Event Details
Readings from the Trillium Award Book Finalists.
Event Details
Readings from the Trillium Award Book Finalists.
Speakers for this event
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Alyanna Chua
Alyanna Chua
Alyanna Chua is a Toronto-based writer and journalist whose work has apperared in The Walrus, the Literary Review of Canada and Chatelaine, among others. She’s currently an assistant editor at Maclean’s magazine and writes Five-Foot Girl in a Six-Foot World, a Substack featuring entertaining personal essays about work, society and culture.
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Liann Zhang
Liann Zhang
Liann Zhang is an internationally bestselling Chinese Canadian author. She graduated from the University of Toronto with a degree in psychology and criminology. Her debut novel, Julie Chan Is Dead, has won the Libby Award for best thriller, been nominated for an Anthony Award, a Trillium Book Award, a Barry Award, an ITW Award, a Kobo Award, and was long listed for Canada Reads. She splits her time between Vancouver and Toronto where she lives with her two cats, Juice and Bean.
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Nina Dunic
Nina Dunic
Nina Dunic’s new book Suddenly Light was a finalist for the Trillium Book Award, longlisted for the Carol Shields Prize for Fiction, and was an Apple Books Best Book of 2025. Stories in the collection won the Toronto Star Short Story Contest twice, were longlisted by the CBC Short Story Prize four times, and were nominated for The Journey Prize. In 2023, her debut novel The Clarion won the Trillium Book Award, was longlisted for the Giller Prize, was selected as the Best Canadian Debut by Apple Books, and was a Globe and Mail Best Book of 2023. Nina lives in Scarborough.
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Rick Westhead
Rick Westhead
Rick Westhead is TSN’s Senior Correspondent and a two-time winner of Canadian sports writer of the year, presented by Sport Media Canada. Canadian Journalists for Freedom of Expression recognized him in 2023 with the Arnold Amber Award for Investigative Journalism. Westhead breaks news of consequence and has won six Canadian Screen Awards for his original features for various TSN properties. In 2025, he was recognized for his “fearless reporting” by The Hockey News in its list of 100 People of Power and Influence in hockey. Prior to joining TSN, Westhead served as a foreign correspondent for the Toronto Star.
Books
Julie Chan Is Dead
Julie Chan has nothing. Her twin sister has everything. Except a pulse.
Julie Chan, a supermarket cashier with nothing to lose, finds herself thrust into the glamorous yet perilous world of her late twin sister, Chloe VanHuusen, a popular influencer. Separated at a young age, the identical twins were polar opposites and rarely spoke, except for one viral video that Chloe initiated (Finding My Long-Lost Twin And Buying Her A House #EMOTIONAL). When Julie discovers Chloe’s lifeless body under mysterious circumstances, she seizes the chance to live the life she’s always envied.
Transforming into Chloe is easier than expected. Julie effortlessly adopts Chloe’s luxurious influencer life, complete with designer clothes, a meticulous skincare routine, and millions of adoring followers. However, Julie soon realizes that Chloe’s seemingly picture-perfect life was anything but.
Haunted by Chloe’s untimely death and struggling to fit into the privileged influencer circle, Julie faces mounting challenges during a weeklong island retreat with Chloe’s exclusive group of influencer friends. As events spiral out of control, Julie uncovers the sinister forces that may have led to her sister’s demise and realizes she might be the next target.
AuthorLiann Zhang
PublisherSimon & Schuster
Suddenly Light
Fifteen stories replete with an intimate, nuanced, and quietly profound realism by the Trillium Book Award–winning author of The Clarion. With crisp and penetrating prose, the stories in Suddenly Light are bracing, buoyant, and test the delicate threads that tie us together.
Suddenly Light was a finalist for the Trillium Book Award, longlisted for the Carol Shields Prize for Fiction, and was an Apple Books Best Book of 2025. Stories in the collection won the Toronto Star Short Story Contest twice, were longlisted by the CBC Short Story Prize four times, and were nominated for The Journey Prize.
AuthorNina Dunic
PublisherInvisible Publishing
We Breed Lions: Confronting Canada's Troubled Hockey Culture
A hard-hitting and powerful look at hockey’s moment of reckoning in Canada, and the ways in which a game that is so universally loved has been rocked in recent years by court cases involving sexual assault and startling incidents of hazing and abuse throughout junior hockey.
AuthorRick Westhead
PublisherPenguin Random House Canada
Partners
Canadian Authors Association
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