Book News Vol. 8 No. 7

BOOK NEWS

Incite: An Exploration of Books and Ideas

Join us on Wednesday, April 10 for an evening with Ania Szado reading from Studio Saint-Ex, Billie Livingston reading from One Good Hustle and Patrick Taylor bringing his Irish country charm. 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.

A DRAM COME TRUE

Dust off your kilt, gather your friends and grab a glass, A Dram Come True is back!

Join us at the legendary Hycroft Manor on May 31, 2013 for a lively celebration of spirits. Our five whisky bars will cater to the true aficionado, with a variety of rare and distinguished single malts. You don't want to miss the special surprises and scotch whisky selection we've got in store for you this year, click here to buy your tickets today.

Event details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/dram-come-true.

AWARDS & LISTS

Chrystia Freeland (New York City, USA) has won the 2013 Lionel Gelber Prize for Plutocrats: The Rise of the New Global Super-Rich and the Fall of Everyone Else.
http://www.utoronto.ca/munk/gelber/media_release/2013_Winner_Press_Release.html

The longlist for the Orwell Prize, Britain's award for political writing, includes fourteen journalists and 12 books for investigations on subjects including Starbucks, torture, and the lives of the super-rich. The prize is awarded in both books and journalism for works that reflect George Orwell's ambition to "make political writing into an art."
http://www.latimes.com/features/books/jacketcopy/la-et-jc-george-orwell-legacy-orwell-prize-longlist-announced-20130320,0,3970643.story

Toronto writers Jeffrey Simpson and Noah Richler are among five nominees for the $10,000 John W. Dafoe Book Prize for non-fiction. The award, named after John Wesley Dafoe, a former editor of the Manitoba Free Press (later Winnipeg Free Press), is for a book about international affairs by a Canadian writer.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/story/2013/03/20/dafoe-prize-shortlist.html

American author Junot Díaz has taken the world's richest prize for a single short story, the £30,000 Sunday Times EFG Private Bank short story prize, written in the "Spanglish" for which the Dominican-born writer is known.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/mar/22/junot-diaz-wins-short-story-prize

Annabel Pitcher's Ketchup Clouds, has won the Waterstones prize for new and emerging talent in the teen category.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/childrens-books-site/2013/mar/21/annabel-pitcher-waterstones-childrens-book-prize

Pitcher talks about her book in this podcast:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/childrens-books-site/audio/2013/jan/09/annabel-pitcher-ketchup-clouds-podcast

Goblinproofing One's Chicken Coop has won Britain's Diagram Prize, for the year's oddest book title.
http://www.thebookseller.com/news/goblinproofing-ones-chicken-coop-wins-diagram-prize.html

Eight illustrators are on the short list for this year's Kate Greenaway medal for 'outstanding illustration in a children's book'. A gallery of the books can be found here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/childrens-books-site/gallery/2013/mar/12/kate-greenaway-medal-shortlist-2013-gallery#/?picture=405449369&index=7

Aminata, Lawrence Hill's The Book of Negroes in French, has won Le Combat des livres.
http://blogs.montrealgazette.com/category/arts/showbiz-chez-nous/

Toronto writer Becky Blake has won the CBC Short Story Prize, and a cheque for $6,000 for her story The Three Times Rule.
http://www.vancouversun.com/entertainment/Star+tracks/8157558/story.html

YOUNG READERS

I Scream! Ice Cream! A Book of Wordles by Amy Krouse Rosenthal, illustrated by Serge Bloch. I Scream! Ice Cream! takes the notion of the homonym, expands it and manages to make it fun. Krouse's wordplay is ingenious, paradoxically simple and complex, writes Andrew Kaufman. For age 5 and up.
http://www.chroniclebooks.com/titles/kids-teens/genre/picturebooks/i-scream-ice-cream.html

You don't have to be a middle-grade student, or have a flair for the dramatic to enjoy Drama, Raina Telgemeier's most recent graphic novel, says Bernie Goedhart. Callie, a Grade 7 student, longs to try out for her school's spring musical production but is hampered by an inability to sing. She can, however, draw and paint. Ages 10 to 14.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/books/Kids+drama+middle+school/8138583/story.html

