BOOK NEWS
UPCOMING VIWF EVENTS
Incite
At the next Incite on March 7, Steven Price, Julie Bruck, and W. H. New read from their new poetry collections, Omens in the Year of the Ox, Monkey Ranch, and YVR. Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/incitemarch7. Also appearing at Incite in the next few months are Linden MacIntyre, Will Ferguson, Anakana Schofield, Richard Stursberg, John Boyne, Yasuko Thanh and Buffy Cran, among others.
Richard Ford
Pulitzer Prize and PEN/Faulkner Award-winning author Richard Ford appears with his latest novel, Canada. This will be Mr Ford’s first appearance in Canada with this new book. Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/richardford.
AWARDS & LISTS
Frederick Forsyth has won the Diamond Dagger lifetime achievement award. The Day of the Jackal author was honoured for settting 'a new standard of research-based authenticity' in thrillers and a lifetime's achievement in crime writing.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/feb/17/frederick-forsyth-diamond-dagger-lifetime-award
The Moth, a New York City-based group dedicated to the art of storytelling, is among the 15 organizations in 6 countries to receive the MacArthur Award for Creative and Effective Leadership from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/16/macarthur-grants-bolster-creative-group-and-investigative-project/
The Ontario Library Association has included Frances Greenslade's Shelter on the 10-book shortlist for its 2012 Evergreen Awards.
http://www.thestar.com/news/books/article/1132615--shelter-by-frances-greenslade-review
Véronique Olmi's Beside the Sea has won the Scott Moncrieff prize for best translation from French.
http://www.bclt.org.uk/index.php/events/sebald_lecture_2011/
Gruffalo author Julia Donaldson is Britain's new Children's Laureate, as of last June.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-13682785
The 2012 selection for the Toronto Public Library's city-wide book club this April (One Book: Toronto) is Girls Fall Down by Maggie Helwig. The novel was published in 2008 by Coach House Books and shortlisted for the Toronto Book Award.
http://www.thestar.com/news/books/article/1134322--maggie-helwig-s-post-9-11-panic-novel-named-keep-toronto-reading-s-one-book
The Globe Book Club invited readers to vote for their favourite of five fiction and five nonfiction titles. Marina Nemat's Prisoner of Tehran captured 35% of the vote and becomes the subject of the next round of book-club discussions.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/readers-vote-prisoner-of-tehran-next-book-club-pick/article2342240/
Biographies of Canada's first prime minister, Sir John A. Macdonald, and of Pierre Trudeau are two of five nominees for the Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing. The winner of the prize will be announced in April.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/books/story/2012/02/22/political-writing-prize.html
YOUNG READERS
The first line of The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle by Avi did it for me, writes Harriet. As soon as I started I couldn't stop reading. "It keeps you wondering about how it will end."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/childrens-books-site/2012/feb/16/the-true-confessions-of-charlotte-doyle-by-avi
The Fault in Our Stars, by John Green, is a tour de force, writes Monique Polak. Readers could not ask for a more delightful narrator, says Polak.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/books/Fault+Stars+John+Green+tour+force/6169895/story.html
My daughter–already drafting her own glowing review of the book for her school paper–will propose Augusta Scattergood's Glory Be to our mother-daughter book club. I encourage you to read the book with your own children, writes Anne Chudobiak.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/books/Mississippi+girl+knows+pool+closed/6169931/story.html
Frances Greenslade's Shelter is a beating heart of a book, writes Patricia Hluchy, alive with fierce imagination, acute descriptions of the natural world, a shelter motif, a sure hand with narrative, and intersections between First Nations characters and Maggie's family.
http://www.thestar.com/news/books/article/1132615--shelter-by-frances-greenslade-review
R.J. Palacio's Wonder recounts a year in the life of August, a 10-year-old boy with severe facial abnormalities, as he navigates school for the first time. Intending it to be "a kids' book foremost", it's being hailed as a "crossover classic".
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/feb/19/rj-palacio-interview-wonder
In an interview with Killian Fox about his new work Hope: A Tragedy, Shalom Auslander discusses the inspiration behind his new novel about a man who discovers Anne Frank living in his attic, adding: "Part of the job is frightening yourself."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/feb/19/shalom-auslander-interview-hope-tragedy
NEWS & FEATURES
A recent snapshot of national reading habits shows that Canadians continue to be avid readers, whether they're consuming print books or e-books. The National Reading Campaign offers a one-week peek into the country's appetite for books.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/story/2012/02/16/reading-book-count-campaign.html
Saltspring Island is launching Words Without Borders, its first literary festival, February 24-26. Marsha Lederman writes that the population of 10,000 supports five independent bookstores, and includes many writers (Brian Brett, Ronald Wright, Kathy Page, Kevin Patterson and Derek Lundy among them).
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/saltspring-island-launches-a-literary-fest-with-hopes-and-prayers/article2344030/
A clay statue of Northrup Frye, glancing thoughtfully in the distance with a book perched on his lap, is a work in progress. The finished bronze statue will be officially unveiled July 14, when Frye would have marked his 100th birthday.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/story/2012/02/21/nb-frye-festival-statue.html
The Columbia Journalism Review focuses on the impact of the Internet on cartooning.
http://www.cjr.org/the_news_frontier/cartooning_for_a_sustainable_f.php?page=all
Talk-show host and comedian Stephen Colbert plans to rally readers 'round the flagpole. Grand Central Publishing will publish Colbert's children's book, "I Am a Pole (And So Can You!)" on May 8.
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-31749_162-57382004-10391698/stephen-colbert-to-show-the-flag-in-new-childrens-book/
There is a newly digitized collection of love letters between the Victorian poets Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning, now online.
http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/14/love-letters-digitized-the-triumphant-happiness-of-elizabeth-barrett-and-robert-browning/
In an interview with Hugh Muir, Maya Angelou, described as the sage of black America, talks about growing old (‘not for sissies') and American political leadership.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/feb/15/maya-angelou-barack-obama-remarkable-job
During the Bosnian war, men and women risked their lives to rescue irreplaceable Islamic manuscripts, safeguarding more than 10,000 unique, hand-written antique books and documents held in the 16th century Gazi Husrav Beg Library.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/gallery/2012/feb/20/library-sarajevo-in-pictures
Last year, two books were sent to a prisoner in Alabama: Mountains Beyond Mountains (Dr. Farmer's work in Haiti) and Slavery by Another Name, (about post-slavery peonage). The prison allowed delivery of the first book, but banned the second as too provocative.
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/opinion/views/os-ed-leonard-pitts-021912-20120220,0,1840614.column
One of the questions addressed by a recent issue of The New York Review of Books is: do E-books bring us closer to the printed word?
http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2012/feb/15/ebooks-cant-burn/
The memoirs of American author William Wharton are to be published for the first time in English, along with his complete works, beginning this summer. Scott Pack described the war memoir as "one of the finest" he has read.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/feb/18/william-wharton-birdy-autobiography-memoir
The task: judge a competition of artists, between the ages of 13 and 16, to design a cover for a new edition of Lord of the Flies, with Judy Golding (daughter) and designers, the judges.The competition produced stunning results.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2012/feb/18/redesigning-lord-of-the-flies
Mystery shrouds an old greeting card found in a dog-eared copy of Plato's Republic, in Toronto's Agincourt District Library. Handwritten in Spanish, the card is addressed from Argentinean author Jorge Luis Borges and appears to carry his signature and a cartoon doodle.
http://www.thestar.com/news/books/article/1133003--toronto-librarian-stumbles-on-mysterious-card-with-jorge-luis-borges-connection
One week later: mystery solved. The found greeting card belonging to Jorge Luis Borges was a hoax. "As those who have read Borges know, he delighted in blurring the line between fact and fiction."The signature, however, is authentic.
http://www.thestar.com/news/books/article/1133419--library-discovery-indeed-bears-signature-of-jorge-luis-borges-author-s-friend-confirms
A few months ago, Patti Larsen, a writer of young adult paranormal fiction, took advantage of a new program at Amazon.com that allows authors to give away electronic versions of their books online for a few days.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/story/2012/02/20/pei-larsen-book-giveaway-amazon-584.html
One day, Veronica Gaylie brushed shoulders with Trevor Linden in economy class. Her response was to write an airborne ode to the greatest Canuck who ever lived.
http://www.geist.com/articles/the-guy-upstairs/index.html
Growing up, Colm Tóibín was haunted by the stories of previous generations. In New Ways to Kill Your Mother, he explores the relationships–inspiring, rivalrous, Oedipal–between authors and their parents, from WB Yeats to VS Naipaul.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/feb/17/colm-toibin-how-i-killed-my-mother
Teju Cole considers Michael Ondaatje his hero. 'Here's a celebrated writer who can't stop taking risks on the page,' writes Cole. "His ambiguities are quiet and precise. I want to be like that when I grow up."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/feb/17/my-hero-michael-ondaatje-teju-cole
Although it was translated into 15 languages across Europe, no British publisher would touch Véronique Olmi's novel about a woman who kills her children. Now, the French novella Beside the Sea has been transformed into a monologue for the stage.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/feb/18/beside-the-sea-veronique-olmi-monologue
Children's literature by Jill Biden, Carol Geithner, Calista Gingrich and the re-publication of a book by Lynne Cheney: could this be an election year?
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/19/books/review/the-washington-wives-book-club.html?_r=1&nl=books&emc=booksupdateema3&pagewanted=all
BOOKS & WRITERS
Indian Horse distills much of what Richard Wagamese has been writing about for his whole career, writes Jane Smiley, both more bitter and more moving than he has managed in the past. He is a master of empathy, says Smiley.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/indian-horse-by-richard-wagamese/article2342057/
When I stumbled across a story last year about a North Korean intelligence officer, I assumed it to be part of a memoir by a North Korean, writes Barbara Demick. Instead, the Orphan Masters' Son was written by the American novelist, Adam Johnson.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/feb/17/orphan-masters-son-adam-johnson-review
The situation in Burma hasn't looked so hopeful since the country's independence was won from Britain, says Karen Connelly. One of the achievements in The Lady and the Peacock is Popham's descriptions of Suu Kyi's capacity to weather the junta's many attacks.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/the-lady-and-the-peacock-by-peter-popham/article2342056/
The late Nobel Prize-winning Polish poet Wislawa Szymborska saw great inhumanity in 20th century Europe, expressing insights in her distinctive free verse, writes Charles McNulty. In her Nobel lecture she held up as the source of her inspiration the words "I don't know."
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-ca-szymborska-notebook-20120219,0,4916530.story
In three books about Downton Abbey, writers take you behind the scenes of the hit show, around the grounds of the real British estate and into the lives of domestic servants, writes Kathy Blumenstock.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/three-books-about-downton-abbey/2012/02/02/gIQAZ1AIER_story.html
Imagine Robert Louis Stevenson meets Holden Caulfield meets Ayn Rand, and you'll have some idea of the tenor of Sara Levine's Treasure Island!!!, writes Martin Levin. A girl's own self-helpless book, and a wackily original tale, with a serious undercurrent.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/treasure-island-by-sara-levine/article2338176/
Laura Miller writes that Raymond Bonner's Anatomy of Injustice: A Murder Case Gone Wrong involves a rigged law-enforcement/judicial system, and a team of dedicated legal crusaders. A genuine whodunit, page-turner and tale of redemption: and it's all true, says Miller.
http://www.salon.com/2012/02/19/anatomy_of_injustice_death_in_a_small_town/singleton/
A few months after he was diagnosed with ALS, Tony Judt agreed to record for publication a series of conversations with fellow historian Timothy Snyder. Thinking the Twentieth Century is an intellectual feast, learned, lucid, challenging and accessible, writes Glenn C. Altschuler.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/02/19/RV621N6TBJ.DTL
COMMUNITY EVENTS
FEELING CANADIAN
Hear author Marusya Bociurkiw read from her new book Feeling Canadian: Television, Nationalism and Affect and join in the discussion. Thursday, February 23 at 7:30pm, free. Rhizome Cafe, 317 E. Broadway.
GALIANO LITERARY FESTIVAL
Third annual literary festival featuring George Bowering, Patrick Friesen, Susan Juby, Rhea Tregebov and many others. February 24-26, 2012. Galiano Island. More information at galianoliteraryfestival.wordpress.com.
SURREY READS AND WRITES 2012
Panel discussions, author talks, and workshops on constructing plot, writing for social media, and writing for children. Saturday, February 25 at 11am, free. Surrey Public Library City Centre, 103350 University Drive, Surrey. More information at www.surreylibraries.ca/5459.aspx.
EUROPEAN BOOK CLUB
The German thriller Crime by Ferdinand von Schirach will be discussed. Saturday, February 25 at 4:00pm. Free but please register at eubookclub.vancouver@shaw.ca. Alliance Francaise, 6161 Cambie Street, Vancouver. Details can be downloaded here: http://alliancefrancaise.ca/images/stories/PDFs/eunic_crime.pdf.
PAUL YEE
A talk and launch of the author's newest novel, The Secret Keepers. Sunday, February 26 at 2:00pm. Dr. Sun Yat Sen Classical Chinese Garden, 578 Carrall Street, Vancouver. More information at www.vancouverchinesegarden.com.
WISH COME TRUE WRITERS' CHALLENGE
A reading of Paul Seesequasis' Tobacco Wars and excerpts from freshly created writings will be shared by Paul Seesequasis and the Aboriginal Writers Collective West Coast. Monday, February 27 at 7:30pm. Tickets: $18/$15/$14. The Vancity Culture Lab, 1895 Venables Street. More information at fulcircleperformance.ca.
CBC STUDIO ONE BOOK CLUB
Eva Stachniak, author of The Winter Palace, is coming to the CBC Studio One Book Club on Monday February 27! Her new historical novel tells the epic story of Catherine the Great's improbable rise to power as seen through the ever-watchful eyes of a servant. The story is told in dazzling detail, impeccably researched, awash with the scandals and secrets of the Russian Imperial court. Win free tickets at www.cbc.ca/bc/bookclub.
VANCOUVER POETRY SLAM
Lipsmacker youth slam featuring Robert Lashley. Monday, February 27 at 8:00pm. Cost: $6/$3. Cafe Deux Soleils, 2096 Commercial Drive. More information at vancouverpoetryhouse.com.
KYO MACLEAR
Capilano Creative Writing presents a reading by the Toronto-based novelist. Thursday, March 1 at 11:30am, free. Library 321, Capilano University, 2055 Purcell Way, North Vancouver. More information at capilanocreativewriting.blogspot.com.
FREEDOM TO SLAM
Kerrisdale branch hosts an open poetry slam in honour of Freedom to Read Week. Participate as a poet, judge or listen. For ages 13-18. Thursday, March 1 at 6:30pm, free. Kerrisdale branch, 2112 42nd Ave. W. For more information, phone 604-665-3974.
LIFESTORY: READING OUR MEMOIRS
Join award-winning author Ivan E. Coyote for an evening of local talent as she hosts the results of a seniors' writing workshop. Thursday, March 1 at 7:00pm, free. Alice MacKay room, lower level, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia Street. More information at 604-331-3603.
ON EDGE READING SERIES
Reading by Kyo Maclear, the author of The Letter Opener and Virginia Wolf. Thursday, March 1 at 7:00pm, free. SB301, Emily Carr University, 1399 Johnston Street. More information at http://www.ecuad.ca/about/events/198106.
CARMEN AGUIRRE
2012 Canada Reads winner Carmen Aguirre discusses her memoir Something Fierce. Thursday, March 1 at 7:00pm. Cost: $20 (includes refreshments). Christianne's Lyceum, 3696 W. 8th Ave. To reserve your space call 604.733.1356 or email lyceum@christiannehayward.com. More information at www.christiannehayward.com.
TOBACCO WARS AND OTHER WORDS
Paul Seesequasis, Alex Jacobs, and Janet Rogers read from their new works. Thursday, March 1 at 8:00pm. Pay what you can or by donation. Rhizome Cafe, 317 East Broadway. More information at fullcircleperformance.ca.
