November 16, 2023
Did you know…
Did you know that, in addition to being a prolific tea drinker, that I’m also an accomplished host/moderator of literary events?
I love these roles, bring all my energy to them, and can engage with books on a really meaningful level that’s satisfying and fun for writers and audiences alike. I will never ask anyone how she finds the time to write with kids, or how much her life is similar to her protagonist’s. I will also keep my cool when, just say, someone in the audience faints, or when your building’s fire alarm keeps going off while we’re on Zoom (both true stories!).
Hire me! I can help make your event really great!
October 27, 2023
One Week
Publishing a book, as I’ve said before, tends to be weird and embarrassing, and the hardest thing about it (the struggle is REAL) is that there are almost never weeks like this one.
Weeks where a room full of people come together for a fabulous night of fun and conversation, and book buying, and wonderful friendly people line up for my autograph. (Thank you so much to the Book Drunkard Festival for a very good night!)
And then on Wednesday, I got to dress up in an actual sequinned ball gown and be feted (and bring along the most HANDSOME and CHARMING plus-one) to the Writers’s Trust Storytellers’s Ball. We had the best time, and it was truly a night to remember.
And if all that wasn’t enough, I received a message from my publisher at Doubleday Canada yesterday who’d seen a certain gorgeous novel being read on public transit, and she’d even snapped a photo, and that’s even more dazzling than the ball gown.
February 25, 2022
Signs of Hope
I am devastated by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, by the toppling of our world order, and while my mental health is reeling, I am buoyed by how people all over the world, leaders and ordinary citizens, particularly within Russia itself, are standing in defiance of violence and tyranny, standing FOR democracy and freedom (which in this case actually means something, for once). We are all we have, and it’s so very precious, and it’s everything. Desperate for signs of hope tonight, I found this one newly installed on Brunswick south of Bloor, and it meant a lot to me. Sending love to wherever you are. And let’s abolish nuclear weapons so nobody else ever has to be this afraid again.
More:
- On Saturday February 26, I’m walking 5km to raise funds for my neighbours at the Fort York Food Bank as part of the Coldest Night of the Year fundraiser—it’s not too late to contribute if you’re able. You can donate here, and thank you!
- Did you know that I’m one of the jurors for the 2022 Kobzar Book Awards, which celebrates excellent books with a tangible connection to Ukrainian-Canadian culture? Learn more about the shortlist. The award will be presented on March 24.
February 23, 2022
Thinking More About Freedom
Today I went back and updated a list I’d put up at 49thShelf.com a few years ago, a list of challenged or banned Canadian books on the occasion of Freedom to Read Week. And I realized that my thoughts about censorship had been complicated in the years since I’d last checked out the list, when the idea of banning a book for its gratuitous sex or LGBTQ content seemed patently absurd and I was wholly onside with every person’s right to read Margaret Laurence’s The Diviners, never mind all the fucking (which was, not coincidentally, all the pages in my copy at which the spine had been broken). Freedom to read had once seemed easy to believe in.
But reading through the annotated list of challenged books, I was reminded that these things are complicated. Should the library in Victoria, BC, have gotten rid of their copy of Mog and the Granny, by Judith Kerr, because of its outdated terminology and stereotyped images of Indigenous people? Maybe yes? And is there a reason to retain the Dr. Seuss book with ethnic stereotyping? Maybe possibly? And how is this example different? (Spoiler: all kinds of ways!)
It occurs to me that this is why we have librarians, that libraries and all book collections require curating and culling, and that this is kind of thing is complicated, yet another issue for which asking questions is perhaps more important than having answers.
Something I’ve found curious in public discourse over the past few years is the forefronting of free speech as a fundamental tenet of our society. Not because free speech is not important, but why is it more important than, say, income equality, or physical safety, or access to education, or environmental protections? This question is complicated by the fact that the free speech question has been hitched to the wagons of all kinds of bad actors, that it’s possible to build a powerful platform on the basis of “cancel culture” backlash, and that far too often these conversations are ideologically driven and thoroughly devoid of intellectual curiosity. Sunlight is turning out not to be the best disinfectant, but instead an amplifier of hate and misinformation, and there are plenty of forces who are counting on that.
Voltaire never said it either, but there are more than a few people to whom I’d never utter the phrase, “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.” I continue to think that these are the abstract principles that sound perfectly reasonable when you assume that all things are equal, except they’re really not, and there are all kinds of factors in play, including race and gender, that only seem irrelevant if they’ve never factored in your experience. There’s a lot of hyperbole around harm, this is true (see Sarah Schulman’s Conflict is Not Abuse), but there’s a lot of “free speech” out there that’s pretty dangerous, disingenuous, and can hurt other people in demonstrable ways—vaccine disinformation, for example.
