BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//Read Local BC - ECPv6.15.20//NONSGML v1.0//EN CALSCALE:GREGORIAN METHOD:PUBLISH X-ORIGINAL-URL:https://www.readlocalbc.ca X-WR-CALDESC:Events for Read Local BC REFRESH-INTERVAL;VALUE=DURATION:PT1H X-Robots-Tag:noindex X-PUBLISHED-TTL:PT1H BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:America/Vancouver BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0800 TZOFFSETTO:-0700 TZNAME:PDT DTSTART:20220313T100000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0700 TZOFFSETTO:-0800 TZNAME:PST DTSTART:20221106T090000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0800 TZOFFSETTO:-0700 TZNAME:PDT DTSTART:20230312T100000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0700 TZOFFSETTO:-0800 TZNAME:PST DTSTART:20231105T090000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0800 TZOFFSETTO:-0700 TZNAME:PDT DTSTART:20240310T100000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0700 TZOFFSETTO:-0800 TZNAME:PST DTSTART:20241103T090000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0800 TZOFFSETTO:-0700 TZNAME:PDT DTSTART:20250309T100000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0700 TZOFFSETTO:-0800 TZNAME:PST DTSTART:20251102T090000 END:STANDARD END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Vancouver:20240510T130000 DTEND;TZID=America/Vancouver:20240510T143000 DTSTAMP:20260423T022758 CREATED:20240422T173351Z LAST-MODIFIED:20240422T173351Z UID:21603-1715346000-1715351400@www.readlocalbc.ca SUMMARY:Book Signing: Hand Drawn Victoria with Emma Fitzgerald DESCRIPTION:Join Munro’s Books on May 10th to meet Emma Fitzgerald\, author of Hand Drawn Victoria: An Illustrated Tour in and Around BC’s Capital City!! \nFor locals and visitors alike\, these sketches and stories highlight both the historic monuments and everyday moments that make Victoria shine. \nYou never know quite what you’ll come across in British Columbia’s capital city. With its unmissable landmarks that attract people from around the world\, Victoria is also rich in forested beauty\, charming houses\, and curious people\, and is steeped in local history. \nFollowing the charm of her previous book\, Hand Drawn Vancouver\, in this memorable book\, Emma FitzGerald captures the coastal city of Victoria and its surrounding communities in over 100 sketches of: \n• Iconic Landmarks: It wouldn’t be a visit to Victoria without stopping by the Empress\, Munro’s\, or Butchart Gardens.\n• Local Favourites: The longstanding Beacon Drive In and James Bay’s Birdcage Confectionary are some beloved spots honoured within these pages.\n• Beautiful Architecture: Journey back in time by admiring historic buildings\, like Queen Anne–style homes and the spiraling Belfry Theatre.\n• Stunning West Coast Landscape: Explore natural wonders\, from culturally significant fields of camas flowers to Mystic Beach’s stunning shoreline.\n• Overheard Conversations: What really makes a city are the people who live there—Emma documents snippets of passersby’s conversations as she sketches. \nStructured by neighbourhood\, Hand Drawn Victoria is a beautiful keepsake for locals and visitors alike\, and a lovely way to celebrate the city—its buildings\, its people\, and its essence. \nEMMA FITZGERALD was born to Irish parents in Lesotho\, a small mountainous kingdom in Southern Africa. She moved to Canada at a young age and spent most of her childhood in Vancouver\, BC. Emma received a BFA in Visual Art from the University of British Columbia in 2004\, and a Masters in Architecture from Dalhousie University in 2008. She has worked in architecture offices across Canada and in Johannesburg\, South Africa. Her love of drawing on location led to her first book\, Hand Drawn Halifax\, and its follow-up\, Sketch by Sketch Along Nova Scotia’s South Shore. She then turned her interest in people and places to where she grew up; Hand Drawn Vancouver was published in 2020 as she began working on Hand Drawn Victoria. In between her Hand Drawn series\, Emma has illustrated five children’s books\, including EveryBody’s Different on EveryBody Street\, written by Sheree Fitch. She lives and draws in Lunenburg\, Nova Scotia. \nWHEN: Friday\, May 10th from 1:00-2:30 p.m.\nWHERE: In-store at Munro’s Books\, 1108 Government St.\nWHAT: Meet and greet plus book signing with Emma Fitzgerald.\nHOW: This event is free to attend. URL:https://www.readlocalbc.ca/event/book-signing-hand-drawn-victoria-with-emma-fitzgerald/ LOCATION:Munro’s Books\, 1108 Government Street\, Victoria\, BC\, V8W 1Y2\, Canada CATEGORIES:Launch,Meet & Greet ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.readlocalbc.ca/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/HDV_IG-from-pub.jpg ORGANIZER;CN="Munro's Books":MAILTO:events@munrobooks.com END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Vancouver:20240501T190000 DTEND;TZID=America/Vancouver:20240501T210000 DTSTAMP:20260423T022758 CREATED:20240409T163727Z LAST-MODIFIED:20240409T163727Z UID:21381-1714590000-1714597200@www.readlocalbc.ca SUMMARY:Double Poetry Launch: Julie Paul and Miranda Pearson DESCRIPTION:Join Munro’s Books in celebrating new work by two talented poets!! \n“Chomping / champing / championing / churlish / … / There’s a wolf at the door / that looks exactly like me.” Who is the “whiny baby” in this book? Rather than calling names or hurling insults\, the candid poems in this collection most often implicate the poet herself. Expansive in form and voice\, the poems in Julie Paul’s second collection\, Whiny Baby\, offer both love letters and laments. They take us to construction sites\, meadows\, waiting rooms\, beaches\, alleys\, gardens\, and frozen rivers\, from Montreal to Hornby Island. They ask us to live in the moment\, despite the moment. Including a spirited long poem that riffs on the fairy tale “Three Billy Goats Gruff\,” these poems are like old friends that at once console and confess. They blow kisses\, they remember\, and they celebrate the broken and the lost alongside the beautiful. At turns frank\, peevish\, introspective\, and mischievous\, the poems share sincere and intimate perspectives on the changing female body\, our natural and built landscapes\, and the idiosyncrasies of modern life. Whiny Baby calls on us to simultaneously examine and exult in our brief time on earth. \nJULIE PAUL’s second book of poetry\, Whiny Baby\, follows the 2017 release of the poetry collection The Rules of the Kingdom\, both published with McGill-Queen’s University Press. She is also the author of three short fiction collections\, The Jealousy Bone (Emdash\, 2008)\, The Pull of the Moon (Touchwood / Brindle & Glass\, 2014)\, and Meteorites (Touchwood\, 2019). Her writing has been published widely in journals and has received recognition from a number of sources. The Pull of the Moon won the 2015 Victoria Butler Book Prize\, and The Rules of the Kingdom was a finalist for both the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize and the Gerald Lampert Memorial Award. Her personal essay “It Not Only Rises\, It Shines” won the Edna Staebler Personal Essay Award from The New Quarterly and her short story “The Expansion” won The Rusty Toque’s Chapbook Award. Unless she’s visiting her daughter in Montreal\, Julie lives in Victoria BC\, where\, in addition to writing\, she works as a Registered Massage Therapist.\n—\n“Come\, anguish. Help us manage / the plainsong of an open shore\, / its language of high tide rich and close\, / close and hard to see.” The early elegiac poems in Bridestones emerge from the borderlands between life and death\, loss and renewal. Drawing on dreams\, opera\, and visual art\, and employing symbolist and playfully surreal imagery\, Miranda Pearson questions the ways we tend and grieve – for each other and our environment. Beginning with a sudden bereavement\, the first section ends with a long poem\, “Clearance\,” that depicts the experience of emptying and departing a home – the physicality of a house serving as a vehicle for processing grief. Pearson writes on family trauma\, illness\, love\, and desire with a pervading sense of hauntedness\, compressed\, lyrical accounts of complex and ambivalent terrain. The impact of a pandemic lurks in the background\, and themes of fear run through much of this collection\, with poems exploring how we face our fears – or deny and avoid them – and\, ultimately\, how we grow and adapt. Through meditations on art\, myth\, archaeology\, ceremony\, and death\, Pearson reveals the veil between life and death when drawn to its thinnest. Like the hovering falcon depicted in “A Song of Roses\,” the poems view the world from above: “if earth is body\, and sky – God help us\, spirit.” \nMIRANDA PEARSON is widely published in literary journals and anthologies\, and Bridestones is her sixth book of poetry. Two of the previous titles\, Harbour and The Fire Extinguisher\, were shortlisted for the BC and Yukon Book Prizes Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize. While completing her MFA at UBC\, Miranda served as poetry editor for Prism international\, and has since taught at UBC and SFU. Miranda currently lives between the UK and Vancouver. \nPlease join us for readings from these two poets\, followed by a Q&A with the audience and refreshments! \nWHEN: Wednesday\, May 1st at 7:00 p.m. (doors at 6:30)\nWHERE: In-store at Munro’s Books\, 1108 Government St.\nWHAT: Readings by Julie Paul and Miranda Pearson from their new poetry collections\, followed by a Q&A with the audience. Refreshments will be provided.\nHOW: This event is free to attend. URL:https://www.readlocalbc.ca/event/double-poetry-launch-julie-paul-and-miranda-pearson/ LOCATION:Munro’s Books\, 1108 Government Street\, Victoria\, BC\, V8W 1Y2\, Canada CATEGORIES:Launch,Meet & Greet ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.readlocalbc.ca/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Julie-P-and-MP-IG.jpg ORGANIZER;CN="Munro's Books":MAILTO:events@munrobooks.com END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20240423 DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20240425 DTSTAMP:20260423T022758 CREATED:20240418T223830Z LAST-MODIFIED:20240418T223830Z UID:21813-1713837600-1713923999@www.readlocalbc.ca SUMMARY:10th Anniversary of BC Book Day DESCRIPTION:WHEN: Tuesday\, April 23\, 2024 \nWHAT: BC Book Day invites British Columbians to celebrate the province’s book & magazine publishers\, authors\, illustrators\, bookstores\, libraries\, festivals\, and literary prizes that connect us with local stories. \nGOAL: To raise awareness among government and the general public of BC’s publishing ecosystem and its cultural and economic contributions. \nWHO: BC Book Day is coordinated by the Association of Book Publishers of BC\, which works to support the long-term health and success of the Canadian-owned book industry in British Columbia. \nDid you know? \n\nBritish Columbia is the second largest English-language book publishing region in Canada\, with more than 30 active publishers.\nBC publishers operate in several regions\, including the Southern Interior\, the Sunshine Coast\, Vancouver Island\, and the Lower Mainland.\nWe bring Canadian writing and culture to a global audience\, exporting to more than 40 countries each year. URL:https://www.readlocalbc.ca/event/10th-anniversary-of-bc-book-day/ LOCATION:BC CATEGORIES:Festival,Launch ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://www.readlocalbc.ca/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/BCBookDay-2024-FB_X.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Vancouver:20240420T130000 DTEND;TZID=America/Vancouver:20240420T140000 DTSTAMP:20260423T022758 CREATED:20240409T163525Z LAST-MODIFIED:20240409T163525Z UID:21285-1713618000-1713621600@www.readlocalbc.ca SUMMARY:Book Launch: Always On Call • Terrace\, BC DESCRIPTION:Join bestselling author Marion McKinnon Crook to launch Always On Call: Adventures in Nursing\, Ranching\, and Rural Living—the much-anticipated sequel to Always Pack a Candle! \nSaturday\, April 20\, 2024\n1–2 pm\nTerrace Public Library\, 4610 Park Ave.