Book News Vol. 9 No. 10

BOOK NEWS

Mother's Day is fast approaching. Treat your mom with a Vancouver Writers Fest membership or gift certificate! Click here, http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/get-involved/perfect-gifts-book-lovers.

INCITE

Join us on May 21 for the final event of the Spring 2014 season of Incite, featuring readings by Lynn Coady (Hellgoing), Eufemia Fantetti (A Recipe for Disaster & Other Unlikely Tales of Love), and Nancy Lee (The Age). Details on this event can be found here, http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/incite.

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

The winner of this year's B.C. Book Prizes have been announced. The biggest winners were novelist Ashley Little and biographer David Stouck, who won two prizes each.
http://www.straight.com/blogra/638606/winners-2014-bc-book-prizes-announced

Wayne Grady has won Amazon.ca's First Novel Award. He was given the $7,500 prize for his debut novel, Emancipation Day.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/wayne-grady-wins-the-amazonca-first-novel-award/article18363172/

The four winners of the 2014 Canada Prize for scholarly work have been announced. In the Humanities category, Sandra Djawa (who appeared at the 2013 Vancouver Writers Fest), takes home the prize for Journey with No Maps: A Life of P.K. Page.
http://www.quillandquire.com/awards/2014/05/06/2014-canada-prize-winners-announced/

The 2014 O. Henry Prize Winners have also been revealed. The award is given for the best short fiction published in the last year.
http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/the-o-henry-prize-winners-2014_b85482

YOUNG READERS

Which are the best books for babies? "The Book Doctor recommends the very best books that can be 'read' and explored by a baby who has just started sitting up alone–think sturdy!"
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/may/05/book-doctor-books-for-babies

NEWS & FEATURES

Farley Mowat, one of the elder statesmen of Canadian literature and author of Never Cry Wolf, has died five days short of his 93rd birthday.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/acclaimed-canadian-author-farley-mowat-dead-at-92/article18511064/?page=1

Where is the world's biggest book fair located? You'll be surprised to hear the answer: Tehran! "Censorship persists but there are fewer prohibitions this year at event that draws 500,000 people daily from across Iran."
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/may/02/tehran-biggest-book-fair-iran-censorship

The novel is dead, and "this time it's for real," says Will Self. "Literary fiction used to be central to the culture. No more: in the digital age, not only is the physical book in decline, but the very idea of 'difficult' reading is being challenged."
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/may/02/will-self-novel-dead-literary-fiction

The Marxist Internet Archive, a website "devoted to radical writers and thinkers," has been asked to remove hundreds of works by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. A small leftist publisher called Lawrence & Wishart is responsible, prompting many to call their actions "uncomradely."
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/01/arts/claiming-a-copyright-on-marx-how-uncomradely.html

Have you recently found yourself the victim of a misplaced matrimonial attempt? This article will tell you how to turn down a marriage proposal like Charlotte Brontë!
http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2014/05/01/charlotte-bronte-marriage-proposal-refusal/

Once you've dispensed of your marriage proposal, you can turn to a man of a more exciting kind: the literary bad boy! Who's your type? The nonconformist? The alpha? The unattainable, the lothario, the misunderstood or the anti-hero?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jay-crownover/post_7482_b_5255442.html

"Lately I've been reading about MFA vs NYC," says Junot Diaz in The New Yorker, "But for many of us it's MFA vs POC." By POC, he is referring to "People of Color", often underrepresented in faculties, curricula and discussion in MFA programs across North America.
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2014/04/mfa-vs-poc.html

How do you organize your bookshelf? A recent survey in Britain found that 39% of readers don't organize their bookshelf at all! Find out more, and participate in a survey, here:
http://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/poll/2014/may/05/how-do-you-organise-your-home-library-poll

Never mind organization...what about aesthetics? This website offers a glimpse into the beautiful secret libraries of New York City, from the Conjuring Arts Research Center, to the American Kennel Club Library, to the Interference Archive (a library of activism history.)
http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/secret-libraries-of-new-york-city

Do critics make good novelists? That's the question being asked in this week's edition of The New York Times' Bookends. Daniel Mendelsohn and Leslie Jamison discuss.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/11/books/review/do-critics-make-good-novelists.html

