Christina Wong: Denison Avenue

Author Christina Wong discusses her CBC Canada Reads shortlisted novel, Denison Avenue, with former mayor of Calgary and Canada Reads champion, Naheed Nenshi, at the Lillian H. Smith Branch of Toronto Public Library. Images by the book's illustrator, Daniel Innes, will be displayed throughout the event.

Denison Avenue is a moving story told through visual art and fiction about gentrification, aging in place, grief, and vulnerable elders.

The book follows an elderly Chinese-Canadian woman named Wong Cho Sum who lives in Toronto’s quickly gentrifying Chinatown-Kensington Market neighborhood. After the death of her husband, she begins to collect bottles and cans to fill her days and keep grief and loneliness at bay. In her long walks around the city, she meets new friends, confronts classism and racism, and learns how to build a life as a widow in a neighborhood that is being destroyed and rebuilt, leaving elders like her behind.

A poignant meditation on loss, aging, gentrification, and the barriers that Chinese-Canadian seniors experience in big cities, Denison Avenue beautifully combines visual art, fiction, and the endangered Toisan dialect to create a book that is truly unforgettable.

Q&A and signing to follow. Denison Avenue by Daniel Innes and Christina Wong will be available for purchase by The Beguiling.

Ticket registration for this event is required.

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Note: This is an in-person event inside the auditorium of Lillian H. Smith Branch. Tickets are only guaranteed until 15 minutes before the show starts, at which point we will start opening up available spots to the rush line.

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Accessibility at Toronto Public Library:

Toronto Public Library is committed to accessibility. Please call or email us if you are Deaf or have a disability and would like to request accommodation to participate in this program. Please let us know as far in advance as possible and we will do our best to meet your request. Phone 416-393-7099 or email accessibleservices@tpl.ca.