Book News Vol. 8 No. 3

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.