The Politics of Lonely: A Book Launch and Friendship Forum

Friendship is hard because everything is hard. This book examines social structures to demonstrate how people mend an unravelling social fabric. Join us in the celebration and launch of The Politics of Lonely by Lee Arden. Lee Arden is originally from Algonquin land in the Ottawa Valley, and now calls Montréal/Tiohtià:ke/Mooniyang home. They are the author of many zines, including PALS: The Radical Possibilities of Friendship, Surprisingly OK: What Healing Trauma Feels Like, and the novella Summer Shade. Lee founded and runs Sheer Spite Press, a small press and zine distributor focused on beautiful, affordable work by creators who face barriers such as transphobia, ableism, and poverty in their practice. They’re also a member of the organizing collective for Dick’s Lending Library, a community-run library in Montréal that specializes in the literary, political, and artistic work of trans, non-binary, and Two Spirit authors, and a past intern and forever collective member for the Queer Zine Archive Project. Lee is white, trans, an anarchist, a Quaker, and a deeply imperfect friend, but they try. Jeff Miller’s debut novel Temporary Palaces was published by the House of Anansi Press in April 2026. His award-winning creative nonfiction collection Ghost Pine: All Stories True was published by Invisible Publishing. He holds an MFA from the University of British Columbia and lives in rural Nova Scotia. Date: Sunday, September 13 Time: 6:30 pm Atlantic Daylight Time Location: 1727 Barrington Street, Halifax Duration: approximately 1.5 hours This workshop is a hybrid event: in-person at Venus Envy and online via Zoom. Registration closes 3 hours before the event. Zoom codes will be emailed the day of the workshop once registration closes, please check your spam folder! We do not record workshops or events for the privacy of participants. Email our workshop coordinator rachele@venusenvy.ca for: questions about the workshop accessibility information/requests troubleshooting Zoom late registration (after 3:30 PM ADT the day of the event)