Vancouver! Head to Pale Fire Gallery at 870 East Broadway for a triple Talonbooks reading! Cecily Nicholson will be reading from Crowd Source, Jeff Derksen will be reading from Future Works, and Michael Nardone will be reading from Convivialities: Dialogues on Poetics. Don’t miss this evening of literature!

Triple Talonbooks Reading
Pale Fire Gallery
Vancouver, BC
October 8, 2025
Doors open at 6:30 p.m. PDT, readings begin at 7:00 p.m. PDT

Head to Centre A Gallery for “I Can’t Believe Z Wrote That”, a literary evening to celebrate the release of The Book of Z by Rahat Kurd. Kurd will be joined by a trio of excellent poets, the author of #postdildo, Danielle LaFrance, Jane Shi, and Brandon Wint!

I Can’t Believe Z Wrote That
Centre A Gallery
2nd Floor, Sun Wah Centre on 268 Keefer Street
Vancouver, BC
October 8, 2025
7:00 p.m. PDT

Rahat Kurd, author of The Book of Z, is one of the readers at the October instalment of the Real Vancouver Writers’ Series at Iron Dog Books! Enjoy an evening of literature from this swath of outstanding writers. Hosted by Sean Cranbury and the author of You’re Gonna Love This, Dina Del Bucchia! To learn more about the event, click here.

Rahat Kurd at Real Vancouver Writers’ Series
Iron Dog Books
Vancouver, BC
October 9, 2025
7:00 p.m. PDT

On October 10, take the Investigative Poetry workshop with author of Aurora Sharon Thesen as part of the 9th Cascadia Poetry Festival! For more details, click here.

Investigative Poetry with Sharon Thesen
Location TBA
Seattle, WA
October 10, 2025
1:00 p.m. PDT

Catch the Halifax launch of Revolutions by Hajer Mirwali with special guest reader Nanci Lee! Enjoy an incredible evening of literature and support a good cause; proceeds from this event go to the Sameer Project. For more information and to register, click here.

Halifax Launch of Revolutions
Venus Envy
Halifax, NS
October 10, 2025
7:00 p.m. ADT

Sharon Thesen, author of Refabulations: Selected Longer Poems edited by Erín Moure, will be one of the poets sharing work at the Keynote Reading at the 9th Cascadia Poetry Festival. For more information, click here.

Keynote Reading at the 9th Cascadia Poetry Festival
Rainier Beach Community Club
Seattle, WA
October 10, 2025
7:00 p.m. PDT

Catch a production of Dorothy Dittrich Governor General’s Literary Award–winning play The Piano Teacher at the Firehall Theatre. More information and tickets are available here.

The Piano Teacher
Firehall Theatre
Gananoque, ON
October 10–November 2, 2025

Award-winning author and sound artist Oana Avasilichioaei, author of Eight Track, will be performing alongside JAAP BLONK and Lori Freedman in an evening of experimental sound, performance, and poetry! Avasilichioaei is fresh off of winning the Prix international de littérature Bernard Heidsieck–Centre Pompidou in the Prix de l’année category for literature that exists in spaces beyond the page. Get your tickets here!

JAAP BLONK + Oana Avasilichioaei + Lori Freedman
Rocket Science Room
Montréal, QC
October 14, 2025
8:00 p.m. EDT

Toronto! Be sure to catch the amazing poetic duo of Rahat Kurd, author of The Book of Z, and Khashayar “Kess” Mohammadi launching at Type Books on Queen Street! To see Type Books’ full list of events and for more details, click here.

Toronto Launch of The Book of Z
Type Books Queen Street
Toronto, ON
October 15, 2025
7:00 p.m. EDT

Take in the world premiere of Fire Never Dies: The Tina Modotti Project by Carmen Aguirre. Fire Never Dies is presented by The Cultch and Vancouver Latin American Cultural Centre and produced by Electric Company Theatre. Learn more and order tickets here.

Fire Never Dies: The Tina Modotti Story
The Cultch Historic Theatre
Vancouver, BC
October 16–26, 2025

Cecily Nicholson will be sharing poetry from her new collection Crowd Source at Poetry at the Threshold: Witness, Resistance, and Renewal alongside Karen Solie and Christina Shah at the Victoria Festival of Authors! These stellar authors will discuss the role poetry can play in confronting crises. The event will be moderated by Kyeren Regehr.

For more details, click here.

