Join us for an evening of poetry, prose, and music at BNA Burger! IWC is delighted to be hosting the launch of Michael V. Smith’s newest book, Queers Like Me (Book*hug Press, 2023), featuring our Open Mic. First, we will have a 5-spot open mic, which will be followed by a reading and interview with author, performer, filmmaker, and professor Michael V. Smith.

Entry is a $6-$10 sliding scale. Please purchase tickets HERE.

About the book*: “Confessional and immersive, Michael V. Smith’s latest collection is a broad tapestry that explores growing up queer and working class, then growing into an urban queer life.

In these poems, we are immersed in the world of a young Smith as he shares the awkward dinners, the funerals, and the uncertainty of navigating fraught dynamics, bringing us into these most intimate moments of family life while outrunning deep grief. Smith moves from first home to first queer experiences: teenage crushes, video cameras, post-club hookups, fears and terrors, closeted lovers, and daydreams of confronting your childhood bully.

Queers Like Me is an enveloping book—a meditation on family complexity and a celebration of personal insight.”

Copies of Queers Like Me will be available to purchase at the event.

Doors are at 6:30pm, and sign up begins promptly at 6:30pm with our hosts. We have 5 open mic spots available and are first come, first served. Both food and drink will be available from BNA.

There are two single user, gender-neutral washrooms available and the space is wheelchair accessible.

Our programming is made possible by the City of Kelowna, the Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies at UBC Okanagan, and BNA Brewery.

We respectfully acknowledge that we live and work in the unceded, ancestral territory of the Syilx people. It is a privilege to be able to put on events as uninvited guests on their land.

* This description is from Book*hug Press.