BOOK NEWS
Tim Winton Podcast
Tim Winton's appearance at the 2014 Festival was a highlight and received rave reviews. Listen to a recording of his interview with Hal Wake. Details here, http://writersfest.bc.ca/audio-archives/tim-winton.
Incite 2015
New fiction from John Vaillant (The Jaguar's Children), Marianne Apostolides (Sophrosyne) and Alix Halwey (All True Not a Lie in It). Details: https://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/incite.
FREE!
7:30pm, February 11
Alice MacKay room, VPL Central Library
Click here for details: https://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/incite
Festivals Around Town
PuSh Festival January 20-February 8
PuSh presents groundbreaking work in the live performing arts, featuring artists from around the world. Vancouver-based Fight with a Stick makes its debut at PuSh with Steppenwolf, inspired by Herman Hesse's 1927 novel of self-reflection and transformation. Tickets/info: http://pushfestival.ca/shows/steppenwolf/
AWARDS & LISTS
The winners of the 2014 ReLit Award have been announced. The awards honour the best titles released by Canadian indie publishers.
http://www.quillandquire.com/awards/2015/01/27/relit-award-winners-announced/
Helen Macdonald has won the 2014 Costa book award for H is for Hawk, a "haunting" book that explores grief, love and nature. It tells the story of a Cambridge historian, illustrator and naturalist who tries to overcome her grief by training "the most untameable of raptors, the goshawk."
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/jan/27/costa-book-award-helen-macdonald-h-is-for-hawk-win
The finalists for the Shaughnessy Cohen Prize have been named. The prize celebrates political writing.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/shaughnessy-cohen-prize-finalists-announced/article22648737/
YOUNG READERS
January 27th was Family Literacy Day. In honour of this, the CBC released a wonderful list of fifteen kids' books to watch out for in 2015. Check it out here,
http://www.cbc.ca/books/2015/01/15-kids-books-top-watch-out-for-in-2015.html
Here are three young adult books also worth a read. The first is fantastical, the second political (set against the backdrop of the Oka Crisis), and the third one "a story that can't be told enough times."
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/three-young-adult-books-worth-a-read/article22606778
NEWS & FEATURES
Have you ever wondered what goes on behind the scenes at the world's most iconic bookstores? In this interview, Stacey Lewis talks about City Lights, the San Francisco landmark.
http://entropymag.org/city-lights-books/
Nevermind bookstores. What about book clubs? Here's how to be the best book club member!
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/01/26/book-club-etiquette_n_6534016.html
A copyright quirk has left James Bond up for grabs in Canada. "As of Jan. 1, the original writings of Fleming, a former British naval intelligence agent who published 12 novels and nine stories featuring 007 between 1952 and 1966, have entered the public domain. That's because Canada's view of copyright is that it extends for 50 years after the death of a writer."
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/copyright-change-leaves-james-bond-up-for-grabs-in-canada/article22606770/
How much is a book worth? For $294,038 you can get one that self-destructs in 24 hours...plus dinner with the author James Patterson. It's apparently "an experience that will blow your mind. Hopefully, not literally."
http://www.latimes.com/books/jacketcopy/la-et-jc-james-patterson-exploding-book-20150121-story.html
Women are "in danger of being over-identified with the sex in their books" stated Sarah Waters recently at the Jaipur Literature Festival. She appeared alongside Nicholson Baker, Deepti Kapoor and Hanif Kuerishi to discuss "contemporary writers' struggles with sex, and radical Islam's obsession with pleasure."
http://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2015/jan/23/sex-a-political-issue-at-the-jaipur-literature-festival
Speaking of women and writing, here are a few reasons why Virginia Woolf "should be your feminist role model."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/01/25/virginia-woolf-feminist_n_6534258.html?ncid=tweetlnkushpmg00000031=
BOOKS & WRITERS
In his new collection, The Second Sex, Michael Robbins "refuses to represent the poet's world as a cloistered private library." In this interview, he talks to Anahid Nersessian, whose forthcoming work of literary philosophy, Utopia, Limited: Romanticism and Adjustment, provides for great conversation.
http://lareviewofbooks.org/interview/conversation-friends
John Vaillant's The Jaguar's Children is an intense and sharply focused story about the dangers of illegal border crossings. It's also Vaillant's first novel after publishing several very-well received nonfiction books.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/a-novel-debut-for-john-vaillant/article22555331/
Does making art have to be lonely? No, says Lena Dunham in this interview with the LA Review of Books. Dunham is the creator of the TV series Girls (whose protagonist is currently attending the Iowa Writers Workshop), as well as the author of Not That Kind of Girl, a memoir.
http://lareviewofbooks.org/interview/ongoing-autobiography-slightly-younger-self/
If you live anywhere east or north of Vancouver, here's a good list for you: Best Snow Day Reads, featuring nineteen page-turners to enjoy while snowed in.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/01/26/best-snow-day-reads_n_6550272.html
Raziel Reid's first novel, When Everything Feels like the Movies, is currently up for Canada Reads (and won a Governor General's Literary Award last November). However, "more than sixteen hundred people-including some well known writers-are petitioning to have the award revoked, calling the book, which is written for a young adult audience, "vulgar, offensive and graphic." Reid defends his book here,
http://www.cbc.ca/asithappens/features/2015/01/26/author-raziel-reid-defend-his-edgy-debut-novel-from-critics-who-want-him-stripped-of-gg-award/
Family Furnishings: Selected Stories, 1995-2014 is a collection that gathers the best of Alice Munro's more recent writing. The book is a "fine and timely follow-up to Alice Munro's winning of the 2013 Nobel Prize," as well as a sequel of sorts to 1996's Selected Stories.
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2015/feb/05/alice-munros-magic/
Peter Carey's new book, Amnesia, "thrives in its relentless political inquiry." It's a tale that "does sometimes dwell in the dark corners of the Web, it is ultimately less concerned with computer codes than their moral counterparts…it isn't really a story about hackers, but rather one about politics and the complicated legacies left for the children of the Internet by their boomer forebears."
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/book-reviews/peter-carey-takes-a-look-at-the-dark-recesses-of-the-web/article22603763/
COMMUNITY EVENTS
EVANGELINE LILLY
Meet Evangeline Lilly as she reads and signs her new book, The Squickerwonkers. Thursday, January 29 at 7:00pm. Chapters Robson, Vancouver. More information at chapters.indigo.com.
IF I FALL, IF I DIE
Launch of Michael Christie's new novel. Thursday, January 29 at 7:00pm. Antisocial, 2337 Main Street, Vancouver. For more information and to RSVP, email pkells@penguinrandomhouse.com.
TWISTED POETS LITERARY SALON
Features Leah Horlick and Heather Haley with open mic. Thursday, January 29 at 7:00pm. 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.
CAROL SHABEN
Author reads from her book, Into The Abyss, a dramatic account of a plane crash with only four survivors. Tuesday, February 3 at 7:00pm. New Westminster Public Library. For more information and to register, phone 604-527-4667.
WAYDE COMPTON
Reading by Vancouver poet, fiction writer, critic, editor and teacher. Wednesday, February 4 at 12:30pm, free. Room 7100, Special Collections, WAC Bennett Library, SFU Burnaby. More information at http://www.lib.sfu.ca/node/13053.
THE WRITER'S STUDIO READING SERIES
Readings by Candie Tanaka, Graham J. Darling, Kelly Ryan, Yaana Dancer, Alyson Quinn, Meharoona Ghani, Joanne Betzler, and Carleigh Baker. Thursday, February 5 at 8:00pm, admission by donation. Cottage Bistro, 4470 Main Street, Vancouver. More information at 778-782-8000.
RED BRICK READINGS
Features Lorna Crozier and Patrick Lane. Friday, February 13 at 7:00pm. Tickets: $10. Red Brick Cafe, Sidney. More information at sidneyliteraryfestival.ca.
Upcoming
PAINFUL JOURNEY
The remarkable story of Burnaby resident Jerry Gbardy, author of Painful Journey-A Story of Escape and Survival. Tuesday, February 17 at 7:00pm. Free but register at 604-522-3971. Tommy Douglas branch, Burnaby Public Library.
SPOKEN INK
Reading by mystery writer Debra Purdy Kong. Tuesday, February 17 at 8:00pm. La Fontana Caffe, 101-3701 East Hastings, Burnaby. More information at bwscafe@gmail.com.
LUNCH POEMS AT SFU
Alex Leslie and Roy Miki are the featured poets. Wednesday, February 18 at 12:00 noon, free. SFU Harbour Centre's Teck Gallery, 515 W Hastings St. For more information visit www.sfu.ca/publicsquare/lunchpoems.
JEAN BARMAN
Author presents an illustrated talk of her book French Canadians, Furs, and Indigenous Women in the Making of the Pacific Northwest. Wednesday, February 18 at 7:00pm. Central branch, VPL. More information at 604-331-3603.
RUTH DERKSEN SIEMENS
Reading by the author of Daughters in the City, about the lives of young Mennonite women working as domestic servants in Vancouver from 1930 to 1960. Saturday, February 21 at 2:00pm. Registration required. Clearbrook Library, Abbotsford. More information at 604-859-7814.
JOSEPH BOYDEN
Author of Three Day Road, Through Black Spruce, and The Orenda discusses writing and approaching First Nation issues in Canada. Saturday, February 21 at 8:15pm. Lecture Hall No. 2, Woodward Instructional Resources Centre, 2194 Health Sciences Mall, UBC. More information at greencollege.ubc.ca.
GALIANO LITERARY FESTIVAL
Sixth annual festival featuring Theodora Armstrong, George Bowering, Bill Gaston, Elizabeth May, Spider Robinson and others. February 20-22, 2015. Complete details at galianoliteraryfestival.com.
ELSIE PAUL
Author talks about her book Written as I Remember It. Tuesday, February 24 at 7:00pm. Central Branch, VPL. More information at vpl.com.
MICHAEL HEATHERINGTON
Michael Hetherington's latest novel Hooked tells the story of Adrian, an innocent schoolteacher whose life becomes a nightmare after a chance encounter with a woman and a fish hook. Wednesday, February 25 at 7:00pm. Welsh Hall West, West Vancouver Memorial Library. More information at 604-925-7403.
