UPCOMING EVENTS

Launch of RUN J RUN

Please join me for the launch of my second novel, Run J Run. The Brooklyn launch will be held at Ginger’s Bar, an icon of my old neighbourhood. The Montréal launch will be at the also iconic Cheval Blanc on rue Ontario. There will be a reading as well as a Q&A. Snacks will be provided and drinks can be purchased at the bar.

NEW YORK

• DATE: May 12, 2019 at 2:30pm
  
• LOCATION: Ginger’s Bar, 363 5th Avenue, Brooklyn, NY

MONTRÈAL

• DATE: June 11, 2019 at 7pm
  
• LOCATION: Vegan Rapide – Le Misanthrope, 1385 rue Ontario E., Montréal, QC

Run J Run is a riveting tale of friendship, love, and chosen family. Using the tools of psychological drama and erotica, it presents a compelling critique of both the treatment of mental illness in our society and the false boundaries we construct in our personal relationships.

Jeremy, a high school English teacher coming to grips with a shattered marriage and haunted by the brother he lost, unexpectedly falls in love with his best friend, Zak. Attractive, wildly unconventional, and happy in an open relationship with his partner Annie, Zak seems to embody everything missing from Jeremy’s life, but when the arrest and death of a marginalized student at the Brooklyn high school where they both teach trigger Zak’s mental breakdown and slow descent, Jeremy and Annie are compelled to cross boundaries, both external and internal, in a desperate attempt to save him.

Visual Arts Centre Readings

School of Art / McClure Gallery Readings

• Date: June 18, 2019 at 7:30 pm
• Location: 350 avenue Victoria , Westmount, Québec
  

ChiSeries Toronto Reading

• Date: Wednesday, July 17th at 8pm
• Location: Round Venue, 152A Augusta Avenue, 2nd floor, Toronto 

 

PAST EVENTS

2019:

Worlds of Ursula K. Le Guin

• DATE: April 8, 2019, 7:00pm/19h
• LOCATION: Concordia University, 1455 de Maisonneuve Ouest, H-110

 

Quebec premiere followed by discussion with Jo Walton, Su Sokol, and Helen Chau Bradley, moderated by James Goddard.

Co-sponsored by the Fine Arts Student Alliance. Co-presented with Horizons imaginaires. The venue is wheelchair accessible. Childcare available upon request.

Combat des livres/NDG Reads

• DATE: February 22, 2019
• LOCATION: Centre Culturel Notre-Dame-des-Grace, 6400 Monkland Avenue, Montréal (Benny Library)

The NDG Community Council is excited to be hosting our second annual Combat des Livres NDG Reads!

Join us on February 22nd to witness a literary battle as some of NDG’s finest defend some of Montreal’s best literature until one book is crowned the must read Montreal novel.

The theme for this year is “Turf Wars.” Celebrating the quirks and subtle differences that can be found as you travel from one neighbourhood to the next, which one of these literary gems provides the best representation of Montreal?

The Montreal masterpieces that will be defended are:

• Cycling to Asylum by Su J. Sokol
• Born Into It: A Fan’s Life by Jay Baruchel
• Rue by Melissa Bull
• Sun of a Distant Land by David Bouchet

Speculative Fiction Readings

• DATE:  January 10th, 2019
• LOCATION: Argo Books

Please join us for an evening of readings of speculative fiction – science fiction, fantasy, and more – by local Montreal authors:

JO WALTON, SU J. SOKOL, and A. E. PREVOST

2018:

Argo Bookshop Reading

• DATE:  Thursday, November 8th, at 7:00pm
• LOCATION:  1915, rue Saint-Catherine O., Montréal

Can-Con 2018

• DATE:  October 12th-14th
• LOCATION:  Sheraton Hotel, Ottawa, ON

Truth or Fiction: Blurring the Line Between Memoir and Novel – Nathan Frechette, Talia Johnson, Su J. Sokol, Ursula Pflug (m)

Borderlands: Migration in Fiction – Gillian Clinton, Su J. Sokol, Liz Westbrook-Trenholm, Derek Newman-Stille (m)

Book-Clubbing Foreign Works of SF – Jonathan Crowe, Costi Gurgu, Su J. Sokol (m)

Special Guest at Parliament Library, Toronto

• DATE:  Tuesday, July 31st, at 6:30pm
• LOCATION:  Toronto Public Library, 269 Gerrard Street East, Toronto, ON
• DESCRIPTION

Join us for a night to remember with literary readings by our special guests, Su Sokol & Ursula Pflug, as well as readings by a variety of talented writers.

