Book News Vol. 7 No. 31

BOOK NEWS

2012 Festival
The 2012 Vancouver Writers Fest program is now online! Visit our website for full details on Festival programming and special events. Tickets go on sale to members on Aug 29th and the general public on Sept 5th. Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca.

UPCOMING EVENTS
Michael Chabon
September 26, 2012 at 8:00pm
St. Andrew's-Wesley United Church
Author of the New York Times bestselling novel, The Yiddish Policemen's Union, talks about his latest book, Telegraph Avenue. Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/michaelchabon

VIRTUAL FESTIVAL

Listen to the eighteenth installment in our series of audio archives from past Festival events. This week you'll hear "Bamboo Lettering" featuring Kevin Chong, Jen Sookfong Lee and Ling Zhang. Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/multimedia/audio-archives.

Special Offers

If being a member of the VWF didn't already have enough benefits, we've added an extra incentive! Every two weeks new and renewing members will have a chance to win a book by a Festival or Incite author. At the end of August we'll have a grand prize draw for a deluxe pack of Festival tickets - two tickets to any event of your choice for each day of the Festival! Sign up now here, https://www.writersfest.bc.ca/secure/secure_membership.php.

AWARDS & LISTS

New York humorist Calvin Trillin, "Parks and Recreation" writer Nate DiMeo and novelist Patricia Marx are among the finalists for this year's Thurber Prize for American Humor. The winner will be announced October 1.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/story/2012/08/15/thurber-prize.html

Janice Galloway's 'anti-memoir' of her teen years has been named Scottish book of the year. All Made Up was the winner in the non-fiction category; she then secured the overall prize of £30,000 for the Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust Book of the Year.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/aug/18/janice-galloway-memoir-scottish-book-of-year

The winners for the 2012 Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest have been announced. The winner of this year's best worst writing is Cathy Bryant of Manchester, England, whose contribution includes an infestation of eyelash mites. The complete piece can be found here:
http://blogs.publishersweekly.com/blogs/PWxyz/2012/08/13/bad-writing-award-winners-announced/

Jen Hadfield has been named the winner of the Edwin Morgan International Poetry Prize 2012 for The Kids, which improvises on the nursery rhyme Monday's Child.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/aug/19/jen-hadfield-edwin-morgan-international-poetry-prize

Poet, writer and historian Meredith Quartermain is Vancouver Public Library's eighth Writer in Residence. Ms. Quartermain began her residency last week by inspiring and sharing her vast experience with young writers at the Library's annual Writing & Book Camp.
http://www.allianceforarts.com/blog/vancouver-public-library-names-eighth-writer-residence

More information is available at:
http://www.vpl.ca/writer_in_residence

YOUNG READERS

In this fourth and final instalment of Arthur Slades' The Hunchback Chronicles, an award-winning steampunk series set in the 1800s, Island of Doom brings the series to an end. Modo has discovered his French roots, goes in search of his parents, and by the time he's 14, he has learned how to cope. Ages 11 and up.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/books/Kids+Steampunk+series+comes/7105277/story.html

Do you have schoolwork you're expected to do over the summer? Are you excited about it? If your answer is "no," then you have something in common with 13-year-old Mary Lou, the main character in Sharon Creech's Absolutely Normal Chaos. Ages 9 and older.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/kidspost/kidspost-book-club-ends-with-absolutely-normal-chaos/2012/08/14/d83323ac-d1ba-11e1-8bea-6dc0b4879aab_story.html

Petit Nicolas is a classic French children's character created by the Asterix writer René Goscinny. Discover Nicolas's world and the mischief he gets up in this short story.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/childrens-books-site/interactive/2012/aug/17/petit-nicolas-story

Trouble, a first novel for teens by John Lucas, has been published to coincide with the anniversary of the London riots. Read an exclusive spin-off short story by John Lucas, featuring the TURF characters. Ages 13 and older.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/childrens-books-site/interactive/2012/aug/14/trouble-john-lucas-short-story?CMP=EMCNEWEML1355

NEWS & FEATURES

Judith Thurman writes about the books individuals running for office in the U.S. cite as formative, including works by Laura Ingalls Wilder, Ayn Rand and Thomas Aquinas.
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2012/08/rose-wilder-lane-ayn-rand-and-americas-libertarian-literature.html

Oranges are not the only fruit, especially when it comes to the Orange Prize for Fiction. Apple, the US technology giant, is understood to be looking at backing the prestigious award, which recognizes novels written by women.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/mediatechnologyandtelecoms/electronics/9469226/Apple-to-squeeze-out-Orange-as-new-backer-of-fiction-award.html

Speaking at the Edinburgh international writers' conference, Irvine Welsh, the author of Trainspotting, lashed out at the "highly imperialist-orientated Man Booker prize". The award, he said, was "based on the conceit that upper-class Englishness is the cultural yardstick against which all literature must be measured".
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/aug/19/irvine-welsh-edinburgh-books-festival

