BOOK NEWS
Incite: Our free, bi-weekly reading series continues!
Join us on Wednesday, March 13 for an evening for poetry lovers, with John Barton, Nicole Brossard, and Catherine Owen. Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/incite. Register here: http://incitevpl2013spring.eventbrite.ca/.
Presented in partnership with Vancouver Public Library. Incite is sponsored by the Downtown Vancouver Business Improvement Association and supported by the R.J. Nelson Family Foundation.
SPECIAL EVENTS
Sally Armstrong in conversation with Kathryn Gretsinger
The Vancouver Writers Fest presents its first special event of 2013, an evening with award-winning Canadian author, journalist and human rights activist Sally Armstrong. Armstrong is the author of three previous books, Veiled Threat: The Hidden Power of the Women of Afghanistan, The Nine Lives of Charlotte Taylor and Bitter Roots, Tender Shoots: The Uncertain Fate of Afghanistan's Women. Her new book is Ascent of Women. Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/sallyarmstrong
Monday, March 25 at 7:30pm
St. Andrew's-Wesley United Church
Sayed Kashua in conversation with Marsha Lederman
Our friends at the Jewish Book Festival present hugely popular, award-winning Arab Israeli writer, Sayed Kashua, who brings us a fresh voice and perspective from Israel. Using humour and satire, Kashua tackles the often conflicting, interconnecting worlds of Arabs and Jews living in Israel. Details: http://www.jccgv.com/content/jewish-book-fest
Saturday, March 9 at 8:00pm (note new date!)
Norman and Annette Rothstein Theatre
A DRAM COME TRUE
Tickets are on sale now for our popular single malt tasting A Dram Come True. Join us at Hycroft, the elegant Shaughnessy mansion, for an evening of great fun and good spirits. Enjoy the superb, complex flavours of a variety of rare and distinguished single malts, a premium silent auction, Cuban cigars and great company. A Dram Comes True is a fundraiser for the Writers Fest. Event details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/dram-come-true.
AWARDS & LISTS
Kim Thúy, Marjorie Celona are among the finalists for the Amazon.ca First Novel Award.
http://arts.nationalpost.com/2013/02/27/kim-thuy-marjorie-celona-among-finalists-for-amazon-ca-first-novel-award/
Sir Quentin Blake, one of Britain's most loved children's illustrators, was knighted by the Prince of Wales last week, after a career spanning 64 years. The artist's distinctive drawings and paintings have been published in books by such authors as Roald Dahl, Joan Aiken and Dr Seuss.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/feb/20/quentin-blake-knighted
"Five books offering fresh perspectives from the past and a deeper understanding of current global issues" are the way jury chair William Thorsell described the contenders short listed for this year's $15,000 Lionel Gelber Prize.
http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/books/2013/02/19/lionel_gelber_prize_shortlist_highlights_nonfiction_on_foreign_affairs.html
Robert Caro will add yet another item to his literary trophy cabinet in April when he collects the New-York Historical Society's American History Book Prize for "Lyndon Johnson: The Passage of Power." The award comes with a $50,000 prize, an engraved medal and the title "American Historian Laureate."
http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/02/20/another-prize-for-robert-caro/?ref=booksupdate&nl=books&emc=edit_bk_20130222
Michael Edwards, 74, a poet, critic and literature professor has become the first British-born writer to be voted into the Académie française in the exclusive group known as "The Immortals." He will now take a seat among up to 40 members in their gold-braided uniforms, charged with defending the purity of the French language.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/feb/22/academie-francaise-elect-first-british-member
The Wives of Bath became an international bestseller when it appeared almost 20 years ago. Now Susan Swan returns to the character of Mouse Bradford in her new novel, The Western Light. The Western Light is a finalist for the 2013 OLA Forest of Reading Evergreen Award.
http://www.quillandquire.com/reviews/review.cfm?review_id=7755
YOUNG READERS
Laura Amy Schlitz's Splendors and Glooms is a Gothic, Victorian fantasy with drama, melodrama, and a crumbling mansion in northern England, including a confrontation with a bitter, power-worn old witch. Ages 9 to 13.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/16/books/review/the-peculiar-and-splendors-and-glooms.html?_r=1&
Catherine Reef's The Brontë Sisters: The Brief Lives of Charlotte, Emily, and Anne offers a wealth of information about the period, all the while vividly conveying the country ways and vibrant, energetic imaginations of the three writers. Ages 12 to 16.
https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/catherine-reef/bronte-sisters/
James M. Deem's Faces from the Past: Forgotten People of North America take an interest in the dead, showing how artists and archaeologists can use a skull to estimate the appearance of long forgotten faces. Ages 11 to teen.
http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/books/2013/02/01/small_print_mini_reviews_of The Man from the Land of Fandango
NEWS & FEATURES
Three former Douglas & McIntyre employees launch new company, Figure 1 Publishing.
http://arts.nationalpost.com/2013/02/26/former-douglas-mcintyre-employees-launch-new-company/
The most recent issue of The Tyee includes "To This Day", a video of BC slam poet Shane Koyczan's just released anti-bullying poem.
http://thetyee.ca/Video/2013/02/22/ShaneKoyczan/?utm_source=mondayheadlines&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=250213
A scholar has unearthed 50 unpublished works by Rudyard Kipling, the poet voted Britain's favourite.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/feb/25/rudyard-kipling-poems-discovered
The Harry Potter books are getting a new look with new covers for the trade paperback editions. The new edition of Sorcerer's Stone is scheduled for release in September, the 15th anniversary of the publication of the first Harry Potter book in the United States.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/harry-potter-books-get-paperback-makeover/2013/02/21/7156f48a-76b8-11e2-95e4-6148e45d7adb_story.html
Hilary Mantel's recent speech about royal wives and the Duchess of Cambridge is the latest in a long line of literary misinterpretations, writes Sam Leith. The root of Mantel's clobbering is that Mantel's lecture about Kate was full of irony, inhabiting more than one position at once. Almost exactly the same thing happened some years ago to Anne Enright, says Leith.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2013/feb/19/hilary-mantel-duchess-of-cambridge-controversy
In the March 2013 issue of Walrus Magazine, Charles Foran writes: "These are dog days in the book business, and some are pronouncing them end days as well. The "dream," as headlines would have it, of a vigorous independent publishing industry has died, felled by a cabal of assassins." Still, all of this industry bloodletting and anxiety has not affected the consumers of books.
http://thewalrus.ca/end-of-story/
"My name is Piscine Molitor Patel," says Yann Martel's hero, "known to all as Pi Patel." Delighted at the news that Life of Pi has just sold its 3,141,593rd copy, the narrator chooses his mathematical nickname to avoid being known as "Pissing". Given that pi is an irrational number, Life of Pi has not sold exactly pi copies.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/feb/21/life-pi-catapulted-bestseller-list
The New York Times touts the Internet's role in reviving interest in short fiction. Too bad it's not true, writes Laura Miller. While 2013 does promise a fine crop of story collections, it is not any finer than last year's or the year before that or any other year for the past three decades, says Miller.
http://www.salon.com/2013/02/21/sorry_the_short_story_boom_is_bogus/
The world has been focusing on the Malian city of Timbuktu and the fate of its ancient shrines and manuscripts, unaware that the city of Djenné, 220 miles to the south-west, has traditionally been regarded as the "twin sister" of Timbuktu. For some Malians, Djenné occupies a unique position, arguably the oldest known city of West Africa.
http://www.theartnewspaper.com/articles/Safeguard+the+manuscripts+of+Djenn%C3%A9/28655
On January 28, 2013, literature fans celebrated the 200th anniversary of Jane Austen's beloved novel, Pride and Prejudice. The celebration has apparently spilled into February now that the Royal Mail has announced the release of a stamp collection commemorating Jane Austen's six novels.
http://www.openculture.com/2013/02/new_stamp_collection_celebrates_the_six_novels_by_jane_austen.html
Sam Sacks makes a compelling argument in The New Yorker for the return to illustrated books.
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2013/02/bring-back-the-illustrated-book.html
Kevin Kelly has created a model for paying readers to read books.
http://www.kk.org/thetechnium/archives/2013/01/ill_pay_you_to.php
Independents in New York and South Carolina are suing Amazon and six big publishers over digital rights management rights.
http://www.theverge.com/2013/2/21/4010504/amazon-publishers-face-class-action-antitrust-suit-from-inDie
Cory Doctorow writes that the wording of the DRM suit confuses different technologies.
http://boingboing.net/2013/02/20/indie-booksellers-sue-amazon-a.html
The deadline for the 9th Annual Geist Literal Literary Postcard Story Contest has been extended to March 1, 2013, 11:59pm PST! For your chance at literary fame and fortune, information on how the contest works and contest details is here:
http://www.geist.com/articles/postcard-contest/
BOOKS & WRITERS
This true story of a writer hounded online for over seven years is strange...and riveting, writes Mark O'Connell. James Lasdun's memoir Give Me Everything You Have: On Being Stalked is his attempt to make sense of the consequences of his leading a writers workshop. The internet's capacity to disseminate hatred is unsettling, says O'Connell.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/feb/16/give-me-everything-stalked-lasdun-review
Naoki Higashida's The Reason I Jump, a "revelatory" window onto life as an autistic teenager, is being translated into English by author David Mitchell and his wife, Keiko Yoshida. 'It felt as if, for the first time, our own son was talking to us about what was happening inside his head,' says Mitchell. "I would love it to outsell anything I'd written."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/feb/26/cloud-atlas-translates-austistic-teenager-memoir
Shortly after her mother's death, Quebec comedian Lise Dion discovered a series of notebooks in her mother's trunk, containing a series of stunning revelations: her mother a nun in France, arrested by Nazis, sent to a German concentration camp. The book is painfully frank and absorbing, and difficult to put down, writes Donna Bailey Nurse.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/book-reviews/a-mothers-hidden-past-unearthed/article8964444/
Ann Ireland's The Blue Guitar is a compelling novel set in an international guitar competition. A foreign landscape seems familiar, offering a starkly poignant finish, writes Robert J. Wiersema. The last few pages reveal a fundamental truth: while there can only be one winner, everyone loses in their own way.
http://www.vancouversun.com/entertainment/books/Blue+Guitar+musical+novel+transports+reader/8002902/story.html#ixzz2Lkn6Xa5K
Aleksandar Hemon's The Book of My Lives is an effort to restore the fragile memories of Sarajevo, and follow the threads that link his Bosnian past to his American present. While many Sarajevans lost their entire family, Hemon's parents and sister got out the day before the siege began-and wound up in Canada.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/feb/23/aleksandar-hemon
Vera Gran was the stage name for a beautiful singer whose voice captivated audiences throughout Europe, writes Anna Porter. Survival is a key word in Agata Tuszynska's Vera Gran: The Accused and the reader is left to decipher the truths of what really happened. Vera Gran: The Accused is a book to read slowly and think about, says Porter.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/book-reviews/the-story-of-vera-gran-and-the-high-price-of-survival/article8964280/
John Wood founded Room to Read—a non-profit global organization focused on literacy and gender equality in education, writes Tracy Sherlock. He emulated Andrew Carnegie but opened six times as many libraries as Carnegie did. His goal: to reach 10 million children worldwide.
http://www.vancouversun.com/literacy/raiseareader/change+possible+author/8007077/story.html
Yann Martel feels the Oscar love after Life of Pi wins more awards than any other film this year.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/awards-and-festivals/film-awards/article9038817.ece
COMMUNITY EVENTS
TWISTED POETS LITERARY SALON
Features Susan Steudel and Chelsea Comeau plus Open Mic. Thursday, February 28, 7-9:30pm, at The Cottage Bistro, 4468 Main Street, Vancouver. Suggested donation at the door: $5. All are welcome. More information at www.pandorascollective.com.
VANCOUVER NOIR
Authors Diane Purvey and John Belshaw discuss Vancouver's gritty underbelly in the 1930s-1960s. Tuesday, March 5 at 7:00pm, free. Lower level, Alice MacKay room, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia St. More information at www.vpl.ca.
AL HUNTER
Poetry reading by Anishinaabe writer Al Hunter. Wednesday, March 6 at 6:30pm, free. First Nations Longhouse, UBC. Admission is free and books will be available for purchase and signing. For more information and to register, visit http://rrs-march2013.eventbrite.ca/.
EILEEN COOK
Author reads from her latest release, The Almost Truth, a smart, romantic novel about a teenage con artist who might be in over her head. Thursday, March 7 at 10:00am, free. Britannia branch, 1661 Napier Street. More information at www.vpl.ca.
POETS AND THE SOCIAL SELF
Join Wayde Compton, Joanne Arnott, and Michael Turner with Renee Sarojini Saklikar as they discuss and read from their work. Thursday, March 7 at 7:00pm, free. Djavad Mowafaghian World Art Centre, SFU's Goldcorp Centre for the Arts, 149 W Hasting St. More information at sfuwoodwards.ca.
INHABITING WOMEN'S SPACE
Four women writers explore how women inhabit space, metaphorically. Join Kate Braid, Marilyn Bowering, Sandra Djwa and Kathy Mezei as they present their recent work. Friday, March 8 at 7:00pm, free. Lower level, Alice MacKay room, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia St. More information at www.vpl.ca.
NATIONAL INDIGENOUS WRITERS CONFERENCE
A day-long, participant-driven panel on the representation and recognition of Aboriginal writers in Canada. Cost: $30/$15. Saturday, March 9 from 9am to 5pm. SFU Vancouver, 515 West Hastings Street, Vancouver. More information at talonbooks.com.
E. PAULINE JOHNSON/TEKAHIONWAKE
Mark your March 2013 calendars for two special upcoming events honouring the life, work, birth date and 100th Anniversary of the death of E. Pauline Johnson/Tekahionwake with The City of Victoria's Poet Laureate Janet Rogers. The Inspiration of E. Pauline Johnson, Rhizome Cafe, Saturday March 9, 7:00pm and Poetry in the Park for Pauline: Poetry Offerings, Stanley Park, at Johnson's Memorial, Sunday March 10, 1:00pm (Johnson's birthday). For complete details, visit http://www.herstorycafe.ca/.
DEAD POETS READING SERIES
Next reading features Rob Taylor, Bren Simmers, Susan MacRae and Aislin Hunter. Sunday, March 10 at 3:00pm. Entry by donation. Project Space, 222 East Georgia. More information at www.deadpoetslive.com.
SEVEN THE SERIES
Four accomplished writers, Eric Walters, Ted Staunton, Richard Scrimger and Sigmund Brouwer, present their books. Monday, March 11 at 7:00pm. West Point Grey United Church Sanctuary, 4595 8th Ave. W. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit kidsbooks.ca.
Upcoming
ROBSON READING SERIES
Readings by Andrew Kaufman, Camille Martin, and Barry Webster. Thursday, March 14 at 7:00pm, free. UBC Bookstore at Robson Square. For more information and to register, visit http://www.rrs-mar2013.eventbrite.ca.
MEG TILLY
Meet the author and actor as she presents her newest book A Taste of Heaven. Thursday, March 14 at 7:00pm. Kidsbooks on Broadway. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit kidsbooks.ca.
JOEL DICKER
La Verite sur l'Affaire Harry Quebert is finally coming to Vancouver. Joel Dicker, a 27-year-old Geneva-born author, will present his second novel. The discussion will be in French. Monday, March 18 at 6:15pm, free. Alma VanDusen & Peter Kaye rooms, lower level, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia Street.
PLAY CHTHONICS
Readings by poets Jan Zwicky and Robert Bringhurst. Wednesday, March 20. Piano lounge, Green College, UBC. More information at www.greencollege.ubc.ca.
ROBERT R. REID AWARD
The Alcuin Society presents Will Rueter (Aliquando Press) in an illustrated interview by Rollin Milroy (Heavenly Monkey). The 6th Robert R. Reid Award and Medal for Lifetime Achievement in the Book Arts will be presented to Rueter. Thursday, March 21 at 7:30 pm, free. Fletcher Challenge Room, Harbour Centre, SFU Downtown Campus, 2300-515 West Hastings St., Vancouver. More information at http://blog.alcuinsociety.com.
WRITERS INTERNATIONAL NETWORK CANADA
2nd annual literary festival featuring Dennis E. Bolen, Bonnie Nish, Jai Birdi, Lila Shahani and many others. Hosted by Lilija Valis, Bernice Lever and Charlene Sayo. Saturday, March 23 from 10am to 4pm. Richmond Cultural Centre, 7700 Minoru Gate, Richmond. More information at 604-327-6040.
HULLABALOO SPOKEN WORD FESTIVAL
A youth poetry festival featuring 2009 Individual World Poetry Slam Champion, Amy Everhart and Ted-X featured poet Truth Is. April 3-6, 2013. Roundhouse Community Centre, 181 Roundhouse Mews. Complete details at youthslam.ca.
EVENT's 2013 NON-FICTION CONTEST
Writers are invited to submit manuscripts exploring the creative non-fiction form. $1500 in prizes available, plus publication. Contest judge Russell Wangersky. Maximum entry length is 5000 words. $34.95 entry fee. April 15, 2013, deadline. Entrants will receive a one-year subscription to EVENT (or extension). Complete contest guidelines can be found at eventmags.com.
Thursday, February 28, 2013
Thursday, February 21, 2013
Book News Vol. 8 No. 2
BOOK NEWS
Incite: Our free, bi-weekly reading series continues!
Join us on Wednesday, February 27 for an evening of fun and laughter with Canadian humourist Arthur Black and award-winning actor Jackson Davies. Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/incite. Register here: http://incitevpl2013spring.eventbrite.ca/.
Presented in partnership with Vancouver Public Library. Incite is sponsored by the Downtown Vancouver Business Improvement Association and supported by the R.J. Nelson Family Foundation.
SPECIAL EVENTS
Sally Armstrong in conversation with Kathryn Gretsinger
The Vancouver Writers Fest presents its first special event of 2013, an evening with award-winning Canadian author, journalist and human rights activist Sally Armstrong. Armstrong is the author of three previous books, Veiled Threat: The Hidden Power of the Women of Afghanistan, The Nine Lives of Charlotte Taylor and Bitter Roots, Tender Shoots: The Uncertain Fate of Afghanistan's Women. Her new book is Ascent of Women. Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/sallyarmstrong
Monday, March 25 at 7:30pm
St. Andrew's-Wesley United Church
Sayed Kashua in conversation with Marsha Lederman
Our friends at the Jewish Book Festival present hugely popular, award-winning Arab Israeli writer, Sayed Kashua, who brings us a fresh voice and perspective from Israel. Using humour and satire, Kashua tackles the often conflicting, interconnecting worlds of Arabs and Jews living in Israel. Details: http://www.jccgv.com/content/jewish-book-fest
Saturday, March 9 at 8:00pm (note new date!)
Norman and Annette Rothstein Theatre
A DRAM COME TRUE
Tickets are on sale now for our popular single malt tasting A Dram Come True. Join us at Hycroft, the elegant Shaughnessy mansion, for an evening of great fun and good spirits. Enjoy the superb, complex flavours of a variety of rare and distinguished single malts, a premium silent auction, Cuban cigars and great company. A Dram Comes True is a fundraiser for the Writers Fest. Event details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/dram-come-true.
AWARDS & LISTS
Jack Rabinovitch, founder of the Scotiabank Giller Prize, has announced the award-winning three-member jury panel for the 2013 prize. They are: Canadian authors Margaret Atwood and Esi Edugyan, and American writer Jonathan Lethem.
http://www.scotiabank.com/gillerprize/0,,5813,00.html
Leon Wieseltier, longtime literary editor of The New Republic, is among this year's winners of the prestigious Dan David Prize, given annually to honor "contributions to humanity" and carries a $1 million dollar award. Mr. Wieseltier has stated he will share the $1 million purse with the French philosopher Michel Serres, his fellow winner in the prize's "Present" category.
http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/02/13/new-republic-literary-editor-to-split-1-million-prize/?ref=booksupdate&nl=books&emc=edit_bk_20130215
Poet Robert Bly is to be awarded the Frost Medal for a "distinguished lifetime achievement in poetry" by the Poetry Society of America. The American poet is also known for the book Iron John, which helped inspire 'the expressive men's movement', and his translations.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/feb/14/robert-bly-poetry-frost-medal
Five authors are shortlisted for The 2013 Charles Taylor Prize for Literary Non-Fiction: Carol Bishop-Gwyn, Tim Cook, Sandra Djwa, Ross King, and Andrew Preston. The award will go to the author whose book best combines a superb command of the English language, an elegance of style, and a subtlety of thought and perception.
http://www.thecharlestaylorprize.ca/2013/finalists_13.asp
Claremont Graduate University has named three finalists for its Kingsley Tufts Award: Marianne Boruch, Edward Haworth Hoeppner, and Paisley Rekdal. The prize is designed to reward a single book by a mid-career poet. In addition, three finalists for the Kate Tufts Discovery Award were announced.
http://www.latimes.com/features/books/jacketcopy/la-et-jc-claremont-kingsley-tufts-poetry-award-20130131,0,7872837.story
The annual Judging Books By Their Covers competition reveals surprising differences between jacket designs on each side of the Atlantic, writes Lucy Manga. You could argue forever about which of the two renderings of the same idea for Maria Semple's Where'd You Go, Bernadette has the edge over the other.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/shortcuts/2013/feb/17/best-book-covers-uk-us
YOUNG READERS
David Walliams's Ratburger is the story of Zoe, who makes friends with a rat called Armitage, and gets into a terrible adventure. This book is so fantastic it makes you never to want to stop reading it, says cupcakekate. David Walliams is a comedian so his books always have funny bits. For ages 7 and under.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/childrens-books-site/2013/feb/15/review-ratburger-david-walliams
Tales of Flavia's adventures can't come quickly enough, writes Anne Sutherland, admitting that Flavia de Luce is her favourite heroine. She's precocious, inventive, resourceful, loyal and totally fearless. And she's 11 years old, about to turn 12. Ages 10 to 13.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/books/Tales+Flavia+adventures+come+quickly+enough/7909034/story.html
Marcus Sedgwick's title Midwinterblood evocatively hints at what's to come. A labyrinthine story of love, sacrifice and blood. A cast of vampires, Vikings and high priests encounter one another in various forms—with dire consequences for both their past and future incarnations. Young adult and ages 13 to 18.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/10/books/review/midwinterblood-by-marcus-sedgwick.html?nl=books&emc=edit_bk_20130208
NEWS & FEATURES
A restored version of Ted Kotcheff's film of The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz starring Richard Dreyfuss, will be unveiled in Toronto March 2.
http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/movies/2013/02/16/the_apprenticeship_of_duddy_kravitz_gets_new_life.html
The 19th-century Scottish poet William Topaz McGonagall, whose works were so detested he was pelted with rotten fish, has the last laugh. A rare poem by the 'world's worst poet' is expected to fetch £3,000 at auction.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/feb/18/rare-poem-worst-poet-auction
A former war hero has been unmasked as the author of a series of romance novels. Bill Spence has written 22 novels, under the pseudonym Jessica Blair. The 89-year-old bomb aimer during the Second World War, was told by his publishers that he would need to write under a female name in order for the books to sell.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/booknews/9870523/Former-Second-World-War-hero-unmasked-as-romance-writer.html
Story collections are experiencing a resurgence, driven by a proliferation of digital options that offer new creative opportunities and exposure and revenue as well. These include George Saunders's Tenth of December, Karen Russell's Vampires in the Lemon Grove, and Jess Walter's We Live in Water.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/16/books/a-good-fit-for-small-screens-short-stories-are-selling.html
In a piece for the Smithsonian, Patricia T. O'Conner and Stewart Kellarman have riled grammarphiles, stating that "Most of What You Think You Know About Grammar is Wrong".
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2013/feb/08/grammar-lovers-split-infitives-wrong
The U.S. Justice Department has cleared the proposed merger of Random House and Penguin, which would create the biggest book publisher in the world.
http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/business/companies/random_house_inc/index.html?inline=nyt-org
Paul Collicut's The Murder Mile is like Chariots of Fire as rewritten by Raymond Chandler, a beautifully illustrated detective story that unfolds alongside the race to break the four-minute mile, writes Rachel Cooke. The Murder Mile's climactic scene takes place at the 1954 Commonwealth Games in Vancouver.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/feb/18/murder-mile-paul-collicutt-review?CMP=EMCNEWEML6619I2
There is a reason the character of the Boy in my first picture books wears a red and white stripey jumper, writes Oliver Jeffers: Maurice Sendak. Like many others, I developed a personal relationship with his picture book because it is excellent. Since I began making picture books I call them just that. Picture books. Not children's books. I don't believe they are just for children.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2013/feb/14/oliver-jeffers-maurice-sendak-wild-things
What happens if our faith in novels falters, if we find ourselves unable to suspend disbelief? Am I really a believer? Was I ever? asks Ian McEwan. I have moments when my faith in fiction falters and then comes to the edge of collapse. I've been on panels with fellow believers as we intone the liturgy, that humans are fabulators, we "cannot live" without stories. (Oh yes, we can.)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/feb/16/ian-mcewan-faith-fiction-falters
Two decades after Donna Tartt soared to literary stardom with The Secret History, the reclusive author is set to release her third novel in October. The Goldfinch, which follows The Little Friend, published in 2002, explores a young boy's descent into 'the art underworld'.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/feb/13/donna-tartt-first-novel-11-years
The Bare It All for Books Campaign for PEN aims to create a 2014 calendar to raise money for its programs. Twelve Canadian writers who have agreed to pose for the calendar are: Angie Abdou, Trevor Cole, Farzana Doctor, Dave Bidini, Miranda Hill, Daniel MacIvor, Yasuko Thanh, Terry Fallis, Sachiko Murakami, Vincent Lam, Saleema Nawaz and Yann Martel. In the great tradition of writing, much is left to the imagination.
http://bareitforbooks.ca
THE deadline for the 9th Annual Geist Literal Literary Postcard Story Contest has been extended to March 1, 2013, 11:59pm PST! For your chance at literary fame and fortune, information on how the contest works and contest details is here:
http://www.geist.com/articles/postcard-contest/
BOOKS & WRITERS
In an interview with Allison Flood, Anglo-American novelist Lucy Ellman speaks of her new heroine—and writing her from a man's point of view, specifically the point of view of Harrison, a plastic surgeon. Harrison has a romance with the titular Mimi, who becomes angry about the treatment of women.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/feb/09/lucy-ellmann-interview-mimi
Slammerkin, Emma Donoghue's coming-of-age story of a teenage girl fending for herself in the 1760s, exerts a considerable grip, writes Natasha Tripney. Like Donoghue's more recent child's-eye novel, Room, Slammerkin is a story of survival and liberty.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/feb/17/slammerkin-emma-donoghue-review
Christa Wolf's City of Angels, or, The Overcoat of Dr. Freud, is a work about betrayal, the inability to know oneself. and a public act of self-reflection, writes David L. Ulin. At its center, writer Christa Wolf was among the most prominent writers to come out of communist East Germany. In the end, forgetting offers her the starkest sort of freedom.
http://www.latimes.com/features/books/jacketcopy/la-ca-jc-christa-wolf-20130203,0,2945753.story
André Brink's Philida is a result of his discovering that a collateral ancestor of his owned a slave named Philida in the early 1800s. The real Philida tells the Slave Protector that François, her owner's son, reneged on his promise of freedom and was planning to sell her. Brink uses this historical record as a launching pad for his imagined version of Philida's life.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/17/books/review/philida-by-andre-brink.html?nl=books&emc=edit_bk_20130215&_r=0
In The Daughters of Mars, Thomas Keneally shows us the horror of war from the perspective of nurses whose own battlegrounds are to save lives, not take them. Keneally is no jingoist; The Daughters of Mars is unabashedly anti-war, a stance that is buttressed by the novel's perspective, writes Stephen Finucan.
http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/books/2013/02/15/the_daughters_of_mars_by_thomas_keneally_review
COMMUNITY EVENTS
W.P. KINSELLA
Canadian author will read from, and chat about, his latest book, Butterfly Winter. Thursday, February 21 at 10:30am, free. Hope Library, 1005A - 6th Ave., Hope. More information at 604-869-2313.
ROBSON READING SERIES
Readings by Walid Bitar, Basma Kavanagh, and Missy Marston. Thursday, February 21 at 7:00pm, free. UBC Bookstore at Robson Square. For more information and to register, visit http://rrs-feb2013.eventbrite.ca/.
CATHY OSTLERE
Cathy Ostlere discusses her memoir Lost. Thursday, February 21 at 7:00 PM. Christianne's Lyceum. 3696 W. 8th Ave. $20 (includes refreshments). To reserve your space call 604.733.1356 or email lyceum@christiannehayward.com. More information at www.christiannehayward.com.
FROM TALKING STICK TO MICROPHONE
Zaccheus Jackson and a selection of this country's best independent musicians and slam poets go head to head! Friday, February 22 at 8:00pm, pay what you can. Cafe Deux Soleils, 2096 Commercial Drive. More information at www.fullcircle.ca.
GALIANO LITERARY FESTIVAL
Fourth annual festival featuring John Belshaw, Kevin Chong, Pauline Holdstock, Nancy Richler and many others. February 22-24, 2013. Galiano Oceanfront Inn & Spa, Galiano Island. For complete details, visit galianoliteraryfestival.com.
FIVE ELEMENTS
A night of poetry and music raising funds for SFU's Indigenous Poetry and Poetics class. Featuring Joanne Arnott, Alex Jacobs, Larissa Lai and many more. Saturday, February 23 at 7:00pm, admission by donation. Rhizome Cafe, 317 East Broadway. More information at talonbooks.com.
VANCOUVER POETRY SLAM
Youth poetry slam featuring Scruffmouth. Monday, February 25 at 8:00pm. Tickets: $6/$4. Cafe Deux Soleils, 2096 Commercial Drive. More information at vancouverpoetryhouse.com.
GATHER @ ZAWA
Spoken word and music, featuring Victoria's Poet Laureate, Janet Rogers and Alex Jacobs from New Mexico alongside the sounds of Kristi Lane Sinclair. Monday, February 25 at 9:30pm. Zawa Restaurant, 920 Commercial Drive. For complete information, visit www.fullcircle.ca.
THE WORD AND RESISTANCE
Alex Jacobs and Janet Rogers talk about creative ways to resist and affect change. They will present a literary array of politically inspired poetry from many movements throughout their careers. Tuesday, February 26 at 3:30pm. First Nations House of Learning @ UBC, 1985 West Mall. Complete details at www.fullcircle.ca.
OUR FRIEND JOE
Vancouver author Lisa Anne Smith tells untold stories of Joe Fortes, the West Indian sailor who became a local legend. Tuesday, February 26 at 7:00pm, free. Lower level, Alice MacKay room, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia St. More information at www.vpl.ca.
COLIN BROWNE
Part of the Feedback Series talks, poet and author of The Properties will lead an inquiry into the idea of 'documentary' in relationship to the gallery works on display. Tuesday, February 26 at 7:00pm. More information at www.contemporaryartgallery.ca.
PLAY CHTHONICS
Readings by Jen Currin and Ken Babstock. Wednesday, February 27 at 6:30pm. Piano lounge, Green College, UBC. More information at www.greencollege.ubc.ca.
WORLD POETRY NIGHT OUT
Celebrates Black History month with hosts Ariadne Sawyer and Mickey Bickerstaff. Wednesday, February 27 at 6:30pm, free. New Westminster Public Library, 716 6th Ave., New Westminster. More information at poeticjustice.ca.
AB-ORIGINAL SPOKENWORD-SCAPES
Join Spoken Word artists and musicians as they riff and jam and spark together. Features Janet Rogers, Alex Jacobs, Dave Larocque, Joseph 'Pepe' Danza, Cris Derksen and more. Wednesday, February 27 at 8:00pm. Roundhouse Community Centre, 181 Roundhouse Mews. For tickets, visit www.ticketstonight.ca. More information at www.fullcircle.ca.
TWISTED POETS LITERARY SALON
Features Susan Steudel and Chelsea Comeau plus Open Mic. Thursday, February 28, 7-9:30pm, at The Cottage Bistro, 4468 Main Street, Vancouver. Suggested donation at the door: $5. All are welcome. More information at www.pandorascollective.com.
Upcoming
VANCOUVER NOIR
Authors Diane Purvey and John Belshaw discuss Vancouver's gritty underbelly in the 1930s-1960s. Tuesday, March 5 at 7:00pm, free. Lower level, Alice MacKay room, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia St. More information at www.vpl.ca.
