s School for the Contemporary Arts and holds an MFA in Theatre Directing from The University of Essex’s East 15 Acting School. Daniela works as a freelance bilingual director\, dramaturg\, and deviser. She is currently working on two plays as co-director for Neworld and Green Thumb Theatre. As dramaturg she is collaborating with Tetsuro Shigematsu’s latest commissioned piece for Pacific Theatre and served as Spanish Language Dramaturg for Made in Canada\, an agricultural podcast for rice & beans theatre. She is currently based on the Unceded Territories of the Coast Salish peoples (Vancouver\, B.C.) and her work recently earned her a finalist spot in the RBC Rising Star Emerging Director award. \nLois Anderson is the Artistic Director of Touchstone Theatre\, and an Adjunct Professor at UBC in the Department of Theatre and Film. She won the Jessie Award for Best Direction (Pericles\, Bard on the Beach) and the 2019 Critic’s Choice Award for Innovation (Lysistrata). She has worked extensively in Canada and Australia and has been an artistic associate with The National Arts Centre most recently directing You Used to Call Me Marie by Tai Amy Grauman.
URL:https://www.readlocalbc.ca/event/a-reading-of-the-play-el-terremoto-by-christine-quintana/
LOCATION:Vancouver Public Library\, Central Branch\, 350 West Georgia St.\, Vancouver\, BC\, V6B 6B1\, Canada
CATEGORIES:Author Discussion,Panel
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ORGANIZER;CN="Vancouver Public Library":MAILTO:candie.tanaka@vpl.ca
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DTSTART;TZID=America/Vancouver:20260407T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/Vancouver:20260407T203000
DTSTAMP:20260607T003210
CREATED:20260325T202632Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260325T202632Z
UID:50861-1775588400-1775593800@www.readlocalbc.ca
SUMMARY:Robin Ducharme Launches Real Love Ready
DESCRIPTION:Victoria author Robin Ducharme launches Real Love Ready: A Guide to Relational Literacy\, a compassionate guide to the knowledge\, skills\, and daily practices that help us love with greater intention\, truth\, and heart. In conversation with Monique Gray Smith\, Robin will discuss how relational literacy can shape the way we connect in love\, friendship\, family\, work\, and self. A meaningful literary event for readers drawn to relationships\, personal growth\, and conscious living.
URL:https://www.readlocalbc.ca/event/robin-ducharme-launches-real-love-ready/
LOCATION:Bolen Books\, #111-1644 Hillside Ave.\, Victoria\, BC\, V8T 2C5\, Canada
CATEGORIES:Author Discussion,Book Signing,Interview
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ORGANIZER;CN="Real Love Ready":MAILTO:kate@realloveready.com
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DTSTART;TZID=America/Vancouver:20260409T183000
DTEND;TZID=America/Vancouver:20260409T203000
DTSTAMP:20260607T003210
CREATED:20260325T202541Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260325T202541Z
UID:50795-1775759400-1775766600@www.readlocalbc.ca
SUMMARY:Book Launch - Exhumations: Inside the Body of a Petrostate by Joanne Leow
DESCRIPTION:Join Simon Fraser University English Professor Joanne Leow at Enabling Arts on April 9th (6:30 PM) for the launch of her new book\, “Exhumations: Inside the Body of a Petrostate”. \nAbout the book: \n“What unknowable chemical? How slow was this damage\, this violence? … How might any of us stay uncontaminated by all that was built around us?” \n“Exhumations: In the Body of a Petrostate” oscillates between an unflinching critique of the author’s birth island\, Singapore\, and a memoir of grief and illness. Seeing our porous bodies as part of a contaminated and compromised system based on extraction\, violence\, and political repression\, the book asks what must be made visible in our current moment. Drawing on her experience as a journalist for state-controlled media\, and her current work as a scholar\, Leow explores histories of activism\, censorship\, weapons manufacturing\, terraforming\, and petroleum refining. In doing so\, she traces the networks of power that link Singapore with Canada\, Palestine\, Israel\, England and beyond. Drawing on art\, photography\, film\, and literature\, she considers how they exhume truths that cannot otherwise be told. \nThis launch is supported by Simon Fraser University’s Department of English and the David See-chai Lam Centre\, and Alchemy/Knopf. \nProfessor Leow will be joined by UBC Professors Phanuel Antwi and John Paul (JP) Catungal. (Photo Credits: for Joanne Leow: sweetmoon photography; for Phanuel Antwi: Rachel