Violet Hour: PEI
With Hideout writer-in-residence Christopher DiRaddo
Join The Hideout’s inaugural writer-in-residence, Christopher DiRaddo, for Violet Hour: PEI, an evening of writing, community, and celebration in support of the Queer Youth Writing Club. The free event will take place on October 10 from 7–8:30 pm at the Gallery Coffee House and Bistro in Charlottetown. Everyone is welcome.
Christopher DiRaddo, based in Montreal, is the author of The Family Way (2021) and has been shortlisted for the F.G. Bressani Literary Prize, and The Geography of Pluto (2014). In 2014, he created the Violet Hour Reading Series & Book Club, which has provided a platform for more than 250 LGBTQ writers in Canada.
Joining Chris at Violet Hour: PEI will be Island writers and recent Susan Buchanan Hideout scholarship winners Vanessa Bradley, Debbie Langston, LJ Lawlor, and Julie Bull, as well as local author Hayden Little. The evening will feature short readings, a Q&A session with DiRaddo, and an opportunity to connect with the writers. Light refreshments will be served. Donations to the Queer Youth Writing Club will be accepted, and books will be available for sale.
The Queer Youth Writing Club was created in collaboration between the PEIWG and PEERS Alliance to provide an intentional, comfortable, safe space for 2SLGBTQ+ youth aged 12–18 to learn and grow in their writing. In 2023, the Club produced an anthology titled Are We Friends Now?, which won a PEI Arts Award.
Violet Hour: PEI is a partnership between The Hideout, Violet Hour, PEERS Alliance, and the PEI Writers’ Guild.