AL HUNTER
Poetry reading by Anishinaabe writer Al Hunter. Wednesday, March 6 at 6:30pm, free. First Nations Longhouse, UBC. Admission is free and books will be available for purchase and signing. For more information and to register, visit http://rrs-march2013.eventbrite.ca/.
EILEEN COOK
Author reads from her latest release, The Almost Truth, a smart, romantic novel about a teenage con artist who might be in over her head. Thursday, March 7 at 10:00am, free. Britannia branch, 1661 Napier Street. More information at www.vpl.ca.
POETS AND THE SOCIAL SELF
Join Wayde Compton, Joanne Arnott, and Michael Turner with Renee Sarojini Saklikar as they discuss and read from their work. Thursday, March 7 at 7:00pm, free. Djavad Mowafaghian World Art Centre, SFU's Goldcorp Centre for the Arts, 149 W Hasting St. More information at sfuwoodwards.ca.
INHABITING WOMEN'S SPACE
Four women writers explore how women inhabit space, metaphorically. Join Kate Braid, Marilyn Bowering, Sandra Djwa and Kathy Mezei as they present their recent work. Friday, March 8 at 7:00pm, free. Lower level, Alice MacKay room, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia St. More information at www.vpl.ca.
NATIONAL INDIGENOUS WRITERS CONFERENCE
A day-long, participant-driven panel on the representation and recognition of Aboriginal writers in Canada. Cost: $30/$15. Saturday, March 9 from 9am to 5pm. SFU Vancouver, 515 West Hastings Street, Vancouver. More information at talonbooks.com.
SEVEN THE SERIES
Four accomplished writers, Eric Walters, Ted Staunton, Richard Scrimger and Sigmund Brouwer, present their books. Monday, March 11 at 7:00pm. West Point Grey United Church Sanctuary, 4595 8th Ave. W. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit kidsbooks.ca.
ROBSON READING SERIES
Readings by Andrew Kaufman, Camille Martin, and Barry Webster. Thursday, March 14 at 7:00pm, free. UBC Bookstore at Robson Square. For more information and to register, visit http://www.rrs-mar2013.eventbrite.ca.
MEG TILLY
Meet author and actor as she presents her newest book A Taste of Heaven. Thursday, March 14 at 7:00pm. Kidsbooks on Broadway. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit kidsbooks.ca.
JOEL DICKER
La Verite sur l'Affaire Harry Quebert is finally coming to Vancouver. Joel Dicker, a 27-year-old Geneva-born author, will present his second novel. The discussion will be in French. Monday, March 18 at 6:15pm, free. Alma VanDusen & Peter Kaye rooms, lower level, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia Street.
PLAY CHTHONICS
Readings by poets Jan Zwicky and Robert Bringhurst. Wednesday, March 20. Piano lounge, Green College, UBC. More information at www.greencollege.ubc.ca.
WRITERS INTERNATIONAL NETWORK CANADA
2nd annual literary festival featuring Dennis E. Bolen, Bonnie Nish, Jai Birdi, Lila Shahani and many others. Hosted by Lilija Valis, Bernice Lever and Charlene Sayo. Saturday, March 23 from 10am to 4pm. Richmond Cultural Centre, 7700 Minoru Gate, Richmond. More information at 604-327-6040.
Incite: Our free, bi-weekly reading series continues!
Join us on Wednesday, February 27 for an evening of fun and laughter with Canadian humourist Arthur Black and award-winning actor Jackson Davies. Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/incite. Register here: http://incitevpl2013spring.eventbrite.ca/.
Presented in partnership with Vancouver Public Library. Incite is sponsored by the Downtown Vancouver Business Improvement Association and supported by the R.J. Nelson Family Foundation.
SPECIAL EVENTS
Sally Armstrong in conversation with Kathryn Gretsinger
The Vancouver Writers Fest presents its first special event of 2013, an evening with award-winning Canadian author, journalist and human rights activist Sally Armstrong. Armstrong is the author of three previous books, Veiled Threat: The Hidden Power of the Women of Afghanistan, The Nine Lives of Charlotte Taylor and Bitter Roots, Tender Shoots: The Uncertain Fate of Afghanistan's Women. Her new book is Ascent of Women. Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/sallyarmstrong
Monday, March 25 at 7:30pm
St. Andrew's-Wesley United Church
Sayed Kashua in conversation with Marsha Lederman
Our friends at the Jewish Book Festival present hugely popular, award-winning Arab Israeli writer, Sayed Kashua, who brings us a fresh voice and perspective from Israel. Using humour and satire, Kashua tackles the often conflicting, interconnecting worlds of Arabs and Jews living in Israel. Details: http://www.jccgv.com/content/jewish-book-fest
Saturday, March 9 at 8:00pm (note new date!)
Norman and Annette Rothstein Theatre
A DRAM COME TRUE
Tickets are on sale now for our popular single malt tasting A Dram Come True. Join us at Hycroft, the elegant Shaughnessy mansion, for an evening of great fun and good spirits. Enjoy the superb, complex flavours of a variety of rare and distinguished single malts, a premium silent auction, Cuban cigars and great company. A Dram Comes True is a fundraiser for the Writers Fest. Event details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/dram-come-true.
AWARDS & LISTS
Jack Rabinovitch, founder of the Scotiabank Giller Prize, has announced the award-winning three-member jury panel for the 2013 prize. They are: Canadian authors Margaret Atwood and Esi Edugyan, and American writer Jonathan Lethem.
http://www.scotiabank.com/gillerprize/0,,5813,00.html
Leon Wieseltier, longtime literary editor of The New Republic, is among this year's winners of the prestigious Dan David Prize, given annually to honor "contributions to humanity" and carries a $1 million dollar award. Mr. Wieseltier has stated he will share the $1 million purse with the French philosopher Michel Serres, his fellow winner in the prize's "Present" category.
http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/02/13/new-republic-literary-editor-to-split-1-million-prize/?ref=booksupdate&nl=books&emc=edit_bk_20130215
Poet Robert Bly is to be awarded the Frost Medal for a "distinguished lifetime achievement in poetry" by the Poetry Society of America. The American poet is also known for the book Iron John, which helped inspire 'the expressive men's movement', and his translations.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/feb/14/robert-bly-poetry-frost-medal
Five authors are shortlisted for The 2013 Charles Taylor Prize for Literary Non-Fiction: Carol Bishop-Gwyn, Tim Cook, Sandra Djwa, Ross King, and Andrew Preston. The award will go to the author whose book best combines a superb command of the English language, an elegance of style, and a subtlety of thought and perception.
http://www.thecharlestaylorprize.ca/2013/finalists_13.asp
Claremont Graduate University has named three finalists for its Kingsley Tufts Award: Marianne Boruch, Edward Haworth Hoeppner, and Paisley Rekdal. The prize is designed to reward a single book by a mid-career poet. In addition, three finalists for the Kate Tufts Discovery Award were announced.
http://www.latimes.com/features/books/jacketcopy/la-et-jc-claremont-kingsley-tufts-poetry-award-20130131,0,7872837.story
The annual Judging Books By Their Covers competition reveals surprising differences between jacket designs on each side of the Atlantic, writes Lucy Manga. You could argue forever about which of the two renderings of the same idea for Maria Semple's Where'd You Go, Bernadette has the edge over the other.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/shortcuts/2013/feb/17/best-book-covers-uk-us
YOUNG READERS
David Walliams's Ratburger is the story of Zoe, who makes friends with a rat called Armitage, and gets into a terrible adventure. This book is so fantastic it makes you never to want to stop reading it, says cupcakekate. David Walliams is a comedian so his books always have funny bits. For ages 7 and under.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/childrens-books-site/2013/feb/15/review-ratburger-david-walliams
Tales of Flavia's adventures can't come quickly enough, writes Anne Sutherland, admitting that Flavia de Luce is her favourite heroine. She's precocious, inventive, resourceful, loyal and totally fearless. And she's 11 years old, about to turn 12. Ages 10 to 13.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/books/Tales+Flavia+adventures+come+quickly+enough/7909034/story.html
Marcus Sedgwick's title Midwinterblood evocatively hints at what's to come. A labyrinthine story of love, sacrifice and blood. A cast of vampires, Vikings and high priests encounter one another in various forms—with dire consequences for both their past and future incarnations. Young adult and ages 13 to 18.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/10/books/review/midwinterblood-by-marcus-sedgwick.html?nl=books&emc=edit_bk_20130208
NEWS & FEATURES
A restored version of Ted Kotcheff's film of The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz starring Richard Dreyfuss, will be unveiled in Toronto March 2.
http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/movies/2013/02/16/the_apprenticeship_of_duddy_kravitz_gets_new_life.html
The 19th-century Scottish poet William Topaz McGonagall, whose works were so detested he was pelted with rotten fish, has the last laugh. A rare poem by the 'world's worst poet' is expected to fetch £3,000 at auction.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/feb/18/rare-poem-worst-poet-auction
A former war hero has been unmasked as the author of a series of romance novels. Bill Spence has written 22 novels, under the pseudonym Jessica Blair. The 89-year-old bomb aimer during the Second World War, was told by his publishers that he would need to write under a female name in order for the books to sell.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/booknews/9870523/Former-Second-World-War-hero-unmasked-as-romance-writer.html
Story collections are experiencing a resurgence, driven by a proliferation of digital options that offer new creative opportunities and exposure and revenue as well. These include George Saunders's Tenth of December, Karen Russell's Vampires in the Lemon Grove, and Jess Walter's We Live in Water.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/16/books/a-good-fit-for-small-screens-short-stories-are-selling.html
In a piece for the Smithsonian, Patricia T. O'Conner and Stewart Kellarman have riled grammarphiles, stating that "Most of What You Think You Know About Grammar is Wrong".
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2013/feb/08/grammar-lovers-split-infitives-wrong
The U.S. Justice Department has cleared the proposed merger of Random House and Penguin, which would create the biggest book publisher in the world.
http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/business/companies/random_house_inc/index.html?inline=nyt-org
Paul Collicut's The Murder Mile is like Chariots of Fire as rewritten by Raymond Chandler, a beautifully illustrated detective story that unfolds alongside the race to break the four-minute mile, writes Rachel Cooke. The Murder Mile's climactic scene takes place at the 1954 Commonwealth Games in Vancouver.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/feb/18/murder-mile-paul-collicutt-review?CMP=EMCNEWEML6619I2
There is a reason the character of the Boy in my first picture books wears a red and white stripey jumper, writes Oliver Jeffers: Maurice Sendak. Like many others, I developed a personal relationship with his picture book because it is excellent. Since I began making picture books I call them just that. Picture books. Not children's books. I don't believe they are just for children.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2013/feb/14/oliver-jeffers-maurice-sendak-wild-things
What happens if our faith in novels falters, if we find ourselves unable to suspend disbelief? Am I really a believer? Was I ever? asks Ian McEwan. I have moments when my faith in fiction falters and then comes to the edge of collapse. I've been on panels with fellow believers as we intone the liturgy, that humans are fabulators, we "cannot live" without stories. (Oh yes, we can.)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/feb/16/ian-mcewan-faith-fiction-falters
Two decades after Donna Tartt soared to literary stardom with The Secret History, the reclusive author is set to release her third novel in October. The Goldfinch, which follows The Little Friend, published in 2002, explores a young boy's descent into 'the art underworld'.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/feb/13/donna-tartt-first-novel-11-years
The Bare It All for Books Campaign for PEN aims to create a 2014 calendar to raise money for its programs. Twelve Canadian writers who have agreed to pose for the calendar are: Angie Abdou, Trevor Cole, Farzana Doctor, Dave Bidini, Miranda Hill, Daniel MacIvor, Yasuko Thanh, Terry Fallis, Sachiko Murakami, Vincent Lam, Saleema Nawaz and Yann Martel. In the great tradition of writing, much is left to the imagination.
http://bareitforbooks.ca
THE deadline for the 9th Annual Geist Literal Literary Postcard Story Contest has been extended to March 1, 2013, 11:59pm PST! For your chance at literary fame and fortune, information on how the contest works and contest details is here:
http://www.geist.com/articles/postcard-contest/
BOOKS & WRITERS
In an interview with Allison Flood, Anglo-American novelist Lucy Ellman speaks of her new heroine—and writing her from a man's point of view, specifically the point of view of Harrison, a plastic surgeon. Harrison has a romance with the titular Mimi, who becomes angry about the treatment of women.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/feb/09/lucy-ellmann-interview-mimi
Slammerkin, Emma Donoghue's coming-of-age story of a teenage girl fending for herself in the 1760s, exerts a considerable grip, writes Natasha Tripney. Like Donoghue's more recent child's-eye novel, Room, Slammerkin is a story of survival and liberty.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/feb/17/slammerkin-emma-donoghue-review
Christa Wolf's City of Angels, or, The Overcoat of Dr. Freud, is a work about betrayal, the inability to know oneself. and a public act of self-reflection, writes David L. Ulin. At its center, writer Christa Wolf was among the most prominent writers to come out of communist East Germany. In the end, forgetting offers her the starkest sort of freedom.
http://www.latimes.com/features/books/jacketcopy/la-ca-jc-christa-wolf-20130203,0,2945753.story
André Brink's Philida is a result of his discovering that a collateral ancestor of his owned a slave named Philida in the early 1800s. The real Philida tells the Slave Protector that François, her owner's son, reneged on his promise of freedom and was planning to sell her. Brink uses this historical record as a launching pad for his imagined version of Philida's life.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/17/books/review/philida-by-andre-brink.html?nl=books&emc=edit_bk_20130215&_r=0
In The Daughters of Mars, Thomas Keneally shows us the horror of war from the perspective of nurses whose own battlegrounds are to save lives, not take them. Keneally is no jingoist; The Daughters of Mars is unabashedly anti-war, a stance that is buttressed by the novel's perspective, writes Stephen Finucan.
http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/books/2013/02/15/the_daughters_of_mars_by_thomas_keneally_review
COMMUNITY EVENTS
W.P. KINSELLA
Canadian author will read from, and chat about, his latest book, Butterfly Winter. Thursday, February 21 at 10:30am, free. Hope Library, 1005A - 6th Ave., Hope. More information at 604-869-2313.
ROBSON READING SERIES
Readings by Walid Bitar, Basma Kavanagh, and Missy Marston. Thursday, February 21 at 7:00pm, free. UBC Bookstore at Robson Square. For more information and to register, visit http://rrs-feb2013.eventbrite.ca/.
CATHY OSTLERE
Cathy Ostlere discusses her memoir Lost. Thursday, February 21 at 7:00 PM. Christianne's Lyceum. 3696 W. 8th Ave. $20 (includes refreshments). To reserve your space call 604.733.1356 or email lyceum@christiannehayward.com. More information at www.christiannehayward.com.
FROM TALKING STICK TO MICROPHONE
Zaccheus Jackson and a selection of this country's best independent musicians and slam poets go head to head! Friday, February 22 at 8:00pm, pay what you can. Cafe Deux Soleils, 2096 Commercial Drive. More information at www.fullcircle.ca.
GALIANO LITERARY FESTIVAL
Fourth annual festival featuring John Belshaw, Kevin Chong, Pauline Holdstock, Nancy Richler and many others. February 22-24, 2013. Galiano Oceanfront Inn & Spa, Galiano Island. For complete details, visit galianoliteraryfestival.com.
FIVE ELEMENTS
A night of poetry and music raising funds for SFU's Indigenous Poetry and Poetics class. Featuring Joanne Arnott, Alex Jacobs, Larissa Lai and many more. Saturday, February 23 at 7:00pm, admission by donation. Rhizome Cafe, 317 East Broadway. More information at talonbooks.com.
VANCOUVER POETRY SLAM
Youth poetry slam featuring Scruffmouth. Monday, February 25 at 8:00pm. Tickets: $6/$4. Cafe Deux Soleils, 2096 Commercial Drive. More information at vancouverpoetryhouse.com.
GATHER @ ZAWA
Spoken word and music, featuring Victoria's Poet Laureate, Janet Rogers and Alex Jacobs from New Mexico alongside the sounds of Kristi Lane Sinclair. Monday, February 25 at 9:30pm. Zawa Restaurant, 920 Commercial Drive. For complete information, visit www.fullcircle.ca.
