Ontario-born singer, songwriter, and poet Paige Ballagh performs original folk-pop rooted in storytelling, warmth, and melodic ease. Joined by her multi-instrumentalist brother Mike Ballagh and her husband, CFMA-winning guitarist Kyle Waymouth, she delivers an inviting, grounded live show shaped by performances across Canada, the U.S., and Ireland — from theatres and festival stages to Ireland tours and Florida’s Kravis Center. A former Summerfolk Youth Discovery Artist, Paige is also the author of Waking Up, an Amazon #1 best-selling poetry collection (2022). Her album Shoes Untied and EP Oh Maggie — recorded with Juno Award–winner Jake Charron — showcase her clear, expressive voice and lived-in songwriting. Balancing heartfelt lyricism with humour and human connection, Paige’s work bridges house-concert intimacy with festival-stage presence.

Kale Penny is a west coast musician and actor based in Stratford, Ontario. In 2017, he released his debut EP, The Tracks, a collection of heartfelt songs that later inspired a stage adaptation by Mark Weatherley with Here for Now Theatre Company in 2021, starring Kale and his wife Lauren Bowler. Known for his honest lyrics and engaging performances, Kale’s music is delighting audiences around the world. His recent singles, You Deserve Love and Work It Out, are lauded as music that feels like a hug, receiving radio spins in Canada and the UK, as well as being streamed in 60 countries. He has also racked up millions of views on Instagram and TikTok in the past 6 months with his viral too high/too low song series, combining vocal talent with self-effacing humour. His latest single Gonna Be Somebody is a folk/pop/EDM collaboration with Swedish House Producer Henwall, with 25000 streams on Spotify in the first 3 weeks, and spins on Swedish and German radio.

When: Wednesday, September 23rd 2026 @ 6pm
Where: Trident Booksellers & Cafe, 1256 Hollis St, Halifax

Neon Sign Comedy features some of the best comedians in the country, from CBC, SiriusXM, ABCD, HEHEHAHA, and more!

Featuring: Sarah Nicole, Vanessa Allen, Lauchlan MacKinnon, Nigel Grinstead, and IMPROV! Hosted as always by the always (hopefully) funny and endearing Luba Magnus.

Doors @ 6:30, show at 7pm start. Tickets ($10) at the door or online at eventbrite.ca.

Grab a Coffee, tea, or espresso martini, goodness knows you need it. See you there!

It’s a fight club.

8 books enter the literati Thunderdome, and only 1 leaves. 80% book club. 20% fight club. 100% hilarious.

First time in Canada, a joint New Zealand & Guatemala event. It’s the Canadian premiere of the world’s only hilarious, raucous book fight club from Meegwai Productions!

PWYC – $10 suggested donation.

“…this show is too clever and too funny to stick to the rules.”
“…a rip roaring show of immense proportions.” – Theatreview
“I laughed so much. I laughed so hard at one point I nearly threw up.” – Libel Music
“…bordeline chaos that makes the show feel fresh.” – Chortle

When: Friday, September 25th 2026 @ 7pm
Where: Trident Booksellers & Cafe, 1256 Hollis St. Halifax

Where: Trident Booksellers & Cafe – 1256 Hollis Street, Halifax, Nova Scotia
When: Thursday, October 1st, 2026 @ 6:30 PM

Where: Trident Booksellers & Cafe
When: October 2nd, 2026 @ 7:00-8:30 PM

Copies of “Visitors” will be available for purchase during the event.

Readings by:

Leigh Kotsilidis Some of Us May Live (Coach House Books)
Jay Ritchie Listening In Many Publics (Invisible)
Michelle Elrick Then / Again (Harbour Publishing)
Madelaine Caritas Longman Danger Model (Queen’s-McGill University Press)

Followed by a brief Q&A.