ANN ERIKSSON
Author reads from her novel High Clear Bell of Morning. Thursday, February 26 at 7:00pm. Christianne's Lyceum, 3696 8th Ave. W.
CEA SUNRISE PERSON
Author talks about her memoir, North of Normal: A Memoir of My Wilderness Childhood, My Counterculture Family, and How I Survived Both. Wednesday, March 4 at 7:00pm. Central Branch, VPL. More information at vpl.ca.
JANE EATON HAMILTON
Author reads from her book love will burst into a thousand shapes. Thursday, March 5 at 8:00pm. Cottage Bistro, 4470 Main Street, Vancouver. More information at 604-876-6138.
MISSION WRITERS & READERS FESTIVAL
Features Evelyn Lau, Daniel Elza, Lois Peterson, Chris Gilpin, and John Carroll. Saturday, March 7 at Heritage Park Centre, 33700 Prentis Avenue, Mission. Details at http://www.lifetimelearningcentre.org/uncategorized/8th-annual-mission-writers-and-readers-festival-linking-generations/.
HEART OF A HOOFBEAT
Margaret Evans will take you on a journey that begins 35,000 years ago in southern France to tell the fascinating story of the evolution of the horse. Saturday, March 7 at 1:00pm. Yarrow Library, Chilliwack. More information at 604-823-4664.
ALL MY PUNY SORROWS
Vancouver Institute lecture featuring Governor General's Award for Fiction winner Miriam Toews. Saturday, March 7 at 8:15pm. Lecture Hall No. 2, Woodward Instructional Resources Centre, 2194 Health Sciences Mall, UBC. More information at greencollege.ubc.ca.
A CELEBRATION OF GAIA AS A MUSE
North Vancouver based poet, librettist and non-fiction writer Elaine Woo reads from her debut poetry collection Cycling With The Dragon. Saturday, March 14 at 1:00pm. Brittania branch, VPL, 1661 Napier Street, Vancouver. More information at nightwoodeditions.com.
PEN AND SWORD
Authors C.C. Humphreys, Sebastien de Castell and Kris Sayer will discuss their personal journeys studying swordplay to enrich their writing, characters and stories. Monday, March 23 at 7:00pm. Central Branch, VPL. More information at 604-331-3603.
Thursday, January 29, 2015
Thursday, January 22, 2015
Book News Vol. 9 No. 44
BOOK NEWS
Incite 2015
Join us for an evening of dazzling prose and dramatic tension with Linden MacIntyre (Punishment) and Michael Christie (If I Fall, If I Die).
FREE!
7:30pm, January 28
Alice MacKay room, VPL Central Library
Click here for details: https://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/incite
Festivals Around Town
PuSh Festival January 20-February 8
PuSh presents groundbreaking work in the live performing arts, featuring artists from around the world. Vancouver-based Fight with a Stick makes its debut at PuSh with Steppenwolf, inspired by Herman Hesse's 1927 novel of self-reflection and transformation. Tickets/info: http://pushfestival.ca/shows/steppenwolf/
AWARDS & LISTS
Four Canadian titles have been recognized at the Digital Book Awards. Judged by a panel of 18 publishing design and production experts, the awards celebrate innovation and excellence in digital literary content.
http://www.quillandquire.com/awards/2015/01/15/digital-book-awards-recognize-four-canadian-titles/
YOUNG READERS
"The great novels for young readers all explore the same question: How do we respond to an unfair world? For the picture book crowd, unfairness and injustice can be tough topics for discussion." Here are three picture books that do just that.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/18/books/review/jane-bahks-junas-jar-and-more.html
NEWS & FEATURES
Chapters is closing its flagship downtown Vancouver location. According to CEO Heather Reisman, "a significant rent increase made it 'untenable' for the store to remain open, but that the company is 'actively pursuing another location to serve the Robson trade area which we fully intend to open in 2015.'"
http://www.quillandquire.com/bookselling-2/2015/01/20/chapters-to-shutter-flagship-vancouver-location/
Are you an animal lover as well as a book lover? Then you might appreciate this project. "Poetic Dogs" is an undertaking of photographer Dan Bannino, which features shelter dogs as famous authors (and raises money for an animal shelter.)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jen-reeder/these-photos-of-shelter-d_b_6452518.html
The University of British Columbia has acquired two rare 19th century novels "that scholars believe may have been written by Oscar Wilde. "The books are examples of early homosexual literature, and only a handful of the first editions exist in the world. The UBC Library bought Teleny (published in 1893) for about C$16,000, and Des Grieux (published in 1899) for about C$23,000."
http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/international/international-book-news/article/65274-canadian-university-acquires-historical-novels-with-oscar-wilde-link.html
What happens when your favourite book follows you? In this piece, Julianna Haubner discusses how Richard Russo's Empire Falls "in a weird and fortuitous way, stalked [her] college and back."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/off-the-shelf-/when-your-favorite-book-f_b_6490376.html
How do telephones figure in literature? In celebration of the centenary of Alexander Graham Bell's transcontinental telephone service, the Guardian has created a "telephones in literature" quiz. Test you know-how here.
http://www.theguardian.com/books/quiz/2015/jan/20/telephones-in-literature-quiz
Which literary figure is overdue for a biography? Thomas Mallon and Ayana Mathis discuss Jonathan Franzen, Thomas Wolfe, Alice Munro, Albert Murray and a few more in this piece for the New York Times.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/25/books/review/which-literary-figure-is-overdue-for-a-biography.html
Many of this year's Oscar-nominated films were based on books. Here's the lowdown on 2014 greatest book-to-movie adaptations.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/01/20/oscar-book-adaptations_n_6489420.html
What are the 21st Century's twelve greatest novels? It's a difficult task, but the BBC has set out to the answer that question. Here's their list.
http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20150119-the-21st-centurys-12-best-novels
BOOKS & WRITERS
Canada Reads has just got underway, with several well-known Canadians defending their favourite homegrown books. In this video, Cameron Bailey (Artistic Director of the Toronto International Film Festival) defends Ru, written by the Kim Thúy (who appeared at this past Writers Fest).
http://www.cbc.ca/books/2015/01/cameron-bailey-defends-ru-by-kim-thuy.html
Festival author Thomas King's book The Inconvenient Indian is another finalist on Canada Reads this year. Check out Craig Kielburger's defence, here.
http://www.cbc.ca/books/2015/01/craig-kielburger-defends-the-inconvenient-indian-by-thomas-king.html
In fact, if you missed the whole announcement for the competition's 2015 panelists, you can watch it here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5I8pqs-ADvc&feature=youtu.be
Speaking of local literature, there are lots of Canadian books to be excited about this year. Here's a month-by-month detailing of books to watch out for.
http://www.theprovince.com/entertainment/books/2015+Canadian+novels+coming+your+year/10696904/story.html
There are also some small press books worth a look. Here are three recommended by The Globe and Mail.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/three-small-press-books-worth-a-read/article22488641/
Miranda July's debut novel, The First Bad Man, "mesmerizes." According to book editor Alexandra Molotkow, July "'describes feelings as plainly as objects'…The latter is absolutely true for The First Bad Man, the story of Cheryl, a grey-haired, emotionally wobbly woman looking for something beyond the mundanity of her everyday life."
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/book-reviews/miranda-julys-debut-novel-mesmerizes/article22494682/
In her review of Claudia Rankine's Citizen: An American Lyric, Erica Hunt gets to the real matter at hand: you. "In Claudia Rankine's new collection, Citizen, "you" is used to index, with a restraint that almost hums with tension, race, and racism in America."
http://lareviewofbooks.org/review/all-about-you
Of course, racial tension is not unique to America. French writer Michel Houellebecq's novel, Submission, in ensconced in that very subject (even more so after the Charlie Hebdo massacre). But is he a pundit or a provocateur, a progressive or a reactionary? Either way, his new novel is "an adventure."
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/pundit-or-provocateur-houellebecqs-new-novel-is-an-adventure/article22491093/
COMMUNITY EVENTS
NANCY LEE
Nancy Lee discusses her latest novel, The Age. Thursday, January 22 at 7:00 PM. Christianne's Lyceum. 3696 W. 8th Ave. $22 (includes refreshments). To reserve your space call 604.733.1356 or email lyceum@christiannehayward.com. More information at www.christiannehayward.com.
TO BUILD A FIRE
A dynamic interdisciplinary performance in which piano, cello, and ukulele music compliments and responds to vital, eclectic literary works. Featuring Christine Fellows, Miriam Toews, and Erik Rutherford. Friday, January 23 at 7:00pm. Gessler Hall, UBC School of Music, 6361 Memorial Road.
HALF OF A YELLOW SUN
The film adaption of Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Orange Prize-winning novel, set during Nigeria's bloody Biafran civil war of the late 1960s, makes its Vancouver premiere this month: http://www.thecinematheque.ca/half-of-a-yellow-sun.
POETIC JUSTICE
Features Kennedy Arbor and Jenni Madison with host Franci Louann. Sunday, January 25 at 3:00pm. The Heritage Grill.
YOUTH SLAM
Featuring 2014 Youth Slam Grand Slam champion Sebastian Wen. Monday, January 26 at 7:00pm. Cost: $4-$10. Cafe Deux Soleils, 2096 Commercial Drive, Vancouver. More information at vancouverpoetryhouse.com.
ERIN MOURE
Author reads from her work. Tuesday, January 27 at 5:00pm. Coach House, Green College, UBC.
A NOVEL IDEA
Janine Alyson Young, author of Hideout Hotel, will be joined by former Caitlin Press publicist, Rebecca Hendry. Wednesday, January 28 at 6:00pm. Gibsons Library, 470 Fletcher Rd. S., Gibsons, BC. More information at 604-886-2130.
SOME SORT OF LIFE
Naomi Waken, Nanaimo's first Poet Laureate, shares her latest novel, Some Sort of Life. Wednesday, January 28 at 7:00pm. Welsh Hall, West Vancouver Memorial Library.
