Get your pens out! February is your chance to rub shoulders with some local literati (and get books signed to sell on eBay) as the Toronto Public Library launches Keep Toronto Reading, a series of events celebrating books and the people who love them. Guy Gavriel Kay, Nalo Hopkinson, and Paul Quarrington are just a few of the authors participating in events at branches across the city. There are a number of activities, but the Lit Lunches series is the one that caught my eye: BYO or spend $5 and get a full lunch while a pair of writers (like poets Ken Babstock and Souvankham Thammavongsa on the 27th!) read and discuss their work…or for a mere $35 you can booze and schmooze at the Sparkling With Fashion wine-tasting evening hosted by Jeanne Beker at (where else?) the Yorkville Branch.

The events run all month long in February, so visit The Keep Toronto Reading Website for details and a full list of this year’s program.

Heads up superfreaks, the Sexual Diversity Studies Student Union is hosting a conference on fetishism next month. At last…

Promising to be spicier than the average lecture series Fetish: Working Out the Kinks will address how fetishism, specifically Bondage, Domination, Sadism and Masochism (or BDSM) practice, is regarded in terms of sex work, media representations, identity politics and the medical and mental health community through a series of paper presentations, lectures and workshops.

Fetish: Working Out the Kinks will include participation from sexuality researchers, educators and activists from all backgrounds and features SexTV’s Dr. Carol Queen as keynote speaker. The conference runs March 14 -15, all are welcome and tickets are on sale now at U of T Tix, University of Toronto’s Central Box Office. Get them while they’re hot.

For more info contact the conference organizer at sdssu.conference@gmail.com