I’m really looking forward to participating in the Elora Writers’ Festival this coming Sunday, June 6 in the picturesque village of Elora, Ontario. I’m humbled to be included among such a stellar constellation of Canadian writers. I’ll be one of six writers reading at the event. The others are this year’s Giller winner Linden MacIntyre, 1999 Giller winner Bonnie Burnard, Trillium Book Award winner Pasha Malla, Canlit stalwart Ray Robertson, and Barry Dempster who was nominated for a Governor General’s Award for his poetry. What an amazing lineup. Oh yes, and I’m there as well.

This is shaping up to be a great event. What an honour it is to appear with such stellar writers. Getting to meet writers has been one of the many benefits of my little journey into the literary world. I’m really looking forward to this event. Elora is just a lovely town — extraordinarily picturesque — with a deep commitment to the arts. This one will fill up quickly, so if you have any interest in attending, you may want to book now.

I’m already looking forward to this great event in early June. I’ve been invited to read at the Elora Writers’ Festival along with an amazing line-up of authors. I’m definitely punching above my weight class among these wonderful writers. I’ll be on the program with this year’s Giller winner, Linden MacIntyre, 1999 Giller winner Bonnie Burnard, Ray Robertson, Pasha Malla, and poet Barry Dempster. I’ve really come to like doing these readings and I always enjoy spending time with, and learning from, other, more experienced writers. So why not make the short drive west of Toronto to the picturesque town of Elora and attend the festival on the afternoon of June 6th? Elora has a long history of supporting the arts and I’m very pleased to have been invited.

Here’s the article from the Waterloo Record announcing the this year’s line-up.

This morning, the National Post’s Canada Also Reads longlist was released. There was some criticism of the annual CBC Canada Reads selections this year. Not because they weren’t all great books, but because many of them were well-known, already-recognized CanLit offerings. So the National Post, using Twitter, solicited nominations for an alternative program dubbed Canada Also Reads. Nominated books had to have been published in the last two years. There was quite a response from Canadians. The good news is that TBLP made the cut, albeit, along with 60 other books. There are some big name writers on the longlist including: Michael Crummey, Cory Doctorow, Cathy Marie Buchanan, Pasha Malla, Lorrie Moore, Donna Morrissey, Alice Munro, and Zoe Whittall.

The next step, sometime early in the New Year, is the announcement of five finalists, and five panelists to defend the shortlisted books. If you’re interested in being a panelist, just send an email to theafterword@nationalpost.com with the name of the book you’d like to defend. Who knows, your book choice may be a finalist and you could be a panelist. Thanks to all of you who nominated TBLP for the longlist. It seemed to work!

A week or so ago, I was pleased to participate in a great event at the wonderful Re: Reading bookstore on the Danforth here in Toronto. The reading was organized by a group of students in the PR program at Centennial College and it was in support of Frontier College. Also reading at the authors event was Pasha Malla, who wrote the award-winning short story collection, The Withdrawal Method. I really enjoyed meeting and talking with Pasha. I hope our paths cross again. The event was very well organized and the food was great. Frontier College has been doing extraordinary literacy work in this country for over 100 years. I was honoured to support this important institution.

Alexandra Courneya, a talented photographer, was at the event and took some shots. Be sure to vist her site.