Upcoming
WADE DAVIS
Author launches his latest book, The Sacred Headwaters. Tuesday, March 6 at 7:00pm. Tickets: $15/$12/$10. SFU Woodward Centre of the Arts. For more information, email melyssa.rubino@gmail.com.
PLAY CHTHONICS READING SERIES
Readings by Robert Majzels and Erin Mouré. Wednesday, March 7 at 5:00pm. Graham House, UBC Green College, 6201 Cecil Green Park Road. More information at www.canadianstudies.ubc.ca.
ROBSON READING SERIES
Readings by Sean Johnston (The Ditch Was Lit Like This) and Anne Simpson (Is). Thursday, March 8 at 7:00pm, free. UBC Bookstore/Library at Robson Square, 800 Robson Street. More information at www.robsonreadingseries.ubc.ca.
TAHEREH MAFI
The author signs her debut novel Shatter Me. Saturday, March 10 at 2:00pm. Chapters Metrotown, 4700 Kingsway, Burnaby. More information at 604-431-0463.
IRVING LAYTON CENTENARY CELEBRATION
Local poets read poems by, and tell stories about, Irving Layton. Lineup includes Adrienne Drobnies, Heidi Greco, Sandy Shreve, Russell Thornton and others. Sunday, March 11 at 3:00pm. Project Space, 222 East Georgia Street. More information at www.deadpoetslive.com.
DANIELA ELZA
Celebrate the author's launch of her first full-length book of poetry, "the weight of dew". Sunday, March 11 at 5:30pm. The Railway Club (in the private back room bar), 579 Dunsmuir Street. Author reading and books for sale.
THREE LOCAL AUTHORS READING
Explore fiction with Bob Friedland, poetry with Manolis Aligizakis, and autobiographical fiction with Ben Nuttall-Smith. Tuesday, March 13 at 7:00pm, free. Meeting room, level 3, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia Street. More information at 604-331-3691.
RANJ DHALIWAL
Meet the author of the novel Daaku, the story of an Indo-Canadian gangster growing up in the streets of Surrey. Ranj will talk about his writing and answer questions from the audience. Thursday, March 15 at 6:00pm, free. South Hill branch, 6076 Fraser Street. More information at 604-665-3965.
TWS READING SERIES
Reading by guest author Betsy Warland. Thursday, March 15 at 7:00pm, free. Rhizome Cafe, 317 East Broadway, Vancouver. More information at sfu.ca.
AN EVENING OF CANADIAN POETRY
An evening of Canadian poetry with Ruth Roach Pierson, Rhona McAdam and Edward Blodgett. Wednesday, March 21 at 7:00pm, free. Alma VanDusen & Peter Kay rooms, lower level, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia St.
Thursday, February 23, 2012
Thursday, February 16, 2012
Book News Vol. 7 No. 4
BOOK NEWS
UPCOMING VIWF EVENTS
Incite
Pico Iyer will appear in a special Incite event on February 20 at the Improv Centre on Granville Island. Admission is by donation. Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/incitefebruary20
Pico Iyer—his thumbnail self-portrait: a "scruffy mongrel living in Japan"—has made a name with reams of far-flung journalism and thoughtful travelogues. His latest book, The Man Within My Head, is a work less about exploring place than state of mind.
http://www.vancouversun.com/entertainment/books/Pico+Iyer+deals+with+obsession+with+Graham+Greene/6133664/story.html
At its core, the act of reading is the act of seeking a connection, writes Ian McGillis. When that connection occurs, though, it can't always be logically explained.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/books/shadow+Graham+Greene/6093698/story.html
At the next Incite on February 22, Ojibway author Richard Wagamese reads from Indian Horse, Anne DeGrace reads from Flying with Amelia and Robert Hough shares his latest work Dr. Brinkley's Tower. Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/incitefebruary22. Also appearing at Incite in the next few months are Linden MacIntyre, Will Ferguson, Anakana Schofield, Richard Stursberg, John Boyne, Yasuko Thanh and Buffy Cran, among others.
Richard Ford
Pulitzer Prize and PEN/Faulkner Award-winning author Richard Ford appears with his latest novel, Canada. Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/richardford.
AWARDS & LISTS
Vancouver actor and playwright Carmen Aguirre's Something Fierce: Memoirs of a Revolutionary Daughter, an account of her family's flight from Chile to Canada during the 1973 Pinochet military coup, is the winner of the CBC's Canada Reads: True Stories 2012 competition.
http://arts.nationalpost.com/category/arts/afterword/
The Young Canada Reads panel of five junior high students selected Mariatu Kamara's Bite of the Mango as the book every teen in Canada should read.
http://www.cbabook.org/files/Press%20Release.pdf
Charlotte Gill's tree-planting memoir Eating Dirt: Deep Forests, Big Timber, and Life with the Tree-Planting Tribe has won British Columbia's National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction. Gill was awarded the $40,000 prize at a ceremony in Vancouver on Monday.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/charlotte-gills-eating-dirt-wins-bc-book-award-for-non-fiction/article2337010/
Timothy Donnelly will receive the $100,000 Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award for his book The Cloud Corporation, at the award ceremony in April. The prize is designed to support a poet in mid-career. The Kate Tufts Discovery Award, which is presented to a poet for his or her debut collection, will go to Katherine Larson for Radical Symmetry.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/jacketcopy/2012/02/100000-kingsley-tufts-poetry-award-timothy-donnelly.html
Henry Kissinger's On China has been shortlisted for the Lionel Gelber Prize.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/henry-kissinger-shortlisted-for-lionel-gelber-prize/article2336794/
YOUNG READERS
Just in time for Black History Month: Deza Malone, a character from Christopher Paul Curtis' Bud, Not Buddy gets a story all her own in The Mighty Miss Malone. Readers will enjoy this history-filled, wonderful journey, writes Tracy Grant, a student reviewer.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/kidspost/review-of-the-mighty-miss-malone/2012/02/02/gIQA7FuC4Q_story.html
Bud, Not Buddy has become a play for young people.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/kidspost/bud-not-buddy-play-for-children/2012/02/02/gIQA1JuC4Q_story.html
Lemony Snicket plans to publish a series of autobiographical accounts this autumn in a sequence called All the Wrong Questions. The novel Who Could That Be at This Hour? is his account of the first wrong question.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/childrens-books-site/2012/feb/09/lemony-snicket-childhood
A small Irish press is publishing a limited edition of a never-published children's story by James Joyce. Joyce's The Cats of Copenhagen is a "younger twin sister" to his published children's story The Cat and the Devil.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/feb/09/james-joyce-childrens-story-cats-copenhagen
Historical fiction has become a mainstay of children's literature—a way to bring the past to life for today's young readers. Graphic novels go even farther in bridging the gap between past and present. Lone Hawk is the story of flying ace Billy Bishop; Hyena in Petticoats, the story of suffragette Nellie McClung.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/books/Kids+Graphic+novels+Billy+Bishop+Nellie+McClung/6062459/story.html
This wonderful book touches the heart of the reader, no matter how many times it's read, writes a young reviewer of Michael Morpurgo's Farm Boy. It's the sequel to the film War Horse, and I think it is just as good.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/childrens-books-site/2012/feb/09/review-farm-boy-michael-morpurgo
First Book Canada, working with Decoda Literacy Solutions, is distributing 45,000 books to children from low-income families across British Columbia.
http://www.bookcentre.ca/
NEWS & FEATURES
Marsha Lederman describes Andreas Schroeder as the godfather of B.C.'s non-fiction boom. Several writers mention the creative writing programs, especially at the University of British Columbia and single out one teacher, Andreas Schroeder.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/andreas-schroeder-the-godfather-of-bcs-non-fiction-boom/article2336475/
From The Epic of Gilgamesh to Infinite Jest via Dante, the western canon is set to be turned into a 1,344-page, three-volume graphic novel; "the graphic publishing literary event of the year", writes Alison Flood. There are 130 contributing illustrators.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/feb/08/western-canon-rewritten-graphic-novel
The Vancouver Public Library is launching an innovative program called Read Dating. Participants pre-register, are assigned a famous book character name, and a gmail account to ensure privacy. Register at the reading information desk (second level) or call (604) 331-3691.
http://www.wevancouver.com/news/138976244.html
The 25 contenders for the most romantic novel of the year have been announced—with just one male author, Michael Arditti, in the running. Arditti is up for the "epic romantic novel" category.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/feb/13/romantic-novel-of-the-year-shortlists
John Dugsdale writes that Jason Reitman's Young Adult is the latest in a long line of films which portray authors as helpless, or vindictive, or both. Who would want to be an author in film?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2012/feb/09/author-film
Two of Syria's most prominent authors—Adonis, widely held as the Arabic-speaking world's greatest living poet, and novelist Khaled Khalifa—have spoken out against the military actions of the regime.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/feb/09/syrian-authors-condemn-homs-bombardment
The launch of Taslima Nasrin's autobiography, Nirbashan (Exile), has been abandoned, due to a protest from the All India Minority Forum. The author believes "the appetite for censorship is growing in India".
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/feb/10/taslima-nasrin-cancer-censorship-india
A basement shrine in her 1920s home inspired Caroline Adderson to discover the past lives of her house and its inhabitants—and then to write about the experience.
http://www.geist.com/articles/lives-of-the-house/index.html
Nathan Englander and Jonathan Safran Foer discuss the art of fiction, Jewishness and their new collaboration. Together they created a new translation of the Haggadah.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/feb/10/nathan-englander-conversation-jonathan-safran-foer
Publisher Patrick Crean learned about Albert Jackson through Karolyn Smardz Frost's book I've Got a Home in Glory Land. Crean discovered that he lives in a home once owned by the former child slave and has asked the city to name a lane for Jackson.
http://www.thestar.com/living/article/1129556--black-history-month-the-unknown-story-toronto-s-first-black-postman
Martin Scorsese's film Hugo is adapted from The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick. In an interview. the American artist talks about working with Marty, his love of cross-hatching—and why he always keeps a mirror on his desk.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/feb/11/brian-selznick-hugo-martin-scorsese
The Booker prize-winning author Ben Okri has damned his editor's claim to have rewritten the dialogue in one of his books as "monstrous, and indeed suspect", accusing former editor Robin Robertson of 'exaggerating his own importance'.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/feb/13/ben-okri-robin-robertson-rewriting
Apple is at the vanguard of a push behind technology that's helping old-fashioned Braille replace text-to-speech audio for the blind. "The iPhone is the official phone of blindness," says Chancey Fleet.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/feb/14/technology-brings-braille-back-apple
Shoppers angry about the higher cost of books in Canada can blame old regulations, industry representatives told a Senate committee Tuesday. The change could be made with the stroke of a pen, said Chris Tabor, who represents campus bookstores.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/story/2012/02/14/pol-canada-us-price-differences-books.html
BOOKS & WRITERS
Robert J. Wiersema writes that, in Red Means Run, Brad Smith has a masterful thriller on his hands. Readers can surrender themselves easily to complex characterizations and the archetypal "wrongfully accused, on the run, trying to clear ones name" storytelling.
http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Canadian+writer+Brad+Smith+masterful+thriller+hands/6097953/story.html
Tess Gallagher became a poet because she was swept away by poetry's depth, writes Tracy Sherlock. Gallagher's third husband, author Raymond Carver, died in 1988 but, says Gallagher, he still sustains and inspires her work. Midnight Lantern spans 50 years of work.
http://www.vancouversun.com/health/Tess+Gallagher+Poetry+tender+feel+natural+world/6097959/story.html#ixzz1m1DYqQpB
Can the possibility of shame exist in a culture where the concepts of privacy and shame are compromised? Helen Schulman's This Beautiful Life is a gripping moral fable about the decline of privacy, writes Mark Lawson.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/feb/10/this-beautiful-life-helen-schulman-review
Montreal writer Kim Thúy came to Canada as a child of war. Ru, a rendering of a Vietnamese story much like her own won the French-language Governor-General's Award (2010), among other fiction prizes. Ru comes to us in English from celebrated translator Sheila Fischman.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/kim-thys-river-of-life/article2333939/
Elmore Leonard's Raylan is his best novel in a decade, writes Jack Batten. Leonard tells the story with no wasted motion.
http://www.thestar.com/news/books/article/1128173--elmore-leonard-s-raylan-is-his-best-novel-in-a-decade
Nathan Englander's What we Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank can be read as a collection of running gags. They have the distinction, though, of not just being seriously funny, but deadly serious, writes Joel Yanofsky.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/books/latest+story+collection+Nathan+Englander+empathizes+with+wide+range/6128012/story.html
Vulture Peak is the fifth of John Burdett's "Bangkok novels," all of them featuring the philosophical Buddhist police detective Sonchai Jitpleecheep and all of them redolent of crime, violence, corruption and sex, not necessarily in that order. writes Jonathan Yardley.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/2012/01/31/gIQAY3zy4Q_story.html
Julian Barnes' The Sense of an Ending is a book that leave you wondering how much of what you've read you can believe. When you start to read this book, says Tracy Sherlock, be prepared to read it in one sitting.
http://www.vancouversun.com/entertainment/books/much+believe/6133669/story.html
Anthony Trollope's The Way We Live Now remains the supreme example of the state of the nation novel—a huge cast of characters, a labyrinthine plot, contemporary themes—the model upon which a number of important recent novels have drawn, writes Alex Preston.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/feb/12/trollope-state-nation-london-novel
Inspector Ricardo Ramirez of the Cuban National Revolutionary Police has help from the ghost of his dead grandmother, if only he understood the clues he's given. Reviewer Cheryl Parker hopes this is the beginning of lawyer Peggy Blair's crime-writing career.
http://www.vancouversun.com/life/Criminals+stand+ghost+chance/6138484/story.html
COMMUNITY EVENTS
ROBSON READING SERIES
Readings by Steve Burgess (Who Killed Mom?) and Daniel Griffin (Stopping for Strangers). Thursday, February 16 at 7:00pm, free. UBC Bookstore/Library at Robson Square, 800 Robson Street. More information at www.robsonreadingseries.ubc.ca.
WARREN CARIOU
The On Edge readings series presents the author of The Exalted Company of Roadside Martyrs and Lake of the Prairies. Thursday, February 16 at 7:00pm, free. Emily Carr University, 1399 Johnston Street. More information at www.ecuad.ca/about/events/198105.
PANDORA'S COLLECTIVE 10TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION/FUNDRAISER
Bonnie Nish, Sita Carboni, Daniela Elza, and Timothy Shay host East Van troubadours C.R. Avery, Jess Hill, and Geoff Berner and others. Thursday, February 16 at 7:00pm. Tickets: $10. The Prophouse Cafe, 1636 Venables. More information at www.pandorascollective.com.
HOME FRONT, A READING SERIES
Reading by Sharon Thesen, author of The Serial Poems. Saturday, February 18 at 8:00pm. Cost: $5/pay what you can. 3966 Ontario Street, Vancouver. More information at 604-879-5200.
LOVE BITES
Event features Vancouver storytellers Linda Stender and Erin Graham and guests Chen Ha, Jennifer McKay-Martin, Pandora's Poets,and Rosemary Nowicki. Sunday, February 19 at 7:00pm. Tickets: $6. St. Mark's Anglican Church, 1805 Larch Street. More information at www.vancouverstorytellers.ca.
BUST OF
Readings by Maggie Pie, Trixie Hobbitses, Malvina Masvino, Mama Fortuna, Bunny Meugens, Kitty Kitty Bang Bang, and guest star Samantha Mack. Sunday, February 19 at 8:30pm. Tickets: $20/15. The Backstage Lounge, 1585 Johnston Street. More information at ngrbustof.eventbrite.ca.
PEN-IN-HAND POETRY/PROSE READING SERIES
Featuring Heidi Greco and Susan McCaslin. Monday, February 20 at 7:30pm. Cost: $3. Serious Coffee, 230 Cook Street, Victoria. More information at ainbinder.collins@gmail.com.
SPOKEN INK
Reading featuring special guest Leslie Michel Beckmann, author of The Sum of All Evils. Tuesday, February 21 at 8:00pm. La Fontana Caffe, 101-3701 East Hastings.
