Book News Vol. 8 No. 34

BOOK NEWS

2013 Festival - October 22-27

As the 26th Vancouver Writers Fest rapidly approaches books by Festival authors arrive at our office on a daily basis–the latest was Savage Love by Douglas Glover, whose bestselling novel Elle won the Governor General’s prize in 2003. He’ll be appearing in Looking for Love (event 60) with Wayne Johnston, Nancy Jo Cullen and Elizabeth Ruth, and event 77, a celebration of the Journey Prize. Tickets are still available for Festival events with Anne Carson, Sarah Dunant, Xiaolu Guo, Helen Humphreys, Maureen Johnson, Colin Mochrie, George Packer, Eric Schlosser, Maggie Stiefvater, Mary Swan, Michel Tremblay, Scott Turow, Alan Weisman and many more. Complete Festival details including a downloadable PDF of the program guide are available online (http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/) , or if you want a copy of the real thing, visit your local bookstore or Vancouver library branch, or our box office.

Check out this week's edition of VWF's Artistic Director Hal Wake's Festival picks, this one's up close and personal.
http://youtu.be/C3bOxmkLllU

VWF Writing Contests for Adults and Youth
Submit your finest prose and poetry to the 15th annual Vancouver Writers Fest Poetry & Short Story Contest, http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/writingcontest. The top entries in poetry and fiction will be published in subTerrain magazine and receive cash prizes. New this year is our writing contest for BC students in grades 8-12 which also awards cash prizes, http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/youthwritingcontest.

SPECIAL EVENTS

The Literati Gala Cabaret
The VWF's fundraising gala on October 21 is hosted by CBC's Gloria Macarenko and features a Literary Cabaret performance with Sal Ferreras and Poetic License, celebrating the Lit Cab's 25th year. Tickets are $175; available at http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/literatigala. Corporate tables are also available-call 604 681 6330 ext 104. Literati supports the VWF's Spreading the Word education program. Presenting sponsor: Scotia Private Client Group
Reception sponsor: Vancouver Film School.

Jung Chang
The best-selling author of the books Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China and Mao: The Unknown Story talks about her groundbreaking new biography, Empress Dowager Cixi. Sponsored by SFU Library Services. Event details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/jungchang

SPECIAL FOR BOOK CLUBS! $16 per person, minimum of 5 people, book by phone only at 604-629-8849.

Thursday, November 21 at 7:30pm
Waterfront Theatre
1412 Cartwright Street, Granville Island

FESTIVAL AUTHORS

Douglas Glover's new book of short stories, Savage Love, has been described as "astonishing" by the Globe and Mail. Even more, the author has been called "as gifted a writer as Canada has ever produced." Read Jeet Heer's review here:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/book-reviews/douglas-glover-comes-out-swinging-prose-first/article14584228/

Sometimes why an author writes is just as interesting as what they put down on the page. In this interview, Mary Novik discusses her influences, process, and why she avoids certain types of books while writing.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/mary-novik-i-had-to-get-over-it-fast/article14582585/

Who is your ideal dinner party guest? According to The Guardian, it's Writers Fest author Maureen Johnson. The prolific Twitter-user and YA author is known for her humour and delightful anecdotes, and she sits down for an interview to reveal more about herself here:
http://www.theguardian.com/culture/2013/sep/27/maureen-johnson-status-update-books

Deborah Ellis has always been interested in marginalized youth, having written about and interviewed young people from Afghanistan and Iraq. But when she turned her eye upon her own continent, and even more specifically to its native people, she realized how very little she knew. She talks about her new book, Looks Like Daylight, here:
http://thetyee.ca/Books/2013/08/16/Stories-of-Growing-Up-Indigenous/

"Command and Control ranks among the most nightmarish books written in recent years; and in that crowded company it bids fair to stand at the summit. It is the more horrific for being so incontrovertibly right and so damnably readable." Eric Schlosser's newest book is reviewed in The Guardian.
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/sep/27/critical-eye-book-reveiws-roundup

What would you get T.S. Eliot for his 125th birthday? According to Writers Fest author, Pulitzer Prize-winning poet, and New Yorker poetry editor Paul Muldoon, it would be a new re-issue of the first edition of The Waste Land (he also happens to have written the preface to the new edition). You can listen to him interviewed about it on NPR, or just check out the highlights, here:
http://www.npr.org/2013/09/28/226564650/on-eliots-125th-his-waste-land-hasnt-lost-its-glamour

