The Toronto launch for Lee Henderson’s debut novel happened on Wednesday, Sept. 3, at a This Is Not a Reading Series event at the Gladstone Hotel. The evening kicked off with a Henderson-led tutorial about amateur wrestling leagues and YouTube dance crazes, and ended with a lament for the declining arts scene in Vancouver, where Henderson continues to live.

Penguin Canada senior publicist Stephen Myers, with Laura Fetterley of HarperCollins Canada and Penguin publicist Melissa Robson.

Lee Henderson at the signing table.

Henderson discusses art “ and the state of his hometown “ onstage with Q&Q‘s own Nathan Whitlock.

Rachel Harry (centre), formerly of BookTelevision, with IFOA communications co-ordinator Becky Toyne (right) and a partygoer.

According to Henderson, all of the art displayed on the walls of the Gladstone ballroom was by artists who had recently left Vancouver to live in more artist-friendly locales.