BOOK NEWS
2012 Festival
The 2012 Vancouver Writers Fest program is now online! Visit our website for full details on Festival programming and special events. Tickets go on sale to members on Aug 29th and the general public on Sept 5th. Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca.
UPCOMING EVENTS
Michael Chabon
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. Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/michaelchabon
VIRTUAL FESTIVAL
Listen to the eighteenth installment in our series of audio archives from past Festival events. This week you'll hear "Bamboo Lettering" featuring Kevin Chong, Jen Sookfong Lee and Ling Zhang. Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/multimedia/audio-archives.
Special Offers
If being a member of the VWF 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.
AWARDS & LISTS
New York humorist Calvin Trillin, "Parks and Recreation" writer Nate DiMeo and novelist Patricia Marx are among the finalists for this year's Thurber Prize for American Humor. The winner will be announced October 1.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/story/2012/08/15/thurber-prize.html
Janice Galloway's 'anti-memoir' of her teen years has been named Scottish book of the year. All Made Up was the winner in the non-fiction category; she then secured the overall prize of £30,000 for the Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust Book of the Year.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/aug/18/janice-galloway-memoir-scottish-book-of-year
The winners for the 2012 Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest have been announced. The winner of this year's best worst writing is Cathy Bryant of Manchester, England, whose contribution includes an infestation of eyelash mites. The complete piece can be found here:
http://blogs.publishersweekly.com/blogs/PWxyz/2012/08/13/bad-writing-award-winners-announced/
Jen Hadfield has been named the winner of the Edwin Morgan International Poetry Prize 2012 for The Kids, which improvises on the nursery rhyme Monday's Child.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/aug/19/jen-hadfield-edwin-morgan-international-poetry-prize
Poet, writer and historian Meredith Quartermain is Vancouver Public Library's eighth Writer in Residence. Ms. Quartermain began her residency last week by inspiring and sharing her vast experience with young writers at the Library's annual Writing & Book Camp.
http://www.allianceforarts.com/blog/vancouver-public-library-names-eighth-writer-residence
More information is available at:
http://www.vpl.ca/writer_in_residence
YOUNG READERS
In this fourth and final instalment of Arthur Slades' The Hunchback Chronicles, an award-winning steampunk series set in the 1800s, Island of Doom brings the series to an end. Modo has discovered his French roots, goes in search of his parents, and by the time he's 14, he has learned how to cope. Ages 11 and up.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/books/Kids+Steampunk+series+comes/7105277/story.html
Do you have schoolwork you're expected to do over the summer? Are you excited about it? If your answer is "no," then you have something in common with 13-year-old Mary Lou, the main character in Sharon Creech's Absolutely Normal Chaos. Ages 9 and older.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/kidspost/kidspost-book-club-ends-with-absolutely-normal-chaos/2012/08/14/d83323ac-d1ba-11e1-8bea-6dc0b4879aab_story.html
Petit Nicolas is a classic French children's character created by the Asterix writer René Goscinny. Discover Nicolas's world and the mischief he gets up in this short story.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/childrens-books-site/interactive/2012/aug/17/petit-nicolas-story
Trouble, a first novel for teens by John Lucas, has been published to coincide with the anniversary of the London riots. Read an exclusive spin-off short story by John Lucas, featuring the TURF characters. Ages 13 and older.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/childrens-books-site/interactive/2012/aug/14/trouble-john-lucas-short-story?CMP=EMCNEWEML1355
NEWS & FEATURES
Judith Thurman writes about the books individuals running for office in the U.S. cite as formative, including works by Laura Ingalls Wilder, Ayn Rand and Thomas Aquinas.
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2012/08/rose-wilder-lane-ayn-rand-and-americas-libertarian-literature.html
Oranges are not the only fruit, especially when it comes to the Orange Prize for Fiction. Apple, the US technology giant, is understood to be looking at backing the prestigious award, which recognizes novels written by women.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/mediatechnologyandtelecoms/electronics/9469226/Apple-to-squeeze-out-Orange-as-new-backer-of-fiction-award.html
Speaking at the Edinburgh international writers' conference, Irvine Welsh, the author of Trainspotting, lashed out at the "highly imperialist-orientated Man Booker prize". The award, he said, was "based on the conceit that upper-class Englishness is the cultural yardstick against which all literature must be measured".
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/aug/19/irvine-welsh-edinburgh-books-festival
Bob Spitz released his book Dearie: The Remarkable Life of Julia Child last Wednesday, which would have been Child's 100th birthday. "Julia taught women how to be bold and inventive in the kitchen…to step out from behind the stove and be a star," said Spitz.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/story/2012/08/15/julia-child-biography.html
Unbeknownst to literary scholars, FBI files on Sylvia Plath's father shed new light on the poet. The FBI described Otto Plath, who inspired the 1962 poem Daddy, as a morbid man with possible pro-German sympathies during the war. The FBI files will be revealed at an international Plath symposium in October at Indiana University, Bloomington.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/aug/17/sylvia-plath-otto-father-files
In an interview in Foreign Policy magazine, Salman Rushdie reflects on life under fatwa, the Arab Spring, and his one-night stand with Twitter. A movie version of Midnight's Children and a new memoir about his time in hiding are due out shortly.
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2012/08/13/epiphanies_an_interview_with_salman_rushdie
A large study of Scottish people's DNA is threatening to "rewrite the nation's history", says Alistair Moffat. Moffat and his colleagues have found West African, Arabian, south-east Asian and Siberian ancestry, along with Scots, Celtic, Viking, Irish—and Berber. The findings are in The Scots: A Genetic Journey.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/aug/15/scotland-dna-study-project?CMP=EMCNEWEML1355
Science fiction is really just philosophy (or at least its direct descendant), writes Charlie Jane Anders. Science fiction doesn't just illuminate philosophy; the genre grew out of philosophy. The earliest works of science fiction were philosophical texts.
http://io9.com/5932802/the-philosophical-roots-of-science-fiction
Rather than anti-piracy measures, writers should welcome a future where readers remix our books, says China Miéville. "When asked if you've read the latest Ali Smith or Ghada Karmi, the response might be not yes or no, but which mix?" says Miéville.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/aug/21/china-mieville-novels-books-anti-piracy
Anxious? Depressed? Literate? Try Bibliotherapy. Literature transforms us. Alain de Botton and his colleagues' bibliotherapy program at School of Life matches individuals struggling in any aspect of their lives with a list of books hand-selected to help them through tough times.
http://bigthink.com/think-tank/anxious-depressed-literate-try-bibliotherapy
The Poet Laureate, Carol Ann Duffy, has released a tempting come-on in this year's 400th anniversary of remembrance for the eight Lancashire women and two men who were hanged in an outbreak of public hysteria over witchcraft. She joins fellow-poet Simon Armitage in a verse exploration of the tragedy in 1612. Duffy and the organisers offer a taster here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/the-northerner/2012/aug/15/carol-ann-duffy-poet-laureate-lancashire-witches-pendle
French novelist Laurent Binet, was given special access to the new Socialist president to produce a literary political portrait–a new publishing genre in France. Binet's book, Rien Ne Se Passé Comme Prevu (Nothing Happens as Predicted), will be released next week.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/aug/16/francois-hollande-book-laurent-binet
Organizers of the Scotiabank Giller Prize, Canada's largest fiction award, have postponed the announcement of this year's longlist to accommodate a rush of last-minute submissions.
http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/books/article/1242117--late-submissions-delay-giller-longlist-announcement
BOOKS & WRITERS
Leanne Shapton's Swimming Studies is a testament to obsession, writes Robert Epstein. Shapton, a former Canadian Olympic triallist swimmer, decided at 14 she would not be going to the Olympics. This lyrical life aquatic is a stroke of pure genius, gold-winning stuff, says Epstein.
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/swimming-studies-by-leanne-shapton-8034590.html
Our Friend Joe: The Joe Fortes Story by Lisa Anne Smith and Barbara Rogers honours the lives he saved and the generations of children Joe taught to swim. A portion of book sales proceeds will be donated to the Lifesaving Society's Swim to Survive program for Grade 3 schoolchildren.
http://www.vancouversun.com/entertainment/books/seaman+saved+dozens+from+drowning+taught+three/7106909/story.html
Are yoga practices good for you? Are yoga teachers truly qualified? William J. Broad explores these and other questions in The Science of Yoga. He knows that yoga has the capacity to heal, but he believes that the cobwebs of myth need to be cleared, writes Lisa Miriam Cherry.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/book-reviews/the-science-of-yoga-destroys-the-activitys-top-myths/article4486501/
Although he wasn't permitted to attend the ceremony to receive the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize, Liu Xiaobo continues to be an outspoken critic of the government, and annually acknowledges the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre with a poem. June Fourth Elegies makes public the first 20 poems in this sequence.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/aug/17/june-fourth-liu-xiaobo-review
Ameen Rihani's The Book of Khalid stands as the foundational text of Arab-American literature, despite having been out of print since 1911. With the world now consumed by issues of Arab-American relations and Arab political revolution, many have the sense that its moment is now, writes Todd Fine.
http://mhpbooks.com/books/the-book-of-khalid/
NW, Zadie Smith's eagerly awaited new novel– the first in seven years–is a dazzling portrait of modern London. The Guardian offers an exclusive extract here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/aug/17/nw-zadie-smith-extract
An Illustrated History of Quebec, by historians Peter Gossage and Jack Little, offers an even-handed treatment of Quebec history in a new illustrated volume. Gossage and Little focus on the struggle between tradition and modernity, writes Marian Scott.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/books/Quebec+history+gets+even+handed+treatment+illustrated+volume/7105285/story.html
Paul Theroux's The Lower River begins with the sentence, "Ellis Hock's wife gave him a new phone for this birthday." That simple, innocuous action triggers a harrowing chain of events, writes Philip Marchand. Villagers in Malawi; do-gooders; the moral of the story is hard to discern.
http://arts.nationalpost.com/2012/08/17/open-book-the-lower-river-by-paul-theroux/
The gorgeous ruin on the cover of Jess Walter's Beautiful Ruins is a misty Brigadoon of a place that doesn't appear on the map and maybe doesn't exist. Then a movie star arrives from her work on the film, Cleopatra. A complex, delectable story, writes Margaret Gunning.
http://www.vancouversun.com/news/personalities+drive+delectable+drama/7110732/story.html
Which came first, MI5 or the 70s? "It's hard to say," says Ian McEwan. How did this curious, beguiling book–a spy novel without even so much as a hint of a poison-tipped umbrella–begin? It's 'a muted and distorted autobiography' writes Rachel Cooke.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/aug/19/ian-mcewan-sweet-tooth-interview
Alex Clark admires André Brink's Booker-longlisted family history of Cape Colony slave owners, and points out that one of the characters appears to have something in common with the author of this novel.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/aug/16/philida-andre-brink-booker-review
COMMUNITY EVENTS
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.
2012 PANDORA'S LITERARY AWARDS GALA
Pandora's Collective is proud to announce the recipients of the Pandora's Literary Awards for 2012. This year's awards winners will be honoured at a special gala to be held on Friday, August 24th at CBC Studio 700 (700 Hamilton Street, Vancouver). The night will be hosted by Charles Demers and will feature a performance by Mount Pleasant's Inchoiring Minds. Award presenters include George Bowering, Brian Kaufman, Sean Cranbury, Betsy Warland and RC Weslowski. 7pm (Doors open at 6:30pm), CBC Studio 700 (700 Hamilton St.), Free event, Food, Cash bar. Silent Auction. For more information on the winners and the event: https://sites.google.com/site/summerdreamsfest/home/gala.
VANCOUVER POETRY SLAM
Qualifying slam for poets to earn points for the playoffs in March 2013. Featuring Tanya Evanson. Monday, August 27 at 8:00p. Cost: $4/$6. Cafe Deux Soleils, 2096 Commercial Drive.
Upcoming
TWISTED POETS LITERARY SALON
(Please note New Location Starting September) Features Wayde Compton and Warren Dean Fulton + Open Mic. Thursday, September 6th at 7:00pm. Suggested donation at the door: $5. @Cafe Montmartre, 4362 Main Street, Vancouver. More information at www.pandorascollective.com.
ANDREA LISTER
Writer and historian Andrea Lister follows the generations of determined women who fundraised, sewed, canned, and knitted to establish Chilliwack's first hospital. Tuesday, September 18 at 7:00pm. Chilliwack Library, 45860 First Avenue, Chilliwack.
JOHN VIGNA
Launch of the author's latest book, Bull Head. Wednesday, September 19 at 7:30pm. The Bourbon, 50 West Cordova Street, Vancouver. RSVP to bullheadlaunch@gmail.com.
KOOTENAY BOOK WEEKEND
9th annual event featuring Katherine Govier with her book The Ghost Brush. September 21-23, 2012. Nelson, BC. For complete details, visit www.kootenaybookweekend.ca.
WORD ON THE STREET
Features author readings, writing and publishing exhibits, musical entertainment, roving performers, children's activities, workshops, panels, books, and magazines. September 28-30, 2012. More information at wotsvan@thewordonthestreet.ca.
A POETIC WALK THROUGH NATURE
Join Vancouver's 100,000 Poets for Change on an Earthwalk. Poets will read select poems calling for the preservation of our beautiful forests and shorelines. A guest speaker will also present a narrative tour of the cultural history and natural habitat of Stanley Park. September 29 at 10:00am, free. For more information and to register, visit http://earthwalks11poets.eventbrite.com/.
Thursday, August 23, 2012
Thursday, August 16, 2012
Book News Vol. 7 No. 30
BOOK NEWS
2012 Festival
Details of the 2012 Vancouver Writers Fest are now online! Visit our website to see what you can look forward to in October. Tickets go on sale to members on Aug 29th and the general public on Sept 5th. Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/2012festival
UPCOMING EVENTS
Michael Chabon
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. Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/michaelchabon
VIRTUAL FESTIVAL
Listen to the seventeenth installment in our series of audio archives from past Festival events. This week you'll hear an "Intimate Evening" featuring Yann Martel. Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/multimedia/audio-archives.
Special Offers
If being a member of the VWF 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.
AWARDS & LISTS
The Australian State of Victoria has announced the Victorian Prize for Literature shortlist. The winners will be announced October 16. The list of shortlisted writers of fiction, nonficton, drama, poetry and young adult is here:
http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/books/shortlisted-authors-take-centre-stage-20120809-23vz4.html
British writer Rachel Joyce's debut novel, The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, has earned her a place on the longlist for the 2012 Man Booker prize. The Man Booker shortlist will be announced September 11.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/story/2012/08/09/rachel-joyce-video.html
The Canadian Science Fiction & Fantasy Association presented a wide variety of The Auroras-Canada's Science Fiction & Fantasy Awards—at its AGM earlier this month.
http://www.prixaurorawards.ca/
The CBC Books and Scotiabank Giller Prize Readers' Choice contest is back. As we await the announcement of this year's long-list, CBC Books offer a chance to share great Canadian literature discovered this past year. Rules and regulations are here:
http://www.cbc.ca/books/scotiabankgillerprize/readers-choice-2012-rules-and-regulations.html
Submit your nomination here:
http://3495051.polldaddy.com/s/sgp2012?pop=11
YOUNG READERS
In Rebecca Stead's Liar & Spy, seventh-grader Georges (named after painter Georges Seurat) is bullied at school. His parents care, but their communication strategies—tiles on a Scrabble tray—seem babyish. New apartment building neighbors are appealing, but are their games real or lies? Like Stead's Newbery Medal-winning When You Reach Me, there's a mystery, and rereading the book would be a pleasure. Ages 9 to 12.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/site/newspaper/entertainment/sc-ent-0808-books-kids-20120810,0,2848953.story
Libby Thump isn't good at the things she's supposed to be good at: school and swimming. As fourth grade ends, her teacher advises her to "live up to your potential." But Libby knows that she won't shine in the classroom or the swimming pool. Instead, she can shine at the stable, around horses. Libby of High Hopes, by Elise Primavera, is a perfect read for kids who have dreamed of having their own horse. Ages 7 to 10.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/kidspost/libby-of-high-hopes-is-another-book-that-you-might-like/2012/08/07/62deb150-d1b7-11e1-8bea-6dc0b4879aab_story.html
Reviewer Bookworm 11 writes that The Name of This Book is a Secret by Pseudonymous Bosch "is extremely frightening and an edge of the seat read." Cassandra is always preparing for disaster; Max-Ernest, her collaborator in their adventure, always tells jokes. Ages 12 and up.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/childrens-books-site/2012/aug/07/review-name-of-book-is-secret-pseudonymous-bosch
NEWS & FEATURES
Inspired by Team GB's recent performances in the javelin, triathlon and cycling, Scottish poet Jackie Kay created her own armchair triathlon-reading out three short poems she wrote, on video.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/video/2012/aug/08/olympics-2012-art-jackie-kay-video
Robert Hughes was Australia's Dante, writes Peter Carey. Robert Hughes wasn't just a great art critic. He was one of the finest writers Australia has ever produced–the man who told his countrymen who they were, says Carey.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/aug/07/robert-hughes-by-peter-carey
The award-winning, wickedly funny author and actor David Rakoff died last week, at 47. He submitted his novel in verse Love, Dishonor, Marry, Die; Cherish, Perish well in advance of its deadline. Doubleday plans to publish Rakoff's final work next year.
