The big news around Toronto's lit scene this week is the 15th annual Scream Festival. It kicks off tonight with the launch at the Gladstone, and finishes off with their key event, Scream in High Park next Monday. Lots of interesting things happening in between, too. Be sure to check the details!

Tuesday, July 3rd:

Coffeehouse Cabaret: Spoken Word & Music Open Stage at the Renaissance Cafe. 9pm. Free.
Featuring Learie, William and Jeff Burke. Hosted by Toronto Renaissance Conspiracy.

Phosphorescence! Launch of the Scream 15. The opening night promises a luminescent slurry of this year's theme, poetry and science. Readings by Dennis Lee and Souvankham Thammavongsa, with Shapour Shahidi's robots illuminating the walls.
Gladstone Hotel Ballroom. 8pm. PWYC, $7 suggested.

Wednesday, July 4th:

Part of Scream: Strange Alchemy: The Science and Poetry Panel and Matrix Launch. Moderated by Clive Thompson, panellists Christian Bรถk, angela rawlings, Ken Babstock and postdoctoral candidate, Lisa Betts (who is studying the neuroscience of vision at York) discuss emerging transmutations involving science and poetry. Readings by Jim Johnstone and Karen Solie, also.
Supermarket. Panel at 7pm, reading at 9pm. PWYC, $7 suggested.

Marina Nemat, author of The Prisoner of Tehran, recounts her experiences while being imprisoned in Teheran's notorious Evin prison for two years.
Indigo Bay & Bloor. 7pm. Free.

Thursday, July 5th:

Decibels and Accretions: The Scream Sound Installation launches, and continues until Sunday. Artist Heather Olsen-Seabourne exhibits her interactive installation featuring sound assemblages from fragments of 15 years of Scream events.
AWOL Gallery. 8:30pm. Opening with performance 8pm. Gallery is open daily from 12 to 6pm. Free, donations welcome.

The basement of Type Books gets transformed by the folks behind Scream, into The Fantasia Salon - a science experiment gone awry. Participants will read scientific fantasias, old and new, while strange movies are projected on the walls, plus readings by Maggie Helwig and Stephen Cain.
Type Books. 11pm. Free, donations welcome.

Toronto Women's Bookstore and The Scream Literary Festival invite you to SCREAM at TWB. Featuring Nalo Hopkinson, Daniel Heath Justice and Tara-Michelle Ziniuk, on the topic of science and literature.
Toronto Women's Bookstore. 7pm. $5

Friday, July 6th:

Cryptic Chatter: Spoken Word Open Stage at the Renaissance Cafe. Featuring Jogi and Kate Leadbeater. Hosted by Valentino Assenza.
Renaissance Cafe. 7:30pm. Free.

Scream presents The Dewdney Principle: A Book-Length Dinner Reading at the Don Valley Brickworks. This just a reminder for anyone who's already got their tickets, because unfortunately, the show is sold out!

Saturday, July 7th:

An outing with Scream - Poets in Their Natural Habitat: A Field Trip. Join seasoned poetologists Nadia Halim and Steve Venright on a field trip through Toronto's Annex poetic ecosystem. Participants are encouraged to bring binoculars, cameras, and other recording devices.
Begins at Coach House Press. 12pm. Free, donations welcome.

Another Scream event - Ephebiphobia: The Scream Youth Reading . This year's youth reading is a hands-on venture in applied science and poetry. Toronto poet and performer Sonnet L'Abbe will lead a poetry workshop full of constructive restraints while participants build free-standing towers made of mung beans and tooth picks. Jap Nanak Makkar, Gianne Ortega, Otiena Ellwand and Nashira Dernesch will also read.
Ryerson University, Kerr Hall East, Room 222 (340 Church Street, second floor). Free, donations welcome.

Spontaneous Combustion: The Scream Gala gives you a break from all the poetry, featuring Rock Plaza Central, with The Carbonas and DJ A Man Called Warwick.
Hugh's Room. Invite-only reception at 7 pm, doors open to the public at 8pm. $10.

Sunday, July 8th:

Myth and Magic, Writing for Young Readers. Explore the imaginative world of writing for young readers as Griot Productions presents a writer's workshop with award-winning children's author, Gail Nyoka.
Hangman Gallery. 10am - 12pm. Cost: $40.

Scream presents Under the Microscope: The State of Poetry Criticism. A panel discusses poetry among non-poets. Featuring David Orr, poetry critic for the The New York Times Book Review; Carl Wilson, music critic and proprietor of the website Zoilus.com; Damian Rogers, arts editor at eye weekly; and Elizabeth Bachinsky, a poet whose latest collection was nominated for a 2006 Governor General's Award. The lab director for this discussion will be Toronto writer Marianne Apostolides.
Tinto. 3pm. Free, donations welcome.

Scream presents Welcome to the Laboratory. The best parlour game the Surrealists invented is the Exquisite Corpse, in which a group creates a collective new art, through the partial exchange of words and visuals.
Type Books. 8pm. Free, donations welcome.

WordJam: Spoken Word and Music Fusion at the Free Times Cafe. Featuring special guest feature from Vancouver. Hosted by Yehuda Fisher.
Free Times Cafe. 7:30pm. Free.

Monday, July 9th:

The main event - Scream in High Park. Twelve performers cast their voices into the sky as darkness descends. Readings by Elizabeth Bachinsky, Sean Dixon, Christine Duncan, Shane Koyczan, Naila Keleta Mae, David McGimpsey, Roy Miki, A.F. Moritz, Steven Price, Rachel Zolf. Hosted by Karen Hines.
CanStage Amphitheatre, High Park. 7pm. PWYC, $10 suggested.

Rosalie Sharp talks about her new book, Rifke: An Improbable Life. Rosalie Wise Sharp was born and raised in North Toronto, where she currently lives. She is the co-editor of Growing Up Jewish and the author of Ceramics, Ethics and Scandal.
Indigo Bay & Bloor. 7pm. Free.