Book News Vol. 9 No. 25

BOOK NEWS

Vancouver Writers Fest Tickets on sale September 8

Cory Doctorow, Emma Donoghue, William Gibson, Karl Ove Knausgaard, Herman Koch, Ann-Marie MacDonald, Jane Smiley, Miriam Toews Sarah Waters and Tim Winton are just a few of the 100 notable writers from around the world appearing in 86 events at this fall's Vancouver Writers Fest. Pick up the Festival program guide at bookstores in the Lower Mainland, or check the Festival website for full details, http:/www.writersfest.bc.ca.

Festival ticket sales start September 8 (September 2 for members).

Special event tickets are on sale now, http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events.

AWARDS & LISTS

Niall Campbell has won the UK's richest poetry prize for his debut collection, Moontide. The collection is a "joyous" evocation of the Scottish island landscape.
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/aug/17/hebridean-poet-wins-uks-richest-poetry-prize-with-debut-collection

Louise Erdrich has won the Dayton Literary Peace Prize's achievement award for her work chronicling contemporary Native American life. "The Dayton prizes are meant to recognize literature's power to foster peace, social justice and global understanding, and the distinguished achievement award is given for body of work."
http://www.cbc.ca/news/aboriginal/louise-erdrich-wins-dayton-literary-peace-prize-s-achievement-award-1.2739805

YOUNG READERS

Where do you find wildly creative people these days? According to two new picture books, Tiny Creatures: The World of Microbes and If...: A Mind-Bending New Way of Looking at Big Ideas and Numbers, they're in "fields that have to do with science, math and technology."
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/13/books/tiny-creatures-and-if.html

Lois Lowry just might be the "the godmother of dystopian YA fiction." In fact, she pretty much invented the genre when she wrote The Giver twenty-one years ago. But now, she says that the genre is "passé!"
http://variety.com/2014/film/news/giver-author-lois-lowry-dystopian-ya-novels-1201278835/

NEWS & FEATURES

Simin Behbahani—poet, women's rights advocate and the "lioness of Iran" has died. In her lifetime, she was nominated twice for the Nobel Prize in literature.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/aug/19/simin-behbahani-iran-poet-dies

The Middle East's borders seem to be dissolving in more ways than one, especially when it comes to Syria, Iraq and poetry. Their borders were created out of "substantial things—the tangled thickets of communal memory, landscapes drawn in poetry and prose, and centuries of political culture memorialized in chronicles, oral epics, and biographies."
http://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/iraq-syria-poetic-imagination

A new study has found that readers absorb less reading on Kindles than on paper. Research suggests that "the haptic and tactile feedback of a Kindle does not provide the same support for mental reconstruction of a story as a print pocket book does."
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/aug/19/readers-absorb-less-kindles-paper-study-plot-ereader-digitisation

It's been asked before, but it's worth considering again: can writing be taught? Rivka Galchen and Zoë Heller discuss.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/24/books/review/can-writing-be-taught.html

What do menu descriptions tell us about our culture? "You needn't be a linguist to note changes in the language of menus!" Here's The Atlantic's take on "menu speak," and how it reveals status anxiety.
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/09/menu-speak/375073/

Are you a grammar fanatic? Here are ten grammar rules that might just be ok to break (sometimes).
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/aug/15/steven-pinker-10-grammar-rules-break

BOOKS & WRITERS

As Britain's "most controversial and outspoken novelist," Martin Amis often finds himself in combat stance, a "position he has occupied for as long as most of us can remember." With a new comic novel on the way (set in Auschwitz of all places), one can't help but understand the controversy.
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/aug/15/love-to-hate-martin-amis

Catherine Lacey's debut novel, Nobody Is Ever Missing, is "an unlikely page-turner, since it takes place almost entirely in the narrator's head." A "postmodern existential novel," it details the journey of a "post-wounded woman" around New Zealand, after fleeing her life in New York City.
http://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/novel-post-wounded-woman

Speaking of travel, it's already high summer, that season of road trips and hotel rooms. Here are the top ten hotel novels, as decided by Mark Watson.
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/aug/13/top-10-hotel-novels-mark-watson

Teju Cole, who will be coming to the Writers Fest this October, is more than just an author. He's also an excellent interviewer, and long-time admirer of photography. In this piece, he interviews photographers Rebeca Norris Webb and Alex Webb to discuss their two jointly-authored books.
http://www.newyorker.com/culture/photo-booth/slant-rhymes-alex-webb-rebecca-norris-webb-memory-city

Teju Cole has also written a piece in The New Yorker all about rediscovering James Baldwin. He travels to Leukerbad, Switzerland, where Baldwin wrote much of Go Tell It On The Mountain as well as an essay called Stranger in the Village.
http://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/black-body-re-reading-james-baldwins-stranger-village

"Horror can be contained within a book, given form and meaning," says the hero of Richard Flanagan's new novel, The Narrow Road to the Deep North. "But in life horror has no more form than it does meaning. Horror just is." Flanagan's novel is set in an Australian prisoner-of-war camp in World War Two.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/18/books/the-narrow-road-to-the-deep-north-by-richard-flanagan.html

Alan Warner's Their Lips Talk of Mischief "is a boisterous comedy of chemical and other adventures in Thatcherite slumland." But it's serious too—"a winningly nostalgic novel" that is also "a story of lost illusions," as it tells the story of two aspiring writers in the 1980s.
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/aug/15/lips-talk-of-mischeif-alan-warner-review-boisterous-crafted-comedy

If you're interested in small press publishers, here are three books to check out right now: Hysteric by Nelly Arcan, I'm Not Scared of You or Anything by Jon Paul Fiorentino, and God Telling a Joke by Dave Margoshes.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/the-best-in-small-press-three-books-to-check-out-now/article19974645/

COMMUNITY EVENTS

POETRY READING
Iain S. Thomas, author of I Wrote This For You, will be reading on Monday, August 25 at 7:00pm. Seating is limited. Y's Books, 4307 Main Street, Vancouver. More information at ysbookstore.blogspot.ca.