Poetry at the Threshold: Witness, Resistance, and Renewal at the Victoria Festival of Authors
Langham Court Theatre & Online
Victoria, BC
October 17, 2025
7:30 p.m. PDT

Stephen Collis, author of The Middle, will be one of the poets featured for Victoria Festival of Authors’ famed Forest Poet/Tree Walk event! Enjoy a guided walk through W̱MÍYEŦEN (wh-my-eh-then: place of the deer) Nature Sanctuary with several outstanding poets. For more details about the event, click here.

Forest Poet/Tree Walk at Victoria Festival of Authors
W̱MÍYEŦEN Nature Sanctuary
Highlands, BC
October 18, 2025
10 a.m. PDT

Author of allostatic load Junie Désil is one of the poets featured for Victoria Festival of Authors’ amazing Forest Wonder Walk event! Enjoy a guided walk through W̱MÍYEŦEN (wh-my-eh-then: place of the deer) Nature Sanctuary with several outstanding poets. For more details about the event, click here.

Forest Wonder Walk
W̱MÍYEŦEN Nature Sanctuary
Highlands, BC
October 18, 2025
1 p.m. PDT

Dundas! Head to The Printed Word to hear Rahat Kurd reading from her brand new collection The Book of Z and Khashayar “Kess” Mohammad reading from The Book of Interruptions! This is an evening of poetry not to be missed!

The Book of Z & The Book of Interruptions in Dundas
The Printed Word
Dundas, ON
October 18, 2025
6:00 p.m. EDT

Head to Shelf Life Books to celebrate the launch of No Depression in Heaven by ryan fitzpatrick, Beaver Hills Forever by Conor Kerr, and crohnic by Jason Purcell. Be a little bit country. Or a little bit prairie. Or a little bit reflective about being chronically ill. Most importantly, be there or be square.

Triple Book Launch
Shelf Life Books
Calgary, AB
October 21, 2025
7:00 p.m. MDT

Anosh Irani, author of Behind the Moon, is one of the instructors performing at Vancouver Writers Fest’s UBC Night Class event! Get all of the details (and your tickets!) here.

UBC Night Class
Revue Stage
Vancouver, BC
October 22, 2025
8:30 p.m. PDT

On October 23, Hajer Mirwali author of Revolutions will be reading at Emily Carr University of Art + Design’s On Edge Reading series! This event will be happening over Zoom. For more details, click here.

Hajer Mirwali at the On Edge Reading Series
Online Over Zoom
October 23, 2025
5:30 p.m. PDT

On Friday, October 24, join us at the Martha Lou Henley Rehearsal Hall for the Talonbooks fall 2025 launch! Help us celebrate the arrival of:

The Book of Z by Rahat Kurd
th book uv lost passwords 1 by bill bissett
No Depression in Heaven by ryan fitzpatrick
Stigmata by Scott Jackshaw and
tours, variously by Drew McEwan.

The launch will be hosted by the author of #postdildo, Danielle LaFrance!

The Martha Lou Henley Rehearsal Hall is wheelchair and scooter accessible. There is a parking lot behind the venue in the alley between East 3rd and East 4th Avenues. Attendance is free! Snacks and drinks will be served. A live stream will be available on the Talonbooks YouTube channel. See you there!

Talonbooks Fall 2025 Launch
Martha Lou Henley Rehearsal Hall
1955 McLean Drive
Vancouver, BC
October 24, 2025
Doors open at 7:00 p.m.; readings begin at 7:30 p.m.

Catch bill bissett reading from th book uv lost passwords 1 alongside poet Stephen Roxborough at Gallery 881! For more information and to purchase tickets, click here.

An Evening of Poetry with bill bissett and Stephen Roxborough
Gallery 881
Vancouver, BC
October 25, 2025
Doors open at 6:00 p.m. PDT, readings begin at 7:00 p.m. PDT

Talonbooks poets Junie Désil (author of allostatic load) and Cecily Nicholson (author of Crowd Source) will be reading at Verses of Transformation, a Vancouver Writers Fest event! Poetry fans, this is a day not to be missed. Get your tickets and all of the details here.

Verses of Transformation
Granville Island Stage
Vancouver, BC
October 25, 2025
10:30 a.m. PDT

The SpokenWeb Project, the University of Alberta’s Department of English and Film Studies, and the Centre for Literatures in Canada presents bill reading with bill! Join the amazing bill bissett reading alongside the venerable bill bissett (from the archives) at this free afternoon event. Present-day bissett will be reading from his new collection th book uv lost passwords 1. The amazing team at Audreys Books will be bookselling. Be sure to attend this fantastic reading with bill and bill.

bill reading with bill
Henderson Hall, University of Alberta
Edmonton, AB
October 28, 2025
12:30–2:00 p.m. MT

It’s a poetry launch for music lovers! Help celebrate the release of MANOR’s RANSOM by Cam Scott (ARP Books) and No Depression in Heaven by ryan fitzpatrick (Talonbooks).