Where: Trident Booksellers & Cafe
When: October 6th, 2026 @ 7pm

Leigh Kotsilidis has written two full-length collections of poetry, Hypotheticals (2011) and Some of Us May Live (2026), both with Coach House Books. Her poems have also appeared in journals and magazines, including The Malahat Review, Prism international, EVENT, The Fiddlehead, Prairie Fire, and Hazlitt, as well as being anthologized in The Best Canadian Poetry in English and IV Lounge Nights, among others. She is also an intermedia artist. Kotsilidis lives and works in Tiohtiá:ke (Montreal).

Jay Ritchie’s most recent book Listening in Many Publics (Invisible Publishing, 2024) was a finalist for the A. M. Klein Prize for Poetry. He holds a PhD in English from McGill University, an MFA in Poetry from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and is currently the Donald Hill Family Postdoctoral Fellow at Dalhousie University. His work has appeared in Chicago Review, Jacket2, Maisonneuve, SAND, The Fiddlehead, The Malahat Review, Yolk, Arc Poetry, The Dalhousie Review, and elsewhere.

Michelle Elrick is the author of two books of poetry and a spoken word album (with River of Diamonds). She lives on the South Shore, where she writes for the local paper and walks quiet country roads with her dog. She recently completed her first novel.

Madelaine Caritas Longman is the author of The Danger Model, which received the 2020 Quebec Writers’ Federation Concordia University First Book Prize. Her poems and essays have appeared or are forthcoming in Arc, Plenitude, The Ex-Puritan, Vallum, Grain, Room, PRISM and elsewhere. She teaches at Dalhousie University, where her postdoctoral research examines the intersections of contemporary poetry, disability theory, and the politics of empathy.

When: Friday, October 9th, 2026 @ 7pm
Where: Trident Café & Booksellers, 1256 Hollis St, Halifax

Lisa Richter is a Toronto-based poet, writer, and educator. She is the author of two previous poetry collections, including Nautilus and Bone, winner of the Canadian Jewish Literary Award for Poetry, the National Jewish Book Award for Poetry in the U.S., and the Robert Kroetsch Award. Her work has been a finalist for a National Magazine Award, longlisted for the CBC Poetry Prize, and appeared widely in literary journals and anthologies. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Guelph and will be serving as the 2026-2027 Mabel Pugh Taylor Writer-in-Residence at McMaster University.

Conyer Clayton is a queer writer, editor and bookseller from Louisville, Kentucky, living in Ottawa. They are the author of But the sun, and the ships, and the fish, and the waves (Winner of the Archibald Lampman Award), We Shed Our Skin Like Dynamite (Winner of the Ottawa Book Award) and many chapbooks. Conyer’s fiction has been supported by a MacDowell Fellowship and a McCormack Writing Center Scholarship. the lake-shaped excuse is their third book.

Jaime Forsythe is the author of three collections of poetry, most recently Yield (Wolsak & Wynn/ Buckrider Books, 2026). A collaborative chapbook with Stuart Ross, Disposable Adult Emergency Raincoat, will be out with Proper Tales Press in Fall 2026. Jaime is the recipient of a 2026-27 Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia sponsored residency at Jampolis Cottage. She holds an MFA from the University of Guelph and currently lives close to where she grew up in Nova Scotia/ Mi’kma’ki with her family.

Where: Trident Booksellers & Cafe
When: October 14th, 2026 @ 7:00 pm

Wild Blue Rose
Darrel Cameron
Shayla Morag
Michelle Calder
The Johnsons

When: Thursday, November 5th, 2026 @ 6:30pm
Where: Trident Booksellers & Cafe, 1256 Hollis St. Halifax

Darlene MacNeil, (songwriter. lead vocalist, guitar) grew up singing on the stages of small town Nova Scotia. A voice with power and presence. Darlene’s lyrics reflect on the heartache and humor of wisdom found in the past half a hundred years delivered with truth, love & laughter.

Greg Roberts, (lead guitar, vocals, songwriter) grew up loving music in Labrador. No musical training, all self taught. Performing on stage was never something he saw in his future – then he met Darlene.

Together, they create a sound all their own.

Where: Trident Booksellers & Cafe
When: November 14th, 2026 @ 6:30 pm