JOIN US FOR OUR VIRTUAL BOOK CLUB MEETING

While we’re unable to meet in the theater, we’re taking our book club online. We hope it’ll be a great way to read new books and stay connected. Join us Friday, June 26 from 5-6pm on Zoom. RSVP here to receive the link.

We read Vivek Shraya’s graphic novella Death Threat for our live Book Club, last fall – paired with Wild Bore, a “who watches the watchers” take on arts criticism by a group of feminist comedians and performance artists (it was amazing). For Virtual Book Club, we decided to read Shraya’s new novel instead – the main conflict occurs over Twitter, giving us a timely focus on social media and its effects on relationships and mental health, at a time when social media is the bulk of our social contact.

ABOUT THE BOOK

Indie musician Neela Devaki has built a career writing the songs she wants to hear but nobody else is singing. When one of Neela’s songs is covered by internet artist RUK-MINI and becomes a viral sensation, the two musicians meet and a transformative friendship begins. But before long, the systemic pressures that pit women against one another begin to bear down on Neela and RUK-MINI, stirring up self-doubt and jealousy. With a single tweet, their friendship implodes, a career is destroyed, and the two women find themselves at the centre of an internet firestorm.

Celebrated multidisciplinary artist Vivek Shraya’s second novel, The Subtweet is a no-holds-barred examination of the music industry and making art in the modern era, shining a light on the promise and peril of being seen.

AUTHOR BIO

Vivek Shraya is an artist whose body of work crosses the boundaries of music, literature, visual art, theatre, and film. Her best-selling new book, I’m Afraid of Men, was her­ald­ed by Vanity Fair as “cultural rocket fuel,” and her album with Queer Songbook Orchestra, Part‑Time Woman, was nominated for the Polaris Music Prize. She is one half of the music duo Too Attached and the founder of the publishing imprint VS. Books.

A five-time Lambda Literary Award finalist, Vivek was a 2016 Pride Toronto Grand Marshal, was featured on The Globe and Mail’s Best Dressed list, and has received honours from The Writers’ Trust of Canada and The Publishing Triangle. She is a director on the board of the Tegan and Sara Foundation and an Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Calgary.

Get Into It

NPR

Interview with Vivek Shraya

“When I was writing The Subtweet, I was thinking about the ways we could all give each other the benefit of the doubt… The truth is, none of us are entitled to anyone else’s space, and that includes digital space. And right now, the blurring of the line between physical space and digital space is a real one.”

The Guardian

Review of "The Subtweet"

For the uninitiated, subtweets are those strange, passive-aggressive posts that refer to another user without directly mentioning them, usually as a way to scorn, mock or criticize.