Book Launch for Misha Solomon's My Great-Grandfather Danced Ballet

We hope you’ll join us in celebration of Misha Solomon’s wonderful debut poetry collection with Brick Books, My Great-Grandfather Danced Ballet. He will be joined by local authors Manahil Bandukwala, Ben Ladouceur, and rob mclennan.

Two timelines intersect, weaving an alternate reality of queer ancestors, half-truths, domesticity, and desire in spite of past and present persecution.

What if the queer ancestor you always wondered about had really existed—and could speak to you across all time? When there’s only one document to be found in the archive, can our misheard or half-remembered family stories be enough? My Great-Grandfather Danced Ballet is a daring, erotic, and humorous exploration of queer longing and Jewish possibility at the turn of two centuries. In a captivating series of narrative poems, Misha Solomon entwines an alternate memoir of his great-grandfather in pre-Holocaust Romania with a contemporary gay life in Montreal. With profound vision, voice, and craft, Solomon sets a new and powerful precedent for speculative poetic histories, allowing intimacy to find a way through memories real, imagined, and desired.

MISHA SOLOMON is a homosexual poet in and of Tiohtià:ke/Montréal. He is the author of two chapbooks, Full Sentences (Turret House Press, 2022) and FLORALS (above/ground press, 2020), and his work has appeared in Best Canadian Poetry, Arc, The Fiddlehead, Grain, The Malahat Review, The New Quarterly, Riddle Fence, and & Change. He completed an MA at Concordia University and a BA at Columbia University in New York City. My Great-Grandfather Danced Ballet is his debut full-length collection.

Mike Martin Double Book Launch

Join Mike Martin for the launch of TWO books: A Change in Plans (A Sgt. Wildflower Mystery) and My Ode to Newfoundland (A Poetry Collection). Featuring music by Victoria Vlad.

Mike Martin was born in St. John’s, NL on the east coast of Canada and now lives and works in Ottawa, Ontario. He is a long-time freelance writer and his articles and essays have appeared in newspapers, magazines and online across Canada as well as in the United States and New Zealand.

He is the author of the award-winning Sgt. Windflower Mystery series set in beautiful Grand Bank. There are now 12 books in this light mystery series with the publication of Dangerous Waters. A Tangled Web was shortlisted in 2017 for the best light mystery of the year, and Darkest Before the Dawn won the 2019 Bony Blithe Light Mystery Award. Mike has also published Christmas in Newfoundland: Memories and Mysteries, a Sgt. Windflower Book of Christmas past and present.

Book Signing with Sonia Saikaley

Celebrate Mother’s Day with this lovely anthology, Mum's the Word, by Guernia Editions all about mothers, with contributor Sonia Saikaley! She will be in store chatting about her story in the book and signing books from 1-3pm.

About the anthology:

Everyone has a mother. What if that mother was wonderful? Good. What if that mother was not the mother shown on sweet Mother’s Day cards, featured in ads, shown in Hallmark movies? What if a collection about mothers included more than just tributes? What if the collection was honest, inclusive, and thought-provoking? The editors set out to gather these kinds of stories from published authors who were willing to share their experiences. The result was Mum’s the Word, thirteen tales dealing with everything from missing mothers to regretful mothers to embarrassing mothers to redefined mothers.

SONIA SAIKALEY was born and raised in Ottawa, Canada to a big Lebanese family. The daughter of a shopkeeper, she had access to all the treats she wanted. Her first book, The Lebanese Dishwasher, co-won the 2012 Ken Klonsky Novella Contest. She has two poetry collections Turkish Delight, Montreal Winter and A Samurai’s Pink House. Her novel The Allspice Bath was the 2020 IPPY Gold Medal winner and the 2020 International Book Awards winner for Multicultural Fiction and a finalist in the 2020 Ottawa Book Awards. Her first children’s picture book Samantha’s Sandwich Stand was published by Renaissance Press in 2021. She is a graduate of the University of Ottawa and the Humber School for Writers. Many years ago she belly-danced her way across Northern Japan and taught English there, too. 

