Events

List

August 2026

Pauline Holdstock and Richard Kelly Kemick: Launch Party!

Behold, two amazing local authors have new collections out with one of our favourite Canadian indie presses, Biblioasis. Let’s celebrate! Join us for a night of joyful readings and conversation with Pauline Holdstock, author of the short story What Endures, and Richard Kelly Kemick, author of the essay collection Decadence. What Endures represents Holdstock’s responses to a world evolving ...read more

Tickets

Common Threads: Readings and Conversation

Join writers Suzanne Elki Yoko Hartmann, Keiko Honda and Raymond Nakamura for an evening of conversation and celebration of their shared Japanese heritage. Toronto-based Hartmann will read from her hybrid memoir The Nail That Sticks Out: Reflections on the Postwar Japanese Canadian Community. The work of creative non-fiction is a next-generation account that explores an evolving community ...read more

Tickets

July 2026

Community & Skills

Befriend the Taboo: An Erotica Writing Workshop with Adèle Barclay

Anais Nin wrote, “Sex must be mixed with tears, laughter, words, promises, scenes, jealousy, envy, all the spices of fear, foreign travel, new faces, novels, stories, dreams, fantasies, music, dancing, opium, wine.” Writing about sex and sexuality is an opportunity to explore the vastness and nuances of the human experience. In this workshop, we will ...read more

Tickets

litty Book Club: Contrapposto

The litty book club is your chance to read the books everyone’s talking about before they’re talking about them. Created by readers and for readers, the litty book club is a bi-monthly function and a welcoming space for strong opinions and lively conversation around a curation of litty’s prospects — newly published books the litty team ...read more

Tickets

In Translation

In Translation Bonus Beach Party!

We're taking our Translation Book Club outdoors for a special summer bonus gathering at Kits Beach. Join us for a beachside bash, featuring Waist Deep by Linea Maja Ernst, translated from Danish by Nicolette Sherilyn Hellberg. Heralded as “The Quintessential Millennial Novel” by Vogue, this is a lush and delightfully messy summer read about friends, lovers, and ...read more

Tickets

Spying on America: Book Launch

Join us for a warm and funny evening with Bill Gaston, author of the new “fascinating road trip” book, Spying on America. Will Ferguson describes it as “a journey through the looking glass into that torqued version of Canada we call the United States.” On a June morning in 2022, Bill Gaston drives off the Victoria–Port Angeles ...read more

Tickets

Climate Solutions

Upstart Climate Book Club: Human Nature

Welcome to Upstart & Crow's climate book club! Upstart & Crow’s Climate Book Club meets every second month to read and discuss works that illuminate the complexity of our shared ecological present. While some are urgent works of non-fiction, and others are novels or hybrid texts, each book is chosen with care for its ability to ...read more

Tickets

In Translation

JAWS [tiburón]: A Celebration with Two Translators

First published in Mexico in 2015, JAWS by Xitlalitl Rodríguez Mendoza won the Premio Nacional de Poesía Ignacio Manuel Altamirano. Join us in celebrating this award-winning poetry book’s first publication in English! We’ll be joined by translators Dora Prieto and Daniela Rodríguez Chevalier, in conversation with author Marc Perez. With sharp lyricism, documentary fragments and cinematic echoes, this ...read more

Tickets

Community & Skills

Start an Easy Graphic Memoir With Jon Claytor

Simply put, this workshop is about opening the door to telling your story with words and images. We’ll start a 12-page memoir, no skills necessary. We will do some simple drawing and writing activities to get started and then dive into creating your memoir with images and text and above all encouragement to continue your ...read more

Tickets

June 2026

litty Book Club: London Falling

The litty book club is your chance to read the books everyone’s talking about before they’re talking about them. Created by readers and for readers, the litty book club is a bi-monthly function and a welcoming space for strong opinions and lively conversation around a curation of litty’s prospects — newly published books the litty team ...read more

Tickets

Community & Skills

Ex Libris: A Bookplate Design & Lino Printing Workshop with Bijal Patel

Imagine opening your favourite book and seeing a custom, hand-printed design inside the cover. Join us for a special evening of books and linocut printmaking with artist Bijal Patel. In this two-part workshop, you’ll choose a book that feels meaningful to you, then transform it into a personal keepsake by designing and hand printing your ...read more

Tickets

‘The Teachings of Mutton’: A BC and Yukon Book Prize Celebration

Until now, there has been very little written about the Coast Salish Woolly Dog, or sqʷəmey̓ in the Hul’q’umi’num language. Teachings of Mutton: A Coast Salish Woolly Dog tells the story of the Woolly Dog, and Mutton in particular. For 150 years the pelt of a dog named "Mutton" languished in a drawer that the Smithsonian, until an ...read more