This page highlights FEATURES & REVIEWS about Diana and her books, and recent/upcoming EVENTS.
In 2021…
Esther, my short film script, is a semi-finalist, WeScreenplays short script, a quarterfinalist, Outstanding Screenplays short script, and a second-rounder, Austin Film Festival.
Zombies and ghosts – two stories in the Quarantine Review. Day One (zombies) in QR#10 – The Pulp Issue and Happy Halloween (ghosts) in QR #7.
In 2019…
The horse long gone, a short story about a night in the life of a neurological ICU nurse, in Prairie Fire
In 2018…
Two poems in Another Dysfunctional Cancer Poem Anthology, Mansfield Press, eds. Meaghan Strimas and Priscila Uppal
The Hedonists, a short story about a friendship tainted by historic sexual abuse, in The Malahat Review
In 2016…
Is That Quote For Here or to Go? A little light reading, my essay on the use of lit quotes to sell coffee, at Canadian Notes and Queries.
The Canadian Writers Summit! On Friday, June 17 at 4 p.m., I am participating in a panel, A Room of Our Own, with Karen Connelly, Lana Pesch and Ann Shin, moderated by Dayle Furlong. We are discussing the Toronto Women Writers Salon, which I founded in the early 2000s-how it’s evolved from a small, intimate physical salon to a sprawling online and physical entity with more than 80 members. Do we still need a salon in 2016?
Watch for me as part of What’s My Story, stories by different writers about Toronto neighbourhoods, this summer. Details forthcoming….
My essay, Which is the Sea and Which is the Land, coming soon in the summer issue of Canadian Notes and Queries.
A reprint of my essay, Falling: in Love and Out of Bed in Falling in Love With Poetry: Twenty-seven Canadian poets on the chance encounters that set them on the path of poetry, the poems and poets that set their hearts on fire, ed. Kim Jernigan.
In 2015…
A Windup Reading! On October 15, 2015, at The Windup Restaurant, with award-winning writers Ghazal Mosadeq, Claudio Gaudio and Ann Shin, 382 College Street Toronto, 8 p.m. Free. All Welcome.
My essay, Garrick, forthcoming in THE NEW QUARTERLY.
WINTER My essay, What’s That Smell, a satirical note on the Giller readings, just out in GEIST. You can pick it up now!
To see what I’ve been reading lately, check out the Blog on this site.
In 2014….
SUMMER Watch for my essay, Look, Don’t Look in the summer issue of The New Quarterly. It’s about violent images and voyeurism, Moammar Gaddafi, and the work of brilliant Canadian author, Nancy Huston. Other than that I’m hard at work on two books and various essays, travelling to Trinidad and British Columbia, and reading, reading, reading.
MAY 25, 3:00 p.m. I’m reading at the season-ender for the Draft Reading Series, at the Black Swan Tavern: 154 Danforth Avenue at Broadview. Fellow readers are bill bisect, Teri Favro/Ron Edding, Richard Scarsbrook, Jacob Scheier and Julia Zarankin. Really looking forward to it!
MAY 7, The M Word goes to Hamilton. Julie Booker, Kerry Clare, Maria Meindl, Carrie Snyder and I are reading at Bryan Prince Bookseller at 7 PM.
APRIL 15, the launch of The M Word will take place at Ben McNally Books, featuring short readings and a panel moderated by Michele Landsberg. Hope to see you there!
I will be reading from The M Word at events in Hamilton and Waterloo in May.
In 2013…
My essay, Dog Days, will be published in a wonderful anthology edited by Kerry Clare, The M Word, Goose Lane Editions, in Spring 2014. I’m thrilled – Kerry first approached me thanks to author, Susan Olding, when she conceived of this book of unconventional stories about motherhood. Here’s the kicker: I’m not a mother. But I am a kind of co-parent to my sister’s boys. Long story, for which you’ll have to read the essay when it comes out. The list of authors is too long to give in full, but includes Susan, Heather Birrell, Zoe Whittall, to name just a few. I’m really looking forward to reading the other essays.
Well, it looks a lot like 2012. Nose to the grindstone. A couple of essays being published, one in The Toronto Review of Books, another in an anthology edited by Kerry Clare, there will be details soon. I’ve decided that while third person works for Salman Rushdie in Joseph Anton (or doesn’t, depending on who you believe), I will revert to first person. I’ve started a blog, more or less. Have posted The Next Big Thing, an interview about my novel-in-progress, and my first piece about books. Two French books, to be exact. Visit the blog page and see what you think.