An Evening with Fran Lebowitz

The National Arts Centre presents Fran Lebowitz at Southam Hall

In a cultural landscape filled with endless pundits and talking heads, Fran Lebowitz stands out as one of our most insightful social commentators. 

Her essays and interviews offer her acerbic views on current events and the media – as well as pet peeves including tourists, baggage-claim areas, after-shave lotion, adults who roller skate, or anyone who is unduly tan. The New York Times Book Review calls Lebowitz an "important humorist in the classic tradition." Purveyor of urban cool, Lebowitz is a cultural satirist whom many call the heir to Dorothy Parker.

With book sales by Perfect Books.

More details and tickets here!

Susannah M. Smith launches the Alchemy of Paradise

We can’t wait to welcome Susannah M. Smith to launch her next incredible literary novel from Invisible Publishing, The Alchemy of Paradise. Join us!

A curator confronts grief, loss, and mortality by arranging the fragments of her life—objects, memories, impressions—into a fragile order.

Set in contemporary England, with Venice shimmering at its core, The Alchemy of Paradise follows her attempt to preserve what might otherwise vanish, shaping a collection that makes survival possible. When order fails to yield meaning, she turns to the alchemical, where matter shifts into metaphor and loss becomes transformation.

A novel of ideas told through poetic essays and reflections, The Alchemy of Paradise explores the tension between collecting and transmuting, order and disorder. In the spirit of Walter Benjamin’s collections, and in dialogue with writers like W.G. Sebald, Patti Smith, and Leanne Shapton, it meditates on the ways that art and imagination allow us to chart personal maps through the universal yet individual territories of loss. Refusing collapse into despair, The Alchemy of Paradise offers curation itself as a restless, ongoing practice of creation and renewal.

SUSANNAH M. SMITH is the author of The Fairy Tale Museum (Invisible Publishing) and How the Blessed Live (Coach House Books). Her short fiction, poetry, and visual art have appeared in various publications. She lives in Vancouver.

Festival Book Club with Carly Watters, Kerry Clare, and Mai Nguyen

Ottawa Writers Festival presents the Festival Book Club!

Podcaster Carly Watters, a literary agent, representing award-winners and bestsellers in a variety of categories, will spill the tea on what she thinks makes for a great read as she and Mary Taggart, author and founder of #marysmustread book club discuss what makes a good book club pick. They’ll also share their top book club recommendations.

Then, Mary takes the stage for a conversation with two of the country’s hottest authors, Mai Nguyen and Kerry Clare, to get a taste of their newly released books and find out how they bring a story to life.

Mai Nguyen ’s Cleo Dang Would Rather Be Dead is a darkly humorous yet uplifting novel about a grieving mother who starts working at a funeral home and discovers that the best way to honor the dead is to live. All Cleo has ever wanted was to be a mother. The day she discovers she’s pregnant is the happiest of her life, but something goes very, very wrong. Now a grieving Cleo must navigate life after losing her baby. Forced to quit her demanding job as an actuary, Cleo manages to find a job at a funeral home where she meets a revolving door of bereaved locals and discovers the power of confronting grief.

A novel about friendship, community, and church jumble sales,  Definitely Thriving  by Kerry Clare , is a celebration of people who are perfectly imperfect, and all the love and support that’s required for one woman to make it on her own. After accidentally-on-purpose exploding her listless marriage, Clemence returns to her hometown resolved to build a life for herself. It’s supposed to be Eat, Pray, Love, without the love part. But no woman is an island, and soon Clemence finds herself embroiled in neighbourhood drama.

This special event will not be live-streamed. Tickets include welcome beverage and nibbles. Cash bar available.

Book sales by Perfect Books.

The Chip Stand Book Signing

Join Joel Kimmel and Chantal Bennett for a book signing for their book, The Chip Stand!

The humble chip stand is an iconic symbol of Canada and a welcome sight to hungry tourists and locals alike.

