Book News Vol. 6 No. 2

BOOK NEWS

Join the Vancouver International Writers Festival for a new series of illuminating readings and discussions with novelists, poets, non-fiction writers and more. The series launches on Wednesday, January 26 with Andrew Pyper (The Guardians), Amber Dawn (Sub Rosa) and Michael Christie (The Beggar's Garden). Other confirmed authors include 2010 Giller Prize winner Johanna Skibsrud, 2010 Giller Prize nominee Alexander MacLeod, Joyce Carol Oates, Lorna Crozier, Zsuzsi Gartner, Bernhard Schlink, Timothy Taylor and Madeleine Thien. Info: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/readingseries.

Incite @ VPL
An Exploration of Books and Ideas
7:30 pm every second Wednesday, Free
Alice McKay Room, Central Library

SPECIAL EVENTS

Jodi Picoult - March 13, 2011
The bestselling author of My Sister's Keeper will read from her new novel, Sing You Home, accompanied by guitarist Ellen Wilber. Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/picoult.

Howard Jacobson - April 13, 2011
Jacobson's Man Booker award-winning book, The Finkler Question, deals with love, loss and male friendship, and explores what it means to be Jewish today. Presented in partnership with the Jewish Book Festival. Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/jacobson.

Elizabeth Hay & Miriam Toews - May 5, 2011
Two of Canada's most acclaimed and beloved writers will discuss their new books, Alone in the Classroom and Irma Voth. Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/haytoews.

AWARDS & LISTS

Moon Over Manifest, a debut novel by Clare Vanderpool has won the John Newbery Medal for the year's outstanding contribution to children's literature. The Randolph Caldecott Medal, for the most distinguished picture book for children, went to A Sick Day for Amos McGee, illustrated by Erin E. Stead and written by Philip C. Stead.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/11/books/11stonewall.html?ref=books

Jason Wallace, whose debut novel Out of Shadows was turned down by 100 literary agents and publishers prior to being picked up by Andersen Press, was named winner of the Costa Children's Book Award.
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/writer-who-was-rejected-100-times-is-finally-rewarded-2176111.html

Yiyun Li's collection Gold Boy, Emerald Girl has been shortlisted for the $20,000 US Story Prize, the annual literary honour celebrating short fiction.
http://www.cbc.ca/arts/books/story/2011/01/10/story-prize-nominees.html

The shortlist for the Charles Taylor Prize for literary non-fiction includes: Stevie Cameron for On the Farm: Robert William Pickton and the Tragic Story of Vancouver's Missing Women; Charles Foran for Mordecai: The Life & Times; Ross King for Defiant Spirits: The Modernist Revolution of the Group of Seven; George Sipos for The Geography of Arrival: A Memoir; and Merrily Weisbord for The Love Queen of Malabar: Memoir of a Friendship with Kamala Das.
http://www.thecharlestaylorprize.ca/latest-news.asp

NEWS & FEATURES

The Washington Post fiction editor, Ron Charles, has come to believe that Canadian book awards are, well, loony. He's baffled by a Governor General's Award judging process that passes up Alice Munro's Too Much Happiness in favour of Kate Pullinger's The Mistress of Nothing, which, in his review, Charles describes as a "little historical romance".
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/04/AR2011010404879.html

Eleven individuals (seven of whom are authors) have accepted the invitation from The New York Times' Room for Debate section to address the issue of changing words in Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2011/01/05/does-one-word-change-huckleberry-finn

Key Porter has shut down its publishing operations. Publisher Jordan Fenn describes the action as the company "temporarily suspending publishing operations while it pursues a restructuring of its business."
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/key-porter-shuts-down-publishing-operations/article1862576/

Saskatchewan author Mary-Ann Kirkby signed a distribution agreement last year with Key Porter Books for her memoir I am Hutterite. The future of that deal is now up in the air.
http://www.cbc.ca/arts/books/story/2011/01/09/sask-publishers-loss-.html