It felt weird to consider Freedom to Read Week in the context of 2022, after five years of living in an era in which free speech has been weaponized by some of the most awful people for personal/financial gain. I still very much believe in the principles of free speech and anti-censorship, but I no longer think that these things are uncomplicated or straightforward. The whole thing making me quite uncomfortable…but maybe that’s the point, that it’s supposed to.
And with all that in mind, this afternoon I listened to Brene Brown’s conversation with Ben Wizner of the ACLU, “Free Speech, Misinformation, and the Case for Nuance,” which was fascinating. I learned so much, had ideas clarified, and even changed my mind, which is a true sign that one is really thinking after all. The greatest takeaway was that it’s not big tech’s content moderation we should be blaming for undermining and eroding democracy, but instead their monopolies and their hoarding of resources which are working to hollow out the middle class in America and elsewhere, which perhaps might be the biggest thread to democracy of all.
February 1, 2021
Virtual Author Talk
Last week I had the pleasure of two library events, and the live Toronto Library one was such a success, with so many of my favourite internet people tuning in. The next day we recorded my author visit to the Cobourg Public Library and it was also great, because not only was interviewer Ashley so fantastic, but she’d attended the TPL event the night before and was able to steer this one in a very different and fascinating direction. I had a lot of fun, there is so much energy and some real insight in the conversation, and I am delighted to be able to share it with you. Worth checking out, for sure.
January 25, 2021
Two Events This Week
October 28, 2020
True Covid Confessions: I don’t miss literary events. All I ever wanted to do was stay home and READ.
As a literary enthusiast, a reader and a writer, it feels like blasphemy to declare it, but I don’t miss literary events. Not a bit.
I don’t miss yelling over the roar of a crowd to make awkward small talk, sitting through readings that last far too long, listening to that one guy whose outsized ego means he clearly holds his co-panelists in contempt, or being introduced to a writer for at least the third time (we even shared a panel once) who still claims not to know me.
I don’t miss paying way too much money for a drink I don’t really feel like drinking, or half as much (which is still a lot) for a glass of tepid orange juice.
And the audience Q&As. I don’t miss them at all. The woman who actually has a comment instead of a question, and the other one who wants advice on how to get published, and I’m still traumatized by the event back in 2006 when a man got up to ask Zadie Smith if she supposed she would have had as much success had she not been so physically attractive.
Or even worse, the events that only a handful of people have bothered to show up to, so that I am mortified on behalf of the author, the establishment, and humanity in general, and then I somehow feel contractually obliged to become that woman yammering on in the Q&A, since the alternative is crickets.
And while I do appreciate the opportunity to buy books at literary events, particularly when it enables me to support one of my favourite local independent booksellers, it is often the case that I have purchased the book on sale already, having pre-ordered it or ventured out to buy it on the publication day. So that I’m buying a copy of a book I own already, which is hardly a tragedy (I love deciding on the perfect reader to pass my spare copy on to) but it’s not exactly economically sensible.
I miss the cheese though—such irresistible cubes. The pieces I cut at home never achieve the same symmetry. And I miss seeing friends, and celebrating writers I love. I’m still buzzing from a 2018 conversation with Esi Edugyan and Meg Wolitzer at the Toronto Festival of Authors, scrawling Wolitzer’s brilliant words in my notebook: “The world will whittle your daughter down, but a mother never should, and my mother never did, and that is feminism in action.” I miss the inspiration of watching panels as fabulously curated as those at an event like The Festival of Literary Diversity, which is where I became acquainted with amazing writers like Cherie Dimaline, Carrianne Leung, and Amber Dawn for the very first time.
As a writer, I have gained a particular understanding of just why literary events matter so much, and I’ve been grateful to them creating opportunities for me to connect with readers and to enact the privilege of being an author in public—basically what dreams are made of.
But even my most hotly anticipated literary events, those opportunities to share a room with authors whose books and ideas are integral to my very being—these, I have secretly resented for the way they keep me from my number one pursuit, which is reading. If it was socially acceptable for me to hide in the corner with your novel at your book launch, I would do it, but the lighting never suffices, and enough people think I’m kind of rude already.
I have secretly resented them for the way they keep me from my number one pursuit, which is reading.
And so for me, there has been something of a relief in the cessation of the literary social calendar. Skipping the Zoom launches, and curling up with a book instead, and I’ve been doing so much reading. I’ve been doing my part by buying books too, and then some. The most joyful moments during the dark days of these pandemic times has been finding deliveries on my porch from local bookshops, who’ve worked so hard to keep their businesses going and keep us all in books while in lockdown.
