BOOK NEWS
Incite: An Exploration of Books and Ideas
Join us on Wednesday, April 17 for a fantastical evening with Guy Gavriel Kay reading from his new novel, River of Stars, and Ruth Ozeki reading from her latest, A Tale for the Time Being. Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/incite. Register here: http://incitevpl2013spring.eventbrite.ca/.
Presented in partnership with Vancouver Public Library. Incite is sponsored by the Downtown Vancouver Business Improvement Association and supported by the R.J. Nelson Family Foundation.
A DRAM COME TRUE
Dust off your kilt, gather your friends and grab a glass, A Dram Come True is back!
Join us at the legendary Hycroft Manor on May 31, 2013 for a lively celebration of spirits. Our five whisky bars will cater to the true aficionado, with a variety of rare and distinguished single malts. You don't want to miss the special surprises and scotch whisky selection we've got in store for you this year, click to buy your tickets today. Event details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/dram-come-true.
AWARDS & LISTS
The quest to be named the UK's funniest author has begun. "All the shortlisted novels are truly brilliantly funny," said judge and Everyman publisher David Campbell. The winner of the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse prize will be announced in late May. Following tradition, the winner will be presented with a locally-bred Gloucestershire Old Spot pig named after their winning title.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/apr/04/wodehouse-prize-comic-fiction-shortlist
Canadian poets David W. McFadden, James Pollock and Ian Williams are competing for the lucrative Griffin Poetry Prize.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/story/2013/04/09/griffin-poetry-short-list.html
Adam Roberts, the science fiction novelist Kim Stanley Robinson said should have won the Man Booker prize, has received his first major award–the British Science Fiction Association (BSFA) best novel prize for his space-set riff on golden-age detective fiction, Jack Glass. Brian Francis Slattery was the winner of the Philip K. Dick award for distinguished science fiction for Lost Everything.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/apr/02/adam-roberts-bsfa-jack-glass
In a very impressive shortlist, the received distinction between 'literary' and 'genre' fiction has never looked so flimsy, says Ken MacLeod, a Man Booker judge who admits to being slightly envious of the shortlist.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2013/apr/04/booker-judge-arthur-c-clark-award
The Donner Prize is awarded annually for the best public policy book by a Canadian. Health care, regional rivalries and international food aid are the preoccupations of the four books that made the shortlist. The four shortlisted authors are Claude Castonguay, Jennifer Clapp, Mary Janigan, and Jeffrey Simpson.
http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/books/2013/04/03/simpson_clapp_among_nominees_shortlisted_for_donner_prize.html
Karen Russell's Swamplandia is one of the ten books on the 2013 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award shortlist: ten novels have been selected from the 154 nominated.
http://www.impacdublinaward.ie/
YOUNG READERS
Leigh Bardugo's The Gathering Dark was "vivid and jump-off-of-the-page," writes the Book Addicted Girl. "From the first chapter, I knew this would be at least a 4-star novel. And it got better and better. Alina was snarky, funny, strong and cheeky!" The Gathering Dark is the first novel of the Ice Age Cycle. For ages 12 and up.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/childrens-books-site/2013/apr/03/review-the-dark-gathering-leigh-bardugo
Part poetry anthology, part child's scrapbook, Where My Wellies Take Me is a lavish project designed to instill a love of language in young children. A great inter-generational book, say Luke, Nanny and Mummy. Up to age 12.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/data/book/unclassified/9781848775442/where-my-wellies-take-me?commentpage=1#comment-22452426
Inspiration is the breath of the creator running through a person, says Roy Henry Vickers. With Robert (Lucky) Budd, Vickers created the first in a series of four children's books that retell stories Vickers heard as a child. Raven Brings the Light has been passed down by first nations people for at least 3,000 years. The story is to be read aloud. For all ages.
http://www.vancouversun.com/entertainment/books/Children+book+combines+history+beautiful+artwork/8191032/story.html#ixzz2PZUZEb59
NEWS & FEATURES
A recent Supreme Court decision allows importation and resale of foreign editions of American works. Until now, such activity was a violation of copyright. The ruling opens the gates to cheap imports, and authors won't get royalties–the latest example of how the global electronic marketplace depletes authors' income streams, writes Scott Turow.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/08/opinion/the-slow-death-of-the-american-author.html?pagewanted=all&_r=1&
The Wall Street Journal notes that it's all about the shifting balance of power, writes Mike Masnick. You accept the tiny advance and crappy book deal offered to you, and the publisher takes control over your work. However, the WSJ recently wrote about how self-published ebook author Hugh Howey wrote the hugely popular "postapocalyptic thriller" Wool. He sold half a million ebook copies, then sold the print and the movie rights. He was able to retain the digital rights to the book for himself.
http://www.techdirt.com/blog/casestudies/articles/20130328/16411922505/successful-self-published-ebook-authors-sells-print-movie-rights-1-million-keeps-digital-rights-to-himself.shtml
George R.R. Martin considers Maurice Druon his hero. With its epic tale of battles and betrayals, The Accursed Kings shows why Druon is France's best historical novelist since Alexandre Dumas.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/apr/05/maurice-druon-george-rr-martin
The remains of poet Pablo Neruda will be removed from his grave as part of an investigation into his death. For decades, it was assumed that Neruda had succumbed to prostate cancer. Neruda's bodyguard/driver has claimed he was murdered by the Pinochet regime.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/apr/07/pablo-neruda-exhumed-murder-investigation
April is the cruelest month, according to one of the most famous poems in the English language. Poet Tracy K. Smith, who teaches creative writing at Princeton, won a Pulitzer Prize for her 2012 collection Life on Mars; she also served as NPR's first NewsPoet. "We all need poetry," Smith says—even hedge fund managers.
http://www.npr.org/2013/04/06/176337714/does-poetry-still-matter-yes-indeed-says-npr-newspoet
Poetry has become sterile, but we can still find realism, humor, and intensity in the satiric impulse, writes David Yezzi, adding that some types of poetry—such as devotional poetry or satire—may still be admired, but they are almost never practiced; no one would dare.
http://www.newcriterion.com/articles.cfm/The-bitter-fool-7599
The creation of the world's largest book company has become closer, with European competition regulators giving the green light to the merger of Random House and Penguin. The commission said it had unconditionally cleared the deal because, "the new entity Penguin Random House will continue to face competition from several large and numerous small and medium sized publishers."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2013/apr/05/penguin-random-house-eu-regulator
The Wall Street Journal reports that Dai Congrong spent eight years translating James Joyce's "Finnegans Wake" into Chinese. Her reward, to her great surprise, was success. Her translation of the first part of the book has become a modest but clear hit in China.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324000704578386381373928300.html
William Dalrymple writes that Wave, Sonali Deraniyagala's memoir about losing her husband and sons in the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami, is possibly one of the most moving books ever written about grief.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/apr/03/wave-sonali-deraniyagala-review
Novelist and screenwriter Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, known for her work on Merchant Ivory films, including A Room with a View and Heat and Dust, has died 3 April 2013, aged 85.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/apr/03/ruth-prawer-jhabvala
In 2008 Francis King paid tribute to a true artist.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/apr/05/ruth-prawer-jhabvala-novelist-india
The New Yorker has unlocked six of Jhabvala's stories: The Judge's Will, The Teacher, Aphrodisiac, and Innocence, which have all been published recently, along with On Bail, from 1973, and The Interview, from 1957, which was Jhabvala's first story for The New Yorker.
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2013/04/ruth-prawer-jhabvalas-stories.html#ixzz2PVMkkaFc
Scottish author Iain Banks, who made his literary debut in 1984 with The Wasp Factory, is really two authors: he writes bestselling, mainstream, literary fiction as Iain Banks, and award-winning science fiction as Iain M. Banks. Banks has written on his website that he expects his latest novel The Quarry will be his last.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/apr/03/iain-banks-gall-bladder-cancer
Banks is a writer whose faith in humans can embrace the worst of what we're capable of and still refuse to lie down and die, writes Val McDermid. There are three of us (from Fife), says McDermid: Iain Banks, Ian Rankin and me.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/apr/03/iain-banks-my-fife-friend
Casanova's book, Histoire de Ma Vie (Story of My Life), ensures that the man did not vanish into obscurity. The range and detail of Casanova's sexual exploits have been veiled by German puritanism, and "faulty" transcription of his writings. A new book from French publisher Laffont, out in April, aims to reveal Casanova in his full glory.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/mar/30/casanova-man-who-loved-liberty-as-much-as-women
BOOKS & WRITERS
Ursula Buchan's A Green and Pleasant Land: How England's Gardeners Fought the Second World War gives a detailed and engaging account of how wartime Britain dug for victory (Dig for Victory was their slogan). The book is engaging and enlightening, writes Olivia Laing.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/apr/06/green-pleasant-land-buchan-review
Barnaby Martin's Hanging Man: The Arrest of Ai Weiwei is based on illicit interviews, revealing an artist weakened by incarceration, but a figurehead still for China's vital cultural movement. This is a memorable snapshot of the inspiring figures that remain true to their creative ideals in today's China, despite the official repression of originality, writes Isabel Hilton.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/apr/06/hanging-man-weiwei-martin-review
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie talks about her new novel Americanah, her Nigerian childhood and why she's a hair 'fundamentalist'. In response to Kate Kellaway's question "What is Americanh about?" Ngozi Adichie says, "it's an old-fashioned love story, but also about race. It is about how, when we leave home, we reinvent ourselves. And it is also about hair..."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/theobserver/2013/apr/07/chimamanda-ngozi-adichie-americanah-interview
Elizabeth Jane Howard spurned Cecil Day-Lewis, divorced Kingsley Amis and was duped by a conman lover. At 90, she says: 'Writing is what gets me up in the morning'. Her writing reflects her enjoyment of the company of other women, and Howard flourished as a novelist. And now she has written part five of her revered Cazalet series.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/apr/07/elizabeth-jane-howard-novelist-cazalet
COMMUNITY EVENTS
BOOKTOPIA
West Vancouver Children’s Literature Festival, is an annual festival intended to promote literacy, celebrate language arts and cultivate creative thought amongst youth and families. Features Sarah Ellis, Barbara Reid, and Shane Koyczan. For complete details and registration information, visit booktopia.ca.
LITFEST
The 3rd Annual LitFest New West celebrates the literary arts at New Westminster Public Library and Douglas Collage. April 11-13, 2013. More information at artscouncilnewwest.org.
ALIVE AT THE CENTRE ANTHOLOGY LAUNCH
Celebrate the Vancouver launch of Alive at the Centre: An Anthology of Poems from the Pacific NorthWest. The anthology includes poems from three cities: Vancouver, Portland, and Seattle. Poet Laureate Evelyn Lau will open the night and the host is Rob Taylor. Friday, April 12 at 7:00pm, free. Rhizome Cafe (317 E. Broadway).
SUSHI AND SAMOSAS
An afternoon reading with Jacqueline Pearce, author of The Reunion, which tells a story set in a small multicultural town on Vancouver Island during WW II. Saturday, April 13 at 2:00pm. Historic Joy Kogawa House, 1450 64th Ave. To register, email kogawahouse@yahoo.ca.
FORCE FIELD
Force Field - 77 Women Poets of British Columbia. The first of its kind in thirty-four years, this anthology strongly celebrates women poets, from the emerging, mid-career to the established. Saturday, April 13 at 3:00pm, free. Alma VanDusen & Peter Kaye rooms, lower level, Central Branch, 350 W. Georgia St. More information at www.vpl.ca.
NIGHTWOOD POETRY LAUNCH
An evening of readings by local poets Elizabeth Bachinsky (The Hottest Summer in Recorded History), Brad Cran (Ink on Paper) and Jay MillAr (Timely Irreverence). Saturday, April 13 at 8:15pm. Western Front Gallery, 305 8th Ave. E., Vancouver. More information at nightwoodeditions.com.
EVENT'S 2013 NON-FICTION CONTEST
Writers are invited to submit manuscripts exploring the creative non-fiction form. $1500 in prizes available, plus publication. Contest judge Russell Wangersky. Maximum entry length is 5000 words. $34.95 entry fee. April 15, 2013, deadline. Entrants will receive a one-year subscription to EVENT (or extension). Complete contest guidelines can be found at eventmags.com.
NORTH SHORE WRITERS ASSOCIATION
Celebrate National Poetry Month with guest poet/speaker Daniela Elza, author of milk tooth bane bone. Monday, April 15 at 7:00pm. Members free, non-members $5. Potlatch Room, Capilano District Library, 3045 Highland Blvd., North Vancouver. More information at nswiters.org.
JENNIFER NIELSEN
Reading by the author of The False Prince and its sequel The Runaway Frog. Monday, April 15 at 7:00pm at Kidsbooks South Surrey (960 15033-32nd St., Surrey). Also, Tuesday, April 16 at 7:00pm at West Point Grey United Church (4595 8th Ave. W.). Details and ticket purchase at kidsbooks.ca.
PEN-IN-HAND POETRY/PROSE READING SERIES
Features Heidi Greco, Beatriz Hausner, Patricia Young, Patrick Friesen, and Isa Milman. Monday, April 15 at 7:15pm. Serious Coffee, 230 Cook Street, Victoria. More information at 250-590-8010.
SPOKEN INK
Readings by Diane Tucker, Russell Thornton, Bernice Lever and Pam Galloway. Tuesday, April 16 at 7:30pm. Shadbolt Centre for the Arts, Studio 104, 6450 Deer Lake Ave., Burnaby. More information at burnabywritersnews.blogspot.com.
LUNCH POEMS @ SFU
Readings by Betsy Warland and Mercedes Eng. Wednesday, April 17 at 12 noon, free.Teck Gallery, SFU Harbour Centre, 515 W. Hastings. More information at sfu.ca/publicsquare/lunchpoems.
AN EVENING OF POETRY READING
People's Co-op Bookstore is very proud to present poets Brad Cran (Ink On Paper), Marita Dachsel (Glossolalia), Susan Gillis (The Rapids) and Rob Taylor (The Otherside of Ourselves). Thursday, April 18 at 7:30pm. People's Co-op Bookstore, 1391 Commercial Drive. More information at peoplescoopbookstore.com.
ARTHUR ELLIS AWARDS SHORTLIST
BC members of Crime Writers of Canada will present a lively panel discussion about Canadian crime writing, followed by announcement of nominees for this years Arthur Ellis Awards. Thursday, April 18 at 7:00pm, free. Peter Kaye room, lower level, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia St. More information at www.vpl.ca.
NORTH SHORE WRITERS FESTIVAL
A celebration of Canadian writers featuring Helen Humphreys, Terry Fallis, Evelyn Lau, Sean Cranbury and others. April 19-20, 2013. Lynn Valley branch, North Vancouver District Public Library, 1277 Lynn Valley Road, North Vancouver. Complete details at northshorewritersfestival.com.
FAN EXPO VANCOUVER
Second annual comicon featuring comic, anime, science fiction, horror and gaming. Authors scheduled to appear include Hiromi Goto, A.M. Dellamonica, Eileen Kernaghan and many more. April 20-21, 2013. Complete details at fanexpovancouver.com.
POEMS FROM PLANET EARTH
Vancouver launch of Poems from Planet Earth anthology with readings by contributors. Saturday, April 20 at 2:00pm. Suggested donation: $5. Historic Joy Kogawa House, 1450 64th Ave. W., Vancouver.
Upcoming
BOOK LAUNCH
Penticton writer Michelle Barker launches her debut Young Adult fantasy novel "The Beggar King" (Thistledown Press, 2013). Tuesday, April 23 at 6:30pm. The Establishment (3162 West Broadway).
JOHN VAILLANT
An evening of literary discussion, commentary, and slides as John discusses the history, ecology, and political intrigue behind his most recent work The Tiger: A True Story of Vengeance and Survival. Wednesday, April 24 at 7:00pm, free. Chilliwack Library, 45860 First Avenue, Chilliwack. More information at fvrl.bc.ca.
SUSAN JUBY
Reading by the best-selling author of the internationally popular Alice MacLeod books. Wednesday, April 24 at 7:00pm, free. Alma VanDusen & Peter Kaye rooms, lower level, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia Street. More information at vpl.ca.
IAN WEIR
Reading by the author of Daniel O'Thunder from his new novel The Resurrection Man. Thursday, April 25 at 7:00pm, free. Clearbrook Library, 32320 George Ferguson Way, Abbotsford. More information at fvrl.bc.ca.
TWISTED POETS LITERARY SALON
Features YA novelist James McCann and Writers in the Making from Eric Hamber. Thursday, April 25 at 7:00pm. Suggested donation: $5. The Cottage Bistro, 4468 Main Street, Vancouver. More information at pandorascollective.com.
MEET THE AUTHOR: SUSAN JUBY
Susan Juby discusses her novel The Woefield Poultry Collective. Thursday, April 25 at 7:00 PM. Christianne's Lyceum. 3696 W. 8th Ave. $20 (includes refreshments). To reserve your space call 604.733.1356 or email lyceum@christiannehayward.com. More information at www.christiannehayward.com.
DAV PILKEY
Book signing with the bestselling and award-winning author of the Captain Underpants series. Saturday, April 27 at 1:00pm. Chapters Metrotown, 4700 Kingsway, Burnaby. More information at 604-431-0463.
RACHEL HARTMAN
Reading by the author of Seraphina, followed by short musical examples and light refreshments. Saturday, April 27 at 2:00pm, free but register by calling 604-299-8955. McGill branch, Burnaby Public Library, 4595 Albert Street, Burnaby. More information at bpl.bc.ca.
WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO LIVE IN A POST-COLONIAL SOCIETY?
Author Jim McDowell explores the life of missionary Father August Brabant and the dynamics that shaped, and continue to define, the settler-colonial relationship between indigenous peoples and the state in Canada. Thursday, May 2 at 7:00pm, free. Alma VanDusen room, lower level, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia St. More information at vpl.ca.
VANCOUVER ISLAND CHILDREN'S BOOK FESTIVAL
27th annual festival of authors, illustrators, and storytellers from across Canada who present their work, tell stories, and/or show children how they do what they do. Featuring Roch Carrier, Kathy Beliveau, Tololwa Mollel and others. Saturday, May 4, 2013 in Nanaimo. For complete details, visit bookfest.ca.
GLEN HUSER
Award-winning author of The Runaway, Touch of the Clown and Skinnybones and the Wrinkle Queen will read from his work and take questions from the audience. Saturday, May 4 at 11:15am, free. Kerrisdale branch, 2112 42nd Ave. W. More information at vpl.ca.
RICHARD SCRIMGER
Meet the author of The Nose from Jupiter and Ink Me. Monday, May 6 and Friday, May 10. For times and complete information, visit surreylibraries.ca.
BARBARA REID
Meet the illustrator of The New Baby Calf, Fox Walked Alone, and Picture a Tree. Tuesday, May 7. Semiahmoo Library at 10:00am; Ocean Park Library at 1:30pm. Complete details at surreylibraries.ca.
Thursday, April 11, 2013
Thursday, April 4, 2013
Book News Vol. 8 No. 8
BOOK NEWS
Incite: An Exploration of Books and Ideas
Join us on Wednesday, April 10 for an evening with Ania Szado reading from Studio Saint-Ex, Billie Livingston reading from One Good Hustle and Patrick Taylor bringing his Irish country charm. Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/incite. Register here: http://incitevpl2013spring.eventbrite.ca/.
Presented in partnership with Vancouver Public Library. Incite is sponsored by the Downtown Vancouver Business Improvement Association and supported by the R.J. Nelson Family Foundation.
A DRAM COME TRUE
Dust off your kilt, gather your friends and grab a glass, A Dram Come True is back!
Join us at the legendary Hycroft Manor on May 31, 2013 for a lively celebration of spirits. Our five whisky bars will cater to the true aficionado, with a variety of rare and distinguished single malts. You don't want to miss the special surprises and scotch whisky selection we've got in store for you this year, click to buy your tickets today. Event details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/dram-come-true.