Finn Maguire leads a pretty ordinary life —until he's forced to stay with his stepdad. With a dead-end job, and a drug-dealing crowd, Finn ends up in juvenile detention. One day, he runs home after his shift at Max Snax and discovers his dad: dead. Initially, a suspect, Finn becomes a sleuth. A page-turner, says Bernie Goedhart. Ages 14 and up.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/Kids+Teenage+suspect+turns+sleuth/7959002/story.html#ixzz2OECq9PQg

NEWS & FEATURES

Tributes are pouring in from around the world following the news that Nigerian novelist and poet Chinualumogu Albert Achebe has died, aged 82, perhaps Nigeria's greatest ever writer. Things Fall Apart remains the best-selling novel ever written by an African author, having sold more than 10-million copies in 50 different languages.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/mar/22/chinua-achebe-grandfather-african-literature-dies-aged-82

Slate tells the story of the near loss of Achebe's debut novel Things Fall Apart.
http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2013/03/22/things_fall_apart_by_chinua_achebe_was_almost_lost_by_london_typists_the.html

James Herbert, a British sci-fi and horror writer who sold 54 million books in his lifetime, beginning with The Rats, has died at 69. His latest book, Ash, was published last week.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/story/2013/03/20/james-herbert-obit.html

The status of Marjane Satrapi's graphic novel Persepolis in Chicago's public schools has led to controversy. Initially, it seemed that the book was to be taken out of all school libraries and all classrooms; it's now removed only from seventh-grade classrooms. Satrapi's youth in Iran is chronicled in the graphic novel.
http://www.csmonitor.com/Books/chapter-and-verse/2013/0318/Persepolis-removal-from-some-Chicago-classrooms-prompts-protests

Alexander Soderberg is the latest Swedish crime novelist to come to Canadians' attention, with The Andalucian Friend just published in Canada. Initially a TV dramatist, Soderberg is now completing Volume 2 of a trilogy. Soderberg says the story was triggered by "the idea of a woman in an escalating situation between a crime syndicate and the police.”
http://www.vancouversun.com/entertainment/only+really+good/8113633/story.html

DH Lawrence was an infamous victim of the censor as his sexually explicit novel Lady Chatterley's Lover was banned in Britain until 1960. Now a new edition of Lawrence's poems, many rendered unreadable by the censor's pen, will reveal him as a brilliant war poet whose work attacking British imperialism during the first world war was barred from publication.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/mar/24/dh-lawrence-war-poetry-censorship

Oscar Wilde believed his success as a writer was due to his never relying on the craft as a source of income, a previously unseen letter by the author has revealed.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/9939664/Literary-success-Dont-give-up-the-day-job-advised-Oscar-Wilde.html

A new documentary doesn't unveil Philip Roth, but leaves one admiring the fearless ability to mine his psyche for his art. There are several surprising things to learn about Roth in the new PBS documentary, says Emma Brockes. The biggest reveal, given Roth's entrenched public image as furiously vain and terrifically grumpy, is just how charming and likable he is.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/emmabrockes

However great Truman Capote's literary gifts, his promotional genius surpassed them. In the publicity campaign he engineered, the account of four brutal murders in Kansas was completely true. Almost from the start, skeptics challenged the accuracy of In Cold Blood. The last scene in the book, a graveyard conversation between a detective and the murdered girl's best friend, was pure invention.
http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/culturebox/2013/03/fact_checking_in_cold_blood_what_the_new_yorker_s_fact_checker_missed.html

Geist advice No. 169: Write a poem starting with the word 'eventually'. This week's piece of advice is from Geist reader Ann Kumar. Email advice@geist.com with your own piece of advice. One pearl of wisdom will be featured in the Geist newsletter each week.

BOOKS & WRITERS

Ruth Ozeki's A Tale for the Time Being spins an enchanting tale about the struggle of the outsider caught between cultures. Ozeki says: 'This book is about the character creating a novelist'. Ruth Ozeki will be at Incite on April 17.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/mar/07/ruth-ozeki-interview-time-being

A rainy encounter in London on the banks of the Thames unlocks a tale of loss and grief in Down to a Sunless Sea, an exclusive story from Neil Gaiman.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/mar/22/down-sunless-sea-neil-gaiman-short-story

The myth of the cowboy: how did the lone cowboy hero become such a potent figure in American culture? In an extract from his final book Fractured Times, the late Eric Hobsbawm follows a trail from cheap novels and B-westerns to Ronald Reagan. Here is an extract from Fractured Times:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/mar/20/myth-of-the-cowboy

