The River Has Roots in Canada: Ottawa, Montreal, Toronto

Dear Friends,

I got back to Ottawa from the UK last night, having spent a wonderful couple of weeks doing events and catching up with family. A more fulsome recap of those things is forthcoming. For now, though, I just wanted to remind folks of imminent The River Has Roots events in Canada!

OTTAWA
May 3, 2025
8:30 PM
Library and Archives Canada, 395 Wellington Street
with Suyi Davies Okungbowa

I'm really excited to be part of the Ottawa International Writers Festival, and to chat with Suyi here at home! We'd recently been observing to each other how wacky it is to see each other more often abroad than in the city we both live in, so this is a welcome change. You can get tickets here, and I encourage you to check out the whole festival more broadly, as it's a wonderful event.

MONTREAL
May 8, 2025
7:00-9:00 PM
Argo Bookshop, 1841-A Saint-Catherine St W
with Gretchen McCulloch

I love Argo so much and am so excited to visit again! Chatting with Gretchen is always a delight, and the opportunity to chat with an Actual Linguist about the magic of grammar is something I'm deeply looking forward to (and only mildly trepidatious about). This event is free, but space is limited, so please make sure to book your tickets in advance to avoid disappointment!

TORONTO
May 10, 2025
2:00-3:00 PM
239 College St
Lillian H. Smith Auditorium
with Kelly Robson

Somehow I have never been to Bakka Phoenix books, despite having long admired them and appreciated their presence at conventions. That... Won't change yet, because this event is NOT at Bakka Phoenix, but at the Lillian H. Smith branch of the Toronto Public Library! But I hope to get to swing by regardless! And I'm very excited to see Kelly and be In Conversation with her again, a uniformly wonderful experience I've treasured every time it's occurred.

The website says no ticket is required and all are welcome, but you can sign up to get an email reminder. I personally thrive on such things, and recommend doing it!

After these events, the tour portion of The River Has Roots promotion will be officially done, and I will be in one place – one singular home-like place! – for almost two whole months before the next public appearance (at the Columbus Book Festival in July). I've been on the road since March 3 with very few gaps in between; I want to watch birds arrive and plant things in the garden and generally get my house in order as best I can with what remains of spring, as well as catch up on all the work that's piled up while I've been traipsing abroad.

Luckily (?) for me, spring in Canada takes a little while to get going. Here's a selfie I took on April 9, before heading off to C2E2 in Chicago, when there was still snow on the trees.

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend and marvellous May,

Amal

Postscripts:

• My darling friend CSE Cooney has a new book out! It's called SAINT DEATH'S HERALD and it's the sequel to Saint Death's Daughter which I adored and blurbed and I CANNOT WAIT TO READ IT you must all read it in my stead! As a reminder, here was my blurb for SDD:

Saint Death's Daughter is a tumultuous, swaggering, cackling story, a gorgeous citrus orchard with bones for roots. Miscellaneous Stones’ journey into adulthood and power, sorting knowledge from wisdom and vengeance from justice, has an ocean’s breadth and depth, its storms and sparkles and salt. Soaring with love and absolutely fizzing with tenderness and joy--I have never read anything so utterly alive.