\, Terrace\, BC \n• free to attend — everyone welcome\n• Books for sale by Misty River Books URL:https://www.readlocalbc.ca/event/book-launch-always-on-call-terrace-bc/ LOCATION:Terrace Public Library\, 4610 Park Ave\, Terrace\, BC\, V8G 1V6\, Canada CATEGORIES:Launch ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.readlocalbc.ca/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Always-On-Call_Terrace-Apr2024_blog.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Vancouver:20240418T190000 DTEND;TZID=America/Vancouver:20240418T210000 DTSTAMP:20260423T022758 CREATED:20240321T170232Z LAST-MODIFIED:20240321T170232Z UID:20859-1713466800-1713474000@www.readlocalbc.ca SUMMARY:Book Launch: Kayla Czaga and Anne Fleming DESCRIPTION:Join Munro’s Books in celebrating the launches of new books by two talented local writers!! \n“I feel like the crud / I accidentally touch sometimes\, whatever it is / that collects under cushions on my couch\,” writes Kayla Czaga in her third collection\, Midway\, an exploration of grief in all its manifestations. In her search for meaning in the aftermath of her parents’ deaths\, Czaga visits the underworld (at least twice)\, Vietnamese restaurants\, the beach\, London’s Tate Modern\, Las Vegas casinos\, and a fish textbook. Honest\, elegiac\, characteristically strange\, and frequently funny\, these poems take the reader through bright scenery like carnival rides with fast climbs and sudden drops. The meanings and messages Czaga uncovers on her travels are complicated: hopeful\, bleak-both comforting and not. Along with the parents the poet mourns\, this collection showcases a varied cast. A suburban father-in-law copes with a troubling diagnosis. Marge Simpson quits The Simpsons. Death is a metalhead who dates girls too young for him. Midway is a welcome and necessary collection from one of the most celebrated and accomplished poets of her generation. \nKAYLA CZAGA is the author of two previous poetry collections-For Your Safety Please Hold On (Nightwood Editions\, 2014)\, and Dunk Tank (House of Anansi\, 2019). Her work has been shortlisted for the Governor General’s Award for poetry and the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize. Frequently anthologized in the Best Canadian Poetry in English series\, her writing also appears in The Walrus\, Grain\, Event\, The Fiddlehead\, and elsewhere. She lives with her wife on the traditional territory of the Lekwungen people\, the Songhees nd Esquimalt nations.\n—\nAnne Fleming’s latest novel\, Curiosities\, opens with a present-day amateur historian\, Anne\, who describes her unexpected discovery of five seventeenth-century manuscripts that\, astonishingly\, tell the same strange story from vastly different points of view. And so it falls upon Anne\, the contemporary historian\, to piece together these interlocking stories\, discover the fate of a pair of lovers\, and add her own layer of “truth” to a history and time period when there were no labels for who these lovers might truly be. \nANNE FLEMING is the author of Pool-Hopping & Other Stories (Raincoast\, 1998)\, which was shortlisted for the Governor General’s Literary Award for Fiction\, the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize\, and the Danuta Gleed Award\, as well as the much-praised novel\, Anomaly (Raincoast\, 2005). She is also the author of a middle-grade novel\, The Goat (Groundwood\, 2017)\, which was a Junior Library Guild and White Ravens selection\, shortlisted for Italy’s Premio Strega\, optioned for film\, and named one of the Top Ten Children’s Books of the Year by The New York Public Library and the Wall Street Journal. Anne Fleming lives in Victoria\, BC. \nWHEN: Thursday\, April 18th\, 7:00 p.m. (doors at 6:30).\nWHERE: In-store at Munro’s Books\, 1108 Government St.\nWHAT: Readings of new work from Kayla Czaga and Anne Fleming followed by a Q&A with the audience and book signings. Refreshments will be provided. The audience will also be serenaded by lute playing from Anne Fleming and local musician\, Doug Hensley.\nHOW: This event is free to attend. URL:https://www.readlocalbc.ca/event/book-launch-kayla-czaga-and-anne-fleming/ LOCATION:Munro’s Books\, 1108 Government Street\, Victoria\, BC\, V8W 1Y2\, Canada CATEGORIES:Launch,Meet & Greet ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.readlocalbc.ca/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Anne-and-Kayla-INSTA.jpg ORGANIZER;CN="Munro's Books":MAILTO:events@munrobooks.com END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Vancouver:20240405T153000 DTEND;TZID=America/Vancouver:20240405T170000 DTSTAMP:20260423T022758 CREATED:20240409T163714Z LAST-MODIFIED:20240409T163714Z UID:21301-1712331000-1712336400@www.readlocalbc.ca SUMMARY:Book Launch: Boxing the Compass by Michael L. Hadley DESCRIPTION:Join award-winning historian and mariner Michael L. Hadley on his international adventures as he launches his memoir\, Boxing the Compass: A Life of Seafaring\, Music\, and Pilgrimage (Heritage House\, 2024). \nFriday\, April 5\, 2024 | 3:30–5:00 pm\nMaritime Museum of BC | 744 Douglas St. | Victoria\, BC \nRegister at mmbc.bc.ca\nEvent included with museum admission or membership—come early to visit the museum\nBooks available for purchase and signing URL:https://www.readlocalbc.ca/event/book-launch-boxing-the-compass-by-michael-l-hadley-2/ LOCATION:Maritime Museum of BC\, 634 Humboldt St.\, Victoria\, BC\, Canada CATEGORIES:Launch END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Vancouver:20240405T153000 DTEND;TZID=America/Vancouver:20240405T170000 DTSTAMP:20260423T022758 CREATED:20240409T163637Z LAST-MODIFIED:20240409T163637Z UID:21296-1712331000-1712336400@www.readlocalbc.ca SUMMARY:Book Launch: Boxing the Compass by Michael L. Hadley DESCRIPTION:Join award-winning historian and mariner Michael L. Hadley on his international adventures as he launches his memoir\, Boxing the Compass: A Life of Seafaring\, Music\, and Pilgrimage (Heritage House\, 2024). \nFriday\, April 5\, 2024 | 3:30–5:00 pm\nMaritime Museum of BC | 744 Douglas St. | Victoria\, BC \nRegister at mmbc.bc.ca\nEvent included with museum admission or membership—come early to visit the museum\nBooks available for purchase and signing URL:https://www.readlocalbc.ca/event/book-launch-boxing-the-compass-by-michael-l-hadley/ LOCATION:Maritime Museum of BC\, 634 Humboldt St.\, Victoria\, BC\, Canada CATEGORIES:Launch ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.readlocalbc.ca/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Boxing-the-Compass_Victoria-MMBC-Apr2024-blog.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Vancouver:20240403T190000 DTEND;TZID=America/Vancouver:20240403T210000 DTSTAMP:20260423T022758 CREATED:20240305T191921Z LAST-MODIFIED:20240305T191921Z UID:20628-1712170800-1712178000@www.readlocalbc.ca SUMMARY:Double Poetry Collection Launch: Patrick Grace and Tina Biello DESCRIPTION:Please join Munro’s Books in celebrating the launches of two new poetry collections by local authors! \nPatrick Grace’s debut collection\, Deviant\, traces a trajectory of queer self-discovery from childhood to adulthood\, examining love\, fear\, grief\, and the violence that men are capable of in intimate same-sex relationships. Richly engaged with the tangible and experiential\, Patrick Grace’s confessional poetry captures profound\, sharp emotions\, tracking a journey impacted equally by beauty and by brutality. Coming-of-age identity struggles are recalled with wry wit\, and dreamlike poems embrace adolescent queer love and connections as a way to cope with the fear and cruelty that can occur in gay relationships. Later poems in the collection recall vivid moments of psychological trauma and stalking and explore the bias of the justice system toward gay men. Collecting memories\, dreams\, and fears about sexual identity\, Deviant makes important contributions to queer coming-of-age and intimate partner violence narratives. \nPATRICK GRACE is an author and teacher who divides his time between Vancouver and Victoria\, BC. He has read at literary festivals around Canada\, including Word Vancouver and Versefest Ottawa\, and will be appearing at the Edmonton Poetry Festival in late April. He has published two chapbooks: a blurred wind swirls back for you (2023)\, and Dastardly (2021)\, exploring aspects of love\, fear\, and trauma that represent a personal queer identity. Deviant\, his first full-length poetry collection\, continues to explore these themes. He works as managing editor of Plenitude Magazine\, and is this year’s judge for The Malahat Review’s Far Horizons Award for Poetry. \nIn Tina Biello’s new collection\, The Weight of Survival\, in a small logging town nestled near Lake Cowichan is an old elementary school. The child of immigrants from post-war Italy attends this school among the population of mostly white\, anglo-saxon families. She does not speak English. \nHer family is one of four who emigrated from southern Italy\, to this small forested community. There are other families\, from India\, who share a kinship of ‘other’ with the Italian families. What happens when your voice\, your food\, your home is different? How do you know how to be queer when there is no language or place for it? How do you remember a time not spoken of\, but passed on through the smell of walnut blossoms in the spring\, grapes in the fall? In The Weight of Survival\, Tina Biello chronicles this upbringing of otherness\, of being shaped by two very different communities\, of blending identities into one\, and what is left behind in the process. \nPoet\, playwright and actor\, TINA BIELLO was born in Lake Cowichan\, a small logging town here on Vancouver Island to immigrant parents. She has honed her skills of being from ‘two places’ and speaks a few languages because of it. She believes in the power of poetry to reach in\, grab hold and get us through. She had the great privilege of working with mentor Patrick Lane. ‘The Weight of Survival’ is her 4th book of poems. When she’s not writing poetry\, she’s gardening\, walking dogs and writing plays and more recently a screenplay. She was Nanaimo’s 2nd Poet Laureate from 2017-2020 and has just finished a 3 year cycle of writing librettos for composers with the Vancouver Island Symphony. \nWHEN: Wednesday\, April 3rd at 7:00 p.m. (doors at 6:30). \nWHERE: In-store at Munro’s Books\, 1108 Government Street. \nWHAT: Readings by Patrick Grace and Tina Biello\, followed by a Q&A with the audience and book signings. \nHOW: This event is free to attend. URL:https://www.readlocalbc.ca/event/double-poetry-collection-launch-patrick-grace-and-tina-biello/ LOCATION:Munro’s Books\, 1108 Government Street\, Victoria\, BC\, V8W 1Y2\, Canada CATEGORIES:Launch,Meet & Greet,Panel ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.readlocalbc.ca/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Grace-Biello-IG.jpg ORGANIZER;CN="Munro's Books":MAILTO:events@munrobooks.com END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Vancouver:20240319T190000 DTEND;TZID=America/Vancouver:20240319T210000 DTSTAMP:20260423T022758 CREATED:20240223T171958Z LAST-MODIFIED:20240223T171958Z UID:20504-1710874800-1710882000@www.readlocalbc.ca SUMMARY:Mysterious Book Launch: Susan Juby\, Kate Hilton\, and Elizabeth Renzetti DESCRIPTION:Join Munro’s Books in celebrating the launch of two new mysteries: A Meditation on Murder by Susan Juby and Bury the Lead by Kate Hilton and Elizabeth Renzetti!! \nIn A Meditation on Murder\, Butler-detective Helen Thorpe returns to help a wannabe influencer get her life in order—and solve the murders of her fellow content creators—in this hilarious sequel to Mindful of Murder by bestselling author Susan Juby.