Topham Photography) \nSpeaker Bios: \nJoanne Leow grew up in Singapore and now lives on the unceded traditional territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam)\, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish)\, and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. She is Associate Professor and Canada Research Chair of Transnational and Decolonial Digital Humanities at Simon Fraser University. She is the author of the academic monograph\, “Counter-Cartographies: Reading Singapore Otherwise” (Liverpool University Press\, 2024) and the poetry collection\, “Seas Move Away” (Turnstone Press\, 2022). Her creative work and research lie at the intersections of the environmental humanities\, transnational and diasporic cultural production\, global Asia studies\, autotheory\, and decoloniality. \nJP Catungal (he/him) is Assistant Professor in the Institute for Gender\, Race\, Sexuality and Social Justice\, and Co-Director of the Centre for Asian Canadian Research and Engagement at the University of British Columbia. A queer\, first generation\, Filipinx Canadian scholar\, JP’s research\, teaching and public facing works are in conversation with critical human geography and feminist and queer of colour theories and methods. He is particularly interested in how migrant\, racialized and LGBTQ+ communities address their experiences of marginalization in the fields of sexual health\, education and social services. He has served as co-edit of the book\, “Filipinos in Canada: Disturbing Invisibility”\, as well as special journal issues for “BC Studies”; “ACME: International Journal of Critical Geographies”; “TOPIA: Canadian Journal of Cultural Studies”; and “Alon: Journal for Filipino American and Diasporic Studies”. He received the Killam Teaching Prize at UBC. \nPhanuel Antwi is an artist\, an organizer\, a curator\, and an associate professor of English concerned with race\, poetics\, movements\, intimacy\, and struggle. He works with text\, dance\, film\, and photography to intervene in artistic\, academic\, and public spaces. Dr. Antwi holds a Canada Research Chair in Black Arts and Epistemologies at the University of British Columbia\, Canada. His recent book\, “On Cuddling: Loved to Death in the Racial Embrace”\, is from Pluto Press. He’s currently finishing a manuscript called “Currencies of Blackness: Faithfulness\, Cheerfulness and Politeness in Settler Writing”.
URL:https://www.readlocalbc.ca/event/book-launch-exhumations-inside-the-body-of-a-petrostate-by-joanne-leow/
LOCATION:Enabling Arts\, 104-343 Railway Street\, Vancouver\, British Columbia\, V6A 1A4\, Canada
CATEGORIES:Author Discussion,Launch
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ORGANIZER;CN="SFU English":MAILTO:englcmns@sfu.ca
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DTSTART;TZID=America/Vancouver:20260411T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/Vancouver:20260411T210000
DTSTAMP:20260607T003210
CREATED:20260316T180352Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260316T180352Z
UID:50380-1775934000-1775941200@www.readlocalbc.ca
SUMMARY:Phyllis Webb Memorial Reading featuring Wayde Compton
DESCRIPTION:Please join SFU English and Poetry in Canada for the 4th annual Phyllis Webb Memorial Reading featuring award recipient Wayde Compton. This free event takes place on Saturday\, April 11th (Doors: 6:15 PM; Event: 7-9 PM) at SFU Harbour Centre (Room 1400). Special guests include Cecily Nicholson and Courtenay Chan. Hosted by Professor Stephen Collis. Enjoy readings\, discussion\, and light refreshments. \nThe Phyllis Webb Memorial Reading honours a Canadian poet(s) with a cash award and a celebration of their work. This event will occur each April and will be organized and administered by the Poetry in Canada Society\, https://www.poetrycanada.org/. \nA Governor General’s Award–winning poet and a member of the Order of Canada\, Phyllis Webb was a major Canadian cultural figure from the 1950s through the 1980s\, publishing ten celebrated collections of poetry and prose and co-founding the CBC Radio program Ideas (in 1965). When “words abandoned” her in the early 1990s and she was no longer able to write\, she took up photography\, photocollage\, and eventually painting. \nAs Stephen Scobie once wrote\, the work of Phyllis Webb “has always been distinguished by the profundity of her insights\, the depth of her emotional feeling\, the delicacy and accuracy of her rhythms\, the beauty and mysterious resonance of her images – and by her luminous intelligence.” It is this legacy that the Phyllis Webb Memorial Reading seeks to