AWARDS & LISTS
The Alcuin Society has announced the winners of its 31st annual Alcuin Society Awards for Excellence in Book Design in Canada. The winning books will be exhibited at the Frankfurt and Leipzig Book Fairs, the Canadian Embassy in Tokyo; and nine Canadian provinces. The books will also be entered in the international book design competition in Leipzig, Germany in 2014.
http://www.alcuinsociety.com/awards/
Patricia McCarthy's first world war poem has won the National Poetry Competition 2013, winning a £5,000 prize and comparisons with Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon. http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/mar/27/first-world-war-national-poetry-competition-2013
Toronto writer Becky Blake has won the CBC Short Story Prize and a cheque for $6,000 for her story "The Three Times Rule."
http://www.vancouversun.com/entertainment/books/Toronto+writer+Becky+Blake+wins+Short+Story+Prize/8155279/story.html#ixzz2P3x5yR24
Performance poet Kate Tempest has won the Ted Hughes poetry prize for her 'spoken story' with Brand New Ancients, which reincarnates the gods of old in members of two London families.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/mar/27/kate-tempest-ted-hughes-poetry-prize
Argentinian illustrator Isol has won the world's largest children's prize, the Astrid Lindgren memorial award. The Swedish government annually awards the £500,000 prize to an individual or organisation working "in the spirit of Astrid Lindgren" to "safeguard democratic values".
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/gallery/2013/mar/26/astrid-lindgren-winner-2013-isol
American author Seanan McGuire has been shortlisted five times for this year's Hugo awards, America's most prestigious science fiction prize. Writing under her pseudonym Mira Grant, McGuire was shortlisted for the best novel Hugo for Blackout, the finale to her zombie trilogy, and for the best novella prize for San Diego 2014: The Last Stand of the California Browncoats.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/mar/31/seanan-mcguire-hugo-awards-shortlist
After reading sixty-six manuscript submissions, judges Gurjinder Basran and David Chariandy have shortlisted manuscripts by Katrin Horowitz, Kathy Para, Tony Power, Lenore Rowntree and Bill Stenson for the final judge, Caroline Adderson, to read for the 2nd Search for the Great B.C. Novel contest.
http://mothertonguepublishing.com/?page_id=72
YOUNG READERS
Rachel Hartman's Seraphina is a tale is about a young lady who is half-dragon, half-human! As tension rises between the dragons and the humans, Seraphina struggles to protect her secret. In her review Rachie writes: "Seraphina was a captivating book, the plot was exciting and the characters suited the story perfectly. A thrilling book, I would recommend it." For ages 9 and up.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/childrens-books-site/2013/mar/29/reader-reviews-roundup?CMP=EMCNEWEML6619I2
Roddy Doyle's A Greyhound of a Girl is a wonderful book about four generations of women: a teenager, her mother, the grandmother and a great grandmother (who's a ghost). This book is a perfect blend of cheerfulness and seriousness, writes Red Badger. Roddy Doyle writes in a way that makes the book easy to read. For ages 12 and up.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/childrens-books-site/2013/mar/30/review-greyhound-of-a-girl-roddy-doyle
Nix Minus One, Jill MacLean's compelling teenage story of secrets, revolves around a tongue-tied and introverted teenage boy. The novel is set in Bullbirds Cove, a small town in Newfoundland that used to be home to 37 families but, now that "the codfish are gone from the sea (and) groundfishing closed years ago," only 23 families remain. For ages 14 and up.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Kids+Minus/8170350/story.html#ixzz2P3oVYnMC
NEWS & FEATURES
Kildare Dobbs, acclaimed 'man of letters,' has died at 89. Dobbs co-founded the Canadian magazine Tamarack Review and won a Governor General's Literary Award.
http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/books/2013/04/01/kildare_dobbs_acclaimed_man_of_letters_dies_at_age_89.html
Henrietta Lacks was a poor black tobacco farmer whose cancer cells have formed the foundation for work leading to two Nobel prizes. Science writer Rebecca Skloot's book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks not only analyzes the behavior of doctors but also treats the reader to a moving biography of Henrietta and her children.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/apr/04/henrietta-lacks-cancer-cells
A group of the world's leading Shakespeare scholars have come together to produce a book that details definitive evidence that the Bard did write his own plays. The academics feel the anti-Shakespeare campaign has intensified lately, and that the elevation of Shakespeare authorship studies to master's degree status has been the final straw.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2013/mar/30/shakespeare-scholars-silence-doubters
Amazon has bought Goodreads, one of the Web's most popular book review sites. Goodreads is a social network of more than 16 million bookworms who share reviews and book recommendations.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57576891-93/amazon-scoops-up-goodreads-social-network/
Wanted: person of means, with plenty of sturdy shelving, likes to be read to by literary titans. Must own turntable, and remember how to operate it. Toronto writer and collector Greg Gatenby is standing by to hear from you. The former director of the Harbourfront Reading Series is selling what he calls the largest known collection of writers' voices on vinyl discs. All of which can be yours on eBay in an auction ending on Sunday. You can start the bidding at $10,000 (U.S). The Buy-It-Now price is $85,000.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/james-joyce-jrr-tolkien-and-sylvia-plath-on-vinyl-place-your-bids-now/article10394795/
The Guardian includes an edited extract from Mom & Me & Mom, by Maya Angelou, to be published 11 April by Virago. Maya Angelou was just three when her mother sent her to live with her grandma, and 13, when they were reunited. As a child, she understood that her voice was so powerful that it could kill people.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/mar/30/maya-angelou-terrible-wonderful-mother
Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani teenager shot by the Taliban as she returned home from school, is writing a book about the traumatic event and her long-running campaign to promote children's education. Publisher Weidenfeld and Nicolson will release I am Malala in Britain and Commonwealth countries this fall. Little, Brown and Co. will publish the memoir in the United States and beyond.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/story/2013/03/28/malala-memoir.html
Colm Toíbín reads from The Testament of Mary, his reimagining of the life of the mother of Christ, in a Guardian Books Podcast.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/audio/2013/mar/29/colm-toibin-testament-mary-podcast
The ageing Casanova spent his final years writing his memoirs, "the only remedy I could think of to keep me from going mad or dying of grief", he said. A new book from French publisher Laffont reveals Casanova as "a much more complex character than the cliché he has become", a man who loved liberty as much as women.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/mar/30/casanova-man-who-loved-liberty-as-much-as-women
One hundred years after suffragettes struggled against injustice, Jeanette Winterson writes about the battles remaining to be fought. Suffragettes believed that a woman who could vote was a woman who could change how society operated. That hasn't happened; instead, women have become adapters to the environment, says Winterson, adding "There are a billion illiterate people in the world; two-thirds are women." http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2013/mar/29/jeanette-winterson-suffragettes-manchester-art
Emma Brockes says that Julian Barnes' new book Levels of Life is part essay, part short story, part memoir but, above all, it's a love story dedicated to–and about–Pat Kavanagh, his wife, who died in 2008. As Pat was an intensely private person, Barnes, in the section describing his own grief, never uses her name.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/mar/30/julian-barnes-sense-of-another-ending
The Geist Spring Workshop Series is back! Same great writing environment with some new classes and instructors. The workshops are:The Creative Blender with Elee Kraljii Gardiner; From Diary to Graphic Narrative with Sarah Leavitt; Getting It Into Print with Billeh Nickerson; Writing from Life with Jane Silcott. More information here:
http://www.geistnewsletter.com/ws-spring-workshops-2013.html
BOOKS & WRITERS
The US military in Guantánamo Bay called Ahmed Errachidi "The General": in London, he was a cook. His journey from one role to the other is fascinating; a man trying to support his family, not a terrorist. Still, he spent more than five years in Guantánamo Bay. Gillian Slovo introduces Extract from The General: The Ordinary Man Who Challenged Guantánamo by Ahmed Errachidi.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/mar/28/ahmed-errachidi-guantanamo-bay-general
Bosnian-American writer Aleksandar Hemon's The Book of Lives is best described as a memoir in essays—short, episodic essays, none longer than 15 pages. As the book goes on, you feel them connecting in loose ways—small bits of a life, spoonfuls from a larger bowl, writes Steven Galloway. Hemon's strange and wonderful book altered the fabric of my life, says Galloway.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/book-reviews/alexsandar-hemon-reinvents-the-memoir-and-makes-good-borscht/article10177515/?cmpid=rss1
Mohsin Hamid's novel How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia follows the rise and fall of a wheeler-dealer, set in Pakistan in a "megalopolis" that resembles Hamid's home town, Lahore. While they are often portrayed as unscrupulous or grotesque, Hamid asks us to consider that the new breed of entrepreneurs might be rational, honourable people responding as best they can to their environment.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/mar/28/how-get-filthy-hamid-review?CMP=EMCNEWEML6619I2
Tanis Rideout's Above All Things is loosely based on George Mallory's 1924 expedition to Mount Everest, his third time to the mountain, determined to succeed this time.
http://www.vancouversun.com/entertainment/books/Novel+provides+peak+experience/8166238/story.html
Riddley Walker rivals the Passion as the perfect Easter story, says Sarah Ditum. Russell Hoban's 1980 dystopian classic is melodramatic and unique, and suggests there is more to human beings than being human. That intimation of the something beyond is my favourite thing about Riddley Walker, says Ditum.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/apr/01/riddley-walker-passion-easter-story
While the title story of Theodora Armstrong's Clear Skies, No Wind, 100% Visibility centres on a Kamloops-based air traffic controller's notion of perfect flying conditions, that title's seductive vision of the life of ideal ease, clarity and comfort-smooth sailing, in other words-pervades the entire collection, writes Brett Josef Grubisic.
http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Short+stories+explore+tumults+youth/8173220/story.html#ixzz2PEsh0Juo
The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks by Jeanne Theoharis is a "richly informative, calmly passionate and much needed portrait of a working-class activist who looked poverty and discrimination squarely in the face and never stopped rebelling against them," says The New York Times.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/31/books/review/the-rebellious-life-of-mrs-rosa-parks-by-jeanne-theoharis.html?nl=books&emc=edit_bk_20130329&_r=0
William Sutcliffe tells Alison Flood why The Wall—his first novel for young adults—is about the Israeli occupation. The crossover novel is set in a city split in two by a vast wall. On one side live the privileged. On the other, live the desperate, the occupied., "The story of our era is the divide between the haves and the have-nots", says Sutcliffe.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/childrens-books-site/2013/mar/30/review-the-wall-william-sutcliffe
COMMUNITY EVENTS
HULLABALOO SPOKEN WORD FESTIVAL
A youth poetry festival featuring 2009 Individual World Poetry Slam Champion, Amy Everhart and Ted-X featured poet Truth Is. April 3-6, 2013. Roundhouse Community Centre, 181 Roundhouse Mews. Complete details at youthslam.ca.
SOME POETRY, SOME PROSE ATLANTIC TO PACIFIC
Carole Glasser Langille (Church of The Exquisite Panic:The Ophelia Poems, Kate Braid (Journeywoman: Swinging A Hammer In A Man's World), and Sandy Shreve (Level Crossing) read from their works. Thursday, April 4 at 7:00pm, free. People's Co-op Bookstore, 1391 Commercial Drive. More information at 604-253-6442 or www.peoplescoopbookstore.com.
VERSES FESTIVAL OF WORDS
3rd annual Multimedia festival devoted to the spoken word features musicians, storytellers, artists, and poets from across Canada competing to become the Canadian Individual Poetry Slam Champion. April 8-13, 2013. Complete details at versesfestival.ca.
JULIA LIN
Book launch and reading of the author's newest book, Miah. Tuesday, April 9 at 7:00pm, free. Brighouse branch, Richmond Public Library, 100-7700 Minoru Gate, Richmond. More information at yourlibrary.ca.
BOOKTOPIA
West Vancouver Children's Literature Festival, is an annual festival intended to promote literacy, celebrate language arts and cultivate creative thought amongst youth and families. Features Sarah Ellis, Barbara Reid, and Shane Koyczan. Registration begins April 9. For complete details, visit booktopia.ca.
MYSTERIES ACCORDING TO HUMPHREY
Meet the person behind the series about the classroom pet that so many children adore. Tuesday, April 9 at 7:00pm at West Point Grey United Church (4595 8th Ave. W.). Also, Wednesday, April 10 at 4:00pm at Lynn Valley Branch, NVDL (1277 Lynn Valley Road). Details and ticket purchase at kidsbooks.ca.
BC BOOK PRIZES SOIREE 2013
Celebrates all the nominated authors for the 2013 BC Book Prizes as well as the recipient of the 2013 Lieutenant Governor's Award for Literary Excellence, who will be announced at the Soirée. Wednesday, April 10 at 6:00pm, free. Joe's Apartment, 919 Granville Street, Vancouver. More information at bcbookprizes.ca.
TWISTED POETS LITERARY SALON
Features Ontario playwright and poet Penn Kemp and short story writer and poet Alex Leslie. Wednesday, April 10 at 7:00pm. Suggested donation: $5. The Cottage Bistro, 4468 Main Street, Vancouver. More information at pandorascollective.com.
TALONBOOKS SPRING POETRY LAUNCH
Talonbooks is launching its Spring poetry collection. Featuring readings by Dina Del Bucchia, Wanda John-Kehewin, Mariner Janes, Stephen Collis and Daphne Marlatt. Wednesday, April 10 at 8:00pm. Anza Club, 3 W. 8th Ave. More information at talonbooks.com.
LITFEST
The 3rd Annual LitFest New West celebrates the literary arts at New Westminster Public Library and Douglas Collage. April 11-13, 2013. More information at artscouncilnewwest.org.
ALIVE AT THE CENTRE ANTHOLOGY LAUNCH
Celebrate the Vancouver launch of Alive at the Centre: An Anthology of Poems from the Pacific NorthWest. The anthology includes poems from three cities: Vancouver, Portland, and Seattle. Poet Laureate Evelyn Lau will open the night and the host is Rob Taylor. Friday, April 12 at 7:00pm, free. Rhizome Cafe (317 E. Broadway).
FORCE FIELD
Force Field - 77 Women Poets of British Columbia. The first of its kind in thirty-four years, this anthology strongly celebrates women poets, from the emerging, mid-career to the established. Saturday, April 13 at 3:00pm, free. Alma VanDusen & Peter Kaye rooms, lower level, Central Branch, 350 W. Georgia St. More information at www.vpl.ca.
Upcoming
EVENT'S 2013 NON-FICTION CONTEST
Writers are invited to submit manuscripts exploring the creative non-fiction form. $1500 in prizes available, plus publication. Contest judge Russell Wangersky. Maximum entry length is 5000 words. $34.95 entry fee. April 15, 2013, deadline. Entrants will receive a one-year subscription to EVENT (or extension). Complete contest guidelines can be found at eventmags.com.
NORTH SHORE WRITERS ASSOCIATION
Celebrate National Poetry Month with guest poet/speaker Daniela Elza, author of milk tooth bane bone. Monday, April 15 at 7:00pm. Members free, non-members $5. Potlatch Room, Capilano District Library, 3045 Highland Blvd., North Vancouver. More information at nswiters.org.
JENNIFER NIELSEN
Reading by the author of The False Prince and its sequel The Runaway Frog. Monday, April 15 at 7:00pm at Kidsbooks South Surrey (960 15033-32nd St., Surrey). Also, Tuesday, April 16 at 7:00pm at West Point Grey United Church (4595 8th Ave. W.). Details and ticket purchase at kidsbooks.ca.
LUNCH POEMS @ SFU
Readings by Betsy Warland and Mercedes Eng. Wednesday, April 17 at 12 noon, free.Teck Gallery, SFU Harbour Centre, 515 W. Hastings. More information at sfu.ca/publicsquare/lunchpoems.
ARTHUR ELLIS AWARDS SHORTLIST
BC members of Crime Writers of Canada will present a lively panel discussion about Canadian crime writing, followed by announcement of nominees for this years Arthur Ellis Awards. Thursday, April 18 at 7:00pm, free. Peter Kaye room, lower level, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia St. More information at www.vpl.ca.
NORTH SHORE WRITERS FESTIVAL
A celebration of Canadian writers featuring Helen Humphreys, Terry Fallis, Evelyn Lau, Sean Cranbury and others. April 19-20, 2013. Lynn Valley branch, North Vancouver District Public Library, 1277 Lynn Valley Road, North Vancouver. Complete details at northshorewritersfestival.com.
FAN EXPO VANCOUVER
Second annual comicon featuring comic, anime, science fiction, horror and gaming. Authors scheduled to appear include Hiromi Goto, A.M. Dellamonica, Eileen Kernaghan and many more. April 20-21, 2013. Complete details at fanexpovancouver.com.
POEMS FROM PLANET EARTH
Vancouver launch of Poems from Planet Earth anthology with readings by contributors. Saturday, April 20 at 2:00pm. Suggested donation: $5. Historic Joy Kogawa House, 1450 64th Ave. W., Vancouver.
BOOK LAUNCH
Penticton writer Michelle Barker launches her debut Young Adult fantasy novel "The Beggar King" (Thistledown Press, 2013). Tuesday, April 23 at 6:30pm. The Establishment (3162 West Broadway).
JOHN VAILLANT
An evening of literary discussion, commentary, and slides as John discusses the history, ecology, and political intrigue behind his most recent work The Tiger: A True Story of Vengeance and Survival. Wednesday, April 24 at 7:00pm, free. Chilliwack Library, 45860 First Avenue, Chilliwack. More information at fvrl.bc.ca.
SUSAN JUBY
Reading by the best-selling author of the internationally popular Alice MacLeod books. Wednesday, April 24 at 7:00pm, free. Alma VanDusen & Peter Kaye rooms, lower level, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia Street. More information at vpl.ca.
IAN WEIR
Reading by the author of Daniel O'Thunder from his new novel The Resurrection Man. Thursday, April 25 at 7:00pm, free. Clearbrook Library, 32320 George Ferguson Way, Abbotsford. More information at fvrl.bc.ca.
TWISTED POETS LITERARY SALON
Features YA novelist James McCann and Writers in the Making from Eric Hamber. Thursday, April 25 at 7:00pm. Suggested donation: $5. The Cottage Bistro, 4468 Main Street, Vancouver. More information at pandorascollective.com.
RACHEL HARTMAN
Reading by the author of Seraphina, followed by short musical examples and light refreshments. Saturday, April 27 at 2:00pm, free but register by calling 604-299-8955. McGill branch, Burnaby Public Library, 4595 Albert Street, Burnaby. More information at bpl.bc.ca.
Incite: An Exploration of Books and Ideas
Join us on Wednesday, April 10 for an evening with Ania Szado reading from Studio Saint-Ex, Billie Livingston reading from One Good Hustle and Patrick Taylor bringing his Irish country charm. Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/incite. Register here: http://incitevpl2013spring.eventbrite.ca/.
Presented in partnership with Vancouver Public Library. Incite is sponsored by the Downtown Vancouver Business Improvement Association and supported by the R.J. Nelson Family Foundation.
A DRAM COME TRUE
Dust off your kilt, gather your friends and grab a glass, A Dram Come True is back!
Join us at the legendary Hycroft Manor on May 31, 2013 for a lively celebration of spirits. Our five whisky bars will cater to the true aficionado, with a variety of rare and distinguished single malts. You don't want to miss the special surprises and scotch whisky selection we've got in store for you this year, click to buy your tickets today. Event details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/dram-come-true.
AWARDS & LISTS
The Alcuin Society has announced the winners of its 31st annual Alcuin Society Awards for Excellence in Book Design in Canada. The winning books will be exhibited at the Frankfurt and Leipzig Book Fairs, the Canadian Embassy in Tokyo; and nine Canadian provinces. The books will also be entered in the international book design competition in Leipzig, Germany in 2014.
http://www.alcuinsociety.com/awards/
Patricia McCarthy's first world war poem has won the National Poetry Competition 2013, winning a £5,000 prize and comparisons with Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon. http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/mar/27/first-world-war-national-poetry-competition-2013
Toronto writer Becky Blake has won the CBC Short Story Prize and a cheque for $6,000 for her story "The Three Times Rule."
http://www.vancouversun.com/entertainment/books/Toronto+writer+Becky+Blake+wins+Short+Story+Prize/8155279/story.html#ixzz2P3x5yR24
Performance poet Kate Tempest has won the Ted Hughes poetry prize for her 'spoken story' with Brand New Ancients, which reincarnates the gods of old in members of two London families.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/mar/27/kate-tempest-ted-hughes-poetry-prize
Argentinian illustrator Isol has won the world's largest children's prize, the Astrid Lindgren memorial award. The Swedish government annually awards the £500,000 prize to an individual or organisation working "in the spirit of Astrid Lindgren" to "safeguard democratic values".
