BOOK NEWS
SPECIAL EVENTS
Michael Ondaatje - September 21, 2011
Join us for an evening with the Booker Prize-winning author of The English Patient, Michael Ondaatje, as he discusses his forthcoming novel, The Cat's Table. Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/ondaatje.
Wade Davis - November 10, 2011
JUST ANNOUNCED! An evening with scientist, anthropologist and bestselling author Wade Davis discussing his latest book Into the Silence: The Great War, Mallory, and the Conquest of Everest. Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/wadedavis.
Indian Summer Literature Series
Anosh Irani, Shrabani Basu, Vikram Vij, Tabu Hashmi, Yann Martel and many more stellar Canadian and Indian performers in a 10-day festival of music, literature, dance, film, yoga and cuisine. July 7-17, 2011, at SFU Woodward's in downtown Vancouver. For info and tickets, visit indiansummerfestival.ca.
AWARDS & LISTS
Rudy Wiebe, Victor Lethbridge, Clem Martini and Olivier Martini are among the winners of 2011 Alberta Book Awards. The Collected Works of Pat Lowther won the Poetry Book Award and its editor, Christine Wiesenthal, the Lois Hole Award for Editorial Excellence. The complete list is here:
http://www.bookpublishers.ab.ca/Awards11.pdf
The Locus Science Fiction Foundation—whose areas of interest are Science Fiction, fantasy, the universe, and related subjects, according to their website—announced the 2011 Locus Awards last week in Seattle. The complete list of category finalists and winners is here:
http://www.tor.com/blogs/2011/06/announcing-the-2011-locus-award-winners
Anjali Joseph, a continent-crossing author with roots in Mumbai, Paris and Norwich has taken the 2011 Desmond Elliott prize, for Saraswati Park, her first novel.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jun/24/anjali-joseph-desmond-elliott-prize
Grahame Baker-Smith has won the 2011 Kate Greenaway medal for FArTHER. Images of the book's illustrations are here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/childrens-books-site/gallery/2011/jun/23/gallery-greenaway-baker-smith
Helen Limon has won the Frances Lincoln Diverse Voices Award that, as the prize's name suggests, celebrates diversity in children's fiction. Her book, yet to be published, is Om Shanti, Babe.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/childrens-books-site/2011/jun/24/francis-lincoln-prize-helen-limon
Chicago writer and teacher Billy Lombardo is one of four winners of Nelson Algren Awards.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/books/chi-books-algren-winners-gallery,0,260428.gallery
Patrick Ness has won this year's Carnegie medal for his young adult novel Monsters of Men, the third book in the Chaos Walking series. The earlier books were shortlisted for the Carnegie in 2009 and 2010—the first time all the books in a series have been contenders. Describing himself as a "child that libraries built", Ness used his Carnegie medal acceptance speech to honour librarians and to excoriate the British government for its policy on libraries.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jun/23/patrick-ness-carnegie-medal-libraries
NEWS & FEATURES
An extract from Monsters of Men can be found here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/childrens-books-site/interactive/2011/jun/23/extract-monsters-of-men-patrick-ness
In an interview with Nicolette Jones about his trilogy, Patrick Ness says "What is important to me in the Chaos Walking books, and is the whole point of A Monster Calls, is the complexity of a person, that you are at one time many contradictory things."
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/whole-truth-for-teenagers-patrick-nesss-novels-have-attracted-acclaim-awards--and-censure-2301674.html
A Dutch group torched the cover of Lawrence Hill's The Book of Negroes in Amsterdam last week, as a protest against the bestselling title. The group, Foundation Honor and Restore Victims of Slavery in Surinam, claim the word ‘negro' is an insult to the black community. The title originated with a long-forgotten historical document.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/books/story/2011/06/22/book-of-negroes-burn-hill.html
The New Yorker online continues the conversation and includes a link to Lawrence Hill's response to the group.
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2011/06/book-of-negroes-book-burning.html
Novelist and poet Robert Kroetsch, author of Studhorse Man and many other books, has died in a car accident, age 83. The Robert Kroetsch Award for Innovative Poetry is given annually to an emerging Canadian poet.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/books/story/2011/06/22/robert-kroetsch-obi.html
Jonathan Jones observes that our culture is turning into one long awards ceremony and asks whether juries are taking over the arts and shaping our cultural landscape.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/jonathanjonesblog/2011/jun/20/prize-juries-taking-over-arts
Poetry magazine, which turns 100 next year, has been discovering the acrimony and other downsides that can come as a result of receiving large ($200 million) endowments.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/ct-ent-0621-focus-poetry-foundation-20110620,0,1984480,full.story
Geoff Pevere speaks with Joyce Carol Oates about writing, some proposed changes to A Widow's Story when it is reprinted, and not forgetting.
http://www.thestar.com/news/books/article/1011438--joyce-carol-oates-in-conversation
Historian Miguel Caballero Pérez claims to have found the real grave of playwright/poet Federico García Lorca, as well as the individuals—police and volunteers—that formed the firing squad that executed Lorca and other prisoners early in the Spanish civil war.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2011/jun/25/spain-franco-federico-garcia-lorca
In a brilliant marketing campaign, J.K. Rowling has generated huge interest in Pottermore, a free, interactive website which launches in October. Ostensibly encouraging reading among young people, the new interactive site is a perfectly positioned platform for selling millions of e-books, writes Sam Jordison.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2011/jun/23/pottermore-jk-rowling-marketing-genius-harry-potter
Given their collaborative involvement in the growth of the Harry Potter phenomenon since the first books were published, booksellers are frustrated, that they are "effectively banned" from selling digital editions as Rowling sees Pottermore as exclusive e-bookseller.
http://www.thebookseller.com/news/physical-bookshops-frustrated-pottermore.html
Carolyn Kellogg reports that Anthony Bourdain's most recent book Medium Raw: A Bloody Valentine to the World of Food and the People Who Cook has been a bestseller.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/jacketcopy/2011/06/happy-birthday-anthony-bourdain.html
Rapper 50 Cent is writing the book Playground to steer teenagers away from schoolyard bullying. The story, partly based on 50 Cent's own life, is about a 13 year-old bully who learns to mend his ways.
http://www.vancouversun.com/entertainment/books/Cent+writes+anti+bullying+book+teens/4977543/story.html
The Boston Globe offers a list of summer reads for kids, annotated with approximate reading levels.
http://www.boston.com/ae/books/gallery/summerreadingkids/
Amazon and other resellers are discovering a growing problem—spam ebooks—due to the ease with which content can be licensed and repackaged to sell as ebooks.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/jun/23/ebook-spam-problem-growing
When asked in an interview with Jan Dalley why he had stopped reading fiction, Philip Roth responded: "I don't know. I wised up..."
http://www.slate.com/id/2297600/pagenum/all/#p2
Washington Post critics pick the best books for summer reading.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/washington-post-critics-pick-the-best-books-for-summer-reading/2011/04/25/AGC33WZH_story.html
Work to build the new town of Andricgrad is to begin this week. Completion of the project, inspired by the novel The Bridge on the Drina and other work by Yugoslavian Nobel laureate Ivo Andric, is expected by 2014.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jun/28/bosnian-novelist-new-town-ivo-andric
Teachers in north London (UK) are using hip hop to teach poetry.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2011/jun/27/london-comprehensive-poetry-hiphop
Much like the 6-year-old children who enjoy his books, Tomi Ungerer recently spent the better part of a week celebrating his birthday. And his actual birthday—his 80th—isn't even until November. Pamela Paul interviews Ungerer during his most recent visit to the United States.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/29/books/the-child-in-tomi-ungerer-remains-undimmed.html?ref=books
Vancouver is seeking its third Poet Laureate. Nominations and submissions will be accepted until Aug. 24.
http://communities.canada.com/vancouversun/blogs/covertocover/archive/2011/06/23/vancouver-seeking-third-poet-laureate.aspx
BOOKS & WRITERS
Finally we have a sequel to Lisa See's Shanghai Girls, exclaims Anne Sutherland. Dreams of Joy picks up the story left hanging at the end of the first book, when Joy runs away to the country her mother and aunt had fled.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/books/Reads+journey+China/4994741/story.html
Gina Moynihan's is the only perspective provided in The Forgotten Waltz, says Ian McGillis, but the novel occasionally feels more multiple-voice than first person. A born outsider, Gina makes the perfect mouthpiece for Anne Enright, the acerbic critic of social pretence.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/books/Booker+winner+Anne+Enright+delivers+acerbic+social+commentary/4994779/story.html
The western was an American mythology, a re-creation myth out of the ashes of the Civil War. Patrick DeWitt's The Sisters Brothers serves as a poignant, powerful reminder of what has been lost. It's a powerful, compelling novel, writes Robert Wiersema.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/the-sisters-brothers-by-patrick-dewitt/article2074639/
Jamil Ahmad's collection of stories The Wandering Falcon is one of the finest collections of short stories to come out of south Asia in decades, writes Basharat Peer.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jun/25/wandering-falcon-jamil-ahmad-review
She addressed him as Mr. Stieglitz: he called her Miss O'Keeffe. He became Dearest Duck and she, Fluffy. My Faraway One is not just one more book about the couple but a sampling of correspondence that was sealed until 2006, says Suzanne Muchnic.
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/books/la-ca-sarah-greenough-20110626,0,4731362.story
An open purse near the sink, its owner in a stall, not touching the wallet: following her curiosity, Jennifer Egan wound up with A Visit From the Goon Squad, which captured the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for fiction, notes Meredith May.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/06/14/DD001JREGO.DTL&type=books
Robert Wiersema describes Steven Price's Into That Darkness as a brilliant debut novel of survival, an account of loss in its myriad forms, and of hope at its most vital and true: a novel that will satisfy at every level.
http://www.vancouversun.com/entertainment/books/Compelling+story+world+torn+asunder/5002085/story.html
Jeffrey Foss loves David Eagleman's Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain because it reveals the strings and levers of human nature, revealing us for what we truly are, he says: bio-robots, engineered by Richard Dawkins-dubbed Blind Watchmakers.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/incognito-the-secret-lives-of-the-brain-by-david-eagleman/article2074439/
The June 27 issue of The New Yorker includes Alice Munro's story Gravel.
http://www.newyorker.com/fiction/features/2011/06/27/110627fi_fiction_munro
E.B. White is fascinating in part because of his legendary shyness and hypochondria. While Michael Sims' The Story of Charlotte's Web does not add earth-shattering revelations, it's a fitting echo to the resolution of Charlotte's Web, writes Valerie Sayers.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/the-story-of-charlottes-web-by-michael-sims/2011/05/23/AGKlIVjH_story.html
Anna Porter's review of Daniel Stein: Interpreter is part book review, part interview with author Ludmila Ulitskaya. The book seems to both hide and explore the extraordinary tale of Daniel, the interpreter. He emerges a redemptive, compassionate person, writes Porter.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/interpreter-by-ludmila-ulitskaya/article2077249/
Francisca Zentilli writes that Carmen Aguirre's Something Fierce: Memoirs of a Revolutionary Daughter—Aguirre's memoir of growing up in the resistance—is raw, courageously honest and funny; an insightful journey into the formation of a revolutionary soul.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/something-fierce-memoirs-of-a-revolutionary-daughter-by-carmen-aguirre/article2078914/
COMMUNITY EVENTS
TD HIGH SCHOOL JAZZ INTENSIVE
Students are offered a chance to perform in the TD Vancouver international Jazz Festival. Open rehearsal: Saturday, July 2 from 1-4pm, Tom Lee Music Hall; free. Feature performance and scholarship presentations: Sunday, July 3 from 12-1pm, David Lam Park Mainstage; free. Complete details here: http://tinyurl.com/3ztx7jl.
OF MAMMOTHS AND MEN
Sharon Levy, author of the new book Once and Future Giants, explores the causes of the mass extinction of mammoths and the reasons why this ancient story is vitally important here and now. Wednesday, July 6 at 7:00pm, free. Alice MacKay room. lower level, 350 W. Georgia St. For more information please contact Vancouver Public Library at 604-331-3603.
VPL SUMMER BOOK SALE
Lots of great fiction for summer reading plus some DVDs, childrens, travel, gardening and multilingual items will be available. Admission ends 30 minutes before sale closes. All sales final. Prices .75 to 2.50. Cash and carry. Thursday, July 7 at 10:00am, free. Alma VanDusen & Peter Kaye rooms, lower level, Central Branch, 350 W. Georgia St.
KY-MANI MARLEY
Son of reggae icon Bob Marley presents his biography of his dad, Dear Dad. Friday, July 8 at 4:00pm. Chapters Robson, 788 Robson Street. More information at 604-682-4056.
WRITE ON BOWEN 2011
Join writers from all over the Lower Mainland for a series of intensive, interactive writing workshops, panel presentations, and other events. July 8 to 11, Artisan Square, Bowen Island. For complete details, visit www.writeonbowen.com.
CROSS BORDER READING SERIES
Readings and conversations with writers and poets from Canada, US, and Scotland. Featuring Alan Jamieson, Carmen Aguirre, Andrew Feld, Pimone Triplett, Bren Simmers and Maggie de Vries. Saturday, July 9 at 5:00pm. Room 1530, SFU Harbour Centre, 555 W. Hastings Street. More information cbprs.wordpress.com.
Upcoming
CBC BOOKCLUB
Lisa See, the New York Times best-selling author of Shanghai Girls, Peony in Love, and Snow Flower & the Secret Fan will be coming to Vancouver in July, with her latest novel Dreams of Joy. The CBC Studio One Book Club will be taped in the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden on Sunday afternoon, July 17. To win tickets, go to www.cbc.ca/bc/bookclub.
CHEVY STEVENS
Reading by the author of Never Knowing. Monday, July 25 at 7:00pm. Chapters Granville, 2505 Granville Street. More information at 604-731-7822.
HAIKU NORTH AMERICA
A long weekend of papers, presentations, workshops, readings, and other activities in celebration of haiku poetry, held at the Seattle Center, at the foot of the Space Needle. Featured presenters include Cor van den Heuvel, Richard Gilbert, David Lanoue, Carlos Colón, Fay Aoyagi, Jim Kacian, Emiko Miyashita, George Swede, and many others. August 3-7, 2011. For more information, visit www.haikunorthamerica.com.
