Can’t get enough of irony, can we? So, we created a club. Welcome one and all!

We would like to thank you for subscribing to The Ironist and for your kind encouragement over the past two years. It has meant more to us than we can easily say. As a result, we have some ambitious plans for expanding The Ironist in 2026, including new initiatives and a subscription plan that we’ll be introducing over the coming months. We thought the best way to begin the year was by returning to the source. Writing and reading.

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As writers ourselves, we attend events, especially speaking events like open mics and know the familiar anxieties that accompany them. The fear of being misunderstood, of being dismissed, of reading into a room that isn’t listening. In an age of encroaching AI, those insecurities have just gone up. For this reason, we’re beginning our expansion with an open mic designed to strip away performance pressure, no established cliques, no expectation to impress, just a genuine attempt to encourage your writing, and the writing of those you admire.

This will be a low-pressure evening where writers can hear themselves read and get a sense of how their work lands, without critique or analysis. After the readings, readers, writers, speakers, and curious listeners will stay on to talk and connect over coffee or a drink. You don’t have to be a writer to attend. It’s for everyone — and anyway, don’t we all want to be writers?

We’re also delighted to welcome a few guests coming in from out of town, including my eldest brother, Peter Scotchmer, who has written over a hundred short stories and has spent many years thinking and writing about irony. He’ll speak briefly on the subject and, time permitting, share a piece of his own or talk about a writer he admires.

Please do come. I promise it will be memorable and it’s only a small preview of what The Ironist hopes to offer more regularly in the year ahead.

Here are the details:

January 21 · 7 PM

at

Mayil Coffee, 870 College St, Toronto

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Contributed by

Nigel Scotchmer