EVANGELINE LILLY
Meet Evangeline Lilly as she reads and signs her new book, The Squickerwonkers. Thursday, January 29 at 7:00pm. Chapters Robson, Vancouver. More information at chapters.indigo.com.
IF I FALL, IF I DIE
Launch of Michael Christie's new novel. Thursday, January 29 at 7:00pm. Antisocial, 2337 Main Street, Vancouver. For more information and to RSVP, email pkells@penguinrandomhouse.com.
TWISTED POETS LITERARY SALON
Features Leah Horlick and Heather Haley with open mic. Thursday, January 29 at 7:00pm. 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.
Upcoming
GALIANO LITERARY FESTIVAL
6th annual festival featuring Theodora Armstrong, George Bowering, Bill Gaston, Elizabeth May, Spider Robinson and others. February 20-22, 2015. Complete details at galianoliteraryfestival.com.
Incite 2015
Join us for an evening of dazzling prose and dramatic tension with Linden MacIntyre (Punishment) and Michael Christie (If I Fall, If I Die).
FREE!
7:30pm, January 28
Alice MacKay room, VPL Central Library
Click here for details: https://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/incite
Festivals Around Town
PuSh Festival January 20-February 8
PuSh presents groundbreaking work in the live performing arts, featuring artists from around the world. Vancouver-based Fight with a Stick makes its debut at PuSh with Steppenwolf, inspired by Herman Hesse's 1927 novel of self-reflection and transformation. Tickets/info: http://pushfestival.ca/shows/steppenwolf/
AWARDS & LISTS
Four Canadian titles have been recognized at the Digital Book Awards. Judged by a panel of 18 publishing design and production experts, the awards celebrate innovation and excellence in digital literary content.
http://www.quillandquire.com/awards/2015/01/15/digital-book-awards-recognize-four-canadian-titles/
YOUNG READERS
"The great novels for young readers all explore the same question: How do we respond to an unfair world? For the picture book crowd, unfairness and injustice can be tough topics for discussion." Here are three picture books that do just that.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/18/books/review/jane-bahks-junas-jar-and-more.html
NEWS & FEATURES
Chapters is closing its flagship downtown Vancouver location. According to CEO Heather Reisman, "a significant rent increase made it 'untenable' for the store to remain open, but that the company is 'actively pursuing another location to serve the Robson trade area which we fully intend to open in 2015.'"
http://www.quillandquire.com/bookselling-2/2015/01/20/chapters-to-shutter-flagship-vancouver-location/
Are you an animal lover as well as a book lover? Then you might appreciate this project. "Poetic Dogs" is an undertaking of photographer Dan Bannino, which features shelter dogs as famous authors (and raises money for an animal shelter.)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jen-reeder/these-photos-of-shelter-d_b_6452518.html
The University of British Columbia has acquired two rare 19th century novels "that scholars believe may have been written by Oscar Wilde. "The books are examples of early homosexual literature, and only a handful of the first editions exist in the world. The UBC Library bought Teleny (published in 1893) for about C$16,000, and Des Grieux (published in 1899) for about C$23,000."
http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/international/international-book-news/article/65274-canadian-university-acquires-historical-novels-with-oscar-wilde-link.html
What happens when your favourite book follows you? In this piece, Julianna Haubner discusses how Richard Russo's Empire Falls "in a weird and fortuitous way, stalked [her] college and back."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/off-the-shelf-/when-your-favorite-book-f_b_6490376.html
How do telephones figure in literature? In celebration of the centenary of Alexander Graham Bell's transcontinental telephone service, the Guardian has created a "telephones in literature" quiz. Test you know-how here.
http://www.theguardian.com/books/quiz/2015/jan/20/telephones-in-literature-quiz
Which literary figure is overdue for a biography? Thomas Mallon and Ayana Mathis discuss Jonathan Franzen, Thomas Wolfe, Alice Munro, Albert Murray and a few more in this piece for the New York Times.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/25/books/review/which-literary-figure-is-overdue-for-a-biography.html
Many of this year's Oscar-nominated films were based on books. Here's the lowdown on 2014 greatest book-to-movie adaptations.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/01/20/oscar-book-adaptations_n_6489420.html
What are the 21st Century's twelve greatest novels? It's a difficult task, but the BBC has set out to the answer that question. Here's their list.
http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20150119-the-21st-centurys-12-best-novels
BOOKS & WRITERS
Canada Reads has just got underway, with several well-known Canadians defending their favourite homegrown books. In this video, Cameron Bailey (Artistic Director of the Toronto International Film Festival) defends Ru, written by the Kim Thúy (who appeared at this past Writers Fest).
http://www.cbc.ca/books/2015/01/cameron-bailey-defends-ru-by-kim-thuy.html
Festival author Thomas King's book The Inconvenient Indian is another finalist on Canada Reads this year. Check out Craig Kielburger's defence, here.
http://www.cbc.ca/books/2015/01/craig-kielburger-defends-the-inconvenient-indian-by-thomas-king.html
In fact, if you missed the whole announcement for the competition's 2015 panelists, you can watch it here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5I8pqs-ADvc&feature=youtu.be
Speaking of local literature, there are lots of Canadian books to be excited about this year. Here's a month-by-month detailing of books to watch out for.
http://www.theprovince.com/entertainment/books/2015+Canadian+novels+coming+your+year/10696904/story.html
There are also some small press books worth a look. Here are three recommended by The Globe and Mail.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/three-small-press-books-worth-a-read/article22488641/
Miranda July's debut novel, The First Bad Man, "mesmerizes." According to book editor Alexandra Molotkow, July "'describes feelings as plainly as objects'…The latter is absolutely true for The First Bad Man, the story of Cheryl, a grey-haired, emotionally wobbly woman looking for something beyond the mundanity of her everyday life."
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/book-reviews/miranda-julys-debut-novel-mesmerizes/article22494682/
In her review of Claudia Rankine's Citizen: An American Lyric, Erica Hunt gets to the real matter at hand: you. "In Claudia Rankine's new collection, Citizen, "you" is used to index, with a restraint that almost hums with tension, race, and racism in America."
http://lareviewofbooks.org/review/all-about-you
Of course, racial tension is not unique to America. French writer Michel Houellebecq's novel, Submission, in ensconced in that very subject (even more so after the Charlie Hebdo massacre). But is he a pundit or a provocateur, a progressive or a reactionary? Either way, his new novel is "an adventure."
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/pundit-or-provocateur-houellebecqs-new-novel-is-an-adventure/article22491093/
COMMUNITY EVENTS
NANCY LEE
Nancy Lee discusses her latest novel, The Age. Thursday, January 22 at 7:00 PM. Christianne's Lyceum. 3696 W. 8th Ave. $22 (includes refreshments). To reserve your space call 604.733.1356 or email lyceum@christiannehayward.com. More information at www.christiannehayward.com.
TO BUILD A FIRE
A dynamic interdisciplinary performance in which piano, cello, and ukulele music compliments and responds to vital, eclectic literary works. Featuring Christine Fellows, Miriam Toews, and Erik Rutherford. Friday, January 23 at 7:00pm. Gessler Hall, UBC School of Music, 6361 Memorial Road.
HALF OF A YELLOW SUN
The film adaption of Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Orange Prize-winning novel, set during Nigeria's bloody Biafran civil war of the late 1960s, makes its Vancouver premiere this month: http://www.thecinematheque.ca/half-of-a-yellow-sun.
POETIC JUSTICE
Features Kennedy Arbor and Jenni Madison with host Franci Louann. Sunday, January 25 at 3:00pm. The Heritage Grill.
YOUTH SLAM
Featuring 2014 Youth Slam Grand Slam champion Sebastian Wen. Monday, January 26 at 7:00pm. Cost: $4-$10. Cafe Deux Soleils, 2096 Commercial Drive, Vancouver. More information at vancouverpoetryhouse.com.
ERIN MOURE
Author reads from her work. Tuesday, January 27 at 5:00pm. Coach House, Green College, UBC.
A NOVEL IDEA
Janine Alyson Young, author of Hideout Hotel, will be joined by former Caitlin Press publicist, Rebecca Hendry. Wednesday, January 28 at 6:00pm. Gibsons Library, 470 Fletcher Rd. S., Gibsons, BC. More information at 604-886-2130.
SOME SORT OF LIFE
Naomi Waken, Nanaimo's first Poet Laureate, shares her latest novel, Some Sort of Life. Wednesday, January 28 at 7:00pm. Welsh Hall, West Vancouver Memorial Library.
EVANGELINE LILLY
Meet Evangeline Lilly as she reads and signs her new book, The Squickerwonkers. Thursday, January 29 at 7:00pm. Chapters Robson, Vancouver. More information at chapters.indigo.com.
IF I FALL, IF I DIE
Launch of Michael Christie's new novel. Thursday, January 29 at 7:00pm. Antisocial, 2337 Main Street, Vancouver. For more information and to RSVP, email pkells@penguinrandomhouse.com.
TWISTED POETS LITERARY SALON
Features Leah Horlick and Heather Haley with open mic. Thursday, January 29 at 7:00pm. 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.
Upcoming
GALIANO LITERARY FESTIVAL
6th annual festival featuring Theodora Armstrong, George Bowering, Bill Gaston, Elizabeth May, Spider Robinson and others. February 20-22, 2015. Complete details at galianoliteraryfestival.com.
Thursday, January 15, 2015
Book News Vol. 9 No. 43
BOOK NEWS
Incite 2015
Join us for an evening of dazzling prose and dramatic tension with Linden MacIntyre (Punishment) and Michael Christie (If I Fall, If I Die).
FREE!
7:30pm, January 28
Alice MacKay room, VPL Central Library
Click here for details: https://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/incite
Festivals Around Town
PuSh Festival January 20-February 8
PuSh presents groundbreaking work in the live performing arts, featuring artists from around the world. Vancouver-based Fight with a Stick makes its debut at PuSh with Steppenwolf, inspired by Herman Hesse's 1927 novel of self-reflection and transformation. Tickets/info: http://pushfestival.ca/shows/steppenwolf/
AWARDS & LISTS
David Harsent has won the TS Eliot prize for poetry. His collection, Fire Songs, "plumbs language and emotion with technical brilliance and prophetic power." The £20,000 prize is awarded by the UK's Poetry Book Society to the best collection of new verse in English first published in the UK or Republic of Ireland.
