Where Books Became a Campus Conversation.
By Ranveer Joshua Jadhav, Staff Writer
Photo source: @trinityreadsuoft / @scottdionphotography
On January 29th, Trinity College’s Seeley Hall transformed into something between a literary marketplace and a community living room; in other words, the perfect place for the reader in your life who won’t shut up about what they’re reading (we say this lovingly, of course). Trinity Reads’s “Book Fair and Champions Panel” was in full swing! Together, students, faculty, and fellow book lovers gathered for an evening that made reading a shared campus experience—the ultimate bookclub.
Spearheaded by Trinity College’s Director of Literary Programming, Leanne Toshiko Simpson, the Trinity Reads campaign invited the Trinity community to explore five books that help reimagine our relationships to the land: Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice; River Mumma by U of T alum Zalika Reid-Benta; Dispersals: On Plants, Borders and Belonging by Jessica J. Lee; Endsickness by Sofia Alarcon; and The Nature of Our Cities by Dr. Nadina Galle. Taken together, the selected titles invite readers to reconsider their place within the natural world, foregrounding sustainability as both a cultural and ecological responsibility. In the months leading up to the book debate, the program hosted reading parties, workshops, film screenings, and author visits—with more to come! The Book Fair and Panel marked the culmination of this programming, a moment when the community gathered to decide which work would win the debate and would be invited to campus in March.
Before the panel began, attendees were able to move through a series of vendor tables and interactive booths that gave the event its welcoming, exploratory feel.
Local independent bookstore Queen Books brought a curated selection that ranged from contemporary fiction connected to this year’s environmental and land-focused themes, to the very titles spotlighted by the campaign. In addition, U of T colleges brought the energy, with Victoria College hosting a Zine-Making workshop, New College offering Tarot Reading and Button Making, and Innis College offering popcorn and a private screening of their vast collection of movies, projected onto the walls of the hall. Independent artist Erica Hiroko Isomura sold mixed-media prints and handmade bookmarks at her booth, and the School of the Environment (along with the Environmental Studies Student Union, ENSU) also selling and on-site producing upcycled bookmarks to go along with patrons’ bookish haul, turning the fair into a space where environmental creativity met literary enthusiasm.
As the evening progressed, attendees were asked to be seated for the highly anticipated centrepiece, the Champions Panel: Who would be crowned as Trinity Reads’ first ever champion? The Shortlist Debate, modelled after Canada Read’s annual battle of the books, featured a council of student champions who debated why they believed their shortlist title was the most important work for the Trinity campus to read at this moment. Moderated by bestselling author and founder of the Festival of Literary Diversity, Jael Richardson guided the debate with warmth and clarity, helping each speaker highlight not just what their book was about and why readers might be drawn to it, but why their chosen title best embodied a sustainable ethos. Five Trinity students served as champions, each defending one of the shortlisted titles:
- Moon of the Crusted Snow defended by Kaelem Moniz;
- River Mumma defended by Adaora Olisa;
- Dispersals: On Plants, Borders and Belonging defended by Annette Kim;
- Endsickness defended by Rayn Lakhani;
- and The Nature of Our Cities defended by Kate Beshiri.
Each champion brought a distinct perspective, connecting their book to questions of land, environment, community, and belonging, all within a Canadian context.
Speaking on Waubgeshig Rice’s Moon of the Crusted Snow, Chair and Head of Trinity College’s Student Government Kaelem Moniz stated that “[o]ver the course of this dystopian book about the apocalypse, and more importantly about what comes after, it’s never actually revealed what happens that sends the world into blackout—it’s never told whether if it’s an issue of a political conflict. Maybe it’s about the climate crisis—God forbid, maybe it’s about a disease. We don’t know the answer to any of that. But, what we are told is that this is how a First Nations community rebounds.”
“It abandons the Western ways that have been put onto it,” Moniz continues, “but it tries its best to make-do with diesel engines for electricity, or using old canned products that would have come from Western grocery stores. And yet the fact is that that’s not sustainable, because that can only last so long. So instead […] by the end, [the characters in the book] discuss how to revitalize traditions, how to go pack into the past and discover, and reclaim that which has passed—and more importantly, that which is still present, but that was trying to be ‘past’ in the case of Western colonization.”
When asked about what bridges all the titles on the panels together aside from its ecological focus, Editor-in-Chief of the Stanzaic Journal of Poetry and Prose Rayn Lakhani asserted that it was the idea of “slow changes.” Defending Endsickness by Sofia Alarcon, a graphic novel about the generalized anxiety about the world ending, Lakhani said that “[w]hen we look at sustainability right now in the media, or if we look at the broader context of how we understand sustainability in literature, it’s often times presented with the idea of ‘big changes’—ice melting, and these big shockwaves that draw our attention. But what Alcaron does a little bit differently in Endsickness, is that [she] draws attention to the small nuances about living within sustainable societies.”
Lakhani underscored the banality of these “incremental changes”—where, from the outset of the novel, the main character is simply recounting a day-in-the-life, but by the end, she’s wearing gas masks on her way to work. “These small incremental changes that take place in an ordinary day—is this the future that we want to move into? So it asks us to reconsider what the world is through these small, moving changes—things that impact the background of our societies.” Lakhani believes that this is what separates Alcaron’s Endsickness from the broader understanding of sustainable literature.
The audience played an active role in shaping the atmosphere of the evening. Attendees listened closely and reacted to key points, continuing conversations with one another between segments of the event. As the debate came to a close, Jael Richardson and Leanne Toshiko Simpson invited attendees to cast their votes online to decide which title would be crowned the Trinity Reads winner, and which author would be welcomed to campus in March. In a close race, Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice claimed the Trinity Reads crown, edging out River Mumma by Zalika Reid-Benta by just two votes! As a fair concession, both authors will be invited to Trinity College to continue sharing their vital conversations about land and environmental stewardship with the Trinity community.
By the end of the night, the Book Fair and panel had done more than narrow down a winner: the Trinity Reads committee had created a space where books sparked conversations about how we live, where we belong, how we care for the land, and how stories can gently shift our sense of responsibility to one another.