http://arts.nationalpost.com/2012/08/10/david-rakoff-dies-at-47/
The Globe and Mail has posted on its website excerpts from five of Rakoff's books.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/excerpts-from-david-rakoffs-work/article4475264/
K'naan left Somalia with his family, to escape the Somalia Civil War in 1991. Tundra Books announced this week that K'naan's children's book (ages 7 to 10) When I Get Older: The Story behind Wavin' Flag, with illustrations by artist Rudy Gutierrez, will be published at the end of September.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/story/2012/08/13/knaan-childrens-book.html
Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy is writing her first ballet, based on the classic fairytale of Rapunzel–and has promised to put back the darkness and terror. Rapunzel-dance theatre rather than straight ballet-is a commission by Sadler's Wells.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/2012/aug/14/carol-ann-duffy-rapunzel-ballet
The poet laureate captured the mood of London's Olympic Games with Translating the British, 2012.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/aug/10/carol-ann-duffy-olympics-london
1972 and culture is the new cold war front line. Serena Frome, recently recruited by MI5, is sent for her first assignment to meet a promising young writer... Thus begins The Guardian's extract from Ian McEwen's forthcoming novel Sweet Tooth, here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/aug/10/ian-mcewan-sweet-tooth-extract
Philip Jones writes that Fifty Shades of Grey is the latest reminder of what makes the publishing industry important. Every few years, the industry offers a title that crystallizes what it means to put an author in touch with a reader. And, digital doesn't alter this.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/aug/08/publishing-fifty-shades-books-important
Thinly veiled fables of political love and war are the surprise bestsellers of the summer in France. Le Monarque, Son Fils, Son Fief (The monarch, his son, his fief) by Marie-Célie Guillaume has topped the French bestseller charts for seven weeks. Les Strauss-Kahn is at number two in the non-fiction bestsellers.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/aug/10/france-europe-news
Citing a loss of confidence in the book's details, Christian publisher Thomas Nelson is ending the publication and distribution of David Barton's The Jefferson Lies: Exposing the Myths You've Always Believed About Thomas Jefferson. The book was voted the worst history book ever.
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2012/08/09/158510648/publisher-pulls-controversial-thomas-jefferson-book-citing-loss-of-confidence
When she was asked to write a sequel to E Nesbit's classic children's book Five Children and It, Jacqueline Wilson said no. But then she saw the fun she could have with the wish-granting fairy and a modern jigsaw family.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/aug/10/jacqueline-wilson-five-children-and-it-and-me
Mark Haddon, the award-winning author of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, has written to his MP arguing that he and other wealthy people should pay more tax to save others being hit by government spending cuts.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/aug/12/curious-incident-mark-haddon-wealthy-tax
Only a few people have been both great writers and great illustrators of children's books: Edward Lear, Dr. Seuss and—perhaps the most gifted of them all—Maurice Sendak, who died in May at the age of eighty-three. Thus begins Alison Lurie's Something Wonderful Out of Almost Nothing.
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2012/jul/12/something-wonderful-out-almost-nothing/
A reminder that the deadline for submission to CBC Books' new contest on last lines is Sunday, August 19, 2012, at 11:59 p.m. ET. Last lines are the final thought readers are left with. Whether it be from the past or the present, from fiction or non-fiction–the CBC wants to know what it is and why you love it. The rules and regulations are here:
http://www.cbc.ca/books/2012/08/whats-your-favourite-last-line-in-literature.html
What a nightmare-not having any books to buy. This is the scenario Heather Mallick alludes to in this article about what she sees as a decline in publishing.
http://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorialopinion/article/1240637--as-publishing-withers-where-will-we-find-great-books
BOOKS & WRITERS
Battleborn (Granta) is a collection of 10 short stories rooted in small-town Nevada, writes Corrine Jones. Unsettling and compelling, Claire Vaye Watkins's writing has deservedly been likened to Cormac McCarthy and Annie Proulx for its fresh, foreboding approach to America's west, with Hari Kunzru hailing her as "one of the most exciting young voices in American fiction".
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/aug/12/claire-vaye-watkins-battleborn-granta
Liza Klaussman's Tigers in Red Weather is an immensely gripping and well-told tale of two generations of a family spanning the period from 1945 to 1969, writes Kamila Shamsie. A gripping tale, in which a dead body changes everything, says Shamsie.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/aug/08/tigers-red-weather-klaussman-review
People caught up in tumultuous times often become nostalgic for the past or hopeful for the future, writes Jason Beerman. The characters at the centre of Gail Tsukiyama's A Hundred Flowers do both, as their lives become increasingly rattled by political upheaval in 1957 China.
http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/books/article/1239012--gail-tsukiyama-s-a-hundred-flowers-review
Jeanette Winterson's The Daylight Gate adds her interpretation of the Pendle Hill events: power, fear, and the forces of darkness and light that exist within the extremes of human nature, writes Stephanie Merritt. Historical fact proves more chilling than the supernatural fantasy.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/aug/12/daylight-gate-jeanette-winterson-review
Lorna Crozier, Susan Musgrave, and Sharon Thesen reside in British Columbia (in fact, all have poems that take place on or refer to Haida Gwaii) and it is fair to say that they are all at the top of their games, writes Zoe Whittall. Crozier's Small Mechanics, Musgrave's Origami Dove, and Thesen's Oyama Pink Shale are simply stunning, says Whittall.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/three-poets-canadian-women-all-for-the-ages/article4259381/
Michael V. Smith's Progress is a tale of family love, betrayal, and deception, set in a small Ontario town about to be flooded by a huge dam. Helen Massey sees a workman fall from the face of the dam being built, encountering denial and cover-up when she reports the sight. Progress requires the keeping of secrets, and this is a book, most fundamentally, about secrets, writes Tom Sandborn.
http://thetyee.ca/Books/2012/08/11/Progress/?utm_source=mondayheadlines&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=130812
"Embrace the sweet lovely mess," says a character in Jess Walter's Beautiful Ruins. She's talking about life, but could mean the multiple, intersecting storylines and numerous lives, writes Joel Yanofsky. Walter offers a change of scene, setting and point-of-view in each successive chapter.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/books/Italian+hotelier+falls+actress/7039086/story.html
Richard Fitzpatrick's El Clasico: Barcelona v Real Madrid: Football's Greatest Rivalry is about soccer, styles, ideologies. and a history of hatred; e.g., when Johan Cruyff was pursued by Real Madrid, he said he would never play for a team "associated with Franco". A riveting read, writes Tim Lewis.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/aug/03/clasico-barcelona-real-madrid-review
Just as Chilean post Pablo Neruda created odes to common things, writes Mary Ann Moore, so also is Lorna Crozier's gathering the universe around Bed, Chair, Coffee Pot, Ironing Board, Mirror, and other items in The Book of Marvels: A Compendium of Everyday Things.
http://www.vancouversun.com/entertainment/books/Author+Lorna+Crozier+offers+tribute+everyday+objects/7071346/story.html
Zoe Whittall describes Marie-Claire Blais as Canada's very own Gertrude Stein, a rebel in a sea of boring, upstanding literary WASPs. One cannot skim, says Whittall; one must immerse and reread. If you put the time in, Mai at the Predator's Ball will reward you, writes Whittall.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/book-reviews/learning-to-read-marie-claire-blais/article4473062/
COMMUNITY EVENTS
SUNSHINE COAST FESTIVAL OF THE WRITTEN ARTS
Canada's longest running summer gathering of Canadian writers and readers. Features Wayson Choy, Charlotte Gill, Patrick Lane, Ami McKay, Richard Wagamese and many others. Tickets on sale now! August 16-19, 2012. Sechelt, BC. Complete details at www.writersfestival.ca.
IMAGINING LIVES
Launch of Bernice Lever's latest book of poetry. Sunday, August 19 at 2:00pm. Collins Hall, 1122 Miller Road, Bowen Island.
MARISSA MEYER ONLINE AUTHOR VISIT
Interact with bestselling author of Cinder, Marissa Meyer, in the City Centre library's Computer Learning Centre. Hang out with other teens and ask Andrea questions through the TeenRC website. Snacks to follow! Wednesday, August 22 at 2:00pm. For more information and to reserve a spot, call 604-598-7426. City Centre Library, 10350 University Drive, Surrey.
Upcoming
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.
2012 PANDORA'S LITERARY AWARDS GALA
Pandora's Collective is proud to announce the recipients of the Pandora's Literary Awards for 2012. This year's awards winners will be honoured at a special gala to be held on Friday, August 24th at CBC Studio 700 (700 Hamilton Street, Vancouver). The night will be hosted by Charles Demers and will feature a performance by Mount Pleasant's Inchoiring Minds. Award presenters include George Bowering, Brian Kaufman, Sean Cranbury, Betsy Warland and RC Weslowski. 7pm (Doors open at 6:30pm), CBC Studio 700 (700 Hamilton St.), Free event, Food, Cash bar. Silent Auction. For more information on the winners and the event: https://sites.google.com/site/summerdreamsfest/home/gala.
VANCOUVER POETRY SLAM
Qualifying slam for poets to earn points for the playoffs in March 2013. Featuring Tanya Evanson. Monday, August 27 at 8:00p. Cost: $4/$6. Cafe Deux Soleils, 2096 Commercial Drive.
TWISTED POETS LITERARY SALON
(Please note New Location Starting September) Features Wayde Compton and Warren Dean Fulton + Open Mic. Thursday, September 6th at 7:00pm. Suggested donation at the door: $5. @Cafe Montmartre, 4362 Main Street, Vancouver. More information at www.pandorascollective.com.
ANDREA LISTER
Writer and historian Andrea Lister follows the generations of determined women who fundraised, sewed, canned, and knitted to establish Chilliwack's first hospital. Tuesday, September 18 at 7:00pm. Chilliwack Library, 45860 First Avenue, Chilliwack.
JOHN VIGNA
Launch of the author's latest book, Bull Head. Wednesday, September 19 at 7:30pm. The Bourbon, 50 West Cordova Street, Vancouver. RSVP to bullheadlaunch@gmail.com.
WORD ON THE STREET
Features author readings, writing and publishing exhibits, musical entertainment, roving performers, children's activities, workshops, panels, books, and magazines. September 28-30, 2012. More information at wotsvan@thewordonthestreet.ca.
A POETIC WALK THROUGH NATURE
Join Vancouver's 100,000 Poets for Change on an Earthwalk. Poets will read select poems calling for the preservation of our beautiful forests and shorelines. A guest speaker will also present a narrative tour of the cultural history and natural habitat of Stanley Park. September 29 at 10:00am, free. For more information and to register, visit http://earthwalks11poets.eventbrite.com/.
2012 Festival
Details of the 2012 Vancouver Writers Fest are now online! Visit our website to see what you can look forward to in October. Tickets go on sale to members on Aug 29th and the general public on Sept 5th. Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/2012festival
UPCOMING EVENTS
Michael Chabon
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. Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/michaelchabon
VIRTUAL FESTIVAL
Listen to the seventeenth installment in our series of audio archives from past Festival events. This week you'll hear an "Intimate Evening" featuring Yann Martel. Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/multimedia/audio-archives.
Special Offers
If being a member of the VWF 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.
AWARDS & LISTS
The Australian State of Victoria has announced the Victorian Prize for Literature shortlist. The winners will be announced October 16. The list of shortlisted writers of fiction, nonficton, drama, poetry and young adult is here:
http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/books/shortlisted-authors-take-centre-stage-20120809-23vz4.html
British writer Rachel Joyce's debut novel, The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, has earned her a place on the longlist for the 2012 Man Booker prize. The Man Booker shortlist will be announced September 11.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/story/2012/08/09/rachel-joyce-video.html
The Canadian Science Fiction & Fantasy Association presented a wide variety of The Auroras-Canada's Science Fiction & Fantasy Awards—at its AGM earlier this month.
http://www.prixaurorawards.ca/
The CBC Books and Scotiabank Giller Prize Readers' Choice contest is back. As we await the announcement of this year's long-list, CBC Books offer a chance to share great Canadian literature discovered this past year. Rules and regulations are here:
http://www.cbc.ca/books/scotiabankgillerprize/readers-choice-2012-rules-and-regulations.html
Submit your nomination here:
http://3495051.polldaddy.com/s/sgp2012?pop=11
YOUNG READERS
In Rebecca Stead's Liar & Spy, seventh-grader Georges (named after painter Georges Seurat) is bullied at school. His parents care, but their communication strategies—tiles on a Scrabble tray—seem babyish. New apartment building neighbors are appealing, but are their games real or lies? Like Stead's Newbery Medal-winning When You Reach Me, there's a mystery, and rereading the book would be a pleasure. Ages 9 to 12.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/site/newspaper/entertainment/sc-ent-0808-books-kids-20120810,0,2848953.story
Libby Thump isn't good at the things she's supposed to be good at: school and swimming. As fourth grade ends, her teacher advises her to "live up to your potential." But Libby knows that she won't shine in the classroom or the swimming pool. Instead, she can shine at the stable, around horses. Libby of High Hopes, by Elise Primavera, is a perfect read for kids who have dreamed of having their own horse. Ages 7 to 10.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/kidspost/libby-of-high-hopes-is-another-book-that-you-might-like/2012/08/07/62deb150-d1b7-11e1-8bea-6dc0b4879aab_story.html
Reviewer Bookworm 11 writes that The Name of This Book is a Secret by Pseudonymous Bosch "is extremely frightening and an edge of the seat read." Cassandra is always preparing for disaster; Max-Ernest, her collaborator in their adventure, always tells jokes. Ages 12 and up.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/childrens-books-site/2012/aug/07/review-name-of-book-is-secret-pseudonymous-bosch
NEWS & FEATURES
Inspired by Team GB's recent performances in the javelin, triathlon and cycling, Scottish poet Jackie Kay created her own armchair triathlon-reading out three short poems she wrote, on video.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/video/2012/aug/08/olympics-2012-art-jackie-kay-video
Robert Hughes was Australia's Dante, writes Peter Carey. Robert Hughes wasn't just a great art critic. He was one of the finest writers Australia has ever produced–the man who told his countrymen who they were, says Carey.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/aug/07/robert-hughes-by-peter-carey
The award-winning, wickedly funny author and actor David Rakoff died last week, at 47. He submitted his novel in verse Love, Dishonor, Marry, Die; Cherish, Perish well in advance of its deadline. Doubleday plans to publish Rakoff's final work next year.
http://arts.nationalpost.com/2012/08/10/david-rakoff-dies-at-47/
The Globe and Mail has posted on its website excerpts from five of Rakoff's books.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/excerpts-from-david-rakoffs-work/article4475264/
K'naan left Somalia with his family, to escape the Somalia Civil War in 1991. Tundra Books announced this week that K'naan's children's book (ages 7 to 10) When I Get Older: The Story behind Wavin' Flag, with illustrations by artist Rudy Gutierrez, will be published at the end of September.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/story/2012/08/13/knaan-childrens-book.html
Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy is writing her first ballet, based on the classic fairytale of Rapunzel–and has promised to put back the darkness and terror. Rapunzel-dance theatre rather than straight ballet-is a commission by Sadler's Wells.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/2012/aug/14/carol-ann-duffy-rapunzel-ballet
The poet laureate captured the mood of London's Olympic Games with Translating the British, 2012.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/aug/10/carol-ann-duffy-olympics-london
1972 and culture is the new cold war front line. Serena Frome, recently recruited by MI5, is sent for her first assignment to meet a promising young writer... Thus begins The Guardian's extract from Ian McEwen's forthcoming novel Sweet Tooth, here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/aug/10/ian-mcewan-sweet-tooth-extract
Philip Jones writes that Fifty Shades of Grey is the latest reminder of what makes the publishing industry important. Every few years, the industry offers a title that crystallizes what it means to put an author in touch with a reader. And, digital doesn't alter this.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/aug/08/publishing-fifty-shades-books-important
Thinly veiled fables of political love and war are the surprise bestsellers of the summer in France. Le Monarque, Son Fils, Son Fief (The monarch, his son, his fief) by Marie-Célie Guillaume has topped the French bestseller charts for seven weeks. Les Strauss-Kahn is at number two in the non-fiction bestsellers.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/aug/10/france-europe-news
Citing a loss of confidence in the book's details, Christian publisher Thomas Nelson is ending the publication and distribution of David Barton's The Jefferson Lies: Exposing the Myths You've Always Believed About Thomas Jefferson. The book was voted the worst history book ever.