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/jan/12/david-harsent-wins-ts-eliot-prize-poetry-fire-songs
The shortlist for the RBC Taylor Prize has been announced.
http://www.rbctaylorprize.ca/2015/finalists_15.asp
YOUNG READERS
Philip Pullman has released a new audio-only story that draws from the world of the His Dark Materials trilogy. Lovers of the Golden Compass will enjoy this tale about two art collectors in the 1970s coming into contact with a young Marisa Coulter.
http://www.salon.com/2015/01/12/exclusive_excerpt_listen_to_a_new_golden_compass_story_from_phillip_pullman/
NEWS & FEATURES
This past week's Charlie Hebdo slayings have brought up many questions about free speech and tolerance. In this piece for The New Yorker, the novelist Teju Cole responds.
http://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/unmournable-bodies
Thankfully we won’t have to wait long for David Mitchell’s next book. Slade House, which began as a 280 tweet story, has turned into a fully-fledged novel and will be published this October.
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/jan/14/david-mitchell-new-novel-slade-house-autumn
Margaret Atwood is just one of many famous authors protesting changes to the Oxford Junior Dictionary. So-called "natural" words have been replaced with 21st-century terms, with the dropping of "'acorn' and 'buttercup' in favour of 'broadband' and 'cut and paste'" as prime examples.
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/jan/13/oxford-junior-dictionary-replacement-natural-words
The Man Booker Prize has modified its longlist availability rules. It has abandoned its former rule "on the availability of print books following the longlist announcement, placing time limits on the eligibility of titles published outside the UK, and defining the term 'publisher' more closely."
http://thebookseller.com/news/man-booker-prize-modifies-longlist-availability-rules
Sales of printed books have fallen by more than 200 million dollars in the last five years. Nielsen BookScan has released new figures that show continuing decline as more and more readers move to ebooks.
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/jan/13/sales-printed-books-fell-150m--five-years
Why do we hate clichés? "Clichés are like the old talismans dug up at an archaeological site. They often endure even when the times and places that produced them have passed on." Rivka Galchen and Leslie Jamison discuss, here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/11/books/review/why-do-we-hate-clich.html
Speaking of clichés, our "national" literature can quite often be full of them. In this piece, Pasha Malla presents "27 Thoughts About CanLit," with comments on the Canada Council for the Arts, among other things.
http://www.winnipegreview.com/wp/2015/01/27-thoughts-about-canlit/
Is the Internet killing culture? No, "it's always been hard to make a living in the arts. It still is."
http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/books/2015/01/culture_crash_the_killing_of_the_creative_class_reviewed.html
The publishing industry has always played an intermediary role between writers and their readers, navigating the precarious balance between creativity and money. With companies such as Amazon attempting to eliminate these so-called "gatekeepers," here's a piece in praise of publishers who "move units and readers."
http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/books/2015/01/longtime_book_editor_daniel_menaker_on_amazon_authors_united_and_the_future.html
BOOKS & WRITERS
Miranda July's novel, The First Bad Man, "is like one of those strange mythological creatures that are part one thing, part another—a griffin or a chimera, perhaps, or a sphinx," as well as "an immensely moving portrait of motherhood and what it means to take care of a child." The First Bad Man is July's first novel (she is also a filmmaker and an artist.)
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/12/books/miranda-julys-the-first-bad-man.html
Rachel Cusk recently stated that conventional fiction is "fake and embarrassing." Her new novel, Outline, is a sharp break from what she's written before, "a poised and cerebral novel that has little in the way of straightforward plot yet is transfixing in its unruffled awareness of the ways we love and leave each other, and of what it means to listen to other people."
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/07/books/outline-rachel-cusks-new-novel.html
What gets lost when English becomes the lingua franca of the Internet, as well as the world? Minae Mizumura's The Fall of Language in the Age of English tackles the subject, and has just been translated into our "tuneless, careless juggernaut" of a language, English.
http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/books/2015/01/minae_mizumura_s_the_fall_of_language_in_the_age_of_english_reviewed.html
Jeet Heer's so-called 'Twitter essays' are "multipart riffs on culture, politics and the many unlikely connections between the two." His new book, Sweet Lechery, shows us why he's one of Canada's leading public intellectuals.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/book-reviews/sweet-lechery-shows-us-how-jeet-heer-used-twitter-to-become-one-of-canadas-leading-public-intellectuals/article22380667/
Matt Rader's first collection of short stories, What I Want to Tell Goes Like This, is an exploration, largely, of Vancouver Island's Comox Valley, where the author grew up. It explores its vibrant past through the placement of "historically rooted stories juxtaposed against frequently open-ended contemporary fictions."
http://www.straight.com/life/800266/matt-raders-what-i-want-tell-goes-layered-vibrant-history
Jaguar's Children, by Vancouver author John Vaillant, is "a heavy-duty, appalling saga of Mexico," as well as the author's first novel. Vaillant is already known for The Golden Spruce and The Tiger, both lauded non-fiction books.
http://www.vancouversun.com/entertainment/books/Jaguar+Children+unsettling+tale+Mexico+illegals/10716387/story.html
Getting a book published is an arduous path for any author...and a decade-long struggle for more than a few. Here's a new infographic that explores the careers of the world's most successful authors.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/01/14/author-career-infographic_n_6465328.html
COMMUNITY EVENTS
THE CRESCENT MOON PROJECT
Join novelist Mark Boyter and singer/songwriter Glenn Chatten for an evening of readings from Mark's newly released book Crescent Moon Over Laos and Glenn's latest CD. Books and CDs will be available for sale. Thursday, January 15 at 7:00pm, free. The Chapel, St. Andrew's-Wesley United Church, Nelson and Burrard. For more information, email mjboyter@yahoo.ca or gchatten@gmail.com.
BEN NUTTALL-SMITH
Author launches his latest book Flying with White Eagle. Thursday, January 15 at 7:30pm. Pelican Rouge Coffee House, 15142 North Bluff Road, White Rock.
THE DAY THAT...
Celebrate Rain City Chronicles 5th birthday party with a fantastic roster of Vancouverites sharing true tales about days that changed their lives. Friday, January 16 at 6:30pm. Tickets: $28. Grandview Legion Hall, 2205 Commercial Drive, Vancouver. More information at raincitychronicles.com.
INTERIOR PASSAGES
Vancouver Launch of Susan McCaslin's memoir, Into the Mystic: My Years with Olga, and Pam Galloway's volume of poetry, Passing Stranger (both Inanna Publications), Canadian Memorial Centre for Peace, the Great Hall, 1825 W. 16th Ave., Vancouver, BC, Sat. Jan. 17, 3:30-5:30pm. Refreshments, cello music, emcee Diane Tucker. Free and open to the public.
KRISTI CHARISH
Local debut author Kristi Charish launches her new book Owl and the Japanese Circus. Monday, January 19 at 7:00pm. Central branch, 350 W. Georgia Street, Vancouver. More information at 604-331-3603.
VAN SLAM
Featuring spoken word poet and rapper C-Command. Monday, January 19 at 7:00pm.Cost: $6-$10. Cafe Deux Soleils, 2096 Commercial Drive, Vancouver. More information at vancouverpoetryhouse.com.
PAM GALLOWAY AND SUSAN MCCASLIN
Poets reading from their new works (Inanna Publications): Pam's volume of poems, Passing Stranger, and Susan's memoir (Into the Mystic) at the Spoken Ink Series, Burnaby Writers' Society, La Fontana Cafe, 101-3701 East Hastings, Burnaby, Tues. Jan. 20, open mic sign up, 7:30p.m., reading at 8pm. Info: bwscafe@gmail.com.
LUNCH POEMS AT SFU
Kate Braid and Amber Dawn are the featured poets. Wednesday, January 21 at 12:00 noon, free. SFU Harbour Centre's Teck Gallery, 515 W Hastings St. For more information visit www.sfu.ca/publicsquare/lunchpoems.
NOVEL NIGHTS WITH CAROLINE ADDERSON
Book Warehouse hosts their first book club meeting of 2015! Author Caroline Adderson will discuss her latest novel Ellen in Pieces. Wednesday, January 21 at 7:00pm. Book Warehouse, 4118 Main Street, Vancouver. More information at 604-879-7737.
A CELEBRATION OF CHILDREN'S LITERATURE
Featuring award winning B.C. authors and illustrators with guest speaker Kit Pearson winner of the 2014 Lieutenant Governor's Award for Literary Excellence. A wine and cheese event on January 21 from 7-9pm at Creekside Community Centre. More information at www.vclr.ca.
NANCY LEE
Nancy Lee discuses her latest novel, The Age. Thursday, January 22 at 7:00 PM. Christianne's Lyceum. 3696 W. 8th Ave. $22 (includes refreshments). To reserve your space call 604.733.1356 or email lyceum@christiannehayward.com. More information at www.christiannehayward.com.
TO BUILD A FIRE
A dynamic interdisciplinary performance in which piano, cello, and ukulele music compliments and responds to vital, eclectic literary works. Featuring Christine Fellows, Miriam Toews, and Erik Rutherford. Friday, January 23 at 7:00pm. Gessler Hall, UBC School of Music, 6361 Memorial Road.
HALF OF A YELLOW SUN
The film adaption of Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Orange Prize-winning novel, set during Nigeria's bloody Biafran civil war of the late 1960s, makes its Vancouver premiere this month: http://www.thecinematheque.ca/half-of-a-yellow-sun.
Upcoming
POETIC JUSTICE
Features Kennedy Arbor and Jenni Madison with host Franci Louann. Sunday, January 25 at 3:00pm. The Heritage Grill.
YOUTH SLAM
Featuring 2014 Youth Slam Grand Slam champion Sebastian Wen. Monday, January 26 at 7:00pm. Cost: $4-$10. Cafe Deux Soleils, 2096 Commercial Drive, Vancouver. More information at vancouverpoetryhouse.com.