THE WORD AND RESISTANCE
Alex Jacobs and Janet Rogers talk about creative ways to resist and affect change. They will present a literary array of politically inspired poetry from many movements throughout their careers. Tuesday, February 26 at 3:30pm. First Nations House of Learning @ UBC, 1985 West Mall. Complete details at www.fullcircle.ca.
OUR FRIEND JOE
Vancouver author Lisa Anne Smith tells untold stories of Joe Fortes, the West Indian sailor who became a local legend. Tuesday, February 26 at 7:00pm, free. Lower level, Alice MacKay room, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia St. More information at www.vpl.ca.
COLIN BROWNE
Part of the Feedback Series talks, poet and author of The Properties will lead an inquiry into the idea of 'documentary' in relationship to the gallery works on display. Tuesday, February 26 at 7:00pm. More information at www.contemporaryartgallery.ca.
PLAY CHTHONICS
Readings by Jen Currin and Ken Babstock. Wednesday, February 27 at 6:30pm. Piano lounge, Green College, UBC. More information at www.greencollege.ubc.ca.
WORLD POETRY NIGHT OUT
Celebrates Black History month with hosts Ariadne Sawyer and Mickey Bickerstaff. Wednesday, February 27 at 6:30pm, free. New Westminster Public Library, 716 6th Ave., New Westminster. More information at poeticjustice.ca.
AB-ORIGINAL SPOKENWORD-SCAPES
Join Spoken Word artists and musicians as they riff and jam and spark together. Features Janet Rogers, Alex Jacobs, Dave Larocque, Joseph 'Pepe' Danza, Cris Derksen and more. Wednesday, February 27 at 8:00pm. Roundhouse Community Centre, 181 Roundhouse Mews. For tickets, visit www.ticketstonight.ca. More information at www.fullcircle.ca.
TWISTED POETS LITERARY SALON
Features Susan Steudel and Chelsea Comeau plus Open Mic. Thursday, February 28, 7-9:30pm, at The Cottage Bistro, 4468 Main Street, Vancouver. Suggested donation at the door: $5. All are welcome. More information at www.pandorascollective.com.
Upcoming
VANCOUVER NOIR
Authors Diane Purvey and John Belshaw discuss Vancouver's gritty underbelly in the 1930s-1960s. Tuesday, March 5 at 7:00pm, free. Lower level, Alice MacKay room, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia St. More information at www.vpl.ca.
AL HUNTER
Poetry reading by Anishinaabe writer Al Hunter. Wednesday, March 6 at 6:30pm, free. First Nations Longhouse, UBC. Admission is free and books will be available for purchase and signing. For more information and to register, visit http://rrs-march2013.eventbrite.ca/.
EILEEN COOK
Author reads from her latest release, The Almost Truth, a smart, romantic novel about a teenage con artist who might be in over her head. Thursday, March 7 at 10:00am, free. Britannia branch, 1661 Napier Street. More information at www.vpl.ca.
POETS AND THE SOCIAL SELF
Join Wayde Compton, Joanne Arnott, and Michael Turner with Renee Sarojini Saklikar as they discuss and read from their work. Thursday, March 7 at 7:00pm, free. Djavad Mowafaghian World Art Centre, SFU's Goldcorp Centre for the Arts, 149 W Hasting St. More information at sfuwoodwards.ca.
INHABITING WOMEN'S SPACE
Four women writers explore how women inhabit space, metaphorically. Join Kate Braid, Marilyn Bowering, Sandra Djwa and Kathy Mezei as they present their recent work. Friday, March 8 at 7:00pm, free. Lower level, Alice MacKay room, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia St. More information at www.vpl.ca.
NATIONAL INDIGENOUS WRITERS CONFERENCE
A day-long, participant-driven panel on the representation and recognition of Aboriginal writers in Canada. Cost: $30/$15. Saturday, March 9 from 9am to 5pm. SFU Vancouver, 515 West Hastings Street, Vancouver. More information at talonbooks.com.
SEVEN THE SERIES
Four accomplished writers, Eric Walters, Ted Staunton, Richard Scrimger and Sigmund Brouwer, present their books. Monday, March 11 at 7:00pm. West Point Grey United Church Sanctuary, 4595 8th Ave. W. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit kidsbooks.ca.
ROBSON READING SERIES
Readings by Andrew Kaufman, Camille Martin, and Barry Webster. Thursday, March 14 at 7:00pm, free. UBC Bookstore at Robson Square. For more information and to register, visit http://www.rrs-mar2013.eventbrite.ca.
MEG TILLY
Meet author and actor as she presents her newest book A Taste of Heaven. Thursday, March 14 at 7:00pm. Kidsbooks on Broadway. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit kidsbooks.ca.
JOEL DICKER
La Verite sur l'Affaire Harry Quebert is finally coming to Vancouver. Joel Dicker, a 27-year-old Geneva-born author, will present his second novel. The discussion will be in French. Monday, March 18 at 6:15pm, free. Alma VanDusen & Peter Kaye rooms, lower level, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia Street.
PLAY CHTHONICS
Readings by poets Jan Zwicky and Robert Bringhurst. Wednesday, March 20. Piano lounge, Green College, UBC. More information at www.greencollege.ubc.ca.
WRITERS INTERNATIONAL NETWORK CANADA
2nd annual literary festival featuring Dennis E. Bolen, Bonnie Nish, Jai Birdi, Lila Shahani and many others. Hosted by Lilija Valis, Bernice Lever and Charlene Sayo. Saturday, March 23 from 10am to 4pm. Richmond Cultural Centre, 7700 Minoru Gate, Richmond. More information at 604-327-6040.
Thursday, February 14, 2013
Book News Vol. 8 No. 1
BOOK NEWS
Incite: Mind-altering, metamorphic, twice-monthly!
Join us on Wednesday, February 27 for an evening of fun and laughter with Canadian humourist Arthur Black and award-winning actor Jackson Davies. Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/incite. Register here: http://incitevpl2013spring.eventbrite.ca/.
Presented in partnership with Vancouver Public Library. Incite is sponsored by the Downtown Vancouver Business Improvement Association and supported by the R.J. Nelson Family Foundation.
SPECIAL EVENTS
Sally Armstrong in conversation with Kathryn Gretsinger
The Vancouver Writers Fest presents its first special event of 2013, an evening with award-winning Canadian author, journalist and human rights activist Sally Armstrong. Armstrong is the author of three previous books, Veiled Threat: The Hidden Power of the Women of Afghanistan, The Nine Lives of Charlotte Taylor and Bitter Roots, Tender Shoots: The Uncertain Fate of Afghanistan's Women. Her new book is Ascent of Women. Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/sallyarmstrong
Monday, March 25 at 7:30pm
St. Andrew's-Wesley United Church
Sayed Kashua in conversation with Marsha Lederman
Our friends at the Jewish Book Festival present hugely popular, award-winning Arab Israeli writer, Sayed Kashua, who brings us a fresh voice and perspective from Israel. Using humor and satire, Kashua tackles the often conflicting, interconnecting worlds of Arabs and Jews living in Israel. Details: http://www.jccgv.com/content/jewish-book-fest
Saturday, March 9 at 8:00pm (note new date!)
Norman and Annette Rothstein Theatre
A DRAM COME TRUE
Tickets are on sale now for our popular single malt tasting A Dram Come True. Join us at Hycroft, the elegant Shaughnessy mansion, for an evening of great fun and good spirits. Enjoy the superb, complex flavours of a variety of rare and distinguished single malts, a premium silent auction, Cuban cigars and great company. A Dram Comes True is a fundraiser for the Writers Fest. Event details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/dram-come-true.
AWARDS & LISTS
Spanish writer Antonio Munoz Molina says he will accept a prestigious Israeli award given to authors, despite calls from pro-Palestinian activists to boycott the Jewish state. The Jerusalem Prize is an award given every two years to authors who write about human freedom in society.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/feedarticle/10652667
Hilary Mantel and Will Self will battle it out for another literary prize six months after Mantel beat Self to the Man Booker Prize. The pair are short listed in the literature category at the South Bank Sky Arts Awards, along with Kerry Hudson's debut novel Tony Hogan Bought Me an Ice-cream Float Before He Stole My Ma. The winner will be announced March 12.
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/hilary-mantel-and-will-self-fight-it-out-for-another-literary-prize-8483558.html
The Crime Writers' Association is to award Lee Child its Diamond Dagger with the lifetime achievement honour this summer.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/feb/12/lee-child-award-diamond-dagger
After four days of deliberations, the Canada Reads panel has decided that February by Lisa Moore is the Canada Reads 2013 champion!
http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/story/2013/02/14/canada-reads-turf-wars-final.html
For a recap of the final day of deliberations, go here:
http://www.cbc.ca/books/canadareads/2013/02/day-four-recap.html
YOUNG READERS
"The man from the land of Fandango is coming to pay you a call," begins Margaret Mahy's The Man from the Land of Fandango. With impeccable invention and rhythm, we hear of a jingling, jongling, jangling party person who "only appears every five hundred years". Ages 2 to 6.
http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/books/2013/02/01/small_print_mini_reviews_of_books_for_tots_and_teens.html
Melodrama, a crumbling mansion in northern England, a puppeteer, a witch, and Clara first disappearing from her home, then reappearing as a miniature of herself are key to Laura Amy Schlitz‘s Splendors and Glooms: a lengthy, involved winter's tale. Ages 9 to 13.
http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/books/2013/02/01/small_print_mini_reviews_of_books_for_tots_and_teens.html
In The Brontë Sisters: The Brief Lives of Charlotte, Emily, and Anne, Catherine Reef's biography of the Brontë sisters strikes an intelligent, honest note. Reef describes the imaginative games of the Brontë sisters' childhood, their stern education, limited travels and passionate literary works, offering a wealth of information about the period. Ages 11 to teen.
http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/books/2013/02/01/small_print_mini_reviews_of_books_for_tots_and_teens.html
NEWS & FEATURES
Love poems range from the schlocky to the sublime. "At the touch of love, everyone becomes a poet," wrote Plato. Love makes us burst with emotion — as if we have a heart "like a singing bird," wrote Christina Rossetti. To vote for your favourite love story from 10 contenders, go here:
http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/books.html
The New York Review of Books, noted for its rigorous writing and its personal ads, celebrates its 50th anniversary this month. Catherine Tice doesn't know what prompted the decision to run personals, but she has the very first personal ad, from the July 11, 1968, issue. The ads reflect an intellectually engaged and curious readership, says Tice.
http://www.npr.org/2013/02/09/171416212/literary-types-find-love-in-the-new-york-review-of-books?ft=1&f=1008
Chinese writer and award-winning satirist Yan Lianke admits he self-censored while writing Dream of Ding Village, which deals with an HIV scandal. He adds that Chinese intellectuals avoid key issues amid censorship fears. Yan Lianke had two books banned in the past decade but his bleakly humorous novel Lenin's Kisses was published in Britain this week.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/feb/06/chinese-writers-failing-censorship-concerns
Prime Minister Stephen Harper's upcoming book on the history of professional hockey will be published in the United States rather than Canada because of prohibitions embedded in the government's cultural policy. Simon & Schuster, chosen to publish the English-language edition of the Prime Minister's book, is banned from publishing books in Canada under the Investment Canada Act.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/government-policy-shuts-out-harpers-hockey-book-from-canadian-printers/article8372182/
The Bell Jar was published less than a month before Sylvia Plath killed herself on 11 February 1963. To mark the 50th anniversary of her death, a dozen writers and poets—including Sharon Olds, Jennifer Egan, Jeanette Winterson and Margaret Drabble—reflect on what Plath's work means to them.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/feb/08/sylvia-plath-reflections-on-her-legacy
The latest book cover of Anne of Green Gables features a buxom young woman with flaxen locks, a far cry from the skinny, pigtailed, redhead of L.M. Montgomery's famous series of books. The makeover has generated lots of buzz online, ranging from outrage, confusion and amusement.
http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/books/2013/02/07/anne_of_green_gables_fans_blast_new_blond_version.html
Roald Dahl taught a generation how to fight back against the monstrous world of grown-ups with marvellous medicine, magic fingers and a healthy dose of naughtiness. Now the old rebel of children's literature, loved by millions for his dark humour and the surreal, is more popular with adults than with children, according to a new survey of children's literary tastes.
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/the-tale-of-the-unexpected-decline-of-roald-dahl-8486008.html
Alberto Manguel commemorates Yehuda Elberg, whose work is among the most important contributions to the literature of the Holocaust, Ekberg died in 2003 and is forgotten by almost all.
http://www.geist.com/articles/yehuda-elberg/
The body of Nobel Prize-winning poet Pablo Neruda is to be exhumed for an autopsy seeking clues to the cause of his death. Neruda died days after the 1973 military coup that ended the life of President Salvador Allende. The Pablo Neruda Foundation announced Friday that it supports Judge Mario Carroza's investigation.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/story/2013/02/08/arts-neruda-exhumation.html
"Which book changed your life?" is a question it's tempting to answer with a shrug. But in 1970, before he was a household name, Oliver Sacks wrote a book called Migraine. More modest and more technical than his big hits, the book is still remarkable in its shrewd perceptions. It changed my life, says Hilary Mantel.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/feb/08/my-hero-oliver-sacks-mantel
Teenager Timothy Parker Russel has edited and produced Dark World, a book of fourteen terrifying ghost stories, short stories from award-winning writers around the world. The project began after a school trip to the Amala Children's Home in India. Now, funds are donated to help orphans living in the Children's Home who would otherwise be living on the streets.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/childrens-books-site/2013/feb/07/teen-edits-book-ghost-stories
Azerbaijan's troubled efforts to portray itself as a progressive and Western-oriented country took a beating this week with the announcement by a pro-government political party that it will pay $12,700 to anyone who cuts off the ear of a 75-year-old novelist.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/azerbaijan-turns-on-one-of-its-own/2013/02/12/977d2c8a-752b-11e2-aa12-e6cf1d31106b_story.html
The deadline for the 9th Annual Geist Literal Literary Postcard Story Contest has been extended to March 1, 2013, 11:59pm PST! For your chance at literary fame and fortune, information on how the contest works and contest details is here:
http://www.geist.com/articles/postcard-contest/
BOOKS & WRITERS
Since fictional love matches are often troubled, Globe Books asked writers to imagine characters from literature who might be perfect together. Eleanor Wachtel sends Emma Bovary on a date with The English Patient. Andrew Pyper pairs Frankenstein's Monster and Anne Shirley. Alissa York chooses star-crossed lovers White Fang and Black Beauty.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/relationships/valentines-day/frankenstein-anne-shirley-4eva-authors-play-cupid-for-their-favourite-literary-characters/article8385661/?cmpid=rss1
If you're tired of going to bed with flabby, self-important books that rarely deliver on their promises, treat yourself this Valentine's Day to a box of Godiva chocolates and Simon Rich's hysterical new story collection, The Last Girlfriend on Earth. It just might be the best one-night stand you'll ever have, writes John Wilwol.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/the-last-girlfriend-on-earth-by-simon-rich/2013/02/05/0e0bd5c6-6cb8-11e2-8740-9b58f43c191a_story.html - license-0e0bd5c6-6cb8-11e2-8740-9b58f43
Evelyn Lau's A Grain of Rice honours both family and the past. A passionate suite of poems pays tribute to John Updike's life and work (he is the writer who has most influenced her writing career). The book is a meditation on loss, says Candace Fertile.
http://www.vancouversun.com/mobile/entertainment/books/voice+grows+more+sorrowful/7938672/story.html
One hundred years after Bram Stoker's death, his greatest creation is more alive than ever, writes Michael Dirda, immortality being one of the many side benefits. According to Thirty Years A-Going: A History of the Bram Stoker Society, teenage boys have regularly written to the organization, asking how they might become vampires.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/the-forgotten-writings-of-bram-stoker-reviewed-by-michael-dirda/2013/02/06/38fd8158-6c9f-11e2-ada0-5ca5fa7ebe79_story.html
In an interview with Allison Flood, Anglo-American novelist Lucy Ellman speaks of her new heroine—and writing her from a man's point of view, specifically the point of view of Harrison, a plastic surgeon. Harrison has a romance with the titular Mimi, who becomes angry about the treatment of women.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/feb/09/lucy-ellmann-interview-mimi
Maurice Sendak's posthumous work was inspired by his older brother and by William Blake's visionary Songs of Innocence and Experience. To see the world through Blake's eyes made Sendak very happy, despite his embittered grief. My Brother's Book is a song of innocence and experience combined.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/search/?q=wild+things
Ayana Mathis's The Twelve Tribes of Hattie tells of Hattie Shepherd and her family, soon after they flee the Jim Crow laws of the U.S. South for a better life in Philadelphia. Many sad things happen, but this is not a sad book. Rather, it glistens with a quiet, hopeful beauty, writes Monique Polak.
http://arts.nationalpost.com/2013/01/25/book-review-the-twelve-tribes-of-hattie-by-ayana-mathis/
COMMUNITY EVENTS
SHAKESPEAREAN SWORDPLAY
Hear Greg Mele and author C.C. Humphreys discourse on what happens when England plays Italy—but not on the soccer field—with honour as the prize. Saturday, February 16 at 10:00am. Part of Vancouver International Swordplay Symposium. For complete information, visit www.vancouverswordplay.com.