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Thursday, June 23, 2011
Book News Vol. 6 No. 25
BOOK NEWS
Indian Summer Literature Series
Anosh Irani, Shrabani Basu, Vikram Vij, Tabu Hashmi, Yann Martel and many more stellar Canadian and Indian performers in a 10-day festival of music, literature, dance, film, yoga and cuisine. July 7-17, 2011, at SFU Woodward's in downtown Vancouver. For info and tickets, visit indiansummerfestival.ca.
July 8 Yann Martel in conversation with Bollywood film star Tabu, who will appear in Oscar-winning director Ang Lee's film adaptation of Martel's Booker Prizewinning novel, Life of Pi. (Followed by a screening of The Namesake, based on the novel by Pulitzer prize-winning author Jhumpa
Lahiri.)
TD International Jazz Festival
We love the Jazz Festival and this year's lineup is as stellar and adventurous as ever. Events include Jazz at the Lincoln Centre Orchestra with Pulitzer Prize and Grammy Award-winning trumpeter Wynton Marsalis at the Orpheum Theatre, and Matheson/Roper/Mollerup – Literary Cabaret trumpeter Allan Matheson, Jon Roper and Laurence Mollerup play original compositions inspired by Tom Harrell, Miles Davis and Bill Evans at Canada Place. Both performances are on June 26.
The full festival guide is here: http://www.server-jbmultimedia.net/VancouverInternationalJazzFestival/
Check out free Jazz education programs including workshops and artist talks at the David Lam Park/Roundhouse Jazz Week-end, and the TD High School Jazz Intensive Band perform on the Outdoor Stage July 2 and 3. More info at www.coastaljazz.ca.
SPECIAL EVENT
Michael Ondaatje - September 21, 2011
Join us for an evening with the Booker Prize-winning author of The English Patient, Michael Ondaatje, as he discusses his forthcoming novel, The Cat's Table. Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/ondaatje.
AWARDS & LISTS
Irish writer Colum McCann has won the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award for Let The Great World Spin. Let The Great World Spin also won the U.S. National Book Award in 2009. Past Canadian winners of the IMPAC Award include Rawi Hage and Alastair MacLeod.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/colum-mccann-wins-2011-impac-prize/article2062390/
Jean Little's Exiles from the War: The War Guests Diary of Charlotte Mary Twiss and a picture book version of Gordon Lightfoot's Canadian Railroad Trilogy are among the titles nominated for the Canadian Children's Book Centre Awards. Édith Bourget, participant in the Festival's La Joie de Lire program, and member of a team of Québec writers contributing to Oh! La vache!, is among French writers nominated for the Prix TD de litterature Canadienne pour l'enfance et la jeunesse.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/books/story/2011/06/14/childrens-book-awards-nominees.html
Rabindranath (Robin) Maharaj's The Amazing Absorbing Boy is the winner of this year's $20,000 Trillium Book Award for Ontario authors. The $10,000 poetry prize went to Jeff Latosik's Tiny, Frantic, Stronger. French-language prizes went to: Estelle Beauchamp's Un souffle venu de loin (the $25,000 Trillium Book Award); Daniel Marchildon's La première guerre de Toronto won the $10,000 children's literature award.
http://www.thestar.com/news/books/article/1010775--trillium-prize-ajax-s-rabindranath-maharaj-wins-for-novel-the-amazing-absorbing-boy
Andrea Levy's story of the end of slavery, The Long Song, has won the £25,000 Walter Scott prize for historical fiction.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jun/20/andrea-levy-wins-walter-scott-prize
John Le Carré is one of this year's recipients of Germany's Goethe Medal, which goes to individuals who "have performed outstanding service for the German language and international cultural dialogue". The Goethe Institute describes Le Carré as Great Britain's most famous German speaker.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jun/21/john-le-carre-goethe-medal
Kim Scott is the 2011 winner of the Miles Franklin Literary Award for That Deadman Dance.
http://www.milesfranklin.com.au/
NEWS & FEATURES
Novelists Timothy Taylor (The Blue Light Project) and Peter Darbyshire (The Warhol Gang) were struck by the parallels between their latest books and the chaos that engulfed Vancouver after the Canucks lost Game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals. In this conversation, exclusive to The Afterword, the two writers reflect on what transpired last week.
http://arts.nationalpost.com/2011/06/18/timothy-taylor-and-peter-darbyshire-discuss-the-vancouver-riots/#more-37676
Returning to his hometown of Dublin to accept this year's Impac Dublin Literary Award, Colum McCann speaks to Eileen Battersby about being an ‘Irish New Yorker' and how he has succeeded as a writer—despite his happy childhood.
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/features/2011/0616/1224298993543.html
The most recent decisions on the Miles Franklin Literary Award has generated criticism. Two years ago, the five shortlisted novels were all by men. This year the Miles judges had a shortlist of only three books—again, all by men. Critical comment continues.
http://www.theage.com.au/entertainment/books/separated-by-the-miles-20110617-1g6xs.html#ixzz1PmN8Oi6h
Ann Patchett's first published work was in The Paris Review while she was still in college. She went on to become published in The Washington Post, The New York Times, Gourmet, Vogue and elsewhere—among other accomplishments. If you missed hearing Shelagh Rogers' interview on The Last Chapter this past Monday, it will be re-broadcast on Saturday at 4pm. The podcast is available here.
http://www.cbc.ca/thenextchapter/
Viv Groskop writes that Goodnight Keith Moon, a spoof of the children's classic Goodnight Moon, told through the eyes of The Who's late drummer, is the latest in a very strange fad: children's bedtime books for adults.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2011/jun/19/parents-and-parenting-booksforchildrenandteenagers
The latest list to argue about: The Guardian's books desk has generated a list of—in their view—the 100 greatest non-fiction books, the very best factual writing, organized by category, and then by date.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jun/14/100-greatest-non-fiction-books
Drew Grant writes that for the upcoming edition, entirely composed of "Talk of the Town" pieces, the New Yorker created an instructional video (in the style of a 1960s classroom film) on how the magazine cherry-picks certain people for "Talk of the Town" segments.
http://www.salon.com/books/2011/06/14/talk_of_the_town_new_yorker_video/index.html
On a rare visit to the UK, Nobel prize-winning Nigerian poet and dramatist Wole Soyinka talks to Sarah Crown about his fears for his country and using theatre to 'fire pellets at the complacent body of society'.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/video/2011/jun/08/wole-soyinka-video
Derek Walcott, the winner of this year's TS Eliot prize, talks to Rob Sharp about why Britain means little to him.
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/derek-walcott-of-poetry-prizes-and-postcolonialism-2300641.html
While H.G. Wells remains best known for what he called his “scientific romances,” he was far more than just the author of The War of the Worlds. The founder of modern science fiction was also a major social novelist of the Edwardian period. Now Weidenfeld & Nicolson have made these novels available again.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/books-the-history-of-mr-polly-by-hg-wells/2011/06/02/AGmpFaMH_story.html
The Wimpy Kid will be back this fall, with a most un-wimpy first printing. Cabin Fever, the sixth in Jeff Kinney's Diary of a Wimpy Kid series, will be out November 15, with a first printing of 6 million copies.
http://www.thestar.com/news/books/article/1010082--new-wimpy-kid-book-gets-6-million-first-printing-but-no-e-book
Canadian Bookshelf is a new online book community that hosts the largest publicly available collection of Canadian books and authors ever assembled. Find recommended books and book reviews.
http://www.canadianbookshelf.com/
Or, test your CanLit knowledge with The Cover Shuffle Challenge.
http://canadianbookshelf.com/covershuffle
Diary of a Combatant, revolutionary icon Ernesto Che Guevara's journal of the time leading up to Fidel Castro's rise to power, was launched in Havana on what would have been his 83rd birthday. Diary of a Combatant is the sequel to The Motorcycle Diaries.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/books/story/2011/06/15/guevara-cuba-journal-campaign.html
In her profile of Margaret Drabble's life in writing, Lisa Allardice writes that with more than 20 books to her name, Drabble this month publishes her first collection of short stories, A Day in the Life of a Smiling Woman.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2011/jun/17/life-writing-margaret-drabble-interview
Vit Wagner interviews Maya Soetoro-Ng, half-sister to President Barack Obama, and author of the children's book Ladder to the Moon, described as "a character study of how all of us shape our lives out of what we are given."
http://www.thestar.com/news/books/article/1012758--children-s-book-by-obama-s-half-sister-bridges-generations
Staff and contributors at The Tyee offer up a list of perfect summer reading to complement all of your favorite summer activities.
http://thetyee.ca/Books/2011/06/21/SummerBooks2011/
The unfinished fourth novel by Stieg Larsson is set in Canada and Lisbeth Salander and Mikael Blomkvist continue to play key roles. These details emerge in Charles McGrath's conversation with Eva Gabrielsson about her own book There Are Things I Want You to Know about Stieg Larsson and Me.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/22/books/eva-gabrielssons-memoir-of-her-life-with-stieg-larsson.html?_r=1&ref=books&pagewanted=all
BOOKS & WRITERS
Aravind Adiga's second novel Last Man in Tower is a complex and multi-layered novel that builds on his Booker win and continues his project of shining a light on the changing face of India, writes Alex Clark.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jun/15/last-man-tower-adiga-review
Shakespeare invites many superlatives and much sublime exaggeration, which Stephen Marche employs in his new book, How Shakespeare Changed Everything. For Marche, Shakespeare is a messy writer because of his encompassing vision and extreme brilliance, writes Richard Handler.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/story/2011/06/14/f-vp-handler.html
In the latest post-Fleming James Bond tale, Jeffery Deaver gives the spy a taste for Canadian whisky—he drinks Crown Royal—and his thriller Carte Blanche a breakneck pace, writes John Barber.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/jeffery-deavers-007-bonds-shaken-hes-stirred-but-he-drinks-crown-royal/article2065397/
Bharati Mukherjee's territory is cultural shock: she has been chronicling the traumas of displacement for more than four decades. Miss New India is the final volume of a trilogy: old meets new, says Linda Leith.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/miss-new-india-by-bharati-mukherjee/article2065234/
Steven Hayward writes that, In The Meagre Tarmac, a collection of linked short stories, Clark Blaise addresses himself to India and the stories of Indian immigrants to North America: with dislocation and disorientation perhaps uniquely Canadian.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/the-meagre-tarmac-stories-by-clark-blaise/article2065107/
Theo Tait says that Alan Hollinghurst's new novel, The Stranger's Child, is a sort of ironic meditation on the evolution of literary memory and is undoubtedly one of the best books this year.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jun/17/strangers-child-alan-hollinghurst-review
Alice Ozma's father read to her every night for 3,218 days and didn't stop until the day she moved into her college dormitory. The accomplishment is chronicled in The Reading Promise: My Father and the Books We Shared, says Jessica Gelt.
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-book-alice-ozma-20110616,0,5689043.story
River of Smoke, the second part of Amitav Ghosh's Ibis trilogy is a subversive act of empathy, viewing a whole panorama of world history from the "wrong" end of the telescope, says Tim Adams.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jun/19/river-of-smoke-amitav-ghosh-review
Like le Carré's The Constant Gardener, Ann Patchett's State of Wonder explores the unsavory behavior of Western pharmaceutical firms in Third World countries, observing the strange choices individuals make. The smartest, most exciting novel of the summer, says Ron Charles.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/books-state-of-wonder/2011/05/30/AGQicRLH_story.html
An excerpt ofChapter 1 is here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/02/books/excerpt-state-of-wonder-by-ann-patchett.html?ref=review
COMMUNITY EVENTS
MAUREEN HYNES
The Toronto-based author reads from her latest poetry collection, Marrow, Willow. Friday, June 24 at 7:00pm, free. People's Co-op Bookstore, 1391 Commercial.
AMANDA NAHANEE
In celebration of National Aboriginal Day, the descendant and ambassador of the Squamish and Nisga'a Nations tells stories and shares her culture, history, and understanding of what it means to be from the Northwest Coast. Saturday, June 25 at 2:00pm, free. Hastings Branch, VPL, 2675 E. Hastings. More information at www.vpl.ca.
SUBVERSIONS
Launch and discussion of the anarchist fiction anthology features speakers from the Montreal Anarchist Writers Bloc and the B.C. Black Ink Group, as well as Norman Nawrocki, Ron Sakolsky, David Lester, and Bob Sarti. Saturday, June 25 at 3pm, free. Spartacus Books, 684 E. Hastings. More information at awb@daemonflower.com.
BOOK LAUNCH
Join Sheryl MacKay and the North by Northwest Library Sleuths when they celebrate "100+ Years of Library Services to British Columbians" at Library Square in the Vancouver Public Library on Wednesday June 29 at 10am. Sheryl will tape a special live segment of "Lost Childhood Books" and you can bring your own requests for future episodes too. The day is full of celebration with lots of activities for all - check it out at http://thelibrarybook.bclibraries.ca/booklaunch/
TD HIGH SCHOOL JAZZ INTENSIVE
Students are offered a chance to perform in the TD Vancouver international Jazz Festival. Open rehearsal: Saturday, July 2 from 1-4pm, Tom Lee Music Hall; free. Feature performance and scholarship presentations: Sunday, July 3 from 12-1pm, David Lam Park Mainstage; free. Complete details here: http://tinyurl.com/3ztx7jl.
Upcoming
OF MAMMOTHS AND MEN
Sharon Levy, author of the new book Once and Future Giants, explores the causes of the mass extinction of mammoths and the reasons why this ancient story is vitally important here and now. Wednesday, July 6 at 7:00pm, free. Alice MacKay room. lower level, 350 W. Georgia St. For more information please contact Vancouver Public Library at 604-331-3603.
VPL SUMMER BOOK SALE
Lots of great fiction for summer reading plus some DVDs, childrens, travel, gardening and multilingual items will be available. Admission ends 30 minutes before sale closes. All sales final. Prices .75 to 2.50. Cash and carry. Thursday, July 7 at 10:00am, free. Alma VanDusen & Peter Kaye rooms, lower level, Central Branch, 350 W. Georgia St.