ERIN MOURE
Author reads from her work. Tuesday, January 27 at 5:00pm. Coach House, Green College, UBC.
A NOVEL IDEA
Janine Alyson Young, author of Hideout Hotel, will be joined by former Caitlin Press publicist, Rebecca Hendry. Wednesday, January 28 at 6:00pm. Gibsons Library, 470 Fletcher Rd. S., Gibsons, BC. More information at 604-886-2130.
SOME SORT OF LIFE
Naomi Waken, Nanaimo's first Poet Laureate, shares her latest novel, Some Sort of Life. Wednesday, January 28 at 7:00pm. Welsh Hall, West Vancouver Memorial Library.
EVANGELINE LILLY
Meet Evangeline Lilly as she reads and signs her new book, The Squickerwonkers. Thursday, January 29 at 7:00pm. Chapters Robson, Vancouver. More information at chapters.indigo.com.
IF I FALL, IF I DIE
Launch of Michael Christie's new novel. Thursday, January 29 at 7:00pm. Antisocial, 2337 Main Street, Vancouver. For more information and to RSVP, email pkells@penguinrandomhouse.com.
TWISTED POETS LITERARY SALON
Features Leah Horlick and Heather Haley with open mic. Thursday, January 29 at 7:00pm. 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.
GALIANO LITERARY FESTIVAL
6th annual festival featuring Theodora Armstrong, George Bowering, Bill Gaston, Elizabeth May, Spider Robinson and others. February 20-22, 2015. Complete details at galianoliteraryfestival.com.
Incite 2015
Join us for an evening of dazzling prose and dramatic tension with Linden MacIntyre (Punishment) and Michael Christie (If I Fall, If I Die).
FREE!
7:30pm, January 28
Alice MacKay room, VPL Central Library
Click here for details: https://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/incite
Festivals Around Town
PuSh Festival January 20-February 8
PuSh presents groundbreaking work in the live performing arts, featuring artists from around the world. Vancouver-based Fight with a Stick makes its debut at PuSh with Steppenwolf, inspired by Herman Hesse's 1927 novel of self-reflection and transformation. Tickets/info: http://pushfestival.ca/shows/steppenwolf/
AWARDS & LISTS
David Harsent has won the TS Eliot prize for poetry. His collection, Fire Songs, "plumbs language and emotion with technical brilliance and prophetic power." The £20,000 prize is awarded by the UK's Poetry Book Society to the best collection of new verse in English first published in the UK or Republic of Ireland.
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/jan/12/david-harsent-wins-ts-eliot-prize-poetry-fire-songs
The shortlist for the RBC Taylor Prize has been announced.
http://www.rbctaylorprize.ca/2015/finalists_15.asp
YOUNG READERS
Philip Pullman has released a new audio-only story that draws from the world of the His Dark Materials trilogy. Lovers of the Golden Compass will enjoy this tale about two art collectors in the 1970s coming into contact with a young Marisa Coulter.
http://www.salon.com/2015/01/12/exclusive_excerpt_listen_to_a_new_golden_compass_story_from_phillip_pullman/
NEWS & FEATURES
This past week's Charlie Hebdo slayings have brought up many questions about free speech and tolerance. In this piece for The New Yorker, the novelist Teju Cole responds.
http://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/unmournable-bodies
Thankfully we won’t have to wait long for David Mitchell’s next book. Slade House, which began as a 280 tweet story, has turned into a fully-fledged novel and will be published this October.
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/jan/14/david-mitchell-new-novel-slade-house-autumn
Margaret Atwood is just one of many famous authors protesting changes to the Oxford Junior Dictionary. So-called "natural" words have been replaced with 21st-century terms, with the dropping of "'acorn' and 'buttercup' in favour of 'broadband' and 'cut and paste'" as prime examples.
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/jan/13/oxford-junior-dictionary-replacement-natural-words
The Man Booker Prize has modified its longlist availability rules. It has abandoned its former rule "on the availability of print books following the longlist announcement, placing time limits on the eligibility of titles published outside the UK, and defining the term 'publisher' more closely."
http://thebookseller.com/news/man-booker-prize-modifies-longlist-availability-rules
Sales of printed books have fallen by more than 200 million dollars in the last five years. Nielsen BookScan has released new figures that show continuing decline as more and more readers move to ebooks.
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/jan/13/sales-printed-books-fell-150m--five-years
Why do we hate clichés? "Clichés are like the old talismans dug up at an archaeological site. They often endure even when the times and places that produced them have passed on." Rivka Galchen and Leslie Jamison discuss, here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/11/books/review/why-do-we-hate-clich.html
Speaking of clichés, our "national" literature can quite often be full of them. In this piece, Pasha Malla presents "27 Thoughts About CanLit," with comments on the Canada Council for the Arts, among other things.
http://www.winnipegreview.com/wp/2015/01/27-thoughts-about-canlit/
Is the Internet killing culture? No, "it's always been hard to make a living in the arts. It still is."
http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/books/2015/01/culture_crash_the_killing_of_the_creative_class_reviewed.html
The publishing industry has always played an intermediary role between writers and their readers, navigating the precarious balance between creativity and money. With companies such as Amazon attempting to eliminate these so-called "gatekeepers," here's a piece in praise of publishers who "move units and readers."
http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/books/2015/01/longtime_book_editor_daniel_menaker_on_amazon_authors_united_and_the_future.html
BOOKS & WRITERS
Miranda July's novel, The First Bad Man, "is like one of those strange mythological creatures that are part one thing, part another—a griffin or a chimera, perhaps, or a sphinx," as well as "an immensely moving portrait of motherhood and what it means to take care of a child." The First Bad Man is July's first novel (she is also a filmmaker and an artist.)
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/12/books/miranda-julys-the-first-bad-man.html
Rachel Cusk recently stated that conventional fiction is "fake and embarrassing." Her new novel, Outline, is a sharp break from what she's written before, "a poised and cerebral novel that has little in the way of straightforward plot yet is transfixing in its unruffled awareness of the ways we love and leave each other, and of what it means to listen to other people."
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/07/books/outline-rachel-cusks-new-novel.html
What gets lost when English becomes the lingua franca of the Internet, as well as the world? Minae Mizumura's The Fall of Language in the Age of English tackles the subject, and has just been translated into our "tuneless, careless juggernaut" of a language, English.
http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/books/2015/01/minae_mizumura_s_the_fall_of_language_in_the_age_of_english_reviewed.html
Jeet Heer's so-called 'Twitter essays' are "multipart riffs on culture, politics and the many unlikely connections between the two." His new book, Sweet Lechery, shows us why he's one of Canada's leading public intellectuals.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/book-reviews/sweet-lechery-shows-us-how-jeet-heer-used-twitter-to-become-one-of-canadas-leading-public-intellectuals/article22380667/
Matt Rader's first collection of short stories, What I Want to Tell Goes Like This, is an exploration, largely, of Vancouver Island's Comox Valley, where the author grew up. It explores its vibrant past through the placement of "historically rooted stories juxtaposed against frequently open-ended contemporary fictions."
http://www.straight.com/life/800266/matt-raders-what-i-want-tell-goes-layered-vibrant-history
Jaguar's Children, by Vancouver author John Vaillant, is "a heavy-duty, appalling saga of Mexico," as well as the author's first novel. Vaillant is already known for The Golden Spruce and The Tiger, both lauded non-fiction books.
http://www.vancouversun.com/entertainment/books/Jaguar+Children+unsettling+tale+Mexico+illegals/10716387/story.html
Getting a book published is an arduous path for any author...and a decade-long struggle for more than a few. Here's a new infographic that explores the careers of the world's most successful authors.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/01/14/author-career-infographic_n_6465328.html
COMMUNITY EVENTS
THE CRESCENT MOON PROJECT
Join novelist Mark Boyter and singer/songwriter Glenn Chatten for an evening of readings from Mark's newly released book Crescent Moon Over Laos and Glenn's latest CD. Books and CDs will be available for sale. Thursday, January 15 at 7:00pm, free. The Chapel, St. Andrew's-Wesley United Church, Nelson and Burrard. For more information, email mjboyter@yahoo.ca or gchatten@gmail.com.
BEN NUTTALL-SMITH
Author launches his latest book Flying with White Eagle. Thursday, January 15 at 7:30pm. Pelican Rouge Coffee House, 15142 North Bluff Road, White Rock.
THE DAY THAT...
Celebrate Rain City Chronicles 5th birthday party with a fantastic roster of Vancouverites sharing true tales about days that changed their lives. Friday, January 16 at 6:30pm. Tickets: $28. Grandview Legion Hall, 2205 Commercial Drive, Vancouver. More information at raincitychronicles.com.
INTERIOR PASSAGES
Vancouver Launch of Susan McCaslin's memoir, Into the Mystic: My Years with Olga, and Pam Galloway's volume of poetry, Passing Stranger (both Inanna Publications), Canadian Memorial Centre for Peace, the Great Hall, 1825 W. 16th Ave., Vancouver, BC, Sat. Jan. 17, 3:30-5:30pm. Refreshments, cello music, emcee Diane Tucker. Free and open to the public.
KRISTI CHARISH
Local debut author Kristi Charish launches her new book Owl and the Japanese Circus. Monday, January 19 at 7:00pm. Central branch, 350 W. Georgia Street, Vancouver. More information at 604-331-3603.
VAN SLAM
Featuring spoken word poet and rapper C-Command. Monday, January 19 at 7:00pm.Cost: $6-$10. Cafe Deux Soleils, 2096 Commercial Drive, Vancouver. More information at vancouverpoetryhouse.com.
PAM GALLOWAY AND SUSAN MCCASLIN
Poets reading from their new works (Inanna Publications): Pam's volume of poems, Passing Stranger, and Susan's memoir (Into the Mystic) at the Spoken Ink Series, Burnaby Writers' Society, La Fontana Cafe, 101-3701 East Hastings, Burnaby, Tues. Jan. 20, open mic sign up, 7:30p.m., reading at 8pm. Info: bwscafe@gmail.com.
LUNCH POEMS AT SFU
Kate Braid and Amber Dawn are the featured poets. Wednesday, January 21 at 12:00 noon, free. SFU Harbour Centre's Teck Gallery, 515 W Hastings St. For more information visit www.sfu.ca/publicsquare/lunchpoems.
