Join us and author Sarah Pinsker for a book club on A Song for a New Day, her music-thrumming Nebula-winning novel set in a post-pandemic dystopia where government-mandated social distancing has become the new normal. Full of punk rock passion, community, and hope, this eerily prescient work - it came out in 2019 - is particularly relevant and interesting to discuss in the context of 2020, so we hope you can come be a part of the conversation.

The book club starts at 7 PM Eastern on Thursday, October 22nd; email events @ argobookshop . ca to sign up for free and get the Zoom link!

Sarah Pinsker is the author of over fifty works of short fiction, including the novelette "Our Lady of the Open Road," winner of the Nebula Award in 2016. Her novelette "In Joy, Knowing the Abyss Behind," was the Sturgeon Award winner in 2014. Her fiction has been published in magazines including Asimov's, Strange Horizons, Fantasy & Science Fiction, Lightspeed, and Uncanny and in numerous anthologies and year's bests.

 

She is also a singer/songwriter with three albums on various independent labels (the third with her rock band, the Stalking Horses) and a fourth in the works. She lives in Baltimore, Maryland and can be found online at sarahpinsker.com and twitter.com/sarahpinsker. 

Just in time for Halloween, we are excited to host a thrilling evening of horror fiction, presented by Mason Jar Press and Neon Hemlock Press! 

Join us for readings by four authors on Thursday, October 29th, from 9 PM to 11 PM (please note the time - it's a late show at the Argo!). The event is free and online, just email events @ argobookshop . ca to register and get the Zoom link!

**UPDATE** we are thrilled to announce that the event is going to be moderated by the excellent Leigh Harlen, who has read from their super queer super fun were-coyote novella at the Argo in the past. Even more reasons to get excited about horror night!

Leigh Harlen is a queer, non-binary writer of dark leaning speculative fiction who lives and works in Seattle alongside a mischief of rats, a ridiculous dog, and their partner. They are the author of Queens of Noise, the upcoming A Feast For Flies, and their short story collection Blood Like Garnets and Other Stories is available November 2020. Their non-writing hobbies include petting strangers’ dogs and enthusing about how awesome bats are.

Jordan Kurella is a queer and disabled author who has lived all over the world (including Moscow and Manhattan). In their past lives, they were a barista, radio DJ, and social worker. Their work has been featured in Apex, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, and Strange Horizons Magazines. Find them on Twitter (@jskurella), or at jordankurella.com.

Justin Sanders is a ghost from Baltimore. His words have appeared most recently on the city’s walls.

Jan Stinchcomb is the author of The Blood Trail (Red Bird Chapbooks) and Find the Girl (Main Street Rag). Her stories have appeared in Longleaf Review, FlashBack Fiction, Gravel, Monkeybicycle and matchbook, among other places. She has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net Anthology, was longlisted in the Wigleaf Top 50, and is featured in The Best Small Fictions 2018. Currently living in Southern California with her family, she is a story editor for Paper Darts. Find her at janstinchcomb.com or on Twitter @janstinchcomb.

A.P. Thayer is a Mexican-American author based out of Los Angeles. He writes grimdark fantasy, latino-futuristic magic-punk, and cosmic horror. His work has appeared in Made in LA volume 3, Five on the Fifth, and Murder Park After Dark. When he’s not writing speculative fiction, he can be found cooking for his friends, DMing a tabletop game, or hunting down street tacos. Find him at www.apthayer.com or on Twitter @apthayer.

The Argo presents its November reading series event of local prose and poetry, curated by Ilona Martonfi. Please email us at events @ argobookshop . ca for the Zoom link!

Our lineup for this month's event:
Ilona Martonfi is an editor, poet, curator & activist, her most recent poetry book is Salt Bride (Inanna, 2019). Forthcoming, The Tempest (Inanna, 2022).
Barry Webster is a musician, writer, and translator. His fiction was shortlisted for the Hugh MacLennan Award and the Lambda Award.
Cora Siré is a poet, novelist and author of three books, including Behold Things Beautiful (Signature Editions, 2016).
Kelly Norah Drukker is the author of the award-winning poetry collection Small Fires. She is currently at work on new poetry and nonfiction.
Brian Campbell, poet/singer-songwriter/editor/translator, latest collections, Shimmer Report & Passenger Flight. briancampbell.ca
Tom Abray is the author of Pollen (a collection of short stories) and Where I Wanted to Be (a novel). He teaches English at John Abbott College.
Flavia Cosma, award-winning poet & translator. Published in many countries & languages, Flavia directs Val-David’s International Writers’ Festival.
Su J. Sokol writes interstitial fiction, is a social rights advocate, and is the author of three novels.

“We gratefully acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts, and the League of Canadian Poets.”

We are happy to announce a partnership with Penguin Random House Canada as part of their "National Indies Event" initiative! 

