BOOK NEWS
The Board of Directors of the Vancouver Writers Fest is pleased to announce the appointment of Nicole Nozick as Executive Director, effective June 22. Nozick, who was most recently Director of the Cherie Smith JCC Jewish Book Festival, takes over from current VWF Executive Director Camilla Tibbs, who has accepted a position as Executive Director of the Richmond Gateway Theatre.
A Dram Come True
Dust off your kilt! Tickets are still available for A Dram Come True, the VWF's scotch tasting fundraiser on June 5.
Reasons to attend:
Where else can you sample 40+ amazing scotches plus select spirits and Tinhorn Creek wine, with a jazz pianist tickling the ivories in the background?
Supports the Vancouver Writers Fest and Spreading the Word programs for students
Hycroft makes a great date night destination!
For a preview of what to expect check out A Dram Come True whisky expert Dave Mason on Global TV's Morning News BC:
http://globalnews.ca/video/2023038/a-dram-come-true-scotch-tasting
Details and tickets: http://writersfest.bc.ca/events/dram-come-true
AWARDS & LISTS
The shortlist for Kobo's $10,000 Emerging Writer Prize, which "recognizes excellent debut titles published the year prior and available on the digital platform," has been made public. Kim Fu, Elizabeth Renzetti and Plum Johnson are among the chosen few.
http://www.quillandquire.com/awards/2015/05/20/kim-fu-plum-johnson-among-those-shortlisted-for-inaugural-kobo-emerging-writer-prize/
Alix Hawley has won Amazon.ca's First Novel Award for All True Not a Lie In It. The prize recognizes "an exceptional English-language title by a Canadian debut novelist."
http://www.quillandquire.com/awards/2015/05/22/alix-hawley-wins-amazon-ca-first-novel-award/
The winners of the 2015 Alberta Literary Awards have been announced. Rudy Wiebe took the fiction prize for his novel, Come Back.
http://www.quillandquire.com/awards/2015/05/25/winners-of-the-2015-alberta-literary-awards-announced/
The 2015 O. Henry Prize stories, which will appear in an anthology in September, have been revealed. Russell Banks' A Permanent Member of the Family was selected.
http://lithub.com/the-o-henry-prize-stories-for-2015/
YOUNG READERS
Here are some new children's books for young music-lovers! The first features an animal orchestra; the second, the real-life story of a Cuban girlswho longs to play the drums; the third, a story of young Doc Watson; the fourth about music in New Orleans; and the last, an innovative tribute to the partnership of Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie!
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/05/20/books/review/20childrens.html
NEWS & FEATURES
How does the Vancouver Public Library remain relevant in an increasingly diverse city? "It's not easy to do in the wake of the Conservative government's cancellation of the mandatory long-form census."
http://www.straight.com/life/456406/how-vancouver-public-library-remains-relevant-increasingly-diverse-city
It looks like we might soon be finding poetry in our parks! One Vancouver Park Board commissioner has put forth a motion to "work with staff from the Vancouver Public Library on a pilot program to bring poetry to Vancouver's parks in 2015 and to explore longer term options for a broader Poetry in Parks program to be launched in 2016".
http://www.straight.com/blogra/456266/poetry-coming-vancouver-parks
The brutal murder of three Bangladeshi bloggers has led to an outcry from the international writing community. Margaret Atwood, Rohinton Mistry and Yann Martel are just three of the more than 150 writers who are urging the Bangladeshi government to take action.
http://www.cbc.ca/books/2015/05/margaret-atwood-yann-martel-and-other-writers-speak-out-against-bangladesh-blogger-murders.html
Speaking of Margaret Atwood, she has been chosen as the inaugural author to commit a manuscript to Scottish conceptual artist Katie Paterson's Future Library project. Last year, a forest of 1,000 trees was planted "to be cut down in one century to provide paper to publish never-before-read manuscripts by renowned authors."
http://www.quillandquire.com/authors/2015/05/21/margaret-atwood-to-add-manuscript-to-future-library-on-may-26/
And Margaret Atwood becomes the first author to add a secret story to the Future Library.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/margaret-atwood-becomes-1st-author-to-add-secret-story-to-future-library-1.3087724
The "true face of Shakespeare" has appeared in a botany book, or so claims botanist and historian Mark Griffiths. Whether it's actually "the literary discovery of the century" appears to be up for debate!
http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-32782267
Scrabble has "come crashing into the 21st century," thanks to the addition of a whole legion of new words, many of which cannot be found in the dictionary. "People use slang in social media posts, tweets, blogs, comments, text messages – you name it–so there's a host of evidence for informal varieties of English that simply didn't exist before."