Books and the reading proving to be the most delightful diversion and escape as well, the opposite of twitter doom scrolling. I’ve enjoyed finding online community too in a network of readers, which is rich and rewarding, even if lacking in cheese.
My new novel Waiting for a Star to Fall is out this week and you don’t even have to leave the house to celebrate!
- Purchase your copy today.
- Tonight (Wednesday), I’m doing an Instagram Live event with Indigo at 7pm.
- Tickets are still available for the Book Drunkard Festival Event tomorrow.
In 2010, I wrote this somewhat related piece, “Enough shameful author appearances for one lifetime”
September 28, 2020
The Book Auction to Support Prisoners
The excellent Thea Lim has organized the Book Auction to Support Prisoners (in support of Book Clubs for Inmates, the COVID-19 Prisoner Emergency Support Fund & the Jail Hotline) which kicks off today. There’s an amazing list of signed books and other special offers up for grabs, including my novel Mitzi Bytes. Good books for a great cause!
October 31, 2019
How to Organize a Literary Event in 48 Hours
More than a month ago, I emailed my friend Nathalie and asked her if she’d attend the Toronto Public Library event with Christy Ann Conlin, Megan Gail Coles and Elisabeth de Mariaffi, and she replied with an enthusiastic YES, as you would, with a lineup like that. But then the event was cancelled after the Toronto Library was called on to cancel its provision of space to a speaker whose hate-speech about trans people is just one of the many awful things about her, and they refused. And so many authors and artists have cancelled their Toronto Library event in solidarity with the trans community, which is important and the right thing to do—but it also means that Christy Ann Conlin was coming to Toronto all the way from Nova Scotia for her very first reading in the city, and she had no event booked. So what to do?
I hadn’t properly understood the situation until Monday, or else I would have stepped up sooner, but once I’d figured it out, it wasn’t long before I had my inspiration. Right in the middle of dinner, in fact. “What would you think” I asked my husband, “about us having twenty people over for a literary event in our living room?” And my husband was so excited about me having a wild inspiration for which he would not be obligated to build a website that he agreed without hesitation. And so I sent an email to Christy Ann in Nova Scotia, and once she said she was in, there was just one more email to set the wheels in motion.
I had to email Nathalie and ask if she would be up for some custom mixology—and she agreed. Thank heavens, because everybody knows you can’t have a party without an official cocktail… (Nathalie invented three different cocktails, all with Nova Scotia spirits: “Minas Basin,” “It All Went Pear-Shaped,” and “Juniper and Apple Shrub.”)
And next, we needed people to fill my living room in 48 hours notice, but they came, a wonderful collection of generous, book loving people who were happy to welcome Christy Ann to Toronto. They filled my home with the most wonderful bookish spirit (and all got to take home custom Watermark soap from Hen of the Woods—what a treat!).
It was wonderful! Friends and neighbours came, a literary community of amazing readers and writers, including Christy Ann fans who I got to meet for the first time, plus a very exciting guest—Amy Spurway, of Crow fame, who was in town for the author’s festival. We ate food, sipped delicious drinks, made great conversation, listened to Christy Ann read from Watermark, and I got to ask her questions about her career and her book, and she was just so kind, and gracious and terrific. Throughly entertaining and delightful, and we were all so lucky to be part of it together, but me most of all, because I got to experience it without leaving the house.
October 29, 2018
More Fun Things
Last weekend, I had the great pleasure of returning to the Stratford Writers Festival, where I moderated a panel about women’s experiences with Sarah Selecky, Andrea Bain, and Emily Anglin, and it was wonderful. I still remember the first time I was asked to moderate anything, years ago, and how I accepted the job because I thought it was the kind of thing I’d really like to do, although I wasn’t sure I’d be very good at it—and I wasn’t. But over the years, I’ve become comfortable with public speaking and confident about my own skills as a reader, to the point where I’m a kickass moderator and I know it, and I love it. It was a real pleasure to be part of this event.
That same weekend, I had the joyful experience of my review of Iona Whishaw’s A Sorrowful Sanctuary appearing in The Toronto Star’s venerable books section. So nice too that Whishaw’s all too timely historical novel gave me an excuse to be calling our shady nationalist politicians and Nazis in the media. ‘“I suppose I’m simply naïve,” [Lane] explains. “I want all my Nazis parceled up and put on the shelf of history after all our hard work in the war. I didn’t expect to find them here.”’
And this weekend, I’m off to Sudbury for the Wordstock Sudbury Festival. On Saturday morning, I’ll be appearing on a book industry panel with Hazel Millar and Holly Kent, and later that afternoon representing Mitzi Bytes with Margaret Christakos and Diane Schoemperlen, and I’m really looking forward to it.
