BOOK NEWS
A SPECIAL MESSAGE FROM ARTISTIC DIRECTOR HAL WAKE
Last weekend Canadian Literature lost one of its great masters, and the Vancouver Writers Fest lost a beloved friend. Alistair MacLeod attended the festival a half dozen times participating in many memorable events, including one where he performed with the Chor Leoni Men's Choir. For the Festival's 25th anniversary, he wrote what became his last published work, the short story Remembrance. I wrote a short piece about commissioning Alistair to write the story and you can read it, along with other tributes, in the National Post, http://arts.nationalpost.com/2014/04/24/remembering-alistair-macleod/. We will miss him greatly.
INCITE
Join us on May 7 for readings by Ondjaki (Granma Nineteen and the Soviet's Secret), Sean Michaels (Us Conductors), and Claire Battershill (Circus). Details on this and other upcoming Incite events here, http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/incite.
TITANS OF CANADIAN THEATRE
Hard to believe yet true but not until October 24, 2013, at the Vancouver Writers Fest, had Canada’s pre-eminent playwrights Tomson Highway and Michel Tremblay appeared together onstage. Interviewed by the inestimable Bill Richardson, these illustrious storytellers talk about their careers, how their work has been shaped by their birth country, and how their stories continue to shape Canadian literature. Click here to watch this generous and intelligent conversation with three of our country’s renaissance men, http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/multimedia/titans.
SPECIAL EVENT
A Dram Come True
Join us at the legendary Hycroft-a magnificent Edwardian mansion in the heart of Shaughnessy - and enjoy the superb, complex flavours of a variety of rare and distinguished single malts. New this year: Heighten your experience at an exclusive VIP reception before the main event-a private tasting tour of some of the special malts, guided by whisky experts.
Friday, May 30, 2014
7:30–9:30pm
Tickets: $120
VIP Tasting 6:30–7:30pm; Tickets: $75 (limited quantities, only available with a main event ticket)
Hycroft
1489 McRae Avenue, Vancouver
Click here for details and to purchase tickets, http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/dram-come-true.
A Dram Come True is a fundraiser for the Vancouver Writers Fest.
AWARDS & LISTS
Canadian writer Kit Pearson, the veteran author of acclaimed novels, fantasy tales and historical stories for young adults, is the latest recipient of the British Columbia Lieutenant Governor's Award for Literary Excellence.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/kids-author-kit-pearson-wins-b-c-award-for-literary-excellence-1.2618232
The author and journalist Elena Poniatowska, who gained fame in Mexico for her chronicles of social injustice and government repression, is this year’s winner of the Miguel de Cervantes Prize.
http://www.latimes.com/books/jacketcopy/la-et-jc-mexican-writer-elena-poniatowska-wins-cervantes-prize-20140422,0,5740794.story
EL Doctorow has won the Library of Congress prize for American fiction. The prize aims to reward "strong, unique, enduring voices that–throughout long, consistently accomplished careers–have told us something about the American experience."
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/apr/17/el-doctorow-library-of-congress-prize-american-fiction
The Alcuin Society has announced the 2014 winners of its 32nd annual Alcuin Society Awards for Excellence in Book Design in Canada. The winning books will be displayed at book fairs in Germany, at the Canadian Embassy in Tokyo and in nine Canadian provinces.
http://www.bookcentre.ca/news/winners_announced_2014_alcuin_society_awards_excellence_book_design
The Writers' Trust of Canada has announced a new $25,000 prize for Canadian poets called the Latner Writers' Trust Poetry Prize. The honour will be given each fall to "a Canadian poet in midcareer in recognition of a remarkable body of work and in hope of future contributions to Canadian poetry."
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/writers-trust-of-canada-announces-new-25000-prize-for-canadian-poets/article18084978/
YOUNG READERS
It's William Shakespeare's 450th birthday! To celebrate, here's a list of ten favourite Shakespeare books for children.
http://www.theguardian.com/childrens-books-site/2014/apr/22/top-10-andrew-matthews-shakespeare-books
In 2012, the VWF presented Rick Scott with a performance based on his book and multi-media show The Great Gazzoon. The whole concept is engaging, entertaining and original. Now you can see him weave his magic at the Vancouver International Children's Festival.
http://www.childrensfestival.ca/festival_events/performances/performances59.php
NEWS & FEATURES
One of Canada's greatest writers has died. Alistair MacLeod, most famous for his novel No Great Mischief, passed away this week at the age of 77. He is remembered by Steven Galloway, here:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/author-alistair-macleod-dies-at-77/article18071179/
Tributes have also begun to pour in for Gabriel García Márquez. From Bill Clinton to Ian McEwan, and Isabel Allende to Lena Dunham, his writing had a profound influence around the world.
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/apr/18/gabriel-garcia-marquez-tributes-bill-clinton-colombia
Though he was most famous for his novels, García Márquez's legacy would not be what it was without his incredible newspaper journalism. Long before One Hundred Years of Solitude, "the novelist found myth and magic reporting on the Colombian coast."
http://www.salon.com/2014/04/18/for_garcia_marquezs_legacy_look_to_his_newspaper_journalism/
New York antiquarian booksellers Daniel Wechsler and George Koppelman believe that they have found Shakespeare's annotated dictionary. "Although unsigned, it contains thousands of annotations in a contemporary hand that point directly to the composition of some of Shakespeare's best known works, including Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, and many of the sonnets."
http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/books/booksellers-claim-to-have-found-shakespeares-annotated-dictionary-20140421-3707q.html
Are you still lamenting the end of Harry Potter? JK Rowling has brought one of the book's characters back to report on the 2014 Quidditch World Cup in Argentina. Check out the ongoing coverage, here:
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/apr/16/jk-rowling-writes-quidditch-match-reports-pottermore
A decline in male readers is alarming authors. "The bestselling author Andy McNab has spoken out about the importance of keeping boys reading, in the wake of a survey which found that men are turning away from books in record numbers."
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/apr/17/decline-male-readers-authors-andy-mcnab-matt-haig
Is it acceptable to mine real relationships for literary material? "When Robert Lowell used his ex-wife's letters for his poetry, Elizabeth Bishop told him, ‘Art just isn't worth that much.'" Francine Prose and Leslie Jamison discuss.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/27/books/review/is-it-ok-to-mine-real-relationships-for-literary-material.html
A new film is being made about a road trip David Foster Wallace and a Rolling Stone reporter completed during the author's publicity tour for Infinite Jest in 1996. Loosely based on transcripts from an interview that was never published, Wallace's family is now up in arms.
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/apr/22/david-foster-wallace-family-object-biopic-end-of-the-tour
Are you tired of the misuse of the word "literally"? "A new browser plug-in displays all instances of the much-abused adverb as its traditional opposite. It's a figurative blast!"
http://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2014/apr/22/literally-figurative-program-misuse-plugin-browser
Is ‘Literary fiction' just clever marketing? In this piece, Elizabeth Edmondson argues against the genre, claiming that "Jane Austen never imagined she was writing Literature. Posterity made that decision for her."
http://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2014/apr/21/literary-fiction-clever-marketing-genre-debate
BOOKS & WRITERS
In honour of National Poetry Month, the Globe and Mail is releasing some poems from the springs's most anticipated and exciting poetry collections. Here's an excerpt from Aisha Sasha John's Thou.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/poem-excerpt-from-aisha-sasha-johns-thou/article18066186/
What happens when an author has more than one editor? In this interview, Emma Donoghue and her two editors discuss "sharing responsibilities, resolving disputes, and the long list of ideas Donoghue has waiting for the novels to express them."
http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/books/2014/04/interview_between_emma_donoghue_and_her_editors_in_america_and_canada.html
Jacinda Townsend's debut novel, Saint Monkey, tells the tale of teenage girls growing up in Jim Crow Kentucky, and the escape that one of them makes north, to Harlem. It is a coming-of-age novel where "virtue and innocence were only a veil that needed to fall away so the girls might see themselves, and their chosen course, more clearly."
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/20/books/review/saint-monkey-by-jacinda-townsend.html
Miriam Toews is no stranger to coming-of-age stories, though in her new book, the protagonists are all adults. All My Puny Sorrows is a "brilliant and desperately sad new novel" about two sisters, one of whom writes rodeo-themed young adult novels, while the other is a concert pianist in much demand in Europe.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/book-reviews/all-my-puny-sorrows-miriam-toewss-latest-is-a-funny-novel-honouring-deep-sadness/article18066031/
Books have always been important in writer and television anchor Robin Roberts' life. In this interview, she discusses why Maya Angelou was her literary hero growing up as a teenager in Mississippi.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/20/books/review/robin-roberts-by-the-book.html
Why do some writers write? According to Dinaw Mengestu, "I don't think I would have written it if I felt like I had a choice...Writing is a source of angst." "Not writing–that would probably provoke some form of delusional madness, and I like my sanity, and the bursts of joy that come with it."
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/author-dinaw-mengestu-on-his-craft-writing-is-a-source-of-angst/article18066332/
How do we understand war poetry in a modern context? A new book of poems by Army gunner Kevin Powers is helping to illuminate that question. Letter Composed During a Lull in the Fighting begins as far from the mud-strewn trenches of our imagination as one could be: the desert.
http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/books/2014/04/kevin_powers_book_of_iraq_war_poems_letter_composed_during_a_lull_in_the.html
This month on the New Yorker Poetry Podcast, Michael Dickman reads Ellen Bryan Voigt's poem 'Cow', as well as his own poem 'My Honeybee'.
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2014/04/poetry-podcast-michael-dickman-reads-ellen-bryant-voigt.html
And as we pass Easter, Slate asks: can an atheist write Christian poems?
http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/books/2014/04/christian_poetry_the_earth_avails_by_matt_wunderlich_and_road_to_emmaus.html
COMMUNITY EVENTS
MEET THE AUTHOR
Roberta Rich discuses her novel The Harem Midwife. Thursday, April 24 at 7:00pm. Christianne's Lyceum. 3696 W. 8th Ave. $20 (includes refreshments). To reserve your space call 604.733.1356 or email lyceum@christiannehayward.com. More information at www.christiannehayward.com.
TWISTED POETS LITERARY SALON
Featuring Pamela Porter, teen and children contest winners, and Eric Hamber Writers in the Making. Thursday, April 24 at 7:00pm. Suggested donation: $5 at the door. The Cottage Bistro, 4468 Main Street, Vancouver. More information at www.pandorascollective.com.
BOOK SIGNING
Featuring Roberta Rich (The Midwife of Venice, The Harem Midwife) and Mary Novik (Conceit, Muse). Saturday, April 26 at 2:00pm. 32 Books & Gallery, 3185 Edgemont Village, North Vancouver. More information at 604-980-9032.
CATHY ACE
Author signs her new book The Corpse with the Emerald Thumb. Saturday, April 26 at 3:00pm. Triple Tree Nurseryland, 20503 Lougheed Highway. More information at blackbondbooks.com.
2014 LITFEST NEW WEST
April 26, 2014. A day of free workshops at LitFest New West. To see the list of workshops and to register go to: http://artscouncilnewwest.org/litfest/program/workshops/.
DIANE TUCKER BOOK LAUNCH
Join Diane Tucker for the Vancouver launch of her fourth book, Bonsai Love, a collection of poems about the sensual delicacy of love. Sunday, April 27 at 7:00pm, free. Cottage Bistro, 4470 Main St. Will also feature a musical performance by Vancouver-based sing/songwriter Rodney DeCroo. For more information, visit
www.harbourpublishing.com.
SCHOOL
Jen Currin launches her new story collection. Also featuring Mercedes Eng and Mutya Macatumpag. Sunday, April 27 at 8:00pm, free. Cafe Deux Soleils, 2096 Commericial Drive. More information at chbooks.com.
POLARI
Reading by John Barton from his latest book of poems. Also featuring Jennica Harper, Sarah de Leeuw, Dennis E. Bolen, Alex Leslie, Lawrence Feuchtwanger, Andrea Bennett, and Jaqueline Turner. Monday, April 28 at 7:00pm. Cottage Bistro, 4470 Main Street Vancouver. More information at gooselane.com.
AN EVENING WITH MELLISSA FUNG
Award-winning journalist, former CBC reporter and author of Under An Afghan Sky will discuss her experience as a reporter covering the Canadian military mission in Afghanistan. Will also feature a screening of her short documentary. Tuesday, April 29 at 7:00pm. Tickets: $15/$20/$10. HR MacMillan Space Centre, 1100 Chestnut Street, Vancouver.
SIBLEY'S GUIDE TO BIRDS
David Sibley, author and illustrator of The Sibley Guide to Birds, will be discussing his newly revised and released 2nd edition of the guide. Tuesday, April 29 at 7:00pm, free but RSVP to vancouver.ca/birdweek. Alma VanDusen & Peter Kaye rooms, lower level, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia St. More information at 604-331-3603.
LONG STORY SHORT
Short story writers C.P. Boyko and Kathy Page launch their latest collections. Tuesday, April 29 at 7:00pm. Founder's Lounge, The Cultch, 1895 Venables St., Vancouver. More information at biblioasis.com.
GRAEME SIMSION
Featuring the author of The Rosie Projects. Wednesday, April 30 at 4:00pm. Tickets: $30 and include wine and appetizers. The Canyon Restaurant, Edgemont Village, North Vancouver. Call 604-980-9032 for more information and to reserve tickets.
TALES FROM FUN CITY
Authors Aaron Chapman and Lani Russwurm share tales from Vancouver's lively cultural history. Wednesday, April 30 at 7:00pm, free. Alma VanDusen & Peter Kaye rooms, Lower Level, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia St. More information at vpl.ca.
FLYING DUCHESSES
Patricia McCuaig's biography of her father's adventures flying a Grumman Goose in Canada from 1964/65 for England's Duke of Westminster. Wednesday, April 30 at 7:00pm. Welsh Hall West, West Vancouver Memorial Library. For more information, call 604-925-7403.
THE STONEHENGE LETTERS
Author Harry Karlinsky launches his book, with introductions by George Fetherling. Wednesday, April 30 at 7:00pm. Isaac Waldman Jewish Public Library, 950 41st Ave. W., Vancouver. More information at www.jccgv.com.
BRICK BOOKS BOOK LAUNCH
Joanna Lilley launches her first poetry collection The Fleece Era. Jane Munro launches Blue Sonoma, her sixth poetry collection. Karen Enns launches her second poetry collection Ordinary Hours. Arleen Paré launches her second poetry collection Lake of Two Mountains. Wednesday, April 30 at 7:30pm. The Cottage Bistro, 4468 Main Street, Vancouver. More information at cottage-bistro.com.
