For its eighth anniversary, Concordia’s Co-op Bookstore is celebrating like no eight-year-old ever would. Starting Wednesday evening for the next six weeks, the Co-op will be holding readings of published works by their Montreal-dwelling authors.
Larissa Dutil, store co-manager, bookseller and outreach coordinator, takes full credit for the idea of the series. She said that too often, the Co-op forgets to celebrate its anniversary because it falls around the beginning of the fall semester, one of their busiest times of the year. The Co-op has had public reading events in the past, but this is the first time they have revolved around an anniversary.
“Lucky number seven would have been sexier,” admitted Dutil, who thinks the anniversary should really just be an afterthought. Dutil believes the writers will be the main attraction to the event. She hopes the series will be a good lead-up to the Co-op’s Annual General Meeting, where members vote on which direction the organization is going and its upcoming projects and ventures.
The Local Legends Reading Series will feature six writers, whom Dutil describes as “friends of the Co-op.”
The first will be Jeff Miller, a Concordia graduate who has just begun a master’s degree in English literature at the university, on Oct. 6.
His book Ghost Pine: All Stories True was published last spring and was in-the-making for over a decade. The stories are about Miller’s time in Ottawa and Montreal as well as his trips across North America, and have previously been published in his zine. The Montreal Gazette featured Ghost Pine on their list of recommended summer reads. The book also enjoyed some time on the paper’s bestseller list back in May.
Miller’s stories are about relationships, friends and family. He describes them as universal.
“One way that my publisher and I have summed up the book,” Miller said, “is “equal measures funny and sad, punk rock and grandparents.'”
Upcoming readers and writers will include Louis Rastelli, Larissa Andrusyshyn, Jp King, Daniel Allen Cox and Mark Ambrose Harris.
The Co-op Bookstore is located at 2150 Bishop St. The event will begin at 7 p.m. Admission is a suggested donation of $2.
