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History of the Kama Reading Series
The Kama Reading Series has long been World Literacy of Canada’s trademark event. Ka’ma (kah’-mah’), which comes from the Sanskrit word meaning ‘pleasure’, denotes the experience of pleasure through the senses, including the aesthetic enjoyment of music and art. At the heart of the Kama Reading Series is the desire to promote the joy attained through reading, literature and thought.
In the 1990s World Literacy of Canada's fundraising efforts were concerned with linking a love of literature to the cause of literacy, and the Kama Reading Series was the centerpiece of this approach. It was important to World Literacy of Canada that it engage the Canadian public on the issues of literacy as well as raise funds for its projects; reaching Canadians through reading and literature thus became a perfect fit. The first Kama Reading Series was hosted at the cozy Nicholas Hoare Bookstore in Toronto and featured well-known Canadian writers such as Michael Ondaatje and Margaret Atwood. The small group attending was enthusiastic and over the coming decade, Kama continued to grow.
By 2000, Kama had outgrown the small bookstore and the series moved to the Royal Ontario Museum, where the series was attended by over 300 people each night. Between 1993 and 2008, over 200 internationally renowned writers and thinkers donated their time to participate in the Kama Reading Series. The Kama Reading Series has also attracted the support of several key sponsors over the years, including Random House of Canada, the Royal Ontario Museum, the Globe and Mail, Butterfield & Robinson, Penguin Group Canada, Harper Collins Publishers Ltd., Park Hyatt Toronto, Paliare Roland Barristers, Harlequin, McClelland and Stewart, Scotiabank, and Ringe & Associates Flower Design.
In the 1990s World Literacy of Canada's fundraising efforts were concerned with linking a love of literature to the cause of literacy, and the Kama Reading Series was the centerpiece of this approach. It was important to World Literacy of Canada that it engage the Canadian public on the issues of literacy as well as raise funds for its projects; reaching Canadians through reading and literature thus became a perfect fit. The first Kama Reading Series was hosted at the cozy Nicholas Hoare Bookstore in Toronto and featured well-known Canadian writers such as Michael Ondaatje and Margaret Atwood. The small group attending was enthusiastic and over the coming decade, Kama continued to grow.
By 2000, Kama had outgrown the small bookstore and the series moved to the Royal Ontario Museum, where the series was attended by over 300 people each night. Between 1993 and 2008, over 200 internationally renowned writers and thinkers donated their time to participate in the Kama Reading Series. The Kama Reading Series has also attracted the support of several key sponsors over the years, including Random House of Canada, the Royal Ontario Museum, the Globe and Mail, Butterfield & Robinson, Penguin Group Canada, Harper Collins Publishers Ltd., Park Hyatt Toronto, Paliare Roland Barristers, Harlequin, McClelland and Stewart, Scotiabank, and Ringe & Associates Flower Design.