"This is the story of how I became a blade runner," writes Priscila Uppal in her new book Projection: Encounters with My Runaway Mother. She "has spent the better part of her life twisting herself into emotional knots, trying to reconcile the fact that, like the Replicants in Scott's tech-noir classic, she has nothing good to say about her mother."
http://arts.nationalpost.com/2013/09/27/book-review-projection-encounters-with-my-runaway-mother-by-priscila-uppal/

When Tomson Highway's brother died at 35 from AIDS, the last thing he said to him was: "Don't mourn me, be joyful." Since then, Highway has turned this into his modus operandi. "I want to convey that our primary responsibility on planet Earth is to be joyful: to laugh, and to laugh, and to laugh. I do not believe what I was taught as a child by Roman Catholic missionaries that the reason to exist is to suffer and repent... the way that my native culture works is that it teaches that we're here to laugh, that heaven and hell are both here on Earth and it's our choice to make it one or the other."
http://www2.macleans.ca/2013/09/30/in-conversation-with-tomson-highway/

Speaking of Cree authors, Julie Flett's new children's book, Wild Berries, has been reviewed in The New York Times. Like Tomson Highway, she uses Cree in her stories (for example, grandma is okoma, and a a fox is makesis). A made-in-Vancouver creation, this is definitely a book to check out.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/25/books/farmers-market-day-by-shanda-trent-and-more.html

AWARDS & LISTS

The Canada Council for the Arts has unveiled this year's finalists for the Governor General's literary award. Several Writers Fest authors are among the nominees, including Joseph Boyden, Eleanor Catton, Cary Fagan, Priscila Uppal and Teresa Toten.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/joseph-boyden-austin-clarke-up-for-governor-general-s-lit-awards-1.1875928

The shortlist for the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize has been announced. Two Writers Fest authors made the list: Cary Fagan and Colin McAdam.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/rogers-writers-trust-fiction-prize-shortlist-revealed/article14602228/

Haruki Murakami has been declared the favourite for this year's Nobel Prize. The prize will be announced later in the month.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/booknews/10322801/Haruki-Murakami-is-bookmakers-favourite-for-Nobel-Prize.html

The race isn't over yet, however. Who knew there was a whole industry of literary prize bookies? They've cut the odds for Norwegian author Jon Fosse.
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/oct/01/nobel-literature-bets-jon-fosse-odds-slashed

YOUNG READERS

Do you know any boys who don't like to read? Pam Withers has written many teen adventure novels, and just published a book called Jump-Starting Boys, which addresses the fact that a full forty percent of boys are "reluctant readers".
http://www.vancouversun.com/entertainment/books/Book+highlights+benefits+helping+boys+read/8968711/story.html

NEWS & FEATURES

"I confess: I read fiction to fall in love. And in fiction, as in life, characters don't have to be likable to be lovable." Mohsin Hamid and Zoë Heller take on the topic of likeability, and whether it's really a necessity for fictional characters.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/29/books/review/are-we-too-concerned-that-characters-be-likable.html

The debate still rages over the inclusion of American books for consideration at the Booker Prize. According to the Globe and Mail, it's terrible news for Canadian writers.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/why-the-booker-prize-expansion-is-terrible-news-for-canadians-writers/article14566090/

Mr. Darcy has been killed off! No, not that Mr. Darcy… Helen Fielding's creation in Bridget Jones, who was inspired by her protagonist's obsession with the Jane Austen original (or perhaps more likely, her obsession with Colin Firth's wet-shirted cavorting in the 1995 BBC adaptation of the novel.)
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/sep/29/bridget-jones-diary-helen-fielding-kills-mr-darcy

As a response to the David Gilmour controversy, Salon has created a list of 41 books that the "sexist prof" should read. "A list that lets readers ponder what it means to be human–not just white and male".
http://www.salon.com/2013/09/26/41_books_sexist_prof_david_gilmour_should_read/

