Are we missing your reading series? Give us a shout at info@livewords.ca and let us know.
The Art Bar runs every Tuesday night at Clinton’s & is recognized as Canada’s longest running poetry-only, weekly reading series. Since 1991, it has featured both emerging and established poets from across Canada and occasionally from abroad. artbar.org
Authors at Harbourfront Centre
In the past thirty-four years, Authors at Harbourfront Centre has welcomed more than 5,000 writers from Canada and beyond, including 15 Nobel laureates and countless other award winners. The programme runs year-round from September to June, with events ranging from readings to panel discussions and memorials. http://www.readings.org
AvantGarden
AvantGarden is a new Toronto-based performance series that seeks to provide a space for innovative, edgy, experimental, text and sound based work that explores language as a problematic rather than a mere vehicle for representation. We hope that this will be an inclusive atmosphere for community-building, to expose new writing to a larger audience, provide a forum for new voices as well as more senior artists. We are excited to foreground work by women while maintaining an atmosphere that strives for multiplicity, polyvocality and rhizomal growth. Welcome to the garden!
Draft Reading Series
Draft is a celebration of process. The readings take place every month during the winter season in the Leslieville area. Readers are invited to try something new … anything they’ve always wanted to try but have never had the opportunity. Draft includes both established and emerging writers. For every reading, we produce a numbered, limited edition booklet including notes, sketches, collages and drafts by the evening’s readers. For more information draftreadings@gmail.com.
HEAR/HEAR Reading Series
HEAR/HEAR has been making itself comfortable at the Free Times Cafe (320 College St) for nearly a year now. HEAR/HEAR is not simply another reading series: our FREE, ALL AGES events showcase the extraordinary talents of our NOW HEAR THIS! Writers-in-Residence. HEAR/HEAR celebrates writers getting involved with youth and encourages the Toronto community to support its local authors.
Creative James’ poetry & spoken word series @ the Black Swan Tavern (Broadview & Danforth) is held on the third Thursday of each month starting sharp at 8:10 PM but come early if you want to get a spot on the open mic. Always an engaging evening James features an eclectic selection of poets & spoken word perfomrers and every evening features a poetry theme challenge. hotsaucedwords.ca
International Festival of Authors
The International Festival of Authors (IFOA) was inaugurated in 1980 with a mandate to bring together the best writers of contemporary world literature. Like the weekly reading series, the IFOA includes readings, interviews, lectures and round table discussions as well as public book signings and a festival bookstore. http://www.readings.org
Pivot Readings at the Press Club (Dundas just west of Bathurst) every second Wednesday, programmed and hosted by Carey Toane! Pivot is the successor to the late and much-loved I.V. Lounge Reading series: pivotreadings.wordpress.com
The Plasticine Poetry Series is held on the 3rd Sunday of the month @ The Central, 603 Markham St. (1 block west of Bathurst subway) starting at 6 PM. The series welcomes a mix of new and established poets and has an open stage to close out each show. Ably hosted by Cathy Petch. new.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2…
TKO’s bar – 2nd floor, 1600 Danforth Ave. (at Coxwell) is held on the second Thursday of every month for a delightful one-two combination of spoken word/poetry readings and poetry workshopping. http://www.torontorenaissanceconspiracy.ca/
Quality Poetry & Fiction at the Harbord House (nee Rowers Pub) at 7:30 PM on the first Monday of each month, from October to June. The series features poetry & fiction by established writers in a warm and comfortable resto-pub atmosphere. rowerspubreadingseries.com
Strong Words presents poetry & fiction at the Gladstone Hotel on the fourth Monday of the month. http://www.strong-words.ca
Toronto’s fabled summer fest of poetry & spoken word. thescream.ca
The source for all things slam and slamming. torontopoetryslam.com/event-list…
