The Festival of Literary Diversity

📖 FOLD Reading Challenge 2026 📖 We are thrilled to unveil the new FOLD Reading Challenge for 2026. 12 new challenges. 12 ways to broad your bookshelf and expand your world. Sign up for the FOLD Reads newsletter to receive each month's book recommendations directly in your inbox! https://mailchi.mp/thefoldcanada/rcnewsletter Join FOLD on Beanstack to earn badges for each challenge completed! / Here's to another year of fantastic reading! 📚 #FOLDReadingChallenge #ReadingChallenge #ReadDiversely #ReadMore #Bookstagram [Image Description: FOLD Reading Challenge 2026. Jan: Cozy fiction by a marginalized author. Feb: Romance by a queer male author. Mar: Non-fiction featuring food by a marginalized author. Apr: Poetry collection by a disabled author. May: Book about mental health by an Indigenous author. June: Novel featuring found family by a queer author. Jul: Book about climate change by a marginalized author. Aug: Literary fiction by a Black Canadian author. Sep: Non-fiction by a marginalized author that calls for change. Oct: Novel by a woman of colour translated into English. Nov: Book that celebrates fat bodies and fat joy. Dec: Book about rest or resilience by a racialized author. A stack of colourful books with a globe along the right side of the graphic. Along the bottom: Broaden Your Bookshelf. Expand Your World. For monthly reading suggestions visit thefoldcanada.org/readingchallenge2026. Track

We're super excited to be hosting the 2026 FOLD Reading Challenge on Beanstack. Visit thefoldcanada.com/beanstack to learn more about the platform and how to join. You can also join the FOLD Reading Challenge newsletter to receive the monthly blog and book recommendations directly in your inbox on the first of each month. Sign up using the 🔗 in bio. #FoldReadingChallenge #Beanstack #ReadingChallenge [Image Description: Carousel of images. Image 1: FOLD 2026 Reading Challenge now hosted on Beanstack. Image 2: What is Beanstack? Beanstack is an interactive platform where you can join reading challenges, track your reading, and earn badges and certificates as you complete challenges. Image 3: Beanstack is free to join for all readers. Parents can create family accounts for each family member. Readers can add friends and share your reading with each other. Image 4: Create your account now and join FOLD on Beanstack! Register for the 2026 Reading Challenge and get an exclusive sneak peak at the January challenge. Image 5: What if I'm not able to join Beanstack? Join our monthly Reading Challenge newsletter to get the challenge directly in your inbox! (see link in bio) Challenges will still be posted to Instagram every month. Image 6: Register for any challenge before January 31, 2026 for a chance to win a Kobo Libra Colour eReader! Header images for four different challenges: 2025 Holiday Wrap-Up, FOLD Reading Challenge 2026, Canadian Genre Challenge 2026, Read It Your Way 2026. Photo of Kobo eReader.]

April FOLD Reading Challenge Wrapped! In the midst of festival season, the FOLD community showed up for FOLD Reads in April. 🤓 Shout out to The Cure for Drowning and It's Different This Time for making it to the top 3 reads for a second time this year! Join the FOLD Reads community at thefoldcanada.org/foldreads. [Image Description: FOLD Reads. Beanstack April Wrap-Up. 354 Books Read. 67k Minutes Read. 40k Pages Read. Top 3 Reads: The Cure for Drowning by Loghan Paylor. Moonlight Murder by Uzma Jalaluddin. It's Different This Time by Joss Richard.]

We don’t talk enough about the emotional toll of being an author. Kern Carter explains why it can be so hard on the latest episode of the Into the FOLD podcast. Watch on YouTube or listen on any major podcast platform. . . . Podcasting, podcaster, writing, author, publishing, ghostwriting.

