June 23, 2019. Junction Reads: Famous Last Words. 392 Pacific Ave. From 5:15pm.

We’ve got something for everyone in our final readings of the season. M.J. Cates, Anthony Desa, Melissa Bull, Victoria Alvarez and Jarrett Mazza join us for readings that can best be described as, There’s something for everyone.

Our Book Raffle is full of fantastic books by queer writers; a signed copy of Marissa Stapley’s new novel and a few from our author/readers. So bring cash!

Melissa Bull is a writer and editor, as well as a French-to-English translator of fiction, essays, and plays. She is the editor of Maisonneuve magazine’s “Writing from Quebec” column and has published her poetry, essays, articles, and interviews in a variety of publications including Event, Lemon Hound, subTerrain, Prism, and Matrix. Her collection of poetry, Rue, was published in 2015, and her collection of short stories, The Knockoff Eclipse, was published in 2018. Her translation of Nelly Arcan’s Burqa de chair was published by Anvil Press in 2014, and her translation of Marie-Sissi Labrèche’s novel, Borderline, is forthcoming. Melissa lives in Montreal.

Jarrett Mazza is a graduate of Goddard College’s MFA in Creative Writing Program in Plainfield, Vermont. Before completing his terminal degree, Jarrett studied writing at the University of Toronto School of Continuing Studies and completed the Novel Writing class at Sheridan College under award-winning writer, Melodie Campbell. He has received extensive training in fiction in all mediums, including screenwriting, comic book writing, poetry, academic writing, and craft. He has also taught in a Writer’s Craft classroom at his former high school, and at Mohawk College in the Continuing Education department, has had stories published online in the GNU Journal, Bewildering Stories, Trembling With Fear, Aphelion, Silver Empire Publishing, which was a best-seller on Amazon, The Scarlet Leaf Review, and Toronto Prose Mill. He currently writes for the website Sequart that specializes in academic writings on comic books, fandom, and films. He is also working on a comic book pitch, writes over two-thousand words each day, reads one book each week, and constantly submits to journals, contests, and other publications. He lives in Hamilton, Ontario.

Victoria Alvarez was born in Toronto, Canada. Having grown up in a Spanish and Colombian household, she quickly became well-acquainted with hybridity at an early age. Throughout her life, she has been fascinated by stories and voices, English or Spanish, and their expression in a world deeply uncomfortable with liminal spaces. Her writing focuses on ‘in-between’ states, liminality, intergenerational transfer, and the role stories play within all our lives. Victoria just completed her MFA in Creative Writing from UBC. She will continue to reaffirm the short story because, as a form, it is reflective of her own motto in life: less is always more… more or less. 

Anthony De Sa grew up in Toronto’s Portuguese community. His short fiction has been published in several North American literary magazines. Anthony’s first book, Barnacle Love, was critically acclaimed and became a finalist for the 2008 Scotiabank Giller Prize and the 2009 Toronto Book Award. Anthony’s novel, Kicking the Sky, was set in 1977, the year a twelve-year-old shoeshine boy named Emanuel Jaques was brutally raped and murdered in Toronto.  Children of the Moon is his latest novel.
Anthony graduated from University of Toronto and did his post-graduate work at Queen’s University. He attended The Humber School for Writers and Ryerson University. He is currently a teacher-librarian living in Toronto with his wife and three boys.

MJ Cates was born in Canada, studied psychology and literature at the University of Toronto, and has lived at various times in South Kensington, North London, and Ottawa, writing many novels and winning several awards under another name. MJ is married and lives in Toronto. MJ Cates is a pseudonym for a well-published Canadian author. George Meanwell, actor, singer will be reading from INTO THAT FIRE.