http://radio.com/2015/05/21/scrabble-adds-words-hashtag-vape-obvs/
A nonprofit organization is crowdfunding for its "eGranary Pocket Library," a "library on a chip" that provides information for people without internet access. "Each library is customized to a particular audience. For example, the nonprofit recently created an ebola pocket library with the CDC, World Health Organization and other charitable groups."
http://www.fastcoexist.com/3045289/fund-this/this-library-on-a-chip-gives-people-without-internet-access-all-the-information-th
What's the place of indulgence in writing? "Indulgent, which—along with self-indulgent—has come to represent something very, very bad where art is concerned." Here's one woman's argument otherwise.
http://flavorwire.com/519421/in-defense-of-indulgent-art
Have you ever been on a literary pilgrimage? "For those shaped by words, whose dreams are forged between the leaves of books, trips like these are how we become a part of the stories that helped to direct our own."
http://bookriot.com/2015/05/18/literary-pilgrimage/
BOOKS & WRITERS
Judy Blume has written her first novel for adults in 17 years. In the Unlikely Event, which will be published next month, takes place in 1952 and was inspired by three real-life plane crashes in Blume's own hometown.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/24/magazine/judy-blume-knows-all-your-secrets.html
Neil Smith's Boo is "a novel of tremendous imagination," telling the story of Oliver "Boo" Dalrymple, who goes to heaven after dying of an apparent heart defect in front of his locker. "With Boo, Neil Smith has written something valuable and important for both young readers and older ones."
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/book-reviews/review-neil-smiths-boo-is-a-novel-of-tremendous-imagination/article24567457/
What's it like to be a deaf novelist? In this interview, Sara Novi Novic "explains the challenges of being a deaf author and why deafness is still used as a synonym for stupidity."
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/may/23/what-its-like-to-be-a-deaf-novelist
Two debut poetry collections by Liz Howard and Madhur Anand "mix technical language with themes of identity, selfhood and race." Both collections are reviewed here:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/book-reviews/two-debut-poetry-collections-mix-technical-language-with-themes-of-identity-selfhood-and-race/article24454121/
Jim Shepard's newest novel, The Book of Aron, is a coming-of-age story set in the Warsaw ghetto during World War Two. He's interviewed about the book, the best advice he's ever received, and more, here:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/look-for-the-weirdness-in-your-own-work/article24566332/
COMMUNITY EVENTS
TWISTED POETS LITERARY SALON
Features Linda King and Anatoly Molotkov (Portland) plus open mic. Thursday, May 28, 7-9:30pm, at The Cottage Bistro, 4468 Main Street, Vancouver. Suggested donation at the door: $5. Sign up for open mic at 7pm. More information at www.pandorascollective.com.
THE DE COSMOS ENIGMA
Local author Gordon Hawkins launches his book The De Cosmos Enigma, a study of the life of BC's second premier. Friday, May 29 at 3:30pm, free. GVPL Central Branch, 735 Broughton St., Victoria. More information at 250-940-4875.
THE FLOUR PEDDLER
Authors Chris Hergesheimer and Josh Hergesheimer discuss and sign on their new book, The Flour Peddler: A Global Journey into Local Food from Canada to South Sudan. Friday, May 29 at 7:00pm. Bolen Books, 11-1644 Hillside Ave., Victoria. More information at caitlin-press.com.
NEIL MCKINNON
Award winning author and Stephen Leacock Medal finalist will read from his latest novel, The Greatest Lover of Last Tuesday. Saturday, May 30 at 3:00pm. New Westminster Public Library, 716 6th Ave., New Westminster. Register at 604-527-4667 or listener@nwpl.ca.
WRITERS ADVENTURE CAMP
Join award-winning authors in Whistler, BC for a fun and immersive weekend designed for both published and emerging writers. Deadline to register is May 22, 2015. Dates are June 6-7, 2015. Complete information at thepointartists.com.
OWEN LAUKKANEN
Best-selling thriller author presents his latest work, The Stolen Ones. Tuesday, June 2 at 7:00pm. Vancouver Public Library, 350 W. Georgia St., Vancouver. More information at vpl.ca.
MELIA MCCLURE
Author reads from her book The Delphi Room. Wednesday, June 4 at 7:00pm. Vancouver Public Library, 350 W. Georgia St., Vancouver. More information at vpl.ca.
