Featured Events in Roncesvalles in 2025 (August Updated)

Readings and conversation with the authors of Black Cake, Turtle Soup, and Other Dilemmas – essays on music, memory and motion and Side Notes from the Archivist – poetry that elevates and illustrates the buoyancy of Blackness. ABOUT THE AUTHORS Gloria Blizzard is an award-winning Black Canadian woman of multiple heritages. Music, dance, science, spirit, and culture intersect in her work, which has won the Malahat Review Nonfiction Prize, and been nominated the prestigious Pushcart prize. Essays, reviews and poems have been published by the CBC, the Globe and Mail, Wasafiri International Contemporary Writing and World Literature Today. Gloria holds an MFA from the University of King’s College and has recently released a book of essays, Black Cake, Turtle Soup, and Other Dilemmas, published by Dundurn Press. a literary delight , dub poet and Toronto poet laureate Lillian Allen as captivating and lovingly written as any of her songs or poems” - Ms Magazine Anastacia-Reneé (She/They) is a multi-award winning queer writer, educator, interdisciplinary artist, playwright, former radio host, TEDX speaker, and podcaster. She is the author of (v.) (Gramma/Black Ocean), Forget It (Black Radish); Sidenotes from the Archivist (HarperCollins/Amistad), and Here in the (Middle) of Nowhere (HarperCollins/Amistad). Her most recent book of poetry, Side Notes From The Archivist was selected as one of “NYPL Best Books of 2023,” and, The American Library Associations (RUSA) “Notable Books of 2024.” ABOUT THE BOOKS Black Cake, Turtle Soup, and Other Dilemmas is a diasporic collection of personal essays that explore the spaces where music, dance, spirit, race and culture collide. In this powerful collection, Gloria Blizzard uses traditional narrative essays, hybrid structures, and the tools of poetry to negotiate the complexities of culture, geography, and language in an international diasporic quest. These essays of wayfinding accompany anyone exploring issues of belonging — to a family, a neighbourhood, a group, or a country. Here, the small is profound, the intimate universal; the questions are all relevant and the answers of our times require simultaneous multiple perspectives. Side Notes from the Archivist, is rich with beauty and nostalgia, a vivid plumage of detail and unflinching intimacy. The author invites us to experience an archive through the voice of the archivist and their side notes. In this book, full of Black femininity, identity and history, she asks the reader to take a listening and learning role. This collection of poems makes room for the open and precise exploration needed to create an expansive archive – Bellingham Review. Information Source: Another Story Bookshop | eventbrite

Join author Nadia L. Hohn and illustrator Sahle Robinson to launch their new picture book, Patty Dreams, which celebrates the joys of Jamaican Patties. Through storytelling and music, art and discussion, we will get to the story behind the story. After the reading, author Sadé Smith will moderate the conversation with Nadia and Sahle over light refreshments, followed by a book signing. We look forward to an exciting evening as we also acknowledge the 40th anniversary of Toronto's Patty War. This event will take place at Another Story Bookshop. Information Source: eventbrite

Join us for DigiZine’s zine launch and artist panel featuring this year’s Residency participants! The DigiZine Program is a virtual residency for 2SQTBIPOC youth who are still practicing covid cautiousness, and is focused on zine making and community building! Artist talk and panel from 7-8 pm, and mingle and zine sales from 8-9 pm. masks mandatory and provided Information Source: Another Story Bookshop | eventbrite