NOVEL NIGHTS WITH CAROLINE ADDERSON
Book Warehouse hosts their first book club meeting of 2015! Author Caroline Adderson will discuss her latest novel Ellen in Pieces. Wednesday, January 21 at 7:00pm. Book Warehouse, 4118 Main Street, Vancouver. More information at 604-879-7737.
A CELEBRATION OF CHILDREN'S LITERATURE
Featuring award winning B.C. authors and illustrators with guest speaker Kit Pearson winner of the 2014 Lieutenant Governor's Award for Literary Excellence. A wine and cheese event on January 21 from 7-9pm at Creekside Community Centre. More information at www.vclr.ca.
NANCY LEE
Nancy Lee discuses her latest novel, The Age. Thursday, January 22 at 7:00 PM. Christianne's Lyceum. 3696 W. 8th Ave. $22 (includes refreshments). To reserve your space call 604.733.1356 or email lyceum@christiannehayward.com. More information at www.christiannehayward.com.
TO BUILD A FIRE
A dynamic interdisciplinary performance in which piano, cello, and ukulele music compliments and responds to vital, eclectic literary works. Featuring Christine Fellows, Miriam Toews, and Erik Rutherford. Friday, January 23 at 7:00pm. Gessler Hall, UBC School of Music, 6361 Memorial Road.
HALF OF A YELLOW SUN
The film adaption of Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Orange Prize-winning novel, set during Nigeria's bloody Biafran civil war of the late 1960s, makes its Vancouver premiere this month: http://www.thecinematheque.ca/half-of-a-yellow-sun.
Upcoming
POETIC JUSTICE
Features Kennedy Arbor and Jenni Madison with host Franci Louann. Sunday, January 25 at 3:00pm. The Heritage Grill.
YOUTH SLAM
Featuring 2014 Youth Slam Grand Slam champion Sebastian Wen. Monday, January 26 at 7:00pm. Cost: $4-$10. Cafe Deux Soleils, 2096 Commercial Drive, Vancouver. More information at vancouverpoetryhouse.com.
ERIN MOURE
Author reads from her work. Tuesday, January 27 at 5:00pm. Coach House, Green College, UBC.
A NOVEL IDEA
Janine Alyson Young, author of Hideout Hotel, will be joined by former Caitlin Press publicist, Rebecca Hendry. Wednesday, January 28 at 6:00pm. Gibsons Library, 470 Fletcher Rd. S., Gibsons, BC. More information at 604-886-2130.
SOME SORT OF LIFE
Naomi Waken, Nanaimo's first Poet Laureate, shares her latest novel, Some Sort of Life. Wednesday, January 28 at 7:00pm. Welsh Hall, West Vancouver Memorial Library.
EVANGELINE LILLY
Meet Evangeline Lilly as she reads and signs her new book, The Squickerwonkers. Thursday, January 29 at 7:00pm. Chapters Robson, Vancouver. More information at chapters.indigo.com.
IF I FALL, IF I DIE
Launch of Michael Christie's new novel. Thursday, January 29 at 7:00pm. Antisocial, 2337 Main Street, Vancouver. For more information and to RSVP, email pkells@penguinrandomhouse.com.
TWISTED POETS LITERARY SALON
Features Leah Horlick and Heather Haley with open mic. Thursday, January 29 at 7:00pm. 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.
GALIANO LITERARY FESTIVAL
6th annual festival featuring Theodora Armstrong, George Bowering, Bill Gaston, Elizabeth May, Spider Robinson and others. February 20-22, 2015. Complete details at galianoliteraryfestival.com.
Thursday, January 8, 2015
Book News Vol. 9 No. 42
BOOK NEWS
Incite 2015
The first Incite event of 2015 kicks off on January 14 with three brilliant poets. Celebrated Canadian poet Patrick Lane reads from his new collection Washita. He's joined by 2014 Governor General's Award-winner Arleen Pare (Lake of Two Mountains) and newcomer Kayla Czaga (For Your Safety Please Hold On).
FREE!
7:30pm, January 14
Alice MacKay room, VPL Central Library
Click here for details: https://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/incite
Festivals Around Town
PuSh Festival January 20-February 8
PuSh presents groundbreaking work in the live performing arts, featuring artists from around the world. Vancouver-based Fight with a Stick makes its debut at PuSh with Steppenwolf, inspired by Herman Hesse's 1927 novel of self-reflection and transformation. Tickets/info: http://pushfestival.ca/shows/steppenwolf/
AWARDS & LISTS
Emma Healey has been awarded the Costa First Novel Prize. Her book, Elizabeth is Missing, was inspired by her grandmother's dementia.
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/jan/05/costa-first-novel-prize-2014-emma-healey-elizabeth-healey
Kate Saunders has won the Costa Children's Book Award for Five Children on the Western Front. The award-winning book takes up the story of E. Nesbit's classic tale Five Children and It.
http://www.theguardian.com/childrens-books-site/2015/jan/05/kate-saunders-costa-childrens-book-award-five-children-on-the-western-front
YOUNG READERS
Please Mr. Panda is just one of several new children's books worth checking out this week. You can see wonderful illustrations, previews and mini reviews, here:
http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2014/12/31/books/review/31childrens-6.html
NEWS & FEATURES
What are your New Year's resolutions? In this article, ten authors, including John Vaillant and Andrew Pyper, make their resolutions.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/i-hereby-resolveauthors-share-their-writerly-resolutions-for-2015/article22264102/
Speaking of resolutions, Mark Zuckerberg has shocked the world with his low-tech goal for the New Year: read a new book every other week. According to Zuckerberg, "books allow you to fully explore a topic and immerse yourself in a deeper way than most media today. I'm looking forward to shifting more of my media diet towards reading books."
http://www.forbes.com/sites/amitchowdhry/2015/01/05/mark-zuckerberg-book-club/
Submissions are now being accepted for this year's CBC Creative Nonfiction prize (http://www.cbc.ca/books/canadawrites/literaryprizes/nonfiction/)! To help get you motivated, here are 10 inspiring quotes by great nonfiction writers.
http://www.cbc.ca/books/canadawrites/2015/01/10-inspiring-quotes-by-great-nonfiction-writers.html
How do aesthetics and reading interact? Franck Bohbot, a French photographer currently living in New York, recently created a project called "House of Books," which documents the most beautiful libraries in the world.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/12/29/most-beautiful-libraries_n_6391600.html
HaHaruki Murakami is "so notoriously reclusive that nobody knows for sure where in the world he lives, and he has joked about biting fans who get too close." He's dropping the veil this spring, when he'll be giving readers personal advice on any topic they choose. Questions will be accepted from January 15th to the 31st on a special page called Murakami's Place.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/author-haruki-murakami-to-give-readers-personal-advice-on-any-topic-1.2890935
"It may call itself a town," wrote Neil Gaiman in American Gods, "but unless it's got a bookstore it knows it's not fooling a soul." Here's a "different kind of book tour," a list of the best bookstores to visit in the US.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/a-different-kind-of-book-tour-1419635258
BOOKS & WRITERS
It's the New Year, and with that comes new books. Here's the Globe and Mail's list of the "50 most anticipated books of 2015 (the first half, anyway)."
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/the-50-most-anticipated-books-of-2015-the-first-half-anyway/article22273982/
The TV adaptation of Lawrence Hill's Book of Negroes has just premiered on CBC. In this interview, Hill "shares some of the secrets to his success–including why you should write what you don't know."
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/lawrence-hill-treats-all-his-writing-as-one-large-mural/article22275786/
"I would like to say I write every day (and I certainly tell other people they should!)," states Margaret Atwood in a recent interview with the LA Times, "but I have to admit I don't always do it. I try to write at least something, even if it's a letter or a to-do list, or a Reddit AMA." She discusses her reading and writing habits, negative reviews and more, here:
http://www.latimes.com/books/jacketcopy/la-et-jc-margaret-atwood-charming-reddit-ama-20141231-story.html
William Gibson is an author known for "eerily prescient" works, which, thanks to the "dizzying" pace of technological advancement, feature futuristic elements that have already become realized. "Unfortunately for all of us, the grimmer the vision, the more vividly realized those moments of foresight have become, which bodes ill for the world if Gibson's latest work is imbued with similar prescience."
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/book-reviews/the-peripheral-back-to-the-future-with-william-gibson/article22193577/
When Eimear McBride began writing A Girl is a Half-Formed Thing, she "didn't want to write like [James] Joyce...What Joyce did was point me in the direction I wanted to go in." She discusses that, and her upcoming novel, here:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/author-eimear-mcbrides-sense-of-direction-is-fully-formed/article22212907/
What's the best advice Kathleen Winter ever got? "Smash a manuscript against the wall like breaking a vase, and start again."
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/the-best-advice-author-kathleen-winter-ever-got-smash-a-manuscript-against-the-wall-like-breaking-a-vase-and-start-again/article22163571/
Honeydew is Edith Pearlman's fifth short story collection, as well as the first to be released by a major publishing house. After five decades of writing short stories (some 200 for small literary magazines), she has finally, at age 78, got her big break.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/03/books/edith-pearlmans-new-book-is-honeydew.html
More than one hundred years after publishing its landmark Greeks and Romans classics collection, Harvard University Press is doing "the same for the far more vast and dizzyingly diverse classical literature of India, in what some are calling one of the most complex scholarly publishing projects ever undertaken."
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/03/books/murty-classical-library-catalogs-indian-literature.html
Algerian author Kamel Daoud's debut novel "reaped glowing international reviews, literary honors and then, suddenly, demands for his public execution." Called Meursault, Counter-Investigation, it's a retelling of Albert Camus's classic The Stranger.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/05/books/an-algerian-author-fights-back-against-a-fatwa.html
Haruki Murakami's latest novel, Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and his Years of Pilgrimage, is the subject of this week's Digested Read podcast (produced by the Guardian.) According to die-hard fan Dale Berning, "Murakami's deadpan prose will never lose its lustre."
http://www.theguardian.com/books/audio/2015/jan/01/haruki-murakami-colorless-tsukuru-digested-read-books-podcast-2015
COMMUNITY EVENTS
TWS READING SERIES
The Writer's Studio at SFU presents poet Linda King, author of Dream Street Details. Thursday, January 8 at 8:00 pm. Cottage Bistro, 4470 Main Street, Vancouver. More info at http://www.sfu.ca/continuing-studies/events/2015/01/tws-reading-series1.html.