FROM TALKING STICK TO THE MICROPHONE VOL. 2
Some of Canada's top spoken word artists go head to head! Part of the Talking Stick Festival. Wednesday, February 22 at 8pm. Pay what you can or by donation. Cafe Deux Soleils, 2096 Commercial Drive. More information at fullcircleperformance.ca.
FEELING CANADIAN
Hear author Marusya Bociurkiw read from her new book Feeling Canadian: Television, Nationalism and Affect and join in the discussion. Thursday, February 23 at 7:30pm, free. Rhizome Cafe, 317 E. Broadway.
GALIANO LITERARY FESTIVAL
Third annual literary festival featuring George Bowering, Patrick Friesen, Susan Juby, Rhea Tregebov and many others. February 24-26, 2012. Galiano Island. More information at galianoliteraryfestival.wordpress.com.
SURREY READS AND WRITES 2012
Panel discussions, author talks, and workshops on constructing plot, writing for social media, and writing for children. Saturday, February 25 at 11am, free. Surrey Public Library City Centre, 103350 University Drive, Surrey. More information at www.surreylibraries.ca/5459.aspx.
Upcoming
WISH COME TRUE WRITERS' CHALLENGE
A reading of Paul Seesequasis' Tobacco Wars and excerpts from freshly created writings will be shared by Paul Seesequasis and the Aboriginal Writers Collective West Coast. Monday, February 27 at 7:30pm. Tickets: $18/$15/$14. The Vancity Culture Lab, 1895 Venables Street. More information at fulcircleperformance.ca.
CBC STUDIO ONE BOOK CLUB
Eva Stachniak, author of The Winter Palace, is coming to the CBC Studio One Book Club on Monday February 27! Her new historical novel tells the epic story of Catherine the Great's improbable rise to power as seen through the ever-watchful eyes of a servant. The story is told in dazzling detail, impeccably researched, awash with the scandals and secrets of the Russian Imperial court. Win free tickets at www.cbc.ca/bc/bookclub.
VANCOUVER POETRY SLAM
Lipsmacker youth slam featuring Robert Lashley. Monday, February 27 at 8:00pm. Cost: $6/$3. Cafe Deux Soleils, 2096 Commercial Drive. More information at vancouverpoetryhouse.com.
UPCOMING VIWF EVENTS
Incite
Pico Iyer will appear in a special Incite event on February 20 at the Improv Centre on Granville Island. Admission is by donation. Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/incitefebruary20
Pico Iyer—his thumbnail self-portrait: a "scruffy mongrel living in Japan"—has made a name with reams of far-flung journalism and thoughtful travelogues. His latest book, The Man Within My Head, is a work less about exploring place than state of mind.
http://www.vancouversun.com/entertainment/books/Pico+Iyer+deals+with+obsession+with+Graham+Greene/6133664/story.html
At its core, the act of reading is the act of seeking a connection, writes Ian McGillis. When that connection occurs, though, it can't always be logically explained.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/books/shadow+Graham+Greene/6093698/story.html
At the next Incite on February 22, Ojibway author Richard Wagamese reads from Indian Horse, Anne DeGrace reads from Flying with Amelia and Robert Hough shares his latest work Dr. Brinkley's Tower. Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/incitefebruary22. Also appearing at Incite in the next few months are Linden MacIntyre, Will Ferguson, Anakana Schofield, Richard Stursberg, John Boyne, Yasuko Thanh and Buffy Cran, among others.
Richard Ford
Pulitzer Prize and PEN/Faulkner Award-winning author Richard Ford appears with his latest novel, Canada. Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/richardford.
AWARDS & LISTS
Vancouver actor and playwright Carmen Aguirre's Something Fierce: Memoirs of a Revolutionary Daughter, an account of her family's flight from Chile to Canada during the 1973 Pinochet military coup, is the winner of the CBC's Canada Reads: True Stories 2012 competition.
http://arts.nationalpost.com/category/arts/afterword/
The Young Canada Reads panel of five junior high students selected Mariatu Kamara's Bite of the Mango as the book every teen in Canada should read.
http://www.cbabook.org/files/Press%20Release.pdf
Charlotte Gill's tree-planting memoir Eating Dirt: Deep Forests, Big Timber, and Life with the Tree-Planting Tribe has won British Columbia's National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction. Gill was awarded the $40,000 prize at a ceremony in Vancouver on Monday.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/charlotte-gills-eating-dirt-wins-bc-book-award-for-non-fiction/article2337010/
Timothy Donnelly will receive the $100,000 Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award for his book The Cloud Corporation, at the award ceremony in April. The prize is designed to support a poet in mid-career. The Kate Tufts Discovery Award, which is presented to a poet for his or her debut collection, will go to Katherine Larson for Radical Symmetry.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/jacketcopy/2012/02/100000-kingsley-tufts-poetry-award-timothy-donnelly.html
Henry Kissinger's On China has been shortlisted for the Lionel Gelber Prize.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/henry-kissinger-shortlisted-for-lionel-gelber-prize/article2336794/
YOUNG READERS
Just in time for Black History Month: Deza Malone, a character from Christopher Paul Curtis' Bud, Not Buddy gets a story all her own in The Mighty Miss Malone. Readers will enjoy this history-filled, wonderful journey, writes Tracy Grant, a student reviewer.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/kidspost/review-of-the-mighty-miss-malone/2012/02/02/gIQA7FuC4Q_story.html
Bud, Not Buddy has become a play for young people.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/kidspost/bud-not-buddy-play-for-children/2012/02/02/gIQA1JuC4Q_story.html
Lemony Snicket plans to publish a series of autobiographical accounts this autumn in a sequence called All the Wrong Questions. The novel Who Could That Be at This Hour? is his account of the first wrong question.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/childrens-books-site/2012/feb/09/lemony-snicket-childhood
A small Irish press is publishing a limited edition of a never-published children's story by James Joyce. Joyce's The Cats of Copenhagen is a "younger twin sister" to his published children's story The Cat and the Devil.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/feb/09/james-joyce-childrens-story-cats-copenhagen
Historical fiction has become a mainstay of children's literature—a way to bring the past to life for today's young readers. Graphic novels go even farther in bridging the gap between past and present. Lone Hawk is the story of flying ace Billy Bishop; Hyena in Petticoats, the story of suffragette Nellie McClung.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/books/Kids+Graphic+novels+Billy+Bishop+Nellie+McClung/6062459/story.html
This wonderful book touches the heart of the reader, no matter how many times it's read, writes a young reviewer of Michael Morpurgo's Farm Boy. It's the sequel to the film War Horse, and I think it is just as good.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/childrens-books-site/2012/feb/09/review-farm-boy-michael-morpurgo
First Book Canada, working with Decoda Literacy Solutions, is distributing 45,000 books to children from low-income families across British Columbia.
http://www.bookcentre.ca/
NEWS & FEATURES
Marsha Lederman describes Andreas Schroeder as the godfather of B.C.'s non-fiction boom. Several writers mention the creative writing programs, especially at the University of British Columbia and single out one teacher, Andreas Schroeder.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/andreas-schroeder-the-godfather-of-bcs-non-fiction-boom/article2336475/
From The Epic of Gilgamesh to Infinite Jest via Dante, the western canon is set to be turned into a 1,344-page, three-volume graphic novel; "the graphic publishing literary event of the year", writes Alison Flood. There are 130 contributing illustrators.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/feb/08/western-canon-rewritten-graphic-novel
The Vancouver Public Library is launching an innovative program called Read Dating. Participants pre-register, are assigned a famous book character name, and a gmail account to ensure privacy. Register at the reading information desk (second level) or call (604) 331-3691.
http://www.wevancouver.com/news/138976244.html
The 25 contenders for the most romantic novel of the year have been announced—with just one male author, Michael Arditti, in the running. Arditti is up for the "epic romantic novel" category.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/feb/13/romantic-novel-of-the-year-shortlists
John Dugsdale writes that Jason Reitman's Young Adult is the latest in a long line of films which portray authors as helpless, or vindictive, or both. Who would want to be an author in film?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2012/feb/09/author-film
Two of Syria's most prominent authors—Adonis, widely held as the Arabic-speaking world's greatest living poet, and novelist Khaled Khalifa—have spoken out against the military actions of the regime.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/feb/09/syrian-authors-condemn-homs-bombardment
The launch of Taslima Nasrin's autobiography, Nirbashan (Exile), has been abandoned, due to a protest from the All India Minority Forum. The author believes "the appetite for censorship is growing in India".
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/feb/10/taslima-nasrin-cancer-censorship-india
A basement shrine in her 1920s home inspired Caroline Adderson to discover the past lives of her house and its inhabitants—and then to write about the experience.
http://www.geist.com/articles/lives-of-the-house/index.html
Nathan Englander and Jonathan Safran Foer discuss the art of fiction, Jewishness and their new collaboration. Together they created a new translation of the Haggadah.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/feb/10/nathan-englander-conversation-jonathan-safran-foer
Publisher Patrick Crean learned about Albert Jackson through Karolyn Smardz Frost's book I've Got a Home in Glory Land. Crean discovered that he lives in a home once owned by the former child slave and has asked the city to name a lane for Jackson.
http://www.thestar.com/living/article/1129556--black-history-month-the-unknown-story-toronto-s-first-black-postman
Martin Scorsese's film Hugo is adapted from The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick. In an interview. the American artist talks about working with Marty, his love of cross-hatching—and why he always keeps a mirror on his desk.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/feb/11/brian-selznick-hugo-martin-scorsese
The Booker prize-winning author Ben Okri has damned his editor's claim to have rewritten the dialogue in one of his books as "monstrous, and indeed suspect", accusing former editor Robin Robertson of 'exaggerating his own importance'.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/feb/13/ben-okri-robin-robertson-rewriting
Apple is at the vanguard of a push behind technology that's helping old-fashioned Braille replace text-to-speech audio for the blind. "The iPhone is the official phone of blindness," says Chancey Fleet.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/feb/14/technology-brings-braille-back-apple
Shoppers angry about the higher cost of books in Canada can blame old regulations, industry representatives told a Senate committee Tuesday. The change could be made with the stroke of a pen, said Chris Tabor, who represents campus bookstores.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/story/2012/02/14/pol-canada-us-price-differences-books.html
BOOKS & WRITERS
Robert J. Wiersema writes that, in Red Means Run, Brad Smith has a masterful thriller on his hands. Readers can surrender themselves easily to complex characterizations and the archetypal "wrongfully accused, on the run, trying to clear ones name" storytelling.
http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Canadian+writer+Brad+Smith+masterful+thriller+hands/6097953/story.html
Tess Gallagher became a poet because she was swept away by poetry's depth, writes Tracy Sherlock. Gallagher's third husband, author Raymond Carver, died in 1988 but, says Gallagher, he still sustains and inspires her work. Midnight Lantern spans 50 years of work.
http://www.vancouversun.com/health/Tess+Gallagher+Poetry+tender+feel+natural+world/6097959/story.html#ixzz1m1DYqQpB
Can the possibility of shame exist in a culture where the concepts of privacy and shame are compromised? Helen Schulman's This Beautiful Life is a gripping moral fable about the decline of privacy, writes Mark Lawson.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/feb/10/this-beautiful-life-helen-schulman-review
Montreal writer Kim Thúy came to Canada as a child of war. Ru, a rendering of a Vietnamese story much like her own won the French-language Governor-General's Award (2010), among other fiction prizes. Ru comes to us in English from celebrated translator Sheila Fischman.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/kim-thys-river-of-life/article2333939/
Elmore Leonard's Raylan is his best novel in a decade, writes Jack Batten. Leonard tells the story with no wasted motion.
http://www.thestar.com/news/books/article/1128173--elmore-leonard-s-raylan-is-his-best-novel-in-a-decade
Nathan Englander's What we Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank can be read as a collection of running gags. They have the distinction, though, of not just being seriously funny, but deadly serious, writes Joel Yanofsky.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/books/latest+story+collection+Nathan+Englander+empathizes+with+wide+range/6128012/story.html
Vulture Peak is the fifth of John Burdett's "Bangkok novels," all of them featuring the philosophical Buddhist police detective Sonchai Jitpleecheep and all of them redolent of crime, violence, corruption and sex, not necessarily in that order. writes Jonathan Yardley.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/2012/01/31/gIQAY3zy4Q_story.html
Julian Barnes' The Sense of an Ending is a book that leave you wondering how much of what you've read you can believe. When you start to read this book, says Tracy Sherlock, be prepared to read it in one sitting.
http://www.vancouversun.com/entertainment/books/much+believe/6133669/story.html
Anthony Trollope's The Way We Live Now remains the supreme example of the state of the nation novel—a huge cast of characters, a labyrinthine plot, contemporary themes—the model upon which a number of important recent novels have drawn, writes Alex Preston.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/feb/12/trollope-state-nation-london-novel
Inspector Ricardo Ramirez of the Cuban National Revolutionary Police has help from the ghost of his dead grandmother, if only he understood the clues he's given. Reviewer Cheryl Parker hopes this is the beginning of lawyer Peggy Blair's crime-writing career.
http://www.vancouversun.com/life/Criminals+stand+ghost+chance/6138484/story.html
COMMUNITY EVENTS
ROBSON READING SERIES
Readings by Steve Burgess (Who Killed Mom?) and Daniel Griffin (Stopping for Strangers). Thursday, February 16 at 7:00pm, free. UBC Bookstore/Library at Robson Square, 800 Robson Street. More information at www.robsonreadingseries.ubc.ca.
WARREN CARIOU
The On Edge readings series presents the author of The Exalted Company of Roadside Martyrs and Lake of the Prairies. Thursday, February 16 at 7:00pm, free. Emily Carr University, 1399 Johnston Street. More information at www.ecuad.ca/about/events/198105.
PANDORA'S COLLECTIVE 10TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION/FUNDRAISER
Bonnie Nish, Sita Carboni, Daniela Elza, and Timothy Shay host East Van troubadours C.R. Avery, Jess Hill, and Geoff Berner and others. Thursday, February 16 at 7:00pm. Tickets: $10. The Prophouse Cafe, 1636 Venables. More information at www.pandorascollective.com.
HOME FRONT, A READING SERIES
Reading by Sharon Thesen, author of The Serial Poems. Saturday, February 18 at 8:00pm. Cost: $5/pay what you can. 3966 Ontario Street, Vancouver. More information at 604-879-5200.
LOVE BITES
Event features Vancouver storytellers Linda Stender and Erin Graham and guests Chen Ha, Jennifer McKay-Martin, Pandora's Poets,and Rosemary Nowicki. Sunday, February 19 at 7:00pm. Tickets: $6. St. Mark's Anglican Church, 1805 Larch Street. More information at www.vancouverstorytellers.ca.
BUST OF
Readings by Maggie Pie, Trixie Hobbitses, Malvina Masvino, Mama Fortuna, Bunny Meugens, Kitty Kitty Bang Bang, and guest star Samantha Mack. Sunday, February 19 at 8:30pm. Tickets: $20/15. The Backstage Lounge, 1585 Johnston Street. More information at ngrbustof.eventbrite.ca.
PEN-IN-HAND POETRY/PROSE READING SERIES
Featuring Heidi Greco and Susan McCaslin. Monday, February 20 at 7:30pm. Cost: $3. Serious Coffee, 230 Cook Street, Victoria. More information at ainbinder.collins@gmail.com.
SPOKEN INK
Reading featuring special guest Leslie Michel Beckmann, author of The Sum of All Evils. Tuesday, February 21 at 8:00pm. La Fontana Caffe, 101-3701 East Hastings.
FROM TALKING STICK TO THE MICROPHONE VOL. 2
Some of Canada's top spoken word artists go head to head! Part of the Talking Stick Festival. Wednesday, February 22 at 8pm. Pay what you can or by donation. Cafe Deux Soleils, 2096 Commercial Drive. More information at fullcircleperformance.ca.
FEELING CANADIAN
Hear author Marusya Bociurkiw read from her new book Feeling Canadian: Television, Nationalism and Affect and join in the discussion. Thursday, February 23 at 7:30pm, free. Rhizome Cafe, 317 E. Broadway.