The first authorized biography of the novelist JM Coetzee, will be published in the UK this summer. An intensely private man who twice declined to collect a Booker prize in person, and despite Coetzee's statement "all autobiography is storytelling, all writing is autobiography", this was the first time Coetzee gave his full cooperation to a biographer.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/mar/21/jm-coetzee-biography-jc-kannemeyer

Small-town America has found a chilling new storyteller in Missouri-born Gillian Flynn, writes Paul Harris. Flynn's Gone Girl is tipped by many to win the Women's Prize for Fiction, says Harris.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/theobserver/2013/mar/24/gillian-flynn-gone-girl-profile

Vera Brittain lost her fiancé, brother and two closest male friends in the first world war. She wrote Testament of Youth as a cry of outrage and agony, so that the futility of their deaths would be remembered. Eighty years on, it remains one of the most powerful and widely read war memoirs of all time, writes Elizabeth Day.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/mar/24/vera-brittain-testament-of-youth

For decades Willa Cather has been an enigma in 20th-century American literature: walled off from scrutiny by the tightest archival restrictions this side of J.D. Salinger. Cather was believed to have destroyed most of her letters and ordered that surviving correspondence never be published. Next month, "The Selected Letters of Willa Cather" will be published-a major literary event for scholars.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/22/books/willa-cather-letters-to-be-published-as-an-anthology.html?_r=0

COMMUNITY EVENTS

TWISTED POETS LITERARY SALON
A night of socially engaged writing of peace provocation and witness with the launch of Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here Anthology. Featuring Cristine Leclerc with special guests Susan McCaslin, Stephen Collis, Renee Saklikar, Elena E. Johnson and Juliane Okot Bitek. Thursday, March 28, 7-9:30pm, at The Cottage Bistro, 4468 Main Street. Suggested donation at the door: $5. All are welcome. More information at www.pandorascollective.com.

AN EVENING OF POETRY READINGS
People's Co-op Bookstore presents poets Jan Conn, Zoe Landale, Jane Munro, and Pamela Porter. Thursday, March 28 at 7:30pm. People's Co-op Bookstore, 1391 Commercial Drive, Vancouver. More information at peoplescoopbookstore.com.

ROBERT J. SAWYER
Author reads from his latest book, Red Planet Blues, a noir mystery set on a lawless Mars in a future where everything is cheap, and life is even cheaper. Wednesday, April 3 at 7:00pm, free. Alma VanDusen & Peter Kaye rooms, lower level, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia St. More information at www.vpl.ca.

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.

SOME POETRY, SOME PROSE ATLANTIC TO PACIFIC
Carole Glasser Langille (Church of The Exquisite Panic:The Ophelia Poems, Kate Braid (Journeywoman: Swinging A Hammer In A Man's World), and Sandy Shreve (Level Crossing) read from their works. Thursday, April 4 at 7:00pm, free. People's Co-op Bookstore, 1391 Commercial Drive. More information at 604-253-6442 or www.peoplescoopbookstore.com.

VERSES FESTIVAL OF WORDS
3rd annual Multimedia festival devoted to the spoken word features musicians, storytellers, artists, and poets from across Canada competing to become the Canadian Individual Poetry Slam Champion. April 8-13, 2013. Complete details at versesfestival.ca.

JULIA LIN
Book launch and reading of the author's newest book, Miah. Tuesday, April 9 at 7:00pm, free. Brighouse branch, Richmond Public Library, 100-7700 Minoru Gate, Richmond. More information at yourlibrary.ca.

BOOKTOPIA
West Vancouver Children's Literature Festival, is an annual festival intended to promote literacy, celebrate language arts and cultivate creative thought amongst youth and families. Features Sarah Ellis, Barbara Reid, and Shane Koyczan. Registration begins April 9. For complete details, visit booktopia.ca.

MYSTERIES ACCORDING TO HUMPHREY
Meet the person behind the series about the classroom pet that so many children adore. Tuesday, April 9 at 7:00pm at West Point Grey United Church (4595 8th Ave. W.). Also, Wednesday, April 10 at 4:00pm at Lynn Valley Branch, NVDL (1277 Lynn Valley Road). Details and ticket purchase at kidsbooks.ca.