GUNG HAGGIS FAT CHOY WORLD POETRY
Features Kathy Figueroa, Steven Duncan and Joe MacDonald. Saturday, January 10 at 1:00pm, free. Britannia branch, VPL. More information at worldpoetry.ca.
DEAD POETS READING SERIES
Five poets/poetry-lovers/readers/writers bring to life the works of their favourite deceased poets. Each reader will give a brief presentation on the life and work of their chosen poet, followed by a poetry reading. Sunday, January 11 at 3:00pm, free. Central Branch, VPL, 350 W. Georgia Street. More information at deadpoetslive.com.
BLOOD ON THE MOON
Author Ruth Kozak presents her latest historical fiction novel. With special guest Manolis Agilizakis. Wednesday, January 14 at 7:00pm. Hellenic Community Centre, Vancouver.
TWISTED POETS LITERARY SALON
Features Phinder Dulai and Nilofar Shidmehr with open mic. Wednesday, January 14 at 7:00pm 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.
WOWPS FINALS
Nine female identified poets from Vancouver will be going head to head to see which one of them will represent Vancouver at the Women of the World Poetry Slam in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Wednesday, January 14 at 7:00pm. Cost: $6-$10. Cafe Deux Soleils, 2096 Commercial Drive, Vancouver. More info at vancouverpoetryhouse.com.
THE CRESCENT MOON PROJECT
Join novelist Mark Boyter and singer/songwriter Glenn Chatten for an evening of readings from Mark's newly released book Crescent Moon Over Laos and Glenn's latest CD. Books and CDs will be available for sale. Thursday, January 15 at 7:00pm, free. The Chapel, St. Andrew's-Wesley United Church, Nelson and Burrard. For more information, email mjboyter@yahoo.ca or gchatten@gmail.com.
BEN NUTTALL-SMITH
Author launches his latest book Flying with White Eagle. Thursday, January 15 at 7:30pm. Pelican Rouge Coffee House, 15142 North Bluff Road, White Rock.
THE DAY THAT...
Celebrate Rain City Chronicles 5th birthday party with a fantastic roster of Vancouverites sharing true tales about days that changed their lives. Friday, January 16 at 6:30pm. Tickets: $28. Grandview Legion Hall, 2205 Commercial Drive, Vancouver. More information at raincitychronicles.com.
INTERIOR PASSAGES
Vancouver Launch of Susan McCaslin's memoir, Into the Mystic: My Years with Olga, and Pam Galloway's volume of poetry, Passing Stranger (both Inanna Publications), Canadian Memorial Centre for Peace, the Great Hall, 1825 W. 16th Ave., Vancouver, BC, Sat. Jan. 17, 3:30-5:30pm. Refreshments, cello music, emcee Diane Tucker. Free and open to the public.
KRISTI CHARISH
local debut author Kristi Charish launches her new book Owl and the Japanese Circus. Monday, January 19 at 7:00pm. Central branch, 350 W. Georgia Street, Vancouver. More information at 604-331-3603.
VAN SLAM
Featuring spoken word poet and rapper C-Command. Monday, January 19 at 7:00pm.Cost: $6-$10. Cafe Deux Soleils, 2096 Commercial Drive, Vancouver. More information at vancouverpoetryhouse.com.
PAM GALLOWAY AND SUSAN MCCASLIN
Poets reading from their new works (Inanna Publications): Pam's volume of poems, Passing Stranger, and Susan's memoir (Into the Mystic) at the Spoken Ink Series, Burnaby Writers' Society, La Fontana Cafe, 101-3701 East Hastings, North Burnaby (NE corner of Boundary and Hastings), Tues. Jan. 20, open mic sign up, 7:30p.m., reading at 8pm. Info: bwscafe@gmail.com.
LUNCH POEMS AT SFU
Kate Braid and Amber Dawn are the featured poets. Wednesday, January 21 at 12:00 noon, free. SFU Harbour Centre's Teck Gallery, 515 W Hastings St. For more information visit www.sfu.ca/publicsquare/lunchpoems.
NOVEL NIGHTS WITH CAROLINE ADDERSON
Book Warehouse hosts their first book club meeting of 2015! Author Caroline Adderson will discuss her latest novel Ellen in Pieces. Wednesday, January 21 at 7:00pm. Book Warehouse, 4118 Main Street, Vancouver. More information at 604-879-7737.
A CELEBRATION OF CHILDREN'S LITERATURE
Featuring award winning B.C. authors and illustrators with guest speaker Kit Pearson winner of the 2014 Lieutenant Governor's Award for Literary Excellence. A wine and cheese event on January 21 from 7-9pm at Creekside Community Centre. Free to Vancouver Children's Literature Roundtable members and students. More information at www.vclr.ca.
HALF OF A YELLOW SUN
The film adaption of Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Orange Prize-winning novel, set during Nigeria's bloody Biafran civil war of the late 1960s, makes its Vancouver premiere this month: http://www.thecinematheque.ca/half-of-a-yellow-sun.
Upcoming
POETIC JUSTICE
Features Kennedy Arbor and Jenni Madison with host Franci Louann. Sunday, January 25 at 3:00pm. The Heritage Grill.
YOUTH SLAM
Featuring 2014 Youth Slam Grand Slam champion Sebastian Wen. Monday, January 26 at 7:00pm. Cost: $4-$10. Cafe Deux Soleils, 2096 Commercial Drive, Vancouver. More information at vancouverpoetryhouse.com.
ERIN MOURE
Author reads from her work. Tuesday, January 27 at 5:00pm. Coach House, Green College, UBC.
A NOVEL IDEA
Janine Alyson Young, author of Hideout Hotel, will be joined by former Caitlin Press publicist, Rebecca Hendry. Wednesday, January 28 at 6:00pm. Gibsons Library, 470 Fletcher Rd. S., Gibsons, BC. More information at 604-886-2130.
SOME SORT OF LIFE
Naomi Waken, Nanaimo's first Poet Laureate, shares her latest novel, Some Sort of Life. Wednesday, January 28 at 7:00pm. Welsh Hall, West Vancouver Memorial Library.
EVANGELINE LILLY
Meet Evangeline Lilly as she reads and signs her new book, The Squickerwonkers. Thursday, January 29 at 7:00pm. Chapters Robson, Vancouver. More information at chapters.indigo.com.
GALIANO LITERARY FESTIVAL
6th annual festival featuring Theodora Armstrong, George Bowering, Bill Gaston, Elizabeth May, Spider Robinson and others. February 20-22, 2015. Complete details at galianoliteraryfestival.com.
Incite 2015
The first Incite event of 2015 kicks off on January 14 with three brilliant poets. Celebrated Canadian poet Patrick Lane reads from his new collection Washita. He's joined by 2014 Governor General's Award-winner Arleen Pare (Lake of Two Mountains) and newcomer Kayla Czaga (For Your Safety Please Hold On).
FREE!
7:30pm, January 14
Alice MacKay room, VPL Central Library
Click here for details: https://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/incite
Festivals Around Town
PuSh Festival January 20-February 8
PuSh presents groundbreaking work in the live performing arts, featuring artists from around the world. Vancouver-based Fight with a Stick makes its debut at PuSh with Steppenwolf, inspired by Herman Hesse's 1927 novel of self-reflection and transformation. Tickets/info: http://pushfestival.ca/shows/steppenwolf/
AWARDS & LISTS
Emma Healey has been awarded the Costa First Novel Prize. Her book, Elizabeth is Missing, was inspired by her grandmother's dementia.
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/jan/05/costa-first-novel-prize-2014-emma-healey-elizabeth-healey
Kate Saunders has won the Costa Children's Book Award for Five Children on the Western Front. The award-winning book takes up the story of E. Nesbit's classic tale Five Children and It.
http://www.theguardian.com/childrens-books-site/2015/jan/05/kate-saunders-costa-childrens-book-award-five-children-on-the-western-front
YOUNG READERS
Please Mr. Panda is just one of several new children's books worth checking out this week. You can see wonderful illustrations, previews and mini reviews, here:
http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2014/12/31/books/review/31childrens-6.html
NEWS & FEATURES
What are your New Year's resolutions? In this article, ten authors, including John Vaillant and Andrew Pyper, make their resolutions.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/i-hereby-resolveauthors-share-their-writerly-resolutions-for-2015/article22264102/
Speaking of resolutions, Mark Zuckerberg has shocked the world with his low-tech goal for the New Year: read a new book every other week. According to Zuckerberg, "books allow you to fully explore a topic and immerse yourself in a deeper way than most media today. I'm looking forward to shifting more of my media diet towards reading books."
http://www.forbes.com/sites/amitchowdhry/2015/01/05/mark-zuckerberg-book-club/
Submissions are now being accepted for this year's CBC Creative Nonfiction prize (http://www.cbc.ca/books/canadawrites/literaryprizes/nonfiction/)! To help get you motivated, here are 10 inspiring quotes by great nonfiction writers.
http://www.cbc.ca/books/canadawrites/2015/01/10-inspiring-quotes-by-great-nonfiction-writers.html
How do aesthetics and reading interact? Franck Bohbot, a French photographer currently living in New York, recently created a project called "House of Books," which documents the most beautiful libraries in the world.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/12/29/most-beautiful-libraries_n_6391600.html
HaHaruki Murakami is "so notoriously reclusive that nobody knows for sure where in the world he lives, and he has joked about biting fans who get too close." He's dropping the veil this spring, when he'll be giving readers personal advice on any topic they choose. Questions will be accepted from January 15th to the 31st on a special page called Murakami's Place.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/author-haruki-murakami-to-give-readers-personal-advice-on-any-topic-1.2890935
"It may call itself a town," wrote Neil Gaiman in American Gods, "but unless it's got a bookstore it knows it's not fooling a soul." Here's a "different kind of book tour," a list of the best bookstores to visit in the US.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/a-different-kind-of-book-tour-1419635258
BOOKS & WRITERS
It's the New Year, and with that comes new books. Here's the Globe and Mail's list of the "50 most anticipated books of 2015 (the first half, anyway)."