SPEAKING FREEDOM
An evening for poetry on freedom from some of Canada's top writers: Fred Wah, Evelyn Lau, Marilyn Dumont, Daniela Elza, Charlie Wilkins, and Martha Roth. St. James Hall, 3214 10th Ave. W. Doors at 7:00pm. May 1, 2014. For tickets in advance go to: http://www.laurarobinsondefensefund.org/i-wish-to-donate-.html or contact Laura at laura.robinson@sympatico.ca. More information at strangeplaces.livingcode.org.
MICHAEL NICOLL YAHGULANAAS
Celebrate the launch of the paperback edition of his graphic novel, Red: A Haida Manga. Saturday, May 3 at 2:00pm. Douglas Udell Gallery, 1566 6th Ave. W., Vancouver. More information at 604-736-8900.
Upcoming
TRAVELS BY NIGHT: A MEMOIR
To mark publication of an expanded anniversary edition of his memoir, in an interview with historian Dan Francis, author George Fetherling will describe how the world of writing redeemed a life of hardship. Tuesday, May 6 at 7:00pm, free. Peter Kaye room, lower level, Central Branch, 350 W. Georgia St. For more information, email info@quattrobooks.ca.
JANIE CHANG
Reading and discussion by the author of Three Souls. Tuesday, May 6 at 7:00pm. White Rock Library, 15342 Buena Vista, White Rock. More information at 604-541-2201.
KENNETH OPPEL
Author presents his newest book, The Boundless. Wednesday, May 7. Tickets: $5. North Vancouver District Library, 1277 Lynn Valley Road. More information and to purchase tickets at kidsbooks.ca.
2014 POETRY IN VOICE NATIONAL FINALS
The 2014 National Finals; Atwood, Dickinson and Verlaine-by heart will take place. Canada's best student reciters compete for $25,000 in prizes. May 8-9, 2014.Fei and Milton Wong Experimental Theatre, 149 W. Hastings Street, Vancouver. More information at poetryinvoice.com.
DEAD POETS READING SERIES
Five poets/readers/poetry-lovers/writers with extensive public reading experience read poems from one of their favourite dead poet's brilliant work to bring anew to a keen audience. Sunday, May 11 at 3:00pm, free. Alice MacKay room, lower level, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia St. More information at vpl.ca.
SOMAN CHAINANI
Meet the author of The School For Good and Evil. Monday, May 12 at 7:00pm. Kidsbooks, 3083 West Broadway. More information and tickets at kidsbooks.ca.
AN EVENING WITH ANDREW WESTOLL
Award-winning author, journalist and creative writing instructor presents his national bestselling The Chimps of Fauna Sanctuary is the biography of a family of chimpanzees. Tuesday, May 13 at 7:00pm, free. Alma VanDusen and Peter Kaye rooms, lower level, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia St. More information at vpl.ca.
MOTHER TONGUE
Two of Canada's finest poets, Lorna Crozier and Erín Moure, lend their work to choreographer and director Conrad Alexandrowicz, whose Wild Excursions Performance presents two works of physical theatre for actors, dancers and musicians. May 14-18, 2014. Tickets: $20 plus service charges. Scotiabank Dance Centre, 677 Davie Street. More information at wildexcursions.ca.
SKAGIT RIVER POETRY FESTIVAL
A celebration of poetry featuring readings, workshops, and storytelling. Access to internationally famous poets through intimate venues and workshop sessions. May 15-18, 2014. Various venues throughout La Conner, WA. More information at www.skagitriverpoetry.org.
125 POETRY READINGS
Stop #95 in Kevin Spenst's Small Books, Big Country, a chapbook tour of Canada. Saturday, May 17 at 2:00pm, free. Alma VanDusen room, lower level, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia St. More information at vpl.ca.
ANN ERIKSSON
Author reads from her new novel High Clear Bell of Morning. Also featuring Garry Geddes reading from his new book of selected poems, What Does a House Want?. Tuesday, May 20 at 7:00pm, free. Capilano Branch, North Vancouver Library, 3045 Highland Blvd., North Vancouver. More information at 604-987-4471.
LUNCH POEMS AT SFU
Readings by Phinder Dulai and Kim Minkus. Wednesday, May 21 at 12:00 noon. Teck Gallery, Main floor, SFU Vancouver Harbour Center, 515 W. Hastings. More information at sfu.ca/publicsquare/lunchpoems.
D.B. CAREW
Local author signs his debut novel The Killer Trail. Friday, May 23 at 4:00pm. Black Bond Books, Haney PLace Mall, Maple Ridge. More information at blackbondbooks.com.
POETIC JUSTICE
Reading by poets Russell Thornton, Susan McCaslin, and Lee Johnson. Sunday, May 25 at 3:00pm. The Heritage Grill Backroom, 447 Columbia St., New Westminster. More information at poeticjustice.ca.
Thursday, April 24, 2014
Thursday, April 17, 2014
Book News Vol. 9 No. 7
BOOK NEWS
INCITE
Join us on May 7 for readings by Ondjaki (Granma Nineteen and the Soviet's Secret), Sean Michaels (Us Conductors), and Claire Battershill (Circus). Details on this and other upcoming Incite events here, http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/incite.
SPECIAL EVENT
A Dram Come True
There are still a few days left to get early bird tickets for our famed A Dram Come True scotch tasting event. Join us at the legendary Hycroft-a magnificent Edwardian mansion in the heart of Shaughnessy - and enjoy the superb, complex flavours of a variety of rare and distinguished single malts. New this year: Heighten your experience at an exclusive VIP reception before the main event - a private tasting tour of some of the special
malts, guided by whisky experts.
Friday, May 30, 2014
7:30–9:30pm
Tickets: $120
VIP Tasting 6:30–7:30pm; Tickets: $75 (limited quantities, only available with a main event ticket)
Hycroft
1489 McRae Avenue, Vancouver
Click here for details and to purchase tickets, http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/dram-come-true.
A Dram Come True is a fundraiser for the Vancouver Writers Fest.
AWARDS & LISTS
Donna Tartt's The Goldfinch has won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. Judges described the book as one that "stimulates the mind and touches the heart."
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/apr/15/pulitzer-prize-fiction-the-goldfinch-donna-tartt
Noted Canadian children's authors Marie-Louise Gay and Kathy Stinson are among the latest contenders for the Ruth and Sylvia Schwartz Children's Book Awards.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/marie-louise-gay-kathy-stinson-shortlisted-for-kids-lit-prize-1.2612820
Journalist Paul Wells wins the $10,000 Dafoe prize for The Longer I'm Prime Minister: Stephen Harper and Canada 2006-.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/journalist-paul-wells-wins-dafoe-prize-for-stephen-harper-book-1.2610623
YOUNG READERS
Are you looking for something sugar-free to add to your child's Easter basket? Here are two new bunny books that "concern a perennial childhood issue: balancing the desire to do right with the impulse to do just what you want."
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/09/books/found-and-here-comes-the-easter-cat.html
Why is so much young adult literature obsessed with dystopia? According to this article, it's because it's easy for teenagers to feel like they're living in one!
http://www.newrepublic.com/article/117332/no-wonder-teens-love-stories-about-dystopias-they-feel-theyre
NEWS & FEATURES
Sue Townsend, the prolific novelist who satirized Thatcher's Britain through her wildly successful Adrian Mole series, has died. She had been working on a new Adrian Mole book, entitled Pandora's Box, as well as a play, which will open next spring.
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/apr/14/sue-townsend-new-adrian-mole-novel
On the other hand, there's good news from Latin America. Colombian author Gabriel García Márquez, who went into hospital last week for a lung and urinary tract infection, is now recovering at home.
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/apr/09/gabriel-garcia-marquez-released-from-mexico-city-hospital
What book would you send to someone in prison? Leading authors list their picks, here:
http://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2014/apr/14/what-book-would-you-send-to-someone-in-prison
With spring book season in full swing, "store shelves across the nation are packed with new titles competing for readers' attention...The omnipresent, gushing blurbs on the covers all clamour for our attention, but can we trust them?" The anatomy of the book blurb is discussed, here:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/the-anatomy-of-a-blurb-why-you-have-to-read-the-concert-masters-sisters-orphan/article17943956/
Which books make you feel stupid? According to writer Swapna Krishna, "the worst thing about failing to love a book along with everyone else isn't the self-doubt or the fact that you wasted time struggling to get along with it. 'It's the people that make you feel like you're an idiot.'"
http://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2014/apr/10/what-books-make-you-feel-stupid
The Grapes of Wrath turns 75 this month. It is a "spiritual book, and it is from this root that the power and longevity of The Grapes of Wrath grow. Grounded in a ferocious sense of right, the polemical material takes on that prophetic tone, and in so doing, resets the boundaries of the novel itself."
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/book-reviews/the-grapes-of-wrath-75-years-later-john-steinbecks-truth-is-marching-on/article17943476/
Are you interested in how living space influences writers? A new project called 'Where They Create' has set out to chronicle the physical spaces where creative types do their work, through both photography and prose.
http://www.wheretheycreate.com/
A 101-year-old message in a bottle has washed up in the Baltic Sea. It may be the oldest message in a bottle ever recovered.
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/message-bottle-found-baltic-sea-100-years-old-180950500/?no-ist
Are English departments endangered? With tenure track jobs plummeting, much of the focus on university campuses has turned to composition and rhetoric, reflecting the "rational, reasonable, and growing interest in fields specializing in the conditions of textual production at a moment when textual production is undergoing the greatest shift since Gutenberg."
http://chronicle.com/article/The-Moral-Panic-in-Literary/145757/
BOOKS & WRITERS
'Too bitter," the author Jean Rhys said of her work in 1945. "And besides, who wants short stories?" As part of their series 'A brief survey of the short story', The Guardian tackles Jean Rhys, whose "prose would be very hard to read if it weren't so extraordinary."
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/apr/14/jean-rhys-brief-survey-short-story
Maxim Leo is a journalist haunted by memory...memory of the East German state, "a smoke-and-mirrors contraption conjured from the rubble of World War II", which he watched vanish overnight. His new book, Red Love: The Story of an East German Family, chronicles three generations of his family "making the journey from euphoric hope to disillusionment to despair."
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/14/books/red-love-a-memoir-of-east-germany.html
Francine Prose's new novel, Lovers at the Chameleon Club, Paris 1932, is both a page-turner and a book with "breadth, nerve and intricacy." Set in a "cross-dressers' heaven", the novel tells the tale of thugs, artists and poseurs in a time of increasing portent in Europe.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/11/books/francine-proses-lovers-at-the-chameleon-club-paris-1932.html
Adam Begley's Updike is a "sympathetic new biography that's the first but unlikely to be the last of this great American writer—the great American writer, in many regards." The author comes at the story from a unique perspective. His father was a Harvard classmate, friend, and reviewer of Updike's.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/09/books/updike-adam-begleys-look-at-a-novelists-career.html
What motivates Helen Oyeyemi, author of Boy, Snow, Bird? "Perversity...that keeps me writing." She is interviewed by The Globe and Mail, here:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/what-motivates-author-helen-oyeyemi-perversity-keeps-me-writing/article17941117/
"The story of Canada is the story of her relationship with native people," says Richard Wagamese in reference to his new book, Medicine Walk. Redemption is its theme, both in terms of his country and the personal story it tells.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/book-reviews/medicine-walk-a-story-of-a-native-family-but-really-one-about-the-universality-of-tragedy/article17943334/
COMMUNITY EVENTS
TREVOR CAROLAN
Author launches his new book Cascadia: The Life and Breath of the World. Thursday, April 17 at 6:30pm. Banyen Books & Sound, 3608 4th Ave. W.
MARK BENTLEY COHEN
Author reads excerpts from his new book Confessions of a Bisexual Husband. Friday, April 18 at 2:00pm, free. Y's Books, 4307 Main Street, Vancouver. More information at ysbookstore.blogspot.ca.
text bites & textual vishyuns: a reeding & dialog with bill bissett
Reading by renowned Canadian poet bill bissett, followed by a discussion of his work by publisher Karl Siegler, author Carl Peters and artist/writer/educator Jerry Zaslove. Organized in conjunction with the exhibition textual vishyuns: image and text in the work of bill bissett at The Reach Art Gallery and Museum in Abbotsford, on April 17–June 30. Friday, April 18 at 8:00pm. The Western Front, 303 8th Ave. E., Vancouver.
AUTHORS IN OUR MIDST
Author of American Exodus: Climate Change and the Coming Flight for Survival, Giles Slade, discusses the environmental impact of climate change. Tuesday, April 22 ar 7:00pm. Brighouse branch, Richmond Public Library, 100-7700 Minoru Gate, Richmond. More information at yourlibrary.ca.
GEORGE LITTLECHILD
Part of the Write Here Readers Series, a reading by the author of This Land is My Land and The Spirit Giggles Within. Wednesday, April 23 at 7:00pm, free. Cafe Guido, Port Hardy. More information at nic.bc.ca.
DORETTA LAU
Author signs copies of her new book How Does a Single Blade of Grass Thank the Sun? Wednesday, April 23 at 7:00pm. The Paper Hound, 344 West Pender Street, Vancouver. More information at nightwoodeditions.com.
MIKE MCCARDELL
Author will talk about his latest book Haunting Vancouver: A Nearly True History. Thursday, April 24 at 11:00am. Tickets: $10 and includes lunch. West Point Grey United Church, 4595 8th Ave. W., Vancouver. For more information and to register (24 hrs in advance), phone 604-224-4388.
MEET THE AUTHOR
Roberta Rich discuses her novel The Harem Midwife. Thursday, April 24 at 7:00pm. Christianne's Lyceum. 3696 W. 8th Ave. $20 (includes refreshments). To reserve your space call 604.733.1356 or email lyceum@christiannehayward.com. More information at www.christiannehayward.com.
TWISTED POETS LITERARY SALON
Featuring Pamela Porter, teen and children contest winners, and Eric Hamber Writers in the Making. Thursday, April 24 at 7:00pm. Suggested donation: $5 at the door. The Cottage Bistro, 4468 Main Street, Vancouver. More information at www.pandorascollective.com.
