Diaspora Dialogues reads from TOK: Writing the New Toronto, Book 2

Sizzing stories for a hot summer night! Free

From the nannies of North Toronto to the short-skirted girls of Scarborough to boys kissing boys on the island, writers from Diaspora Dialogues present their take on Toronto on Friday, August 17, at 7:00 p.m.

The reading will feature TOK contributors Devyani Saltzman (author of Shooting Water), Catherine Hernandez (author of the Dora-nominated play Singkil), short story writer Michele Chai and novelist/playwright Evan Placey. A reception will follow.

Michele Chai is an emerging writer/photographer who currently lives, dreams and agitates in Toronto. She is a Butch, Chinese-Trinidadian Feminist Warrior Dyke inspired by social justice movements and everyday acts of resistance. Her works endeavor to provoke conversation and action that build relationships and challenge accepted notions of sexuality, community and identity.

Catherine Hernandez is a writer and theatre practitioner. She is the associate editor of Sweetmama.ca, was a columnist for the National Post and contributes to countless other publications. As the former head of Factory Theatre's Education/Outreach/Publicity program, she developed several strategies to increase the diversity of the theatre's audiences and presented these tactics as a panelist at the City Summit 2007. Her play Singkil premiered as part of Factory Theatre's 2006/07 season and was produced by fu-GEN Asian Canadian Theatre Company. Singkil and "Saint Candice" are in a several-part anthology-in-the-works called The Scarborough Stories, which includes Kilt Pins (a play about sexuality in a Catholic high school) and "Jude" (a short story about a champion bowler with a taste for married women). Hernandez now works as the marketing and development director for Native Earth Performing Arts and loves it.

Evan Placey is a graduate of McGill University and the University of London in England. He is a poet and playwright whose plays include Caffeine, Saturday in the Aisles, Phone Play, Fragments of Us and Dinner on the Fourteenth Floor. Currently in development are Snow Falls on the Oublie Trees and White Other. His plays have been performed in Toronto, Montreal, Edinburgh and London. He is the recipient of the Clark Lewis Prize and the Lionel Shapiro Award for Creative Writing. Placey continues to write, produce and direct new work in both Canada and the United Kingdom.

Devyani Saltzman was born in Toronto. She received a degree in human sciences from Oxford University, specializing in sociology and anthropology. Shooting Water, published by Key Porter Books in 2005, received starred reviews in both Publishers Weekly and Library Journal and has been published internationally. Her writing has also appeared in The Globe and Mail, Marie Claire and is upcoming in The Walrus.

Toronto Women's Bookstore
73 Harbord Street

www.diasporadialogues.com