Sounding Off

The worlds of music, literature and social media collide hard when our motley crew of music making & inspired authors muse, screen, highlight and observe music styles that influence and impact their writing, all the while being engaged by our participatory social media imbued audience.

Curator/Host: Dalton Higgins is a National Magazine Award-winning journalist, radio and TV broadcaster, educator, and music festival presenter who's fifth book Far From Over: The Music and Life of Drake (ECW Press) sheds light on the cultural conditions in Toronto that helped create the Drake phenomenon. His four other books (Fatherhood 4.0, Hip Hop World, Hip Hop, Much Master T) examine the place where the worlds of technology, diversity, hip hop and hipster culture intersect. His precise and provocative views about the book industry in Toronto can be found on Open Book Toronto, where he's been blogging since 2009. @daltonhiggins5.

Bios:
Stuart Berman is the Online Editor of The Grid, a regular contributor to Pitchfork, the author of This Book Is Broken: A Broken Social Scene Story (House of Anansi) and Too Much Trouble: A Very Oral History of Danko Jones (ECW), a vocalist for Toronto glacial-garage beat-muzik combo The Two Koreas, a full-time practising Libra and a dad. @stuberman

Vivek Shraya is a Toronto-based artist working in the mediums of music, performance, literature and film. Born in Edmonton, Shraya has released more than half a dozen records, recorded and and toured with Tegan and Sara and has released books including What I Love About Being Queer (which was released as a short film and is now on DVD) and God Loves Hair (which is being reissued by Arsenal Pulp Press in April 2014) a collection of 21 short stories following a tender, intellectual, and curious child as he navigates complex realms of sexuality, gender, racial politics, religion and belonging. @vivekshraya

Misha Bower is a writer, author and musician from London, Ontario. She sings with Toronto bands Bruce Peninsula and EONS and has vocal recording credits on records by Timbre Timbre, City & Colour, Snowblink and Daniel Romano. Music for Uninvited Guests (Cringles) her first book of short stories is also available as an audio book: all eight stories read by the author with introductions and musical interludes by EON's Matt Cully.