Book News Vol. 5 No. 20

BOOK NEWS

A Dram Come True
The Vancouver International Writers Festival presents the eighth annual Single Malt Scotch Whisky Sampling. Enjoy the superb, complex flavours of a variety of rare and distinguished single malts. Scotch experts will be on hand to enhance the experience. Rare malts and other select items will also be available at auction. Details here: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/supportus/dramcometrue

Spreading the Word Video online now!
Now children can experience Festival events online! Travel to penguin colonies in Antarctica, be inspired by a group of young activists, learn creative ways to conserve, all from your classroom or home! http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/schools/spreadtheword

Join us!
Our membership drive continues with exciting new incentives to join, as well as the benefits of membership:...discounts, earlybird tickets, we could go on... Click for more information, http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/supportus/joinus.

Every two weeks we will draw the name of a new member to win an exciting prize. The prize for May 14: A lifetime subscription to Geist. Note: subscription is non-transferable and must be sent to a Canadian mailing address.


Special Event

Peter Carey
Tickets are still available for our event featuring Peter Carey in conversation with Hal Wake at the Frederic Wood Theatre.

In this interview with the NY Times, Peter Carey talks about why, after twenty years living in the US, he was finally able to write about the country in his new novel Parrot and Olivier in America, his reason for moving there from Australia in the first place, and what he's working on now.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/27/books/27carey.html?ref=books


AWARDS & LISTS

The winners of the 2010 BC Book Prizes were announced at a gala this past Saturday in Victoria. Among those celebrated was debut novelist Cathleen With who was awarded the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize for Having Faith in the Polar Girls' Prison.
http://www.bcbookprizes.ca/winners/2010.

Check out photos of the event at the BC Book Prizes Flickr page.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bcbookprizes/

Newfoundland author Jessica Grant has won the Amazon.ca First Novel Award for Come, Thou Tortoise. Head judge Stuart Woods called Grant's novel "a heartfelt tale full to the brim with warm sentiment and the gentle absurdities of contemporary life."
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/books/jessica-grant-wins-first-novel-award/article1549453/

Dany Laferrière has been awarded the Blue Metropolis International Literary Grand Prix, a $10,000 lifetime achievement award.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/books/Author+Dany+Laferri%c3%a8re+accepts+Blue+Metropolis/2938515/story.html

American Edward P. Jones and Australian Nam Le are the latest winners of the PEN/Malamud Award for short fiction. The award typically celebrates one established and one emerging writer each year for excellence in the art of the short story.
http://www.cbc.ca/arts/books/story/2010/04/26/pen-short-story-le-jones.html

The shortlists for the Arthur Ellis crime writing awards have been announced. 2009 Festival attendees James Nichol and Tim Wynne Jones are contenders in different categories.
http://crimewriterscanada.com/cwcNew/pages/CCC/CCC%20Current%20issue.htm#Shortlist_for_Best_Crime_Novel_

NEWS & FEATURES

Sophia Books, which has been operating in Vancouver since 1975, has decided to permanently close its doors at the end of May.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/british-columbia/after-30-years-in-business-multilingual-book-store-to-close/article1548488/

Writer Alan Sillitoe, a leading figure of the so-called angry young men of British fiction, has died at age 82.
http://www.cbc.ca/arts/books/story/2010/04/25/sillitoe-obit.html

A read-in at Tyee School protests provincial budget cuts in education. "More cut backs to libraries and librarians would be yet another blow to the already besieged public education system," said the head of a parent action committee at the Tyee school.
http://www.vancouverobserver.com/blogs/education/2010/04/27/read-tyee-school-protests-provincial-budget-cuts-education

BOOKS & WRITERS

The Toronto Star is taken with Andrea Levy's new novel The Long Song, in particular its narrator's "comic flair."
http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/books/article/800025--the-long-song-a-high-wind-in-jamaica

The Montreal Gazette writes that Miguel Syjuco'’s debut novel Ilustrado "shows a depth and command most writers achieve only after many years of trial and error."
http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/books/Miguel+Syjuco+makes+remarkable+debut+with+Ilustrado/2911166/story.html

Both the Globe & Mail and the Montreal Gazette praise Michael Helm's new novel Cities of Refuge.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/books/Novelist+Michael+Helm+earns+seriousness+Cities+Refuge/2943645/story.html
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/books/review-cities-of-refuge-by-michael-helm/article1544884/

Of Dionne Brand's new poetry collection Ossuaries, Sonnet L'Abbé's writes it is "a difficult, but beautiful, exhumation, a furious dirge for an era not yet passed."
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/books/review-ossuaries-by-dionne-brand/article1544436/

Helen Simpson's debut novel Major Pettigrew's Last Stand "is at times violent, at times melodramatic, but almost always pitch-perfect in its demonstration of how ridiculous our small ignorances can be – and how magnificent we are when we rise above them."
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/books/review-major-pettigrews-last-stand-by-helen-simonson/article1543107/

In this essay Diane Warren talks about the ideas she set out to explore in her novel Cool Water, in which she parallels the journey of a modern-day cowboy with that of two cowboys 100 years earlier.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/books/its-all-in-the-footwear/article1548466/

COMMUNITY EVENTS

ALAN HAIG-BROWN
Award-winning author Alan Haig-Brown launches Still Fishin': The BC Fishing Industry Revisited. Sunday, May 2 at 2:00pm, free. Britannia Heritage Shipyard, 5180 Westwater Drive, Richmond. For more information, visit www.richmond.ca/britannia or email info@harbourpublishing.com.