WRITING WESTERN MARTIAL ARTS IN FICTION
Join Neal Stephenson and Joseph Brassey, two of the authors behind the Mongoliad, as they talk about the steps taken to create a literary martial arts epic. Saturday, February 16 at 3:00pm. Part of Vancouver International Swordplay Symposium. For complete information, visit www.vancouverswordplay.com.
PEN AND SWORD
Lecture by Dr. Noelle Phillips will explore the representation and literary description of medieval weaponry–swords in particular–in a variety of medieval manuscripts. Sunday, February 17 at 3:30pm. Part of Vancouver International Swordplay Symposium. For complete information, visit www.vancouverswordplay.com.
UBC ALUMNI BOOK CLUB
Choose between Timothy Taylor's Stanley Park and Lynn Coady's Mean Boy at this book club in which you can meet the facilitator and fellow alumni, and learn about the book before you read it. Tuesday, February 19 at 7:00pm. Tickets: $10. Cecil Green Park Coach House, 6323 Cecil Green Park Rd., UBC.
W.P. KINSELLA
Canadian author will read from, and chat about, his latest book, Butterfly Winter. Thursday, February 21 at 10:30am, free. Hope Library, 1005A - 6th Ave., Hope. More information at 604-869-2313.
ROBSON READING SERIES
Readings by Walid Bitar, Basma Kavanagh, and Missy Marston. Thursday, February 21 at 7:00pm, free. UBC Bookstore at Robson Square. For more information and to register, visit http://rrs-feb2013.eventbrite.ca/.
CATHY OSTLERE
Cathy Ostlere discusses her memoir Lost. Thursday, February 21 at 7:00 PM. Christianne's Lyceum. 3696 W. 8th Ave. $20 (includes refreshments). To reserve your space call 604.733.1356 or email lyceum@christiannehayward.com. More information at www.christiannehayward.com.
FROM TALKING STICK TO MICROPHONE
Zaccheus Jackson and a selection of this country's best independent musicians and slam poets go head to head! Friday, February 22 at 8:00pm, pay what you can. Cafe Deux Soleils, 2096 Commercial Drive. More information at www.fullcircle.ca.
GALIANO LITERARY FESTIVAL
Fourth annual festival featuring John Belshaw, Kevin Chong, Pauline Holdstock, Nancy Richler and many others. February 22-24, 2013. Galiano Oceanfront Inn & Spa, Galiano Island. For complete details, visit galianoliteraryfestival.com.
FIVE ELEMENTS
A night of poetry and music raising funds for SFU's Indigenous Poetry and Poetics class. Featuring Joanne Arnott, Alex Jacobs, Larissa Lai and many more. Saturday, February 23 at 7:00pm, admission by donation. Rhizome Cafe, 317 East Broadway. More information at talonbooks.com.
OLIVER JEFFERS
Oliver Jeffers, author/illustrator of This Moose Belongs to Me, to speak at the Vancouver Children's Literature Roundtable's annual Author/Illustrator Breakfast February 23 at the University Golf Club. A limited number of seats remain. For registration and information, go to www.vclr.ca.
VANCOUVER POETRY SLAM
Youth poetry slam featuring Scruffmouth. Monday, February 25 at 8:00pm. Tickets: $6/$4. Cafe Deux Soleils, 2096 Commercial Drive. More information at vancouverpoetryhouse.com.
GATHER @ ZAWA
Spoken word and music, featuring Victoria's Poet Laureate, Janet Rogers and Alex Jacobs from New Mexico alongside the sounds of Kristi Lane Sinclair. Monday, February 25 at 9:30pm. Zawa Restaurant, 920 Commercial Drive. For complete information, visit www.fullcircle.ca.
THE WORD AND RESISTANCE
Alex Jacobs and Janet Rogers talk about creative ways to resist and affect change. They will present a literary array of politically inspired poetry from many movements throughout their careers. Tuesday, February 26 at 3:30pm. First Nations House of Learning @ UBC, 1985 West Mall. Complete details at www.fullcircle.ca.
OUR FRIEND JOE
Vancouver author Lisa Anne Smith shares an untold story (or two!) of the West Indian sailor who became a local legend. Tuesday, February 26 at 7:00pm, free. Lower level, Alice MacKay room, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia St. More information at www.vpl.ca.
COLIN BROWNE
Part of the Feedback Series talks, poet and author of The Properties will lead an inquiry into the idea of 'documentary' in relationship to the gallery works on display. Tuesday, February 26 at 7:00pm. More information at www.contemporaryartgallery.ca.
Upcoming
PLAY CHTHONICS
Readings by Jen Currin and Ken Babstock. Wednesday, February 27 at 6:30pm. Piano lounge, Green College, UBC. More information at www.greencollege.ubc.ca.
AB-ORIGINAL SPOKENWORD-SCAPES
Join Spoken Word artists and musicians as they riff and jam and spark together. Features Janet Rogers, Alex Jacobs, Dave Larocque, Joseph 'Pepe' Danza, Cris Derksen and more. Wednesday, February 28 at 8:00pm. Roundhouse Community Centre, 181 Roundhouse Mews. For tickets, visit www.ticketstonight.ca. More information at www.fullcircle.ca.
TWISTED POETS LITERARY SALON
Features Susan Steudel and Chelsea Comeau plus Open Mic. Thursday, February 28, 7-9:30pm, at The Cottage Bistro, 4468 Main Street, Vancouver. Suggested donation at the door: $5. All are welcome. More information at www.pandorascollective.com.
VANCOUVER NOIR
Authors Diane Purvey and John Belshaw discuss Vancouver's gritty underbelly in the 1930s-1960s. Tuesday, March 5 at 7:00pm, free. Lower level, Alice MacKay room, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia St. More information at www.vpl.ca.
AL HUNTER
Poetry reading by Anishinaabe writer Al Hunter. Wednesday, March 6 at 6:30pm, free. First Nations Longhouse, UBC. Admission is free and books will be available for purchase and signing. For more information and to register, visit http://rrs-march2013.eventbrite.ca/.
EILEEN COOK
Author reads from her latest release, The Almost Truth, a smart, romantic novel about a teenage con artist who might be in over her head. Thursday, March 7 at 10:00am, free. Britannia branch, 1661 Napier Street. More information at www.vpl.ca.
POETS AND THE SOCIAL SELF
Join Wayde Compton, Joanne Arnott, and Michael Turner with Renee Sarojini Saklikar as they discuss and read from their work. Thursday, March 7 at 7:00pm, free. Djavad Mowafaghian World Art Centre,SFU's Goldcorp Centre for the Arts, 149 W Hasting St. More information at sfuwoodwards.ca.
INHABITING WOMEN'S SPACE
Four women writers explore how women inhabit space, metaphorically. Join Kate Braid, Marilyn Bowering, Sandra Djwa and Kathy Mezei as they present their recent work. Friday, March 8 at 7:00pm, free. Lower level, Alice MacKay room, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia St. More information at www.vpl.ca.
NATIONAL INDIGENOUS WRITERS CONFERENCE
A day-long, participant-driven panel on the representation and recognition of Aboriginal writers in Canada. Cost: $30/$15. Saturday, March 9 from 9am to 5pm. SFU Vancouver, 515 West Hastings Street, Vancouver. More information at talonbooks.com.
ROBSON READING SERIES
Readings by Andrew Kaufman, Camille Martin, and Barry Webster. Thursday, March 14 at 7:00pm, free. UBC Bookstore at Robson Square. For more information and to register, visit http://www.rrs-mar2013.eventbrite.ca.
JOEL DICKER
La Verite sur l'Affaire Harry Quebert is finally coming to Vancouver. Joel Dicker, a 27-year-old Geneva-born author, will present his second novel. The discussion will be in French. Monday, March 18 at 6:15pm, free. Alma VanDusen & Peter Kaye rooms, lower level, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia Street.
PLAY CHTHONICS
Readings by poets Jan Zwicky and Robert Bringhurst. Wednesday, March 20. Piano lounge, Green College, UBC. More information at www.greencollege.ubc.ca.
Incite: Mind-altering, metamorphic, twice-monthly!
Join us on Wednesday, February 27 for an evening of fun and laughter with Canadian humourist Arthur Black and award-winning actor Jackson Davies. Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/incite. Register here: http://incitevpl2013spring.eventbrite.ca/.
Presented in partnership with Vancouver Public Library. Incite is sponsored by the Downtown Vancouver Business Improvement Association and supported by the R.J. Nelson Family Foundation.
SPECIAL EVENTS
Sally Armstrong in conversation with Kathryn Gretsinger
The Vancouver Writers Fest presents its first special event of 2013, an evening with award-winning Canadian author, journalist and human rights activist Sally Armstrong. Armstrong is the author of three previous books, Veiled Threat: The Hidden Power of the Women of Afghanistan, The Nine Lives of Charlotte Taylor and Bitter Roots, Tender Shoots: The Uncertain Fate of Afghanistan's Women. Her new book is Ascent of Women. Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/sallyarmstrong
Monday, March 25 at 7:30pm
St. Andrew's-Wesley United Church
Sayed Kashua in conversation with Marsha Lederman
Our friends at the Jewish Book Festival present hugely popular, award-winning Arab Israeli writer, Sayed Kashua, who brings us a fresh voice and perspective from Israel. Using humor and satire, Kashua tackles the often conflicting, interconnecting worlds of Arabs and Jews living in Israel. Details: http://www.jccgv.com/content/jewish-book-fest
Saturday, March 9 at 8:00pm (note new date!)
Norman and Annette Rothstein Theatre
A DRAM COME TRUE
Tickets are on sale now for our popular single malt tasting A Dram Come True. Join us at Hycroft, the elegant Shaughnessy mansion, for an evening of great fun and good spirits. Enjoy the superb, complex flavours of a variety of rare and distinguished single malts, a premium silent auction, Cuban cigars and great company. A Dram Comes True is a fundraiser for the Writers Fest. Event details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/dram-come-true.
AWARDS & LISTS
Spanish writer Antonio Munoz Molina says he will accept a prestigious Israeli award given to authors, despite calls from pro-Palestinian activists to boycott the Jewish state. The Jerusalem Prize is an award given every two years to authors who write about human freedom in society.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/feedarticle/10652667
Hilary Mantel and Will Self will battle it out for another literary prize six months after Mantel beat Self to the Man Booker Prize. The pair are short listed in the literature category at the South Bank Sky Arts Awards, along with Kerry Hudson's debut novel Tony Hogan Bought Me an Ice-cream Float Before He Stole My Ma. The winner will be announced March 12.
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/hilary-mantel-and-will-self-fight-it-out-for-another-literary-prize-8483558.html
The Crime Writers' Association is to award Lee Child its Diamond Dagger with the lifetime achievement honour this summer.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/feb/12/lee-child-award-diamond-dagger
After four days of deliberations, the Canada Reads panel has decided that February by Lisa Moore is the Canada Reads 2013 champion!
http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/story/2013/02/14/canada-reads-turf-wars-final.html
For a recap of the final day of deliberations, go here:
http://www.cbc.ca/books/canadareads/2013/02/day-four-recap.html
YOUNG READERS
"The man from the land of Fandango is coming to pay you a call," begins Margaret Mahy's The Man from the Land of Fandango. With impeccable invention and rhythm, we hear of a jingling, jongling, jangling party person who "only appears every five hundred years". Ages 2 to 6.
http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/books/2013/02/01/small_print_mini_reviews_of_books_for_tots_and_teens.html
Melodrama, a crumbling mansion in northern England, a puppeteer, a witch, and Clara first disappearing from her home, then reappearing as a miniature of herself are key to Laura Amy Schlitz‘s Splendors and Glooms: a lengthy, involved winter's tale. Ages 9 to 13.
http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/books/2013/02/01/small_print_mini_reviews_of_books_for_tots_and_teens.html
In The Brontë Sisters: The Brief Lives of Charlotte, Emily, and Anne, Catherine Reef's biography of the Brontë sisters strikes an intelligent, honest note. Reef describes the imaginative games of the Brontë sisters' childhood, their stern education, limited travels and passionate literary works, offering a wealth of information about the period. Ages 11 to teen.
http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/books/2013/02/01/small_print_mini_reviews_of_books_for_tots_and_teens.html
NEWS & FEATURES
Love poems range from the schlocky to the sublime. "At the touch of love, everyone becomes a poet," wrote Plato. Love makes us burst with emotion — as if we have a heart "like a singing bird," wrote Christina Rossetti. To vote for your favourite love story from 10 contenders, go here:
http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/books.html
The New York Review of Books, noted for its rigorous writing and its personal ads, celebrates its 50th anniversary this month. Catherine Tice doesn't know what prompted the decision to run personals, but she has the very first personal ad, from the July 11, 1968, issue. The ads reflect an intellectually engaged and curious readership, says Tice.
http://www.npr.org/2013/02/09/171416212/literary-types-find-love-in-the-new-york-review-of-books?ft=1&f=1008
Chinese writer and award-winning satirist Yan Lianke admits he self-censored while writing Dream of Ding Village, which deals with an HIV scandal. He adds that Chinese intellectuals avoid key issues amid censorship fears. Yan Lianke had two books banned in the past decade but his bleakly humorous novel Lenin's Kisses was published in Britain this week.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/feb/06/chinese-writers-failing-censorship-concerns
Prime Minister Stephen Harper's upcoming book on the history of professional hockey will be published in the United States rather than Canada because of prohibitions embedded in the government's cultural policy. Simon & Schuster, chosen to publish the English-language edition of the Prime Minister's book, is banned from publishing books in Canada under the Investment Canada Act.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/government-policy-shuts-out-harpers-hockey-book-from-canadian-printers/article8372182/
The Bell Jar was published less than a month before Sylvia Plath killed herself on 11 February 1963. To mark the 50th anniversary of her death, a dozen writers and poets—including Sharon Olds, Jennifer Egan, Jeanette Winterson and Margaret Drabble—reflect on what Plath's work means to them.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/feb/08/sylvia-plath-reflections-on-her-legacy
The latest book cover of Anne of Green Gables features a buxom young woman with flaxen locks, a far cry from the skinny, pigtailed, redhead of L.M. Montgomery's famous series of books. The makeover has generated lots of buzz online, ranging from outrage, confusion and amusement.
http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/books/2013/02/07/anne_of_green_gables_fans_blast_new_blond_version.html
Roald Dahl taught a generation how to fight back against the monstrous world of grown-ups with marvellous medicine, magic fingers and a healthy dose of naughtiness. Now the old rebel of children's literature, loved by millions for his dark humour and the surreal, is more popular with adults than with children, according to a new survey of children's literary tastes.