honour\, by selecting a poet who is distinguished by similar qualities. \nIn 2026\, the fourth annual Phyllis Webb Memorial Reading honours poet Wayde Compton\, who is the author of six books and the editor of two literary anthologies. His collection of short stories\, “The Outer Harbour”\, won the City of Vancouver Book Award in 2015 and his work has been a finalist for three other City of Vancouver Book Awards. He won a National Magazine Award for Fiction in 2011 and was nominated for the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize in 2000. In 2002\, Compton co-founded the Hogan’s Alley Memorial Project\, an organization devoted to researching and promoting Vancouver’s historical Black community and later helped establish the Hogan’s Alley Working Group and the Hogan’s Alley Society\, its successor organizations. From 2006-2011 Compton co-published Commodore Books\, Western Canada’s first Black Canadian literary press. He has been writer-in-residence at Simon Fraser University\, Green College at the University of British Columbia\, and the Vancouver Public Library. Compton currently teaches in the Department of Writing at the University of Victoria\, and his latest book is “Toward an Anti-Racist Poetics” (U of Alberta P\, 2024). \nImportant Information: \nVenue and Accessibility: This in-person event takes place at the SFU Harbour Centre (Room 1400). It is easily accessible by transit and near SkyTrain. The campus is wheelchair accessible and has wheelchair accessible washrooms. Gender neutral washrooms are also available. \nPlease note: This event may be recorded and/or photographed. If you do not wish to be photographed\, please inform the photographer.
URL:https://www.readlocalbc.ca/event/phyllis-webb-memorial-reading-featuring-wayde-compton/
LOCATION:SFU Harbour Centre\, 515 West Hastings Street\, Vancouver\, BC\, Canada
CATEGORIES:Author Discussion,Award,Reading
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ORGANIZER;CN="SFU English":MAILTO:englcmns@sfu.ca
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DTSTART;TZID=America/Vancouver:20260414T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/Vancouver:20260414T200000
DTSTAMP:20260607T003210
CREATED:20260316T180418Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260316T180418Z
UID:49564-1776189600-1776196800@www.readlocalbc.ca
SUMMARY:Stage Your Own Play with Cee Peal - Part One
DESCRIPTION:Gain a comprehensive understanding of the playwriting process from initial concept to production and finally opening night in this three-part series program. Learn about the concepts of Scene and Monologue Writing\, Text Analysis\, Staging\, Performance\, Production and more. \nUse this time to explore the early stages of theatre development and experiment with others in a collaborative and unique process. \n— \nCee Peal is a theatre artist from the Nisga’a First Nation of Northern B.C. now working in Vancouver on the traditional\, unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam)\, səl̓ilwətaɁɬ (Tsleil-waututh)\, and sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) peoples. He brings to the library his experience in storytelling\, theatre\, and image making\, drawing from his experience working as an actor\, director\, writer\, dancer\, and producer on various productions. With a passion for Indigenous studies and cultural evolution\, Cee is also the Indigenous outreach coordinator at The Cultch and the artistic associate at The Carmen Arts Group. \nTo find out more about Cee’s residency and keep up with his upcoming events visit: vpl.ca/storyteller
URL:https://www.readlocalbc.ca/event/stage-your-own-play-with-cee-peal-part-one/
LOCATION:VANCOUVER PUBLIC LIBRARY – CENTRAL LIBRARY
CATEGORIES:Author Discussion,Meet & Greet,Workshop
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ORGANIZER;CN="Vancouver Public Library":MAILTO:candie.tanaka@vpl.ca
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DTSTART;TZID=America/Vancouver:20260424T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/Vancouver:20260424T210000
DTSTAMP:20260607T003210
CREATED:20260407T213556Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260407T213556Z
UID:51076-1777057200-1777064400@www.readlocalbc.ca
SUMMARY:Off the Shelf Poetry Reading Series with Cornel Bogle\, Lisa Richter\, Salena Wiener