WRITING FOR SOCIAL CHANGE READING SERIES
Visit the intimate living room at Historic Joy Kogawa House for a series of small salon evenings with five writers who use literature to call for social change and justice and as a tool for social transformation. The second writer in the series, Anosh Irani will read from and sign his works. Sunday, May 2 at 3:30pm, admission by donation. Historic Joy Kogawa House, 1450 64th Ave. W. More information here: http://www.kogawahouse.com/node/181.

EMMA DONOGHUE
Author reads from her new young adult anthology, How Beautiful the Ordinary and introduces her literary history, Inseparable: Desire Between Women in Literature. Monday, May 3 at 7:30pm, free. Alma VanDusen room, Lower Level, Central Library, 350 West Georgia Street.

VANCOUVER POETRY SLAM
Van Slam featuring Magpie Ulysses. Monday, May 3 at 8:00pm. Admission: $5/$3. Cafe Deux Soleils (2096 Commercial). More information at www.vancouverpoetryhouse.com.

CROSS-BORDER POLLINATION READING SERIES
Readings by Camille T. Dungy, Marguerite Pigeon, Ray Hsu, Mary Cornish and David Zieroth. Tuesday, May 4 at 7:00pm. W2 Storyeum, 151 W. Cordova.

STUDIO ONE BOOK CLUB
Canada's own international best-selling fantasy fiction author Guy Gavriel Kay is coming to the CBC Radio Studio One Book Club! His new novel "Under Heaven" is getting rave reviews! It's set during the glory of the Tang Dynasty in China and is an adventure that has everything readers around the world love about Guy's epic stories. Come join the discussion with Guy Gavriel Kay in the intimate setting of Studio One on Wednesday May 5 at 6:30 pm. The only way to get in, is to win! Go to www.cbc.ca/bc/bookclub to enter for free tickets.

MOTHER, WRITER
This Mother's Day, celebrate the intersection of creation and creativity with award-winning authors Catherine Owen, Rachel Rose, Luanne Armstrong, and Dorothy Woodend. Wednesday, May 5 at 7:30pm, free. Peter Kaye Room, Lower Level, Central Library, 350 West Georgia Street. For more information please contact Vancouver Public Library at 604-331-3603.

ROBERT J. SAWYER
Launch of Hugo and Nebula award-winner's new novel, Watch. Wednesday, May 5 at 7:30pm, free. Alma VanDusen Room, Lower Level, Central Library, 350 West Georgia Street.

THREE POETS + MUSICIANS
Poets Jamie Reid, Kim Goldberg, and Peter Trower read from their works at event that includes music by guitarist Craig McCaul and drummer Niko Friesen. Saturday, May 8 at 8:00pm, free. W2 Storyeum (151 W. Cordova). More information at dadababy@shaw.ca.

LINDY HUGHES
Book signing by the author of It Never Stays in Vegas. Sunday, May 9 at 10:00am. Dundarave Starbucks, 2416 Marine Drive, West Vancouver.

RYAN KNIGHTON
Author reads from his critically acclaimed memoir C'mon Papa, Dispatches from a Dad in the Dark. Sunday, May 9 at 7:30pm. Tickets: $10/$12. Capilano Performing Arts Theatre, 2055 Purcell Way, North Vancouver.

CANADIAN WRITERS ON GRIEF AND MOURNING
Some of Canada's best writers address their own losses in The Heart Does Break: Canadian Writers on Grief and Mourning. Featuring Jean Baird and George Bowering. Monday, May 10 at 7:30pm, free. Alma VanDusen Room, Lower Level, Central Library, 350 West Georgia Street. For more information please contact Vancouver Public Library at 604-331-3603.

KATHY PAGE
Author introduces her new novel The Find. Monday, May 10 at 7:30pm, free. ArtSpring Theatre, Salt Spring Island.

Upcoming

RODDY DOYLE
Join Booker Prize winner Roddy Doyle for a launch of his new book The Dead Republic. Tuesday, May 11 at 7:00pm. Chapters Robson, 788 Robson.

BRUCE HUNTER
Part fictional memoir, part social history, Bruce Hunter's new novel In The Bear's House is a coming of age story about a deaf child who is sent to live in the wilderness on historic Kootenay Plains in west central Alberta. Wednesday, May 12 at 12:15pm, free. Britannia Branch, 1661 Napier Street.

TOM WAYMAN
Author launches his novel Woodstock Rising. Wednesday, May 12 at 7:30pm, free. Vancouver Public Library, Central Branch, Peter Kaye Room, Lower Level, 350 West Georgia Street.

ROBSON READING SERIES
Readings by David Derry, Jon Paul Fiorentino, and Matthew Hooton. Thursday, May 13 at 7:00pm, free. UBC Bookstore Library, Robson Square, 800 Robson Street.

WRITE ON BOWEN!
Early-bird registration is now being accepted for the 3rd annual Write on Bowen Festival for Writers and Readers. July 2-4, 2010. For the full Festival line-up and registration details, visit www.biac.ca/writersfestival.