GALIANO LITERARY FESTIVAL
Third annual literary festival featuring George Bowering, Patrick Friesen, Susan Juby, Rhea Tregebov and many others. February 24-26, 2012. Galiano Island. More information at galianoliteraryfestival.wordpress.com.
SURREY READS AND WRITES 2012
Panel discussions, author talks, and workshops on constructing plot, writing for social media, and writing for children. Saturday, February 25 at 11am, free. Surrey Public Library City Centre, 103350 University Drive, Surrey. More information at www.surreylibraries.ca/5459.aspx.
Upcoming
WISH COME TRUE WRITERS' CHALLENGE
A reading of Paul Seesequasis' Tobacco Wars and excerpts from freshly created writings will be shared by Paul Seesequasis and the Aboriginal Writers Collective West Coast. Monday, February 27 at 7:30pm. Tickets: $18/$15/$14. The Vancity Culture Lab, 1895 Venables Street. More information at fulcircleperformance.ca.
CBC STUDIO ONE BOOK CLUB
Eva Stachniak, author of The Winter Palace, is coming to the CBC Studio One Book Club on Monday February 27! Her new historical novel tells the epic story of Catherine the Great's improbable rise to power as seen through the ever-watchful eyes of a servant. The story is told in dazzling detail, impeccably researched, awash with the scandals and secrets of the Russian Imperial court. Win free tickets at www.cbc.ca/bc/bookclub.
VANCOUVER POETRY SLAM
Lipsmacker youth slam featuring Robert Lashley. Monday, February 27 at 8:00pm. Cost: $6/$3. Cafe Deux Soleils, 2096 Commercial Drive. More information at vancouverpoetryhouse.com.
Thursday, February 9, 2012
Book News Vol. 7 No. 3
BOOK NEWS
UPCOMING VIWF EVENTS
Incite
Pico Iyer will appear in a special Incite event on February 20 at the Improv Centre on Granville Island. Admission is by donation. Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/incitefebruary20
Pico Iyer travels widely in his thoughtful and compelling The Man Within My Head, writes Ronald Wright. At once biography, memoir, travelogue, literary criticism and personal meditation, this is a tale of fathers and sons, real and assumed.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/the-man-within-my-head-by-pico-iyer/article2294116/
Pico Iyer once referred to himself as "a global village on two legs." It's a fitting description, writes Scott London in this engaging interview.
http://www.scottlondon.com/interviews/iyer.html
Artists are haunted by their mentors, writes Justin Moyer. For Pico Iyer, one forebear looms so large that he's written The Man Within My Head. "An adopted father can never die," says Iyer. "That's one of the great advantages he has over a real one."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/the-man-within-my-head-by-pico-iyer/2012/01/25/gIQAlTFrnQ_story.html
At the next Incite on February 22, Ojibway author Richard Wagamese reads from Indian Horse, Anne DeGrace reads from Flying with Amelia and Robert Hough shares his latest work Dr. Brinkley's Tower. Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/incitefebruary22. Also appearing at Incite in the next few months are Linden MacIntyre, Will Ferguson, Anakana Schofield, Richard Stursberg, John Boyne, Yasuko Thanh and Buffy Cran, among others.
Richard Ford
Pulitzer Prize and PEN/Faulkner Award-winning author Richard Ford appears with his latest novel, Canada. Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/richardford.
AWARDS & LISTS
Adam Mars-Jones has won the Hatchet Job Award for the year's most lacerating review. Mars-Jones especially condemned Michael Cunningham's novel By Nightfall for its Thoughts about Art.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/adam-mars-jones-wins-hatchet-job-award-for-barbed-review-of-michael-cunningham-novel/2012/02/07/gIQADWG4wQ_story.html
Victoria writer Deborah Willis is the 2012 writer-in-residence at the Joy Kogawa House until April 15.
http://www.vancouversun.com/Victoria+writer+moves+into+Kogawa+House/6097970/story.html
YOUNG READERS
TD Canadian Children's Book Week takes place May 5-12, 2012. Close to 35,000 children, teens and adults will participate in activities held in every province and territory with presentations from a wide variety of touring authors, illustrators and storytellers.
http://www.bookweek.ca/
Those interested in hosting an author, illustrator or storyteller during Book Week should contact the Book Week Coordinator in their local area.
http://www.bookweek.ca/book-week/2012/book-week-coordinators
Joyce Barkhouse, the Nova Scotia-based children's author of Pit Pony, her most popular book, has died, aged 98. Barkhouse's other books include Anna's Pet, which she co-wrote with her niece, Margaret Atwood.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/story/2012/02/03/joyce-barkhouse-obit.html
NEWS & FEATURES
The Nunavut Literacy Council has published the book Just One Goal, by Canadian children's author Robert Munsch, in both Inuktitut and Inuinnaqtun. It is the third book by Munsch that the Council has had translated.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/story/2012/02/01/robert-munsch-inuktitut.html
Indigo has joined the growing boycott of books published by Amazon.com.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/indigo-joins-growing-boycott-of-books-published-by-amazoncom/article2326088/
A marathon celebration of Charles Dickens' 200th birthday kicked off in Australia, then in Korea, Syria and the United Arab Emirates.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/a-global-dickens-appreciation-and-a-modest-proposal/article2328623/
Claire Tomalin, who wrote a biography of the novelist, has written a letter to Charles Dickens on his 200th birthday.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/feb/07/letter-charles-dickens-200th-birthday
NBC Publishing plans to produce electronic and print books under the NBC brand. Its approach to books will be digital-first.
http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2012/01/nbc-publishing-tv-ebooks/all/1?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+wired%2Findex+%28Wired%3A+Index+3+%28Top+Stories+2%29%29
Bernard Schlink, author of the novel that formed the basis of the acclaimed drama The Reader, filed suit in Los Angeles Superior Court this week, claiming The Weinstein Co. has cheated him out of millions in profits from the Oscar-winning film.
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr-esq/reader-author-bernard-schlink-sues-weinstein-286262
After Turkey's Prime Minister Erdogan called the American novelist 'ignorant', Paul Auster reiterated his protest against the country's free speech prohibitions. Auster, whose books are very popular in Turkey, told Turkish paper Hurriyet that he refused to visit Turkey because of imprisoned journalists and writers.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/feb/03/paul-auster-hits-back-turkish-pm
Readers longing for more on Sherlock Holmes and haven't yet found/ read Anthony Horowitz' The House of Silk, may receive some comfort from Michael Dirda's most recent article on the Baker Street Irregulars.
http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2012/feb/02/sherlock-lives/
A Penguin Books poll to mark the 200th anniversary of the author's birth reveals Ebenezer Scrooge from A Christmas Carol as the most popular Dickens character.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/feb/06/ebenezer-scrooge-most-popular-dickens-character
Bill Sikes and Scrooge are among the most well-known characters in English literature but rather than being figments of Charles Dickens' imagination, their names were derived from real people–and new research has pinpointed the writer's sources of inspiration.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/feb/01/charles-dickens-real-character-names?CMP=EMCNEWEML1355
The New Yorker includes Going Home, a poem by Leonard Cohen.
http://www.newyorker.com/fiction/poetry/2012/01/23/120123po_poem_cohen
A new book of poems by Nobel Prize winner Wislawa Szymborska, who died at the age of 88 on 1 February, will be published this year.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/booknews/9059016/Nobel-winner-left-behind-new-poems.html
One of the most famous practical jokes in British military history has returned to haunt the Royal Navy, involving Horace de Vere Cole and five friends in disguise, including the novelist Virginia Woolf and painter Duncan Grant.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/feb/05/bloomsbury-dreadnought-hoax-recalled-letter
A recipient of the Pulitzer Prize and a MacArthur Fellowship, Katherine Boo has only now published her first book. Behind the Beautiful Forevers is a true story of Annawadi, a Mumbai shantytown, the result of intensive, immersive observation over the course of four years.
http://www.salon.com/2012/02/06/behind_the_beautiful_forevers_real_life_indian_epic/singleton/
Prompted by the arrest of the hero of Dave Eggers' award-winning nonfiction book Zeitoun, Carolyn Kellogg asks: How much does someone risk when agreeing to become the subject of a book?
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/jacketcopy/2012/02/hero-of-eggers-zeitoun-pled-guilty-in-domestic-abuse-case.html
SF Site offers the annual chance to let the world know what readers thought was the best of all the speculative reading material encountered from the past year. Eligibility and voting details are here:
http://www.sfsite.com/columns/neil360.htm
Geoff Dyer and Anna Baddeley discuss the role of criticism, as well as their intentions when they set up The Hatchet Job of the Year, a new literary prize for the best scathing book review.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/feb/03/the-conversation-scathing-book-reviews
Shalom Auslander's Hope: A Tragedy is a blisteringly funny first novel that mocks mankind mercilessly for perpetually looking on the bright side, writes Greg Quill. It proposes, with an incisive and perversely appealing logic, that hopelessness is our only real chance of survival.
http://www.thestar.com/article/1126620--author-shalom-auslander-give-up-and-exit-laughing
Mother Tongue Publishing's second annual Search for the Great B.C. Novel contest has been announced.
http://blogs.vancouversun.com/2012/01/23/second-b-c-novel-contest-announced/
The deadline for entries to the Geist Postcard Story Contest is February 15, 2012. Contest submissions guidelines and Postcard FAQs can be found on the Geist website.
http://www.geist.com/articles/8th-annual-literal-literary-postcard-story-contest
BOOKS & WRITERS
In Julian Barnes' The Defence of the Book, marking National Libraries Day, Barnes has added an extra scene to his 1998 satire England, England. Here he imagines what happens when the 'National Coalition' closes down every library.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/feb/03/julian-barnes-defence-of-the-book
What attracts us to literature? The act of reading is the act of seeking a connection. "Graham Greene was never a writer I dreamed of becoming", writes Pico Iyer. And yet there is a connection to Iyer's The Man Within My Head.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/shadow+Graham+Greene/6093698/story.html#ixzz1lOKJiftn
In The Ice Balloon, Alec Wilkinson gives an exhilarating account of an ill-fated Arctic expedition, writes Emily Donaldson, with a finely nuanced portrait of a unique race of men—the Victorian-era Arctic explorers—and the age that produced them.
http://www.thestar.com/news/books/article/1126063--review-alec-wilkinson-s-the-ice-balloon
In an essay about her cultural history of the diary of Anne Frank, Francine Prose says she had never imagined that so many readers had maintained such a fiercely personal relationship with the young diarist. Two new books reinforce Frank's lasting power.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/why-anne-frank-will-always-be-with-us/article2325433/
He had the world at his paws, earning $1,000 a week, says Susan Orlean in Rin Tin Tin: The Life and the Legend, which takes place in the turn of the 20th century, when millions of animals were deployed in war.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/feb/02/rin-tin-tin-life-susan-orlean-review
The Last Holiday: A Memoir by Gil Scott-Heron is a riveting memoir veering from heart-rending revelations to wisecracks and street poetry, writes Margaret Busby. The result is a riveting read that is, like its author, unpredictable, eccentric, funny and compassionate.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/feb/05/last-holiday-scott-heron-review
Christopher de Bellaigue's Patriot of Persia: Muhammad Mossadegh and a Very British Coup is a fascinating biography of a 1950s Persian nobleman and politician that explains much of Iran's antipathy towards Britain, writes Lindsey Hilsum, A timely book, says Hilsum.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/feb/05/patriot-persia-bellaigue-mossadegh-review
In Barry Unsworth's Sacred Hunger, the crew of a slave ship mutinies and establishes an egalitarian community in the Florida swamps. The Quality of Mercy continues where Sacred Hunger left off, offering a broader social picture, says Richard Rayner.
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-ca-barry-unsworth-20120205,0,2373230.story
Robert Harris' The Fear Index is a perfect exemplar of the species "taut thriller", writes Andrew Leonard: a book whose pages cannot be turned fast enough; a mystery with just a dash of science fiction.
http://www.salon.com/2012/02/05/robert_harris_sci_fi_thriller_ripped_from_the_business_headlines/singleton/
Wael Ghonim's emergence as an accidental insurrectionist forms the heart of Revolution 2.0: The Power of the People Is Greater Than the People in Power. Ghonim offers a sharply detailed look from the inside of an uprising, writes Scott Martelle.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/sc-ent-0201-books-wael-ghonim-20120203-38,0,3652645.story
Douglas Gibson is a legend in Canadian publishing, writes Nancy Schiefer. Stories About Storytellers is the perfect title for Douglas Gibson's account of his career, she says. The book is witty and informative, its stable of authors chosen to intrigue the reader.
http://www.edmontonsun.com/2011/12/16/stories-about-storytellers-for-book-lovers
Brian Fawcett's Human Happiness is tricky and slightly disturbing, a wolf in sheep's clothing, writes André Alexis, deeply moving and well written: funny, wicked, snide and memorable. Human Happiness has a number of interesting books entombed within it, says Alexis.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/human-happiness-by-brian-fawcett/article2329574/
COMMUNITY EVENTS
MY ROAD TO ROME
Coauthors BJ McHugh and Bob Nixon talk about McHugh's story of how she became the world's fastest senior long-distance runner. Registration required. Thursday, February 9 at 7:00pm, free. Lynn Valley Main Library, 1277 Lynn Valley Road, North Vancouver. More information at 604-984-0286.
LIBRARIAN'S CHOICE
Evening of fast-paced reviews of recommended crime and mystery novels from around the world. Thursday, February 9 at 7:00pm, free. McGill branch, Burnaby Public Library, 4595 Albert Street. More information at www.bpl.bc.ca/events/librarians-choice-international-crime-mystery.
POETRY READING
Poets E.D. Blodgett and Susan McCaslin will be reading from their recent volumes of poetry. Thursday, February 9 at 7:00pm, free. Cadboro Bay Book Company, 3840B Cadboro Bay Road, Victoria. More information at cadborobaybooks@shaw.ca.
TWS READING SERIES
The Writers Studio at Simon Fraser University presents an evening of storytelling and poetry from talented local writers. This month's feature artists are Dennis Bolen and Soressa Gardner. Friday, February 10 at 7:00pm. Take 5 Caf, 429 Granville Street.
ARSENAL PULP PRESS PRESENTS
Launch of the new book on Stan Douglas's translucent photo-mural in the atrium of Vancouver's Woodward's complex, and the story of the 1971 Gastown Riot. Friday, February 10 at 7:30pm, free. READ Books, Charles H. Scott Gallery, Emily Carr University, 1399 Johnston Street. More information at www.arsenalpulp.com.
TONGUE N CHEEK
Evening of erotic spoken-word performances by C.R. Avery, Mike Mcgee, and Jamie Dewolf. Also features dancing from Sweet Soul Burlesque and a dirty-haiku battle. Friday, February 10 at 8:30pm. Tickets: $15 at the door/$12 in advance at www.brownpapertickets.com. Rio Theatre, 1660 E. Broadway.
MEMBERSHIP DRIVE
Federation of BC Writers is hosting a membership drive with featured readings by Ian Weir, Trevor Carolan, Pam Galloway, Calvin Wharton, S.R. Duncan, Dennis Bolen, and Sylvia Taylor. All memberships are discounted at the event. Saturday, February 11 at 1pm-4pm. Backstage room, Heritage Grill, 447 Columbia Street, New Westminster. More information at www.bcwriters.ca.
MARISSA MEYER
Author reads from Cinder, the first novel in the Lunar Chronicles series. Saturday, February 11 at 2:00pm. Chapters Metrotown, 4700 Kingsway, Burnaby. More information at 604-431-0463.
THE WILD WEATHER
Launch of the new anthology with readings from Peter Trower, Daniela Elza, Susan McCaslin, Elsie Neufeld, Berenice Freedome, Jocelyn Pitsch, Meg Torwl, Leanne Dunic, Lenore Rowntree, and Robin Susanto. Sunday, February 12 at 3:00pm. Tickets: $15 (includes wine and chocolate). Historic Joy Kogawa House, 1450 64th Ave. W. RSVP to kogawahouse@yahoo.ca.