In 2012…
Nose to the grindstone time, as Diana works on her new novel, Tunapuna, and diverts herself with essays and reviews for The Globe and Mail, among others.
In 2011…
JULY 6 Diana read at the Brockton Writers Series in Toronto, Wednesday, July 6 7-8:30 p.m, at St. Anne’s Church, 270 Gladstone Avenue, Toronto, with Ian Malczewski and Antanas Sileika
JUNE 14 and 21 Diana visited book clubs in Toronto and Oakville.
MAY 6 Diana was one of the guest authors at Fort York in Toronto for the TDSB and TCTE Author Day and Student Short Story contest. Student finalists attended workshops with Diana, Kathryn Kuitenbrouwer, Pasha Malla and Matthew J. Trafford, followed by a ceremony for the winners of the contest.
APRIL was National Poetry Month. Six poems from Clinic Day can now be heard on the Brick Books audiosite, as part of an ongoing collaboration between Brick and Julie Wilson (aka Book Madam), to record Brick authors.
APRIL 9, 2011, New work by Diana was read at Wine and Words: New Writing, a fundraising event for Theatre By The River. Artists from all over Canada donated new work to support this Winnipeg-based theatre company, dedicated to producing artistically innovative, socially relevant and financially accessible theatre.
In 2010 . . .
DECEMBER 11, 2010, Diana will read new fiction at the Alphabet City AIR launch, location TBA.
NOVEMBER 15, 2010, No Place Strange has been longlisted for the IMPAC/Dublin award.
OCTOBER 19, 2010, Diana will read from her first poetry book, Learning Russian, at Mansfield Press 10th Anniversary launch and party, at The Boat, in Toronto. For more information visit the Mansfield Press website here
AUGUST 2010, No Place Strange has been long-listed for the ReLit Awards.
JULY 2010, No Place Strange is reviewed in Canadian Literature. Read the review here.
No Place Strange receives a fine, thoughtful review by Michael Bryson on his blog. Read the review here.
JUNE 15th, U.K. Writers Invade Toronto! Diana will be at the Toronto Writer’s Centre, introducing a group of U.K. writers and independent publishers to Toronto and its writing community. For more information about the event, and the writers and publishers themselves, go here.
MAY is Book Club month – three presentations to the Great Women’s Book Club at hospitals in Oakville, Milton and Georgetown, and Diana will be a guest at other book clubs.
APRIL 27th, a READING at the presentation of the AMAZON.ca First Novel Award, along with the five other nominees: Jessica Grant, Annabel Lyon, Damien Tarnopolsky, Dragan Todorovic and Iain Weir, Gladstone Hotel Ballroom, Toronto.
APRIL, an INTERVIEW with Diana by Rob McLennan, as part of his 12 or 20 QUESTIONS series. Read the interview here.
MARCH11th, a READING at The Eh! List Author Series for the Toronto Public Library, with Karen Connelly, details to follow.
– No Place Strange is named a FINALIST for the Amazon.ca First Novel Award! Read more here.
FEBRUARY, an APPEARANCE at The Book Lovers’ Ball, at the Fairmont Royal York Hotel in Toronto.
JANUARY, a review of No Place Strange in NOW Magazine.
In 2009 . . .
NOVEMBER
– A note: The Globe and Mail‘s Jim Bartley gives No Place Strange an Honourable Mention on his list of top first fiction of the year.
– A reading at IFOA Ontario in Parry Sound with Miriam Toews, John Brady, and Alan Bissett.
OCTOBER
– A reading at Toronto’s International Festival of Authors.
– A reading at the Fine Print series, Dora Keogh pub, Toronto, with Cathy Marie Buchanan.
– A reading at McNally Robinson in Toronto as part of the ‘Fictionista’ reading series, with Connie Gault, Rhea Tregebov, and Alice Zorn.
– An excerpt from the novel in the Vancouver Province.
SEPTEMBER
– A reading at Words Alive, in Sharon, Ontario.
– The official launch of No Place Strange in Toronto at Mitzi’s Sister.
– A review in The Globe and Mail.
– A review in Quill and Quire.
AUGUST
– A review in the Vancouver Sun. Read “Intelligence, politics, globalism on display in poet’s first novel” by Rebecca Wigod.
– A review of No Place Strange in the Winnipeg Free Press.
– A review of No Place Strange and profile of Diana, by Donna Bailey Nurse, in the Ottawa Citizen.
– A profile of Diana in the Halifax Chronicle Herald.
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Diana Fitzgerald Bryden 