Get your read on with Pages Festival + Conference - starting today

By Brian Cauley, Senior Staff Writer

The Pages Festival + Conference starts today, offering multiple events and a full-day conference around the theme of, "embracing new technologies and how how they are affecting the literary and publishing world." This exciting new festival is a collaboration between the multiple award-winning independent, Pages Books & Magazines festival and This Is Not A Reading Series (voted “best reading series” in NOW's annual poll).

With a tribute to Susanna Moodie, the foremother of Canadian-Lit, a presentation by Adam Egoyan on writing for film, and a presentation by Shawn Micallef on uncovering Toronto's hidden stories, we are very excited for this diverse festival and conference.

The whole thing takes place at the Randolf Academy Theatre (Tranzac Club). Individual tickets are available starting at $10 and a full-festival pass is $30 for students, $60 regular admission. People can purchase tickets here or at the venue.

We'll be live tweeting the event from @TOSocialReview and sharing photos on Instagram @TOSocialReview.

Here is the full schedule:

• Mar 13 - 8pm - Bob Bossin’s Davy the Punk 
• A musical and literary tribute to fold legend Bob Bossin's scandalous father.

• Mar 14 - 9am - All Day Conference - Keynote: Bob Stein on the future of the book
• All day conference on the hybrid book includes sessions on the future of poetry, self-publishing, drama, the graphic novel, children's literature and educational and scholarly publishing.

• Mar 14 - 7pm - Atom Egoyan: Writing and Film
• Egoyan interviewed by Marc Glassman on the creative process involved in directing and scripting material for the screen, interspersed with clips from Egoyan’s biggest hits.

• Mar 14 - 9pm - Artists and the Book: a crazy love affair
• Derek Sullivan, Jo-Anne McArthur, Carole Condé and Karl Beveridge and Jim Miller present their work on screens and discuss the power of the book.

• Mar 14 - 10pm - Sounding Off with Dalton Higgins
• Dalton Higgins and guests read their best texts and argue about what is the best of the best in contemporary music.

• Mar 15 - 3pm - Urban Narratives, Saturday
• Writer-teacher and urbanologist Amy Lavender Harris hosts Toronto Star columnist and author Shawn Micallef, Track Toronto member Chloe Doesburg and award-winning NFB producer Gerry Flahive.

• Mar 15 - 7pm - The Many Tales of Susanna Moodie 
• A stunning multi-media presentation of artist Charles Pachter’s art, Margaret Atwood’s poetry, Carol Shields’ prose, the graphic novel prowess of Willow Dawson and the digital creativity of Xenophile Media.

• Mar 15 - 9pm - An Evening with Seth and Friends: the Art of the Graphic Novel 
• Seth will show and discuss his work with graphic novel specialist and cultural commentator Jeet Heer. They will be joined by a distinguished guest Michael De Forge, the hot new writer/illustrator of The Ant Colony.