Upcoming

TALONBOOKS SPRING POETRY LAUNCH
Talonbooks is launching its Spring poetry collection. Featuring readings by Dina Del Bucchia, Wanda John-Kehewin, Mariner Janes, Stephen Collis and Daphne Marlatt. Wednesday, April 10 at 8:00pm. Anza Club, 3 W. 8th Ave. More information at talonbooks.com.

LITFEST
The 3rd Annual LitFest New West celebrates the literary arts at New Westminster Public Library and Douglas Collage. April 11-13, 2013. More information at artscouncilnewwest.org.

ALIVE AT THE CENTRE ANTHOLOGY LAUNCH
Celebrate the Vancouver launch of Alive at the Centre: An Anthology of Poems from the Pacific NorthWest. The anthology includes poems from three cities: Vancouver, Portland, and Seattle. Poet Laureate Evelyn Lau will open the night and the host is Rob Taylor. Friday, April 12 at 7:00pm, free. Rhizome Cafe (317 E. Broadway).

FORCE FIELD
Force Field - 77 Women Poets of British Columbia. The first of its kind in thirty-four years, this anthology strongly celebrates women poets, from the emerging, mid-career to the established. Saturday, April 13 at 3:00pm, free. Alma VanDusen & Peter Kaye rooms, lower level, Central Branch, 350 W. Georgia St. More information at www.vpl.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.

JENNIFER NIELSEN
Reading by the author of The False Prince and its sequel The Runaway Frog. Monday, April 15 at 7:00pm at Kidsbooks South Surrey (960 15033-32nd St., Surrey). Also, Tuesday, April 16 at 7:00pm at West Point Grey United Church (4595 8th Ave. W.). Details and ticket purchase at kidsbooks.ca.

LUNCH POEMS @ SFU
Readings by Betsy Warland and Mercedes Eng. Wednesday, April 17 at 12 noon, free.Teck Gallery, SFU Harbour Centre, 515 W. Hastings. More information at sfu.ca/publicsquare/lunchpoems.

ARTHUR ELLIS AWARDS SHORTLIST
BC members of Crime Writers of Canada will present a lively panel discussion about Canadian crime writing, followed by announcement of nominees for this years Arthur Ellis Awards. Thursday, April 18 at 7:00pm, free. Peter Kaye room, lower level, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia St. More information at www.vpl.ca.

NORTH SHORE WRITERS FESTIVAL
A celebration of Canadian writers featuring Helen Humphreys, Terry Fallis, Evelyn Lau, Sean Cranbury and others. April 19-20, 2013. Lynn Valley branch, North Vancouver District Public Library, 1277 Lynn Valley Road, North Vancouver. Complete details at northshorewritersfestival.com.

FAN EXPO VANCOUVER
Second annual comicon featuring comic, anime, science fiction, horror and gaming. Authors scheduled to appear include Hiromi Goto, A.M. Dellamonica, Eileen Kernaghan and many more. April 20-21, 2013. Complete details a fanexpovancouver.com.

BOOK LAUNCH
Penticton writer Michelle Barker launches her debut Young Adult fantasy novel "The Beggar King" (Thistledown Press, 2013). Tuesday, April 23 at 6:30pm. The Establishment (3162 West Broadway).

JOHN VAILLANT
An evening of literary discussion, commentary, and slides as John discusses the history, ecology, and political intrigue behind his most recent work The Tiger: A True Story of Vengeance and Survival. Wednesday, April 24 at 7:00pm, free. Chilliwack Library, 45860 First Avenue, Chilliwack. More information at fvrl.bc.ca.

SUSAN JUBY
Reading by the best-selling author of the internationally popular Alice MacLeod books. Wednesday, April 24 at 7:00pm, free. Alma VanDusen & Peter Kaye rooms, lower level, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia Street. More information at vpl.ca.

IAN WEIR
Reading by the author of Daniel O'Thunder from his new novel The Resurrection Man. Thursday, April 25 at 7:00pm, free. Clearbrook Library, 32320 George Ferguson Way, Abbotsford. More information at fvrl.bc.ca.

RACHEL HARTMAN
Reading by the author of Seraphina, followed by short musical examples and light refreshments. Saturday, April 27 at 2:00pm, free but register by calling 604-299-8955. McGill branch, Burnaby Public Library, 4595 Albert Street, Burnaby. More information at bpl.bc.ca.