BOOK SIGNING
Featuring Roberta Rich (The Midwife of Venice, The Harem Midwife) and Mary Novik (Conceit, Muse). Saturday, April 26 at 2:00pm. 32 Books & Gallery, 3185 Edgemont Village, North Vancouver. More information at 604-980-9032.
CATHY ACE
Author signs her new book The Corpse with the Emerald Thumb. Saturday, April 26 at 3:00pm. Triple Tree Nurseryland, 20503 Lougheed Highway. More information at blackbondbooks.com.
2014 LITFEST NEW WEST
April 26, 2014. A day of free workshops at LitFest New West. To see the list of workshops and to register go to: http://artscouncilnewwest.org/litfest/program/workshops/.
DIANE TUCKER BOOK LAUNCH
Join Diane Tucker for the Vancouver launch of her fourth book, Bonsai Love, a collection of poems about the sensual delicacy of love. Sunday, April 27 at 7:00pm, free. Cottage Bistro, 4470 Main St. Will also feature a musical performance by Vancouver-based sing/songwriter Rodney DeCroo. For more information, visit
www.harbourpublishing.com.
SCHOOL
Jen Currin launches her new story collection. Also featuring Mercedes Eng and Mutya Macatumpag. Sunday, April 27 at 8:00pm, free. Cafe Deux Soleils, 2096 Commericial Drive. More information at chbooks.com.
AN EVENING WITH MELLISSA FUNG
Award-winning journalist, former CBC reporter and author of Under An Afghan Sky will discuss her experience as a reporter covering the Canadian military mission in Afghanistan. Will also feature a screening of her short documentary. Tuesday, April 29 at 7:00pm. Tickets: $15/$20/$10. HR MacMillan Space Centre, 1100 Chestnut Street, Vancouver.
SIBLEY'S GUIDE TO BIRDS
David Sibley, author and illustrator of The Sibley Guide to Birds, will be discussing his newly revised and released 2nd edition of the guide. Tuesday, April 29 at 7:00pm, free but RSVP to vancouver.ca/birdweek. Alma VanDusen & Peter Kaye rooms, lower level, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia St. More information at 604-331-3603.
LONG STORY SHORT
Short story writers C.P. Boyko and Kathy Page launch their latest collections. Tuesday, April 29 at 7:00pm. Founder's Lounge, The Cultch, 1895 Venables St., Vancouver. More information at biblioasis.com.
Upcoming
GRAEME SIMSION
Featuring the author of The Rosie Projects. Wednesday, April 30 at 4:00pm. Tickets: $30 and include wine and appetizers. The Canyon Restaurant, Edgemont Village, North Vancouver. Call 604-980-9032 for more information and to reserve tickets.
TALES FROM FUN CITY
Authors Aaron Chapman and Lani Russwurm share tales from Vancouver's lively cultural history. Wednesday, April 30 at 7:00pm, free. Alma VanDusen & Peter Kaye rooms, Lower Level, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia St. More information at vpl.ca.
FLYING DUCHESSES
Patricia McCuaig's biography of her father's adventures flying a Grumman Goose in Canada from 1964/65 for England's Duke of Westminster. Wednesday, April 30 at 7:00pm. Welsh Hall West, West Vancouver Memorial Library. For more information, call 604-925-7403.
THE STONEHENGE LETTERS
Author Harry Karlinsky launches his book, with introductions by George Fetherling. Wednesday, April 30 at 7:00pm. Isaac Waldman Jewish Public Library, 950 41st Ave. W., Vancouver. More information at www.jccgv.com.
GROUP BOOK LAUNCH
Joanna Lilley launches her first poetry collection The Fleece Era. Jane Munro launches Blue Sonoma, her sixth poetry collection. Karen Enns launches her second poetry collection Ordinary Hours. Arleen Paré launches her second poetry collection Lake of Two Mountains. Wednesday, April 30 at 7:30pm. The Cottage Bistro, 4468 Main Street, Vancouver. More information at cottage-bistro.com.
SPEAKING FREEDOM
An evening for poetry on freedom from some of Canada's top writers: Fred Wah, Evelyn Lau, Marilyn Dumont, Daniela Elza, Charlie Wilkins, and Martha Roth. St. James Hall, 3214 10th Ave. W. Doors at 7:00pm. For tickets in advance go to: http://www.laurarobinsondefensefund.org/i-wish-to-donate-.html or contact Laura at laura.robinson@sympatico.ca. More information at strangeplaces.livingcode.org.
MICHAEL NICOLL YAHGULANAAS
Celebrate the launch of the paperback edition of his graphic novel, Red: A Haida Manga. Saturday, May 3 at 2:00pm. Douglas Udell Gallery, 1566 6th Ave. W., Vancouver. More information at 604-736-8900.
TRAVELS BY NIGHT: A MEMOIR
To mark publication of an expanded anniversary edition of his memoir, in an interview with historian Dan Francis, author George Fetherling will describe how the world of writing redeemed a life of hardship. Tuesday, May 6 at 7:00pm, free. Peter Kaye room, lower level, Central Branch, 350 W. Georgia St. For more information, email info@quattrobooks.ca.
JANIE CHANG
Reading and discussion by the author of Three Souls. Tuesday, May 6 at 7:00pm. White Rock Library, 15342 Buena Vista, White Rock. More information at 604-541-2201.
KENNETH OPPEL
Author presents his newest book, The Boundless. Wednesday, May 7. Tickets: $5. North Vancouver District Library, 1277 Lynn Valley Road. More information and to purchase tickets at kidsbooks.ca.
DEAD POETS READING SERIES
Five poets/readers/poetry-lovers/writers with extensive public reading experience read poems from one of their favourite dead poet's brilliant work to bring anew to a keen audience. Sunday, May 11 at 3:00pm, free. Alice MacKay room, lower level, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia St. More information at vpl.ca.
SOMAN CHAINANI
Meet the author of The School For Good and Evil. Monday, May 12 at 7:00pm. Kidsbooks, 3083 West Broadway. More information and tickets at kidsbooks.ca.
AN EVENING WITH ANDREW WESTOLL
Award-winning author, journalist and creative writing instructor presents his national bestselling The Chimps of Fauna Sanctuary is the biography of a family of chimpanzees. Tuesday, May 13 at 7:00pm, free. Alma VanDusen and Peter Kaye rooms, lower level, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia St. More information at vpl.ca.
SKAGIT RIVER POETRY FESTIVAL
A celebration of poetry featuring readings, workshops, and storytelling. Access to internationally famous poets through intimate venues and workshop sessions. May 15-18, 2014. Various venues throughout La Conner, WA. More information at www.skagitriverpoetry.org.
125 POETRY READINGS
Stop #95 in Kevin Spenst's Small Books, Big Country, a chapbook tour of Canada. Saturday, May 17 at 2:00pm, free. Alma VanDusen room, lower level, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia St. More information at vpl.ca.
ANN ERIKSSON
Author reads from her new novel High Clear Bell of Morning. Also featuring Garry Geddes reading from his new book of selected poems, What Does a House Want?. Tuesday, May 20 at 7:00pm, free. Capilano Branch, North Vancouver Library, 3045 Highland Blvd., North Vancouver. More information at 604-987-4471.
LUNCH POEMS AT SFU
Readings by Phinder Dulai and Catriona Strang. Wednesday, May 21 at 12:00 noon. Teck Gallery, Main floor, SFU Vancouver Harbour Center, 515 W. Hastings. More information at talonbooks.com.
D.B. CAREW
Local author signs his debut novel The Killer Trail. Friday, May 23 at 4:00pm. Black Bond Books, Haney PLace Mall, Maple Ridge. More information at blackbondbooks.com.
POETIC JUSTICE
Reading by poets Russell Thornton, Susan McCaslin, and Lee Johnson. Sunday, May 25 at 3:00pm. The Heritage Grill Backroom, 447 Columbia St., New Westminster. More information at poeticjustice.ca.
THE PEN AND THE PALETTES
A three day weekend for the cultural and culinary arts enthusiast on Haida Gwaii. Includes the launch of Rachel McMillen's new novel Dark Moon Walking. June 27-30, 2014. More information at haidahouse.com or by email at info@haidahouse.com.
INCITE
Join us on May 7 for readings by Ondjaki (Granma Nineteen and the Soviet's Secret), Sean Michaels (Us Conductors), and Claire Battershill (Circus). Details on this and other upcoming Incite events here, http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/incite.
SPECIAL EVENT
A Dram Come True
There are still a few days left to get early bird tickets for our famed A Dram Come True scotch tasting event. Join us at the legendary Hycroft-a magnificent Edwardian mansion in the heart of Shaughnessy - and enjoy the superb, complex flavours of a variety of rare and distinguished single malts. New this year: Heighten your experience at an exclusive VIP reception before the main event - a private tasting tour of some of the special
malts, guided by whisky experts.
Friday, May 30, 2014
7:30–9:30pm
Tickets: $120
VIP Tasting 6:30–7:30pm; Tickets: $75 (limited quantities, only available with a main event ticket)
Hycroft
1489 McRae Avenue, Vancouver
Click here for details and to purchase tickets, http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/dram-come-true.
A Dram Come True is a fundraiser for the Vancouver Writers Fest.
AWARDS & LISTS
Donna Tartt's The Goldfinch has won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. Judges described the book as one that "stimulates the mind and touches the heart."
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/apr/15/pulitzer-prize-fiction-the-goldfinch-donna-tartt
Noted Canadian children's authors Marie-Louise Gay and Kathy Stinson are among the latest contenders for the Ruth and Sylvia Schwartz Children's Book Awards.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/marie-louise-gay-kathy-stinson-shortlisted-for-kids-lit-prize-1.2612820
Journalist Paul Wells wins the $10,000 Dafoe prize for The Longer I'm Prime Minister: Stephen Harper and Canada 2006-.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/journalist-paul-wells-wins-dafoe-prize-for-stephen-harper-book-1.2610623
YOUNG READERS
Are you looking for something sugar-free to add to your child's Easter basket? Here are two new bunny books that "concern a perennial childhood issue: balancing the desire to do right with the impulse to do just what you want."
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/09/books/found-and-here-comes-the-easter-cat.html
Why is so much young adult literature obsessed with dystopia? According to this article, it's because it's easy for teenagers to feel like they're living in one!
http://www.newrepublic.com/article/117332/no-wonder-teens-love-stories-about-dystopias-they-feel-theyre
NEWS & FEATURES
Sue Townsend, the prolific novelist who satirized Thatcher's Britain through her wildly successful Adrian Mole series, has died. She had been working on a new Adrian Mole book, entitled Pandora's Box, as well as a play, which will open next spring.
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/apr/14/sue-townsend-new-adrian-mole-novel
On the other hand, there's good news from Latin America. Colombian author Gabriel García Márquez, who went into hospital last week for a lung and urinary tract infection, is now recovering at home.
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/apr/09/gabriel-garcia-marquez-released-from-mexico-city-hospital
What book would you send to someone in prison? Leading authors list their picks, here:
http://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2014/apr/14/what-book-would-you-send-to-someone-in-prison
With spring book season in full swing, "store shelves across the nation are packed with new titles competing for readers' attention...The omnipresent, gushing blurbs on the covers all clamour for our attention, but can we trust them?" The anatomy of the book blurb is discussed, here:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/the-anatomy-of-a-blurb-why-you-have-to-read-the-concert-masters-sisters-orphan/article17943956/
Which books make you feel stupid? According to writer Swapna Krishna, "the worst thing about failing to love a book along with everyone else isn't the self-doubt or the fact that you wasted time struggling to get along with it. 'It's the people that make you feel like you're an idiot.'"
http://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2014/apr/10/what-books-make-you-feel-stupid
The Grapes of Wrath turns 75 this month. It is a "spiritual book, and it is from this root that the power and longevity of The Grapes of Wrath grow. Grounded in a ferocious sense of right, the polemical material takes on that prophetic tone, and in so doing, resets the boundaries of the novel itself."
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/book-reviews/the-grapes-of-wrath-75-years-later-john-steinbecks-truth-is-marching-on/article17943476/
Are you interested in how living space influences writers? A new project called 'Where They Create' has set out to chronicle the physical spaces where creative types do their work, through both photography and prose.
http://www.wheretheycreate.com/
A 101-year-old message in a bottle has washed up in the Baltic Sea. It may be the oldest message in a bottle ever recovered.
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/message-bottle-found-baltic-sea-100-years-old-180950500/?no-ist
Are English departments endangered? With tenure track jobs plummeting, much of the focus on university campuses has turned to composition and rhetoric, reflecting the "rational, reasonable, and growing interest in fields specializing in the conditions of textual production at a moment when textual production is undergoing the greatest shift since Gutenberg."
http://chronicle.com/article/The-Moral-Panic-in-Literary/145757/
BOOKS & WRITERS
'Too bitter," the author Jean Rhys said of her work in 1945. "And besides, who wants short stories?" As part of their series 'A brief survey of the short story', The Guardian tackles Jean Rhys, whose "prose would be very hard to read if it weren't so extraordinary."
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/apr/14/jean-rhys-brief-survey-short-story
Maxim Leo is a journalist haunted by memory...memory of the East German state, "a smoke-and-mirrors contraption conjured from the rubble of World War II", which he watched vanish overnight. His new book, Red Love: The Story of an East German Family, chronicles three generations of his family "making the journey from euphoric hope to disillusionment to despair."
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/14/books/red-love-a-memoir-of-east-germany.html
Francine Prose's new novel, Lovers at the Chameleon Club, Paris 1932, is both a page-turner and a book with "breadth, nerve and intricacy." Set in a "cross-dressers' heaven", the novel tells the tale of thugs, artists and poseurs in a time of increasing portent in Europe.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/11/books/francine-proses-lovers-at-the-chameleon-club-paris-1932.html
Adam Begley's Updike is a "sympathetic new biography that's the first but unlikely to be the last of this great American writer—the great American writer, in many regards." The author comes at the story from a unique perspective. His father was a Harvard classmate, friend, and reviewer of Updike's.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/09/books/updike-adam-begleys-look-at-a-novelists-career.html
What motivates Helen Oyeyemi, author of Boy, Snow, Bird? "Perversity...that keeps me writing." She is interviewed by The Globe and Mail, here:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/what-motivates-author-helen-oyeyemi-perversity-keeps-me-writing/article17941117/
"The story of Canada is the story of her relationship with native people," says Richard Wagamese in reference to his new book, Medicine Walk. Redemption is its theme, both in terms of his country and the personal story it tells.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/book-reviews/medicine-walk-a-story-of-a-native-family-but-really-one-about-the-universality-of-tragedy/article17943334/
COMMUNITY EVENTS
TREVOR CAROLAN
Author launches his new book Cascadia: The Life and Breath of the World. Thursday, April 17 at 6:30pm. Banyen Books & Sound, 3608 4th Ave. W.
