Power Q & A with Brockton Writers Series

We love live literary events. Festivals, reading series, bookstore book launches: we are just about always game for a good ol’ bibliofest. We also know that many of these events operate by the mercy of grants, volunteers, and long, hard, and often thankless hours. No one who loves books and literature should take these vital initiatives for granted. Not only do authors often depend on them to create more awareness for their work, but our culture depends on them to keep the literary arts vibrant. That’s why we reached out to one of of favourite downtown Toronto reading series, Brockton Writers, and asked them to be a guest this month on our Power Q & A series.

We had one particular question in mind that we wanted to pose, and they were gracious enough to answer.

Welcome to River Street, Brockton Writers!

Donate to Brockton Wrtiers Series here.

What is one thing you think people don’t understand about running a reading series?

“After volunteering for BWS for the past two years, I've come to appreciate running a reading series as a continuous learning experience. There's always work that needs doing — promotions, social media, grant writing, etc. — so there are always opportunities to develop new skills. More than any particular set of skills or any previous experience in event planning, what it takes to run a reading series is a lot of initiative and a self-starting attitude. You've got to be willing to constantly evolve, to anticipate and put out fires, to keep up with the changing landscape of the publishing industry and the literary community. On one hand, that might sound a little daunting; on the other hand, I also think it's quite exciting, having the opportunity and the freedom to say "Hey, I want to try doing XYZ," and then ... just being able to do it.”

—Fei Dong (they/them) is a writer and editor based in Toronto, Canada. A graduate of University of Waterloo's Computer Science program and Centennial College's Publishing – Book, Magazine and Electronic program, they’re an editorial assistant at Cormorant Books and a board member at BIPOC of Publishing in Canada. Passionate about literary advocacy in Canadian publishing, they have volunteered their writing and editing services to a charity zine, a storytelling festival, and a flash fiction magazine.

“One thing I’ve come to understand after working with BWS for the past year is how many authors rely on events like ours to connect with their community and get their work out there. Many of our authors’ books are with small publishers which can’t muster big publicity budgets, so there’s a big demand among those authors to be featured in a reading series like BWS. And of course, we pay them for their time and energy, which isn’t always a given for emerging writers. It’s an amazing reciprocal relationship where we get to meet and learn from great authors, and they get a platform for their work.”

—Iris Robbins-Larrivee (she/they) is a graduate of McGill University’s Linguistics program and Centennial College’s Publishing program. Iris has completed an internship with Emond Publishing and continues to work with Emond as a freelance proofreader. She volunteers with the Brockton Writers Series as the Promotions Coordinator, and with Davenport-Perth Neighbourhood Community Health Centre as an Adult Literacy Tutor. Iris is passionate about helping people from all walks of life tell their stories.

Photo courtesy of Brockton Writers Series.

The best thing about working for BWS is the great diversity of writers and voices you're exposed to. The hardest thing is building and retaining an audience for the events. There's lots to do in Toronto on any given evening, and it's difficult to be seen among the crowd.

—Nancy Kay Clark (she/her) is the editor and publisher of CommuterLit.com and is a long-time magazine writer and editor. Her speculative short fiction has been featured in Neo-Opsis magazine, Polar Borealis, Utopia Science Fiction magazine and others. She was shortlisted for the Writers’ Union of Canada Postcard Story Contest and CANSCAIP's (Canadian Society of Children’s Authors, Illustrators and Performers) annual Writing for Children competition. She self-published a middle-grade novel in 2018. Nancy is Brockton’s financial manager, and she curates the guest speakers and writes the newsletters for Brockton Writers Series. 

I think what people don’t always understand about a literary series is actually the attending part, not the running of it! Everyone is welcome, it’s a very casual environment, you don’t have to know all the authors and their work to come. I think it might feel intimidating for people to come to these events, but it really shouldn’t be.

—Evgenia Shestunova (she/her) is an immigrant from Kyiv, Ukraine, who came to Toronto in 2015. She is a recent graduate of Centennial College’s Book and Magazine program and is currently working as a Publishing Operations Assistant at Penguin Random House. She is passionate about showcasing emerging writers and giving marginalized voices a platform.

Photo courtesy of Brockton Writers Series. Follow Brockton Writers Series on YouTube.

I think people may not understand how much work it is. I like to think we make it look easy, but it’s not, especially when you have the values we do: dedication to a physically accessible venue, commitment to paying our authors, etc. We have to be able to problem-solve on the fly, manage a wide variety of expectations from authors and publishers, and collaborate effectively as a team to do what we do with Brockton.  