Written during country music’s most recent ascent in popularity, No Depression in Heaven has ten “tracks” that each tip language out of key. Dwelling on whether it is best to look backward to a seemingly better past, longing for a way to make things great again, or to stare into the abyss of the future, gambling that entry into paradise will provide release, No Depression in Heaven riffs on our latter-day anxiety, asking how we respond to bad times and what it means to hold onto something toxic because of the comforts it affords.

So if you love poetry and you’re never too far from your headphones, join us for this lively evening of poetry readings followed by an author discussion. If you can’t attend in person, a live stream will be available here on McNally Robinson’s YouTube. For more event details, click here.

Cam Scott & ryan fitzpatrick Dual Book Launch
McNally Robinson, Grant Park and Online
Winnipeg, MB
November 5, 2025
7:00 p.m. CST

Taryn Hubbard, author of Desire Path and the forthcoming collection Beautiful Unknown Future is chairing a panel at the Fraser Valley Writers Festival on the theme of silence. Hear what authors Joseph Dandurand, Daniela Elza, Jen Sookfong Lee, and Christina Myers have to say on the topic. RSVP here.

Silence Panel at the Fraser Valley Writers Festival
University of Fraser Valley
B Building, Room B101
Abbotsford, BC
November 8, 2025
11:15 a.m. PST

Celebrate three outstanding works of poetry from Talonbooks authors! Whether tackling latter-day anxieties through country music, tracing the history of the number zero in an experimental hybrid work, or examining the overlapping circles of shame and pleasure, these collections are sure to inspire thought, awe, and delight.

Hot off the press, No Depression in Heaven by ryan fitzpatrick dwells on whether it’s best to look backward to a seemingly better past, longing for a way to make things great again, or to stare into the abyss of the future, gambling that entry into paradise will provide release. No Depression in Heaven pulls on its boots, tilts its hat, and brushes the dust off its Nudie suit before tipping language out of key, asking how we respond to bad times and what it means to hold onto something toxic because of the comforts it affords.

No Signal No Noise by A Jamali Rad follows Zero, our protagonist, who stumbles upon a mysterious manuscript that sends them journeying across centuries, continents, and concepts. They travel throughout the Muslim world, from Sumeria to India to Baghdad. They learn about Europe as other and outside. They’re guided by the cryptic mirror the manuscript provides as it traces a history of the number zero.

The debut collection Revolutions by Hajer Mirwali sifts through the grains of Muslim daughterhood to reveal two metaphorical circles inextricably overlapping: shame and pleasure. Revolutions asks how young Arab women – who live in homes and communities where actions are surveilled and categorized as 3aib or not 3aib, shameful or acceptable – make and unmake their identities.

Attendance is free! RSVP here.

Toronto Talonbooks Reading
Flying Books College Street
Toronto, ON
November 13, 2025
Doors are at 6:30 p.m. EST

Hamilton! Celebrate the launch of No Depression in Heaven by ryan fitzpatrick at The City & The City Books! Enjoy readings from special guests A Jamali Rad, the author of No Signal No Noise, Steacy Easton, and Zane Koss.

Hamilton Launch of No Depression in Heaven
The City & The City Books
Hamilton, ON
November 14, 2025
7 p.m. EST

DATE CHANGE: On November 16, author sophie anne edwards will be signing copies of her poetry books at Indigo Sudbury. Stop by to get your autographed copy of Conversations wtih the Kagawong River.

sophie anne edwards Book Signing
Indigo Sudbury
Sudbury, ON
November 16, 2025
1–4 p.m. EDT

On November 21, head to Russell Books to see Rahat Kurd feature at Planet Earth Poetry! Kurd will be sharing poetry from her brand new collection The Book of Z. Now in their 30th season, Planet Earth Poetry is Victoria’s longest-running poetry-only open mic and reading series. For further details, watch this space.

Rahat Kurd at Planet Earth Poetry
Russell Books
Victoria, BC
November 21, 2025
7:00 p.m.

A production of Kisses Deep by Michel Marc Bouchard, translated by Linda Gaboriau, runs at Centaur Theatre this autumn! Kisses Deep follows Hugo, a young man obsessed with fashion as he desperately tries to restore his complicated mother’s tarnished reputation.

For further details and to purchase tickets, click here.

Kisses Deep
Centaur Theatre
Montréal, QC
November 26–December 14, 2025