LAST OF THE INDEPENDENTS
Author Sam Wiebe launches his latest book Last of the Independents. Tuesday, September 2 at 7:00pm. Shebeen Whiskey House, 212 Carrall Street, Vancouver.

SEBASTIEN DE CASTELL
Fantasy author reads from his swashbuckling adventure novel Traitor's Blade and gives a talk on the use of swordplay in fantasy and historical literature. Thursday, September 4 at 7:00pm, free. Peter Kaye room, lower level, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia St. More information at vpl.ca.

The TWS READING SERIES
The Writer's Studio September readers will be Ingrid Rose, Angela Kenyon, D.N. Simmers, Diana Joy, Sheila Galati, Jude Neale, and Dhana Musil. Our feature author will be poet Daniela Elza. Hosts: Ivan Antoniw and Romney Grant.Thursday, September 4 at 8:00pm. Cottage Bistro, 4470 Main Street, Vancouver.

DOUBLE ENTENDRE
An evening of fiction and poetry with Ann Eriksson reading from her new novel, High Clear Bell of Morning, and Gary Geddes reading selected poems from, What Does a House Want? Monday, September 8 at 7:00pm, free. Alma VanDusen room, lower level, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia St. More information at vpl.ca.

ELLEN IN PIECES
Launch of Caroline Adderson's new book. Tuesday, September 9 at 7:00pm. Book Warehouse, 4118 Main Street, Vancouver. More information at blackbondbooks.com.

RONSDALE'S FALL POETRY
An evening of poetry with three award-winning B.C. poets: Garry Gottfriedson, Pamela Porter and Henry Rappaport—all with new collections to showcase. Wednesday, September 10 at 7:00pm, free. Alma VanDusen room, lower level, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia. More information at vpl.ca.

TWISTED POETS LITERARY SALON
Features Cynthia Flood and Elise Partridge plus open mic. Wednesday, September 10 at 7:00pm. Suggested donation at the door: $5. The Cottage Bistro, 4468 Main Street, Vancouver. More information at pandorascollective.com.

Upcoming

DEAD POETS READING SERIES
Five poets/readers/poetry-lovers/writers with extensive public reading experience read poems from one of their favourite dead poet's work. Sunday, September 14 at 3:00pm, free. Alice MacKay room, lower level, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia St. More information at vpl.ca.

SPOKEN INK READING SERIES
Diane Tucker reads from her new poetry collection, Bonsai Love. Tuesday, September 16 at 7:30pm, free. la Fontana Caffe, 101-3701 East Hastings Street, Burnaby. More information at burnabywritersnews.blogspot.ca.

ALICIA PRIEST
Local Victoria-based author launches her new book A Rock Fell on the Moon, Dad and the Great Yukon Silver Ore Heist. Wednesday, September 17 at 7:30pm. Bard & Banker Pub, 1022 Government Street, Victoria. More information by calling Munro's Books, 250-382-2464.

BIRTH OF A RARE BOOK
Christopher Levenson, poet and author, will present with Peter Braun, Master Printer of New Leaf Editions, and Sigrid Albert, graphic artist, a discussion about the genesis of producing a rare book of poetry and etchings. Sunday, September 21 at 3:00pm, free. Alice MacKay room, lower level, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia St. More information at vpl.ca.

VANCOUVER IS ASHES
Vancouver Is Ashes is the first detailed exploration of a landmark, yet seldom revisited event in Vancouver's history. Lisa Anne Smith uses eye-witness accounts to investigate events of that pivotal day. Monday, September 22 at 7:00pm, free. Alma VanDusen room, lower level, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia St. More information at vpl.ca.

WORD VANCOUVER
Festival promoting books and authors with free exhibits, performances, and hands-on activities for a wide range of ages and interests. September 24-28, 2014. Complete details at wordvancouver.ca.

TWISTED POETS LITERARY SALON
Pandora's Collective in conjunction with Word Vancouver features Rita Wong, Jami Macarty, Lilija Valis & Kevin Spenst plus open mic. Thursday, September 25 at 7:00pm. Suggested donation at the door: $5. The Cottage Bistro, 4468 Main Street, Vancouver. More information at pandorascollective.com.

THANKS A LOT EXPRESS-OH!
North Shore Writers' Association invite community & cultural co-creators: writers, dancers, musicians and artists, to join in this fun activity of giving thanks in this 2-hour workshop to expand upon and play with word prompts. Saturday, September 27 at 10:00am, free. North Vancouver City Library, 120 14th St. W., North Vancouver. More information at culturedays.ca.

BOOK SOME TIME FOR CRIME
an afternoon on the edge of your seat with four local mystery authors, Sam Wiebe, E.R. Brown, Robin Spano and Owen Laukkanen. Listen as they share their latest novels, then book a one-on-one session for answers to any of your burning mystery questions. Saturday, September 27 at 1:00pm, free. West Vancouver Memorial Library, 1950 Marine Drive, West Vancouver. More information at culturedays.ca.