Towards a Liberated (Un)imaginable

• DATE:  Thursday, June 21st, at 7:30pm
• LOCATION:  Left Bank Books, 92 Pike, Seattle, Washington
• DESCRIPTION

Join visiting Montreal-based author Su J. Sokol (author of Cycling to Asylum) and local writer Magpie Leibøwitz as they read from their respective works and engage in a facilitated discussion of the relationship between speculative writing and activism.

Speculative Fiction, Resistance, and Social Change

• DATE:  Thursday, May 24th, at 7pm
• LOCATION:  QPIRG Concordia, 1500 de Maisonneuve West, suite 204
• DESCRIPTION:

Speculative fiction has a long history of creating stories that challenge our assumptions about what is possible. Some say that this makes it a natural tool for aiding social justice movements. Others would argue that speculative fiction, like other literary genres, merely springs from and reinforces current social mores and ways of thinking.

This panel will bring together writers of speculative fiction to discuss and debate such issues as the role of dystopian and utopian fiction as social commentary, whether science fiction’s technophilia reinforces capitalist and imperialist thinking, and to what extent is speculative fiction inclusive of works by women, racialized people, and the lgbtqia+ community.

PANELISTS:

H. Nigel Thomas (moderator) is the author of ten books: four novels: Spirits in the Dark (shortlisted for the QSPELL Hugh MacLennan Fiction Award), Behind the Face of Winter, Return to Arcadia, and No Safeguards ( finalist for the Paragraphe Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction in 2015); three collections of short stories: How Loud Can the Village Cock Crow, Lives: Whole and Otherwise, and When the Bottom Falls Out and Other Stories; a collection of poems, Moving Through Darkness; and two works of non-fiction: From Folklore to Fiction: A Study of Folk Heroes and Rituals in the Black American Novel and Why We Write: Conversations with African Canadian Poets and Novelists. He is a former Montreal high-school teacher and retired professor of United States literature at Université Laval. He is the founder and English-language coordinator of Lectures Logos Readings.

Claudie Arsenault: Squids, bread, and hot air balloon have little in common… except how much nerdy squeeing they can draw out of Claudie. Excitable and passionate, Claudie writes quirky science-fiction and fantasy that lets the best tropes shine through, haters be damned, and her love for sprawling casts invariably turns her novels into multi-storylined wonders. As an aromantic and asexual writer, she gives full breadth to stories that centre platonic relationships. Her latest novel, Baker Thief, features a bigender aromantic baker and explores romantic narrative arcs applied to aromantic characters. Claudie is also well-known for her database of aro and ace characters. Claudie is also a founding member of The Kraken Collective, a group of indie writers who love queer SFF, and she is devoted to its promotion. Find more on her website!

Paige Cooper’s stories have appeared in The Fiddlehead, West Branch, Michigan Quarterly Review, Gulf Coast Online, Canadian Notes & Queries, The New Quarterly, and have been anthologized in The Journey Prize Stories and Best Canadian Stories. She’s a fiction editor at Cosmonauts Avenue and her first book, Zolitude, came out this year with Biblioasis.

Su J. Sokol is a social rights activist and a writer of speculative, liminal, and interstitial fiction. A former legal services lawyer from New York City, she now makes Montréal her home. Cycling to Asylum, Su’s debut novel, was long-listed for the Sunburst Award for Excellence in Canadian Literature of the Fantastic. Her short fiction has appeared or is upcoming in The Future Fire, Spark: A Creative Anthology, the TFF 10th Anniversary Anthology, Glittership: an LGBTQ Science Fiction and Fantasy Podcast, the Glittership: Year One anthology, and After the Orange by B-Cubed Press. Her new novel, Run J Run, is scheduled to come out in 2019 with Renaissance Press.

CHILDCARE:

Blue Metropolis/Metropolis Bleu

• Date: Sunday, April 29, 2018 at 4:00 pm
• Location: Hôtel 10, Salle Jardin
• Description: I will be moderating The Children of Mary Shelley, a panel discussion with Amal El-Mohtar, David Demchuck, and Melissa Yuan-Innes.

Since Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein 200 years ago, speculative fiction has evolved, becoming an eclectic category of literature whose works are increasingly cited for the highest literary awards. How does this evolution relate to trends in literature, and what are the challenges for the future?