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/gallery/2013/mar/26/astrid-lindgren-winner-2013-isol
American author Seanan McGuire has been shortlisted five times for this year's Hugo awards, America's most prestigious science fiction prize. Writing under her pseudonym Mira Grant, McGuire was shortlisted for the best novel Hugo for Blackout, the finale to her zombie trilogy, and for the best novella prize for San Diego 2014: The Last Stand of the California Browncoats.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/mar/31/seanan-mcguire-hugo-awards-shortlist
After reading sixty-six manuscript submissions, judges Gurjinder Basran and David Chariandy have shortlisted manuscripts by Katrin Horowitz, Kathy Para, Tony Power, Lenore Rowntree and Bill Stenson for the final judge, Caroline Adderson, to read for the 2nd Search for the Great B.C. Novel contest.
http://mothertonguepublishing.com/?page_id=72
YOUNG READERS
Rachel Hartman's Seraphina is a tale is about a young lady who is half-dragon, half-human! As tension rises between the dragons and the humans, Seraphina struggles to protect her secret. In her review Rachie writes: "Seraphina was a captivating book, the plot was exciting and the characters suited the story perfectly. A thrilling book, I would recommend it." For ages 9 and up.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/childrens-books-site/2013/mar/29/reader-reviews-roundup?CMP=EMCNEWEML6619I2
Roddy Doyle's A Greyhound of a Girl is a wonderful book about four generations of women: a teenager, her mother, the grandmother and a great grandmother (who's a ghost). This book is a perfect blend of cheerfulness and seriousness, writes Red Badger. Roddy Doyle writes in a way that makes the book easy to read. For ages 12 and up.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/childrens-books-site/2013/mar/30/review-greyhound-of-a-girl-roddy-doyle
Nix Minus One, Jill MacLean's compelling teenage story of secrets, revolves around a tongue-tied and introverted teenage boy. The novel is set in Bullbirds Cove, a small town in Newfoundland that used to be home to 37 families but, now that "the codfish are gone from the sea (and) groundfishing closed years ago," only 23 families remain. For ages 14 and up.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Kids+Minus/8170350/story.html#ixzz2P3oVYnMC
NEWS & FEATURES
Kildare Dobbs, acclaimed 'man of letters,' has died at 89. Dobbs co-founded the Canadian magazine Tamarack Review and won a Governor General's Literary Award.
http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/books/2013/04/01/kildare_dobbs_acclaimed_man_of_letters_dies_at_age_89.html
Henrietta Lacks was a poor black tobacco farmer whose cancer cells have formed the foundation for work leading to two Nobel prizes. Science writer Rebecca Skloot's book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks not only analyzes the behavior of doctors but also treats the reader to a moving biography of Henrietta and her children.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/apr/04/henrietta-lacks-cancer-cells
A group of the world's leading Shakespeare scholars have come together to produce a book that details definitive evidence that the Bard did write his own plays. The academics feel the anti-Shakespeare campaign has intensified lately, and that the elevation of Shakespeare authorship studies to master's degree status has been the final straw.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2013/mar/30/shakespeare-scholars-silence-doubters
Amazon has bought Goodreads, one of the Web's most popular book review sites. Goodreads is a social network of more than 16 million bookworms who share reviews and book recommendations.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57576891-93/amazon-scoops-up-goodreads-social-network/
Wanted: person of means, with plenty of sturdy shelving, likes to be read to by literary titans. Must own turntable, and remember how to operate it. Toronto writer and collector Greg Gatenby is standing by to hear from you. The former director of the Harbourfront Reading Series is selling what he calls the largest known collection of writers' voices on vinyl discs. All of which can be yours on eBay in an auction ending on Sunday. You can start the bidding at $10,000 (U.S). The Buy-It-Now price is $85,000.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/james-joyce-jrr-tolkien-and-sylvia-plath-on-vinyl-place-your-bids-now/article10394795/
The Guardian includes an edited extract from Mom & Me & Mom, by Maya Angelou, to be published 11 April by Virago. Maya Angelou was just three when her mother sent her to live with her grandma, and 13, when they were reunited. As a child, she understood that her voice was so powerful that it could kill people.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/mar/30/maya-angelou-terrible-wonderful-mother
Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani teenager shot by the Taliban as she returned home from school, is writing a book about the traumatic event and her long-running campaign to promote children's education. Publisher Weidenfeld and Nicolson will release I am Malala in Britain and Commonwealth countries this fall. Little, Brown and Co. will publish the memoir in the United States and beyond.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/story/2013/03/28/malala-memoir.html
Colm Toíbín reads from The Testament of Mary, his reimagining of the life of the mother of Christ, in a Guardian Books Podcast.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/audio/2013/mar/29/colm-toibin-testament-mary-podcast
The ageing Casanova spent his final years writing his memoirs, "the only remedy I could think of to keep me from going mad or dying of grief", he said. A new book from French publisher Laffont reveals Casanova as "a much more complex character than the cliché he has become", a man who loved liberty as much as women.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/mar/30/casanova-man-who-loved-liberty-as-much-as-women
One hundred years after suffragettes struggled against injustice, Jeanette Winterson writes about the battles remaining to be fought. Suffragettes believed that a woman who could vote was a woman who could change how society operated. That hasn't happened; instead, women have become adapters to the environment, says Winterson, adding "There are a billion illiterate people in the world; two-thirds are women." http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2013/mar/29/jeanette-winterson-suffragettes-manchester-art
Emma Brockes says that Julian Barnes' new book Levels of Life is part essay, part short story, part memoir but, above all, it's a love story dedicated to–and about–Pat Kavanagh, his wife, who died in 2008. As Pat was an intensely private person, Barnes, in the section describing his own grief, never uses her name.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/mar/30/julian-barnes-sense-of-another-ending
The Geist Spring Workshop Series is back! Same great writing environment with some new classes and instructors. The workshops are:The Creative Blender with Elee Kraljii Gardiner; From Diary to Graphic Narrative with Sarah Leavitt; Getting It Into Print with Billeh Nickerson; Writing from Life with Jane Silcott. More information here:
http://www.geistnewsletter.com/ws-spring-workshops-2013.html
BOOKS & WRITERS
The US military in Guantánamo Bay called Ahmed Errachidi "The General": in London, he was a cook. His journey from one role to the other is fascinating; a man trying to support his family, not a terrorist. Still, he spent more than five years in Guantánamo Bay. Gillian Slovo introduces Extract from The General: The Ordinary Man Who Challenged Guantánamo by Ahmed Errachidi.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/mar/28/ahmed-errachidi-guantanamo-bay-general
Bosnian-American writer Aleksandar Hemon's The Book of Lives is best described as a memoir in essays—short, episodic essays, none longer than 15 pages. As the book goes on, you feel them connecting in loose ways—small bits of a life, spoonfuls from a larger bowl, writes Steven Galloway. Hemon's strange and wonderful book altered the fabric of my life, says Galloway.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/book-reviews/alexsandar-hemon-reinvents-the-memoir-and-makes-good-borscht/article10177515/?cmpid=rss1
Mohsin Hamid's novel How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia follows the rise and fall of a wheeler-dealer, set in Pakistan in a "megalopolis" that resembles Hamid's home town, Lahore. While they are often portrayed as unscrupulous or grotesque, Hamid asks us to consider that the new breed of entrepreneurs might be rational, honourable people responding as best they can to their environment.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/mar/28/how-get-filthy-hamid-review?CMP=EMCNEWEML6619I2
Tanis Rideout's Above All Things is loosely based on George Mallory's 1924 expedition to Mount Everest, his third time to the mountain, determined to succeed this time.
http://www.vancouversun.com/entertainment/books/Novel+provides+peak+experience/8166238/story.html
Riddley Walker rivals the Passion as the perfect Easter story, says Sarah Ditum. Russell Hoban's 1980 dystopian classic is melodramatic and unique, and suggests there is more to human beings than being human. That intimation of the something beyond is my favourite thing about Riddley Walker, says Ditum.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/apr/01/riddley-walker-passion-easter-story
While the title story of Theodora Armstrong's Clear Skies, No Wind, 100% Visibility centres on a Kamloops-based air traffic controller's notion of perfect flying conditions, that title's seductive vision of the life of ideal ease, clarity and comfort-smooth sailing, in other words-pervades the entire collection, writes Brett Josef Grubisic.
http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Short+stories+explore+tumults+youth/8173220/story.html#ixzz2PEsh0Juo
The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks by Jeanne Theoharis is a "richly informative, calmly passionate and much needed portrait of a working-class activist who looked poverty and discrimination squarely in the face and never stopped rebelling against them," says The New York Times.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/31/books/review/the-rebellious-life-of-mrs-rosa-parks-by-jeanne-theoharis.html?nl=books&emc=edit_bk_20130329&_r=0
William Sutcliffe tells Alison Flood why The Wall—his first novel for young adults—is about the Israeli occupation. The crossover novel is set in a city split in two by a vast wall. On one side live the privileged. On the other, live the desperate, the occupied., "The story of our era is the divide between the haves and the have-nots", says Sutcliffe.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/childrens-books-site/2013/mar/30/review-the-wall-william-sutcliffe
COMMUNITY EVENTS
HULLABALOO SPOKEN WORD FESTIVAL
A youth poetry festival featuring 2009 Individual World Poetry Slam Champion, Amy Everhart and Ted-X featured poet Truth Is. April 3-6, 2013. Roundhouse Community Centre, 181 Roundhouse Mews. Complete details at youthslam.ca.
SOME POETRY, SOME PROSE ATLANTIC TO PACIFIC
Carole Glasser Langille (Church of The Exquisite Panic:The Ophelia Poems, Kate Braid (Journeywoman: Swinging A Hammer In A Man's World), and Sandy Shreve (Level Crossing) read from their works. Thursday, April 4 at 7:00pm, free. People's Co-op Bookstore, 1391 Commercial Drive. More information at 604-253-6442 or www.peoplescoopbookstore.com.
VERSES FESTIVAL OF WORDS
3rd annual Multimedia festival devoted to the spoken word features musicians, storytellers, artists, and poets from across Canada competing to become the Canadian Individual Poetry Slam Champion. April 8-13, 2013. Complete details at versesfestival.ca.
JULIA LIN
Book launch and reading of the author's newest book, Miah. Tuesday, April 9 at 7:00pm, free. Brighouse branch, Richmond Public Library, 100-7700 Minoru Gate, Richmond. More information at yourlibrary.ca.
BOOKTOPIA
West Vancouver Children's Literature Festival, is an annual festival intended to promote literacy, celebrate language arts and cultivate creative thought amongst youth and families. Features Sarah Ellis, Barbara Reid, and Shane Koyczan. Registration begins April 9. For complete details, visit booktopia.ca.
MYSTERIES ACCORDING TO HUMPHREY
Meet the person behind the series about the classroom pet that so many children adore. Tuesday, April 9 at 7:00pm at West Point Grey United Church (4595 8th Ave. W.). Also, Wednesday, April 10 at 4:00pm at Lynn Valley Branch, NVDL (1277 Lynn Valley Road). Details and ticket purchase at kidsbooks.ca.
BC BOOK PRIZES SOIREE 2013
Celebrates all the nominated authors for the 2013 BC Book Prizes as well as the recipient of the 2013 Lieutenant Governor's Award for Literary Excellence, who will be announced at the Soirée. Wednesday, April 10 at 6:00pm, free. Joe's Apartment, 919 Granville Street, Vancouver. More information at bcbookprizes.ca.
TWISTED POETS LITERARY SALON
Features Ontario playwright and poet Penn Kemp and short story writer and poet Alex Leslie. Wednesday, April 10 at 7:00pm. Suggested donation: $5. The Cottage Bistro, 4468 Main Street, Vancouver. More information at pandorascollective.com.
TALONBOOKS SPRING POETRY LAUNCH
Talonbooks is launching its Spring poetry collection. Featuring readings by Dina Del Bucchia, Wanda John-Kehewin, Mariner Janes, Stephen Collis and Daphne Marlatt. Wednesday, April 10 at 8:00pm. Anza Club, 3 W. 8th Ave. More information at talonbooks.com.
LITFEST
The 3rd Annual LitFest New West celebrates the literary arts at New Westminster Public Library and Douglas Collage. April 11-13, 2013. More information at artscouncilnewwest.org.
ALIVE AT THE CENTRE ANTHOLOGY LAUNCH
Celebrate the Vancouver launch of Alive at the Centre: An Anthology of Poems from the Pacific NorthWest. The anthology includes poems from three cities: Vancouver, Portland, and Seattle. Poet Laureate Evelyn Lau will open the night and the host is Rob Taylor. Friday, April 12 at 7:00pm, free. Rhizome Cafe (317 E. Broadway).
FORCE FIELD
Force Field - 77 Women Poets of British Columbia. The first of its kind in thirty-four years, this anthology strongly celebrates women poets, from the emerging, mid-career to the established. Saturday, April 13 at 3:00pm, free. Alma VanDusen & Peter Kaye rooms, lower level, Central Branch, 350 W. Georgia St. More information at www.vpl.ca.
Upcoming
EVENT'S 2013 NON-FICTION CONTEST
Writers are invited to submit manuscripts exploring the creative non-fiction form. $1500 in prizes available, plus publication. Contest judge Russell Wangersky. Maximum entry length is 5000 words. $34.95 entry fee. April 15, 2013, deadline. Entrants will receive a one-year subscription to EVENT (or extension). Complete contest guidelines can be found at eventmags.com.
NORTH SHORE WRITERS ASSOCIATION
Celebrate National Poetry Month with guest poet/speaker Daniela Elza, author of milk tooth bane bone. Monday, April 15 at 7:00pm. Members free, non-members $5. Potlatch Room, Capilano District Library, 3045 Highland Blvd., North Vancouver. More information at nswiters.org.
JENNIFER NIELSEN
Reading by the author of The False Prince and its sequel The Runaway Frog. Monday, April 15 at 7:00pm at Kidsbooks South Surrey (960 15033-32nd St., Surrey). Also, Tuesday, April 16 at 7:00pm at West Point Grey United Church (4595 8th Ave. W.). Details and ticket purchase at kidsbooks.ca.
LUNCH POEMS @ SFU
Readings by Betsy Warland and Mercedes Eng. Wednesday, April 17 at 12 noon, free.Teck Gallery, SFU Harbour Centre, 515 W. Hastings. More information at sfu.ca/publicsquare/lunchpoems.
ARTHUR ELLIS AWARDS SHORTLIST
BC members of Crime Writers of Canada will present a lively panel discussion about Canadian crime writing, followed by announcement of nominees for this years Arthur Ellis Awards. Thursday, April 18 at 7:00pm, free. Peter Kaye room, lower level, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia St. More information at www.vpl.ca.
NORTH SHORE WRITERS FESTIVAL
A celebration of Canadian writers featuring Helen Humphreys, Terry Fallis, Evelyn Lau, Sean Cranbury and others. April 19-20, 2013. Lynn Valley branch, North Vancouver District Public Library, 1277 Lynn Valley Road, North Vancouver. Complete details at northshorewritersfestival.com.
FAN EXPO VANCOUVER
Second annual comicon featuring comic, anime, science fiction, horror and gaming. Authors scheduled to appear include Hiromi Goto, A.M. Dellamonica, Eileen Kernaghan and many more. April 20-21, 2013. Complete details at fanexpovancouver.com.
POEMS FROM PLANET EARTH
Vancouver launch of Poems from Planet Earth anthology with readings by contributors. Saturday, April 20 at 2:00pm. Suggested donation: $5. Historic Joy Kogawa House, 1450 64th Ave. W., Vancouver.
BOOK LAUNCH
Penticton writer Michelle Barker launches her debut Young Adult fantasy novel "The Beggar King" (Thistledown Press, 2013). Tuesday, April 23 at 6:30pm. The Establishment (3162 West Broadway).
JOHN VAILLANT
An evening of literary discussion, commentary, and slides as John discusses the history, ecology, and political intrigue behind his most recent work The Tiger: A True Story of Vengeance and Survival. Wednesday, April 24 at 7:00pm, free. Chilliwack Library, 45860 First Avenue, Chilliwack. More information at fvrl.bc.ca.
SUSAN JUBY
Reading by the best-selling author of the internationally popular Alice MacLeod books. Wednesday, April 24 at 7:00pm, free. Alma VanDusen & Peter Kaye rooms, lower level, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia Street. More information at vpl.ca.
IAN WEIR
Reading by the author of Daniel O'Thunder from his new novel The Resurrection Man. Thursday, April 25 at 7:00pm, free. Clearbrook Library, 32320 George Ferguson Way, Abbotsford. More information at fvrl.bc.ca.
TWISTED POETS LITERARY SALON
Features YA novelist James McCann and Writers in the Making from Eric Hamber. Thursday, April 25 at 7:00pm. Suggested donation: $5. The Cottage Bistro, 4468 Main Street, Vancouver. More information at pandorascollective.com.
RACHEL HARTMAN
Reading by the author of Seraphina, followed by short musical examples and light refreshments. Saturday, April 27 at 2:00pm, free but register by calling 604-299-8955. McGill branch, Burnaby Public Library, 4595 Albert Street, Burnaby. More information at bpl.bc.ca.
Thursday, March 28, 2013
Book News Vol. 8 No. 7
BOOK NEWS
Incite: An Exploration of Books and Ideas
Join us on Wednesday, April 10 for an evening with Ania Szado reading from Studio Saint-Ex, Billie Livingston reading from One Good Hustle and Patrick Taylor bringing his Irish country charm. Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/incite. Register here: http://incitevpl2013spring.eventbrite.ca/.
Presented in partnership with Vancouver Public Library. Incite is sponsored by the Downtown Vancouver Business Improvement Association and supported by the R.J. Nelson Family Foundation.
A DRAM COME TRUE
Dust off your kilt, gather your friends and grab a glass, A Dram Come True is back!
Join us at the legendary Hycroft Manor on May 31, 2013 for a lively celebration of spirits. Our five whisky bars will cater to the true aficionado, with a variety of rare and distinguished single malts. You don't want to miss the special surprises and scotch whisky selection we've got in store for you this year, click here to buy your tickets today.
Event details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/dram-come-true.
AWARDS & LISTS
Chrystia Freeland (New York City, USA) has won the 2013 Lionel Gelber Prize for Plutocrats: The Rise of the New Global Super-Rich and the Fall of Everyone Else.
http://www.utoronto.ca/munk/gelber/media_release/2013_Winner_Press_Release.html
The longlist for the Orwell Prize, Britain's award for political writing, includes fourteen journalists and 12 books for investigations on subjects including Starbucks, torture, and the lives of the super-rich. The prize is awarded in both books and journalism for works that reflect George Orwell's ambition to "make political writing into an art."
http://www.latimes.com/features/books/jacketcopy/la-et-jc-george-orwell-legacy-orwell-prize-longlist-announced-20130320,0,3970643.story
Toronto writers Jeffrey Simpson and Noah Richler are among five nominees for the $10,000 John W. Dafoe Book Prize for non-fiction. The award, named after John Wesley Dafoe, a former editor of the Manitoba Free Press (later Winnipeg Free Press), is for a book about international affairs by a Canadian writer.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/story/2013/03/20/dafoe-prize-shortlist.html
American author Junot Díaz has taken the world's richest prize for a single short story, the £30,000 Sunday Times EFG Private Bank short story prize, written in the "Spanglish" for which the Dominican-born writer is known.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/mar/22/junot-diaz-wins-short-story-prize
Annabel Pitcher's Ketchup Clouds, has won the Waterstones prize for new and emerging talent in the teen category.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/childrens-books-site/2013/mar/21/annabel-pitcher-waterstones-childrens-book-prize
Pitcher talks about her book in this podcast:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/childrens-books-site/audio/2013/jan/09/annabel-pitcher-ketchup-clouds-podcast
Goblinproofing One's Chicken Coop has won Britain's Diagram Prize, for the year's oddest book title.
http://www.thebookseller.com/news/goblinproofing-ones-chicken-coop-wins-diagram-prize.html
Eight illustrators are on the short list for this year's Kate Greenaway medal for 'outstanding illustration in a children's book'. A gallery of the books can be found here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/childrens-books-site/gallery/2013/mar/12/kate-greenaway-medal-shortlist-2013-gallery#/?picture=405449369&index=7
Aminata, Lawrence Hill's The Book of Negroes in French, has won Le Combat des livres.
http://blogs.montrealgazette.com/category/arts/showbiz-chez-nous/
Toronto writer Becky Blake has won the CBC Short Story Prize, and a cheque for $6,000 for her story The Three Times Rule.
http://www.vancouversun.com/entertainment/Star+tracks/8157558/story.html
YOUNG READERS
I Scream! Ice Cream! A Book of Wordles by Amy Krouse Rosenthal, illustrated by Serge Bloch. I Scream! Ice Cream! takes the notion of the homonym, expands it and manages to make it fun. Krouse's wordplay is ingenious, paradoxically simple and complex, writes Andrew Kaufman. For age 5 and up.
http://www.chroniclebooks.com/titles/kids-teens/genre/picturebooks/i-scream-ice-cream.html
You don't have to be a middle-grade student, or have a flair for the dramatic to enjoy Drama, Raina Telgemeier's most recent graphic novel, says Bernie Goedhart. Callie, a Grade 7 student, longs to try out for her school's spring musical production but is hampered by an inability to sing. She can, however, draw and paint. Ages 10 to 14.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/books/Kids+drama+middle+school/8138583/story.html
Finn Maguire leads a pretty ordinary life —until he's forced to stay with his stepdad. With a dead-end job, and a drug-dealing crowd, Finn ends up in juvenile detention. One day, he runs home after his shift at Max Snax and discovers his dad: dead. Initially, a suspect, Finn becomes a sleuth. A page-turner, says Bernie Goedhart. Ages 14 and up.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/Kids+Teenage+suspect+turns+sleuth/7959002/story.html#ixzz2OECq9PQg
NEWS & FEATURES
Tributes are pouring in from around the world following the news that Nigerian novelist and poet Chinualumogu Albert Achebe has died, aged 82, perhaps Nigeria's greatest ever writer. Things Fall Apart remains the best-selling novel ever written by an African author, having sold more than 10-million copies in 50 different languages.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/mar/22/chinua-achebe-grandfather-african-literature-dies-aged-82
Slate tells the story of the near loss of Achebe's debut novel Things Fall Apart.
http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2013/03/22/things_fall_apart_by_chinua_achebe_was_almost_lost_by_london_typists_the.html
James Herbert, a British sci-fi and horror writer who sold 54 million books in his lifetime, beginning with The Rats, has died at 69. His latest book, Ash, was published last week.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/story/2013/03/20/james-herbert-obit.html
The status of Marjane Satrapi's graphic novel Persepolis in Chicago's public schools has led to controversy. Initially, it seemed that the book was to be taken out of all school libraries and all classrooms; it's now removed only from seventh-grade classrooms. Satrapi's youth in Iran is chronicled in the graphic novel.
http://www.csmonitor.com/Books/chapter-and-verse/2013/0318/Persepolis-removal-from-some-Chicago-classrooms-prompts-protests
Alexander Soderberg is the latest Swedish crime novelist to come to Canadians' attention, with The Andalucian Friend just published in Canada. Initially a TV dramatist, Soderberg is now completing Volume 2 of a trilogy. Soderberg says the story was triggered by "the idea of a woman in an escalating situation between a crime syndicate and the police.”
http://www.vancouversun.com/entertainment/only+really+good/8113633/story.html
DH Lawrence was an infamous victim of the censor as his sexually explicit novel Lady Chatterley's Lover was banned in Britain until 1960. Now a new edition of Lawrence's poems, many rendered unreadable by the censor's pen, will reveal him as a brilliant war poet whose work attacking British imperialism during the first world war was barred from publication.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/mar/24/dh-lawrence-war-poetry-censorship
Oscar Wilde believed his success as a writer was due to his never relying on the craft as a source of income, a previously unseen letter by the author has revealed.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/9939664/Literary-success-Dont-give-up-the-day-job-advised-Oscar-Wilde.html
A new documentary doesn't unveil Philip Roth, but leaves one admiring the fearless ability to mine his psyche for his art. There are several surprising things to learn about Roth in the new PBS documentary, says Emma Brockes. The biggest reveal, given Roth's entrenched public image as furiously vain and terrifically grumpy, is just how charming and likable he is.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/emmabrockes
However great Truman Capote's literary gifts, his promotional genius surpassed them. In the publicity campaign he engineered, the account of four brutal murders in Kansas was completely true. Almost from the start, skeptics challenged the accuracy of In Cold Blood. The last scene in the book, a graveyard conversation between a detective and the murdered girl's best friend, was pure invention.
http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/culturebox/2013/03/fact_checking_in_cold_blood_what_the_new_yorker_s_fact_checker_missed.html
Geist advice No. 169: Write a poem starting with the word 'eventually'. This week's piece of advice is from Geist reader Ann Kumar. Email advice@geist.com with your own piece of advice. One pearl of wisdom will be featured in the Geist newsletter each week.
BOOKS & WRITERS
Ruth Ozeki's A Tale for the Time Being spins an enchanting tale about the struggle of the outsider caught between cultures. Ozeki says: 'This book is about the character creating a novelist'. Ruth Ozeki will be at Incite on April 17.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/mar/07/ruth-ozeki-interview-time-being
A rainy encounter in London on the banks of the Thames unlocks a tale of loss and grief in Down to a Sunless Sea, an exclusive story from Neil Gaiman.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/mar/22/down-sunless-sea-neil-gaiman-short-story
The myth of the cowboy: how did the lone cowboy hero become such a potent figure in American culture? In an extract from his final book Fractured Times, the late Eric Hobsbawm follows a trail from cheap novels and B-westerns to Ronald Reagan. Here is an extract from Fractured Times:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/mar/20/myth-of-the-cowboy
The first authorized biography of the novelist JM Coetzee, will be published in the UK this summer. An intensely private man who twice declined to collect a Booker prize in person, and despite Coetzee's statement "all autobiography is storytelling, all writing is autobiography", this was the first time Coetzee gave his full cooperation to a biographer.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/mar/21/jm-coetzee-biography-jc-kannemeyer
Small-town America has found a chilling new storyteller in Missouri-born Gillian Flynn, writes Paul Harris. Flynn's Gone Girl is tipped by many to win the Women's Prize for Fiction, says Harris.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/theobserver/2013/mar/24/gillian-flynn-gone-girl-profile
Vera Brittain lost her fiancé, brother and two closest male friends in the first world war. She wrote Testament of Youth as a cry of outrage and agony, so that the futility of their deaths would be remembered. Eighty years on, it remains one of the most powerful and widely read war memoirs of all time, writes Elizabeth Day.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/mar/24/vera-brittain-testament-of-youth
For decades Willa Cather has been an enigma in 20th-century American literature: walled off from scrutiny by the tightest archival restrictions this side of J.D. Salinger. Cather was believed to have destroyed most of her letters and ordered that surviving correspondence never be published. Next month, "The Selected Letters of Willa Cather" will be published-a major literary event for scholars.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/22/books/willa-cather-letters-to-be-published-as-an-anthology.html?_r=0
COMMUNITY EVENTS
TWISTED POETS LITERARY SALON
A night of socially engaged writing of peace provocation and witness with the launch of Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here Anthology. Featuring Cristine Leclerc with special guests Susan McCaslin, Stephen Collis, Renee Saklikar, Elena E. Johnson and Juliane Okot Bitek. Thursday, March 28, 7-9:30pm, at The Cottage Bistro, 4468 Main Street. Suggested donation at the door: $5. All are welcome. More information at www.pandorascollective.com.
AN EVENING OF POETRY READINGS
People's Co-op Bookstore presents poets Jan Conn, Zoe Landale, Jane Munro, and Pamela Porter. Thursday, March 28 at 7:30pm. People's Co-op Bookstore, 1391 Commercial Drive, Vancouver. More information at peoplescoopbookstore.com.
ROBERT J. SAWYER
Author reads from his latest book, Red Planet Blues, a noir mystery set on a lawless Mars in a future where everything is cheap, and life is even cheaper. Wednesday, April 3 at 7:00pm, free. Alma VanDusen & Peter Kaye rooms, lower level, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia St. More information at www.vpl.ca.
HULLABALOO SPOKEN WORD FESTIVAL
A youth poetry festival featuring 2009 Individual World Poetry Slam Champion, Amy Everhart and Ted-X featured poet Truth Is. April 3-6, 2013. Roundhouse Community Centre, 181 Roundhouse Mews. Complete details at youthslam.ca.
SOME POETRY, SOME PROSE ATLANTIC TO PACIFIC
Carole Glasser Langille (Church of The Exquisite Panic:The Ophelia Poems, Kate Braid (Journeywoman: Swinging A Hammer In A Man's World), and Sandy Shreve (Level Crossing) read from their works. Thursday, April 4 at 7:00pm, free. People's Co-op Bookstore, 1391 Commercial Drive. More information at 604-253-6442 or www.peoplescoopbookstore.com.
VERSES FESTIVAL OF WORDS
3rd annual Multimedia festival devoted to the spoken word features musicians, storytellers, artists, and poets from across Canada competing to become the Canadian Individual Poetry Slam Champion. April 8-13, 2013. Complete details at versesfestival.ca.
JULIA LIN
Book launch and reading of the author's newest book, Miah. Tuesday, April 9 at 7:00pm, free. Brighouse branch, Richmond Public Library, 100-7700 Minoru Gate, Richmond. More information at yourlibrary.ca.
BOOKTOPIA
West Vancouver Children's Literature Festival, is an annual festival intended to promote literacy, celebrate language arts and cultivate creative thought amongst youth and families. Features Sarah Ellis, Barbara Reid, and Shane Koyczan. Registration begins April 9. For complete details, visit booktopia.ca.
MYSTERIES ACCORDING TO HUMPHREY
Meet the person behind the series about the classroom pet that so many children adore. Tuesday, April 9 at 7:00pm at West Point Grey United Church (4595 8th Ave. W.). Also, Wednesday, April 10 at 4:00pm at Lynn Valley Branch, NVDL (1277 Lynn Valley Road). Details and ticket purchase at kidsbooks.ca.
Upcoming
TALONBOOKS SPRING POETRY LAUNCH
Talonbooks is launching its Spring poetry collection. Featuring readings by Dina Del Bucchia, Wanda John-Kehewin, Mariner Janes, Stephen Collis and Daphne Marlatt. Wednesday, April 10 at 8:00pm. Anza Club, 3 W. 8th Ave. More information at talonbooks.com.
LITFEST
The 3rd Annual LitFest New West celebrates the literary arts at New Westminster Public Library and Douglas Collage. April 11-13, 2013. More information at artscouncilnewwest.org.
ALIVE AT THE CENTRE ANTHOLOGY LAUNCH
Celebrate the Vancouver launch of Alive at the Centre: An Anthology of Poems from the Pacific NorthWest. The anthology includes poems from three cities: Vancouver, Portland, and Seattle. Poet Laureate Evelyn Lau will open the night and the host is Rob Taylor. Friday, April 12 at 7:00pm, free. Rhizome Cafe (317 E. Broadway).
FORCE FIELD
Force Field - 77 Women Poets of British Columbia. The first of its kind in thirty-four years, this anthology strongly celebrates women poets, from the emerging, mid-career to the established. Saturday, April 13 at 3:00pm, free. Alma VanDusen & Peter Kaye rooms, lower level, Central Branch, 350 W. Georgia St. More information at www.vpl.ca.
EVENT'S 2013 NON-FICTION CONTEST
Writers are invited to submit manuscripts exploring the creative non-fiction form. $1500 in prizes available, plus publication. Contest judge Russell Wangersky. Maximum entry length is 5000 words. $34.95 entry fee. April 15, 2013, deadline. Entrants will receive a one-year subscription to EVENT (or extension). Complete contest guidelines can be found at eventmags.com.
JENNIFER NIELSEN
Reading by the author of The False Prince and its sequel The Runaway Frog. Monday, April 15 at 7:00pm at Kidsbooks South Surrey (960 15033-32nd St., Surrey). Also, Tuesday, April 16 at 7:00pm at West Point Grey United Church (4595 8th Ave. W.). Details and ticket purchase at kidsbooks.ca.
LUNCH POEMS @ SFU
Readings by Betsy Warland and Mercedes Eng. Wednesday, April 17 at 12 noon, free.Teck Gallery, SFU Harbour Centre, 515 W. Hastings. More information at sfu.ca/publicsquare/lunchpoems.
ARTHUR ELLIS AWARDS SHORTLIST
BC members of Crime Writers of Canada will present a lively panel discussion about Canadian crime writing, followed by announcement of nominees for this years Arthur Ellis Awards. Thursday, April 18 at 7:00pm, free. Peter Kaye room, lower level, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia St. More information at www.vpl.ca.
NORTH SHORE WRITERS FESTIVAL
A celebration of Canadian writers featuring Helen Humphreys, Terry Fallis, Evelyn Lau, Sean Cranbury and others. April 19-20, 2013. Lynn Valley branch, North Vancouver District Public Library, 1277 Lynn Valley Road, North Vancouver. Complete details at northshorewritersfestival.com.
FAN EXPO VANCOUVER
Second annual comicon featuring comic, anime, science fiction, horror and gaming. Authors scheduled to appear include Hiromi Goto, A.M. Dellamonica, Eileen Kernaghan and many more. April 20-21, 2013. Complete details a fanexpovancouver.com.
BOOK LAUNCH
Penticton writer Michelle Barker launches her debut Young Adult fantasy novel "The Beggar King" (Thistledown Press, 2013). Tuesday, April 23 at 6:30pm. The Establishment (3162 West Broadway).
JOHN VAILLANT
An evening of literary discussion, commentary, and slides as John discusses the history, ecology, and political intrigue behind his most recent work The Tiger: A True Story of Vengeance and Survival. Wednesday, April 24 at 7:00pm, free. Chilliwack Library, 45860 First Avenue, Chilliwack. More information at fvrl.bc.ca.
SUSAN JUBY
Reading by the best-selling author of the internationally popular Alice MacLeod books. Wednesday, April 24 at 7:00pm, free. Alma VanDusen & Peter Kaye rooms, lower level, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia Street. More information at vpl.ca.
IAN WEIR
Reading by the author of Daniel O'Thunder from his new novel The Resurrection Man. Thursday, April 25 at 7:00pm, free. Clearbrook Library, 32320 George Ferguson Way, Abbotsford. More information at fvrl.bc.ca.
RACHEL HARTMAN
Reading by the author of Seraphina, followed by short musical examples and light refreshments. Saturday, April 27 at 2:00pm, free but register by calling 604-299-8955. McGill branch, Burnaby Public Library, 4595 Albert Street, Burnaby. More information at bpl.bc.ca.
Incite: An Exploration of Books and Ideas
Join us on Wednesday, April 10 for an evening with Ania Szado reading from Studio Saint-Ex, Billie Livingston reading from One Good Hustle and Patrick Taylor bringing his Irish country charm. Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/incite. Register here: http://incitevpl2013spring.eventbrite.ca/.
Presented in partnership with Vancouver Public Library. Incite is sponsored by the Downtown Vancouver Business Improvement Association and supported by the R.J. Nelson Family Foundation.
A DRAM COME TRUE
Dust off your kilt, gather your friends and grab a glass, A Dram Come True is back!
Join us at the legendary Hycroft Manor on May 31, 2013 for a lively celebration of spirits. Our five whisky bars will cater to the true aficionado, with a variety of rare and distinguished single malts. You don't want to miss the special surprises and scotch whisky selection we've got in store for you this year, click here to buy your tickets today.
Event details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/dram-come-true.
AWARDS & LISTS
Chrystia Freeland (New York City, USA) has won the 2013 Lionel Gelber Prize for Plutocrats: The Rise of the New Global Super-Rich and the Fall of Everyone Else.
http://www.utoronto.ca/munk/gelber/media_release/2013_Winner_Press_Release.html
The longlist for the Orwell Prize, Britain's award for political writing, includes fourteen journalists and 12 books for investigations on subjects including Starbucks, torture, and the lives of the super-rich. The prize is awarded in both books and journalism for works that reflect George Orwell's ambition to "make political writing into an art."
http://www.latimes.com/features/books/jacketcopy/la-et-jc-george-orwell-legacy-orwell-prize-longlist-announced-20130320,0,3970643.story
Toronto writers Jeffrey Simpson and Noah Richler are among five nominees for the $10,000 John W. Dafoe Book Prize for non-fiction. The award, named after John Wesley Dafoe, a former editor of the Manitoba Free Press (later Winnipeg Free Press), is for a book about international affairs by a Canadian writer.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/story/2013/03/20/dafoe-prize-shortlist.html
American author Junot Díaz has taken the world's richest prize for a single short story, the £30,000 Sunday Times EFG Private Bank short story prize, written in the "Spanglish" for which the Dominican-born writer is known.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/mar/22/junot-diaz-wins-short-story-prize
Annabel Pitcher's Ketchup Clouds, has won the Waterstones prize for new and emerging talent in the teen category.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/childrens-books-site/2013/mar/21/annabel-pitcher-waterstones-childrens-book-prize
Pitcher talks about her book in this podcast:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/childrens-books-site/audio/2013/jan/09/annabel-pitcher-ketchup-clouds-podcast
Goblinproofing One's Chicken Coop has won Britain's Diagram Prize, for the year's oddest book title.
http://www.thebookseller.com/news/goblinproofing-ones-chicken-coop-wins-diagram-prize.html
Eight illustrators are on the short list for this year's Kate Greenaway medal for 'outstanding illustration in a children's book'. A gallery of the books can be found here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/childrens-books-site/gallery/2013/mar/12/kate-greenaway-medal-shortlist-2013-gallery#/?picture=405449369&index=7
Aminata, Lawrence Hill's The Book of Negroes in French, has won Le Combat des livres.
http://blogs.montrealgazette.com/category/arts/showbiz-chez-nous/
Toronto writer Becky Blake has won the CBC Short Story Prize, and a cheque for $6,000 for her story The Three Times Rule.
http://www.vancouversun.com/entertainment/Star+tracks/8157558/story.html
YOUNG READERS
I Scream! Ice Cream! A Book of Wordles by Amy Krouse Rosenthal, illustrated by Serge Bloch. I Scream! Ice Cream! takes the notion of the homonym, expands it and manages to make it fun. Krouse's wordplay is ingenious, paradoxically simple and complex, writes Andrew Kaufman. For age 5 and up.
http://www.chroniclebooks.com/titles/kids-teens/genre/picturebooks/i-scream-ice-cream.html
You don't have to be a middle-grade student, or have a flair for the dramatic to enjoy Drama, Raina Telgemeier's most recent graphic novel, says Bernie Goedhart. Callie, a Grade 7 student, longs to try out for her school's spring musical production but is hampered by an inability to sing. She can, however, draw and paint. Ages 10 to 14.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/books/Kids+drama+middle+school/8138583/story.html
Finn Maguire leads a pretty ordinary life —until he's forced to stay with his stepdad. With a dead-end job, and a drug-dealing crowd, Finn ends up in juvenile detention. One day, he runs home after his shift at Max Snax and discovers his dad: dead. Initially, a suspect, Finn becomes a sleuth. A page-turner, says Bernie Goedhart. Ages 14 and up.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/Kids+Teenage+suspect+turns+sleuth/7959002/story.html#ixzz2OECq9PQg
NEWS & FEATURES
Tributes are pouring in from around the world following the news that Nigerian novelist and poet Chinualumogu Albert Achebe has died, aged 82, perhaps Nigeria's greatest ever writer. Things Fall Apart remains the best-selling novel ever written by an African author, having sold more than 10-million copies in 50 different languages.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/mar/22/chinua-achebe-grandfather-african-literature-dies-aged-82
Slate tells the story of the near loss of Achebe's debut novel Things Fall Apart.
http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2013/03/22/things_fall_apart_by_chinua_achebe_was_almost_lost_by_london_typists_the.html
James Herbert, a British sci-fi and horror writer who sold 54 million books in his lifetime, beginning with The Rats, has died at 69. His latest book, Ash, was published last week.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/story/2013/03/20/james-herbert-obit.html
The status of Marjane Satrapi's graphic novel Persepolis in Chicago's public schools has led to controversy. Initially, it seemed that the book was to be taken out of all school libraries and all classrooms; it's now removed only from seventh-grade classrooms. Satrapi's youth in Iran is chronicled in the graphic novel.
http://www.csmonitor.com/Books/chapter-and-verse/2013/0318/Persepolis-removal-from-some-Chicago-classrooms-prompts-protests
Alexander Soderberg is the latest Swedish crime novelist to come to Canadians' attention, with The Andalucian Friend just published in Canada. Initially a TV dramatist, Soderberg is now completing Volume 2 of a trilogy. Soderberg says the story was triggered by "the idea of a woman in an escalating situation between a crime syndicate and the police.”
http://www.vancouversun.com/entertainment/only+really+good/8113633/story.html
DH Lawrence was an infamous victim of the censor as his sexually explicit novel Lady Chatterley's Lover was banned in Britain until 1960. Now a new edition of Lawrence's poems, many rendered unreadable by the censor's pen, will reveal him as a brilliant war poet whose work attacking British imperialism during the first world war was barred from publication.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/mar/24/dh-lawrence-war-poetry-censorship
Oscar Wilde believed his success as a writer was due to his never relying on the craft as a source of income, a previously unseen letter by the author has revealed.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/9939664/Literary-success-Dont-give-up-the-day-job-advised-Oscar-Wilde.html
A new documentary doesn't unveil Philip Roth, but leaves one admiring the fearless ability to mine his psyche for his art. There are several surprising things to learn about Roth in the new PBS documentary, says Emma Brockes. The biggest reveal, given Roth's entrenched public image as furiously vain and terrifically grumpy, is just how charming and likable he is.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/emmabrockes
However great Truman Capote's literary gifts, his promotional genius surpassed them. In the publicity campaign he engineered, the account of four brutal murders in Kansas was completely true. Almost from the start, skeptics challenged the accuracy of In Cold Blood. The last scene in the book, a graveyard conversation between a detective and the murdered girl's best friend, was pure invention.
http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/culturebox/2013/03/fact_checking_in_cold_blood_what_the_new_yorker_s_fact_checker_missed.html
Geist advice No. 169: Write a poem starting with the word 'eventually'. This week's piece of advice is from Geist reader Ann Kumar. Email advice@geist.com with your own piece of advice. One pearl of wisdom will be featured in the Geist newsletter each week.
BOOKS & WRITERS
Ruth Ozeki's A Tale for the Time Being spins an enchanting tale about the struggle of the outsider caught between cultures. Ozeki says: 'This book is about the character creating a novelist'. Ruth Ozeki will be at Incite on April 17.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/mar/07/ruth-ozeki-interview-time-being
A rainy encounter in London on the banks of the Thames unlocks a tale of loss and grief in Down to a Sunless Sea, an exclusive story from Neil Gaiman.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/mar/22/down-sunless-sea-neil-gaiman-short-story
The myth of the cowboy: how did the lone cowboy hero become such a potent figure in American culture? In an extract from his final book Fractured Times, the late Eric Hobsbawm follows a trail from cheap novels and B-westerns to Ronald Reagan. Here is an extract from Fractured Times:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/mar/20/myth-of-the-cowboy
The first authorized biography of the novelist JM Coetzee, will be published in the UK this summer. An intensely private man who twice declined to collect a Booker prize in person, and despite Coetzee's statement "all autobiography is storytelling, all writing is autobiography", this was the first time Coetzee gave his full cooperation to a biographer.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/mar/21/jm-coetzee-biography-jc-kannemeyer
Small-town America has found a chilling new storyteller in Missouri-born Gillian Flynn, writes Paul Harris. Flynn's Gone Girl is tipped by many to win the Women's Prize for Fiction, says Harris.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/theobserver/2013/mar/24/gillian-flynn-gone-girl-profile
Vera Brittain lost her fiancé, brother and two closest male friends in the first world war. She wrote Testament of Youth as a cry of outrage and agony, so that the futility of their deaths would be remembered. Eighty years on, it remains one of the most powerful and widely read war memoirs of all time, writes Elizabeth Day.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/mar/24/vera-brittain-testament-of-youth
For decades Willa Cather has been an enigma in 20th-century American literature: walled off from scrutiny by the tightest archival restrictions this side of J.D. Salinger. Cather was believed to have destroyed most of her letters and ordered that surviving correspondence never be published. Next month, "The Selected Letters of Willa Cather" will be published-a major literary event for scholars.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/22/books/willa-cather-letters-to-be-published-as-an-anthology.html?_r=0
COMMUNITY EVENTS
TWISTED POETS LITERARY SALON
A night of socially engaged writing of peace provocation and witness with the launch of Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here Anthology. Featuring Cristine Leclerc with special guests Susan McCaslin, Stephen Collis, Renee Saklikar, Elena E. Johnson and Juliane Okot Bitek. Thursday, March 28, 7-9:30pm, at The Cottage Bistro, 4468 Main Street. Suggested donation at the door: $5. All are welcome. More information at www.pandorascollective.com.
AN EVENING OF POETRY READINGS
People's Co-op Bookstore presents poets Jan Conn, Zoe Landale, Jane Munro, and Pamela Porter. Thursday, March 28 at 7:30pm. People's Co-op Bookstore, 1391 Commercial Drive, Vancouver. More information at peoplescoopbookstore.com.
ROBERT J. SAWYER
Author reads from his latest book, Red Planet Blues, a noir mystery set on a lawless Mars in a future where everything is cheap, and life is even cheaper. Wednesday, April 3 at 7:00pm, free. Alma VanDusen & Peter Kaye rooms, lower level, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia St. More information at www.vpl.ca.
HULLABALOO SPOKEN WORD FESTIVAL
A youth poetry festival featuring 2009 Individual World Poetry Slam Champion, Amy Everhart and Ted-X featured poet Truth Is. April 3-6, 2013. Roundhouse Community Centre, 181 Roundhouse Mews. Complete details at youthslam.ca.
SOME POETRY, SOME PROSE ATLANTIC TO PACIFIC
Carole Glasser Langille (Church of The Exquisite Panic:The Ophelia Poems, Kate Braid (Journeywoman: Swinging A Hammer In A Man's World), and Sandy Shreve (Level Crossing) read from their works. Thursday, April 4 at 7:00pm, free. People's Co-op Bookstore, 1391 Commercial Drive. More information at 604-253-6442 or www.peoplescoopbookstore.com.
VERSES FESTIVAL OF WORDS
3rd annual Multimedia festival devoted to the spoken word features musicians, storytellers, artists, and poets from across Canada competing to become the Canadian Individual Poetry Slam Champion. April 8-13, 2013. Complete details at versesfestival.ca.
JULIA LIN
Book launch and reading of the author's newest book, Miah. Tuesday, April 9 at 7:00pm, free. Brighouse branch, Richmond Public Library, 100-7700 Minoru Gate, Richmond. More information at yourlibrary.ca.
BOOKTOPIA
West Vancouver Children's Literature Festival, is an annual festival intended to promote literacy, celebrate language arts and cultivate creative thought amongst youth and families. Features Sarah Ellis, Barbara Reid, and Shane Koyczan. Registration begins April 9. For complete details, visit booktopia.ca.
MYSTERIES ACCORDING TO HUMPHREY
Meet the person behind the series about the classroom pet that so many children adore. Tuesday, April 9 at 7:00pm at West Point Grey United Church (4595 8th Ave. W.). Also, Wednesday, April 10 at 4:00pm at Lynn Valley Branch, NVDL (1277 Lynn Valley Road). Details and ticket purchase at kidsbooks.ca.
Upcoming
TALONBOOKS SPRING POETRY LAUNCH
Talonbooks is launching its Spring poetry collection. Featuring readings by Dina Del Bucchia, Wanda John-Kehewin, Mariner Janes, Stephen Collis and Daphne Marlatt. Wednesday, April 10 at 8:00pm. Anza Club, 3 W. 8th Ave. More information at talonbooks.com.
LITFEST
The 3rd Annual LitFest New West celebrates the literary arts at New Westminster Public Library and Douglas Collage. April 11-13, 2013. More information at artscouncilnewwest.org.
ALIVE AT THE CENTRE ANTHOLOGY LAUNCH
Celebrate the Vancouver launch of Alive at the Centre: An Anthology of Poems from the Pacific NorthWest. The anthology includes poems from three cities: Vancouver, Portland, and Seattle. Poet Laureate Evelyn Lau will open the night and the host is Rob Taylor. Friday, April 12 at 7:00pm, free. Rhizome Cafe (317 E. Broadway).
FORCE FIELD
Force Field - 77 Women Poets of British Columbia. The first of its kind in thirty-four years, this anthology strongly celebrates women poets, from the emerging, mid-career to the established. Saturday, April 13 at 3:00pm, free. Alma VanDusen & Peter Kaye rooms, lower level, Central Branch, 350 W. Georgia St. More information at www.vpl.ca.
EVENT'S 2013 NON-FICTION CONTEST
Writers are invited to submit manuscripts exploring the creative non-fiction form. $1500 in prizes available, plus publication. Contest judge Russell Wangersky. Maximum entry length is 5000 words. $34.95 entry fee. April 15, 2013, deadline. Entrants will receive a one-year subscription to EVENT (or extension). Complete contest guidelines can be found at eventmags.com.
JENNIFER NIELSEN
Reading by the author of The False Prince and its sequel The Runaway Frog. Monday, April 15 at 7:00pm at Kidsbooks South Surrey (960 15033-32nd St., Surrey). Also, Tuesday, April 16 at 7:00pm at West Point Grey United Church (4595 8th Ave. W.). Details and ticket purchase at kidsbooks.ca.
LUNCH POEMS @ SFU
Readings by Betsy Warland and Mercedes Eng. Wednesday, April 17 at 12 noon, free.Teck Gallery, SFU Harbour Centre, 515 W. Hastings. More information at sfu.ca/publicsquare/lunchpoems.
ARTHUR ELLIS AWARDS SHORTLIST
BC members of Crime Writers of Canada will present a lively panel discussion about Canadian crime writing, followed by announcement of nominees for this years Arthur Ellis Awards. Thursday, April 18 at 7:00pm, free. Peter Kaye room, lower level, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia St. More information at www.vpl.ca.
NORTH SHORE WRITERS FESTIVAL
A celebration of Canadian writers featuring Helen Humphreys, Terry Fallis, Evelyn Lau, Sean Cranbury and others. April 19-20, 2013. Lynn Valley branch, North Vancouver District Public Library, 1277 Lynn Valley Road, North Vancouver. Complete details at northshorewritersfestival.com.
FAN EXPO VANCOUVER
Second annual comicon featuring comic, anime, science fiction, horror and gaming. Authors scheduled to appear include Hiromi Goto, A.M. Dellamonica, Eileen Kernaghan and many more. April 20-21, 2013. Complete details a fanexpovancouver.com.
BOOK LAUNCH
Penticton writer Michelle Barker launches her debut Young Adult fantasy novel "The Beggar King" (Thistledown Press, 2013). Tuesday, April 23 at 6:30pm. The Establishment (3162 West Broadway).
JOHN VAILLANT
An evening of literary discussion, commentary, and slides as John discusses the history, ecology, and political intrigue behind his most recent work The Tiger: A True Story of Vengeance and Survival. Wednesday, April 24 at 7:00pm, free. Chilliwack Library, 45860 First Avenue, Chilliwack. More information at fvrl.bc.ca.
SUSAN JUBY
Reading by the best-selling author of the internationally popular Alice MacLeod books. Wednesday, April 24 at 7:00pm, free. Alma VanDusen & Peter Kaye rooms, lower level, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia Street. More information at vpl.ca.
IAN WEIR
Reading by the author of Daniel O'Thunder from his new novel The Resurrection Man. Thursday, April 25 at 7:00pm, free. Clearbrook Library, 32320 George Ferguson Way, Abbotsford. More information at fvrl.bc.ca.
RACHEL HARTMAN
Reading by the author of Seraphina, followed by short musical examples and light refreshments. Saturday, April 27 at 2:00pm, free but register by calling 604-299-8955. McGill branch, Burnaby Public Library, 4595 Albert Street, Burnaby. More information at bpl.bc.ca.
Thursday, March 21, 2013
Book News Vol. 8 No. 6
BOOK NEWS
Incite: Our free, bi-weekly reading series continues!
Join us on Wednesday, March 27 for an evening with Pat Morrow and Sharon Wood who share their gripping stories of climbing Everest and reaching the summit in distinctly different ways. Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/incite. Register here: http://incitevpl2013spring.eventbrite.ca/.
Presented in partnership with Vancouver Public Library. Incite is sponsored by the Downtown Vancouver Business Improvement Association and supported by the R.J. Nelson Family Foundation.
SPECIAL EVENT
Sally Armstrong in conversation with Kathryn Gretsinger
Armstrong's unflinching accounts of atrocities experienced by women around the world have mobilized readers to become involved in global issues. In her new book, Ascent of Women, the award-winning journalist, author, and human rights activist comments on recent studies by economists and social scientists that claim women hold the key to economic justice and the end to violence in developing countries. Click here to get your tickets today, https://secure.artsclub.com/tickets/reserve.aspx?type=rentals&performanceNumber=8146
In Ascent of Women, Sally Armstrong writes that women in the Congo, Senegal, India, and other countries are questioning their oppression, an extraordinary shift since speaking of their experiences is a taboo. Even in the jungle, women have begun to realize that if you can't talk about it, you can't change it.
http://www.vancouversun.com/health/Women+unite+rise+across+globe/8067358/story.html
Monday, March 25 at 7:30pm
St. Andrew's-Wesley United Church
Burrard at Nelson
A DRAM COME TRUE
Tickets are on sale now for our popular single malt tasting A Dram Come True. Join us at Hycroft, the elegant Shaughnessy mansion, for an evening of great fun and good spirits. Enjoy the superb, complex flavours of a variety of rare and distinguished single malts, a premium silent auction, Cuban cigars and great company. A Dram Comes True is a fundraiser for the Writers Fest. Event details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/dram-come-true.
AWARDS & LISTS
The Malaysian novelist Tan Twan Eng has won the 2012 Man Asian prize, impressing judges with a tale about memory and forgetting, set in the shadow of the second world war.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/mar/14/tan-twan-eng-man-asian-prize
Eryn Green has joined Adrienne Rich, John Ashbery, W.S. Merwin and Jack Gilbert on the illustrious list of winners of the Yale Series of Younger Poets prize, for an unpublished manuscript by an American citizen under 40 who has not yet published a full book of poems, includes publication by Yale University Press.
http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/03/15/young-poet-wins-old-prize/?ref=booksupdate&nl=books&emc=edit_bk_20130315
Junot Diaz's story Miss Lora is on the shortlist for the Sunday Times EFG Private Bank short story award ($45,000).
http://www.latimes.com/features/books/jacketcopy/la-et-jc-junot-diaz-lands-on-shortlist-for-45000-british-short-story-prize-20130225,0,7972901.story
The winners of Geist's Second Annual Erasure Poetry Contest who erased Sheila Heti's How Should a Person Be? into their own winning poems are Mark Petrie, Frank Beltrano, Patrick Grace and runners up.
http://www.geist.com/articles/announcing-the-winners-of-the-second-annual-geist-erasure-poetry-contest!/
Sheila Heti's How Should a Person Be? Is one of twenty books long listed for the women's prize for fiction. Stories and reviews are here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/gallery/2013/mar/13/womens-prize-for-fiction-2013-longlist
Marie Ponsot has won the Ruth Lily Poetry Prize of $100,000, for lifetime achievement.
http://www.latimes.com/features/books/jacketcopy/la-et-jc-ruth-lily-poetry-prize-for-100000-to-go-to-marie-ponsot-20130318,0,1270585.story
YOUNG READERS
Candace Fleming's Amelia Lost: The Life and Disappearance of Amelia Earhart delves into Earhart's accomplishments and showmanship. Fleming resurrects the aviator and the times in which she flew. Ages 9 and up.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/best-childrens-books-of-2011/2011/11/15/gIQAwyLfiO_story.html
Lemony Snicket's The Bad Beginning is a fantastic book. writes Awesome-Charlie. Three children learn that their parents and home have perished in a fire. The children are under the care of Mr Poe, who's in charge of their fortune, and they are moving in with their new guardian. Will he be nice? The answer is a definite NO!, says Awesome-Charlie. Ages 8 to 12.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/childrens-books-site/2013/mar/13/review-bad-beginning-by-lemony-snicket
Patricia Skidmore's Marjorie Too Afraid to Cry describes the experience of thousands of poor children (including the author's mother) sent to Canada and other British colonies/dominions. Some were orphans. Others' parents were persuaded that their children would have a better life in Canada. For many, being shipped overseas meant loss, "loss of country and records, loss of family and roots." Grades 11 and up or ages 16 and up.
http://www.umanitoba.ca/cm/vol19/no27/marjorietooafraidtocry.html
NEWS & FEATURES
One of the world's most popular writers, Paulo Coelho has survived being sent to an asylum by his parents and tortured by Brazil's ruling militia. The only thing that relaxes him is archery.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/mar/17/paulo-coelho-manuscript-found-in-accra
With the spread of digital technologies, dictionaries have become a two-way mirror, a record not just of words' meanings, but of what we want to know. Digital dictionaries read us, writes Jennifer Howard.
http://chronicle.com/article/In-the-Digital-Era-Our/137719/?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en
The tiny letters TSE engraved on a gold band reveal the distinguished pedigree of the fountain pen used at the Royal Society of Literature when novelist James Wood signs the roll book as a Fellow. The pen is believed to have been given to the poet by his mother and has been left to the society by his widow, Valerie.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/mar/17/ts-eliot-pen-society-literature
It's 40 years since Virago Books was set up to celebrate the work of female writers. How successful has it been? asks Kira Cochrane. The influence of the feminist publishing movement can be seen in the power of women in publishing and in the ongoing insistence that women's voices should be taken seriously, says Cochrane.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/mar/14/virago-changed-publishers-attitudes-women
The noise on a mid-Manhattan street provoked Tracy Chevalier's interest in the value of silence. When she encountered communal silence at a Quaker meeting, she knew she had to build it into a novel. "I can hope that my imprecise attempt to describe silence will pique readers' curiosity," says Chevalier. It has prompted Chevalier's current novel, The Last Runaway.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/mar/14/tracy-chevalier-power-of-silence
In an interview with Robert McCrum, Chevalier says: "(slavery is) an issue that has to be raised in America, until it's put to bed. And that may be never."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/mar/17/tracy-chevalier-interview-last-runaway
Toppan Printing printed a book the size of the eye of a needle. Insects and ants will probably be the only creatures that can read this. The 22 page micro-book is called "Shiki no Kusabana" (flowers of seasons) and contains the names and microscopic monochrome illustrations of Japanese flowers. The pages are 0.75 millimetres (0.03 inch) in size while the letters are just 0.01 mm wide.
http://japandailypress.com/needle-eye-sized-book-goes-for-guinness-record-for-smallest-printed-book-1425113
Search for a book using Toronto Public Library's online catalogue and you'll notice a little box that instructs you to "buy your own copy and support the Toronto Public Library." TPL's administration has entered into a "retail affiliate" relationship with Indigo, giving the library five per cent of the cost of every purchase made through its catalogue.
http://torontoist.com/2013/03/toronto-public-librarys-catalog-now-points-users-to-indigo-ca/
A new documentary doesn't unveil Philip Roth, but leaves one admiring the fearless ability to mine his psyche for his art. There are several surprising things to learn about Roth in the new PBS documentary, says Emma Brockes. The biggest reveal, given Roth's entrenched public image as furiously vain and terrifically grumpy is just how charming and likable he is.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/emmabrockes
BOOKS & WRITERS
A series of letters between a man at war and a woman on the Russian homefront provide the narrative for a literary masterpiece, Mikhail Shishkin's The Light and the Dark, that interweaves the fantastical with the real. Sasha writes from the home front; Vovka's letters, mired in the unignorable present. One recurrent theme: "There will always be war for tomorrow."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/mar/13/light-and-dark-mikhail-shishkin-review
A.S. Byatt launches an exclusive series of new stories inspired by water with Sea Story, a tale of love and environmental disaster.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/mar/15/as-byatt-short-story-sea
Otto de Kat's Julia is a novel of love and war, and a life spent accepting other people's choices, writes Jane Housham. The doctor called to the scene of Christiaan Dudok's suicide pronounces it to have been "painless". An interrogation of whether or not this is true–not literally but existentially–underpins the rest of this short but satisfying novel.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/mar/15/julia-otto-de-kat-review
How far would you go to save your daughter? Andrew Pyper's The Demonologist provides a subtle answer. A mystery woman invites Professor Ullman to visit Venice. The Thin Woman, as Ullman calls her in the absence of a name, refers to him as a demonologist. The Demonologist is for readers who do not shy away from things that go bump in the night, says François Lauzon.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/Chilling+supernatural+thriller+enthralls+intensity/8106589/story.html#ixzz2NkWjkuzs
Here and Now is a collection of letters between Paul Auster and J. M. Coetzee, in which the writers attempt to "strike sparks off each other." In his first letter, Coetzee writes. "I've been thinking about friendships, how they arise, why they last so long, longer than the passional attachments of which they are sometimes (wrongly) considered to be pale imitations."
http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/books/2013/03/15/here_and_now_letters_2008_2011_by_paul_auster_and_jm_coetzee_review.html
In Turn of Mind, Alice LaPlante puts herself inside the mind of Dr. Jennifer White, a retired surgeon with Alzheimer's disease. The story progresses in the disjointed way LaPlante imagines a mind wracked by Alzheimer's would experience life: good days and bad; sometimes she remembers, sometimes she doesn't. A compelling mystery novel with an imaginative second layer, writes Tracy Sherlock.
http://www.vancouversun.com/health/Dementia+adds+twist+murder+mystery/8109430/story.html
COMMUNITY EVENTS
HAIKU INVITATIONAL 2013
Vancouver loves its flowering cherry trees-all 40,000 of them! While they bloom from March through May, the Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival invites you to celebrate their beauty with your haiku. Now accepting submissions. Complete contest details here: www.vcbf.ca.