Bob Spitz released his book Dearie: The Remarkable Life of Julia Child last Wednesday, which would have been Child's 100th birthday. "Julia taught women how to be bold and inventive in the kitchen…to step out from behind the stove and be a star," said Spitz.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/story/2012/08/15/julia-child-biography.html

Unbeknownst to literary scholars, FBI files on Sylvia Plath's father shed new light on the poet. The FBI described Otto Plath, who inspired the 1962 poem Daddy, as a morbid man with possible pro-German sympathies during the war. The FBI files will be revealed at an international Plath symposium in October at Indiana University, Bloomington.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/aug/17/sylvia-plath-otto-father-files

In an interview in Foreign Policy magazine, Salman Rushdie reflects on life under fatwa, the Arab Spring, and his one-night stand with Twitter. A movie version of Midnight's Children and a new memoir about his time in hiding are due out shortly.
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2012/08/13/epiphanies_an_interview_with_salman_rushdie

A large study of Scottish people's DNA is threatening to "rewrite the nation's history", says Alistair Moffat. Moffat and his colleagues have found West African, Arabian, south-east Asian and Siberian ancestry, along with Scots, Celtic, Viking, Irish—and Berber. The findings are in The Scots: A Genetic Journey.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/aug/15/scotland-dna-study-project?CMP=EMCNEWEML1355

Science fiction is really just philosophy (or at least its direct descendant), writes Charlie Jane Anders. Science fiction doesn't just illuminate philosophy; the genre grew out of philosophy. The earliest works of science fiction were philosophical texts.
http://io9.com/5932802/the-philosophical-roots-of-science-fiction

Rather than anti-piracy measures, writers should welcome a future where readers remix our books, says China Miéville. "When asked if you've read the latest Ali Smith or Ghada Karmi, the response might be not yes or no, but which mix?" says Miéville.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/aug/21/china-mieville-novels-books-anti-piracy

Anxious? Depressed? Literate? Try Bibliotherapy. Literature transforms us. Alain de Botton and his colleagues' bibliotherapy program at School of Life matches individuals struggling in any aspect of their lives with a list of books hand-selected to help them through tough times.
http://bigthink.com/think-tank/anxious-depressed-literate-try-bibliotherapy

The Poet Laureate, Carol Ann Duffy, has released a tempting come-on in this year's 400th anniversary of remembrance for the eight Lancashire women and two men who were hanged in an outbreak of public hysteria over witchcraft. She joins fellow-poet Simon Armitage in a verse exploration of the tragedy in 1612. Duffy and the organisers offer a taster here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/the-northerner/2012/aug/15/carol-ann-duffy-poet-laureate-lancashire-witches-pendle

French novelist Laurent Binet, was given special access to the new Socialist president to produce a literary political portrait–a new publishing genre in France. Binet's book, Rien Ne Se Passé Comme Prevu (Nothing Happens as Predicted), will be released next week.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/aug/16/francois-hollande-book-laurent-binet

Organizers of the Scotiabank Giller Prize, Canada's largest fiction award, have postponed the announcement of this year's longlist to accommodate a rush of last-minute submissions.
http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/books/article/1242117--late-submissions-delay-giller-longlist-announcement

BOOKS & WRITERS

Leanne Shapton's Swimming Studies is a testament to obsession, writes Robert Epstein. Shapton, a former Canadian Olympic triallist swimmer, decided at 14 she would not be going to the Olympics. This lyrical life aquatic is a stroke of pure genius, gold-winning stuff, says Epstein.
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/swimming-studies-by-leanne-shapton-8034590.html

Our Friend Joe: The Joe Fortes Story by Lisa Anne Smith and Barbara Rogers honours the lives he saved and the generations of children Joe taught to swim. A portion of book sales proceeds will be donated to the Lifesaving Society's Swim to Survive program for Grade 3 schoolchildren.
http://www.vancouversun.com/entertainment/books/seaman+saved+dozens+from+drowning+taught+three/7106909/story.html

Are yoga practices good for you? Are yoga teachers truly qualified? William J. Broad explores these and other questions in The Science of Yoga. He knows that yoga has the capacity to heal, but he believes that the cobwebs of myth need to be cleared, writes Lisa Miriam Cherry.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/book-reviews/the-science-of-yoga-destroys-the-activitys-top-myths/article4486501/

Although he wasn't permitted to attend the ceremony to receive the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize, Liu Xiaobo continues to be an outspoken critic of the government, and annually acknowledges the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre with a poem. June Fourth Elegies makes public the first 20 poems in this sequence.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/aug/17/june-fourth-liu-xiaobo-review

Ameen Rihani's The Book of Khalid stands as the foundational text of Arab-American literature, despite having been out of print since 1911. With the world now consumed by issues of Arab-American relations and Arab political revolution, many have the sense that its moment is now, writes Todd Fine.
http://mhpbooks.com/books/the-book-of-khalid/