SLAM LOVE
Urban ink productions presents a night of beats, love, and spoken word featuring Kia Kadiri and David Morin. Sunday, February 12 at 7:00pm. Tickets: $10 at slamlove.eventbrite.com. W2 Media Cafe, 111 W. Hastings.
READ DATING
The Popular Reading department of the Vancouver Library is planning two sessions of it's successful prgram. Monday, February 13 for 35-55 year olds, and Wednesday, February 15 for ages 55+. Alice MacKay room, lower level, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia Street. For complete details and registration, phone 604-331-3687.
BOOK LAUNCH
Jennifer Kramer will sign copies of the catalogue written to accompany the exhibition Kesu': The Art and Life of Doug Cranmer. Tuesday, February 14 at 4:00pm. Museum of Anthropology, UBC, 6393 NW Marine Drive. More information at www.moa.ubc.ca/events.
PLAY CHTHONICS READING SERIES
An evening of conversation with Metis writers and filmmakers Warren Cariou and Marie Clements. Wednesday, February 15 at 5:00pm, free. Graham House, Green College UBC, 6201 Cecil Green Park Road.
ROBSON READING SERIES
Readings by Steve Burgess (Who Killed Mom?) and Daniel Griffin (Stopping for Strangers). Thursday, February 16 at 7:00pm, free. UBC Bookstore/Library at Robson Square, 800 Robson Street. More information at www.robsonreadingseries.ubc.ca.
HOME FRONT, A READING SERIES
Reading by Sharon Thesen, author of The Serial Poems. Saturday, February 18 at 8:00pm. Cost: $5/pay what you can. 3966 Ontario Street, Vancouver. More information at 604-879-5200.
Upcoming
FROM TALKING STICK TO THE MICROPHONE VOL. 2
Some of Canada's top spoken word artists go head to head! Part of the Talking Stick Festival. Wednesday, February 22 at 8pm. Pay what you can or by donation. Cafe Deux Soleils, 2096 Commercial Drive. More information at fullcircleperformance.ca.
FEELING CANADIAN
Hear author Marusya Bociurkiw read from from her new book Feeling Canadian: Television, Nationalism and Affect and join in the discussion. Thursday, February 23 at 7:30pm, free. Rhizome Cafe, 317 E. Broadway.
GALIANO LITERARY FESTIVAL
Third annual literary festival featuring George Bowering, Patrick Friesen, Susan Juby, Rhea Tregebov and many others. February 24-26, 2012. Galiano Island. More information at galianoliteraryfestival.wordpress.com.
SURREY READS AND WRITES 2012
Panel discussions, author talks, and workshops on constructing plot, writing for social media, and writing for children. Saturday, February 25 at 11am, free. Surrey Public Library City Centre, 103350 University Drive, Surrey. More information at www.surreylibraries.ca/5459.aspx.
WISH COME TRUE WRITERS' CHALLENGE
A reading of Paul Seesequasis' Tobacco Wars and excerpts from freshly created writings will be shared by Paul Seesequasis and the Aboriginal Writers Collective West Coast. Monday, February 27 at 7:30pm. Tickets: $18/$15/$14. The Vancity Culture Lab, 1895 Venables Street. More information at fulcircleperformance.ca.
CBC STUDIO ONE BOOK CLUB
Eva Stachniak, author of The Winter Palace, is coming to the CBC Studio One Book Club on Monday February 27! Her new historical novel tells the epic story of Catherine the Great's improbable rise to power as seen through the ever-watchful eyes of a servant. The story is told in dazzling detail, impeccably researched, awash with the scandals and secrets of the Russian Imperial court. Win free tickets at www.cbc.ca/bc/bookclub.
TOBACCO WARS AND OTHER WORDS
Paul Seesequasis, Alex Jacobs, and Janet Rogers read from their new works. Thursday, March 1 at 8:00pm. Pay what you can or by donation. Rhizome Cafe, 317 East Broadway. More information at fullcircleperformance.ca.
CAMPBELL RIVER WRITERS' FESTIVAL
Eleventh annual Words on the Water Festival featuring Gurjinder Basran, Trevor Herriot, Daphne Marlatt, Garry Thomas Morse and others. March 23-24, 2012. Tickets on sale starting February 1. Maritime Heritage Centre, Campbell River. Details at www.wordsonthewater.ca.
VANCOUVER INTERNATIONAL POETRY FESTIVAL
Second annual festival and poetry slam championship. April 23-28, 2012. Registration deadlines and complete details here: http://www.vancouverpoetryhouse.com/vipf-2012-is-coming/.
SKAGIT RIVER POETRY FESTIVAL
Three days of poetry, song and storytelling featuring Carolyn Forche', Tony Hoagland and many others. May 17-20, 2012. La Conner, WA. Complete information at www.skagitriverpoetry.org.
JOHN IRVING
The author will talk about his new novel In One Person on Friday, May 18th, 2012 at 7:30 pm at the North Shore Credit Union Centre for the Performing Arts. Capilano University, 2055 Purcell Way, North Vancouver. Ticket price of $30 includes a copy of the new novel available for pick up at the event. More information at 604.990.7810 or http://www2.capilanou.ca/news-events/nscucentre.html.
UPCOMING VIWF EVENTS
Incite
Pico Iyer will appear in a special Incite event on February 20 at the Improv Centre on Granville Island. Admission is by donation. Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/incitefebruary20
Pico Iyer travels widely in his thoughtful and compelling The Man Within My Head, writes Ronald Wright. At once biography, memoir, travelogue, literary criticism and personal meditation, this is a tale of fathers and sons, real and assumed.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/the-man-within-my-head-by-pico-iyer/article2294116/
Pico Iyer once referred to himself as "a global village on two legs." It's a fitting description, writes Scott London in this engaging interview.
http://www.scottlondon.com/interviews/iyer.html
Artists are haunted by their mentors, writes Justin Moyer. For Pico Iyer, one forebear looms so large that he's written The Man Within My Head. "An adopted father can never die," says Iyer. "That's one of the great advantages he has over a real one."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/the-man-within-my-head-by-pico-iyer/2012/01/25/gIQAlTFrnQ_story.html
At the next Incite on February 22, Ojibway author Richard Wagamese reads from Indian Horse, Anne DeGrace reads from Flying with Amelia and Robert Hough shares his latest work Dr. Brinkley's Tower. Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/incitefebruary22. Also appearing at Incite in the next few months are Linden MacIntyre, Will Ferguson, Anakana Schofield, Richard Stursberg, John Boyne, Yasuko Thanh and Buffy Cran, among others.
Richard Ford
Pulitzer Prize and PEN/Faulkner Award-winning author Richard Ford appears with his latest novel, Canada. Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/richardford.
AWARDS & LISTS
Adam Mars-Jones has won the Hatchet Job Award for the year's most lacerating review. Mars-Jones especially condemned Michael Cunningham's novel By Nightfall for its Thoughts about Art.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/adam-mars-jones-wins-hatchet-job-award-for-barbed-review-of-michael-cunningham-novel/2012/02/07/gIQADWG4wQ_story.html
Victoria writer Deborah Willis is the 2012 writer-in-residence at the Joy Kogawa House until April 15.
http://www.vancouversun.com/Victoria+writer+moves+into+Kogawa+House/6097970/story.html
YOUNG READERS
TD Canadian Children's Book Week takes place May 5-12, 2012. Close to 35,000 children, teens and adults will participate in activities held in every province and territory with presentations from a wide variety of touring authors, illustrators and storytellers.
http://www.bookweek.ca/
Those interested in hosting an author, illustrator or storyteller during Book Week should contact the Book Week Coordinator in their local area.
http://www.bookweek.ca/book-week/2012/book-week-coordinators
Joyce Barkhouse, the Nova Scotia-based children's author of Pit Pony, her most popular book, has died, aged 98. Barkhouse's other books include Anna's Pet, which she co-wrote with her niece, Margaret Atwood.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/story/2012/02/03/joyce-barkhouse-obit.html
NEWS & FEATURES
The Nunavut Literacy Council has published the book Just One Goal, by Canadian children's author Robert Munsch, in both Inuktitut and Inuinnaqtun. It is the third book by Munsch that the Council has had translated.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/story/2012/02/01/robert-munsch-inuktitut.html
Indigo has joined the growing boycott of books published by Amazon.com.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/indigo-joins-growing-boycott-of-books-published-by-amazoncom/article2326088/
A marathon celebration of Charles Dickens' 200th birthday kicked off in Australia, then in Korea, Syria and the United Arab Emirates.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/a-global-dickens-appreciation-and-a-modest-proposal/article2328623/
Claire Tomalin, who wrote a biography of the novelist, has written a letter to Charles Dickens on his 200th birthday.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/feb/07/letter-charles-dickens-200th-birthday
NBC Publishing plans to produce electronic and print books under the NBC brand. Its approach to books will be digital-first.
http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2012/01/nbc-publishing-tv-ebooks/all/1?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+wired%2Findex+%28Wired%3A+Index+3+%28Top+Stories+2%29%29
Bernard Schlink, author of the novel that formed the basis of the acclaimed drama The Reader, filed suit in Los Angeles Superior Court this week, claiming The Weinstein Co. has cheated him out of millions in profits from the Oscar-winning film.
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr-esq/reader-author-bernard-schlink-sues-weinstein-286262
After Turkey's Prime Minister Erdogan called the American novelist 'ignorant', Paul Auster reiterated his protest against the country's free speech prohibitions. Auster, whose books are very popular in Turkey, told Turkish paper Hurriyet that he refused to visit Turkey because of imprisoned journalists and writers.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/feb/03/paul-auster-hits-back-turkish-pm
Readers longing for more on Sherlock Holmes and haven't yet found/ read Anthony Horowitz' The House of Silk, may receive some comfort from Michael Dirda's most recent article on the Baker Street Irregulars.
http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2012/feb/02/sherlock-lives/
A Penguin Books poll to mark the 200th anniversary of the author's birth reveals Ebenezer Scrooge from A Christmas Carol as the most popular Dickens character.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/feb/06/ebenezer-scrooge-most-popular-dickens-character
Bill Sikes and Scrooge are among the most well-known characters in English literature but rather than being figments of Charles Dickens' imagination, their names were derived from real people–and new research has pinpointed the writer's sources of inspiration.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/feb/01/charles-dickens-real-character-names?CMP=EMCNEWEML1355
The New Yorker includes Going Home, a poem by Leonard Cohen.
http://www.newyorker.com/fiction/poetry/2012/01/23/120123po_poem_cohen
A new book of poems by Nobel Prize winner Wislawa Szymborska, who died at the age of 88 on 1 February, will be published this year.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/booknews/9059016/Nobel-winner-left-behind-new-poems.html
One of the most famous practical jokes in British military history has returned to haunt the Royal Navy, involving Horace de Vere Cole and five friends in disguise, including the novelist Virginia Woolf and painter Duncan Grant.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/feb/05/bloomsbury-dreadnought-hoax-recalled-letter
A recipient of the Pulitzer Prize and a MacArthur Fellowship, Katherine Boo has only now published her first book. Behind the Beautiful Forevers is a true story of Annawadi, a Mumbai shantytown, the result of intensive, immersive observation over the course of four years.
http://www.salon.com/2012/02/06/behind_the_beautiful_forevers_real_life_indian_epic/singleton/
Prompted by the arrest of the hero of Dave Eggers' award-winning nonfiction book Zeitoun, Carolyn Kellogg asks: How much does someone risk when agreeing to become the subject of a book?
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/jacketcopy/2012/02/hero-of-eggers-zeitoun-pled-guilty-in-domestic-abuse-case.html
SF Site offers the annual chance to let the world know what readers thought was the best of all the speculative reading material encountered from the past year. Eligibility and voting details are here:
http://www.sfsite.com/columns/neil360.htm
Geoff Dyer and Anna Baddeley discuss the role of criticism, as well as their intentions when they set up The Hatchet Job of the Year, a new literary prize for the best scathing book review.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/feb/03/the-conversation-scathing-book-reviews
Shalom Auslander's Hope: A Tragedy is a blisteringly funny first novel that mocks mankind mercilessly for perpetually looking on the bright side, writes Greg Quill. It proposes, with an incisive and perversely appealing logic, that hopelessness is our only real chance of survival.
http://www.thestar.com/article/1126620--author-shalom-auslander-give-up-and-exit-laughing
Mother Tongue Publishing's second annual Search for the Great B.C. Novel contest has been announced.
http://blogs.vancouversun.com/2012/01/23/second-b-c-novel-contest-announced/
The deadline for entries to the Geist Postcard Story Contest is February 15, 2012. Contest submissions guidelines and Postcard FAQs can be found on the Geist website.
http://www.geist.com/articles/8th-annual-literal-literary-postcard-story-contest
BOOKS & WRITERS
In Julian Barnes' The Defence of the Book, marking National Libraries Day, Barnes has added an extra scene to his 1998 satire England, England. Here he imagines what happens when the 'National Coalition' closes down every library.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/feb/03/julian-barnes-defence-of-the-book
What attracts us to literature? The act of reading is the act of seeking a connection. "Graham Greene was never a writer I dreamed of becoming", writes Pico Iyer. And yet there is a connection to Iyer's The Man Within My Head.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/shadow+Graham+Greene/6093698/story.html#ixzz1lOKJiftn
In The Ice Balloon, Alec Wilkinson gives an exhilarating account of an ill-fated Arctic expedition, writes Emily Donaldson, with a finely nuanced portrait of a unique race of men—the Victorian-era Arctic explorers—and the age that produced them.
http://www.thestar.com/news/books/article/1126063--review-alec-wilkinson-s-the-ice-balloon
In an essay about her cultural history of the diary of Anne Frank, Francine Prose says she had never imagined that so many readers had maintained such a fiercely personal relationship with the young diarist. Two new books reinforce Frank's lasting power.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/why-anne-frank-will-always-be-with-us/article2325433/
He had the world at his paws, earning $1,000 a week, says Susan Orlean in Rin Tin Tin: The Life and the Legend, which takes place in the turn of the 20th century, when millions of animals were deployed in war.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/feb/02/rin-tin-tin-life-susan-orlean-review
The Last Holiday: A Memoir by Gil Scott-Heron is a riveting memoir veering from heart-rending revelations to wisecracks and street poetry, writes Margaret Busby. The result is a riveting read that is, like its author, unpredictable, eccentric, funny and compassionate.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/feb/05/last-holiday-scott-heron-review
Christopher de Bellaigue's Patriot of Persia: Muhammad Mossadegh and a Very British Coup is a fascinating biography of a 1950s Persian nobleman and politician that explains much of Iran's antipathy towards Britain, writes Lindsey Hilsum, A timely book, says Hilsum.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/feb/05/patriot-persia-bellaigue-mossadegh-review
In Barry Unsworth's Sacred Hunger, the crew of a slave ship mutinies and establishes an egalitarian community in the Florida swamps. The Quality of Mercy continues where Sacred Hunger left off, offering a broader social picture, says Richard Rayner.
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-ca-barry-unsworth-20120205,0,2373230.story
Robert Harris' The Fear Index is a perfect exemplar of the species "taut thriller", writes Andrew Leonard: a book whose pages cannot be turned fast enough; a mystery with just a dash of science fiction.
http://www.salon.com/2012/02/05/robert_harris_sci_fi_thriller_ripped_from_the_business_headlines/singleton/
Wael Ghonim's emergence as an accidental insurrectionist forms the heart of Revolution 2.0: The Power of the People Is Greater Than the People in Power. Ghonim offers a sharply detailed look from the inside of an uprising, writes Scott Martelle.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/sc-ent-0201-books-wael-ghonim-20120203-38,0,3652645.story
Douglas Gibson is a legend in Canadian publishing, writes Nancy Schiefer. Stories About Storytellers is the perfect title for Douglas Gibson's account of his career, she says. The book is witty and informative, its stable of authors chosen to intrigue the reader.
http://www.edmontonsun.com/2011/12/16/stories-about-storytellers-for-book-lovers
Brian Fawcett's Human Happiness is tricky and slightly disturbing, a wolf in sheep's clothing, writes André Alexis, deeply moving and well written: funny, wicked, snide and memorable. Human Happiness has a number of interesting books entombed within it, says Alexis.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/human-happiness-by-brian-fawcett/article2329574/
COMMUNITY EVENTS
MY ROAD TO ROME
Coauthors BJ McHugh and Bob Nixon talk about McHugh's story of how she became the world's fastest senior long-distance runner. Registration required. Thursday, February 9 at 7:00pm, free. Lynn Valley Main Library, 1277 Lynn Valley Road, North Vancouver. More information at 604-984-0286.