Join us for the launch of COLOURS IN HER HANDS by Alice Zorn! With Christine Fischer Guy. ABOUT THE BOOK A witty, layered and compelling novel about a woman with Down Syndrome, exploring textile art, sibling relationships, friendships, and good intentions gone awry. What is intellectual disability? Ask Bruno, who is at his wits' end trying to predict what his sister, Mina, will do next. Ask Iris, who is entranced by the wildly inventive embroidery Mina creates. Ask Gabriela, who loves Mina and disagrees when Bruno uses Mina's constant demands as an excuse not to have a child. Meet Mina in her overstuffed Montreal apartment, surrounded by her treasures. She knows she is the best paper sorter at the recycling plant where she works. She is proud to be diabetic but equally happy to cheat on her diet. The colours she stitches hum with life. Colours in Her Hands is a nuanced and thought-provoking novel about family, about art, about questioning the way the world treats those who are different. With an unforgettable voice, Mina navigates the labyrinth that society sets for her with dignity, inventiveness, and aplomb. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Alice Zorn is the author of two novels and a book of short fiction. Her novel Five Roses was translated into French and was a finalist for the Ontario Library Association Evergreen Award. Her collection Ruins and Relics was a finalist for the Quebec Writers' Federation's First Book Award. She has twice placed first in Prairie Fire's fiction contest, won the Manitoba Magazine Award for Fiction, and has published stories in literary journals including The Fiddlehead and The New Quarterly. Originally from Ontario, she now lives in Montreal. ABOUT THE MODERATOR Christine Fischer Guy is a Toronto writer and journalist. She’s a 2024 VCCA fellow and is the author of The Umbrella Mender and Before the Music (coming in 2026). Her short fiction has appeared in Canadian, American and British journals. She was awarded a National Magazine Award and contributes criticism and interviews to literary journals. More: https://christinefischerguy.com/ Information Source: Another Story Bookshop | eventbrite

Join us for I See the Moon: On Black Art — A Conversation with Erica Cardwell and I. Augustus Durham! Erica N. Cardwell is a writer, art critic, and educator based in Toronto. She is the recipient of a 2021 Andy Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant for her book, Wrong is Not My Name; Notes on Black Art (Feminist Press, 2024). She considers the consciousness and imaginations of people of color as a tool for social, spiritual, and collective movement. Erica centers Black feminist theory as her primary critical approach and often writes about print and paper-making practices, archival media, and interdisciplinary performance. Her writing has appeared in ARTS.BLACK, Art in America, Frieze, BOMB, The Brooklyn Rail, C Magazine, The Kenyon Review, and other publications. Erica is currently Manuscript co-editor of Radical Teacher Journal and is a member of the International Art Critics Association and ACCUTE (Association of Canadian College and University Teachers of English). She has written exhibition and catalogue essays for artists such as Crystal Z. Campbell, Rico Gatson, Samantha Box, Chitra Ganesh, and Sandra Brewster. Erica is an assistant professor of creative writing at the University of Toronto Scarborough. I. Augustus Durham is Assistant Professor of English at the University of Toronto. A former President’s Postdoctoral Fellow in English at the University of Maryland, College Park, he worked in New York prior to his arrival at Toronto. His research interests span numerous centuries to account for the emergence, presence, and meaning of blackness in modernity. Durham’s first monograph is Stay Black and Die: On Melancholy and Genius (Duke University Press, 2023). He has published work in Syndicate, Black Camera: An International Film Journal, Palimpsest: A Journal on Women, Gender, and the Black International, and Journal of Religion and Health; and an essay on the film Moonlight for an edited collection on Tarell Alvin McCraney. Durham is currently working on three new projects regarding a singer, a calendar year, and (re)invention. Information Source: Another Story Bookshop | eventbrite