KY-MANI MARLEY
Son of reggae icon Bob Marley presents his biography of his dad, Dear Dad. Friday, July 8 at 4:00pm. Chapters Robson, 788 Robson Street. More information at 604-682-4056.
WRITE ON BOWEN 2011
Join writers from all over the Lower Mainland for a series of intensive, interactive writing workshops, panel presentations, and other events. July 8 to 11, Artisan Square, Bowen Island. For complete details, visit www.writeonbowen.com.
CROSS BORDER READING SERIES
Readings and conversations with writers and poets from Canada, US, and Scotland. Featuring Alan Jamieson, Carmen Aguirre, Andrew Feld, Pimone Triplett, Bren Simmers and Maggie de Vries. Saturday, July 9 at 5:00pm. Room 1530, SFU Harbour Centre, 555 W. Hastings Street. More information cbprs.wordpress.com.
CBC BOOKCLUB
Lisa See, the New York Times best-selling author of Shanghai Girls, Peony in Love, and Snow Flower & the Secret Fan will be coming to Vancouver in July, with her latest novel Dreams of Joy. The CBC Studio One Book Club will be taped in the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden on Sunday afternoon, July 17. To win tickets, go to www.cbc.ca/bc/bookclub.
CHEVY STEVENS
Reading by the author of Never Knowing. Monday, June 25 at 7:00pm. Chapters Granville, 2505 Granville Street. More information at 604-731-7822.
HAIKU NORTH AMERICA
A long weekend of papers, presentations, workshops, readings, and other activities in celebration of haiku poetry, held at the Seattle Center, at the foot of the Space Needle. Featured presenters include Cor van den Heuvel, Richard Gilbert, David Lanoue, Carlos Colón, Fay Aoyagi, Jim Kacian, Emiko Miyashita, George Swede, and many others. August 3-7, 2011. For more information, visit www.haikunorthamerica.com.
Indian Summer Literature Series
Anosh Irani, Shrabani Basu, Vikram Vij, Tabu Hashmi, Yann Martel and many more stellar Canadian and Indian performers in a 10-day festival of music, literature, dance, film, yoga and cuisine. July 7-17, 2011, at SFU Woodward's in downtown Vancouver. For info and tickets, visit indiansummerfestival.ca.
July 8 Yann Martel in conversation with Bollywood film star Tabu, who will appear in Oscar-winning director Ang Lee's film adaptation of Martel's Booker Prizewinning novel, Life of Pi. (Followed by a screening of The Namesake, based on the novel by Pulitzer prize-winning author Jhumpa
Lahiri.)
TD International Jazz Festival
We love the Jazz Festival and this year's lineup is as stellar and adventurous as ever. Events include Jazz at the Lincoln Centre Orchestra with Pulitzer Prize and Grammy Award-winning trumpeter Wynton Marsalis at the Orpheum Theatre, and Matheson/Roper/Mollerup – Literary Cabaret trumpeter Allan Matheson, Jon Roper and Laurence Mollerup play original compositions inspired by Tom Harrell, Miles Davis and Bill Evans at Canada Place. Both performances are on June 26.
The full festival guide is here: http://www.server-jbmultimedia.net/VancouverInternationalJazzFestival/
Check out free Jazz education programs including workshops and artist talks at the David Lam Park/Roundhouse Jazz Week-end, and the TD High School Jazz Intensive Band perform on the Outdoor Stage July 2 and 3. More info at www.coastaljazz.ca.
SPECIAL EVENT
Michael Ondaatje - September 21, 2011
Join us for an evening with the Booker Prize-winning author of The English Patient, Michael Ondaatje, as he discusses his forthcoming novel, The Cat's Table. Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/ondaatje.
AWARDS & LISTS
Irish writer Colum McCann has won the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award for Let The Great World Spin. Let The Great World Spin also won the U.S. National Book Award in 2009. Past Canadian winners of the IMPAC Award include Rawi Hage and Alastair MacLeod.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/colum-mccann-wins-2011-impac-prize/article2062390/
Jean Little's Exiles from the War: The War Guests Diary of Charlotte Mary Twiss and a picture book version of Gordon Lightfoot's Canadian Railroad Trilogy are among the titles nominated for the Canadian Children's Book Centre Awards. Édith Bourget, participant in the Festival's La Joie de Lire program, and member of a team of Québec writers contributing to Oh! La vache!, is among French writers nominated for the Prix TD de litterature Canadienne pour l'enfance et la jeunesse.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/books/story/2011/06/14/childrens-book-awards-nominees.html
Rabindranath (Robin) Maharaj's The Amazing Absorbing Boy is the winner of this year's $20,000 Trillium Book Award for Ontario authors. The $10,000 poetry prize went to Jeff Latosik's Tiny, Frantic, Stronger. French-language prizes went to: Estelle Beauchamp's Un souffle venu de loin (the $25,000 Trillium Book Award); Daniel Marchildon's La première guerre de Toronto won the $10,000 children's literature award.
http://www.thestar.com/news/books/article/1010775--trillium-prize-ajax-s-rabindranath-maharaj-wins-for-novel-the-amazing-absorbing-boy
Andrea Levy's story of the end of slavery, The Long Song, has won the £25,000 Walter Scott prize for historical fiction.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jun/20/andrea-levy-wins-walter-scott-prize
John Le Carré is one of this year's recipients of Germany's Goethe Medal, which goes to individuals who "have performed outstanding service for the German language and international cultural dialogue". The Goethe Institute describes Le Carré as Great Britain's most famous German speaker.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jun/21/john-le-carre-goethe-medal
Kim Scott is the 2011 winner of the Miles Franklin Literary Award for That Deadman Dance.
http://www.milesfranklin.com.au/
NEWS & FEATURES
Novelists Timothy Taylor (The Blue Light Project) and Peter Darbyshire (The Warhol Gang) were struck by the parallels between their latest books and the chaos that engulfed Vancouver after the Canucks lost Game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals. In this conversation, exclusive to The Afterword, the two writers reflect on what transpired last week.
http://arts.nationalpost.com/2011/06/18/timothy-taylor-and-peter-darbyshire-discuss-the-vancouver-riots/#more-37676
Returning to his hometown of Dublin to accept this year's Impac Dublin Literary Award, Colum McCann speaks to Eileen Battersby about being an ‘Irish New Yorker' and how he has succeeded as a writer—despite his happy childhood.
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/features/2011/0616/1224298993543.html
The most recent decisions on the Miles Franklin Literary Award has generated criticism. Two years ago, the five shortlisted novels were all by men. This year the Miles judges had a shortlist of only three books—again, all by men. Critical comment continues.
http://www.theage.com.au/entertainment/books/separated-by-the-miles-20110617-1g6xs.html#ixzz1PmN8Oi6h
Ann Patchett's first published work was in The Paris Review while she was still in college. She went on to become published in The Washington Post, The New York Times, Gourmet, Vogue and elsewhere—among other accomplishments. If you missed hearing Shelagh Rogers' interview on The Last Chapter this past Monday, it will be re-broadcast on Saturday at 4pm. The podcast is available here.
http://www.cbc.ca/thenextchapter/
Viv Groskop writes that Goodnight Keith Moon, a spoof of the children's classic Goodnight Moon, told through the eyes of The Who's late drummer, is the latest in a very strange fad: children's bedtime books for adults.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2011/jun/19/parents-and-parenting-booksforchildrenandteenagers
The latest list to argue about: The Guardian's books desk has generated a list of—in their view—the 100 greatest non-fiction books, the very best factual writing, organized by category, and then by date.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jun/14/100-greatest-non-fiction-books
Drew Grant writes that for the upcoming edition, entirely composed of "Talk of the Town" pieces, the New Yorker created an instructional video (in the style of a 1960s classroom film) on how the magazine cherry-picks certain people for "Talk of the Town" segments.
http://www.salon.com/books/2011/06/14/talk_of_the_town_new_yorker_video/index.html
On a rare visit to the UK, Nobel prize-winning Nigerian poet and dramatist Wole Soyinka talks to Sarah Crown about his fears for his country and using theatre to 'fire pellets at the complacent body of society'.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/video/2011/jun/08/wole-soyinka-video
Derek Walcott, the winner of this year's TS Eliot prize, talks to Rob Sharp about why Britain means little to him.
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/derek-walcott-of-poetry-prizes-and-postcolonialism-2300641.html
While H.G. Wells remains best known for what he called his “scientific romances,” he was far more than just the author of The War of the Worlds. The founder of modern science fiction was also a major social novelist of the Edwardian period. Now Weidenfeld & Nicolson have made these novels available again.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/books-the-history-of-mr-polly-by-hg-wells/2011/06/02/AGmpFaMH_story.html
The Wimpy Kid will be back this fall, with a most un-wimpy first printing. Cabin Fever, the sixth in Jeff Kinney's Diary of a Wimpy Kid series, will be out November 15, with a first printing of 6 million copies.
http://www.thestar.com/news/books/article/1010082--new-wimpy-kid-book-gets-6-million-first-printing-but-no-e-book
Canadian Bookshelf is a new online book community that hosts the largest publicly available collection of Canadian books and authors ever assembled. Find recommended books and book reviews.
http://www.canadianbookshelf.com/
Or, test your CanLit knowledge with The Cover Shuffle Challenge.
http://canadianbookshelf.com/covershuffle
Diary of a Combatant, revolutionary icon Ernesto Che Guevara's journal of the time leading up to Fidel Castro's rise to power, was launched in Havana on what would have been his 83rd birthday. Diary of a Combatant is the sequel to The Motorcycle Diaries.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/books/story/2011/06/15/guevara-cuba-journal-campaign.html
In her profile of Margaret Drabble's life in writing, Lisa Allardice writes that with more than 20 books to her name, Drabble this month publishes her first collection of short stories, A Day in the Life of a Smiling Woman.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2011/jun/17/life-writing-margaret-drabble-interview
Vit Wagner interviews Maya Soetoro-Ng, half-sister to President Barack Obama, and author of the children's book Ladder to the Moon, described as "a character study of how all of us shape our lives out of what we are given."
http://www.thestar.com/news/books/article/1012758--children-s-book-by-obama-s-half-sister-bridges-generations
Staff and contributors at The Tyee offer up a list of perfect summer reading to complement all of your favorite summer activities.
http://thetyee.ca/Books/2011/06/21/SummerBooks2011/
The unfinished fourth novel by Stieg Larsson is set in Canada and Lisbeth Salander and Mikael Blomkvist continue to play key roles. These details emerge in Charles McGrath's conversation with Eva Gabrielsson about her own book There Are Things I Want You to Know about Stieg Larsson and Me.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/22/books/eva-gabrielssons-memoir-of-her-life-with-stieg-larsson.html?_r=1&ref=books&pagewanted=all
BOOKS & WRITERS
Aravind Adiga's second novel Last Man in Tower is a complex and multi-layered novel that builds on his Booker win and continues his project of shining a light on the changing face of India, writes Alex Clark.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jun/15/last-man-tower-adiga-review
Shakespeare invites many superlatives and much sublime exaggeration, which Stephen Marche employs in his new book, How Shakespeare Changed Everything. For Marche, Shakespeare is a messy writer because of his encompassing vision and extreme brilliance, writes Richard Handler.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/story/2011/06/14/f-vp-handler.html
In the latest post-Fleming James Bond tale, Jeffery Deaver gives the spy a taste for Canadian whisky—he drinks Crown Royal—and his thriller Carte Blanche a breakneck pace, writes John Barber.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/jeffery-deavers-007-bonds-shaken-hes-stirred-but-he-drinks-crown-royal/article2065397/
Bharati Mukherjee's territory is cultural shock: she has been chronicling the traumas of displacement for more than four decades. Miss New India is the final volume of a trilogy: old meets new, says Linda Leith.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/miss-new-india-by-bharati-mukherjee/article2065234/
Steven Hayward writes that, In The Meagre Tarmac, a collection of linked short stories, Clark Blaise addresses himself to India and the stories of Indian immigrants to North America: with dislocation and disorientation perhaps uniquely Canadian.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/the-meagre-tarmac-stories-by-clark-blaise/article2065107/
Theo Tait says that Alan Hollinghurst's new novel, The Stranger's Child, is a sort of ironic meditation on the evolution of literary memory and is undoubtedly one of the best books this year.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jun/17/strangers-child-alan-hollinghurst-review
Alice Ozma's father read to her every night for 3,218 days and didn't stop until the day she moved into her college dormitory. The accomplishment is chronicled in The Reading Promise: My Father and the Books We Shared, says Jessica Gelt.
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-book-alice-ozma-20110616,0,5689043.story
River of Smoke, the second part of Amitav Ghosh's Ibis trilogy is a subversive act of empathy, viewing a whole panorama of world history from the "wrong" end of the telescope, says Tim Adams.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jun/19/river-of-smoke-amitav-ghosh-review
Like le Carré's The Constant Gardener, Ann Patchett's State of Wonder explores the unsavory behavior of Western pharmaceutical firms in Third World countries, observing the strange choices individuals make. The smartest, most exciting novel of the summer, says Ron Charles.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/books-state-of-wonder/2011/05/30/AGQicRLH_story.html
An excerpt ofChapter 1 is here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/02/books/excerpt-state-of-wonder-by-ann-patchett.html?ref=review
COMMUNITY EVENTS
MAUREEN HYNES
The Toronto-based author reads from her latest poetry collection, Marrow, Willow. Friday, June 24 at 7:00pm, free. People's Co-op Bookstore, 1391 Commercial.
AMANDA NAHANEE
In celebration of National Aboriginal Day, the descendant and ambassador of the Squamish and Nisga'a Nations tells stories and shares her culture, history, and understanding of what it means to be from the Northwest Coast. Saturday, June 25 at 2:00pm, free. Hastings Branch, VPL, 2675 E. Hastings. More information at www.vpl.ca.
SUBVERSIONS
Launch and discussion of the anarchist fiction anthology features speakers from the Montreal Anarchist Writers Bloc and the B.C. Black Ink Group, as well as Norman Nawrocki, Ron Sakolsky, David Lester, and Bob Sarti. Saturday, June 25 at 3pm, free. Spartacus Books, 684 E. Hastings. More information at awb@daemonflower.com.
