Book News Vol. 8 No. 43

BOOK NEWS

HOLIDAY GIVING
Looking for a special gift for the book-lovers on your list? Look no further! The VWF has gift ideas to bring joy to readers of all persuasions, from gift certificates to memberships.
http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/content/perfect-gifts-book-lovers

AWARDS & LISTS

Congratulations to Vancouverite J.B. Mackinnon and 2013 Festival author Alison Wearing for making the 2014 RBC Taylor Prize-formerly the Charles Taylor Prize for Literary Non-Fiction.
http://arts.nationalpost.com/2013/12/11/longlist-for-rbc-taylor-prize-announced/

The shortlist has been announced for the 2014 Blue Peter Book Awards. What makes this children's book award unique is the fact that the final decision is made by the readers themselves. More than two hundred children from ten schools across the UK will read the shortlisted books and vote for their favourites.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/bookprizes/10490889/Blue-Peter-Book-Awards-2014-shortlist-announced.html

Speaking of that land across the pond, the Eccles British Library Writer in Residence Award is a prize specifically set up to create a bridge across the Atlantic, "to promote awareness of the British Library collections relating to the U.S. and Canada and to help facilitate the use of these collections." Olivia Laing and Erica Wagner will be beginning their 2014 residency on January 2nd.
http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/awards-and-prizes/article/60316-a-book-prize-that-bridges-the-atlantic.html

Alice Munro's daughter has accepted the Nobel Prize for literature on her behalf in Stockholm. "Munro writes about what are usually called ordinary people, but her intelligence, compassion, astonishing power of perception enable her to give their lives a remarkable dignity", said Peter Englund, permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/alice-munros-nobel-prize-ceremony-underway-in-stockholm/article15840842/

YOUNG READERS

Many children have begun their countdown to Christmas, and so have the children's book blogs! Here's an excerpt from the Independent's own children's literature advent calendar. You can check back every day for new features!
http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2013/12/10/the-children%E2%80%99s-book-blog-christmas-countdown-the-bear%E2%80%99s-winter-house-by-john-yeoman-illustrated-by-quentin-blake/

NEWS & FEATURES

The death of Nelson Mandela was the biggest headline this past week. And though it was his political work that brought him the most renown, he was also an accomplished writer. Here's a chance to remember Nelson Mandela through his books:
http://www.latimes.com/features/books/jacketcopy/la-et-jc-nelson-mandela-remembered-through-his-books-20130625,0,6466006,print.story

Nadine Gordimer also penned a tribute to the great South African, with whom she had both a personal and a literary relationship. To her, he was "not a figure carved in stone but a tall man, of flesh and blood, whose suffering had made him not vengeful but still more human—even toward the people who had created the prison that was apartheid".
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2013/12/mandela-my-countryman.html

On a much lighter note, The New Yorker has released a list of the best literary feuds of 2013. If you're a fan of gossip, bickering, or good old-fashioned claw-baring, this list is a good reminder that authors, critics and their coterie can be just as bad as the rest of us.
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2013/12/literary-feuds-of-2013.html

Stephen King has joined the twitterati! Despite tweeting that he's "On Twitter at last, and can't think of a thing to say. Some writer I turned out to be", he accumulated 172,258 followers in his first three days.
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/dec/09/stephen-king-twitter-170000-followers

We may live in an age of instant online publication, but the old-fashioned tools of the literary trade still pique the interest of many. William Morris' Albion Press No. 6551 exemplifies this exactly, a device made in 1891 to create books that are "essentially a work of art", and which brings with it "the satisfying thwack of handcrafted antiquity".
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/06/arts/design/kelmscott-press-a-thing-of-iron-musculature-is-to-be-sold.html

Speaking of antiquity...after a century of work, the Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources has finally been completed. Seventeen volumes long, with three different editors and a "small army of contributors" who helped bring it to fruition, it is the "first ever comprehensive description of the vocabulary of the Latin language used in Britain and by Britons between AD540 to 1600".
http://www.mhpbooks.com/medieval-dictionary-completed-after-100-years/

A new report has determined that Torontonians receive $5.63 of value for every dollar invested in the Toronto Public Library. Among the findings was the fact that "On average, one open hour at any one of the library's 98 branches generates $2,515 in benefits for the city of Toronto".
http://www.infodocket.com/2013/12/06/new-report-torontonians-receive-5-63-of-value-for-every-dollar-invested-in-toronto-public-library/

Have you ever found yourself baffled by the Western Canon? Chances are you might be, if you're a woman. This is especially the case with writers from the mid-20th century, whom Emily Gould calls "midcentury misogynists". In this article, women writers talk about how infuriating it can be to read Kerouac, Bukowski, Roth and Mailer.
http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2013/12/09/in_no_regrets_women_writers_talk_about_what_it_was_like_to_read_literature.html

After Alice Munro's Nobel Prize win, it should come as no surprise to many that her books have seen a significant spike in sales. In Canada, alone, they have increased by 4,424 percent!
http://www.vancouversun.com/entertainment/books/Alice+Munro+titles+spike+sales+after+Nobel/9265675/story.html#ixzz2n62kvR3x