\nWhen Buddhist butler Helen Thorpe is loaned out to help Cartier Hightower get her life in order\, Helen finds herself working for a young woman entirely unbound by the fetters of good taste or sound judgment. One of Cartier’s fellow content creators has recently died in a strange accident. Soon after Helen arrives\, another is killed in an equally bizarre way. Cartier begins to drag Helen around on the influencer circuit\, where neither of them is particularly welcome. Then comes the terrible incident at the EDM nightclub that turns Cartier into a global pariah\, at least according to social media. Helen hopes a period of simplicity and reflection and an internet detox will help Cartier find her true nature and maybe acquire some social graces. But Helen’s job gets much harder when Cartier’s friends show up at the lavish ranch where Cartier and Helen have retreated. Soon\, Helen finds herself trying to avoid becoming Instafamous while bringing some peace to a girl who very much needs it. This task turns out to be even more impossible when it becomes clear that they have been followed to Weeping Creek Ranch by a murderer. \nIn Bury the Lead\, a big-city journalist joins the staff of a small-town paper in cottage country and finds a community full of secrets … and murder. \nCat Conway has recently returned to Port Ellis to work as a reporter at the Quill & Packet. She’s fled the tattered remains of her high-profile career and bad divorce for the holiday town of her childhood\, famous for its butter tarts\, theatre\, and a century-old feud. One of Cat’s first assignments is to interview legendary actor Eliot Fraser\, the lead in the theatre’s season opener of Inherit the Wind. When Eliot ends up dead onstage on opening night\, the curtain rises on the sleepy town’s secrets. The suspects include the actor whose career Eliot ruined\, the ex-wife he betrayed\, the women he abused\, and even the baker he wronged. With the attention of the world on Port Ellis\, this story could be Cat’s chance to restore her reputation. But the police think she’s a suspect\, and the murderer wants to kill the story-and her too. Can Cat solve the mystery before she loses her job or becomes the next victim of a killer with a theatrical bent for vengeance? \nSusan Juby is the award-winning\, bestselling author of Mindful of Murder\, which debuted at number one on the independent bookstores’ bestseller list and was nominated for the Leacock Medal for Humour. She has also written Getting the Girl\, Another Kind of Cowboy and The Woefield Poultry Collective\, as well as the bestselling Alice series (Alice\, I Think; Miss Smithers; and Alice MacLeod\, Realist at Last). Her novel Republic of Dirt won the Leacock Medal in 2016. Susan Juby lives on Vancouver Island with her husband\, James\, and their dogs\, who are convinced they could have lucrative careers as social media stars. \nKate Hilton is the bestselling author of three novels: The Hole in the Middle\, Just like Family and Better Luck Next Time. When not writing\, Kate works with psychotherapy and life coaching clients in the area of transformational change. \nElizabeth Renzetti is the author of the essay collection Shrewed: A Wry and Closely Observed Look at the Lives of Women and Girls and the novel Based on a True Story. In 2020\, she won the Landsberg Award for her reporting on gender equality. \nWHEN: Tuesday\, March 19th at 7:00 p.m. (doors at 6:30).\nWHERE: In-store at Munro’s Books\, 1108 Government Street\nWHAT: Readings from the authors of Bury the Lead and A Meditation on Murder\, followed by a Q&A with the audience and book signings.\nHOW: This event is free to attend. URL:https://www.readlocalbc.ca/event/mysterious-book-launch-susan-juby-kate-hilton-and-elizabeth-renzetti/ LOCATION:Munro’s Books\, 1108 Government Street\, Victoria\, BC\, V8W 1Y2\, Canada CATEGORIES:Launch,Meet & Greet ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.readlocalbc.ca/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/JubyHiltonRenzetti_IG.jpg ORGANIZER;CN="Munro's Books":MAILTO:events@munrobooks.com END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Vancouver:20240313T190000 DTEND;TZID=America/Vancouver:20240313T210000 DTSTAMP:20260423T022758 CREATED:20240223T171939Z LAST-MODIFIED:20240223T171939Z UID:20501-1710356400-1710363600@www.readlocalbc.ca SUMMARY:Book Launch: Holly Ringland and Tamara Goranson DESCRIPTION:Please join Munro’s Books to launch new fantastical novels by Holly Ringland and Tamara Goranson!! \nHolly Ringland’s new novel\, The Seven Skins of Esther Wilding\, is a haunting\, magical novel about joy\, grief\, courage and transformation that follows from the international bestselling\, The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart. \n‘On the afternoon that Esther Wilding drove homeward along the coast\, a year after her sister had walked into the sea and disappeared\, the light was painfully golden.’ \nThe last time Esther Wilding’s beloved older sister Aura was seen\, she was walking along the shore towards the sea. In the wake of Aura’s disappearance\, Esther’s family struggles to live with their loss. To seek the truth about her sister’s death\, Esther reluctantly travels from Lutruwita/Tasmania\, to Copenhagen\, and then to the Faroe Islands\, following the trail of the stories Aura left behind: seven fairy tales about selkies\, swans and women\, alongside cryptic verses Aura wrote and had secretly tattooed on her body. The Seven Skins of Esther Wilding is a sweeping\, deeply beautiful and profoundly moving novel about the far reaches of sisterly love\, the power of wearing your heart on your skin and the ways life can transform when we find the courage to feel the fullness of both grief and joy. \nHolly Ringland is the author of the award-winning international bestseller The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart\, adapted into a seven-part TV series on Amazon Prime\, starring Sigourney Weaver. After living between Australia and the UK for ten years\, Holly has been based in the Yugambeh region of southeast Queensland since 2020\, where she wrote The Seven Skins of Esther Wilding in her “office\,” a vintage caravan named Frenchie. \nTamara Goranson’s Oath of Bjorn is Book 3 of her Vinland Viking Saga. Anja has just settled into a new life on the silver shores of Vinland with her beloved\, Bjorn. But then a local warrior bursts onto the scene seeking revenge\, swearing to spill Viking blood. And so Bjorn must risk everything to save the woman he loves before she steps into the darkness and sets their world ablaze. The Oath of Bjorn is an epic historical novel of gripping adventure and love everlasting – perfect for fans of Vikings and Outlander. \nTamara Goranson holds a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology and Neuropsychology as well as Adjunct Professor status at the University of Victoria in British Columbia\, Canada. She published several academic pieces before she turned to writing short stories\, creative non-fiction\, and historical fiction\, winning 3rd prize in the 2019 Vancouver Island Writers’ Association annual general contest for her nonfiction piece\, ‘A Voice in Time’. She lives in Victoria with her husband and two daughters. \nWHEN: Wednesday\, March 13th\, 7:00 p.m. (doors at 6:30).\nWHERE: In-store at Munro’s Books\, 1108 Government St. in Victoria.\nWHAT: Readings by Holly Ringland and Tamara Goranson\, followed by a Q&A with the audience and book signings.\nHOW: This event is free to attend. URL:https://www.readlocalbc.ca/event/book-launch-holly-ringland-and-tamara-goranson/ LOCATION:Munro’s Books\, 1108 Government Street\, Victoria\, BC\, V8W 1Y2\, Canada CATEGORIES:Launch,Meet & Greet ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.readlocalbc.ca/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Ringland-Goranson-IG.jpg ORGANIZER;CN="Munro's Books":MAILTO:events@munrobooks.com END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Vancouver:20240228T190000 DTEND;TZID=America/Vancouver:20240228T210000 DTSTAMP:20260423T022758 CREATED:20240213T185803Z LAST-MODIFIED:20240213T185803Z UID:20301-1709146800-1709154000@www.readlocalbc.ca SUMMARY:Best Canadian Poetry in English 2024 Launch Party!! DESCRIPTION:Please join Munro’s Books in celebrating the launch of the Best Canadian Poetry in English 2024! \nLocal poet Yvonne Blomer will host a reading by five of this year’s local poets included in the collection: Nicholas Bradley\, Kayla Czaga\, Hilary Clark\, Anna Moore\, and Joanna Streetly. \nPraise for the book includes: \n“Buy it\, or borrow it\, but do read it.” —Arc Poetry Magazine \n“A magnet\, I think\, for the many people who would like to know contemporary poetry.” —A.F. Moritz\, Griffin Poetry Prize winner \nWHEN: Wednesday\, February 28th\, 7:00 p.m. \nWHERE: Fortune Gallery\, 537 Fisgard St. in Victoria \nWHAT: Readings by Nicholas Bradley\, Kayla Czaga\, Hilary Clark\, Anna Moore\, and Joanna Streetly\, hosted by Yvonne Blomer. \nHOW: This event is free to attend. URL:https://www.readlocalbc.ca/event/best-canadian-poetry-in-english-2024-launch-party/ LOCATION:Fortune Gallery\, 537 Fisgard Street\, Victoria\, BC\, V8W 1R3\, Canada CATEGORIES:Launch,Meet & Greet ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://www.readlocalbc.ca/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/BCPE-IG.png ORGANIZER;CN="Munro's Books":MAILTO:events@munrobooks.com END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Vancouver:20240224T190000 DTEND;TZID=America/Vancouver:20240224T210000 DTSTAMP:20260423T022758 CREATED:20240109T185729Z LAST-MODIFIED:20240109T185729Z UID:19691-1708801200-1708808400@www.readlocalbc.ca SUMMARY:Dr. Jen Gunter in Conversation DESCRIPTION:Join Munro’s Books in celebrating the launch of Dr. Jen Gunter’s newest book\, Blood: The Science\, Medicine\, and Mythology of Menstruation. We’ll present Dr. Gunter in conversation with UVic Gender Studies Professor Dr. Thea Cacchioni\, followed by a Q&A with the audience (no requests for medical advice\, please) and a book signing! \nBlood\, The galvanizing new book from Dr. Jen Gunter\, #1 bestselling author of The Vagina Bible and The Menopause Manifesto\, dispels the shame\, mythology\, and misinformation around menstruation with scientific facts\, medical expertise\, and a fierce feminist perspective. \nMost of us know about as much about how the uterus and ovaries function as we do about how the liver works. Add in societal shame around the menstrual cycle and it’s not surprising that misinformation is widespread. But\, as women’s health advocate and trusted OB-GYN Dr. Jen Gunter writes\, “you don’t have to think about your liver 5 days a month for 30 years\, so I’d argue people should know more about the uterus.” Enter Blood. \nIn her new book\, Dr. Gunter offers a clear\, no-nonsense guide to reproductive anatomy and answers all the questions you never knew you had about menstrual bleeding—for example\, where does the blood come from? And where does it go if you miss a period? Why do we even menstruate in the first place? With her expertise and trademark wit\, Dr. Gunter debunks myths and challenges patriarchal attitudes toward this natural bodily process. \nDr. Jen Gunter is board certified in OB/GYN and pain medicine. She writes about the intersection of women’s health\, sex\, science\, and pop culture for the New York Times. She has been called a fierce advocate for women’s health\, Twitter’s gynecologist\, and “strangely confident” by GOOP.com. She believes an empowered patient requires facts and she is here to fix the medical Internet and smash the patriarchy. \nDr. Thea Cacchioni is an Associate Professor of Gender Studies at UVic. Her research examines the medicalization of sex\, gender\, and sexuality\, broadly\, as well as through specific diagnoses such as Female Sexual Dysfunction and Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome. She is interested in the ways in which doctors\, psychiatrists\, and more recently\, drug companies shape understandings of “normalcy” and “deviance” across categories of gender\, racialization\, and class. Her work examines the pathologization of some sexual acts and identities and the “healthicization” of others. \nWHEN: Saturday\, February 24th at 7:00PM (doors at 6:30) \nWHERE: Victoria Conference Centre Lecture Theatre\, 720 Douglas St. in Victoria \nWHAT: Dr. Jen Gunter in conversation with Dr. Thea Cacchioni\, followed by a Q&A with the audience (no requests for medical advice\, please) and a book signing \nHOW: Tickets can be purchased HERE: https://jengunterblood.eventbrite.ca \nBook plus ticket: $42 (includes a copy of BLOOD to be picked up at the event)\nTicket: $20 URL:https://www.readlocalbc.ca/event/dr-jen-gunter-in-conversation/ LOCATION:Victoria Conference Centre\, 720 Douglas Street\, Victoria\, British Columbia\, V8W 3M7\, Canada CATEGORIES:Interview,Launch,Meet & Greet ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.readlocalbc.