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2012/08/09/158510648/publisher-pulls-controversial-thomas-jefferson-book-citing-loss-of-confidence
When she was asked to write a sequel to E Nesbit's classic children's book Five Children and It, Jacqueline Wilson said no. But then she saw the fun she could have with the wish-granting fairy and a modern jigsaw family.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/aug/10/jacqueline-wilson-five-children-and-it-and-me
Mark Haddon, the award-winning author of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, has written to his MP arguing that he and other wealthy people should pay more tax to save others being hit by government spending cuts.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/aug/12/curious-incident-mark-haddon-wealthy-tax
Only a few people have been both great writers and great illustrators of children's books: Edward Lear, Dr. Seuss and—perhaps the most gifted of them all—Maurice Sendak, who died in May at the age of eighty-three. Thus begins Alison Lurie's Something Wonderful Out of Almost Nothing.
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2012/jul/12/something-wonderful-out-almost-nothing/
A reminder that the deadline for submission to CBC Books' new contest on last lines is Sunday, August 19, 2012, at 11:59 p.m. ET. Last lines are the final thought readers are left with. Whether it be from the past or the present, from fiction or non-fiction–the CBC wants to know what it is and why you love it. The rules and regulations are here:
http://www.cbc.ca/books/2012/08/whats-your-favourite-last-line-in-literature.html
What a nightmare-not having any books to buy. This is the scenario Heather Mallick alludes to in this article about what she sees as a decline in publishing.
http://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorialopinion/article/1240637--as-publishing-withers-where-will-we-find-great-books
BOOKS & WRITERS
Battleborn (Granta) is a collection of 10 short stories rooted in small-town Nevada, writes Corrine Jones. Unsettling and compelling, Claire Vaye Watkins's writing has deservedly been likened to Cormac McCarthy and Annie Proulx for its fresh, foreboding approach to America's west, with Hari Kunzru hailing her as "one of the most exciting young voices in American fiction".
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/aug/12/claire-vaye-watkins-battleborn-granta
Liza Klaussman's Tigers in Red Weather is an immensely gripping and well-told tale of two generations of a family spanning the period from 1945 to 1969, writes Kamila Shamsie. A gripping tale, in which a dead body changes everything, says Shamsie.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/aug/08/tigers-red-weather-klaussman-review
People caught up in tumultuous times often become nostalgic for the past or hopeful for the future, writes Jason Beerman. The characters at the centre of Gail Tsukiyama's A Hundred Flowers do both, as their lives become increasingly rattled by political upheaval in 1957 China.
http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/books/article/1239012--gail-tsukiyama-s-a-hundred-flowers-review
Jeanette Winterson's The Daylight Gate adds her interpretation of the Pendle Hill events: power, fear, and the forces of darkness and light that exist within the extremes of human nature, writes Stephanie Merritt. Historical fact proves more chilling than the supernatural fantasy.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/aug/12/daylight-gate-jeanette-winterson-review
Lorna Crozier, Susan Musgrave, and Sharon Thesen reside in British Columbia (in fact, all have poems that take place on or refer to Haida Gwaii) and it is fair to say that they are all at the top of their games, writes Zoe Whittall. Crozier's Small Mechanics, Musgrave's Origami Dove, and Thesen's Oyama Pink Shale are simply stunning, says Whittall.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/three-poets-canadian-women-all-for-the-ages/article4259381/
Michael V. Smith's Progress is a tale of family love, betrayal, and deception, set in a small Ontario town about to be flooded by a huge dam. Helen Massey sees a workman fall from the face of the dam being built, encountering denial and cover-up when she reports the sight. Progress requires the keeping of secrets, and this is a book, most fundamentally, about secrets, writes Tom Sandborn.
http://thetyee.ca/Books/2012/08/11/Progress/?utm_source=mondayheadlines&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=130812
"Embrace the sweet lovely mess," says a character in Jess Walter's Beautiful Ruins. She's talking about life, but could mean the multiple, intersecting storylines and numerous lives, writes Joel Yanofsky. Walter offers a change of scene, setting and point-of-view in each successive chapter.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/books/Italian+hotelier+falls+actress/7039086/story.html
Richard Fitzpatrick's El Clasico: Barcelona v Real Madrid: Football's Greatest Rivalry is about soccer, styles, ideologies. and a history of hatred; e.g., when Johan Cruyff was pursued by Real Madrid, he said he would never play for a team "associated with Franco". A riveting read, writes Tim Lewis.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/aug/03/clasico-barcelona-real-madrid-review
Just as Chilean post Pablo Neruda created odes to common things, writes Mary Ann Moore, so also is Lorna Crozier's gathering the universe around Bed, Chair, Coffee Pot, Ironing Board, Mirror, and other items in The Book of Marvels: A Compendium of Everyday Things.
http://www.vancouversun.com/entertainment/books/Author+Lorna+Crozier+offers+tribute+everyday+objects/7071346/story.html
Zoe Whittall describes Marie-Claire Blais as Canada's very own Gertrude Stein, a rebel in a sea of boring, upstanding literary WASPs. One cannot skim, says Whittall; one must immerse and reread. If you put the time in, Mai at the Predator's Ball will reward you, writes Whittall.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/book-reviews/learning-to-read-marie-claire-blais/article4473062/
COMMUNITY EVENTS
SUNSHINE COAST FESTIVAL OF THE WRITTEN ARTS
Canada's longest running summer gathering of Canadian writers and readers. Features Wayson Choy, Charlotte Gill, Patrick Lane, Ami McKay, Richard Wagamese and many others. Tickets on sale now! August 16-19, 2012. Sechelt, BC. Complete details at www.writersfestival.ca.
IMAGINING LIVES
Launch of Bernice Lever's latest book of poetry. Sunday, August 19 at 2:00pm. Collins Hall, 1122 Miller Road, Bowen Island.
MARISSA MEYER ONLINE AUTHOR VISIT
Interact with bestselling author of Cinder, Marissa Meyer, in the City Centre library's Computer Learning Centre. Hang out with other teens and ask Andrea questions through the TeenRC website. Snacks to follow! Wednesday, August 22 at 2:00pm. For more information and to reserve a spot, call 604-598-7426. City Centre Library, 10350 University Drive, Surrey.
Upcoming
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.
2012 PANDORA'S LITERARY AWARDS GALA
Pandora's Collective is proud to announce the recipients of the Pandora's Literary Awards for 2012. This year's awards winners will be honoured at a special gala to be held on Friday, August 24th at CBC Studio 700 (700 Hamilton Street, Vancouver). The night will be hosted by Charles Demers and will feature a performance by Mount Pleasant's Inchoiring Minds. Award presenters include George Bowering, Brian Kaufman, Sean Cranbury, Betsy Warland and RC Weslowski. 7pm (Doors open at 6:30pm), CBC Studio 700 (700 Hamilton St.), Free event, Food, Cash bar. Silent Auction. For more information on the winners and the event: https://sites.google.com/site/summerdreamsfest/home/gala.
VANCOUVER POETRY SLAM
Qualifying slam for poets to earn points for the playoffs in March 2013. Featuring Tanya Evanson. Monday, August 27 at 8:00p. Cost: $4/$6. Cafe Deux Soleils, 2096 Commercial Drive.
TWISTED POETS LITERARY SALON
(Please note New Location Starting September) Features Wayde Compton and Warren Dean Fulton + Open Mic. Thursday, September 6th at 7:00pm. Suggested donation at the door: $5. @Cafe Montmartre, 4362 Main Street, Vancouver. More information at www.pandorascollective.com.
ANDREA LISTER
Writer and historian Andrea Lister follows the generations of determined women who fundraised, sewed, canned, and knitted to establish Chilliwack's first hospital. Tuesday, September 18 at 7:00pm. Chilliwack Library, 45860 First Avenue, Chilliwack.
JOHN VIGNA
Launch of the author's latest book, Bull Head. Wednesday, September 19 at 7:30pm. The Bourbon, 50 West Cordova Street, Vancouver. RSVP to bullheadlaunch@gmail.com.
WORD ON THE STREET
Features author readings, writing and publishing exhibits, musical entertainment, roving performers, children's activities, workshops, panels, books, and magazines. September 28-30, 2012. More information at wotsvan@thewordonthestreet.ca.
A POETIC WALK THROUGH NATURE
Join Vancouver's 100,000 Poets for Change on an Earthwalk. Poets will read select poems calling for the preservation of our beautiful forests and shorelines. A guest speaker will also present a narrative tour of the cultural history and natural habitat of Stanley Park. September 29 at 10:00am, free. For more information and to register, visit http://earthwalks11poets.eventbrite.com/.
Thursday, August 9, 2012
Book News Vol. 7 No. 29
BOOK NEWS
UPCOMING EVENTS
Michael Chabon
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. Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/michaelchabon
VIRTUAL FESTIVAL
Listen to the sixteenth installment in our series of audio archives from past Festival events. This week you'll hear an exerpt from our special event at Frederic Wood Theatre on May 28, 2012 featuring Richard Ford. 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.
AWARDS & LISTS
Night author and activist Elie Wiesel has won the 2012 Chicago Tribune Literary Prize. Others honoured were Paul Hendrickson's Hemingway's Boat, for the 2012 Chicago Tribune Heartland Prize for nonfiction and Richard Ford's Canada, for
the 2012 Chicago Tribune Heartland Prize for fiction.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/books/ct-ent-0801-literary-prizes,0,4961596.story
The CBC Books and Scotiabank Giller Prize Readers' Choice contest is back. As we await the announcement of this year's long-list, CBC Books offers you a chance to share great Canadian literature you've discovered this past year. Rules
and regulations are here:
http://www.cbc.ca/books/scotiabankgillerprize/readers-choice-2012-rules-and-regulations.html
Submit your nomination here:
http://3495051.polldaddy.com/s/sgp2012?pop=11
Michael Frayn's Skios has been long-listed for the Man Booker Prize.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/book-reviews/greece-gods-and-amiable-young-idiots-in-michael-frayns-latest/article4460668/
YOUNG READERS
Elizabeth Wein's Code Name Verity is a thrilling WWII spy drama for young adults, writes Mary Quattlebaum. This gripping story opens in occupied France, with Julie captured and being forced to write a confession for a Nazi interrogator.
This heart-in-your-mouth adventure has it all, says Quattlebaum. Ages 14 and up.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/elizabeth-weins-code-name-verity-thrilling-wwii-spy-drama-for-young-adults/2012/07/31/gJQAzGz2NX_story.html
The sight of a bug can send many an adult into a frenzy. It's no wonder, seeing such reactions on the part of adults, that children, too, might be inclined to squash a bug. Stephen, the central character in Jorge Luján's Stephen and the
Beetle, is such a child. Ages 4 to 7.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/Kids+holds+power+life+death+over+beetle/7039143/story.html#ixzz22d3srtXy
In Bon Appétit!: The Delicious Life of Julia Child, author/illustrator Jessie Hartland's hand-lettered text and funky gouache paintings go a long way toward capturing Julia Child's lively, irreverent approach to good food and good
eating, along with permission to "ask a grown-up to help you." Age 9 and up.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/books/Kids+Introducing+young+cooks+Julia+Child/6996268/story.html
Author Kevin Sylvester writes about a less celebrated side of the Olympics, with people, ideas and events chosen for their unusualness. For the most part, the Gold Medals of Weird are safe–no one will be training to win one, and there
will be no rivals to worry about. These records (and their stories) will stand. Ages 7 to 12.
http://www.umanitoba.ca/cm/vol14/no6/goldmedalforwierd.html
NEWS & FEATURES
Wattpad has announced the Attys, a new trophy for online verse named after Margaret Atwood. The Attys are specifically for digital poetry. Wattpad will accept entries from both amateurs and the more experienced. Atwood will be judging
the prize. Information about entering is here: http://www.wattpad.com/attys
The Guardin/Observer has reprinted a 1998 Gore Vidal essay on the origins of the Cold War.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/aug/05/gore-vidal-origins-of-cold-war
Australian art critic and writer Robert Hughes, author of The Fatal Shore and Shock of the New, has died in New York. He was 74.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/story/2012/08/07/robert-hughes-obit.html
James Joyce's Ulysses has topped poll after poll to be named the greatest novel of the 20th century, but according to Paulo Coelho, the book is "a twit", indeed is 'harmful' to literature.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/aug/06/paulo-coelho-james-joyce-ulysses
Fears that pirated editions of JK Rowling's upcoming novel The Casual Vacancy could leak out will result in some foreign publishers (e.g., in Italy, Finland and Slovenia) not receiving copies until it is published in English. The novel
will be published on 27 September in the UK and the US.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jul/31/jk-rowling-casual-vacancy-translation-fears
Marilyn Monroe, who played the perennial dumb blonde was a comedian who created a parody of femininity. In Marilyn: The Passion and the Paradox, Professor Lois Banner (U. of Southern California) writes that Monroe was a proto-feminist
who took control of her career which often created conflict with established Hollywood.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/story/2012/08/03/marilyn-monroe-anniversary.html
John Banville, who fell in love with Monroe when he was ten, adds that: "Monroe was one of the 20th century's great clowns. What made MM so bewitching was that it was–all or almost all–an act.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/aug/03/marilyn-monroe-banville-50-death
Mitt Romney recently quoted Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs and Steel in his (Romney's) discussion of disparities in the economic success of various countries. Diamond's response in a recent New York Times, includes, "...difference from what
my book says that I have to doubt whether Mr. Romney read it."
http://www.latimes.com/features/books/jacketcopy/la-jc-mitt-romney-misunderstood-his-book-says-author-jared-diamond-20120802,0,2692855.story
Twitter and Tumblr are destroying literary criticism, writes Jacob Silverman, who blames a culture of niceness in online book culture.
http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/books/2012/08/writers_and_readers_on_twitter_and_tumblr_we_need_more_criticism_less_liking_.html
Bardowl, a new streaming service, could soon challenge Amazon's Audible, writes Anna Baddeley. The main difference between Bardowl and its main rival, Amazon-owned Audible, is that you're streaming rather than downloading. Unlike
reading, you can listen to a book while doing other things.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/aug/05/bardowl-audiobooks-spotify
Mark Billingham, author of the Tom Thorne detective series, criticised the growing self-publishing industry that allows writers to sell their work electronically for pence. Books sre devalued if they are sold for "less than half the
price of a cup of tea", says Billingham.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/9449682/E-books-sold-for-price-of-a-cup-of-tea-are-harming-industry-says-author.html
An illustrated account of young Arthur Conan Doyle, ship's doctor on the Arctic whaler Hope–for which he ran away from his medical studies in Edinburgh–is to be published for the first time by the British Library, in a facsimile edition.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/aug/06/arthurconandoyle-arctic
The Irish novelist John Banville, who writes crime fiction under the name Benjamin Black, will write a novel featuring Raymond Chandler's creation Philip Marlowe. The novel, which will be set in the 1940s in the fictional Californian
setting of Bay City, will be published next year.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/feedarticle/10379479
CBC Books has a new contest. Last lines are so important. They are the final thought readers are left with. They conclude the story at hand but establish possibility for a future. Whether it be from the past or the present, from fiction
or non-fiction–the CBC wants to know what it is and why you love it. Post a comment on the website by Sunday, August 19, 2012, at 11:59 p.m. ET. The rules and regulations are here. Good luck!
