See you at Toronto's First Book Fair

INSPIRE, Toronto's first book fair, starts this Thursday, November 13th and runs to the end of Sunday, the 16th.

A book fair, you say? In Toronto? About time, I say. I don’t think a city can call itself culturally first class without an International Book Fair. But even a book fair on its own isn’t enough. The folks have got to come out; they’ve got to show their enthusiasm. A book fair without book readers is like … like a deflated soufflé.

All our pods are lined up, awaiting inspection. Both little guys and multinationals. Guernica, one of the little guys, is there (Pod #33 in The Discovery Pavilion). A bunch of anxious writers have been harnessed to read, to sign, to spread some literary gossip. Around them, a sea of books through which you’re invited to swim without fear of drowning – not even from information and/or sensory overload.

There’ll be discussions and panels and outright arguments (of the bookerly type, one hopes). Guernica’s own panel (“Guernica Editions Presents Literature in Translation”) is pretty much self-explanatory. Saturday, Nov. 15, 10:30 on the Discovery Stage. I’m hosting (which can have a different meaning in French but we won’t go there).

I’ll also be reading as part of the Association of Italian Canadian Writers/Accenti Magazine presentations at Booth 918. I’m scheduled for late Sunday afternoon. What to read? Well, there’s always that Bressani-Prize-winning poetry from The House on 14th Avenue (Signature Editions, check it out). Or maybe something from The Giulio Metaphysics III, the novel-cum-linked-short-story collection wherein I give my character Giulio freedom to be himself – whatever that means!

The price is right, especially when it comes to a meal for the soul. I’ll be at Pod #33, Discovery Pavilion. Ready to chat, discuss, argue.

So see you there. At the fair.