Author, journalist, former publisher, Robert McCrum examines the impact of what are now ubiquitous—creative writing courses—and asks: Do creative writing courses make novels too ‘literary'?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2011/jan/10/creative-writing-courses-too-literary

Babies as young as just six months old can now be introduced to the world of ebook apps, with Ladybird's popular Baby Touch Peekaboo series going digital.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jan/10/ladybird-launches-ebook-app-babies

Why do people love Stieg Larsson's novels? asks Joan Acocella in this week's New Yorker.
http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/atlarge/2011/01/10/110110crat_atlarge_acocella

Columbia University Press has republished David Foster Wallace's early academic work under the title Fate, Time, and Language. Daniel Menaker writes that, even if the reader doesn't understand all or even half of it, this is an excellent chapbook about a subject—human responsibility—that is of increasing urgency in jurisprudence, social codes and personal conduct.
http://www.salon.com/books/writing/index.html?story=/books/feature/2011/01/02/fate_time_language

Justin Moyer adds that "fiction lovers with even a minimal knowledge of Aristotle and Wittgenstein will understand that the core proposition of fatalism - we have no say in what we do - haunted Wallace's writing."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/07/AR2011010706484.html

BOOKS & WRITERS

Tom Sandborn describes David Homel's Midway as a finely crafted, intelligent and moving novel, an impressive book that rewards close reading.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/midway-by-david-homel/article1857364/

Paolo Bacigalupi's debut novel, The Windup Girl, the winner of both the Hugo and Nebula awards for science fiction, is set in a dystopian Bangkok after the world has suffered an environmental catastrophe. David Evans finds the prose stunning and the book, entertaining.
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/the-windup-girl-by-paolo-bacigalupi-2176842.html

In his discussion of Doug Coupland's Marshall McLuhan: You Know Nothing of My Work!, David Carr writes that "...to a reader interested in a little serious fun, a dip into someone we pretend to understand but don't really know, "You Know Nothing of My Work!" is a welcome taunt." Coupland argues persuasively that McLuhan thought differently because he was wired differently; unalloyed admiration for an incredibly complicated thinker.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/09/books/review/Carr-t.html?_r=1&nl=books&emc=booksupdateema1&pagewanted=all

Adam Kirsch writes about The Letters of Saul Bellow that Bellow's correspondence "demonstrates the peculiar burdens of intimacy with a writer", but it also emphasizes his conviction of the necessity of writing.
http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/the_tls/article7170556.ece

Ray Robertson reminds us that Saul Bellow, as with the majority of us, was foremost interested in himself. He quotes Bellow's comment in a letter to literary critic Granville Hicks: "There is only one way to defeat the enemy, and that is to write as well as one can."
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/saul-bellow-letters-edited-by-benjamin-taylor/article1861270/

Maureen Freely states that few writers have untangled the paradoxes and unintended consequences of political Islam as Kenan Malik does in From Fatwa to Jihad. In the end, she says, Malik's real subject is not Islam but rather, the mismanagement of immigration and its impact on Enlightenment values.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/07/AR2011010706482.html

Don Waters describes the writing in Colm Tóibín's The Empty Family as "graceful prose". "Though his dream narratives are often associative rather than linear, they wind up feeling magic, precise and perfectly plotted."
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/01/09/RVAE1H3C57.DTL

John Barber interviews Tóibín over a faulty transatlantic connection.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/colm-tobn-and-the-sounds-of-silence/article1861340/

A haunted house is at the heart of Andrew Pyper's The Guardians. Mark Medley writes that The Guardians is unquestionably a horror novel, a slight departure for Pyper. Pyper's formula has attracted the attention of movie producers and The Guardians has been optioned.
http://arts.nationalpost.com/2011/01/07/fear-factor-andrew-pyper's-mid-life-crisis-scared-him-into-working-harder/

Christy Ann Conlan describes The Guardians as "a book that looks at what happens when you hate and fear what you see in the mirror, a tale of friendship and of those bonds of youth. It's a novel that is both a coming-of-age story, and a story of midlife crisis".
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/the-guardians-by-andrew-pyper/article1861442/