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/the-tale-of-the-unexpected-decline-of-roald-dahl-8486008.html
Alberto Manguel commemorates Yehuda Elberg, whose work is among the most important contributions to the literature of the Holocaust, Ekberg died in 2003 and is forgotten by almost all.
http://www.geist.com/articles/yehuda-elberg/
The body of Nobel Prize-winning poet Pablo Neruda is to be exhumed for an autopsy seeking clues to the cause of his death. Neruda died days after the 1973 military coup that ended the life of President Salvador Allende. The Pablo Neruda Foundation announced Friday that it supports Judge Mario Carroza's investigation.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/story/2013/02/08/arts-neruda-exhumation.html
"Which book changed your life?" is a question it's tempting to answer with a shrug. But in 1970, before he was a household name, Oliver Sacks wrote a book called Migraine. More modest and more technical than his big hits, the book is still remarkable in its shrewd perceptions. It changed my life, says Hilary Mantel.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/feb/08/my-hero-oliver-sacks-mantel
Teenager Timothy Parker Russel has edited and produced Dark World, a book of fourteen terrifying ghost stories, short stories from award-winning writers around the world. The project began after a school trip to the Amala Children's Home in India. Now, funds are donated to help orphans living in the Children's Home who would otherwise be living on the streets.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/childrens-books-site/2013/feb/07/teen-edits-book-ghost-stories
Azerbaijan's troubled efforts to portray itself as a progressive and Western-oriented country took a beating this week with the announcement by a pro-government political party that it will pay $12,700 to anyone who cuts off the ear of a 75-year-old novelist.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/azerbaijan-turns-on-one-of-its-own/2013/02/12/977d2c8a-752b-11e2-aa12-e6cf1d31106b_story.html
The deadline for the 9th Annual Geist Literal Literary Postcard Story Contest has been extended to March 1, 2013, 11:59pm PST! For your chance at literary fame and fortune, information on how the contest works and contest details is here:
http://www.geist.com/articles/postcard-contest/
BOOKS & WRITERS
Since fictional love matches are often troubled, Globe Books asked writers to imagine characters from literature who might be perfect together. Eleanor Wachtel sends Emma Bovary on a date with The English Patient. Andrew Pyper pairs Frankenstein's Monster and Anne Shirley. Alissa York chooses star-crossed lovers White Fang and Black Beauty.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/relationships/valentines-day/frankenstein-anne-shirley-4eva-authors-play-cupid-for-their-favourite-literary-characters/article8385661/?cmpid=rss1
If you're tired of going to bed with flabby, self-important books that rarely deliver on their promises, treat yourself this Valentine's Day to a box of Godiva chocolates and Simon Rich's hysterical new story collection, The Last Girlfriend on Earth. It just might be the best one-night stand you'll ever have, writes John Wilwol.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/the-last-girlfriend-on-earth-by-simon-rich/2013/02/05/0e0bd5c6-6cb8-11e2-8740-9b58f43c191a_story.html - license-0e0bd5c6-6cb8-11e2-8740-9b58f43
Evelyn Lau's A Grain of Rice honours both family and the past. A passionate suite of poems pays tribute to John Updike's life and work (he is the writer who has most influenced her writing career). The book is a meditation on loss, says Candace Fertile.
http://www.vancouversun.com/mobile/entertainment/books/voice+grows+more+sorrowful/7938672/story.html
One hundred years after Bram Stoker's death, his greatest creation is more alive than ever, writes Michael Dirda, immortality being one of the many side benefits. According to Thirty Years A-Going: A History of the Bram Stoker Society, teenage boys have regularly written to the organization, asking how they might become vampires.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/the-forgotten-writings-of-bram-stoker-reviewed-by-michael-dirda/2013/02/06/38fd8158-6c9f-11e2-ada0-5ca5fa7ebe79_story.html
In an interview with Allison Flood, Anglo-American novelist Lucy Ellman speaks of her new heroine—and writing her from a man's point of view, specifically the point of view of Harrison, a plastic surgeon. Harrison has a romance with the titular Mimi, who becomes angry about the treatment of women.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/feb/09/lucy-ellmann-interview-mimi
Maurice Sendak's posthumous work was inspired by his older brother and by William Blake's visionary Songs of Innocence and Experience. To see the world through Blake's eyes made Sendak very happy, despite his embittered grief. My Brother's Book is a song of innocence and experience combined.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/search/?q=wild+things
Ayana Mathis's The Twelve Tribes of Hattie tells of Hattie Shepherd and her family, soon after they flee the Jim Crow laws of the U.S. South for a better life in Philadelphia. Many sad things happen, but this is not a sad book. Rather, it glistens with a quiet, hopeful beauty, writes Monique Polak.
http://arts.nationalpost.com/2013/01/25/book-review-the-twelve-tribes-of-hattie-by-ayana-mathis/
COMMUNITY EVENTS
SHAKESPEAREAN SWORDPLAY
Hear Greg Mele and author C.C. Humphreys discourse on what happens when England plays Italy—but not on the soccer field—with honour as the prize. Saturday, February 16 at 10:00am. Part of Vancouver International Swordplay Symposium. For complete information, visit www.vancouverswordplay.com.
WRITING WESTERN MARTIAL ARTS IN FICTION
Join Neal Stephenson and Joseph Brassey, two of the authors behind the Mongoliad, as they talk about the steps taken to create a literary martial arts epic. Saturday, February 16 at 3:00pm. Part of Vancouver International Swordplay Symposium. For complete information, visit www.vancouverswordplay.com.
PEN AND SWORD
Lecture by Dr. Noelle Phillips will explore the representation and literary description of medieval weaponry–swords in particular–in a variety of medieval manuscripts. Sunday, February 17 at 3:30pm. Part of Vancouver International Swordplay Symposium. For complete information, visit www.vancouverswordplay.com.
UBC ALUMNI BOOK CLUB
Choose between Timothy Taylor's Stanley Park and Lynn Coady's Mean Boy at this book club in which you can meet the facilitator and fellow alumni, and learn about the book before you read it. Tuesday, February 19 at 7:00pm. Tickets: $10. Cecil Green Park Coach House, 6323 Cecil Green Park Rd., UBC.
W.P. KINSELLA
Canadian author will read from, and chat about, his latest book, Butterfly Winter. Thursday, February 21 at 10:30am, free. Hope Library, 1005A - 6th Ave., Hope. More information at 604-869-2313.
ROBSON READING SERIES
Readings by Walid Bitar, Basma Kavanagh, and Missy Marston. Thursday, February 21 at 7:00pm, free. UBC Bookstore at Robson Square. For more information and to register, visit http://rrs-feb2013.eventbrite.ca/.
CATHY OSTLERE
Cathy Ostlere discusses her memoir Lost. Thursday, February 21 at 7:00 PM. Christianne's Lyceum. 3696 W. 8th Ave. $20 (includes refreshments). To reserve your space call 604.733.1356 or email lyceum@christiannehayward.com. More information at www.christiannehayward.com.
FROM TALKING STICK TO MICROPHONE
Zaccheus Jackson and a selection of this country's best independent musicians and slam poets go head to head! Friday, February 22 at 8:00pm, pay what you can. Cafe Deux Soleils, 2096 Commercial Drive. More information at www.fullcircle.ca.
GALIANO LITERARY FESTIVAL
Fourth annual festival featuring John Belshaw, Kevin Chong, Pauline Holdstock, Nancy Richler and many others. February 22-24, 2013. Galiano Oceanfront Inn & Spa, Galiano Island. For complete details, visit galianoliteraryfestival.com.
FIVE ELEMENTS
A night of poetry and music raising funds for SFU's Indigenous Poetry and Poetics class. Featuring Joanne Arnott, Alex Jacobs, Larissa Lai and many more. Saturday, February 23 at 7:00pm, admission by donation. Rhizome Cafe, 317 East Broadway. More information at talonbooks.com.
OLIVER JEFFERS
Oliver Jeffers, author/illustrator of This Moose Belongs to Me, to speak at the Vancouver Children's Literature Roundtable's annual Author/Illustrator Breakfast February 23 at the University Golf Club. A limited number of seats remain. For registration and information, go to www.vclr.ca.
VANCOUVER POETRY SLAM
Youth poetry slam featuring Scruffmouth. Monday, February 25 at 8:00pm. Tickets: $6/$4. Cafe Deux Soleils, 2096 Commercial Drive. More information at vancouverpoetryhouse.com.
GATHER @ ZAWA
Spoken word and music, featuring Victoria's Poet Laureate, Janet Rogers and Alex Jacobs from New Mexico alongside the sounds of Kristi Lane Sinclair. Monday, February 25 at 9:30pm. Zawa Restaurant, 920 Commercial Drive. For complete information, visit www.fullcircle.ca.
THE WORD AND RESISTANCE
Alex Jacobs and Janet Rogers talk about creative ways to resist and affect change. They will present a literary array of politically inspired poetry from many movements throughout their careers. Tuesday, February 26 at 3:30pm. First Nations House of Learning @ UBC, 1985 West Mall. Complete details at www.fullcircle.ca.
OUR FRIEND JOE
Vancouver author Lisa Anne Smith shares an untold story (or two!) of the West Indian sailor who became a local legend. Tuesday, February 26 at 7:00pm, free. Lower level, Alice MacKay room, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia St. More information at www.vpl.ca.
COLIN BROWNE
Part of the Feedback Series talks, poet and author of The Properties will lead an inquiry into the idea of 'documentary' in relationship to the gallery works on display. Tuesday, February 26 at 7:00pm. More information at www.contemporaryartgallery.ca.
Upcoming
PLAY CHTHONICS
Readings by Jen Currin and Ken Babstock. Wednesday, February 27 at 6:30pm. Piano lounge, Green College, UBC. More information at www.greencollege.ubc.ca.
AB-ORIGINAL SPOKENWORD-SCAPES
Join Spoken Word artists and musicians as they riff and jam and spark together. Features Janet Rogers, Alex Jacobs, Dave Larocque, Joseph 'Pepe' Danza, Cris Derksen and more. Wednesday, February 28 at 8:00pm. Roundhouse Community Centre, 181 Roundhouse Mews. For tickets, visit www.ticketstonight.ca. More information at www.fullcircle.ca.
TWISTED POETS LITERARY SALON
Features Susan Steudel and Chelsea Comeau plus Open Mic. Thursday, February 28, 7-9:30pm, at The Cottage Bistro, 4468 Main Street, Vancouver. Suggested donation at the door: $5. All are welcome. More information at www.pandorascollective.com.
VANCOUVER NOIR
Authors Diane Purvey and John Belshaw discuss Vancouver's gritty underbelly in the 1930s-1960s. Tuesday, March 5 at 7:00pm, free. Lower level, Alice MacKay room, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia St. More information at www.vpl.ca.
AL HUNTER
Poetry reading by Anishinaabe writer Al Hunter. Wednesday, March 6 at 6:30pm, free. First Nations Longhouse, UBC. Admission is free and books will be available for purchase and signing. For more information and to register, visit http://rrs-march2013.eventbrite.ca/.
EILEEN COOK
Author reads from her latest release, The Almost Truth, a smart, romantic novel about a teenage con artist who might be in over her head. Thursday, March 7 at 10:00am, free. Britannia branch, 1661 Napier Street. More information at www.vpl.ca.
POETS AND THE SOCIAL SELF
Join Wayde Compton, Joanne Arnott, and Michael Turner with Renee Sarojini Saklikar as they discuss and read from their work. Thursday, March 7 at 7:00pm, free. Djavad Mowafaghian World Art Centre,SFU's Goldcorp Centre for the Arts, 149 W Hasting St. More information at sfuwoodwards.ca.
INHABITING WOMEN'S SPACE
Four women writers explore how women inhabit space, metaphorically. Join Kate Braid, Marilyn Bowering, Sandra Djwa and Kathy Mezei as they present their recent work. Friday, March 8 at 7:00pm, free. Lower level, Alice MacKay room, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia St. More information at www.vpl.ca.
NATIONAL INDIGENOUS WRITERS CONFERENCE
A day-long, participant-driven panel on the representation and recognition of Aboriginal writers in Canada. Cost: $30/$15. Saturday, March 9 from 9am to 5pm. SFU Vancouver, 515 West Hastings Street, Vancouver. More information at talonbooks.com.
ROBSON READING SERIES
Readings by Andrew Kaufman, Camille Martin, and Barry Webster. Thursday, March 14 at 7:00pm, free. UBC Bookstore at Robson Square. For more information and to register, visit http://www.rrs-mar2013.eventbrite.ca.
JOEL DICKER
La Verite sur l'Affaire Harry Quebert is finally coming to Vancouver. Joel Dicker, a 27-year-old Geneva-born author, will present his second novel. The discussion will be in French. Monday, March 18 at 6:15pm, free. Alma VanDusen & Peter Kaye rooms, lower level, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia Street.
PLAY CHTHONICS
Readings by poets Jan Zwicky and Robert Bringhurst. Wednesday, March 20. Piano lounge, Green College, UBC. More information at www.greencollege.ubc.ca.
Thursday, February 7, 2013
Book News Vol. 7 No. 52
BOOK NEWS
Incite: Mind-altering, metamorphic, twice-monthly!
Join us on Wednesday, February 13 for an evening filled with non-fiction, featuring Globe and Mail journalist Sandra Martin and Zac Unger. Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/incite. Register here: http://incitevpl2013spring.eventbrite.ca/.
Presented in partnership with Vancouver Public Library. Incite is sponsored by the Downtown Vancouver Business Improvement Association and supported by the R.J. Nelson Family Foundation.
SPECIAL EVENT
Sally Armstrong in conversation with Kathryn Gretsinger
The Vancouver Writers Fest presents its first special event of 2013, an evening with award-winning Canadian author, journalist and human rights activist Sally Armstrong. Armstrong is the author of three previous books, Veiled Threat: The Hidden Power of the Women of Afghanistan, The Nine Lives of Charlotte Taylor and Bitter Roots, Tender Shoots: The Uncertain Fate of Afghanistan's Women. Her new book is Ascent of Women.
7:30 pm, Monday, March 25
St. Andrew's-Wesley United Church
Burrard at Nelson
A DRAM COME TRUE
Tickets are on sale now for our popular single malt tasting A Dram Come True. Join us at Hycroft, the elegant Shaughnessy mansion, for an evening of great fun and good spirits. Enjoy the superb, complex flavours of a variety of rare and distinguished single malts, a premium silent auction, Cuban cigars and great company. A Dram Comes True is a fundraiser for the Writers Fest. Event details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/dram-come-true.
AWARDS & LISTS
The BC Achievement Foundation has awarded historian Modris Eksteins the $40,000 BC National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction for his book Solar Dance: Genius, Forgery and the Crisis of Truth in the Modern Age.
http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Historian+nets+fiction+prize/7917106/story.html
Three short story collections are shortlisted for The Story Prize: Dan Chaon's Stay Awake, Junot Diaz's This Is How You Lose Her and Battleborn by Claire Vaye Watkins. The winner will be announced March 13, and will receive a prize of $20,000.
http://www.latimes.com/features/books/jacketcopy/la-et-jc-congrats-story-prize-finalists-20130116,0,6963746.story
The Canada Reads 2013 contenders are listed here:
http://www.cbc.ca/books/canadareads/2012/11/meet-the-canada-reads-2013-contenders.html
YOUNG READERS
An Irish lass came to North America more than 150 years ago in search of a better life. A necklace of crystal beads makes its way into the hands of young girls. Sharon Dennis Wyeth's The Granddaughter Necklace, is less a story of history than a story of family. Ages 4 to 8.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Books+kids+Stories+that+just+imagine/7910493/story.html#ixzz2Joa6J8IY
"What would you do if you had a chance to help a person find freedom?" That's the question on the back cover of Henry Cole's Unspoken: A Story from the Underground Railroad, an otherwise wordless picture book. Ages 6 to 9.
http://www.sfgate.com/books/article/Books-for-young-readers-4224639.php#ixzz2Joeo3QXp
In Ayun Halliday's Peanut, Sadie Wildhack, new to her school, decides a deadly peanut allergy will give her just the right dose of offbeat cachet. It will surely pique interest from her new classmates. For ages 12 to 18.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/23/books/peanut-by-ayun-halliday.html
NEWS & FEATURES
The news that the entire content of the libraries in Timbuktu have been destroyed by fire is incorrect. Jean-Michel Djian, a French writer and author of The Manuscripts of Timbuktu, has confirmed that parts of the various collections were safe. "The majority of the manuscripts are housed in the thirty-two family libraries of the 'City of 333 Saints,'" said Djian.