THE LINE HAS SHATTERED
Premiere screening of film documentary on the 1963 Vancouver Poetry Conference, directed by Robert McTavish. Introduced by Canadian Poet Laureate (and '63 conference participant) Fred Wah. Thursday, March 21 at 7:30pm. Cost: $5/$3. Djavad Mowafaghian World Art Centre, Goldcorp Centre for the Arts, SFU Woodward's, 149 West Hastings. For reservations, email library@sfu.ca.
GLIMPSES OF AFRICA: PHOTOGRAPHY, POETRY AND MUSIC
An evening featuring music by singer/songwriter, Nancy Newman and poetry inspired by photographs by Claudine Pommier in her Glimpses of Africa exhibit. March 21, 7-9 pm, at Sidney and Gertrude Zack Gallery, Jewish Community Centre, 950 West 41st Ave, Vancouver. Free admission.
ROBERT R. REID AWARD
The Alcuin Society presents Will Rueter (Aliquando Press) in an illustrated interview by Rollin Milroy (Heavenly Monkey). The 6th Robert R. Reid Award and Medal for Lifetime Achievement in the Book Arts will be presented to Rueter. Thursday, March 21 at 7:30 pm, free. Fletcher Challenge Room, Harbour Centre, SFU Downtown Campus, 2300-515 West Hastings St., Vancouver. More information at http://blog.alcuinsociety.com.
WRITERS INTERNATIONAL NETWORK CANADA
2nd annual literary festival featuring Dennis E. Bolen, Bonnie Nish, Jai Birdi, Lila Shahani and many others. Hosted by Lilija Valis, Bernice Lever and Charlene Sayo. Saturday, March 23 from 10am to 4pm. Richmond Cultural Centre, 7700 Minoru Gate, Richmond. More information at 604-327-6040.
BOOK SALE
Fundraiser for the writer-in-residence program at Historic Joy Kogawa House. Lots of new and used books for leisure reading. Donations of books are welcome. Sunday, March 24, 10am to 4pm. Unitarian Church of Vancouver, 949 59th Ave. W. For book pickup or more information, email kogawahouse@yahoo.ca.
POETIC JUSTICE
Readings featuring Teo Dobre, Kyle Hawke and Sho Wiley with host Franci Louann. Sunday, March 24 at 3:00pm. Heritage Grill, 447 Columbia Street, New Westminster. More information at poeticjustice.ca.
TWISTED POETS LITERARY SALON
A night of socially engaged writing of peace provocation and witness with the launch of Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here Anthology. Featuring Cristine Leclerc with special guests Susan McCaslin, Stephen Collis, Renee Saklikar, Elena E. Johnson and Juliane Okot Bitek. Thursday, March 28, 7-9:30pm, at The Cottage Bistro, 4468 Main Street. Suggested donation at the door: $5. All are welcome. More information at www.pandorascollective.com.
AN EVENING OF POETRY READINGS
People's Co-op Bookstore presents poets Jan Conn, Zoe Landale, Jane Munro, and Pamela Porter. Thursday, March 28 at 7:30pm. People's Co-op Bookstore, 1391 Commercial Drive, Vancouver. More information at peoplescoopbookstore.com.
Upcoming
ROBERT J. SAWYER
Author reads from his latest book, Red Planet Blues, a noir mystery set on a lawless Mars in a future where everything is cheap, and life is even cheaper. Wednesday, April 3 at 7:00pm, free. Alma VanDusen & Peter Kaye rooms, lower level, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia St. More information at www.vpl.ca.
HULLABALOO SPOKEN WORD FESTIVAL
A youth poetry festival featuring 2009 Individual World Poetry Slam Champion, Amy Everhart and Ted-X featured poet Truth Is. April 3-6, 2013. Roundhouse Community Centre, 181 Roundhouse Mews. Complete details at youthslam.ca.
VERSES FESTIVAL OF WORDS
3rd annual festival celebrating the transformative power of words. April 8-13, 2013. Complete details at versesfestival.ca.
TALONBOOKS SPRING POETRY LAUNCH
Talonbooks is launching its Spring poetry collection. Featuring readings by Dina Del Bucchia, Wanda John-Kehewin, Mariner Janes, Stephen Collis and Daphne Marlatt. Wednesday, April 10 at 8:00pm. Anza Club, 3 W. 8th Ave. More information at talonbooks.com.
LITFEST
The 3rd Annual LitFest New West celebrates the literary arts at New Westminster Public Library and Douglas Collage. April 11-13, 2013. More information at artscouncilnewwest.org.
FORCE FIELD
Force Field - 77 Women Poets of British Columbia. The first of its kind in thirty-four years, this anthology strongly celebrates women poets, from the emerging, mid-career to the established. Saturday, April 13 at 3:00pm, free. Alma VanDusen & Peter Kaye rooms, lower level, Central Branch, 350 W. Georgia St. More information at www.vpl.ca.
EVENT'S 2013 NON-FICTION CONTEST
Writers are invited to submit manuscripts exploring the creative non-fiction form. $1500 in prizes available, plus publication. Contest judge Russell Wangersky. Maximum entry length is 5000 words. $34.95 entry fee. April 15, 2013, deadline. Entrants will receive a one-year subscription to EVENT (or extension). Complete contest guidelines can be found at eventmags.com.
ARTHUR ELLIS AWARDS SHORTLIST
BC members of Crime Writers of Canada will present a lively panel discussion about Canadian crime writing, followed by announcement of nominees for this years Arthur Ellis Awards. Thursday, April 18 at 7:00pm, free. Peter Kaye room, lower level, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia St. More information at www.vpl.ca.
NORTH SHORE WRITERS FESTIVAL
A celebration of Canadian writers featuring Helen Humphreys, Terry Fallis, Evelyn Lau, Sean Cranbury and others. April 19-20, 2013. Lynn Valley branch, North Vancouver District Public Library, 1277 Lynn Valley Road, North Vancouver. Complete details at northshorewritersfestival.com.
FAN EXPO VANCOUVER
Second annual comicon featuring comic, anime, science fiction, horror and gaming. Authors scheduled to appear include Hiromi Goto, A.M. Dellamonica, Eileen Kernaghan and many more. April 20-21, 2013. Complete details a fanexpovancouver.com.
Incite: Our free, bi-weekly reading series continues!
Join us on Wednesday, March 27 for an evening with Pat Morrow and Sharon Wood who share their gripping stories of climbing Everest and reaching the summit in distinctly different ways. Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/incite. Register here: http://incitevpl2013spring.eventbrite.ca/.
Presented in partnership with Vancouver Public Library. Incite is sponsored by the Downtown Vancouver Business Improvement Association and supported by the R.J. Nelson Family Foundation.
SPECIAL EVENT
Sally Armstrong in conversation with Kathryn Gretsinger
Armstrong's unflinching accounts of atrocities experienced by women around the world have mobilized readers to become involved in global issues. In her new book, Ascent of Women, the award-winning journalist, author, and human rights activist comments on recent studies by economists and social scientists that claim women hold the key to economic justice and the end to violence in developing countries. Click here to get your tickets today, https://secure.artsclub.com/tickets/reserve.aspx?type=rentals&performanceNumber=8146
In Ascent of Women, Sally Armstrong writes that women in the Congo, Senegal, India, and other countries are questioning their oppression, an extraordinary shift since speaking of their experiences is a taboo. Even in the jungle, women have begun to realize that if you can't talk about it, you can't change it.
http://www.vancouversun.com/health/Women+unite+rise+across+globe/8067358/story.html
Monday, March 25 at 7:30pm
St. Andrew's-Wesley United Church
Burrard at Nelson
A DRAM COME TRUE
Tickets are on sale now for our popular single malt tasting A Dram Come True. Join us at Hycroft, the elegant Shaughnessy mansion, for an evening of great fun and good spirits. Enjoy the superb, complex flavours of a variety of rare and distinguished single malts, a premium silent auction, Cuban cigars and great company. A Dram Comes True is a fundraiser for the Writers Fest. Event details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/dram-come-true.
AWARDS & LISTS
The Malaysian novelist Tan Twan Eng has won the 2012 Man Asian prize, impressing judges with a tale about memory and forgetting, set in the shadow of the second world war.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/mar/14/tan-twan-eng-man-asian-prize
Eryn Green has joined Adrienne Rich, John Ashbery, W.S. Merwin and Jack Gilbert on the illustrious list of winners of the Yale Series of Younger Poets prize, for an unpublished manuscript by an American citizen under 40 who has not yet published a full book of poems, includes publication by Yale University Press.
http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/03/15/young-poet-wins-old-prize/?ref=booksupdate&nl=books&emc=edit_bk_20130315
Junot Diaz's story Miss Lora is on the shortlist for the Sunday Times EFG Private Bank short story award ($45,000).
http://www.latimes.com/features/books/jacketcopy/la-et-jc-junot-diaz-lands-on-shortlist-for-45000-british-short-story-prize-20130225,0,7972901.story
The winners of Geist's Second Annual Erasure Poetry Contest who erased Sheila Heti's How Should a Person Be? into their own winning poems are Mark Petrie, Frank Beltrano, Patrick Grace and runners up.
http://www.geist.com/articles/announcing-the-winners-of-the-second-annual-geist-erasure-poetry-contest!/
Sheila Heti's How Should a Person Be? Is one of twenty books long listed for the women's prize for fiction. Stories and reviews are here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/gallery/2013/mar/13/womens-prize-for-fiction-2013-longlist
Marie Ponsot has won the Ruth Lily Poetry Prize of $100,000, for lifetime achievement.
http://www.latimes.com/features/books/jacketcopy/la-et-jc-ruth-lily-poetry-prize-for-100000-to-go-to-marie-ponsot-20130318,0,1270585.story
YOUNG READERS
Candace Fleming's Amelia Lost: The Life and Disappearance of Amelia Earhart delves into Earhart's accomplishments and showmanship. Fleming resurrects the aviator and the times in which she flew. Ages 9 and up.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/best-childrens-books-of-2011/2011/11/15/gIQAwyLfiO_story.html
Lemony Snicket's The Bad Beginning is a fantastic book. writes Awesome-Charlie. Three children learn that their parents and home have perished in a fire. The children are under the care of Mr Poe, who's in charge of their fortune, and they are moving in with their new guardian. Will he be nice? The answer is a definite NO!, says Awesome-Charlie. Ages 8 to 12.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/childrens-books-site/2013/mar/13/review-bad-beginning-by-lemony-snicket
Patricia Skidmore's Marjorie Too Afraid to Cry describes the experience of thousands of poor children (including the author's mother) sent to Canada and other British colonies/dominions. Some were orphans. Others' parents were persuaded that their children would have a better life in Canada. For many, being shipped overseas meant loss, "loss of country and records, loss of family and roots." Grades 11 and up or ages 16 and up.
http://www.umanitoba.ca/cm/vol19/no27/marjorietooafraidtocry.html
NEWS & FEATURES
One of the world's most popular writers, Paulo Coelho has survived being sent to an asylum by his parents and tortured by Brazil's ruling militia. The only thing that relaxes him is archery.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/mar/17/paulo-coelho-manuscript-found-in-accra
With the spread of digital technologies, dictionaries have become a two-way mirror, a record not just of words' meanings, but of what we want to know. Digital dictionaries read us, writes Jennifer Howard.
http://chronicle.com/article/In-the-Digital-Era-Our/137719/?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en
The tiny letters TSE engraved on a gold band reveal the distinguished pedigree of the fountain pen used at the Royal Society of Literature when novelist James Wood signs the roll book as a Fellow. The pen is believed to have been given to the poet by his mother and has been left to the society by his widow, Valerie.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/mar/17/ts-eliot-pen-society-literature
It's 40 years since Virago Books was set up to celebrate the work of female writers. How successful has it been? asks Kira Cochrane. The influence of the feminist publishing movement can be seen in the power of women in publishing and in the ongoing insistence that women's voices should be taken seriously, says Cochrane.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/mar/14/virago-changed-publishers-attitudes-women
The noise on a mid-Manhattan street provoked Tracy Chevalier's interest in the value of silence. When she encountered communal silence at a Quaker meeting, she knew she had to build it into a novel. "I can hope that my imprecise attempt to describe silence will pique readers' curiosity," says Chevalier. It has prompted Chevalier's current novel, The Last Runaway.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/mar/14/tracy-chevalier-power-of-silence
In an interview with Robert McCrum, Chevalier says: "(slavery is) an issue that has to be raised in America, until it's put to bed. And that may be never."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/mar/17/tracy-chevalier-interview-last-runaway
Toppan Printing printed a book the size of the eye of a needle. Insects and ants will probably be the only creatures that can read this. The 22 page micro-book is called "Shiki no Kusabana" (flowers of seasons) and contains the names and microscopic monochrome illustrations of Japanese flowers. The pages are 0.75 millimetres (0.03 inch) in size while the letters are just 0.01 mm wide.
http://japandailypress.com/needle-eye-sized-book-goes-for-guinness-record-for-smallest-printed-book-1425113
Search for a book using Toronto Public Library's online catalogue and you'll notice a little box that instructs you to "buy your own copy and support the Toronto Public Library." TPL's administration has entered into a "retail affiliate" relationship with Indigo, giving the library five per cent of the cost of every purchase made through its catalogue.
http://torontoist.com/2013/03/toronto-public-librarys-catalog-now-points-users-to-indigo-ca/
A new documentary doesn't unveil Philip Roth, but leaves one admiring the fearless ability to mine his psyche for his art. There are several surprising things to learn about Roth in the new PBS documentary, says Emma Brockes. The biggest reveal, given Roth's entrenched public image as furiously vain and terrifically grumpy is just how charming and likable he is.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/emmabrockes
BOOKS & WRITERS
A series of letters between a man at war and a woman on the Russian homefront provide the narrative for a literary masterpiece, Mikhail Shishkin's The Light and the Dark, that interweaves the fantastical with the real. Sasha writes from the home front; Vovka's letters, mired in the unignorable present. One recurrent theme: "There will always be war for tomorrow."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/mar/13/light-and-dark-mikhail-shishkin-review
A.S. Byatt launches an exclusive series of new stories inspired by water with Sea Story, a tale of love and environmental disaster.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/mar/15/as-byatt-short-story-sea
Otto de Kat's Julia is a novel of love and war, and a life spent accepting other people's choices, writes Jane Housham. The doctor called to the scene of Christiaan Dudok's suicide pronounces it to have been "painless". An interrogation of whether or not this is true–not literally but existentially–underpins the rest of this short but satisfying novel.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/mar/15/julia-otto-de-kat-review
How far would you go to save your daughter? Andrew Pyper's The Demonologist provides a subtle answer. A mystery woman invites Professor Ullman to visit Venice. The Thin Woman, as Ullman calls her in the absence of a name, refers to him as a demonologist. The Demonologist is for readers who do not shy away from things that go bump in the night, says François Lauzon.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/Chilling+supernatural+thriller+enthralls+intensity/8106589/story.html#ixzz2NkWjkuzs
Here and Now is a collection of letters between Paul Auster and J. M. Coetzee, in which the writers attempt to "strike sparks off each other." In his first letter, Coetzee writes. "I've been thinking about friendships, how they arise, why they last so long, longer than the passional attachments of which they are sometimes (wrongly) considered to be pale imitations."
http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/books/2013/03/15/here_and_now_letters_2008_2011_by_paul_auster_and_jm_coetzee_review.html
In Turn of Mind, Alice LaPlante puts herself inside the mind of Dr. Jennifer White, a retired surgeon with Alzheimer's disease. The story progresses in the disjointed way LaPlante imagines a mind wracked by Alzheimer's would experience life: good days and bad; sometimes she remembers, sometimes she doesn't. A compelling mystery novel with an imaginative second layer, writes Tracy Sherlock.
http://www.vancouversun.com/health/Dementia+adds+twist+murder+mystery/8109430/story.html
COMMUNITY EVENTS
HAIKU INVITATIONAL 2013
Vancouver loves its flowering cherry trees-all 40,000 of them! While they bloom from March through May, the Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival invites you to celebrate their beauty with your haiku. Now accepting submissions. Complete contest details here: www.vcbf.ca.
THE LINE HAS SHATTERED
Premiere screening of film documentary on the 1963 Vancouver Poetry Conference, directed by Robert McTavish. Introduced by Canadian Poet Laureate (and '63 conference participant) Fred Wah. Thursday, March 21 at 7:30pm. Cost: $5/$3. Djavad Mowafaghian World Art Centre, Goldcorp Centre for the Arts, SFU Woodward's, 149 West Hastings. For reservations, email library@sfu.ca.
GLIMPSES OF AFRICA: PHOTOGRAPHY, POETRY AND MUSIC
An evening featuring music by singer/songwriter, Nancy Newman and poetry inspired by photographs by Claudine Pommier in her Glimpses of Africa exhibit. March 21, 7-9 pm, at Sidney and Gertrude Zack Gallery, Jewish Community Centre, 950 West 41st Ave, Vancouver. Free admission.
ROBERT R. REID AWARD
The Alcuin Society presents Will Rueter (Aliquando Press) in an illustrated interview by Rollin Milroy (Heavenly Monkey). The 6th Robert R. Reid Award and Medal for Lifetime Achievement in the Book Arts will be presented to Rueter. Thursday, March 21 at 7:30 pm, free. Fletcher Challenge Room, Harbour Centre, SFU Downtown Campus, 2300-515 West Hastings St., Vancouver. More information at http://blog.alcuinsociety.com.
WRITERS INTERNATIONAL NETWORK CANADA
2nd annual literary festival featuring Dennis E. Bolen, Bonnie Nish, Jai Birdi, Lila Shahani and many others. Hosted by Lilija Valis, Bernice Lever and Charlene Sayo. Saturday, March 23 from 10am to 4pm. Richmond Cultural Centre, 7700 Minoru Gate, Richmond. More information at 604-327-6040.
BOOK SALE
Fundraiser for the writer-in-residence program at Historic Joy Kogawa House. Lots of new and used books for leisure reading. Donations of books are welcome. Sunday, March 24, 10am to 4pm. Unitarian Church of Vancouver, 949 59th Ave. W. For book pickup or more information, email kogawahouse@yahoo.ca.
POETIC JUSTICE
Readings featuring Teo Dobre, Kyle Hawke and Sho Wiley with host Franci Louann. Sunday, March 24 at 3:00pm. Heritage Grill, 447 Columbia Street, New Westminster. More information at poeticjustice.ca.
TWISTED POETS LITERARY SALON
A night of socially engaged writing of peace provocation and witness with the launch of Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here Anthology. Featuring Cristine Leclerc with special guests Susan McCaslin, Stephen Collis, Renee Saklikar, Elena E. Johnson and Juliane Okot Bitek. Thursday, March 28, 7-9:30pm, at The Cottage Bistro, 4468 Main Street. Suggested donation at the door: $5. All are welcome. More information at www.pandorascollective.com.
AN EVENING OF POETRY READINGS
People's Co-op Bookstore presents poets Jan Conn, Zoe Landale, Jane Munro, and Pamela Porter. Thursday, March 28 at 7:30pm. People's Co-op Bookstore, 1391 Commercial Drive, Vancouver. More information at peoplescoopbookstore.com.
Upcoming
ROBERT J. SAWYER
Author reads from his latest book, Red Planet Blues, a noir mystery set on a lawless Mars in a future where everything is cheap, and life is even cheaper. Wednesday, April 3 at 7:00pm, free. Alma VanDusen & Peter Kaye rooms, lower level, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia St. More information at www.vpl.ca.
