Our Book Talks program invites authors to talk about their books, and facilitates Q&A where audience can ask their own questions. As usual, books are available for purchase by cash or e-transfer to support the authors!
In this session:
Keith Garebian will address his hybrid roots as half-Armenian, half Anglo-India Canadian, through the exploration of his vivid presentational style in poetry and in prose, by which he “reinvents” identities.
Jirair Tutunjian will talk about his new autobiographical book, Do Mice Drink Wine. The book collects dozens of stories from his youth years in Jerusalem and his immigrant life in Canada, including the challenges and how he overcame them as he launched his career as a journalist and eventually becoming editor-publisher of a 650,000-circulation magazine and publishing the works of Canadian greats (writers, painters, photographers). there’s a sense of humor streaking through most of the stories. The book wraps up with tens of black and white photos of life covering the time from 1950’s to 1970’s, and the book cover is a painting by Cezanne.
Free admission. English hybrid event.
Time: Saturday September 19, 2026 at 7:30-9 P.M. (Eastern Time)
In-person Venue: 1585 Yonge Street, Yorkminster Park Baptist Church (Use the Toronto School for Strings and Piano entrance)
Free parking, close to St. Clair Subway Station.
Door opens at 7 P.M.
In-person participants will have an opportunity to win a signed copy of the books! Please RSVP to info@eawlc.org if you wish to participate in person
Register here for Zoom meeting (starts at 7:30P.M.):
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/uNOTD4hWTgCykmflgnig3Q
Guest Speaker Profiles
Keith Garebian of Mississauga, Ontario has received numerous plaudits for his non-fiction and poetry collections. He has served on juries for the Gerald Lampert and Raymond Souster Awards, and has won many awards and grants, including a writing grant from the Canada Council, over three dozen from the OAC, two micro-grants from the Mississauga Arts Council, the Ellen S. Jaffe Humanist Poetry Award, and, best of all, the William Saroyan Medal from the Republic of Armenia. Some of his work has been translated into French, Armenian, Romanian, Bulgarian, and German. He has been honoured for his fifty-year freelance career by an anthology of essays (A Disciplined Passion) and by inclusion in Laurence Hutchman’s In the Writers’ Words series of interviews with contemporary Canadian poets.
Jirair Tutunjian, born in Jerusalem, immigrated to Canada in the mid-sixties. In the next 40 years he founded, published and edited six Canadian and international award-winning magazines. He raised the circulation of one of the magazines from 120,000 to 640,000 by bringing in such contributors as Barry Callaghan, Pierre Berton, Al Purdy, Howard Engels, Clyde Gilmour, Kildare Dobbs, photographer John Reeves, etc. The magazine he edited was chosen in 2008, as one of the “10 All-Time Most Influential Canadian Magazines”. Tutunjian taught magazine writing at the University of Toronto. Extremely well-travelled internationally, with over 1,200 articles and news reports, Tutunjian has written six books about politics, arts, and identity. He has a passion for etymology.
Everybody is welcome! For inquiries, please contact info@eawlc.org. Thanks!
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