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2013/01/the-libraries-of-timbuktu.html
A German father wrote to one of Germany's oldest children's publishers urging it to revise the text of Die Kleine Hexe (The Little Witch) to expunge racist sentiment from the children's book. He was delighted by the publisher's response, despite the angry backlash and hate mail it has generated.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jan/29/germany-race
Eleanor Watchtel recently interviewed Norwegian writer Karl Ove Knausgaard about his six-volume, 3600-page memoir, My Struggle, a literary sensation at home, and now, around the world. The interview can be found here:
http://www.cbc.ca/player/Radio/ID/ID/2331214085/
As the New York Review of Books celebrates its 50th anniversary, editor Bob Silvers explains why a world without long, serious reviews is 'unthinkable'. The NYRB celebrated its 50th anniversary with an event featuring Joan Didion, Michael Chabon and other contributors, on February 5.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/091ba1b6-6576-11e2-a3db-00144feab49a.html#ixzz2JZ5GA05q
Dany Laferrière's The Enigma of the Return, published this month by MacLehose Press, is the penultimate volume of more than 20 so far. A meditation on exile, loss and "navigating through two worlds", it won the 2009 Prix Médicis in France and the Grand Prix du Livre in Montreal.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/feb/01/dany-laferriere-life-in-books
Threats, letter bombs, cover-ups, Basharat Peer, author of the Curfewed Night describes Kashmir's culture of intimidation in his keynote speech at the Edinburgh World Writers' Conference in Jaipur.http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/feb/01/censorship-kashmir-basharat-peer-speech
Italy fears for 'vanishing' heritage after arrests over the sacking of historic libraries. Estimates of how many books were stolen vary because a large proportion of volumes in the collection were not catalogued, but investigators have spoken of a total that could exceed 4,000.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jan/30/italy-fears-vanifhing-heritage-sacking-historic-library
Librarian Barbara Fister reports that her students conducted a survey, finding that fellow students are less inclined to read ebooks than older adults are. Their contemporaries enjoy an escape from screens, and like to pass on stories from hand to hand.
http://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/library-babel-fish/still-bookish-after-all-these-years#ixzz2JzPz1mI5Inside Higher Ed
After spending eight years translating the first third of James Joyce's famously opaque novel Finnegans Wake into Chinese, Dai Congrong, professor at Shanghai's Fudan University was incredulous when the translation of "Fennigen de Shouling Ye" sold out its first run of 8,000 copies and reached number two on a bestseller list.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/feb/05/finnegans-wake-china-james-joyce-hit
The three-day Irrawaddy literary festival brought together writers, poets and former political prisoners from Burma and abroad, with sessions held in Burmese and English. The festival's most popular talks invariably involved the opposition leader and Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi—who acted as patron of the festival.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/feb/03/burma-literary-festival
D&M Publishers has sold the Greystone Books imprint to Heritage House Publishing.
http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Publishers+sells+Greystone+Books+imprint/7910173/story.html#ixzz2Jm3ZpLGn
Less than one week after the assets of Greystone Books were acquired by Heritage House Publishing, Douglas & McIntyre has been purchased by fellow British Columbia indie Harbour Publishing.
http://arts.nationalpost.com/2013/02/06/harbour-publishing-acquires-douglas-mcintyre/
Poet Patricia Young weighs the relative merits of self-publishing and publishing houses. Even if the taboos re self-publishing have fallen away, it's hard for the average writer to get an overall sense of what's going on in publishing. "The best I can do," says Young, "is compare publishing to language itself: messy, unpredictable, changeable, alive."
http://www.winnipegreview.com/wp/2013/02/a-poets-perspective-on-self-publishing/
Research from Virginia Tech, published in the journal Body Image, conclude that "scholars and health officials should be concerned about the effect chick lit novels might have on women's body image". Bridget Jones and weight-obsessed young heroines have a lot to answer for.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/feb/05/chick-lit-body-image
Little is certain about any of Shakespeare's relationships but scholarship has now illuminated the Dark Lady, Shakespeare's hitherto frustratingly shadowy muse, writes Stephen Bayley. Dr. Aubrey Burl announced last month that he now believes she can be revealed as Aline Florio, the wife of an Italian translator.
http://www.vancouversun.com/news/unmasking+Dark+Lady+other+artists+muses/7910177/story.html
THE deadline for the 9th Annual Geist Literal Literary Postcard Story Contest has been extended to March 1, 2013, 11:59pm PST! For your chance at literary fame and fortune, information on how the contest works and contest details is here:
http://www.geist.com/articles/postcard-contest/
BOOKS & WRITERS
Ali Smith's Artful is built upon four lectures first delivered at the University of Oxford in 2012. Around these lectures, which appear "pretty much as they were delivered", Smith has constructed a fiction that serves as the embodiment of the essay's themes in story, writes Dimitri Nasrallah.
http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/books/2013/02/01/artful_by_ali_smith_review.html
Manil Suri has written what's sure to be the best sex comedy of the year about nuclear war between India and Pakistan, writes Ron Charles. The City of Devi completes a loose trilogy about the Hindu trinity. Suri's work stands apart, mingling comedy and death, eroticism and politics, godhood and Bollywood like no one else, says Charles.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/manil-suris-the-city-of-devi-reviewed-by-ron-charles/2013/01/29/54a94280-6735-11e2-93e1-475791032daf_story.html
The question of "why" ripples powerfully throughout Marjorie Celona's visceral, vivid novel Y, in which a baby is abandoned on the steps of a Canadian YMCA and raised in foster care, writes Anita Sethi. In the novel's cleverly constructed Y-shaped structure, the narrative arc inches the baby Shannon's story closer towards her mother Yula.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/feb/03/debut-author-marjorie-celona-interview
In See Now Then: Truth from the inside, Jamaica Kincaid exploits tension between the imagined ideal and the compromised real life being lived, writes Ian McGillis. Viewed from a certain angle, the Sweets of Bennington, Vt., could be living a version of the American Dream. In fact, all is far from well.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/Then+Truth+from+inside/7910540/story.html#ixzz2JsELnbEi
In the moody German mystery Snow White Must Die, an unlucky backhoe operator scoops up a rusted fuel tank, filled with bones and a human skull. And the plot thickens. Published in Germany in 2010, Snow White Must Die has been a bestseller in Europe. It's easy to see why, says Maureen Corrigan.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/snow-white-must-die-by-nele-neuhaus/2013/01/27/e7ef2978-6498-11e2-b84d-21c7b65985ee_story.html
In winter 1941-42, the German army besieged Leningrad. The city near collapse, officials decided that a live broadcast of Shostakovich's Leningrad symphony (not yet complete) would lift spirits. Sarah Quigley's evocation of these years in The Conductor bounces back and forth between Shostakovich and Karl Eliasberg, the only conductor left after other artists had been taken to safety.
http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/books/2012/12/28/the_conductor_by_sarah_quigley_review.html
A novel satirising Adolf Hitler and the personality cult that once surrounded him has topped the bestselling lists in Germany. The cover of Timur Vermes's He's Back (Er Ist Wieder Da) squeezes the title into the shape of Hitler's trademark square moustache, while the €19.33 price tag refers to the year the Nazi party leader came to power in Germany.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/feb/05/adolf-hitler-novel-german-bestseller
A February 3 editorial in the Globe and Mail notes that it is strange to be nominated for an international literary award when almost no one in your home country has heard of you. But that is what happened to Josip Novakovich, who is wickedly funny, deeply harrowing and Canadian.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/commentary/editorials/josip-novakovich-is-wickedly-funny-deeply-harrowing-and-canadian/article8123128/?utm_medium=Newsletter&utm_source=The%20Globe%20and%20Mail&utm_type=text&utm_content=TheGlobeandMail&utm_campaign=101086017
COMMUNITY EVENTS
SAY WHA?
Performers, Sara Bynoe, Eric Fell, Ken Hegan, & Lauren McGibbon, put their comedic spin on some of the most cringe-worthy, embarrassing and painfully earnest writing in print. Thursday, February 7 at 7:00pm. Tickets: $15. River Market Food Hall, 810 Quayside Drive, New Westminster. More information at rivermarket.ca.
ERIC LITWIN
Part of the Children's Arts Festival, author shares his best-selling book Pete the Cat: I Love My White Shoes and other musical stories. Monday, February 11 at various times. Tickets: $10. Richmond Cultural Centre, 7700 Minoru Gate, Richmond. More information at childrensartsfestival.ca.
BRANDON SANDERSON
Meet Brandon Sanderson as he signs the final book in Robert Jordan's epic Wheel of Time series, A Memory of Light. Thursday, February 14 at 7:00pm. Chapters Metrotown, Burnaby. More information at 604-431-0463.
UNIQUE LIVES & EXPERIENCES
A lecture series featuring four outstanding women. First lecture will feature Valerie Plame Wilson, a former CIA spy and author of a bestselling autobiography, My Life as a Spy, My Betrayal By the White House, on Tuesday, February 12, 2013 at 7:30pm. Centre in Vancouver for Performing Arts, 777 Homer Street. For complete season details and ticket information, visit www.uniquelives.com.
TWISTED POETS LITERARY SALON
Features Kim Clark (Nanaimo) and Kempton Dexter plus Open Mic. Wednesday, February 13, 7-9:30pm, at The Cottage Bistro, 4468 Main Street, Vancouver. Suggested donation at the door: $5. All are welcome. More information at www.pandorascollective.com.
SHAKESPEAREAN SWORDPLAY
Hear Greg Mele and author C.C. Humphreys discourse on what happens when England plays Italy—but not on the soccer field—with honour as the prize. Saturday, February 16 at 10:00am. Part of Vancouver International Swordplay Symposium. For complete information, visit www.vancouverswordplay.com.
WRITING WESTERN MARTIAL ARTS IN FICTION
Join Neal Stephenson and Joseph Brassey, two of the authors behind the Mongoliad, as they talk about the steps taken to create a literary martial arts epic. Saturday, February 16 at 3:00pm. Part of Vancouver International Swordplay Symposium. For complete information, visit www.vancouverswordplay.com.
PEN AND SWORD
Lecture by Dr. Noelle Phillips will explore the representation and literary description of medieval weaponry–swords in particular–in a variety of medieval manuscripts. Sunday, February 17 at 3:30pm. Part of Vancouver International Swordplay Symposium. For complete information, visit www.vancouverswordplay.com.
UBC ALUMNI BOOK CLUB
Choose between Timothy Taylor's Stanley Park and Lynn Coady's Mean Boy at this book club in which you can meet the facilitator and fellow alumni, and learn about the book before you read it. Tuesday, February 19 at 7:00pm. Tickets: $10. Cecil Green Park Coach House, 6323 Cecil Green Park Rd., UBC.
Upcoming
W.P. KINSELLA
Canadian author will read from, and chat about, his latest book, Butterfly Winter. Thursday, February 21 at 10:30am, free. Hope Library, 1005A - 6th Ave., Hope. More information at 604-869-2313.
ROBSON READING SERIES
Readings by Walid Bitar, Basma Kavanagh, and Missy Marston. Thursday, February 21 at 7:00pm, free. UBC Bookstore at Robson Square. For more information and to register, visit http://rrs-feb2013.eventbrite.ca/.
CATHY OSTLERE
Cathy Ostlere discusses her memoir Lost. Thursday, February 21 at 7:00 PM. Christianne's Lyceum. 3696 W. 8th Ave. $20 (includes refreshments). To reserve your space call 604.733.1356 or email lyceum@christiannehayward.com. More information at www.christiannehayward.com.
FROM TALKING STICK TO MICROPHONE
Zaccheus Jackson and a selection of this country's best independent musicians and slam poets go head to head! Friday, February 22 at 8:00pm, pay what you can. Cafe Deux Soleils, 2096 Commercial Drive. More information at www.fullcircle.ca.
GALIANO LITERARY FESTIVAL
Fourth annual festival featuring John Belshaw, Kevin Chong, Pauline Holdstock, Nancy Richler and many others. February 22-24, 2013. Galiano Oceanfront Inn & Spa, Galiano Island. For complete details, visit galianoliteraryfestival.com.
OLIVER JEFFERS
Oliver Jeffers, author/illustrator of This Moose Belongs to Me, to speak at the Vancouver Children's Literature Roundtable's annual Author/Illustrator Breakfast February 23 at the University Golf Club. A limited number of seats remain. For registration and information, go to www.vclr.ca.
VANCOUVER POETRY SLAM
Youth poetry slam featuring Scruffmouth. Monday, February 25 at 8:00pm. Tickets: $6/$4. Cafe Deux Soleils, 2096 Commercial Drive. More information at vancouverpoetryhouse.com.
GATHER @ ZAWA
Spoken word and music, featuring Victoria's Poet Laureate of Victoria, Janet Rogers and Alex Jacobs from New Mexico alongside the sounds of Kristi Lane Sinclair. Monday, February 25 at 9:30pm. Zawa Restaurant, 920 Commercial Drive. For complete information, visit www.fullcircle.ca.
THE WORD AND RESISTANCE
Alex Jacobs and Janet Rogers talk about creative ways to resist and affect change. They will present a literary array of politically inspired poetry from many movements throughout their careers. Tuesday, February 26 at 3:30pm. First Nations House of Learning @ UBC, 1985 West Mall. Complete details at www.fullcircle.ca.
AB-ORIGINAL SPOKENWORD-SCAPES
Join Spoken Word artists and musicians as they riff and jam and spark together. Features Janet Rogers, Alex Jacobs, Dave Larocque, Joseph 'Pepe' Danza, Cris Derksen and more. Wednesday, February 28 at 8:00pm. Roundhouse Community Centre, 181 Roundhouse Mews. For tickets, visit www.ticketstonight.ca. More information at www.fullcircle.ca.
TWISTED POETS LITERARY SALON
Features Susan Steudel and Chelsea Comeau plus Open Mic. Thursday, February 28, 7-9:30pm, at The Cottage Bistro, 4468 Main Street, Vancouver. Suggested donation at the door: $5. All are welcome. More information at www.pandorascollective.com.
AL HUNTER
Poetry reading by Anishinaabe writer Al Hunter. Wednesday, March 6 at 6:30pm, free. First Nations Longhouse, UBC. Admission is free and books will be available for purchase and signing. For more information and to register, visit http://rrs-march2013.eventbrite.ca/.
POETS AND THE SOCIAL SELF
Join Wayde Compton, Joanne Arnott, and Michael Turner with Renee Sarojini Saklikar as they discuss and read from their work. Thursday, March 7 at 7:00pm, free. Djavad Mowafaghian World Art Centre,SFU's Goldcorp Centre for the Arts, 149 W Hasting St. More information at sfuwoodwards.ca.
ROBSON READING SERIES
Readings by Andrew Kaufman, Camille Martin, and Barry Webster. Thursday, March 6 at 7:00pm, free. UBC Bookstore at Robson Square. For more information and to register, visit http://www.rrs-mar2013.eventbrite.ca.
Incite: Mind-altering, metamorphic, twice-monthly!
Join us on Wednesday, February 13 for an evening filled with non-fiction, featuring Globe and Mail journalist Sandra Martin and Zac Unger. Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/incite. Register here: http://incitevpl2013spring.eventbrite.ca/.
Presented in partnership with Vancouver Public Library. Incite is sponsored by the Downtown Vancouver Business Improvement Association and supported by the R.J. Nelson Family Foundation.
SPECIAL EVENT
Sally Armstrong in conversation with Kathryn Gretsinger
The Vancouver Writers Fest presents its first special event of 2013, an evening with award-winning Canadian author, journalist and human rights activist Sally Armstrong. Armstrong is the author of three previous books, Veiled Threat: The Hidden Power of the Women of Afghanistan, The Nine Lives of Charlotte Taylor and Bitter Roots, Tender Shoots: The Uncertain Fate of Afghanistan's Women. Her new book is Ascent of Women.
7:30 pm, Monday, March 25
St. Andrew's-Wesley United Church
Burrard at Nelson
A DRAM COME TRUE
Tickets are on sale now for our popular single malt tasting A Dram Come True. Join us at Hycroft, the elegant Shaughnessy mansion, for an evening of great fun and good spirits. Enjoy the superb, complex flavours of a variety of rare and distinguished single malts, a premium silent auction, Cuban cigars and great company. A Dram Comes True is a fundraiser for the Writers Fest. Event details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/dram-come-true.
