Book News Vol. 9 No. 28

BOOK NEWS

Vancouver Writers Fest Tickets on sale

Tickets for the 2014 Vancouver Writers Fest are selling briskly and several events are already sold out. There are still tickets available for many more events with remarkable writers from around the globe including L.A. Confidential author James Elroy, Norwegian literary sensation Karl Ove Knausgaard, 2014 Man Booker Prize shortlisted author Joshua Ferris, Scottish crime fiction The Slap author Christos Tsiolkas, Legend fantasy trilogy
author Marie Lu, Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction winner Eimear McBride, technogeek Cory Doctorow and many more. Pick up the Festival program guide at in the Lower Mainland bookstores and libraries, or check the Festival website for full details, http:/www.writersfest.bc.ca.

Special event tickets are also on sale for David Mitchell (Sept 27), Bruce Cockburn (Nov 10), Alan Doyle (Nov 13) and Conrad Black (Nov 13). More information at http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events.

Calling 'Gen Y' Readers

The Vancouver Writers Fest is recruiting for focus group participants. We are specifically interested in talking to Generation Y readers (born 1980 to 1995). If you, or someone you know, would consider participating in a focus group discussion in the future, please sign up, and we will be in touch, http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/get-involved/focusgroup.

Volunteers

September 14 is the deadline for NEW volunteers to register for 2014. Prospective volunteers who have lots of availability and flexibility about what they will do have the greatest chance of being scheduled. We especially need people with daytime availability during the work week, volunteers fluent in French as well as comfort with cash handling and able to lift, carry and patient enough to 'hurry up and wait'. For more info and on-line registration, click here, http://writersfest.bc.ca/get-involved/volunteer.

FESTIVAL AUTHORS

Martha Baillie's new novel, The Search for Heinrich Schlögel, is filled with wonderful "bits of ephemera—there are letters, journal entries, a map, a newspaper clipping." Her narrator's life is pieced together by all these things. He's European, but also "primitive,' a potential object of scrutiny, someone considered out of sync with the flow of time." Baillie discusses her inspiration, here:
https://www.tinhouse.com/blog/36231/an-interview-with-martha-baillie-author-of-the-search-for-heinrich-schlogel.html

Michael Cho's Shoplifter is a graphic novel with a setting reminiscent of Toronto. In it, the city "becomes something of a character, lonely but also full of possibility. This, along with his at times sparing use of language, gives the graphic novel an air of quiet desperation, of a decision about to be made."
http://www.latimes.com/books/jacketcopy/la-et-jc-michael-cho-graphic-novel-shoplifter-20140902-story.html

Cities are important for crime writer James Ellroy too, whose Los Angeles is both corrupt and complicated. His new novel, Perfidia, marks the beginning of a new literary quartet set in the City of Angels (he's already written one!), which takes place during the Second World War.
http://www.avclub.com/review/james-ellroy-begins-his-second-l-quartet-perfidia-208662

Sarah Waters' new novel is also set in the early 20th century, albeit a few years before Ellroy's The Paying Guests is an inter-war story of love between two women, who battle not only the prejudices of sexuality, but also gender and class.
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/sarah-waters-interview-i-pay-attention-to-womens-secret-history-and-lives-9715463.html

Kathleen Winter's new book also features a strong female lead...herself! A work of narrative non-fiction, Boundless is the story of a year though the Northwest Passage. "Boundless not only chronicles that outward journey, but the inward journey which resulted for Winter, blending travel account with memoir, history with nature writing, a strong narrative with a keen meditative sense."
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/book-reviews/in-traversing-the-northwest-passage-kathleen-winter-finds-a-route-into-herself/article20369423/

"There are few writers who embrace Faulkner's credo that 'the past is never dead. It isn't even past' quite so wholeheartedly, and skillfully, as Michael Crummey." His new novel, Sweetland, "is a thing of beauty, one of the finest novels we are likely to encounter this year."
http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Michael+Crummey+Love+song+life+elegy+ending/10178759/story.html#ixzz3CjxjogLc

Sometimes abandoning one novel can lead to another, or at least so it was for Esther Freud. Her new book, Mr Mac and Me, is a fictional account of the artist Charles Rennie Mackintosh, who was accidentally taken for a spy during the first World War.
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/aug/31/esther-freud-author-interview-mr-mac-and-me

Some writers abandon their work, others take detours. For Carrie Snyder, it was more a case of "almost-was." Last year, she almost gave up her career as a writer in order to become a midwife. Then, her new novel, Girl Runner, was accepted for publication.
http://arts.nationalpost.com/2014/09/03/carrie-snyder-going-the-distance/

Matthew Thomas is another writer with a second job: teacher. He has been dubbed the "new Jonathan Franzen," and is interviewed by The Guardian about his debut novel, We Are Not Ourselves, here:
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/aug/17/matthew-thomas-we-are-not-ourselves-interview

Aislinn Hunter's second novel "is a richly layered narrative harmonizing the past and present, dissolving the boundaries of time frames and showing the possible connections between people and places and objects." The World Before Us is a book is about the connection between two missing people.
http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Aislinn+Hunter+Delving+into+mysteries+time/10178745/story.html#ixzz3CkAE6KSA

Thomas King has written his first literary novel in 15 years, called The Back of The Turtle. In this interview with the CBC, he discusses how he tackles historic injustice with humour, aboriginal reconciliation, and the fraught relationship between humanity and nature.
http://www.cbc.ca/q/blog/2014/09/03/thomas-king-the-back-of-the-turtle/

When Alison Pick was a teenager, she made a shocking discovery: her father, who claimed to be a Christian, was actually Jewish, from a family of Czech Holocaust refugees. Pick's new memoir, Between Gods, is an account of her conversion to Judaism. She recently did an audio interview with the CBC, and you can listen to the recording, here:
http://www.cbc.ca/books/2014/09/between-gods-a-memoir.html

The CBC also recently interviewed British author Tom Rachman, author of The Rise and Fall of Great Powers. The novel begins in the most literary of places–an old, dusty bookshop.
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/19104786-the-rise-fall-of-great-powers

Wallflowers might be Eliza Robertson's debut short fiction collection, but she's already an accomplished journeyman of the craft, with prizes galore under her belt. In this interview with the Globe and Mail, she discusses her book, the best advice she's ever received, and more.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/eliza-robertson-on-her-new-book-the-best-advice-shes-received-and-more/article20364839/

The National Post asks its readers to respond to a new novel each Tuesday. Last week it was Kim Thúy's Mãn. Read their questions and her answers, here:
http://arts.nationalpost.com/2014/09/03/the-afterword-reading-society-man-by-kim-thuy/

AWARDS & LISTS

The Man Booker shortlist is out, and it includes two American authors for the very first time. It's looking to be a mostly transatlantic battle (with a quick diversion across the Pacific) as Joshua Ferris and Karen Joy Fowler square off against three Britons and one Australian.
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/sep/09/man-booker-prize-2014-shortlist

The shortlist for the International Dylan Thomas prize has also been unveiled. Two authors who will be appearing at the 2014 Vancouver Writers Fest, Eimear McBride and Joshua Ferris, made the cut. The award goes to the "best literary work in the English language, written by an author aged 39 or under."
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/sep/05/international-dylan-thomas-prize-shortlist

Louise Erdrich has won the 2014 PEN/Saul Bellow Award for Achievement in American Fiction. The $25,000 award is presented every other year to a living American author whose "scale of achievement in fiction, over a sustained career, places him or her in the highest rank of American literature."
http://www.pen.org/blog/louise-erdrich-wins-pensaul-bellow-award

Science fiction-fantasy legend Ursula K. Le Guin will be awarded the National Book Foundation's Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters.
http://www.latimes.com/books/jacketcopy/la-et-jc-ursula-k-le-guin-will-receive-national-book-foundation-award-20140910-story.html

YOUNG READERS

Here are three new pictures books worth a read. The first is a translation from French, featuring a "superhero bunny with a style fixation." The second is metafiction, and the third is "more a meditation than a narrative," a day in the life of a whale.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/three-new-picture-books-worth-a-read/article20365332/

NEWS & FEATURES

Are you a fan of footnotes, or do you consider them "like as gratuitous dressing—the literary equivalent of purple kale leaves at the edges of the crudités platter?" The New Yorker makes an argument for the footnote, here:
http://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/save-footnotes

How about metaphors, then? Neuroscientists have tested the theory that your body shapes your ideas. Here's "your brain on metaphors!"
http://chronicle.com/article/Your-Brain-on-Metaphors/148495/

Here's one way of arguing for the necessity of print: "Rather than stand on a street corner yelling, 'Literature is not commodity!' I decided to inflict a series of physical experiments on my published work."
http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/authors/interviews/article/63611-the-novel-as-core-sample-installation-art-and-the-novel-martha-baillie.html

Can a book change a reader's life for the worse? That's the question being asked in this week's New York Times' 'Bookends' section. Leslie Jamison and Francine Prose discuss.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/14/books/review/can-a-book-ever-change-a-readers-life-for-the-worse.html

BOOKS & WRITERS

Margaret Atwood has a new short story collection out called Stone Mattress. In this interview, she discusses her nine new tales, guilty (or not-so-guilty) pleasures, and writing bestsellers "not on purpose."
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/qa-margaret-atwood-on-her-new-collection-stone-mattress-maddaddam-and-how-to-kill-a-man-in-the-arctic/article20375640/

Journalist Mireille Silcoff has also released a nine story collection, her debut. She began writing Chez l'arabe during the several years when "she was left 'deeply bedridden' and immobile with an alarming neurological condition...Silcoff unleashed the world that had evolved in her head (her condition meant that her brain was often unsuspended) through daily, 15-minute writing sessions."
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/book-reviews/chez-larabe-brilliantly-depicts-a-world-of-largely-cloistered-lives/article20367687/

Have you ever wanted to explore the Bodleian Library? A new book, called Marks of Genius: Masterpieces from the Collection of the Bodleian Libraries, offers a chance to catch a glimpse of some of its great treasures, including a bivalve locket containing locks of hair from Mary and Percy Bysshe Shelley, and fragments of Sappho poems.
http://www.latimes.com/books/jacketcopy/la-et-jc-literary-treasures-from-oxford-bodleian-libraries-20140829-story.html

COMMUNITY EVENTS

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.

LUNCH POEMS AT SFU
Colin Browne and Catherine Owen are the featured poets. Wednesday, September 17 at 12:00 noon, free. SFU Harbour Centre's Teck Gallery, 515 W Hastings St. For more information visit www.sfu.ca/publicsquare/lunchpoems.

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.

BOOK LAUNCH
Book launch of Vancouver Confidential. Sunday, September 21 at 6:00pm. The Emerald Supper Club, 555 Gore St., Vancouver.

A SILENCE OF ECHOES
Book launch and signing of A Silence of Echoes by Candice James, Poet Laureate, New Westminster. With guest readers Renee Saklikar and Dennis E. Bolen. Wednesday, September 24 at 6:30pm. New Westminster Public Library Auditorium, 716-6th Ave, New Westminster.

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.

Upcoming

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.

THE TOWN SLUT'S DAUGHTER
Canadian poet Heather Haley launches her debut novel. Thursday, October 2 at 7:30pm. Slickity Jim's, 3469 Main Street, Vancouver. More information at howesoundpublishing@gmail.com.

EMERGE 14
Emerge 14, the annual anthology from The Writer's Studio at Simon Fraser University, thirty-five emerging writers explore love, creation, death, regret, discovery and terror will be launched in a special gala. Thursday, October 16 at 6pm. SFU Downtown Campus, Harbour Centre. More information at cormac_oreilly@hotmail.com.