BOOKS & WRITERS

Amazon's inventory includes 261 literary cookbooks, covering most of English literary history. So far, however, none have tackled Virginia Woolf and other members of the Bloomsbury Group. Now there's a book to fill the gap: The Bloomsbury Cookbook!
http://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2014/may/02/eating-words-literary-cookbooks-bloomsbury-group

Canadians are often depicted as kind and apologetic, "which makes it refreshing when a Canadian novel with historical context proves that not only are we interesting, we're also dark, twisted, possessors of furtive desires and murky pasts." Mark Lavorato's Serafim and Claire is a tale of frustrated passion and thwarted romance set in 1920s Montreal.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/book-reviews/serafim-and-claire-frustrated-passion-thwarted-romance-and-endless-secrets-in-1920s-montreal/article18399796/

In the jargon of psychology, a confabulist is "someone who fabricates imaginary experiences as compensation for memory loss." It's also the title of Steven Galloway's new novel, which poses the question "How do we handle a narrator who is labelled a conning fabulist from the very start?"
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/book-reviews/the-confabulist-author-steven-galloway-takes-on-harry-houdini-and-the-art-of-misdirection/article18399294/

My Struggle, Karl Ove Knausgaard's third volume in a six novel series, has just been released in English. Described as a one of the leaders of "the new (unromantic) Romantics," his commanding autobiographical fiction has "been standing the literary world on its ear."
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/shameless-transparent-confessional-meet-writer-karl-ove-knausgaard-and-the-new-unromantic-romantics/article18399130/

Diane Keaton is an award-winning actress, though she's also a published author of photography, architecture and design books, as well as a new memoir. She answers questions about her literary connections, here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/04/books/review/diane-keaton-by-the-book.html

Ruth Reichl is also a woman making a crossover. For years, she was the editor of Gourmet magazine. Now's she's written her first novel, Delicious!, which is unsurprisingly about food!
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/04/magazine/ruth-reichl-ditches-the-wigs-for-a-new-disguise-fiction.html

Crossovers are not just for celebrities, however. Osama Alomar is a Syrian writer whose literary reputation has been growing steadily in the past few years, thanks to his "short, clever parables that comment obliquely on political and social issues." He's also a full-time cab driver, living in exile in Chicago since 2008.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/03/books/osama-alomar-pursues-his-literary-ambitions-in-exile.html

You only need to read the first line of Howard Norman's new novel to know its premise: "After my wife, Elizabeth Church, was murdered by the bellman Alfonse Padgett in the Essex Hotel, she did not leave me." Set in Nova Scotia, Next Life Might Be Kinder is a tale that asks, "do we choose what we want to see?"
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/02/books/howard-normans-novel-next-life-might-be-kinder.html

"Poetry from Adam Sol and Michael Penny brings bright flashes and quiet insights" in new collections by the Canadian writers, called Complicity and Outside, Inside respectively. Penny's has been described as "a beautiful little structure handmade from tiny bricks, all the same size," while Sol's "displays to the fullest his interest in societal collapse."
http://www.straight.com/life/635346/poetry-adam-sol-and-michael-penny-brings-bright-flashes-and-quiet-insights

COMMUNITY EVENTS

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.

CANADIAN WRITING CONFERENCE
The CCWWP (Canadian Creative Writers & Writing Programs) presents readings from three fantastic writers on the UBC Campus as part of their biennial Canadian Writing Conference. Readings and conversations with: Joseph Boyden, Amy Bloom and Lisa Moore. May 15-17, 2014. Frederic Wood Theatre, 6354 Crescent Rd., UBC. Tickets (free) can be reserved at: http://www.eventbrite.ca/o/canadian-creative-writers-amp-writing-programs-6505823193.

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.

Upcoming

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.

SPUR FESTIVAL
The Vancouver edition of Spur, a national festival of politics, art and ideas (May 22-25) features events at SFU Woodwards including Books and Brunch: The Confabulist author Steven Galloway reads and discusses his latest novel with lawyer, author, and incoming SFU Chancellor Anne Giardini. http://spurfestival.ca/vancouver.

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.