NW, Zadie Smith's eagerly awaited new novel– the first in seven years–is a dazzling portrait of modern London. The Guardian offers an exclusive extract here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/aug/17/nw-zadie-smith-extract

An Illustrated History of Quebec, by historians Peter Gossage and Jack Little, offers an even-handed treatment of Quebec history in a new illustrated volume. Gossage and Little focus on the struggle between tradition and modernity, writes Marian Scott.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/books/Quebec+history+gets+even+handed+treatment+illustrated+volume/7105285/story.html

Paul Theroux's The Lower River begins with the sentence, "Ellis Hock's wife gave him a new phone for this birthday." That simple, innocuous action triggers a harrowing chain of events, writes Philip Marchand. Villagers in Malawi; do-gooders; the moral of the story is hard to discern.
http://arts.nationalpost.com/2012/08/17/open-book-the-lower-river-by-paul-theroux/

The gorgeous ruin on the cover of Jess Walter's Beautiful Ruins is a misty Brigadoon of a place that doesn't appear on the map and maybe doesn't exist. Then a movie star arrives from her work on the film, Cleopatra. A complex, delectable story, writes Margaret Gunning.
http://www.vancouversun.com/news/personalities+drive+delectable+drama/7110732/story.html

Which came first, MI5 or the 70s? "It's hard to say," says Ian McEwan. How did this curious, beguiling book–a spy novel without even so much as a hint of a poison-tipped umbrella–begin? It's 'a muted and distorted autobiography' writes Rachel Cooke.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/aug/19/ian-mcewan-sweet-tooth-interview

Alex Clark admires André Brink's Booker-longlisted family history of Cape Colony slave owners, and points out that one of the characters appears to have something in common with the author of this novel.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/aug/16/philida-andre-brink-booker-review

COMMUNITY EVENTS

SUMMER DREAMS LITERARY ARTS FESTIVAL
Annual family-friendly celebration of literary arts features two stages, a kids' area, a marketplace, and over 90 performers, including headliner Barbara Adler and Fang, a local spoken-word artist who combines poetry with music. Saturday, August 25, 2012, free. Trout Lake Park, 3350 Victoria. More information at www.summerdreamsfest.com.

2012 PANDORA'S LITERARY AWARDS GALA
Pandora's Collective is proud to announce the recipients of the Pandora's Literary Awards for 2012. This year's awards winners will be honoured at a special gala to be held on Friday, August 24th at CBC Studio 700 (700 Hamilton Street, Vancouver). The night will be hosted by Charles Demers and will feature a performance by Mount Pleasant's Inchoiring Minds. Award presenters include George Bowering, Brian Kaufman, Sean Cranbury, Betsy Warland and RC Weslowski. 7pm (Doors open at 6:30pm), CBC Studio 700 (700 Hamilton St.), Free event, Food, Cash bar. Silent Auction. For more information on the winners and the event: https://sites.google.com/site/summerdreamsfest/home/gala.

VANCOUVER POETRY SLAM
Qualifying slam for poets to earn points for the playoffs in March 2013. Featuring Tanya Evanson. Monday, August 27 at 8:00p. Cost: $4/$6. Cafe Deux Soleils, 2096 Commercial Drive.

Upcoming

TWISTED POETS LITERARY SALON
(Please note New Location Starting September) Features Wayde Compton and Warren Dean Fulton + Open Mic. Thursday, September 6th at 7:00pm. Suggested donation at the door: $5. @Cafe Montmartre, 4362 Main Street, Vancouver. More information at www.pandorascollective.com.

ANDREA LISTER
Writer and historian Andrea Lister follows the generations of determined women who fundraised, sewed, canned, and knitted to establish Chilliwack's first hospital. Tuesday, September 18 at 7:00pm. Chilliwack Library, 45860 First Avenue, Chilliwack.

JOHN VIGNA
Launch of the author's latest book, Bull Head. Wednesday, September 19 at 7:30pm. The Bourbon, 50 West Cordova Street, Vancouver. RSVP to bullheadlaunch@gmail.com.

KOOTENAY BOOK WEEKEND
9th annual event featuring Katherine Govier with her book The Ghost Brush. September 21-23, 2012. Nelson, BC. For complete details, visit www.kootenaybookweekend.ca.

WORD ON THE STREET
Features author readings, writing and publishing exhibits, musical entertainment, roving performers, children's activities, workshops, panels, books, and magazines. September 28-30, 2012. More information at wotsvan@thewordonthestreet.ca.

A POETIC WALK THROUGH NATURE
Join Vancouver's 100,000 Poets for Change on an Earthwalk. Poets will read select poems calling for the preservation of our beautiful forests and shorelines. A guest speaker will also present a narrative tour of the cultural history and natural habitat of Stanley Park. September 29 at 10:00am, free. For more information and to register, visit http://earthwalks11poets.eventbrite.com/.