The Violet Letter, Jan. 2026
This month: Five Points on an Invisible Line, VHBC Toronto returns, Lambda Foundation interviews, book news and literary links.
HAPPY NEW YEAR!! What to expect in 2026
Hello friends! Hope you had a great holiday and end-of-year celebrations. I ended up spending most of it on the couch, hit with a stubborn cold that kept me out of commission for the last two weeks. Thankfully, I was able to get a bunch of writing done. And this little new addition to our family (below) kept me company (say hi to Capo Maxine Pappardelle, or Max for short).
As we step into cold 2026, I want to remind you that spring is only about two months away. Also, I’ve got a ton of exciting activities planned for the next several months, so there’s a lot to look forward to. In addition to the monthly book club meetings, we will be partnering with ARCMTL on their Owning our Histories project, welcoming two more queer authors to the city to launch their recent books, programming activities for the Blue Metropolis Literary Festival, and launching a new queer book club initiative. More on these in future newsletters.
January is also the time for resolutions, or at least for reflecting on what we want the year to be like. For me, I hope to spend less time on social media and my phone (recently changed my interface to greyscale and find I am picking it up less) and more time with friends and family. I hope to write another (and hopefully, final) draft of my current work-in-progress and get back to the one I put down. I hope to travel, if I can afford it (eyeing a trip to Italy in May for a conference and would like to visit my partner’s family in Kelowna again). Read at least 30 books. And I hope to continue to grow this community, finding additional partners and members who are passionate about fostering deeper connections in queer spaces.
Hope to see you at an event soon!
VIOLET HOUR BOOK CLUB: Five Points on an Invisible Line
This month’s selection for the Violet Hour Book Club is Five Points on an Invisible Line (2025) by Su J. Sokol (xe/xyr). The meeting will take place on Saturday, January 24 at 3 PM at Espace des Possibles La Petite-Patrie (6450 Christophe-Colomb, Beaubien Metro).
Regular members of the VHBC will know Su from past meetings. I have known xyr for over 10 years. We first met before our debut novels came out (May 2014). Since then, Su has published four books, the most recent being Five Points on an Invisible Line. Although a sequel to Cycling to Asylum (republished last year as Invisible Line), it is a stand-alone story. As one of my goals is to feature as many local authors as possible, I decided it was time to include one of Su’s books. Xyr latest is a hopeful work of hopepunk/speculative fiction and polyamory set in a near-future Montreal.
You can watch a short interview I did with Su about the book below.
ABOUT THE BOOK
Three years after finding refuge in near-future Montreal, Laek and Janie prepare to expand their unconventional family. But when their friend Philip’s arrival coincides with an explosion at the airport, their sanctuary begins to crack.
Struggling with PTSD, Laek must forge an alliance with someone he doesn’t trust as street kids start vanishing from his school. Meanwhile, Janie dreams of building a larger family through a polyamorous union, even as dangers mount around them.
Their community of queer, poly, and neurodivergent activists fights for justice in a city that’s both haven and battleground. But when protecting others means risking everything they’ve built, how much are they willing to sacrifice?
In a world of invisible lines, which ones are worth crossing?
Sunburst Award-nominated Su J Sokol crafts hopepunk science fiction where hope isn’t just resistance—it’s revolution.
NEXT TITLES
· How We Fight for Our Lives by Saaed Jones (Sunday, February 22)
· The Tiger and the Cosmonaut by Eddy Boudel Tan (Saturday, March 21)
All meetings take place from 3 PM to 4:30 PM at Espace des Possibles La Petite-Patrie (6450 Christophe-Colomb, Beaubien Metro).
Books are available at a discount for members at Librairie Paragraphe (2220 McGill College) and Librairie Pulp Books & Cafe (3952 Wellington).
VIOLET HOUR BOOK CLUB: Toronto
This February, the VHBC returns to Toronto for another meeting. And this time, both Montreal and Toronto will be reading the same book – How We Fight for Our Lives: A Memoir by Saeed Jones. We’re still trying to build membership in the city, so if you know of anyone in Toronto who might be interested, please do let them know about the VHBC. The Toronto meeting will take place on Thursday, February 19 at 7 PM at our bookstore partner, Another Story Bookshop (315 Roncesvalles Ave.) I’ll be present at the discussion in both cities.
If you plan on going to the Toronto meeting, we ask that you please sign up in advance. Copies of the book are available at a 10% discount at Another Story Bookshop with the promo code VHBC.
LAMBDA SCHOLARSHIP FOUNDATION: Interviews
Recently, I was asked by Lambda Scholarship Foundation Canada to conduct a series of oral history interviews with folks involved in the creation and stewardship of the organization, as part of their 40th anniversary celebrations.
Created in the mid-1980s as a networking and social club for gay and lesbian entrepreneurs and professionals in Ottawa, Lambda (not to be confused with Lambda Literary Foundation) grew over the years to become a registered Canadian charity with the mission of creating scholarships, awards, and bursaries in support of 2S/LGBTQ+ studies. Lambda also created Wilde About Sappho, an annual fundraiser that was among Canada’s largest and most prestigious reading series (a new edition launched this past November at ChromaQueer in Ottawa).
If you are curious to learn more about the organization, and what gay and lesbian organizing was like in Ottawa in the 1980s, you can watch my conversations with the following community leaders: Cameron Aitken, John Barton, André Cyr, Barb Freeman, Hugh Nelson, Philip Robert, and Tuan Vu.
Thanks to Darren Stehle for the invitation.