I also think people may not understand that reading series, locally at least, are fun, friendly events that are valuable for their entertainment and community-building, whether or not you’re actually a fan of the readers presenting that night. It’s a cheap night out – there’s never a cover charge – and you might find an author you’re interested in who you hadn’t known of before. But even if you don’t, you’re not committing to reading or buying a book just by showing up. I also think it’s an underutilized date night option. Assuming you want to date people who read, why not go to a reading series, which is shorter and cheaper than a movie, and afterward you can discuss the readings to find if your literary tastes align? It’s low-risk because aligned literary tastes are a nice to have, but not a dealbreaker. Hey, Tinder, hit us up for a corporate sponsorship! 😊 

—Dorianne Emmerton (she/her) grew up in rural Northern Ontario and now lives in Toronto with chosen family, a kid, and an ill-tempered black cat. Her short stories have been published in Eavesdrop Magazine, Luna Station Quarterly, Room Magazine; The Fantasist; Daily Science Fiction; The Bronzeville Bee; The Audient Void; Nevertheless (Tesseracts Twenty-One); and more. She also has a personal essay in the anthology A Family By Any Other Name: Exploring Queer Relationships. Dorianne is currently querying one novel and writing another, while occasionally writing for the pop culture site Biff Bam Pop! For the past few years she has been the lead organizer of the Bi+ Arts Festival. Previous activities include hosting a radio show on CIUT, reviewing live performance events for Mooney On Theatre, and participating in the Diaspora Dialogues writing mentorship program, under the guidance of Martin Mordecai. 

Other Volunteers:

Kiri Stockwood (she/her) is a writer and editor living in Toronto, Canada. She is a recent graduate of Centennial College’s Publishing program, which concluded with an internship at the indie publisher Renaissance Press. Kiri has contributed to a number of publications as an editor and has a short story published with Plenitude Magazine. With a passion for storytelling and helping others tell their own stories, she is looking forward to continuing her career in publishing. Kiri is currently volunteering as a grant writer for Brockton Writers Series. 

Marcela Arevalo (she/her) is a graduate of Northern Private University’s Communication program and a current student in Centennial College’s Publishing program. With over seven years of experience in digital marketing, she is currently specializing in publishing and contributing to On The Danforth as a Marketing Manager and writer. Marcela is eager to start her career in the Canadian publishing industry and to become part of the book world as both a writer and publisher, something she is deeply passionate about.

Donate to Brockton Wrtiers Series here.

Power Q & A with Sean Minogue

Q: Why did you want to write about your hometown in Prodigals (Latitude 46 Publishing, 2025)? 

A: I know I’m hardly the first writer to use my hometown as a setting for a fictional story. I came upon this totally by accident, though. When I set out to “become” a writer in my early twenties, I was trying to latch onto anything except where I grew up. And that’s not because I had negative feelings about Sault Ste. Marie – I just hadn’t processed anything about my experiences there. 

My roots in northern Ontario aren’t that deep, but they don’t exist anywhere else. My family moved there shortly before I turned ten years old. The next decade of my life shaped the way I see the world. I wouldn’t be who I am without the “Soo.”

Prodigals didn’t start out as a story about one specific place. It took a few drafts before I realized that I was channeling something bred into me. As the play evolved through workshops and rehearsals, I let the references get more specific. But, while I do mention Algoma Steel and Roberta Bondar, I’d like to think that it’s the type of humour, the characters’ uncertainty about themselves, and their anxious responses to the world “out there” that make this a Sault Ste. Marie story. 

As a writer, I think it’s a gift to have complicated feelings about your hometown. There’s a poem that nails this uneasy fondness. “In Defense of Small Towns” by Oliver de la Paz starts with “When I look at it, it’s simple, really. I hated life there.” but then goes on to detail the narrator’s deep affection for his past:

I’m still in love. And when I wake up, I watch my son yawn,
and my mind turns his upswept hair into cornstalks

at the edge of a field. Stillness is an acre, and his body
idles, deep like heavy machinery. I want to take him back there,

to the small town of my youth and hold the book of wildflowers
open for him, and look. I want him to know the colors of horses,

- “In Defense of Small Towns” by Oliver De La Paz (read here)

Now that I have my own family, I’ve taken them to the Soo and shown them how the city has changed from the one I remember. We’ve eaten in the new restaurants and I’ve told them stories about my old bands playing in concert venues that no longer exist. The differences will grow deeper as I get older and live elsewhere. But that only encourages me to write more about the place I knew.

