The Violet Hour

An evening of short readings and performances by LGBTQ writers and artists. Featuring Will Aitken (Antigone Undone: Juliette Binoche, Anne Carson, Ivo van Hove and the Arts of Resistance), Shawn Hitchins (A Brief History of Oversharing: One Ginger's Anthology of Humiliation), Darren Tomalty - author page (Will Morning Ever Come) and John Emil Vincent (Excitement Tax). We'll be giving away a pair of tickets to Black Theatre Workshop's BLACK BOYS | Presented by BTW and Espace Libre in Montreal, running Feb 13-17. And it's my birthday! Host: Christopher DiRaddo Doors: 6:30 PM / Show: 7 PM $5 (PWYC) Each $5 donation gives you a $5 discount on one of the books for sale. ----------------- ABOUT THE WRITERS WILL AITKEN has published three novels - Realia, A Visit Home and Terre Haute - as well as two works of non-fiction - Antigone Undone: Juliette Binoche, Anne Carson, Ivo van Hove and the Arts of Resistance, and Death in Venice: A Queer Film Classic. Best known for sparking the global wave of Ginger Pride by marching hundreds of redheads through the streets of Edinburgh, SHAWN HITCHINS is an award-winning entertainer who has toured throughout Canada, the U.S., and the U.K. Hitchins was raised in a hayfield, educated in a swamp, and still has all his own teeth. He resides in Toronto, Ontario (a city he’s tried to escape since Y2K). https://shawnhitchins.com ELISE MOSER's novel Because I Have Loved and Hidden It appeared in 2009, followed by YA novel Lily and Taylor (2013) and nonfiction book for kids, What Milly Did: The Remarkable Pioneer of Plastics Recycling (2016). She is an associate editor with Linda Leith Publishing, and serves on the boards of the Quebec Writers' Federation, PEN Canada, and the Quebec Community Groups Network. DARREN TOMALTY is the author of Will Morning Ever Come, a coming out story set in Montreal. He graduated from Concordia, English Literature and has been writing short stories since childhood. He is a corporate training manager with a focus on motivation, self-discovery and customer service. He is a painter and movie-history buff, gravitating to film noir, tales of misfit underdogs, and documentaries of urban planning and social justice. Most recently he has dabbled in social media, web design. He lives in Toronto and is working on Eunice, an action-adventure novel set in the Deep South. www.darrentomalty.com JOHN EMIL VINCENT recently published his debut collection of poetry, Excitement Tax. He lives in downtown Montreal with his husband, Luis Loya Garcìa, and two magical birds. He presently teaches at Marianopolis and Concordia, which he likes a lot. ABOUT THE HOST Christopher DiRaddo is the author of The Geography of Pluto. He has also published four short stories in anthologies by Arsenal Pulp Press, including the Lambda Literary Award-winning First Person Queer. He is the founder and host of The Violet Hour reading series. www.christopherdiraddo.com