Eating at a chip stand is an unpretentious experience. No white tablecloths or extensive menus here. The chip stand is where down-to-earth, real Canadians go to indulge. It's the quintessential Canadian road trip food. From coast to coast, these colorful shacks, sheds, buses, vans and trucks dish out delicious French fries, poutine, hamburgers and steaming hot Pogos.

For 10 years, illustrators Chantal Bennett and Joel Kimmel have taken road trips around Canada searching for the best chip stands, interviewing the owners and celebrating the colorful stands in drawings and paintings. Their beautiful illustrations capture the eclectic aesthetic of chip stands from British Columbia to Newfoundland.

Sadly, many chip stands are disappearing or being replaced with shiny food trucks. This book serves as an archive of Canada's disappearing chip stands that so many people cherish. It offers up a fresh-cut serving of over 130 illustrations of the best-looking chip stands in the country.

Once you've read this book you'll never look at a chip stand the same way again.

JOEL KIMMEL is an illustrator who specializes in portraits, maps, athletes and travel postcard illustrations. He is a graduate of Sheridan College's illustration program. His work has appeared in numerous publications, including Maroon Magazine, Maclean's, Scientific American, Time and the Wall Street Journal. He shares a studio with his wife, illustrator Chantal Bennett.

CHANTAL BENNETT is an editorial illustrator who enjoys illustrating portraits, icons and other things that reflect her passion for history, fashion history and cute vintage things in general. She also has a soft spot for fairytales and turn-of-the-century illustrations. She studied illustration at Parsons the New School for Design in NYC. When not working she enjoys historical sewing, plein air painting, printing on an 1800-pound letterpress and hanging out with her husband, Joel Kimmel, and their beagles, Peanut and Pistache.

House of Anansi Poetry Bash

Join Ottawa Writers Festival for an evening of poetry and conversation celebrating new titles from House of Anansi Press.

Part self-interrogation, part confession, part hospital diary, the intense, heartbreakingly frank poems in BRANDI BIRD'S second collection, Pitiful, detail the author’s ongoing struggles with eating disorders and depression, conditions that disproportionately afflict Indigenous girls, women, and two-spirited persons.

A.F. MORITZ'S twenty-third book of poems originated with an impulse, beginning in April 2019, to write a series of continuous poems. The first goal was to keep them short. The second was to make them separate, in the process reflecting the whole of human life, stable in moments and bodies. In The Wren, Moritz arranges 70 short poems in a sort of galaxy: an apparent scatter, not of stars but of poems, of feeling-thoughts.

GRAEME BEZANSON'S debut collection, Ultra Blue, is a book-length sequence of poems about the emotional lives of boys and the challenges of growing up within contemporary constructions of masculinity. These intense, insistently strange poems developed from Bezanson's struggles with guiding his young son through a culture of toxic masculinity and violence.

Special thanks to our friends at the Great Canadian Theatre Company. With book sales by Perfect Books.

Reserve your free tickets to this limited seating event here!

Murray Mollard Book Signing

Don’t miss Murray Mollard in store signing copies of Winning Pitch: The Canadian Men’s Soccer Team at the World Cup and Beyond ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup!

In 2026, millions of soccer fans will have their eyes on Canada as we co-host the Greatest Show on Earth: the FIFA World Cup in Vancouver and Toronto. And they will wonder—will Canada’s men’s team be heroes or heartbreakers? Winning Pitch: The Canadian Men’s Soccer Team at the World Cup and Beyond provides expert insight into the question of what it will take for Canada’s national men’s team and soccer in Canada to be successful in 2026 and beyond. Though it had recent success at the Copa América, Canada’s men’s soccer team has been here before. The incredible story of Canada’s first World Cup in 1986—featuring many players from British Columbia—and our second appearance in Qatar in 2022 were followed by big letdowns. They provide important lessons for the future.

