Book Launch and Readings

Book Launch and Readings

Come join us for an engaging free book launch event and readings at Caffe Fantastico, Kings Road. Authors Esmeralda Cabral (How to Clean a Fish) and Gregor Craigie (Radio Jet Lag) will be sharing excerpts from their latest and recent works and Barbara Black will be celebrating the release of her second book, Little Fortified Stories! This in-person gathering will be a great opportunity to meet the authors, get your books signed, and mingle with fellow book lovers. Save the date, register for free, and be part of this special book event.

GREGOR CRAIGIE has been a journalist for more than 25 years at the BBC World Service, CBC Radio, CBS Radio and Public Radio International. He has hosted On The Island on CBC Radio One in Victoria, BC, since 2007. His first book, On Borrowed Time: North America’s Next Big Quake, was a finalist for both the Balsillie Prize for Public Policy and the City of Victoria Book Prize, and was a Globe and Mail Top 100 book in 2021. His latest adult nonfiction book is Our Crumbling Foundation: How We Solve Canada’s Housing Crisis, which was published by Random House Canada and became an instant national bestseller. His first novel, Radio Jet Lag, was published in 2023 and was longlisted for this year’s Leacock Medal for Canadian humour writing.

BARBARA BLACK writes short and flash fiction, poetry and libretti. Her work has appeared in national and international publications, including The Cincinnati Review, Geist, The Hong Kong Review and Prairie Fire, and in many anthologies, including Bath Flash Fiction Award 2020. Achievements include: Fiction Finalist, 2020 National Magazine Awards; Winner, 2017 Writers’ Union of Canada Short Prose Competition; Winner, Federation of BC Writers Contests (Prose Poem) 2018 and (Flash Fiction) 2021/2022; and Shortlisted for the 2023 Edinburgh Flash Fiction Award. She recently won First Prize in The Plaza Prizes Microfiction Contest and placed Second in their Flash Fiction Category. Her debut book Music from a Strange Planet was released in 2021 to critical acclaim. Black lives in Victoria, BC, where she gardens and rides her trusty Triumph motorcycle.

ESMERALDA CABRAL'S first book, a travel memoir entitled How to Clean a Fish and Other Adventures in Portugal, was published in spring 2023 by University of Alberta Press. Her writing has been published in The Globe and Mail, Understorey Magazine, The Common Online and others, as well as in ten anthologies. Her most recent publication, “Such a Pity, Senhora,” is included in the anthology Back Where I Came From, forthcoming from Book*hug Press in November. Two of her stories have aired on CBC Radio. Esmeralda was born in the Azores, Portugal, grew up in Alberta, and now lives on Musqueam Land in Vancouver, BC.