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/23-1286-EVENTBRITE-Gunter-Blood-v2-002-scaled.jpg ORGANIZER;CN="Munro's Books":MAILTO:events@munrobooks.com END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Vancouver:20240220T190000 DTEND;TZID=America/Vancouver:20240220T210000 DTSTAMP:20260423T022758 CREATED:20240130T204708Z LAST-MODIFIED:20240130T204708Z UID:20152-1708455600-1708462800@www.readlocalbc.ca SUMMARY:Sheila Heti in Conversation with Lee Henderson DESCRIPTION:Please join Munro’s Books in celebrating the launch of Sheila Heti’s latest book\, Alphabetical Diaries. Sheila will be in conversation with UVic writing professor\, Lee Henderson. \nMunro’s Books is pleased to present two Canadian award-winning authors\, Sheila Heti and Lee Henderson\, in conversation at their store on Tuesday\, February 20th at 7:00 p.m. Sheila Heti will read from her new book Alphabetical Diaries and then chat about it with local fiction writer and UVic creative writing professor\, Lee Henderson. The evening will end with a Q&A with audience members and a book signing with Sheila Heti. This event is free to attend. \nA little over a decade ago\, Sheila Heti—the award-winning author of a string of modern classics including How Should a Person Be?\, Motherhood\, and Pure Colour—began looking back at the diaries she’d kept over the previous ten years\, searching for signs of deeper change inside herself. She loaded all 500\,000 words of her journals into Microsoft Excel\, to order the sentences alphabetically and seek out patterns and repetitions. How many times had she written\, “I hate him\,” for example? With the sentences untethered from the narrative of her diaries\, she started to see herself—and the Self—in a new way: as something quite solid\, anchored by shockingly few characteristic preoccupations. Returning to the project over the years\, something more universal and novelistic emerged. Alphabetical Diaries is the sublime and probing result—one that rises to the heights of artistry and insight for which Heti is rightfully acclaimed. \nSheila Heti is one of our greatest literary innovators and has been pushing boundaries with her work since the age of 24\, when she published her first book\, the short-story collection\, The Middle Stories\, in 2001. She’s since won the Governor General’s Award for Fiction and the Vine Award for Canadian Jewish Literature\, and has been shortlisted for the Giller Prize and longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction. Heti’s fiction and criticism have appeared in the New York Review of Books\, London Review of Books\, The Paris Review\, The New Yorker\, and Granta. \nWHEN: Tuesday\, February 20th at 7:00 p.m. (doors at 6:30). \nWHERE: In-store at Munro’s Books\, 1108 Government St. \nWHAT: A reading by Sheila Heti from her latest book\, followed by a conversation with Lee Henderson and a Q&A with the audience. \nHOW: This event is free to attend. URL:https://www.readlocalbc.ca/event/sheila-heti-in-conversation-with-lee-henderson/ LOCATION:Munro’s Books\, 1108 Government Street\, Victoria\, BC\, V8W 1Y2\, Canada CATEGORIES:Interview,Launch,Meet & Greet,Panel ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.readlocalbc.ca/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Alphabetical-Diaries-Feb-20-FB-banner.jpg ORGANIZER;CN="Munro's Books":MAILTO:events@munrobooks.com END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Vancouver:20231206T180000 DTEND;TZID=America/Vancouver:20231206T200000 DTSTAMP:20260423T022758 CREATED:20231204T210643Z LAST-MODIFIED:20231204T210643Z UID:19517-1701885600-1701892800@www.readlocalbc.ca SUMMARY:Book Launch / Tales for Late Night Bonfires by G.A. Grisenthwaite with host Molly Cross-Blanchard DESCRIPTION:On Wednesday\, December 6th at 6pm\, join Massy Arts\, Massy Books and Freehand books in celebrating the launch of G.A. Grisenthwaite’s Tales for Late Night Bonfires\, with host Molly Cross-Blanchard. \n“Tales for Late Night Bonfires is funny\, dark\, and rich all at once; each story is immense and alive. Grisenthwaite shows us what fiction can be when story leads the way.” QUILL & QUIRE starred review \nThis project has been made possible by the Government of Canada. Ce projet a été rendu possible grâce au gouvernement du Canada. \nVenue & Accessibility \nThe event will be hosted at the Massy Arts Gallery\, at 23 East Pender Street in Chinatown\, Vancouver. \nRegistration is free and required for entrance. Register here: https://www.showpass.com/tales-for-late-night-bonfires-by-ga-grisenthwaite-with-host-molly-cross-blanchard/ \nThe gallery is wheelchair accessible and a gender-neutral washroom is on-site. \nPlease refrain from wearing scents or heavy perfumes. \nFor more on accessibility including parking\, seating\, venue measurements and floor plan\, and how to request ASL interpretation please visit: massyarts.com/accessibility \nCovid Protocols: Masks keep our community safe and are mandatory (N95 masks are recommended as they offer the best protection). We ask if you are showing symptoms\, that you stay home. Thank you kindly. \nAbout the book: \nTales for Late Night Bonfires (Freehand Books\, 2023) \nThese are stories that are a litle bit larger than life\, or maybe they really happened. Tales that could be told ’round the campfire\, each one-upping the next. Tales about a car that drives herself\, ever loyal to her owner. Tales about an impossible moose hunt. Tales about the Real Santa(TM) mashed up with the book of Genesis\, alongside SPAM stew and bedroom sets from IKEA. \nG.A. Grisenthwaite’s writing is electric and inimitable\, blending meticulous literary style with oral storytelling and coming away with a voice that is entirely his own. Tales for Late Night Bonfires is truly one of a kind\, and not to be missed. \nAbout the author: \nG.A. Grisenthwaite is a Nlaka’pamux writer and a member of the Lytton First Nation. His debut novel\, Home Waltz\, was shortlisted for the Governor General’s Literary Award. Grisenthwaite lives in Kingsville\, Ontario. In 2023\, he served two months as the Writer-in-Residence at Berton House\, Dawson City. \nAbout the host: \nMolly Cross-Blanchard is a white and Métis writer and editor born on Treaty 3 territory (Fort Frances\, ON)\, raised on Treaty 6 territory (Prince Albert\, SK)\, and living on the unceded territory of the Musqueam\, Squamish\, and Tsleil-Waututh peoples (Vancouver\, BC). She published her debut collection of poems\, Exhibitionist\, in 2021 with Coach House Books\, and currently teaches Creative Writing and Indigenous Studies at Kwantlen Polytechnic University. URL:https://www.readlocalbc.ca/event/book-launch-tales-for-late-night-bonfires-by-g-a-grisenthwaite-with-host-molly-cross-blanchard/ LOCATION:BC CATEGORIES:Launch ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.readlocalbc.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/DEC-6-Bonfire-header.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Vancouver:20231201T180000 DTEND;TZID=America/Vancouver:20231201T200000 DTSTAMP:20260423T022758 CREATED:20231106T190423Z LAST-MODIFIED:20231106T190423Z UID:19231-1701453600-1701460800@www.readlocalbc.ca SUMMARY:Book Launch: Better Next Year DESCRIPTION:Please join Munro’s Books in launching Better Next Year: An Anthology of Christmas Epiphanies!!\nChristmas is trumpeted as a time of peace\, joy\, bounty and goodwill. Believers and non-believers alike covet the spirit of the holidays even when circumstances are screwed up. \nRecollections from acclaimed Canadian authors combine with emerging voices from across the country in an anthology that debunks the popular depiction of Christmas while delivering its messages of hope and renewal. \nWriters marginalized by personal circumstance\, faith\, and race share memories of surviving bleak Christmases past: holidays spent in shelters\, or on the streets; families marred by alcohol and violence; personal struggles with addiction\, poverty or grief; isolation and loneliness. Despite these and other obstacles\, contributors strive to salvage the spirit of the season. \nThis event will be hosted by the book’s editor\, J. J. Lee and will feature readings from Joseph Kakwinokanasum and Jordan Kawchuk. \nWHEN: Friday\, December 1st from 6PM-8PM \nWHERE: Caffe Fantastico Roastery\, 965 Kings Rd. \nWHAT: Hosted by J. J. Lee\, readings from Joseph Kakwinokanasum and Jordan Kawchuk \nHOW: This event is free to attend URL:https://www.readlocalbc.ca/event/book-launch-better-next-year/ LOCATION:Caffè Fantastico Specialty Coffees\, 965 Kings Road\, Victoria\, British Columbia\, V8T 1W7\, Canada CATEGORIES:Launch,Meet & Greet ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.readlocalbc.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Better-Next-Year-IG.jpg ORGANIZER;CN="Munro's Books":MAILTO:events@munrobooks.com END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Vancouver:20231119T130000 DTEND;TZID=America/Vancouver:20231119T143000 DTSTAMP:20260423T022758 CREATED:20231102T214846Z LAST-MODIFIED:20231102T214846Z UID:19189-1700398800-1700404200@www.readlocalbc.ca SUMMARY:Book Launch: Blue Camas\, Blue Camas by Danielle S. Marcotte DESCRIPTION:Join local author Danielle S. Marcotte for the launch of her new picture book\, Blue Camas\, Blue Camas. \nSunday\, November 19 | 1:00 pm\nBlack Bond Books – Ladner Village \nBlue Camas\, Blue Camas is the captivating story of how a flower that has been cultivated on Canada’s west coast since time immemorial came to symbolize the meeting of two contrasting ways of life and the perseverance of traditional knowledge against all odds. \nhttps://www.heritagehouse.ca/book/blue-camas-blue-camas/ \n“Blue Camas\, Blue Camas is a captivating story revealing the overlooked history of colonial contact and its impact on Indigenous communities. Through vivid storytelling and diverse voices\, it emphasizes land stewardship\, cultural heritage\, and fostering empathy\, making it a valuable resource for children.”\n—SAMANTHA BEYNON\, author of Oolichan Moon URL:https://www.readlocalbc.ca/event/book-launch-blue-camas-blue-camas-by-danielle-s-marcotte/ LOCATION:Black Bond Books – Ladner\, 5251 Ladner Trunk Road\, Ladner\, BC\, V4K 1W4\, Canada CATEGORIES:Launch,Meet & Greet ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.readlocalbc.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/370171274_760536946082160_4838523719056452819_n.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Vancouver:20231109T190000 DTEND;TZID=America/Vancouver:20231109T210000 DTSTAMP:20260423T022758 CREATED:20231003T194758Z LAST-MODIFIED:20231003T194758Z UID:18871-1699556400-1699563600@www.readlocalbc.ca SUMMARY:Book Launch: Arleen Pare and Barbara Pelman DESCRIPTION:Please join Munro’s Books for the launch of new books by two beloved local poets! \nAward-winning poet Arleen Pare’s latest collection\, Absence of Wings\, is both an intimate family portrait and a public documentation of how we\, as a society\, can fail to protect our children. \nAbsence of Wings depicts the extraordinary and tragically foreshortened life of A.—Paré’s niece\, Brazilian\, adopted\, racialized\, and living with multiple mental health diagnoses. In her deft and clear poetics\, accompanied by documentary pieces in the tradition of C.D. Wright’s One with Others\, Paré is both witness to and emotionally engaged in the life and death of A. The result is deep and heart-felt\, both factional and fictional\, poetry and prose\, holding its subject\, A.