LIBRARIAN'S CHOICE
Evening of fast-paced reviews of recommended crime and mystery novels from around the world. Thursday, February 9 at 7:00pm, free. McGill branch, Burnaby Public Library, 4595 Albert Street. More information at www.bpl.bc.ca/events/librarians-choice-international-crime-mystery.
POETRY READING
Poets E.D. Blodgett and Susan McCaslin will be reading from their recent volumes of poetry. Thursday, February 9 at 7:00pm, free. Cadboro Bay Book Company, 3840B Cadboro Bay Road, Victoria. More information at cadborobaybooks@shaw.ca.
TWS READING SERIES
The Writers Studio at Simon Fraser University presents an evening of storytelling and poetry from talented local writers. This month's feature artists are Dennis Bolen and Soressa Gardner. Friday, February 10 at 7:00pm. Take 5 Caf, 429 Granville Street.
ARSENAL PULP PRESS PRESENTS
Launch of the new book on Stan Douglas's translucent photo-mural in the atrium of Vancouver's Woodward's complex, and the story of the 1971 Gastown Riot. Friday, February 10 at 7:30pm, free. READ Books, Charles H. Scott Gallery, Emily Carr University, 1399 Johnston Street. More information at www.arsenalpulp.com.
TONGUE N CHEEK
Evening of erotic spoken-word performances by C.R. Avery, Mike Mcgee, and Jamie Dewolf. Also features dancing from Sweet Soul Burlesque and a dirty-haiku battle. Friday, February 10 at 8:30pm. Tickets: $15 at the door/$12 in advance at www.brownpapertickets.com. Rio Theatre, 1660 E. Broadway.
MEMBERSHIP DRIVE
Federation of BC Writers is hosting a membership drive with featured readings by Ian Weir, Trevor Carolan, Pam Galloway, Calvin Wharton, S.R. Duncan, Dennis Bolen, and Sylvia Taylor. All memberships are discounted at the event. Saturday, February 11 at 1pm-4pm. Backstage room, Heritage Grill, 447 Columbia Street, New Westminster. More information at www.bcwriters.ca.
MARISSA MEYER
Author reads from Cinder, the first novel in the Lunar Chronicles series. Saturday, February 11 at 2:00pm. Chapters Metrotown, 4700 Kingsway, Burnaby. More information at 604-431-0463.
THE WILD WEATHER
Launch of the new anthology with readings from Peter Trower, Daniela Elza, Susan McCaslin, Elsie Neufeld, Berenice Freedome, Jocelyn Pitsch, Meg Torwl, Leanne Dunic, Lenore Rowntree, and Robin Susanto. Sunday, February 12 at 3:00pm. Tickets: $15 (includes wine and chocolate). Historic Joy Kogawa House, 1450 64th Ave. W. RSVP to kogawahouse@yahoo.ca.
SLAM LOVE
Urban ink productions presents a night of beats, love, and spoken word featuring Kia Kadiri and David Morin. Sunday, February 12 at 7:00pm. Tickets: $10 at slamlove.eventbrite.com. W2 Media Cafe, 111 W. Hastings.
READ DATING
The Popular Reading department of the Vancouver Library is planning two sessions of it's successful prgram. Monday, February 13 for 35-55 year olds, and Wednesday, February 15 for ages 55+. Alice MacKay room, lower level, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia Street. For complete details and registration, phone 604-331-3687.
BOOK LAUNCH
Jennifer Kramer will sign copies of the catalogue written to accompany the exhibition Kesu': The Art and Life of Doug Cranmer. Tuesday, February 14 at 4:00pm. Museum of Anthropology, UBC, 6393 NW Marine Drive. More information at www.moa.ubc.ca/events.
PLAY CHTHONICS READING SERIES
An evening of conversation with Metis writers and filmmakers Warren Cariou and Marie Clements. Wednesday, February 15 at 5:00pm, free. Graham House, Green College UBC, 6201 Cecil Green Park Road.
ROBSON READING SERIES
Readings by Steve Burgess (Who Killed Mom?) and Daniel Griffin (Stopping for Strangers). Thursday, February 16 at 7:00pm, free. UBC Bookstore/Library at Robson Square, 800 Robson Street. More information at www.robsonreadingseries.ubc.ca.
HOME FRONT, A READING SERIES
Reading by Sharon Thesen, author of The Serial Poems. Saturday, February 18 at 8:00pm. Cost: $5/pay what you can. 3966 Ontario Street, Vancouver. More information at 604-879-5200.
Upcoming
FROM TALKING STICK TO THE MICROPHONE VOL. 2
Some of Canada's top spoken word artists go head to head! Part of the Talking Stick Festival. Wednesday, February 22 at 8pm. Pay what you can or by donation. Cafe Deux Soleils, 2096 Commercial Drive. More information at fullcircleperformance.ca.
FEELING CANADIAN
Hear author Marusya Bociurkiw read from from her new book Feeling Canadian: Television, Nationalism and Affect and join in the discussion. Thursday, February 23 at 7:30pm, free. Rhizome Cafe, 317 E. Broadway.
GALIANO LITERARY FESTIVAL
Third annual literary festival featuring George Bowering, Patrick Friesen, Susan Juby, Rhea Tregebov and many others. February 24-26, 2012. Galiano Island. More information at galianoliteraryfestival.wordpress.com.
SURREY READS AND WRITES 2012
Panel discussions, author talks, and workshops on constructing plot, writing for social media, and writing for children. Saturday, February 25 at 11am, free. Surrey Public Library City Centre, 103350 University Drive, Surrey. More information at www.surreylibraries.ca/5459.aspx.
WISH COME TRUE WRITERS' CHALLENGE
A reading of Paul Seesequasis' Tobacco Wars and excerpts from freshly created writings will be shared by Paul Seesequasis and the Aboriginal Writers Collective West Coast. Monday, February 27 at 7:30pm. Tickets: $18/$15/$14. The Vancity Culture Lab, 1895 Venables Street. More information at fulcircleperformance.ca.
CBC STUDIO ONE BOOK CLUB
Eva Stachniak, author of The Winter Palace, is coming to the CBC Studio One Book Club on Monday February 27! Her new historical novel tells the epic story of Catherine the Great's improbable rise to power as seen through the ever-watchful eyes of a servant. The story is told in dazzling detail, impeccably researched, awash with the scandals and secrets of the Russian Imperial court. Win free tickets at www.cbc.ca/bc/bookclub.
TOBACCO WARS AND OTHER WORDS
Paul Seesequasis, Alex Jacobs, and Janet Rogers read from their new works. Thursday, March 1 at 8:00pm. Pay what you can or by donation. Rhizome Cafe, 317 East Broadway. More information at fullcircleperformance.ca.
CAMPBELL RIVER WRITERS' FESTIVAL
Eleventh annual Words on the Water Festival featuring Gurjinder Basran, Trevor Herriot, Daphne Marlatt, Garry Thomas Morse and others. March 23-24, 2012. Tickets on sale starting February 1. Maritime Heritage Centre, Campbell River. Details at www.wordsonthewater.ca.
VANCOUVER INTERNATIONAL POETRY FESTIVAL
Second annual festival and poetry slam championship. April 23-28, 2012. Registration deadlines and complete details here: http://www.vancouverpoetryhouse.com/vipf-2012-is-coming/.
SKAGIT RIVER POETRY FESTIVAL
Three days of poetry, song and storytelling featuring Carolyn Forche', Tony Hoagland and many others. May 17-20, 2012. La Conner, WA. Complete information at www.skagitriverpoetry.org.
JOHN IRVING
The author will talk about his new novel In One Person on Friday, May 18th, 2012 at 7:30 pm at the North Shore Credit Union Centre for the Performing Arts. Capilano University, 2055 Purcell Way, North Vancouver. Ticket price of $30 includes a copy of the new novel available for pick up at the event. More information at 604.990.7810 or http://www2.capilanou.ca/news-events/nscucentre.html.
Thursday, February 2, 2012
Book News Vol. 7 No. 2
BOOK NEWS
UPCOMING VIWF EVENTS
Incite
Pico Iyer will appear in a special Incite event on February 20 at the Improv Centre on Granville Island, admission is by donation. Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/incitefebruary20
Pico Iyer, born to dazzling Indian parents, educated in England and California, is a very modern kind of guy, writes Richard Rayner, interested In Graham Greene, the solitary traveler. Iyer's look at Graham Greene in The Man Within My Head is literary criticism disguised as autobiography.
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-ca-pico-iyer-20120122,0,6835374.story
At the next Incite on February 8, Tess Gallagher reads from Midnight Lantern, and Merilyn Simonds reads from A New Leaf. Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/incitefebruary 8. Also appearing at Incite in the next few months are Linden MacIntyre, Richard Wagamese, Anne DeGrace, Will Ferguson, Richard Stursberg, John Boyne, Yasuko Thanh and Robert Hough, among others.
Richard Ford
Pulitzer Prize and PEN/Faulkner Award-winning author Richard Ford appears with his latest novel, Canada. Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/richardford.
AWARDS & LISTS
News that the Costa is to add a new short story category to its roster of awards this year has left the book industry hoping that this will prove a "breakthrough moment" for the genre. The prize will be awarded to a single short story and the winner will not be competing for the overall Costa book of the year prize.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jan/25/costa-short-story-award
Karen Press, first prize winner of the First Annual Geist Erasure Poetry Contest, has created an R-Rated prize-winning poem from a century-old memoir. The poem contains explicit language.
http://www.geist.com/articles/my-word
Aurora, Ontario's Kayt Burges is this year's winner of the national 3-Day Novel writing contest. Her book, Heidegger Stairwell, was chosen from 590 submissions.
http://www.thestar.com/article/1124316--aurora-resident-wins-marathon-3-day-novel-contest
NEWS & FEATURES
Poland's 1996 Nobel Prize-winning poet Wislawa Szymborska has died, aged 88.The Nobel award committee's citation called her the "Mozart of poetry," a woman who mixed the elegance of language with "the fury of Beethoven" and tackled serious subjects with humour.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/books/story/2012/02/02/obit-syzymborska-nobel-poland.html
In response to the US government's efforts to bring in SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) and PIPA (Protect Intellectual Property Act) legislation, Brazilian writer Paulo Coelho embraces piracy as a boon, not a bane. "As an author, I should be defending ‘intellectual property', but I'm not. Pirates of the world, unite and pirate everything I've ever written!" says Coelho.
http://paulocoelhoblog.com/2012/01/20/welcome-to-pirate-my-books/
Off the heels of the high-profile defeat of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in the US, renewed attention is being paid towards similar legislation that is currently working its way through the House of Commons in Ottawa. Critics of the proposed law have derided the federal government for reintroducing a bill they claim undermines the rights of Canadian consumers and extends government control deeper into the Internet.
http://www.themuse.ca/articles/51280
http://www.ccer.ca/
'All creativity Is political' says Fred Wah, Canada's fifth Parliamentary poet laureate. In a recent email interview, Fred Wah shared with Fiona Tinwei Lam his thoughts on the current state of poetry in Canada.
http://thetyee.ca/Books/2012/01/23/Fred-Wah-Poet-Laureate/
2012 is a big year for poetry in Britain. Regular readers will recall a poetry dust-up in the U.S. reported in Book News in early January. More recently was a punch-up between the first female poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy and Oxford professor of poetry Geoffrey Hall, who likened Duffy to a Mills & Boon (Harlequin Romance equivalent) writer. A reminder that poets are not, nor are they required to be, team players.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/jan/31/carol-ann-duffy-geoffrey-hill-punch-up?INTCMP=SRCH
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/in-other-words/this-just-in-carol-ann-duffy-v-sir-geoffrey-hill/article2321168/
Hundreds of writers including children's laureate and Gruffalo author Julia Donaldson, Philip Pullman and Anne Fine are protesting the government's plans to amend educational copyright, with many saying they will be forced to stop writing for schools if the changes go ahead.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jan/25/copyright-changes-authors-writing-for-schools
The publication in 1962 of Madeleine L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time (after 26 rejections) showed that science fiction isn't just for guys, writes Pamela Paul.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/29/books/review/a-wrinkle-in-time-and-its-sci-fi-heroine.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all
Charles Dickens wasn't just a stickler for the intricacies of plot and character development. Home decoration was also a lifelong obsession, writes Hilary Macaskill.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jan/24/charles-dickens-world-home-interiors?CMP=EMCNEWEML1355
If one poet edits another, whose work is it? In the week that John Burnside won the T S Eliot Prize, Sameer Rahim investigates the mystery of poetry editing.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/9025194/The-mystery-of-poetry-editing-from-TS-Eliot-to-John-Burnside.html
Peter Florence, Director of the Hay Festivals in Britain, writing about the recent Jaipur Festival, says: "Follow the hashtags. The overwhelming response from the wry, unbullyable and free-thinking Indian tweeters is, more or less: It's about time I got round to reading The Satanic Verses – if it gets people so engaged, it must be worth looking at."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/9040969/Salman-Rushdie-case-shows-importance-of-book-festivals.html
City University in London is turning to crime, with the launch of an MA devoted to teaching crime fiction and thriller writing. Launched in response to student demand, and to the growing popularity of the genre, the UK's first creative writing masters dedicated to crime and thriller novels is another harbinger of a "second golden age of crime writing", writes Alison Flood.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jan/27/first-crime-writing-ma-launched
Jeanette Winterson and Helen Dunmore are two authors venturing into the horror genre this year. Dunmore's thriller called The Greatcoat, has been published by Hammer Books. Winterson will bring out her treatment of the 17th-century Pendle witch case this summer.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/jan/29/horror-fiction
Crawford Kilian writes of a fascinating Canadian book urging 'political action for the 99%'. Make This Your Canada, by David Lewis and Frank Scott, was written in 1943. In other words, Occupy's basic critique of society is at least 70 years old, writes Kilian.
http://thetyee.ca/Books/2012/01/06/Prophets-Of-The-Occupiers/
Kaui Hart Hemmings describes the experience of the filming of her first novel, The Descendants, featuring George Clooney.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jan/27/descendants-george-clooney-kaui-hart-hemmings
Hemmings describes how she changed from being a Johnson to a Hemmings, after receiving the gift she wanted for her eleventh birthday—being adopted.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2008/jan/19/familyandrelationships.family
Six of the nine nominations announced this week for the Oscars' Best Picture are based on books, reflecting a recent pattern in which the Oscar lists have consistently affirmed cinema's dependence on literature. These include Kaui Hart Hemmings's The Descendants, Michael Morpurgo's War Horse, Brian Selznick's The Invention of Hugo Cabret (filmed as Hugo), and Kathryn Stockett's The Help.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2012/jan/27/oscars-big-winners-books?newsfeed=true
Educator Howard Eaton gives useful advice on how reading impacts the young mind, and more importantly, how to encourage teenagers to pick up a book.
http://www.vancouverobserver.com/blogs/new-education/2012/01/30/parenting-advice-how-make-teenagers-read-book
Caitlin Flanagan's Girl Land argues that the Internet has a damaging effect on teenage girls. As an argument it's not convincing, writes Sarah Hughes, adding that for both boys and girls, adolescence is a time when mistakes will be made and directions changed.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2012/jan/30/internet-harmful-teenage-girls?CMP=EMCNEWEML1355
From whoopensocker to upscuddle, strubbly to swivet, 50 years after it was first conceived, the Dictionary of American Regional English is finally about to reach the end of the alphabet. The Dictionary will be published in March.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jan/31/dictionary-american-regional-english-dialect
Mother Tongue Publishing's second annual Search for the Great B.C. Novel contest has been announced. Entrants must be from B.C. The winner will get their book published and a $1,000 advance. The winner of the first contest was Gurjinder Basran, who wrote Everything Was Goodbye, a novel that went on to win the Ethel Wilson Prize in 2011. Full details, along with the submission address, are available at www.mothertonguepublishing.com.