BOOK LAUNCH
Join Sheryl MacKay and the North by Northwest Library Sleuths when they celebrate "100+ Years of Library Services to British Columbians" at Library Square in the Vancouver Public Library on Wednesday June 29 at 10am. Sheryl will tape a special live segment of "Lost Childhood Books" and you can bring your own requests for future episodes too. The day is full of celebration with lots of activities for all - check it out at http://thelibrarybook.bclibraries.ca/booklaunch/
TD HIGH SCHOOL JAZZ INTENSIVE
Students are offered a chance to perform in the TD Vancouver international Jazz Festival. Open rehearsal: Saturday, July 2 from 1-4pm, Tom Lee Music Hall; free. Feature performance and scholarship presentations: Sunday, July 3 from 12-1pm, David Lam Park Mainstage; free. Complete details here: http://tinyurl.com/3ztx7jl.
Upcoming
OF MAMMOTHS AND MEN
Sharon Levy, author of the new book Once and Future Giants, explores the causes of the mass extinction of mammoths and the reasons why this ancient story is vitally important here and now. Wednesday, July 6 at 7:00pm, free. Alice MacKay room. lower level, 350 W. Georgia St. For more information please contact Vancouver Public Library at 604-331-3603.
VPL SUMMER BOOK SALE
Lots of great fiction for summer reading plus some DVDs, childrens, travel, gardening and multilingual items will be available. Admission ends 30 minutes before sale closes. All sales final. Prices .75 to 2.50. Cash and carry. Thursday, July 7 at 10:00am, free. Alma VanDusen & Peter Kaye rooms, lower level, Central Branch, 350 W. Georgia St.
KY-MANI MARLEY
Son of reggae icon Bob Marley presents his biography of his dad, Dear Dad. Friday, July 8 at 4:00pm. Chapters Robson, 788 Robson Street. More information at 604-682-4056.
WRITE ON BOWEN 2011
Join writers from all over the Lower Mainland for a series of intensive, interactive writing workshops, panel presentations, and other events. July 8 to 11, Artisan Square, Bowen Island. For complete details, visit www.writeonbowen.com.
CROSS BORDER READING SERIES
Readings and conversations with writers and poets from Canada, US, and Scotland. Featuring Alan Jamieson, Carmen Aguirre, Andrew Feld, Pimone Triplett, Bren Simmers and Maggie de Vries. Saturday, July 9 at 5:00pm. Room 1530, SFU Harbour Centre, 555 W. Hastings Street. More information cbprs.wordpress.com.
CBC BOOKCLUB
Lisa See, the New York Times best-selling author of Shanghai Girls, Peony in Love, and Snow Flower & the Secret Fan will be coming to Vancouver in July, with her latest novel Dreams of Joy. The CBC Studio One Book Club will be taped in the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden on Sunday afternoon, July 17. To win tickets, go to www.cbc.ca/bc/bookclub.
CHEVY STEVENS
Reading by the author of Never Knowing. Monday, June 25 at 7:00pm. Chapters Granville, 2505 Granville Street. More information at 604-731-7822.
HAIKU NORTH AMERICA
A long weekend of papers, presentations, workshops, readings, and other activities in celebration of haiku poetry, held at the Seattle Center, at the foot of the Space Needle. Featured presenters include Cor van den Heuvel, Richard Gilbert, David Lanoue, Carlos Colón, Fay Aoyagi, Jim Kacian, Emiko Miyashita, George Swede, and many others. August 3-7, 2011. For more information, visit www.haikunorthamerica.com.
Thursday, June 9, 2011
Book News Vol. 6 No. 23
BOOK NEWS
Indian Summer Literature Series
Celebrating the 'Year of India in Canada', Indian Summer Festival presents top international talent from Canada and India across music, literature, dance, film, yoga and cuisine. Indian Summer's literature series features some of the most exciting authors and public intellectuals from India, Canada and the UK. Intimate, thought-provoking and truly international, the sessions feature fine minds in conversations about literature, language, politics, democracy, freedom of speech. Details: http://indiansummerfestival.ca/
SUNSHINE COAST FESTIVAL OF THE WRITTEN ARTS
Tickets are now on sale for the 29th Sunshine Coast Festival of the Written Arts, Canada's longest-running literary festival, taking place August 4-7, 2011 in beautiful downtown Sechelt. Call 1-800-565-9631 to order tickets. Information: www.writersfestival.ca.
AWARDS & LISTS
U.S. poet Gjertrud Schnackenberg and Canadian Dionne Brand each won the $75,000 prizes awarded by the Griffin Trust for Excellence in Poetry at its annual banquet in Toronto last week. Tacoma, Wash.-born Schnackenberg won the international Griffin Prize for Heavenly Questions; Toronto poet Brand was recognized for Ossuaries.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/schnackenberg-and-brand-win-75000-griffin-poetry-prizes/article2043891/
Novelist Louise Penny and veteran journalist Stevie Cameron are among the latest winners of the Arthur Ellis Awards, Canada's literary prize celebrating crime-writing excellence—Penny for Bury Your Dead and Cameron, On the Farm, Cameron's second book about B.C. serial killer Robert Pickton. The complete list is here:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/story/2011/06/02/crime-writing-awards.html
Leonard Cohen has been named winner of Spain's Prince of Asturias Award for Letters, for "a body of literary work that has influenced three generations of people worldwide", and Bob Dylan has been nominated for an American book prize. Fans have long argued that the best rock music has literary merit: now it's becoming officially recognized.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jun/03/leonard-cohen-major-spanish-literary-prize
After 44 years in a Louisiana prison, Wilbert Rideau is campaigning for society to help prisoners start a new life. His own new life began with writing In the Place of Justice: A Story of Punishment and Deliverance, which has been shortlisted for the CWA Gold Dagger prize for Non-Fiction, a British literary award.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/may/31/wilbert-rideau-rehabilitate-prisoners
Julia Donaldson, the creator of the Gruffalo, has been named Children's Laureate. The two-year appointment marks a lifetime's contribution to children's literature and highlights the importance of children's books.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jun/07/gruffalo-julia-donaldson-new-children-s-laureate
NEWS & FEATURES
Signature Editions has named Vancouver author Genni Gunn their Author of the Month (June, 2011).
http://signature-editions.com/index.php/author_of_the_month/
Gunn's most recent novel Solaria is now available in Kindle format from Amazon.com, as well as in print from any bookstore. More details are available on the Signature website.
http://signatureeditions.com/index.php/books/single_title/solitaria/
Canadian Bookshelf offers the online opportunity to discover, discuss, and indulge in Canadian books.
http://canadianbookshelf.com/
The God of Small Things author Arundhati Roy has a vocal critic of the Indian state for the last decade. Stephen Moss interviews Roy about the issues and her latest book, Broken Republic.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jun/05/arundhati-roy-keep-destabilised-danger
Michael Cunningham discovered Virginia Woolf when he was a teenager and his discovery inspired him to write his novel about her life: what fun she was at parties, her periodic depressions, her adoration of the world, and his mother.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jun/04/virginia-woolf-the-hours-michael-cunningham.
Thessaly La Force interviews Francine Prose on her new novel My New American Life, on her research trip to Albania, and why she won't write nonfiction.
http://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2011/05/13/francine-prose-on-my-new-american-life/
Megan Cox Gurden argues that contemporary fiction for teens is rife with explicit abuse, violence and depravity; she describes teen fiction as a hall of funhouse mirrors.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303657404576357622592697038.html?mod=WSJ_Books_LS_Books_6
Linda Holmes counters that what's distorted is the notion that kids don't know pathologies like suicide or abuse unless they read about them in books.
http://www.npr.org/blogs/monkeysee/2011/06/06/137005354/seeing-teenagers-as-we-wish-they-were-the-debate-over-ya-fiction
“YA literature saves lives. Every. Single. Day," writes prize-winning YA novelist Laurie Halse Anderson.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jun/07/teen-fiction-accused
In an interview at the Royal Geographic Society last week, during which VS Naipaul provoked fury by suggesting that women writers are 'sentimental' and 'unequal to me', he also claimed that 'I read a piece of writing and within a paragraph or two I know whether it is by a woman or not.' Here is a chance to discover if this is a universal trait.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/quiz/2011/jun/02/naipaul-test-author-s-sex-quiz?CMP=EMCGT_030611&
Naipaul's attack on her just made Diana Athill laugh, she said.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jun/03/v-s-naipaul-diana-athill
Does reading great books make you a better person? A critic says Jane Austen taught him to be a more decent man, but the world is full of well-read jerks, writes Laura Miller.
http://www.salon.com/books/jane_austen/index.html?story=/books/laura_miller/2011/05/31/jane_austen_education
Aminatta Forna has put Sierra Leone on the literary map with The Memory of Love. Boyd Tonkin meets her on the eve of the Orange Prize for Fiction.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/aminatta-forna-my-country-had-a-war-it-would-be-extraordinary-not-to-want-to-write-about-that-2291536.html
Ann Patchett won huge acclaim for her bestselling novel Bel Canto, set in South America. She returns to deepest, darkest Amazonia in her new novel, State of Wonder. Arifa Akbar talks to her about the rainforest and everlasting fertility.
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/ann-patchett-voyage-into-the-amazons-dark-heart-2292227.html
Tracy Sherlock talks to Zsuzsi Gartner about her latest collection of stories, Better Living Through Plastic Explosives, her feelings toward Vancouver, and her next project.
http://www.vancouversun.com/health/Hilarity+with+splendid+whack+asperity/4893377/story.html
Few books have changed the literary landscape like Frederick Forsyth's political thriller, The Day of the Jackal. The Jackal has influenced a generation of thriller writers. This month marks the 40th anniversary of the novel's publication.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/jun/03/day-jackal-frederick-forsyth
After languishing unpublished for almost 130 years, The Narrative of John Smith, Sherlock Holmes author's previously unpublished debut novel, is due out this autumn.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jun/06/lost-conan-doyle-novel-narrative-john-smith
Pablo Neruda, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1971, may have been poisoned, an associate maintains. A Chilean judge has opened an investigation into the poet's 1973 death.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/jacketcopy/2011/06/was-nobel-prizewinning-poet-pablo-neruda-poisoned.html
Hans Keilson, described by Francine Prose in the New York Times as one of "the world's very greatest writers", has died, aged 101. He became an international literary sensation in his 100th year for The Death of the Adversary.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jun/07/hans-keilson-obituary
Designers Kai & Sunny created the covers for David Mitchell's novels Cloud Atlas and Number 9 Dream. In return, Mitchell wrote a short story to accompany their latest exhibition. Chris Moran reads The Gardener, over images from the exhibition.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/audioslideshow/2011/jun/06/davidmitchell
Faber takes TS Eliot into the 21st century, with the launch, of an iPad app of The Waste Land that includes a video performance of the poem, notes, commentary and readings from Viggo Mortensen, Ted Hughes, and Eliot himself.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/video/2011/jun/07/ipad-apple-the-wasteland-apps-video
BOOKS & WRITERS
The story of a dinner guest who refuses to leave develops into a satire on the way we live now in There but for the, Ali Smith's enjoyably playful new novel, writes Sarah Churchill.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jun/05/there-but-for-the-review
Adam Hochschild's To End All Wars is about the clash of world views and a world turned upside down, writes Jonathan Vance, from the turbulent years of social and political unrest before 1914 to more turbulent years after 1918.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/to-end-all-wars-by-adam-hochschild/article2046338/
Umberto Eco wrote his first novel, The Name of the Rose, in 1980; it was a runaway bestseller. In Confessions of a Young Novelist, Eco has decided to tell us what he believes the ingredients are for a successful novel.
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/books/la-et-0602-book-20110602,0,5088721.story
Leila Ahmed was raised in Cairo by a generation of women who never wore the veil; why are more women now wearing the veil? In A Quiet Revolution, Ahmed addresses how and why these fluctuations of personal habit affected so many across the Muslim world.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jun/03/quiet-revolution-leila-ahmed-review
Sue Ellen is one of 13 chimpanzees profiled in Andrew Westoll's The Chimps of Fauna Sanctuary: A Canadian Story of Resilience and Recovery. Westoll weaves essential elements into a call to end chimpanzee abuse in medical labs, writes Kathryn Greenaway.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/books/Rescued+from+lives+pain+Andrew+Westoll+introduces+readers+chimps/4889618/story.html
Ai Weiwei's Blog, a collection of Ai Weiwei's blog entries proves he's much more than a playful dilettante of Chinese art. The People's Republic, he suggests, is like a runner surging ahead, but with a heart condition, writes Jonathan Fenby.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2011/jun/05/ai-weiwei-blog-review
In her new novel State of Wonder, Ann Patchett gives readers almost a feminized version of Heart of Darkness,' but without the savagery. Patchett creates a compelling mystery, writes Carolyn Kellogg.
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/books/la-ca-ann-patchett-20110605,0,6081157.story
Carolyn Cooke's Daughters of the Revolution is a successful entwining of people that comes to signify the Big Moment of history. When does a revolution begin? The book is “so good you have to read it", says Susanna Sonnenberg.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/06/05/RVNQ1JNBPL.DTL
The Americans in Paris in Cynthia Ozick's Foreign Bodies are worthy of Henry James, writes Leyla Sanaii. Ozick has skillfully left certain questions open. The sense of doubt renders this intriguing story all the more mesmerising, says Sanaii.