MARK BENTLEY COHEN
Author reads excerpts from his new book Confessions of a Bisexual Husband. Friday, April 18 at 2:00pm, free. Y's Books, 4307 Main Street, Vancouver. More information at ysbookstore.blogspot.ca.
text bites & textual vishyuns: a reeding & dialog with bill bissett
Reading by renowned Canadian poet bill bissett, followed by a discussion of his work by publisher Karl Siegler, author Carl Peters and artist/writer/educator Jerry Zaslove. Organized in conjunction with the exhibition textual vishyuns: image and text in the work of bill bissett at The Reach Art Gallery and Museum in Abbotsford, on April 17–June 30. Friday, April 18 at 8:00pm. The Western Front, 303 8th Ave. E., Vancouver.
AUTHORS IN OUR MIDST
Author of American Exodus: Climate Change and the Coming Flight for Survival, Giles Slade, discusses the environmental impact of climate change. Tuesday, April 22 ar 7:00pm. Brighouse branch, Richmond Public Library, 100-7700 Minoru Gate, Richmond. More information at yourlibrary.ca.
GEORGE LITTLECHILD
Part of the Write Here Readers Series, a reading by the author of This Land is My Land and The Spirit Giggles Within. Wednesday, April 23 at 7:00pm, free. Cafe Guido, Port Hardy. More information at nic.bc.ca.
DORETTA LAU
Author signs copies of her new book How Does a Single Blade of Grass Thank the Sun? Wednesday, April 23 at 7:00pm. The Paper Hound, 344 West Pender Street, Vancouver. More information at nightwoodeditions.com.
MIKE MCCARDELL
Author will talk about his latest book Haunting Vancouver: A Nearly True History. Thursday, April 24 at 11:00am. Tickets: $10 and includes lunch. West Point Grey United Church, 4595 8th Ave. W., Vancouver. For more information and to register (24 hrs in advance), phone 604-224-4388.
MEET THE AUTHOR
Roberta Rich discuses her novel The Harem Midwife. Thursday, April 24 at 7:00pm. Christianne's Lyceum. 3696 W. 8th Ave. $20 (includes refreshments). To reserve your space call 604.733.1356 or email lyceum@christiannehayward.com. More information at www.christiannehayward.com.
TWISTED POETS LITERARY SALON
Featuring Pamela Porter, teen and children contest winners, and Eric Hamber Writers in the Making. Thursday, April 24 at 7:00pm. Suggested donation: $5 at the door. The Cottage Bistro, 4468 Main Street, Vancouver. More information at www.pandorascollective.com.
BOOK SIGNING
Featuring Roberta Rich (The Midwife of Venice, The Harem Midwife) and Mary Novik (Conceit, Muse). Saturday, April 26 at 2:00pm. 32 Books & Gallery, 3185 Edgemont Village, North Vancouver. More information at 604-980-9032.
CATHY ACE
Author signs her new book The Corpse with the Emerald Thumb. Saturday, April 26 at 3:00pm. Triple Tree Nurseryland, 20503 Lougheed Highway. More information at blackbondbooks.com.
2014 LITFEST NEW WEST
April 26, 2014. A day of free workshops at LitFest New West. To see the list of workshops and to register go to: http://artscouncilnewwest.org/litfest/program/workshops/.
DIANE TUCKER BOOK LAUNCH
Join Diane Tucker for the Vancouver launch of her fourth book, Bonsai Love, a collection of poems about the sensual delicacy of love. Sunday, April 27 at 7:00pm, free. Cottage Bistro, 4470 Main St. Will also feature a musical performance by Vancouver-based sing/songwriter Rodney DeCroo. For more information, visit
www.harbourpublishing.com.
SCHOOL
Jen Currin launches her new story collection. Also featuring Mercedes Eng and Mutya Macatumpag. Sunday, April 27 at 8:00pm, free. Cafe Deux Soleils, 2096 Commericial Drive. More information at chbooks.com.
AN EVENING WITH MELLISSA FUNG
Award-winning journalist, former CBC reporter and author of Under An Afghan Sky will discuss her experience as a reporter covering the Canadian military mission in Afghanistan. Will also feature a screening of her short documentary. Tuesday, April 29 at 7:00pm. Tickets: $15/$20/$10. HR MacMillan Space Centre, 1100 Chestnut Street, Vancouver.
SIBLEY'S GUIDE TO BIRDS
David Sibley, author and illustrator of The Sibley Guide to Birds, will be discussing his newly revised and released 2nd edition of the guide. Tuesday, April 29 at 7:00pm, free but RSVP to vancouver.ca/birdweek. Alma VanDusen & Peter Kaye rooms, lower level, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia St. More information at 604-331-3603.
LONG STORY SHORT
Short story writers C.P. Boyko and Kathy Page launch their latest collections. Tuesday, April 29 at 7:00pm. Founder's Lounge, The Cultch, 1895 Venables St., Vancouver. More information at biblioasis.com.
Upcoming
GRAEME SIMSION
Featuring the author of The Rosie Projects. Wednesday, April 30 at 4:00pm. Tickets: $30 and include wine and appetizers. The Canyon Restaurant, Edgemont Village, North Vancouver. Call 604-980-9032 for more information and to reserve tickets.
TALES FROM FUN CITY
Authors Aaron Chapman and Lani Russwurm share tales from Vancouver's lively cultural history. Wednesday, April 30 at 7:00pm, free. Alma VanDusen & Peter Kaye rooms, Lower Level, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia St. More information at vpl.ca.
FLYING DUCHESSES
Patricia McCuaig's biography of her father's adventures flying a Grumman Goose in Canada from 1964/65 for England's Duke of Westminster. Wednesday, April 30 at 7:00pm. Welsh Hall West, West Vancouver Memorial Library. For more information, call 604-925-7403.
THE STONEHENGE LETTERS
Author Harry Karlinsky launches his book, with introductions by George Fetherling. Wednesday, April 30 at 7:00pm. Isaac Waldman Jewish Public Library, 950 41st Ave. W., Vancouver. More information at www.jccgv.com.
GROUP BOOK LAUNCH
Joanna Lilley launches her first poetry collection The Fleece Era. Jane Munro launches Blue Sonoma, her sixth poetry collection. Karen Enns launches her second poetry collection Ordinary Hours. Arleen Paré launches her second poetry collection Lake of Two Mountains. Wednesday, April 30 at 7:30pm. The Cottage Bistro, 4468 Main Street, Vancouver. More information at cottage-bistro.com.
SPEAKING FREEDOM
An evening for poetry on freedom from some of Canada's top writers: Fred Wah, Evelyn Lau, Marilyn Dumont, Daniela Elza, Charlie Wilkins, and Martha Roth. St. James Hall, 3214 10th Ave. W. Doors at 7:00pm. For tickets in advance go to: http://www.laurarobinsondefensefund.org/i-wish-to-donate-.html or contact Laura at laura.robinson@sympatico.ca. More information at strangeplaces.livingcode.org.
MICHAEL NICOLL YAHGULANAAS
Celebrate the launch of the paperback edition of his graphic novel, Red: A Haida Manga. Saturday, May 3 at 2:00pm. Douglas Udell Gallery, 1566 6th Ave. W., Vancouver. More information at 604-736-8900.
TRAVELS BY NIGHT: A MEMOIR
To mark publication of an expanded anniversary edition of his memoir, in an interview with historian Dan Francis, author George Fetherling will describe how the world of writing redeemed a life of hardship. Tuesday, May 6 at 7:00pm, free. Peter Kaye room, lower level, Central Branch, 350 W. Georgia St. For more information, email info@quattrobooks.ca.
JANIE CHANG
Reading and discussion by the author of Three Souls. Tuesday, May 6 at 7:00pm. White Rock Library, 15342 Buena Vista, White Rock. More information at 604-541-2201.
KENNETH OPPEL
Author presents his newest book, The Boundless. Wednesday, May 7. Tickets: $5. North Vancouver District Library, 1277 Lynn Valley Road. More information and to purchase tickets at kidsbooks.ca.
DEAD POETS READING SERIES
Five poets/readers/poetry-lovers/writers with extensive public reading experience read poems from one of their favourite dead poet's brilliant work to bring anew to a keen audience. Sunday, May 11 at 3:00pm, free. Alice MacKay room, lower level, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia St. More information at vpl.ca.
SOMAN CHAINANI
Meet the author of The School For Good and Evil. Monday, May 12 at 7:00pm. Kidsbooks, 3083 West Broadway. More information and tickets at kidsbooks.ca.
AN EVENING WITH ANDREW WESTOLL
Award-winning author, journalist and creative writing instructor presents his national bestselling The Chimps of Fauna Sanctuary is the biography of a family of chimpanzees. Tuesday, May 13 at 7:00pm, free. Alma VanDusen and Peter Kaye rooms, lower level, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia St. More information at vpl.ca.
SKAGIT RIVER POETRY FESTIVAL
A celebration of poetry featuring readings, workshops, and storytelling. Access to internationally famous poets through intimate venues and workshop sessions. May 15-18, 2014. Various venues throughout La Conner, WA. More information at www.skagitriverpoetry.org.
125 POETRY READINGS
Stop #95 in Kevin Spenst's Small Books, Big Country, a chapbook tour of Canada. Saturday, May 17 at 2:00pm, free. Alma VanDusen room, lower level, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia St. More information at vpl.ca.
ANN ERIKSSON
Author reads from her new novel High Clear Bell of Morning. Also featuring Garry Geddes reading from his new book of selected poems, What Does a House Want?. Tuesday, May 20 at 7:00pm, free. Capilano Branch, North Vancouver Library, 3045 Highland Blvd., North Vancouver. More information at 604-987-4471.
LUNCH POEMS AT SFU
Readings by Phinder Dulai and Catriona Strang. Wednesday, May 21 at 12:00 noon. Teck Gallery, Main floor, SFU Vancouver Harbour Center, 515 W. Hastings. More information at talonbooks.com.
D.B. CAREW
Local author signs his debut novel The Killer Trail. Friday, May 23 at 4:00pm. Black Bond Books, Haney PLace Mall, Maple Ridge. More information at blackbondbooks.com.
POETIC JUSTICE
Reading by poets Russell Thornton, Susan McCaslin, and Lee Johnson. Sunday, May 25 at 3:00pm. The Heritage Grill Backroom, 447 Columbia St., New Westminster. More information at poeticjustice.ca.
THE PEN AND THE PALETTES
A three day weekend for the cultural and culinary arts enthusiast on Haida Gwaii. Includes the launch of Rachel McMillen's new novel Dark Moon Walking. June 27-30, 2014. More information at haidahouse.com or by email at info@haidahouse.com.
Thursday, April 10, 2014
Book News Vol. 9 No. 6
BOOK NEWS
INCITE
Join us on April 16 for readings by Kim Fu (For Today I Am a Boy), Brian Payton (The Wind Is Not a River), and Audrey Thomas (Local Customs). Details on this and other upcoming Incite events here, http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/incite.
Margaret MacMillan Audio
At Incite on March 28, 2014, Margaret MacMillan appeared before a full house of 300 to talk about her latest book, The War that Ended Peace. You can listen to a recording of the event here, http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/multimedia/audio-archives.
SPECIAL EVENTS
A Dram Come True
There are still a few days left to get early bird tickets for our famed A Dram Come True scotch tasting event. Join us at the legendary Hycroft-a magnificent Edwardian mansion in the heart of Shaughnessy - and enjoy the superb, complex flavours of a variety of rare and distinguished single malts. New this year: Heighten your experience at an exclusive VIP reception before the main event - a private tasting tour of some of the special
malts, guided by whisky experts.
Friday, May 30, 2014
7:30–9:30pm
Earlybird tickets $110; after April 15: $120
VIP Tasting 6:30–7:30pm; Tickets: $75 (limited quantities, only available with a main event ticket)
Hycroft
1489 McRae Avenue, Vancouver
Click here for details and to purchase tickets, http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/dram-come-true.
A Dram Come True is a fundraiser for the Vancouver Writers Fest.
Miriam Toews and Steven Galloway
Meet two of Canada's most engaging writers as they talk about their hotly anticipated new books. Click here for event details and to find out more about our special offer for bookclubs: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/gallowaytoews.
AWARDS & LISTS
The shortlist for the Baileys women's prize has been announced, with Donna Tartt (author of The Goldfinch) at the head of the pack. The Baileys prize is the UK's only annual book prize for fiction written by women.
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/apr/07/donna-tartt-baileys-womens-prize-fiction-2012-shortlist
Adam Johnson's short story, 'Nirvana', has won the Sunday Times short story competition. It is a tale of "a woman confined to her bed by an auto-immune disease and a man struggling to come to terms with his fears that she might kill herself", and includes a ghostly appearance by Kurt Cobain.
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/apr/04/sunday-time-short-story-prize-nirvana-adam-johnson-kurt-cobain
The shortlist for the Griffin Poetry Prize has been announced. Both Anne Carson and Anne Michaels made the cut. The $65,000 prize will be announced in early June.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/griffin-poetry-prize-shortlists-anne-carson-anne-michaels-1.2602225
Debut novelists and authors of international acclaim appear on the shortlist for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award.
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/apr/11/impac-literary-prize-shortlist-knausgaard-vasquez-ryan
Arthur Black and Wayne Johnston, among others, are on the shortlist for this year's Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour in Canadian literature.
http://leacock.ca/2014/04/09/2014-leacock-medal-shortlist-announced/
YOUNG READERS
Paddington Bear is back! "Postage costs to Lima have not deterred Michael Bond's ursine icon from penning letters to Aunt Lucy relating his London adventures–to be published by HarperCollins in the autumn."
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/apr/08/paddington-bear-letters-new-book-michael-bond
NEWS & FEATURES
We all know about young-adult fiction, but what about "new-adult" works? As it turns out, books aimed at (and written by) millenials have provided a much-needed boost to the publishing industry, filled with characters who are "attracted to the siren song of freedom but wilfully naive about the associated responsibility."
http://thewalrus.ca/never-never-land/
While there's serious reason to believe that we're in a golden age of young people's literature, it's also the case that we live in a time of great second novels. It has long been claimed that the second novel is harder to write than the first, but the success of Rachel Kushner, Jonathan Miles and Charles McNail may be proving that the opposite is true.
http://www.themillions.com/2014/04/are-we-entering-a-golden-age-of-the-second-novel.html
A German publisher is aiming to put all four million Wikipedia articles into print. "We all know that Wikipedia is huge...but can you imagine how large Wikipedia really is? We think that the best way to experience the size of Wikipedia is by transforming it into the physical medium of books."
http://www.latimes.com/books/jacketcopy/la-et-jc-publisher-aims-to-put-all-4-million-wikipedia-articles-into-print-20140402,0,4089905.story
William Faulkner will forever be associated with Mississippi...but did you know that he spent a large portion of his life in Hollywood too? Learn why he believed that "Abandon hope, all ye who enter here" would be a fitting road sign for drivers to see as they crossed the border into California, here:
http://gardenandgun.com/article/william-faulkners-hollywood-odyssey
Are we losing the war against jargon? "Sixty years ago, civil servant Sir Ernest Gowers's guide to plain English became an unlikely hit. As a revised edition is published, why are windbags still thriving?"
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/10710840/Speak-plainly-are-we-losing-the-war-against-jargon.html
Books have a history of influencing politics, but how often are they used as actual weapons? Declassified documents have now revealed that the CIA used copies of Doctor Zhivago to provoke dissent in the Soviet Union during the Cold War. According to the CIA, the novel had "great propaganda value."
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2014/04/07/300144121/book-news-cia-tried-to-use-doctor-zhivago-to-weaken-the-ussr
What are the greatest meals in literature? From Alice in Wonderland's tea party to On the Road's apple pies, here's a compilation of the ten best.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/10405256/10-great-meals-in-literature.html
BOOKS & WRITERS
Short stories may be synonymous with brevity, but according to Helen Oyeyemi, Lydia Davis' new collection, Can't and Won't, could just as well make up a library. "As you move among the pages, there is an effect of sampling the distinct contributions of quite a few writers."
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/apr/04/cant-wont-stories-lydia-davis-review
Peter Matthiessen, author of The Snow Leopard and At Play in the Fields of the Lord, has died at the age of 86.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/peter-matthiessen-snow-leopard-author-dies-1.2600119
Akhil Sharma's semi-autobiographical new novel, Family Life, tells the story of a family "shattered by loss and disoriented by a recent move from India to America." It is a devastating work that reveals how love becomes "warped and jagged and even seemingly vanishes in the midst of huge grief."
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/06/books/review/akhil-sharmas-family-life.html
Akhil Sharma is also featured in this week's New York Times podcast, along with Julie Bosman (looking back at her four years on the publishing beat). Leslie Jamison also appears to talk about The Empathy Exams, and Gregory Cowles discusses best-seller news.
http://podcasts.nytimes.com/podcasts/2014/04/04/books/review/06books_pod/04bookreview.mp3
It's a hat-trick for Akhil Sharma this week! He has also been featured in the New Yorker Fiction podcast, though in this case reading someone else's work. He reads 'The Night in Question' by Tobias Wolff, "a story within a story about the relationship between a self-destructive brother, Frank, and his tenaciously devoted sister, Frances."
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2014/04/fiction-podcast-akhil-sharma-reads-tobias-wolff.html
You know something's up when a critic begins a book review with: "Damn. Another writer I have to care about." The writer in question is Lawrence Osborne, whose new book, The Ballad of a Small Player, is set in the gambling tables of Macau.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/06/books/review/the-ballad-of-a-small-player-by-lawrence-osborne.html
Teen angst can be hard. But what about grappling with the welfare system, a violent father and traditional religion? Danish-Palestinian poet Yahya Hassan's first collection has already sold more than 100,000 copies, and he's only 18 years old.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/03/books/young-immigrant-in-denmark-lashes-out-in-verse.html
Emma Donoghue's new novel, Frog Music, is based on a very specific historical incident: an 1876 San Francisco murder that was never conclusively solved. A world away from the glittering tech-town of today, Frog Music's San Francisco is a dusty, frontier town, populated by prostitutes, gangsters and thieves.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/book-reviews/frog-music-a-gripping-whodunnit-about-the-death-of-a-cross-dressing-woman-in-19th-century-san-francisco/article17833037/
Joseph Boyden is on a "Revision Quest", both to explore his own First Nations roots and to change the national conversation. Charles Foran explores his story, here:
http://thewalrus.ca/revision-quest/
In celebration of National Poetry Month, here's a list of the 50 essential books of poetry that everyone should read. "There's something for everybody here, from the deeply established canonical works to riveting, important books by newer poets, from the Romantics to the post-modernists, from the goofy to the staid."
http://flavorwire.com/449473/50-essential-books-of-poetry-that-everyone-should-read/view-all/
COMMUNITY EVENTS
NORTH SHORE WRITERS FESTIVAL
15th annual literary weekend. Featuring Vincent Lam, Douglas Gibson, Jen Sookfong Lee, Sandra Gulland and others. April 11 and 12, 2014. North Vancouver City Library, 120 14th St. W., North Vancouver. More information at northshorewritersfestival.com.
CHRISTOPHER LEVENSON
The Vancouver poet and co-organizer of the Dead Poets Reading Series will launch his eleventh book, Night Vision, at 3 p.m. on Saturday 12th April in the Alice MacKay Room of the Central Library, 350, West Georgia Street. As well as reading from the new book he will be interviewed about his poetry by local short fiction writer Ken Klonsky. More information at vpl.ca.
ROBERT HIRZER
Author hosts a book launch of his recently published novel The Last Plane. Saturday, April 12 at 3:00pm. New Westminster Public Library, 716 - 6th Avenue, New Westminster.
DARD HUNTER: THE GRAPHIC WORKS
Lawrence Kreisman will give a talk on Hunter's evolution as an artist, and on what identifies and distinguishes his work from others. Monday, April 14 at 7:00pm, free. Emily Carr Auditorium, Granville Island. More information at blog.alcuinsociety.com.
THURSDAYS WRITING COLLECTIVE
SFU writer-in-residence Madeleine Thien and members of the Thursdays Writing Collective reading from their work. Tuesday April 15 at 12:30 pm, Bennett Library Special Collections/Rare Books (Room 7100), Bennett Library, SFU Burnaby. Free, refreshments. For more info, phone 778-782-6676.
EVENT NON-FICTION CONTEST
Writers are invited to submit manuscripts exploring the creative non-fiction form. $1500 in prizes available, plus publication. Contest Judge Deborah Campbell. Maximum entry length is 5000 words. $34.95 entry fee. Deadline April 15, 2014. Entrants will receive a one-year subscription to EVENT (or extension). Complete contest guidelines can be found at www.eventmagazine.ca/contest-2014/.
LUNCH POEMS AT SFU
Readings by Susan McCaslin and Reg Johanson. Wednesday, April 16 at 12:00 noon, free. SFU Harbour Centre's Teck Gallery, 515 W. Hastings St. More information at sfu.ca/publicsquare/lunchpoems.
TREVOR CAROLAN
Author launches his new book Cascadia: The Life and Breath of the World. Thursday, April 17 at 6:30pm. Banyen Books & Sound, 3608 4th Ave. W.
text bites & textual vishyuns: a reeding & dialog with bill bissett
Reading by renowned Canadian poet bill bissett, followed by a discussion of his work by publisher Karl Siegler, author Carl Peters and artist/writer/educator Jerry Zaslove. Organized in conjunction with the exhibition textual vishyuns: image and text in the work of bill bissett at The Reach Art Gallery and Museum in Abbotsford, on April 17–June 30. Friday, April 18 at 8:00pm. The Western Front, 303 8th Ave. E., Vancouver.
Upcoming
AUTHORS IN OUR MIDST
Author of American Exodus: Climate Change and the Coming Flight for Survival, Giles Slade, discusses the environmental impact of climate change. Tuesday, April 22 ar 7:00pm. Brighouse branch, Richmond Public Library, 100-7700 Minoru Gate, Richmond. More information at yourlibrary.ca.
MEET THE AUTHOR
Roberta Rich discuses her novel The Harem Midwife. Thursday, April 24 at 7:00pm. Christianne's Lyceum. 3696 W. 8th Ave. $20 (includes refreshments). To reserve your space call 604.733.1356 or email lyceum@christiannehayward.com. More information at www.christiannehayward.com.
TWISTED POETS LITERARY SALON
Featuring Pamela Porter, teen and children contest winners, and Eric Hamber Writers in the Making. Thursday, April 24 at 7:00pm. Suggested donation: $5 at the door. The Cottage Bistro, 4468 Main Street, Vancouver. More information at www.pandorascollective.com.
CATHY ACE
Author signs her new book The Corpse with the Emerald Thumb. Saturday, April 26 at 3:00pm. Triple Tree Nurseryland, 20503 Lougheed Highway. More information at blackbondbooks.com.
2014 LITFEST NEW WEST
April 26, 2014. A day of free workshops at LitFest New West. To see the list of workshops and to register go to: http://artscouncilnewwest.org/litfest/program/workshops/.
DIANE TUCKER BOOK LAUNCH
Join Diane Tucker for the Vancouver launch of her fourth book, Bonsai Love, a collection of poems about the sensual delicacy of love. Sunday, April 27 at 7:00pm, free. Cottage Bistro, 4470 Main St. Will also feature a musical performance by Vancouver-based sing/songwriter Rodney DeCroo. For more information, visit
www.harbourpublishing.com.
TALES FROM FUN CITY
Authors Aaron Chapman and Lani Russwurm share tales from Vancouver's lively cultural history. Wednesday, April 30 at 7:00pm, free. Alma VanDusen & Peter Kaye rooms, Lower Level, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia St. More information at vpl.ca.
FLYING DUCHESSES
Patricia McCuaig's biography of her father's adventures flying a Grumman Goose in Canada from 1964/65 for England's Duke of Westminster. Wednesday, April 30 at 7:00pm. Welsh Hall West, West Vancouver Memorial Library. For more information, call 604-925-7403.
JANIE CHANG
Reading and discussion by the author of Three Souls. Tuesday, May 6 at 7:00pm. White Rock Library, 15342 Buena Vista, White Rock. More information at 604-541-2201.
SKAGIT RIVER POETRY FESTIVAL
A celebration of poetry featuring readings, workshops, and storytelling. Access to internationally famous poets through intimate venues and workshop sessions. May 15-18, 2014. Various venues throughout La Conner, WA. More information at www.skagitriverpoetry.org.
THE PEN AND THE PALETTES
A three day weekend for the cultural and culinary arts enthusiast on Haida Gwaii. Includes the launch of Rachel McMillen's new novel Dark Moon Walking. June 27-30, 2014. More information at haidahouse.com or by email at info@haidahouse.com.
INCITE
Join us on April 16 for readings by Kim Fu (For Today I Am a Boy), Brian Payton (The Wind Is Not a River), and Audrey Thomas (Local Customs). Details on this and other upcoming Incite events here, http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/incite.
Margaret MacMillan Audio
At Incite on March 28, 2014, Margaret MacMillan appeared before a full house of 300 to talk about her latest book, The War that Ended Peace. You can listen to a recording of the event here, http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/multimedia/audio-archives.
SPECIAL EVENTS
A Dram Come True
There are still a few days left to get early bird tickets for our famed A Dram Come True scotch tasting event. Join us at the legendary Hycroft-a magnificent Edwardian mansion in the heart of Shaughnessy - and enjoy the superb, complex flavours of a variety of rare and distinguished single malts. New this year: Heighten your experience at an exclusive VIP reception before the main event - a private tasting tour of some of the special
malts, guided by whisky experts.
Friday, May 30, 2014
7:30–9:30pm
Earlybird tickets $110; after April 15: $120
VIP Tasting 6:30–7:30pm; Tickets: $75 (limited quantities, only available with a main event ticket)
Hycroft
1489 McRae Avenue, Vancouver
Click here for details and to purchase tickets, http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/dram-come-true.
A Dram Come True is a fundraiser for the Vancouver Writers Fest.
Miriam Toews and Steven Galloway
Meet two of Canada's most engaging writers as they talk about their hotly anticipated new books. Click here for event details and to find out more about our special offer for bookclubs: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/gallowaytoews.
AWARDS & LISTS
The shortlist for the Baileys women's prize has been announced, with Donna Tartt (author of The Goldfinch) at the head of the pack. The Baileys prize is the UK's only annual book prize for fiction written by women.
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/apr/07/donna-tartt-baileys-womens-prize-fiction-2012-shortlist
Adam Johnson's short story, 'Nirvana', has won the Sunday Times short story competition. It is a tale of "a woman confined to her bed by an auto-immune disease and a man struggling to come to terms with his fears that she might kill herself", and includes a ghostly appearance by Kurt Cobain.
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/apr/04/sunday-time-short-story-prize-nirvana-adam-johnson-kurt-cobain
The shortlist for the Griffin Poetry Prize has been announced. Both Anne Carson and Anne Michaels made the cut. The $65,000 prize will be announced in early June.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/griffin-poetry-prize-shortlists-anne-carson-anne-michaels-1.2602225
Debut novelists and authors of international acclaim appear on the shortlist for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award.
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/apr/11/impac-literary-prize-shortlist-knausgaard-vasquez-ryan
Arthur Black and Wayne Johnston, among others, are on the shortlist for this year's Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour in Canadian literature.
http://leacock.ca/2014/04/09/2014-leacock-medal-shortlist-announced/
YOUNG READERS
Paddington Bear is back! "Postage costs to Lima have not deterred Michael Bond's ursine icon from penning letters to Aunt Lucy relating his London adventures–to be published by HarperCollins in the autumn."
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/apr/08/paddington-bear-letters-new-book-michael-bond
NEWS & FEATURES
We all know about young-adult fiction, but what about "new-adult" works? As it turns out, books aimed at (and written by) millenials have provided a much-needed boost to the publishing industry, filled with characters who are "attracted to the siren song of freedom but wilfully naive about the associated responsibility."
http://thewalrus.ca/never-never-land/
While there's serious reason to believe that we're in a golden age of young people's literature, it's also the case that we live in a time of great second novels. It has long been claimed that the second novel is harder to write than the first, but the success of Rachel Kushner, Jonathan Miles and Charles McNail may be proving that the opposite is true.
http://www.themillions.com/2014/04/are-we-entering-a-golden-age-of-the-second-novel.html
A German publisher is aiming to put all four million Wikipedia articles into print. "We all know that Wikipedia is huge...but can you imagine how large Wikipedia really is? We think that the best way to experience the size of Wikipedia is by transforming it into the physical medium of books."
http://www.latimes.com/books/jacketcopy/la-et-jc-publisher-aims-to-put-all-4-million-wikipedia-articles-into-print-20140402,0,4089905.story
William Faulkner will forever be associated with Mississippi...but did you know that he spent a large portion of his life in Hollywood too? Learn why he believed that "Abandon hope, all ye who enter here" would be a fitting road sign for drivers to see as they crossed the border into California, here:
http://gardenandgun.com/article/william-faulkners-hollywood-odyssey
Are we losing the war against jargon? "Sixty years ago, civil servant Sir Ernest Gowers's guide to plain English became an unlikely hit. As a revised edition is published, why are windbags still thriving?"
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/10710840/Speak-plainly-are-we-losing-the-war-against-jargon.html
Books have a history of influencing politics, but how often are they used as actual weapons? Declassified documents have now revealed that the CIA used copies of Doctor Zhivago to provoke dissent in the Soviet Union during the Cold War. According to the CIA, the novel had "great propaganda value."
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2014/04/07/300144121/book-news-cia-tried-to-use-doctor-zhivago-to-weaken-the-ussr
What are the greatest meals in literature? From Alice in Wonderland's tea party to On the Road's apple pies, here's a compilation of the ten best.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/10405256/10-great-meals-in-literature.html
BOOKS & WRITERS
Short stories may be synonymous with brevity, but according to Helen Oyeyemi, Lydia Davis' new collection, Can't and Won't, could just as well make up a library. "As you move among the pages, there is an effect of sampling the distinct contributions of quite a few writers."
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/apr/04/cant-wont-stories-lydia-davis-review
Peter Matthiessen, author of The Snow Leopard and At Play in the Fields of the Lord, has died at the age of 86.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/peter-matthiessen-snow-leopard-author-dies-1.2600119
Akhil Sharma's semi-autobiographical new novel, Family Life, tells the story of a family "shattered by loss and disoriented by a recent move from India to America." It is a devastating work that reveals how love becomes "warped and jagged and even seemingly vanishes in the midst of huge grief."
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/06/books/review/akhil-sharmas-family-life.html
Akhil Sharma is also featured in this week's New York Times podcast, along with Julie Bosman (looking back at her four years on the publishing beat). Leslie Jamison also appears to talk about The Empathy Exams, and Gregory Cowles discusses best-seller news.
http://podcasts.nytimes.com/podcasts/2014/04/04/books/review/06books_pod/04bookreview.mp3
It's a hat-trick for Akhil Sharma this week! He has also been featured in the New Yorker Fiction podcast, though in this case reading someone else's work. He reads 'The Night in Question' by Tobias Wolff, "a story within a story about the relationship between a self-destructive brother, Frank, and his tenaciously devoted sister, Frances."
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2014/04/fiction-podcast-akhil-sharma-reads-tobias-wolff.html
You know something's up when a critic begins a book review with: "Damn. Another writer I have to care about." The writer in question is Lawrence Osborne, whose new book, The Ballad of a Small Player, is set in the gambling tables of Macau.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/06/books/review/the-ballad-of-a-small-player-by-lawrence-osborne.html
Teen angst can be hard. But what about grappling with the welfare system, a violent father and traditional religion? Danish-Palestinian poet Yahya Hassan's first collection has already sold more than 100,000 copies, and he's only 18 years old.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/03/books/young-immigrant-in-denmark-lashes-out-in-verse.html
Emma Donoghue's new novel, Frog Music, is based on a very specific historical incident: an 1876 San Francisco murder that was never conclusively solved. A world away from the glittering tech-town of today, Frog Music's San Francisco is a dusty, frontier town, populated by prostitutes, gangsters and thieves.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/book-reviews/frog-music-a-gripping-whodunnit-about-the-death-of-a-cross-dressing-woman-in-19th-century-san-francisco/article17833037/
Joseph Boyden is on a "Revision Quest", both to explore his own First Nations roots and to change the national conversation. Charles Foran explores his story, here:
http://thewalrus.ca/revision-quest/
In celebration of National Poetry Month, here's a list of the 50 essential books of poetry that everyone should read. "There's something for everybody here, from the deeply established canonical works to riveting, important books by newer poets, from the Romantics to the post-modernists, from the goofy to the staid."
http://flavorwire.com/449473/50-essential-books-of-poetry-that-everyone-should-read/view-all/
COMMUNITY EVENTS
NORTH SHORE WRITERS FESTIVAL
15th annual literary weekend. Featuring Vincent Lam, Douglas Gibson, Jen Sookfong Lee, Sandra Gulland and others. April 11 and 12, 2014. North Vancouver City Library, 120 14th St. W., North Vancouver. More information at northshorewritersfestival.com.
CHRISTOPHER LEVENSON
The Vancouver poet and co-organizer of the Dead Poets Reading Series will launch his eleventh book, Night Vision, at 3 p.m. on Saturday 12th April in the Alice MacKay Room of the Central Library, 350, West Georgia Street. As well as reading from the new book he will be interviewed about his poetry by local short fiction writer Ken Klonsky. More information at vpl.ca.
ROBERT HIRZER
Author hosts a book launch of his recently published novel The Last Plane. Saturday, April 12 at 3:00pm. New Westminster Public Library, 716 - 6th Avenue, New Westminster.
DARD HUNTER: THE GRAPHIC WORKS
Lawrence Kreisman will give a talk on Hunter's evolution as an artist, and on what identifies and distinguishes his work from others. Monday, April 14 at 7:00pm, free. Emily Carr Auditorium, Granville Island. More information at blog.alcuinsociety.com.
THURSDAYS WRITING COLLECTIVE
SFU writer-in-residence Madeleine Thien and members of the Thursdays Writing Collective reading from their work. Tuesday April 15 at 12:30 pm, Bennett Library Special Collections/Rare Books (Room 7100), Bennett Library, SFU Burnaby. Free, refreshments. For more info, phone 778-782-6676.
EVENT NON-FICTION CONTEST
Writers are invited to submit manuscripts exploring the creative non-fiction form. $1500 in prizes available, plus publication. Contest Judge Deborah Campbell. Maximum entry length is 5000 words. $34.95 entry fee. Deadline April 15, 2014. Entrants will receive a one-year subscription to EVENT (or extension). Complete contest guidelines can be found at www.eventmagazine.ca/contest-2014/.
LUNCH POEMS AT SFU
Readings by Susan McCaslin and Reg Johanson. Wednesday, April 16 at 12:00 noon, free. SFU Harbour Centre's Teck Gallery, 515 W. Hastings St. More information at sfu.ca/publicsquare/lunchpoems.
TREVOR CAROLAN
Author launches his new book Cascadia: The Life and Breath of the World. Thursday, April 17 at 6:30pm. Banyen Books & Sound, 3608 4th Ave. W.
text bites & textual vishyuns: a reeding & dialog with bill bissett
Reading by renowned Canadian poet bill bissett, followed by a discussion of his work by publisher Karl Siegler, author Carl Peters and artist/writer/educator Jerry Zaslove. Organized in conjunction with the exhibition textual vishyuns: image and text in the work of bill bissett at The Reach Art Gallery and Museum in Abbotsford, on April 17–June 30. Friday, April 18 at 8:00pm. The Western Front, 303 8th Ave. E., Vancouver.
Upcoming
AUTHORS IN OUR MIDST
Author of American Exodus: Climate Change and the Coming Flight for Survival, Giles Slade, discusses the environmental impact of climate change. Tuesday, April 22 ar 7:00pm. Brighouse branch, Richmond Public Library, 100-7700 Minoru Gate, Richmond. More information at yourlibrary.ca.
MEET THE AUTHOR
Roberta Rich discuses her novel The Harem Midwife. Thursday, April 24 at 7:00pm. Christianne's Lyceum. 3696 W. 8th Ave. $20 (includes refreshments). To reserve your space call 604.733.1356 or email lyceum@christiannehayward.com. More information at www.christiannehayward.com.
TWISTED POETS LITERARY SALON
Featuring Pamela Porter, teen and children contest winners, and Eric Hamber Writers in the Making. Thursday, April 24 at 7:00pm. Suggested donation: $5 at the door. The Cottage Bistro, 4468 Main Street, Vancouver. More information at www.pandorascollective.com.
CATHY ACE
Author signs her new book The Corpse with the Emerald Thumb. Saturday, April 26 at 3:00pm. Triple Tree Nurseryland, 20503 Lougheed Highway. More information at blackbondbooks.com.
2014 LITFEST NEW WEST
April 26, 2014. A day of free workshops at LitFest New West. To see the list of workshops and to register go to: http://artscouncilnewwest.org/litfest/program/workshops/.
DIANE TUCKER BOOK LAUNCH
Join Diane Tucker for the Vancouver launch of her fourth book, Bonsai Love, a collection of poems about the sensual delicacy of love. Sunday, April 27 at 7:00pm, free. Cottage Bistro, 4470 Main St. Will also feature a musical performance by Vancouver-based sing/songwriter Rodney DeCroo. For more information, visit
www.harbourpublishing.com.
TALES FROM FUN CITY
Authors Aaron Chapman and Lani Russwurm share tales from Vancouver's lively cultural history. Wednesday, April 30 at 7:00pm, free. Alma VanDusen & Peter Kaye rooms, Lower Level, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia St. More information at vpl.ca.
FLYING DUCHESSES
Patricia McCuaig's biography of her father's adventures flying a Grumman Goose in Canada from 1964/65 for England's Duke of Westminster. Wednesday, April 30 at 7:00pm. Welsh Hall West, West Vancouver Memorial Library. For more information, call 604-925-7403.
JANIE CHANG
Reading and discussion by the author of Three Souls. Tuesday, May 6 at 7:00pm. White Rock Library, 15342 Buena Vista, White Rock. More information at 604-541-2201.
SKAGIT RIVER POETRY FESTIVAL
A celebration of poetry featuring readings, workshops, and storytelling. Access to internationally famous poets through intimate venues and workshop sessions. May 15-18, 2014. Various venues throughout La Conner, WA. More information at www.skagitriverpoetry.org.
THE PEN AND THE PALETTES
A three day weekend for the cultural and culinary arts enthusiast on Haida Gwaii. Includes the launch of Rachel McMillen's new novel Dark Moon Walking. June 27-30, 2014. More information at haidahouse.com or by email at info@haidahouse.com.
Thursday, April 3, 2014
Book News Vol. 9 No. 5
BOOK NEWS
INCITE
Join us on April 16 for readings by Kim Fu (For Today I Am a Boy), Brian Payton (The Wind Is Not a River), and Audrey Thomas (Local Customs). Details on this and other upcoming Incite events here, http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/incite.
SPECIAL EVENTS
A Dram Come True
Our wildly popular scotch tasting fundraiser returns on May 30 and tickets are now on sale. Join us at the legendary Hycroft-a magnificent Edwardian mansion in the heart of Shaughnessy-and enjoy the superb, complex flavours of a variety of rare and distinguished single malts, while supporting the Festival. We've added a VIP reception this year for scotch fans or anyone who is interested learning more about uisce beatha-the water of life.
Friday, May 30, 2014
7:30–9:30pm
Earlybird tickets $110; after April 15: $120
VIP Tasting 6:30–7:30pm; Tickets: $75 (limited quantities, only available with a main event ticket)
Hycroft
1489 McRae Avenue, Vancouver
Click here for details and to purchase tickets, http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/dram-come-true.
Miriam Toews and Steven Galloway
Tickets are going fast for our April 24 event with Miriam Toews and Steven Galloway. They'll read from and talk about their new books: Miriam Toews' All My Puny Sorrows is her most passionate novel yet, the riveting story of two sisters, and a love that illuminates life. Steven Galloway's The Confabulist is a brilliant novel about fame and ambition, reality and illusion, and the ways that love, grief and imagination can alter what we perceive and believe. Click here for event details and to find out more about our special offer for bookclubs: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/gallowaytoews.
AWARDS & LISTS
The CBC's 'Combat des Livres' is going full steam ahead this week. The finalists for the French-language version of Canada Reads are Rohinton Mistry (A Fine Balance), Kim Thuy (Ru), Marie-Claire Blaire (La belle bête) and Francois Gravel (Adieu, Betty Crocker).
http://www.cbc.ca/books/2014/03/rohinton-mistrys-a-fine-balance-on-combat-des-livres.html
Francophones and Francophiles may also be interested to hear that the finalists for Radio-Canada's Prix des lecteurs have been named. The prize celebrates French-Canadian literature, and will be decided at the end of April.
http://ici.radio-canada.ca/nouvelles/arts_et_spectacles/2014/03/20/004-les-finalistes-de-prix-deslecteurs-radio-canada-2014-sont-connus.shtml
Linda France has won the UK's National Poetry Competition for her poem 'Bernard and Cerinthe'. The poem "imagines an erotic encounter between a buttoned-up man and a seductive flower."
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/mar/29/linda-france-national-poetry-competition-maggie-sawkins-ted-hughes-award
Vancouver's own E.R. Brown has been nominated for an Edgar Award for his book Almost Criminal. Named after Edgar Allen Poe, the 205-year-old mystery awards will be presented on May 1.
http://www.quillandquire.com/blog/index.php/awards/dundurn-author-e-r-brown-nominated-for-an-edgar-award/
The Children's Book Bank, a Toronto literary organization, has won the IBBY-Asahi Reading Promotion Award for their "very simple system of book recycling, which in addition to getting books into the hands of children, effectively uses the skills of retired librarians and teachers." Operating in a high-density, low-income Toronto neighbourhood, they provide free books to children.
http://www.quillandquire.com/blog/index.php/awards/torontos-childrens-book-bank-wins-ibby-asahi-reading-promotion-award/
Karen Fowler novel wins PEN/Faulkner prize for fiction for her novel We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves.
http://seattletimes.com/html/books/2023279469_apxbookspenfaulknerprize.html
YOUNG READERS
A group of Mi'kmaq educators in Nova Scotia have translated seven of Robert Munsch's books into Mi'kmaq. They intend to distribute the books to First Nations students throughout the province. "We want them to see their language everywhere and feel that just because something is written in English does not mean they can't read it in Mi'kmaq."