HULLABALOO SPOKEN WORD FESTIVAL
A youth poetry festival featuring 2009 Individual World Poetry Slam Champion, Amy Everhart and Ted-X featured poet Truth Is. April 3-6, 2013. Roundhouse Community Centre, 181 Roundhouse Mews. Complete details at youthslam.ca.
VERSES FESTIVAL OF WORDS
3rd annual festival celebrating the transformative power of words. April 8-13, 2013. Complete details at versesfestival.ca.
TALONBOOKS SPRING POETRY LAUNCH
Talonbooks is launching its Spring poetry collection. Featuring readings by Dina Del Bucchia, Wanda John-Kehewin, Mariner Janes, Stephen Collis and Daphne Marlatt. Wednesday, April 10 at 8:00pm. Anza Club, 3 W. 8th Ave. More information at talonbooks.com.
LITFEST
The 3rd Annual LitFest New West celebrates the literary arts at New Westminster Public Library and Douglas Collage. April 11-13, 2013. More information at artscouncilnewwest.org.
FORCE FIELD
Force Field - 77 Women Poets of British Columbia. The first of its kind in thirty-four years, this anthology strongly celebrates women poets, from the emerging, mid-career to the established. Saturday, April 13 at 3:00pm, free. Alma VanDusen & Peter Kaye rooms, lower level, Central Branch, 350 W. Georgia St. More information at www.vpl.ca.
EVENT'S 2013 NON-FICTION CONTEST
Writers are invited to submit manuscripts exploring the creative non-fiction form. $1500 in prizes available, plus publication. Contest judge Russell Wangersky. Maximum entry length is 5000 words. $34.95 entry fee. April 15, 2013, deadline. Entrants will receive a one-year subscription to EVENT (or extension). Complete contest guidelines can be found at eventmags.com.
ARTHUR ELLIS AWARDS SHORTLIST
BC members of Crime Writers of Canada will present a lively panel discussion about Canadian crime writing, followed by announcement of nominees for this years Arthur Ellis Awards. Thursday, April 18 at 7:00pm, free. Peter Kaye room, lower level, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia St. More information at www.vpl.ca.
NORTH SHORE WRITERS FESTIVAL
A celebration of Canadian writers featuring Helen Humphreys, Terry Fallis, Evelyn Lau, Sean Cranbury and others. April 19-20, 2013. Lynn Valley branch, North Vancouver District Public Library, 1277 Lynn Valley Road, North Vancouver. Complete details at northshorewritersfestival.com.
FAN EXPO VANCOUVER
Second annual comicon featuring comic, anime, science fiction, horror and gaming. Authors scheduled to appear include Hiromi Goto, A.M. Dellamonica, Eileen Kernaghan and many more. April 20-21, 2013. Complete details a fanexpovancouver.com.
Thursday, March 14, 2013
Book News Vol. 8 No. 5
BOOK NEWS
Incite: Our free, bi-weekly reading series continues!
Join us on Wednesday, March 27 for an evening with Pat Morrow and Sharon Wood who share their gripping stories of climbing Everest and reaching the summit in distinctly different ways. Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/incite. Register here: http://incitevpl2013spring.eventbrite.ca/.
Presented in partnership with Vancouver Public Library. Incite is sponsored by the Downtown Vancouver Business Improvement Association and supported by the R.J. Nelson Family Foundation.
SPECIAL EVENT
Sally Armstrong in conversation with Kathryn Gretsinger
Armstrong's unflinching accounts of atrocities experienced by women around the world have mobilized readers to become involved in global issues. In her new book, Ascent of Women, the award-winning journalist, author, and human rights activist comments on recent studies by economists and social scientists that claim women hold the key to economic justice and the end to violence in developing countries. Click here to get your tickets today, https://secure.artsclub.com/tickets/reserve.aspx?type=rentals&performanceNumber=8146
Listen to Sally Armstrong's inspiring interview on CBC Radio's The Current, http://www.cbc.ca/player/Radio/ID/ID/2340427936/.
Monday, March 25 at 7:30pm
St. Andrew's-Wesley United Church
Burrard at Nelson
A DRAM COME TRUE
Tickets are on sale now for our popular single malt tasting A Dram Come True. Join us at Hycroft, the elegant Shaughnessy mansion, for an evening of great fun and good spirits. Enjoy the superb, complex flavours of a variety of rare and distinguished single malts, a premium silent auction, Cuban cigars and great company. A Dram Comes True is a fundraiser for the Writers Fest. Event details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/dram-come-true.
AWARDS & LISTS
The West Coast Book Prize Society has announced the finalists for the 2013 BC Book Prizes, honouring 38 authors in seven categories.
http://www.bcbookprizes.ca/news/article/2013-bc-book-prizes-shortlists-announced/
Contenders for the $46K Women's Prize for Fiction include Emily Perkins, Hilary Mantel, Zadie Smith, Barbara Kingsolver and Sheila Heti, among others.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/story/2013/03/13/womens-prize-longlist-sheila-heti.html
The Folio Society has been named as sponsor of a fiction prize to rival the Man Booker. The new £40,000 prize is to be awarded for the first time in March 2014, and will be open to American writers.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/mar/13/folio-society-sponsor-fiction-prize
Calgary writer Marcello Di Cintio was named winner of the $25,000 Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing for Walls: Travels Along the Barricades, a moving and vivid account of the cultural effects of enclosure.
http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/books/2013/03/07/marcello_di_cintios_account_of_the_culture_of_enclosure_takes_shaughnessy_cohen_prize_for_political_nonfiction.html
Vancouver's Arsenal Pulp Press has announced that two Arsenal titles have been shortlisted for Lambda Literary Awards: First Spring Grass Fire by Rae Spoon (transgender fiction), and The Lava in My Bones by Barry Webster (Gay General Fiction). The Lava in My Bones is also shortlisted for the Ferro-Grumley Award for LGBT Fiction by the Publishing Triangle Awards.
http://www.publishingtriangle.org/
Victoria writer Eliza Robertson is among five finalists in the CBC Canada Writes competition.
http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Victoria+writer+among+five+finalists/8083031/story.html
Having received two Bookers and a Costa prize, Hilary Mantel has now received the award described as the "British Nobel"–the £40,000 David Cohen prize, an award celebrating an entire career.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/mar/07/hilary-mantel-david-cohen-prize
Booker prize-winner Roddy Doyle is in the running for the UK's most prestigious children's book prize, the Carnegie medal, for Greyhound of a Girl, a moving tale of four generations of women from one Irish family (including a ghost). Children's fiction prize-winner, Marcus Sedgwick, is on the shortlist with Midwinterblood.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/childrens-books-site/2013/mar/12/roddy-doyle-greyhound-carnegie
The inaugural winners of the Windham Campbell Prizes have been announced. The $150,000 prizes are awarded by the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University for outstanding achievement in fiction, nonfiction, and drama.
http://windhamcampbell.org/prize/2013
YOUNG READERS
Shaun Tan's The Bird King is a series of sketches and commentaries that trace Tan's approach to art. Even young children for whom the text might be a bit highbrow will find this book a source of wonder, writes Bernie Goedhart. Chances are they, even more than adult readers, will delve deeper and more easily into the art itself, says Goedhart. All ages.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/movie-guide/Kids+Shaun+demonstrates+illustration/8070534/story.html#ixzz2N4tIenJv
Twelve-year-old Eliza Tok is an ordinary girl, but nothing is as it appears in Catherine Egan's Shade & Sorceress. The world of Tian Di protects the humans from enslavement and war with Mancers, benevolent magical beings. The Mancers locate Eliza and bring her to their Citadel to begin training as a sorceress. But there is a problem: Eliza cannot do magic. For ages 10 and up.
http://www.quillandquire.com/books_young/review.cfm?review_id=7749
Having a sibling with a serious intellectual disability changed Rachel Simon's life. The 10-year anniversary edition of "Riding the Bus With My Sister" recounts Simon's efforts to understand her sister's life. Now a staple text for anyone interested in the lives of people living with disabilities, it was adapted into a Hallmark Hall of Fame movie directed by Anjelica Huston. Age 12 and up.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/with-10th-anniversary-edition-of-riding-the-bus-comes-subtler-understanding-of-mental-disability/2013/03/03/e36c2e5a-8441-11e2-9d71-f0feafdd1394_story.html
NEWS & FEATURES
The recently published Free Boy: A True Story of Slave and Master on Puget Sound by two U.S. historians, Lorraine McConaghy and Judy Bentley, sheds light on a young slave's 1860 rescue by abolitionists in pre-Confederation Victoria.
http://www.vancouversun.com/life/historians+shed+light+young+slave+1860+escape+Vancouver+Island/8081268/story.html
What ho! It may be almost 40 years since their last appearance, but Bertie Wooster and his "gentleman's personal gentleman" Jeeves are due to return this November. Jeeves will carry on in Sebastian Faulks's Wodehouse sequel. Faulks is to publish the first ever authorized follow-up to the beloved Bertie Wooster novels.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/mar/07/jeeves-sebastian-faulks-wodehouse-novel
Mikhail Shishkin, one of Russia's most important contemporary authors, has pulled out of representing Russia in a major international literary event, stating he does not want to be the voice of "a country where power has been seized by a corrupt, criminal regime [and] where the state is a pyramid of thieves".
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/mar/07/mikhail-shishkin-russia-us-book-expo
Scientists who decode the genetic history of humans by tracking how genes mutate have applied the same technique to one of the most ancient and celebrated texts to uncover the date it was first written. Homer's "Iliad," and Homer–if there were such a person–probably wrote it in 762 B.C., give or take 50 years, the researchers found.
http://www.insidescience.org/content/geneticists-estimate-publication-date-iliad/946
The life and work of science fiction and comedy writer Douglas Adams has been marked by a Google doodle.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/mar/11/douglas-adams-celebrated-google-doodle
Some of Britain's most acclaimed authors and playwrights including Sir Tom Stoppard, William Boyd, Margaret Drabble, Ian McEwan and Salman Rushdie have called on the main party leaders to honour their pledge and implement a defamation bill aimed at transforming 170-year-old laws they say have silenced scientists and authors as well as journalists and activists.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/law/2013/mar/06/authors-party-leaders-libel-reforms
Male authors and reviewers continue to take a disproportionate slice of the literary pie, according to new research. Such publications as the London Review of Books and the New Yorker all show a considerable bias towards men. Vida, an American organization for women in the literary arts, has analysed the reviews and bylines for the last three years. The latest figures show that little has changed since 2010.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/mar/06/men-dominate-books-world-study-vida
In 2011, theatre director Jim Culleton asked Maeve Binchy to write a mini-play. She delivered Soul Mates, a play about a man and woman in the optician's waiting room who fancy each other but, waiting for glasses, can't read the signs—unable to seize the opportunity that is there." Maeve's play, one of 25 new 'tiny' plays—each 600 words long—lasts for less than four minutes.
http://www.independent.ie/lifestyle/books-arts/the-fourminute-smile-its-maeves-swansong-29119121.html
Smart technology and the sort of big data available to social networking sites are helping police target crime before it happens. But is this ethical? Here is a link to an edited extract from To Save Everything, Click Here: Technology, Solutionism, and the Urge to Fix Problems that Don't Exist by Evgeny Morozov.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2013/mar/09/facebook-arrested-evgeny-morozov-extract
In an interview, Marilynne Robinson says that after Housekeeping, her greatest fear was writing "a fraudulent book simply to escape the embarrassments of having written only one novel."
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/10/books/review/marilynne-robinson-by-the-book.html?ref=books
HarperCollins is embroiled in a bitter legal dispute with a former prisoner who spent 21 years in solitary confinement in the US for a rape and murder he did not commit. Nick Yarris, released from death row in Pennsylvania in 2004, is suing HarperCollins for breach of contract over his life story, Seven Days to Live, published in 2008.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2013/mar/12/harpercollins-death-row-nick-yarris
BOOKS & WRITERS
The destructive love affair captured in By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept always puzzled Laura Barton, who reveals how she finally unravelled the mystery. This year is the centenary of both Smart and Barker's births—she, to a wealthy family in Ottawa; he, in Essex.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/2013/mar/06/by-grand-central-station-radio-documentary
Sarah Gristwood's Blood Sisters: The Women Behind the Wars of the Roses tells the story of seven women whose strength, determination and influence changed history. The cunning and courage of seven women "created a new English dynasty" between 1445 and the early 16th century, writes Linda Diebl. These women should be legends, says Diebl.
http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/books/2013/03/08/blood_sisters_the_women_behind_the_wars_of_the_roses_by_sarah_gristwood_review.html
An abusive husband, torture by Stalin's secret police, threats to her children. The tragic life of Lina Prokofiev, revealed in 600 unpublished letters, was made available to Simon Morrison by Prokofiev's son, Svyatoslav, whose "dying wish was for his mother's story to be told in unvarnished guise". The Love and Wars of Lina Prokofiev will be published 21 March.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2013/mar/10/biography-abandoned-prokofiev-wife-gulag
In the tradition of the heroine's journey, Kate Braid's Journeywoman: Swinging a Hammer in a Man's World describes her becoming a qualified carpenter and the many concerns she addressed. The story sometimes beggars belief, writes Dennis E. Bolen. As well as being a living novel of a fascinating life, Journeywoman would be an apt primer for WorkSafeBC harmonic comportment, says Bolen.
http://www.vancouversun.com/Woman+journey+tells+story/7975742/story.html
A fine murder story is like a great love affair: an infinite catacomb of excitement, sorrow and desire, writes Robert McCrum. Javier Marías' The Infatuations, a haunting murder mystery, embracing all the big questions about life, love and death, is an instant Spanish classic.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/mar/10/the-infatuations-javier-marias-review
Scullery maids seen on TV are now frequently portrayed in books. Mary Beth Kean's Fever features a scullery maid who illustrates the life of Mary Mallon, an immigrant who worked her way up to being a cook and also, alas, one source of typhoid. Everyone in Mary Mallon's world is separated from despair by just one stroke of bad luck.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/book-reviews/fever-another-book-that-gives-us-a-peek-at-the-curious-lives-of-the-help/article9520397/
For three decades, the surveillance of Britain's supposedly communist writers and intellectuals was a comedy of errors. James Smith's British Writers and MI5 Surveillance, 1930-1960 is a scholarly attempt to tell the story straight. Most of the scoops were scoops of perspective, and often, a comedy of errors. Bureaucracy, inter-service rivalry and sheer inertia tangled things further.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/mar/07/british-writers-surveillance-smith-review
COMMUNITY EVENTS
HAIKU INVITATIONAL 2013
Vancouver loves its flowering cherry trees-all 40,000 of them! While they bloom from March through May, the Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival invites you to celebrate their beauty with your haiku. Now accepting submissions. Complete contest details here: www.vcbf.ca.
ROBSON READING SERIES
Readings by Andrew Kaufman, Camille Martin, and Barry Webster. Thursday, March 14 at 7:00pm, free. UBC Bookstore at Robson Square. For more information and to register, visit http://www.rrs-mar2013.eventbrite.ca.
MEG TILLY
Meet the author and actor as she presents her newest book A Taste of Heaven. Thursday, March 14 at 7:00pm. Kidsbooks on Broadway. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit kidsbooks.ca.
DAPHNE MARLATT
Author reads from her new book of poems, Liquidities: Vancouver Poems Then and Now. Saturday, March 16 at 8:00pm. The Western Front, 303 8th Ave. E., Vancouver. More information at talonbooks.com.
JOEL DICKER
La Verite sur l'Affaire Harry Quebert is finally coming to Vancouver. Joel Dicker, a 27-year-old Geneva-born author, will present his second novel. The discussion will be in French. Monday, March 18 at 6:15pm, free. Alma VanDusen & Peter Kaye rooms, lower level, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia Street.
BOOK LAUNCH
Features Prince George poet Al Rempel (This Isn't the Apocalypse We Hoped For, Caitlin Press, 2013), Adrienne Fitzpatrick (The Earth Remembers Everything, Caitlin Press), and Daniela Elza (the weight of dew and new work). March 18, 7:30 pm, at People's Co-op Bookstore, 1391 Commercial Drive, Vancouver. Phone: 604.253.6442. Refreshments will be served.
LUNCH POEMS @ SFU VANCOUVER
Readings by Stephen Collis and Rachel Rose. Wednesday, March 20 at 12:00 noon, free. Teck Gallery, SFU Harbour Centre, 515 W. Hastings Street. More information at www.sfu.ca/publicsquare/lunchpoems.
PLAY CHTHONICS
Readings by poets Jan Zwicky and Robert Bringhurst. Wednesday, March 20. Piano lounge, Green College, UBC. More information at www.greencollege.ubc.ca.
THE LINE HAS SHATTERED
Premiere screening of film documentary on the 1963 Vancouver Poetry Conference, directed by Robert McTavish. Introduced by Canadian Poet Laureate (and '63 conference participant) Fred Wah. Thursday, March 21 at 7:30pm. Cost: $5/$3. Djavad Mowafaghian World Art Centre, Goldcorp Centre for the Arts, SFU Woodward's, 149 West Hastings. For reservations, email library@sfu.ca.
GLIMPSES OF AFRICA: PHOTOGRAPHY, POETRY AND MUSIC
An evening featuring music by singer/songwriter, Nancy Newman and poetry inspired by photographs by Claudine Pommier in her Glimpses of Africa exhibit. March 21, 7-9 pm, at Sidney and Gertrude Zack Gallery, Jewish Community Centre, 950 West 41st Ave, Vancouver. Free admission.
ROBERT R. REID AWARD
The Alcuin Society presents Will Rueter (Aliquando Press) in an illustrated interview by Rollin Milroy (Heavenly Monkey). The 6th Robert R. Reid Award and Medal for Lifetime Achievement in the Book Arts will be presented to Rueter. Thursday, March 21 at 7:30 pm, free. Fletcher Challenge Room, Harbour Centre, SFU Downtown Campus, 2300-515 West Hastings St., Vancouver. More information at http://blog.alcuinsociety.com.
WRITERS INTERNATIONAL NETWORK CANADA
2nd annual literary festival featuring Dennis E. Bolen, Bonnie Nish, Jai Birdi, Lila Shahani and many others. Hosted by Lilija Valis, Bernice Lever and Charlene Sayo. Saturday, March 23 from 10am to 4pm. Richmond Cultural Centre, 7700 Minoru Gate, Richmond. More information at 604-327-6040.
Upcoming
POETIC JUSTICE
Readings featuring Teo Dobre, Kyle Hawke and Sho Wiley with host Franci Louann. Sunday, March 24 at 3:00pm. Heritage Grill, 447 Columbia Street, New Westminster. More information at poeticjustice.ca.
TWISTED POETS LITERARY SALON
A night of socially engaged writing of peace provocation and witness with the launch of Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here Anthology. Featuring Cristine Leclerc with special guests Susan McCaslin, Stephen Collis, Renee Saklikar, Elena E. Johnson and Juliane Okot Bitek. Thursday, March 28, 7-9:30pm, at The Cottage Bistro, 4468 Main Street.
Suggested donation at the door: $5. All are welcome. More information at www.pandorascollective.com.
ROBERT J. SAWYER
Author reads from his latest book, Red Planet Blues, a noir mystery set on a lawless Mars in a future where everything is cheap, and life is even cheaper. Wednesday, April 3 at 7:00pm, free. Alma VanDusen & Peter Kaye rooms, lower level, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia St. More information at www.vpl.ca.
HULLABALOO SPOKEN WORD FESTIVAL
A youth poetry festival featuring 2009 Individual World Poetry Slam Champion, Amy Everhart and Ted-X featured poet Truth Is. April 3-6, 2013. Roundhouse Community Centre, 181 Roundhouse Mews. Complete details at youthslam.ca.
VERSES FESTIVAL OF WORDS
3rd annual festival celebrating the transformative power of words. April 8-13, 2013. Complete details at versesfestival.ca.
TALONBOOKS SPRING POETRY LAUNCH
Talonbooks is launching its Spring poetry collection. Featuring readings by Dina Del Bucchia, Wanda John-Kehewin, Mariner Janes, Stephen Collis and Daphne Marlatt. Wednesday, April 10 at 8:00pm. Anza Club, 3 W. 8th Ave. More information at talonbooks.com.
LITFEST
The 3rd Annual LitFest New West celebrates the literary arts at New Westminster Public Library and Douglas Collage. April 11-13, 2013. More information at artscouncilnewwest.org.