DESCRIPTION:Please join SFU English and Poetry in Canada for a poetry reading featuring Professor Cornel Bogle\, Lisa Richter\, and Salena Wiener. \nDetails: \nDate/Time: Friday\, April 24th (Doors 6:30 PM; Event: 7-9 PM) \nLocation: SFU Belzberg Library at Harbour Centre campus \nThis is a free event\, no RSVP required. \nBios \nCornel Bogle engages Caribbean archives and diasporic memory through erasure\, found\, and lyric poetry. Their work has been published in literary platforms such as “brick”\, “Arc Poetry Magazine”\, and “Pree: Caribbean Writing”\, and has been presented in readings across Canada and the Caribbean. \nAt SFU\, they teach in areas such as Black and Caribbean literatures\, decolonial literary studies\, diaspora\, transnationalism\, and creative writing\, guiding students to explore how storytelling travels across borders\, histories\, and communities. Originally from Kingston\, Jamaica\, they earned their BA at the University of the West Indies\, and both their MA and PhD at the University of Alberta\, joining SFU in 2023. \nLisa Richter is a Toronto-based poet\, writer\, and educator. She is the author of two books of poetry\, “Closer to Where We Began” and “Nautilus and Bone”\, winner of the Canadian Jewish Literary Award\, the National Jewish Book Award (U.S.)\, and the Robert Kroetsch Award. Her work has been longlisted for the CBC Poetry Prize\, a National Magazine Award finalist\, and appeared in “Best Canadian Poetry”\, “The Fiddlehead”\, “The Malahat Review”\, and “The New Quarterly”\, among other places. She holds an MFA from the University of Guelph and teaches at the University of Toronto’s School of Continuing Studies. Her third book\, “Sublunary”\, is forthcoming with University of Alberta Press in March 2026. \nSalena Wiener is a poet and PhD student in English Literature at Simon Fraser University. Her research interests include British Romantic women’s writing\, print and manuscript culture\, digital humanities\, and ecopoetics. She has worked as a Research Assistant for SpokenWeb and the Women’s Print History Project. Her critical and creative work appears in “Honey & Lime Lit Magazine”\, “Peculiars Magazine”\, “Montreal Review of Books”\, “Digital Studies”\, and elsewhere. She is the author of two poetry chapbooks\, “bodies like gardens” (Cactus Press 2023) and “Cities of Delusions” (Anstruther Press 2026). \nVenue Accessibility \nThis in-person event takes place at the SFU’s Harbour Centre campus. It is easily accessible by transit and near SkyTrain. The campus is wheelchair accessible and has wheelchair accessible washrooms. Gender neutral washrooms are also available.
URL:https://www.readlocalbc.ca/event/off-the-shelf-poetry-reading-series-with-cornel-bogle-lisa-richter-salena-wiener/
LOCATION:SFU Harbour Centre\, 515 West Hastings Street\, Vancouver\, BC\, Canada
CATEGORIES:Author Discussion,Reading
ORGANIZER;CN="SFU English":MAILTO:englcmns@sfu.ca
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DTSTART;TZID=America/Vancouver:20260428T133000
DTEND;TZID=America/Vancouver:20260428T143000
DTSTAMP:20260607T003210
CREATED:20260325T202221Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260325T202221Z
UID:50419-1777383000-1777386600@www.readlocalbc.ca
SUMMARY:Canadian Children's Book Week Author Visit: Marsha Skrypuch
DESCRIPTION:In celebration of Canadian Children’s Book Week\, children’s author Marsha Skrypuch will present on her book trilogy Kidnapped from Ukraine. \nMarsha Skrypuch is an internationally bestselling children’s author whose books span a century of wars from a kid’s view\, concentrating on those stories that have been erased by oppressive regimes. Her best-known book is Making Bombs for Hitler. Her most recent is the Kidnapped from Ukraine trilogy. She has received death threats and honours for her writing. Marsha lives in Brantford\, Ontario\, and you can visit her online at calla.com \nMarsha talks about the war\, the books\, how she did her research\, and the challenges she encountered. She also talks about what happens when you’re banned for life by Russia (she is the only children’s author in North America thus targeted). \nTeachers of grades 4-6 may register their group to attend. Maximum of 3 classes. Please include the number of students attending. \nInterested members of the public may also register to attend. \nBest for children grades 4-6
URL:https://www.readlocalbc.ca/event/canadian-childrens-book-week-author-visit-marsha-skrypuch/
LOCATION:North Vancouver Public Library – Lynn Valley branch\, 1277 Lynn Valley Road\, North Vancouver\, BC\, V7J 0A2\, Canada
CATEGORIES:Author Discussion
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.readlocalbc.ca/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/Marsha-Skrypuch.jpg
ORGANIZER;CN="North Vancouver District Public Library":MAILTO:info@nvdpl.ca
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