With more books about soccer in Canada focused on memoirs from standout Canadian soccer greats, something is missing. Winning Pitch fills the gap with a more comprehensive look at the culture and systems necessary for securing Canada’s future soccer fortunes. Weaving together interviews with coaches, fans, executives and players, as well as his own reflections of more than five decades in the sport as both a player and an executive, author and lawyer Murray Mollard criss-crosses the country to understand the people and ideas that shape our history and future with the Beautiful Game.

MURRAY MOLLARD is a former UBC champion player, coach, governor, passionate supporter and observer of the sport in Canada. He is a regular contributor to the sports and op-ed pages of major newspapers such as the Vancouver Sun and The Province. He lives in Vancouver, BC.

Book Signing with Peggy Kleinplatz

Please join Peggy Kleinplatz, Ph.D for a book signing from two of her books: Magnificent Sex and New Directions in Sex Therapy: Innovations and Alternatives, Third Edition.

About the books:

Magnificent Sex is based on the largest, in-depth interview study ever conducted with people who are having extraordinary sex. It gathers the nuggets for remarkable sex from the "experts", distilling them into an attainable blueprint for ordinary lovers who want to make erotic intimacy grow over the course of a lifetime. Looking at factors including individual and relational qualities, empathic communication and the myths and realities of magnificent sex, this book offers accessible and evidence-based guidance for lovers and therapists alike.

It is replete with frank and often humorous interviews with straight and LGBTQ individuals and couples, those who are "vanilla" and "kinky", monogamous and consensually non-monogamous and healthy and chronically ill. This illuminating book explores the implications of the findings to develop a model that effectively tackles the common problems of low desire and frequency. The "cure" for low desire is to create desirable sex!

New Directions in Sex Therapy: Innovations and Alternatives, Third Edition focuses on new and cutting-edge therapy paradigms as alternatives to conventional clinical strategies, challenging practitioners to expand our thinking about how to deal with sexual concerns. In the third edition of this award-winning book, Peggy J. Kleinplatz, Ph.D., brings together the best therapists and sexologists to advance beyond predominant approaches to sexual difficulties.

PEGGY J. KLEINPLATZ, Ph.D is Professor in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Ottawa. Please see www.optimalsexualexperiences.com . She is a Certified Sex Therapist and Educator. Her research focuses on optimizing sexual experience, with a particular interest in sexual health in older adults, people with disabilities and chronic illness and other marginalized populations. Kleinplatz has edited or authored six books including New Directions in Sex Therapy: Innovations and Alternatives, winner of the American Association of Sexuality Educators, Counsellors and Therapists (AASECT) 2013 Book Award and with A. Dana Menard, Ph.D. Magnificent Sex: Lessons from Extraordinary Lovers, winner of the 2021 Society for Sex Therapy and Research Consumer Book Award. In 2015, Kleinplatz received the AASECT Professional Standard of Excellence Award. In 2021, Kleinplatz received the Distinguished Sexual and Gender Health Revolutionary Award from the Department of Family Medicine and Community Health of the Medical School, University of Minnesota. In 2021, she became a Fellow of the American Psychological Association. Her research, writing, teaching and clinical work have been intended to challenge, expand and diversify the field of sex therapy.

An Evening with Eckhart Tolle

We are delighted to invite you to a rare and transformational evening with Eckhart Tolle live in Ottawa.

Join us for this unique opportunity to sit with Eckhart as he points you to spiritual awakening and the transformation of consciousness.

With his hallmark warmth, humour and compassion, this evening will connect you with the peace and serenity that arises from living in the moment.

Eckhart’s profound, yet simple teachings have helped countless people from around the globe awaken to a vibrantly alive inner peace in their daily lives. The New York Times has called Eckhart Tolle “the most popular spiritual author in the United States”, and the Watkins Review named him as “the most spiritually influential person in the world”.

ECKHART TOLLE'S writings and life-changing public events have touched millions of lives, garnering fans to the likes of Oprah, the Dalai Lama and Deepak Chopra. He is the best-selling author of The Power of Now and A New Earth that are widely regarded as the most transformational books of our time.

With book sales by Perfect Books.

Tickets available here!