FORCE FIELD
Force Field - 77 Women Poets of British Columbia. The first of its kind in thirty-four years, this anthology strongly celebrates women poets, from the emerging, mid-career to the established. Saturday, April 13 at 3:00pm, free. Alma VanDusen & Peter Kaye rooms, lower level, Central Branch, 350 W. Georgia St. More information at www.vpl.ca.
EVENT'S 2013 NON-FICTION CONTEST
Writers are invited to submit manuscripts exploring the creative non-fiction form. $1500 in prizes available, plus publication. Contest judge Russell Wangersky. Maximum entry length is 5000 words. $34.95 entry fee. April 15, 2013, deadline. Entrants will receive a one-year subscription to EVENT (or extension). Complete contest guidelines can be found at eventmags.com.
NORTH SHORE WRITERS FESTIVAL
A celebration of Canadian writers featuring Helen Humphreys, Terry Fallis, Evelyn Lau, Sean Cranbury and others. April 19-20, 2013. Lynn Valley branch, North Vancouver District Public Library, 1277 Lynn Valley Road, North Vancouver. Complete details at northshorewritersfestival.com.
FAN EXPO VANCOUVER
Second annual comicon featuring comic, anime, science fiction, horror and gaming. Authors scheduled to appear include Hiromi Goto, A.M. Dellamonica, Eileen Kernaghan and many more. April 20-21, 2013. Complete details a fanexpovancouver.com.
Incite: Our free, bi-weekly reading series continues!
Join us on Wednesday, March 27 for an evening with Pat Morrow and Sharon Wood who share their gripping stories of climbing Everest and reaching the summit in distinctly different ways. Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/incite. Register here: http://incitevpl2013spring.eventbrite.ca/.
Presented in partnership with Vancouver Public Library. Incite is sponsored by the Downtown Vancouver Business Improvement Association and supported by the R.J. Nelson Family Foundation.
SPECIAL EVENT
Sally Armstrong in conversation with Kathryn Gretsinger
Armstrong's unflinching accounts of atrocities experienced by women around the world have mobilized readers to become involved in global issues. In her new book, Ascent of Women, the award-winning journalist, author, and human rights activist comments on recent studies by economists and social scientists that claim women hold the key to economic justice and the end to violence in developing countries. Click here to get your tickets today, https://secure.artsclub.com/tickets/reserve.aspx?type=rentals&performanceNumber=8146
Listen to Sally Armstrong's inspiring interview on CBC Radio's The Current, http://www.cbc.ca/player/Radio/ID/ID/2340427936/.
Monday, March 25 at 7:30pm
St. Andrew's-Wesley United Church
Burrard at Nelson
A DRAM COME TRUE
Tickets are on sale now for our popular single malt tasting A Dram Come True. Join us at Hycroft, the elegant Shaughnessy mansion, for an evening of great fun and good spirits. Enjoy the superb, complex flavours of a variety of rare and distinguished single malts, a premium silent auction, Cuban cigars and great company. A Dram Comes True is a fundraiser for the Writers Fest. Event details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/dram-come-true.
AWARDS & LISTS
The West Coast Book Prize Society has announced the finalists for the 2013 BC Book Prizes, honouring 38 authors in seven categories.
http://www.bcbookprizes.ca/news/article/2013-bc-book-prizes-shortlists-announced/
Contenders for the $46K Women's Prize for Fiction include Emily Perkins, Hilary Mantel, Zadie Smith, Barbara Kingsolver and Sheila Heti, among others.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/story/2013/03/13/womens-prize-longlist-sheila-heti.html
The Folio Society has been named as sponsor of a fiction prize to rival the Man Booker. The new £40,000 prize is to be awarded for the first time in March 2014, and will be open to American writers.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/mar/13/folio-society-sponsor-fiction-prize
Calgary writer Marcello Di Cintio was named winner of the $25,000 Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing for Walls: Travels Along the Barricades, a moving and vivid account of the cultural effects of enclosure.
http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/books/2013/03/07/marcello_di_cintios_account_of_the_culture_of_enclosure_takes_shaughnessy_cohen_prize_for_political_nonfiction.html
Vancouver's Arsenal Pulp Press has announced that two Arsenal titles have been shortlisted for Lambda Literary Awards: First Spring Grass Fire by Rae Spoon (transgender fiction), and The Lava in My Bones by Barry Webster (Gay General Fiction). The Lava in My Bones is also shortlisted for the Ferro-Grumley Award for LGBT Fiction by the Publishing Triangle Awards.
http://www.publishingtriangle.org/
Victoria writer Eliza Robertson is among five finalists in the CBC Canada Writes competition.
http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Victoria+writer+among+five+finalists/8083031/story.html
Having received two Bookers and a Costa prize, Hilary Mantel has now received the award described as the "British Nobel"–the £40,000 David Cohen prize, an award celebrating an entire career.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/mar/07/hilary-mantel-david-cohen-prize
Booker prize-winner Roddy Doyle is in the running for the UK's most prestigious children's book prize, the Carnegie medal, for Greyhound of a Girl, a moving tale of four generations of women from one Irish family (including a ghost). Children's fiction prize-winner, Marcus Sedgwick, is on the shortlist with Midwinterblood.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/childrens-books-site/2013/mar/12/roddy-doyle-greyhound-carnegie
The inaugural winners of the Windham Campbell Prizes have been announced. The $150,000 prizes are awarded by the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University for outstanding achievement in fiction, nonfiction, and drama.
http://windhamcampbell.org/prize/2013
YOUNG READERS
Shaun Tan's The Bird King is a series of sketches and commentaries that trace Tan's approach to art. Even young children for whom the text might be a bit highbrow will find this book a source of wonder, writes Bernie Goedhart. Chances are they, even more than adult readers, will delve deeper and more easily into the art itself, says Goedhart. All ages.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/movie-guide/Kids+Shaun+demonstrates+illustration/8070534/story.html#ixzz2N4tIenJv
Twelve-year-old Eliza Tok is an ordinary girl, but nothing is as it appears in Catherine Egan's Shade & Sorceress. The world of Tian Di protects the humans from enslavement and war with Mancers, benevolent magical beings. The Mancers locate Eliza and bring her to their Citadel to begin training as a sorceress. But there is a problem: Eliza cannot do magic. For ages 10 and up.
http://www.quillandquire.com/books_young/review.cfm?review_id=7749
Having a sibling with a serious intellectual disability changed Rachel Simon's life. The 10-year anniversary edition of "Riding the Bus With My Sister" recounts Simon's efforts to understand her sister's life. Now a staple text for anyone interested in the lives of people living with disabilities, it was adapted into a Hallmark Hall of Fame movie directed by Anjelica Huston. Age 12 and up.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/with-10th-anniversary-edition-of-riding-the-bus-comes-subtler-understanding-of-mental-disability/2013/03/03/e36c2e5a-8441-11e2-9d71-f0feafdd1394_story.html
NEWS & FEATURES
The recently published Free Boy: A True Story of Slave and Master on Puget Sound by two U.S. historians, Lorraine McConaghy and Judy Bentley, sheds light on a young slave's 1860 rescue by abolitionists in pre-Confederation Victoria.
http://www.vancouversun.com/life/historians+shed+light+young+slave+1860+escape+Vancouver+Island/8081268/story.html
What ho! It may be almost 40 years since their last appearance, but Bertie Wooster and his "gentleman's personal gentleman" Jeeves are due to return this November. Jeeves will carry on in Sebastian Faulks's Wodehouse sequel. Faulks is to publish the first ever authorized follow-up to the beloved Bertie Wooster novels.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/mar/07/jeeves-sebastian-faulks-wodehouse-novel
Mikhail Shishkin, one of Russia's most important contemporary authors, has pulled out of representing Russia in a major international literary event, stating he does not want to be the voice of "a country where power has been seized by a corrupt, criminal regime [and] where the state is a pyramid of thieves".
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/mar/07/mikhail-shishkin-russia-us-book-expo
Scientists who decode the genetic history of humans by tracking how genes mutate have applied the same technique to one of the most ancient and celebrated texts to uncover the date it was first written. Homer's "Iliad," and Homer–if there were such a person–probably wrote it in 762 B.C., give or take 50 years, the researchers found.
http://www.insidescience.org/content/geneticists-estimate-publication-date-iliad/946
The life and work of science fiction and comedy writer Douglas Adams has been marked by a Google doodle.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/mar/11/douglas-adams-celebrated-google-doodle
Some of Britain's most acclaimed authors and playwrights including Sir Tom Stoppard, William Boyd, Margaret Drabble, Ian McEwan and Salman Rushdie have called on the main party leaders to honour their pledge and implement a defamation bill aimed at transforming 170-year-old laws they say have silenced scientists and authors as well as journalists and activists.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/law/2013/mar/06/authors-party-leaders-libel-reforms
Male authors and reviewers continue to take a disproportionate slice of the literary pie, according to new research. Such publications as the London Review of Books and the New Yorker all show a considerable bias towards men. Vida, an American organization for women in the literary arts, has analysed the reviews and bylines for the last three years. The latest figures show that little has changed since 2010.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/mar/06/men-dominate-books-world-study-vida
In 2011, theatre director Jim Culleton asked Maeve Binchy to write a mini-play. She delivered Soul Mates, a play about a man and woman in the optician's waiting room who fancy each other but, waiting for glasses, can't read the signs—unable to seize the opportunity that is there." Maeve's play, one of 25 new 'tiny' plays—each 600 words long—lasts for less than four minutes.
http://www.independent.ie/lifestyle/books-arts/the-fourminute-smile-its-maeves-swansong-29119121.html
Smart technology and the sort of big data available to social networking sites are helping police target crime before it happens. But is this ethical? Here is a link to an edited extract from To Save Everything, Click Here: Technology, Solutionism, and the Urge to Fix Problems that Don't Exist by Evgeny Morozov.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2013/mar/09/facebook-arrested-evgeny-morozov-extract
In an interview, Marilynne Robinson says that after Housekeeping, her greatest fear was writing "a fraudulent book simply to escape the embarrassments of having written only one novel."
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/10/books/review/marilynne-robinson-by-the-book.html?ref=books
HarperCollins is embroiled in a bitter legal dispute with a former prisoner who spent 21 years in solitary confinement in the US for a rape and murder he did not commit. Nick Yarris, released from death row in Pennsylvania in 2004, is suing HarperCollins for breach of contract over his life story, Seven Days to Live, published in 2008.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2013/mar/12/harpercollins-death-row-nick-yarris
BOOKS & WRITERS
The destructive love affair captured in By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept always puzzled Laura Barton, who reveals how she finally unravelled the mystery. This year is the centenary of both Smart and Barker's births—she, to a wealthy family in Ottawa; he, in Essex.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/2013/mar/06/by-grand-central-station-radio-documentary
Sarah Gristwood's Blood Sisters: The Women Behind the Wars of the Roses tells the story of seven women whose strength, determination and influence changed history. The cunning and courage of seven women "created a new English dynasty" between 1445 and the early 16th century, writes Linda Diebl. These women should be legends, says Diebl.
http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/books/2013/03/08/blood_sisters_the_women_behind_the_wars_of_the_roses_by_sarah_gristwood_review.html
An abusive husband, torture by Stalin's secret police, threats to her children. The tragic life of Lina Prokofiev, revealed in 600 unpublished letters, was made available to Simon Morrison by Prokofiev's son, Svyatoslav, whose "dying wish was for his mother's story to be told in unvarnished guise". The Love and Wars of Lina Prokofiev will be published 21 March.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2013/mar/10/biography-abandoned-prokofiev-wife-gulag
In the tradition of the heroine's journey, Kate Braid's Journeywoman: Swinging a Hammer in a Man's World describes her becoming a qualified carpenter and the many concerns she addressed. The story sometimes beggars belief, writes Dennis E. Bolen. As well as being a living novel of a fascinating life, Journeywoman would be an apt primer for WorkSafeBC harmonic comportment, says Bolen.
http://www.vancouversun.com/Woman+journey+tells+story/7975742/story.html
A fine murder story is like a great love affair: an infinite catacomb of excitement, sorrow and desire, writes Robert McCrum. Javier Marías' The Infatuations, a haunting murder mystery, embracing all the big questions about life, love and death, is an instant Spanish classic.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/mar/10/the-infatuations-javier-marias-review
Scullery maids seen on TV are now frequently portrayed in books. Mary Beth Kean's Fever features a scullery maid who illustrates the life of Mary Mallon, an immigrant who worked her way up to being a cook and also, alas, one source of typhoid. Everyone in Mary Mallon's world is separated from despair by just one stroke of bad luck.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/book-reviews/fever-another-book-that-gives-us-a-peek-at-the-curious-lives-of-the-help/article9520397/
For three decades, the surveillance of Britain's supposedly communist writers and intellectuals was a comedy of errors. James Smith's British Writers and MI5 Surveillance, 1930-1960 is a scholarly attempt to tell the story straight. Most of the scoops were scoops of perspective, and often, a comedy of errors. Bureaucracy, inter-service rivalry and sheer inertia tangled things further.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/mar/07/british-writers-surveillance-smith-review
COMMUNITY EVENTS
HAIKU INVITATIONAL 2013
Vancouver loves its flowering cherry trees-all 40,000 of them! While they bloom from March through May, the Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival invites you to celebrate their beauty with your haiku. Now accepting submissions. Complete contest details here: www.vcbf.ca.
ROBSON READING SERIES
Readings by Andrew Kaufman, Camille Martin, and Barry Webster. Thursday, March 14 at 7:00pm, free. UBC Bookstore at Robson Square. For more information and to register, visit http://www.rrs-mar2013.eventbrite.ca.
MEG TILLY
Meet the author and actor as she presents her newest book A Taste of Heaven. Thursday, March 14 at 7:00pm. Kidsbooks on Broadway. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit kidsbooks.ca.
DAPHNE MARLATT
Author reads from her new book of poems, Liquidities: Vancouver Poems Then and Now. Saturday, March 16 at 8:00pm. The Western Front, 303 8th Ave. E., Vancouver. More information at talonbooks.com.
JOEL DICKER
La Verite sur l'Affaire Harry Quebert is finally coming to Vancouver. Joel Dicker, a 27-year-old Geneva-born author, will present his second novel. The discussion will be in French. Monday, March 18 at 6:15pm, free. Alma VanDusen & Peter Kaye rooms, lower level, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia Street.
BOOK LAUNCH
Features Prince George poet Al Rempel (This Isn't the Apocalypse We Hoped For, Caitlin Press, 2013), Adrienne Fitzpatrick (The Earth Remembers Everything, Caitlin Press), and Daniela Elza (the weight of dew and new work). March 18, 7:30 pm, at People's Co-op Bookstore, 1391 Commercial Drive, Vancouver. Phone: 604.253.6442. Refreshments will be served.
LUNCH POEMS @ SFU VANCOUVER
Readings by Stephen Collis and Rachel Rose. Wednesday, March 20 at 12:00 noon, free. Teck Gallery, SFU Harbour Centre, 515 W. Hastings Street. More information at www.sfu.ca/publicsquare/lunchpoems.
PLAY CHTHONICS
Readings by poets Jan Zwicky and Robert Bringhurst. Wednesday, March 20. Piano lounge, Green College, UBC. More information at www.greencollege.ubc.ca.
THE LINE HAS SHATTERED
Premiere screening of film documentary on the 1963 Vancouver Poetry Conference, directed by Robert McTavish. Introduced by Canadian Poet Laureate (and '63 conference participant) Fred Wah. Thursday, March 21 at 7:30pm. Cost: $5/$3. Djavad Mowafaghian World Art Centre, Goldcorp Centre for the Arts, SFU Woodward's, 149 West Hastings. For reservations, email library@sfu.ca.
GLIMPSES OF AFRICA: PHOTOGRAPHY, POETRY AND MUSIC
An evening featuring music by singer/songwriter, Nancy Newman and poetry inspired by photographs by Claudine Pommier in her Glimpses of Africa exhibit. March 21, 7-9 pm, at Sidney and Gertrude Zack Gallery, Jewish Community Centre, 950 West 41st Ave, Vancouver. Free admission.
ROBERT R. REID AWARD
The Alcuin Society presents Will Rueter (Aliquando Press) in an illustrated interview by Rollin Milroy (Heavenly Monkey). The 6th Robert R. Reid Award and Medal for Lifetime Achievement in the Book Arts will be presented to Rueter. Thursday, March 21 at 7:30 pm, free. Fletcher Challenge Room, Harbour Centre, SFU Downtown Campus, 2300-515 West Hastings St., Vancouver. More information at http://blog.alcuinsociety.com.
WRITERS INTERNATIONAL NETWORK CANADA
2nd annual literary festival featuring Dennis E. Bolen, Bonnie Nish, Jai Birdi, Lila Shahani and many others. Hosted by Lilija Valis, Bernice Lever and Charlene Sayo. Saturday, March 23 from 10am to 4pm. Richmond Cultural Centre, 7700 Minoru Gate, Richmond. More information at 604-327-6040.
Upcoming
POETIC JUSTICE
Readings featuring Teo Dobre, Kyle Hawke and Sho Wiley with host Franci Louann. Sunday, March 24 at 3:00pm. Heritage Grill, 447 Columbia Street, New Westminster. More information at poeticjustice.ca.
TWISTED POETS LITERARY SALON
A night of socially engaged writing of peace provocation and witness with the launch of Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here Anthology. Featuring Cristine Leclerc with special guests Susan McCaslin, Stephen Collis, Renee Saklikar, Elena E. Johnson and Juliane Okot Bitek. Thursday, March 28, 7-9:30pm, at The Cottage Bistro, 4468 Main Street.
Suggested donation at the door: $5. All are welcome. More information at www.pandorascollective.com.
ROBERT J. SAWYER
Author reads from his latest book, Red Planet Blues, a noir mystery set on a lawless Mars in a future where everything is cheap, and life is even cheaper. Wednesday, April 3 at 7:00pm, free. Alma VanDusen & Peter Kaye rooms, lower level, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia St. More information at www.vpl.ca.
HULLABALOO SPOKEN WORD FESTIVAL
A youth poetry festival featuring 2009 Individual World Poetry Slam Champion, Amy Everhart and Ted-X featured poet Truth Is. April 3-6, 2013. Roundhouse Community Centre, 181 Roundhouse Mews. Complete details at youthslam.ca.
VERSES FESTIVAL OF WORDS
3rd annual festival celebrating the transformative power of words. April 8-13, 2013. Complete details at versesfestival.ca.
TALONBOOKS SPRING POETRY LAUNCH
Talonbooks is launching its Spring poetry collection. Featuring readings by Dina Del Bucchia, Wanda John-Kehewin, Mariner Janes, Stephen Collis and Daphne Marlatt. Wednesday, April 10 at 8:00pm. Anza Club, 3 W. 8th Ave. More information at talonbooks.com.
LITFEST
The 3rd Annual LitFest New West celebrates the literary arts at New Westminster Public Library and Douglas Collage. April 11-13, 2013. More information at artscouncilnewwest.org.
FORCE FIELD
Force Field - 77 Women Poets of British Columbia. The first of its kind in thirty-four years, this anthology strongly celebrates women poets, from the emerging, mid-career to the established. Saturday, April 13 at 3:00pm, free. Alma VanDusen & Peter Kaye rooms, lower level, Central Branch, 350 W. Georgia St. More information at www.vpl.ca.
EVENT'S 2013 NON-FICTION CONTEST
Writers are invited to submit manuscripts exploring the creative non-fiction form. $1500 in prizes available, plus publication. Contest judge Russell Wangersky. Maximum entry length is 5000 words. $34.95 entry fee. April 15, 2013, deadline. Entrants will receive a one-year subscription to EVENT (or extension). Complete contest guidelines can be found at eventmags.com.
NORTH SHORE WRITERS FESTIVAL
A celebration of Canadian writers featuring Helen Humphreys, Terry Fallis, Evelyn Lau, Sean Cranbury and others. April 19-20, 2013. Lynn Valley branch, North Vancouver District Public Library, 1277 Lynn Valley Road, North Vancouver. Complete details at northshorewritersfestival.com.
FAN EXPO VANCOUVER
Second annual comicon featuring comic, anime, science fiction, horror and gaming. Authors scheduled to appear include Hiromi Goto, A.M. Dellamonica, Eileen Kernaghan and many more. April 20-21, 2013. Complete details a fanexpovancouver.com.
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