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/foreign-bodies-by-cynthia-ozick-2293021.html
The night before class, Haley Tanner wrote a novel's opening pages. The class and the professor hated it. Tanner kept writing. Mark Medley reports that The New York Times recently called Vaclav & Lena a “wonderful and wrenching debut novel."
http://arts.nationalpost.com/2011/06/03/for-her-first-trick-haley-tanner-discusses-her-magical-debut-novel-vaclav-lena/
Patrick Ness describes Chris Adrian as “the most magical novelist you've never heard of". One of the New Yorker's “20 Under 40", Adrian's latest, The Great Night, is a work of magic realism based on A Midsummer Night's Dream.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jun/02/great-night-chris-adrian-review
Sinya Queras finds that the work in Ken Babstock's Methodist Hatchet confirms that Babstock is one of the most exciting lyric poets writing today.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/methodist-hatchet-by-ken-babstock/article2046115/
Helon Habila writes that George Makana Clark's The Raw Man is an unforgettable epic of Zimbabwean history—and is not for the fainthearted. Yet once the reader has gone past the first page, the chances of putting down the book are small.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jun/04/raw-man-george-makana-clark-review
In The Quotable Hitchens—from Alcohol to Zionism: the Very Best of Christopher Hitchens, there are views on everything. He laments the dull, monochrome, righteous and boring. None of these epithets could be applied to him, says George Eaton.
http://www.newstatesman.com/books/2011/05/christopher-hitchens
Malicious Facebook exposures are at the heart of Live Wire, the latest thriller by Harlan Coben. An anonymous Facebook posting makes scurrilous claims about the paternity of an unborn child: inevitably, the chickens come home to roost, reports Barry Forshaw.
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/live-wire-by-harlan-coben-2293429.html
Les Murray, Australia's most honoured and internationally renowned poet, seems to have chosen to deepen his commitment to poetic and moral compassion and empathy, as evidenced by the best poems in Taller When Prone, writes Ken Babstock.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/taller-when-prone-by-les-murray/article2048895/
The spectral sense of Roberto Bolaño's unfulfilled promise makes him something akin to Latin America's David Foster Wallace, says Dwight Garner. The excellent thing about Between Parentheses is how thoroughly it dispels any incense or stale reverence in the air.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/08/books/roberto-bolanos-between-parentheses-review.html?ref=books
COMMUNITY EVENTS
OPENING DOORS
Join editors Daphne Marlatt and Carole Itter for the launch of the new book Opening Doors in Vancouver's East End: Strathcona. The editors will be on hand to answer questions and sign books. Thursday, June 9 at 7:00pm, free. People's Co-op Bookstore, 1391 Commercial Drive.
GENERATIONS
Editor Eury Chang hosts Ricepaper magazine's launch of its 16.1 spring issue. Includes readings and performances by Changming Yuan, Howie Tsui, Tetsuro Shigematsu, Larissa Lai, Ray Hsu, C.E. Gatchalian, and Sabrina Mehra Furminger. June 9 at 7:00pm. Tickets: $15. Rhizome Cafe, 317 E. Broadway. More information at www.ricepapermagazine.ca.
TRAVELING LIGHT
Canadian launch of author Lloyd Meeker's new book about a gay Vancouver shaman and his journey of self-discovery. Thursday, June 9 at 7:00pm, free. Little Sister's Book & Art Emporium, 1238 Davie St.
SHERYL SALLOUM
Launch of the author's new book The Life and Art of Mildred Valley Thornton. Thursday, June 9 at 8:00pm. Heritage Hall, 3102 Main Street. More information at info@mothertonguepublishing.com.
IRSHAD MANJI
Canadian author and journalist discusses her new book Allah, Liberty, and Love. Friday, June 10 at 7:30pm. Tickets: $18/$15. Capilano Performing Arts Theatre, 2055 Purcell Way, North Vancouver. More information at www.capilanou.ca/theatre/.
GREEK POETRY READING
Manolis Aligizakis is going to talk about his translation of the works of renowned Greek poet, Yiannis Ritsos and about his book The Vernal Equinox. Saturday, June 11 at 3:00pm, free. Kitsilano Branch, VPL, 2425 Macdonald Street.
SAY WHA?!
Sara Bynoe hosts a comedy show that highlights readings of deliciously rotten writing. Readers include Darren Williams, Tom Hill, Lauren McGibbon, Ivan Decker, Ken Hegan, Sam Mullins, Peter New, and Taz Vanrassel. Wednesday, June 15 at 8:00pm. Tickets: $10/$5 at the door. Cottage Bistro, 4470 Main Street. More information at sarabynoe.com/shows/say-wha/.
WORDPLAY
WordPlay is a program of Vancouver Poetry House that sends poets to classrooms to perform spoken word poetry and to run workshops. This year marks the debut of Summer Youth Slam Camp (July 4 to 8) at Little Mountain Gallery. Fifteen youth poets will work with Vancouver's best slam poets in this spoken word intensive. The deadline for registration for Slam Camp is June 15. For more details, go to vancouverpoetryhouse.com.
SMOKE SIGNALS
A screening of the award-winning film based on the work of Sherman Alexie. Thursday, June 16 at 7:00pm, free. Alice MacKay room. lower level, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia Street.
KEVIN MCNEILLY
Reading by the author of Embouchure, his debut poetry collection. Thursday, June 16 at 7:00pm, free. UBC Bookstore Robson Square, plaza level, 800 Robson Street. More information at www.robsonreadingseries.ubc.ca.
TIMES OUT OF JOINT
Simon Fraser University's 11th annual English Graduate Conference will be held from Thursday, June 16 to Saturday, June 18 at SFU's Harbour Centre (Thursday and Friday) and the Segal Graduate School of Business (Saturday). All events are open to the general public. There is no fee for attendance. For more information check the website: www.sfu.ca/~gradconf/.
HARRY MOURATIDIS
Join Vancouver author as he reads from his latest book, They Live Longer: The Secrets of Healthy and Active Ninety-Year-Olds. Saturday, June 18 at 3:00pm, free. Kitsilano Branch, 2425 Macdonald Street.
BETTY KRAWCZYK
Book launch for the author's new book, This Dangerous Place: My Journey Between the Passions of the Living and the Dead. Sunday, June 19 at 3:00pm. Reading, book signing, and refreshments to be served. Galiano Island Books (76 Madrona Drive, Galiano Island, 250-539-3340).
Upcoming
JOAN THOMAS
Award-winning novelist Joan Thomas reads from her love story, Curiosity. Tuesday, June 21 at 7:00pm, free. Alma VanDusen & Peter Kaye rooms, lower level, Central Library. 350 W. Georgia St.
THE WRITERS CARAVAN
Thursdays Writing Collective is hosting an evening celebration and reading for the culmination of its pilot project: The Writers Caravan. Tuesday, June 21 at 7:00pm. Roundhouse, 81 Roundhouse Mews (Davie and Pacific). Find The Writers Caravan on facebook and online at: Thursdayspoems.wordpress.com.
READING
Yvonne Blomer, Cynthia Woodman Kerkham, and Anne McDonald launch new poetry and fiction. Tuesday, June 21 at 7:30pm, free. Cafe Montmartre, 4362 Main Street. More information at yblomer@shaw.ca.
OF MAMMOTHS AND MEN
Sharon Levy, author of the new book Once and Future Giants, explores the causes of the mass extinction of mammoths and the reasons why this ancient story is vitally important here and now. Wednesday, July 6 at 7:00pm, free. Alice MacKay room. lower level, 350 W. Georgia St. For more information please contact Vancouver Public Library at 604-331-3603.
VPL SUMMER BOOK SALE
Lots of great fiction for summer reading plus some DVDs, childrens, travel, gardening and multilingual items will be available. Admission ends 30 minutes before sale closes. All sales final. Prices .75 to 2.50. Cash and carry. Thursday, July 7 at 10:00am, free. Alma VanDusen & Peter Kaye rooms, lower level, Central Branch, 350 W. Georgia St.
WRITE ON BOWEN 2011
Join writers from all over the Lower Mainland for a series of intensive, interactive writing workshops, panel presentations, and other events. July 8 to 11, Artisan Square, Bowen Island. For complete details, visit www.writeonbowen.com.
HAIKU NORTH AMERICA
A long weekend of papers, presentations, workshops, readings, and other activities in celebration of haiku poetry, held at the Seattle Center, at the foot of the Space Needle. Featured presenters include Cor van den Heuvel, Richard Gilbert, David Lanoue, Carlos Colón, Fay Aoyagi, Jim Kacian, Emiko Miyashita, George Swede, and many others. August 3-7, 2011. For more information, visit www.haikunorthamerica.com.
Indian Summer Literature Series
Celebrating the 'Year of India in Canada', Indian Summer Festival presents top international talent from Canada and India across music, literature, dance, film, yoga and cuisine. Indian Summer's literature series features some of the most exciting authors and public intellectuals from India, Canada and the UK. Intimate, thought-provoking and truly international, the sessions feature fine minds in conversations about literature, language, politics, democracy, freedom of speech. Details: http://indiansummerfestival.ca/
SUNSHINE COAST FESTIVAL OF THE WRITTEN ARTS
Tickets are now on sale for the 29th Sunshine Coast Festival of the Written Arts, Canada's longest-running literary festival, taking place August 4-7, 2011 in beautiful downtown Sechelt. Call 1-800-565-9631 to order tickets. Information: www.writersfestival.ca.
AWARDS & LISTS
U.S. poet Gjertrud Schnackenberg and Canadian Dionne Brand each won the $75,000 prizes awarded by the Griffin Trust for Excellence in Poetry at its annual banquet in Toronto last week. Tacoma, Wash.-born Schnackenberg won the international Griffin Prize for Heavenly Questions; Toronto poet Brand was recognized for Ossuaries.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/schnackenberg-and-brand-win-75000-griffin-poetry-prizes/article2043891/
Novelist Louise Penny and veteran journalist Stevie Cameron are among the latest winners of the Arthur Ellis Awards, Canada's literary prize celebrating crime-writing excellence—Penny for Bury Your Dead and Cameron, On the Farm, Cameron's second book about B.C. serial killer Robert Pickton. The complete list is here:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/story/2011/06/02/crime-writing-awards.html
Leonard Cohen has been named winner of Spain's Prince of Asturias Award for Letters, for "a body of literary work that has influenced three generations of people worldwide", and Bob Dylan has been nominated for an American book prize. Fans have long argued that the best rock music has literary merit: now it's becoming officially recognized.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jun/03/leonard-cohen-major-spanish-literary-prize
After 44 years in a Louisiana prison, Wilbert Rideau is campaigning for society to help prisoners start a new life. His own new life began with writing In the Place of Justice: A Story of Punishment and Deliverance, which has been shortlisted for the CWA Gold Dagger prize for Non-Fiction, a British literary award.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/may/31/wilbert-rideau-rehabilitate-prisoners
Julia Donaldson, the creator of the Gruffalo, has been named Children's Laureate. The two-year appointment marks a lifetime's contribution to children's literature and highlights the importance of children's books.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jun/07/gruffalo-julia-donaldson-new-children-s-laureate
NEWS & FEATURES
Signature Editions has named Vancouver author Genni Gunn their Author of the Month (June, 2011).
http://signature-editions.com/index.php/author_of_the_month/
Gunn's most recent novel Solaria is now available in Kindle format from Amazon.com, as well as in print from any bookstore. More details are available on the Signature website.
http://signatureeditions.com/index.php/books/single_title/solitaria/
Canadian Bookshelf offers the online opportunity to discover, discuss, and indulge in Canadian books.
http://canadianbookshelf.com/
The God of Small Things author Arundhati Roy has a vocal critic of the Indian state for the last decade. Stephen Moss interviews Roy about the issues and her latest book, Broken Republic.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jun/05/arundhati-roy-keep-destabilised-danger
Michael Cunningham discovered Virginia Woolf when he was a teenager and his discovery inspired him to write his novel about her life: what fun she was at parties, her periodic depressions, her adoration of the world, and his mother.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jun/04/virginia-woolf-the-hours-michael-cunningham.
Thessaly La Force interviews Francine Prose on her new novel My New American Life, on her research trip to Albania, and why she won't write nonfiction.
http://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2011/05/13/francine-prose-on-my-new-american-life/
Megan Cox Gurden argues that contemporary fiction for teens is rife with explicit abuse, violence and depravity; she describes teen fiction as a hall of funhouse mirrors.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303657404576357622592697038.html?mod=WSJ_Books_LS_Books_6
Linda Holmes counters that what's distorted is the notion that kids don't know pathologies like suicide or abuse unless they read about them in books.
http://www.npr.org/blogs/monkeysee/2011/06/06/137005354/seeing-teenagers-as-we-wish-they-were-the-debate-over-ya-fiction
“YA literature saves lives. Every. Single. Day," writes prize-winning YA novelist Laurie Halse Anderson.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jun/07/teen-fiction-accused
In an interview at the Royal Geographic Society last week, during which VS Naipaul provoked fury by suggesting that women writers are 'sentimental' and 'unequal to me', he also claimed that 'I read a piece of writing and within a paragraph or two I know whether it is by a woman or not.' Here is a chance to discover if this is a universal trait.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/quiz/2011/jun/02/naipaul-test-author-s-sex-quiz?CMP=EMCGT_030611&
Naipaul's attack on her just made Diana Athill laugh, she said.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jun/03/v-s-naipaul-diana-athill
Does reading great books make you a better person? A critic says Jane Austen taught him to be a more decent man, but the world is full of well-read jerks, writes Laura Miller.
http://www.salon.com/books/jane_austen/index.html?story=/books/laura_miller/2011/05/31/jane_austen_education
Aminatta Forna has put Sierra Leone on the literary map with The Memory of Love. Boyd Tonkin meets her on the eve of the Orange Prize for Fiction.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/aminatta-forna-my-country-had-a-war-it-would-be-extraordinary-not-to-want-to-write-about-that-2291536.html
Ann Patchett won huge acclaim for her bestselling novel Bel Canto, set in South America. She returns to deepest, darkest Amazonia in her new novel, State of Wonder. Arifa Akbar talks to her about the rainforest and everlasting fertility.