\, heart-close and 3\,000 miles away. Absence of Wings unfolds on many levels; it embraces the private and public spheres; it is as intimate as family\, as worldly as the public and personal politics that surround each life. It both observes and embraces\, always with the important question of the world’s unprotected children in mind. \nIn A Brief and Endless Sea\, award-winning poet Barbara Pelman presents a life lived in poetry\, delving into the small moments and spaces containing the greatest offerings of love\, hope and possibility. \nBorn out of waiting out the lockdown during the early days of the pandemic\, Barbara Pelman’s A Brief and Endless Sea explores a life in retrospect\, beginning with a high school typing class and ending with the Angel Purah\, cutting the ties that bind a soul to a body. Many of the poems in this collection are rooted in Jewish tradition: the prophet Isaiah’s words of comfort; the rabbinical story of the Lost Princess\, that angel and her counterpart\, the Angel Duma. Pelman takes us to difficult places—the dissolution of a marriage\, caring for a parent with dementia. But she doesn’t leave us there\, waiting. Using the power of words to map a route out\, A Brief and Endless Sea pulls us toward life in all of its vibrant details—the simple beauty of a small garden of tomatoes and roses\, the pleasures of teaching poetry\, long walks with a grandson\, and encounters with spirituality. For Pelman\, there is comfort in the making of a poem and in the “smallest life you can love.” Like the glosa form she turns to often\, something small transforms into something larger\, expansive. In A Brief and Endless Sea\, the ordinary becomes extraordinary\, and waiting in itself presents fertile ground for hope and possibility. \nWHEN: Thursday\, November 9th at 7PM (doors at 6:30) \nWHERE: In-store at Munro’s Books\, 1108 Government St. \nWHAT: A reading and Q&A with Arleen Pare and Barbara Pelman. \nHOW: This event is free to attend. URL:https://www.readlocalbc.ca/event/book-launch-arleen-pare-and-barbara-pelman/ LOCATION:Munro’s Books\, 1108 Government Street\, Victoria\, BC\, V8W 1Y2\, Canada CATEGORIES:Launch,Meet & Greet,Panel ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.readlocalbc.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Arleen-and-Barbara-FB-cover.jpg ORGANIZER;CN="Munro's Books":MAILTO:events@munrobooks.com END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Vancouver:20231107T180000 DTEND;TZID=America/Vancouver:20231107T180000 DTSTAMP:20260423T022758 CREATED:20231027T195833Z LAST-MODIFIED:20231027T195833Z UID:19082-1699380000-1699380000@www.readlocalbc.ca SUMMARY:Under the Table Open Mic Series Ft. Sheniz Janmohamed DESCRIPTION:On Tuesday\, November 7th at 6pm PDT / 9pm EDT\, join Massy Arts Society and a collective of brilliant poet organizers for Under The Table Open Mic Series\, featuring Sheniz Janmohamed. \nZoom room and sign-up opens at 5:45 PDT / 8:45 EDT\, show starts at 6pm PDT / 9pm EDT \n(we run on crip time with the understanding that bodies and brains aren’t always on schedule) \nWe invite you to sign up for the open mic as Under The Table welcomes us to laugh\, cry\, celebrate and sit in the richness of queer and disabled life\, writing and poetics. \nThis event will unfortunately not have ASL interpretation. We are working to secure funding to continue having ASL at future events. \nPlease join the zoom room with the same email you used on eventbrite. If you have any issues joining please email us at underthetablepoetry@gmail.com \nAbout Under The Table: \nUnder the Table is an open mic series centering disabled and/or queer poets. This series was dreamed up out of a desire to share work\, experience art\, and connect with community in a covid safer\, more accessible\, and anti-oppressive space. Partnering with Massy Voices and Kickstart Disability Arts & Culture\, Under the Table Open Mic Series will be on the first Tuesday of each month with some events in person at Massy Arts Society and others virtually on zoom. \nUnder the Table is a space where the richness that is queer and disabled life and art\, flourishes and finds a home. It’s a space to share work that’s asking to be told\, but might not be welcomed in other spaces\, if you are able to access those spaces at all. It’s a space where being queer and/or disabled (whether or not those specific words resonate for you) makes your work a brilliant fit\, regardless of how queer or disabled you think the poetry you wish to share is\, how connected you are to disabled and/or queer community\, and whether you feel disabled and/or queer “enough” to participate. It’s a space to witness and engage with the work of incredible artists\, anywhere on their path of sharing their work–from the person who has never shared in front of an audience\, to artists who have read or performed work many times. It’s a space where there’s room to be scared\, and choose to be in community\, share\, and engage with others’ work. It’s a space where we don’t claim to know all the answers\, but are willing to be in the messy\, nuanced space of learning together. Come to “Under the Table” to laugh\, cry\, celebrate\, sit in discomfort\, feel understood\, and be together. \nThis event has been made possible by Massy Voices\, The Government of Canada\, The League of Canadian Poets\, and the Canada Council for the Arts. \nVenue & Accessibility \nThe event will be hosted virtually via zoom. Automatic captioning will be turned on\, we recognize automatic captioning is imperfect. We are working towards securing funding for CART to improve the quality of captioning. We ask anyone speaking or performing to provide a visual description for blind and low vision audience members. We also ask that people don’t message in the chat during poems\, to increase accessibility for people using screen readers. \nWith Author & Featured Poet: \nSheniz Janmohamed was born and raised in Tkaronto with ancestral ties to Kenya and India. A poet\, artist educator and nature artist\, Sheniz is a graduate of the MFA in Creative Writing program at the University of Guelph. \nSheniz has been performing her poetry for 15 years\, including features at the Jaipur Literature Festival\, Aga Khan Museum\, and Vancouver Writers Fest to name a few. Her writing has been published in Arc Poetry Magazine\, Descant and Canthius and she is a regular reviewer for Quill & Quire. She has three collections of poetry\, published by Mawenzi House: Bleeding Light (2010)\, Firesmoke (2014) and Reminders on the Path (2021). \nHer nature art has been featured across Turtle Island\, including the National Arts Centre\, MOCA and the Art Gallery of Mississauga. \nA recipient of the Lois Birkenshaw-Fleming Creative Teaching Scholarship\, Sheniz holds an Artist Educator Mentor certification from the Royal Conservatory. She visits dozens organizations and schools to offer performances\, talks and workshops in poetry and nature art. \nSheniz served as the Writer-in-Residence at the University of Toronto Scarborough Campus (Winter/Spring 2022)\, and is currently working on her fourth book\, a collection of hybrid essays about her grandmother’s garden in the highlands of Kenya. URL:https://www.readlocalbc.ca/event/under-the-table-open-mic-series-ft-sheniz-janmohamed/ LOCATION:BC CATEGORIES:Launch ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.readlocalbc.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/https___cdn.evbuc_.com_images_614323389_462702708128_1_original.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Vancouver:20231102T180000 DTEND;TZID=America/Vancouver:20231102T200000 DTSTAMP:20260423T022758 CREATED:20231027T200046Z LAST-MODIFIED:20231027T200046Z UID:19111-1698948000-1698955200@www.readlocalbc.ca SUMMARY:Double Lives & Lovely Afternoons: Kevin Chong & Patti Flather with Marcus Youssef & Christine Quintana DESCRIPTION:On Thursday\, November 2nd at 6pm\, join Massy Arts\, Massy Books\, Simon & Schuster\, and Inanna Publications for ‘Double Lives & Lovely Afternoons: Kevin Chong & Patti Flather with Marcus Youssef and Christine Quintana’. \nThe Double Life of Bensen Yu was just shortlisted for a Scotiabank Giller Prize and Kevin Chong will be joining this event remotely from the Maritimes. \nThis project has been made possible by the Government of Canada. Ce projet a été rendu possible grâce au gouvernement du Canada. \nVenue & Accessibility \nThe event will be hosted at the Massy Arts Gallery\, at 23 East Pender Street in Chinatown\, Vancouver. \nRegistration is free and required for entrance. \nThe gallery is wheelchair accessible and a gender-neutral washroom is on-site. Please refrain from wearing scents or heavy perfumes. \nFor more on accessibility including parking\, seating\, venue measurements and floor plan\, and how to request ASL interpretation please visit: massyarts.com/accessibility \nCovid Protocols: Masks keep our community safe and are mandatory (N95 masks are recommended as they offer the best protection). We ask if you are showing symptoms\, that you stay home. Thank you kindly. \nAbout the books: \nThe Double Life of Benson Yu (Simon & Schuster\, 2023) \nThis fresh and unique work of metafiction follows a graphic novelist losing control of his own narrative as he attempts to write a polished retelling of his fraught upbringing in 1980s Chinatown. \nIn a Chinatown housing project lives twelve-year-old Benny\, his ailing grandmother\, and his strange neighbor Constantine\, a man who believes he’s a reincarnated medieval samurai. When his grandmother is hospitalized\, Benny manages to survive on his own until a social worker comes snooping. With no other family\, he is reluctantly taken in by Constantine and soon\, an unlikely bond forms between the two. \nAt least\, that’s what Yu\, the narrator of the story\, wants to write. \nThe creator of a bestselling comic book\, Yu is struggling with continuing the poignant tale of Benny and Constantine and can’t help but interject from the present day\, slowly revealing a darker backstory. Can Yu confront the demons he’s spent his adult life avoiding or risk his own life…and Benny’s? \nSuch A Lovely Afternoon (Inanna Publications\, 2022) \nSuch a Lovely Afternoon is a dazzling debut collection from award-winning Yukon writer Patti Flather. \nA feisty young tomboy grapples with gender roles with sometimes hilarious results\, a refugee single dad struggles for dignity in his northern community\, and a malfunctioning compost toilet and wacky neighbours upturn a woman’s island cabin life\, among other tales. \nAgainst vivid landscapes from Canada’s West Coast to Hong Kong to the Yukon\, Flather reveals poignant beauty\, compassion and humour in everyday lives\, with characters searching for identity and belonging\, delving into their resilience and humanity. Published by Inanna Publications. \n“Fall into Such a Lovely Afternoon in the middle of the night. These take-no-prisoners\, let-your-hair-down stories are a heart-to-heart with your BFF about love\, loss\, and the lives of women making themselves up in the late 20th century\, choice by choice\, at the edge of the world. Patti Flather’s stories are literary lightning.” – Linda Svendsen\, Guggenheim winner and author of Marine Life and Sussex Drive \nAbout the authors: \nKevin Chong is the author of seven books of fiction and nonfiction\, including the new novel The Double Life of Benson Yu. Those titles have been named books of the year by Globe and Mail\, National Post\, and Amazon.ca\, listed for a CBC prize\, a BC Book Prize\, and a National Magazine Award\, optioned for film and TV\, and published in the US\, Europe\, and Australia. His creative nonfiction and journalism have recently appeared in the Guardian\, the Times Literary Supplement\, the Rumpus\, and the South China Morning Post. An Associate Professor at the UBC Okanagan\, he lives in Vancouver with his family. \nPatti Flather is an award-winning author. Her plays Paradise and Sixty Below have been shared on stages across Canada and published. Where the River Meets the Sea won the Canadian National Playwriting Competition\, her radio play West Edmonton Mall was nominated for a Canadian Screenwriting Award\, and her stories have appeared in literary magazines. A winner of the Borealis Prize