Join us for I See the Moon: On Black Art — A Conversation with Erica Caldwell and I. Augustus Durham! Erica N. Cardwell is a writer, art critic, and educator based in Toronto. She is the recipient of a 2021 Andy Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant for her book, Wrong is Not My Name; Notes on Black Art (Feminist Press, 2024). She considers the consciousness and imaginations of people of color as a tool for social, spiritual, and collective movement. Erica centers Black feminist theory as her primary critical approach and often writes about print and paper-making practices, archival media, and interdisciplinary performance. Her writing has appeared in ARTS.BLACK, Art in America, Frieze, BOMB, The Brooklyn Rail, C Magazine, The Kenyon Review, and other publications. Erica is currently Manuscript co-editor of Radical Teacher Journal and is a member of the International Art Critics Association and ACCUTE (Association of Canadian College and University Teachers of English). She has written exhibition and catalogue essays for artists such as Crystal Z. Campbell, Rico Gatson, Samantha Box, Chitra Ganesh, and Sandra Brewster. Erica is an assistant professor of creative writing at the University of Toronto Scarborough. I. Augustus Durham is Assistant Professor of English at the University of Toronto. A former President’s Postdoctoral Fellow in English at the University of Maryland, College Park, he worked in New York prior to his arrival at Toronto. His research interests span numerous centuries to account for the emergence, presence, and meaning of blackness in modernity. Durham’s first monograph is Stay Black and Die: On Melancholy and Genius (Duke University Press, 2023). He has published work in Syndicate, Black Camera: An International Film Journal, Palimpsest: A Journal on Women, Gender, and the Black International, and Journal of Religion and Health; and an essay on the film Moonlight for an edited collection on Tarell Alvin McCraney. Durham is currently working on three new projects regarding a singer, a calendar year, and (re)invention. Information Source: Another Story Bookshop | eventbrite

Join us for the launch of Game Changers: Stories of Hijabi Athletes from around the World, by Charlene Smith! In conversation with Shireen Ahmed. Featuring Amreen Kadwa. ABOUT THE BOOK Meet 13 inspiring hijabi athletes who are changing the rules. Many of these women were the first in their sport to compete while wearing the hijab. Some were up against cultural traditions that didn't allow girls to play sports. And some fought to have institutional anti-hijab rules changed so that they, and Muslim girls after them, would be able to compete. Discover the stories of Egyptian beach volleyball player Doaa Elghobashy, UAE hockey player Fatima Al Ali, Afghani soccer player Hajar Abulfazl and Syrian-American runner Rahaf Khatib, among many others. Game Changers shows the next generation of Muslim girls that they don't have to choose between following their religion and following their dreams. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Charlene Smith is a hijabi who tries to keep up with her six children in various sports. She lives in Edmonton, Alberta. She enjoys downhill skiing in the Rocky Mountains of Alberta and downhill mountain biking in the Coast and Columbia Mountains of British Columbia. Game Changers is her first book. ABOUT THE MODERATOR Shireen Ahmed is an award-winning multi-platform Sports Journalist at CBC Sports, and Instructor of Sports Journalism and Sport Media at Toronto Metropolitan University. She is a global expert on Muslim women in Sport, and internationally recognized for her work on racism and misogyny in sports. Shireen lives in Mississauga with her husband, children and cat. She drinks coffee as a tool of resistance. Information Source: Another Story Bookshop | eventbrite

Join us for a reading and discussion with John Lorinc, author of No Jews Live Here! In conversation with Hamutal Dotan. ABOUT NO JEWS LIVE HERE A stolen sign, ‘No Jews Live Here,’ kept John Lorinc’s Hungarian Jewish family alive during the Holocaust. From pre-war Budapest to post-war Toronto, journalist John Lorinc unspools four generations of his Hungarian Jewish family's journey through the Holocaust, the 1956 Revolution, and finally exodus from a country that can't rid itself of its antisemitic demons. This braided saga centres on the writer's eccentric and defiant grandmother, a consummate survivor with a love of flashy jewelry and a vicious tongue. Lorinc also traces the stories of both his grandfathers and his father, all of whom fell victim, in different ways, to the Nazis’ genocidal campaign to rid Europe of Jews. This is a deeply reported but profoundly human telling of a vile part of history, told through Lorinc’s distinctively astute and compassionate consideration of how cities and cultures work. Set against the complicated and poorly understood background of Hungary's Jewish community, No Jews Live Here is about family stories, and how the narratives of our lives are shaped by our times and historical forces over which we have no control. ABOUT THE AUTHOR John Lorinc is a journalist and editor. He writes regularly about cities, climate, and planning for a range of media, including the Globe and Mail, the Toronto Star, Corporate Knights, Walrus, and Spacing Magazine, where he is senior editor. John is the author of four previous books, including The New City (Penguin, 2006) and Dream States: Smart Cities, Technology and the Pursuit of Urban Utopias (Coach House, 2022), which won the Writer’s Trust Balsillie Prize for Public Policy and the Pattis Family Foundation Global Cities Book Award. He has also contrib- uted to, co-edited, or project managed every volume of Coach House's uTOpia series, including The Ward: The Life and Loss of Toronto's First Immigrant Neighbourhood and House Divided: How the Missing Middle Can Solve Toronto's Affordability Crisis. John lives with his wife, Victoria Foote, and their labrador retriever, Nora, in Toronto. They have two sons, Jacob and Sammy. Away from his laptop, John is an enthusiastic but untalented hockey player and once (but never again) co-produced a musical cabaret about local history. ABOUT THE MODERATOR Hamutal has been an editor of magazine, newspaper, digital, and book-length journalism for over 15 years. She is the founding editor-in-chief of Scribe Quarterly, a magazine of Jewish life, culture, and ideas launching this spring, and teaches journalism at the University of Toronto and Toronto Metropolitan University. Information Source: Another Story Bookshop | eventbrite