Montreal Science Fiction and Fantasy Association

• Date: March 10, 2018 at 1:00 pm
• Location: Hotel Espresso, 1005 rue Guy — St-François room
• Description: Guest of Honour along with Jo Walton for discussion on Women in Science Fiction and Fantasy 

Lapalabrava Readings

• Date: February 7, 2018 at 7:00 pm
• Location: 5035 St-Denis (corner of St-Joseph)
• Description: Série de lectures de poésie en espagnol, français et anglais

Visual Arts Centre

School of Art / McClure Gallery Readings

• Date: January 23, 2018 at 7:30 pm
• Location: 350 avenue Victoria , Westmount, Québec

2017:

Can-Con 2017

• Date: October 13 – 15, 2017
• Location: Sheraton Hotel, Ottawa, Ontario  

Reading at Argo Bookshop

• Date: Thursday, October 5, 2017, 7 pm
• Location: 1915, rue Ste-Catherine St O., Montréal

LOGOS Readings/Lecture LOGOS

• Date: Monday, September 11, 2017, 7pm – 9pm (19h – 21h)
• Location: 2741 Notre-Dame West, Montréal

WORLDCON: The 75th World Science Fiction Convention

• Date: August 9 – 13, 2017
• Location: Messukeskus Expo and Convention Centre, Helsinki, Finland

  Panelist: Can Writers of Science Fiction Predict the Future?

  Friday 12:00 – 13:00

  Su J. Sokol, Kathleen Ann Goonan (M), Ian Watson, Bao Shu

  Signing: Su J. Sokol

  Friday 15:00 – 16:00, Signing area

  Moderator: Beta Reading and Beta Readers

  Saturday 12:00 – 13:00

  Charlie Stross, Katherine Jay, Su J. Sokol (M), Keren Landsman

  Moderator: Non-binary Genders in Post-human and Non-human Bodies

  Saturday 16:00 – 17:00,

  Su J. Sokol (M), Charlie Jane Anders, Emma Humphries, Helen Barford, JY Yang

  Moderator: Robot Morality

  Sunday 13:00 – 14:00, 205

  Tara Oakes, Lilian Edwards, Tony Ballantyne, Su J. Sokol (M)

Salon du livres Anarchiste de Montréal/Montréal Anarchist Book Fair

• Date: May 27 – 28, 2917, 10am to 5pm (10h – 17h)
• Location: It takes place in two buildings across from each other in Parc Vinet:
  • Centre d’éducation populaire de la Petite-Bourgogne et de St-Henri (CEDA), 2515 rue Delisle, Montréal
  • Centre Culturel Georges-Vanier (CCGV), 2450 rue Workman, Montréal 
    A short walk from Lionel-Groulx metro.

Come visit me at my table!

The Naughty Bits Book Club 

• Date: Friday, April  28, 2017 10:00 PM
• Location: Hotel 10, 10 rue Sherbrooke W, Montreal, QC, Salle Godin
• Host: Blue Met/Metropolis Bleu Literary Festival
• Entry fee: $10

An event that recreates that early, furtive feeling of first reading something illicit. When you were too young to have actually done anything, but were VERY INTERESTED in certain passages of certain books. Readers will read hilarious and titillating sexcerpts from famous literary works. With: ❤ Ann-Marie MacDonald ❤ George Elliott Clarke ❤❤ Harry Giles ❤ Monique Polak ❤ Su J. Sokol

Montreal: Once and Future City of Refuge 

• Date: Thursday, April  27, 2017 3:30 PM
• Location: Hotel 10, 10 rue Sherbrooke W, Montreal, QC, Salle Jardin
• Host: Blue Met/Metropolis Bleu Literary Festival
• Entry fee: $10

Writers from the world over—including the U.S—have found sanctuary in Montreal, and their fiction reflects this. Writers Ehab Lotayef (Crossing Gibraltar, To Love a Palestinian Woman), Cora Siré (Behold Things Beautiful, The Other Oscar), Su Sokol (Cycling to Asylum) and Caroline Vu (Palawan Story, That Summer in Provincetown) discuss the image of Montreal in literature as a city of refuge: past, present and future. Moderated by Jaggi Singh.

Diminishing Shadows

• Date:  Thursday, March 30, 2017, Door open at 8 PM
• Location: Casa del popolo, 4873 boulevard St Laurent, Montreal
• Host: The Mile End Poets’ Festival
• Entry fee: $7/PWYC

Our opening event of Mile End Poets’ Festival 2017. We are delighted to present ‘Diminishing Shadows’, hosted by Su Sokol & Blossom Thom.

Just as winter brings long shadows, politicians who promote an us-against-them perspective also cast shadows. As their rhetoric builds, so does our resistance. Thoughts of spring, of light, of renewal, begin to fill our spirits. Please join us for an evening of words and music to welcome a new season of diminishing shadows.

With performances from B.A Markus, Deanna Radford, Jason ‘Blackbird’ Selman, Sandra Sjollema, Su Sokol, Blossom Thom and Kay Thellot.

Reading Between the Wines with Su J. Sokol

• Date:  Thursday, March 16, 2017, at 7:30 PM
• Location: Jewish Public Library, 5151 ch. de la Côte Ste-Catherine, Montréal
• Host: The Jewish Public Library
• Entry fee: $15 general admission

In the wake of recent political and electoral events in the U.S., Su J. Sokol’s near future novel about a family fleeing their home in Brooklyn to seek asylum in Canada has been labelled prophetic by some. Please join Sivan Slapak as she asks Su such questions as how she first came up with this idea, what a utopian Montréal of the future looks like, why she chose the bicycle as her characters’ escape vehicle, and what the story has to say about love, activism, friendship, and loyalty.