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/robert-munsch-books-to-be-translated-for-mi-kmaq-students-1.2588511
NEWS & FEATURES
New York is often described as one of the literary centres of the world, "the home of the publishing industry and a place that lures and nurtures authors and avid readers." But rising rents are putting bookstore owners out of business. How will the city cope?
http://www.theguardian.com/culture/2014/mar/29/samuel-beckett-story-published-echos-bones
We all know about the use of papyrus and animal hides in early book-binding. But what about human flesh? Harvard University has discovered that three books in its collection are "bound in human hide."
https://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/harvard-discovers-old-library-books-bound-in-human-skin_b84050
Six hundred-year-old graffiti has been discovered on a church wall in Lidgate, England. In all likelihood, it was scrawled by the hand of one of the most prolific, and now forgotten, authors of the middle ages: John Lydgate.
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/mar/29/john-lydgate-graffiti-chaucer-monk-literary-talent
Should we really just write what we know? Is this "Helpful Advice or Idle Cliché?" Zoë Heller and Mohsin Hamid discuss, here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/30/books/review/write-what-you-know-helpful-advice-or-idle-cliche.html
One of the UK's most famous booksellers has claimed that e-books are going into decline. But is this really the case? In all likelihood, both paper and digital books have "a place in our hybrid future."
http://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2014/mar/31/paper-vs-digital-reading-debate-ebooks-tim-waterstone
More thoughts on Britain's ban on prisoners receiving books.
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/mar/26/prisoners-book-ban-catch-22-reading-vicious-earn-less
BOOKS & WRITERS
Owain Nicholson recently won the Banff Centre's Bliss Carman Poetry Award. In this interview, he discusses his work as a writer, his inspirations, and who would win "if poetry and fiction got in a fight."
http://www.banffcentre.org/blog/2014/03/19/ezra-pound-vs-baudelaire-who-wins/
Sebastian Barry's new book, The Temporary Gentleman, is a novel of dissolution. Nothing is straightforward for its narrator, who is coming to grips with his past. "The true unreliability of everything written down utterly fascinates me," says Barry. "Even the person who has set down the so-called facts will still get it essentially wrong.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/bookreviews/10726341/The-Temporary-Gentleman-by-Sebastian-Barry-review.html
In 1983, a journalist named William Ecenbarger went to John Updike's family home to interview the author about the relationship between his fiction and the geography of Berks County, Pennsylvania. Little did he know that the exercise was just as useful for the author as it was for the man interviewing him.
http://www.vulture.com/2014/03/john-updike-life-in-fiction-adam-begley.html
In Siri Hustvedt's new novel, The Blazing World, the author tackles the gender bias of the art world. Presented as a "posthumous sampler" of her heroine's diaries, criticism and correspondence, The Blazing World "is a portrait of a creative titan whose career and reputation have seemingly been blighted by the art establishment's ingrained sexism."
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/30/books/review/the-blazing-world-by-siri-hustvedt.html
In the 1970s, poets Rachel Hadas and James Merrill engaged in a steady literary correspondence while both living in Greece. In was in one of these letters, a postcard actually, that Merrill gave Hadas the most important advice of her writing life.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/30/books/review/the-voyage-by-murray-bail.html
What books are currently on Emma Donoghue's night stand? Who is her favourite novelist of all time? What are her literary guilty pleasures? Find out the answers to these questions and more, here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/30/books/review/emma-donoghue-by-the-book.html
How does one write a believable happy ending? "As author Ted Thompson learned from John Cheever, a redemptive resolution doesn't erase the darkness of a story, but instead finds the light within it."
http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2014/03/how-to-write-a-believable-happy-ending/359542/
Ben Tarnoff's new book, The Bohemians, examines how Mark Twain and three friends tried to develop a literature separate from the East Coast. They called themselves "the Bohemians", a San Francisco-based quartet with the goal to reinvent American literature. Tarnoff is interviewed here:
http://www.thestar.com/news/insight/2014/03/28/when_mark_twain_took_his_act_to_san_francisco.html
Are you tired of our narcissistic "selfie" obsessed culture? A new book by James Hall, The Self-Portrait: A Cultural History Review, is an illuminating look into a history that runs contradictory to our age of "addictive self-portraiture". "A digital camera's gaze is skin-deep, and can hardly compete with the almost surgical penetration of a painted self-portrait."
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/mar/30/self-portrait-review-james-hall-tracey-emin
COMMUNITY EVENTS
BC BOOK PRIZES SOIREE 2014
Mix and mingle with the nominees, BC's vibrant literary community, and support the BC Book Prizes On Tour program. Thursday, April 3 at 6:00pm, free. Joe's Apartment, 919 Granville St., Vancouver. More information at www.bcbookprizes.ca.
SWOON
A literary evening of love, sex and chocolate featuring poet Garth Martens, Joelle Barron, Nicole Boyce, Rachel Sawatzky and others. Friday, April 4 at 7:00pm. Cocoa Nymph, 3739 10th Ave. W. More information at swoonreadingseries.wordpress.com.
FLORIDA ANN TOWN
Local author launches her new novel, On The Rim. Saturday, April 5 at 2:00pm. Terry Fox Library, 2470 Mary Hill Road, Port Coquitlam. More information at 604-927-7999.
CHINESE CANADIAN AUTHORS' BOOK LAUNCH
This book launch features four new works in Chinese: William Haoquan Chan's Maplescapes: Selected Works of Chinese Canadian Prose, Shou-fang Hu-Moore's Who Is Calling My Name? Liang Zhaoyuan's Decoding Cao Xueqin's Crytograms, Tommy Tao and Ming Sun Poon's Book of Three Arts, and Wang Wenqin's Slow Heart Beat. Saturday, April 5 at 2:00pm, free. Alma VanDusen room, lower level, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia St. More information at vpl.ca.
VERSES VANCOUVER
4th annual festival celebrating the transformative power of words. Featuring Billeh Nickerson, Daniel Zomparelli, Evelyn Lau, Janice Lee and many more. April 5-12, 2014. For complete details, visit versesfestival.ca.
GILLIAN WIGMORE
Author launches her debut novella, Grayling. Saturday, April 5 at 5:00pm, free. Railway Club, 579 Dunsmuir St., Vancouver. More information at mothertonguepublishing.com.
UNHOLY RITES
Mystery authors Kay Stewart and Chris Bullock present an illustrated talk about Unholy Rites, their latest novel. Tuesday, April 8 at 7:00pm, free. West Point Grey branch, 4480 10th Ave. W., Vancouver. More information at vpl.ca.
DAVID MASON
Author of The Pope's Bookbinder in conversation with Paul Whitney. Tuesday, April 8 at 7:30pm, free. Room 1315, SFU Harbour Centre, 515 West Hastings. For more information and to reserve your seat, call 778-782-4668 or email library@sfu.ca.
GENDER FAILURE
Ivan Coyote and Rae Spoon's show and book launch. Wednesday, April 9 at 8:00pm. The Rio Theatre, Vancouver, BC. More information at t.co/sRrG1UA9uF.
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. More information at www.IcelandWritersRetreat.com.
TWISTED POETS LITERARY SALON
Features poets Jane Munro and Jan Conn plus open mic. Wednesday, April 9, 7-9:30pm, at The Cottage Bistro, 4468 Main Street, Vancouver. Suggested donation at the door: $5. Sign up for open mic at 7 pm. More information at www.pandorascollective.com.
DIALOGUES IN CRITICAL INDIGENOUS STUDIES
Audra Simpson, Glen Coulthard and Chris Andersen will present on their upcoming books at the UBC Longhouse. Thursday, April 10 at 9:30am. First Nations Longhouse, 1985 West Mall, UBC. More information at www.ligi.ubc.ca.
NORTH SHORE WRITERS FESTIVAL
15th annual literary weekend. Featuring Vincent Lam, Douglas Gibson, Jen Sookfong Lee, Sandra Gulland and others. April 11 and 12, 2014. North Vancouver City Library, 120 14th St. W., North Vancouver. More information at northshorewritersfestival.com.
CHRISTOPHER LEVENSON
The Vancouver poet and co-organizer of the Dead Poets Reading Series will launch his eleventh book, Night Vision, at 3 p.m. on Saturday 12th April in the Alice MacKay Room of the Central Library, 350, West Georgia Street. As well as reading from the new book he will be interviewed about his poetry by local short fiction writer Ken Klonsky. More information at vpl.ca.
DARD HUNTER: THE GRAPHIC WORKS
Lawrence Kreisman will give a talk on Hunter's evolution as an artist, and on what identifies and distinguishes his work from others. Monday, April 14 at 7:00pm, free. Emily Carr Auditorium, Granville Island. More information at blog.alcuinsociety.com.
THURSDAYS WRITING COLLECTIVE
SFU writer-in-residence Madeleine Thien and members of the Thursdays Writing Collective reading from their work. Tuesday April 15 at 12:30 pm, Bennett Library Special Collections/Rare Books (Room 7100), Bennett Library, SFU Burnaby. Free, refreshments. For more info, phone 778-782-6676.
EVENT NON-FICTION CONTEST
Writers are invited to submit manuscripts exploring the creative non-fiction form. $1500 in prizes available, plus publication. Contest Judge Deborah Campbell. Maximum entry length is 5000 words. $34.95 entry fee. Deadline April 15, 2014. Entrants will receive a one-year subscription to EVENT (or extension). Complete contest guidelines can be found at www.eventmagazine.ca/contest-2014/.
Upcoming
LUNCH POEMS AT SFU
Reading by Susan McCaslin. Wednesday, April 16 at 12:00 noon, free. SFU Harbour Centre's Teck Gallery, 515 W. Hastings St. More information at sfu.ca/publicsquare/lunchpoems.
text bites & textual vishyuns: a reeding & dialog with bill bissett
Reading by renowned Canadian poet bill bissett, followed by a discussion of his work by publisher Karl Siegler, author Carl Peters and artist/writer/educator Jerry Zaslove. Organized in conjunction with the exhibition textual vishyuns: image and text in the work of bill bissett at The Reach Art Gallery and Museum in Abbotsford, on April 17–June 30. Friday, April 18 at 8:00pm. The Western Front, 303 8th Ave. E., Vancouver.
AUTHORS IN OUR MIDST
Author of American Exodus: Climate Change and the Coming Flight for Survival, Giles Slade, discusses the environmental impact of climate change. Tuesday, April 22 ar 7:00pm. Brighouse branch, Richmond Public Library, 100-7700 Minoru Gate, Richmond. More information at yourlibrary.ca.
CATHY ACE
Author signs her new book The Corpse with the Emerald Thumb. Saturday, April 26 at 3:00pm. Triple Tree Nurseryland, 20503 Lougheed Highway. More information at blackbondbooks.com.
2014 LITFEST NEW WEST
April 26, 2014. A day of free workshops at LitFest New West. To see the list of workshops and to register go to: http://artscouncilnewwest.org/litfest/program/workshops/.
DIANE TUCKER BOOK LAUNCH
Join Diane Tucker for the Vancouver launch of her fourth book, Bonsai Love, a collection of poems about the sensual delicacy of love. Sunday, April 27 at 7:00pm, free. Cottage Bistro, 4470 Main St. Will also feature a musical performance by Vancouver-based sing/songwriter Rodney DeCroo. For more information, visit
www.harbourpublishing.com.
TALES FROM FUN CITY
Authors Aaron Chapman and Lani Russwurm share tales from Vancouver's lively cultural history. Wednesday, April 30 at 7:00pm, free. Alma VanDusen & Peter Kaye rooms, Lower Level, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia St. More information at vpl.ca.
FLYING DUCHESSES
Patricia McCuaig's biography of her father's adventures flying a Grumman Goose in Canada from 1964/65 for England's Duke of Westminster. Wednesday, April 30 at 7:00pm. Welsh Hall West, West Vancouver Memorial Library. For more information, call 604-925-7403.
JANIE CHANG
Reading and discussion by the author of Three Souls. Tuesday, May 6 at 7:00pm. White Rock Library, 15342 Buena Vista, White Rock. More information at 604-541-2201.
SKAGIT RIVER POETRY FESTIVAL
A celebration of poetry featuring readings, workshops, and storytelling. Access to internationally famous poets through intimate venues and workshop sessions. May 15-18, 2014. Various venues throughout La Conner, WA. More information at www.skagitriverpoetry.org.
THE PEN AND THE PALETTES
A three day weekend for the cultural and culinary arts enthusiast on Haida Gwaii. Includes the launch of Rachel McMillen's new novel Dark Moon Walking. June 27-30, 2014. More information at haidahouse.com or by email at info@haidahouse.com.
INCITE
Join us on April 16 for readings by Kim Fu (For Today I Am a Boy), Brian Payton (The Wind Is Not a River), and Audrey Thomas (Local Customs). Details on this and other upcoming Incite events here, http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/incite.
SPECIAL EVENTS
A Dram Come True
Our wildly popular scotch tasting fundraiser returns on May 30 and tickets are now on sale. Join us at the legendary Hycroft-a magnificent Edwardian mansion in the heart of Shaughnessy-and enjoy the superb, complex flavours of a variety of rare and distinguished single malts, while supporting the Festival. We've added a VIP reception this year for scotch fans or anyone who is interested learning more about uisce beatha-the water of life.
Friday, May 30, 2014
7:30–9:30pm
Earlybird tickets $110; after April 15: $120
VIP Tasting 6:30–7:30pm; Tickets: $75 (limited quantities, only available with a main event ticket)
Hycroft
1489 McRae Avenue, Vancouver
Click here for details and to purchase tickets, http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/dram-come-true.
Miriam Toews and Steven Galloway
Tickets are going fast for our April 24 event with Miriam Toews and Steven Galloway. They'll read from and talk about their new books: Miriam Toews' All My Puny Sorrows is her most passionate novel yet, the riveting story of two sisters, and a love that illuminates life. Steven Galloway's The Confabulist is a brilliant novel about fame and ambition, reality and illusion, and the ways that love, grief and imagination can alter what we perceive and believe. Click here for event details and to find out more about our special offer for bookclubs: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/gallowaytoews.
