Brockton Writing Series. Audience. July 6, 2011

The Brockton Writing Series was started by Farzana Doctor and is now a regular monthly reading held in Toronto's west end Parkdale area. One of the readers last evening was Antanas Sileika and you can see him sitting in the background before his turn at the podium. He read from his new novel, Underground, ending on a very dramatic note that ensured readers for this intriguing book. The other readers were Diana Fitzgerald Bryden and Ian Malczewski. Diana read from her award winning novel, No Place Strange, from sections set in Beirut and Athens. Ian, an urban planner as well as a writer, read some of his poetry.


There are always interesting book launches and readings going on in Toronto. A good place to live as a writer, but also sometimes it is hard to get down to the ongoing, difficult work of writing. This series provides a sense of community with a forum at the beginning for writers to speak with each other. It was led last night by Sileika under his other hat of Director of the Humber School for Writers. He gave information about the programs at HSW and also discussed language and what constitutes good writing with some memorable examples.

The woman in white in the photograph is Sandra Campbell, Ontario representative for the Writers' Union. I am the one behind her and next to me is Jasmine d'Costa.