Yellow Door Readings

• Date:  Tuesday, January 24, 2017, at 19:00
• Location: The Yellow Door at 3625 Rue Aylmer, Montréal
• Host: Ilona Martonfi
• Entry fee: $15 general admission

An Evening of Poetry & Prose & Music co-hosted by Ilona Martonfi and Mike Di Sclafani with readings by Barry Webster, Carolyne Van Der Meer, Jeffrey Mackie, Su J. Sokol, Ilona Martonfi, Ehab Lotayef, Liana Cusmano, Mike Di Sclafani, and music by John Kerkhoven.

2016:

Imagining a Path to a More Just Future

• Date:  Tuesday, November 22, 2016,  7:30 PM
• Location: Red Emma’s Bookstore and Coffeehouse, 30 W North Ave, Baltimore
• Host: Red Emma’s Bookstore and Coffeehouse
• Entry fee: none

Please join us for an evening of readings and discussion with Jason Harris and Su Sokol on the power of speculative fiction to aid social justice movements in imagining, organizing and building a better world. Jason Harris, a 2015 Kimbilio Fiction fellow, is the editor of REDLINES: Baltimore 2028, as well as the author of the soon-to-be-released novel Fly Girl. Su J. Sokol, a former housing attorney from Brooklyn, is a social rights advocate and activist living in Montréal. Her debut novel, Cycling to Asylum, was nominated for the Sunburst Award for Excellence in Canadian Literature of the Fantastic.

CAN-CON 2016

• Dates:  September 9th – 11th
• Location: Novotel, 33 Nicholas Street, Ottawa, Ontario
• Host: The Society for Canadian Content in Speculative Arts and Literature
• Registration fees: see website

CAN•CON, or more completely CAN•CON: The Conference on Canadian Content in Speculative Arts and Literature, is a periodic science fiction and fantasy convention in Ottawa put on by The Society for Canadian Content in Speculative Arts and Literature.

Friday, September 9, 7:00 pm: Ursula K. Le Guin: Contributions and Legacy – Caroline Frechette, Su Sokol, Cathy Hird, Chris Kelworth, Alison Sinclair

Saturday, September 10, 16:00: Want to Dominate the World, but Don’t Have a Writers’ Group? Maaja Wentz, Mike Rimar, James K. Moran, Su Sokol, Ryan McFadden (m)

Saturday, September 10, 18:00: Readings: Cycling to Asylum by Su Sokol, Thanatos by Karen Dales, RecipeArium by Costi Gurgu

Sunday, September 11, at 11:00am: Book-Clubbing Foreign Work of SF Translated into English – Peter Halasz, Jonathan Crowe, Su Sokol, Anatoly Belilovski, Costi Gurgu (m)

NDG ARTS WEEK: BELLES LETTRES I, II, and III

• Dates:  August 23rd at 18:45, August 25th at 18:45, and August 28th at 17:00
• Location: Café Shäika, 5526 rue Sherbrooke O., Montréal
• Host: La Semaines des arts NDG Arts Week
• Entry fee: free

Belles Lettres I, Tuesday, August 23rd: Enjoy an evening of prose and poetry with award-winning authors Ian McGillis, Melissa Bull, Pascale Rafie, Larissa Andrusyshyn, Ariela Freedman, and Monique Polak, who will give readings and sign copies of their books. Curated and hosted by Su Sokol.

Belles Lettres II, Tuesday, August 23rd: Enjoy an evening of prose and poetry with award-winning authors Louise Auger, Cora Siré, Dima Karout, Anita Rau Badami, Sivan Slapak, Su J. Sokol, and Martin Michaud. Curated and hosted by Su Sokol.

Belles Lettres III, Tuesday, August 23rd: Enjoy an evening of prose and poetry with award-winning authors Blossom Thom, Joel Yanofsky, Caroline Vu, Derek Webster, Neil Smith, and Jo Walton who will give readings and sign copies of their books. Curated and hosted by Su Sokol.

READING AT PERFECT BOOKS IN OTTAWA

• Date:  Sunday, May 29, 2016,  14:30
• Location: Perfect Books, 258 Elgin Street, Ottawa, Ontario
• Host: Perfect Books
• Entry fee: none

Images from Previous Readings and Events:

Montréal: 

 

 

 

New York:

 

Toronto:

Baltimore:

 

Ottawa:

 

 

 

Bristol, U.K.:

Paris, France:

Helsinki, Finland: