BOOK NEWS
Literati Gala - Bollywood, Books and Bill!
Join us for the Literati Gala on October 18th at the Fairmont Waterfront Hotel. CBC's Bill Richardson hosts the event that features Festival writers and dancers from the Vancouver International Bhangra Celebration Society in a fundraising event for our Spreading the Word schools program. Click here for more information and ticket purchase, http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/literatigala.
School Group Tickets on Sale
Lots of tickets are still available for school events at the Festival. If your child is in school in the Lower Mainland, please talk to his or her teacher about bringing a group to the Festival. The BC Teachers Federation has confirmed that trips to Writers Festival events are permitted during the job action. More details here: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/teachers/BCTF
HAL'S FESTIVAL PICKS
Artistic Director Hal Wake's suggestions for the 2011 Festival
An Intimate Evening with...
Our intimate evening series at the Festival is a chance for you to experience a writer up close and personal. When I was at the Auckland Festival in the spring, I interviewed a brilliant new writer, Aminatta Forna, and she is articulate, thoughtful and compelling. I put her in the series so that you could discover this amazing new literary star. Award winners Linda Grant and David Adams Richards are must-sees as well. (Events 9, 50, 62)
http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/2011festival/event/9-intimate-evening-linda-grant
http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/2011festival/event/50-intimate-evening-david-adams-richards
http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/2011festival/event/62-intimate-evening-aminatta-forna
Montreal Mystery & Music
A huge hit in Kingston last week, John Farrow (AKA Trevor Ferguson) is traveling the country with his literary thriller River City. The novel is a panoramic saga covering significant events out of 400 years of the history of Montreal. Accompanied by David Gossage performing music composed for this event, you will be captivated and enthralled by this masterful storyteller. (Event 20)
http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/2011festival/event/20-montreal-mystery-and-music
Calling All Non-fiction Fans
We have a stellar line-up of non-fiction writers at the festival this year and you will get a chance to see some of the best in Truth and Storytelling. They are great writers, but the real hallmark of this event is the diversity of stories they have to tell and the distinctiveness of their respective
approaches to narrative. You will leave this one wanting more. (Event 43)
http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/2011festival/event/43-truth-and-storytelling
2011 FESTIVAL AUTHORS
What Anita Rau Badami has learned from living in Canada for the last 20 years—about half that time in Montreal—is that winter, hate it or not, is always coming. Coincidentally, its arrival plays a crucial role in the plot of her new novel, Tell It to the Trees. You could almost call it the villain of the piece, says Joel Yanofsky. (events 52, 63)
http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/books/Anita+Badami+does+look+forward+winter/5415239/story.html
http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/2011festival/event/52-coast-coast
http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/2011festival/event/63-sunday-brunch
Randy Boyagoda's Beggar's Feast is a beautifully written book, writes Hubert O'Hearn. It reads like a hot curry balanced against a mango relish. The central flavour is dark and filled with fire, while all about it is a sweetness that keeps the palate happy and willingly engaged. Beggar's Feast is a triumphant entry into the classic genre of the multi-generational epic, contained in one man's life, says O'Hearn. (events 21, 59)
http://www.thewinnipegreview.com/wp/2011/08/‘beggar's-feast'-by-randy-boyagoda/
http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/2011festival/event/21-rich-history
http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/2011festival/event/59-when-then-was-now
Raise You Twenty is the third volume of essays by Barry Callaghan, Canada's Man of Letters, following the critically acclaimed Raise You Five and Raise You Ten. The Globe and Mail describes his essays and encounters as "literary criticism and cultural history of a high order, in turn joyous, acerbic, celebratory." (events 40, 43)
http://canadianbookshelf.com/Books/R/Raise-You-Twenty
http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/2011festival/event/40-conversations-bill
http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/2011festival/event/43-truth-and-storytelling
In The Antagonist, Lynn Coady makes an empathetic character out of a "big-mouthed bruiser" who throws his weight around and has a penchant for gross-out stunts. A deft blend of farce, tragedy and wry social comment, The Antagonist is no mean feat, writes Barbara Carey. (events 41, 56, 67)
http://www.thestar.com/news/books/article/1058925--brutish-hero-made-human
http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/2011festival/event/41-culture-petri-dish
http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/2011festival/event/56-possibilities-hope
http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/2011festival/event/67-afternoon-tea
John Farrow's River City novel about the theft of the Cartier Dagger is also a sweeping history of Montreal, writes H.J. Kirchhoff, adding that the reader won't be disappointed. Together with the dramatic and dynamic performance of multi–instrumentalist David Gossage, Farrow (Trevor Ferguson) will offer a new telling of mystery and history. (event 20)
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/river-city-by-john-farrow/article2125502/
http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/2011festival/event/20-montreal-mystery-and-music
An entire wall is hidden by bookshelves, which hold a first edition of almost every book Douglas Gibson ever worked on, says Mark Medley. Stories About Storytellers is the culmination of a more than 40-year career that saw Gibson become one of the most influential, and powerful, figures in Canadian publishing. The book allows Gibson to share some of the stories he's hoarded over the years. Douglas Gibson is "a born storyteller," Medley quotes Terry Fallis. (event 10)
http://arts.nationalpost.com/2011/09/23/douglas-gibson-life-among-his-writers/
http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/2011festival/event/10-dish
Linda Grant has much to tell us about class and character, history and human frailty, and in We Had It So Good, she has created a story that captures much of the truth about a certain time, place and class setting as the Age of Aquarius morphed into the Age of Hedge Funds, writes Tom Sandborn. This book is one baby boomers will read with rueful recognition. As for younger readers, they may find it an interesting historical romance. (events 9, 44)
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/we-had-it-so-good-by-linda-grant/article2041666/
http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/2011festival/event/9-intimate-evening-linda-grant
http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/2011festival/event/44-my-generation
Paula Todd describes Rosemary Nixon's Kalila as "exquisitely written, about a terrible time but from a great distance". (events 6, 64)
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/kalila-by-rosemary-nixon/article2147307/
http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/2011festival/event/6-and-introducing
http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/2011festival/event/64-tie-binds
Jeet Heer writes that Harry Whitehead's The Cannibal Spirit joins a long tradition of flesh-eating literature set in Canada, based on the true story of George Hunt, an ethnologist who reported on the alleged cannibalistic practices of the Kwakwaka'wakw people of British Columbia. Tellingly, the roots of the word "cannibal" lie in colonial misunderstanding. Kate Beaton illustrated the review. (events 6, 59)
http://www.walrusmagazine.com/articles/2011.10-books-guess-whos-for-dinner/
http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/2011festival/event/6-and-introducing
http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/2011festival/event/59-when-then-was-now
AWARDS & LISTS
Two Festival authors—Edi Edugyen and Clark Blaise—are among the five nominees for the $25,000 Writers’ Trust fiction award. Other nominees are Michael Christie, Patrick DeWitt, and Dan Vyleta. Edugyen and deWitt are also on the shortlist for the Giller Prize and the Man Booker Prize.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/books/story/2011/09/28/writers-trust-award-nominees.html
Seyward Goodhand, Miranda Hill, and Ross Klatte have been nominated for The Journey Prize, given annually to a Canadian short story.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2011/09/28/writers-trust-award-nominees.html
Charles Foran, Charlotte Gill, Richard Gwyn, Grant Lawrence, and Ray Robertson are the five finalists for the Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize. The winner will be announced October 25.
http://www.writerstrust.com/Awards/Hilary-Weston-Writers-Trust-Prize.aspx
Canadian cartoonist and illustrator Seth is the latest recipient of the 2011 Harbourfront Festival Prize. It is the first time a graphic novelist has won the award given to an individual whose work has substantially contributed to the state of literature and books in Canada. Seth will receive the honour on October 29.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/story/2011/09/22/seth-harbourfront-prize.html
DW Wilson has won the £15,000 BBC National Short Story award with The Dead Road, a tale of a road trip through the Canadian Rockies. Born and raised in British Columbia, Wilson went to the UK when he received the inaugural Man Booker prize scholarship for the creative writing MA at the University of East Anglia.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/sep/26/john-mcgregor-mj-hyland-beaten-prize
Wilbert Rideau's prison memoir In the Place of Justice: A Story of Punishment and Deliverance (nonfiction) and Chang-Rae Lee's The Surrendered (fiction have won this year's Dayton Literary Peace Prize. The awards commemorate the 1995 Dayton Peace accords, which brought the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina to an end.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/jacketcopy/2011/09/dayton-literary-peace-prize-will-go-to-chang-rae-lee.html
Canada Reads, CBC's annual book debate, will shine a spotlight on non-fiction in 2012, for the first time. A public campaign to choose the contenders begins Tuesday. For Canada Reads: True Stories, CBC Books is inviting readers to nominate their favourite Canadian titles as potential choices. Memoirs, biographies and literary non-fiction are all eligible.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/story/2011/09/26/canada-reads.html
NEWS & FEATURES
Accusations of "dumbing down" were levelled at this year's Man Booker shortlist when the judges aimed for "readability" above all, but it turns out readability was exactly what the public were looking for. This year's Booker shortlist has sold more than double the number of copies of the shortlist last year.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/sep/26/booker-prize-shortlist-breaks-sales-records
At 83, Maurice Sendak has released a new book, Bumble-Ardy, the first book in 30 years he has written and illustrated. The story dates to the 1970s, when he and Jim Henson collaborated on an animated project for Sesame Street.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/story/2011/09/22/sendak-new-book-bumble-ardy.html
John Barber's interview of Sendak creates a rich portrait of the self-described cranky old man who continues to create tales of gleefully misbehaving children who never go punished. In this case, Maurice Sendak's rambunctious young mischief-maker is in the form of a gawky, quarrelsome pig.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/maurice-sendak-at-83-a-portrait-of-the-author-as-a-cranky-old-man/article2177811/
Faber is to publish Death Comes to Pemberley: a crime novel by PD James set in Jane Austen's universe. This use of the Austen canon isn't altogether a surprise, given that Seth Grahame-Smith's Pride and Prejudice and Zombies already exists.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2011/sep/22/janeausten-pdjames
A "lost" first novel by Arthur Conan Doyle, was published this week, 128 years after it was written. Part of a collection of private papers that emerged at auction in 2004, The Narrative of John Smith provides a fascinating glimpse into the young writer's mind.
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/sherlock-holmess-origins-revealed-2360513.html
Artist John Hartley has planted an oak sapling on Peckham Rye, an art installation in honour of William Blake, who claimed to have seen an oak "filled with angels, bright angelic wings bespangling every bough like stars" when he visited the place at the age of nine. Hartley's blog includes a photo-story of the installation, completed with the support of the Blake Society, the Forestry Commission, and the Peckham Library.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2011/sep/20/william-blake
Mary Shelley wrote her novel Frankenstein in response to a challenge. In 2010, Texas astronomers used the light of the moon to highlight the hour of creation for Frankenstein and his notorious monster. Scholars and biographers had suggested that, to enhance sales, Shelley may have composed a fiction about the chronology of literary creation. The astronomers work supports Shelley's version of events.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/sep/26/frankenstein-hour-creation-identified-astronomers?CMP=EMCGT_260911&
Readers from around the world are demonstrating their support for free speech by participating in a virtual read-out of banned and challenged books that will culminate during the 30th annual Banned Books Week (Sept. 24-Oct. 1), the only international celebration of the freedom to read. The virtual read-out is the centerpiece of an expanded Banned Books Week, which focuses attention on the censorship of books in schools and libraries.
http://www.bannedbooksweek.org/
A Massachusetts library has put the Mark Twain work Eve's Diary back on the shelf more than a century after it was banned. Trustee Richard Whitehead said the move was made to coincide with the American Library Association's Banned Book Week.
http://www.masslive.com/talk/index.ssf/2011/09/mass_library_reverses_century-.html
Winner of the Guardian children's fiction prize for her debut How I Live Now and of the Carnegie medal for Just in Case, children's author Meg Rosoff's reimagining of God as a sex-mad teenage boy in her new novel There Is No Dog has proved unpalatable for some schools in England and the Emirates Airline festival of literature in Dubai, which cancelled events with the author because of the "blasphemous" nature of the book, her publisher said.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/sep/27/school-cancels-event-meg-rosoff
On the eve of her eagerly awaited life of Dickens, Claire Tomalin, the grande dame of literary biography, speaks with Rachel Cooke about seeing the world through the eyes of her subject.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/sep/25/claire-tomalin-biographer-charles-dickens
The CBC has announced three new literary prizes: for short stories, poetry and literary nonfiction. More details here:
http://www.cbc.ca/books/canadawrites/literaryprizes/
The short story competition for Canada Writes is underway. Launch your literary career! More details here:
http://www.cbc.ca/books/canadawrites/literaryprizes/shortstory/
BOOKS & WRITERS
Charles Dickens's novels–full of laughter, indignation and sentimentality–have a special place in our cultural heritage, writes Claire Tomalin in her biography of Dickens. An excerpt details his first experience as a juror.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/sep/23/charles-dickens-life-writing
In Three Famines: Starvation and Politics, Australian novelist Thomas Keneally writes vividly about the depths to which human beings descend during famines, exemplified by Ireland, Bengal and Ethiopia. The book is both reportage and analysis, writes Alex de Waal.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/sep/23/three-famines-starvation-keneally-review
David Runciman is persuaded by Steven Pinker's arguments in The Better Angels of Our Nature that most of what we believe about violence is wrong and we are less violent than we used to be. Everyone should read this astonishing book, says Runciman.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/sep/22/better-angels-steven-pinker-review
Robert Harris's new novel The Fear Index races along as a thriller of high finance set during a single day: that of the Flash Crash in 2010, writes Boyd Tonkin. At root, says Tonkin, this is a version of the Frankenstein story.
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/robert-harris--programmed-for-peril-2359191.html
Candace Fertile writes that in Various Positions, Martha Schabas's insight into the world of girls, ballet, and lame parents is pitch perfect. Various Positions is an outstanding novel, full of wisdom and language that dances across the page, says Fertile.
http://www.vancouversun.com/entertainment/books/Writer+dances+through+teen+angst+sexuality+body+image/5442910/story.html
Johanna Skibsrud heads in new directions with This Will Be Difficult To Explain and Other Stories, her new collection of short stories, writes Ian McGillis.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/books/Skibsrud+heads+directions/5449566/story.html
In Walk Like A Man: Coming of Age with the Music of Bruce Springsteen, Robert J. Wiersema, blends music criticism and memoir, writes Shaun Smith. Fourteen chapters each provide analysis of a single Springsteen song, followed by a short memoir piece.
http://www.thestar.com/news/books/article/1058004--walk-like-a-man-by-robert-j-wiersema
COMMUNITY EVENTS
IN THE EYE OF THE CHINA STORM
Paul T.K. Lin and Eileen Chen Lin celebrate the launch of their new book with a roundtable discussion and light refreshments. Thursday, September 29 at 5:00pm, free. Institute of Asian Research, 1855 West Mall, UBC. More information at www.iar.ubc.ca.
PRICK: CONFESSIONS OF A TATTOO ARTIST
Tightrope Books presents the launch of B.C. author Ashley Little's debut novel. Includes guests Dennis E. Bolen and Cathleen With. Thursday, September 29 at 7:00pm. The FALL Tattooing & Artist's Gallery, 644 Seymour St. More information at www.tightropebooks.com.
ON EDGE READING SERIES
Nikki Reimer and Ray Hsu read from their poetry. Thursday, September 29 at 7:00pm, free. Emily Carr University, 1399 Johnston Street. More information at http://www.ecuad.ca/about/news/160367.
CULTURAL SECRETS OF VANCOUVER
CBC TV's Cultural Secrets of Vancouver airs this Thursday September 29 at 7:30 pm. The show reveals secrets by writers Douglas Coupland and Anosh Irani, as well as a host of other local luminaries. Check out cbc.ca/bc/secrets for an interactive map with the secrets plus a contest
with great prizes if you want to send in a cultural secret yourself...
CARMEN AGUIRRE
Celebrate Public Lending Rights' 25th Anniversary with a reading by Vancouver-based theatre artist and writer Carmen Aguirre. Friday, September 30 at 3:00pm, free. Alma VanDusen & Peter Kaye rooms, lower level, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia Street.
SMART CHICKS KICK IT TOUR
Join six brilliant authors as they sign their bestselling Teen novels and have fun with prizes, games, music and more! Saturday, October 1 at 2:00pm. Chapters Metrotown, 4700 Kingsway.
BOOK LAUNCH AND LECTURE
Childhood Under Siege by Joel Bakan. 8:15 pm, Saturday October 1 (doors open 7:30 pm). Vancouver Institute in Lecture Hall No. 2, Woodward Instructional Resources Centre, University of British Columbia. www.joelbakan.com
GEORGE RYGA AWARD EVENING
Eighth annual award will be presented to Richard Wagamese for his book One Story One Song. Presentation will be followed by the play Portrait of a Lady, adapted by George Ryga from Margaret Lawrence's novel Stone Angel. Saturday, October 1 at 8:00pm. Centre Stage Theatre, Summerland, BC. More information at www.ryga.org.
PACIFIC ARBOUR SPEAKER SERIES
Presenting Dr. Marc Lewis with his book Memoirs of an Addicted Brain. Thursday, October 6 at 7:30pm. Tickets $12/$10. North Shore Credit Union Centre for the Performing Arts, Capilano University. Box office: 604-990-7810. Information at www.capilanou.ca/nscucentre.
Upcoming
ALCUIN AWARDS FOR CANADIAN BOOK DESIGN
The ceremonies for this year's presentation of the 29th Alcuin Society Awards for Excellence in Book Design in Canada will precede an informal talk by New York graphic designer and Vintage Books' Artistic Director, John Gall. Wednesday, October 12 at 6:30pm, free. Room SB301, Emily Carr University, 1399 Johnston Street. More information at blog.alcuinsociety.com.
ROBSON READING SERIES
Readings by Johanna Skibsrud (This Will Be Difficult to Explain & Other Stories) and Martha Schabas (Various Positions). Thursday, October 13 at 7:00pm, free. UBC Bookstore/Library at Robson Square, Plaza level, 800 Robson Street. More information at www.robsonreadingseries.ubc.ca.
JOHN GILMORE AND KEITH HARRISON
Readings by authors John Gilmore and Keith Harrison. John Gilmore's first novel is Head of a Man. Keith Harrison's recent work is The Missionary, The Violinist and the Aunt Whose Head Was Squeezed. Monday, October 17 at 7:00pm, free. Alma VanDusen room, lower level, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia St.
Thursday, September 29, 2011
Thursday, September 15, 2011
Book News Vol. 6 No. 37
BOOK NEWS
Literati Gala
Join host Bill Richardson and Festival authors for an unforgettable evening. The Literati Gala supports Spreading the Word. Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/literatigala. Purchase tickets to the Literati Gala here, https://www.writersfest.bc.ca/secure/secure_ticket_orders.php?event_id=3
School Group Tickets on Sale
School group tickets to Spreading the Word school events are now on sale. If you are a teacher, please sign up for our Spreading the Word Book News. Details here: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/teachers/schoolorders.
UPCOMING VIWF 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 novel, The Cat's Table. Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/ondaatje.
Incite
Incite, our free reading series is back for the fall! Join us Wednesdays at 7:30pm in the Alice MacKay Room at VPL Central Library. September 28: Daniel Kalla, Ashley Little, Julia McCarthy. November 9: Frances Greenslade. Please visit our website for event details: www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/incite.
An Evening with Anthony Bourdain - 8pm, October 29, 2011
The "bad boy of cuisine" shares stories from Medium Raw: A Bloody Valentine to the World of Food and the People Who Cook. Use the code "writers" when purchasing your ticket and a portion of the ticket proceeds will go to the VIWF plus you will receive a $5 discount per ticket. Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/bourdain.
An Evening with David Sedaris - 8pm, November 5, 2011
Sedaris returns to Vancouver with his latest book and his uniquely sardonic wit. Use the code "writers" when purchasing your ticket and a portion of the ticket proceeds will go to the VIWF plus you will receive a $5 discount per ticket. Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/davidsedaris.
Wade Davis - November 10, 2011
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.
2011 FESTIVAL AUTHORS
Sonnet L’Abbé believes, as Michael Ondaatje insists, that the most truthful looking is often done from the lowliest positions i.e., the cat’s table. The Cat’s Table is a wonderful book, offering all the best pleasures of Ondaatje’s writing. It had me laughing out loud in public as I read, says L’Abbé.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/the-cats-table-by-michael-ondaatje/article2151728/
Marina Endicott's new book New Year's Eve was launched in Edmonton on September 8, UNESCO's International Literacy Day. Endicott is one of several authors who have written short titles in accessible language and an easy to read format for adult literacy learners—a result of a partnership between Edmonton's Grass Roots Press and ABC Life Literacy Canada.
http://www.quillandquire.com/blog/index.php/2011/09/01/endicott-to-launch-good-reads-series-on-international-literacy-day/
Esi Edugyan's Half Blood Blues begins in Paris, in 1940, to which the remaining members of a German Jazz band have fled. The novel is truly extraordinary in its evocation of time and place, its shimmering jazz vernacular, its pitch-perfect male banter and its period slang. Edugyan never stumbles with her storytelling, writes Arifa Akbar.
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/half-blood-blues-by-esi-edugyan-2351227.html
In her review, Donna Bailey Nurse adds that it is very difficult to perceive and articulate the twisted skein of emotion that is black experience–and yet that is just what Edugyan manages to do with this brilliantly conceived, gorgeously executed novel.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/half-blood-blues-by-esi-edugyan/article2159312/
Michael Bryson writes that Guy Vanderhaeghe's A Good Man continues Vanderhaeghe''s demystification of the Western. The story unfolds with consistent charm and erudition, says Bryson.
http://www.quillandquire.com/reviews/review.cfm?review_id=7368
Philip Marchand says of Helen Humphrey's The Reinvention of Love “The work is a triumph of lucid, vigorous, suspenseful narrative, a historical fiction that wears the author's knowledge of the past lightly, a convincing study of character that could be set in almost any civilized era.”
http://arts.nationalpost.com/2011/09/09/open-book-the-reinvention-of-love-by-helen-humphreys/#more-45015
Helen Humphreys on why she chose to reconstruct a historical footnote.
http://arts.nationalpost.com/2011/09/09/helen-humphreys-on-why-she-chose-to-reconstruct-a-historical-footnote/
AWARDS & LISTS
Alexander MacLeod has been shortlisted for the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award for his Scotiabank Giller Prize–nominated collection, Light Lifting. The award will be presented at the Cork International Short Story Festival later this week.
http://www.quillandquire.com/blog/index.php/2011/07/12/alexander-macleod-shortlisted-for-frank-oconnor-short-story-award/
Vancouver Sun columnist Stephen Hume is a finalist for the City of Victoria Butler Book Prize for adult literature for A Walk with the Rainy Sisters: In Praise of British Columbia's Places, a collection of essays about the geography of British Columbia. The winner will be announced October 12.
http://blogs.vancouversun.com/2011/09/07/stephen-hume-nominated-for-victoria-book-prize/
The British Columbia Genealogical Society celebrated its 40th anniversary in 2011 with an annual book award to encourage family history research and writing in and about British Columbia. First prize in The BCGS Family History Book Awards went to Bruce McIntyre Watson, for Lives Lived West of the Divide: A Biographical Dictionary of Fur Traders Working West of the Rockies, 1793-1858. There are two additional awards and five honourable mentions.
http://www.bcgs.ca/book_award.htm
Jen Currin is the Second Prize winner in the 7th Annual Geist Literal Literary Postcard Story Contest--for East Van End Times Army.
http://www.geist.com/articles/east-van-end-times-army.
And Leslie Vryenhoek is the Third Prize winner in the 7th Annual Geist Literal Literary Postcard Story Contest—for Under the Surface.
http://www.geist.com/articles/under-the-surface/index.html
Saskatchewan author Myrna Dey's debut novel Extensions is the first ever readers' choice nominee for the Scotiabank Giller Prize.
http://www.thestar.com/news/books/article/1049666--granny-s-debut-novel-makes-giller-prize-longlist
Bobby Baker's Diary Drawings: Mental Illness and Me has been chosen the Mind Book of the Year for providing the greatest literary contribution to increasing understanding of mental health issues in the past year. The award is celebrating its 30th anniversary. Previous winners include Hilary Mantel and Studs Terkel.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/sep/12/bobby-baker-mind-book-of-the-year
Rainbow Caterpillar has launched the Rainbow Caterpillar Award for Writing for Children, to support writers who want to write in their mother languages. The Award will go to the best story written by a Canadian citizen or resident in a language other than French or English, but with a Canadian perspective.
http://www.cbabook.org/files/RainbowCaterpillar-WritingAwardsLaunch-Sept2011-Word97%20(2).pdf
NEWS & FEATURES
US researchers from the University at Buffalo have learned that reading fiction ‘improves empathy'. It is the first empirical finding pointing to reading's fulfilling a fundamental need – the need for social connection. The psychology of fiction is a small but growing area of research, according to U of T professor Keith Oatley.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/sep/07/reading-fiction-empathy-study
U.S. president John F. Kennedy openly scorned the notion of vice-president Lyndon Baines Johnson succeeding him in office, according to a book of newly released interviews with his widow. Jacqueline Kennedy: Historic Conversations on Life with John F. Kennedy, was published Sept. 14, the 50th anniversary of Mr. Kennedy's first year in office.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/americas/in-new-book-jacqueline-kennedy-recounts-jfks-scorn-for-lbj/article2159182/?cmpid=nl-news1
When Haruki Murakami's 1,000-page trilogy 1Q84 was first published in Japan, it sold an extraordinary 1m copies in two months. Murakami's English-language publishers are anticipating an equal level of interest when 1Q84 is published next month.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/sep/10/haruki-murakami-trilogy-1q84
Controversy over awards continues. Stella Rimington, the retired spy who is chairing the judges for this year's Man Booker has said: “We were looking for enjoyable books. I think they are readable books”. Among those sidelined were Julian Barnes and Alan Hollinghurst.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/sep/11/catherine-bennett-dumbed-down-booker-prize
HarperCollins has commissioned Joanna Trollope to write a contemporary reworking of Austen's novel, Sense and Sensibility . The pairing is the first in a "major" new series, in which it will team modern authors with Austen's six novels.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/sep/13/joanna-trollope-rewrite-jane-austen
UK bookstore chain W H Smith is to drop the shelf label ‘women's fiction' after two customers complained to the chief executive about the condescending practice.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/booknews/8739104/Bookshop-changes-womens-fiction-label-after-appeal-from-sisterhood.html
The CBC has announced three new literary prizes: for short stories, poetry and literary nonfiction. More details here:
http://www.cbc.ca/books/canadawrites/literaryprizes/
The short story competition for Canada Writes is underway. Launch your literary career! More details here:
http://www.cbc.ca/books/canadawrites/literaryprizes/shortstory/
BOOKS & WRITERS
Patrick Lohier writes that We Others, Steven Millhauser's collected short stories are haunting, hilarious, absurd (in the best way), enigmatic and wondrous. Gems dominate, says Lohier.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/we-others-by-steven-millhauser/article2156995/
Morris Gleitzman's Too Small to Fail is both an Australian and universal tale: about the financial crash. Gleitzman is one of the finest examples of a writer who can make humour stem from the things that really matter in life, says Philip Ardagh.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/sep/06/small-fail-morris-gleitzman-review
Championed by Hilary Mantel as a work of "rare individuality and distinction", Katie Ward's Girl Reading is composed of seven "chapters", each focusing on a different portrait of a woman reading. Open-ended pieces of writing akin to “scenes”, as Mantel calls them.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/sep/06/girl-reading-katie-ward-review
Carol Birch's Jamrach's Menagerie is a finalist for the 2011 Orange Prize and shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. Randy Boyagoda describes the book as the literary equivalent of a wonderful costume drama or summer blockbuster.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/jamrachs-menagerie-by-carol-birch/article2159380/
Viv Groskop finds Madeline Miller's The Song of Achilles to be a racy novel of swords, sandals and Greek love and as entertaining as it is educational.
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/the-song-of-achilles-by-madeline-miller-2352559.html
Sir Richard Burton, the 19th-century explorer famous for unearthing the source of the White Nile, was also a cynical person, jealous of John Speke for upstaging him by 'discovering' Lake Victoria, reveals Tim Jeal's Explorers of the Nile.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/sep/11/burton-speke-african-exploration-nile
The Australian writer Anna Funder follows her Samuel Johnson Prize-winning Stasiland with All That I Am, a novel challenging the frontiers between historical fact and the creative imagination. Rachel Hore says it's a locked-room mystery based on a real-life mystery.
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/all-that-i-am-by-anna-funder-2352568.html
Tom Perrotta's The Leftovers is a smart, compelling novel in the wake of an event much like the Rapture, writes David L. Ulin: a Rapture that may not be the Rapture.
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/books/la-ca-tom-perrotta-20110911,0,6053590.story
Jamie Portman's review focuses on how the survivors cope, rebuild their lives, and gain insight into their own natures.
http://www.vancouversun.com/intriguing+look+society+responds+catastrophe/5382200/story.html
Arguably, Christopher Hitchens' fifth, and possibly final book, reflects his erudition and his range in both breadth and altitude, writes Bill Keller. He's one of the most stimulating thinkers and entertaining writers we have, even when he provokes, says Keller.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/11/books/review/arguably-essays-by-christopher-hitchens-book-review.html?_r=1&nl=books&emc=booksupdateema3&pagewanted=all
Brothers Dick and Syd Cannings, along with Jim Monger and JoAnne Nelson, have updated Geology of British Columbia, giving readers a greater understanding of what happened along this coast millions of years ago.
http://www.vancouversun.com/entertainment/books/Geology+constant+change+creates+story+that+never+ends/5378518/story.html
Sports journalism offers tight, lucid sentences, and an almost numinous evocation of the sense of excitement, writes Tom Sandborn. That's reflected in Jamie Fitzpatrick's debut novel, You Could Believe in Nothing. The book is brisk, engaging and very moving, says Sandborn.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/you-could-believe-in-nothing-by-jamie-fitzpatrick/article2163121/
COMMUNITY EVENTS
KIT PEARSON
Vancouver Kidsbooks is hosting a book launch for Kit Pearson's The Whole Truth on Sept. 15 at 7 p.m. at their store at 3083 West Broadway. Tickets are not required. http://www.kidsbooks.ca/kidsbooksevents.htm?&.
FRANKLIN THE TURTLE
Celebrate the 25th anniversary of Franklin the Turtle. Enjoy a special storytime reading of Franklin the Dark and meet Franklin the Turtle himself. Saturday, September 17 at 11am. Chapters Granville, 2505 Granville Street.
LISTEN! LAUGH! ENJOY! STORYTELLING FOR YOU!
Mary Gavan, Doreen Giesbrecht, and Helen May tell stories that celebrate Vancouver. Guest author Lynda Gray reads from her book First Nations, 101. Sunday, September 18 at 7pm. Tickets: $6 at the door. St. Mark's Anglican Church, 1805 Larch Street. More information at www.vancouverstorytellers.ca.
PEN-IN-HAND POETRY & PROSE READING SERIES
Presenting John Barton and Miles Lowry. Monday, September 19 at 7:30pm. Cost: $3. Serious Coffee, 230 Cook Street, Victoria.
WAYDE COMPTON
Inaugural reading by the Library's seventh Writer in Residence. Tuesday, September 20 at 7:00pm, free.Alice MacKay room, lower level, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia Street.
ANOSH IRANI
Prize-winning playwright and novelist will be reading from his work, with a question period and refreshments to follow. Wednesday, September 21 at 12:30pm, free. Room 7100, W.A.C. Bennett Library, SFU, 8888 University Drive, Burnaby.
PLAY CHTHONICS READING SERIES
Readings by Nikki Reimer and Gail Scott. Wednesday, September 21 at 5:00pm, free. Graham House at Green College, 6201 Cecil Green Park Road. Information at http://playchthonics.blogspot.com.
SUSAN MCCASLIN
Award-winning poet reads from her new volume of poetry, Demeter Goes Skydiving. Wednesday, September 21 at 7:00pm, free. Literature, Social Sciences and Multicultural Services, level 3, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia St.
VOGON POETRY SLAM
Are you the best Vogon poet? Prove it and you may win Earth dollars! Submit your absolutely worst poems to be presented slam style at the VPL/VCON Gala with 501st Legion Stormtroopers. Prizes: $100, $60, $40. Youth prize: $42. Thursday, September 22 at 6:30pm, free. Alice MacKay room, lower level, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia Street. Information: www.vpl.ca.
ROBSON READING SERIES
Readings by Linda Besner (The Id Kid) and Matthew J. Trafford (The Divinity Gene). Thursday, September 22 at 7:00pm, free. UBC Bookstore/Library at Robson Square, Plaza level, 800 Robson Street. More information at www.robsonreadingseries.ubc.ca.
MEET THE AUTHOR SERIES AT CHRISTIANNE'S LYCEUM
Join author Jen Sookfong Lee for a discussion about her novel The Better Mother. Part book club, part literary reading, the event includes wine, light refreshments and lively discussion. Thursday, September 22 at 7:00pm. Tickets: $20. Christianne's Lyceum, 3696 8th Ave. W. More information is available at www.christiannehayward.com. Call 604.733.1356 or email lyceum@christiannehayward.com to register.
KOOTENAY BOOK WEEKEND
The 8th Annual Kootenay Book Weekend will take place in Nelson B.C. September 23, 24 an 25. The featured books are: Christos Tsiolkas' The Slap; Kathryn Stockett's The Help; Li Cunxin's Mao's Last Dancer, and special guest Ruth Ozeki and her books My Year of Meats and All Over Creation. Further information and registration forms can be found at www.kootenaybookweekend.ca.
WORD ON THE STREET
The VPL invites you to one of Canada's biggest annual book and magazine festivals. Sunday, September 25 from 11am to 5pm, free. North & South Plaza, Promenade, Alice MacKay room, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia Street. Information at www.vpl.ca.
LOUISE PENNY
Meet international award-winning author Louise Penny as she signs the newest book in the Armand Gamache series, A Trick of the Light. Sunday, September 25 at 2:00. Chapters Granville, 2505 Granville Street.
AN EVENING WITH SAYEH
Reading by "Iran's greatest living poet". Also a short performance of traditional Persian music. The event will be conducted in Persian. Sunday, September 25 at 8:00pm. Tickets: $15/$10. Kay Meek Centre, 1700 Mathers Avenue, West Vancouver. Details at http://www.kaymeekcentre.com/on_stage/1231.
Upcoming
MARIE-LOUISE GAY
Author will be presenting her new book Caramba and Henry at Vancouver Kidsbooks (3083 W. Broadway), September 26 at 7pm and in South Surrey (Semiahmoo Library Meeting Room, 1815-152nd St. Surrey), September 27 at 4pm. Due to the popularity of these events, everybody must have a ticket. Call (604) 738-5335 or in Surrey (604) 541-9939 for more information.
CINDA WILLIAMS CHIMA
Meet the author as she signs the third book in The Seven Realms series, The Gray Wolf Throne - a tale of fierce loyalty, unbearable sacrifice and the heartless hand of fate. Wednesday, September 28 at 7:00pm. Chapters Langley, 20015 Langley By-Pass, Unit 115.
ROBSON READING SERIES
Timothy Taylor reads from his novel, The Blue Light Project. Thursday, September 29 at 2:00pm, free. Dodson Room (302), Irving K. Barber Learning Centre, 1961 East Mall, UBC, Vancouver. More information at www.ikebarberlearningcentre.ubc.ca/robson.
SMART CHICKS KICK IT TOUR
Join six brilliant authors as they sign their bestselling Teen novels and have fun with prizes, games, music and more! Saturday, October 1 at 2:00pm. Chapters Metrotown, 4700 Kingsway.
BOOK LAUNCH AND LECTURE
Childhood Under Siege by Joel Bakan. 8:15 pm, Saturday October 1 (doors open 7:30 pm). Vancouver Institute in Lecture Hall No. 2, Woodward Instructional Resources Centre, University of British Columbia. www.joelbakan.com
Literati Gala
Join host Bill Richardson and Festival authors for an unforgettable evening. The Literati Gala supports Spreading the Word. Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/literatigala. Purchase tickets to the Literati Gala here, https://www.writersfest.bc.ca/secure/secure_ticket_orders.php?event_id=3
School Group Tickets on Sale
School group tickets to Spreading the Word school events are now on sale. If you are a teacher, please sign up for our Spreading the Word Book News. Details here: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/teachers/schoolorders.
UPCOMING VIWF 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 novel, The Cat's Table. Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/ondaatje.
Incite
Incite, our free reading series is back for the fall! Join us Wednesdays at 7:30pm in the Alice MacKay Room at VPL Central Library. September 28: Daniel Kalla, Ashley Little, Julia McCarthy. November 9: Frances Greenslade. Please visit our website for event details: www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/incite.
An Evening with Anthony Bourdain - 8pm, October 29, 2011
The "bad boy of cuisine" shares stories from Medium Raw: A Bloody Valentine to the World of Food and the People Who Cook. Use the code "writers" when purchasing your ticket and a portion of the ticket proceeds will go to the VIWF plus you will receive a $5 discount per ticket. Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/bourdain.
An Evening with David Sedaris - 8pm, November 5, 2011
Sedaris returns to Vancouver with his latest book and his uniquely sardonic wit. Use the code "writers" when purchasing your ticket and a portion of the ticket proceeds will go to the VIWF plus you will receive a $5 discount per ticket. Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/davidsedaris.
Wade Davis - November 10, 2011
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.
2011 FESTIVAL AUTHORS
Sonnet L’Abbé believes, as Michael Ondaatje insists, that the most truthful looking is often done from the lowliest positions i.e., the cat’s table. The Cat’s Table is a wonderful book, offering all the best pleasures of Ondaatje’s writing. It had me laughing out loud in public as I read, says L’Abbé.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/the-cats-table-by-michael-ondaatje/article2151728/
Marina Endicott's new book New Year's Eve was launched in Edmonton on September 8, UNESCO's International Literacy Day. Endicott is one of several authors who have written short titles in accessible language and an easy to read format for adult literacy learners—a result of a partnership between Edmonton's Grass Roots Press and ABC Life Literacy Canada.
http://www.quillandquire.com/blog/index.php/2011/09/01/endicott-to-launch-good-reads-series-on-international-literacy-day/
Esi Edugyan's Half Blood Blues begins in Paris, in 1940, to which the remaining members of a German Jazz band have fled. The novel is truly extraordinary in its evocation of time and place, its shimmering jazz vernacular, its pitch-perfect male banter and its period slang. Edugyan never stumbles with her storytelling, writes Arifa Akbar.
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/half-blood-blues-by-esi-edugyan-2351227.html
In her review, Donna Bailey Nurse adds that it is very difficult to perceive and articulate the twisted skein of emotion that is black experience–and yet that is just what Edugyan manages to do with this brilliantly conceived, gorgeously executed novel.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/half-blood-blues-by-esi-edugyan/article2159312/
Michael Bryson writes that Guy Vanderhaeghe's A Good Man continues Vanderhaeghe''s demystification of the Western. The story unfolds with consistent charm and erudition, says Bryson.
http://www.quillandquire.com/reviews/review.cfm?review_id=7368
Philip Marchand says of Helen Humphrey's The Reinvention of Love “The work is a triumph of lucid, vigorous, suspenseful narrative, a historical fiction that wears the author's knowledge of the past lightly, a convincing study of character that could be set in almost any civilized era.”
http://arts.nationalpost.com/2011/09/09/open-book-the-reinvention-of-love-by-helen-humphreys/#more-45015
Helen Humphreys on why she chose to reconstruct a historical footnote.
http://arts.nationalpost.com/2011/09/09/helen-humphreys-on-why-she-chose-to-reconstruct-a-historical-footnote/
AWARDS & LISTS
Alexander MacLeod has been shortlisted for the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award for his Scotiabank Giller Prize–nominated collection, Light Lifting. The award will be presented at the Cork International Short Story Festival later this week.
http://www.quillandquire.com/blog/index.php/2011/07/12/alexander-macleod-shortlisted-for-frank-oconnor-short-story-award/
Vancouver Sun columnist Stephen Hume is a finalist for the City of Victoria Butler Book Prize for adult literature for A Walk with the Rainy Sisters: In Praise of British Columbia's Places, a collection of essays about the geography of British Columbia. The winner will be announced October 12.
http://blogs.vancouversun.com/2011/09/07/stephen-hume-nominated-for-victoria-book-prize/
The British Columbia Genealogical Society celebrated its 40th anniversary in 2011 with an annual book award to encourage family history research and writing in and about British Columbia. First prize in The BCGS Family History Book Awards went to Bruce McIntyre Watson, for Lives Lived West of the Divide: A Biographical Dictionary of Fur Traders Working West of the Rockies, 1793-1858. There are two additional awards and five honourable mentions.
http://www.bcgs.ca/book_award.htm
Jen Currin is the Second Prize winner in the 7th Annual Geist Literal Literary Postcard Story Contest--for East Van End Times Army.
http://www.geist.com/articles/east-van-end-times-army.
And Leslie Vryenhoek is the Third Prize winner in the 7th Annual Geist Literal Literary Postcard Story Contest—for Under the Surface.
http://www.geist.com/articles/under-the-surface/index.html
Saskatchewan author Myrna Dey's debut novel Extensions is the first ever readers' choice nominee for the Scotiabank Giller Prize.
http://www.thestar.com/news/books/article/1049666--granny-s-debut-novel-makes-giller-prize-longlist
Bobby Baker's Diary Drawings: Mental Illness and Me has been chosen the Mind Book of the Year for providing the greatest literary contribution to increasing understanding of mental health issues in the past year. The award is celebrating its 30th anniversary. Previous winners include Hilary Mantel and Studs Terkel.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/sep/12/bobby-baker-mind-book-of-the-year
Rainbow Caterpillar has launched the Rainbow Caterpillar Award for Writing for Children, to support writers who want to write in their mother languages. The Award will go to the best story written by a Canadian citizen or resident in a language other than French or English, but with a Canadian perspective.
http://www.cbabook.org/files/RainbowCaterpillar-WritingAwardsLaunch-Sept2011-Word97%20(2).pdf
NEWS & FEATURES
US researchers from the University at Buffalo have learned that reading fiction ‘improves empathy'. It is the first empirical finding pointing to reading's fulfilling a fundamental need – the need for social connection. The psychology of fiction is a small but growing area of research, according to U of T professor Keith Oatley.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/sep/07/reading-fiction-empathy-study
U.S. president John F. Kennedy openly scorned the notion of vice-president Lyndon Baines Johnson succeeding him in office, according to a book of newly released interviews with his widow. Jacqueline Kennedy: Historic Conversations on Life with John F. Kennedy, was published Sept. 14, the 50th anniversary of Mr. Kennedy's first year in office.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/americas/in-new-book-jacqueline-kennedy-recounts-jfks-scorn-for-lbj/article2159182/?cmpid=nl-news1
When Haruki Murakami's 1,000-page trilogy 1Q84 was first published in Japan, it sold an extraordinary 1m copies in two months. Murakami's English-language publishers are anticipating an equal level of interest when 1Q84 is published next month.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/sep/10/haruki-murakami-trilogy-1q84
Controversy over awards continues. Stella Rimington, the retired spy who is chairing the judges for this year's Man Booker has said: “We were looking for enjoyable books. I think they are readable books”. Among those sidelined were Julian Barnes and Alan Hollinghurst.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/sep/11/catherine-bennett-dumbed-down-booker-prize
HarperCollins has commissioned Joanna Trollope to write a contemporary reworking of Austen's novel, Sense and Sensibility . The pairing is the first in a "major" new series, in which it will team modern authors with Austen's six novels.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/sep/13/joanna-trollope-rewrite-jane-austen
UK bookstore chain W H Smith is to drop the shelf label ‘women's fiction' after two customers complained to the chief executive about the condescending practice.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/booknews/8739104/Bookshop-changes-womens-fiction-label-after-appeal-from-sisterhood.html
The CBC has announced three new literary prizes: for short stories, poetry and literary nonfiction. More details here:
http://www.cbc.ca/books/canadawrites/literaryprizes/
The short story competition for Canada Writes is underway. Launch your literary career! More details here:
http://www.cbc.ca/books/canadawrites/literaryprizes/shortstory/
BOOKS & WRITERS
Patrick Lohier writes that We Others, Steven Millhauser's collected short stories are haunting, hilarious, absurd (in the best way), enigmatic and wondrous. Gems dominate, says Lohier.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/we-others-by-steven-millhauser/article2156995/
Morris Gleitzman's Too Small to Fail is both an Australian and universal tale: about the financial crash. Gleitzman is one of the finest examples of a writer who can make humour stem from the things that really matter in life, says Philip Ardagh.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/sep/06/small-fail-morris-gleitzman-review
Championed by Hilary Mantel as a work of "rare individuality and distinction", Katie Ward's Girl Reading is composed of seven "chapters", each focusing on a different portrait of a woman reading. Open-ended pieces of writing akin to “scenes”, as Mantel calls them.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/sep/06/girl-reading-katie-ward-review
Carol Birch's Jamrach's Menagerie is a finalist for the 2011 Orange Prize and shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. Randy Boyagoda describes the book as the literary equivalent of a wonderful costume drama or summer blockbuster.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/jamrachs-menagerie-by-carol-birch/article2159380/
Viv Groskop finds Madeline Miller's The Song of Achilles to be a racy novel of swords, sandals and Greek love and as entertaining as it is educational.
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/the-song-of-achilles-by-madeline-miller-2352559.html
Sir Richard Burton, the 19th-century explorer famous for unearthing the source of the White Nile, was also a cynical person, jealous of John Speke for upstaging him by 'discovering' Lake Victoria, reveals Tim Jeal's Explorers of the Nile.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/sep/11/burton-speke-african-exploration-nile
The Australian writer Anna Funder follows her Samuel Johnson Prize-winning Stasiland with All That I Am, a novel challenging the frontiers between historical fact and the creative imagination. Rachel Hore says it's a locked-room mystery based on a real-life mystery.
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/all-that-i-am-by-anna-funder-2352568.html
Tom Perrotta's The Leftovers is a smart, compelling novel in the wake of an event much like the Rapture, writes David L. Ulin: a Rapture that may not be the Rapture.
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/books/la-ca-tom-perrotta-20110911,0,6053590.story
Jamie Portman's review focuses on how the survivors cope, rebuild their lives, and gain insight into their own natures.
http://www.vancouversun.com/intriguing+look+society+responds+catastrophe/5382200/story.html
Arguably, Christopher Hitchens' fifth, and possibly final book, reflects his erudition and his range in both breadth and altitude, writes Bill Keller. He's one of the most stimulating thinkers and entertaining writers we have, even when he provokes, says Keller.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/11/books/review/arguably-essays-by-christopher-hitchens-book-review.html?_r=1&nl=books&emc=booksupdateema3&pagewanted=all
Brothers Dick and Syd Cannings, along with Jim Monger and JoAnne Nelson, have updated Geology of British Columbia, giving readers a greater understanding of what happened along this coast millions of years ago.
http://www.vancouversun.com/entertainment/books/Geology+constant+change+creates+story+that+never+ends/5378518/story.html
Sports journalism offers tight, lucid sentences, and an almost numinous evocation of the sense of excitement, writes Tom Sandborn. That's reflected in Jamie Fitzpatrick's debut novel, You Could Believe in Nothing. The book is brisk, engaging and very moving, says Sandborn.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/you-could-believe-in-nothing-by-jamie-fitzpatrick/article2163121/
COMMUNITY EVENTS
KIT PEARSON
Vancouver Kidsbooks is hosting a book launch for Kit Pearson's The Whole Truth on Sept. 15 at 7 p.m. at their store at 3083 West Broadway. Tickets are not required. http://www.kidsbooks.ca/kidsbooksevents.htm?&.
FRANKLIN THE TURTLE
Celebrate the 25th anniversary of Franklin the Turtle. Enjoy a special storytime reading of Franklin the Dark and meet Franklin the Turtle himself. Saturday, September 17 at 11am. Chapters Granville, 2505 Granville Street.
LISTEN! LAUGH! ENJOY! STORYTELLING FOR YOU!
Mary Gavan, Doreen Giesbrecht, and Helen May tell stories that celebrate Vancouver. Guest author Lynda Gray reads from her book First Nations, 101. Sunday, September 18 at 7pm. Tickets: $6 at the door. St. Mark's Anglican Church, 1805 Larch Street. More information at www.vancouverstorytellers.ca.
PEN-IN-HAND POETRY & PROSE READING SERIES
Presenting John Barton and Miles Lowry. Monday, September 19 at 7:30pm. Cost: $3. Serious Coffee, 230 Cook Street, Victoria.
WAYDE COMPTON
Inaugural reading by the Library's seventh Writer in Residence. Tuesday, September 20 at 7:00pm, free.Alice MacKay room, lower level, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia Street.
ANOSH IRANI
Prize-winning playwright and novelist will be reading from his work, with a question period and refreshments to follow. Wednesday, September 21 at 12:30pm, free. Room 7100, W.A.C. Bennett Library, SFU, 8888 University Drive, Burnaby.
PLAY CHTHONICS READING SERIES
Readings by Nikki Reimer and Gail Scott. Wednesday, September 21 at 5:00pm, free. Graham House at Green College, 6201 Cecil Green Park Road. Information at http://playchthonics.blogspot.com.
SUSAN MCCASLIN
Award-winning poet reads from her new volume of poetry, Demeter Goes Skydiving. Wednesday, September 21 at 7:00pm, free. Literature, Social Sciences and Multicultural Services, level 3, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia St.
VOGON POETRY SLAM
Are you the best Vogon poet? Prove it and you may win Earth dollars! Submit your absolutely worst poems to be presented slam style at the VPL/VCON Gala with 501st Legion Stormtroopers. Prizes: $100, $60, $40. Youth prize: $42. Thursday, September 22 at 6:30pm, free. Alice MacKay room, lower level, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia Street. Information: www.vpl.ca.
ROBSON READING SERIES
Readings by Linda Besner (The Id Kid) and Matthew J. Trafford (The Divinity Gene). Thursday, September 22 at 7:00pm, free. UBC Bookstore/Library at Robson Square, Plaza level, 800 Robson Street. More information at www.robsonreadingseries.ubc.ca.
MEET THE AUTHOR SERIES AT CHRISTIANNE'S LYCEUM
Join author Jen Sookfong Lee for a discussion about her novel The Better Mother. Part book club, part literary reading, the event includes wine, light refreshments and lively discussion. Thursday, September 22 at 7:00pm. Tickets: $20. Christianne's Lyceum, 3696 8th Ave. W. More information is available at www.christiannehayward.com. Call 604.733.1356 or email lyceum@christiannehayward.com to register.
KOOTENAY BOOK WEEKEND
The 8th Annual Kootenay Book Weekend will take place in Nelson B.C. September 23, 24 an 25. The featured books are: Christos Tsiolkas' The Slap; Kathryn Stockett's The Help; Li Cunxin's Mao's Last Dancer, and special guest Ruth Ozeki and her books My Year of Meats and All Over Creation. Further information and registration forms can be found at www.kootenaybookweekend.ca.
WORD ON THE STREET
The VPL invites you to one of Canada's biggest annual book and magazine festivals. Sunday, September 25 from 11am to 5pm, free. North & South Plaza, Promenade, Alice MacKay room, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia Street. Information at www.vpl.ca.
LOUISE PENNY
Meet international award-winning author Louise Penny as she signs the newest book in the Armand Gamache series, A Trick of the Light. Sunday, September 25 at 2:00. Chapters Granville, 2505 Granville Street.
AN EVENING WITH SAYEH
Reading by "Iran's greatest living poet". Also a short performance of traditional Persian music. The event will be conducted in Persian. Sunday, September 25 at 8:00pm. Tickets: $15/$10. Kay Meek Centre, 1700 Mathers Avenue, West Vancouver. Details at http://www.kaymeekcentre.com/on_stage/1231.
Upcoming
MARIE-LOUISE GAY
Author will be presenting her new book Caramba and Henry at Vancouver Kidsbooks (3083 W. Broadway), September 26 at 7pm and in South Surrey (Semiahmoo Library Meeting Room, 1815-152nd St. Surrey), September 27 at 4pm. Due to the popularity of these events, everybody must have a ticket. Call (604) 738-5335 or in Surrey (604) 541-9939 for more information.
CINDA WILLIAMS CHIMA
Meet the author as she signs the third book in The Seven Realms series, The Gray Wolf Throne - a tale of fierce loyalty, unbearable sacrifice and the heartless hand of fate. Wednesday, September 28 at 7:00pm. Chapters Langley, 20015 Langley By-Pass, Unit 115.
ROBSON READING SERIES
Timothy Taylor reads from his novel, The Blue Light Project. Thursday, September 29 at 2:00pm, free. Dodson Room (302), Irving K. Barber Learning Centre, 1961 East Mall, UBC, Vancouver. More information at www.ikebarberlearningcentre.ubc.ca/robson.
SMART CHICKS KICK IT TOUR
Join six brilliant authors as they sign their bestselling Teen novels and have fun with prizes, games, music and more! Saturday, October 1 at 2:00pm. Chapters Metrotown, 4700 Kingsway.
BOOK LAUNCH AND LECTURE
Childhood Under Siege by Joel Bakan. 8:15 pm, Saturday October 1 (doors open 7:30 pm). Vancouver Institute in Lecture Hall No. 2, Woodward Instructional Resources Centre, University of British Columbia. www.joelbakan.com
Thursday, September 8, 2011
Book News Vol. 6 No. 36
BOOK NEWS
Tickets on sale now!
Festival tickets are now on sale, buy yours early to avoid disappointment. Click here (http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/2011festival) to check out our unbelievable lineup of events and the literary luminaries who will be in Vancouver from October 18-23. Tickets can be purchased by phone, online (www.vancouvertix.com), or in person.
Volunteers Needed!
Volunteer registration for the 2011 Festival is now open. Click here, http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/volunteers/volunteers_needed.htm, to have a look at the great volunteer opportunities we have available. Click here to register to volunteer for the Vancouver International Writers Festival, http://app.volunteer2.com/Public/SignUp?organizationGUID=5c4eca8b-95ae-4e41-99a5-6a0e5843faa8&signupFormId=1.
UPCOMING VIWF EVENTS
Incite
Incite, our free reading series is back for the fall! Join us Wednesdays at 7:30pm in the Alice MacKay Room at VPL Central Library. September 14: Carmen Aguirre and Carmen Rodriguez. September 28: Daniel Kalla, Ashley Little, Julia McCarthy. Please visit our website for event details: www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/incite.
Michael Moore - September 18, 2011
In his only scheduled Canadian appearance, Moore will share stories from Here Comes Trouble, a hilarious and revealing memoir of his early life. Details: www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/moore.
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 novel, The Cat's Table. Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/ondaatje.
An Evening with Anthony Bourdain - 8pm, October 29, 2011
The "bad boy of cuisine" shares stories from Medium Raw: A Bloody Valentine to the World of Food and the People Who Cook. Use the code "writers" when purchasing your ticket and a portion of the ticket proceeds will go to the VIWF plus you will receive a $5 discount per ticket. Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/bourdain.
An Evening with David Sedaris - 8pm, November 5, 2011
Sedaris returns to Vancouver with his latest book and his uniquely sardonic wit. Use the code "writers" when purchasing your ticket and a portion of the ticket proceeds will go to the VIWF plus you will receive a $5 discount per ticket. Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/davidsedaris.
