Name: BOOK LAUNCH: Please Don't Interrupt
Start: 2026-02-10T19:00:00-07:00
Location: 1302 4 St SW #100, Calgary, AB, Canada, Alberta T2R 0X8

Welcome to the official launch of Please Don’t Interrupt, an anthology of prose and poetry edited by Rona Altrows and Uchechukwu Peter Umezerike, and published by Griots Lounge Publishing Canada. The book’s theme is interruption, the many roles it plays in our lives. We’ll have readings by some of the writers and a Q&A for both writers and editors. And of course, we’ll be happy to do personalized book signings.
Reserve your copy here: https://shorturl.at/nbWf7
ABOUT THE BOOK
Please Don't Interrupt comprises short works of nonfiction, fiction, and poetry on the subject of interruption. The anthology promotes excellence in Canadian writing, provides an opportunity to emerging writers, celebrates diversity, and builds community. In Please Don't Interrupt, we hear from writers who have immigrated to Canada from South America, from Africa, from Asia, from Europe, for a host of different reasons. We hear from writers living with debilitating illness, from older writers, from Indigenous writers, from Black writers, from writers who are survivors of trauma, from neurodivergent writers. We hear from writers at different points in their lives and in their writing careers.
ABOUT THE EDITORS
Rona Altrows is a writer, editor, and playwright living in Calgary. She is the 2025 winner of the Prairie Grindstone Prize, awarded for her body of work and commitment to supporting both emerging and established writers. She has edited or co-edited three previous theme-based anthologies. Her honours include the W.O. Mitchell Book Prize and the Jon Whyte Memorial Essay. Her third and most recent book of short fiction is At This Juncture. Her book of personal essays, Anxious Kid Makes Pretty Good, will be published this fall.
Uchechukwu Peter Umezurike is an Assistant Professor in the Department of English, the 2025-2026 Wayne O. McCready Emerging Fellow at the Calgary Institute for the Humanities, University of Calgary, and the winner of the African Literature Association’s Best Book Award (Creative Writing). He is the author of there’s more, Double Wahala, Double Trouble, Wish Maker, and a co-editor of Wreaths for a Wayfarer. His monograph, Masculinity in Nigerian Fiction: Recptivity and Gender was published by Ediburgh University Press in 2025.