Celebrating Lemon Hound with an unforgettable night of reading

On Friday Septembre 27th, Mile End's quaintest bookstore, Drawn and Quarterly, opened its doors to more than fifty avid readers who had come to celebrate Lemon Hound's first anniversary as a literary journal.  Wine only adding to the festive spirit, authors, reporters and guests mingled merrily in the promise of the great night of literature to come.

Sina Queyras

Lemon Hound's main editor in chief and founder Sina Queyras started the evening with many heartfelt thanks to contributors but also to readers, both without whom this blog started in 2005 would never have evolved into its current form.  She spoke of the importance of building new outlets for writers in a world where everything is being detroyed.  The overcrowded bookstore stood as a testament of her success in doing just so and there is little doubt that her amicability will continue to draw great people to her team.

Aimee Wall, Anita Lahey, Nicholas Papaxanthos

Author Aimee Wall broke the proverbial ice with fiction. Literary gems such at "tea coloured light" and "He wore a stain with the elegance of a rose" seasoned her reading.  She was followed by Anita Lahey who read excerpts from her collection of essais on poetry and culture, The Mystery Shopping Cart.  Her efficient style and reflection inducing prose were a delight to hear.  Nicholas Papaxanthos closed the first part of the reading with delectably absurd and funny poetry. Laughter lingered as the crowd applauded.

Robin Richardson, Josip Novakovich, Dani Couture

Robin Richardson opened the second part with a pick of poems from her latest collection, Knife-Throwing Through Self-Hypnosis.  She generously treated everyone to a second serving of her scrumptious rhymes by reading some of her new work.  Author Josip Novakovich followed, reading a new story directly from his laptop screen.  The strange story of a future past set in 2016 generated much laughter.  Lastly, Dani Couture braved a 9 hour drive from Toronto to make it right on time to crown the evening with mellifluous poetry read in a soft, quiet voice.  Her poem entitled "Corrections" was particularly delightful.

Guests left the bookstore with their head brimming with literature, the smiles on their faces a sure tell-tale of the success of the soiree.  There is much to look forward to for Lemon Hound in the next year and ATUA hopes to partake in the celebrations of its second anniversary.