http://www.cbc.ca/books/2012/08/whats-your-favourite-last-line-in-literature.html
BOOKS & WRITERS
"Kapuscinski" has long been one of Poland's few internationally recognized names, due to the unusual style of his literary reporting in The Emperor, The Soccer War and Shah of Shahs. Similarly, Artur Domoslawski's Ryszard Kapuscinski:
The Biography is not a conventional biography, writes Agnes Pyzik.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/aug/02/ryszard-kapuscinski-biography-domoslawski-review
Dave Margoshes's loving fictionalized memoir about his father, Harry, is artfully executed in this collection of 14 loosely linked stories, writes Sharon Abron Drache. A grand tribute to Harry Morgenstern, resourcefully approximating the
novel his son believes he could have written, but never did, says Drache.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/book-reviews/dave-margoshess-stories-a-grand-tribute-to-his-father/article4454593/
Linda Holeman's fifth historical novel The Lost Souls of Angelkov takes place in 19th C. Russia, with the characters flung into the immense social changes of the time, especially the emancipation of the serfs. Plot is the driving force,
writes Candace Fertile.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/book-reviews/serfs-up-a-novel-of-angst-in-19th-century-russia/article4438746/
The title of Will Self's novel Umbrella derives from Joyce's "A brother is as easily forgotten as an umbrella". Umbrella, longlisted for the Booker Prize, is a dazzling feat of imagination and structure, writes Elizabeth Day, as she
learns why Self likes writing as a woman.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/aug/05/will-self-umbrella-booker-interview
"Embrace the sweet lovely mess," says a character in Jess Walter's Beautiful Ruins. She's talking about life, but could mean the multiple, intersecting storylines and numerous lives, writes Joel Yanofsky. Walter offers a change of scene,
setting and point-of-view in each successive chapter.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/books/Italian+hotelier+falls+actress/7039086/story.html
Richard Fitzpatrick's El Clasico: Barcelona v Real Madrid: Football's Greatest Rivalry is about soccer, styles, ideologies. and a history of hatred; e.g., when Johan Cruyff was pursued by Real Madrid, he said he would never play for a
team "associated with Franco". A riveting read, writes Tim Lewis.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/aug/03/clasico-barcelona-real-madrid-review
Alexander McCall Smith's A Conspiracy of Friends is an excellent tonic for whatever ails you, writes Laura Eggertson. Psychoanalyst Berthea Snark is the only mother in current literary fiction who longs to learn that her child was
switched at birth, says Eggertson.
http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/books/article/1234879--a-conspiracy-of-friends-by-alexander-mccall-smith-review
Naomi Beth Wakan, a "lovely old biddy from Gabriola" as she's been described with her approval, has found life as an 80 year old to be like a roller coaster. Hence A Roller-Coaster Ride: Thoughts on Aging, the title of her most recent
book. Whether facts or opinions, Wakan's words give food for thought writes Mary Ann Moore.
http://www.vancouversun.com/entertainment/books/Gabriola+Island+writer+charts+path+into/6994477/story.html
A novel occasionally feels less like a book than a poignant passage of your own life, writes Donna Bailey Nurse. Rachel Joyce's The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, describes Fry's pilgrimage to keep his dying friend alive.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/book-reviews/in-rachel-joyces-subtle-debut-an-impulse-becomes-a-pilgrimage/article4460314/
"How I wish the Canada Party, the one that this month produced Chris Cannon and Brent Calvert's America But Better: The Canada Party Manifesto were on the ballot at my polling place, writes David M. Shribman. Their manifesto–a 148 page
roadmap–possesses the key to reforming our politics," says Shribman.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/book-reviews/only-canada-can-save-america-according-to-this-manifesto/article4460036/
Joel Yanofsky writes that Jess Walter weaves a brilliantly tangled mess in his fine novel, Beautiful Ruins. Of course, there will be complications in this lopsided love story – a half century of them, adding Beautiful Ruins is a story
mainly about storytelling.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/Italian+hotelier+falls+actress/7039086/story.html#ixzz22u5Abkxn
COMMUNITY EVENTS
ANAKANA SCHOFIELD
The Vancouver Book Club will host Anakana Schofield in conversation about her novel Malarkey. Thursday, August 9 at 7:00pm, free. Prophouse Cafe, 1636 Venables Ave., Vancouver. More information at vancouverisawesome.com/bookclub.
SUNSHINE COAST FESTIVAL OF THE WRITTEN ARTS
Canada's longest running summer gathering of Canadian writers and readers. Features Wayson Choy, Charlotte Gill, Patrick Lane, Ami McKay, Richard Wagamese and many others. Tickets on sale now! August 16-19, 2012. Sechelt, BC. Complete
details at www.writersfestival.ca.
Upcoming
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.
A POETIC WALK THROUGH NATURE
Join Vancouver's 100,000 Poets for Change on an Earthwalk. Poets will read select poems calling for the preservation of our beautiful forests and shorelines. A guest speaker will also present a narrative tour of the cultural history and
natural habitat of Stanley Park. September 29 at 10:00am, free. For more information and to register, visit http://earthwalks11poets.eventbrite.com/.
UPCOMING EVENTS
Michael Chabon
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. Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/michaelchabon
VIRTUAL FESTIVAL
Listen to the sixteenth installment in our series of audio archives from past Festival events. This week you'll hear an exerpt from our special event at Frederic Wood Theatre on May 28, 2012 featuring Richard Ford. 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.
AWARDS & LISTS
Night author and activist Elie Wiesel has won the 2012 Chicago Tribune Literary Prize. Others honoured were Paul Hendrickson's Hemingway's Boat, for the 2012 Chicago Tribune Heartland Prize for nonfiction and Richard Ford's Canada, for
the 2012 Chicago Tribune Heartland Prize for fiction.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/books/ct-ent-0801-literary-prizes,0,4961596.story
The CBC Books and Scotiabank Giller Prize Readers' Choice contest is back. As we await the announcement of this year's long-list, CBC Books offers you a chance to share great Canadian literature you've discovered this past year. Rules
and regulations are here:
http://www.cbc.ca/books/scotiabankgillerprize/readers-choice-2012-rules-and-regulations.html
Submit your nomination here:
http://3495051.polldaddy.com/s/sgp2012?pop=11
Michael Frayn's Skios has been long-listed for the Man Booker Prize.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/book-reviews/greece-gods-and-amiable-young-idiots-in-michael-frayns-latest/article4460668/
YOUNG READERS
Elizabeth Wein's Code Name Verity is a thrilling WWII spy drama for young adults, writes Mary Quattlebaum. This gripping story opens in occupied France, with Julie captured and being forced to write a confession for a Nazi interrogator.
This heart-in-your-mouth adventure has it all, says Quattlebaum. Ages 14 and up.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/elizabeth-weins-code-name-verity-thrilling-wwii-spy-drama-for-young-adults/2012/07/31/gJQAzGz2NX_story.html
The sight of a bug can send many an adult into a frenzy. It's no wonder, seeing such reactions on the part of adults, that children, too, might be inclined to squash a bug. Stephen, the central character in Jorge Luján's Stephen and the
Beetle, is such a child. Ages 4 to 7.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/Kids+holds+power+life+death+over+beetle/7039143/story.html#ixzz22d3srtXy
In Bon Appétit!: The Delicious Life of Julia Child, author/illustrator Jessie Hartland's hand-lettered text and funky gouache paintings go a long way toward capturing Julia Child's lively, irreverent approach to good food and good
eating, along with permission to "ask a grown-up to help you." Age 9 and up.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/books/Kids+Introducing+young+cooks+Julia+Child/6996268/story.html
Author Kevin Sylvester writes about a less celebrated side of the Olympics, with people, ideas and events chosen for their unusualness. For the most part, the Gold Medals of Weird are safe–no one will be training to win one, and there
will be no rivals to worry about. These records (and their stories) will stand. Ages 7 to 12.
http://www.umanitoba.ca/cm/vol14/no6/goldmedalforwierd.html
NEWS & FEATURES
Wattpad has announced the Attys, a new trophy for online verse named after Margaret Atwood. The Attys are specifically for digital poetry. Wattpad will accept entries from both amateurs and the more experienced. Atwood will be judging
the prize. Information about entering is here: http://www.wattpad.com/attys
The Guardin/Observer has reprinted a 1998 Gore Vidal essay on the origins of the Cold War.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/aug/05/gore-vidal-origins-of-cold-war
Australian art critic and writer Robert Hughes, author of The Fatal Shore and Shock of the New, has died in New York. He was 74.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/story/2012/08/07/robert-hughes-obit.html
James Joyce's Ulysses has topped poll after poll to be named the greatest novel of the 20th century, but according to Paulo Coelho, the book is "a twit", indeed is 'harmful' to literature.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/aug/06/paulo-coelho-james-joyce-ulysses
Fears that pirated editions of JK Rowling's upcoming novel The Casual Vacancy could leak out will result in some foreign publishers (e.g., in Italy, Finland and Slovenia) not receiving copies until it is published in English. The novel
will be published on 27 September in the UK and the US.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jul/31/jk-rowling-casual-vacancy-translation-fears
Marilyn Monroe, who played the perennial dumb blonde was a comedian who created a parody of femininity. In Marilyn: The Passion and the Paradox, Professor Lois Banner (U. of Southern California) writes that Monroe was a proto-feminist
who took control of her career which often created conflict with established Hollywood.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/story/2012/08/03/marilyn-monroe-anniversary.html
John Banville, who fell in love with Monroe when he was ten, adds that: "Monroe was one of the 20th century's great clowns. What made MM so bewitching was that it was–all or almost all–an act.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/aug/03/marilyn-monroe-banville-50-death
Mitt Romney recently quoted Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs and Steel in his (Romney's) discussion of disparities in the economic success of various countries. Diamond's response in a recent New York Times, includes, "...difference from what
my book says that I have to doubt whether Mr. Romney read it."
http://www.latimes.com/features/books/jacketcopy/la-jc-mitt-romney-misunderstood-his-book-says-author-jared-diamond-20120802,0,2692855.story
Twitter and Tumblr are destroying literary criticism, writes Jacob Silverman, who blames a culture of niceness in online book culture.
http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/books/2012/08/writers_and_readers_on_twitter_and_tumblr_we_need_more_criticism_less_liking_.html
Bardowl, a new streaming service, could soon challenge Amazon's Audible, writes Anna Baddeley. The main difference between Bardowl and its main rival, Amazon-owned Audible, is that you're streaming rather than downloading. Unlike
reading, you can listen to a book while doing other things.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/aug/05/bardowl-audiobooks-spotify
Mark Billingham, author of the Tom Thorne detective series, criticised the growing self-publishing industry that allows writers to sell their work electronically for pence. Books sre devalued if they are sold for "less than half the
price of a cup of tea", says Billingham.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/9449682/E-books-sold-for-price-of-a-cup-of-tea-are-harming-industry-says-author.html
An illustrated account of young Arthur Conan Doyle, ship's doctor on the Arctic whaler Hope–for which he ran away from his medical studies in Edinburgh–is to be published for the first time by the British Library, in a facsimile edition.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/aug/06/arthurconandoyle-arctic
The Irish novelist John Banville, who writes crime fiction under the name Benjamin Black, will write a novel featuring Raymond Chandler's creation Philip Marlowe. The novel, which will be set in the 1940s in the fictional Californian
setting of Bay City, will be published next year.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/feedarticle/10379479
CBC Books has a new contest. Last lines are so important. They are the final thought readers are left with. They conclude the story at hand but establish possibility for a future. Whether it be from the past or the present, from fiction
or non-fiction–the CBC wants to know what it is and why you love it. Post a comment on the website by Sunday, August 19, 2012, at 11:59 p.m. ET. The rules and regulations are here. Good luck!
http://www.cbc.ca/books/2012/08/whats-your-favourite-last-line-in-literature.html
BOOKS & WRITERS
"Kapuscinski" has long been one of Poland's few internationally recognized names, due to the unusual style of his literary reporting in The Emperor, The Soccer War and Shah of Shahs. Similarly, Artur Domoslawski's Ryszard Kapuscinski:
The Biography is not a conventional biography, writes Agnes Pyzik.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/aug/02/ryszard-kapuscinski-biography-domoslawski-review
Dave Margoshes's loving fictionalized memoir about his father, Harry, is artfully executed in this collection of 14 loosely linked stories, writes Sharon Abron Drache. A grand tribute to Harry Morgenstern, resourcefully approximating the
novel his son believes he could have written, but never did, says Drache.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/book-reviews/dave-margoshess-stories-a-grand-tribute-to-his-father/article4454593/
Linda Holeman's fifth historical novel The Lost Souls of Angelkov takes place in 19th C. Russia, with the characters flung into the immense social changes of the time, especially the emancipation of the serfs. Plot is the driving force,
writes Candace Fertile.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/book-reviews/serfs-up-a-novel-of-angst-in-19th-century-russia/article4438746/
The title of Will Self's novel Umbrella derives from Joyce's "A brother is as easily forgotten as an umbrella". Umbrella, longlisted for the Booker Prize, is a dazzling feat of imagination and structure, writes Elizabeth Day, as she
learns why Self likes writing as a woman.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/aug/05/will-self-umbrella-booker-interview
"Embrace the sweet lovely mess," says a character in Jess Walter's Beautiful Ruins. She's talking about life, but could mean the multiple, intersecting storylines and numerous lives, writes Joel Yanofsky. Walter offers a change of scene,
setting and point-of-view in each successive chapter.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/books/Italian+hotelier+falls+actress/7039086/story.html
Richard Fitzpatrick's El Clasico: Barcelona v Real Madrid: Football's Greatest Rivalry is about soccer, styles, ideologies. and a history of hatred; e.g., when Johan Cruyff was pursued by Real Madrid, he said he would never play for a
team "associated with Franco". A riveting read, writes Tim Lewis.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/aug/03/clasico-barcelona-real-madrid-review
Alexander McCall Smith's A Conspiracy of Friends is an excellent tonic for whatever ails you, writes Laura Eggertson. Psychoanalyst Berthea Snark is the only mother in current literary fiction who longs to learn that her child was
switched at birth, says Eggertson.
http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/books/article/1234879--a-conspiracy-of-friends-by-alexander-mccall-smith-review
Naomi Beth Wakan, a "lovely old biddy from Gabriola" as she's been described with her approval, has found life as an 80 year old to be like a roller coaster. Hence A Roller-Coaster Ride: Thoughts on Aging, the title of her most recent
book. Whether facts or opinions, Wakan's words give food for thought writes Mary Ann Moore.
http://www.vancouversun.com/entertainment/books/Gabriola+Island+writer+charts+path+into/6994477/story.html
A novel occasionally feels less like a book than a poignant passage of your own life, writes Donna Bailey Nurse. Rachel Joyce's The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, describes Fry's pilgrimage to keep his dying friend alive.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/book-reviews/in-rachel-joyces-subtle-debut-an-impulse-becomes-a-pilgrimage/article4460314/
"How I wish the Canada Party, the one that this month produced Chris Cannon and Brent Calvert's America But Better: The Canada Party Manifesto were on the ballot at my polling place, writes David M. Shribman. Their manifesto–a 148 page
roadmap–possesses the key to reforming our politics," says Shribman.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/book-reviews/only-canada-can-save-america-according-to-this-manifesto/article4460036/
Joel Yanofsky writes that Jess Walter weaves a brilliantly tangled mess in his fine novel, Beautiful Ruins. Of course, there will be complications in this lopsided love story – a half century of them, adding Beautiful Ruins is a story
mainly about storytelling.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/Italian+hotelier+falls+actress/7039086/story.html#ixzz22u5Abkxn
COMMUNITY EVENTS
ANAKANA SCHOFIELD
The Vancouver Book Club will host Anakana Schofield in conversation about her novel Malarkey. Thursday, August 9 at 7:00pm, free. Prophouse Cafe, 1636 Venables Ave., Vancouver. More information at vancouverisawesome.com/bookclub.
SUNSHINE COAST FESTIVAL OF THE WRITTEN ARTS
Canada's longest running summer gathering of Canadian writers and readers. Features Wayson Choy, Charlotte Gill, Patrick Lane, Ami McKay, Richard Wagamese and many others. Tickets on sale now! August 16-19, 2012. Sechelt, BC. Complete
details at www.writersfestival.ca.
Upcoming
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.
A POETIC WALK THROUGH NATURE
Join Vancouver's 100,000 Poets for Change on an Earthwalk. Poets will read select poems calling for the preservation of our beautiful forests and shorelines. A guest speaker will also present a narrative tour of the cultural history and
natural habitat of Stanley Park. September 29 at 10:00am, free. For more information and to register, visit http://earthwalks11poets.eventbrite.com/.
Thursday, August 2, 2012
Book News Vol. 7 No. 28
BOOK NEWS
UPCOMING EVENTS
Michael Chabon
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. Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/michaelchabon
Writing the Unthinkable: Public Workshop with Lynda Barry
September 30, 10am to 1pm
Studio 1989
Following the sell-out success of her 2010 Festival appearances, Lynda Barry is back with her extraordinary workshop for established and aspiring writers.
"Lynda Barry is inspirational, motivating and affirming"–R.L. 2010 Writers Fest Event Attendee
Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/lyndabarry
VIRTUAL FESTIVAL
Listen to the fifteenth installment in our series of audio archives from past Festival events. This week you'll hear an exerpt from 2010's "Short Stories" featuring Ivan E. Coyote, Billie Livingston, Sarah Selecky and Terence Young. 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.
AWARDS & LISTS
The American Library Association has awarded Anne Enright and Robert K. Massie the Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction. Enright was recognized for her novel The Forgotten Waltz; Massie, for his biography, Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman. Each author will receive a medal and $5,000.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/books/ct-prj-ala-update,0,2443459.story
During the Leacock Summer Festival in Orillia, Ontario last weekend, Richard Gwyn, Patrick deWitt, Goran Simic, and Ryan Flavelle were declared winners of The Canadian Authors Association's (CAA) 2012 Literary Awards. Full story:
http://campaign.r20.constantcontact.com/render?llr=baatlveab&v=001xdqoBdbuEqDFOmorzu9ddAU4IJR4FSXtibsCk1A-bcXci7TR5NUMVMfu_TkoJQZnH_xHix48funLbr1ITFlLQZDe6dIXOSGRd4AiQ3tamRw%3D
Rhea Tregebov's The Knife Sharpener's Bell has been nominated for Manitoba Reads 2012. 12 titles are in the running for the honour-and you can have your say! Public voting is open until August 12th and you may vote once per day.
http://us4.campaign-archive1.com/?u=43b06605efcded4816916b918&id=fd3dd4e7a9&e=78a0c54425
YOUNG READERS
At the Ministry of Stories' Children's Republic of Shoreditch, Nick Hornby got pictures of Mary Poppins and King Henry VIII. Read his story and find out how he tackled the combination, and what happened when Mary Poppins told the king to tidy his room. Up to 11 years.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/childrens-books-site/2012/jul/26/nick-hornby-mary-poppins-henry-exclusive-short-story
Sarah Garland's Azzi in Between is a picture book that introduces children to what it is like to be a refugee child. One of the most involving stories I have read in a while, writes Kate Kellaway. Everyone should read it. For all ages.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/data/book/unclassified/9781847802613/azzi-in-between
Cassie Waters' Heat Wave, one of the "Pool Girls" series, is perfect for readers ages 8 to 12. The swim team's star swimmer breaks her leg and Grace must fill in for her. The problem is that Grace isn't a very good swimmer.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/kidspost/you-might-also-like-heat-wave/2012/07/24/gJQABFaK7W_story.html
In Billie Livingston's One Good Hustle, Burnaby teenager Sammie Bell, tough but sweet, relies on her friends for survival since her parents have essentially abandoned her. But, writes Jennifer Hunter, Livingston reminds us children often love their parents no matter what. For ages 14 and up.
http://www.thestar.com/news/books/article/1231518--one-good-hustle
NEWS & FEATURES
Millions of readers around the world will miss Maeve Binchy as a writer who spoke to them so directly that they felt she was their friend, writes Felicity Hayes-McCoy. This includes Writers Festival attendees who flocked to her events here. Maeve Binchy died in Dublin Monday, at the age of 72.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/jul/31/maeve-binchy-miss-you
Marsha Lederman describes how Maeve Binchy taught her how to find a happy ending.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/how-maeve-binchy-helped-me-find-a-happy-ending/article4452821/
US writer and contrarian Gore Vidal, one of the towering figures of American cultural and political life for more than six decades, has died aged 86. http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/aug/01/gore-vidal-dies-aged-86
Every summer, everyone and their uncle wants to tell you what to read at the beach. As the summer hits mid-stride, the LA Times offers the anti-beach reading list: nine books that you need not, nay, that you SHOULD not read at the beach.
http://www.latimes.com/features/books/jacketcopy/la-jc-9-books-not-to-read-at-the-beach-20120717,0,441020.story
Mobile services company Orange announced in May that it was ending its 17-year sponsorship of the Orange Prize. A new sponsor for the Prize will be announced in September, after 18 companies expressed an interest in backing the prize. The £30,000 prize recognizes English language fiction written by women.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-18856829
Tales of an Inuvialuit girl's resistance and triumph in Fatty Legs: A Residential School Story has become a best selling sensation among 'middle' readers., writes Robyn Smith. A follow-up book, A Stranger at Home, was published last year. Authors Margaret Pokiak-Fenton and Christy Jordan-Fenton plan to turn these stories into a picture book for young children.
http://thetyee.ca/Books/2012/07/30/Fatty-Legs/?utm_source=mondayheadlines&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=300712
Mystery solved. It had begun with the decision to use a pen name for some poetry and a pseudonym for some other writing. Michael Redhill has now revealed that Inger Ash Wolfe is a pseudonym he has used in the past.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/the-real-inger-ash-wolfe-stands-up/article4444252/
A collection of rare books, including an illustrated copy of Paradise Lost, has been discovered in a hidden cupboard in a Scottish library. The collection includes a 1538 edition of letters by Roman philosopher Cicero and an 1827 illustrated edition of John Milton's Paradise Lost – one of only 50 copies.
http://www.scotsman.com/lifestyle/books/features/rare-books-discovered-in-hidden-cupboard-1-2438900
A theatre director's mother rescued Michael Morpurgo's young-adult novel War Horse from obscurity, and along with the work of South Africa's Handspring Puppet Company, set it on course to become the most popular new play of the 21st century.
http://www.sfgate.com/performance/article/How-War-Horse-became-a-puppet-3723057.php
The combination of The Penguin Group's acquisition of upstart vanity publisher Author Solutions Inc., that earns most of its income by charging amateur authors hefty fees to produce unsellable books, and sales shifting to heavily discounted, royalty-poor and easily pirated ebooks leads John Barber to predict that there will be no professional writers in the future.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/there-will-be-no-more-professional-writers-in-the-future/article4441060/
Hanging on the coattails of Fifty Shades of Grey, a U.K. publisher is releasing R-rated versions of Pride and Prejudice, Jane Eyre and A Study in Scarlet. Reader response, to date, is mixed.
http://www.thestar.com/news/books/article/1231238---mommy-porn-opens-door-for-erotic-retelling-of-jane-eyre-pride-and-prejudice
From his new home base in Brooklyn, Martin Amis talks to David Wallace-Wells about sex, porn, rioting, the difference between London and New York, his new novel Lionel Asbo, and the dwindling fortunes of postmodernist literature and American empire.
http://nymag.com/arts/books/features/martin-amis-2012-7/
Arts, along with athletics, were a part of the Olympics nearly from the start. From 1912 to 1952, juries awarded a total of 151 medals to original works in the fine arts inspired by athletic endeavors, alongside those for the athletic competitions.
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/When-the-Olympics-Gave-Out-Medals-for-Art-163705106.html#ixzz21rHsVFAC
Poet Priscila Uppal will reprise the role she played as the first Olympic poet-in-residence to Canadian athletes at Vancouver, where she tested her own endurance and performance skills by pumping out two sports poems a day.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/poet-priscila-uppals-olympian-challenge/article4445289/
Oppal's daily poetic feed can be found here:
http://games.reviewcanada.ca/
In a conversation on a life in writing, Tim Parks says to Sarah Crown, "I couldn't really see a painting or a film or a game of football until I had thought about it in words, or preferably talked about it, or better still, written about it."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2012/jul/27/tim-parks-life-in-writing
Alan Bissett raises several issues on the apparent bias of the Booker prize. A disproportionate number of English prize-winners; a storm of controversy when a prize went to one Scot. Bissett's provocative article can be found here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2012/jul/27/booker-prize-bias-english
BOOKS & WRITERS
Liza Klaussmann is the great-great-great-granddaughter of Herman Melville, but it's her grandmother who inspired her first novel, Tigers in Red Weather, written from the point of view of five different characters, offering a fractured portrait of truth within one family.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/story/2012/07/25/liza-klaussmann-video.html
In the summer, it isn't easy being German, writes Hector Tobar. For a few weeks, the famously efficient German work routine grinds to a halt. In Summer Lies, Bernhard Schlink's new collection of short stories, characters suffer through the forced intimacy of their family vacations.
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-ca-bernhard-schlink-20120729,0,737108.story
Mario Vargas Llosa's The Dream of the Celt writes of Roger Casement, whose work on human rights abuses in Congo and Peru led to his discovering Ireland was subject to the same abuse—and his arrest for treason. A brilliant exploration of conflicting moral claims, says Luis Alberto Urrea.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/mario-vargas-llosas-the-dream-of-the-celt/2012/07/23/gJQAKAiJ5W_story.html
While Grace is cross-country skiing, she comes across a man lying face down in the snow. Someone is suffering, and someone else must decide just how far their duty to help goes. Alix Ohlin's Inside is both easily accessible and demanding, writes Ian McGillis.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/books/does+duty+help/6996206/story.html
Deborah Harkness welcomes readers back to the world of Diana Bishop with Shadow of Night, which picks up moments after the cliffhanger ending of the earlier book. Diana and Matthew flee into the past to escape witches who want Diana under their control — or dead.
http://www.vancouversun.com/entertainment/books/Shadow+Night+escapes+England+1590s/6994480/story.html
Linda Holeman's fifth historical novel The Lost Souls of Angelkov takes place in 19th C. Russia, with the characters flung into the immense social changes of the time, especially the emancipation of the serfs. Plot is the driving force, writes Candace Fertile.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/book-reviews/serfs-up-a-novel-of-angst-in-19th-century-russia/article4438746/
Meaghan Delahunt's To the Island creates yearning for the Greek Islands and creates connections between individuals whose hearts had been broken (due to abandonment and imprisonment). Delahunt deftly reflects how people sometimes cannot remove those spaces even when they want to, writes Tracy Sherlock.
http://www.vancouversun.com/entertainment/books/Greek+island+home+family+ties/6994482/story.html
COMMUNITY EVENTS
QUEEROTICA
Readings by Ken Boesem, Kate Bornstein, Tony Correia, Amber Dawn, C.E. Gatchalian, Hiromi Goto, Elaine Miller, Micheal V Smith, and Charlie Spats. Tuesday, August 7 at 8:00pm. Admission by donation. Roundhouse Community Arts, 181 Roundhouse Mews. More information at queerartsfestival.com.
ANAKANA SCHOFIELD
The Vancouver Book Club will host Anakana Schofield in conversation about her novel Malarkey. Thursday, August 9 at 7:00pm, free. Prophouse Cafe, 1636 Venables Ave., Vancouver. More information at vancouverisawesome.com/bookclub.
Upcoming
SUNSHINE COAST FESTIVAL OF THE WRITTEN ARTS
Canada's longest running summer gathering of Canadian writers and readers. Features Wayson Choy, Charlotte Gill, Patrick Lane, Ami McKay, Richard Wagamese and many others. Tickets on sale now! August 16-19, 2012. Sechelt, BC. Complete details at www.writersfestival.ca.
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.
A POETIC WALK THROUGH NATURE
Join Vancouver's 100,000 Poets for Change on an Earthwalk. Poets will read select poems calling for the preservation of our beautiful forests and shorelines. A guest speaker will also present a narrative tour of the cultural history and natural habitat of Stanley Park. September 29 at 10:00am, free. For more information and to register, visit http://earthwalks11poets.eventbrite.com/.
UPCOMING EVENTS
Michael Chabon
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. Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/michaelchabon
Writing the Unthinkable: Public Workshop with Lynda Barry
September 30, 10am to 1pm
Studio 1989
Following the sell-out success of her 2010 Festival appearances, Lynda Barry is back with her extraordinary workshop for established and aspiring writers.
"Lynda Barry is inspirational, motivating and affirming"–R.L. 2010 Writers Fest Event Attendee
Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/lyndabarry
VIRTUAL FESTIVAL
Listen to the fifteenth installment in our series of audio archives from past Festival events. This week you'll hear an exerpt from 2010's "Short Stories" featuring Ivan E. Coyote, Billie Livingston, Sarah Selecky and Terence Young. 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.
AWARDS & LISTS
The American Library Association has awarded Anne Enright and Robert K. Massie the Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction. Enright was recognized for her novel The Forgotten Waltz; Massie, for his biography, Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman. Each author will receive a medal and $5,000.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/books/ct-prj-ala-update,0,2443459.story
During the Leacock Summer Festival in Orillia, Ontario last weekend, Richard Gwyn, Patrick deWitt, Goran Simic, and Ryan Flavelle were declared winners of The Canadian Authors Association's (CAA) 2012 Literary Awards. Full story:
http://campaign.r20.constantcontact.com/render?llr=baatlveab&v=001xdqoBdbuEqDFOmorzu9ddAU4IJR4FSXtibsCk1A-bcXci7TR5NUMVMfu_TkoJQZnH_xHix48funLbr1ITFlLQZDe6dIXOSGRd4AiQ3tamRw%3D
Rhea Tregebov's The Knife Sharpener's Bell has been nominated for Manitoba Reads 2012. 12 titles are in the running for the honour-and you can have your say! Public voting is open until August 12th and you may vote once per day.
http://us4.campaign-archive1.com/?u=43b06605efcded4816916b918&id=fd3dd4e7a9&e=78a0c54425
YOUNG READERS
At the Ministry of Stories' Children's Republic of Shoreditch, Nick Hornby got pictures of Mary Poppins and King Henry VIII. Read his story and find out how he tackled the combination, and what happened when Mary Poppins told the king to tidy his room. Up to 11 years.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/childrens-books-site/2012/jul/26/nick-hornby-mary-poppins-henry-exclusive-short-story
Sarah Garland's Azzi in Between is a picture book that introduces children to what it is like to be a refugee child. One of the most involving stories I have read in a while, writes Kate Kellaway. Everyone should read it. For all ages.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/data/book/unclassified/9781847802613/azzi-in-between
Cassie Waters' Heat Wave, one of the "Pool Girls" series, is perfect for readers ages 8 to 12. The swim team's star swimmer breaks her leg and Grace must fill in for her. The problem is that Grace isn't a very good swimmer.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/kidspost/you-might-also-like-heat-wave/2012/07/24/gJQABFaK7W_story.html
In Billie Livingston's One Good Hustle, Burnaby teenager Sammie Bell, tough but sweet, relies on her friends for survival since her parents have essentially abandoned her. But, writes Jennifer Hunter, Livingston reminds us children often love their parents no matter what. For ages 14 and up.
http://www.thestar.com/news/books/article/1231518--one-good-hustle
NEWS & FEATURES
Millions of readers around the world will miss Maeve Binchy as a writer who spoke to them so directly that they felt she was their friend, writes Felicity Hayes-McCoy. This includes Writers Festival attendees who flocked to her events here. Maeve Binchy died in Dublin Monday, at the age of 72.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/jul/31/maeve-binchy-miss-you
Marsha Lederman describes how Maeve Binchy taught her how to find a happy ending.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/how-maeve-binchy-helped-me-find-a-happy-ending/article4452821/
US writer and contrarian Gore Vidal, one of the towering figures of American cultural and political life for more than six decades, has died aged 86. http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/aug/01/gore-vidal-dies-aged-86
Every summer, everyone and their uncle wants to tell you what to read at the beach. As the summer hits mid-stride, the LA Times offers the anti-beach reading list: nine books that you need not, nay, that you SHOULD not read at the beach.
http://www.latimes.com/features/books/jacketcopy/la-jc-9-books-not-to-read-at-the-beach-20120717,0,441020.story
Mobile services company Orange announced in May that it was ending its 17-year sponsorship of the Orange Prize. A new sponsor for the Prize will be announced in September, after 18 companies expressed an interest in backing the prize. The £30,000 prize recognizes English language fiction written by women.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-18856829
Tales of an Inuvialuit girl's resistance and triumph in Fatty Legs: A Residential School Story has become a best selling sensation among 'middle' readers., writes Robyn Smith. A follow-up book, A Stranger at Home, was published last year. Authors Margaret Pokiak-Fenton and Christy Jordan-Fenton plan to turn these stories into a picture book for young children.
http://thetyee.ca/Books/2012/07/30/Fatty-Legs/?utm_source=mondayheadlines&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=300712
Mystery solved. It had begun with the decision to use a pen name for some poetry and a pseudonym for some other writing. Michael Redhill has now revealed that Inger Ash Wolfe is a pseudonym he has used in the past.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/the-real-inger-ash-wolfe-stands-up/article4444252/
A collection of rare books, including an illustrated copy of Paradise Lost, has been discovered in a hidden cupboard in a Scottish library. The collection includes a 1538 edition of letters by Roman philosopher Cicero and an 1827 illustrated edition of John Milton's Paradise Lost – one of only 50 copies.
http://www.scotsman.com/lifestyle/books/features/rare-books-discovered-in-hidden-cupboard-1-2438900
A theatre director's mother rescued Michael Morpurgo's young-adult novel War Horse from obscurity, and along with the work of South Africa's Handspring Puppet Company, set it on course to become the most popular new play of the 21st century.
http://www.sfgate.com/performance/article/How-War-Horse-became-a-puppet-3723057.php
The combination of The Penguin Group's acquisition of upstart vanity publisher Author Solutions Inc., that earns most of its income by charging amateur authors hefty fees to produce unsellable books, and sales shifting to heavily discounted, royalty-poor and easily pirated ebooks leads John Barber to predict that there will be no professional writers in the future.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/there-will-be-no-more-professional-writers-in-the-future/article4441060/
Hanging on the coattails of Fifty Shades of Grey, a U.K. publisher is releasing R-rated versions of Pride and Prejudice, Jane Eyre and A Study in Scarlet. Reader response, to date, is mixed.
http://www.thestar.com/news/books/article/1231238---mommy-porn-opens-door-for-erotic-retelling-of-jane-eyre-pride-and-prejudice
From his new home base in Brooklyn, Martin Amis talks to David Wallace-Wells about sex, porn, rioting, the difference between London and New York, his new novel Lionel Asbo, and the dwindling fortunes of postmodernist literature and American empire.
http://nymag.com/arts/books/features/martin-amis-2012-7/
Arts, along with athletics, were a part of the Olympics nearly from the start. From 1912 to 1952, juries awarded a total of 151 medals to original works in the fine arts inspired by athletic endeavors, alongside those for the athletic competitions.
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/When-the-Olympics-Gave-Out-Medals-for-Art-163705106.html#ixzz21rHsVFAC
Poet Priscila Uppal will reprise the role she played as the first Olympic poet-in-residence to Canadian athletes at Vancouver, where she tested her own endurance and performance skills by pumping out two sports poems a day.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/poet-priscila-uppals-olympian-challenge/article4445289/
Oppal's daily poetic feed can be found here:
http://games.reviewcanada.ca/
In a conversation on a life in writing, Tim Parks says to Sarah Crown, "I couldn't really see a painting or a film or a game of football until I had thought about it in words, or preferably talked about it, or better still, written about it."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2012/jul/27/tim-parks-life-in-writing
Alan Bissett raises several issues on the apparent bias of the Booker prize. A disproportionate number of English prize-winners; a storm of controversy when a prize went to one Scot. Bissett's provocative article can be found here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2012/jul/27/booker-prize-bias-english
BOOKS & WRITERS
Liza Klaussmann is the great-great-great-granddaughter of Herman Melville, but it's her grandmother who inspired her first novel, Tigers in Red Weather, written from the point of view of five different characters, offering a fractured portrait of truth within one family.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/story/2012/07/25/liza-klaussmann-video.html
In the summer, it isn't easy being German, writes Hector Tobar. For a few weeks, the famously efficient German work routine grinds to a halt. In Summer Lies, Bernhard Schlink's new collection of short stories, characters suffer through the forced intimacy of their family vacations.
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-ca-bernhard-schlink-20120729,0,737108.story
Mario Vargas Llosa's The Dream of the Celt writes of Roger Casement, whose work on human rights abuses in Congo and Peru led to his discovering Ireland was subject to the same abuse—and his arrest for treason. A brilliant exploration of conflicting moral claims, says Luis Alberto Urrea.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/mario-vargas-llosas-the-dream-of-the-celt/2012/07/23/gJQAKAiJ5W_story.html
While Grace is cross-country skiing, she comes across a man lying face down in the snow. Someone is suffering, and someone else must decide just how far their duty to help goes. Alix Ohlin's Inside is both easily accessible and demanding, writes Ian McGillis.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/books/does+duty+help/6996206/story.html
Deborah Harkness welcomes readers back to the world of Diana Bishop with Shadow of Night, which picks up moments after the cliffhanger ending of the earlier book. Diana and Matthew flee into the past to escape witches who want Diana under their control — or dead.
http://www.vancouversun.com/entertainment/books/Shadow+Night+escapes+England+1590s/6994480/story.html
Linda Holeman's fifth historical novel The Lost Souls of Angelkov takes place in 19th C. Russia, with the characters flung into the immense social changes of the time, especially the emancipation of the serfs. Plot is the driving force, writes Candace Fertile.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/book-reviews/serfs-up-a-novel-of-angst-in-19th-century-russia/article4438746/
Meaghan Delahunt's To the Island creates yearning for the Greek Islands and creates connections between individuals whose hearts had been broken (due to abandonment and imprisonment). Delahunt deftly reflects how people sometimes cannot remove those spaces even when they want to, writes Tracy Sherlock.
http://www.vancouversun.com/entertainment/books/Greek+island+home+family+ties/6994482/story.html
COMMUNITY EVENTS
QUEEROTICA
Readings by Ken Boesem, Kate Bornstein, Tony Correia, Amber Dawn, C.E. Gatchalian, Hiromi Goto, Elaine Miller, Micheal V Smith, and Charlie Spats. Tuesday, August 7 at 8:00pm. Admission by donation. Roundhouse Community Arts, 181 Roundhouse Mews. More information at queerartsfestival.com.
ANAKANA SCHOFIELD
The Vancouver Book Club will host Anakana Schofield in conversation about her novel Malarkey. Thursday, August 9 at 7:00pm, free. Prophouse Cafe, 1636 Venables Ave., Vancouver. More information at vancouverisawesome.com/bookclub.
Upcoming
SUNSHINE COAST FESTIVAL OF THE WRITTEN ARTS
Canada's longest running summer gathering of Canadian writers and readers. Features Wayson Choy, Charlotte Gill, Patrick Lane, Ami McKay, Richard Wagamese and many others. Tickets on sale now! August 16-19, 2012. Sechelt, BC. Complete details at www.writersfestival.ca.
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.
A POETIC WALK THROUGH NATURE
Join Vancouver's 100,000 Poets for Change on an Earthwalk. Poets will read select poems calling for the preservation of our beautiful forests and shorelines. A guest speaker will also present a narrative tour of the cultural history and natural habitat of Stanley Park. September 29 at 10:00am, free. For more information and to register, visit http://earthwalks11poets.eventbrite.com/.
Thursday, July 26, 2012
Book News Vol. 7 No. 27
BOOK NEWS
UPCOMING EVENTS
Michael Chabon
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. Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/michaelchabon
Just announced!
Writing the Unthinkable: Public Workshop with Lynda Barry
September 30, 10am to 1pm
Studio 1989
Following the sell-out success of her 2010 Festival appearances, Lynda Barry is back with her extraordinary workshop for established and aspiring writers.
"Lynda Barry is inspirational, motivating and affirming"–R.L. 2010 Writers Fest Event Attendee
Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/lyndabarry
VIRTUAL FESTIVAL
Listen to the fourteenth installment in our series of audio archives from past Festival events. This week you'll hear an exerpt from 2010's The Afternoon Tea featuring the wonderful Ali Smith reading a short story she thought would be her "Last". 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.
AWARDS & LISTS
We would like to congratulate Clea Young, the Festival's Writer Services Co-ordinator, who has been shortlisted for the Litpop Award sponsored by Matrix magazine.
http://matrixmagazine.org/litpop/
Hilary Dean, a Toronto writer and filmmaker, has won the 2012 CBC Creative Nonfiction Prize for her story Holy Bald-Headed, a tale infused with melancholy memories and a shocking assault that jurors dubbed "equal parts tender and brutal."
http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/books/story/2012/07/23/cbc-nonfiction-writing-prize-dean.html
Nichola Barker, André Brink, Tan Twan Eng, Michael Frayn, Hilary Mantel and Will Self, are among the twelve authors longlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2012. The complete list is here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2012/jul/25/booker-prize-longlist-2012-open-thread
YOUNG READERS
David Shelton's A Boy and a Bear in a Boat is a book to be savoured, writes Bernie Goedhart. A boy climbs aboard a dinghy to be rowed "to the other side" by a bear who hires out his services as an experienced captain. Beautifully illustrated by the author. For ages 8 to 88.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/books/Kids+book+savoured/6959207/story.html
Where My Wellies Take Me, by Clare and Michael Morpurgo, is a selection of poetry chosen by the former children's laureate Michael Morpurgo, with a new story woven into the poems and pictures. For ages 4 to 8. Illustrations can be found here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/gallery/2012/jul/20/where-my-wellies-morpurgo-gallery
An extract from Michael Morpurgo's new book, Little Manfred, is here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/interactive/2011/may/25/michael-morpurgo-little-manfred-extract
Rinsai Rosetti's The Girl With Borrowed Wings is an elegant, young-adult paranormal title. Frenenqer (the word means "restraint"), who is a perfectionist, rescues a cat that turns out to be a shape-shifter. Frenenger's domineering father is not happy about this turn of events. For ages 12 and up.
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-ca-rinsai-rossetti-20120722,0,4394502.story
"Glee" star Chris Colfer's The Land of Stories is a children's novel about twins Connor and Alex, who find themselves sucked into their favourite book of fairy tales, suddenly face-to-face with the characters they grew up reading about. For ages 4 to 9.
http://www.sfgate.com/books/article/Glee-s-Chris-Colfer-writes-children-s-novel-3717994.php
NEWS & FEATURES
London's Mayor Boris Johnson has commissioned a poem in the style of Pindar to mark the start of the London 2012 Olympic Games, acknowledging Pindar‘s fame for his odes celebrating victories in fifth-century Greece's athletic competitions. Johnson will be reciting the poem in ancient Greek.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/charlottehigginsblog/2012/jul/23/boris-johnson-ancient-greek-ode
On the occasion of Winnie the Witch's 25th birthday, after Winnie first tripped over her cat, Wilbur, take a look back at some of her wackiest spells and wildest adventures in a gallery of images.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/childrens-books-site/gallery/2012/jul/20/winnie-witch-25-birthday-years
Daniel David interviews and profiles Thomas King, still not the Indian you had in mind. King's latest book, The Inconvenient Indian, which King describes as "non-fiction", "sort of" and "narrative history", will be published in November.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/thomas-king-still-not-the-indian-you-had-in-mind/article4426067/
Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey is to be reworked by crime author Val McDermid as a suspense-filled teen thriller, writes Alison Flood.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jul/19/jane-austen-northanger-abbey-val-mcdermid
There is safety in books. There is communion. There is order. These comfort Susanna Hislop, as she struggles to rate the attributes (and how important each attribute is to her) of the British Library Reading Room.
http://thejunket.org/2012/07/issue-four/book-keeping/
The Guardian launched a Great American Novelist tournament with the original list of nominees debated, dissected and reassembled several times over. The final list of 32 competitors for the title of Great American Novelist can be found here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2012/jul/23/great-american-novelist-tournament-final-32
Producer Ron Moore intends to bring Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series to television. An epic show about a time-travelling nurse who meets and falls in love with a Scottish hottie from 200 years earlier doesn't seem as crazy as it used to, says Malene Arpe.
http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/stargazing/article/1228088--ron-moore-wants-to-bring-diana-gabaldon-s-outlander-to-tv
A PhD student has discovered A Little Episode, a lost short story by Katherine Mansfield, in an archive. The story, along with three children's tales and a collection of aphorisms, give new insight into one of the most turbulent periods of Mansfield's short life.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jul/23/katherine-mansfield-lost-story-unearthed
Margaret Mahy, one of New Zealand's most acclaimed literary figures, has died aged 76. She won many major children's prizes, including the Hans Christian Andersen medal and the UK's Carnegie medal for The Haunting and The Changeover, both supernatural coming-of-age tales.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jul/23/margaret-mahy-dies-76
Each summer, Rare Book School brings together librarians, conservators, scholars, dealers, collectors and book-mad civilians for weeklong intensive courses. Bringing an understanding of the materiality of the book back into literary studies is something that Michael Suarez speaks of with an almost missionary zeal.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/24/books/rare-book-school-at-the-university-of-virginia.html?_r=1&ref=books
Canadian publishers say recently passed copyright reform is stripping away some of their financial incentive to provide books to the country's universities and colleges.
http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=20120712105214396
A Book You Can Eat is Better Than an eBook: this article on UK children's bookstores show that there's still a healthy market in children book sales. "While 73 independent bookstores closed in 2011, not a single children's bookstore did."
http://www.care2.com/causes/uk-childrens-bookstores.html?page=1
The UK's Society of Authors is considering action against the government over copyright infringement on loaned books. Authors are not entitled to royalties for books borrowed from libraries run by "big society"-inspired volunteers attempting to save local libraries from closing due to spending cuts.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jul/22/authors-royalty-volunteer-libraries
Some predict the obsolescence of the library, while the library has become more popular than ever. Metropolis Magazine cites the work of architect Bing Thom, whose new public library in Surrey, British Columbia, was designed as a space of communal engagement.
http://www.metropolismag.com/story/20120720/still-here
Pearson, the owner of Penguin Books, has taken a big step into the fast-growing world of self-publishing by buying Author Solutions from Bertram Capital for $116m.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/mediatechnologyandtelecoms/media/9412013/Penguin-books-owner-Pearson-buys-self-publishing-company-Author-Solutions-for-116m.html
Amazon has recently made significant changes to the free ebooks listings on its site. ASINs (identification numbers) for public domain classics have been reassigned. making it much harder to find public domain classics, since Shopper preferences, reviews, comments, etc., were lost. It also means many links are now dead.
http://www.fonerbooks.com/selfpublishing/?p=1977
Due to an overwhelming demand from readers, the DEADLINE for the Erasure Poetry Contest has been EXTENDED! The new deadline for submissions is September 1, 2012, 11:59 pm PST.
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
Rajiv Chandrasekaran ‘s Little America: The War Within the War for Afghanistan is an account of Obama's efforts to cope with the blunders made before he took power. "We dwelled on the limitations of the Afghans," Chandrasekaran concludes. "We should have focused on ours."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jul/20/little-america-rajiv-chandrasekaran-review
The uncomfortable divide between the life Kamal Al-Solaylee leads in Toronto and the one he left behind in Yemen is the turbulent undercurrent in his new book, Intolerable, A Memoir of Extremes. The book is dedicated to Toronto; that's a deliberate choice.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/escape-from-intolerance-one-mans-journey-to-canada-from-yemen/article4419910/
John Irving's In One Person is a defiant response to the increasingly regressive and reactionary currents that persist on the U.S. political scene, writes Steven Hayward. This novel reaffirms the centrality of Irving as the voice of social justice and compassion, says Hayward.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/in-one-person-by-john-irving/article4106416/
Love is brewing on London's Exhibition Road in the last short story written by cult author Russell Hoban, who died last year. Hoban's Message in a (Klein) Bottle is here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jul/19/short-story-message-bottle-russell-hoban
Linwood Barclay's story Michael's New Toy is perfect for summertime reading.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/michaels-new-toy---a-story-from-linwood-barclay/article4430936/
When the first volume of The Selected Journals of L.M. Montgomery was published, in 1985, readers world-wide were surprised by the narrative voice revealed in its pages—not the person they had imagined, writes Benjamin Lefebvre. This volume restores the full text of Montgomery's journals from 1889 to 1900.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/book-reviews/lucy-maud-of-macneill-farm/article4430873/
In August 1612, ten women were hanged in Lancashire for witchcraft. Now Jeanette Winterson, Carol Ann Duffy and Simon Armitage, all inspired by the notorious Pendle trials, join a long line of writers in thrall to witches, writes Blake Morrison. Morrison's most recent poetry can be found in A Discoverie of Witches.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jul/20/blake-morrison-under-the-witches-spell
Pulitzer Prize-winning author Steve Coll explores the financial and political muscle of America's biggest oil company in Private Empire: ExxonMobil and American Power. Self-serving conduct is hardly unorthodox, but ExxonMobil comes across as particularly cynical, writes Iain Morris.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jul/22/private-empire-exxon-mobil-review
In The Impeachment of Abraham Lincoln, Stephen L. Carter gives the president's assassination a different outcome and recasts the tragedy as a thriller, with the living Lincoln on trial for his political life. John Wilkes Booth's actions remain the same; the results are changed.
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-ca-stephen-carter-20120715,0,884262.story
Christopher Coake's You Came Back isn't so much about ghosts as about the uncanny and unbalancing power of language, recollection and repetition. It's about the search for comfort in the darkest of places, writes Anna Trench.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jul/22/you-came-back-coake-review
Stuart Jeffries describes Michael Foley as an author who finds magic in the everyday. With Embracing the Ordinary, Foley may well have devised a new bestseller format: a how-to book offering a way of escape without leaving prison.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jul/18/embracing-the-ordinary-michael-foley-review
COMMUNITY EVENTS
SHARON HANNA
The author of The Book of Kale: The Easy-to-Grow Superfood, 80 Recipes will be bringing her extensive knowledge about the nutritious and delicious aspects of kale to the library. Friday, July 27 at 3:00pm, free. Kitsilano branch, VPL, 2425 Macdonald St. More information at www.vpl.ca.
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.
QUEEROTICA
Readings by Ken Boesem, Kate Bornstein, Tony Correia, Amber Dawn, C.E. Gatchalian, Hiromi Goto, Elaine Miller, Micheal V Smith, and Charlie Spats. Tuesday, August 7 at 8:00pm. Admission by donation. Roundhouse Community Arts, 181 Roundhouse Mews. More information at queerartsfestival.com.
