Chiaroscuro Reading and Workshop Series

The Bakka Phoenix Bookstore is something of a landmark in the Toronto spec fic literary scene.  Several noted Canadian science fiction and fantasy authors, including Robert J. Sawyer, Tanya Huff, Michelle Sagara, Cory Doctorow, and Nalo Hopkinson, have been employed by the store. Tonight we'd like to honour Bakka by inviting several of its alumni to read...

ROBERT J SAWYER — called "the dean of Canadian science fiction" by The Ottawa Citizen and "just about the best science-fiction writer out there these days" by The Denver Rocky Mountain News — is one of only seven writers in history (and the only Canadian) to win all three of the science-fiction field's top honors for best novel of the year: the World Science Fiction Society's Hugo Award, which he won in 2003 for his novel Hominids; the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America's Nebula Award, which he won in 1996 for his novelThe Terminal Experiment; and the John W. Campbell Memorial Award, which he won in 2006 for his novel Mindscan.

Rob is also the only writer in history to win the top SF awards in the United States, China, Japan, France, and Spain. In addition, he's won an Arthur Ellis Award from the Crime Writers of Canada as well as ten Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Awards ("Auroras"). The ABC TV series FlashForward is based on his novel of the same name.

ED GREENWOOD is an award-winning Canadian writer, editor, game designer, columnist, and librarian best known as the creator of The Forgotten Realms® fantasy world. His New York Times-bestselling fantasy novels have sold millions of copies worldwide in over thirty languages. He has been a judge for the World Fantasy Awards and the Sunburst Awards, and been Guest of Honor at more than sixty conventions. Hailed as “the Canadian author of the great American novel” (J. Robert King), “an industry legend” (DRAGON® Magazine), “a true genius” (Elaine Cunningham) and “one of the greats” (GAMES Magazine), Ed was inducted into the Academy of Adventure Gaming, Art and Design Hall of Fame in 2003.

LEAH BOBET lives in Toronto, ON, Canada with a garden, a computer, and many books. She has a degree in linguistics from the University of Toronto, edits at Ideomancer Speculative Fiction, and moonlights at Bakka-Phoenix Books, Canada's oldest science fiction bookstore.

MICHELLE SAGARA WEST was born, raised and has mostly lived in Toronto, Ontario. She's worked since 1986 in one capacity or another at Bakka, a SF/F specialty store, now Bakka-Phoenix, through two different owners. Sagara West, a 1992 Campbell Award nominee, started her first novel, Into the Dark Lands, in 1986, which was eventually published by Del Rey books at the tail end of 1991. Children of the Blood, Lady of Mercy and Chains of Darkness, Chains of Light followed, closing her first series at four books. Those books were subsequently reprinted by BenBella books, as Michelle Sagara West.

Prizes courtesy of Viking Canada, DAW, Solaris Books, and Wizards of the Coast.