http://blogs.vancouversun.com/2012/01/23/second-b-c-novel-contest-announced/
There's still time to enter the Geist Postcard Story Contest . Get your entries in before February 15, 2012 for a chance at literary fame and fortune. Contest submissions guidelines and Postcard FAQs can be found on the Geist website.
http://www.geist.com/articles/8th-annual-literal-literary-postcard-story-contest
The Writers' Trust of Canada is accepting submissions for the Bronwen Wallace Emerging Author Award, which is awarded to authors under the age of 35 whose work has been published in a magazine or anthology. The deadline for submissions is January 30, 2012. Full submission guidelines here:
http://www.cbabook.org/files/RBC_BWA_Call%20for%20Submissions.pdf
The Writers Union of Canada has announced the jury and the submission deadlines for the Danuta Gleed Literary Award, which will be awarded to the best first short fiction collection by a Canadian writer. The submission deadline is January 31, 2012 and submitted words must have been published in 2011.
http://www.writersunion.ca/pdfs/2011_danutagleed_press_release.pdf
BOOKS & WRITERS
Julie Otsuka calls The Buddha in the Attic a novel, factually based on history/ies of a group portrait of Japanese 'picture brides' in America. Ursula K. Le Guin was 12 when "the Japanese disappeared" from Berkeley; now she wishes Otsuka had gone with her heroines into the exile from exile.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jan/27/buddha-in-the-attic-review
On the 50th anniversary of Henry Miller's novel, Frederick Turner's study Renegade examines how it was written and banned, and went on to become an American classic, writes Jeanette Winterson.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/29/books/review/renegade-henry-miller-and-the-making-of-tropic-of-cancer-by-frederick-turner-book-review.html?nl=books&emc=booksupdateema1
Robert K. Massie's biography of Catherine the Great is more compelling than many novels, writes Monique Polak. His Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman is loaded with important facts about European history, but it's the characters that propel it, says Polak.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Biographer+Robert+Massie+paints+human+portrait+Catherine+Great/6062472/story.html
John Lanchester's Capital is effortlessly brilliant–gripping, hugely moving and outrageously funny–as he tracks the lives of a group of characters in present-day London who have a connection with a single south London street, writes William Skidelsky.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/theobserver/2012/jan/29/observer-profile-john-lanchester
George Jonas' Jonas Variations brings a dependable toolkit of poetic devices, multilingual fluency and, occasionally, Nabokovian resourcefulness, writes Fraser Sutherland, reworking 50 other poets as thematic improvisations, imitative impromptus and more or less straight translations from Latin, French, Italian, German, Russian and Hungarian.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/the-jonas-variations-a-literary-seance-by-george-jonas/article2319979/
In Dotter of Her Father's Eyes, a graphic memoir-cum-biography, Mary M. Talbot tells the complicated story of James Joyce's daughter, Lucia. She longed to be a dancer but spent 30 years in a mental institution.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jan/27/dotter-fathers-eyes-talbot-james-joyce
Family stories are not arrows shot straight. They arc backwards, from grandparents to parents, and then on to children. In the magnificent Love and Shame and Love, Peter Orner proves he is one of the finest American poets of family weather, writes John Freeman.
http://www.thestar.com/article/1121692--review-love-and-shame-and-love-by-peter-orner
Adam Johnson's The Orphan Master's Son has taken the papier-mâché creation that is North Korea and turned it into a real and riveting place that readers will find unforgettable, writes David Ignatius.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/book-review-the-orphan-masters-son-by-david-ignatius/2012/01/02/gIQAIZWZmP_story.html
This is precisely the work of fiction to help us comprehend the complex psyche of North Korea, writes Sarah Weinman.
http://www2.macleans.ca/2012/01/11/elegant-gossip-about-gossiping/
South America is an intersection of stereotype and surprise. Edward Docx's South American jungle eco-thriller The Devil's Garden addresses big questions about power and progress set in a remote South American research station.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jan/29/devils-garden-edward-docx-review
"The Devil led us to the wrong crib," was a phrase Jeanette Winterson often heard her adoptive mother say. Memoirs of childhood are as common as peanuts, writes Sarah Barmak, but Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? fulfills a greater purpose than most confessionals.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/why-be-happy-when-you-could-be-normal-by-jeanette-winterson/article2317902/
COMMUNITY EVENTS
ROBSON READING SERIES
Readings by Lynn Coady (The Antagonist) and Anne Perdue (I'm a Registered Nurse Not a Whore). Thursday, February 2 at 7:00pm, free. UBC Bookstore/Library at Robson Square, 800 Robson Street. More information at www.robsonreadingseries.ubc.ca.
KRANKY READING SERIES
Readings by Cathy Stonehouse, Daniel Zomparelli, and Catherine Owen. Thursday, February 2 at 7:00pm. Kranky Cafe, 16-228 4th Ave. East, Vancouver. More information at talonbooks.com/events.
AT THE WORLD'S EDGE
Claudia Cornwall discusses her new book At the World's Edge–Curt Lang's Vancouver: 1937–1998. Thursday, February 2 at 7:30pm, free. McGill branch, Burnaby Public Library, 4595 Albert Street, Burnaby. More information at 604-299-8955.
JOSE AND PILAR
The VIFF VanCity presents Jose and Pillar, the story of Jose Saramago and his wife Pilar del Rio. Graced with apparently unfettered access to the Portugese Nobel prize-winning novelist (Blindness) for more than two years, Miguel Goncalves Mendes delivers something much more than a conventional "portrait of an artist".
http://filmguide.viff.org/tixSYS/vifcguide/filmguide/eventnote.php?EventNumber=2166&
PRISM IS A DEAD EVENT
Readings by Garry Thomas Morse and Marita Dachsel. Hosted by Elizabeth Bachinsky and music by DJ That's So Raven. Friday, February 3 at 8pm. Cost: $5 suggested donation at the door. Project Space, 222 E. Georgia Street.
DPODW III
The Non-Profit Organization to Destroy the World celebrates the publication of it's third literature anthology. Local artists and writers are featured. Saturday, February 4 at 4pm. Tickets: $10 at the door. Russian Hall, 600 Campbell. More information at www.npodw.com.
THE BEST CANADIAN POETRY 2011
Release of Tightrope Book's annual anthology with editor Priscila Uppal and contributors Marita Dachsel and Onjana Yawnghwe as they read selections from the book along side local poets Rob Taylor, Timothy Shay, Daniela Elza and Warren Dean Fulton. Saturday, February 4 at 7:00pm. W2 Media Cafe, 111 West Hastings Street.
NORTH SHORE CRIC CRAC
Evening of stories and live music includes storytellers Helen May, Jane Slemon, Abegael Fisher-Lang, Alyson Quinn, and Briana Hedge, as well as live music by the Deaf Dogs, Jane Slemon, and Amanda's Alchemy. Sunday, February 5 at 7:00pm. Tickets: $7/$5 at the door. Silk Purse Arts Centre, 1570 Argyle Ave., West Vancouver. More information at wong.wingsiu@telus.net.
BARBARA HAND CLOW
Talk by Barbara Hand Clow and Gerry Clow, authors of Awakening the Planetary Mind: Beyond the Trauma of the Past to a New Era of Creativity and Alchemy of Nine Dimensions. Tuesday, February 7 at 7:00pm, free. Alice MacKay room, Central Branch, VPL, 350 West Georgia. More information at www.vpl.ca.
MY ROAD TO ROME
Coauthors BJ McHugh and Bob Nixon talk about McHugh's story of how she became the world's fastest senior long-distance runner. Registration required. Thursday, February 9 at 7:00pm, free. Lynn Valley Main Library, 1277 Lynn Valley Road, North Vancouver. More information at 604-984-0286.
LIBRARIAN'S CHOICE
Evening of fast-paced reviews of recommended crime and mystery novels from around the world. Thursday, February 9 at 7:00pm, free. McGill branch, Burnaby Public Library, 4595 Albert Street. More information at www.bpl.bc.ca/events/librarians-choice-international-crime-mystery.
POETRY READING
Poets E.D. Blodgett and Susan McCaslin will be reading from their recent volumes of poetry. Thursday, February 9 at 7:00pm, free. Cadboro Bay Book Company, 3840B Cadboro Bay Road, Victoria. More information at cadborobaybooks@shaw.ca.
TWS READING SERIES
The Writers Studio at Simon Fraser University presents an evening of storytelling and poetry from talented local writers. This month's feature artists are Dennis Bolen and Soressa Gardner. Friday, February 10 at 7:00pm. Take 5 Caf, 429 Granville Street.
MEMBERSHIP DRIVE
Federation of BC Writers is hosting a membership drive with featured readings by Ian Weir, Trevor Carolan, Pam Galloway, Calvin Wharton, S.R. Duncan, Dennis Bolen, and Sylvia Taylor. All memberships are discounted at the event. Saturday, February 11 at 1pm-4pm. Backstage room, Heritage Grill, 447 Columbia Street, New Westminster. More information at www.bcwriters.ca.
MARISSA MEYER
Author reads from Cinder, the first novel in the Lunar Chronicles series. Saturday, February 11 at 2:00pm. Chapters Metrotown, 4700 Kingsway, Burnaby. More information at 604-431-0463.
Upcoming
THE WILD WEATHER
Launch of the new anthology with readings from Peter Trower, Daniela Elza, Susan McCaslin, Elsie Neufeld, Berenice Freedome, Jocelyn Pitsch, Meg Torwl, Leanne Dunic, Lenore Rowntree, and Robin Susanto. Sunday, February 12 at 3:00pm. Tickets: $15 (includes wine and chocolate). Historic Joy Kogawa House, 1450 64th Ave. W. RSVP to kogawahouse@yahoo.ca.
BOOK LAUNCH
Jennifer Kramer will sign copies of the catalogue written to accompany the exhibition Kesu': The Art and Life of Doug Cranmer. Tuesday, February 14 at 4:00pm. Museum of Anthropology, UBC, 6393 NW Marine Drive. More information at www.moa.ubc.ca/events.
ROBSON READING SERIES
Readings by Steve Burgess (Who Killed Mom?) and Daniel Griffin (Stopping for Strangers). Thursday, February 16 at 7:00pm, free. UBC Bookstore/Library at Robson Square, 800 Robson Street. More information at www.robsonreadingseries.ubc.ca.
HOME FRONT, A READING SERIES
Reading by Sharon Thesen, author of The Serial Poems. Saturday, February 18 at 8:00pm. Cost: $5/pay what you can. 3966 Ontario Street, Vancouver. More information at 604-879-5200.
GALIANO LITERARY FESTIVAL
Third annual literary festival featuring George Bowering, Patrick Friesen, Susan Juby, Rhea Tregebov and many others. February 24-26, 2012. Galiano Island. More information at galianoliteraryfestival.wordpress.com.
CAMPBELL RIVER WRITERS' FESTIVAL
Eleventh annual Words on the Water Festival featuring Gurjinder Basran, Trevor Herriot, Daphne Marlatt, Garry Thomas Morse and others. March 23-24, 2012. Tickets on sale starting February 1. Maritime Heritage Centre, Campbell River. Details at www.wordsonthewater.ca.
VANCOUVER INTERNATIONAL POETRY FESTIVAL
Second annual festival and poetry slam championship. April 23-28, 2012. Registration deadlines and complete details here: http://www.vancouverpoetryhouse.com/vipf-2012-is-coming/.
SKAGIT RIVER POETRY FESTIVAL
Three days of poetry, song and storytelling featuring Carolyn Forche', Tony Hoagland and many others. May 17-20, 2012. La Conner, WA. Complete information at www.skagitriverpoetry.org.
JOHN IRVING
The author will talk about his new novel In One Person on Friday, May 18th, 2012 at 7:30 pm at the North Shore Credit Union Centre for the Performing Arts. Capilano University, 2055 Purcell Way, North Vancouver. Ticket price of $30 includes a copy of the new novel available for pick up at the event. More information at 604.990.7810 or http://www2.capilanou.ca/news-events/nscucentre.html.
UPCOMING VIWF EVENTS
Incite
Pico Iyer will appear in a special Incite event on February 20 at the Improv Centre on Granville Island, admission is by donation. Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/incitefebruary20
Pico Iyer, born to dazzling Indian parents, educated in England and California, is a very modern kind of guy, writes Richard Rayner, interested In Graham Greene, the solitary traveler. Iyer's look at Graham Greene in The Man Within My Head is literary criticism disguised as autobiography.
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-ca-pico-iyer-20120122,0,6835374.story
At the next Incite on February 8, Tess Gallagher reads from Midnight Lantern, and Merilyn Simonds reads from A New Leaf. Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/incitefebruary 8. Also appearing at Incite in the next few months are Linden MacIntyre, Richard Wagamese, Anne DeGrace, Will Ferguson, Richard Stursberg, John Boyne, Yasuko Thanh and Robert Hough, among others.
Richard Ford
Pulitzer Prize and PEN/Faulkner Award-winning author Richard Ford appears with his latest novel, Canada. Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/richardford.
AWARDS & LISTS
News that the Costa is to add a new short story category to its roster of awards this year has left the book industry hoping that this will prove a "breakthrough moment" for the genre. The prize will be awarded to a single short story and the winner will not be competing for the overall Costa book of the year prize.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jan/25/costa-short-story-award
Karen Press, first prize winner of the First Annual Geist Erasure Poetry Contest, has created an R-Rated prize-winning poem from a century-old memoir. The poem contains explicit language.
http://www.geist.com/articles/my-word
Aurora, Ontario's Kayt Burges is this year's winner of the national 3-Day Novel writing contest. Her book, Heidegger Stairwell, was chosen from 590 submissions.
http://www.thestar.com/article/1124316--aurora-resident-wins-marathon-3-day-novel-contest
NEWS & FEATURES
Poland's 1996 Nobel Prize-winning poet Wislawa Szymborska has died, aged 88.The Nobel award committee's citation called her the "Mozart of poetry," a woman who mixed the elegance of language with "the fury of Beethoven" and tackled serious subjects with humour.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/books/story/2012/02/02/obit-syzymborska-nobel-poland.html
In response to the US government's efforts to bring in SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) and PIPA (Protect Intellectual Property Act) legislation, Brazilian writer Paulo Coelho embraces piracy as a boon, not a bane. "As an author, I should be defending ‘intellectual property', but I'm not. Pirates of the world, unite and pirate everything I've ever written!" says Coelho.
http://paulocoelhoblog.com/2012/01/20/welcome-to-pirate-my-books/
Off the heels of the high-profile defeat of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in the US, renewed attention is being paid towards similar legislation that is currently working its way through the House of Commons in Ottawa. Critics of the proposed law have derided the federal government for reintroducing a bill they claim undermines the rights of Canadian consumers and extends government control deeper into the Internet.
http://www.themuse.ca/articles/51280
http://www.ccer.ca/
'All creativity Is political' says Fred Wah, Canada's fifth Parliamentary poet laureate. In a recent email interview, Fred Wah shared with Fiona Tinwei Lam his thoughts on the current state of poetry in Canada.
