Here are just a few literary events happening across the country in the next week:

• Twelve top poets compete in the Toronto Poetry Slam Semifinals, March 19 at the Drake Hotel (7 p.m., $5)
• Poet Inge Israel launches her book Beckett Soundings (Ronsdale Press), March 20 at Ardea Books & Art (5 p.m., free)
• Linden MacIntyre moderates a talk with Sheldon Currie, Sheree Fitch, and Alexander MacLeod, March 22 at Halifax’s Dalhousie University (7 p.m., free)
• Kingston’s Thrive Reading Series hosts Helen Humphreys, Hollay Ghadery, and Nicholas Papaxanthos, March 22 at the Queens’ University Grad Club (8 p.m., free)
• Susan Calder launches her debut mystery novel Deadly Fall, March 24 at Calgary’s Owl’s Nest Books (7 p.m., free)