AWARDS & LISTS
The CBC's 'Combat des Livres' is going full steam ahead this week. The finalists for the French-language version of Canada Reads are Rohinton Mistry (A Fine Balance), Kim Thuy (Ru), Marie-Claire Blaire (La belle bête) and Francois Gravel (Adieu, Betty Crocker).
http://www.cbc.ca/books/2014/03/rohinton-mistrys-a-fine-balance-on-combat-des-livres.html
Francophones and Francophiles may also be interested to hear that the finalists for Radio-Canada's Prix des lecteurs have been named. The prize celebrates French-Canadian literature, and will be decided at the end of April.
http://ici.radio-canada.ca/nouvelles/arts_et_spectacles/2014/03/20/004-les-finalistes-de-prix-deslecteurs-radio-canada-2014-sont-connus.shtml
Linda France has won the UK's National Poetry Competition for her poem 'Bernard and Cerinthe'. The poem "imagines an erotic encounter between a buttoned-up man and a seductive flower."
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/mar/29/linda-france-national-poetry-competition-maggie-sawkins-ted-hughes-award
Vancouver's own E.R. Brown has been nominated for an Edgar Award for his book Almost Criminal. Named after Edgar Allen Poe, the 205-year-old mystery awards will be presented on May 1.
http://www.quillandquire.com/blog/index.php/awards/dundurn-author-e-r-brown-nominated-for-an-edgar-award/
The Children's Book Bank, a Toronto literary organization, has won the IBBY-Asahi Reading Promotion Award for their "very simple system of book recycling, which in addition to getting books into the hands of children, effectively uses the skills of retired librarians and teachers." Operating in a high-density, low-income Toronto neighbourhood, they provide free books to children.
http://www.quillandquire.com/blog/index.php/awards/torontos-childrens-book-bank-wins-ibby-asahi-reading-promotion-award/
Karen Fowler novel wins PEN/Faulkner prize for fiction for her novel We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves.
http://seattletimes.com/html/books/2023279469_apxbookspenfaulknerprize.html
YOUNG READERS
A group of Mi'kmaq educators in Nova Scotia have translated seven of Robert Munsch's books into Mi'kmaq. They intend to distribute the books to First Nations students throughout the province. "We want them to see their language everywhere and feel that just because something is written in English does not mean they can't read it in Mi'kmaq."
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/robert-munsch-books-to-be-translated-for-mi-kmaq-students-1.2588511
NEWS & FEATURES
New York is often described as one of the literary centres of the world, "the home of the publishing industry and a place that lures and nurtures authors and avid readers." But rising rents are putting bookstore owners out of business. How will the city cope?
http://www.theguardian.com/culture/2014/mar/29/samuel-beckett-story-published-echos-bones
We all know about the use of papyrus and animal hides in early book-binding. But what about human flesh? Harvard University has discovered that three books in its collection are "bound in human hide."
https://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/harvard-discovers-old-library-books-bound-in-human-skin_b84050
Six hundred-year-old graffiti has been discovered on a church wall in Lidgate, England. In all likelihood, it was scrawled by the hand of one of the most prolific, and now forgotten, authors of the middle ages: John Lydgate.
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/mar/29/john-lydgate-graffiti-chaucer-monk-literary-talent
Should we really just write what we know? Is this "Helpful Advice or Idle Cliché?" Zoë Heller and Mohsin Hamid discuss, here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/30/books/review/write-what-you-know-helpful-advice-or-idle-cliche.html
One of the UK's most famous booksellers has claimed that e-books are going into decline. But is this really the case? In all likelihood, both paper and digital books have "a place in our hybrid future."
http://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2014/mar/31/paper-vs-digital-reading-debate-ebooks-tim-waterstone
More thoughts on Britain's ban on prisoners receiving books.
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/mar/26/prisoners-book-ban-catch-22-reading-vicious-earn-less
BOOKS & WRITERS
Owain Nicholson recently won the Banff Centre's Bliss Carman Poetry Award. In this interview, he discusses his work as a writer, his inspirations, and who would win "if poetry and fiction got in a fight."
http://www.banffcentre.org/blog/2014/03/19/ezra-pound-vs-baudelaire-who-wins/
Sebastian Barry's new book, The Temporary Gentleman, is a novel of dissolution. Nothing is straightforward for its narrator, who is coming to grips with his past. "The true unreliability of everything written down utterly fascinates me," says Barry. "Even the person who has set down the so-called facts will still get it essentially wrong.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/bookreviews/10726341/The-Temporary-Gentleman-by-Sebastian-Barry-review.html
In 1983, a journalist named William Ecenbarger went to John Updike's family home to interview the author about the relationship between his fiction and the geography of Berks County, Pennsylvania. Little did he know that the exercise was just as useful for the author as it was for the man interviewing him.
http://www.vulture.com/2014/03/john-updike-life-in-fiction-adam-begley.html
In Siri Hustvedt's new novel, The Blazing World, the author tackles the gender bias of the art world. Presented as a "posthumous sampler" of her heroine's diaries, criticism and correspondence, The Blazing World "is a portrait of a creative titan whose career and reputation have seemingly been blighted by the art establishment's ingrained sexism."
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/30/books/review/the-blazing-world-by-siri-hustvedt.html
In the 1970s, poets Rachel Hadas and James Merrill engaged in a steady literary correspondence while both living in Greece. In was in one of these letters, a postcard actually, that Merrill gave Hadas the most important advice of her writing life.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/30/books/review/the-voyage-by-murray-bail.html
What books are currently on Emma Donoghue's night stand? Who is her favourite novelist of all time? What are her literary guilty pleasures? Find out the answers to these questions and more, here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/30/books/review/emma-donoghue-by-the-book.html
How does one write a believable happy ending? "As author Ted Thompson learned from John Cheever, a redemptive resolution doesn't erase the darkness of a story, but instead finds the light within it."
http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2014/03/how-to-write-a-believable-happy-ending/359542/
Ben Tarnoff's new book, The Bohemians, examines how Mark Twain and three friends tried to develop a literature separate from the East Coast. They called themselves "the Bohemians", a San Francisco-based quartet with the goal to reinvent American literature. Tarnoff is interviewed here:
http://www.thestar.com/news/insight/2014/03/28/when_mark_twain_took_his_act_to_san_francisco.html
Are you tired of our narcissistic "selfie" obsessed culture? A new book by James Hall, The Self-Portrait: A Cultural History Review, is an illuminating look into a history that runs contradictory to our age of "addictive self-portraiture". "A digital camera's gaze is skin-deep, and can hardly compete with the almost surgical penetration of a painted self-portrait."
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/mar/30/self-portrait-review-james-hall-tracey-emin
COMMUNITY EVENTS
BC BOOK PRIZES SOIREE 2014
Mix and mingle with the nominees, BC's vibrant literary community, and support the BC Book Prizes On Tour program. Thursday, April 3 at 6:00pm, free. Joe's Apartment, 919 Granville St., Vancouver. More information at www.bcbookprizes.ca.
SWOON
A literary evening of love, sex and chocolate featuring poet Garth Martens, Joelle Barron, Nicole Boyce, Rachel Sawatzky and others. Friday, April 4 at 7:00pm. Cocoa Nymph, 3739 10th Ave. W. More information at swoonreadingseries.wordpress.com.
FLORIDA ANN TOWN
Local author launches her new novel, On The Rim. Saturday, April 5 at 2:00pm. Terry Fox Library, 2470 Mary Hill Road, Port Coquitlam. More information at 604-927-7999.
CHINESE CANADIAN AUTHORS' BOOK LAUNCH
This book launch features four new works in Chinese: William Haoquan Chan's Maplescapes: Selected Works of Chinese Canadian Prose, Shou-fang Hu-Moore's Who Is Calling My Name? Liang Zhaoyuan's Decoding Cao Xueqin's Crytograms, Tommy Tao and Ming Sun Poon's Book of Three Arts, and Wang Wenqin's Slow Heart Beat. Saturday, April 5 at 2:00pm, free. Alma VanDusen room, lower level, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia St. More information at vpl.ca.
VERSES VANCOUVER
4th annual festival celebrating the transformative power of words. Featuring Billeh Nickerson, Daniel Zomparelli, Evelyn Lau, Janice Lee and many more. April 5-12, 2014. For complete details, visit versesfestival.ca.
GILLIAN WIGMORE
Author launches her debut novella, Grayling. Saturday, April 5 at 5:00pm, free. Railway Club, 579 Dunsmuir St., Vancouver. More information at mothertonguepublishing.com.
UNHOLY RITES
Mystery authors Kay Stewart and Chris Bullock present an illustrated talk about Unholy Rites, their latest novel. Tuesday, April 8 at 7:00pm, free. West Point Grey branch, 4480 10th Ave. W., Vancouver. More information at vpl.ca.
DAVID MASON
Author of The Pope's Bookbinder in conversation with Paul Whitney. Tuesday, April 8 at 7:30pm, free. Room 1315, SFU Harbour Centre, 515 West Hastings. For more information and to reserve your seat, call 778-782-4668 or email library@sfu.ca.
GENDER FAILURE
Ivan Coyote and Rae Spoon's show and book launch. Wednesday, April 9 at 8:00pm. The Rio Theatre, Vancouver, BC. More information at t.co/sRrG1UA9uF.
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. More information at www.IcelandWritersRetreat.com.
TWISTED POETS LITERARY SALON
Features poets Jane Munro and Jan Conn plus open mic. Wednesday, April 9, 7-9:30pm, at The Cottage Bistro, 4468 Main Street, Vancouver. Suggested donation at the door: $5. Sign up for open mic at 7 pm. More information at www.pandorascollective.com.
DIALOGUES IN CRITICAL INDIGENOUS STUDIES
Audra Simpson, Glen Coulthard and Chris Andersen will present on their upcoming books at the UBC Longhouse. Thursday, April 10 at 9:30am. First Nations Longhouse, 1985 West Mall, UBC. More information at www.ligi.ubc.ca.
NORTH SHORE WRITERS FESTIVAL
15th annual literary weekend. Featuring Vincent Lam, Douglas Gibson, Jen Sookfong Lee, Sandra Gulland and others. April 11 and 12, 2014. North Vancouver City Library, 120 14th St. W., North Vancouver. More information at northshorewritersfestival.com.
CHRISTOPHER LEVENSON
The Vancouver poet and co-organizer of the Dead Poets Reading Series will launch his eleventh book, Night Vision, at 3 p.m. on Saturday 12th April in the Alice MacKay Room of the Central Library, 350, West Georgia Street. As well as reading from the new book he will be interviewed about his poetry by local short fiction writer Ken Klonsky. More information at vpl.ca.
DARD HUNTER: THE GRAPHIC WORKS
Lawrence Kreisman will give a talk on Hunter's evolution as an artist, and on what identifies and distinguishes his work from others. Monday, April 14 at 7:00pm, free. Emily Carr Auditorium, Granville Island. More information at blog.alcuinsociety.com.
THURSDAYS WRITING COLLECTIVE
SFU writer-in-residence Madeleine Thien and members of the Thursdays Writing Collective reading from their work. Tuesday April 15 at 12:30 pm, Bennett Library Special Collections/Rare Books (Room 7100), Bennett Library, SFU Burnaby. Free, refreshments. For more info, phone 778-782-6676.
EVENT NON-FICTION CONTEST
Writers are invited to submit manuscripts exploring the creative non-fiction form. $1500 in prizes available, plus publication. Contest Judge Deborah Campbell. Maximum entry length is 5000 words. $34.95 entry fee. Deadline April 15, 2014. Entrants will receive a one-year subscription to EVENT (or extension). Complete contest guidelines can be found at www.eventmagazine.ca/contest-2014/.
Upcoming
LUNCH POEMS AT SFU
Reading by Susan McCaslin. Wednesday, April 16 at 12:00 noon, free. SFU Harbour Centre's Teck Gallery, 515 W. Hastings St. More information at sfu.ca/publicsquare/lunchpoems.
text bites & textual vishyuns: a reeding & dialog with bill bissett
Reading by renowned Canadian poet bill bissett, followed by a discussion of his work by publisher Karl Siegler, author Carl Peters and artist/writer/educator Jerry Zaslove. Organized in conjunction with the exhibition textual vishyuns: image and text in the work of bill bissett at The Reach Art Gallery and Museum in Abbotsford, on April 17–June 30. Friday, April 18 at 8:00pm. The Western Front, 303 8th Ave. E., Vancouver.
AUTHORS IN OUR MIDST
Author of American Exodus: Climate Change and the Coming Flight for Survival, Giles Slade, discusses the environmental impact of climate change. Tuesday, April 22 ar 7:00pm. Brighouse branch, Richmond Public Library, 100-7700 Minoru Gate, Richmond. More information at yourlibrary.ca.
CATHY ACE
Author signs her new book The Corpse with the Emerald Thumb. Saturday, April 26 at 3:00pm. Triple Tree Nurseryland, 20503 Lougheed Highway. More information at blackbondbooks.com.
2014 LITFEST NEW WEST
April 26, 2014. A day of free workshops at LitFest New West. To see the list of workshops and to register go to: http://artscouncilnewwest.org/litfest/program/workshops/.
DIANE TUCKER BOOK LAUNCH
Join Diane Tucker for the Vancouver launch of her fourth book, Bonsai Love, a collection of poems about the sensual delicacy of love. Sunday, April 27 at 7:00pm, free. Cottage Bistro, 4470 Main St. Will also feature a musical performance by Vancouver-based sing/songwriter Rodney DeCroo. For more information, visit
www.harbourpublishing.com.
TALES FROM FUN CITY
Authors Aaron Chapman and Lani Russwurm share tales from Vancouver's lively cultural history. Wednesday, April 30 at 7:00pm, free. Alma VanDusen & Peter Kaye rooms, Lower Level, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia St. More information at vpl.ca.
FLYING DUCHESSES
Patricia McCuaig's biography of her father's adventures flying a Grumman Goose in Canada from 1964/65 for England's Duke of Westminster. Wednesday, April 30 at 7:00pm. Welsh Hall West, West Vancouver Memorial Library. For more information, call 604-925-7403.
JANIE CHANG
Reading and discussion by the author of Three Souls. Tuesday, May 6 at 7:00pm. White Rock Library, 15342 Buena Vista, White Rock. More information at 604-541-2201.
SKAGIT RIVER POETRY FESTIVAL
A celebration of poetry featuring readings, workshops, and storytelling. Access to internationally famous poets through intimate venues and workshop sessions. May 15-18, 2014. Various venues throughout La Conner, WA. More information at www.skagitriverpoetry.org.
THE PEN AND THE PALETTES
A three day weekend for the cultural and culinary arts enthusiast on Haida Gwaii. Includes the launch of Rachel McMillen's new novel Dark Moon Walking. June 27-30, 2014. More information at haidahouse.com or by email at info@haidahouse.com.
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