A trio of artists will soon be travelling from Oklahoma to California in order to retrace the steps of the Joad family from John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath. Playwright Octavio Solis, writer Patricia Wakida and filmmaker P.J. Palmer will be documenting their journey through social media and other channels, as well as conducting oral histories with people they encounter along the way.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/27/artists-to-retrace-grapes_n_4004985.html

Last week we highlighted a list of recently challenged titles in celebration of Banned Books Week. Here's a chance to see the books from a different angle: Awesome Illustrated Mugshots of Characters from Famous Banned Books.
http://flavorwire.com/417185/awesome-illustrated-mugshots-of-characters-from-famous-banned-books

Have you ever read a book and wondered what that author's voice really sounded like? Have you ever created a voice in your head only to hear something completely different when the author appears at your local literary festival? It may happen frequently with the moderns, but how about the classics? Here's a chance to listen to F. Scott Fitzegerald reading Shakespeare.
http://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2013/09/25/f-scott-fitzgerald-reads-shakespeare/

BOOKS & WRITERS

The author of Jack Ryan tales including The Hunt for Red October and Patriot Games, Tom Clancy, dies at 66.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/tom-clancy-bestselling-novelist-dies-at-66-1.1875996

The "grande dame of the Beat Generation" has died. Carolyn Cassady, who was the basis for Camille in On the Road, passed away last week. But she was more than just a character from Kerouac's novel, and certainly more that just Neal Cassady's widow: she was a writer in her own right, a chronicler of her time, and a pioneer in an age and place few women dared to tread.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/writer-carolyn-cassady-was-the-grande-dame-of-the-beat-generation/article14511018/

You may have seen her at the Writers Fest in years previous, or attended the event to honour her last year, but she still remains unknown to many Canadians. The Globe and Mail has declared her to be "the most important Canadian author you probably never heard of". See why, here:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/arts-video/video-the-most-important-canadian-author-you-probably-never-heard-of/article9205129/

Garrison Keillor, one of public radio's favourite stars, has just published his first book of Poetry. He discusses his life, writing and the aptly-named O, What a Luxury: Verses Lyrical, Vulgar, Pathetic and Profound, here:
http://www.npr.org/2013/09/28/225380984/news-from-lake-wobegon-garrison-keillor-has-a-new-book-of-poetry

Bestselling Canadian writer Malcolm Gladwell has often been criticized for being too simplistic. But he has plenty to say about that: "If you're in the business of translating ideas in the academic realm to a general audience, you have to simplify... If my books appear to a reader to be oversimplified, then you shouldn't read them: you're not the audience!" His new book is called David and Goliath.
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/sep/29/malcolm-gladwell-david-and-goliath-interview

COMMUNITY EVENTS

BOOK LAUNCH
Vancouver launch of Michael Hingston's debut novel, The Dilettantes. Thea Bowering will also be reading from her new debut collection of stories, Love at Last Sight. Friday, October 4 at 6:30pm, free. Pulp Fiction Books, 2422 Main Street, Vancouver.

BOOK LAUNCH
VCON's annual multi-author event where attendees will be able to mingle and chat with a variety of science fiction and fantasy authors, editors and publishers from throughout BC, Canada and the US. Friday, October 4 at 7:00pm, free and open to the public. Delta Vancouver Airport Hotel, 3500 Cessna Drive, Richmond. More information at vcon.ca.

SIDNEY LITERARY FESTIVAL
Sidney will host 14 award-winning local authors whose genres cover mystery, war, children's literature, poetry, short story whimsy and local life. October 4-6, 2013. Sidney, BC. Complete information at www.sidneyliteraryfestival.com.

WAYZGOOSE
Celebrate the work of printing presses and book artists, delight in demonstrations that include bookbinding and paper marbling, and remember why we still love paper for its beauty and elegance. Saturday, October 5, 10am to 4pm, free. Alice MacKay room, Central Branch, 350 W. Georgia Street, Vancouver. More information at alcuinsociety.com.

ANTHONY DALTON
Author reads from his first novel, Relentless Pursuit. Monday, October 7 at 7:00pm, free. Alma VanDusen room, lower level, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia Street. More information at vpl.ca.

TWISTED POETS LITERARY SALON
Features Cathy Borrie & Heidi Greco with open mic. Wednesday, October 9 at 7:00pm. The Cottage Bistro, 4468 Main Street, Vancouver. Suggested donation at the door: $5. All are welcome. More information at www.pandorascollective.com.

