The Word on the Street is queer
05 Aug 2019.

On September 21 and 22 at Harbourfront, Canada’s largest open-air book fair Word on the Street celebrates its 30th anniversary. And if it proves anything at all, it’s that queers write books. 

This year's fair includes over 140 readings. Highlights include Kelly Robson, whose Gods, Monsters, and the Lucky Peach landed her a Nebula Award. The story involves time travel, ecological disaster, and the 83-year-old protagonist Minh is a double amputee. 

Then there’s L X Beckett, from Toronto, whose new book is called Game Changer, and Joanne Vannicola, promoting her book We All Knew But Couldn’t Say. Joanne had a book launch at Tallulah’s last month (in which the great Lorraine Segato performed three songs and brought down the house). Some of you know Joanne from TV and movies, such as Being Erica, Love and Human Remains, Street Legal, and Stonewall. (A personal connection - Joanne did the voice of Willy in My Dad the Rock Star, a weird cartoon created by Gene Simmons of Kiss, which I wrote back in 2003.) In the book, Joanne chronicles her journey from child performer to Emmy Award–winning actor, from hiding in the closet to embracing her own sexuality, from conflicted daughter to independent woman. 

More great books come from Casey Plett. Her debut novel Little Fish won the 2019 amazon.ca First Novel Award, and the Lambda Literary Award for Transgender Fiction at the 31st Lambda Literary Awards. It’s about a trans woman stuck in Winnipeg in winter who receives a phone call telling her that her late grandfather, a devout Mennonite farmer, may have indeed been trans himself. It sounds intriguing. Finally, there’s Nick Green, the playwright behind Body Politic, which won the Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding New Play. 

And let’s not forget local heroes like Patricia Wilson, whose Musings from the Bunker & Slouching Towards Womanhood was recently released, and Raymond Helkio, about to release Leduc, about gay Olympic boxer Marc Leduc. With all this reading to do, I will barely have time to do anything else. So please don’t proposition me. Or, wait …