Name: Violet Hour: Kelowna
Start: 2025-09-18T18:00:00-07:00
End: 2025-09-18T19:30:00-07:00
Location: Friends of Dorothy Lounge (Kelowna, BC, Canada)

Violet Hour, Montreal’s celebrated LGBTQ+ reading series, is hitting the road for a special evening of live readings in Kelowna. Join us at Friends of Dorothy Lounge (315 Lawrence Ave) for a night of queer voices, stories, and community.
With readings from Christopher DiRaddo, Jennifer Moffatt, Meg Reyda-Molnar and Mackenzie “Ken” Shaw.
Thursday, September 18
6 PM to 7:30 PM
Free
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ABOUT THE WRITERS
Christopher DiRaddo (he/him) is the author of The Family Way (2021), shortlisted for the F.G. Bressani Literary Prize, and The Geography of Pluto (2014). His work has appeared in First Person Queer, Here & Now, and The Globe and Mail, among others. He has written for publications like Elle Canada, Xtra, and enRoute, winning a National Magazine Award. In 2014, he founded the Violet Hour Literary Series & Book Club, supporting over 300 LGBTQ writers in Canada. He lives in Montreal.
Jennifer Moffatt (she/her) believes that there are so many more romantic stories to tell than the ones that have traditionally been lined up on bookstore shelves, and she’s writing as many of them as she can. Her short stories have appeared in several anthologies and literary magazines, and she has four published queer romance novels, including Flirty Dancing, the first of a three-book deal with St. Martin’s Romance. Jennifer can be found on Instagram @JMoffattWrites and her website: jmoffattwrites.com

Born on the traditional territory of the Cree, Dakota, Nakota, Lakota and Saulteaux (or Regina, SK), Meg Reyda-Molnar (they/them) is a poet currently residing on the land of the Syilx Okanagan people. Their work has been published in The Malahat Review, This Side of West and Dyke News.
Mackenzie “Ken” Shaw (he/they) is a writer and maker from Kitchener, Ontario, now living on the traditional, ancestral and unceded land of the Westbank First Nation in British Columbia. They perform in local open mics and slams, and as the sad and sexy drag king, KENDONTCRY. Mixing original art, poetry, song, and lip sync, Mackenzie explores themes of mental health, sexuality, and gender. Mackenzie recently completed his MFA and thesis, a spoken-word poetry album titled “Pansy: a cowboy’s bloom.”