Alex Bozikovic describes Witold Rybczynski's Makeshift Metropolis: Ideas about Cities as a pithy and lively look at the art of city-building.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/makeshift-metropolis-ideas-about-cities-by-witold-rybczynski/article1866030/

COMMUNITY EVENTS

WALK MYSELF HOME
Caitlin Press presents readings from Walk Myself Home, an anthology of poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and oral interviews about violence against women, with contributions by Kate Braid, Yasuko Thahn, and Susan Musgrave. Thursday, January 13 at 7:00pm, free. Central Library, 350 W. Georgia.

SHEILA HETI
Author talks with Hal Wake about her latest book, How Should a Person Be?. Thursday, January 13 at 7:30pm. Tickets $12. Jewish Community Centre, 950 41st Ave. W. More information and tickets at 604-257-5111.

ROBSON READING SERIES
Readings by Sheila Heti (How Should A Person Be?) and Bren Simmers (Night Gears). Friday, January 14 at 7:00pm, free. UBC Library Bookstore, Robson Square, plaza level, 800 Robson Street. More information at www.robsonreadingseries.ubc.ca.

TARIQ MALIK
Author launches his new historical novel Chanting Denied Shores, which follows the lives of four protagonists of the Komagata Maru debacle. Book signing to follow. Sunday, January 16 at 2:30pm. Historic Joy Kogawa House, 1450 64th Ave. W. More information at www.kogawahouse.com.

ANNE GIARDINI
Author reads from her warm and witty novel, Advice for Italian Boys. Tuesday, January 18, 2011 at 7:00pm, free. Alma VanDusen & Peter Kaye Rooms, Lower Level, Central Library, 350 West Georgia Street. For more information please contact Vancouver Public Library at 604-331-3603.

SPOKEN INK
Burnaby Writers' Society presents Shauna Paull, author of roughened in undercurrent. Tuesday, January 18 at 8:00pm. La Fontana Caffe, 101-3701 East Hastings. More information at bwscafe@gmail.com.

STEVE WEINER AND SAM WHARTON
Local authors explore post-World War England in their books Sweet England and Ignorant Armies with dramatically different results. Wednesday, January 19, 2011 at 7:00pm, free. Alma VanDusen Room, Lower Level, Central Library, 350 West Georgia Street.

TWISTED POETS LITERARY SALON
Share in an evening of literary surprises featuring Dennis E. Bolen and Soressa Gardner. Thursday, January 20 at 7:00pm. Suggested donation: $5 at the door. The Prophouse Cafe, 1636 Venables Street. More information at www.pandorascollective.com.

YARN BOMBING
Leanne Prain and Mandy Moore, co-authors of the book Yarn Bombing: The Art of Crochet and Knit Graffiti host a community knit-in. Yarn and needles provided along with refreshments. Sunday, January 23 at 2:00pm. Historic Joy Kogawa House, 1450 64th Ave. W. Complete details and additional dates here, www.yarnbombing.com.

GUNG HAGGIS FAT CHOY WORLD POETRY NIGHT
Seventh annual gala, celebrating Robbie Burns Day and Chinese New Year. A celebration of Chinese and Scottish traditions with a distinctly Canadian twist! Monday, January 24 at 7:00pm, free. Alice MacKay Room, Lower Level, Central Library, 350 West Georgia Street.

Upcoming

GAIL VAZ-OXLADE
Financial guru, host of television's 'Til Debt Do Us Part and Princess as well as author of Debt-Free Forever, discusses and signs her new book, Never Too Late. Tuesday, January 25 at 7:00pm. Chapters Broadway and Granville, 2505 Granville Street. More information at 604-731-7822.

ROBSON READING SERIES
Reading by Gurjinder Basran, Jack Hodgins and Drew Hayden Taylor. Thursday, January 27 at 7:00pm, free. UBC Library Bookstore, Robson Square, plaza level, 800 Robson Street. More information at www.robsonreadingseries.ubc.ca.

