April 14th, 2011

Hart House Review

I can’t help myself from saying this: I heart Hart House. If you’ve never been there, it’s the deeply old-school student centre on UofT campus. There’s a gym with a pool, a cafeteria that serves a wide variety of chicken-based meals (and some without chicken), a radio station, a tiny library, a gorgeous courtyard that is apparently the most expensive place in Toronto to have a wedding reception, and loads of “common rooms” (how 19th-century girls school!) where you can hold events.

I spent the vast majority of my free time in grad school here: using the gym, swimming, eating, wireless-internetting, reading, even studying. When the weather got nice, I liked to move the reading and studying onto the lawn across the drive from the building, but still well within sight of it. But actually, even in hottest summer (of course I still came to campus in summer) the fact that the building is stone and shawdowy made it still relatively cool. It’s my favourite place on campus, and probably one of my most favourite in the city.

I was there on Monday for a lunch meeting, and now on Friday I’m doing a reading there to launch the Hart House review. This annual literary review is another wonderful thing about Hart House–student run, printed by Coach House Books, very communal yet very professional-looking, it’s a lovely anthology of work by students, community members, and the occasional alum. I was in it as a student, and I’m proud to be asked back as an alum. In the current issue you can read work by Helen Guri, Prathna Lor, tonnes of other awesome stuff, and my story, “Sarah” (which is an early look at a story from *The Big Dream,* where it appears under another name) as well as an interview with me and the charming Kira Dorward.

Copies of the review are free, but I believe you pretty much have to come to Hart House to get one. Even if you can’t make the launch, there will be copies at the front desk and elsewhere for a couple weeks hence, if you happen to be passing through. And if you won’t be, and really wish you could get one, hit me up–I’ll grab one for you.