Prodigals by Sean Minogue (Latitude 46, 2025).

About Prodigals:

When a big-city dreamer from a small northern Ontario city returns to his hometown to testify in a murder trial, he faces old uncovered wounds in his circle of friends and discovers that his missed opportunities are more than just regrets.

About Sean Minogue:

Sean Minogue has written for film, television, and theatre. His stories, poetry, and essays have appeared in Lithub, ARC Poetry Magazine, The Algomian, Maudlin House, THIS Magazine, Full Stop, and The Globe and Mail. Turnstone Press just published his debut novel, Terminal Solstice. Sean’s acclaimed play, Prodigals, premiered as a feature film in 2017. Latitude 46 Publishing is releasing it as a book in August 2025. Sean lives in Toronto.

Power Q & A with Wayne Ng

Crime Writers of Canada Award-winning author Wayne Ng’s highly-anticipated Toronto-based novel, Johnny Delivers, is being released this November 1st by Guernica Editions, and it has already been included in CBC's and the 49th Shelf's Most-Anticipated Fall Fiction lists.

Set in 1977, Johnny Delivers tells the absorbing story of 18-year-old Johnny Wong—the son of Chinese immigrants to Canada—who calls on the spirit of Bruce Lee to help him navigate the still relevant challenges of racism and how it permeates our interiority, our institutions, our relationships, and our livelihood.

This book is exciting and heart-wrenching and readers are loving it! A favourite element of the story is undoubtedly Johnny’s conversations with Bruce Lee, so we wanted to ask Wayne, “Why Bruce?:

We are happy to welcome Wayne to our Power Q & A series today to answer.

Q: Why did you choose Bruce Lee to serve as Johnny’s moral guide and confidant?

A: Most kids need a hero. In the standalone prequel, Letters From Johnny, 11-year-old Johnny worked through his problems by writing letters to hockey icon Dave Keon, just as I once did. Now, as an angst-filled teen on the cusp of manhood in Johnny Delivers, Johnny turns to Bruce Lee—a larger-than-life hero I also admired as an unstoppable fighter. What made Bruce especially significant was his defiance of the stereotypical portrayal of Asians in popular culture as humble, passive, and helpless.

With Johnny Delivers, I wanted to show that Bruce Lee was more than just a trailblazing martial arts film icon. He was also a philosopher, a writer, and family man. And, like any hero, he had his flaws—something Johnny struggles to accept. Since the novel is ultimately a coming-of-age and family story, Bruce is the glue that holds his relationship with his father. I wanted Johnny's evolving view of Bruce to reflect his journey—where their growth connects and separates them.

More about Johnny Delivers:

Eighteen-year-old Johnny Wong’s dead-end life consists of delivering Chinese food and holding his chaotic family together in Toronto. When his sweet but treacherous Auntie, the mahjong queen, calls in their family debt, he fears the family will lose the Red Pagoda restaurant and break apart. 

Invoking the spirit of Bruce Lee and in cahoots with his stoner friend Barry, Johnny tries to save his family by taking up a life of crime delivering weed with a side of egg rolls. He chases his first love, but his hands are already full with his emotionally distant mother, his dream-crushing father, and his reckless, sardonic little sister.

As he fights to stay ahead of his Auntie, sordid family secrets unfold. With lives on the line, the only way out is an epic mahjong battle. While Johnny is on a mission to figure out who he is and what he wants, he must learn that help can come from within and that our heroes are closer than we think.

Dripping with 1970s nostalgia, Johnny Delivers is a gritty and humorous standalone sequel to the much-loved and award-winning Letters From Johnny.

More about Wayne Ng:

Wayne Ng was born in downtown Toronto to Chinese immigrants who fed him a steady diet of bitter melon and kung fu movies. Ng is a social worker who lives to write, travel, eat, and play, preferably all at the same time. He is an award-winning author and traveler who continues to push his boundaries from the Arctic to the Antarctic. He lives in Ottawa with his wife and goldfish.

Ng is the author of The Family Code, shortlisted for the Guernica Prize; Letters From Johnny, winner of the Crime Writers of Canada Award for Best Crime Novella and a finalist for the Ottawa Book Award and Johnny Delivers.