GABOR GASZTONYI
Award winning photographer Gabor Gasztonyi presents A Room in the City (Anvil Press), his five-year project of photographing the residents of the Cobalt, Balmoral, Regent and Sunrise Hotels in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside. Monday, January 31 at 7:00pm, free. Alma VanDusen & Peter Kaye Rooms, Lower Level, Central Library, 350 West Georgia Street. For more information please contact Vancouver Public Library at 604-331-3603.

STEVEN HEIGHTON
One of Canada's finest writers, Steven Heighton reads from Every Lost Country. Wednesday, February 2 at 7:00pm, free. Alma VanDusen & Peter Kaye Rooms, Lower Level, Central Library, 350 West Georgia Street. For more information please contact Vancouver Public Library at 604-331-3603.

THE YEAR OF THE FLOOD
Writers' Trust co-founder Margaret Atwood will narrate a theatrical performance based on her best-selling novel, The Year of the Flood at a Writers' Trust of Canada fundraiser on February 3. The performance at the Fairmont Hotel Vancouver will feature the singers and actors from the VIWF's sold out 2009 production. Tickets for the event, which features special guest and Writers' Trust co-founder Graeme Gibson, a cocktail reception, and an auction of original postcard stories from celebrated Canadian writers and other select items, are $175. Tickets and more information here, http://www.writerstrust.com/News/Events-%281%29/Writers--Trust-Presents-Margaret-Atwood.aspx.

WRITERS COLLECTIVE
Readings and excerpts by Canada's top aboriginal writers and songwriters in one of the Drives' newest tapas bars. Featuring Joanne Arnott, Janet Rogers, Lee Maracle, Garry Gottfriedson, Wil George, Michelle Sylliboy and Wanda John. With musical performances by Russell Wallace as well as Greg Coyes. Monday, February 7 at 7:00pm. Pay-what-you-can. The Pond, 1441 Commercial Drive. More information at www.fullcircleperformance.ca.

STEVE WEINER AND HANNAH CALDER
Authors read from their respective novels, Sweet England and More House. Monday, February 7 at 7:00pm, free. Alma VanDusen Room, Lower Level, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia Street. More information here: http://www.newstarbooks.com/news.php?news_id=40108.

TIM WARD
Author and journalist reads from the 20th anniversary edition of his bestselling classic, What the Buddha Never Taught. Thursday, February 10 at 7:00pm, free. Alice MacKay Room, Lower Level, Central Library, 350 West Georgia Street. For more information please contact Vancouver Public Library at 604-331-3603.

POSTCARD STORY COMPETITION
Submissions are being accepted until February 14, 2011 for the Writers' Union of Canada's 12th annual Postcard Story Competition. The winning entry will receive $500 and will be published in Write, the magazine of The Writers' Union of Canada. Submission details here: http://www.writersunion.ca/cn_postcard.asp.

KATHERINE GOVIER
Author reads from her new novel, The Ghost Brush, the story of Oie, daughter of 19th century Japanese printmaker Hokusai. Tuesday, February 15 at 7:00pm, free Alice MacKay Room, Lower Level Central Library 350 West Georgia Street. For more information please contact Vancouver Public Library at 604-331-3603.

EVELYN LAU AND RAY HSU
Readings by the authors of Living Under Plastic (Lau) and Cold Sleep Permanent Afternoon (Hsu). Thursday, February 24 at 1:00pm. Dodson Room (level 3), Irving K. Barber Learning Centre, 1961 East Mall, UBC. More information at http://ow.ly/3C8k7.

NON-FICTION WRITING CONTEST
EVENT is both a literary journal showcasing fiction, poetry, and creative non-fiction and a sponsor of an annual non-fiction contest. The deadline for submissions to the 2011 EVENT Non-Fiction Contest is April 15, 2011. Three winners will each receive $500 (plus publication payment). Publication in EVENT 40/3 (December 2011). Submission details here: http://event.douglas.bc.ca.