for Yukon literary contribution\, Patti has an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of BC. She grew up in North Vancouver\, BC\, and lives in Kwanlin Dün First Nation and Ta’an Kwäch’än territory in Whitehorse\, Yukon. www.pattiflather.com \nAbout the guests: \nMarcus Youssef’s fifteen or so plays all investigate some aspect of difference and belonging. They have been produced in multiple languages in in twenty countries across North America\, Europe and Asia\, from Seattle to New York to Reykjavik\, London\, Venice\, Hong Kong\, Vienna\, Athens\, Frankfurt and Berlin. He is the recipient of Canada’s largest theatre award\, the Siminovitch Prize for Theatre\, for his body of work as a playwright\, as well as Berlin\, Germany’s Ikarus Prize\, the Vancouver Mayor’s Arts Award\, the Rio Tinto Alcan Performing Arts Award\, the Chalmers’ Canadian Play Award\, the Seattle Times Footlight award\, the Vancouver Critics’ Innovation award (three times) and the Canada Council Staunch-Lynton Award. \nChristine Quintana Born in Los Angeles to a Mexican-American father and a Dutch-British-Canadian mother\, Christine is now a grateful visitor to the unceded lands of the Musqueam\, Squamish\, and Tsleil-Waututh people. Christine is an actor\, playwright\, co-Artistic Producer of Delinquent Theatre\, and artistic associate of Neworld Theatre. Winner of a LA Drama Critic’s Circle Award\, Dora Mavor Moore Award\, Jessie Richardson Theatre Award\, Tom Hendry Award\, a Governor General’s Award nomination\, and the Siminovitch Protégée Prize for Playwriting\, Christine’s works have been translated and performed in Spanish\, French\, German\, and ASL. As a performer\, she’s acted on stages big and small\, in a camper van\, in neighbourhoods across East Vancouver\, and on a farm. She is currently working on a commission for the Manhattan Theatre Club\, and will premiere 4 new works next year across Canada. She is a graduate of UBC’s BFA Acting Program. christinequintana.ca URL:https://www.readlocalbc.ca/event/double-lives-lovely-afternoons-kevin-chong-patti-flather-with-marcus-youssef-christine-quintana/ LOCATION:Massy Arts\, 23 East Pender\, Vancouver\, B.C.\, Canada CATEGORIES:Launch,Panel ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.readlocalbc.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/NOV-2-Double-Lives-Lovely-Afternoons-header.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Vancouver:20231101T190000 DTEND;TZID=America/Vancouver:20231101T210000 DTSTAMP:20260423T022758 CREATED:20230912T164550Z LAST-MODIFIED:20230912T164550Z UID:18440-1698865200-1698872400@www.readlocalbc.ca SUMMARY:Ali Blythe and Jason Jobin Book Launch DESCRIPTION:Please join Munro’s Books in celebrating new books by two local authors: Ali Blythe and Jason Jobin! \nBright star\, would I were stedfast as thou art — \nBreaking open John Keats’s “Last Sonnet\,” in his third book of poetry\, Stedfast\, Ali Blythe writes marginality into the canon\, at once claiming\, reviving\, and un-fixing the Romantic vision. \nTaking place over one night\, the poet in bed next to a sleeping lover\, Blythe’s revelatory poems struggle with questions of illusion and reality\, immersion and escapism\, that which endures and that which is transient. Held taut in formal quivers of short lines\, each poem is shot through with eros — to address\, to dress and undress\, the subject of the love poem and perhaps love itself. \nJason Jobin’s debut\, The Wild Mandrake\, is a memoir that covers his life from the cusp of adulthood\, as he faces cancer that keeps coming back. \nDoctors used to tell him he was cured. That was a long time ago. Ever since he first left home at age nineteen\, writer Jason Jobin has had cancer. Every five years\, like clockwork\, it relapses\, and yet he always pulls through\, surrounded by friends and family but isolated by illness. Chemotherapy\, surgeries\, radiation — these persist\, but they aren’t the milestones of his life. They can’t be\, he won’t let them be. \nFrom helicoptering into the Yukon backcountry to teaching in an elite writing program\, Jason strives to enter adulthood with some normalcy\, but his is the life of “a special case.” And he does live. He lives working at a deli for minimum wage as his students come down the hill to shop and ask what he’s doing there. He lives measuring out nausea pills and benzos while his roommates drink and smoke and party. He lives lying to girlfriends about past diagnoses because what can you say? What do you build on rubble? He lives high and low and in between. Again he is sick\, again he is cured. It’s miraculous. A great gift. But never enough. \nTold in short glimpses\, this story redefines what it means to survive. Jobin brings together the illuminated moments of loss and joy as he navigates chronic illness and builds from it something new and wildly unexpected. \nWHEN: Wednesday\, November 1st at 7:00 PM (doors at 6:30). \nWHERE: In-store at Munro’s Books\, 1108 Government St. \nWHAT: A reading and signings by Ali Blythe and Jason Jobin. \nHOW: This event is free to attend. URL:https://www.readlocalbc.ca/event/ali-blythe-and-jason-jobin-book-launch/ LOCATION:Munro’s Books\, 1108 Government Street\, Victoria\, BC\, V8W 1Y2\, Canada CATEGORIES:Launch ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.readlocalbc.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Ali-and-Jason-IG.jpg ORGANIZER;CN="Munro's Books":MAILTO:events@munrobooks.com END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Vancouver:20231018T190000 DTEND;TZID=America/Vancouver:20231018T203000 DTSTAMP:20260423T022758 CREATED:20231012T165359Z LAST-MODIFIED:20231012T165359Z UID:18962-1697655600-1697661000@www.readlocalbc.ca SUMMARY:Book Launch Event for Male Pregnancy in Reverse! DESCRIPTION:Tom will be reading with Mark Laba in Vancouver in October: \nHe will be reading from his forthcoming collection\, Male Pregnancy in Reverse\, releasing on September 30th! \nTom Prime is\, as described by Daniel Harris\, author of The Posthuman Series\, “at the forefront of a new generation of avant-gardists.” His latest work is a long poem “in 5 Acts” that transmutes a disturbing and sometimes horrifying experience—albeit one which is only ever obliquely and allegorically described—into a dazzling and heady literary puzzle. \nPlease note that if you wish to reserve a seat at the event\, you may add the FREE ticket below to your cart when purchasing your book at the Cross and Crows website. All Preorders (not-yet-published books) are 20% off\, taken at checkout. Preorders must be prepaid to receive the discount. URL:https://www.readlocalbc.ca/event/book-launch-event-for-male-pregnancy-in-reverse-2/ LOCATION:Cross and Crows Bookstore\, 2836 Commercial Drive\, Vancouver\, BC\, Canada CATEGORIES:Launch ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.readlocalbc.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/MPiR_VancouverSquare-1-1536x1536-1.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Vancouver:20231014T130000 DTEND;TZID=America/Vancouver:20231014T160000 DTSTAMP:20260423T022758 CREATED:20230929T165630Z LAST-MODIFIED:20230929T165630Z UID:18801-1697288400-1697299200@www.readlocalbc.ca SUMMARY:Dual Launch of "Gumboot Guys" and "Knots and Stitches" DESCRIPTION:Celebrate the Adventurous Spirit of Coastal Living in the 1970s.\nTwo new Books are being launched in the inviting ambience of the Osborne Bay Pub.\nYou can buy a beer\, buy a book\, meet the authors\, and get your books signed. \nFrom the vibrant era of the 1970s when adventure seekers\, dreamers\, and wanderers flocked to the rugged shores of British Columbia’s West Coast\, two captivating books emerge\, chronicling the tales of resilience\, camaraderie\, and love for the sea. \nGumboot Guys: Nautical Adventures on British Columbia’s North Coast\, edited by Lou Allison with Jane Wilde\, and Knots & Stitches: Community Quilts Across the Harbour by Kristin Miller\, transport readers to a time when possibilities seemed endless and community was everything. URL:https://www.readlocalbc.ca/event/dual-launch-of-gumboot-guys-and-knots-and-stitches/ LOCATION:Osborne Bay Pub\, 1534 Joan Ave\, Crofton\, B.C.\, v0r1r0\, Canada CATEGORIES:Launch,Meet & Greet ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.readlocalbc.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Knots-and-Stitches-Gumboot-Guys-covers.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Vancouver:20231003T190000 DTEND;TZID=America/Vancouver:20231003T203000 DTSTAMP:20260423T022758 CREATED:20230926T212545Z LAST-MODIFIED:20230926T212545Z UID:18750-1696359600-1696365000@www.readlocalbc.ca SUMMARY:Book Launch: Freddie by Grant Hayter-Menzies • Victoria\, BC DESCRIPTION:Join local author Grant Hayter-Menzies as he presents Freddie: The Rescue Dog Who Rescued Me\, a book for anyone who has ever loved and lost an animal. \nFreddie is the moving memoir of a writer—a biographer of historical animals—whose life was forever changed when a rescue dog came into his life. \nTracing their journey from Freddie’s adoption and socialization through his growing bond with Grant to his devastating cancer diagnosis in 2020\, this memoir reminds us of everything that animals can teach us about love\, loyalty\, and courage\, and is a call to action to end the unethical and abusive treatment of animals everywhere. \n• Free to attend\n• All ages welcome\n• LGBTQ friendly\n• Books will be available for purchase and signing\n• To RSVP: To register for this event\, use the ‘Buy Tickets’ (free) button at bolenbooks.com https://bolenbooks.com/events/29491\nhttps://www.heritagehouse.ca/book/freddie/ URL:https://www.readlocalbc.ca/event/book-launch-freddie-by-grant-hayter-menzies-victoria-bc/ LOCATION:Bolen Books\, #111-1644 Hillside Ave.\, Victoria\, BC\, V8T 2C5\, Canada CATEGORIES:Launch ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.readlocalbc.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/371309252_759880599481128_1914493124087304454_n.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Vancouver:20230927T190000 DTEND;TZID=America/Vancouver:20230927T210000 DTSTAMP:20260423T022758 CREATED:20230830T172416Z LAST-MODIFIED:20230830T172416Z UID:18193-1695841200-1695848400@www.readlocalbc.ca SUMMARY:Launch of Hologram: an Homage to P.K. Page DESCRIPTION:Join Munro’s Books for the launch of Hologram: an Homage to P.K. Page \nEditors Yvonne Blomer and D.C. Reid will host an evening of poetry with local poets John Barton\, Stephen T. Berg\, Barbara Black\, Wendy Donawa\, Beth Kope\, Dan MacIsaac\, Lynne Mustard\, Barbara Pelman\, Pamela Porter\, and Cynthia Woodman Kerkham in a poetic tribute to one of Canada’s most influential and celebrated poets. \nEdited by Yvonne Blomer and DC Reid\, and featuring pieces from renowned poets including John Barton\, Marilyn Bowering\, Lorna Crozier\, Eve Joseph\, Patrick Lane\, Alice Major\, kjmunro\, Patricia Young\, and many others\, Hologram is testament to the mentoring that P.K. Page offered through community and conversation\, as a living writer and through her poetry. URL:https://www.readlocalbc.ca/event/launch-of-hologram-an-homage-to-p-k-page/ LOCATION:Munro’s Books\, 1108 Government Street\, Victoria\, BC\, V8W 1Y2\, Canada CATEGORIES:Launch ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.readlocalbc.