Find us at Forest of Reading! We’re heading to Forest of Reading on May 12 - 13, 2026 at the Harbourfront Centre (235 Queens Quay West, Toronto, ON M5J 2G8)! Visit us at Tent C, Section A to say hi to our team and learn more information on: ✨ FOLD Kids Book Fest content 📖 Curated book lists & recommendations 🎁 Freebies & FOLD swag See you at Forest of Reading! 👋 🏷️ FOLD Kids Book Fest, FOLD, FOLD Kids, Forest of Reading 2026, book lovers, educators, students, reading community, [Image Description: Slide 1: Announcement for Forest of Reading, May 12 - 13 at Harbourfront Centre, Toronto, ON, with FOLD, FOLD Kids, and Forest of Reading logos. Slide 2: “Where to Find Us” – Tent C, Section A. Slide 3: “What You’ll Find at Our Table” – FOLD Kids Book Fest content, book lists, freebies and swag, and team info. Slide 4: FOLD team members stand and smiling. The text reads “See you there!”]

👻 Ghostwriters make how much?!?! 🤯 Learn all about ghostwriting on the latest episode of the Into the FOLD podcast with special guest Kern Carter! 🎙️ Listen on any major podcast platform or watch on YouTube! 📺

FESTIVAL READING AND ACTIVITY CHALLENGE EXTENSION - Earn the Badges and ASSIGN YOIR TICKETS by May 12. Whether you have 2 tickets or whether you’ve collected them all, be sure to assign them to prizes to be entered in the draw for prizes.

And that's a wrap on the final day of FOLD 2026. We got to round out our week with another annual romance high tea followed by our screening of The Librarians (which had a fantastic discussion that ended it off). Thank you to everyone who came this year once again! We cannot wait to see you again in 2027. Thanks to our wonderful authors, librarians and educators who came out today for our closing events. And thank you @tkscatering for always feeding us well. @joss.richard @elledouglaswriter @jackiekhalilieh @lavanya.lakshmi.writes Lily Kwok @ontariolibraryassociation , Michael Nyby @hamiltonlibrary , Jonelle St. Aubyn, and Karen Devonish-Mezzotta.

Festival of Literary Diversity Day 8! We're sad to be closing out the festival, but ecstatic to be holding the Literary High Tea and screening The Librarians documentary! [Image Description: Colourful bookshelves with the festival schedule for Sunday, May 3. A Literary High Tea: Romance at the Rose, 11am-7pm ET, In-Person. A Literary High Tea Author Meet & Greet, 1pm ET. The Librarians: Film Screening and Conversation. 3pm-5pm, ET, In-Person.]

Day Three is wrapped! What an incredible day that started with our @readingrhythms_to reading party & Publishing 101 workshop. This was followed by a couple of impactful panels: The Politics of the Plot (with @antoniomichaeldowning @theliannz @sharon.bala @yimingwrites ) & The State of Truth (with @smohyeddin , @elamin & Sunny Dhillon). We took a short stroll over to @visitpama for Dish It! With Antonio Michael, Elamin, @ms_trippingonair , @elledouglaswriter , Liann, & Sunny. And then ended our night with a beautiful & powerful Spoken Word Showcase featuring @patrick_debelen @missbrittab @desireemckenzie & @akilelijah See you tomorrow for the last day of FOLD 2026!

Stories, live jazz and community took centre stage yesterday evening at The Rose Brampton for The Great Readception: A Literary Cabaret. 🎶 Presented by @the_fold as part of Brampton Book Week, the event featured six authors sharing selections of their work alongside a live jazz band, with Brampton’s own Carmen Spada helping set the tone for the evening. The event celebrated the voices, experiences and creative energy shaping Brampton’s literary scene, while giving residents a chance to connect through books, live performance and storytelling. 📚 Brampton Book Week runs through to May 3, with events across the city celebrating writers, readers and storytellers of all backgrounds. Learn more 🔗: www.brampton.ca/bookweek

Such a fun night! 📚🎵🎹 The FOLD Literary Cabaret had live jazz, incredible authors reading their own words, and I got my book signed by @jossrichard herself. The Festival of Literary Diversity is one of Canada's most accessible literary events and if you've never participated, add it to your list! 📚 @the_fold #FOLD2026 #FestivalofLiteraryDiversity #LiteraryCabaret #BookTok #Brampton