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/the-50-most-anticipated-books-of-2015-the-first-half-anyway/article22273982/
The TV adaptation of Lawrence Hill's Book of Negroes has just premiered on CBC. In this interview, Hill "shares some of the secrets to his success–including why you should write what you don't know."
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/lawrence-hill-treats-all-his-writing-as-one-large-mural/article22275786/
"I would like to say I write every day (and I certainly tell other people they should!)," states Margaret Atwood in a recent interview with the LA Times, "but I have to admit I don't always do it. I try to write at least something, even if it's a letter or a to-do list, or a Reddit AMA." She discusses her reading and writing habits, negative reviews and more, here:
http://www.latimes.com/books/jacketcopy/la-et-jc-margaret-atwood-charming-reddit-ama-20141231-story.html
William Gibson is an author known for "eerily prescient" works, which, thanks to the "dizzying" pace of technological advancement, feature futuristic elements that have already become realized. "Unfortunately for all of us, the grimmer the vision, the more vividly realized those moments of foresight have become, which bodes ill for the world if Gibson's latest work is imbued with similar prescience."
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/book-reviews/the-peripheral-back-to-the-future-with-william-gibson/article22193577/
When Eimear McBride began writing A Girl is a Half-Formed Thing, she "didn't want to write like [James] Joyce...What Joyce did was point me in the direction I wanted to go in." She discusses that, and her upcoming novel, here:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/author-eimear-mcbrides-sense-of-direction-is-fully-formed/article22212907/
What's the best advice Kathleen Winter ever got? "Smash a manuscript against the wall like breaking a vase, and start again."
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/the-best-advice-author-kathleen-winter-ever-got-smash-a-manuscript-against-the-wall-like-breaking-a-vase-and-start-again/article22163571/
Honeydew is Edith Pearlman's fifth short story collection, as well as the first to be released by a major publishing house. After five decades of writing short stories (some 200 for small literary magazines), she has finally, at age 78, got her big break.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/03/books/edith-pearlmans-new-book-is-honeydew.html
More than one hundred years after publishing its landmark Greeks and Romans classics collection, Harvard University Press is doing "the same for the far more vast and dizzyingly diverse classical literature of India, in what some are calling one of the most complex scholarly publishing projects ever undertaken."
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/03/books/murty-classical-library-catalogs-indian-literature.html
Algerian author Kamel Daoud's debut novel "reaped glowing international reviews, literary honors and then, suddenly, demands for his public execution." Called Meursault, Counter-Investigation, it's a retelling of Albert Camus's classic The Stranger.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/05/books/an-algerian-author-fights-back-against-a-fatwa.html
Haruki Murakami's latest novel, Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and his Years of Pilgrimage, is the subject of this week's Digested Read podcast (produced by the Guardian.) According to die-hard fan Dale Berning, "Murakami's deadpan prose will never lose its lustre."
http://www.theguardian.com/books/audio/2015/jan/01/haruki-murakami-colorless-tsukuru-digested-read-books-podcast-2015
COMMUNITY EVENTS
TWS READING SERIES
The Writer's Studio at SFU presents poet Linda King, author of Dream Street Details. Thursday, January 8 at 8:00 pm. Cottage Bistro, 4470 Main Street, Vancouver. More info at http://www.sfu.ca/continuing-studies/events/2015/01/tws-reading-series1.html.
GUNG HAGGIS FAT CHOY WORLD POETRY
Features Kathy Figueroa, Steven Duncan and Joe MacDonald. Saturday, January 10 at 1:00pm, free. Britannia branch, VPL. More information at worldpoetry.ca.
DEAD POETS READING SERIES
Five poets/poetry-lovers/readers/writers bring to life the works of their favourite deceased poets. Each reader will give a brief presentation on the life and work of their chosen poet, followed by a poetry reading. Sunday, January 11 at 3:00pm, free. Central Branch, VPL, 350 W. Georgia Street. More information at deadpoetslive.com.
BLOOD ON THE MOON
Author Ruth Kozak presents her latest historical fiction novel. With special guest Manolis Agilizakis. Wednesday, January 14 at 7:00pm. Hellenic Community Centre, Vancouver.
TWISTED POETS LITERARY SALON
Features Phinder Dulai and Nilofar Shidmehr with open mic. Wednesday, January 14 at 7:00pm 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.
WOWPS FINALS
Nine female identified poets from Vancouver will be going head to head to see which one of them will represent Vancouver at the Women of the World Poetry Slam in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Wednesday, January 14 at 7:00pm. Cost: $6-$10. Cafe Deux Soleils, 2096 Commercial Drive, Vancouver. More info at vancouverpoetryhouse.com.
THE CRESCENT MOON PROJECT
Join novelist Mark Boyter and singer/songwriter Glenn Chatten for an evening of readings from Mark's newly released book Crescent Moon Over Laos and Glenn's latest CD. Books and CDs will be available for sale. Thursday, January 15 at 7:00pm, free. The Chapel, St. Andrew's-Wesley United Church, Nelson and Burrard. For more information, email mjboyter@yahoo.ca or gchatten@gmail.com.
BEN NUTTALL-SMITH
Author launches his latest book Flying with White Eagle. Thursday, January 15 at 7:30pm. Pelican Rouge Coffee House, 15142 North Bluff Road, White Rock.
THE DAY THAT...
Celebrate Rain City Chronicles 5th birthday party with a fantastic roster of Vancouverites sharing true tales about days that changed their lives. Friday, January 16 at 6:30pm. Tickets: $28. Grandview Legion Hall, 2205 Commercial Drive, Vancouver. More information at raincitychronicles.com.
INTERIOR PASSAGES
Vancouver Launch of Susan McCaslin's memoir, Into the Mystic: My Years with Olga, and Pam Galloway's volume of poetry, Passing Stranger (both Inanna Publications), Canadian Memorial Centre for Peace, the Great Hall, 1825 W. 16th Ave., Vancouver, BC, Sat. Jan. 17, 3:30-5:30pm. Refreshments, cello music, emcee Diane Tucker. Free and open to the public.
KRISTI CHARISH
local debut author Kristi Charish launches her new book Owl and the Japanese Circus. Monday, January 19 at 7:00pm. Central branch, 350 W. Georgia Street, Vancouver. More information at 604-331-3603.
VAN SLAM
Featuring spoken word poet and rapper C-Command. Monday, January 19 at 7:00pm.Cost: $6-$10. Cafe Deux Soleils, 2096 Commercial Drive, Vancouver. More information at vancouverpoetryhouse.com.
PAM GALLOWAY AND SUSAN MCCASLIN
Poets reading from their new works (Inanna Publications): Pam's volume of poems, Passing Stranger, and Susan's memoir (Into the Mystic) at the Spoken Ink Series, Burnaby Writers' Society, La Fontana Cafe, 101-3701 East Hastings, North Burnaby (NE corner of Boundary and Hastings), Tues. Jan. 20, open mic sign up, 7:30p.m., reading at 8pm. Info: bwscafe@gmail.com.
LUNCH POEMS AT SFU
Kate Braid and Amber Dawn are the featured poets. Wednesday, January 21 at 12:00 noon, free. SFU Harbour Centre's Teck Gallery, 515 W Hastings St. For more information visit www.sfu.ca/publicsquare/lunchpoems.
NOVEL NIGHTS WITH CAROLINE ADDERSON
Book Warehouse hosts their first book club meeting of 2015! Author Caroline Adderson will discuss her latest novel Ellen in Pieces. Wednesday, January 21 at 7:00pm. Book Warehouse, 4118 Main Street, Vancouver. More information at 604-879-7737.
A CELEBRATION OF CHILDREN'S LITERATURE
Featuring award winning B.C. authors and illustrators with guest speaker Kit Pearson winner of the 2014 Lieutenant Governor's Award for Literary Excellence. A wine and cheese event on January 21 from 7-9pm at Creekside Community Centre. Free to Vancouver Children's Literature Roundtable members and students. More information at www.vclr.ca.
HALF OF A YELLOW SUN
The film adaption of Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Orange Prize-winning novel, set during Nigeria's bloody Biafran civil war of the late 1960s, makes its Vancouver premiere this month: http://www.thecinematheque.ca/half-of-a-yellow-sun.
Upcoming
POETIC JUSTICE
Features Kennedy Arbor and Jenni Madison with host Franci Louann. Sunday, January 25 at 3:00pm. The Heritage Grill.
YOUTH SLAM
Featuring 2014 Youth Slam Grand Slam champion Sebastian Wen. Monday, January 26 at 7:00pm. Cost: $4-$10. Cafe Deux Soleils, 2096 Commercial Drive, Vancouver. More information at vancouverpoetryhouse.com.
ERIN MOURE
Author reads from her work. Tuesday, January 27 at 5:00pm. Coach House, Green College, UBC.
A NOVEL IDEA
Janine Alyson Young, author of Hideout Hotel, will be joined by former Caitlin Press publicist, Rebecca Hendry. Wednesday, January 28 at 6:00pm. Gibsons Library, 470 Fletcher Rd. S., Gibsons, BC. More information at 604-886-2130.
SOME SORT OF LIFE
Naomi Waken, Nanaimo's first Poet Laureate, shares her latest novel, Some Sort of Life. Wednesday, January 28 at 7:00pm. Welsh Hall, West Vancouver Memorial Library.
EVANGELINE LILLY
Meet Evangeline Lilly as she reads and signs her new book, The Squickerwonkers. Thursday, January 29 at 7:00pm. Chapters Robson, Vancouver. More information at chapters.indigo.com.
GALIANO LITERARY FESTIVAL
6th annual festival featuring Theodora Armstrong, George Bowering, Bill Gaston, Elizabeth May, Spider Robinson and others. February 20-22, 2015. Complete details at galianoliteraryfestival.com.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