The way this works is that we get to co-host some top-notch online author events that Penguin Random House is putting together, and the first one we're collaborating on is Carmen Maria Machado and Silvia Moreno-Garcia in conversation with Haley Cullingham. We've been fans of these authors' work for a long time, so being able to provide access to this event for the Argo community is very exciting!

This is a ticketed event, and the cost of entry is purchasing one or more of the books being discussed. All you need to do is buy In The Dream House or Mexican Gothic from us - paperback, hardcover, audiobook, it's all good - and we will email you a ticket to attend the Zoom event. (If you've already bought one or both of these books from us in the past and want to attend, email us your proof of purchase and we'll talk.)

Carmen Maria Machado is the author of the bestselling memoir In the Dream House and the award-winning short story collection Her Body and Other Parties. She has been a finalist for the National Book Award and the winner of the Bard Fiction Prize, the Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Fiction, the Lambda Literary Award for LGBTQ Nonfiction, the Brooklyn Public Library Literature Prize, the Shirley Jackson Award, and the National Book Critics Circle's John Leonard Prize. In 2018, the New York Times listed Her Body and Other Parties as a member of "The New Vanguard," one of "15 remarkable books by women that are shaping the way we read and write fiction in the 21st century."

Mexican by birth, Canadian by inclination. Silvia Moreno-Garcia's debut novel, Signal to Noise, about music and magic, won a Copper Cylinder Award. Her second novel, Certain Dark Things, focused on narco vampires in Mexico City, and was one of NPR's best books of 2016. Gods of Jade and Shadow was the 2020 American Library Association Reading List winner in the Fantasy category and won the 2020 Sunburst Award for Excellence in Canadian Literature of the Fantastic, and her most recent novel Mexican Gothic - “a terrifying twist on classic gothic horror” (Kirkus Reviews) set in glamorous 1950s Mexico - was a New York Times Bestseller.

Interested in exploring Japan's thousand-plus years of literary history, but not sure where to begin? In conjunction with the JET Alumni Association of Quebec/Atlantic (JETAA Q/A), we are offering our fourth annual free introductory workshop on Japanese literature to get you started with a variety of authors and genres. We will discuss the origins of Japanese writing, the evolution of its poetry, prose, and theater over the centuries, and some favourites of our staff!

After the session and a question and answer period, attendees will also have the opportunity to learn more about the Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) Programme through the experiences of former participants.

Looking for a beautiful and emotional read as the weather cools in Montreal? The Argo Bookshop, in conjunction with the JET Alumni Association of Quebec and Atlantic Canada, will be hosting its autumn Japan Book Club on November 19.

For this meeting, we'll be discussing Territory of Light by Yuko Tsushima. This novel, originally serialized in the late 1970s as 12 stories, depicts a young mother as she starts a new life away from her ex-husband and raising a young child. In navigating Tokyo and her new independence, she shows a woman trying to find her way, with a great depth of emotion in the face of the trials of city life. 

Join us online via Zoom for a lively discussion of a modern classic of Japanese literature! Email us at events @ argobookshop.ca for the link. You can read the book in any language. You're also welcome to come if you haven't read the book, but there will likely be spoilers.

** UPDATE: We are happy to announce that this event has been rescheduled and is now happening on November 20th, 2020! **

For the inaugural event of our new Disability Series, we are thrilled to welcome Elsa Sjunneson and Dominik Parisien, co-editors of the Hugo Award-winning special issue of Uncanny Magazine, Disabled People Destroy Science Fiction! Join Elsa and Dominik in conversation about the project and how it shaped the work they're doing now, as well as readings of their work.

The event will take place on Friday, November 20, from 7 to 9 PM Eastern, via Zoom. It is free and open to anyone; to sign up, email us at events @ argobookshop . ca and we'll send you the Zoom link!

ACCESSIBILITY INFO: Please note that live captions will be available for this event. If you have any other accessibility needs, kindly let us know at events @ argobookshop . ca and we'll do what we can.

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Hugo, Aurora and BFA winning editor Elsa Sjunneson is a deafblind hurricane in a vintage dress. Her nonfiction editorial work has appeared at Uncanny Magazine and Fireside Magazine. As an author, her work has appeared at CNN Opinion, Tor.com, the Boston Globe, and the Nebula nominated Fate Accessibility Toolkit among numerous other venues. In addition to editorial and authorial pursuits, she educates authors on writing disability respectfully. Her memoir Alone in the Light will be released in 2021. Elsa lives in Seattle, Washington. Want to know more? Go to snarkbat.com!

Dominik Parisien is an award-winning editor, writer, and poet. His debut poetry collection Side Effects May Include Strangers will be published in October 2020 by McGill-Queen's University Press and his poetry and nonfiction has recently appeared in The Fiddlehead, This Magazine, PRISM International, The Puritan and various other venues. His latest editorial projects are The Mythic Dream, his third collaboration with Navah Wolfe, and the 2020 program for The Festival of Literary Diversity (FOLD). Dominik is a disabled, bisexual French Canadian and he lives in Toronto.