Upcoming
ANAKANA SCHOFIELD
The Vancouver Book Club will host Anakana Schofield in conversation about her novel Malarkey. Thursday, August 9 at 7:00pm, free. Prophouse Cafe, 1636 Venables Ave., Vancouver. More information at vancouverisawesome.com/bookclub.
SUNSHINE COAST FESTIVAL OF THE WRITTEN ARTS
Canada's longest running summer gathering of Canadian writers and readers. Features Wayson Choy, Charlotte Gill, Patrick Lane, Ami McKay, Richard Wagamese and many others. Tickets on sale now! August 16-19, 2012. Sechelt, BC. Complete details at www.writersfestival.ca.
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.
A POETIC WALK THROUGH NATURE
Join Vancouver's 100,000 Poets for Change on an Earthwalk. Poets will read select poems calling for the preservation of our beautiful forests and shorelines. A guest speaker will also present a narrative tour of the cultural history and natural habit of Stanley Park. September 29 at 10:00am, free. For more information and to register, visit http://earthwalks11poets.eventbrite.com/.
UPCOMING EVENTS
Michael Chabon
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. Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/michaelchabon
Just announced!
Writing the Unthinkable: Public Workshop with Lynda Barry
September 30, 10am to 1pm
Studio 1989
Following the sell-out success of her 2010 Festival appearances, Lynda Barry is back with her extraordinary workshop for established and aspiring writers.
"Lynda Barry is inspirational, motivating and affirming"–R.L. 2010 Writers Fest Event Attendee
Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/lyndabarry
VIRTUAL FESTIVAL
Listen to the fourteenth installment in our series of audio archives from past Festival events. This week you'll hear an exerpt from 2010's The Afternoon Tea featuring the wonderful Ali Smith reading a short story she thought would be her "Last". 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.
AWARDS & LISTS
We would like to congratulate Clea Young, the Festival's Writer Services Co-ordinator, who has been shortlisted for the Litpop Award sponsored by Matrix magazine.
http://matrixmagazine.org/litpop/
Hilary Dean, a Toronto writer and filmmaker, has won the 2012 CBC Creative Nonfiction Prize for her story Holy Bald-Headed, a tale infused with melancholy memories and a shocking assault that jurors dubbed "equal parts tender and brutal."
http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/books/story/2012/07/23/cbc-nonfiction-writing-prize-dean.html
Nichola Barker, André Brink, Tan Twan Eng, Michael Frayn, Hilary Mantel and Will Self, are among the twelve authors longlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2012. The complete list is here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2012/jul/25/booker-prize-longlist-2012-open-thread
YOUNG READERS
David Shelton's A Boy and a Bear in a Boat is a book to be savoured, writes Bernie Goedhart. A boy climbs aboard a dinghy to be rowed "to the other side" by a bear who hires out his services as an experienced captain. Beautifully illustrated by the author. For ages 8 to 88.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/books/Kids+book+savoured/6959207/story.html
Where My Wellies Take Me, by Clare and Michael Morpurgo, is a selection of poetry chosen by the former children's laureate Michael Morpurgo, with a new story woven into the poems and pictures. For ages 4 to 8. Illustrations can be found here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/gallery/2012/jul/20/where-my-wellies-morpurgo-gallery
An extract from Michael Morpurgo's new book, Little Manfred, is here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/interactive/2011/may/25/michael-morpurgo-little-manfred-extract
Rinsai Rosetti's The Girl With Borrowed Wings is an elegant, young-adult paranormal title. Frenenqer (the word means "restraint"), who is a perfectionist, rescues a cat that turns out to be a shape-shifter. Frenenger's domineering father is not happy about this turn of events. For ages 12 and up.
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-ca-rinsai-rossetti-20120722,0,4394502.story
"Glee" star Chris Colfer's The Land of Stories is a children's novel about twins Connor and Alex, who find themselves sucked into their favourite book of fairy tales, suddenly face-to-face with the characters they grew up reading about. For ages 4 to 9.
http://www.sfgate.com/books/article/Glee-s-Chris-Colfer-writes-children-s-novel-3717994.php
NEWS & FEATURES
London's Mayor Boris Johnson has commissioned a poem in the style of Pindar to mark the start of the London 2012 Olympic Games, acknowledging Pindar‘s fame for his odes celebrating victories in fifth-century Greece's athletic competitions. Johnson will be reciting the poem in ancient Greek.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/charlottehigginsblog/2012/jul/23/boris-johnson-ancient-greek-ode
On the occasion of Winnie the Witch's 25th birthday, after Winnie first tripped over her cat, Wilbur, take a look back at some of her wackiest spells and wildest adventures in a gallery of images.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/childrens-books-site/gallery/2012/jul/20/winnie-witch-25-birthday-years
Daniel David interviews and profiles Thomas King, still not the Indian you had in mind. King's latest book, The Inconvenient Indian, which King describes as "non-fiction", "sort of" and "narrative history", will be published in November.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/thomas-king-still-not-the-indian-you-had-in-mind/article4426067/
Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey is to be reworked by crime author Val McDermid as a suspense-filled teen thriller, writes Alison Flood.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jul/19/jane-austen-northanger-abbey-val-mcdermid
There is safety in books. There is communion. There is order. These comfort Susanna Hislop, as she struggles to rate the attributes (and how important each attribute is to her) of the British Library Reading Room.
http://thejunket.org/2012/07/issue-four/book-keeping/
The Guardian launched a Great American Novelist tournament with the original list of nominees debated, dissected and reassembled several times over. The final list of 32 competitors for the title of Great American Novelist can be found here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2012/jul/23/great-american-novelist-tournament-final-32
Producer Ron Moore intends to bring Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series to television. An epic show about a time-travelling nurse who meets and falls in love with a Scottish hottie from 200 years earlier doesn't seem as crazy as it used to, says Malene Arpe.
http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/stargazing/article/1228088--ron-moore-wants-to-bring-diana-gabaldon-s-outlander-to-tv
A PhD student has discovered A Little Episode, a lost short story by Katherine Mansfield, in an archive. The story, along with three children's tales and a collection of aphorisms, give new insight into one of the most turbulent periods of Mansfield's short life.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jul/23/katherine-mansfield-lost-story-unearthed
Margaret Mahy, one of New Zealand's most acclaimed literary figures, has died aged 76. She won many major children's prizes, including the Hans Christian Andersen medal and the UK's Carnegie medal for The Haunting and The Changeover, both supernatural coming-of-age tales.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jul/23/margaret-mahy-dies-76
Each summer, Rare Book School brings together librarians, conservators, scholars, dealers, collectors and book-mad civilians for weeklong intensive courses. Bringing an understanding of the materiality of the book back into literary studies is something that Michael Suarez speaks of with an almost missionary zeal.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/24/books/rare-book-school-at-the-university-of-virginia.html?_r=1&ref=books
Canadian publishers say recently passed copyright reform is stripping away some of their financial incentive to provide books to the country's universities and colleges.
http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=20120712105214396
A Book You Can Eat is Better Than an eBook: this article on UK children's bookstores show that there's still a healthy market in children book sales. "While 73 independent bookstores closed in 2011, not a single children's bookstore did."
http://www.care2.com/causes/uk-childrens-bookstores.html?page=1
The UK's Society of Authors is considering action against the government over copyright infringement on loaned books. Authors are not entitled to royalties for books borrowed from libraries run by "big society"-inspired volunteers attempting to save local libraries from closing due to spending cuts.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jul/22/authors-royalty-volunteer-libraries
Some predict the obsolescence of the library, while the library has become more popular than ever. Metropolis Magazine cites the work of architect Bing Thom, whose new public library in Surrey, British Columbia, was designed as a space of communal engagement.
http://www.metropolismag.com/story/20120720/still-here
Pearson, the owner of Penguin Books, has taken a big step into the fast-growing world of self-publishing by buying Author Solutions from Bertram Capital for $116m.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/mediatechnologyandtelecoms/media/9412013/Penguin-books-owner-Pearson-buys-self-publishing-company-Author-Solutions-for-116m.html
Amazon has recently made significant changes to the free ebooks listings on its site. ASINs (identification numbers) for public domain classics have been reassigned. making it much harder to find public domain classics, since Shopper preferences, reviews, comments, etc., were lost. It also means many links are now dead.
http://www.fonerbooks.com/selfpublishing/?p=1977
Due to an overwhelming demand from readers, the DEADLINE for the Erasure Poetry Contest has been EXTENDED! The new deadline for submissions is September 1, 2012, 11:59 pm PST.
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
Rajiv Chandrasekaran ‘s Little America: The War Within the War for Afghanistan is an account of Obama's efforts to cope with the blunders made before he took power. "We dwelled on the limitations of the Afghans," Chandrasekaran concludes. "We should have focused on ours."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jul/20/little-america-rajiv-chandrasekaran-review
The uncomfortable divide between the life Kamal Al-Solaylee leads in Toronto and the one he left behind in Yemen is the turbulent undercurrent in his new book, Intolerable, A Memoir of Extremes. The book is dedicated to Toronto; that's a deliberate choice.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/escape-from-intolerance-one-mans-journey-to-canada-from-yemen/article4419910/
John Irving's In One Person is a defiant response to the increasingly regressive and reactionary currents that persist on the U.S. political scene, writes Steven Hayward. This novel reaffirms the centrality of Irving as the voice of social justice and compassion, says Hayward.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/in-one-person-by-john-irving/article4106416/
Love is brewing on London's Exhibition Road in the last short story written by cult author Russell Hoban, who died last year. Hoban's Message in a (Klein) Bottle is here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jul/19/short-story-message-bottle-russell-hoban
Linwood Barclay's story Michael's New Toy is perfect for summertime reading.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/michaels-new-toy---a-story-from-linwood-barclay/article4430936/
When the first volume of The Selected Journals of L.M. Montgomery was published, in 1985, readers world-wide were surprised by the narrative voice revealed in its pages—not the person they had imagined, writes Benjamin Lefebvre. This volume restores the full text of Montgomery's journals from 1889 to 1900.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/book-reviews/lucy-maud-of-macneill-farm/article4430873/
In August 1612, ten women were hanged in Lancashire for witchcraft. Now Jeanette Winterson, Carol Ann Duffy and Simon Armitage, all inspired by the notorious Pendle trials, join a long line of writers in thrall to witches, writes Blake Morrison. Morrison's most recent poetry can be found in A Discoverie of Witches.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jul/20/blake-morrison-under-the-witches-spell
Pulitzer Prize-winning author Steve Coll explores the financial and political muscle of America's biggest oil company in Private Empire: ExxonMobil and American Power. Self-serving conduct is hardly unorthodox, but ExxonMobil comes across as particularly cynical, writes Iain Morris.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jul/22/private-empire-exxon-mobil-review
In The Impeachment of Abraham Lincoln, Stephen L. Carter gives the president's assassination a different outcome and recasts the tragedy as a thriller, with the living Lincoln on trial for his political life. John Wilkes Booth's actions remain the same; the results are changed.
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-ca-stephen-carter-20120715,0,884262.story
Christopher Coake's You Came Back isn't so much about ghosts as about the uncanny and unbalancing power of language, recollection and repetition. It's about the search for comfort in the darkest of places, writes Anna Trench.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jul/22/you-came-back-coake-review
Stuart Jeffries describes Michael Foley as an author who finds magic in the everyday. With Embracing the Ordinary, Foley may well have devised a new bestseller format: a how-to book offering a way of escape without leaving prison.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jul/18/embracing-the-ordinary-michael-foley-review
COMMUNITY EVENTS
SHARON HANNA
The author of The Book of Kale: The Easy-to-Grow Superfood, 80 Recipes will be bringing her extensive knowledge about the nutritious and delicious aspects of kale to the library. Friday, July 27 at 3:00pm, free. Kitsilano branch, VPL, 2425 Macdonald St. More information at www.vpl.ca.
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.
QUEEROTICA
Readings by Ken Boesem, Kate Bornstein, Tony Correia, Amber Dawn, C.E. Gatchalian, Hiromi Goto, Elaine Miller, Micheal V Smith, and Charlie Spats. Tuesday, August 7 at 8:00pm. Admission by donation. Roundhouse Community Arts, 181 Roundhouse Mews. More information at queerartsfestival.com.
Upcoming
ANAKANA SCHOFIELD
The Vancouver Book Club will host Anakana Schofield in conversation about her novel Malarkey. Thursday, August 9 at 7:00pm, free. Prophouse Cafe, 1636 Venables Ave., Vancouver. More information at vancouverisawesome.com/bookclub.
SUNSHINE COAST FESTIVAL OF THE WRITTEN ARTS
Canada's longest running summer gathering of Canadian writers and readers. Features Wayson Choy, Charlotte Gill, Patrick Lane, Ami McKay, Richard Wagamese and many others. Tickets on sale now! August 16-19, 2012. Sechelt, BC. Complete details at www.writersfestival.ca.
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.
A POETIC WALK THROUGH NATURE
Join Vancouver's 100,000 Poets for Change on an Earthwalk. Poets will read select poems calling for the preservation of our beautiful forests and shorelines. A guest speaker will also present a narrative tour of the cultural history and natural habit of Stanley Park. September 29 at 10:00am, free. For more information and to register, visit http://earthwalks11poets.eventbrite.com/.
Thursday, July 19, 2012
Book News Vol. 7 No. 26
BOOK NEWS
UPCOMING EVENTS
Michael Chabon
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 thirteenth installment in our series of audio archives from past Festival events. This week you'll hear "Comic Book Confidential" from the 2010 Festival, featuring Lynda Barry and Sarah Leavitt. Go beyond the 'typical' comic book and learn about graphic novels that explore everyday life and everyday relationships. Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/multimedia/audio-archives.
Check out next week's Book News for an exciting Lynda Barry announcement!
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.
AWARDS & LISTS
Poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy has won the PEN/Pinter prize. The poet is the fourth recipient of the award, for her 'independent and sometimes awkward' responses to living in Britain today.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jul/13/carol-ann-duffy-wins-pen-pinter-prize
Jorie Graham and Geoffrey Hill join Beverley Bie Brahic, Barry Hill and Selima Hill on the shortlist for the Forward prize for poetry 2012, the UK's top poetry award worth £10,000.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jul/17/jorie-graham-geoffrey-hill-forward-prize
YOUNG READERS
Wumber by author Amy Krouse Rosenthal and illustrator Tom Lichtenheld, is a word "cre8ed with numbers!" Big brassy, shuddering tubas, for instance, clue us in on "learning a 2ne on the 2ba." This book reminds us that "sounding it out" can be a lifelong skill. For ages 6 to 9.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/sc-ent-0711-books-kids-20120712,0,1084138.story
Two Phillip Pullman whodunits set in Victorian London, published in 1994/95, now appear as a single volume: Two Crafty Criminals! And How They Were Captured by the Daring Detectives of the New Cut Gang is set in 1890s London The young characters comprise the New Cut Gang that sets out to solve two mysteries. For ages 7 to 11.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/Kids+Gang+kids+tackles+mysteries/6860375/story.html#ixzz20dO4VeiW
NEWS & FEATURES
Inspired by Rotten Tomatoes, the website that aggregates the work of professional movie reviewers around the world, Sarnia native Rahul Simha and his tech-savvy buddies, Canadian Vish Chapala and American Mohit Aggarwal, have built a website, idreambooks.com, that collects, aggregates and links the published works of professional book reviewers.
http://www.thestar.com/news/books/article/1226365--idreambooks-com-a-cool-tool-for-readers-in-need-of-credible-reviews
Somaliland's Hargeisa book festival fills the cultural void for youth in a country where 70% of the population is under 30. The event—now in its fifth year—celebrates not just literature but theatre, film and music, as well as showing off Somaliland's local products.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jul/16/somaliland-book-festival-fifth-year
Terry Deary's wildly successful Horrible Histories are adored by children and adults alike. When Jon Henley's 11-year-old's son said he loved the books "because you learn stuff, and you laugh at the same time", Deary responded "Tell your boy I'd like that for my epitaph".
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2012/jul/14/terry-deary-horrible-histories
Children's laureate (and author of The Gruffalo) Julia Donaldson, along with Jacqueline Wilson, Julia Donaldson, Michael Morpurgo and Charlie Higson, has launched the 2012 Summer Reading Challenge. Every child between four and 11 is challenged to read six library books during the summer holidays.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jul/13/gruffalo-summer-reading-challenge
Neil Gaiman has signed a five-book deal with HarperCollins, focusing on books for very young children. His first picture book for the very young is Chu's Day, the story of a little panda with a very big sneeze.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jul/12/neil-gaiman-five-childrens-books
On April 16, 2012, the Pulitzer Prize Board announced that it would award no Pulitzer for fiction in 2012. This was surprising and upsetting to many, including the three fiction jurors, who'd read over three hundred novels and short-story collections. Author Michael Cunningham, one of the jurors, writes about what really happened this year.
