This Is Not A Reading Series is delighted to join forces with Biblioasis to present the prestigious Metcalfe-Rooke Award. And, the envelope please, this year’s award goes to … Rebecca Rosenblum! To launch her short-story collection, Once, featuring the award-winning, titular work, Rosenblum will share the stage with those two venerated statesmen of Canadian letters, John Metcalfe and Leon Rooke. – A This Is Not A Reading Series event presented by Pages Books & Magazines, Biblioasis and EYE WEEKLY.

Gladstone Hotel 2nd Floor Gallery, 1214 Queen St W, Toronto
Mon, Sept 15; 7:30pm (doors 7pm) free

ONCE is a fiercely original and assured debut collection of stories by Rebecca Rosenblum. These tales are grounded in the all-too-real comedy and tragedy of jobs and friendships and romances, books and buses and bodies. Darkly urban and contemporary, the writing nevertheless sparks with playful wonder and delight, peeling back the veneer of the everyday to let loose a little of the magic underneath. Human relationships are at the core of this collection, both the larger ones — lovers and families and enemies — and those smaller, stranger interactions that hover at the margins of the day. The shapes these stories take are as unexpected as they are seamless; and though unflinching they are generous, gentle and wise. With her first book, Rebecca Rosenblum has achieved what writers long for, a voice and style uniquely her own and experiences that engage and grip readers.

REBECCA ROSENBLUM recently graduated from the English and Creative Writing Master''s program at the University of Toronto. Her work has been published in Exile Quarterly, The Danforth Review, echolocation, The New Quarterly, Qwerty, Ars Medica, and Journey Prize Stories 19. Once is Rosenblum’s first book. She lives in Toronto.

JOHN METCALF is an esteemed writer, editor and critic. His fiction and non-fiction has been featured in numerous anthologies and literary journals. Metcalf recently published Shut Up He Explained (Biblioasis), a follow-up to his memoir An Aesthetic Underground (Thomas Allen Publishers). As senior editor at The Porcupine's Quill and Biblioasis, he continues to bring emerging writers to the fore. Metcalf lives in Ottawa.

LEON ROOKE is a respected writer and playwright. He has produced numerous collections of short stories, including Hitting The Charts (Biblioasis). Rooke has edited several anthologies with John Metcalf. His novel Shakespeare’s Dog (Thomas Allen Publishers) won the Governor General’s Award. Rooke continues his long-time role as artistic director of the Eden Mills Writers’ Festival, and lives in Toronto.
 

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