On May 19, Sharon English, short story writer and assistant professor in Innis’s Writing & Rhetoric Program, discusses her newly published novel, Night in the World. Set in Toronto, Night in the World is a tender and powerful exploration of coming home to oneself, one’s family, and the earth in an age of ecological and social crisis.
Fellow writer and activist Andrea Most (pictured right), professor in U of T’s Department of English and director of The Persephone Project, joins Sharon to talk about writing and storytelling.
“Night in the World is a splendid and searing novel, pressed up against the tremors of our times. I read it compulsively, astonished by the way Sharon English turns Toronto inside out, making the city a wild and watery landscape, bringing the beyond-the-human close. With dexterous language and expansive love, English creates complex characters struggling to find their truths in a fraught world ultimately hopeful and vital. The novel offers us everything we need from fiction right now.”
—Catherine Bush, acclaimed author of Blaze Island and The Rules of Engagement
Sharon English has published two collections of short stories, Uncomfortably Numb and Zero Gravity. Zero Gravity was longlisted for the Giller Prize and ReLit Award, included in the Globe & Mail‘s Top 100 titles for the year, and recently translated into Serbian. Sharon’s stories and essays have also appeared in numerous journals, including Best Canadian Stories, Canadian Notes & Queries, and Dark Mountain in Britain. For over twenty years Sharon has been teaching writing at Innis College, where she now serves as assistant professor — teaching stream in the Writing & Rhetoric Program.
Andrea Most is professor of environmental humanities and Jewish studies in the Department of English at the University of Toronto, director of the Persephone Project, and co-founder of Bela Farm. Committed to breaking down divisions between scholarship and public life, mind and body, nature and culture, Andrea teaches experiential courses on food and environmental literature, conducts multidisciplinary community-engaged research, and speaks widely on the local food and environmental movements.
Please note that because this is a University of Toronto event a mask requirement will be in place.