And Alice's win was just one of many boons to the Canadian, and even more specifically, British Columbian, publishing scene. The Vancouver Sun highlights the biggest West Coast book news of the year, here:
http://www.vancouversun.com/entertainment/books/2013+year+changes+publishing/9256914/story.html

Jane Urquhart reflects on Alice Munro's legacy, as well as their shared origins, and even, occasionally, shared days, in rural Ontario. "As she receives the Nobel Prize for literature we should all remember her father's statement...without the example of her spectacular work, without the encouragement of her brilliant attention to us, his book, and many other books, would not, could not have been written".
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/without-alice-munros-spectacular-work-many-books-would-not-have-been-written/article15840502/

BOOKS & WRITERS

Alice Munro was not able to attend the Nobel Prize ceremony this year. However, her Nobel Lecture in Literature was replaced by a pre-recorded video conversation called "Alice Munro: In her Own Words". You can watch the thirty-minute video here:
http://www.nobelprize.org/mediaplayer/index.php?id=1973

The Globe Books Gift Guide is out, with twenty-seven ideas for the book lovers in your life! For a taste of the most lavish and delicious literature, stunning photography collections, and books for art lovers and music fans alike, click here:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/holiday-guide/gift-guides-shopping/the-globe-books-2013-gift-guide-27-ideas-for-the-book-lover-in-your-life/article15806684/

Kansas City Lightning: The Rise and Times of Charlie Parker and Duke: A Life of Duke Ellington have been described as "the two best music books this fall". Chronicling the lives and times of two great jazz icons, the author believes that this is an indication "that rumours of the death of jazz are highly exaggerated".
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/groovin-high-jazz-is-alive-and-well-on-the-printed-page/article15801462/

The much-anticipated volume of Emily Dickinson's envelope poems, called The Gorgeous Nothings, has finally been published. It's a visual phenomenon, the first book devoted to full-color, actual-size facsimiles of a specific body of her work.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/06/books/the-gorgeous-nothings-shows-dickinsons-envelope-poems.html

"I'm a writer who hustled. I'm not a hustler who wrote. I don't think this happens to other writers. Why should their subjects dominate their identity?" So says John Rechy in an interview with Slate, after the publication of a 50th-anniversary edition of City of Night, his landmark novel about a young hustler who travels the country plying his trade.
http://www.slate.com/blogs/outward/2013/12/09/city_of_night_a_hustler_s_story_an_interview_with_john_rechy.html

Who are today's most influential writers? American Author Wally Lamb reflects on this, and more, in an interview with the Globe and Mail.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/wally-lamb-on-the-writers-who-shaped-him-dave-eggers-is-influential/article15804222/

COMMUNITY EVENTS

GRANT LAWRENCE
West Vancouver-raised CBC Radio broadcaster, musician and award-winning author will read from his new memoir, The Lonely End of the Rink: Confessions of a Reluctant Goalie. Sunday, December 15 at 2;30pm. West Vancouver Memorial Library, 1950 Marine Drive, West Vancouver. For more information, phone 604-925-7403.

P.W. BRIDGMAN
Author reads from his new book Standing at an Angle to My Age. Tuesday, December 17 at 8:00pm. La Fontana Caffe, 101-3701 East Hastings, Burnaby.

LUNCH POEMS AT SFU
Jordan Abel and Nicole Markotic featured at Dec 18 Lunch Poems at SFU. Presented by SFU Public Square, 12-1pm in SFU Harbour Centre's Teck Gallery (515 W Hastings St.). Free admission, no registration required. For more information visit www.sfu.ca/publicsquare/lunchpoems.

DEAD POETS READING SERIES
Five poets/readers/poetry-lovers/writers with extensive public reading experience read poems from one of their favourite dead poets. Sunday, January 12 at 3:00pm, free. Meeting Room, level 3, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia Street. More information at vpl.ca.

RAILWAY ROCK GANG
Join former BC RAIL Rock Gang foreman Gary Sim for a presentation on his new book. Wednesday, January 15 at 7:00pm, free. Alma VanDusen room, lower level, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia Street. More information at vpl.ca.

Upcoming

SHY: AN ANTHOLOGY
Contributors Sylvia Stopforth, Dhana Musil and Elaine Woo will read. Tuesday, January 28 at 7:00pm, free. McGill Branch, Burnaby Public Library, 4595 Albert Street. More information and registration at 604-299-8955.

ANNIE PAQUETTE
Author talks about her new memoir, Left, Right, Then Center. Wednesday, January 29 at 7:00pm. Welsh Hall West, West Vancouver Memorial Library, 1950 Marine Drive, West Vancouver. For more information, phone 604-925-7403.

GRAFFITI HACK BOOK LAUNCH PARTY
Launch of Elen Ghulam's new book, Graffiti Hack: A Novel. Saturday, February 8 at 7:00pm. The Landing, 375 Water Street, Vancouver. More information at ihath.com.

AUTHORS UNBOUND
An evening of readings of both brand new and established local authors in a variety of genres from poetry to short stories to novels. Monday, February 17 at 7:00pm, free. Alma VanDusen room, lower level, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia Street. More information at vpl.ca.

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/.

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 including Joseph Boyden. 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.