THE QUEER SHELF: Louis Bertolini
Each month I ask VHBC members to share what books they’re currently reading and why it resonates. This month’s pick is by Louis Bertolini who has been a book club member since I Remember Lights (August, 2025). This month Louis recommends Out in Paperback: A Visual History of Gay Pulps, 1948 to 1998 by Ian Young.
“Ian Young’s Out in Paperback: A Visual History of Gay Pulps, 1948 to 1998 is an engaging look into the foundational era of gay pulps, focused mostly on gay male fiction. The book is not only a lively read but is a fabulous visual feast, showcasing each book cover as a record, initially of repression by the end, of visibility. The book covers featured in the six chapters first use merely subtext and hints – a disconsolate young man and a concerned woman beside him – this was the convention of gay books throughout the fifties and much of the sixties more audacious two men and a woman! Physical same-sex affection between men doesn’t appear until the 1970s – classic covers of James Baldwin’s Giovanni’s Room and Gore Vidal’s The City and the Pillar reflect these visual changes. Gordon Merrick’s famous pulps with romantic-realist artist Victor Gadino’s beautiful men displaying affection are a highlight of this book.”
BOOK NEWS & EVENTS
New and recent books to discover: Genderqueer Menopause by Lasara Firefox Allen; Jackson Alone by Jose Ando, translated by Kalau Almony; Les nuits de l’underground by Marie-Claire Blais (re-print with prefaces by Kev Lambert and Laura Vasquez); We Call Them Witches by India-Rose Bower; Ace of Hearts: Lessons in Love from an Asexual Girl by Cooklin; Hemlock by Melissa Faliveno; She is Here by Nicola Griffith; Two Women Living Together by Kim Hana, Hwang Sunwoo, translated by Gene Png; We Inherit the Fire by Kagiso Lesego Molope; City of Others by Jared Poon; The House Is (Not) a Prison: On the Queerness of Architecture by Colin Ripley; Nights in Fairyland: Gossip, Blackmail, and the Many Lives of “Broadway Brevities” by Will Straw; Missing Sam by Thrity Umrigar; Queer Print Cultures by Javier Samper Vendrell and Vance Byrd; The Log Books: Voices of Queer Britain and the Helpline that Listened by Tash Walker and Adam Zmith; and One Aladdin Two Lamps by Jeanette Winterson.
Last month, Montreal’s Metonymy Press launched their anthologies Sharp Pink Claws Vol. 1 & Vol. 2 to raise funds for the struggling press. If you missed it, you can still support them in their mission to publish queer and trans books. They also recently announced that co-founder Ashley Fortier will be stepping down from the press, and that writer Eli Tareq El Bechelany-Lynch will be stepping into the role of co-publisher.
If you are a CEGEP teacher in Montreal and would like to have me, or another writer, come speak to your class, QWF’s Writers in CEGEPs program sends established English-language Quebec writers into CEGEP classrooms to promote language-arts skills and an appreciation of literature. I’ve been accepted into the program, as have others. You can look at the list of eligible authors here.
Jay Poulton is one of my brother’s oldest friends. Like me, he studied journalism and ended up working in communications. Last year, he started a podcast series called The Accent On, where he speaks to professionals about their work. He interviewed me for it last month, and we spoke about writing, community building, and my professional journey. You can watch/listen to it on YouTube or Spotify.
VHBC member Christopher Wolff published their first peer reviewed article, co-created with visual artist Jesse Blanchard, “They Lack Imagination…” ─ Valérie Wilson and Trans Life in the Audiovisual Archive. It is a written and drawn fabulation on post-war transfeminine life centred around an interview with trans actress Valérie Wilson from the The 1973 French TV program Chutes on tourne.
Confabulation, Montreal’s true storytelling series, presents Over it: Abandoned resolutions, holiday hangovers and the art of giving up on Friday, January 9 at La Sala Rossa (4848 Boul. Saint-Laurent).
On Thursday, January 22, Soliloquies Anthology (co-edited by VHBC member Foster Gareau) launches its 30th anniversary issue at Bar Le Record (7622 Rue St-Hubert), starting at 7 PM.
Three authors come together to talk about the themes that run through their novels: bisexuality, conflicted family relationships, intimate writing, and running away. Tête-à-tête-à-tête with Alice Rivard, Alex Viens and Maryse Andraos take place on Friday, January 23 from 6 PM to 8 PM at La Livrerie (1289 Ontario St E). In French.
Are you obsessed by Heated Rivalry (either the book or TV adaption)? The Gay Writes book club will be reading/discussing Rachel Reid’s novel on Sunday, February 1 at 6 PM at Pulp Books & Café (3952 Wellington St.) Meanwhile, Joie de Livres Bookstore (5163 Boul. Saint-Laurent) will be hosting weekly re-watch parties of Jacob Tierney’s adaptation into February (all-access passes to the screenings, which include drinks, are going for $225!).
Finally, Dad Bod Tea Dance, the early-evening dance party I throw with my friends for older queers, returns on Sunday, February 8, this time to SAT (1201 Boul. Saint-Laurent) from 5 PM to 10 PM. Tickets are on sale now.
QUEER VIEW MIRROR
Just before the New Year, I published a post on The Violet Letter site, looking at all the work we accomplished in 2025. If you missed it, take a look.
For paid subscribers to this newsletter, there are two additional posts: one that examines a particular piece of writing advice from an Italian novel I read recently, the other that gives an update (and excerpt) on the latest draft of my current work-in-progress.
That’s it for this month. Happy reading! And thanks for your continued support!
Stay up to date and follow the Violet Hour Book Club on Facebook and Instagram.