AWARDS & LISTS
The BC Achievement Foundation has awarded historian Modris Eksteins the $40,000 BC National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction for his book Solar Dance: Genius, Forgery and the Crisis of Truth in the Modern Age.
http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Historian+nets+fiction+prize/7917106/story.html
Three short story collections are shortlisted for The Story Prize: Dan Chaon's Stay Awake, Junot Diaz's This Is How You Lose Her and Battleborn by Claire Vaye Watkins. The winner will be announced March 13, and will receive a prize of $20,000.
http://www.latimes.com/features/books/jacketcopy/la-et-jc-congrats-story-prize-finalists-20130116,0,6963746.story
The Canada Reads 2013 contenders are listed here:
http://www.cbc.ca/books/canadareads/2012/11/meet-the-canada-reads-2013-contenders.html
YOUNG READERS
An Irish lass came to North America more than 150 years ago in search of a better life. A necklace of crystal beads makes its way into the hands of young girls. Sharon Dennis Wyeth's The Granddaughter Necklace, is less a story of history than a story of family. Ages 4 to 8.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Books+kids+Stories+that+just+imagine/7910493/story.html#ixzz2Joa6J8IY
"What would you do if you had a chance to help a person find freedom?" That's the question on the back cover of Henry Cole's Unspoken: A Story from the Underground Railroad, an otherwise wordless picture book. Ages 6 to 9.
http://www.sfgate.com/books/article/Books-for-young-readers-4224639.php#ixzz2Joeo3QXp
In Ayun Halliday's Peanut, Sadie Wildhack, new to her school, decides a deadly peanut allergy will give her just the right dose of offbeat cachet. It will surely pique interest from her new classmates. For ages 12 to 18.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/23/books/peanut-by-ayun-halliday.html
NEWS & FEATURES
The news that the entire content of the libraries in Timbuktu have been destroyed by fire is incorrect. Jean-Michel Djian, a French writer and author of The Manuscripts of Timbuktu, has confirmed that parts of the various collections were safe. "The majority of the manuscripts are housed in the thirty-two family libraries of the 'City of 333 Saints,'" said Djian.
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2013/01/the-libraries-of-timbuktu.html
A German father wrote to one of Germany's oldest children's publishers urging it to revise the text of Die Kleine Hexe (The Little Witch) to expunge racist sentiment from the children's book. He was delighted by the publisher's response, despite the angry backlash and hate mail it has generated.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jan/29/germany-race
Eleanor Watchtel recently interviewed Norwegian writer Karl Ove Knausgaard about his six-volume, 3600-page memoir, My Struggle, a literary sensation at home, and now, around the world. The interview can be found here:
http://www.cbc.ca/player/Radio/ID/ID/2331214085/
As the New York Review of Books celebrates its 50th anniversary, editor Bob Silvers explains why a world without long, serious reviews is 'unthinkable'. The NYRB celebrated its 50th anniversary with an event featuring Joan Didion, Michael Chabon and other contributors, on February 5.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/091ba1b6-6576-11e2-a3db-00144feab49a.html#ixzz2JZ5GA05q
Dany Laferrière's The Enigma of the Return, published this month by MacLehose Press, is the penultimate volume of more than 20 so far. A meditation on exile, loss and "navigating through two worlds", it won the 2009 Prix Médicis in France and the Grand Prix du Livre in Montreal.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/feb/01/dany-laferriere-life-in-books
Threats, letter bombs, cover-ups, Basharat Peer, author of the Curfewed Night describes Kashmir's culture of intimidation in his keynote speech at the Edinburgh World Writers' Conference in Jaipur.http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/feb/01/censorship-kashmir-basharat-peer-speech
Italy fears for 'vanishing' heritage after arrests over the sacking of historic libraries. Estimates of how many books were stolen vary because a large proportion of volumes in the collection were not catalogued, but investigators have spoken of a total that could exceed 4,000.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jan/30/italy-fears-vanifhing-heritage-sacking-historic-library
Librarian Barbara Fister reports that her students conducted a survey, finding that fellow students are less inclined to read ebooks than older adults are. Their contemporaries enjoy an escape from screens, and like to pass on stories from hand to hand.
http://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/library-babel-fish/still-bookish-after-all-these-years#ixzz2JzPz1mI5Inside Higher Ed
After spending eight years translating the first third of James Joyce's famously opaque novel Finnegans Wake into Chinese, Dai Congrong, professor at Shanghai's Fudan University was incredulous when the translation of "Fennigen de Shouling Ye" sold out its first run of 8,000 copies and reached number two on a bestseller list.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/feb/05/finnegans-wake-china-james-joyce-hit
The three-day Irrawaddy literary festival brought together writers, poets and former political prisoners from Burma and abroad, with sessions held in Burmese and English. The festival's most popular talks invariably involved the opposition leader and Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi—who acted as patron of the festival.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/feb/03/burma-literary-festival
D&M Publishers has sold the Greystone Books imprint to Heritage House Publishing.
http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Publishers+sells+Greystone+Books+imprint/7910173/story.html#ixzz2Jm3ZpLGn
Less than one week after the assets of Greystone Books were acquired by Heritage House Publishing, Douglas & McIntyre has been purchased by fellow British Columbia indie Harbour Publishing.
http://arts.nationalpost.com/2013/02/06/harbour-publishing-acquires-douglas-mcintyre/
Poet Patricia Young weighs the relative merits of self-publishing and publishing houses. Even if the taboos re self-publishing have fallen away, it's hard for the average writer to get an overall sense of what's going on in publishing. "The best I can do," says Young, "is compare publishing to language itself: messy, unpredictable, changeable, alive."
http://www.winnipegreview.com/wp/2013/02/a-poets-perspective-on-self-publishing/
Research from Virginia Tech, published in the journal Body Image, conclude that "scholars and health officials should be concerned about the effect chick lit novels might have on women's body image". Bridget Jones and weight-obsessed young heroines have a lot to answer for.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/feb/05/chick-lit-body-image
Little is certain about any of Shakespeare's relationships but scholarship has now illuminated the Dark Lady, Shakespeare's hitherto frustratingly shadowy muse, writes Stephen Bayley. Dr. Aubrey Burl announced last month that he now believes she can be revealed as Aline Florio, the wife of an Italian translator.
http://www.vancouversun.com/news/unmasking+Dark+Lady+other+artists+muses/7910177/story.html
THE deadline for the 9th Annual Geist Literal Literary Postcard Story Contest has been extended to March 1, 2013, 11:59pm PST! For your chance at literary fame and fortune, information on how the contest works and contest details is here:
http://www.geist.com/articles/postcard-contest/
BOOKS & WRITERS
Ali Smith's Artful is built upon four lectures first delivered at the University of Oxford in 2012. Around these lectures, which appear "pretty much as they were delivered", Smith has constructed a fiction that serves as the embodiment of the essay's themes in story, writes Dimitri Nasrallah.
http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/books/2013/02/01/artful_by_ali_smith_review.html
Manil Suri has written what's sure to be the best sex comedy of the year about nuclear war between India and Pakistan, writes Ron Charles. The City of Devi completes a loose trilogy about the Hindu trinity. Suri's work stands apart, mingling comedy and death, eroticism and politics, godhood and Bollywood like no one else, says Charles.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/manil-suris-the-city-of-devi-reviewed-by-ron-charles/2013/01/29/54a94280-6735-11e2-93e1-475791032daf_story.html
The question of "why" ripples powerfully throughout Marjorie Celona's visceral, vivid novel Y, in which a baby is abandoned on the steps of a Canadian YMCA and raised in foster care, writes Anita Sethi. In the novel's cleverly constructed Y-shaped structure, the narrative arc inches the baby Shannon's story closer towards her mother Yula.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/feb/03/debut-author-marjorie-celona-interview
In See Now Then: Truth from the inside, Jamaica Kincaid exploits tension between the imagined ideal and the compromised real life being lived, writes Ian McGillis. Viewed from a certain angle, the Sweets of Bennington, Vt., could be living a version of the American Dream. In fact, all is far from well.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/Then+Truth+from+inside/7910540/story.html#ixzz2JsELnbEi
In the moody German mystery Snow White Must Die, an unlucky backhoe operator scoops up a rusted fuel tank, filled with bones and a human skull. And the plot thickens. Published in Germany in 2010, Snow White Must Die has been a bestseller in Europe. It's easy to see why, says Maureen Corrigan.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/snow-white-must-die-by-nele-neuhaus/2013/01/27/e7ef2978-6498-11e2-b84d-21c7b65985ee_story.html
In winter 1941-42, the German army besieged Leningrad. The city near collapse, officials decided that a live broadcast of Shostakovich's Leningrad symphony (not yet complete) would lift spirits. Sarah Quigley's evocation of these years in The Conductor bounces back and forth between Shostakovich and Karl Eliasberg, the only conductor left after other artists had been taken to safety.
http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/books/2012/12/28/the_conductor_by_sarah_quigley_review.html
A novel satirising Adolf Hitler and the personality cult that once surrounded him has topped the bestselling lists in Germany. The cover of Timur Vermes's He's Back (Er Ist Wieder Da) squeezes the title into the shape of Hitler's trademark square moustache, while the €19.33 price tag refers to the year the Nazi party leader came to power in Germany.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/feb/05/adolf-hitler-novel-german-bestseller
A February 3 editorial in the Globe and Mail notes that it is strange to be nominated for an international literary award when almost no one in your home country has heard of you. But that is what happened to Josip Novakovich, who is wickedly funny, deeply harrowing and Canadian.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/commentary/editorials/josip-novakovich-is-wickedly-funny-deeply-harrowing-and-canadian/article8123128/?utm_medium=Newsletter&utm_source=The%20Globe%20and%20Mail&utm_type=text&utm_content=TheGlobeandMail&utm_campaign=101086017
COMMUNITY EVENTS
SAY WHA?
Performers, Sara Bynoe, Eric Fell, Ken Hegan, & Lauren McGibbon, put their comedic spin on some of the most cringe-worthy, embarrassing and painfully earnest writing in print. Thursday, February 7 at 7:00pm. Tickets: $15. River Market Food Hall, 810 Quayside Drive, New Westminster. More information at rivermarket.ca.
ERIC LITWIN
Part of the Children's Arts Festival, author shares his best-selling book Pete the Cat: I Love My White Shoes and other musical stories. Monday, February 11 at various times. Tickets: $10. Richmond Cultural Centre, 7700 Minoru Gate, Richmond. More information at childrensartsfestival.ca.
BRANDON SANDERSON
Meet Brandon Sanderson as he signs the final book in Robert Jordan's epic Wheel of Time series, A Memory of Light. Thursday, February 14 at 7:00pm. Chapters Metrotown, Burnaby. More information at 604-431-0463.
UNIQUE LIVES & EXPERIENCES
A lecture series featuring four outstanding women. First lecture will feature Valerie Plame Wilson, a former CIA spy and author of a bestselling autobiography, My Life as a Spy, My Betrayal By the White House, on Tuesday, February 12, 2013 at 7:30pm. Centre in Vancouver for Performing Arts, 777 Homer Street. For complete season details and ticket information, visit www.uniquelives.com.
TWISTED POETS LITERARY SALON
Features Kim Clark (Nanaimo) and Kempton Dexter plus Open Mic. Wednesday, February 13, 7-9:30pm, at The Cottage Bistro, 4468 Main Street, Vancouver. Suggested donation at the door: $5. All are welcome. More information at www.pandorascollective.com.
SHAKESPEAREAN SWORDPLAY
Hear Greg Mele and author C.C. Humphreys discourse on what happens when England plays Italy—but not on the soccer field—with honour as the prize. Saturday, February 16 at 10:00am. Part of Vancouver International Swordplay Symposium. For complete information, visit www.vancouverswordplay.com.
WRITING WESTERN MARTIAL ARTS IN FICTION
Join Neal Stephenson and Joseph Brassey, two of the authors behind the Mongoliad, as they talk about the steps taken to create a literary martial arts epic. Saturday, February 16 at 3:00pm. Part of Vancouver International Swordplay Symposium. For complete information, visit www.vancouverswordplay.com.
PEN AND SWORD
Lecture by Dr. Noelle Phillips will explore the representation and literary description of medieval weaponry–swords in particular–in a variety of medieval manuscripts. Sunday, February 17 at 3:30pm. Part of Vancouver International Swordplay Symposium. For complete information, visit www.vancouverswordplay.com.
UBC ALUMNI BOOK CLUB
Choose between Timothy Taylor's Stanley Park and Lynn Coady's Mean Boy at this book club in which you can meet the facilitator and fellow alumni, and learn about the book before you read it. Tuesday, February 19 at 7:00pm. Tickets: $10. Cecil Green Park Coach House, 6323 Cecil Green Park Rd., UBC.
Upcoming
W.P. KINSELLA
Canadian author will read from, and chat about, his latest book, Butterfly Winter. Thursday, February 21 at 10:30am, free. Hope Library, 1005A - 6th Ave., Hope. More information at 604-869-2313.
ROBSON READING SERIES
Readings by Walid Bitar, Basma Kavanagh, and Missy Marston. Thursday, February 21 at 7:00pm, free. UBC Bookstore at Robson Square. For more information and to register, visit http://rrs-feb2013.eventbrite.ca/.
CATHY OSTLERE
Cathy Ostlere discusses her memoir Lost. Thursday, February 21 at 7:00 PM. Christianne's Lyceum. 3696 W. 8th Ave. $20 (includes refreshments). To reserve your space call 604.733.1356 or email lyceum@christiannehayward.com. More information at www.christiannehayward.com.
FROM TALKING STICK TO MICROPHONE
Zaccheus Jackson and a selection of this country's best independent musicians and slam poets go head to head! Friday, February 22 at 8:00pm, pay what you can. Cafe Deux Soleils, 2096 Commercial Drive. More information at www.fullcircle.ca.
GALIANO LITERARY FESTIVAL
Fourth annual festival featuring John Belshaw, Kevin Chong, Pauline Holdstock, Nancy Richler and many others. February 22-24, 2013. Galiano Oceanfront Inn & Spa, Galiano Island. For complete details, visit galianoliteraryfestival.com.
OLIVER JEFFERS
Oliver Jeffers, author/illustrator of This Moose Belongs to Me, to speak at the Vancouver Children's Literature Roundtable's annual Author/Illustrator Breakfast February 23 at the University Golf Club. A limited number of seats remain. For registration and information, go to www.vclr.ca.
VANCOUVER POETRY SLAM
Youth poetry slam featuring Scruffmouth. Monday, February 25 at 8:00pm. Tickets: $6/$4. Cafe Deux Soleils, 2096 Commercial Drive. More information at vancouverpoetryhouse.com.
GATHER @ ZAWA
Spoken word and music, featuring Victoria's Poet Laureate of Victoria, Janet Rogers and Alex Jacobs from New Mexico alongside the sounds of Kristi Lane Sinclair. Monday, February 25 at 9:30pm. Zawa Restaurant, 920 Commercial Drive. For complete information, visit www.fullcircle.ca.
THE WORD AND RESISTANCE
Alex Jacobs and Janet Rogers talk about creative ways to resist and affect change. They will present a literary array of politically inspired poetry from many movements throughout their careers. Tuesday, February 26 at 3:30pm. First Nations House of Learning @ UBC, 1985 West Mall. Complete details at www.fullcircle.ca.
AB-ORIGINAL SPOKENWORD-SCAPES
Join Spoken Word artists and musicians as they riff and jam and spark together. Features Janet Rogers, Alex Jacobs, Dave Larocque, Joseph 'Pepe' Danza, Cris Derksen and more. Wednesday, February 28 at 8:00pm. Roundhouse Community Centre, 181 Roundhouse Mews. For tickets, visit www.ticketstonight.ca. More information at www.fullcircle.ca.
TWISTED POETS LITERARY SALON
Features Susan Steudel and Chelsea Comeau plus Open Mic. Thursday, February 28, 7-9:30pm, at The Cottage Bistro, 4468 Main Street, Vancouver. Suggested donation at the door: $5. All are welcome. More information at www.pandorascollective.com.
AL HUNTER
Poetry reading by Anishinaabe writer Al Hunter. Wednesday, March 6 at 6:30pm, free. First Nations Longhouse, UBC. Admission is free and books will be available for purchase and signing. For more information and to register, visit http://rrs-march2013.eventbrite.ca/.
POETS AND THE SOCIAL SELF
Join Wayde Compton, Joanne Arnott, and Michael Turner with Renee Sarojini Saklikar as they discuss and read from their work. Thursday, March 7 at 7:00pm, free. Djavad Mowafaghian World Art Centre,SFU's Goldcorp Centre for the Arts, 149 W Hasting St. More information at sfuwoodwards.ca.
ROBSON READING SERIES
Readings by Andrew Kaufman, Camille Martin, and Barry Webster. Thursday, March 6 at 7:00pm, free. UBC Bookstore at Robson Square. For more information and to register, visit http://www.rrs-mar2013.eventbrite.ca.
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