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2012/07/letter-from-the-pulitzer-fiction-jury-what-really-happened-this-year.html#ixzz20Mt31o1c
Vikram Seth is a writer who loves music, so perhaps it was inevitable that some of his words would eventually be sung. His credits as librettist include a full-length opera and the four expansive concert works he will introduce in Ottawa at the Music and Beyond festival.
http://m.theglobeandmail.com/arts/music/novelist-vikram-seth-puts-his-skills-as-a-librettist-on-full-display-in-ottawa/article4405860/?service=mobile
When Houghton Mifflin Harcourt announced a licensing agreement with Amazon to publish and distribute all adult titles under the New Harvest imprint, independent bricks-and-mortar booksellers and America's two largest chains said that they wouldn't carry them in their stores, reports Judith Rosen.
http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/bookselling/article/52918-citing-amazon-ties-booksellers-say-no-to-new-harvest.html
Wizard hero Richard Rahl smites wrongdoers with his Sword of Truth. His creator, bestselling fantasy author Terry Goodkind, turned to Facebook to name and shame a fan who pirated a digital version of The First Confessor. Goodkind's actions have divided digital opinion.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jul/11/book-pirate-named-terry-goodkind
El Libro que No Puede Esperar (The Book That Can't Wait) comes in a sealed package. As soon as you start to turn its pages, the ink begins to age—fading entirely within two months. It's hoped that the urgency of the text's disappearing will encourage people to read the book. Soon.
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120711/12143819664/are-books-printed-with
Donald J. Sobol, author of the popular "Encyclopedia Brown" series of children's mysteries featuring amateur sleuth Leroy "Encyclopedia" Brown, has died. He was 87.
http://www.thestar.com/news/books/article/1227074--encyclopedia-brown-author-donald-sobol-dier
Every year The Tyee publishes its recommended summer book list. The list is based on information from across B.C.'s literary landscape, based on what B.C. readers are actually buying this summer.
http://thetyee.ca/Life/2012/07/14/Real-Summer-Reads/?utm_source=mondayheadlines&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=160712
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. p.s. Dogs like erasure poetry, too.
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
Are bankers the new magicians, pulling gilt-edged rabbits out of empty hats? asks John Lawrence Reynolds. John Lanchester's I.O.U. links the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill to the financial crisis and the book covers everything you need to know about that crisis.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/review-iou-by-john-lanchester/article1315508/
Belinda Jack's The Woman Reader is a history of women's reading, and those who opposed it; e.g., Edith Wharton's mother forbad her to read any novels until after she was married. Silencing women readers makes up a strong strand in the book, writes Hermione Lee.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jul/05/woman-reader-belinda-jack-review
Pulitzer prize-winning author Chris Hedges collaborated with award-winning cartoonist and journalist Joe Sacco to produce Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt, a heartfelt, harrowing picture of post-capitalist America. Together they explore the country's 'sacrifice zones'.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/data/book/politics/9781568586434/days-of-destruction-days-of-revolt
Three Strong Women, a tenuously linked tripartite novel that is more than the sum of its parts is a hard act to pull off, writes Maya Jaggi, but Marie NDiaye succeeds with elegance, grit and some painful comedy.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jul/06/three-strong-women-ndiaye-review
Kim Todd's Sparrow is an exploration of sparrows, the scientific insights they inspire and how they influence human culture, writes GirrlScientist. As Ms. Todd unravels the story of house sparrows, we gain new insights into these cheeky little brown jobs—and ourselves.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/grrlscientist/2012/jul/16/1
Syrian novelist Samar Yazbek recognizes government thugs as soon as they get out of their car, says Francis Beckett. In A Woman in the Crossfire, Yazbek explains why thugs set fire to pharmacies: "So that people won't be able to treat the wounded."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jun/22/woman-in-crossfire-samar-yazbek-review
Early in Michael Frayn's Skios, Nikki Hook is contentedly surveying the idyllic grounds on the fictional Greek island. The story requires a reader's suspension of disbelief, writes Barbara Carey, adding that Frayn makes it well worthwhile.
http://www.thestar.com/news/books/article/1224338--skios-by-michael-frayn-review
Monica Ali's Untold Story imagines a Princess Diana-like character's post-fame life after faking her own death. It's an intriguing exercise in what-if? set in small-town America, writes Natasha Tripney, as Ali explores the idea of exile and starting one's life anew makes the novel additionally engaging.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jul/15/monica-ali-untold-story-review
In The Price of Inequality, Nobel economist Joseph E. Stiglitz describes how unrestrained power and rampant greed have written an epitaph for the American dream, shattered by the modern pleonetic (an overreaching desire for more than one's share) tyrants who make up the 1%, writes Yvonne Roberts.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jul/13/price-inequality-joseph-stiglitz-review
It's the most perfect post-crash setting for a slice of genuinely disturbing horror: an Irish housing estate, mostly empty and abandoned, half-finished. Evil stalks the pages of Irish author Tana French's Broken Harbour, "like a low cloud of sticky black dust spreading slowly".
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jul/15/broken-harbour-tana-french-review
Road to Valour, by Aili and Andres McConnon is a true story about Gino Bartali, twice winner of the Tour de France, who couriered falsified identification papers during WWII, pretending the 110-mile trek was part of his training regimen. Bartali was a quiet hero, writes Enza Micheletti.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/books/Gino+Bartali+quiet+hero/6929318/story.html
Mark Haddon's The Red House draws the reader into the tensions and apprehensions of one family who, like Tolstoy's famous summary, are unhappy in their own particular way. This novel is an impossible-to-stop read that plunges the reader into a completely convincing world, writes Aritha van Herk.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/book-reviews/the-red-house-by-mark-haddon/article4414860/
Yejide Kilanko's Daughters Who Walk This Path tells the story of Morayo, a Nigerian girl, whose life is altered early in the book. It is an elaborate interlace of story, African proverbs, traditional fables and contemporary works by African women, writes Donna Bailey Nurse.
http://arts.nationalpost.com/2012/07/13/book-review-daughters-who-walk-this-path-by-yejide-kilanko/
COMMUNITY EVENTS
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.
VAN CLAYTON POWEL
Reading by the author of You are NOT What You Eat. Monday, July 23 at 7:15pm. Bob Prittie Metrotown, 6100 Willingdon Ave., Burnaby. More information at www.bpl.bc.ca.
SHARON HANNA
The author of The Book of Kale: The Easy-to-Grow Superfood, 80 Recipes will be bringing her extensive knowledge about the nutritious and delicious aspects of kale to the library. Friday, July 27 at 3:00pm, free. Kitsilano branch, VPL, 2425 Macdonald St. More information at www.vpl.ca.
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.
Upcoming
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
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 thirteenth installment in our series of audio archives from past Festival events. This week you'll hear "Comic Book Confidential" from the 2010 Festival, featuring Lynda Barry and Sarah Leavitt. Go beyond the 'typical' comic book and learn about graphic novels that explore everyday life and everyday relationships. Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/multimedia/audio-archives.
Check out next week's Book News for an exciting Lynda Barry announcement!
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.
AWARDS & LISTS
Poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy has won the PEN/Pinter prize. The poet is the fourth recipient of the award, for her 'independent and sometimes awkward' responses to living in Britain today.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jul/13/carol-ann-duffy-wins-pen-pinter-prize
Jorie Graham and Geoffrey Hill join Beverley Bie Brahic, Barry Hill and Selima Hill on the shortlist for the Forward prize for poetry 2012, the UK's top poetry award worth £10,000.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jul/17/jorie-graham-geoffrey-hill-forward-prize
YOUNG READERS
Wumber by author Amy Krouse Rosenthal and illustrator Tom Lichtenheld, is a word "cre8ed with numbers!" Big brassy, shuddering tubas, for instance, clue us in on "learning a 2ne on the 2ba." This book reminds us that "sounding it out" can be a lifelong skill. For ages 6 to 9.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/sc-ent-0711-books-kids-20120712,0,1084138.story
Two Phillip Pullman whodunits set in Victorian London, published in 1994/95, now appear as a single volume: Two Crafty Criminals! And How They Were Captured by the Daring Detectives of the New Cut Gang is set in 1890s London The young characters comprise the New Cut Gang that sets out to solve two mysteries. For ages 7 to 11.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/Kids+Gang+kids+tackles+mysteries/6860375/story.html#ixzz20dO4VeiW
NEWS & FEATURES
Inspired by Rotten Tomatoes, the website that aggregates the work of professional movie reviewers around the world, Sarnia native Rahul Simha and his tech-savvy buddies, Canadian Vish Chapala and American Mohit Aggarwal, have built a website, idreambooks.com, that collects, aggregates and links the published works of professional book reviewers.
http://www.thestar.com/news/books/article/1226365--idreambooks-com-a-cool-tool-for-readers-in-need-of-credible-reviews
Somaliland's Hargeisa book festival fills the cultural void for youth in a country where 70% of the population is under 30. The event—now in its fifth year—celebrates not just literature but theatre, film and music, as well as showing off Somaliland's local products.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jul/16/somaliland-book-festival-fifth-year
Terry Deary's wildly successful Horrible Histories are adored by children and adults alike. When Jon Henley's 11-year-old's son said he loved the books "because you learn stuff, and you laugh at the same time", Deary responded "Tell your boy I'd like that for my epitaph".
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2012/jul/14/terry-deary-horrible-histories
Children's laureate (and author of The Gruffalo) Julia Donaldson, along with Jacqueline Wilson, Julia Donaldson, Michael Morpurgo and Charlie Higson, has launched the 2012 Summer Reading Challenge. Every child between four and 11 is challenged to read six library books during the summer holidays.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jul/13/gruffalo-summer-reading-challenge
Neil Gaiman has signed a five-book deal with HarperCollins, focusing on books for very young children. His first picture book for the very young is Chu's Day, the story of a little panda with a very big sneeze.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jul/12/neil-gaiman-five-childrens-books
On April 16, 2012, the Pulitzer Prize Board announced that it would award no Pulitzer for fiction in 2012. This was surprising and upsetting to many, including the three fiction jurors, who'd read over three hundred novels and short-story collections. Author Michael Cunningham, one of the jurors, writes about what really happened this year.
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2012/07/letter-from-the-pulitzer-fiction-jury-what-really-happened-this-year.html#ixzz20Mt31o1c
Vikram Seth is a writer who loves music, so perhaps it was inevitable that some of his words would eventually be sung. His credits as librettist include a full-length opera and the four expansive concert works he will introduce in Ottawa at the Music and Beyond festival.
http://m.theglobeandmail.com/arts/music/novelist-vikram-seth-puts-his-skills-as-a-librettist-on-full-display-in-ottawa/article4405860/?service=mobile
When Houghton Mifflin Harcourt announced a licensing agreement with Amazon to publish and distribute all adult titles under the New Harvest imprint, independent bricks-and-mortar booksellers and America's two largest chains said that they wouldn't carry them in their stores, reports Judith Rosen.
http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/bookselling/article/52918-citing-amazon-ties-booksellers-say-no-to-new-harvest.html
Wizard hero Richard Rahl smites wrongdoers with his Sword of Truth. His creator, bestselling fantasy author Terry Goodkind, turned to Facebook to name and shame a fan who pirated a digital version of The First Confessor. Goodkind's actions have divided digital opinion.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jul/11/book-pirate-named-terry-goodkind
El Libro que No Puede Esperar (The Book That Can't Wait) comes in a sealed package. As soon as you start to turn its pages, the ink begins to age—fading entirely within two months. It's hoped that the urgency of the text's disappearing will encourage people to read the book. Soon.
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120711/12143819664/are-books-printed-with
Donald J. Sobol, author of the popular "Encyclopedia Brown" series of children's mysteries featuring amateur sleuth Leroy "Encyclopedia" Brown, has died. He was 87.
http://www.thestar.com/news/books/article/1227074--encyclopedia-brown-author-donald-sobol-dier
Every year The Tyee publishes its recommended summer book list. The list is based on information from across B.C.'s literary landscape, based on what B.C. readers are actually buying this summer.
http://thetyee.ca/Life/2012/07/14/Real-Summer-Reads/?utm_source=mondayheadlines&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=160712
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. p.s. Dogs like erasure poetry, too.
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
Are bankers the new magicians, pulling gilt-edged rabbits out of empty hats? asks John Lawrence Reynolds. John Lanchester's I.O.U. links the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill to the financial crisis and the book covers everything you need to know about that crisis.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/review-iou-by-john-lanchester/article1315508/
Belinda Jack's The Woman Reader is a history of women's reading, and those who opposed it; e.g., Edith Wharton's mother forbad her to read any novels until after she was married. Silencing women readers makes up a strong strand in the book, writes Hermione Lee.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jul/05/woman-reader-belinda-jack-review
Pulitzer prize-winning author Chris Hedges collaborated with award-winning cartoonist and journalist Joe Sacco to produce Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt, a heartfelt, harrowing picture of post-capitalist America. Together they explore the country's 'sacrifice zones'.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/data/book/politics/9781568586434/days-of-destruction-days-of-revolt
Three Strong Women, a tenuously linked tripartite novel that is more than the sum of its parts is a hard act to pull off, writes Maya Jaggi, but Marie NDiaye succeeds with elegance, grit and some painful comedy.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jul/06/three-strong-women-ndiaye-review
Kim Todd's Sparrow is an exploration of sparrows, the scientific insights they inspire and how they influence human culture, writes GirrlScientist. As Ms. Todd unravels the story of house sparrows, we gain new insights into these cheeky little brown jobs—and ourselves.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/grrlscientist/2012/jul/16/1
Syrian novelist Samar Yazbek recognizes government thugs as soon as they get out of their car, says Francis Beckett. In A Woman in the Crossfire, Yazbek explains why thugs set fire to pharmacies: "So that people won't be able to treat the wounded."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jun/22/woman-in-crossfire-samar-yazbek-review
Early in Michael Frayn's Skios, Nikki Hook is contentedly surveying the idyllic grounds on the fictional Greek island. The story requires a reader's suspension of disbelief, writes Barbara Carey, adding that Frayn makes it well worthwhile.
http://www.thestar.com/news/books/article/1224338--skios-by-michael-frayn-review
Monica Ali's Untold Story imagines a Princess Diana-like character's post-fame life after faking her own death. It's an intriguing exercise in what-if? set in small-town America, writes Natasha Tripney, as Ali explores the idea of exile and starting one's life anew makes the novel additionally engaging.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jul/15/monica-ali-untold-story-review
In The Price of Inequality, Nobel economist Joseph E. Stiglitz describes how unrestrained power and rampant greed have written an epitaph for the American dream, shattered by the modern pleonetic (an overreaching desire for more than one's share) tyrants who make up the 1%, writes Yvonne Roberts.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jul/13/price-inequality-joseph-stiglitz-review
It's the most perfect post-crash setting for a slice of genuinely disturbing horror: an Irish housing estate, mostly empty and abandoned, half-finished. Evil stalks the pages of Irish author Tana French's Broken Harbour, "like a low cloud of sticky black dust spreading slowly".
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jul/15/broken-harbour-tana-french-review
Road to Valour, by Aili and Andres McConnon is a true story about Gino Bartali, twice winner of the Tour de France, who couriered falsified identification papers during WWII, pretending the 110-mile trek was part of his training regimen. Bartali was a quiet hero, writes Enza Micheletti.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/books/Gino+Bartali+quiet+hero/6929318/story.html
Mark Haddon's The Red House draws the reader into the tensions and apprehensions of one family who, like Tolstoy's famous summary, are unhappy in their own particular way. This novel is an impossible-to-stop read that plunges the reader into a completely convincing world, writes Aritha van Herk.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/book-reviews/the-red-house-by-mark-haddon/article4414860/
Yejide Kilanko's Daughters Who Walk This Path tells the story of Morayo, a Nigerian girl, whose life is altered early in the book. It is an elaborate interlace of story, African proverbs, traditional fables and contemporary works by African women, writes Donna Bailey Nurse.
http://arts.nationalpost.com/2012/07/13/book-review-daughters-who-walk-this-path-by-yejide-kilanko/
COMMUNITY EVENTS
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.
VAN CLAYTON POWEL
Reading by the author of You are NOT What You Eat. Monday, July 23 at 7:15pm. Bob Prittie Metrotown, 6100 Willingdon Ave., Burnaby. More information at www.bpl.bc.ca.
SHARON HANNA
The author of The Book of Kale: The Easy-to-Grow Superfood, 80 Recipes will be bringing her extensive knowledge about the nutritious and delicious aspects of kale to the library. Friday, July 27 at 3:00pm, free. Kitsilano branch, VPL, 2425 Macdonald St. More information at www.vpl.ca.
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.
Upcoming
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.
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