Wild Prose

A prose-based reading series in Victoria, BC

October 9th, 2025

Please join us on Thursday, October 9th for You Are What You Eat, with andrea bennett and Monica Meneghetti, reading from their books about all things food-related. andrea will read from their new book, Hearty: On Cooking, Eating, and Growing Food for Pleasure and Subsistence, and Monica will read from her book, What the Mouth Wants: A Memoir of Food, Love and Belonging. We’ll finish with a Q&A with the authors.

We will begin the night with an open mic! Bring a page or two of prose or a poem or two to share!

PLEASE respect the audience and the other readers by reading for 5 or fewer minutes.

Doors: 6:30 p.m. Open mic: 7:00 p.m. Featured readers: 7:30 p.m.

AT OUR NEW LOCATION!!!

at Books & Shenanigans, 347 Cook Street (beside Moka House)

$5 CASH admission

Authors’ books will be for sale at the event

Please bring CASH for admission

Our new location has limited seating. There are 17 seats that can be reserved for each reading. The rest of the seats and standing room/sitting on the floor will be available to those who pay at the door. If you’d like to reserve a seat for the October 9th reading, please send me an email. I’ll ask you to pay your $5 admission ahead of time, either via e-transfer or by arrangement.

(All admission money goes directly to the participating authors. No refunds if you don’t end up coming.)

andrea bennett is a National Magazine Award-winning writer, a senior editor at The Tyee, and the author of six books. Their most recent book of essays, Hearty: On Cooking, Eating, and Growing Food for Pleasure and Subsistence, out from ECW Press, was named a Hamilton Review of Books Best Book of 2024 and was described as "witty" and "appetite-whetting" by the Globe and Mail. The anthology Points of Interest, which bennett co-edited with David Beers, spent 28 weeks on the BC Bestseller list.

Author of What the Mouth Wants: A Memoir of Food, Love and Belonging, Monica Meneghetti is also translator of MP Boisvert’s The Fifth: A Love(s) Story, Simone Moro’s The Call of the Ice: Climbing 8000-meter Peaks in Winter, and A Place Just For Me, Loredana Baldinucci’s picture book.

Some steps toward reconciliation

We hold this reading series on the unceded territories of the lək̓ʷəŋən people, also known as the Xwsepsum and Songhees First Nations. Here is some more information about these nations and how to support local Indigenous peoples and artists:

Past Events

  • August 14th, 2025: Open Mic night with Chelsea Wakelyn and Katłià

  • August 14th, 2025: The crowd at our new location: Books & Shenanigans

  • August 14th, 2025: The open mic readers

  • August 14th, 2025: Open Mic Night with Chelsea Wakelyn and Katłià

  • May 29th, 2025: Death Becomes Her with Erica McKeen, Umar Turaki, and Alli Vail

  • May 29th, 2025: Tracy Wai de Boer kicks off the open mic

  • May 29th, 2025: Erica McKeen reads from Cicada Summer

  • May 29th, 2025: Umar Turaki reads from Every Drop of Blood is Red

  • May 29th, 2025: Alli Vail reads from Brooklyn Thomas Isn't Here

  • March 13th, 2025: Launch for Soundin' Canaan: Black Canadian Poetry, Music, and Citizenship--Paul db Watkins in conversation with Wayde Compton

  • March 13th, 2025: Aziza Moqia Sealey-Qaylow kicks off the open mic

  • March 13th, 2025: Surprise special guest Sonnet L'Abbé plays the Wank Widow Blues