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Hologram-Launch-Social-Media-Post-Square.jpg ORGANIZER;CN="Munro's Books":MAILTO:events@munrobooks.com END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Vancouver:20230916T123000 DTEND;TZID=America/Vancouver:20230916T140000 DTSTAMP:20260423T022758 CREATED:20230814T191020Z LAST-MODIFIED:20230814T191020Z UID:18060-1694867400-1694872800@www.readlocalbc.ca SUMMARY:Poetry Bus! Celebrating the 27th Year of Poetry in Transit DESCRIPTION:In partnership with TransLink and BC Transit\, Read Local BC presents the launch of this year’s Poetry In Transit campaign at Word Vancouver. Now celebrating its 27th year\, this beloved community-engagement project displays the work of ten BC poets on public transit vehicles throughout the province. Join us to hear a selection of the featured 2023-24 poets read from their work\, followed by a short discussion and Q&A in which you can engage with the poets over your love of the written verse! Hosted by Evelyn Lau. \nReaders:\nSusan Braley – Tilling the Darkness (Caitlin Press & Dagger Editions)\nP.W. Bridgman – At the Bakery After the Pathology Report Arrives (Ekstasis Editions)\nEdward Byrne – Tracery (Talonbooks)\nMegan Fennya Jones – The Program (Goose Lane Editions)\nMark Leiren-Young – Big Sharks\, Small World (Orca Book Publishers)\nEmily Osborne – Safety Razor (Gordon Hill Press)\nKirsten Pendreigh – Best Canadian Poetry 2021 (Biblioasis)\nIan Thomas – Green Islands: Poems from the Great Bear Rainforest (Rainbow Publishers & Raven Chapbooks) URL:https://www.readlocalbc.ca/event/poetry-bus-celebrating-the-27th-year-of-poetry-in-transit/ LOCATION:UBC Robson Square\, 800 Robson St\, Vancouver\, BC\, V6E 1A7\, Canada CATEGORIES:Festival,Launch,Meet & Greet,Panel ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://www.readlocalbc.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/PoetryinTransit-WordVan-landscape-1.png ORGANIZER;CN="Word Vancouver":MAILTO:blnish_pandoras@yahoo.ca END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Vancouver:20230913T190000 DTEND;TZID=America/Vancouver:20230913T210000 DTSTAMP:20260423T022758 CREATED:20230823T220900Z LAST-MODIFIED:20230823T220900Z UID:18102-1694631600-1694638800@www.readlocalbc.ca SUMMARY:Book Launch: Lorna Crozier and M.A.C. Farrant DESCRIPTION:Join Munro’s Books in celebrating the newest releases from two incredibly talented local authors! \nLorna Crozier’s After That is a book written from the dark hollow we fall into when we lose those we love. Lorna’s sure poetry engages with the grief that comes from the death of her partner\, the writer Patrick Lane\, with whom she’d lived for forty years\, many of them tumultuous. With grace and precision\, she illuminates sorrow. M.A.C Farrant’s Jigsaw comprises ninety-three literary puzzle pieces that mimic the actual practice of assembling a jigsaw puzzle. By turns whimsical\, insightful\, meditative\, funny\, and factual\, the “pieces” of Jigsaw touch on several themes readers of Farrant have encountered before: existence\, love\, joy\, science\, history\, aging\, roads\, and Buddhism – as well as our universal love of jigsaw puzzles. URL:https://www.readlocalbc.ca/event/book-launch-lorna-crozier-and-m-a-c-farrant/ LOCATION:Munro’s Books\, 1108 Government Street\, Victoria\, BC\, V8W 1Y2\, Canada CATEGORIES:Launch ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.readlocalbc.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Lorna-and-MAC-Sep13-banner-FINAL.jpg ORGANIZER;CN="Munro's Books":MAILTO:events@munrobooks.com END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Vancouver:20230824T183000 DTEND;TZID=America/Vancouver:20230824T220000 DTSTAMP:20260423T022758 CREATED:20230721T170127Z LAST-MODIFIED:20230721T170127Z UID:17788-1692901800-1692914400@www.readlocalbc.ca SUMMARY:Wild Prose Readings Presents: Troubled Towns and Waters with Curtis LeBlanc\, Michael Melgaard and Mike Sadava DESCRIPTION:Please join us for an evening of small-town and watery crime literature! The evening will begin with an open mic at 7 – bring your writing to share! Featured readers will begin at 7:30 p.m.: Vancouver-based poet and novelist Curtis LeBlanc will read from his debut novel\, Sunsetter\, which is about crime and drugs at a small-town rodeo; Toronto-based\, island-raised author Michael Melgaard will read from his debut novel\, Not That Kind of Place\, which is about the aftermath of a murder in a small town on Vancouver Island; and local author Mike Sadava will read from his debut novel\, Troubled Waters\, which is about a potential earth-changing experiment gone horribly wrong and the international crime behind it. \nPlease bring cash for admission and authors’ books. URL:https://www.readlocalbc.ca/event/wild-prose-readings-presents-troubled-towns-and-waters-with-curtis-leblanc-michael-melgaard-and-mike-sadava/ LOCATION:Paul Phillips Hall\, 1923 Fernwood Road\, Victoria\, BC\, V8T 0A5\, Canada CATEGORIES:Launch,Open Mic,Reading ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.readlocalbc.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/August-Instagram.jpg ORGANIZER;CN="Wild Prose Reading Series":MAILTO:susan.sanford.blades@gmail.com END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Vancouver:20230802T180000 DTEND;TZID=America/Vancouver:20230802T180000 DTSTAMP:20260423T022758 CREATED:20230712T211800Z LAST-MODIFIED:20230712T211800Z UID:17527-1690999200-1690999200@www.readlocalbc.ca SUMMARY:Ever-Arriving Openings: An Evening with Adeena Karasick DESCRIPTION:On Thurs. Aug. 3 at 6pm\, join Massy Arts and Dialogos / Lavender Ink for the double launch of Adeena Karasick’s latest poetry books: Ærotomania: The Book of Lumenations and Ouvert Oeuvre: Openings . \nThrough a poetics of politically engaged aesthetic resistance\, Ærotomania negotiates turbulence\, loss\, nostalgia and hope\, while the poems in Ouvert Oeuvre speak-sing to re-entering the world after a long period in quarantine. Adeena will be joined by special guest Jim Andrews\, who will be screening some of their recent vispo collaborations: Lorem Ipsum\, Checking In 1\, Checking In 2\, Touching in the Wake of the Virus. \nThis project has been made possible by the Government of Canada. Ce projet a été rendu possible grâce au gouvernement du Canada. \nVenue & Accessibility \nThe event will be hosted at the Massy Arts Gallery\, at 23 East Pender Street in Chinatown\, Vancouver. \nRegistration is free and required for entrance. \nThe gallery is wheelchair accessible and a gender-neutral washroom is on-site. Please refrain from wearing scents or heavy perfumes. \nFor more on accessibility including parking\, seating\, venue measurements and floor plan\, and how to request ASL interpretation please visit: massyarts.com/accessibility \nCovid Protocols: Masks keep our community safe and are mandatory (N95 masks are recommended as they offer the best protection). We ask if you are showing symptoms\, that you stay home. Thank you kindly. \nAbout the books \nÆrotomania: The Book of LumenationsLavender Ink\, 2023) \nA lyrically explosive mix of pathos\, comedy\, and wit\, and a visual feast in full color. \nMarked by a playful “cognitive dissidence” and a lyrically and visually explosive mix of pathos\, comedy\, and wit\, Ærotomania: The Book of Lumenations is Karasick’s twelfth volume of poetry. Through a poetics of politically engaged aesthetic resistance\, this work negotiates turbulence\, loss\, nostalgia and hope\, inscribing a prescient “present” ever-arriving through jubilation and bereavement\, in immanence and irruption\, exposing how the airplane as an erotic theater functions like a language. \nOuvert Oeuvre: Openings (Lavender Ink\, 2023) \nAn ecstatically wrought\, never quite post-Covid celebration/trepidation of openings. \nInscribing what Levinas might call “espace vital” (the space we can survive)\, Ouvert Oeuvre: Openings is an ecstatically wrought\, never quite post-Covid celebration/trepidation of openings. Written by Adeena Karasick and visualized by Warren Lehrer\, the two poems track the pain of openings read through socio-economic\, geographic and bodily space. They explore a range of intralingual etymologies of the word opening\, laced with post-consumerist and erotic language\, theoretical discourse\, philosophical and Kabbalistic aphorisms. The poems foreground language as an organism of hope–highlighting the concept of opening as an ever-swirling palimpsest of spectral voices\, textures\, whispers and codes transported through passion\, politics and pleasure as we negotiate loss and light. This book is the first collaboration between poet\, performer\, cultural theorist and media artist Adeena Karasick\, and pioneer designer/author and vis lit practitioner Warren Lehrer. The poems\, written by Karasick\, speak-sing to re-entering the world after a long period in quarantine. Lehrer choreographs Karasick’s words on the stage of the page and through the pages of this volume. His typographic compositions give form to the interior\, emotional\, metaphorical\, historical and performative underpinnings of the poems. Together\, the writing and visuals create a new whole that engages the reader to become an active participant in the experience/performance of the poems. View the book’s website here. \nAbout the author \nAdeena Karasick\, Ph.D\, is a New York based Canadian poet\, performer\, cultural theorist and media artist and the author of 14 books of poetry and poetics. Her Kabbalistically inflected\, urban\, Jewish feminist mashups have been described as “electricity in language” (Nicole Brossard)\, “proto-ecstatic jet-propulsive word torsion” (George Quasha)\, noted for their “cross-fertilization of punning and knowing\, theatre and theory” (Charles Bernstein) “a twined virtuosity of mind and ear which leaves the reader deliciously lost in Karasick’s signature ‘syllabic labyrinth’” (Craig Dworkin); “demonstrating how desire flows through language\, an unstoppable flood of allusion (both literary and pop-cultural)\, word-play\, and extravagant and outrageous sound-work.” (Mark Scroggins). Most recently is Massaging the Medium: 7 Pechakuchas\, (The Institute of General Semantics Press: 2022)\, shortlisted for Outstanding Book of the Year Award (ICA\, 2023) and winner of the 2023 Susanne K. Langer Award for Outstanding Scholarship in the Ecology of Symbolic Form. (MEA)\, Checking In (Talonbooks\, 2018) and Salomé: Woman of Valor (University of Padova Press\, Italy\, 2017)\, the libretto for her Spoken Word opera; Salomé: Woman of Valor CD\, (NuJu Records\, 2020)\, and Salomé Birangona\, translation into Bengali (Boibhashik Prokashoni Press\, Kolkata\, 2020). Karasick teaches Literature and Critical Theory for the Humanities and Media Studies Dept. at Pratt Institute\, is Poetry Editor for Explorations in Media Ecology\, Associate International Editor of New Explorations: Studies in Culture and Communication\, 2021 Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Award recipient and winner of the Voce Donna Italia award for her contributions to feminist thinking\, and has just been appointed Poet Laureate of the Institute of General Semantics. The “Adeena Karasick Archive” is established at Special Collections\, Simon Fraser University. Hot off the press is Ærotomania: The Book of Lumenations\, and Ouvert: Oeuvre: Openings\, (Lavender Ink Press\, 2023). \nAlso featuring: \nJim Andrews has been publishing https://vispo.com since 1996. It’s the centre of his work as a poet\, visual artist\, audio artist\, theoretician and programmer. Vispo.com is a site of interactive\, multimedia poetry. URL:https://www.readlocalbc.ca/event/ever-arriving-openings-an-evening-with-adeena-karasick/ LOCATION:Massy Arts\, 23 East Pender\, Vancouver\, B.C.\, Canada CATEGORIES:Launch ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.readlocalbc.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/https___cdn.evbuc_.com_images_547669939_462702708128_1_original.