LOTS of stuff going on this week, with continuing events celebrating National Poetry Month, and a TINARS-a-thon.

Tuesday, April 8th:

Celebrate the launch of Roman Dress and the Fabrics of Roman Culture, a creative non-fiction volume edited by Jonathan Edmondson and Alison Keith, investigating the social symbolism and cultural poetics of dress in the ancient Roman world in the period from 200 BCE to 400 CE.
Trinity College, Provost Lodge. 6-8pm.

Join Indigo for an on stage interview with author and U of T business prof Richard Florida about his latest book, Who's Your City. Book signing to follow.
Indigo Bay & Bloor. 7pm. Free.

How do we learn to identify the "fun" in family dysfunction? At the Canadian launch of her much celebrated memoir, House Rules, author Rachel Sontag will have a spirited on-stage conversation about overcoming a decidedly zany, traumatic upbringing with Damian Rogers, Arts & Lifestyle Editor at EYE Weekly. A TINARS event.
Gladstone Hotel Melody Bar. 7:30pm (doors 7pm). Free.

Head to the U of T Bookstore Reading Series for an evening of conversation with Barrie Wilson and Professor Patrick Gray, as they discuss Wilson's new book How Jesus Became Christian, in which the author asks, "How did a young rabbi become the god of a religion he wouldn't recognize, one which was established through the use of calculated anti-Semitism?" Should be an interesting discussion!
Innis Town Hall. 7:30pm. Free.

McClelland & Stewart invite you to celebrate three extraordinary poetry collections: Orphic Politics by Tim Lilburn, The New Layman's Almanac by Jacob McArthur Mooney and The Dream World by Alison Pick.
Mitzi's Sister. 8-10pm. Free. RSVP to rsvp@mcclelland.com.

Johanna Skibsrud (author of Late Nights With Wild Cowboys), Jerome Paul (winner of the 2008 Art Bar Discovery Night) and Dave Margoshes (Purity of Absence) are reading at tonight's installment of the Art Bar Poetry Series.
Clinton's. 8pm. Free (voluntary donations are appreciated).

Wednesday, April 9th:

Philip Slayton, Rhodes Scholar, former corporate lawyer and Dean of Law at U of W, discusses his book, Lawyers Gone Bad: Money, Sex and Madness in Canada's Legal Profession. Question and answer period to follow.
North York Central Library Auditorium. 7pm. Free.

The Harbourfront International Reading Series presents Anthony De Sa reading from his debut collection of short stories Barnacle Love, William Deverell presenting Kill All the Judges (the murderous madcap follow-up to April Fool), and Padma Viswanathan reading from her anticipated debut novel, The Toss of a Lemon. James Grainger hosts.
Harbourfront Centre Brigantine Room. 7:30pm. $8.

The Coach House Spring Launch features new localized novels from acclaimed author Maggie Helwig and celebrated playwright Claudia Dey. The night also includes the launch of books by RM Vaughan, with his scandalous poetic memoir; Jordan Scott, with his poetics of stuttering; and Jen Currin with her collection of surrealist urban fairy tales.
Stones Place. 7:30pm. Free.

Thursday, April 10th:

Parag Khanna, Director of the Global Governance Initiative and Senior Research Fellow in the American Strategy Program at the New America Foundation, reads from his latest work, The Second World: Empires & Influence in the New Global Order.
Munk Centre for International Studies (U of T). 4pm. Free.

Will Ferguson, well known for his satirical titles Why I Hate Canadians and Beauty Tips from Moose Jaw, will read and discuss his latest work, Spanish Fly, a comic historical novel about a group of con artists swindling their way across America's Dust Bowl in the 1930s. Question and answer to follow the reading.
Toronto Reference Library, Beeton Auditorium. 7pm. Free.

Gail Scott (co-editor of Biting the Error and author of Spare Parts Plus Two) and Rachel Levitsky (Under the Sun) read from their latest works,
Gladstone Hotel Second Floor. 7:30pm. $5 suggested donation.

Friday, April 11th:

All are welcome to Queer Within These Walls, featuring three local queer writers reading from their novels, with themes of working and living within mental health institutions. Come see Debra Anderson (Code White), Farzana Doctor (Stealing Nasreen) and Pat Capponi (Last Stop Sunnyside); books will be on sale and authors will be available to sign them.
Toronto Women's Bookstore. 7-9pm. Free.

Stan Dragland will be reading from his novel The Drowned Lands at the IV Lounge Reading Series.
IV Lounge. 8pm. Free.

Saturday, April 12th:

Join Steve McCabe, Nik Beat and Nancy Bullis for "Blues & Poetry", a poetry reading, plus some music, dance and visual arts. There will also be a musical set by Blue Room and an open mic session.
The Rivoli. 9pm. $10.

Sunday, April 13th:

This month, the Globe and Mail/Ben McNally Brunch Series presents Sharon Butala, author of The Girl from Saskatoon, Robyn Scott (Twenty Chickens for a Saddle), Ana Siljak (Angel of Vengeance) and Steven Skurka (Tilted: The Trial of Conrad Black).
King Edward Hotel. 10am. $40.

Poetry meets painting in an unusual combined reading and exhibition. Five published poets -- Merle Nudelman, John Oughton, Mary Lou Soutar-Hynes, Sheila Stewart and Elana Wolff -- will read works written in response, or resonant with, visual arts pieces by the studio members of the Association.
Women's Art Association. 2pm. Free.

Celebrated author Don Truckey provides young readers with a vibrant tale about Canada's national past time (uh, hockey) in The Adventures of Caraway Kim & Right Wing. Come hear Truckey speak about the Caraway Kim series as he is joined on-stage by Marc Glassman, proprietor of Pages Books & Magazines. Another TINARS event.
Gladstone Hotel Melody Bar. 7pm. Free.

Monday, April 14th:

Professor David Rayside will a give a talk regarding his work A Scandal of Neglect: Canadian Public Schools and the Failure to Recognize Sexual Diversity.
Ramada Plaza Toronto. 5:45 to 8:30pm. Free.

If there is a single individual who can be said to have been at center stage through all of the most significant humanitarian and geopolitical crises of the late twentieth and early twenty-first century, it was incomparable humanitarian Sergio Vieira de Mello. See Heather Reisman interview Pulitzer Prize-winner Samantha Power, author of Chasing the Flame: Sergio Vieira de Mello and the Fight to Save the World.
Indigo Bay & Bloor. 7pm. Free.

No one would dispute that Toronto is undergoing a major transformation. But where is it headed? David MacFarlane asked ten of our city's leading writers, architects and academics to address this issue, and assembled the essays in Toronto: A City Becoming. McFarlane will moderate a town hall-style panel featuring Ian Brown, Meric Gertler, and John Von Nostrand. The third TINARS event this week.
Gladstone Hotel Ballroom. 7:30pm (doors 7pm). Free.