The AfterWords Literary Festival presents Open Secrets: Reading and writing with a trauma-informed point of view at The Carleton on Friday, November 8th at 12:30 PM (doors at 12 noon).  Tickets are available through festival for only $8 — with all proceeds to Avalon Sexual Assault Centre  —  and you can buy them HERE.

Content note: CSA   When Andrea Skinner wrote in the Toronto Star about being assaulted by her stepfather when she was a child, and about how her mother chose to stay with the man instead of to stand by her daughter, many survivors saw their own experience reflected in her story and felt the reverberations. At the same time, Alice Munro’s daughters asked readers to continue engaging with their mother’s work, but through a new lens. In this two-part conversation, Heather O’Neill, Caroline Adderson and Deepa Rajagoplan join journalist Sarah Hampson to talk about how they’re reading Alice Munro now. Then, poet Sue Goyette presents new and recent work that dives deeply into her own experience in an unsafe house, and how trauma moves through image and language on the page.

You may recognize yourself in these conversations. Please do what you need to in order to care for yourself before, during, and after this event.