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Vancouver:20230801T180000 DTEND;TZID=America/Vancouver:20230801T200000 DTSTAMP:20260423T022758 CREATED:20230712T211746Z LAST-MODIFIED:20230712T211746Z UID:17525-1690912800-1690920000@www.readlocalbc.ca SUMMARY:Poetry Workshops / Chasing The Poem – 4th Edition / All Queer Mentorship DESCRIPTION:From July 11th to August 1st\, Massy Arts and Massy Books host\, Chasing The Poem – Fourth Edition\, an online poetry workshop marathon for emerging writers\, in three courses created by queer poets to demystify poetry writing\, to present useful writing prompts\, to incite imagination\, and to address political and poetic points of view through poetic literature. \nThe classes – conducted by published poets David Ly + Eli Tareq El Bechelany-Lynch + Isabella Wang\, will be held through Zoom in an exclusively online method\, with 2-hours long experimental courses that will mix literary theory + artistic expression. \nBy the end of this writing marathon\, attendees will have received feedback about their writing by authors in production\, aware of the market’s demands – but also aware of poetry’s potential. \nThe event will be hosted at Massy Arts’ Zoom room. \nTickets are limited\, and registration is mandatory + required for participation. \nThis project has been made possible by the Government of Canada. Ce projet a été rendu possible grâce au gouvernement du Canada. \n: : \nChasing The Poem – A unique opportunity for emerging writers \nWhether an emerging poet\, unpublished author\, poetry enthusiast\, or someone searching for new ways of expressing their creativity – Chasing The Poem will connect our creative community in three courses: \nJuly 11 – Tue – 6pm to 8pm PST \nDavid Ly \nRe-imagining Your Mythologies \nJuly 18 – Tue – 6pm to 8pm PST \nEli Tareq El Bechelany-Lynch \nForm as the container for the personal and the political \nAugust 1 – Tue – 6pm to 8pm PST \nIsabella Wang \nPoetry Lab: Form’s Experimental Roots \n: : \nThe Workshops \n: : \n“Re-imagining Your Mythologies: Writing to See Yourself in Imagistic Poetry” by David Ly \nA workshop for emerging and established poets to practice flexing their imagination in composing poetry with vivid imagery that pushes a narrative of the self forward. \nWhether you love to write with imagery\, or would want to imbue more of it into your poems\, this workshop will be guide you through discussions\, close-readings\, and a series of writing exercises an imagistic poem. While strongly imbuing your poem with images that speak to you\, the other purpose of this workshop will be refining your poem so that it reflects your identity\, and re-imagines ideas (“mythologies”) that you have about yourself. \nAs poets\, we often explore our sense(s) of self in our work\, and by the end of this workshop\, you will leave inspired to explore what other images you can include in future poems\, that resonate with you and speak to your identity. \nDavid Ly is the author of Mythical Man (2020)\, which was shortlisted for the 2021 ReLit Poetry Award\, and Dream of Me as Water (2022)\, both published under the Anstruther Books imprint of Palimpsest Press. He is also co-editor (with Daniel Zomparelli) of Queer Little Nightmares: An Anthology of Monstrous Fiction and Poetry (Arsenal Pulp Press\, 2022). David’s poems have appeared in publications such as Arc Poetry Magazine\, Best Canadian Poetry\, PRISM International\, and The Ex-Puritan\, where he won the inaugural Austin Clarke Prize in Literary Excellence. David is the Poetry Editor at This Magazine. \n: : \n“Form as the container for the personal and the political: How to write non-didactic political poetry” by Eli Tareq El Bechelany-Lynch \nHow can writing about the daily minutia\, the sounds you like to hear\, the images you can’t get out of your head\, the construction in your city\, the long bus ride to work\, open up space to look at broader political\, social\, or interpersonal trials and difficulties? \nWriting poetry with a political or social “message” is difficult when trying to make sure it doesn’t come off as didactic or overbearing. One way of pushing through this difficulty is to lean on craft\, form\, and hybrid genres/forms in order to help shape your poetry\, the same way you would mold clay with your hands to create pottery. \nThis workshop will try to help workshop attendees to think about multiplicity as a strength in order to give their poems texture\, layers\, feeling\, energy\, elasticity\, and to avoid flatness or didacticism. We are working here with the everything\, the too much\, the big feelings\, the tiny little images stored in the back of ones head\, the gross\, the weird\, the strange\, and we’ll try to whittle it all down to a poem. \nOther ideas we’ll be thinking about: the personal vs. the political\, ways to create lenses through which we can write difficult subject matter\, caring about the self through the writing practice and also the impact on the reader. \nEli Tareq El Bechelany-Lynch is a writer living in Tio’tia:ke. Their work has appeared in The Best \nCanadian Poetry 2018 anthology\, The New Quarterly\, Arc Poetry Magazine\, and elsewhere. They were longlisted for the CBC poetry prize in 2019. Their book\, knot body (2020)\, published by Metatron Press\, was shortlisted for the QWF Concordia First Book Award\, and their second book\, The Good Arabs\, published by Metonymy Press in 2021\, was granted the honorary mention for poetry by the Arab American Book Awards and won the Grand Prix du Livre de Montreal. They are an acquisitions editor at Metonymy Press. Their translation of Gabrielle Boulianne-Tremblay’s La fille d’elle-même from the French is forthcoming Spring 2023. With co-editor Samia Marshy\, they are editing El Ghourabaa\, an anthology of weird and experimental queer and trans writing by Arab and Arabophone writers\, forthcoming Spring 2024. \n: : \n“Poetry Lab: Form’s Experimental Roots” by Isabella Wang \nFocused on experimentation as a synaptic device in poetry. This workshop leads participants on an exploration of the experimental foundation of traditional poetic forms\, as well as the synergy from which new\, experimental forms arises from experimentation to shoulder the immediate\, aesthetic\, personal\, environmental\, and political visions of writers today. \nWe will journey with the term poiesis—a beloved term by poets—which translates loosely to mean ’the making of something out of nothing.’ Together\, participants will be encouraged to consider not only language’s ability to bring into being new feelings\, perspectives\, and original metaphors\, but equally how such perspectives are found in the unearthing of new experimental or hybrid forms. \nWhat is the relationship to form and poetic language? How do pre-existing forms or free-verse stanzas assist or hinder a poet’s intended creative representation? Is experimental poetry empowering? Political? An act of refusal and resistance? \nWe will begin by engaging in a series of writing exercises ranging from experimental prose poetry to diptych and triptych forms. Exercises will followed by periods of collaborative sharing. Breaks will be interspersed with sample poems by contemporary poets\, artists\, and activists whose works engage with experimentation\, new\, and found forms. \nWe will end with a fun and artsy individual project to take home\, commemorate our writing in our time together. \nIsabella Wang is the author of the chapbook\, On Forgetting a Language\, and her full-length debut\, Pebble Swing\, shortlisted for the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize. Among other recognitions\, she has been shortlisted for Arc’s Poem of the Year Contest\, The Malahat Review’s Far Horizons Contest and Long Poem Contest\, and was the youngest writer to be shortlisted twice for The New Quarterly’s Edna Staebler Essay Contest. She is completing a double-major in English and World Literature at SFU. She works in freelance editing\, is a youth mentor with Vancouver Poetry House\, and web coordinator for Poetry In Canada. URL:https://www.readlocalbc.ca/event/poetry-workshops-chasing-the-poem-4th-edition-all-queer-mentorship/ LOCATION:Massy Arts\, 23 East Pender\, Vancouver\, B.C.\, Canada CATEGORIES:Launch END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Vancouver:20230729T180000 DTEND;TZID=America/Vancouver:20230729T200000 DTSTAMP:20260423T022758 CREATED:20230712T211728Z LAST-MODIFIED:20230712T211728Z UID:17500-1690653600-1690660800@www.readlocalbc.ca SUMMARY:Remnants of Place: Natalie Virginia Lang with Guests DESCRIPTION:On Saturday\, July 29th at 6pm\, join Massy Arts\, Massy Books\, and Caitlin Press for Remnants of Place: Natalie Virginia Lang with Guests Stephen Collis\, Betsy Warland and Daniela Elza. \nThrough poetic prose\, Lang meditates on the social\, historical\, cultural\, and environmental losses suffered at the hands of infringement upon natural areas. \nThis project has been made possible by the Government of Canada. Ce projet a été rendu possible grâce au gouvernement du Canada. \nVenue & Accessibility \nThe event will be hosted at the Massy Arts Gallery\, at 23 East Pender Street in Chinatown\, Vancouver. \nRegistration is free and required for entrance. \nThe gallery is wheelchair accessible and a gender-neutral washroom is on-site. Please refrain from wearing scents or heavy perfumes. \nFor more on accessibility including parking\, seating\, venue measurements and floor plan\, and how to request ASL interpretation please visit: massyarts.com/accessibility \nCovid Protocols: Masks keep our community safe and are mandatory (N95 masks are recommended as they offer the best protection). We ask if you are showing symptoms\, that you stay home. Thank you kindly. \nAbout the book \nRemnants: Reveries of a Mountain Dweller (Caitlin Press\, 2023) \nIn Remnants: Reveries of a Mountain Dweller\, writer and educator Natalie Virginia Lang offers a vision of Sumas Mountain throughout the seasons to expose the impact of toxic progress on Place. Through poetic prose\, Lang meditates on the social\, historical\, cultural\, and environmental losses suffered at the hands of infringement upon natural areas. Remnants ventures into the natural spaces on Sumas Mountain\, illuminating the errors of the modern colonial approach to progress and posing philosophical queries for alternate pathways into the future. \nAbout the author \nNatalie Virginia Lang is an educator and writer\, living on Sumas Mountain in Abbotsford. Lang is passionate about the environment and is dedicated to the preservation of natural spaces\, wherever possible. \nLang holds a Master of Arts degree from Simon Fraser University where she won multiple awards\, including the Jean-Jacques Rousseau Award\, the Julie Andreyev- Animal Lover Scholarship\, the Ewan Clark Memorial Award\, and a Graduate Fellowship. She also has a degree in Literature and Anthropology from the University of the Fraser Valley and an Education degree from Simon Fraser University. \nWith readers: \nStephen Collis is the author of a dozen books of poetry and prose\, including The Commons (2008)\, the BC Book Prize winning On the Material (2010)\, Once in Blockadia (2016)\, Almost Islands: Phyllis Webb and the Pursuit of the Unwritten (2018)\, and A History of the Theories of Rain (2021)—all published by Talonbooks. In 2015 he was awarded the Nora and Ted Sterling Prize in Support of Controversy\, after he was sued by oil company Kinder Morgan\, whose lawyers entered Collis’s poetry as evidence in court. In 2019 he was the recipient of the Latner Writers’ Trust of Canada Poetry Prize in recognition of his body of work. \nBetsy Warland has published 13 books of creative nonfiction and poetry. The second edition of Warland’s Breathing the Page—Reading the Act of Writing (2010)\, is coming out with new material in 2023. Former director of The Writers Studio at SFU\, and the Vancouver Manuscript Intensive\, Warland was a co-founder of the Creative Nonfiction Collective. A manuscript consultant\, editor and teacher\, they received the City of Vancouver Mayor’s Award for Literary Excellence in 2016. In 2022\, an annual national prize\, The VMI Betsy Warland Between Genres Award\, was launched. \nDaniela Elza lived on three continents before immigrating to Canada in 1999. Her latest poetry collections are the broken boat (2020) and slow erosions (2020). In 2021\, she became a founding member of the Place Mattering Matters Collective and has been actively involved in preserving the affordable housing in her community in Vancouver\, located on the unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam)\, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish)\, and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. She is also working on a manuscript on the topic. URL:https://www.readlocalbc.ca/event/remnants-of-place-natalie-virginia-lang-with-guests/ LOCATION:Massy Arts\, 23 East Pender\, Vancouver\, B.C.\, Canada CATEGORIES:Launch END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR