BOOK NEWS
UPCOMING EVENTS
Michael Chabon - Just Announced!
September 26, 2012 at 8:00pm
St. Andrew's Wesley United Church
Author of the New York Times bestselling novel, The Yiddish Policemen's Union, talks about his latest book, Telegraph Avenue. Members - check Ink e-newsletter for your special discount code. Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/michaelchabon
VIRTUAL FESTIVAL
Listen to the twelfth installment in our series of audio archives from past Festival events. This week you'll hear "My Generation" from the 2011 Festival, featuring Dennis E. Bolen, Linda Grant and Cate Kennedy. There are consequences to living the 'ideal' life, no matter your generation. Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/multimedia/audio-archives.
Special Offers
If being a member of the VIWF didn't already have enough benefits, we've added an extra incentive! Every two weeks new and renewing members will have a chance to win a book by a Festival or Incite author. At the end of August we'll have a grand prize draw for a deluxe pack of Festival tickets - two tickets to any event of your choice for each day of the Festival! Sign up now here, https://www.writersfest.bc.ca/secure/secure_membership.php.
AROUND TOWN THIS MONTH
The Indian Summer Festival (http://indiansummerfestival.ca) continues this weekend events featuring with exciting authors from India, Canada and the UK, music, film and dance.
The Other Side of Silence (http://indiansummerfestival.ca/events/butalia/), with Urvashi Butalia. Renowned Indian writer, publisher, feminist and historian Urvashi Butalia talks with Charlie Smith, Editor of the Georgia Straight.
Multimedia Lit & Sound Cabaret (http://indiansummerfestival.ca/events/cabaret/). Led by an all-star cast of wordsmiths and language artists into a plethora of sound and delight, this first Indian Summer Lit and Sound Cabaret is a must-see event.
Ideas Series: Who Do You Think You Are? With Gurjinder Basran, David Chariandy & Anosh Irani (http://indiansummerfestival.ca/events/ideas/). Three of BC's most celebrated young writers talk with Hal Wake, Artistic Director of the Vancouver International Writers Festival.
AWARDS & LISTS
American author Nathan Englander has won the 2012 Frank O'Connor short story award (€25,000) for What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jul/09/nathan-englander-wins-frank-oconnor
During the week running up to the award's presentation in September, 500 short story collections will be left in public places around Cork City, free for members of the public to take home and read.
http://www.frankoconnor-shortstory-award.net/
Books by Aidon Chambers, Roddy Doyle, Jack Gantos, Russell Hoban, Anne Holt, Eva Ibbotson, Ally Kennan, and Frank Cottrell Royce are on the longlist of the Guardian children's fiction prize 2012.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/childrens-books-site/gallery/2012/jun/08/childrens-fiction-prize-longlist-gallery
The CBC has announced the five English-language finalists in the annual CBC Creative Nonfiction Prize.
http://www.thestar.com/news/books/article/1223604--finalists-announced-for-cbc-creative-nonfiction-prize
On 19 July, Colin Dexter will be honoured with the Theakstons Old Peculier Outstanding Contribution to Crime Fiction award for his creation of the unforgettable character Inspector Morse.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jul/06/colin-dexter-honoured-contribution-crime-writing
YOUNG READERS
Lauren St John's The One Dollar Horse follows teenager Casey Blue and how her life changes when she rescues a horse from a knackers yard, paying only a dollar. She brings her horse back to full health but things aren't going well. The young reviewer "HorseLover3000" says she really loved this book. For readers 12 and up.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/childrens-books-site/2012/jul/05/one-dollar-horse-lauren-st-john-review
It’s summer vacation—just fun in the sun! But even during the holidays, one's brain needs exercising. Enter Edgar Allan Poe’s Pie. Texts are by J. Patrick Lewis, the American children’s poet laureate. Illustrations are by Michael Slack. For ages 8 to 88.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/books/Kids+Math+puzzles+wrapped+poetry/6893738/story.html
William Joyce's The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore tells of Mr. Lessmore's love of books. Wondering whether his own book can fly, Morris discovers it doesn't – that he needs a good story before his book will take wing. A film version won an Academy award. For ages 4 to 104.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/books/Kids+homage+printed+word/6824536/story.html
The average American teenager spends two hours watching TV each day and just seven minutes reading, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. The Urban Flip Book is a lifeline for struggling teen readers. There are 10 titles in the Urban Flip Book series.
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-ca-urban-flip-book-20120617,0,5240646.story
NEWS & FEATURES
Arab diplomats in France have been sharply criticized for withdrawing prize money for a literary award because the winner had visited Israel. Algerian novelist Boualem Sansal was scheduled to receive the Prix du Roman Arabe for his book Rue Darwin, but in May, he spoke at a literary festival in Israel.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/05/world/europe/arab-envoys-rebuked-for-denying-prize-money-to-algerian-writer.html
To mark the 50th anniversary of his death, the Folio Society is printing Faulkner's 1929 novel, The Sound and the Fury, the way he intended, with different colours marking chronological shifts in the story. 1,480 copies will be published.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jul/04/william-faulkner-sound-fury-coloured-ink
Amelia Hill has discovered that abandonment, alienation and homelessness are increasingly the themes covered in modern literature for children. Children's books are now less likely to be along the lines of Alice in Wonderland, and instead reflect the harsh reality of modern childhood.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jul/06/childrens-books-reflect-harsh-reality
Following her review of Tim Kendall's The Art of Robert Frost, Kathryn Schulz concludes that Robert Frost is really a terrifying poet.
http://www.vulture.com/2012/05/the-art-of-robert-frost-tim-kendall.html
The author Douglas Brinkley and the actor Johnny Depp are teaming up to edit House of Earth, a previously unpublished novel by the folk singer Woody Guthrie that will be released next spring.
http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/07/09/with-johnny-depps-help-woody-guthrie-novel-to-arrive-in-2013/
The brother of Nobel prize-winning Colombian author Gabriel García Márquez says side-effects of cancer treatment have accelerated his brother's decline from senile dementia and that he can no longer write.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jul/07/gabriel-garcia-marquez-career-dementia
Michael Chabon tries to figure out what to make of Finnegans Wake, The Dubliners and what he describes as "the unlovable" Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. Rather than achieving a greater understanding of Finnegans Wake, Chabon appears to have learned more about himself.
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2012/jul/12/what-make-finnegans-wake/?pagination=false
A U.S. Supreme Court decision has left American libraries' book-lending rights under threat, since the right of a purchaser of a book to sell or lend that copy, applies only to copies manufactured in the United States. Three major library groups are requesting a reversal of the Second Circuit decision.
http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/digital/copyright/article/52874-in-supreme-court-filing-libraries-say-decision-in-wiley-suit-threatens-lending-rights.html
The hottest controversy of the summer concerns the New York Public Library, and a plan to disembowel its main building and "replace books with people", writes Jason Farago. Writers and professors are enraged, staff demoralized, and the entire purpose of the system is called into question.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/jul/07/what-lies-behind-battle-over-new-york-public-library
An exchange in defense of the New York Public Library is in the most recent issue of The New York Review of Books.
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2012/jul/12/defense-new-york-public-library-exchange/
The New York Times' Janet Maslin panned Patrick Somerville's book This Bright River. Then The Times had to correct the review to fix all their errors.
http://www.salon.com/2012/07/05/thank_you_for_killing_my_novel/
The novelist David Vann reveals that he can't even sign his name in longhand now that he's switched to typing and why he downloaded the Kindle app in desperation. His most recent novel is Dirt, set in 1985 New Age California.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jul/05/david-vann-my-desktop
After being arrested in 1974 by the Savak, the shah's secret police, the Iranian writer Mahmoud Dowlatabadi asked his interrogators what crime he had committed. "None," he recalled them responding, "but everyone we arrest seems to have copies of your novels, so that makes you provocative."
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/02/books/the-colonel-by-the-iranian-writer-mahmoud-dowlatabadi.html
A recent issue of The New York Review of Books includes an excerpt of Bring Up the Bodies, the sequel to Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall.
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2012/jun/21/bring-bodies/
The Erasure Poetry Contest is Closing Soon! Visit geist.com/erasure for more details and to read the excerpt. All entries must be postmarked no later than August 1, 2012.
http://www.geist.com/
Enter the Search for the Great BC Novel contest offered by Mother Tongue Publishing Limited.
http://www.allianceforarts.com/files/enet/pdf/12/06/literary_0.pdf
BOOKS & WRITERS
Julie Bosman writes that Ernest Hemingway wrote the ending to A Farewell to Arms 39 times before he was satisfied. A new edition of A Farewell to Arms, out next week, will include all the alternative endings.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/05/books/a-farewell-to-arms-with-hemingways-alternate-endings.html?_r=2&partner=rss&emc=rss
Patrick Senécal's Against God, barely 100 pages, is a chilling tale of an ordinary man's rancorous dance with disillusionment in the wake of insufferable loss. Senécal, known as "Quebec's Stephen King," is a prolific writer. This first English translation will introduce English Canada to his work.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/book-reviews/against-god-by-patrick-sencal/article4375124/
Dystopian fiction needs to strike a balance between strangeness and familiarity in order to transport us, writes Eric Boodman. "My job is just to reveal this magic to you, to illustrate what in your hearts you already know," says a character in Pasha Malla's People Park.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Pasha+Malla+People+Park+magic+show+reveals+disquieting+truths/6893756/story.html#ixzz1zzuYcu4b
A wedding, a car accident, a death, a story about redemption. In her review of Carol Anshaw's Carry the One, Deborah Dundee quotes Emma Donoghue: The book "will lift readers off their feet and bear them along on its eloquent tide."
http://www.thestar.com/news/books/article/1221068--carry-the-one-by-carol-anshaw-review
Clive Stafford Smith's portrayal of the American judicial system in Injustice: Life and Death in the Courtrooms of America is shocking and illuminating, writes Ed Vuillamy. This is killing as a matter of procedure, the process of what America calls law, says Vuillamy.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jul/08/injustice-life-death-stafford-smith-review
Most readers will already know what happened to George Mallory as he sets out for the summit of the world's highest peak, but the joy in reading Tanis Rideout's Above All Things is in the journey, says Claire Cameron.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/book-reviews/above-all-things-by-tanis-rideout/article4394393/
Billy Lynn's Longtime Walk, Ben Fountain's blinder of a first novel, has been a long time coming, writes Theo Tait. It's a fierce, exhilarating novel about the Iraq war which Vietnam veteran and novelist Karl Marlantes dubbed 'the Catch-22 of the Iraq war'.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jul/06/billy-lynn-ben-fountain-review
Focusing attention this week on authors from independent presses, Brett Josef Grubisic identifies Mike Barnes' The Reasonable Ogre, Anne Fleming's Gay Dwarves of America, Heather Birrell's Mad Hope, as examples of small labels offering big stories.
http://www.vancouversun.com/entertainment/books/Small+labels+offer+stories/6895161/story.html
Clover, over 50 and underappreciated, wakes up invisible one day. In Jeanne Ray's Calling Invisible Women, Clover bands together with other invisible women to fight back. Ray began to write at 60, and now has several titles. She credits daughter Ann Patchett's limited advice.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/books/sc-ent-0627-books-invisible-women-20120628,0,7073232.story
COMMUNITY EVENTS
TWS READING SERIES
Readings by Fiona Scott, Tara Wohlberg, Ben Nuttall-Smith, Danielle Patrick, Karen J. Lee, Carol Tulpar, Bernice Lever and guest author Nora Gold. Friday, July 13 at 7:00pm. Take 5 Cafe, 429 Granville St.
ALL ROADS LEAD TO WELLS
Launch for author Susan Safyan's book that tells the story of a group of idealistic young men and women who moved to the tiny B.C. town of Wells in the late 1960s and 1970s. Friday, July 13 at 7:00pm, free. People's Co-op Bookstore, 1391 Commercial Drive. More information at admin@caitlin-press.com.
VAN SLAM: OPEN SECRET
Van Slam featuring Ikenna "OpenSecret" Onyegbula. Monday, July 16 at 8:00pm. Cost: $6-$10 sliding scale. Cafe Deux Soleils, 2096 Commercial Drive.
TIM WARD
Author reads from Zombies on Kilimanjaro: A Father-Son Journey Above the Clouds. Tuesday, July 17 at 7:00pm, free. Alice MacKay room, lower level, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia Street. More information at 604-331-3603.
DENMAN ISLAND READERS & WRITERS FESTIVAL
Annual summer event featuring Tzeporah Berman, Steven Galloway, Loran Goodison, Timothy Taylor and many others. July 19-22, 2012. For complete details, visit www.denmanislandwritersfestival.com.
Upcoming
SURREY MUSE
This month's meeting features author Joanne Arnott, poet Franci Louanne, and filmmaker Hari Alluri. Also, Timothy Shay, Gomathy Puri and hosted by Randeep Purewall. Friday, July 27 at 5:30pm. Room 418, Surrey Public Library - City Centre, 10350 University Drive.
FORT LANGLEY CELEBRATION OF THE ARTS
An Afternoon of Poetry and Music with poet Susan McCaslin and jazz musician Amanda Tosoff collaborate from their recent works. Saturday, July 28 at 2:30pm. Centennial Museum, 9135 King Street, Fort Langley.
VISIBLE VERSE FESTIVAL 2012
VVF seeks videopoems that wed words and images, the voice seen as well as heard. Deadline for submissions is August 1, 2012. For more information, contact Artistic Director Heather Haley at hshaley@emspace.com.
SUMMER DREAMS LITERARY ARTS FESTIVAL
Annual family-friendly celebration of literary arts features two stages, a kids' area, a marketplace, and over 90 performers, including headliner Barbara Adler and Fang, a local spoken-word artist who combines poetry with music. Saturday, August 25, 2012, free. Trout Lake Park, 3350 Victoria. More information at www.summerdreamsfest.com.
Thursday, July 12, 2012
Thursday, July 5, 2012
Book News Vol. 7 No. 24
BOOK NEWS
UPCOMING EVENTS
Michael Chabon - Just Announced!
September 26, 2012 at 8:00pm
St. Andrew's Wesley United Church
Author of the New York Times bestselling novel, The Yiddish Policemen's Union, talks about his latest book, Telegraph Avenue. Members - check Ink e-newsletter for your special discount code. Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/michaelchabon
VIRTUAL FESTIVAL
Listen to the eleventh installment in our series of audio archives from past Festival events. This week you'll hear "An Intimate Afternoon" from the 2010 Festival, featuring David Mitchell. Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/multimedia/audio-archives.
Special Offers
If being a member of the VIWF didn't already have enough benefits, we've added an extra incentive! Every two weeks new and renewing members will have a chance to win a book by a Festival or Incite author. At the end of August we'll have a grand prize draw for a deluxe pack of Festival tickets - two tickets to any event of your choice for each day of the Festival! Sign up now here, https://www.writersfest.bc.ca/secure/secure_membership.php.
AROUND TOWN THIS MONTH
Indian Summer Literature Series
http://indiansummerfestival.ca
The Indian Summer Festival presents top international talent from Canada and India across music, literature, dance, film, yoga and cuisine. The literature series features some of the most exciting authors and public intellectuals from India, Canada and the UK.
Events this year include:
The Other Side of Silence, With Urvashi Butalia (SATURDAY JULY 14 @ 7:30pm |$15 | Goldcorp Centre for the Arts) Renowned Indian writer, publisher, feminist and historian Urvashi Butalia talks with Charlie Smith, Editor of the Georgia Straight. Details: http://indiansummerfestival.ca/events/butalia/
Multimedia Lit & Sound Cabaret (SATURDAY JULY 14 @ 9pm | $10 | W2 Media Cafe) Led by an all-star cast of wordsmiths and language artists into a plethora of sound and delight, this first Indian Summer Lit. and Sound Cabaret is a
must-see event. Details: http://indiansummerfestival.ca/events/cabaret/
Ideas Series: Who Do You Think You Are? With Gurjinder Basran, David Chariandy & Anosh Irani (SUNDAY JULY 15 @ 7pm | $15 | Goldcorp Centre for the Arts) Three of BC's most celebrated young writers talk with Hal Wake, Artistic Director of the Vancouver International Writers Festival. Details: http://indiansummerfestival.ca/events/ideas/
AWARDS & LISTS
Fran Diamond, Kevin McDonough and Jim Ryder have won the Downtown Eastisde Jamboree Writing Contest. Their winning entries will appear in Geist's Fall issue.
http://www.geist.com/blogs/news/local-litamboree-writing-contest
George Fetherling's Man of a Hundred Thousand Books has won the Profile award at The Western Magazine Awards. Read it here:
http://www.geist.com/articles/man-hundred-thousand-books
Well-known names and first-time authors—including Dave Shelton's A Boy and a Bear in a Boat, Roddy Doyle's A Greyhound of a Girl and Jack Gantos's Dead End in Norvelt—are on the longlist for the Guardian children's fiction prize. The winner will be announced in November.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/childrens-books-site/gallery/2012/jun/08/childrens-fiction-prize-longlist-gallery
Grace McCleen has won the £10,000 Desmond Elliott prize for her first novel, The Land of Decoration, the story of a fringe religious group as seen through the eyes of a 10-year-old girl.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jun/29/grace-mccleen-desmond-elliott-prize
The "ambitious, darkly humorous" short story of a Nigerian soldier fighting in Burma during the second world war has won Nigeria's Rotimi Babatunde the £10,000 Caine prize for African writing.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jul/03/rotimi-babatunde-wins-caine-prize
YOUNG READERS
Adam Rubin's Dragons Love Tacos, illustrated by Daniel Salmieri, is a heaping helping of silly as we learn just how much dragons love tacos but hate spicy salsa. Little kids will relate to the anti-spicy bias and to Salmieri's watercolor and gouache cartoon illustrations of boatloads of tacos and all sizes of dragons enjoying their favorite food. For ages 4 to 8.
http://www.sfgate.com/books/article/Roundup-of-children-s-books-3656983.php
Two Philip Pullman whodunnits set in Victorian London now appear in a single volume as Two Crafty Criminals!, subtitled And How They Were Captured by the Daring Detectives of the New Cut Gang (consisting of both girl and boy detectives). For ages 7 to 11.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/books/Kids+Gang+kids+tackles+mysteries/6860375/story.htm
In Summer in the City, by Marie-Louise Gay and David Homel, Charlie's life is nothing but eventful, despite a "stay-cation" holiday. Whether he's walking dogs, backyard camping or just picking up his repaired baseball glove, adventure finds him. For buoyant, long-suffering Charlie, even benign activities are weird, wonderful or hair-raising. For ages 6 to 11.
http://www.thestar.com/news/books/article/1218293--great-escapes-for-kids-and-teens
Between the Lines, a collaboration between bestselling writer Jodi Picoult and her teen daughter, Samantha van Leer, asks: What if a fairy tale's characters lived entirely different lives after the book's cover was closed? What if happily ever after wasn't real but an act? For ages 12 and up.
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-ca-jodi-picoult-20120624,0,717519.story
NEWS & FEATURES
49th Shelf offers an online interactive map that enables individuals traveling across Canada to read books about the destination: fiction books set in Canadian locations and non-fiction books about Canadian locations.
http://blogs.vancouversun.com/tag/49th-shelf/
Kate Carraway and Victor Dwyer have identified five up-and-comers to watch: David Chariandy, Yejide Kilanko, Alexander MacLeod, Grace O'Connell, and Iain Reid, adding "the one thing they have in common: compelling words, artfully composed, that remind us why the future of books, however it takes shape, matters."
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/the-fab-five-canlits-hottest-up-and-comers/article4380445/
To celebrate the 112th anniversary of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's birth, the Christian Science Monitor has gathered 10 quotes that are attributed to him.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/jacketcopy/2012/06/antoine-de-saint-exupery-little-prince-birthday.html
Salman Rushdie was the target of a notorious fatwa issued by Ayatollah Khomeini in 1989. Now, the author of The Satanic Verses is the subject of an Iranian computer game aimed at spreading to the next generation the message about his "sin".
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jun/26/salman-rushdie-fatwa-iranian-video-game
Mavis Gallant's private journals are to be published in Canada and in the United States. Gallant, who turns 90 in August, is most famous for her novellas and short stories. She has published more than 100 stories in The New Yorker, a record for a female contributor to that magazine.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/gallants-private-journals-to-be-published-in-canada-us/article4375337/?cmpid=rss1
Laura Miller attempts to understand what lies behind the boom in publication of dystopian fiction for young people. Are they new versions of adventure stories?, asks Miller.
http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/atlarge/2010/06/14/100614crat_atlarge_miller
The award-winning Australian poet Rosemary Dobson has died, at 92. Her first book, In a Convex Mirror, was published in 1944; her new Collected poems came out only three months ago. Reviewing Collected, David Malouf described Dobson as "one of our most admired and enduring voices".
http://www.theage.com.au/entertainment/books/rosemary-dobson-enduring-voice-of-australia-dies-20120628-214ho.html
Julian Barnes writes that he has lived in books, for books, by and with books. Here he reflects on his lifelong bibliomania and explains why, despite e-readers and Amazon, he believes the physical book and bookshops will survive.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jun/29/my-life-as-bibliophile-julian-barnes
Jim Holt explores the question "is philosophy literature?" and responds with: "Do people read philosophy for pleasure? Of course it is, and of course they do", he writes. But what is literature? That in itself might appear to be a philosophical question.
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/06/30/is-philosophy-literature/?src=recg
The Official Companion Cookbook offers recipes for dishes from George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice & Fire novels. Waging battles requires lots of protein, and there's plenty of beef, pork and fowl to be found in many of the stories, says Nick Owchar.
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-ca-game-of-thrones-cookbook-20120624,0,3398686.story
In an essay, Kyle Carsten Wyatt reflects on Northrop Frye's comments on "the stranglehold of history and geography on Canadian culture" and the "condominium mentality".
http://walrusmagazine.com/articles/2012.05-essay-of-culture-and-condos/
The cover design of JK Rowling's first adult novel The Casual Vacancy: has been revealed, with the question: What clues do you think it holds? This prompted the comment: "That apparently we're still judging books by their cover despite several years of warning not to."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2012/jul/03/jk-rowling-casual-vacancy-cover
The Erasure Poetry Contest is Closing Soon! Visit geist.com/erasure for more details and to read the excerpt. All entries must be postmarked no later than August 1, 2012.
http://www.geist.com/
Enter the Search for the Great BC Novel contest offered by Mother Tongue Publishing Limited.
http://www.allianceforarts.com/files/enet/pdf/12/06/literary_0.pdf
BOOKS & WRITERS
Patrick Senécal's Against God, barely 100 pages, is a chilling tale of an ordinary man's rancorous dance with disillusionment in the wake of insufferable loss. Senécal, known as "Quebec's Stephen King," is a prolific writer. This first English translation will introduce English Canada to his work.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/book-reviews/against-god-by-patrick-sencal/article4375124/
Jim Lynch's Truth Like the Sun takes place around Seattle's Space Needle, between 1962 and 2001. Roger Morgan is the fictional mastermind of the fair: simultaneously an MC, ringmaster, power broker, cheerleader and director—and an optimist and a dreamer.
http://www.thestar.com/news/books/article/1216842--truth-like-the-sun-by-jim-lynch-review
Supported by translators, American author Katherine Boo creates in Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death and Hope in a Mumbai Slum an impressive view of the Mumbai slums, writes Amit Chaudhuri. Boo's intelligence keeps her tale from losing its grounding in reality, says Chaudhuri.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jun/29/behind-beautiful-forevers-katherine-boo-review
When the Spanish Civil War broke out, hundreds of women volunteered to work for the Republican side. In Come From Afar, Gayla Reid's nurse remarks: "Every experienced nurse is a practised deceiver. Smile for the patient; do not disclose." A war novel with a female perspective, writes
M.A.C. Farrant.
http://www.vancouversun.com/entertainment/books/Come+from+Afar+Mythic+nurse+story/6861491/story.html
Carlos Ruiz Zafón's thriller The Shadow of the Wind was beautifully crafted and The Prisoner of Heaven equally compelling, writes Steven Poole. Luckily, the books can be read in any order. Quoting the imprisoned writer, Poole asks: "If you don't trust a novelist, who are you going to trust?"
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jun/28/prisoner-heaven-carlos-ruiz-zafon-review
In his review of Zoobiquity: What Animals Can Teach Us About Being Human by Barbara Natterson Horowitz and Kathryn Bowers, Julian Baggini asks: Would it be healthier for humanity if doctors were more like vets?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jul/01/zoobiquity-natterson-horowitz-bowers-review
Midnight in Peking, by Shanghai-based analyst-cum-historian Paul French, uses archival materials to re-launch an investigation into the 75-year-old unsolved mystery of Pamela Warner's murder in Peking. With this book, French has possibly attained some form of justice for Werner, writes Jason Beerman.
http://www.thestar.com/news/books/article/1218540--midnight-in-peking-how-the-murder-of-a-young-englishwoman-haunted-the-last-days-of-old-china-by-paul-french-review
In The Age of Miracles, Karen Thompson Walker imagines a world in which the Earth's rotation slows and the days lengthen, as narrated by 11-year-old Julia. Touching, harrowing, and magical, The Age of Miracles is an impressive debut, writes Betsy Toyne.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/book-reviews/the-age-of-miracles-by-karen-thompson-walker/article4380190/
In the 1880s, Prime Minister Gladstone sent Britain's Camel Corps to rescue General Charles Gordon. Gillian Slovo's An Honourable Man alternates between the journeys of physician John Smith, the Camel Corps, the mad General Gordon, and Smith's wife. This would make a smashing mini-series, writes Gale Zoë Garnett.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/book-reviews/an-honourable-man-by-gillian-slovo/article4385051/
COMMUNITY EVENTS
JED LA LUMIERE
The author of Patience: A Gay Man's Virtue brings humour and insight to the launch for his book about being an invisible minority. Thursday, July 5 at 7:00pm, free. Little Sister's Book & Art Emporium, 1238 Davie Street.
TWISTED POETS LITERARY SALON
Readings by bill bissett and Susan Cormier. Thursday, July 5 at 7:00pm. Suggested donation at the door: $5. The Prophouse Cafe, 1636 Venables Ave., Vancouver. More information at talonbooks.com.
DEAD POETS READING SERIES
Readings by Kate Braid, George McWhirter, Daniela Elza, Ken Klonksy, and Hal Wake. Sunday, July 8 at 3:00pm. Entry by donation. Project Space, 222 East Georgia Street, Vancouver. Details and registration here, www.deadpoetslive.com.
RACHEL HARTMAN
Author launches her new book Seraphina. Tuesday, July 10 at 7:00pm. RSVP to pkells@randomhouse.com. Kidsbooks, 3083 West Broadway. More information at kidsbooks.ca.
TWS READING SERIES
Readings by Fiona Scott, Tara Wohlberg, Ben Nuttall-Smith, Danielle Patrick, Karen J. Lee, Carol Tulpar, Bernice Lever and guest author Nora Gold. Friday, July 13 at 7:00pm. Take 5 Cafe, 429 Granville St.
TIM WARD
Author reads from Zombies on Kilimanjaro: A Father-Son Journey Above the Clouds. Tuesday, July 17 at 7:00pm, free. Alice MacKay room, lower level, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia Street. More information at 604-331-3603.
Upcoming
DENMAN ISLAND READERS & WRITERS FESTIVAL
Annual summer event featuring Tzeporah Berman, Steven Galloway, Loran Goodison, Timothy Taylor and many others. July 19-22, 2012. For complete details, visit www.denmanislandwritersfestival.com.
FORT LANGLEY CELEBRATION OF THE ARTS
An Afternoon of Poetry and Music with poet Susan McCaslin and jazz musician Amanda Tosoff collaborate from their recent works. Saturday, July 28 at 2:30pm. Centennial Museum, 9135 King Street, Fort Langley.
VISIBLE VERSE FESTIVAL 2012
VVF seeks videopoems that wed words and images, the voice seen as well as heard. Deadline for submissions is August 1, 2012. For more information, contact Artistic Director Heather Haley at hshaley@emspace.com.
SUMMER DREAMS LITERARY ARTS FESTIVAL
Annual family-friendly celebration of literary arts features two stages, a kids' area, a marketplace, and over 90 performers, including headliner Barbara Adler and Fang, a local spoken-word artist who combines poetry with music. Saturday, August 25, 2012, free. Trout Lake Park, 3350 Victoria. More information at www.summerdreamsfest.com.
UPCOMING EVENTS
Michael Chabon - Just Announced!
September 26, 2012 at 8:00pm
St. Andrew's Wesley United Church
Author of the New York Times bestselling novel, The Yiddish Policemen's Union, talks about his latest book, Telegraph Avenue. Members - check Ink e-newsletter for your special discount code. Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/michaelchabon
VIRTUAL FESTIVAL
Listen to the eleventh installment in our series of audio archives from past Festival events. This week you'll hear "An Intimate Afternoon" from the 2010 Festival, featuring David Mitchell. Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/multimedia/audio-archives.
Special Offers
If being a member of the VIWF didn't already have enough benefits, we've added an extra incentive! Every two weeks new and renewing members will have a chance to win a book by a Festival or Incite author. At the end of August we'll have a grand prize draw for a deluxe pack of Festival tickets - two tickets to any event of your choice for each day of the Festival! Sign up now here, https://www.writersfest.bc.ca/secure/secure_membership.php.
AROUND TOWN THIS MONTH
Indian Summer Literature Series
http://indiansummerfestival.ca
The Indian Summer Festival presents top international talent from Canada and India across music, literature, dance, film, yoga and cuisine. The literature series features some of the most exciting authors and public intellectuals from India, Canada and the UK.
Events this year include:
The Other Side of Silence, With Urvashi Butalia (SATURDAY JULY 14 @ 7:30pm |$15 | Goldcorp Centre for the Arts) Renowned Indian writer, publisher, feminist and historian Urvashi Butalia talks with Charlie Smith, Editor of the Georgia Straight. Details: http://indiansummerfestival.ca/events/butalia/
Multimedia Lit & Sound Cabaret (SATURDAY JULY 14 @ 9pm | $10 | W2 Media Cafe) Led by an all-star cast of wordsmiths and language artists into a plethora of sound and delight, this first Indian Summer Lit. and Sound Cabaret is a
must-see event. Details: http://indiansummerfestival.ca/events/cabaret/
Ideas Series: Who Do You Think You Are? With Gurjinder Basran, David Chariandy & Anosh Irani (SUNDAY JULY 15 @ 7pm | $15 | Goldcorp Centre for the Arts) Three of BC's most celebrated young writers talk with Hal Wake, Artistic Director of the Vancouver International Writers Festival. Details: http://indiansummerfestival.ca/events/ideas/
AWARDS & LISTS
Fran Diamond, Kevin McDonough and Jim Ryder have won the Downtown Eastisde Jamboree Writing Contest. Their winning entries will appear in Geist's Fall issue.
http://www.geist.com/blogs/news/local-litamboree-writing-contest
George Fetherling's Man of a Hundred Thousand Books has won the Profile award at The Western Magazine Awards. Read it here:
http://www.geist.com/articles/man-hundred-thousand-books
Well-known names and first-time authors—including Dave Shelton's A Boy and a Bear in a Boat, Roddy Doyle's A Greyhound of a Girl and Jack Gantos's Dead End in Norvelt—are on the longlist for the Guardian children's fiction prize. The winner will be announced in November.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/childrens-books-site/gallery/2012/jun/08/childrens-fiction-prize-longlist-gallery
Grace McCleen has won the £10,000 Desmond Elliott prize for her first novel, The Land of Decoration, the story of a fringe religious group as seen through the eyes of a 10-year-old girl.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jun/29/grace-mccleen-desmond-elliott-prize
The "ambitious, darkly humorous" short story of a Nigerian soldier fighting in Burma during the second world war has won Nigeria's Rotimi Babatunde the £10,000 Caine prize for African writing.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jul/03/rotimi-babatunde-wins-caine-prize
YOUNG READERS
Adam Rubin's Dragons Love Tacos, illustrated by Daniel Salmieri, is a heaping helping of silly as we learn just how much dragons love tacos but hate spicy salsa. Little kids will relate to the anti-spicy bias and to Salmieri's watercolor and gouache cartoon illustrations of boatloads of tacos and all sizes of dragons enjoying their favorite food. For ages 4 to 8.
http://www.sfgate.com/books/article/Roundup-of-children-s-books-3656983.php
Two Philip Pullman whodunnits set in Victorian London now appear in a single volume as Two Crafty Criminals!, subtitled And How They Were Captured by the Daring Detectives of the New Cut Gang (consisting of both girl and boy detectives). For ages 7 to 11.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/books/Kids+Gang+kids+tackles+mysteries/6860375/story.htm
In Summer in the City, by Marie-Louise Gay and David Homel, Charlie's life is nothing but eventful, despite a "stay-cation" holiday. Whether he's walking dogs, backyard camping or just picking up his repaired baseball glove, adventure finds him. For buoyant, long-suffering Charlie, even benign activities are weird, wonderful or hair-raising. For ages 6 to 11.
http://www.thestar.com/news/books/article/1218293--great-escapes-for-kids-and-teens
Between the Lines, a collaboration between bestselling writer Jodi Picoult and her teen daughter, Samantha van Leer, asks: What if a fairy tale's characters lived entirely different lives after the book's cover was closed? What if happily ever after wasn't real but an act? For ages 12 and up.
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-ca-jodi-picoult-20120624,0,717519.story
NEWS & FEATURES
49th Shelf offers an online interactive map that enables individuals traveling across Canada to read books about the destination: fiction books set in Canadian locations and non-fiction books about Canadian locations.
http://blogs.vancouversun.com/tag/49th-shelf/
Kate Carraway and Victor Dwyer have identified five up-and-comers to watch: David Chariandy, Yejide Kilanko, Alexander MacLeod, Grace O'Connell, and Iain Reid, adding "the one thing they have in common: compelling words, artfully composed, that remind us why the future of books, however it takes shape, matters."
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/the-fab-five-canlits-hottest-up-and-comers/article4380445/
To celebrate the 112th anniversary of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's birth, the Christian Science Monitor has gathered 10 quotes that are attributed to him.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/jacketcopy/2012/06/antoine-de-saint-exupery-little-prince-birthday.html
Salman Rushdie was the target of a notorious fatwa issued by Ayatollah Khomeini in 1989. Now, the author of The Satanic Verses is the subject of an Iranian computer game aimed at spreading to the next generation the message about his "sin".
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jun/26/salman-rushdie-fatwa-iranian-video-game
Mavis Gallant's private journals are to be published in Canada and in the United States. Gallant, who turns 90 in August, is most famous for her novellas and short stories. She has published more than 100 stories in The New Yorker, a record for a female contributor to that magazine.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/gallants-private-journals-to-be-published-in-canada-us/article4375337/?cmpid=rss1
Laura Miller attempts to understand what lies behind the boom in publication of dystopian fiction for young people. Are they new versions of adventure stories?, asks Miller.
http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/atlarge/2010/06/14/100614crat_atlarge_miller
The award-winning Australian poet Rosemary Dobson has died, at 92. Her first book, In a Convex Mirror, was published in 1944; her new Collected poems came out only three months ago. Reviewing Collected, David Malouf described Dobson as "one of our most admired and enduring voices".
http://www.theage.com.au/entertainment/books/rosemary-dobson-enduring-voice-of-australia-dies-20120628-214ho.html
Julian Barnes writes that he has lived in books, for books, by and with books. Here he reflects on his lifelong bibliomania and explains why, despite e-readers and Amazon, he believes the physical book and bookshops will survive.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jun/29/my-life-as-bibliophile-julian-barnes
Jim Holt explores the question "is philosophy literature?" and responds with: "Do people read philosophy for pleasure? Of course it is, and of course they do", he writes. But what is literature? That in itself might appear to be a philosophical question.
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/06/30/is-philosophy-literature/?src=recg
The Official Companion Cookbook offers recipes for dishes from George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice & Fire novels. Waging battles requires lots of protein, and there's plenty of beef, pork and fowl to be found in many of the stories, says Nick Owchar.
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-ca-game-of-thrones-cookbook-20120624,0,3398686.story
In an essay, Kyle Carsten Wyatt reflects on Northrop Frye's comments on "the stranglehold of history and geography on Canadian culture" and the "condominium mentality".
http://walrusmagazine.com/articles/2012.05-essay-of-culture-and-condos/
The cover design of JK Rowling's first adult novel The Casual Vacancy: has been revealed, with the question: What clues do you think it holds? This prompted the comment: "That apparently we're still judging books by their cover despite several years of warning not to."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2012/jul/03/jk-rowling-casual-vacancy-cover
The Erasure Poetry Contest is Closing Soon! Visit geist.com/erasure for more details and to read the excerpt. All entries must be postmarked no later than August 1, 2012.
http://www.geist.com/
Enter the Search for the Great BC Novel contest offered by Mother Tongue Publishing Limited.
http://www.allianceforarts.com/files/enet/pdf/12/06/literary_0.pdf
BOOKS & WRITERS
Patrick Senécal's Against God, barely 100 pages, is a chilling tale of an ordinary man's rancorous dance with disillusionment in the wake of insufferable loss. Senécal, known as "Quebec's Stephen King," is a prolific writer. This first English translation will introduce English Canada to his work.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/book-reviews/against-god-by-patrick-sencal/article4375124/
Jim Lynch's Truth Like the Sun takes place around Seattle's Space Needle, between 1962 and 2001. Roger Morgan is the fictional mastermind of the fair: simultaneously an MC, ringmaster, power broker, cheerleader and director—and an optimist and a dreamer.
http://www.thestar.com/news/books/article/1216842--truth-like-the-sun-by-jim-lynch-review
Supported by translators, American author Katherine Boo creates in Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death and Hope in a Mumbai Slum an impressive view of the Mumbai slums, writes Amit Chaudhuri. Boo's intelligence keeps her tale from losing its grounding in reality, says Chaudhuri.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jun/29/behind-beautiful-forevers-katherine-boo-review
When the Spanish Civil War broke out, hundreds of women volunteered to work for the Republican side. In Come From Afar, Gayla Reid's nurse remarks: "Every experienced nurse is a practised deceiver. Smile for the patient; do not disclose." A war novel with a female perspective, writes
M.A.C. Farrant.
http://www.vancouversun.com/entertainment/books/Come+from+Afar+Mythic+nurse+story/6861491/story.html
Carlos Ruiz Zafón's thriller The Shadow of the Wind was beautifully crafted and The Prisoner of Heaven equally compelling, writes Steven Poole. Luckily, the books can be read in any order. Quoting the imprisoned writer, Poole asks: "If you don't trust a novelist, who are you going to trust?"
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jun/28/prisoner-heaven-carlos-ruiz-zafon-review
In his review of Zoobiquity: What Animals Can Teach Us About Being Human by Barbara Natterson Horowitz and Kathryn Bowers, Julian Baggini asks: Would it be healthier for humanity if doctors were more like vets?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jul/01/zoobiquity-natterson-horowitz-bowers-review
Midnight in Peking, by Shanghai-based analyst-cum-historian Paul French, uses archival materials to re-launch an investigation into the 75-year-old unsolved mystery of Pamela Warner's murder in Peking. With this book, French has possibly attained some form of justice for Werner, writes Jason Beerman.
http://www.thestar.com/news/books/article/1218540--midnight-in-peking-how-the-murder-of-a-young-englishwoman-haunted-the-last-days-of-old-china-by-paul-french-review
In The Age of Miracles, Karen Thompson Walker imagines a world in which the Earth's rotation slows and the days lengthen, as narrated by 11-year-old Julia. Touching, harrowing, and magical, The Age of Miracles is an impressive debut, writes Betsy Toyne.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/book-reviews/the-age-of-miracles-by-karen-thompson-walker/article4380190/
In the 1880s, Prime Minister Gladstone sent Britain's Camel Corps to rescue General Charles Gordon. Gillian Slovo's An Honourable Man alternates between the journeys of physician John Smith, the Camel Corps, the mad General Gordon, and Smith's wife. This would make a smashing mini-series, writes Gale Zoë Garnett.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/book-reviews/an-honourable-man-by-gillian-slovo/article4385051/
COMMUNITY EVENTS
JED LA LUMIERE
The author of Patience: A Gay Man's Virtue brings humour and insight to the launch for his book about being an invisible minority. Thursday, July 5 at 7:00pm, free. Little Sister's Book & Art Emporium, 1238 Davie Street.
TWISTED POETS LITERARY SALON
Readings by bill bissett and Susan Cormier. Thursday, July 5 at 7:00pm. Suggested donation at the door: $5. The Prophouse Cafe, 1636 Venables Ave., Vancouver. More information at talonbooks.com.
DEAD POETS READING SERIES
Readings by Kate Braid, George McWhirter, Daniela Elza, Ken Klonksy, and Hal Wake. Sunday, July 8 at 3:00pm. Entry by donation. Project Space, 222 East Georgia Street, Vancouver. Details and registration here, www.deadpoetslive.com.
RACHEL HARTMAN
Author launches her new book Seraphina. Tuesday, July 10 at 7:00pm. RSVP to pkells@randomhouse.com. Kidsbooks, 3083 West Broadway. More information at kidsbooks.ca.
TWS READING SERIES
Readings by Fiona Scott, Tara Wohlberg, Ben Nuttall-Smith, Danielle Patrick, Karen J. Lee, Carol Tulpar, Bernice Lever and guest author Nora Gold. Friday, July 13 at 7:00pm. Take 5 Cafe, 429 Granville St.
TIM WARD
Author reads from Zombies on Kilimanjaro: A Father-Son Journey Above the Clouds. Tuesday, July 17 at 7:00pm, free. Alice MacKay room, lower level, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia Street. More information at 604-331-3603.
Upcoming
DENMAN ISLAND READERS & WRITERS FESTIVAL
Annual summer event featuring Tzeporah Berman, Steven Galloway, Loran Goodison, Timothy Taylor and many others. July 19-22, 2012. For complete details, visit www.denmanislandwritersfestival.com.
FORT LANGLEY CELEBRATION OF THE ARTS
An Afternoon of Poetry and Music with poet Susan McCaslin and jazz musician Amanda Tosoff collaborate from their recent works. Saturday, July 28 at 2:30pm. Centennial Museum, 9135 King Street, Fort Langley.
VISIBLE VERSE FESTIVAL 2012
VVF seeks videopoems that wed words and images, the voice seen as well as heard. Deadline for submissions is August 1, 2012. For more information, contact Artistic Director Heather Haley at hshaley@emspace.com.
SUMMER DREAMS LITERARY ARTS FESTIVAL
Annual family-friendly celebration of literary arts features two stages, a kids' area, a marketplace, and over 90 performers, including headliner Barbara Adler and Fang, a local spoken-word artist who combines poetry with music. Saturday, August 25, 2012, free. Trout Lake Park, 3350 Victoria. More information at www.summerdreamsfest.com.
Thursday, June 28, 2012
Book News Vol. 7 No. 23
BOOK NEWS
VIRTUAL FESTIVAL
Listen to the tenth installment in our series of audio archives from past Festival events. This week you'll hear "Japanning" from the 2010 Festival, featuring Katherine Govier and David Mitchell. The genesis for a great book can develop from the most accidental of moments. Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/multimedia/audio-archives.
Special Offers
If being a member of the VIWF didn't already have enough benefits, we've added an extra incentive! Every two weeks new and renewing members will have a chance to win a book by a Festival or Incite author. At the end of August we'll have a grand prize draw for a deluxe pack of Festival tickets - two tickets to any event of your choice for each day of the Festival! Sign up now here, https://www.writersfest.bc.ca/secure/secure_membership.php.
cStories eBook Singles is a new program that offers short Canadian fiction in e-book format for download on a wide array of digital devices, desktop or mobile, to be read anytime, anywhere. The cStories "Get Into Our Shorts" contest runs until the end of June. Enter by midnight June 30 to win an
iPad3 chock full of ebook singles including the stories of Jessica Westhead, named by CBC Books as one of the "10 Canadian women writers you need to read now." Details at win.cstories.ca.
AROUND TOWN THIS MONTH
TD Vancouver International Jazz Festival
The 27th Annual TD Vancouver International Jazz Festival is on NOW until July 1 with a smokin' hot line up including: R&B/Soul sensation Janelle Monae, indie rockers Destroyer, Latin Legends Los Amigos Invisibles, pedal steel guitar god Robert Randolph, the venerable Terell Stafford, Canadian sweetheart Jill Barber and many more. If you missed the fabulous downtown jazz opening weekend, don't forget closing weekend at David Lam Park (June 30 & July 1), Granville Island Jazz, etc... Details here, vanjazzfest.ca.
Indian Summer Literature Series
http://indiansummerfestival.ca
The Indian Summer Festival presents top international talent from Canada and India across music, literature, dance, film, yoga and cuisine. The literature series features some of the most exciting authors and public intellectuals from India, Canada and the UK.
Events this year include:
Tinderbox: India & its Neighbours, with MJ Akbar (THURSDAY JULY 12 @ 7pm
$20 ($80 with reception)
Goldcorp Centre for the Arts) Indians and Pakistanis are of the same people: Why then have their nations moved on such different trajectories since freedom in 1947?
Ideas Series: Buddhist Revival, Sanchi and the Begum of Bhopal with Nayanjot Lahiri (FRIDAY JULY 13 @ 6pm
$15
Goldcorp Centre for the Arts) The Buddhist revival in Asia, beginning in India, and spanning Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Thailand, China and Japan is one of the most remarkable pan-Asian cultural phenomenons of modern times. While the Buddhist revival in Asia evokes images of various places, persons and phenomena, Muslim ruling houses rarely figure in narratives about it.
AWARDS & LISTS
Susan Hughes's Off to Class, a non-fiction title detailing the experiences of children seeking an education in countries like India, China and Uganda, is a double nominee for the Canadian Children's Book Awards. Shane Peacock's The Dragon Turn, part of the popular boy Sherlock Holmes series is also a double nominee. Other nominees are listed here:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/story/2012/06/20/childrens-book-awards-nominees.html
Wayne Arthurson, Susan McCaslin, and Peter Midgley are among the publishers, poets, novelists, and editors to have won 2012 Alberta Book Awards. The complete list is here:
http://holeinthebucket.wordpress.com/2012/06/11/alberta-book-awards-2012-edition/
Poets Phil Hall, Nick Thran, and Sonia Lamontagne, and novelist Michèle Vinet are winners of the 25th annual Trillium Award; Hall and Thran for work in English, Lamontagne and Vinet for work in French.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/poet-phil-hall-wins-english-language-trillium-book-award/article4356286/
The first-ever Andrew Carnegie Awards for Excellence in Literature were announced last week with awards given in fiction and nonfiction. Robert K. Massiec's biography Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman received the nonfiction prize; Anne Enright's The Forgotten Waltz won in fiction.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/jacketcopy/2012/06/first-ever-carnegie-awards-in-literature-go-to-enright-massie.html
Amber Dawn, a Vancouver writer, filmmaker, and performance artist has won the Dayne Ogilvie Prize from the Writers' Trust of Canada. The prize is given annually to an LGBT emerging writer who demonstrates great literary promise. Mariko Tomaki of Toronto received an honorable mention.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/story/2012/06/26/dayne-ogilvie-award.html
YOUNG READERS
Geoff Rodkey's Deadweather and Sunrise has a hybrid plot including islands, buried treasure, real pirates, fake pirates, and leftover pirates, too maimed for sea work. At the center, there is Egbert (aka Egg). Egg's practical narrative tone keeps the profusion of plot elements in balance. For ages 10 to 13.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/books/chi-deadweather-and-sunrise-by-geoff-rodkey--20120614,0,4117902.story
Elisha Cooper's Homer, a large yellow lab, is a porch potato. When the other family dogs burst through the door inviting him to "chase and race around the yard," he simply answers, "No, thanks." All invitations are quietly rejected. Homer's take on life is clear: "I have everything I want," he says. "I have you." For ages 4 to 7.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/homer-by-elisha-cooper-a-picture-book-about-a-very-contented-dog/2012/06/19/gJQAn3BloV_story.html
A great wildlife series by Éditions Michel Quentin called Savais-tu?, is written by Alain M. Bergeron, illustrated by Sampar. Each book in the series looks at a weird and fascinating animal, fish, reptile, bird or insect, zeroing in on the kind of bizarre factoids kids love to learn and recite. The books are part cartoon, part fun facts, and the illustrations are simply brilliant. For ages 7 and over.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/books/Superb+stories+fascinating+facts/6782889/story.html
NEWS & FEATURES
It has been proposed that a new status code to reflect Internet censorship be named after Ray Bradbury's most famous novel, Fahrenheit 451.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jun/22/ray-bradbury-internet-error-message-451
Jean Craighead George, a leading writer of novels about nature for young readers, including the Newbery Medal-winning Julie of the Wolves, has died at 92.
http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-jean-craighead-george-20120527,0,3813817.story
Nora Ephron has died of leukemia, at 71.
http://www.thestar.com/news/books/article/1217710--nora-ephron-gravely-ill-rep-says
Brazil will offer inmates in its federal penitentiary system the opportunity to shorten their sentences by four days for every book they read.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jun/26/prisoners-books-reduce-sentence
Claire Tomalin, who wrote a biography of the novelist Charles Dickens, wrote a letter to Dickens earlier this year, congratulating him on his 200th birthday, as she wonders what he would make of the 21st century.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/feb/07/letter-charles-dickens-200th-birthday
Charles Dickens has been identified as the author of a previously unattributed article which attacks the middle classes for patronising the "working man".
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jun/25/charles-dickens-identified-author-article?CMP=EMCNEWEML1355
Margaret Atwood has joined the story-sharing website Wattpad to share her writing with an online community of nine million other users. Atwood has posted two new poems on the website and is planning to share a piece of fiction this autumn.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jun/25/margaret-atwood-joins-wattpad
When it comes to reading books, the French are determinedly bucking the digital trend and sticking to paperbacks. Ebooks in France have been slow to catch on, as readers overwhelmingly prefer the printed page, writes Angelique Chrisafis.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/shortcuts/2012/jun/24/why-is-france-shunning-ebooks
When Eric Walters began writing almost 20 years ago, he told his students stories; they offered their feedback. More than 70 books later—kids remain an essential part of the editing process. They spent more than two months this year advising him on Hunter, out this fall.
http://www.thestar.com/news/books/article/1216086--author-eric-walters-lets-kids-be-his-editors
George Orwell had four motives for writing, says Maria Popova: (1) Sheer egoism. (2) Aesthetic enthusiasm. (3) Historical Impulse, and (4) Political purpose.
http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2012/06/25/george-orwell-why-i-write/
A bronze sculpture of literary icon Northrop Frye, set to be unveiled in Moncton next month, has University of Toronto officials interested in getting a copy. The life-size statue, depicting Frye sitting on a park bench, reading a book, is being created by Darren Byers and Fred Harrison, in collaboration with Janet Fotheringham, and is intended to mark the 100th anniversary of the literary giant's birth.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/story/2012/06/26/nb-frye-sculpture-moncton-toronto.html
The Erasure Poetry Contest invites you to create your own poetic masterpiece from an excerpt of How Should a Person Be? by Sheila Heti—erasing letters, words and sentences until your own genius emerges. Visit geist.com/erasure for more details and to read the excerpt. All entries must be postmarked no later than August 1, 2012.
http://www.geist.com/
Enter the Search for the Great BC Novel contest offered by Mother Tongue Publishing Limited.
http://www.allianceforarts.com/files/enet/pdf/12/06/literary_0.pdf
BOOKS & WRITERS
Denis Béchard's Cures for Hunger is a standard story of father and son, of the struggle for some sort of meaningful communication between the two, writes Brad Smith. But ultimately, the unknowable man remains just that, says Smith.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/book-reviews/cures-for-hunger-by-deni-y-bchard/article4324301/
In Enrique Vila-Matas's Dublinesque, Alberto Manguel visits a Dublin haunted by the ghosts of modern literature. There is a kind of literary fiction that feeds on itself, like an introverted cannibal. And the French excel in this, writes Manguel.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jun/15/dublinesque-enrique-vila-matas-review
Tanis Rideout's Above All Things fictionalizes George Mallory's historic third attempt to scale the top of Everest. It's a book about obsession, writes Jennifer Hunter, a man's consuming drive to be the first to reach the peak of Mount Everest.
http://www.thestar.com/news/books/article/1215843--above-all-things
Few people have been both great writers and great illustrators of children's books. Perhaps the most gifted of them all was Maurice Sendak, writes Alison Lurie. Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are shocked some adult readers at first; later it was recognized as a brilliant breakthrough.
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2012/jul/12/something-wonderful-out-almost-nothing/
Nadine Gordimer's No Time Like the Present concerns the political, social and emotional questions raised by the South Africa of today. This complex, probing novel is emboldened by its attachment of South African political development to the deepening years of one formerly illegal "mixed-race" marriage, writes Darryl Whetter.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/book-reviews/no-time-like-the-present-by-nadine-gordimer/article4363995/
Peter Dubé's protest fiction is well-timed, writes Anne Chudobiak. As "casseroling" becomes a gerund in Montreal English, it's time to read The City's Gates, an eerie, fanciful take on the kinds of issues that have dominated headlines since Quebec's student crisis began.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/books/Peter+Dubé+protest+fiction+well+timed/6824569/story.html
When Victoria Sweet went to practice medicine at the last almshouse in America, she signed a two-month contract—and stayed for 20 years. God's Hotel describes the transformation from almshouse to modern health care facility, writes Joanne Latimer, changing forever Sweet's approach to patient care.
http://www2.macleans.ca/2012/06/22/review-gods-hotel-a-doctor-a-hospital-and-a-pilgrimage-to-the-heart-of-medicine/
Unless you're traveling alone, don't pack a copy of Mark Haddon's new novel this summer, writes Ron Charles. The Red House is too demanding, too absorbing and, finally, too knowing about the tensions and anxieties that attend vacations with extended family.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/mark-haddons-the-red-house-reviewed-by-ron-charles/2012/06/19/gJQAXOshoV_story.html
Cheryl Strayed's Wild is a dazzling and inspiring account of personal transformation wrapped within a hair-raising story of an exceptionally foolhardy hiking adventure, writes Brett Josef Grubisic. The inexperienced hiker trekked solo for miles. An exciting story, says Grubisic.
http://www.vancouversun.com/entertainment/books/Cheryl+Strayed+Wild+reckless+journey+redemption/6825608/story.html
"Women take up smoking because it's empowering", says historian Sharon Anne Cook, author of Sex, Lies and Cigarettes. Women use cigarettes as social currency. And cigarettes allow women to express rebellion, presenting yourself as cool, leaving anti-smoking messages as not credible, says Joanne Laucius.
http://www.vancouversun.com/Women+tobacco+Smoke+mirrors/6835151/story.html
Ewan White describes Anne Carson's Antigone as riveting and humorous. In her updated rendition of the play, which she calls Antigonick, Carson fashions a protagonist with the headspace of a suicide bomber. Her Antigone is in love with the idea of martyrdom.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/book-reviews/antigonick-by-anne-carson/article4363942/
Jim Bartley suggests we may have to give Grace O'Connell the prize for aural evocation of a Toronto streetcar. In any case, Bartley finds O'Connell's Magnified World nice, funny and strong, adding that it connects with a wallop.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/book-reviews/magnified-world-by-grace-oconnell/article4363900/
COMMUNITY EVENTS
DAPHNE MARLATT
Presentation of the 19th Annual George Woodcock Lifetime Achievement Award to Daphne Marlatt for an outstanding literary career in British Columbia. Thursday, June 28 at 7:00pm, free. Alice MacKay room, lower level, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia St. More information at 604-331-3603.
OUR FRIEND JOE: THE JOE FORTES STORY
Authors Lisa Anne Smith and Barbara Rogers give a presentation on Vancouver humanitarian Joe Fortes. Saturday, June 30 at 1pm, free, refreshments provided. Door prizes include a $150 gift certificate to the Joe Fortes Restaurant! Roedde House Museum, 1415 Barclay Street.
MARGINS ZINE LAUNCH PARTY
Launch of the first issue with live entertainment provided by local poets, singers and storytellers. Saturday, June 30 at 7:00pm. Rhizome Cafe, 317 East Broadway.
THE RED SHOES
Based on Hans Christian Andersen's story and filmed in 1947, The Red Shoes, beautiful and talented Vicky is hired by the top impresario of the day, Lermontov, to dance in his company. Hosted by Alma Lee. Tuesday, July 3 at 7:30pm. Vancouver International Film Centre, 1181 Seymour Street. More information here, http://filmguide.viff.org/tixSYS/vifcguide/filmguide/films/2279.
JED LA LUMIERE
The author of Patience: A Gay Man's Virtue brings humour and insight to the launch for his book about being an invisible minority. Thursday, July 5 at 7:00pm, free. Little Sister's Book & Art Emporium, 1238 Davie Street.
TWISTED POETS LITERARY SALON
Readings by bill bissett and Susan Cormier. Thursday, July 5 at 7:00pm. Suggested donation at the door: $5. The Prophouse Cafe, 1636 Venables Ave., Vancouver. More information at talonbooks.com.
DEAD POETS READING SERIES
Readings by Kate Braid, George McWhirter, Daniela Elza, Ken Klonksy, and Hal Wake. Sunday, July 8 at 3:00pm. Entry by donation. Project Space, 222 East Georgia Street, Vancouver. Details and registration here, www.deadpoetslive.com.
RACHEL HARTMAN
Author launches her new book Seraphina. Tuesday, July 10 at 7:00pm. RSVP to pkells@randomhouse.com. Kidsbooks, 3083 West Broadway. More information at kidsbooks.ca.
Upcoming
TIM WARD
Author reads from Zombies on Kilimanjaro: A Father-Son Journey Above the Clouds. Thursday, July 17 at 7:00pm, free. Alice MacKay room, lower level, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia Street. More information at 604-331-3603.
DENMAN ISLAND READERS & WRITERS FESTIVAL
Annual summer event featuring Tseporah Berman, Steven Galloway, Loran Goodison, Timothy Taylor and many others. July 19-22, 2012. For complete details, visit www.denmanislandwritersfestival.com.
VISIBLE VERSE FESTIVAL 2012
VVF seeks videopoems that wed words and images, the voice seen as well as heard. Deadline for submissions is August 1, 2012. For more information, contact Artistic Director Heather Haley at hshaley@emspace.com.
SUMMER DREAMS LITERARY ARTS FESTIVAL
Annual family-friendly celebration of literary arts features two stages, a kids' area, a marketplace, and over 90 performers, including headliner Barbara Adler and Fang, a local spoken-word artist who combines poetry with music. Saturday, August 25, 2012, free. Trout Lake Park, 3350 Victoria. More information at www.summerdreamsfest.com.
VIRTUAL FESTIVAL
Listen to the tenth installment in our series of audio archives from past Festival events. This week you'll hear "Japanning" from the 2010 Festival, featuring Katherine Govier and David Mitchell. The genesis for a great book can develop from the most accidental of moments. Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/multimedia/audio-archives.
Special Offers
If being a member of the VIWF didn't already have enough benefits, we've added an extra incentive! Every two weeks new and renewing members will have a chance to win a book by a Festival or Incite author. At the end of August we'll have a grand prize draw for a deluxe pack of Festival tickets - two tickets to any event of your choice for each day of the Festival! Sign up now here, https://www.writersfest.bc.ca/secure/secure_membership.php.
cStories eBook Singles is a new program that offers short Canadian fiction in e-book format for download on a wide array of digital devices, desktop or mobile, to be read anytime, anywhere. The cStories "Get Into Our Shorts" contest runs until the end of June. Enter by midnight June 30 to win an
iPad3 chock full of ebook singles including the stories of Jessica Westhead, named by CBC Books as one of the "10 Canadian women writers you need to read now." Details at win.cstories.ca.
AROUND TOWN THIS MONTH
TD Vancouver International Jazz Festival
The 27th Annual TD Vancouver International Jazz Festival is on NOW until July 1 with a smokin' hot line up including: R&B/Soul sensation Janelle Monae, indie rockers Destroyer, Latin Legends Los Amigos Invisibles, pedal steel guitar god Robert Randolph, the venerable Terell Stafford, Canadian sweetheart Jill Barber and many more. If you missed the fabulous downtown jazz opening weekend, don't forget closing weekend at David Lam Park (June 30 & July 1), Granville Island Jazz, etc... Details here, vanjazzfest.ca.
Indian Summer Literature Series
http://indiansummerfestival.ca
The Indian Summer Festival presents top international talent from Canada and India across music, literature, dance, film, yoga and cuisine. The literature series features some of the most exciting authors and public intellectuals from India, Canada and the UK.
Events this year include:
Tinderbox: India & its Neighbours, with MJ Akbar (THURSDAY JULY 12 @ 7pm
$20 ($80 with reception)
Goldcorp Centre for the Arts) Indians and Pakistanis are of the same people: Why then have their nations moved on such different trajectories since freedom in 1947?
Ideas Series: Buddhist Revival, Sanchi and the Begum of Bhopal with Nayanjot Lahiri (FRIDAY JULY 13 @ 6pm
$15
Goldcorp Centre for the Arts) The Buddhist revival in Asia, beginning in India, and spanning Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Thailand, China and Japan is one of the most remarkable pan-Asian cultural phenomenons of modern times. While the Buddhist revival in Asia evokes images of various places, persons and phenomena, Muslim ruling houses rarely figure in narratives about it.
AWARDS & LISTS
Susan Hughes's Off to Class, a non-fiction title detailing the experiences of children seeking an education in countries like India, China and Uganda, is a double nominee for the Canadian Children's Book Awards. Shane Peacock's The Dragon Turn, part of the popular boy Sherlock Holmes series is also a double nominee. Other nominees are listed here:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/story/2012/06/20/childrens-book-awards-nominees.html
Wayne Arthurson, Susan McCaslin, and Peter Midgley are among the publishers, poets, novelists, and editors to have won 2012 Alberta Book Awards. The complete list is here:
http://holeinthebucket.wordpress.com/2012/06/11/alberta-book-awards-2012-edition/
Poets Phil Hall, Nick Thran, and Sonia Lamontagne, and novelist Michèle Vinet are winners of the 25th annual Trillium Award; Hall and Thran for work in English, Lamontagne and Vinet for work in French.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/poet-phil-hall-wins-english-language-trillium-book-award/article4356286/
The first-ever Andrew Carnegie Awards for Excellence in Literature were announced last week with awards given in fiction and nonfiction. Robert K. Massiec's biography Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman received the nonfiction prize; Anne Enright's The Forgotten Waltz won in fiction.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/jacketcopy/2012/06/first-ever-carnegie-awards-in-literature-go-to-enright-massie.html
Amber Dawn, a Vancouver writer, filmmaker, and performance artist has won the Dayne Ogilvie Prize from the Writers' Trust of Canada. The prize is given annually to an LGBT emerging writer who demonstrates great literary promise. Mariko Tomaki of Toronto received an honorable mention.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/story/2012/06/26/dayne-ogilvie-award.html
YOUNG READERS
Geoff Rodkey's Deadweather and Sunrise has a hybrid plot including islands, buried treasure, real pirates, fake pirates, and leftover pirates, too maimed for sea work. At the center, there is Egbert (aka Egg). Egg's practical narrative tone keeps the profusion of plot elements in balance. For ages 10 to 13.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/books/chi-deadweather-and-sunrise-by-geoff-rodkey--20120614,0,4117902.story
Elisha Cooper's Homer, a large yellow lab, is a porch potato. When the other family dogs burst through the door inviting him to "chase and race around the yard," he simply answers, "No, thanks." All invitations are quietly rejected. Homer's take on life is clear: "I have everything I want," he says. "I have you." For ages 4 to 7.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/homer-by-elisha-cooper-a-picture-book-about-a-very-contented-dog/2012/06/19/gJQAn3BloV_story.html
A great wildlife series by Éditions Michel Quentin called Savais-tu?, is written by Alain M. Bergeron, illustrated by Sampar. Each book in the series looks at a weird and fascinating animal, fish, reptile, bird or insect, zeroing in on the kind of bizarre factoids kids love to learn and recite. The books are part cartoon, part fun facts, and the illustrations are simply brilliant. For ages 7 and over.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/books/Superb+stories+fascinating+facts/6782889/story.html
NEWS & FEATURES
It has been proposed that a new status code to reflect Internet censorship be named after Ray Bradbury's most famous novel, Fahrenheit 451.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jun/22/ray-bradbury-internet-error-message-451
Jean Craighead George, a leading writer of novels about nature for young readers, including the Newbery Medal-winning Julie of the Wolves, has died at 92.
http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-jean-craighead-george-20120527,0,3813817.story
Nora Ephron has died of leukemia, at 71.
http://www.thestar.com/news/books/article/1217710--nora-ephron-gravely-ill-rep-says
Brazil will offer inmates in its federal penitentiary system the opportunity to shorten their sentences by four days for every book they read.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jun/26/prisoners-books-reduce-sentence
Claire Tomalin, who wrote a biography of the novelist Charles Dickens, wrote a letter to Dickens earlier this year, congratulating him on his 200th birthday, as she wonders what he would make of the 21st century.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/feb/07/letter-charles-dickens-200th-birthday
Charles Dickens has been identified as the author of a previously unattributed article which attacks the middle classes for patronising the "working man".
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jun/25/charles-dickens-identified-author-article?CMP=EMCNEWEML1355
Margaret Atwood has joined the story-sharing website Wattpad to share her writing with an online community of nine million other users. Atwood has posted two new poems on the website and is planning to share a piece of fiction this autumn.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jun/25/margaret-atwood-joins-wattpad
When it comes to reading books, the French are determinedly bucking the digital trend and sticking to paperbacks. Ebooks in France have been slow to catch on, as readers overwhelmingly prefer the printed page, writes Angelique Chrisafis.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/shortcuts/2012/jun/24/why-is-france-shunning-ebooks
When Eric Walters began writing almost 20 years ago, he told his students stories; they offered their feedback. More than 70 books later—kids remain an essential part of the editing process. They spent more than two months this year advising him on Hunter, out this fall.
http://www.thestar.com/news/books/article/1216086--author-eric-walters-lets-kids-be-his-editors
George Orwell had four motives for writing, says Maria Popova: (1) Sheer egoism. (2) Aesthetic enthusiasm. (3) Historical Impulse, and (4) Political purpose.
http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2012/06/25/george-orwell-why-i-write/
A bronze sculpture of literary icon Northrop Frye, set to be unveiled in Moncton next month, has University of Toronto officials interested in getting a copy. The life-size statue, depicting Frye sitting on a park bench, reading a book, is being created by Darren Byers and Fred Harrison, in collaboration with Janet Fotheringham, and is intended to mark the 100th anniversary of the literary giant's birth.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/story/2012/06/26/nb-frye-sculpture-moncton-toronto.html
The Erasure Poetry Contest invites you to create your own poetic masterpiece from an excerpt of How Should a Person Be? by Sheila Heti—erasing letters, words and sentences until your own genius emerges. Visit geist.com/erasure for more details and to read the excerpt. All entries must be postmarked no later than August 1, 2012.
http://www.geist.com/
Enter the Search for the Great BC Novel contest offered by Mother Tongue Publishing Limited.
http://www.allianceforarts.com/files/enet/pdf/12/06/literary_0.pdf
BOOKS & WRITERS
Denis Béchard's Cures for Hunger is a standard story of father and son, of the struggle for some sort of meaningful communication between the two, writes Brad Smith. But ultimately, the unknowable man remains just that, says Smith.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/book-reviews/cures-for-hunger-by-deni-y-bchard/article4324301/
In Enrique Vila-Matas's Dublinesque, Alberto Manguel visits a Dublin haunted by the ghosts of modern literature. There is a kind of literary fiction that feeds on itself, like an introverted cannibal. And the French excel in this, writes Manguel.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jun/15/dublinesque-enrique-vila-matas-review
Tanis Rideout's Above All Things fictionalizes George Mallory's historic third attempt to scale the top of Everest. It's a book about obsession, writes Jennifer Hunter, a man's consuming drive to be the first to reach the peak of Mount Everest.
http://www.thestar.com/news/books/article/1215843--above-all-things
Few people have been both great writers and great illustrators of children's books. Perhaps the most gifted of them all was Maurice Sendak, writes Alison Lurie. Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are shocked some adult readers at first; later it was recognized as a brilliant breakthrough.
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2012/jul/12/something-wonderful-out-almost-nothing/
Nadine Gordimer's No Time Like the Present concerns the political, social and emotional questions raised by the South Africa of today. This complex, probing novel is emboldened by its attachment of South African political development to the deepening years of one formerly illegal "mixed-race" marriage, writes Darryl Whetter.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/book-reviews/no-time-like-the-present-by-nadine-gordimer/article4363995/
Peter Dubé's protest fiction is well-timed, writes Anne Chudobiak. As "casseroling" becomes a gerund in Montreal English, it's time to read The City's Gates, an eerie, fanciful take on the kinds of issues that have dominated headlines since Quebec's student crisis began.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/books/Peter+Dubé+protest+fiction+well+timed/6824569/story.html
When Victoria Sweet went to practice medicine at the last almshouse in America, she signed a two-month contract—and stayed for 20 years. God's Hotel describes the transformation from almshouse to modern health care facility, writes Joanne Latimer, changing forever Sweet's approach to patient care.
http://www2.macleans.ca/2012/06/22/review-gods-hotel-a-doctor-a-hospital-and-a-pilgrimage-to-the-heart-of-medicine/
Unless you're traveling alone, don't pack a copy of Mark Haddon's new novel this summer, writes Ron Charles. The Red House is too demanding, too absorbing and, finally, too knowing about the tensions and anxieties that attend vacations with extended family.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/mark-haddons-the-red-house-reviewed-by-ron-charles/2012/06/19/gJQAXOshoV_story.html
Cheryl Strayed's Wild is a dazzling and inspiring account of personal transformation wrapped within a hair-raising story of an exceptionally foolhardy hiking adventure, writes Brett Josef Grubisic. The inexperienced hiker trekked solo for miles. An exciting story, says Grubisic.
http://www.vancouversun.com/entertainment/books/Cheryl+Strayed+Wild+reckless+journey+redemption/6825608/story.html
"Women take up smoking because it's empowering", says historian Sharon Anne Cook, author of Sex, Lies and Cigarettes. Women use cigarettes as social currency. And cigarettes allow women to express rebellion, presenting yourself as cool, leaving anti-smoking messages as not credible, says Joanne Laucius.
http://www.vancouversun.com/Women+tobacco+Smoke+mirrors/6835151/story.html
Ewan White describes Anne Carson's Antigone as riveting and humorous. In her updated rendition of the play, which she calls Antigonick, Carson fashions a protagonist with the headspace of a suicide bomber. Her Antigone is in love with the idea of martyrdom.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/book-reviews/antigonick-by-anne-carson/article4363942/
Jim Bartley suggests we may have to give Grace O'Connell the prize for aural evocation of a Toronto streetcar. In any case, Bartley finds O'Connell's Magnified World nice, funny and strong, adding that it connects with a wallop.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/book-reviews/magnified-world-by-grace-oconnell/article4363900/
COMMUNITY EVENTS
DAPHNE MARLATT
Presentation of the 19th Annual George Woodcock Lifetime Achievement Award to Daphne Marlatt for an outstanding literary career in British Columbia. Thursday, June 28 at 7:00pm, free. Alice MacKay room, lower level, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia St. More information at 604-331-3603.
OUR FRIEND JOE: THE JOE FORTES STORY
Authors Lisa Anne Smith and Barbara Rogers give a presentation on Vancouver humanitarian Joe Fortes. Saturday, June 30 at 1pm, free, refreshments provided. Door prizes include a $150 gift certificate to the Joe Fortes Restaurant! Roedde House Museum, 1415 Barclay Street.
MARGINS ZINE LAUNCH PARTY
Launch of the first issue with live entertainment provided by local poets, singers and storytellers. Saturday, June 30 at 7:00pm. Rhizome Cafe, 317 East Broadway.
THE RED SHOES
Based on Hans Christian Andersen's story and filmed in 1947, The Red Shoes, beautiful and talented Vicky is hired by the top impresario of the day, Lermontov, to dance in his company. Hosted by Alma Lee. Tuesday, July 3 at 7:30pm. Vancouver International Film Centre, 1181 Seymour Street. More information here, http://filmguide.viff.org/tixSYS/vifcguide/filmguide/films/2279.
JED LA LUMIERE
The author of Patience: A Gay Man's Virtue brings humour and insight to the launch for his book about being an invisible minority. Thursday, July 5 at 7:00pm, free. Little Sister's Book & Art Emporium, 1238 Davie Street.
TWISTED POETS LITERARY SALON
Readings by bill bissett and Susan Cormier. Thursday, July 5 at 7:00pm. Suggested donation at the door: $5. The Prophouse Cafe, 1636 Venables Ave., Vancouver. More information at talonbooks.com.
DEAD POETS READING SERIES
Readings by Kate Braid, George McWhirter, Daniela Elza, Ken Klonksy, and Hal Wake. Sunday, July 8 at 3:00pm. Entry by donation. Project Space, 222 East Georgia Street, Vancouver. Details and registration here, www.deadpoetslive.com.
RACHEL HARTMAN
Author launches her new book Seraphina. Tuesday, July 10 at 7:00pm. RSVP to pkells@randomhouse.com. Kidsbooks, 3083 West Broadway. More information at kidsbooks.ca.
Upcoming
TIM WARD
Author reads from Zombies on Kilimanjaro: A Father-Son Journey Above the Clouds. Thursday, July 17 at 7:00pm, free. Alice MacKay room, lower level, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia Street. More information at 604-331-3603.
DENMAN ISLAND READERS & WRITERS FESTIVAL
Annual summer event featuring Tseporah Berman, Steven Galloway, Loran Goodison, Timothy Taylor and many others. July 19-22, 2012. For complete details, visit www.denmanislandwritersfestival.com.
VISIBLE VERSE FESTIVAL 2012
VVF seeks videopoems that wed words and images, the voice seen as well as heard. Deadline for submissions is August 1, 2012. For more information, contact Artistic Director Heather Haley at hshaley@emspace.com.
SUMMER DREAMS LITERARY ARTS FESTIVAL
Annual family-friendly celebration of literary arts features two stages, a kids' area, a marketplace, and over 90 performers, including headliner Barbara Adler and Fang, a local spoken-word artist who combines poetry with music. Saturday, August 25, 2012, free. Trout Lake Park, 3350 Victoria. More information at www.summerdreamsfest.com.
Thursday, June 21, 2012
Book News Vol. 7 No. 22
BOOK NEWS
Special Offers
If being a member of the VIWF didn't already have enough benefits, we've added an extra incentive! Every two weeks new and renewing members will have a chance to win a book by a Festival or Incite author. At the end of August we'll have a grand prize draw for a deluxe pack of Festival tickets - two tickets to any event of your choice for each day of the Festival! Sign up now here, https://www.writersfest.bc.ca/secure/secure_membership.php.
cStories eBook Singles - currently running the "Get Into Our Shorts" contest at http://win.cstories.ca - will also offer Russell Wangersky's ebook "Bolt" to VWF members as part of the VWF membership drive; watch for the special offer in the INK Member eNewsletter. Not a member yet? Join us here, https://www.writersfest.bc.ca/secure/secure_membership.php.
VIRTUAL FESTIVAL
Listen to the ninth installment in our series of audio archives from past Festival events. This week you'll hear "Montreal Mystery and Music" from the 2011 Festival, featuring Trevor Ferguson, aka John Farrow. Experience the thrill of old Montreal, through flutes and whistles and a dramatic story of corruption and murder. Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/multimedia/audio-archives.
AWARDS & LISTS
British writer Jon McGregor has won the €100,000 ($131,000 Cdn) 2012 International Impac Dublin Literary Award for his novel Even the Dogs. Winnipeg's David Bergen was the sole Canadian on the short list.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/story/2012/06/13/impac-dublin-award.html
Jerry Kobalenkoc's Arctic Eden: Journeys through the Changing High Arctic has won the 2012 William Mills Prize for Nonfiction Polar Books.
http://www.cbabook.org/files/Arctic%20Eden%20wins%20the%20William%20Mills%20Prize%20for%20Nonfiction%20Polar%20Books.pdf
Irish author Sebastian Barry has won the £25,000 Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction for his novel On Canaan's Side.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-south-scotland-18472443
Max Hastings, a British historian, journalist and editor known for his writing about the Second World War, has won the $100,000 US Pritzker Military Library’s Literature Award. The award is given for lifetime achievement in military writing.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/story/2012/06/19/pritzker-military-writing.html
Anna Funder has won the 2012 Miles Franklin Award for All That I Am.
http://www.milesfranklin.com.au/
YOUNG READERS
Cold Cereal, by Adam Rex is a roller-coaster ride of wit, wordplay, magic and mystery that requires a suspension of disbelief to some degree. The story involves 11-year-old Scott Doe, 13-year-old Emily Utz and her twin brother, Erno. Creatures from the fairy world, from mythology and from the world of magic are intertwined with contemporary issues. Black-and-white full-page drawings, smaller cartoon-like strips and occasional spot illustrations add visual appeal. For age 9 and older.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/books/Kids+quiet+moments+rainy+days/6782904/story.html
Kevin Sylvester's Neil Flambé and the Crusader’s Curse is the third of the Flambé Capers, a series about a hotshot teenage chef whose super-sensitive nose sniffs out mysteries and makes him a crime-solving sleuth as well as help when he’s cooking,. A 13th century curse against one of Neil’s ancestors explains why the young chef appears to have lost his golden touch with food. For ages 8 to 12.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/books/Kids+quiet+moments+rainy+days/6782904/story.html
Geoff Rodkey's Deadweather and Sunrise has a wonderful hybrid plot: islands, buried treasure, a lad avenging violence against his family, sea voyages, tourist cruises, real pirates, fake pirates for the tourist trade, and leftover pirates, too maimed for sea work.For ages 10 to 13.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/books/chi-deadweather-and-sunrise-by-geoff-rodkey--20120614,0,4117902.story
NEWS & FEATURES
Michael Chabon writes that he hates dreams, referring to them as the Sea Monkeys of consciousness: in the back pages of sleep, they promise us teeming submarine palaces but leave us, on waking, with a hermetic residue of freeze-dried dust.
http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2012/jun/15/why-i-hate-dreams
Researchers have unveiled new evidence suggesting that a long-disputed portrait depicts a thirteen-year-old Jane Austen. This unearthed picture reinforces the celebrity aura that has developed around Austen in recent years, writes Andrea DenHoed.
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2012/06/new-jane-austen-portrait.html
Cory Doctorow writes of Andrew Hyde’s experience when he submitted the travel book he wrote and self-published. Amazon’s markup of digital delivery to indie authors is ~129,000%.
http://boingboing.net/2012/06/12/indie-author-gets-sticker-shoc.html
Asked if he intends to write a sequel to Go the F*** to Sleep, award-winning novelist Adam Mansbach says he would focus on one of two things: the insanely violent frenemy relationships three-year-olds form with one another, or playground etiquette.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/adam-mansbach-the-sequel-father-knows-sweet/article4266609/
Roxanne Gay, with the support of a graduate assistant, has learned that nearly 90% of the books reviewed by The New York Times are written by white writers, not reflective of the racial makeup of the U.S. According to the 2010 census, 72% of the population is white.
http://therumpus.net/2012/06/where-things-stand/
Stephen Colbert asked Maurice Sendak what makes a successful celebrity children's book. "You've started already by being an idiot," replied Sendak, and gave Colbert a tutorial on how to draw a pole. That improvised illustration inspired Colbert's I Am a Pole (And So Can You!)—NOT a children’s book.
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-ca-stephen-colbert-20120617,0,1917907.story
George Elliott Clarke, Roméo Dallaire, Charles Foran, and Marina Nemat among others have contributed articles, essay, poems to Omar Khadr, Oh Canada, edited by University of Alberta professor Janice Williamson. They differ on some issues, but share a common voice in their conviction that Khadr’s treatment has been shameful and unjust.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/books/wake+call+Omar+Khadr/6757431/story.html
In an interview with Tim Adams, Richard Ford talks about his novel Canada, the joys of growing old and the dangers of criticizing the US. "You are not allowed to complain. Or even have a dialogue," says Ford.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/theobserver/2012/jun/17/richard-ford-canada-interview
Louisa Lim and Jeffrey Wasserstrom write about the ways Chinese writers elude censors: many words cannot be written, many cannot be spoken. Among other things, the Arab Spring has made the Chinese leaders jittery.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/17/books/review/how-chinese-writers-elude-censors.html
In an interview with Stuart Jeffries, Mario Vargas Llosa says: "The Nobel prize is a fairytale for a week and a nightmare for a year. The first year was very difficult. I could barely write."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2012/jun/15/mario-vargas-llosa-life-in-writing
Tales of the City author Armistead Maupin is leaving San Francisco for a city with another kind of magic, he says. He’s heading for Santa Fe, where he plans to write a new 'Tales’ book, The Days of Anna Madrigal.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/06/19/DDCN1P4DG2.DTL&tsp=1
The Erasure Poetry Contest invites you to create your own poetic masterpiece from an excerpt of How Should a Person Be? by Sheila Heti—erasing letters, words and sentences until your own genius emerges. Visit geist.com/erasure for more details and to read the excerpt. All entries must be postmarked no later than August 1, 2012.
http://www.geist.com/
BOOKS & WRITERS
Chris Cleave’s Gold is set in the months leading up to the London Olympics. A rule change means only one British female track cyclist may compete. There is engrossing human drama as two women vie to get the single Olympics spot for track cycling.
http://www.thestar.com/news/books/article/1208353--chris-cleave-s-golda-gripping-story-about-two-female-champion-cyclists
James Laxer’s Tecumseh & Brock: The War of 1812 cleverly explains the war and the emergence of a Canadian identity through the lives of British Major General Sir Isaac Brock and Shawnee chieftain Tecumseh. Laxer proves Canadian history doesn’t have to be dull, writes Jennifer Hunter.
http://www.thestar.com/news/books/article/1210913--tecumseh-and-brock-the-war-of-1812-column
Stories in Elaine McCluskey’s collection Valery the Great are linked by their small-town Maritime settings as well as by a shared episodic structure, writes Rob Sternberg. Each story is told through a series of short scenes separated by page breaks.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/book-reviews/valery-the-great-by-elaine-mccluskey/article4242489/
Burying the Typewriter refers to the act carried out every night after Carmen Bugan’s father wrote pro-democracy pamphlets during the Ceausescu regime in Romania. Bugan writes from a child's perspective of a political system she barely understands.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2012/jun/16/carmen-bugan-romanian-childhood
Jim Downs’s Sick From Freedom shows the reality of emancipation, brutally short of its positive image. About a quarter of the four million freed slaves either died or suffered from illness between 1862 and 1870, writes Downs.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jun/16/slavery-starvation-civil-war
The focus of Gordon Bowkers’ James Joyce is almost strictly on Joyce the human being, writes Michael Dirda. In his personal life, the young Joyce is thoroughly disreputable. It’s not always a pretty picture, says Dirda, but it seems like a true one.http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/gordon-bowkers-james-joyce-portrait-of-the-author-as-a-man/2012/06/13/gJQAOhuraV_story.html
Alix Ohlin’s novel Inside and short-story collection Signs and Wonders reflect her knowledge of Ingmar Bergman and Woody Allen films, writes T.F. Rigelhof, but the readers discover a lot of smarts and a wry sense of humour.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/book-reviews/alix-ohlin-a-writer-who-should-be-famous/article4267001/
COMMUNITY EVENTS
TOM WAYMAN AND KATE BRAID
Award-winning authors present a dynamic evening of poetry. Wayman reads from Dirty Snow and Braid reads from several collections, including a new edition of To This Cedar Fountain. Thursday, June 21 at 7:00pm, free. Meeting room, level 3, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia Street. More information at 604-331-3603.
TRIPLE THREAT: CHICKS WHO SOLVE CRIME!
Three Canadian mystery authors - Deryn Collier, Hilary Davidson, and Robin Spano - team up for an evening of readings & discussion. Thursday, June 21 at 7:00pm. Free but register in advance at 604-299-8955. McGill branch, Burnaby Public Library, 4595 Albert Street, Burnaby.
CHRIS GUILLEBEAU AND DANIELLE LAPORTE
Appearances by the author of The Art of Non-Conformity (Guillebeau) and The $100 Startup (Laporte). Thursday, June 21 at 7:00pm. Chapters Robson, 788 Robson St. More information at 604-682-4066.
TWISTED POETS LITERARY SALON
Readings by Jen Currin and Lisa McInnes. Thursday, June 21 at 7:00pm. Suggested donation at the door: $5. The Prophouse Cafe, 1636 Venables Ave., Vancouver. More information at www.pandorascollective.com.
GORDON LONG
Book signing/meet the author for the comic fantasy A Sword Called...Kitten? Saturday, June 23 at 11am. Blackberry Books, 1666 Johnston Street.
RICHELLE MEAD
Signing by the author of the Bloodlines series. Saturday, June 23 at 2:00pm. Chapters Metrotown, 4700 Kingsway, Burnaby. More information at 604-431-0463.
VANCOUVER POETRY SLAM
Nerd-themed youth poetry slam open to all poets 13-22 years of age, costumes encouraged. Also featuring Metis spoken word artist Moe Clark. Monday, June 25 at 8:00pm. Admission: $4 for 18 and under, $6 for 19 and up. Cafe Deux Soleils, 2096 Commercial Drive. More information at www.vancouverpoetryhouse.com.
WORDS AND MUSIC
Four evenings of poetry, spontaneous song and improvised music events. Featuring Daniela Elza, James, Mark Weber and Kate Braid. June 25-28, 2012. Admission by donation. Prophouse Cafe, 1636 Venables St. More information at vancouverjazz.com.
DAPHNE MARLATT
Presentation of the 19th Annual George Woodcock Lifetime Achievement Award to Daphne Marlatt for an outstanding literary career in British Columbia. Thursday, June 28 at 7:00pm, free. Alice MacKay room, lower level, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia St. More information at 604-331-3603.
OUR FRIEND JOE: THE JOE FORTES STORY
Authors Lisa Anne Smith and Barbara Rogers give a presentation on Vancouver humanitarian Joe Fortes. Saturday, June 30 at 1pm, free, refreshments provided. Door prizes include a $150 gift certificate to the Joe Fortes Restaurant! Roedde House Museum, 1415 Barclay Street.
Upcoming
THE RED SHOES
Based on Hans Christian Andersen's story and filmed in 1947, The Red Shoes, beautiful and talented Vicky is hired by the top impresario of the day, Lermontov, to dance in his company. Hosted by Alma Lee. Tuesday, July 3 at 7:30pm. Vancouver International Film Centre, 1181 Seymour Street. More information here, http://filmguide.viff.org/tixSYS/vifcguide/filmguide/films/2279.
TWISTED POETS LITERARY SALON
Readings by bill bissett and Susan Cormier. Thursday, July 5 at 7:00pm. Suggested donation at the door: $5. The Prophouse Cafe, 1636 Venables Ave., Vancouver. More information at talonbooks.com.
DEAD POETS READING SERIES
Readings by Kate Braid, George McWhirter, Daniela Elza, Ken Klonksy, and Hal Wake. Sunday, July 8 at 3:00pm. Entry by donation. Project Space, 222 East Georgia Street, Vancouver. Details and registration here, www.deadpoetslive.com.
TIM WARD
Author reads from Zombies on Kilimanjaro: A Father-Son Journey Above the Clouds. Thursday, July 17 at 7:00pm, free. Alice MacKay room, lower level, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia Street. More information at 604-331-3603.
DENMAN ISLAND READERS & WRITERS FESTIVAL
Annual summer event featuring Tseporah Berman, Steven Galloway, Loran Goodison, Timothy Taylor and many others. July 19-22, 2012. For complete details, visit www.denmanislandwritersfestival.com.
VISIBLE VERSE FESTIVAL 2012
VVF seeks videopoems that wed words and images, the voice seen as well as heard. Deadline for submissions is August 1, 2012. For more information, contact Artistic Director Heather Haley at hshaley@emspace.com.
Special Offers
If being a member of the VIWF didn't already have enough benefits, we've added an extra incentive! Every two weeks new and renewing members will have a chance to win a book by a Festival or Incite author. At the end of August we'll have a grand prize draw for a deluxe pack of Festival tickets - two tickets to any event of your choice for each day of the Festival! Sign up now here, https://www.writersfest.bc.ca/secure/secure_membership.php.
cStories eBook Singles - currently running the "Get Into Our Shorts" contest at http://win.cstories.ca - will also offer Russell Wangersky's ebook "Bolt" to VWF members as part of the VWF membership drive; watch for the special offer in the INK Member eNewsletter. Not a member yet? Join us here, https://www.writersfest.bc.ca/secure/secure_membership.php.
VIRTUAL FESTIVAL
Listen to the ninth installment in our series of audio archives from past Festival events. This week you'll hear "Montreal Mystery and Music" from the 2011 Festival, featuring Trevor Ferguson, aka John Farrow. Experience the thrill of old Montreal, through flutes and whistles and a dramatic story of corruption and murder. Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/multimedia/audio-archives.
AWARDS & LISTS
British writer Jon McGregor has won the €100,000 ($131,000 Cdn) 2012 International Impac Dublin Literary Award for his novel Even the Dogs. Winnipeg's David Bergen was the sole Canadian on the short list.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/story/2012/06/13/impac-dublin-award.html
Jerry Kobalenkoc's Arctic Eden: Journeys through the Changing High Arctic has won the 2012 William Mills Prize for Nonfiction Polar Books.
http://www.cbabook.org/files/Arctic%20Eden%20wins%20the%20William%20Mills%20Prize%20for%20Nonfiction%20Polar%20Books.pdf
Irish author Sebastian Barry has won the £25,000 Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction for his novel On Canaan's Side.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-south-scotland-18472443
Max Hastings, a British historian, journalist and editor known for his writing about the Second World War, has won the $100,000 US Pritzker Military Library’s Literature Award. The award is given for lifetime achievement in military writing.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/story/2012/06/19/pritzker-military-writing.html
Anna Funder has won the 2012 Miles Franklin Award for All That I Am.
http://www.milesfranklin.com.au/
YOUNG READERS
Cold Cereal, by Adam Rex is a roller-coaster ride of wit, wordplay, magic and mystery that requires a suspension of disbelief to some degree. The story involves 11-year-old Scott Doe, 13-year-old Emily Utz and her twin brother, Erno. Creatures from the fairy world, from mythology and from the world of magic are intertwined with contemporary issues. Black-and-white full-page drawings, smaller cartoon-like strips and occasional spot illustrations add visual appeal. For age 9 and older.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/books/Kids+quiet+moments+rainy+days/6782904/story.html
Kevin Sylvester's Neil Flambé and the Crusader’s Curse is the third of the Flambé Capers, a series about a hotshot teenage chef whose super-sensitive nose sniffs out mysteries and makes him a crime-solving sleuth as well as help when he’s cooking,. A 13th century curse against one of Neil’s ancestors explains why the young chef appears to have lost his golden touch with food. For ages 8 to 12.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/books/Kids+quiet+moments+rainy+days/6782904/story.html
Geoff Rodkey's Deadweather and Sunrise has a wonderful hybrid plot: islands, buried treasure, a lad avenging violence against his family, sea voyages, tourist cruises, real pirates, fake pirates for the tourist trade, and leftover pirates, too maimed for sea work.For ages 10 to 13.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/books/chi-deadweather-and-sunrise-by-geoff-rodkey--20120614,0,4117902.story
NEWS & FEATURES
Michael Chabon writes that he hates dreams, referring to them as the Sea Monkeys of consciousness: in the back pages of sleep, they promise us teeming submarine palaces but leave us, on waking, with a hermetic residue of freeze-dried dust.
http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2012/jun/15/why-i-hate-dreams
Researchers have unveiled new evidence suggesting that a long-disputed portrait depicts a thirteen-year-old Jane Austen. This unearthed picture reinforces the celebrity aura that has developed around Austen in recent years, writes Andrea DenHoed.
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2012/06/new-jane-austen-portrait.html
Cory Doctorow writes of Andrew Hyde’s experience when he submitted the travel book he wrote and self-published. Amazon’s markup of digital delivery to indie authors is ~129,000%.
http://boingboing.net/2012/06/12/indie-author-gets-sticker-shoc.html
Asked if he intends to write a sequel to Go the F*** to Sleep, award-winning novelist Adam Mansbach says he would focus on one of two things: the insanely violent frenemy relationships three-year-olds form with one another, or playground etiquette.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/adam-mansbach-the-sequel-father-knows-sweet/article4266609/
Roxanne Gay, with the support of a graduate assistant, has learned that nearly 90% of the books reviewed by The New York Times are written by white writers, not reflective of the racial makeup of the U.S. According to the 2010 census, 72% of the population is white.
http://therumpus.net/2012/06/where-things-stand/
Stephen Colbert asked Maurice Sendak what makes a successful celebrity children's book. "You've started already by being an idiot," replied Sendak, and gave Colbert a tutorial on how to draw a pole. That improvised illustration inspired Colbert's I Am a Pole (And So Can You!)—NOT a children’s book.
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-ca-stephen-colbert-20120617,0,1917907.story
George Elliott Clarke, Roméo Dallaire, Charles Foran, and Marina Nemat among others have contributed articles, essay, poems to Omar Khadr, Oh Canada, edited by University of Alberta professor Janice Williamson. They differ on some issues, but share a common voice in their conviction that Khadr’s treatment has been shameful and unjust.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/books/wake+call+Omar+Khadr/6757431/story.html
In an interview with Tim Adams, Richard Ford talks about his novel Canada, the joys of growing old and the dangers of criticizing the US. "You are not allowed to complain. Or even have a dialogue," says Ford.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/theobserver/2012/jun/17/richard-ford-canada-interview
Louisa Lim and Jeffrey Wasserstrom write about the ways Chinese writers elude censors: many words cannot be written, many cannot be spoken. Among other things, the Arab Spring has made the Chinese leaders jittery.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/17/books/review/how-chinese-writers-elude-censors.html
In an interview with Stuart Jeffries, Mario Vargas Llosa says: "The Nobel prize is a fairytale for a week and a nightmare for a year. The first year was very difficult. I could barely write."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2012/jun/15/mario-vargas-llosa-life-in-writing
Tales of the City author Armistead Maupin is leaving San Francisco for a city with another kind of magic, he says. He’s heading for Santa Fe, where he plans to write a new 'Tales’ book, The Days of Anna Madrigal.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/06/19/DDCN1P4DG2.DTL&tsp=1
The Erasure Poetry Contest invites you to create your own poetic masterpiece from an excerpt of How Should a Person Be? by Sheila Heti—erasing letters, words and sentences until your own genius emerges. Visit geist.com/erasure for more details and to read the excerpt. All entries must be postmarked no later than August 1, 2012.
http://www.geist.com/
BOOKS & WRITERS
Chris Cleave’s Gold is set in the months leading up to the London Olympics. A rule change means only one British female track cyclist may compete. There is engrossing human drama as two women vie to get the single Olympics spot for track cycling.
http://www.thestar.com/news/books/article/1208353--chris-cleave-s-golda-gripping-story-about-two-female-champion-cyclists
James Laxer’s Tecumseh & Brock: The War of 1812 cleverly explains the war and the emergence of a Canadian identity through the lives of British Major General Sir Isaac Brock and Shawnee chieftain Tecumseh. Laxer proves Canadian history doesn’t have to be dull, writes Jennifer Hunter.
http://www.thestar.com/news/books/article/1210913--tecumseh-and-brock-the-war-of-1812-column
Stories in Elaine McCluskey’s collection Valery the Great are linked by their small-town Maritime settings as well as by a shared episodic structure, writes Rob Sternberg. Each story is told through a series of short scenes separated by page breaks.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/book-reviews/valery-the-great-by-elaine-mccluskey/article4242489/
Burying the Typewriter refers to the act carried out every night after Carmen Bugan’s father wrote pro-democracy pamphlets during the Ceausescu regime in Romania. Bugan writes from a child's perspective of a political system she barely understands.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2012/jun/16/carmen-bugan-romanian-childhood
Jim Downs’s Sick From Freedom shows the reality of emancipation, brutally short of its positive image. About a quarter of the four million freed slaves either died or suffered from illness between 1862 and 1870, writes Downs.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jun/16/slavery-starvation-civil-war
The focus of Gordon Bowkers’ James Joyce is almost strictly on Joyce the human being, writes Michael Dirda. In his personal life, the young Joyce is thoroughly disreputable. It’s not always a pretty picture, says Dirda, but it seems like a true one.http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/gordon-bowkers-james-joyce-portrait-of-the-author-as-a-man/2012/06/13/gJQAOhuraV_story.html
Alix Ohlin’s novel Inside and short-story collection Signs and Wonders reflect her knowledge of Ingmar Bergman and Woody Allen films, writes T.F. Rigelhof, but the readers discover a lot of smarts and a wry sense of humour.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/book-reviews/alix-ohlin-a-writer-who-should-be-famous/article4267001/
COMMUNITY EVENTS
TOM WAYMAN AND KATE BRAID
Award-winning authors present a dynamic evening of poetry. Wayman reads from Dirty Snow and Braid reads from several collections, including a new edition of To This Cedar Fountain. Thursday, June 21 at 7:00pm, free. Meeting room, level 3, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia Street. More information at 604-331-3603.
TRIPLE THREAT: CHICKS WHO SOLVE CRIME!
Three Canadian mystery authors - Deryn Collier, Hilary Davidson, and Robin Spano - team up for an evening of readings & discussion. Thursday, June 21 at 7:00pm. Free but register in advance at 604-299-8955. McGill branch, Burnaby Public Library, 4595 Albert Street, Burnaby.
CHRIS GUILLEBEAU AND DANIELLE LAPORTE
Appearances by the author of The Art of Non-Conformity (Guillebeau) and The $100 Startup (Laporte). Thursday, June 21 at 7:00pm. Chapters Robson, 788 Robson St. More information at 604-682-4066.
TWISTED POETS LITERARY SALON
Readings by Jen Currin and Lisa McInnes. Thursday, June 21 at 7:00pm. Suggested donation at the door: $5. The Prophouse Cafe, 1636 Venables Ave., Vancouver. More information at www.pandorascollective.com.
GORDON LONG
Book signing/meet the author for the comic fantasy A Sword Called...Kitten? Saturday, June 23 at 11am. Blackberry Books, 1666 Johnston Street.
RICHELLE MEAD
Signing by the author of the Bloodlines series. Saturday, June 23 at 2:00pm. Chapters Metrotown, 4700 Kingsway, Burnaby. More information at 604-431-0463.
VANCOUVER POETRY SLAM
Nerd-themed youth poetry slam open to all poets 13-22 years of age, costumes encouraged. Also featuring Metis spoken word artist Moe Clark. Monday, June 25 at 8:00pm. Admission: $4 for 18 and under, $6 for 19 and up. Cafe Deux Soleils, 2096 Commercial Drive. More information at www.vancouverpoetryhouse.com.
WORDS AND MUSIC
Four evenings of poetry, spontaneous song and improvised music events. Featuring Daniela Elza, James, Mark Weber and Kate Braid. June 25-28, 2012. Admission by donation. Prophouse Cafe, 1636 Venables St. More information at vancouverjazz.com.
DAPHNE MARLATT
Presentation of the 19th Annual George Woodcock Lifetime Achievement Award to Daphne Marlatt for an outstanding literary career in British Columbia. Thursday, June 28 at 7:00pm, free. Alice MacKay room, lower level, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia St. More information at 604-331-3603.
OUR FRIEND JOE: THE JOE FORTES STORY
Authors Lisa Anne Smith and Barbara Rogers give a presentation on Vancouver humanitarian Joe Fortes. Saturday, June 30 at 1pm, free, refreshments provided. Door prizes include a $150 gift certificate to the Joe Fortes Restaurant! Roedde House Museum, 1415 Barclay Street.
Upcoming
THE RED SHOES
Based on Hans Christian Andersen's story and filmed in 1947, The Red Shoes, beautiful and talented Vicky is hired by the top impresario of the day, Lermontov, to dance in his company. Hosted by Alma Lee. Tuesday, July 3 at 7:30pm. Vancouver International Film Centre, 1181 Seymour Street. More information here, http://filmguide.viff.org/tixSYS/vifcguide/filmguide/films/2279.
TWISTED POETS LITERARY SALON
Readings by bill bissett and Susan Cormier. Thursday, July 5 at 7:00pm. Suggested donation at the door: $5. The Prophouse Cafe, 1636 Venables Ave., Vancouver. More information at talonbooks.com.
DEAD POETS READING SERIES
Readings by Kate Braid, George McWhirter, Daniela Elza, Ken Klonksy, and Hal Wake. Sunday, July 8 at 3:00pm. Entry by donation. Project Space, 222 East Georgia Street, Vancouver. Details and registration here, www.deadpoetslive.com.
TIM WARD
Author reads from Zombies on Kilimanjaro: A Father-Son Journey Above the Clouds. Thursday, July 17 at 7:00pm, free. Alice MacKay room, lower level, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia Street. More information at 604-331-3603.
DENMAN ISLAND READERS & WRITERS FESTIVAL
Annual summer event featuring Tseporah Berman, Steven Galloway, Loran Goodison, Timothy Taylor and many others. July 19-22, 2012. For complete details, visit www.denmanislandwritersfestival.com.
VISIBLE VERSE FESTIVAL 2012
VVF seeks videopoems that wed words and images, the voice seen as well as heard. Deadline for submissions is August 1, 2012. For more information, contact Artistic Director Heather Haley at hshaley@emspace.com.
Thursday, June 14, 2012
Book News Vol. 7 No. 21
BOOK NEWS
Special Offers
If being a member of the VIWF didn't already have enough benefits, we've added an extra incentive! Every two weeks new and renewing members will have a chance to win a book by a Festival or Incite author. At the end of August we'll have a grand prize draw for a deluxe pack of Festival tickets - two tickets to any event of your
choice for each day of the Festival! Sign up now here, https://www.writersfest.bc.ca/secure/secure_membership.php.
cStories eBook Singles - currently running the "Get Into Our Shorts" contest at http://win.cstories.ca - will also offer Russell Wangersky's ebook "Bolt" to VWF members as part of the VWF membership drive; watch for the special offer in the INK Member eNewsletter. Not a member yet? Join us here,
https://www.writersfest.bc.ca/secure/secure_membership.php.
VIRTUAL FESTIVAL
Listen to the eighth installment in our series of audio archives from past Festival events. This week you'll hear "An Intimate Afternoon" from the 2011 Festival, featuring Russell Banks. Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/multimedia/audio-archives.
AWARDS & LISTS
Canadian literary icon Margaret Atwood was honoured at the CBA's Libris Awards, where she was presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award. Atwood's acceptance speech is here:
http://www.cbabook.org/files/LibrisAwards/Margaret%20Atwood's%20Acceptance%20Speech.pdf
The Libris Awards recognize the best in the Canadian book industry. The winners of this year's Libris Awards can be found here:
http://www.cbabook.org/files/LibrisAwards/LibrisWINNERSannouncement12FINAL.pdf
Natasha Trethewey has been appointed the US Poet Laureate, the first to hail from the south since Robert Penn Warren in 1986.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Natasha+Trethewey+explored+forgotten+Civil+history+named/6745858/story.html
Canadian Ken Babstock and Briton David Harsent won the 2012 Griffin Poetry Prize Thursday, each taking home $65,000.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/babstock-harsent-win-2012-griffin-poetry-prize/article4241056/
Poet Seamus Heaney has won the Griffin 2012 lifetime achievement award. Griffin trustee Robin Robertson referred to Mr. Heaney as "our greatest living poet".
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/poet-seamus-heaney-wins-griffin-prize-for-lifetime-achievement/article4237660/
American author Nathan Englander, along with Kevin Barry, Etgar Keret, Sarah Hall, Lucia Perillo, and Fiona Kidman are shortlisted for the lucrative short-story prize, the 2012 Frank O'Connor award.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jun/07/nathan-englander-favourite-frank-oconnor-award
Philip Roth paid tribute to his "dear friend" Carlos Fuentes on winning Spain's prestigious literary prize the Prince of Asturias award.
http: //www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jun/07/philip-roth-asturias-carlos-fuentes
Toronto author Ian Williams is the 2011 winner of the Danuta Gleed Literary Award, for Not Anyone's Anything.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/ian-williams-named-winner-of-danuta-gleed-literary-award/article4239253/
Beryl Young's Follow the Elephant, Michelle Superle's Black Dog Dream, and Linda Bailey's Stanley's Little Sister have won Chocolate Lilly 2012 awards. The awards gala took place at Devon Gardens Elementary School in Delta, B.C.
http://chocolatelilyawards.com/?p=296
The Walrus was the toast of Canada's National Magazine Awards last week, winning six gold awards and six silver. A complete list of winners and nominees is available here:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/walrus-wins-big-at-national-magazine-awards/article4241029/.com
Sri Lankan author Shehan Karunatilaka has won the Commonwealth book prize for his debut novel Chinaman: the Legend of Pradeep Mathew.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jun/08/shehan-karunatilaka-commonwealth-book-prize
YOUNG READERS
Isabella's Garden By Glenda Millard, illustrated by Rebecca Cool. Beginning with "the soil/ all dark and deep/ in Isabella's garden," the book stays through the expected planting, the end of the growing season, through winter and on to the next growing season. The rhythm of the words matches well the roundness of the naturally
growing world. Ages 5 to 9.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/books/ct-books-isabellas-garden-by-glenda-millard,0,438383.story
Two books for Fathers Day or for fathers to read to their children: Australian author/illustrator Nick Bland's Some Dads; and Klaas Verplancke's Applesauce: images of polar bears, cautious elephants, sporty dads, naughty dads, "and some dads who just brighten your day". Ages 3 to 7.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/books/Kids+Books+share+with/6751217/story.html
Violet had no idea how important her interest in all things Japanese would become when she went to live with her artist dad for a summer. In Diana Renn's mystery novel Tokyo Heist, Violet learns about the art world and tracks stolen art. Ages 12 and up.
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-ca-diana-renn-20120603,0,2002959.story
Step Gently Out, In the Sea, Outside Your Window: A First Book of Nature by Helen Frost and Rick Lieder. Ages 2 to 6.
http://www.thestar.com/news/books/article/1207616--step-gently-out-in-the-sea-outside-your-window-a-first-book-of-nature-who-needs-an-iceberg-an-arctic-ecosystem-50-climate-questions-a-blizzard-of-blistering-facts-mini-reviews
NEWS & FEATURES
Margaret Atwood and 25 other writers agreed to write a short story in Bradburyesque mode to contribute to a tribute volume on Ray Bradbury. It's no accident that he was descended from Mary Bradbury, convicted as a witch during the Salem witchcraft trials, writes Atwood.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jun/08/margaret-atwood-on-ray-bradbury
Booker prize-winning writer Barry Unsworth, author of Sacred Hunger (18th Century slave trade) and other historical novels, has died, age 81.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jun/08/barry-unsworth
New secrecy laws proposed for South Africa have provoked a rare public intervention from JM Coetzee, the Nobel laureate and double Booker prize winner, and fellow Nobel laureate Nadine Gordimer. "We are going back to apartheid censorship under a new guise," says Gordimer.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jun/06/south-african-campaigners-secrecy-bill
The South African press law is 'more harmful than apartheid-era censorship', says Wendy Woods, widow of anti-apartheid journalist and editor Donald Woods.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jun/06/south-african-press-law-harmful
Nicholas Lezard writes that Victor Serge's Memoirs of a Revolutionary should be required reading for anyone who cares about justice and freedom of speech.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jun/05/memoirs-revolutionary-victor-serge-review
Alberto Manguel reflects on art as a witness to the human desire to be infinite and eternal.
http://www.geist.com/articles/observer-and-observed/index.html
Four up-and-coming mystery writers—Hilary Davidson, Deryn Collier, Robin Spano and Ian Hamilton—are on a crime tour of Vancouver and the Lower Mainland in June, writes Tracy Sherlock. All four are fresh faces on the crime fiction scene.
http://blogs.vancouversun.com/2012/05/30/crime-authors-on-a-mystery-tour-of-vancouver/
Fictional sleuths have a habit of bouncing back from retirement. Author Ian Rankin said there was "unfinished business" with his celebrated character, Inspector Rebus. Rebus will return in the novel Standing in Another Man's Grave, to be released in November.
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/ian-rankin-brings-back-rebus-for-unfinished-business-7817887.html
Riel Nason's The Town that Drowned won the Commonwealth Book Prize for Canada and Europe, was inspired by Hawkshaw, NB, population of about 35 (including Nason). The book is now in contention for the main award.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/books/Canadian+Commonwealth+Book+Prize+contender+inspired+drowned+town/6739714/story.html
In a major overhaul of the national curriculum for schools in England, children as young as five will be expected to learn and recite poetry by heart.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2012/jun/10/primary-school-children-recite-poetry
Two hundred love letters between Rainer Maria Rilke and Andreas-Salomé have been gathered into a book called Rilke and Andreas-Salomé: A Love Story in Letters. Each of the letters reveals a different facet of Rilke, writes Maria Popova.
http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2012/06/06/rilke-salome-love-letters/
When W. H. Auden met Edward Mendelson, professor of English at Columbia University and discovered Mendelson's work, he decided that Mendelson, and not he, should select the essays for his next collection. Later, Auden asked Mendelson to become his literary executor.
http://www.scotsman.com/lifestyle/books/features/interview-edward-mendelson-literary-executor-and-wh-auden-fan-1-2333608
BOOKS & WRITERS
Skagboys is the prequel to Irvine Welsh's debut novel, Trainspotting and so, we revisit the lives of those characters—or, as Don Gillmore describes them, trainspotters-in-training. Perhaps we'll see the gang again in 2014 when the referendum on Scottish independence takes place, writes Gillmore.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/book-reviews/irvine-welshs-skagboys-trainspotters-in-training/article4241642/
Winning Words: Inspiring Poems for Everyday Life chosen by William Sieghart is an anthology to rejoice in, full of poems trying to make one feel better about being alive. The only off-putting thing about this anthology is its title, writes Kate Kellaway.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jun/10/winning-words-william-sieghart-review
Stories in Elaine McCluskey's collection Valery the Great are linked by their small-town Maritime settings as well as by a shared episodic structure, writes Rob Sternberg. Each story is told through a series of short scenes separated by page breaks.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/book-reviews/valery-the-great-by-elaine-mccluskey/article4242489/
Amber Dermont's The Starboard Sea conforms to the German idea of the bildungsroman, the story of a youth's transition to adulthood, writes Robert J. Wiersema, adding that The Starboard Sea is a well-constructed, well-paced character study.
http://www.vancouversun.com/entertainment/books/Starboard+Coming+tale+sensitive+retelling+distant+past/6751858/story.html
Modern Russia is still unwilling to acknowledge the butchery of Stalin's rule, writes John Kampfner. Stephen F. Cohen's The Victims Return is not a history of the camps, but a history of the survivors and their legacy, with Russia locked in historical denial.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jun/10/stephen-cohen-survivors-gulag-stalin-review
In Our Way Out, Marq de Villiers shows that democracy has probably peaked and the globe's financial system has become a casino for the rich, writes Andrew Nikiforuk. We have exercised God-like energy powers badly; now we must learn how to use our "little powers" better.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/book-reviews/our-way-out-by-marq-de-villiers/article4248191/
Anakana Schofield has titled her debut novel Malarky, defined as "exaggerated or foolish talk, usually intended to deceive." The voice is always Our Woman's, a working class middle-aged woman and one of the most vivid fictional creations to come along in years, writes Ian McGillis.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/books/Malarky+heroine+revels+freedom/6751318/story.html
The Matter with Morris, initially published in 2010, is now shortlisted for the €100,000 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, to be announced this week. This is a moving and engaging novel of grief and loss, impeccably written and fully imagined, writes Michel Basilières.
http://www.thestar.com/news/books/article/1201844--the-matter-with-morris-by-david-bergen-review
COMMUNITY EVENTS
ROBSON READING SERIES
Readings by Phil Hall (Killdeer) and Aaron Bushkowsky (Curtains for Roy). Thursday, June 14 at 7:00pm, free. BC Bookstore/Library at Robson Square, 800 Robson Street. More information at www.robsonreadingseries.ubc.ca.
TWS READING SERIES
The Writer's Studio at SFU presents an evening with guest author Robyn Michele Levy, who has been shortlisted for the 2012 Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour for her book All of Me:Surviving My Medical Meltdown. Thursday, June 14 at 7:00pm. Admission by donation. Rhizome Cafe, 317 East Broadway.
V6A - POSTAL CODE READINGS
Launch of a five-part reading series to support the anthology V6A with readings by Cathleen With, Brenda Prince, Antonette Rea and Sen Yi. Friday, June 15 at 7:00pm, free. Carnegie Community Centre, 401 Main Street, Vancouver. More information at www.thursdayswritingcollective.ca.
WAYDE COMPTON
The Canadian poet reads from a sequence of elegies about Canada and the Air India bombing. Friday, June 15 at 8:00pm. People's Co-op Bookstore, 1391 Commercial Drive. More information at 604-253-6442.
CHRISTINA JOHNSON-DEAN
Launch of the fifth book in the series The Unheralded Artists of BC, The Life and Art of Ina D.D. Uhthoff. Saturday, June 16 at 8:00pm, free. Martin Batchelor Gallery, 712 Cormorant St., Victoria. More information at www.mothertonguepublishing.com.
THE OPENING ACT: CANADIAN THEATRE HISTORY 1945-1953
Book launch of Susan McNicoll new theatre history book. Sunday, June 17 at 2 pm, free. Trout Lake Community Centre, Lakewood Room, 3360 Victoria Drive. More information at www.ronsdalepress.com.
VAN SLAM
Slam featuring Dave Morris. Monday June 18 at 8:00pm. Cost: $6-$10 at the door. Cafe Deux Soleils, 2096 Commercial Drive. More information at vancouverpoetryhouse.com.
LUNCH POEMS @ SFU
Readings by Sonnet L'Abbe and Renee Sarojini Saklilkar presented by Simon Fraser University. Wednesday, June 20 at 12:00pm, free. Teck Gallery, SFU Harbour Centre, 515 West Hastings.
BEHIND BARBED WIRE
Literary reading from Behind Barbed Wire: Creative Works on the Internment of Italian Canadians and Beyond Barbed Wire: Essays on the Internment of Italian Canadians with B.C. authors Lynne Bowen, Anna Foschi Ciampolini, Robert Pepper-Smith, and Osvaldo Zappa. Wednesday, June 20 at 7:00pm, free. McGill branch,
Burnaby Public Library, 4595 Albert Street, Burnaby.
TOM WAYMAN AND KATE BRAID
Award-winning authors present a dynamic evening of poetry. Wayman reads from Dirty Snow and Braid reads from several collections, including a new edition of To This Cedar Fountain. Thursday, June 21 at 7:00pm, free. Meeting room, level 3, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia Street. More information at 604-331-3603.
TRIPLE THREAT: CHICKS WHO SOLVE CRIME!
Three Canadian mystery authors - Deryn Collier, Hilary Davidson, and Robin Spano - team up for an evening of readings & discussion. Thursday, June 21 at 7:00pm. Free but register in advance at 604-299-8955. McGill branch, Burnaby Public Library, 4595 Albert Street, Burnaby.
CHRIS GUILLEBEAU AND DANIELLE LAPORTE
Appearances by the author of The Art of Non-Conformity (Guillebeau) and The $100 Startup (Laporte). Thursday, June 21 at 7:00pm. Chapters Robson, 788 Robson St. More information at 604-682-4066.
TWISTED POETS LITERARY SALON
Readings by Jen Currin and Lisa McInnes. Thursday, June 21 at 7:00pm. Suggested donation at the door: $5. The Prophouse Cafe, 1636 Venables Ave., Vancouver. More information at www.pandorascollective.com.
RICHELLE MEAD
Signing by the author of the Bloodlines series. Saturday, June 23 at 2:00pm. Chapters Metrotown, 4700 Kingsway, Burnaby. More information at 604-431-0463.
Upcoming
DAPHNE MARLATT
Presentation of the 19th Annual George Woodcock Lifetime Achievement Award to Daphne Marlatt for an outstanding literary career in British Columbia. Thursday, June 28 at 7:00pm, free. Alice MacKay room, lower level, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia St. More information at 604-331-3603.
TWISTED POETS LITERARY SALON
Readings by bill bissett and Susan Cormier. Thursday, July 5 at 7:00pm. Suggested donation at the door: $5. The Prophouse Cafe, 1636 Venables Ave., Vancouver. More information at talonbooks.com.
DEAD POETS READING SERIES
Readings by Kate Braid, George McWhirter, Daniela Elza, Ken Klonksy, and Hal Wake. Sunday, July 8 at 3:00pm. Entry by donation. Project Space, 222 East Georgia Street, Vancouver. Details and registration here, www.deadpoetslive.com.
DENMAN ISLAND READERS & WRITERS FESTIVAL
Annual summer event featuring Tseporah Berman, Steven Galloway, Loran Goodison, Timothy Taylor and many others. July 19-22, 2012. For complete details, visit www.denmanislandwritersfestival.com.
VISIBLE VERSE FESTIVAL 2012
VVF seeks videopoems that wed words and images, the voice seen as well as heard. Deadline for submissions is August 1, 2012. For more information, contact Artistic Director Heather Haley at hshaley@emspace.com.
Special Offers
If being a member of the VIWF didn't already have enough benefits, we've added an extra incentive! Every two weeks new and renewing members will have a chance to win a book by a Festival or Incite author. At the end of August we'll have a grand prize draw for a deluxe pack of Festival tickets - two tickets to any event of your
choice for each day of the Festival! Sign up now here, https://www.writersfest.bc.ca/secure/secure_membership.php.
cStories eBook Singles - currently running the "Get Into Our Shorts" contest at http://win.cstories.ca - will also offer Russell Wangersky's ebook "Bolt" to VWF members as part of the VWF membership drive; watch for the special offer in the INK Member eNewsletter. Not a member yet? Join us here,
https://www.writersfest.bc.ca/secure/secure_membership.php.
VIRTUAL FESTIVAL
Listen to the eighth installment in our series of audio archives from past Festival events. This week you'll hear "An Intimate Afternoon" from the 2011 Festival, featuring Russell Banks. Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/multimedia/audio-archives.
AWARDS & LISTS
Canadian literary icon Margaret Atwood was honoured at the CBA's Libris Awards, where she was presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award. Atwood's acceptance speech is here:
http://www.cbabook.org/files/LibrisAwards/Margaret%20Atwood's%20Acceptance%20Speech.pdf
The Libris Awards recognize the best in the Canadian book industry. The winners of this year's Libris Awards can be found here:
http://www.cbabook.org/files/LibrisAwards/LibrisWINNERSannouncement12FINAL.pdf
Natasha Trethewey has been appointed the US Poet Laureate, the first to hail from the south since Robert Penn Warren in 1986.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Natasha+Trethewey+explored+forgotten+Civil+history+named/6745858/story.html
Canadian Ken Babstock and Briton David Harsent won the 2012 Griffin Poetry Prize Thursday, each taking home $65,000.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/babstock-harsent-win-2012-griffin-poetry-prize/article4241056/
Poet Seamus Heaney has won the Griffin 2012 lifetime achievement award. Griffin trustee Robin Robertson referred to Mr. Heaney as "our greatest living poet".
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/poet-seamus-heaney-wins-griffin-prize-for-lifetime-achievement/article4237660/
American author Nathan Englander, along with Kevin Barry, Etgar Keret, Sarah Hall, Lucia Perillo, and Fiona Kidman are shortlisted for the lucrative short-story prize, the 2012 Frank O'Connor award.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jun/07/nathan-englander-favourite-frank-oconnor-award
Philip Roth paid tribute to his "dear friend" Carlos Fuentes on winning Spain's prestigious literary prize the Prince of Asturias award.
http: //www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jun/07/philip-roth-asturias-carlos-fuentes
Toronto author Ian Williams is the 2011 winner of the Danuta Gleed Literary Award, for Not Anyone's Anything.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/ian-williams-named-winner-of-danuta-gleed-literary-award/article4239253/
Beryl Young's Follow the Elephant, Michelle Superle's Black Dog Dream, and Linda Bailey's Stanley's Little Sister have won Chocolate Lilly 2012 awards. The awards gala took place at Devon Gardens Elementary School in Delta, B.C.
http://chocolatelilyawards.com/?p=296
The Walrus was the toast of Canada's National Magazine Awards last week, winning six gold awards and six silver. A complete list of winners and nominees is available here:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/walrus-wins-big-at-national-magazine-awards/article4241029/.com
Sri Lankan author Shehan Karunatilaka has won the Commonwealth book prize for his debut novel Chinaman: the Legend of Pradeep Mathew.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jun/08/shehan-karunatilaka-commonwealth-book-prize
YOUNG READERS
Isabella's Garden By Glenda Millard, illustrated by Rebecca Cool. Beginning with "the soil/ all dark and deep/ in Isabella's garden," the book stays through the expected planting, the end of the growing season, through winter and on to the next growing season. The rhythm of the words matches well the roundness of the naturally
growing world. Ages 5 to 9.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/books/ct-books-isabellas-garden-by-glenda-millard,0,438383.story
Two books for Fathers Day or for fathers to read to their children: Australian author/illustrator Nick Bland's Some Dads; and Klaas Verplancke's Applesauce: images of polar bears, cautious elephants, sporty dads, naughty dads, "and some dads who just brighten your day". Ages 3 to 7.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/books/Kids+Books+share+with/6751217/story.html
Violet had no idea how important her interest in all things Japanese would become when she went to live with her artist dad for a summer. In Diana Renn's mystery novel Tokyo Heist, Violet learns about the art world and tracks stolen art. Ages 12 and up.
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-ca-diana-renn-20120603,0,2002959.story
Step Gently Out, In the Sea, Outside Your Window: A First Book of Nature by Helen Frost and Rick Lieder. Ages 2 to 6.
http://www.thestar.com/news/books/article/1207616--step-gently-out-in-the-sea-outside-your-window-a-first-book-of-nature-who-needs-an-iceberg-an-arctic-ecosystem-50-climate-questions-a-blizzard-of-blistering-facts-mini-reviews
NEWS & FEATURES
Margaret Atwood and 25 other writers agreed to write a short story in Bradburyesque mode to contribute to a tribute volume on Ray Bradbury. It's no accident that he was descended from Mary Bradbury, convicted as a witch during the Salem witchcraft trials, writes Atwood.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jun/08/margaret-atwood-on-ray-bradbury
Booker prize-winning writer Barry Unsworth, author of Sacred Hunger (18th Century slave trade) and other historical novels, has died, age 81.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jun/08/barry-unsworth
New secrecy laws proposed for South Africa have provoked a rare public intervention from JM Coetzee, the Nobel laureate and double Booker prize winner, and fellow Nobel laureate Nadine Gordimer. "We are going back to apartheid censorship under a new guise," says Gordimer.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jun/06/south-african-campaigners-secrecy-bill
The South African press law is 'more harmful than apartheid-era censorship', says Wendy Woods, widow of anti-apartheid journalist and editor Donald Woods.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jun/06/south-african-press-law-harmful
Nicholas Lezard writes that Victor Serge's Memoirs of a Revolutionary should be required reading for anyone who cares about justice and freedom of speech.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jun/05/memoirs-revolutionary-victor-serge-review
Alberto Manguel reflects on art as a witness to the human desire to be infinite and eternal.
http://www.geist.com/articles/observer-and-observed/index.html
Four up-and-coming mystery writers—Hilary Davidson, Deryn Collier, Robin Spano and Ian Hamilton—are on a crime tour of Vancouver and the Lower Mainland in June, writes Tracy Sherlock. All four are fresh faces on the crime fiction scene.
http://blogs.vancouversun.com/2012/05/30/crime-authors-on-a-mystery-tour-of-vancouver/
Fictional sleuths have a habit of bouncing back from retirement. Author Ian Rankin said there was "unfinished business" with his celebrated character, Inspector Rebus. Rebus will return in the novel Standing in Another Man's Grave, to be released in November.
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/ian-rankin-brings-back-rebus-for-unfinished-business-7817887.html
Riel Nason's The Town that Drowned won the Commonwealth Book Prize for Canada and Europe, was inspired by Hawkshaw, NB, population of about 35 (including Nason). The book is now in contention for the main award.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/books/Canadian+Commonwealth+Book+Prize+contender+inspired+drowned+town/6739714/story.html
In a major overhaul of the national curriculum for schools in England, children as young as five will be expected to learn and recite poetry by heart.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2012/jun/10/primary-school-children-recite-poetry
Two hundred love letters between Rainer Maria Rilke and Andreas-Salomé have been gathered into a book called Rilke and Andreas-Salomé: A Love Story in Letters. Each of the letters reveals a different facet of Rilke, writes Maria Popova.
http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2012/06/06/rilke-salome-love-letters/
When W. H. Auden met Edward Mendelson, professor of English at Columbia University and discovered Mendelson's work, he decided that Mendelson, and not he, should select the essays for his next collection. Later, Auden asked Mendelson to become his literary executor.
http://www.scotsman.com/lifestyle/books/features/interview-edward-mendelson-literary-executor-and-wh-auden-fan-1-2333608
BOOKS & WRITERS
Skagboys is the prequel to Irvine Welsh's debut novel, Trainspotting and so, we revisit the lives of those characters—or, as Don Gillmore describes them, trainspotters-in-training. Perhaps we'll see the gang again in 2014 when the referendum on Scottish independence takes place, writes Gillmore.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/book-reviews/irvine-welshs-skagboys-trainspotters-in-training/article4241642/
Winning Words: Inspiring Poems for Everyday Life chosen by William Sieghart is an anthology to rejoice in, full of poems trying to make one feel better about being alive. The only off-putting thing about this anthology is its title, writes Kate Kellaway.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jun/10/winning-words-william-sieghart-review
Stories in Elaine McCluskey's collection Valery the Great are linked by their small-town Maritime settings as well as by a shared episodic structure, writes Rob Sternberg. Each story is told through a series of short scenes separated by page breaks.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/book-reviews/valery-the-great-by-elaine-mccluskey/article4242489/
Amber Dermont's The Starboard Sea conforms to the German idea of the bildungsroman, the story of a youth's transition to adulthood, writes Robert J. Wiersema, adding that The Starboard Sea is a well-constructed, well-paced character study.
http://www.vancouversun.com/entertainment/books/Starboard+Coming+tale+sensitive+retelling+distant+past/6751858/story.html
Modern Russia is still unwilling to acknowledge the butchery of Stalin's rule, writes John Kampfner. Stephen F. Cohen's The Victims Return is not a history of the camps, but a history of the survivors and their legacy, with Russia locked in historical denial.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jun/10/stephen-cohen-survivors-gulag-stalin-review
In Our Way Out, Marq de Villiers shows that democracy has probably peaked and the globe's financial system has become a casino for the rich, writes Andrew Nikiforuk. We have exercised God-like energy powers badly; now we must learn how to use our "little powers" better.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/book-reviews/our-way-out-by-marq-de-villiers/article4248191/
Anakana Schofield has titled her debut novel Malarky, defined as "exaggerated or foolish talk, usually intended to deceive." The voice is always Our Woman's, a working class middle-aged woman and one of the most vivid fictional creations to come along in years, writes Ian McGillis.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/books/Malarky+heroine+revels+freedom/6751318/story.html
The Matter with Morris, initially published in 2010, is now shortlisted for the €100,000 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, to be announced this week. This is a moving and engaging novel of grief and loss, impeccably written and fully imagined, writes Michel Basilières.
http://www.thestar.com/news/books/article/1201844--the-matter-with-morris-by-david-bergen-review
COMMUNITY EVENTS
ROBSON READING SERIES
Readings by Phil Hall (Killdeer) and Aaron Bushkowsky (Curtains for Roy). Thursday, June 14 at 7:00pm, free. BC Bookstore/Library at Robson Square, 800 Robson Street. More information at www.robsonreadingseries.ubc.ca.
TWS READING SERIES
The Writer's Studio at SFU presents an evening with guest author Robyn Michele Levy, who has been shortlisted for the 2012 Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour for her book All of Me:Surviving My Medical Meltdown. Thursday, June 14 at 7:00pm. Admission by donation. Rhizome Cafe, 317 East Broadway.
V6A - POSTAL CODE READINGS
Launch of a five-part reading series to support the anthology V6A with readings by Cathleen With, Brenda Prince, Antonette Rea and Sen Yi. Friday, June 15 at 7:00pm, free. Carnegie Community Centre, 401 Main Street, Vancouver. More information at www.thursdayswritingcollective.ca.
WAYDE COMPTON
The Canadian poet reads from a sequence of elegies about Canada and the Air India bombing. Friday, June 15 at 8:00pm. People's Co-op Bookstore, 1391 Commercial Drive. More information at 604-253-6442.
CHRISTINA JOHNSON-DEAN
Launch of the fifth book in the series The Unheralded Artists of BC, The Life and Art of Ina D.D. Uhthoff. Saturday, June 16 at 8:00pm, free. Martin Batchelor Gallery, 712 Cormorant St., Victoria. More information at www.mothertonguepublishing.com.
THE OPENING ACT: CANADIAN THEATRE HISTORY 1945-1953
Book launch of Susan McNicoll new theatre history book. Sunday, June 17 at 2 pm, free. Trout Lake Community Centre, Lakewood Room, 3360 Victoria Drive. More information at www.ronsdalepress.com.
VAN SLAM
Slam featuring Dave Morris. Monday June 18 at 8:00pm. Cost: $6-$10 at the door. Cafe Deux Soleils, 2096 Commercial Drive. More information at vancouverpoetryhouse.com.
LUNCH POEMS @ SFU
Readings by Sonnet L'Abbe and Renee Sarojini Saklilkar presented by Simon Fraser University. Wednesday, June 20 at 12:00pm, free. Teck Gallery, SFU Harbour Centre, 515 West Hastings.
BEHIND BARBED WIRE
Literary reading from Behind Barbed Wire: Creative Works on the Internment of Italian Canadians and Beyond Barbed Wire: Essays on the Internment of Italian Canadians with B.C. authors Lynne Bowen, Anna Foschi Ciampolini, Robert Pepper-Smith, and Osvaldo Zappa. Wednesday, June 20 at 7:00pm, free. McGill branch,
Burnaby Public Library, 4595 Albert Street, Burnaby.
TOM WAYMAN AND KATE BRAID
Award-winning authors present a dynamic evening of poetry. Wayman reads from Dirty Snow and Braid reads from several collections, including a new edition of To This Cedar Fountain. Thursday, June 21 at 7:00pm, free. Meeting room, level 3, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia Street. More information at 604-331-3603.
TRIPLE THREAT: CHICKS WHO SOLVE CRIME!
Three Canadian mystery authors - Deryn Collier, Hilary Davidson, and Robin Spano - team up for an evening of readings & discussion. Thursday, June 21 at 7:00pm. Free but register in advance at 604-299-8955. McGill branch, Burnaby Public Library, 4595 Albert Street, Burnaby.
CHRIS GUILLEBEAU AND DANIELLE LAPORTE
Appearances by the author of The Art of Non-Conformity (Guillebeau) and The $100 Startup (Laporte). Thursday, June 21 at 7:00pm. Chapters Robson, 788 Robson St. More information at 604-682-4066.
TWISTED POETS LITERARY SALON
Readings by Jen Currin and Lisa McInnes. Thursday, June 21 at 7:00pm. Suggested donation at the door: $5. The Prophouse Cafe, 1636 Venables Ave., Vancouver. More information at www.pandorascollective.com.
RICHELLE MEAD
Signing by the author of the Bloodlines series. Saturday, June 23 at 2:00pm. Chapters Metrotown, 4700 Kingsway, Burnaby. More information at 604-431-0463.
Upcoming
DAPHNE MARLATT
Presentation of the 19th Annual George Woodcock Lifetime Achievement Award to Daphne Marlatt for an outstanding literary career in British Columbia. Thursday, June 28 at 7:00pm, free. Alice MacKay room, lower level, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia St. More information at 604-331-3603.
TWISTED POETS LITERARY SALON
Readings by bill bissett and Susan Cormier. Thursday, July 5 at 7:00pm. Suggested donation at the door: $5. The Prophouse Cafe, 1636 Venables Ave., Vancouver. More information at talonbooks.com.
DEAD POETS READING SERIES
Readings by Kate Braid, George McWhirter, Daniela Elza, Ken Klonksy, and Hal Wake. Sunday, July 8 at 3:00pm. Entry by donation. Project Space, 222 East Georgia Street, Vancouver. Details and registration here, www.deadpoetslive.com.
DENMAN ISLAND READERS & WRITERS FESTIVAL
Annual summer event featuring Tseporah Berman, Steven Galloway, Loran Goodison, Timothy Taylor and many others. July 19-22, 2012. For complete details, visit www.denmanislandwritersfestival.com.
VISIBLE VERSE FESTIVAL 2012
VVF seeks videopoems that wed words and images, the voice seen as well as heard. Deadline for submissions is August 1, 2012. For more information, contact Artistic Director Heather Haley at hshaley@emspace.com.
Thursday, June 7, 2012
Book News Vol. 7 No. 20
BOOK NEWS
Special Offers
If being a member of the VIWF didn't already have enough benefits, we've added an extra incentive! Every two weeks new and renewing members will have a chance to win a book by a Festival or Incite author. At the end of August we'll have a grand prize draw for a deluxe pack of Festival tickets - two tickets to any event of your choice for each day of the Festival! Sign up now here, https://www.writersfest.bc.ca/secure/secure_membership.php.
Newfoundland writer Russell Wangersky will be appearing at this year's Festival - but you don't have to wait until October to experience his acclaimed new collection. cStories eBook Singles is a new program that offers short Canadian fiction in ePub format for download on a wide array of digital devices, desktop or mobile, to be read anytime, anywhere. Russell's ebook single Bolt is now available to Book News subscribers free on cstories.ca - get it now! Details: http://win.cstories.ca.
VIRTUAL FESTIVAL
Listen to the seventh installment in our series of audio archives from past Festival events. This week you'll hear "An Intimate Evening" from the 2011 Festival, featuring Aminatta Forna. How does hope exist for a generation shaped and scarred by war? Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/multimedia/audio-archives.
AWARDS & LISTS
Victoria author Kit Pearson has won a 2012 Ruth and Sylvia Schwartz Children's Book Award for The Whole Truth. The annual literary honour celebrates writing and illustration excellence in English-language Canadian children's literature.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/story/2012/05/31/schwartz-awards-pearson-griek.html
Author Annabel Lyon, and Michal Kozlowski, Assistant Publisher of Geist, have been short listed for the 2012-2013 Chocolate Lily Book Awards: Lyon, for Encore Edie; Kozlowski, for Louis the Tiger who Came from the Sea. The full list of nominees is here:
http://chocolatelilyawards.com/?p=298
The Walrus Foundation and the Hal Jackman Foundation have launched the Walrus Poetry Prize, which offers a $5,000 cheque and a chance to be published in the Walrus magazine. The contest is accepting submissions until July 31.
http://www.thestar.com/news/books/article/1204364--5-000-poetry-prize-offers-a-chance-to-be-published-in-the-walrus-magazine
Sir Terry Pratchett has a new honour: a pig named after one of his books. He was given the unusual award after his novel Snuff won the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction. The prize includes a case of champagne.
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/sir-terry-pratchett-wins-wodehouse-book-prize-7803946.html
Peter Robinson and his novel Before the Poison have won the Arthur Ellis Award for the best crime novel of the year, the sixth Arthur Ellis triumph for Robinson. Go here for the full list of winners.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/story/2012/06/04/arthur-ellis-awards.html
The winner of the Griffin Poetry Prize will be announced Thursday. The short listed contenders for the Prize can be found here:
http://www.thestar.com/news/books/article/1203657--griffin-poetry-prize-contender-redefined-polish-poetry
YOUNG READERS
As Kit Pearson's The Whole Truth begins, Polly and Maud are newly orphaned and are travelling by train from Winnipeg to B.C., where they will live with relatives they've never met. A sequel, entitled And Nothing But The Truth, will be published later this year. For ages 10 to 13.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/story/2012/05/31/schwartz-awards-pearson-griek.html
The Hueys are a horde of egg-shaped characters that "looked and thought the same, and did the same things." Until one of them, named Rupert, knitted himself an orange jumper (read: sweater). The other Hueys were horrified but Gillespie "thought being different was interesting". Ages 5 to 7.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Kids+Embracing+individuality/6707662/story.html#ixzz1wbfPv69v
Listen to Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker reading from Oliver Jeffers's new picture book, The Hueys in the New Jumper here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/childrens-books-site/video/2012/may/31/jarvis-cocker-hueys-video
Lee Wardlaw's Won Ton: A Cat Tale Told in Haiku is about a homeless feline that wiggles his way out of the shelter and slips into your heart. "Letmeoutletme / outletmeoutletmeout. / Wait — let me back in!" Ages 5 to 7.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/best-childrens-books-of-2011/2011/11/15/gIQAwyLfiO_story.html
UnBEElievables: Honeybee Poems and Paintings by Douglas Florian. With facts tucked in at the bottom of the page. His bees sound like confident rappers. For ages 5 to 8.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/books/sc-ent-0418-books-kids-20120425,0,4336840.story
NEWS & FEATURES
Ray Bradbury, master of science fiction, has died, at 91.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/07/books/ray-bradbury-popularizer-of-science-fiction-dies-at-91.html?_r
Read Ray Bradbury's last article in the June 4 edition of the New Yorker here:
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2012/06/04/120604fa_fact_bradbury
Both Enid Blyton and JK Rowling have proved that if children find a book, series or author they love, they'll read – regardless of what their parents think about it, writes Julia Eccleshare.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/childrens-books-site/2012/jun/05/book-doctor-enid-blyton
Lemony Snicket's new series, All the Wrong Questions, is the first authorised account of his childhood. Who Could That Be at This Hour? – the first wrong question – will be published on 23 October. For one week, you can read the first chapter here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/childrens-books-site/interactive/2012/jun/04/lemony-snicket-new-book-first-chapter
Are literary classics obsolete? Laura Miller reports that a new study says today's writers are influenced by authors of the present, not the past. More than anything else, these writers hate the prose of the past.
http://www.salon.com/2012/05/31/are_literary_classics_obsolete/
Kira Cochrane interviews Madeline Miller, the most recent (and last-ever) recipient of the Orange Prize for her novel, The Song of Achilles.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jun/02/madeline-miller-orange-prize-achilles
An original Tintin comic book cover that the legendary Belgian artist Hergé created in 1932 has fetched more than €1.3 million at a Paris auction. An anonymous collector paid €1,338,509.20 (about $1.7 million Cdn) for the rare cover illustration of Tintin in America.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/story/2012/06/04/tintin-cover-art-auction.html
The world's first known one book bookshop was established. A bookshop selling only one title: Pig Iron. The upshot of the impromptu bookshop is that Pig Iron is currently out-selling Hilary Mantel in the area by 3-1. A phyrric victory, of course, writes Ben Myers.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/the-northerner/2012/jun/04/ben-myers-pig-iron-hebden-bridge
BOOKS & WRITERS
Sir Andrew Motion's 10-year tenure as Britain's Poet Laureate almost killed the poet in him, he says. Now promoting Silver, a sequel to Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island, Motion has begun writing a sequel to his own sequel.
http://www.thestar.com/news/books/article/1202346--poet-finds-novel-treasure-in-classic-pirate-yarn
In his Complete Poems, Philip Larkin writes: "What will survive of us is love." Ron Rosenbaum comments: "The line is so uncharacteristic of Larkin, you can barely believe it. Elsewhere, there are quotes from Larkin suggesting he could barely believe it either."
http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/the_spectator/2012/05/_what_will_survive_of_us_is_love_poet_philip_larkin_s_controversial_line_from_on_arundel_tomb_.html
Chris Cleave's Olympics-themed novel Gold is timely, sentimental...and thrillingly good, writes Alex Preston. As much a domestic drama as a trackside thriller, the novel takes us deep into the lives of three Olympic sprint cyclists in the lead-up to the London games.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jun/03/gold-chris-cleave-review-olympics
Reality, Reality, Jackie Kay's most recent short story collection is both hilarious and heartbreaking, writes Anita Sethi, although loss is the connecting theme in the collection. Often recounted by unreliable narrators, the stories probe one of Kay's obsessions: the tricksy nature of our perceptions.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jun/03/reality-reality-jackie-kay-review
Paul Krugman's End This Depression Now has a plan for escaping the financial crisis, and it doesn't involve austerity measures or deregulating the banks, writes Decca Aitkenhead. It's the sort of book you wish were compulsory reading, says Aitkenhead.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/jun/03/paul-krugman-cassandra-economist-crisis
Orhan Pamuk's plan was to write a novel in the form of a museum catalogue, writes Elif Batuman, while simultaneously building the museum to which it referred. Pamuk's first step was to contact a real-estate agent.
http://www.lrb.co.uk/v34/n11/elif-batuman/diary?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=3411&hq_e=el&hq_m=1750968&hq_l=11&hq_v=e88626cf24
Martin Amis, now living in New York, has written Lionel Asbo: State of England, whose key character is a criminal who has won the lottery. The press conjectures that Amis's move to New York is due to disaffection for England are entirely wrong.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jun/03/martin-amis-brooklyn-lionel-asbo-interview
Thanks to Peggy Dymond Leavey‘s Laura Secord: Heroine of the War of 1812, we who believed that Laura Secord was Canadian, now know that she was born in Massachusetts. Still, Secord walked 30 km. to warn the Brits the Americans were coming.
http://www.thestar.com/news/books/article/1203013--laura-secord-heroine-of-the-war-of-1812-column
Herta Müller's The Hunger Angel reduces life to its essentials, endowing objects with human characteristics and reducing people to objects. The novel is based on the memories of her fellow German-Romanian poet Oskar Pastior, who was carted off to a labour camp at 17.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/the-hunger-angel-by-herta-mller/article4226026/
In What We Talk About When We Talk About War, Noah Richler writes that Canada's former self-identity as a peacekeeping nation has switched to one as a warrior nation. "Using the word terrorist excuses us from having to think about what it means to be someone else," says Richler.
http://www.vancouversun.com/entertainment/books/Noah+Richler+explores+role+combat+affects+folklore+book/6715936/story.html
A farm girl has a compelling tale to tell in Nell Leyshon's evocative novella The Colour of Milk, says Lettie Ransley. The charm of Leyshon's novella is to be found as much in its spare, evocative style as in the candour of its narrator.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jun/03/colour-milk-nell-leyshon-review
Paul Theroux's new novel The Lower River tells a story of an American who goes back to Africa where he was once happy. The Lower River is all about being misunderstood: madly, wildly and very nearly fatally, writes Christopher Hope.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/may/31/lower-river-paul-theroux-review
HHhH, the brilliant, haunting debut novel by French writer Laurent Binet, focuses on Operation Anthropoid, the 1942 military plan to assassinate Reinhard Heydrich. HHhH is as much the story of Binet's lifelong obsession with the mission as it is the story of the mission itself, writes Anthony Domestico.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/05/27/RVFO1OADP9.DTL
COMMUNITY EVENTS
GRIFFIN VANCOUVER
Livestream video of the prize ceremonies in Toronto. Thursday, June 7 at 6:00pm. Performance Space, W2 Media Cafe, 111 West Hastings Street. More information at griffinvancouver.com.
KUCKI LOW
Author will talk about her memoir recalling her life as South Africa's first female airline pilot, This is Kucki Your Pilot Speaking. Thursday, June 7 at 7:00pm. Free but please register in advance by phoning 604-299-8955. McGill branch, Burnaby Public Library, 4595 Albert Street, Burnaby.
TWISTED POETS LITERARY SALON
Reading by Lisa Shatzky and Robin Susanto. Thursday, June 7 at 7:00pm. Suggested donation at the door: $5. The Prophouse Cafe, 1636 Venables Ave., Vancouver. More information at www.pandorascollective.com.
TALE OF THE GREAT WHITE FISH
Reading by Maggie de Vries. Saturday, June 9 at 1:00pm. Free but registration required. Bob Prittie Metrotown, 6100 Willingdon Ave., Burnaby. More information at 604-436-5420.
MICHAEL SCOTT
The award-winning Irish author of the popular Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel series will be coming to Kidsbooks to present the sixth and final book: The Enchantress. Wednesday, June 13 at 7:00pm. Tickets: $23 and include a copy of the book. Kidsbooks, 3083 West Broadway. More information at www.kidsbooks.ca.
ROBSON READING SERIES
Readings by Phil Hall (Killdeer) and Aaron Bushkowsky (Curtains for Roy). Thursday, June 14 at 7:00pm, free. BC Bookstore/Library at Robson Square, 800 Robson Street. More information at www.robsonreadingseries.ubc.ca.
TWS READING SERIES
The Writer's Studio at SFU presents an evening with guest author Robyn Michele Levy, who has been shortlisted for the 2012 Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour for her book All of Me:Surviving My Medical Meltdown. Thursday, June 14 at 7:00pm. Admission by donation. Rhizome Cafe, 317 East Broadway.
CHRISTINA JOHNSON-DEAN
Launch of the fifth book in the series The Unheralded Artists of BC, The Life and Art of Ina D.D. Uhthoff. Saturday, June 16 at 8:00pm, free. Martin Batchelor Gallery, 712 Cormorant St., Victoria. More information at www.mothertonguepublishing.com.
THE OPENING ACT: CANADIAN THEATRE HISTORY 1945-1953
Book launch of Susan McNicoll new theatre history book. Sunday, June 17 at 2 pm, free. Trout Lake Community Centre, Lakewood Room, 3360 Victoria Drive. More information at www.ronsdalepress.com.
Upcoming
LUNCH POEMS @ SFU
Readings by Sonnet L'Abbe and Renee Sarojini Saklilkar presented by Simon Fraser University. Wednesday, June 20 at 12:00pm, free. Teck Gallery, SFU Harbour Centre, 515 West Hastings.
BEHIND BARBED WIRE
Literary reading from Behind Barbed Wire: Creative Works on the Internment of Italian Canadians and Beyond Barbed Wire: Essays on the Internment of Italian Canadians with B.C. authors Lynne Bowen, Anna Foschi Ciampolini, Robert Pepper-Smith, and Osvaldo Zappa. Wednesday, June 20 at 7:00pm, free. McGill branch, Burnaby Public Library, 4595 Albert Street, Burnaby.
TOM WAYMAN AND KATE BRAID
Award-winning authors present a dynamic evening of poetry. Wayman reads from Dirty Snow and Braid reads from several collections, including a new edition of To This Cedar Fountain. Thursday, June 21 at 7:00pm, free. Meeting room, level 3, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia Street. More information at 604-331-3603.
TRIPLE THREAT: CHICKS WHO SOLVE CRIME!
Three Canadian mystery authors - Deryn Collier, Hilary Davidson, and Robin Spano - team up for an evening of readings & discussion. Thursday, June 21 at 7:00pm. Free but register in advance at 604-299-8955. McGill branch, Burnaby Public Library, 4595 Albert Street, Burnaby.
TWISTED POETS LITERARY SALON
Readings by Jen Currin and Lisa McInnes. Thursday, June 21 at 7:00pm. Suggested donation at the door: $5. The Prophouse Cafe, 1636 Venables Ave., Vancouver. More information at www.pandorascollective.com.
RICHELLE MEAD
Signing by the author of the Bloodlines series. Saturday, June 23 at 2:00pm. Chapters Metrotown, 4700 Kingsway, Burnaby. More information at 604-431-0463.
DAPHNE MARLATT
Presentation of the 19th Annual George Woodcock Lifetime Achievement Award to Daphne Marlatt for an outstanding literary career in British Columbia. Thursday, June 28 at 7:00pm, free. Alice MacKay room, lower level, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia St. More information at 604-331-3603.
VISIBLE VERSE FESTIVAL 2012
VVF seeks videopoems that wed words and images, the voice seen as well as heard. Deadline for submissions is August 1, 2012. For more information, contact Artistic Director Heather Haley at hshaley@emspace.com.
Special Offers
If being a member of the VIWF didn't already have enough benefits, we've added an extra incentive! Every two weeks new and renewing members will have a chance to win a book by a Festival or Incite author. At the end of August we'll have a grand prize draw for a deluxe pack of Festival tickets - two tickets to any event of your choice for each day of the Festival! Sign up now here, https://www.writersfest.bc.ca/secure/secure_membership.php.
Newfoundland writer Russell Wangersky will be appearing at this year's Festival - but you don't have to wait until October to experience his acclaimed new collection. cStories eBook Singles is a new program that offers short Canadian fiction in ePub format for download on a wide array of digital devices, desktop or mobile, to be read anytime, anywhere. Russell's ebook single Bolt is now available to Book News subscribers free on cstories.ca - get it now! Details: http://win.cstories.ca.
VIRTUAL FESTIVAL
Listen to the seventh installment in our series of audio archives from past Festival events. This week you'll hear "An Intimate Evening" from the 2011 Festival, featuring Aminatta Forna. How does hope exist for a generation shaped and scarred by war? Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/multimedia/audio-archives.
AWARDS & LISTS
Victoria author Kit Pearson has won a 2012 Ruth and Sylvia Schwartz Children's Book Award for The Whole Truth. The annual literary honour celebrates writing and illustration excellence in English-language Canadian children's literature.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/story/2012/05/31/schwartz-awards-pearson-griek.html
Author Annabel Lyon, and Michal Kozlowski, Assistant Publisher of Geist, have been short listed for the 2012-2013 Chocolate Lily Book Awards: Lyon, for Encore Edie; Kozlowski, for Louis the Tiger who Came from the Sea. The full list of nominees is here:
http://chocolatelilyawards.com/?p=298
The Walrus Foundation and the Hal Jackman Foundation have launched the Walrus Poetry Prize, which offers a $5,000 cheque and a chance to be published in the Walrus magazine. The contest is accepting submissions until July 31.
http://www.thestar.com/news/books/article/1204364--5-000-poetry-prize-offers-a-chance-to-be-published-in-the-walrus-magazine
Sir Terry Pratchett has a new honour: a pig named after one of his books. He was given the unusual award after his novel Snuff won the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction. The prize includes a case of champagne.
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/sir-terry-pratchett-wins-wodehouse-book-prize-7803946.html
Peter Robinson and his novel Before the Poison have won the Arthur Ellis Award for the best crime novel of the year, the sixth Arthur Ellis triumph for Robinson. Go here for the full list of winners.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/story/2012/06/04/arthur-ellis-awards.html
The winner of the Griffin Poetry Prize will be announced Thursday. The short listed contenders for the Prize can be found here:
http://www.thestar.com/news/books/article/1203657--griffin-poetry-prize-contender-redefined-polish-poetry
YOUNG READERS
As Kit Pearson's The Whole Truth begins, Polly and Maud are newly orphaned and are travelling by train from Winnipeg to B.C., where they will live with relatives they've never met. A sequel, entitled And Nothing But The Truth, will be published later this year. For ages 10 to 13.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/story/2012/05/31/schwartz-awards-pearson-griek.html
The Hueys are a horde of egg-shaped characters that "looked and thought the same, and did the same things." Until one of them, named Rupert, knitted himself an orange jumper (read: sweater). The other Hueys were horrified but Gillespie "thought being different was interesting". Ages 5 to 7.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Kids+Embracing+individuality/6707662/story.html#ixzz1wbfPv69v
Listen to Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker reading from Oliver Jeffers's new picture book, The Hueys in the New Jumper here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/childrens-books-site/video/2012/may/31/jarvis-cocker-hueys-video
Lee Wardlaw's Won Ton: A Cat Tale Told in Haiku is about a homeless feline that wiggles his way out of the shelter and slips into your heart. "Letmeoutletme / outletmeoutletmeout. / Wait — let me back in!" Ages 5 to 7.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/best-childrens-books-of-2011/2011/11/15/gIQAwyLfiO_story.html
UnBEElievables: Honeybee Poems and Paintings by Douglas Florian. With facts tucked in at the bottom of the page. His bees sound like confident rappers. For ages 5 to 8.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/books/sc-ent-0418-books-kids-20120425,0,4336840.story
NEWS & FEATURES
Ray Bradbury, master of science fiction, has died, at 91.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/07/books/ray-bradbury-popularizer-of-science-fiction-dies-at-91.html?_r
Read Ray Bradbury's last article in the June 4 edition of the New Yorker here:
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2012/06/04/120604fa_fact_bradbury
Both Enid Blyton and JK Rowling have proved that if children find a book, series or author they love, they'll read – regardless of what their parents think about it, writes Julia Eccleshare.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/childrens-books-site/2012/jun/05/book-doctor-enid-blyton
Lemony Snicket's new series, All the Wrong Questions, is the first authorised account of his childhood. Who Could That Be at This Hour? – the first wrong question – will be published on 23 October. For one week, you can read the first chapter here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/childrens-books-site/interactive/2012/jun/04/lemony-snicket-new-book-first-chapter
Are literary classics obsolete? Laura Miller reports that a new study says today's writers are influenced by authors of the present, not the past. More than anything else, these writers hate the prose of the past.
http://www.salon.com/2012/05/31/are_literary_classics_obsolete/
Kira Cochrane interviews Madeline Miller, the most recent (and last-ever) recipient of the Orange Prize for her novel, The Song of Achilles.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jun/02/madeline-miller-orange-prize-achilles
An original Tintin comic book cover that the legendary Belgian artist Hergé created in 1932 has fetched more than €1.3 million at a Paris auction. An anonymous collector paid €1,338,509.20 (about $1.7 million Cdn) for the rare cover illustration of Tintin in America.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/story/2012/06/04/tintin-cover-art-auction.html
The world's first known one book bookshop was established. A bookshop selling only one title: Pig Iron. The upshot of the impromptu bookshop is that Pig Iron is currently out-selling Hilary Mantel in the area by 3-1. A phyrric victory, of course, writes Ben Myers.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/the-northerner/2012/jun/04/ben-myers-pig-iron-hebden-bridge
BOOKS & WRITERS
Sir Andrew Motion's 10-year tenure as Britain's Poet Laureate almost killed the poet in him, he says. Now promoting Silver, a sequel to Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island, Motion has begun writing a sequel to his own sequel.
http://www.thestar.com/news/books/article/1202346--poet-finds-novel-treasure-in-classic-pirate-yarn
In his Complete Poems, Philip Larkin writes: "What will survive of us is love." Ron Rosenbaum comments: "The line is so uncharacteristic of Larkin, you can barely believe it. Elsewhere, there are quotes from Larkin suggesting he could barely believe it either."
http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/the_spectator/2012/05/_what_will_survive_of_us_is_love_poet_philip_larkin_s_controversial_line_from_on_arundel_tomb_.html
Chris Cleave's Olympics-themed novel Gold is timely, sentimental...and thrillingly good, writes Alex Preston. As much a domestic drama as a trackside thriller, the novel takes us deep into the lives of three Olympic sprint cyclists in the lead-up to the London games.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jun/03/gold-chris-cleave-review-olympics
Reality, Reality, Jackie Kay's most recent short story collection is both hilarious and heartbreaking, writes Anita Sethi, although loss is the connecting theme in the collection. Often recounted by unreliable narrators, the stories probe one of Kay's obsessions: the tricksy nature of our perceptions.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jun/03/reality-reality-jackie-kay-review
Paul Krugman's End This Depression Now has a plan for escaping the financial crisis, and it doesn't involve austerity measures or deregulating the banks, writes Decca Aitkenhead. It's the sort of book you wish were compulsory reading, says Aitkenhead.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/jun/03/paul-krugman-cassandra-economist-crisis
Orhan Pamuk's plan was to write a novel in the form of a museum catalogue, writes Elif Batuman, while simultaneously building the museum to which it referred. Pamuk's first step was to contact a real-estate agent.
http://www.lrb.co.uk/v34/n11/elif-batuman/diary?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=3411&hq_e=el&hq_m=1750968&hq_l=11&hq_v=e88626cf24
Martin Amis, now living in New York, has written Lionel Asbo: State of England, whose key character is a criminal who has won the lottery. The press conjectures that Amis's move to New York is due to disaffection for England are entirely wrong.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jun/03/martin-amis-brooklyn-lionel-asbo-interview
Thanks to Peggy Dymond Leavey‘s Laura Secord: Heroine of the War of 1812, we who believed that Laura Secord was Canadian, now know that she was born in Massachusetts. Still, Secord walked 30 km. to warn the Brits the Americans were coming.
http://www.thestar.com/news/books/article/1203013--laura-secord-heroine-of-the-war-of-1812-column
Herta Müller's The Hunger Angel reduces life to its essentials, endowing objects with human characteristics and reducing people to objects. The novel is based on the memories of her fellow German-Romanian poet Oskar Pastior, who was carted off to a labour camp at 17.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/the-hunger-angel-by-herta-mller/article4226026/
In What We Talk About When We Talk About War, Noah Richler writes that Canada's former self-identity as a peacekeeping nation has switched to one as a warrior nation. "Using the word terrorist excuses us from having to think about what it means to be someone else," says Richler.
http://www.vancouversun.com/entertainment/books/Noah+Richler+explores+role+combat+affects+folklore+book/6715936/story.html
A farm girl has a compelling tale to tell in Nell Leyshon's evocative novella The Colour of Milk, says Lettie Ransley. The charm of Leyshon's novella is to be found as much in its spare, evocative style as in the candour of its narrator.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jun/03/colour-milk-nell-leyshon-review
Paul Theroux's new novel The Lower River tells a story of an American who goes back to Africa where he was once happy. The Lower River is all about being misunderstood: madly, wildly and very nearly fatally, writes Christopher Hope.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/may/31/lower-river-paul-theroux-review
HHhH, the brilliant, haunting debut novel by French writer Laurent Binet, focuses on Operation Anthropoid, the 1942 military plan to assassinate Reinhard Heydrich. HHhH is as much the story of Binet's lifelong obsession with the mission as it is the story of the mission itself, writes Anthony Domestico.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/05/27/RVFO1OADP9.DTL
COMMUNITY EVENTS
GRIFFIN VANCOUVER
Livestream video of the prize ceremonies in Toronto. Thursday, June 7 at 6:00pm. Performance Space, W2 Media Cafe, 111 West Hastings Street. More information at griffinvancouver.com.
KUCKI LOW
Author will talk about her memoir recalling her life as South Africa's first female airline pilot, This is Kucki Your Pilot Speaking. Thursday, June 7 at 7:00pm. Free but please register in advance by phoning 604-299-8955. McGill branch, Burnaby Public Library, 4595 Albert Street, Burnaby.
TWISTED POETS LITERARY SALON
Reading by Lisa Shatzky and Robin Susanto. Thursday, June 7 at 7:00pm. Suggested donation at the door: $5. The Prophouse Cafe, 1636 Venables Ave., Vancouver. More information at www.pandorascollective.com.
TALE OF THE GREAT WHITE FISH
Reading by Maggie de Vries. Saturday, June 9 at 1:00pm. Free but registration required. Bob Prittie Metrotown, 6100 Willingdon Ave., Burnaby. More information at 604-436-5420.
MICHAEL SCOTT
The award-winning Irish author of the popular Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel series will be coming to Kidsbooks to present the sixth and final book: The Enchantress. Wednesday, June 13 at 7:00pm. Tickets: $23 and include a copy of the book. Kidsbooks, 3083 West Broadway. More information at www.kidsbooks.ca.
ROBSON READING SERIES
Readings by Phil Hall (Killdeer) and Aaron Bushkowsky (Curtains for Roy). Thursday, June 14 at 7:00pm, free. BC Bookstore/Library at Robson Square, 800 Robson Street. More information at www.robsonreadingseries.ubc.ca.
TWS READING SERIES
The Writer's Studio at SFU presents an evening with guest author Robyn Michele Levy, who has been shortlisted for the 2012 Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour for her book All of Me:Surviving My Medical Meltdown. Thursday, June 14 at 7:00pm. Admission by donation. Rhizome Cafe, 317 East Broadway.
CHRISTINA JOHNSON-DEAN
Launch of the fifth book in the series The Unheralded Artists of BC, The Life and Art of Ina D.D. Uhthoff. Saturday, June 16 at 8:00pm, free. Martin Batchelor Gallery, 712 Cormorant St., Victoria. More information at www.mothertonguepublishing.com.
THE OPENING ACT: CANADIAN THEATRE HISTORY 1945-1953
Book launch of Susan McNicoll new theatre history book. Sunday, June 17 at 2 pm, free. Trout Lake Community Centre, Lakewood Room, 3360 Victoria Drive. More information at www.ronsdalepress.com.
Upcoming
LUNCH POEMS @ SFU
Readings by Sonnet L'Abbe and Renee Sarojini Saklilkar presented by Simon Fraser University. Wednesday, June 20 at 12:00pm, free. Teck Gallery, SFU Harbour Centre, 515 West Hastings.
BEHIND BARBED WIRE
Literary reading from Behind Barbed Wire: Creative Works on the Internment of Italian Canadians and Beyond Barbed Wire: Essays on the Internment of Italian Canadians with B.C. authors Lynne Bowen, Anna Foschi Ciampolini, Robert Pepper-Smith, and Osvaldo Zappa. Wednesday, June 20 at 7:00pm, free. McGill branch, Burnaby Public Library, 4595 Albert Street, Burnaby.
TOM WAYMAN AND KATE BRAID
Award-winning authors present a dynamic evening of poetry. Wayman reads from Dirty Snow and Braid reads from several collections, including a new edition of To This Cedar Fountain. Thursday, June 21 at 7:00pm, free. Meeting room, level 3, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia Street. More information at 604-331-3603.
TRIPLE THREAT: CHICKS WHO SOLVE CRIME!
Three Canadian mystery authors - Deryn Collier, Hilary Davidson, and Robin Spano - team up for an evening of readings & discussion. Thursday, June 21 at 7:00pm. Free but register in advance at 604-299-8955. McGill branch, Burnaby Public Library, 4595 Albert Street, Burnaby.
TWISTED POETS LITERARY SALON
Readings by Jen Currin and Lisa McInnes. Thursday, June 21 at 7:00pm. Suggested donation at the door: $5. The Prophouse Cafe, 1636 Venables Ave., Vancouver. More information at www.pandorascollective.com.
RICHELLE MEAD
Signing by the author of the Bloodlines series. Saturday, June 23 at 2:00pm. Chapters Metrotown, 4700 Kingsway, Burnaby. More information at 604-431-0463.
DAPHNE MARLATT
Presentation of the 19th Annual George Woodcock Lifetime Achievement Award to Daphne Marlatt for an outstanding literary career in British Columbia. Thursday, June 28 at 7:00pm, free. Alice MacKay room, lower level, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia St. More information at 604-331-3603.
VISIBLE VERSE FESTIVAL 2012
VVF seeks videopoems that wed words and images, the voice seen as well as heard. Deadline for submissions is August 1, 2012. For more information, contact Artistic Director Heather Haley at hshaley@emspace.com.
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