An accomplished and acclaimed writer in his own right, we first heard of Christopher DiRaddo through his work with The Violet Hour Reading Series. We were immediately struck by Chris’ openness, kindness, and generosity, and knew we wanted to ask him about his experience organizing and maintaining his vital series for queer writers in our current cultural landscape.

We’re honoured to have Chris join us for this Power Q & A.

Welcome, Chris!

Q: You began hosting The Violet Hour after your first book came out and you noticed a lack of reading spaces for queer writers. Would you tell us about this experience? The challenges and triumphs?

A: Like most aspiring queer authors, the gay bookstore was my sanctuary. Before I knew what story I wanted to tell, there was L’Androgyne. I would go in and peruse the stacks (I can still smell the paper). I’d check out the new releases, examine the classics. Sometimes I’d be there for over an hour, talking to the staff about what we’d just read or gossiping about the crushes we had. There was never really anything like that space again. I’m sorry it closed in the early 2000s the way so many of them did.

When I finally did find my story, when I wrote it down and got it published, it broke my heart that there was no queer bookstore in Montreal to house it (there is one now, L'Euguélionne). No places for new discoveries of queer books of any kind. As a debut author, I wondered how I was going to find readers if readers couldn’t discover me the same way I discovered the ones that have remained on my shelves over the years.

I also received few invitations to read at mainstream venues. And it wasn’t just me. I noticed that some of my peers were dealing with the same issues. Canada publishes so many queer books every year, yet here we were struggling to find a way to reach our audiences.

So, I decided to create that space again even if it was for one night. A space where queer writers could find new readers, where queer readers could discover new books, and where queer book lovers could discover each other. Ten years later and Violet Hour is still going strong. Since its inception, we’ve created a platform for more than 250 writers to court new audiences.

There have been challenges, surely. It can be difficult to find partners or venues to house you. And it’s hard to make things happen when you don’t have a budget. I’ve been lucky from time to time, but I hope to be able to adequately pay the authors I program.

Overall, though, Violet Hour has been a success I’d say. One of the triumphs for me has been the creation of the Violet Hour Book Club, which serves as a companion piece to the series. For the past five years, two dozen Montrealers (and some folks joining us from out of town on Zoom) have been gathering every month to discuss classic and contemporary works of LGBTQ literature. We’ve also been forging wonderful friendships.

What’s been made clear to me over the years is how vibrant queer writing is in Canada. There are so many of us writing and publishing so many books. And people are hungry for it. Hungry for queer books, hungry for discussion about queer literature, hungry for literary friendships. I’m happy to keep feeding them.

*The Family Way* (Vehicule Press, 2021) by Christopher DiRaddo.

More about Christopher DiRaddo:

Christopher DiRaddo is the author of the novels The Family Way (2021), shortlisted for the F.G Bressani Literary Prize, and The Geography of Pluto (2014). His essays and short stories have appeared in First Person Queer: Who We Are (So Far), Here & Now: An Anthology of Queer Italian-Canadian Writing and The Globe and Mail. He has also written for several publications, including Elle Canada, Xtra magazine and enRoute magazine, for which he won a National Magazine Award. In 2014, he created the Violet Hour Reading Series & Book Club, which has to date provided a platform for more than 250 LGBTQ writers in Canada. He lives in Montreal.