Join us for the Toronto launch of Annabel Townsend's Books and the City: Psychogeographical Wanderings Around Toronto's Independent Bookstores! ABOUT THE BOOK Times are hard for independent bookstores. Facing a mountain of debt and an uncertain future with her own small business in Saskatchewan, Annabel Townsend sets out on a mission in the big city: to visit as many bookstores as she can, to find camaraderie amongst fellow booksellers, and hope for the future of the industry. Inspired by the accidental discovery of a book about wandering, Annabel gets lost in Toronto enthusiastically. She seeks out this one single book, uncovering the city’s weird and wonderful literary community along the way. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Annabel Townsend wrote her PhD thesis about ideas of quality in the coffee industry at the University of Sheffield, UK, and then emigrated to Saskatchewan with her young family. When she’s not making coffee, she writes, rides a tricycle and enjoys life on the flat Canadian Prairies. Annabel’s first book, It Seemed Like A Good Idea At The Time, came out in 2018 with Pottersfield Press. The follow-up, ‘A Thousand Lives’ is out now with Wood Dragon Books. Information Source: Another Story Bookshop | eventbrite

New York Times bestselling author Cory Doctorow returns to the world of Red Team Blues to bring us the origin story of Martin Hench and the most powerful new tool for crime ever invented: the personal computer. The year is 1986. The city is San Francisco. Here, Martin Hench will invent the forensic accountant - what a bounty hunter is to people, he is to money - but for now he's an MIT dropout odd-jobbing his way around a city still reeling from the invention of a revolutionary new technology that will change everything about crime forever, one we now take completely for granted. When Marty finds himself hired by Silicon Valley PC startup Fidelity Computing to investigate a group of disgruntled ex-employees who've founded a competitor startup, he quickly realizes he's on the wrong side. Marty ditches the greasy old guys running Fidelity Computing without a second thought, utterly infatuated with the electric atmosphere of Computing Freedom. Located in the heart of the Mission, this group of brilliant young women found themselves exhausted by the predatory business practicesof Fidelity Computing and set out to beat them at their own game, making better computers and driving Fidelity Computing out of business. But this optimistic startup, fueled by young love and California-style burritos, has no idea the depth of the evil they're seeking to unroot or the risks they run. In this company-eat-company city, Martin and his friends will be lucky to escape with their lives. Cory Doctorow is a science fiction author, activist and journalist. He is the author of many books, including THE LOST CAUSE, a solarpunk science fiction novel of hope amidst the climate emergency. His recent nonfiction THE INTERNET CON: HOW TO SEIZE THE MEANS OF COMPUTATION is a Big Tech disassembly manual. Other recent books include RED TEAM BLUES, a science fiction crime thriller; CHOKEPOINT CAPITALISM, nonfiction about monopoly and creative labor markets; the LITTLE BROTHER series for young adults; INREAL LIFE, a graphic novel; and the picture book POESY THE MONSTER SLAYER. In 2020, he was inducted into the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame. Information Source: Another Story Bookshop | eventbrite