Book News Vol. 8 No. 25

BOOK NEWS

While we're reveling in the glorious summer weather of the last few weeks, we can't help looking to the fall with great anticipation. The Writers Fest office is abuzz with excitement-books by Festival authors are arriving
daily and we're putting the final touches on the 26th Vancouver Writers Fest program guide. The guide will be on the street and online by the end of August. Stay tuned for details! In the meantime, pencil in the Festival
dates: October 22-27.

SPECIAL EVENT

Just announced! - David Sedaris
The renowned NPR humorist comes to Vancouver's Chan Centre for an evening of cutting wit, social satire, riveting conversation and post-event book signing with his recent New York Times' bestseller release Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls. Event details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/davidsedaris.

EXCLUSIVE ACCESS: GET THE BEST SEATS!
As a friend of the Writers Fest, use the code "WRITE" to buy tickets before the general public. Code valid July 31 to August 8. Click here for tickets, http://www.ticketmaster.ca/event/11004AFE9BCF69B1.

Tuesday, November 12 at 7:30pm
Chan Centre for the Performing Arts
6265 Crescent Road, UBC

In this interview with the Globe and Mail's Jared Bland, David Sedaris reflects on how his influences have shaped his work.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/summer-entertainment/david-sedaris-im-just-there-for-the-laughs/article12415593/

AWARDS & LISTS

The Writers' Trust has named a jury of three–Hal Niedzviecki, Andreas Schroeder and 2012 Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize winner Candace Savage, to select the next winner of the Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Non-Fiction, which comes with a $60,000 prize.
http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/books/2013/07/22/writers_trust_names_jury_for_top_nonfiction_writing_prize.html

Carol Shaben wins the Edna Staebler Award for Creative Non-Fiction for her book Into the Abyss.
http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/books/2013/07/30/carol_shaben_wins_edna_staebler_award_for_creative_nonfiction.html

YOUNG READERS

It's almost Clara's birthday. There is a magical mirror where magic exists, and a crumbling mansion in northern England in the backdrop of 2013 NEWBERY medalist Laura Amy Schlitz's Splendors and Glooms. Clara insists that her parents hire puppeteer Grisini to entertain at her 12th birthday. That night, Clara disappears from her home, then reappears as a tiny puppet, in a teeny, tiny box. For ages 9 to 13.
http://thebookwurrm.wordpress.com/2013/07/19/splendors-and-glooms-by-laura-amy-schlitz-review/

One of summer's great gifts is the chance to adapt ourselves to nature; to slow down in the heat, to swim when the tide comes in, and to find our place briefly, in the wild. In Hatsue Nakawaki's Wait! Wait! and Gerda Muller's A Year Around the Great Oak, two beautifully illustrated but very different books, children engage with animals and the outdoors in ways that are unpredictable, stimulating and ultimately confidence-inducing. Infant to age 3.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/24/books/wait-wait-and-a-year-around-the-great-oak.html?nl=books&emc=edit_bk_20130726

It's been four years since Marie-Louise Gay gave us a new Stella picture book, but the one being published next week was worth waiting for, says Bernie Goedhart. In Read Me a Story, Stella celebrates reading in more ways than one, and Gay's colourful, distinctive watercolour illustrations create suitably evocative scenes for two characters whose familiar voices express the comfort of books. For ages 3 to 7.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/books/Kids+Stella+together+again/8711985/story.html

NEWS & FEATURES

Did you believe On the Road was a stand-alone novel? It's actually part of a 13-book Proustian memoir. As the first volume turns 50, David Barnett reads the lot. It seemed natural to assume that the Kerouac books published after On the Road were written after it became a bestseller in 1957. But many were written well before.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/jul/24/jack-kerouac-13-volume-memoir

Duplicated many million times on the new £10 banknote will be a line in praise of reading–it's a shame it was uttered by an Austen character who had no genuine interest in reading at all, writes John Mullan.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/shortcuts/2013/jul/25/jane-austen-quotation-10-note

Margaret Atwood is set to make her debut as the author of an opera libretto, 15 years after she began work on the project, writes Liz Bury. Pauline, opening at the Vancouver City Opera House next May, dramatises the life of Pauline Johnson, the legendary Canadian writer, poet and actor. Atwood has been trying for more than a decade to bring the "operatic fireworks" of Johnson's life to the stage.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/jul/26/margaret-atwood-opera-debut-libretto?INTCMP=SRCH

Tracy Sherlock's interview of Elsie Chapman about Dualed reveals a dystopian sci-fi novel focusing on a girl who lives in a gated city where teens must hunt down and kill their doubles, called Alts. There's a price to be paid for being able to live within the gate, safe from the constant war that's happening outside in the area known as the Surround. Book two has her facing a new challenge. For young adults.
http://www.vancouversun.com/Facing+self+future/8716552/story.html

U.S. President Barack Obama, who faithfully shops at independent bookstores when given the chance, has angered the American Booksellers Assn. with a planned appearance Tuesday at an Amazon warehouse.
http://www.latimes.com/features/books/jacketcopy/la-et-jc-obama-amazon-warehouse-angers-booksellers-20130730,0,5881206.story

The 3rd Annual Geist Erasure Poetry Contest is now underway! Information re entries can be found here:
http://www.geist.com/contests/erasure/erasure/

