SAVE THE DATE -- THIS THURSDAY -- July 11 8 p.m.

Bright Lit, Big City invites you to chill with us at Hirut Cafe and Restaurant and enjoy some righteous writers reading from their work. Delicious and inexpensive Ethiopian food available! Now BYOW (corkage fee applies).

Your writers reading this month at Bright Lit, Big City:

Robin Harvey was a journalist for more than 20 years, on staff at The Toronto Star as columnist, editor, writer, arts critic, book reviewer, and was also the paper’s public editor. She has written for numerous news organizations including the Osprey/Sun media chain, the Associated Press, The Canadian Press, the National Post, The Toronto Theatre Review and Maclean’s magazine. She’s won numerous awards for her coverage of health care, mental health, community housing and seniors' issues. She was honoured as a runner up in the CAJ Review as best series in a newspaper and received the Southam Newspaper Fellowship Award.

She has written plays and screenplays, and studied creative writing under Frank Davey, Irving Layton and through the Humber School for Writers. Her poetry and short stories have been featured in Swift Current, AWS Publishing and now online through Medium.

Pat Connors first chapbook, Scarborough Songs, was published by Lyricalmyrical Press in 2013, and charted on the Toronto Poetry Map. Part-Time Contemplative, his second chapbook with Lyricalmyrical was published in 2016. Other past publications include The Toronto Quarterly, Spadina Literary Review, and Sharing Spaces, a joint project of York University and Antares Publications. He has recently been accepted for publication by Blue Collar Poetry, Lummox 8, and Tamaracks, an anthology of Canadian poets released this spring in Long Beach, California, as well as all over Ontario. He is a manager of the Toronto chapter of 100,000 Poets for Change.

David Murray MacLean is a writer. comedian, and real estate agent. Sometimes all at once. Most recently he's been exploring memoir, and was awarded a 2018 Toronto Arts Council grant to pursue his work.

Talia Davidson is a writer based in Toronto, Canada. She was born in South Africa and studied archaeology at the University of Guelph and British Colombia. She was a journalist in Guadalajara, a weed trimmer in California, a wildlife worker in the Yukon, and owned a Venezuelan restaurant in Toronto. She now lives in Leslieville with her tortoiseshell cat, Chula

Victoria MacDonald taught elementary school for over 30 years, and worked closely with students with learning disabilities. Retired since 2005, she has traveled widely and is an active volunteer in the community. She is currently working on her memoirs.

The evening is hosted by me, writer/comedian Carolyn Bennett. Her debut novel “Please Stand By” will be released in October 2019 from Vancouver’s Now or Never Publishing. Bennett co-produces and performs at Hirut Hoot, a monthly stand-up showcase in Toronto at Hirut Cafe and Restaurant. She has worked as a senior writer for government and enjoys sharing the same name of a prominent federal cabinet minister.

Free/pwyc

All are welcome. 2050 Danforth Ave (TTC Woodbine Station)