Xtra magazine hosts new Toronto gay and lesbian literary festival, launched on Sunday

Xtra magazine is this Sunday hosting a new literary festival in Toronto focussing on gay and lesbian literature. It kicks off this Sunday, according to an item in Quillblog. Church Street between Alexander and Gloucester will be closed for the festival.

Writing Outside the Margins features a day-long lineup of readings by various authors, including Nalo Hopkinson, Jim Bartley, and Q&Q contributor Michael Rowe. There’s some preview coverage in the Toronto Star, where publishing reporter Vit Wagner wonders whether the event is “a celebration of queer writing or gay authorship.” (That is, whether the focus is on books with gay themes or books that happen to be by gay writers.) Organizer John Pressick tells Wagner, “For our purposes, we chose not to make that distinction.”