PLANET EARTH READING SERIES
Poets Daniela Elza (milk tooth bane bone) and Emilia Neilsen (Surge Narrows) will feature at Planet Earth Reading Series. Friday, October 11 at 7:30pm. The Moka House, 103-1633 Hillside Avenue, Victoria. $3 at the door. http://planetearthpoetryvictoriabc.blogspot.ca.

THE 2013 VISIBLE VERSE FESTIVAL
The annual festival of videopoetry and film is on October 12th, 7pm, at Pacific Cinematheque, 1131 Howe Street,
Vancouver. Also hosting Colorado poet, filmmaker and founder of the Body Electric Poetry Film Festival, R.W. Perkins, who will facilitate Literary Movement, an artist's talk on videopoetry and filmmaking. This talk is at
4pm and free to the public. For the programme & ticket information go to: thecinematheque.ca/visible-verse-2013-festival.

LUNCH POEMS @ SFU
George Stanley and Brad Cran featured. Presented by SFU Public Square, Wednesday, October 16 at 12:00 noon, free. SFU Harbour Centre's Teck Gallery (515 W Hastings St.). For more information visit www.sfu.ca/publicsquare/lunchpoems.

Upcoming

EMERGE 2013 LAUNCH GALA EVENT
36 distinct voices experiment with the written word in emerge 2013, the Writer's Studio Anthology. Guest edited by JJ Lee, author of The Measure of a Man: The Story of a Father, a Son, and a Suit, the student produced anthology blurs the boundaries between genres as contributors push past limits with their writing process in the year-long program at SFU. Launching with a gala event on October 17th at Simon Fraser University's downtown campus at Harbour Centre, contributors will read from their work. 515 West Hastings. 6 to 9pm. More information at www.facebook.com/EmergeTWS2013 or contact lindsay.glauser@gmail.com.

PAMELA SACKETT
Author reads from her third book of rhythmic prose, Booing Death (with Shpilkes & Rhyme). Thursday, October 17 at 6:30pm, free. Banyen Books & Sound, 3608 4th Ave. W., Vancouver. More information at banyen.com/events/sackett.

INSPIRED BY PACIFIC LANDS
Hawaiian author Tom Peek (Daughters of Fire) will be joined by Trevor Carolan (Cascadia: The Life and Breath of the World) and Daniela Elza (milk tooth bane bone) in a multi-genre evening of Writings from Cascadia and Hawaii. October 20, 7pm, at People's Co-Op Books, 1391 Commercial Drive, Vancouver. More nformation at www.peoplescoopbookstore.com.

CBC MASSEY LECTURES
Renowned author Lawrence Hill twww.cbcing journey through the story of blood in his new book, Blood: The Stuff of Life. Wednesday, October 23 at 8:00pm. The Chan Centre for Performing Arts, 6265 Crescent Road, UBC. Information at cbc.ca/ideas/masseys.

DEAD NORTH
Launch of a Canadian-themed zombie anthology with authors Linda Demeulemeester and Rhea Rose. Thursday, October 24 at 7:00pm. Storm Crow Tavern, 1305 Commercial Drive, Vancouver.

CREATING PAULINE
City Opera Vancouver offers an informal presentation about the creation of the new opera Pauline (by Margaret Atwood and Tobin Stokes) to premiere in May 2014, and an introduction to the life of Canadian poet and performer Pauline Johnson (1861-1913). Guests include composer Tobin Stokes, director Norman Armour, singer Rose-Ellen Nichols, pianist David Boothroyd, and conductor and artistic director Charles Barber. Discussion welcome. Chinese Cultural Centre Museum, 555 Columbia. Tues Oct 29, 8pm. Free.

ICELAND WRITERS RETREAT
The Iceland Writers Retreat invites published and aspiring book writers (fiction and non-fiction) to participate in a series of workshops and panels led by a team of international writers from April 9-13, 2014. Between intimate workshops and lectures tour the spectacular Golden Circle, sit in the cozy cafés of Reykjavik, soak in hot geothermal pools, listen to new Icelandic music, and learn about the country's rich literary tradition. More information at www.IcelandWritersRetreat.com.