Wade Davis - November 10, 2011
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.
2011 FESTIVAL AUTHORS
In his 2003 Oscar acceptance speech, Michael Moore denounced President Bush and the invasion of Iraq. Overnight he became the most hated man in America. In this extract from his new book, Here Comes Trouble, he tells of the bomb threats, bodyguards and how he fought back.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/sep/07/michael-moore-hated-man-america
“The cat’s table” is the opposite of “the captain’s table”, and the least privileged, the most undesirable dining assignment, writes Annie Proulx. Michael Ondaatje’s The Cat’s Table describes a journey from childhood to the adult world, a passage from the homeland to another country. A master of literary craft, says Proulx.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/aug/31/cats-table-michael-ondaatje-review
In The Antagonist, Lynn Coady explores the modern predicament of being male, writes Joel Yanofsky. Gentle by nature, Rank (Gordon Rankin, Jr.) is a book judged by his cover. Unfortunately, the more people fear him for no reason, the more he ends up giving them reason to. The Antagonist is a revealing effort in cross-gender empathy, says Yanofsky.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/books/Lynn+Coady+novel+explores+modern+predicament+being+male/5346588/story.html
Mark Medley's profile of Coady focuses on borrowing a life for fiction.
http://arts.nationalpost.com/2011/09/02/amoral-of-the-story-lynn-coady-on-borrowing-a-life-for-fiction/
Robert J. Wiersema writes that Lev Grossman's The Magician King picks up some months after The Magicians and that The Magician King is a breakneck read. It will also break your heart, says Wiersema, but that's what growing up will do.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/the-magician-king-by-lev-grossman/article2151683/
Madeleine Thien, author of Dogs at the Perimeter, speaks with Fiona Tinwei Lam, about genocide in Cambodia, the work that led to this book, and why she chose fiction over nonfiction to tell the story.
http://thetyee.ca/Books/2011/09/01/Madeleine-Thien/?utm_source=mondayheadlines&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=050911
Kit Pearson's The Whole Truth is just in time for school, says Tracy Sherlock. It's a Depression-era story of two sisters with a shared secret, sent to British Columbia, and split up. An enticement for youth and others to learn local history!
http://www.vancouversun.com/entertainment/books/Latest+Pearson+book+tells+story+children+with+secret/5347505/story.html
Aritha van Herk writes that David Gilmour's The Perfect Order of Things is a masterpiece of irony, subversive humour and astonishing self-mockery. “A delicious read”, says van Herk.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/the-perfect-order-of-things-by-david-gilmour/article2151667/
AWARDS & LISTS
Eleven of the 17 authors on the Scotiabank Giller Prize longlist will be present at our Festival in October.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/story/2011/09/06/giller-prize-longlist.html
Two Canadians—Patrick DeWitt and Esi Edugyan—are also on the Man Booker shortlist. DeWitt was born on Vancouver Island; Edugyan lives in Victoria.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/two-canadians-make-man-booker-prize-shortlist/article2154493/
The Syrian poet Adonis has become the first Arab writer to win Germany's prestigious Goethe prize. The jury called him "the most important Arab poet of our time".
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/aug/30/adonis-arab-win-goethe-prize
Poet and author Jackie Kay, has been awarded the 2011 Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust Book of the Year, in partnership with Creative Scotland, for her autobiography Red Dust Road.
http://www.creativescotland.org.uk/news/jackie-kay-wins-scottish-book-of-the-year-26082011
Stephen Kelman's Pigeon English, Amy Waldman's The Submission and Siddhartha Mukherjee's The Emperor of All Maladies are among the ten authors longlisted for the Guardian first book award. The Guardian First Book Award is open to all first-time authors writing in English, or translated into English, across all genres.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/aug/31/guardian-first-book-award-longlist
Josh Rolnick's debut short story collection, Pulp and Paper, won the 2011 John Simmons Short Fiction Award, selected by Yiyun Li, and is forthcoming this October.
http://www.themillions.com/2011/08/my-life-in-stories.html
Six translators have been shortlisted for The Corneliu M Popescu Prize for Poetry Translated from a European Language into English.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2011/sep/05/popescu-prize-shortlist-announced
NEWS & FEATURES
Pankaj Mishram, whose new book, The Revenge of the East, will be published next year, writes of the ways western writers reflect the post 9/11 world, and unforeseen geopolitical shifts.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/sep/02/after-september-11-pankaj-mishra
Justin Webb (BBC Today), Pankaj Misharm and Jason Burke have selected a gallery of portraits of the best 9/11 books.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/gallery/2011/sep/02/20-best-september-11-books
Amid all the writing about 9/11, by all the great and good and mediocre and bad, it's hard to imagine much will be better—more wide-ranging, more challenging, more provocative—than Granta 116: Ten Years Later, says Ian McGillis.
http://blogs.montrealgazette.com/2011/09/03/granta-on-the-911-decade-a-rich-and-global-view/
Patrick McGuinness, Booker prize-longlisted novelist, and author of The Last Hundred Days, writes about the novels that collapsing social orders produce: a genre without a name yet.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/sep/05/regime-change-fiction
Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy believes that the fun and creativity of mobile texting will turn today's children into exciting poets of tomorrow. "Poems are a form of texting", she says.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2011/sep/05/carol-ann-duffy-poetry-texting-competition
'No, we shouldn't just Google it'. Sales of reference books are sinking fast as we turn online for the answers to life's big—and small—questions. But our civilisation would be infinitely poorer if Roget's, Brewer's and Fowler's go out of print, argues John Walsh.
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/no-we-shouldnrsquot-just-google-it-john-walsh-laments-the-death-of-the-reference-book-2347173.html
The Royal Society is holding its first literary festival in its 350-year history. The focus will be on science and fiction, whether novelists have insight to offer the world of science and the influence of science in literary work. It's clear that science is represented in literature far more than is commonly assumed, says Professor Uta Frith.
http://www.thebookseller.com/news/royal-society-hold-first-literary-festival.html
Indian-administered Kashmir's first major literature festival has been cancelled after local writers and artists said it would give the false impression that basic freedoms are allowed in the troubled region. While Festival organizers said the event would be apolitical, local writers argued that years of intimidation have made residents unable to speak their minds.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/books/story/2011/08/30/kashmir-writers-lit-fest-cancelled.html
Random House of Canada has announced it is publishing an e-book “inspired by the vision” of the late NDP leader. Hope Is Better Than Fear: Paying Jack Forward will feature a collection of short essays on a number of issues championed by Layton including homelessness, Native rights and the environment. The book will be available through all e-retailers at the end of September.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/random-house-announces-quickie-jack-layton-e-book/article2148457/
New work by around 50 leading authors, curated by the Edinburgh international book festival, is to be released in a new collection under an innovative publishing deal. The work will be published in a box set produced by Cargo, a new Glasgow-based publishing firm. The four-volume collection, on the theme of "elsewhere", will be designed by McSweeney's, the critically-acclaimed San Francisco-based imprint founded by Dave Eggers.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/aug/31/edinburgh-international-book-festival-publishing-project
In tapping into the language of the 21st century and rescuing old words, the latest edition of the Chambers dictionary is more vital than ever, says Robert McCrum. He also explains why he switched from the Concise Oxford to the Chambers.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/robertmccrum
The Internet, which has sped up the life cycle of just about everything, has put pressure on writers to respond faster to world events. Salon.com has published short fiction by eight writers who took on the task of imagining the fall of Moammar Gaddhafi.
http://www.salon.com/books/gadhafis_final_days/index.html?story=/books/2011/08/29/gadhafi_fiction
A partnership between Nasa and Tor/Forge Books is set to pair the science fiction publisher's authors with scientists and engineers from Nasa's Goddard Space Flight Center to release a range of "scientifically accurate and entertaining" novels.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/aug/25/nasa-novel-mission-science-fiction
The CBC has announced three new literary prizes: for short stories, poetry and literary nonfiction. More details here:
http://www.cbc.ca/books/canadawrites/literaryprizes/
Canada Writes: The CBC short story contest is now open. Deadline for submissions is November 1 at 11:59 p.m. ET.
http://www.cbc.ca/books/canadawrites/literaryprizes/shortstory/
BOOKS & WRITERS
In Ragnarok: The Gift of the Gods, AS Byatt's contribution to Canongate's series on myths and legends takes the Norse apocalypse Ragnarok and triumphantly forges it anew. says Peter Conrad.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/sep/04/ragnarok-canongate-as-byatt-review
The True Tale of the Monster Billy Dean, David Almond's first book for adult readers, is not only dramatically and emotionally suspenseful, it is also vividly drawn and wonderfully well paced, writes John Burnside. A master storyteller.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/sep/02/true-tale-monster-billy-dean-review
Steve Martin's An Object of Beauty is set in the art world, with Lacey Yeager trading her way up from Sotheby's basement to a space of her own via some dodgy dealing. An engaging story peppered with real-world references, says Iain Millar.
http://theartnewspaper.com/articles/Steve-Martin-takes-on-the-art-world/21935
The Arab Revolution: Ten Lessons from the Democratic Uprising by Jean-Pierre Filiu, is a bold and timely portrait of the complexities of the Arab world, writes Simon Scott Plummer.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/bookreviews/8722618/The-Arab-Revolution-Ten-Lessons-from-the-Democratic-Uprising-by-Jean-Pierre-Filiu-review.html
Wesley Wark finds the combination of bad intelligence, bad political calculations and absence of moral judgment described in Alex von Tunzelmann's Red Heat: Conspiracy, Murder and the Cold War in the Caribbean to be sobering, as the world considers its response to the Arab spring.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/red-heat-conspiracy-murder-and-the-cold-war-in-the-caribbean-by-alex-von-tunzelmann/article2151754/
This Crazy Time, written by Tzeporah Berman in partnership with Mark Leiren-Young, reflects her shift from enemy of the state to hero, says Tracy Sherlock. The Royal BC Museum considers Berman one of 150 people who have changed the province's history.
http://www.vancouversun.com/technology/From+enemy+state+hero/5338806/story.html
Kate Kellaway writes that when you read a poet for the first time, it is like meeting someone new: first impressions count, especially if you might be spending hours in their company. She picked up Anthony Carelli's Carnations—and read on.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/sep/04/anthony-carelli-carnations-review
In response to his question: “Where is the transformative book about Sept. 11, the one that, like Erich Maria Remarque's "All Quiet on the Western Front" or Tim O'Brien's "The Things They Carried," evokes its emotional resonance?” David L. Ulin finds the answer in "The 9/11 Commission Report: The Attack from Planning to Aftermath". That Report may be as close as we've yet come to the great Sept. 11 novel, says Ulin.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/september11/la-ca-911-commission-report-20110904,0,5034376.story
COMMUNITY EVENTS
THE WRITER'S STUDIO READING SERIES
An evening of storytelling and poetry featuring Melanie Jackson, a suspense-adventure writer for children and young adults. Thursday, September 8 at 7pm. Rhizome Cafe, 317 East Broadway. More information at www.thewritersstudio.ca.
CBC KIDS BOOK CLUB
Saturday Sept 10 - CBC's North by Northwest is doing a special Kids Book Club featuring Erin Bow, who is shortlisted for the TD Canadian Children's Literature Award for "Plain Kate". It's a thriller for readers 12 & up that love magic and mystery. Open to kids of all ages - no tickets or RSVP's - just come on down to CBC. Doors open at 10:30 am and taping begins at 11 am www.cbc.ca/bc/bookclub.
DENNIS BOLEN AND SORESSA GARDNER
Author Dennis Bolen presents Anticipated Results, his first story collection, in collaboration with unconventional soundscapes and song by artist Soressa Gardner. Wednesday, September 14 at 7:00pm, free. Alma VanDusen & Peter Kaye rooms, lower level, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia Street.
KIT PEARSON
Vancouver Kidsbooks is hosting a book launch for Kit Pearson’s The Whole Truth on Sept. 15 at 7 p.m. at their store at 3083 West Broadway. Tickets are not required. http://www.kidsbooks.ca/kidsbooksevents.htm?&.
PEN-IN-HAND POETRY & PROSE READING SERIES
Presenting John Barton and Miles Lowry. Monday, September 19 at 7:30pm. Cost: $3. Serious Coffee, 230 Cook Street, Victoria.
Upcoming
WAYDE COMPTON
Inaugural reading by the Library's seventh Writer in Residence. Tuesday, September 20 at 7:00pm, free.Alice MacKay room, lower level, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia Street.
SUSAN MCCASLIN
Award-winning poet reads from her new volume of poetry, Demeter Goes Skydiving. Wednesday, September 21 at 7:00pm, free. Literature, Social Sciences and Multicultural Services, level 3, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia St.
VOGON POETRY SLAM
Are you the best Vogon poet? Prove it and you may win Earth dollars! Submit your absolutely worst poems to be presented slam style at the VPL/VCON Gala with 501st Legion Stormtroopers. Prizes: $100, $60, $40. Youth prize: $42. Thursday, September 22 at 6:30pm, free. Alice MacKay room, lower level, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia Street. Information: www.vpl.ca.
ROBSON READING SERIES
Readings by Linda Besner (The Id Kid) and Matthew J. Trafford (The Divinity Gene). Thursday, September 22 at 7:00pm, free. UBC Bookstore/Library at Robson Square, Plaza level, 800 Robson Street. More information at www.robsonreadingseries.ubc.ca.
MEET THE AUTHOR SERIES AT CHRISTIANNE'S LYCEUM
Join author Jen Sookfong Lee for a discussion about her novel The Better Mother. Part book club, part literary reading, the event includes wine, light refreshments and lively discussion. Thursday, September 22 at 7:00pm. Tickets: $20. Christianne's Lyceum, 3696 8th Ave. W. More information is available at www.christiannehayward.com. Call 604.733.1356 or email lyceum@christiannehayward.com to register.
KOOTENAY BOOK WEEKEND
The 8th Annual Kootenay Book Weekend will take place in Nelson B.C. September 23, 24 an 25. The featured books are: Christos Tsiolkas' The Slap; Kathryn Stockett's The Help; Li Cunxin's Mao's Last Dancer, and special guest Ruth Ozeki and her books My Year of Meats and All Over Creation. Further information and registration forms can be found at www.kootenaybookweekend.ca.
WORD ON THE STREET
The VPL invites you to one of Canada's biggest annual book and magazine festivals. Sunday, September 25 from 11am to 5pm, free. North & South Plaza, Promenade, Alice MacKay room, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia Street. Information at www.vpl.ca.
LOUISE PENNY
Meet international award-winning author Louise Penny as she signs the newest book in the Armand Gamache series, A Trick of the Light. Sunday, September 25 at 2:00. Chapters Granville, 2505 Granville Street.
CINDA WILLIAMS CHIMA
Meet the author as she signs the third book in The Seven Realms series, The Gray Wolf Throne - a tale of fierce loyalty, unbearable sacrifice and the heartless hand of fate. Wednesday, September 28 at 7:00pm. Chapters Langley, 20015 Langley By-Pass, Unit 115.
ROBSON READING SERIES
Timothy Taylor reads from his novel, The Blue Light Project. Thursday, September 29 at 2:00pm, free. Dodson Room (302), Irving K. Barber Learning Centre, 1961 East Mall, UBC, Vancouver. More information at www.ikebarberlearningcentre.ubc.ca/robson.
SMART CHICKS KICK IT TOUR
Join six brilliant authors as they sign their bestselling Teen novels and have fun with prizes, games, music and more! Saturday, October 1 at 2:00pm. Chapters Metrotown, 4700 Kingsway.
BOOK LAUNCH AND LECTURE
Childhood Under Siege by Joel Bakan. 8:15 pm, Saturday October 1 (doors open 7:30 pm). Vancouver Institute in Lecture Hall No. 2, Woodward Instructional Resources Centre, University of British Columbia. www.joelbakan.com
Tickets on sale now!
Festival tickets are now on sale, buy yours early to avoid disappointment. Click here (http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/2011festival) to check out our unbelievable lineup of events and the literary luminaries who will be in Vancouver from October 18-23. Tickets can be purchased by phone, online (www.vancouvertix.com), or in person.
Volunteers Needed!
Volunteer registration for the 2011 Festival is now open. Click here, http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/volunteers/volunteers_needed.htm, to have a look at the great volunteer opportunities we have available. Click here to register to volunteer for the Vancouver International Writers Festival, http://app.volunteer2.com/Public/SignUp?organizationGUID=5c4eca8b-95ae-4e41-99a5-6a0e5843faa8&signupFormId=1.
UPCOMING VIWF EVENTS
Incite
Incite, our free reading series is back for the fall! Join us Wednesdays at 7:30pm in the Alice MacKay Room at VPL Central Library. September 14: Carmen Aguirre and Carmen Rodriguez. September 28: Daniel Kalla, Ashley Little, Julia McCarthy. Please visit our website for event details: www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/incite.
Michael Moore - September 18, 2011
In his only scheduled Canadian appearance, Moore will share stories from Here Comes Trouble, a hilarious and revealing memoir of his early life. Details: www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/moore.
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 novel, The Cat's Table. Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/ondaatje.
An Evening with Anthony Bourdain - 8pm, October 29, 2011
The "bad boy of cuisine" shares stories from Medium Raw: A Bloody Valentine to the World of Food and the People Who Cook. Use the code "writers" when purchasing your ticket and a portion of the ticket proceeds will go to the VIWF plus you will receive a $5 discount per ticket. Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/bourdain.
An Evening with David Sedaris - 8pm, November 5, 2011
Sedaris returns to Vancouver with his latest book and his uniquely sardonic wit. Use the code "writers" when purchasing your ticket and a portion of the ticket proceeds will go to the VIWF plus you will receive a $5 discount per ticket. Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/davidsedaris.
Wade Davis - November 10, 2011
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.
2011 FESTIVAL AUTHORS
In his 2003 Oscar acceptance speech, Michael Moore denounced President Bush and the invasion of Iraq. Overnight he became the most hated man in America. In this extract from his new book, Here Comes Trouble, he tells of the bomb threats, bodyguards and how he fought back.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/sep/07/michael-moore-hated-man-america
“The cat’s table” is the opposite of “the captain’s table”, and the least privileged, the most undesirable dining assignment, writes Annie Proulx. Michael Ondaatje’s The Cat’s Table describes a journey from childhood to the adult world, a passage from the homeland to another country. A master of literary craft, says Proulx.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/aug/31/cats-table-michael-ondaatje-review
In The Antagonist, Lynn Coady explores the modern predicament of being male, writes Joel Yanofsky. Gentle by nature, Rank (Gordon Rankin, Jr.) is a book judged by his cover. Unfortunately, the more people fear him for no reason, the more he ends up giving them reason to. The Antagonist is a revealing effort in cross-gender empathy, says Yanofsky.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/books/Lynn+Coady+novel+explores+modern+predicament+being+male/5346588/story.html
Mark Medley's profile of Coady focuses on borrowing a life for fiction.
http://arts.nationalpost.com/2011/09/02/amoral-of-the-story-lynn-coady-on-borrowing-a-life-for-fiction/
Robert J. Wiersema writes that Lev Grossman's The Magician King picks up some months after The Magicians and that The Magician King is a breakneck read. It will also break your heart, says Wiersema, but that's what growing up will do.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/the-magician-king-by-lev-grossman/article2151683/
Madeleine Thien, author of Dogs at the Perimeter, speaks with Fiona Tinwei Lam, about genocide in Cambodia, the work that led to this book, and why she chose fiction over nonfiction to tell the story.
http://thetyee.ca/Books/2011/09/01/Madeleine-Thien/?utm_source=mondayheadlines&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=050911
Kit Pearson's The Whole Truth is just in time for school, says Tracy Sherlock. It's a Depression-era story of two sisters with a shared secret, sent to British Columbia, and split up. An enticement for youth and others to learn local history!
http://www.vancouversun.com/entertainment/books/Latest+Pearson+book+tells+story+children+with+secret/5347505/story.html
Aritha van Herk writes that David Gilmour's The Perfect Order of Things is a masterpiece of irony, subversive humour and astonishing self-mockery. “A delicious read”, says van Herk.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/the-perfect-order-of-things-by-david-gilmour/article2151667/
AWARDS & LISTS
Eleven of the 17 authors on the Scotiabank Giller Prize longlist will be present at our Festival in October.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/story/2011/09/06/giller-prize-longlist.html
Two Canadians—Patrick DeWitt and Esi Edugyan—are also on the Man Booker shortlist. DeWitt was born on Vancouver Island; Edugyan lives in Victoria.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/two-canadians-make-man-booker-prize-shortlist/article2154493/
The Syrian poet Adonis has become the first Arab writer to win Germany's prestigious Goethe prize. The jury called him "the most important Arab poet of our time".
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/aug/30/adonis-arab-win-goethe-prize
Poet and author Jackie Kay, has been awarded the 2011 Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust Book of the Year, in partnership with Creative Scotland, for her autobiography Red Dust Road.
http://www.creativescotland.org.uk/news/jackie-kay-wins-scottish-book-of-the-year-26082011
Stephen Kelman's Pigeon English, Amy Waldman's The Submission and Siddhartha Mukherjee's The Emperor of All Maladies are among the ten authors longlisted for the Guardian first book award. The Guardian First Book Award is open to all first-time authors writing in English, or translated into English, across all genres.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/aug/31/guardian-first-book-award-longlist
Josh Rolnick's debut short story collection, Pulp and Paper, won the 2011 John Simmons Short Fiction Award, selected by Yiyun Li, and is forthcoming this October.
http://www.themillions.com/2011/08/my-life-in-stories.html
Six translators have been shortlisted for The Corneliu M Popescu Prize for Poetry Translated from a European Language into English.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2011/sep/05/popescu-prize-shortlist-announced
NEWS & FEATURES
Pankaj Mishram, whose new book, The Revenge of the East, will be published next year, writes of the ways western writers reflect the post 9/11 world, and unforeseen geopolitical shifts.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/sep/02/after-september-11-pankaj-mishra
Justin Webb (BBC Today), Pankaj Misharm and Jason Burke have selected a gallery of portraits of the best 9/11 books.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/gallery/2011/sep/02/20-best-september-11-books
Amid all the writing about 9/11, by all the great and good and mediocre and bad, it's hard to imagine much will be better—more wide-ranging, more challenging, more provocative—than Granta 116: Ten Years Later, says Ian McGillis.
http://blogs.montrealgazette.com/2011/09/03/granta-on-the-911-decade-a-rich-and-global-view/
Patrick McGuinness, Booker prize-longlisted novelist, and author of The Last Hundred Days, writes about the novels that collapsing social orders produce: a genre without a name yet.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/sep/05/regime-change-fiction
Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy believes that the fun and creativity of mobile texting will turn today's children into exciting poets of tomorrow. "Poems are a form of texting", she says.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2011/sep/05/carol-ann-duffy-poetry-texting-competition
'No, we shouldn't just Google it'. Sales of reference books are sinking fast as we turn online for the answers to life's big—and small—questions. But our civilisation would be infinitely poorer if Roget's, Brewer's and Fowler's go out of print, argues John Walsh.
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/no-we-shouldnrsquot-just-google-it-john-walsh-laments-the-death-of-the-reference-book-2347173.html
The Royal Society is holding its first literary festival in its 350-year history. The focus will be on science and fiction, whether novelists have insight to offer the world of science and the influence of science in literary work. It's clear that science is represented in literature far more than is commonly assumed, says Professor Uta Frith.
http://www.thebookseller.com/news/royal-society-hold-first-literary-festival.html
Indian-administered Kashmir's first major literature festival has been cancelled after local writers and artists said it would give the false impression that basic freedoms are allowed in the troubled region. While Festival organizers said the event would be apolitical, local writers argued that years of intimidation have made residents unable to speak their minds.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/books/story/2011/08/30/kashmir-writers-lit-fest-cancelled.html
Random House of Canada has announced it is publishing an e-book “inspired by the vision” of the late NDP leader. Hope Is Better Than Fear: Paying Jack Forward will feature a collection of short essays on a number of issues championed by Layton including homelessness, Native rights and the environment. The book will be available through all e-retailers at the end of September.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/random-house-announces-quickie-jack-layton-e-book/article2148457/
New work by around 50 leading authors, curated by the Edinburgh international book festival, is to be released in a new collection under an innovative publishing deal. The work will be published in a box set produced by Cargo, a new Glasgow-based publishing firm. The four-volume collection, on the theme of "elsewhere", will be designed by McSweeney's, the critically-acclaimed San Francisco-based imprint founded by Dave Eggers.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/aug/31/edinburgh-international-book-festival-publishing-project
In tapping into the language of the 21st century and rescuing old words, the latest edition of the Chambers dictionary is more vital than ever, says Robert McCrum. He also explains why he switched from the Concise Oxford to the Chambers.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/robertmccrum
The Internet, which has sped up the life cycle of just about everything, has put pressure on writers to respond faster to world events. Salon.com has published short fiction by eight writers who took on the task of imagining the fall of Moammar Gaddhafi.
http://www.salon.com/books/gadhafis_final_days/index.html?story=/books/2011/08/29/gadhafi_fiction
A partnership between Nasa and Tor/Forge Books is set to pair the science fiction publisher's authors with scientists and engineers from Nasa's Goddard Space Flight Center to release a range of "scientifically accurate and entertaining" novels.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/aug/25/nasa-novel-mission-science-fiction
The CBC has announced three new literary prizes: for short stories, poetry and literary nonfiction. More details here:
http://www.cbc.ca/books/canadawrites/literaryprizes/
Canada Writes: The CBC short story contest is now open. Deadline for submissions is November 1 at 11:59 p.m. ET.
http://www.cbc.ca/books/canadawrites/literaryprizes/shortstory/
BOOKS & WRITERS
In Ragnarok: The Gift of the Gods, AS Byatt's contribution to Canongate's series on myths and legends takes the Norse apocalypse Ragnarok and triumphantly forges it anew. says Peter Conrad.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/sep/04/ragnarok-canongate-as-byatt-review
The True Tale of the Monster Billy Dean, David Almond's first book for adult readers, is not only dramatically and emotionally suspenseful, it is also vividly drawn and wonderfully well paced, writes John Burnside. A master storyteller.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/sep/02/true-tale-monster-billy-dean-review
Steve Martin's An Object of Beauty is set in the art world, with Lacey Yeager trading her way up from Sotheby's basement to a space of her own via some dodgy dealing. An engaging story peppered with real-world references, says Iain Millar.
http://theartnewspaper.com/articles/Steve-Martin-takes-on-the-art-world/21935
The Arab Revolution: Ten Lessons from the Democratic Uprising by Jean-Pierre Filiu, is a bold and timely portrait of the complexities of the Arab world, writes Simon Scott Plummer.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/bookreviews/8722618/The-Arab-Revolution-Ten-Lessons-from-the-Democratic-Uprising-by-Jean-Pierre-Filiu-review.html
Wesley Wark finds the combination of bad intelligence, bad political calculations and absence of moral judgment described in Alex von Tunzelmann's Red Heat: Conspiracy, Murder and the Cold War in the Caribbean to be sobering, as the world considers its response to the Arab spring.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/red-heat-conspiracy-murder-and-the-cold-war-in-the-caribbean-by-alex-von-tunzelmann/article2151754/
This Crazy Time, written by Tzeporah Berman in partnership with Mark Leiren-Young, reflects her shift from enemy of the state to hero, says Tracy Sherlock. The Royal BC Museum considers Berman one of 150 people who have changed the province's history.
http://www.vancouversun.com/technology/From+enemy+state+hero/5338806/story.html
Kate Kellaway writes that when you read a poet for the first time, it is like meeting someone new: first impressions count, especially if you might be spending hours in their company. She picked up Anthony Carelli's Carnations—and read on.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/sep/04/anthony-carelli-carnations-review
In response to his question: “Where is the transformative book about Sept. 11, the one that, like Erich Maria Remarque's "All Quiet on the Western Front" or Tim O'Brien's "The Things They Carried," evokes its emotional resonance?” David L. Ulin finds the answer in "The 9/11 Commission Report: The Attack from Planning to Aftermath". That Report may be as close as we've yet come to the great Sept. 11 novel, says Ulin.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/september11/la-ca-911-commission-report-20110904,0,5034376.story
COMMUNITY EVENTS
THE WRITER'S STUDIO READING SERIES
An evening of storytelling and poetry featuring Melanie Jackson, a suspense-adventure writer for children and young adults. Thursday, September 8 at 7pm. Rhizome Cafe, 317 East Broadway. More information at www.thewritersstudio.ca.
CBC KIDS BOOK CLUB
Saturday Sept 10 - CBC's North by Northwest is doing a special Kids Book Club featuring Erin Bow, who is shortlisted for the TD Canadian Children's Literature Award for "Plain Kate". It's a thriller for readers 12 & up that love magic and mystery. Open to kids of all ages - no tickets or RSVP's - just come on down to CBC. Doors open at 10:30 am and taping begins at 11 am www.cbc.ca/bc/bookclub.
DENNIS BOLEN AND SORESSA GARDNER
Author Dennis Bolen presents Anticipated Results, his first story collection, in collaboration with unconventional soundscapes and song by artist Soressa Gardner. Wednesday, September 14 at 7:00pm, free. Alma VanDusen & Peter Kaye rooms, lower level, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia Street.
KIT PEARSON
Vancouver Kidsbooks is hosting a book launch for Kit Pearson’s The Whole Truth on Sept. 15 at 7 p.m. at their store at 3083 West Broadway. Tickets are not required. http://www.kidsbooks.ca/kidsbooksevents.htm?&.
PEN-IN-HAND POETRY & PROSE READING SERIES
Presenting John Barton and Miles Lowry. Monday, September 19 at 7:30pm. Cost: $3. Serious Coffee, 230 Cook Street, Victoria.
Upcoming
WAYDE COMPTON
Inaugural reading by the Library's seventh Writer in Residence. Tuesday, September 20 at 7:00pm, free.Alice MacKay room, lower level, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia Street.
SUSAN MCCASLIN
Award-winning poet reads from her new volume of poetry, Demeter Goes Skydiving. Wednesday, September 21 at 7:00pm, free. Literature, Social Sciences and Multicultural Services, level 3, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia St.
VOGON POETRY SLAM
Are you the best Vogon poet? Prove it and you may win Earth dollars! Submit your absolutely worst poems to be presented slam style at the VPL/VCON Gala with 501st Legion Stormtroopers. Prizes: $100, $60, $40. Youth prize: $42. Thursday, September 22 at 6:30pm, free. Alice MacKay room, lower level, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia Street. Information: www.vpl.ca.
ROBSON READING SERIES
Readings by Linda Besner (The Id Kid) and Matthew J. Trafford (The Divinity Gene). Thursday, September 22 at 7:00pm, free. UBC Bookstore/Library at Robson Square, Plaza level, 800 Robson Street. More information at www.robsonreadingseries.ubc.ca.
MEET THE AUTHOR SERIES AT CHRISTIANNE'S LYCEUM
Join author Jen Sookfong Lee for a discussion about her novel The Better Mother. Part book club, part literary reading, the event includes wine, light refreshments and lively discussion. Thursday, September 22 at 7:00pm. Tickets: $20. Christianne's Lyceum, 3696 8th Ave. W. More information is available at www.christiannehayward.com. Call 604.733.1356 or email lyceum@christiannehayward.com to register.
KOOTENAY BOOK WEEKEND
The 8th Annual Kootenay Book Weekend will take place in Nelson B.C. September 23, 24 an 25. The featured books are: Christos Tsiolkas' The Slap; Kathryn Stockett's The Help; Li Cunxin's Mao's Last Dancer, and special guest Ruth Ozeki and her books My Year of Meats and All Over Creation. Further information and registration forms can be found at www.kootenaybookweekend.ca.
WORD ON THE STREET
The VPL invites you to one of Canada's biggest annual book and magazine festivals. Sunday, September 25 from 11am to 5pm, free. North & South Plaza, Promenade, Alice MacKay room, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia Street. Information at www.vpl.ca.
LOUISE PENNY
Meet international award-winning author Louise Penny as she signs the newest book in the Armand Gamache series, A Trick of the Light. Sunday, September 25 at 2:00. Chapters Granville, 2505 Granville Street.
CINDA WILLIAMS CHIMA
Meet the author as she signs the third book in The Seven Realms series, The Gray Wolf Throne - a tale of fierce loyalty, unbearable sacrifice and the heartless hand of fate. Wednesday, September 28 at 7:00pm. Chapters Langley, 20015 Langley By-Pass, Unit 115.
ROBSON READING SERIES
Timothy Taylor reads from his novel, The Blue Light Project. Thursday, September 29 at 2:00pm, free. Dodson Room (302), Irving K. Barber Learning Centre, 1961 East Mall, UBC, Vancouver. More information at www.ikebarberlearningcentre.ubc.ca/robson.
SMART CHICKS KICK IT TOUR
Join six brilliant authors as they sign their bestselling Teen novels and have fun with prizes, games, music and more! Saturday, October 1 at 2:00pm. Chapters Metrotown, 4700 Kingsway.
BOOK LAUNCH AND LECTURE
Childhood Under Siege by Joel Bakan. 8:15 pm, Saturday October 1 (doors open 7:30 pm). Vancouver Institute in Lecture Hall No. 2, Woodward Instructional Resources Centre, University of British Columbia. www.joelbakan.com
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