http://thetyee.ca/Books/2012/01/23/Fred-Wah-Poet-Laureate/
2012 is a big year for poetry in Britain. Regular readers will recall a poetry dust-up in the U.S. reported in Book News in early January. More recently was a punch-up between the first female poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy and Oxford professor of poetry Geoffrey Hall, who likened Duffy to a Mills & Boon (Harlequin Romance equivalent) writer. A reminder that poets are not, nor are they required to be, team players.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/jan/31/carol-ann-duffy-geoffrey-hill-punch-up?INTCMP=SRCH
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/in-other-words/this-just-in-carol-ann-duffy-v-sir-geoffrey-hill/article2321168/
Hundreds of writers including children's laureate and Gruffalo author Julia Donaldson, Philip Pullman and Anne Fine are protesting the government's plans to amend educational copyright, with many saying they will be forced to stop writing for schools if the changes go ahead.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jan/25/copyright-changes-authors-writing-for-schools
The publication in 1962 of Madeleine L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time (after 26 rejections) showed that science fiction isn't just for guys, writes Pamela Paul.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/29/books/review/a-wrinkle-in-time-and-its-sci-fi-heroine.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all
Charles Dickens wasn't just a stickler for the intricacies of plot and character development. Home decoration was also a lifelong obsession, writes Hilary Macaskill.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jan/24/charles-dickens-world-home-interiors?CMP=EMCNEWEML1355
If one poet edits another, whose work is it? In the week that John Burnside won the T S Eliot Prize, Sameer Rahim investigates the mystery of poetry editing.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/9025194/The-mystery-of-poetry-editing-from-TS-Eliot-to-John-Burnside.html
Peter Florence, Director of the Hay Festivals in Britain, writing about the recent Jaipur Festival, says: "Follow the hashtags. The overwhelming response from the wry, unbullyable and free-thinking Indian tweeters is, more or less: It's about time I got round to reading The Satanic Verses – if it gets people so engaged, it must be worth looking at."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/9040969/Salman-Rushdie-case-shows-importance-of-book-festivals.html
City University in London is turning to crime, with the launch of an MA devoted to teaching crime fiction and thriller writing. Launched in response to student demand, and to the growing popularity of the genre, the UK's first creative writing masters dedicated to crime and thriller novels is another harbinger of a "second golden age of crime writing", writes Alison Flood.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jan/27/first-crime-writing-ma-launched
Jeanette Winterson and Helen Dunmore are two authors venturing into the horror genre this year. Dunmore's thriller called The Greatcoat, has been published by Hammer Books. Winterson will bring out her treatment of the 17th-century Pendle witch case this summer.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/jan/29/horror-fiction
Crawford Kilian writes of a fascinating Canadian book urging 'political action for the 99%'. Make This Your Canada, by David Lewis and Frank Scott, was written in 1943. In other words, Occupy's basic critique of society is at least 70 years old, writes Kilian.
http://thetyee.ca/Books/2012/01/06/Prophets-Of-The-Occupiers/
Kaui Hart Hemmings describes the experience of the filming of her first novel, The Descendants, featuring George Clooney.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jan/27/descendants-george-clooney-kaui-hart-hemmings
Hemmings describes how she changed from being a Johnson to a Hemmings, after receiving the gift she wanted for her eleventh birthday—being adopted.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2008/jan/19/familyandrelationships.family
Six of the nine nominations announced this week for the Oscars' Best Picture are based on books, reflecting a recent pattern in which the Oscar lists have consistently affirmed cinema's dependence on literature. These include Kaui Hart Hemmings's The Descendants, Michael Morpurgo's War Horse, Brian Selznick's The Invention of Hugo Cabret (filmed as Hugo), and Kathryn Stockett's The Help.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2012/jan/27/oscars-big-winners-books?newsfeed=true
Educator Howard Eaton gives useful advice on how reading impacts the young mind, and more importantly, how to encourage teenagers to pick up a book.
http://www.vancouverobserver.com/blogs/new-education/2012/01/30/parenting-advice-how-make-teenagers-read-book
Caitlin Flanagan's Girl Land argues that the Internet has a damaging effect on teenage girls. As an argument it's not convincing, writes Sarah Hughes, adding that for both boys and girls, adolescence is a time when mistakes will be made and directions changed.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2012/jan/30/internet-harmful-teenage-girls?CMP=EMCNEWEML1355
From whoopensocker to upscuddle, strubbly to swivet, 50 years after it was first conceived, the Dictionary of American Regional English is finally about to reach the end of the alphabet. The Dictionary will be published in March.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jan/31/dictionary-american-regional-english-dialect
Mother Tongue Publishing's second annual Search for the Great B.C. Novel contest has been announced. Entrants must be from B.C. The winner will get their book published and a $1,000 advance. The winner of the first contest was Gurjinder Basran, who wrote Everything Was Goodbye, a novel that went on to win the Ethel Wilson Prize in 2011. Full details, along with the submission address, are available at www.mothertonguepublishing.com.
http://blogs.vancouversun.com/2012/01/23/second-b-c-novel-contest-announced/
There's still time to enter the Geist Postcard Story Contest . Get your entries in before February 15, 2012 for a chance at literary fame and fortune. Contest submissions guidelines and Postcard FAQs can be found on the Geist website.
http://www.geist.com/articles/8th-annual-literal-literary-postcard-story-contest
The Writers' Trust of Canada is accepting submissions for the Bronwen Wallace Emerging Author Award, which is awarded to authors under the age of 35 whose work has been published in a magazine or anthology. The deadline for submissions is January 30, 2012. Full submission guidelines here:
http://www.cbabook.org/files/RBC_BWA_Call%20for%20Submissions.pdf
The Writers Union of Canada has announced the jury and the submission deadlines for the Danuta Gleed Literary Award, which will be awarded to the best first short fiction collection by a Canadian writer. The submission deadline is January 31, 2012 and submitted words must have been published in 2011.
http://www.writersunion.ca/pdfs/2011_danutagleed_press_release.pdf
BOOKS & WRITERS
Julie Otsuka calls The Buddha in the Attic a novel, factually based on history/ies of a group portrait of Japanese 'picture brides' in America. Ursula K. Le Guin was 12 when "the Japanese disappeared" from Berkeley; now she wishes Otsuka had gone with her heroines into the exile from exile.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jan/27/buddha-in-the-attic-review
On the 50th anniversary of Henry Miller's novel, Frederick Turner's study Renegade examines how it was written and banned, and went on to become an American classic, writes Jeanette Winterson.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/29/books/review/renegade-henry-miller-and-the-making-of-tropic-of-cancer-by-frederick-turner-book-review.html?nl=books&emc=booksupdateema1
Robert K. Massie's biography of Catherine the Great is more compelling than many novels, writes Monique Polak. His Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman is loaded with important facts about European history, but it's the characters that propel it, says Polak.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Biographer+Robert+Massie+paints+human+portrait+Catherine+Great/6062472/story.html
John Lanchester's Capital is effortlessly brilliant–gripping, hugely moving and outrageously funny–as he tracks the lives of a group of characters in present-day London who have a connection with a single south London street, writes William Skidelsky.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/theobserver/2012/jan/29/observer-profile-john-lanchester
George Jonas' Jonas Variations brings a dependable toolkit of poetic devices, multilingual fluency and, occasionally, Nabokovian resourcefulness, writes Fraser Sutherland, reworking 50 other poets as thematic improvisations, imitative impromptus and more or less straight translations from Latin, French, Italian, German, Russian and Hungarian.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/the-jonas-variations-a-literary-seance-by-george-jonas/article2319979/
In Dotter of Her Father's Eyes, a graphic memoir-cum-biography, Mary M. Talbot tells the complicated story of James Joyce's daughter, Lucia. She longed to be a dancer but spent 30 years in a mental institution.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jan/27/dotter-fathers-eyes-talbot-james-joyce
Family stories are not arrows shot straight. They arc backwards, from grandparents to parents, and then on to children. In the magnificent Love and Shame and Love, Peter Orner proves he is one of the finest American poets of family weather, writes John Freeman.
http://www.thestar.com/article/1121692--review-love-and-shame-and-love-by-peter-orner
Adam Johnson's The Orphan Master's Son has taken the papier-mâché creation that is North Korea and turned it into a real and riveting place that readers will find unforgettable, writes David Ignatius.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/book-review-the-orphan-masters-son-by-david-ignatius/2012/01/02/gIQAIZWZmP_story.html
This is precisely the work of fiction to help us comprehend the complex psyche of North Korea, writes Sarah Weinman.
http://www2.macleans.ca/2012/01/11/elegant-gossip-about-gossiping/
South America is an intersection of stereotype and surprise. Edward Docx's South American jungle eco-thriller The Devil's Garden addresses big questions about power and progress set in a remote South American research station.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jan/29/devils-garden-edward-docx-review
"The Devil led us to the wrong crib," was a phrase Jeanette Winterson often heard her adoptive mother say. Memoirs of childhood are as common as peanuts, writes Sarah Barmak, but Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? fulfills a greater purpose than most confessionals.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/why-be-happy-when-you-could-be-normal-by-jeanette-winterson/article2317902/
COMMUNITY EVENTS
ROBSON READING SERIES
Readings by Lynn Coady (The Antagonist) and Anne Perdue (I'm a Registered Nurse Not a Whore). Thursday, February 2 at 7:00pm, free. UBC Bookstore/Library at Robson Square, 800 Robson Street. More information at www.robsonreadingseries.ubc.ca.
KRANKY READING SERIES
Readings by Cathy Stonehouse, Daniel Zomparelli, and Catherine Owen. Thursday, February 2 at 7:00pm. Kranky Cafe, 16-228 4th Ave. East, Vancouver. More information at talonbooks.com/events.
AT THE WORLD'S EDGE
Claudia Cornwall discusses her new book At the World's Edge–Curt Lang's Vancouver: 1937–1998. Thursday, February 2 at 7:30pm, free. McGill branch, Burnaby Public Library, 4595 Albert Street, Burnaby. More information at 604-299-8955.
JOSE AND PILAR
The VIFF VanCity presents Jose and Pillar, the story of Jose Saramago and his wife Pilar del Rio. Graced with apparently unfettered access to the Portugese Nobel prize-winning novelist (Blindness) for more than two years, Miguel Goncalves Mendes delivers something much more than a conventional "portrait of an artist".
http://filmguide.viff.org/tixSYS/vifcguide/filmguide/eventnote.php?EventNumber=2166&
PRISM IS A DEAD EVENT
Readings by Garry Thomas Morse and Marita Dachsel. Hosted by Elizabeth Bachinsky and music by DJ That's So Raven. Friday, February 3 at 8pm. Cost: $5 suggested donation at the door. Project Space, 222 E. Georgia Street.
DPODW III
The Non-Profit Organization to Destroy the World celebrates the publication of it's third literature anthology. Local artists and writers are featured. Saturday, February 4 at 4pm. Tickets: $10 at the door. Russian Hall, 600 Campbell. More information at www.npodw.com.
THE BEST CANADIAN POETRY 2011
Release of Tightrope Book's annual anthology with editor Priscila Uppal and contributors Marita Dachsel and Onjana Yawnghwe as they read selections from the book along side local poets Rob Taylor, Timothy Shay, Daniela Elza and Warren Dean Fulton. Saturday, February 4 at 7:00pm. W2 Media Cafe, 111 West Hastings Street.
NORTH SHORE CRIC CRAC
Evening of stories and live music includes storytellers Helen May, Jane Slemon, Abegael Fisher-Lang, Alyson Quinn, and Briana Hedge, as well as live music by the Deaf Dogs, Jane Slemon, and Amanda's Alchemy. Sunday, February 5 at 7:00pm. Tickets: $7/$5 at the door. Silk Purse Arts Centre, 1570 Argyle Ave., West Vancouver. More information at wong.wingsiu@telus.net.
BARBARA HAND CLOW
Talk by Barbara Hand Clow and Gerry Clow, authors of Awakening the Planetary Mind: Beyond the Trauma of the Past to a New Era of Creativity and Alchemy of Nine Dimensions. Tuesday, February 7 at 7:00pm, free. Alice MacKay room, Central Branch, VPL, 350 West Georgia. More information at www.vpl.ca.
MY ROAD TO ROME
Coauthors BJ McHugh and Bob Nixon talk about McHugh's story of how she became the world's fastest senior long-distance runner. Registration required. Thursday, February 9 at 7:00pm, free. Lynn Valley Main Library, 1277 Lynn Valley Road, North Vancouver. More information at 604-984-0286.
LIBRARIAN'S CHOICE
Evening of fast-paced reviews of recommended crime and mystery novels from around the world. Thursday, February 9 at 7:00pm, free. McGill branch, Burnaby Public Library, 4595 Albert Street. More information at www.bpl.bc.ca/events/librarians-choice-international-crime-mystery.
POETRY READING
Poets E.D. Blodgett and Susan McCaslin will be reading from their recent volumes of poetry. Thursday, February 9 at 7:00pm, free. Cadboro Bay Book Company, 3840B Cadboro Bay Road, Victoria. More information at cadborobaybooks@shaw.ca.
TWS READING SERIES
The Writers Studio at Simon Fraser University presents an evening of storytelling and poetry from talented local writers. This month's feature artists are Dennis Bolen and Soressa Gardner. Friday, February 10 at 7:00pm. Take 5 Caf, 429 Granville Street.
MEMBERSHIP DRIVE
Federation of BC Writers is hosting a membership drive with featured readings by Ian Weir, Trevor Carolan, Pam Galloway, Calvin Wharton, S.R. Duncan, Dennis Bolen, and Sylvia Taylor. All memberships are discounted at the event. Saturday, February 11 at 1pm-4pm. Backstage room, Heritage Grill, 447 Columbia Street, New Westminster. More information at www.bcwriters.ca.
MARISSA MEYER
Author reads from Cinder, the first novel in the Lunar Chronicles series. Saturday, February 11 at 2:00pm. Chapters Metrotown, 4700 Kingsway, Burnaby. More information at 604-431-0463.
Upcoming
THE WILD WEATHER
Launch of the new anthology with readings from Peter Trower, Daniela Elza, Susan McCaslin, Elsie Neufeld, Berenice Freedome, Jocelyn Pitsch, Meg Torwl, Leanne Dunic, Lenore Rowntree, and Robin Susanto. Sunday, February 12 at 3:00pm. Tickets: $15 (includes wine and chocolate). Historic Joy Kogawa House, 1450 64th Ave. W. RSVP to kogawahouse@yahoo.ca.
BOOK LAUNCH
Jennifer Kramer will sign copies of the catalogue written to accompany the exhibition Kesu': The Art and Life of Doug Cranmer. Tuesday, February 14 at 4:00pm. Museum of Anthropology, UBC, 6393 NW Marine Drive. More information at www.moa.ubc.ca/events.
ROBSON READING SERIES
Readings by Steve Burgess (Who Killed Mom?) and Daniel Griffin (Stopping for Strangers). Thursday, February 16 at 7:00pm, free. UBC Bookstore/Library at Robson Square, 800 Robson Street. More information at www.robsonreadingseries.ubc.ca.
HOME FRONT, A READING SERIES
Reading by Sharon Thesen, author of The Serial Poems. Saturday, February 18 at 8:00pm. Cost: $5/pay what you can. 3966 Ontario Street, Vancouver. More information at 604-879-5200.
GALIANO LITERARY FESTIVAL
Third annual literary festival featuring George Bowering, Patrick Friesen, Susan Juby, Rhea Tregebov and many others. February 24-26, 2012. Galiano Island. More information at galianoliteraryfestival.wordpress.com.
CAMPBELL RIVER WRITERS' FESTIVAL
Eleventh annual Words on the Water Festival featuring Gurjinder Basran, Trevor Herriot, Daphne Marlatt, Garry Thomas Morse and others. March 23-24, 2012. Tickets on sale starting February 1. Maritime Heritage Centre, Campbell River. Details at www.wordsonthewater.ca.
VANCOUVER INTERNATIONAL POETRY FESTIVAL
Second annual festival and poetry slam championship. April 23-28, 2012. Registration deadlines and complete details here: http://www.vancouverpoetryhouse.com/vipf-2012-is-coming/.
SKAGIT RIVER POETRY FESTIVAL
Three days of poetry, song and storytelling featuring Carolyn Forche', Tony Hoagland and many others. May 17-20, 2012. La Conner, WA. Complete information at www.skagitriverpoetry.org.
JOHN IRVING
The author will talk about his new novel In One Person on Friday, May 18th, 2012 at 7:30 pm at the North Shore Credit Union Centre for the Performing Arts. Capilano University, 2055 Purcell Way, North Vancouver. Ticket price of $30 includes a copy of the new novel available for pick up at the event. More information at 604.990.7810 or http://www2.capilanou.ca/news-events/nscucentre.html.
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