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.