BOOKS & WRITERS

Arturo Fontaine's La Vida Doble: A Novel demonstrates the extremes of human behaviour in the horror of life under Pinochet, writes Alberto Manguel. Homer states that the gods created suffering to give poets something to sing about. If that's the case, Latin America has contributed to the inspiration of its writers with a rarely broken succession of dictatorships, says Manguel. In the minds and bodies of those who lived through it, it was as close to hell as one could imagine, the title the only tranquil moment.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/jul/27/vida-doble-arturo-fontaine-review

Audrey Niffenegger's Raven Girl is an illustrated fable for adults. Ian McGillis adds that level-headed kids should be more than able to handle it. Through a route learned by reading the book, a lonely postman falls in love with, and marries, a raven. What follows provides rich fodder for questioning: To what degree, in the end, can we transform ourselves?
http://www.vancouversun.com/news/transformation/8716550/story.html

In NoViolet Bulawayo's We Need New Names, the words are as mighty as any sword, writes John Freeman. In this debut novel, NoViolet Bulawayo creates a human scale narrative of the vast African diaspora. This is an anguished, angry, hilarious novel that uses language like a weapon. As the book begins, Darling is around 10 years old and living in Paradise, one of the worst slums in an unnamed African country.
http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/books/2013/07/26/we_need_new_names_by_noviolet_bulawayo_review.html

Her husband was killed when Judith Tebbutt was kidnapped by Somali pirates, but she found that walking around the rooms in which she was held hostage helped keep her physically and mentally intact during her ordeal. Her survival strategies recall Mandela's disciplined prison regime in his memoir Long Walk to Freedom. A Long Walk Home becomes a clarion call to cherish whatever we might have left of life, says Anita Sethi.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/jul/27/long-walk-home-tebbutt-review

COMMUNITY EVENTS

VANCOUVER POETRY SLAM
Poetry slam featuring Doc Luben from Portland, OR. Monday, August 5 at 8:00pm. Cost: $6-$10 sliding scale. Cafe Deux Soleils, 2096 Commercial Drive, Vancouver. More information at vancouverpoetryhouse.com.

CITY CENTRE
A poetry reading and conversation about life in urban Vancouver featuring Vancouver's poet laureate, Evelyn Lau in conversation with Daniela Elza. Wednesday, August 7 at 7:00pm, free but reservations required. SFU Vancouver. More information at sfu.ca/continuing-studies.

VANCOUVER POETRY SLAM
Poetry slam featuring Isaac Bond from Saskatchewan. Monday, August 12 at 8:00pm. Cost: $6-$10 sliding scale. Cafe Deux Soleils, 2096 Commercial Drive, Vancouver. More information at vancouverpoetryhouse.com.

GOING PLACES
A writerly perspective on travel featuring short story writer Marina Sonkina in conversation. Wednesday, August 14 at 7:00pm, free but reservations required. SFU Vancouver. More information at sfu.ca/continuing-studies.

VINCENT LAM
Award-winning Canadian writer and medical doctor Vincent Lam will read from his newest novel, The Headmaster's Wager. Wednesday, August 14 at 7:30pm. City Centre Library, Surrey Public Library, 10350 University Drive, Surrey. More information at 604-598-7420.

JULIE EMERSON
Vancouver Island painter and author will be reading from her latest novel A Hundred Days: a Botanical Novel. Wednesday, August 21 at 12:00 noon. Chilcotin room (rm 256), Irving K. Barber Learning Centre, 1961 East Mall, UBC. More information at ikebarberlearningcentre.ubc.ca.

PERSONAL TALES
How a country boy became a poet featuring George Bowering in conversation with Wayde Compton. Wednesday, August 21 at 7:00pm, free but reservations required. SFU Vancouver. More information at sfu.ca/continuing-studies.

PANDORA'S LITERARY AWARDS
Sean Cranbury hosts an awards gala with a musical performance by M'Girl and harpist Amanda Hartley, as well as award presenters Wayde Compton, Evelyn Lau, Steven R. Duncan, Dennis E. Bolen, and Jillian Christmas. This event also serves as a kickoff party for the 10th annual Summer Dreams Literary Arts Festival. Friday, August 23 at 7:30pm, free. CBC Studio 700, 700 Hamilton Street, Vancouver.

KELLEY ARMSTRONG
Author launches a new adult series set in Cainsville with the first book in the series, Omens. Followed by a talk, Q&A and book signing. Monday, August 26 at 7:00pm. Chapters Metrotown, 4700 Kingsway, Burnaby. Complete information at 604-431-0463.

VANCOUVER POETRY SLAM
Youth poetry slam featuring Cathy Petch from Toronto. Monday, August 26 at 8:00pm. Cost: $4/$6. Cafe Deux Soleils, 2096 Commercial Drive, Vancouver. More information at vancouverpoetryhouse.com.

F.G. BRESSANI LITERARY PRIZE
IL CENTRO Italian Cultural Centre is thrilled to announce the publication of the Rules & Regulations for the 2014 Edition of the F.G. Bressani Literary Prize. The literary prize honours and promotes the work of Canadian writers of Italian origin or Italian descent. Deadline: April 2, 2014. Complete details can be found here: http://italianculturalcentre.ca/blog/bressani-literary-prize/.