  • March 13th, 2025: Wayde Compton

  • March 13th, 2025: Paul db Watkins

  • January 30th, 2025: Cult Lit

  • January 30th 2025: Holly Loveday kicked off the open mic

  • January 30th, 2025: Carly Butler

  • January 30th, 2025: Sonja Larsen

  • January 30th, 2025: Kyeren Regehr

  • November 6th, 2024: Raising Daughters, Raising Mothers, Raising Voices

  • November 6th, 2024: Kyeren Regehr opens the open mic

  • November 6th, 2024: Minelle Mahtani

  • November 6th, 2024: Arleen Paré

  • November 6th, 2024: Ayelet Tsabari

  • November 6th, 2024: Raising Daughters, Raising Mothers, Raising Voices

  • October 10th, 2024 Alice in Monsterland: A roundtable discussion about Alice Munro and other "art monsters." Moderated by Justina Elias, with Kathryn Mockler, Suzanne Methot, and Julie Paul

  • October 10th, 2024 Open Mic opener Eva Haas

  • July 25th, 2024 Short Story Summer

  • July 25th, 2024 Short Story Summer

  • July 25th, 2024 Open Mic opener Eli Mushumanski

  • July 25th, 2024 Danila Botha

  • July 25th, 2024 Corinna Chong

  • July 25th, 2024 Jen Currin

  • June 27th, 2024 Innocence Lost

  • June 27th, 2024 Open Mic opener Meghan Reyda-Molnar

  • June 27th, 2024 Lily Grace

  • June 27th, 2024 Amy Mattes

  • June 27th, 2024 Karen Lee White

  • June 27th, 2024 Innocence Lost

  • May 30th, 2024 BACK to the Future!

  • May 30th 2024 Open Mic opener Aldyn Chwelos

  • May 30th, 2024 Astrid Blodgett

  • May 30th, 2024 Kevin Chong

  • May 30th, 2024 Lori Hahnel

  • May 30th, 2024 BACK to the Future!

  • January 25th, 2024 The Subversives

  • January 25th, 2024 Open Mic Opener Justina Elias

  • January 25th, 2024 JD Derbyshire

  • January 25th, 2024 Kathryn Mockler

  • January 25th, 2024 Emi Sasagawa

  • January 25th, 2024

  • September 25, 2023 Family Grief and Grievances

  • September 25, 2023 Open Mic Opener Catherine St. Denis

  • September 25, 2023 Ali Bryan reads from Coq

  • September 25, 2023 Stephanie Harrington reads from "The Fighter"

  • September 25, 2023 Chelsea Wakelyn reads from What Remains of Elsie Jane

  • September 25, 2023 Family Grief and Grievances

  • September 25, 2023 Family Grief and Grievances

  • August 24, 2023 Troubled Towns and Waters

  • August 24, 2023 Troubled Towns and Waters

  • August 24, 2023 Open mic opener Sandy Ibrahim

  • August 24, 2023 Open mic opener Rachael Moorthy

  • August 24, 2023 Troubled Towns and Waters

  • August 24, 2023 Curtis LeBlanc

  • August 24, 2023 Michael Melgaard

  • August 24, 2023 Mike Sadava

  • May 25, 2023: Earth-Shattering Prose

  • May 25, 2023: Earth-Shattering Prose

  • May 25, 2023: Earth-Shattering Prose

  • May 25, 2023 Catherine St. Denis at the open mic

  • May 25, 2023 Kayla Czaga at the open mic

  • May 25, 2023 Gregor Craigie

  • May 25, 2023 Jen Neale

  • May 25, 2023 Frances Peck

  • May 25, 2023 Eliza Robertson

  • March 30, 2023: West-Coast Lit

  • March 30, 2023 Cedar Bowers

  • March 30, 2023 Margot Fedoruk

  • March 30, 2023 Andrea Routley

  • January 26, 2023

  • January 26, 2023 Pauline Holdstock

  • January 26, 2023 Rachel Lachmansingh

  • January 26, 2023 Erica McKeen

Since January, 2023, Wild Prose is a reading series in Victoria primarily for prose authors that mixes touring authors with locals, and emerging authors with established authors.

We meet every other month, at 6:30 p.m. All readings take place at Books & Shenanigans, 347 Cook Street (next door to Moka House) in Victoria.

2025 Schedule:

October 9th

2026 Schedule:

February 12th, April 9th, June 11th,

August 13th, October 8th