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/ann-patchett-voyage-into-the-amazons-dark-heart-2292227.html
Tracy Sherlock talks to Zsuzsi Gartner about her latest collection of stories, Better Living Through Plastic Explosives, her feelings toward Vancouver, and her next project.
http://www.vancouversun.com/health/Hilarity+with+splendid+whack+asperity/4893377/story.html
Few books have changed the literary landscape like Frederick Forsyth's political thriller, The Day of the Jackal. The Jackal has influenced a generation of thriller writers. This month marks the 40th anniversary of the novel's publication.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/jun/03/day-jackal-frederick-forsyth
After languishing unpublished for almost 130 years, The Narrative of John Smith, Sherlock Holmes author's previously unpublished debut novel, is due out this autumn.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jun/06/lost-conan-doyle-novel-narrative-john-smith
Pablo Neruda, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1971, may have been poisoned, an associate maintains. A Chilean judge has opened an investigation into the poet's 1973 death.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/jacketcopy/2011/06/was-nobel-prizewinning-poet-pablo-neruda-poisoned.html
Hans Keilson, described by Francine Prose in the New York Times as one of "the world's very greatest writers", has died, aged 101. He became an international literary sensation in his 100th year for The Death of the Adversary.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jun/07/hans-keilson-obituary
Designers Kai & Sunny created the covers for David Mitchell's novels Cloud Atlas and Number 9 Dream. In return, Mitchell wrote a short story to accompany their latest exhibition. Chris Moran reads The Gardener, over images from the exhibition.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/audioslideshow/2011/jun/06/davidmitchell
Faber takes TS Eliot into the 21st century, with the launch, of an iPad app of The Waste Land that includes a video performance of the poem, notes, commentary and readings from Viggo Mortensen, Ted Hughes, and Eliot himself.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/video/2011/jun/07/ipad-apple-the-wasteland-apps-video
BOOKS & WRITERS
The story of a dinner guest who refuses to leave develops into a satire on the way we live now in There but for the, Ali Smith's enjoyably playful new novel, writes Sarah Churchill.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jun/05/there-but-for-the-review
Adam Hochschild's To End All Wars is about the clash of world views and a world turned upside down, writes Jonathan Vance, from the turbulent years of social and political unrest before 1914 to more turbulent years after 1918.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/to-end-all-wars-by-adam-hochschild/article2046338/
Umberto Eco wrote his first novel, The Name of the Rose, in 1980; it was a runaway bestseller. In Confessions of a Young Novelist, Eco has decided to tell us what he believes the ingredients are for a successful novel.
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/books/la-et-0602-book-20110602,0,5088721.story
Leila Ahmed was raised in Cairo by a generation of women who never wore the veil; why are more women now wearing the veil? In A Quiet Revolution, Ahmed addresses how and why these fluctuations of personal habit affected so many across the Muslim world.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jun/03/quiet-revolution-leila-ahmed-review
Sue Ellen is one of 13 chimpanzees profiled in Andrew Westoll's The Chimps of Fauna Sanctuary: A Canadian Story of Resilience and Recovery. Westoll weaves essential elements into a call to end chimpanzee abuse in medical labs, writes Kathryn Greenaway.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/books/Rescued+from+lives+pain+Andrew+Westoll+introduces+readers+chimps/4889618/story.html
Ai Weiwei's Blog, a collection of Ai Weiwei's blog entries proves he's much more than a playful dilettante of Chinese art. The People's Republic, he suggests, is like a runner surging ahead, but with a heart condition, writes Jonathan Fenby.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2011/jun/05/ai-weiwei-blog-review
In her new novel State of Wonder, Ann Patchett gives readers almost a feminized version of Heart of Darkness,' but without the savagery. Patchett creates a compelling mystery, writes Carolyn Kellogg.
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/books/la-ca-ann-patchett-20110605,0,6081157.story
Carolyn Cooke's Daughters of the Revolution is a successful entwining of people that comes to signify the Big Moment of history. When does a revolution begin? The book is “so good you have to read it", says Susanna Sonnenberg.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/06/05/RVNQ1JNBPL.DTL
The Americans in Paris in Cynthia Ozick's Foreign Bodies are worthy of Henry James, writes Leyla Sanaii. Ozick has skillfully left certain questions open. The sense of doubt renders this intriguing story all the more mesmerising, says Sanaii.
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/foreign-bodies-by-cynthia-ozick-2293021.html
The night before class, Haley Tanner wrote a novel's opening pages. The class and the professor hated it. Tanner kept writing. Mark Medley reports that The New York Times recently called Vaclav & Lena a “wonderful and wrenching debut novel."
http://arts.nationalpost.com/2011/06/03/for-her-first-trick-haley-tanner-discusses-her-magical-debut-novel-vaclav-lena/
Patrick Ness describes Chris Adrian as “the most magical novelist you've never heard of". One of the New Yorker's “20 Under 40", Adrian's latest, The Great Night, is a work of magic realism based on A Midsummer Night's Dream.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jun/02/great-night-chris-adrian-review
Sinya Queras finds that the work in Ken Babstock's Methodist Hatchet confirms that Babstock is one of the most exciting lyric poets writing today.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/methodist-hatchet-by-ken-babstock/article2046115/
Helon Habila writes that George Makana Clark's The Raw Man is an unforgettable epic of Zimbabwean history—and is not for the fainthearted. Yet once the reader has gone past the first page, the chances of putting down the book are small.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jun/04/raw-man-george-makana-clark-review
In The Quotable Hitchens—from Alcohol to Zionism: the Very Best of Christopher Hitchens, there are views on everything. He laments the dull, monochrome, righteous and boring. None of these epithets could be applied to him, says George Eaton.
http://www.newstatesman.com/books/2011/05/christopher-hitchens
Malicious Facebook exposures are at the heart of Live Wire, the latest thriller by Harlan Coben. An anonymous Facebook posting makes scurrilous claims about the paternity of an unborn child: inevitably, the chickens come home to roost, reports Barry Forshaw.
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/live-wire-by-harlan-coben-2293429.html
Les Murray, Australia's most honoured and internationally renowned poet, seems to have chosen to deepen his commitment to poetic and moral compassion and empathy, as evidenced by the best poems in Taller When Prone, writes Ken Babstock.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/taller-when-prone-by-les-murray/article2048895/
The spectral sense of Roberto Bolaño's unfulfilled promise makes him something akin to Latin America's David Foster Wallace, says Dwight Garner. The excellent thing about Between Parentheses is how thoroughly it dispels any incense or stale reverence in the air.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/08/books/roberto-bolanos-between-parentheses-review.html?ref=books
COMMUNITY EVENTS
OPENING DOORS
Join editors Daphne Marlatt and Carole Itter for the launch of the new book Opening Doors in Vancouver's East End: Strathcona. The editors will be on hand to answer questions and sign books. Thursday, June 9 at 7:00pm, free. People's Co-op Bookstore, 1391 Commercial Drive.
GENERATIONS
Editor Eury Chang hosts Ricepaper magazine's launch of its 16.1 spring issue. Includes readings and performances by Changming Yuan, Howie Tsui, Tetsuro Shigematsu, Larissa Lai, Ray Hsu, C.E. Gatchalian, and Sabrina Mehra Furminger. June 9 at 7:00pm. Tickets: $15. Rhizome Cafe, 317 E. Broadway. More information at www.ricepapermagazine.ca.
TRAVELING LIGHT
Canadian launch of author Lloyd Meeker's new book about a gay Vancouver shaman and his journey of self-discovery. Thursday, June 9 at 7:00pm, free. Little Sister's Book & Art Emporium, 1238 Davie St.
SHERYL SALLOUM
Launch of the author's new book The Life and Art of Mildred Valley Thornton. Thursday, June 9 at 8:00pm. Heritage Hall, 3102 Main Street. More information at info@mothertonguepublishing.com.
IRSHAD MANJI
Canadian author and journalist discusses her new book Allah, Liberty, and Love. Friday, June 10 at 7:30pm. Tickets: $18/$15. Capilano Performing Arts Theatre, 2055 Purcell Way, North Vancouver. More information at www.capilanou.ca/theatre/.
GREEK POETRY READING
Manolis Aligizakis is going to talk about his translation of the works of renowned Greek poet, Yiannis Ritsos and about his book The Vernal Equinox. Saturday, June 11 at 3:00pm, free. Kitsilano Branch, VPL, 2425 Macdonald Street.
SAY WHA?!
Sara Bynoe hosts a comedy show that highlights readings of deliciously rotten writing. Readers include Darren Williams, Tom Hill, Lauren McGibbon, Ivan Decker, Ken Hegan, Sam Mullins, Peter New, and Taz Vanrassel. Wednesday, June 15 at 8:00pm. Tickets: $10/$5 at the door. Cottage Bistro, 4470 Main Street. More information at sarabynoe.com/shows/say-wha/.
WORDPLAY
WordPlay is a program of Vancouver Poetry House that sends poets to classrooms to perform spoken word poetry and to run workshops. This year marks the debut of Summer Youth Slam Camp (July 4 to 8) at Little Mountain Gallery. Fifteen youth poets will work with Vancouver's best slam poets in this spoken word intensive. The deadline for registration for Slam Camp is June 15. For more details, go to vancouverpoetryhouse.com.
SMOKE SIGNALS
A screening of the award-winning film based on the work of Sherman Alexie. Thursday, June 16 at 7:00pm, free. Alice MacKay room. lower level, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia Street.
KEVIN MCNEILLY
Reading by the author of Embouchure, his debut poetry collection. Thursday, June 16 at 7:00pm, free. UBC Bookstore Robson Square, plaza level, 800 Robson Street. More information at www.robsonreadingseries.ubc.ca.
TIMES OUT OF JOINT
Simon Fraser University's 11th annual English Graduate Conference will be held from Thursday, June 16 to Saturday, June 18 at SFU's Harbour Centre (Thursday and Friday) and the Segal Graduate School of Business (Saturday). All events are open to the general public. There is no fee for attendance. For more information check the website: www.sfu.ca/~gradconf/.
HARRY MOURATIDIS
Join Vancouver author as he reads from his latest book, They Live Longer: The Secrets of Healthy and Active Ninety-Year-Olds. Saturday, June 18 at 3:00pm, free. Kitsilano Branch, 2425 Macdonald Street.
BETTY KRAWCZYK
Book launch for the author's new book, This Dangerous Place: My Journey Between the Passions of the Living and the Dead. Sunday, June 19 at 3:00pm. Reading, book signing, and refreshments to be served. Galiano Island Books (76 Madrona Drive, Galiano Island, 250-539-3340).
Upcoming
JOAN THOMAS
Award-winning novelist Joan Thomas reads from her love story, Curiosity. Tuesday, June 21 at 7:00pm, free. Alma VanDusen & Peter Kaye rooms, lower level, Central Library. 350 W. Georgia St.
THE WRITERS CARAVAN
Thursdays Writing Collective is hosting an evening celebration and reading for the culmination of its pilot project: The Writers Caravan. Tuesday, June 21 at 7:00pm. Roundhouse, 81 Roundhouse Mews (Davie and Pacific). Find The Writers Caravan on facebook and online at: Thursdayspoems.wordpress.com.
READING
Yvonne Blomer, Cynthia Woodman Kerkham, and Anne McDonald launch new poetry and fiction. Tuesday, June 21 at 7:30pm, free. Cafe Montmartre, 4362 Main Street. More information at yblomer@shaw.ca.
OF MAMMOTHS AND MEN
Sharon Levy, author of the new book Once and Future Giants, explores the causes of the mass extinction of mammoths and the reasons why this ancient story is vitally important here and now. Wednesday, July 6 at 7:00pm, free. Alice MacKay room. lower level, 350 W. Georgia St. For more information please contact Vancouver Public Library at 604-331-3603.
VPL SUMMER BOOK SALE
Lots of great fiction for summer reading plus some DVDs, childrens, travel, gardening and multilingual items will be available. Admission ends 30 minutes before sale closes. All sales final. Prices .75 to 2.50. Cash and carry. Thursday, July 7 at 10:00am, free. Alma VanDusen & Peter Kaye rooms, lower level, Central Branch, 350 W. Georgia St.
WRITE ON BOWEN 2011
Join writers from all over the Lower Mainland for a series of intensive, interactive writing workshops, panel presentations, and other events. July 8 to 11, Artisan Square, Bowen Island. For complete details, visit www.writeonbowen.com.
HAIKU NORTH AMERICA
A long weekend of papers, presentations, workshops, readings, and other activities in celebration of haiku poetry, held at the Seattle Center, at the foot of the Space Needle. Featured presenters include Cor van den Heuvel, Richard Gilbert, David Lanoue, Carlos Colón, Fay Aoyagi, Jim Kacian, Emiko Miyashita, George Swede, and many others. August 3-7, 2011. For more information, visit www.haikunorthamerica.com.
Thursday, June 2, 2011
Book News Vol. 6 No.22
BOOK NEWS
Now that our spring season is wrapped up, we are busy planning the 2011 Vancouver International Writers & Readers Festival (as well as the fall Incite series and special events). We are part way through the process of inviting authors and we're very excited about the line-up. We'll be telling you about who's coming over the next weeks and months. You can also learn about Festival authors by reading our blog, http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/prefaces/2011/blog.
SUNSHINE COAST FESTIVAL OF THE WRITTEN ARTS
Tickets are now on sale for the 29th Sunshine Coast Festival of the Written Arts, Canada's longest-running literary festival, taking place August 4-7, 2011 in beautiful downtown Sechelt. Call 1-800-565-9631 to order tickets. Information: www.writersfestival.ca.
AWARDS & LISTS
Barcelona-based Peruvian writer Santiago Roncagliolo has won the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize for Red April, a murder story with a fictional serial killer to dramatize the impact of Shining Path in Peru. He shares the £10,000 award, the annual honour for fiction from beyond the English language, with his translator Edith Grossman.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/may/27/serial-killer-novel-independent-foreign-fiction-prize
Irish novelist John Banville has won the Franz Kafka award. The prize is given by the Kafka Society to an international author whose work is "exceptional for its artistic quality", and "addresses readers regardless of their origin, nationality or culture, just like the work of Franz Kafka".
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/may/26/john-banville-kafka-prize
Political economist and writer Stephen Clarkson was among 43 people invested with the Order of Canada at a ceremony at Rideau Hall last week.
http://www.gg.ca/document.aspx?id=14116
Irish poet Seamus Heaney is one of seven finalists for the Griffin Poetry Prize. Three Canadians and four international nominees are in the running for two separate awards.
http://www.thestar.com/news/books/article/997636--seamus-heaney-griffin-poetry-prize-finalist
William Deverell is to receive the lifetime achievement award at this weekend's Bloody Words, the annual crime writers' convention.
http://www.vancouversun.com/news/scene+crime+writers/4856063/story.html
Thirty-plus books in seven categories are shortlisted for Arthur Ellis Awards for best Canadian mystery writing. Awards will be given the night before Bloody Word begins.
http://www.crimewriterscanada.com/awards/arthur-ellis-awards/current-contest/shortlists
Traitor, by New Zealand soldier Stephen Daisley, is one of five finalists for the fiction prize among the (Australian) Prime Minister's Literary Awards. Two other finalists are also shortlisted for the Miles Franklin.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/arts/gallipoli-novel-on-pm-short-list/story-e6frg8nf-1226063776013
Emma Donoghue and Michael Winter are among the six English-language finalists for the 2011 Trillium Book Awards. There are twenty French- and English-language finalists for Ontario's annual literary honour. The Trillium Book Award is open to writers of all genres, living in Ontario and working in English or French.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/emma-donoghues-room-among-finalists-for-trillium-award/article2040018/
NEWS & FEATURES
Boyd Tonkin talks to Santiago Roncagliolo, the author of Red April.
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/red-april-wins-the-independent-foreign-fiction-prize-2289435.html
David Grossman's new novel Falling Out of Time, about coming to terms with the death of a child, is not autobiographical, nor is it set in Israel. The novel will be published in Hebrew in June and later, in English.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/may/29/israeli-author-david-grossman-bereavement-novel
The flood of Canadian literary prizes is great for book marketers. But some worry the emphasis on winning is misplaced in a world of fewer book reviews and little recognition for lifetime achievement.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/literary-awards-are-abundant-in-canada-but-some-see-a-downside/article2037331/
The P.E.I. government has reinstated its publishers assistance program, following a meeting between the Island's publishing community and the culture minister, with the minister's acknowledging a greater understanding of the program.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/story/2011/05/27/pei-publishers-assistance-government-584.html
Over the last 12 months, Christopher Hitchens has provided an account of how to face death that is matched in contemporary literature only by French philosopher Albert Camus's 1947 masterpiece, The Plague, writes Nicolaus Mills.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/may/25/christopher-hitchens-cancer
Here is an early piece.
http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/features/2010/09/hitchens-201009
Hitchens's latest installment reflects on his wondering if perhaps there is room for a short handbook of cancer etiquette, applying to sufferers as well as to sympathizers.
http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/features/2010/12/hitchens-201012
Gil Scott-Heron, whose poetry set to rhythmic jazz music, especially "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised," was one of the most important and obvious inspirations for rap music, has died.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/music_blog/2011/05/gil-scott-heron-dies.html
The May 30, 2011 issue of the New Yorker includes the August 2010 profile of Scott-Heron.
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/08/09/100809fa_fact_wilkinson
Along with a postscript by Rollo Romig.
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2011/05/gil-scott-heron.html
There has been a flurry of online rumours that some of Mao Tse-Tung's Little Red Book was not written by Mao himself, but by his secretary Hu Qiaomu and others.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/chairman-mao-may-not-be-the-author-of-his-little-red-book-2290164.html
Several authors have developed writing programs for adult prisoners in various countries' jails. Caspar Walsh, ex-con, author and founder of Write to Freedom, reveals how writing can lead to rehabilitation for young offenders.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/may/29/young-offenders-write-to-freedom
After fifteen years of a very public feud, V.S. Naipaul and Paul Theroux have finally buried the hatchet. The literary titans shook hands again at the Hay Festival, the scene of their original public falling out in 1996, after a gentle intervention by the writer Ian McEwan.
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/celebrated-literary-feud-ends-after-naipaul-and-theroux-bury-the-hatchet-2290775.html
Robert Munsch launched a new children's book in Rigolet, Labrador this past weekend. Give Me Back My Dad is based on a fishing trip he made there two decades ago and is the story of a girl on an ice fishing trip in Rigolet, who is caught by a fish herself.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/books/story/2011/05/30/nl-munsch-launch-530.html
Despite the emerging popularity of e-books, millions of books first emerge in the paper and ink version, reports Seattle Times Book Editor Mary Ann Gwinn.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/books/2015167782_litlife30.html
BOOKS & WRITERS
Love and money are joined at the hip in the Irish, Booker Prize-winning Anne Enright's latest offering, the novel The Forgotten Waltz, The narrative plays out against a hot economy turned very chilly indeed, writes Nancy Wigston.
http://www.thestar.com/news/books/article/998141--the-forgotten-waltz-by-anne-enright
A love story from Anne Enright was never going to be a heart-warming romance of the happily-ever-after variety. Nor would we want it to be, says Liam Davison in his review of The Forgotten Waltz.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/arts/dancing-through-the-destruction-of-desire/story-e6frg8nf-1226061196521
Shilpi Somaya Gowda began writing to see if she could produce a novel. Secret Daughter, the story of two families, one Indian, one American, and an adopted child, sold 300,000 copies in the first 12 months, reports Geeta Nadkarni.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/books/Secret+Daughter+author+Shilpi+Somaya+Gowda+been+successful+beyond/4851686/story.html
Philip Marchand writes that Clark Blaise's appropriation of voice in The Meagre Tarmac, a collection of short fiction, is a literary felony justified in this case by the results.
http://arts.nationalpost.com/2011/05/27/open-book-the-meagre-tarmac-by-clark-blaise/#more-35239
Stephanie Merritt believes fans will approve of Jeffery Deaver's James Bond in Carte Blanche—both the daring spy of old and a product of the 21st century. It's a nail-biter!
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/may/29/carte-blanche-jeffery-deaver-review
Anxiety about the ability of a US thriller writer to handle this most British of spies was misplaced, says Alexandra Heminsley. No detectives sitting, glaring at computer screens. A classic Bond is with us again, she says.
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/carte-blanche-by-jeffery-deaver-2290352.html
Susan Salter Reynolds writes that in Caleb's Crossing, Geraldine Brooks has created multidimensional, inspiring yet unpredictable characters in 1640's Martha's Vineyard—Caleb's journey from his (native) world and Bethia's, from the Puritan colony of her birth.
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/books/la-ca-geraldine-brooks-20110529,0,404752.story
Ron Charles says that The Sisters' Brothers, Patrick deWitt's tale of two hired guns during the Gold Rush, is weirdly funny, startlingly violent and steeped in sadness.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/book-review-patrick-dewitts-the-sisters-brothers/2011/05/13/AF8TOeAH_story.html
Lila Azam Zanganeh loved Nabokov from an early age and has just published a deeply unconventional study of the Russian émigré writer. The Enchanter: Nabokov and Happiness is a book unlike anything else I've ever come across, writes William Skidelsky.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/may/26/lila-azam-zanganeh-nabokov-interview
Viv Groskrop asks: is Nabokov a narcissist or a genius? Perhaps he's only a writer's writer. To the average reader though, The Enchanted has a lot of the same problems as Nabokov's work. Beautiful, but...
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/vladimir-nabokov-genius-or-narcissist-2290351.html
Puccini's opera Madame Butterfly ends when U.S. Navy Lt. Pinkerton returns to Nagasaki with an American wife. Tragic ending. Curtain down. In Butterfly's Child, Angela Davis-Gardner raises that curtain again to imagine the consequences—unique and entirely enchanting, writes Eugenia Zukerman.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/book-review-butterflys-child/2011/03/07/AG3bUxCH_story.html
Terrible things happen in old country songs. Steve Earle embraces this heartbreaky landscape in his first novel I'll Never Get Out of This World Alive, a rowdy country music song turned into narration. We're in for some heartbreak, says Don Waters.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/05/28/RVHG1J9U8B.DTL
“He who writes, dies," writes Roberto Saviano. Beauty and the Inferno is a collection of essays that continue the themes that dominate Saviano's thinking: the purpose of writing and the need to take a stand, says Matthew Hoffman.
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/beauty-and-the-inferno-by-roberto-saviano-2290354.html
Embassytown is China Miéville's first foray into what has been called “pure” or even “hardcore” science fiction. The novel is decidedly a thing of complicated wonder, writes Geoff Pevere.
http://www.thestar.com/news/books/article/999081--bard-of-geekdom-china-mieville-discovers-yet-another-new-world
If there's one writer who embodies the changes sweeping through our reading culture, it's probably China Miéville, writes James Bradley.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/arts/on-another-planet-with-breathtaking-results/story-e6frg8nf-1226061200239
Although the heaviness of the past sometimes outweighs the present in Edna O'Brien's Saints and Sinners, she hasn't lost her eye for contemporary Ireland's petty jealousies, its covert malice and its never-quite-extinguished violent history, writes Elizabeth Grove-Whites.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/saints-and-sinners-by-edna-obrien/article2037234/
Roddy Doyle's new collection Bullfighting is filled with stragglers and loners, men who have come loose from the pack and don't know how to get back. It's both hilarious and heartbreaking, writes Tom Shone.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/books/review/book-review-bullfighting-by-roddy-doyle.html?ref=review&pagewanted=all
After writing 12 books for children, Linda Hutsell-Manning, at 70, has published That Summer in Franklin, an upbeat adult novel about dealing with the final years of elderly parents—as much about reunions as losses, says Sharon Abron Drache.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/that-summer-in-franklin-by-linda-hutsell-manning/article2040337/
COMMUNITY EVENTS
THUNDERING WORD
Spoken word and storytelling performances by C.R. Avery, Bill McNamara, Mary Gavan, Bryant Ross and Rosemary Nowicki. Saturday, June 4 at 7:00pm. Location TBA. For information, visit www.inthehousefestival.com.
A MEMOIR OF IRIS CHANG
Ying-Ying Chang reads from her memoir The Woman Who Could Not Forget: Iris Chang Before and Beyond the Rape of Nanking , which chronicles her daughter's life. Sunday, June 5 at 2:00pm, free. Alice MacKay room, Central Branch, 350 W. Georgia St.
CATHY STONEHOUSE
The Vancouver author launches Something About the Animal, her debut collection of short stories. Includes a performance by guitarist Phil DeMarsh. Sunday, June 5 at 7:30pm, free. Cafe Deux Soleils, 2096 Commercial Drive. More information at tmurphy@biblioasis.com.
SHERYL SALLOUM
Launch of the author's new book The Life and Art of Mildred Valley Thornton. Thursday, June 9 at 8:00pm. Heritage Hall, 3102 Main Street. More information at info@mothertonguepublishing.com.
IRSHAD MANJI
Canadian author and journalist discusses her new book Allah, Liberty, and Love. Friday, June 10 at 7:30pm. Tickets: $18/$15. Capilano Performing Arts Theatre, 2055 Purcell Way, North Vancouver. More information at www.capilanou.ca/theatre/.
GREEK POETRY READING
Manolis Aligizakis is going to talk about his translation of the works of renowned Greek poet, Yiannis Ritsos and about his book The Vernal Equinox. Saturday, June 11 at 3:00pm, free. Kitsilano Branch, VPL, 2425 Macdonald Street.
WORDPLAY
WordPlay is a program of Vancouver Poetry House that sends poets to classrooms to perform spoken word poetry and to run workshops. This year marks the debut of Summer Youth Slam Camp (July 4 to 8) at Little Mountain Gallery. Fifteen youth poets will work with Vancouver's best slam poets in this spoken word intensive. The deadline for registration for Slam Camp is June 15. For more details, go to vancouverpoetryhouse.com.
Upcoming
SMOKE SIGNALS
A screening of the award-winning film based on the work of Sherman Alexie. Thursday, June 16 at 7:00pm, free. Alice MacKay room. lower level, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia Street.
KEVIN MCNEILLY
Reading by the author of Embouchure, his debut poetry collection. Thursday, June 16 at 7:00pm, free. UBC Bookstore Robson Square, plaza level, 800 Robson Street. More information at www.robsonreadingseries.ubc.ca.
TIMES OUT OF JOINT
Simon Fraser University's 11th annual English Graduate Conference will be held from Thursday, June 16 to Saturday, June 18 at SFU's Harbour Centre (Thursday and Friday) and the Segal Graduate School of Business (Saturday). All events are open to the general public. There is no fee for attendance. For more information check the website: www.sfu.ca/~gradconf/.
HARRY MOURATIDIS
Join Vancouver author as he reads from his latest book, They Live Longer: The Secrets of Healthy and Active Ninety-Year-Olds. Saturday, June 18 at 3:00pm, free. Kitsilano Branch, 2425 Macdonald Street.
JOAN THOMAS
Award-winning novelist Joan Thomas reads from her love story, Curiosity. Tuesday, June 21 at 7:00pm, free. Alma VanDusen & Peter Kaye rooms, lower level, Central Library. 350 W. Georgia St.
WRITE ON BOWEN 2011
Join writers from all over the Lower Mainland for a series of intensive, interactive writing workshops, panel presentations, and other events. July 8 to 11, Artisan Square, Bowen Island. For complete details, visit www.writeonbowen.com.
HAIKU NORTH AMERICA
A long weekend of papers, presentations, workshops, readings, and other activities in celebration of haiku poetry, held at the Seattle Center, at the foot of the Space Needle. Featured presenters include Cor van den Heuvel, Richard Gilbert, David Lanoue, Carlos Colón, Fay Aoyagi, Jim Kacian, Emiko Miyashita, George Swede, and many others. August 3-7, 2011. For more information, visit www.haikunorthamerica.com.
Now that our spring season is wrapped up, we are busy planning the 2011 Vancouver International Writers & Readers Festival (as well as the fall Incite series and special events). We are part way through the process of inviting authors and we're very excited about the line-up. We'll be telling you about who's coming over the next weeks and months. You can also learn about Festival authors by reading our blog, http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/prefaces/2011/blog.
SUNSHINE COAST FESTIVAL OF THE WRITTEN ARTS
Tickets are now on sale for the 29th Sunshine Coast Festival of the Written Arts, Canada's longest-running literary festival, taking place August 4-7, 2011 in beautiful downtown Sechelt. Call 1-800-565-9631 to order tickets. Information: www.writersfestival.ca.
AWARDS & LISTS
Barcelona-based Peruvian writer Santiago Roncagliolo has won the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize for Red April, a murder story with a fictional serial killer to dramatize the impact of Shining Path in Peru. He shares the £10,000 award, the annual honour for fiction from beyond the English language, with his translator Edith Grossman.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/may/27/serial-killer-novel-independent-foreign-fiction-prize
Irish novelist John Banville has won the Franz Kafka award. The prize is given by the Kafka Society to an international author whose work is "exceptional for its artistic quality", and "addresses readers regardless of their origin, nationality or culture, just like the work of Franz Kafka".
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/may/26/john-banville-kafka-prize
Political economist and writer Stephen Clarkson was among 43 people invested with the Order of Canada at a ceremony at Rideau Hall last week.
http://www.gg.ca/document.aspx?id=14116
Irish poet Seamus Heaney is one of seven finalists for the Griffin Poetry Prize. Three Canadians and four international nominees are in the running for two separate awards.
http://www.thestar.com/news/books/article/997636--seamus-heaney-griffin-poetry-prize-finalist
William Deverell is to receive the lifetime achievement award at this weekend's Bloody Words, the annual crime writers' convention.
http://www.vancouversun.com/news/scene+crime+writers/4856063/story.html
Thirty-plus books in seven categories are shortlisted for Arthur Ellis Awards for best Canadian mystery writing. Awards will be given the night before Bloody Word begins.
http://www.crimewriterscanada.com/awards/arthur-ellis-awards/current-contest/shortlists
Traitor, by New Zealand soldier Stephen Daisley, is one of five finalists for the fiction prize among the (Australian) Prime Minister's Literary Awards. Two other finalists are also shortlisted for the Miles Franklin.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/arts/gallipoli-novel-on-pm-short-list/story-e6frg8nf-1226063776013
Emma Donoghue and Michael Winter are among the six English-language finalists for the 2011 Trillium Book Awards. There are twenty French- and English-language finalists for Ontario's annual literary honour. The Trillium Book Award is open to writers of all genres, living in Ontario and working in English or French.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/emma-donoghues-room-among-finalists-for-trillium-award/article2040018/
NEWS & FEATURES
Boyd Tonkin talks to Santiago Roncagliolo, the author of Red April.
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/red-april-wins-the-independent-foreign-fiction-prize-2289435.html
David Grossman's new novel Falling Out of Time, about coming to terms with the death of a child, is not autobiographical, nor is it set in Israel. The novel will be published in Hebrew in June and later, in English.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/may/29/israeli-author-david-grossman-bereavement-novel
The flood of Canadian literary prizes is great for book marketers. But some worry the emphasis on winning is misplaced in a world of fewer book reviews and little recognition for lifetime achievement.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/literary-awards-are-abundant-in-canada-but-some-see-a-downside/article2037331/
The P.E.I. government has reinstated its publishers assistance program, following a meeting between the Island's publishing community and the culture minister, with the minister's acknowledging a greater understanding of the program.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/story/2011/05/27/pei-publishers-assistance-government-584.html
Over the last 12 months, Christopher Hitchens has provided an account of how to face death that is matched in contemporary literature only by French philosopher Albert Camus's 1947 masterpiece, The Plague, writes Nicolaus Mills.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/may/25/christopher-hitchens-cancer
Here is an early piece.
http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/features/2010/09/hitchens-201009
Hitchens's latest installment reflects on his wondering if perhaps there is room for a short handbook of cancer etiquette, applying to sufferers as well as to sympathizers.
http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/features/2010/12/hitchens-201012
Gil Scott-Heron, whose poetry set to rhythmic jazz music, especially "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised," was one of the most important and obvious inspirations for rap music, has died.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/music_blog/2011/05/gil-scott-heron-dies.html
The May 30, 2011 issue of the New Yorker includes the August 2010 profile of Scott-Heron.
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/08/09/100809fa_fact_wilkinson
Along with a postscript by Rollo Romig.
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2011/05/gil-scott-heron.html
There has been a flurry of online rumours that some of Mao Tse-Tung's Little Red Book was not written by Mao himself, but by his secretary Hu Qiaomu and others.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/chairman-mao-may-not-be-the-author-of-his-little-red-book-2290164.html
Several authors have developed writing programs for adult prisoners in various countries' jails. Caspar Walsh, ex-con, author and founder of Write to Freedom, reveals how writing can lead to rehabilitation for young offenders.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/may/29/young-offenders-write-to-freedom
After fifteen years of a very public feud, V.S. Naipaul and Paul Theroux have finally buried the hatchet. The literary titans shook hands again at the Hay Festival, the scene of their original public falling out in 1996, after a gentle intervention by the writer Ian McEwan.
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/celebrated-literary-feud-ends-after-naipaul-and-theroux-bury-the-hatchet-2290775.html
Robert Munsch launched a new children's book in Rigolet, Labrador this past weekend. Give Me Back My Dad is based on a fishing trip he made there two decades ago and is the story of a girl on an ice fishing trip in Rigolet, who is caught by a fish herself.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/books/story/2011/05/30/nl-munsch-launch-530.html
Despite the emerging popularity of e-books, millions of books first emerge in the paper and ink version, reports Seattle Times Book Editor Mary Ann Gwinn.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/books/2015167782_litlife30.html
BOOKS & WRITERS
Love and money are joined at the hip in the Irish, Booker Prize-winning Anne Enright's latest offering, the novel The Forgotten Waltz, The narrative plays out against a hot economy turned very chilly indeed, writes Nancy Wigston.
http://www.thestar.com/news/books/article/998141--the-forgotten-waltz-by-anne-enright
A love story from Anne Enright was never going to be a heart-warming romance of the happily-ever-after variety. Nor would we want it to be, says Liam Davison in his review of The Forgotten Waltz.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/arts/dancing-through-the-destruction-of-desire/story-e6frg8nf-1226061196521
Shilpi Somaya Gowda began writing to see if she could produce a novel. Secret Daughter, the story of two families, one Indian, one American, and an adopted child, sold 300,000 copies in the first 12 months, reports Geeta Nadkarni.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/books/Secret+Daughter+author+Shilpi+Somaya+Gowda+been+successful+beyond/4851686/story.html
Philip Marchand writes that Clark Blaise's appropriation of voice in The Meagre Tarmac, a collection of short fiction, is a literary felony justified in this case by the results.
http://arts.nationalpost.com/2011/05/27/open-book-the-meagre-tarmac-by-clark-blaise/#more-35239
Stephanie Merritt believes fans will approve of Jeffery Deaver's James Bond in Carte Blanche—both the daring spy of old and a product of the 21st century. It's a nail-biter!
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/may/29/carte-blanche-jeffery-deaver-review
Anxiety about the ability of a US thriller writer to handle this most British of spies was misplaced, says Alexandra Heminsley. No detectives sitting, glaring at computer screens. A classic Bond is with us again, she says.
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/carte-blanche-by-jeffery-deaver-2290352.html
Susan Salter Reynolds writes that in Caleb's Crossing, Geraldine Brooks has created multidimensional, inspiring yet unpredictable characters in 1640's Martha's Vineyard—Caleb's journey from his (native) world and Bethia's, from the Puritan colony of her birth.
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/books/la-ca-geraldine-brooks-20110529,0,404752.story
Ron Charles says that The Sisters' Brothers, Patrick deWitt's tale of two hired guns during the Gold Rush, is weirdly funny, startlingly violent and steeped in sadness.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/book-review-patrick-dewitts-the-sisters-brothers/2011/05/13/AF8TOeAH_story.html
Lila Azam Zanganeh loved Nabokov from an early age and has just published a deeply unconventional study of the Russian émigré writer. The Enchanter: Nabokov and Happiness is a book unlike anything else I've ever come across, writes William Skidelsky.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/may/26/lila-azam-zanganeh-nabokov-interview
Viv Groskrop asks: is Nabokov a narcissist or a genius? Perhaps he's only a writer's writer. To the average reader though, The Enchanted has a lot of the same problems as Nabokov's work. Beautiful, but...
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/vladimir-nabokov-genius-or-narcissist-2290351.html
Puccini's opera Madame Butterfly ends when U.S. Navy Lt. Pinkerton returns to Nagasaki with an American wife. Tragic ending. Curtain down. In Butterfly's Child, Angela Davis-Gardner raises that curtain again to imagine the consequences—unique and entirely enchanting, writes Eugenia Zukerman.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/book-review-butterflys-child/2011/03/07/AG3bUxCH_story.html
Terrible things happen in old country songs. Steve Earle embraces this heartbreaky landscape in his first novel I'll Never Get Out of This World Alive, a rowdy country music song turned into narration. We're in for some heartbreak, says Don Waters.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/05/28/RVHG1J9U8B.DTL
“He who writes, dies," writes Roberto Saviano. Beauty and the Inferno is a collection of essays that continue the themes that dominate Saviano's thinking: the purpose of writing and the need to take a stand, says Matthew Hoffman.
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/beauty-and-the-inferno-by-roberto-saviano-2290354.html
Embassytown is China Miéville's first foray into what has been called “pure” or even “hardcore” science fiction. The novel is decidedly a thing of complicated wonder, writes Geoff Pevere.
http://www.thestar.com/news/books/article/999081--bard-of-geekdom-china-mieville-discovers-yet-another-new-world
If there's one writer who embodies the changes sweeping through our reading culture, it's probably China Miéville, writes James Bradley.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/arts/on-another-planet-with-breathtaking-results/story-e6frg8nf-1226061200239
Although the heaviness of the past sometimes outweighs the present in Edna O'Brien's Saints and Sinners, she hasn't lost her eye for contemporary Ireland's petty jealousies, its covert malice and its never-quite-extinguished violent history, writes Elizabeth Grove-Whites.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/saints-and-sinners-by-edna-obrien/article2037234/
Roddy Doyle's new collection Bullfighting is filled with stragglers and loners, men who have come loose from the pack and don't know how to get back. It's both hilarious and heartbreaking, writes Tom Shone.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/books/review/book-review-bullfighting-by-roddy-doyle.html?ref=review&pagewanted=all
After writing 12 books for children, Linda Hutsell-Manning, at 70, has published That Summer in Franklin, an upbeat adult novel about dealing with the final years of elderly parents—as much about reunions as losses, says Sharon Abron Drache.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/that-summer-in-franklin-by-linda-hutsell-manning/article2040337/
COMMUNITY EVENTS
THUNDERING WORD
Spoken word and storytelling performances by C.R. Avery, Bill McNamara, Mary Gavan, Bryant Ross and Rosemary Nowicki. Saturday, June 4 at 7:00pm. Location TBA. For information, visit www.inthehousefestival.com.
A MEMOIR OF IRIS CHANG
Ying-Ying Chang reads from her memoir The Woman Who Could Not Forget: Iris Chang Before and Beyond the Rape of Nanking , which chronicles her daughter's life. Sunday, June 5 at 2:00pm, free. Alice MacKay room, Central Branch, 350 W. Georgia St.
CATHY STONEHOUSE
The Vancouver author launches Something About the Animal, her debut collection of short stories. Includes a performance by guitarist Phil DeMarsh. Sunday, June 5 at 7:30pm, free. Cafe Deux Soleils, 2096 Commercial Drive. More information at tmurphy@biblioasis.com.
SHERYL SALLOUM
Launch of the author's new book The Life and Art of Mildred Valley Thornton. Thursday, June 9 at 8:00pm. Heritage Hall, 3102 Main Street. More information at info@mothertonguepublishing.com.
IRSHAD MANJI
Canadian author and journalist discusses her new book Allah, Liberty, and Love. Friday, June 10 at 7:30pm. Tickets: $18/$15. Capilano Performing Arts Theatre, 2055 Purcell Way, North Vancouver. More information at www.capilanou.ca/theatre/.
GREEK POETRY READING
Manolis Aligizakis is going to talk about his translation of the works of renowned Greek poet, Yiannis Ritsos and about his book The Vernal Equinox. Saturday, June 11 at 3:00pm, free. Kitsilano Branch, VPL, 2425 Macdonald Street.
WORDPLAY
WordPlay is a program of Vancouver Poetry House that sends poets to classrooms to perform spoken word poetry and to run workshops. This year marks the debut of Summer Youth Slam Camp (July 4 to 8) at Little Mountain Gallery. Fifteen youth poets will work with Vancouver's best slam poets in this spoken word intensive. The deadline for registration for Slam Camp is June 15. For more details, go to vancouverpoetryhouse.com.
Upcoming
SMOKE SIGNALS
A screening of the award-winning film based on the work of Sherman Alexie. Thursday, June 16 at 7:00pm, free. Alice MacKay room. lower level, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia Street.
KEVIN MCNEILLY
Reading by the author of Embouchure, his debut poetry collection. Thursday, June 16 at 7:00pm, free. UBC Bookstore Robson Square, plaza level, 800 Robson Street. More information at www.robsonreadingseries.ubc.ca.
TIMES OUT OF JOINT
Simon Fraser University's 11th annual English Graduate Conference will be held from Thursday, June 16 to Saturday, June 18 at SFU's Harbour Centre (Thursday and Friday) and the Segal Graduate School of Business (Saturday). All events are open to the general public. There is no fee for attendance. For more information check the website: www.sfu.ca/~gradconf/.
HARRY MOURATIDIS
Join Vancouver author as he reads from his latest book, They Live Longer: The Secrets of Healthy and Active Ninety-Year-Olds. Saturday, June 18 at 3:00pm, free. Kitsilano Branch, 2425 Macdonald Street.
JOAN THOMAS
Award-winning novelist Joan Thomas reads from her love story, Curiosity. Tuesday, June 21 at 7:00pm, free. Alma VanDusen & Peter Kaye rooms, lower level, Central Library. 350 W. Georgia St.
WRITE ON BOWEN 2011
Join writers from all over the Lower Mainland for a series of intensive, interactive writing workshops, panel presentations, and other events. July 8 to 11, Artisan Square, Bowen Island. For complete details, visit www.writeonbowen.com.
HAIKU NORTH AMERICA
A long weekend of papers, presentations, workshops, readings, and other activities in celebration of haiku poetry, held at the Seattle Center, at the foot of the Space Needle. Featured presenters include Cor van den Heuvel, Richard Gilbert, David Lanoue, Carlos Colón, Fay Aoyagi, Jim Kacian, Emiko Miyashita, George Swede, and many others. August 3-7, 2011. For more information, visit www.haikunorthamerica.com.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
