
Off-Season Events

Steel Town Love – A Festival for Romance Readers and Writers
Hamilton's first festival dedicated to romance novels and the people who love them.

Pages, Pens, and Pints (A Silent Reading and Writing Event) – JULY 13
Kickstart your creative energy (quietly).

Pages, Pens, and Pints (A Silent Reading and Writing Event) – AUGUST 10
Kickstart your creative energy (quietly).

Pages, Pens, and Pints (A Silent Reading and Writing Event) – SEPTEMBER 14
Kickstart your creative energy (quietly).

gritLIT Presents R.F. Kuang!
gritLIT is thrilled to welcome R.F. Kuang to Theatre Aquarius in celebration of her new book, Katabasis.
Rebecca F. Kuang is the #1 New York Times and #1 Sunday Times bestselling author of the Poppy War trilogy, Babel: An Arcane History, and Yellowface. Her work has won the Nebula, Locus, Crawford, and British Book Awards. A Marshall Scholar, she has an MPhil in Chinese Studies from Cambridge and an MSc in Contemporary Chinese Studies from Oxford. She is now pursuing a PhD in East Asian Languages and Literatures at Yale, where she studies diaspora, contemporary Sinophone literature, and Asian American literature.
Upon purchase, guests will also have the opportunity to buy a signed deluxe limited-edition copy of Katabasis. Available only on the first printing this collector’s hardcover features stenciled edges, case effects, and illustrated endpapers. Books will be pre-signed by the author.
A custom Canadian tour stamp will also be available on-site so attendees can add it to their books as a special keepsake of this exclusive event.
Additional copies of Katabasis, and other books by R.F. Kuang will be available for purchase at the event thanks to our bookstore partner Epic Books.
About Katabasis
DANTE’S INFERNO MEETS SUSANNA CLARKE’S PIRANESI in this DARK ACADEMIA FANTASY from R. F. KUANG, in which two graduate students must put aside their rivalry and journey to Hell to save their professor’s soul—perhaps at the cost of their own.
Katabasis, noun, Ancient Greek: The story of a hero’s descent to the underworld
“Rich with allusion and illusion, Kuang crafts a witty, gory, harrowing ride that thoroughly roasts the perils and power structures of academia, while never losing sight of what it means to have a fragile, human heart.” — #1 New York Times bestselling author, Leigh Bardugo
“A spellbinding and poignant story that had me riveted to the pages, R.F. Kuang’s KATABASIS is more than a novel to savor. This book is an experience. I envy those who get to read it for the first time.”
— Rebecca Ross, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Divine Rivals
This event is hosted at Theatre Aquarius (190 King William St)

Pages, Pens, and Pints (A Silent Reading and Writing Event) – OCTOBER 12
Kickstart your creative energy (quietly).

Pages, Pens, and Pints (A Silent Reading and Writing Event) – NOVEMBER 9
Kickstart your creative energy (quietly).

Pages, Pens, and Pints (A Silent Reading and Writing Event) – DECEMBER 14
Kickstart your creative energy (quietly).

Pages, Pens, and Pints (A Silent Reading and Writing Event) – JUNE 8
Kickstart your creative energy (quietly).

Pages, Pens, and Pints (A Silent Reading and Writing Event) – APRIL 13
Kickstart your creative energy (quietly).

Emma Donoghue in Conversation with Annette Hamm
Emma Donoghue, author of Room, The Wonder, and Pull of the Stars, returns with The Paris Express, a taut and suspenseful historical novel that reimagines an 1895 French railway disaster, an event famously documented in dramatic photographs. In this pre-festival event, gritLIT is thrilled to welcome Emma Donoghue to the historic Playhouse Cinema to sit down with CHCH Morning Live’s Annette Hamm. The Paris Express is a thrilling ride and a literary masterpiece that captures the politics, fears and chaos of the end of the nineteenth century.
$15 | This event is hosted at the Playhouse Cinema (177 Sherman Avenue North)

An Evening for Book Lovers: Hamilton Reads 2025 Launch
Don't miss An Evening for Book Lovers happening at the Hamilton Public Library

Witchy Folklore Trivia
Celebrate the magic of the Worm Moon with gritLIT and The Witch's Fix

Pages, Pens, and Pints (A Silent Reading and Writing Event) – MARCH 9
Kickstart your creative energy (quietly).

THE BIG REVEAL: gritLIT 2025 Launch Party
Join us to celebrate the launch of gritLIT 2025!

Pages, Pens, and Pints (A Silent Reading and Writing Event) – FEBRUARY 9
Kickstart your creative energy (quietly).


David A. Robertson in Conversation with Robin Lacambra
gritLIT is pleased to welcome David A. Robertson to the Playhouse Cinema to chat about his most recent book, All the Little Monsters, with Robin Lacambra