Naughty Bits Read-a-Thon – $15

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Not your grandmother's idea of a literary festival reading.

From the creator and host of Wordfest's Adult Spelling Bee comes a riotous, titillating cabaret-style event. Authors from the Wordfest lineup read salacious passages from their favourite books in the Calgary premier of Sherwin Tjia's Naughty Bits Read-a-Thon. Cash bar available. [gdlr_divider type="solid" size="100%" ]

About the Lineup

Jowita Bydlowska was born in Warsaw, Poland, and moved to Canada as a teen. She is the author of the bestselling memoir Drunk Mom. Bydlowska writes a popular parenting blog, and her work has appeared in an assortment of magazines, newspapers and online publications, including Salon, The Huffington Post and Toronto Star. A journalist and fiction writer, she lives in Toronto. Lynn Coady is an award-winning author and journalist. Her first novel, Strange Heaven, was nominated for a Governor General's Literary Award, and in 2011, her novel The Antagonist was shortlisted for the prestigious Scotiabank Giller Prize, an award she won in 2013 for her short story collection Hellgoing. She has published six books of fiction and her work has appeared in the UK, Germany, Holland and France. Coady has worked as a story editor on the TV series Orphan Black and a writer on Season Two of the HBO Canada series Sensitive Skin. She lives in Toronto. Taras Grescoe, a non-fiction specialist, writes essays, articles and books. His work has been translated into a half dozen languages, and has won national and international awards. An expert on transit and urbanism, he also gives keynotes on the theme of sustainable transportation. He is the author of six books, including Sacré Blues, The End of Elsewhere, The Devil's Picnic, Bottomfeeder, Straphanger and now Shanghai Grand. Born in Toronto, raised in Calgary and Vancouver, and schooled in flânerie in Paris, he now lives in Montreal. Playwright and author Anosh Irani was born and raised in Mumbai, India, and moved to Vancouver in 1998. He penned three critically acclaimed and award-winning novels: The Cripple and His Talismans, Dahanu Road and The Song of Kahunsha, which was a finalist for CBC Radio's Canada Reads. His fiction writing has been published in thirteen countries, and his non-fiction has appeared in The Globe and Mail and The New York Times. Irani was nominated for the Governor General’s Literary Award for Drama for his anthology, The Bombay Plays: The Matka King & Bombay Black. He lives in Vancouver, BC. Teva Harrison was diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer at the age of 37. In this brilliant and inspiring graphic memoir full of comic illustrations and short personal essays, she documents what it means to live with the disease. She struggles to reconcile her long-term goals with an uncertain future, balancing the innate sadness of cancer with everyday acts of hope and wonder. Ultimately redemptive and uplifting, In-Between Days reminds each one of us how beautiful life is, and how it is such a gift. Andrew F. Sullivan's debut short story collection All We Want is Everything was one of The Globe and Mail's Best Books of 2013. Waste is his first novel, which the Globe and Mail called a “brutal, mesmeric debut” and CBC Books declared “one of the most violent novels CanLit has ever seen.” Sullivan is originally from Oshawa, Ontario, and now makes his home in Toronto. Sherwin Tjia is a Montreal-based poet, painter and illustrator. He is the author of Gentle Fictions, Pedigree Girls, The Hipless Boy, The World is a Heartbreaker, You Are a Cat!, the sequel You Are a Cat in the Zombie Apocalypse! and You Are a Kitten. In his spare time, he organizes slowdance nights, love-letter reading open mics and crowd karaoke singalongs. Clea Young’s stories have appeared in Event, Grain, The Fiddlehead, The Malahat Review, Prairie Fire and Room. Her work has been included in The Journey Prize Stories three times, and she has twice been shortlisted for the prize. In 2014, a selection of Young's stories was featured in the 13th edition of Coming Attractions, Oberon Press' yearly anthology introducing previously unpublished writers to Canadian readers. Originally from Victoria, B.C., Young moved to Vancouver to complete an MFA in Creative Writing at the University of British Columbia. Currently Artistic Associate at the Vancouver Writers Fest, she lives in Vancouver with her husband and son. [gdlr_button href="https://www.artscommons.ca/WhatsOn/ShowDetails.aspx?show_id=5092F33E-8527-4A2D-A568-408D51D48A52" target="_self" size="medium" background="#358CCB" color="#ffffff" border_color="#999999"]Buy Tickets[/gdlr_button]