Juliann speaks with two emerging musicians about the place of emotion in musical composition. First, Matt John Lewis discusses collaborative song writing and Spirit Josh’s album On God (2021). Then, Eliza Niemi speaks about crafting an album and her recent Staying Mellow Blows (2022). For more from the Hart House Student Literary and Library Committee, visit hhlitandlib.ca ..read more

Marta, Aïsha, and Meixi discuss Open Water, a 2021 novel by Caleb Azumah Nelson. They focus on the novel’s descriptions of beauty, its humanizing attention to the grain of everyday life, and its cultivation of joy ..read more

Juliann speaks with two emerging authors about mixed media writing. First, Alice Graham speaks on the importance of love in one's writing and how to find a writing voice. Then, Maynard McKinnon discusses microfiction and zines. For more from the Hart House Student Literary and Library Committee, visit hhlitandlib.ca ..read more

This year, our Dialogues series focuses on "miracles." In this conversation with UofT philosophy PhD candidate Alexandra Gustafson, Alex discusses the benefits and drawbacks of understanding romantic love as a miracle. Topics of discussion include the relation between love and specificity and the role of literature in the crystallization of love as an affect and event. For more from the Hart House Student Literary and Library Committee, visit hhlitandlib.ca.   ..read more

Marta, Aïsha, and Meixi discuss Before the Coffee Gets Cold, a 2015 novel by Toshikazu Kawaguchi. They focus on the story’s treatment of time travel and its relation to the slice-of-life genre. For more from the Hart House Student Literary and Library Committee, visit hhlitandlib.ca ..read more

Juliann speaks with André Babyn (UofT English), author of Evie of the Deepthorn (2020, Dundurn), and Ali Pinkney (UofT English), author of a forthcoming novella, about the relationship between writing and memory. For more from the Hart House Student Literary and Library Committee, visit hhlitandlib.ca ..read more

Alex and Madison introduce our new Dialogues theme, “Event.” They focus on the provisional thesis for the series: namely, that literature, as an artistic form for which the demarcation between the possible and the impossible is constitutively uncertain, intervenes decisively in the social processes that establish certain artistic, ethical, and political events as miracles (that is, as occurrences that exceed their causes). For more from the Hart House Student Literary and Library Committee, visit hhlitandlib.ca ..read more

In our first Next Generation episode of our third season, Juliann speaks with Robert McGill (UofT English) about his new book, A Suitable Companion for the End of Your Life (Coach House, 2022), and the joys and challenges of working as an author and critic. For more from the Hart House Student Literary and Library Committee, visit hhlitandlib.ca ..read more

Marta, Aïsha, and Meixi discuss Weike Wang’s Chemistry (Text, 2018), focusing on the novel's treatment of the experience of second-generation immigrants, relationships between parents and children, and the search for a vocation. For more from the Hart House Student Literary and Library Committee, visit hhlitandlib.ca ..read more

In the first episode of our third season, Marta, Aïsha, and Meixi discuss mental illness, social satire, and plotting and temporality in Ottessa Moshfegh’s My Year of Rest and Relaxation (2018). For more from the Hart House Student Literary and Library Committee, visit hhlitandlib.ca ..read more