TWS READING SERIES
The Writer's Studio at SFU presents writer, filmmaker, and wilderness guide Calder Cheverie, director of The Peel Project. Thursday, June 4 at 8:00pm. Cottage Bistro, 4470 Main Street, Vancouver.
JANIE CHANG
Reading by the author from her new book Three Souls. Tuesday, June 9 at 7:00pm, Bob Prittie Metrotown. More information at bpl.bc.ca.
BOOKS & BISCOTTI
Features readings by British Columbia writers Diego Bastianutti, Robert Pepper Smith, and Anna Ciampolini Foschi, and the premiere of a documentary movie by Ornella Sinigaglia. Tuesday, June 8 at 7:00pm, free. Il Centro Italian Cultural Centre, 3075 Slocan St., Vancouver. More information at italianculturalcentre.ca.
JOHN VAILLANT
Local, best-selling author reads from his latest book The Jaguar's Children. Wednesday, June 10 at 6:30pm. Carnegie Reading Room, 401 Main Street, Vancouver. More information at vpl.ca.
W. RUTH KOZAK
Canadian travel journalist and local author reads from her novel Shadow of the Lion. Wednesday, June 10 at 7:00pm. Vancouver Public Library, 350 W. Georgia St., Vancouver. More information at vpl.ca.
AIR INDIA MEDITATIONS
Award winning poet Renee Saklikar and renowned composer John Oliver present the Vancouver premiere of Air India Meditations-a sequence of soundscapes interwoven with poems from Children of Air India, about the bombing of Air India Flight 182. Saturday, June 13 at 1:00pm. Vancouver Public Library, 350 W. Georgia St., Vancouver. More information at vpl.ca.
Upcoming
ELIZABETH RENZETTI
National columnist with The Globe and Mail, presents her debut novel, Based on A True Story. Monday, June 15 at 7:00pm. Vancouver Public Library, 350 W. Georgia St., Vancouver. More information at vpl.ca.
DEE HOBSBAWN-SMITH
Author reads from her first collection of short fiction, What Can't Be Undone. Tuesday, June 16 at 7:00pm, White Rock Library. More information at fvrl.bc.ca.
SPOKEN INK
Melia McClure reads from her debut novel, The Delphi Room. Tuesday, June 16 at 8:00pm. La Fontana Caffe, 101-3701 East Hastings Street, Burnaby. More information at burnabywritersnews.blogspot.ca.
LUNCH POEMS @ SFU
Featuring Kevin Spenst and Louis Cabri. Wednesday, June 17 at 12:00 noon. Teck Gallery, SFU Harbour Centre, 515 West Hastings Street, Vancouver. More information at sfu.ca.
NOVEL NIGHTS
BC Book Prize winner Aislinn Hunter in discussion of her award-winning novel The World Before Us. Wednesday, June 17 at 7:00pm. Book Warehouse, 4118 Main Street. For further details please call 604 879-7737.
Thursday, May 28, 2015
Thursday, May 21, 2015
Book News Vol. 10 No. 9
BOOK NEWS
A Dram Come True
Single cask whisky and locally distilled spirits at A Dram Come True
The 13th annual Dram Come True highlights single cask whiskies. Tasting whisky from a single cask is a rare opportunity made even more special by the fact that once it's all been drunk, it's gone for good. This year, the Scotch Malt Whisky Society, which bottles some of the finest single cask whisky in the world, will be pouring seven of their latest bottlings-a privilege usually reserved solely for society members.
Your ticket gets you full access to the whisky tasting, access to the Tinhorn Creek wine bar, spirits from Odd Society Spirits, chocolate pairing by Chocolate Arts and appetizers from Emelle's catering. Don't wait to purchase your tickets-this event sold out last year!
Tickets: $120
Preview Tasting Tickets (access to bars 45 minutes early): Add $40
7:30pm, June 5 at Hycroft
Details and to purchase tickets here, http://writersfest.bc.ca/events/dram-come-true.
AWARDS & LISTS
Hungarian author Laszlo Krasznahorkai, the author of Satantango and The Melancholy of Resistance, among others, has won this year's Man Booker International Prize.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/laszlo-krasznahorkai-wins-man-booker-international-prize-1.3079381
Debut novelist Christine Piper is among five selected for the Miles Franklin Prize's 2015 shortlist. The award is Australia’s most prestigious literary prize.
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/may/18/debut-novelist-christine-piper-joins-shortlist-for-2015-miles-franklin-prize
The 2015 Atlantic Book Awards winners were announced, and included Linden MacIntyre for Punishment.
http://www.quillandquire.com/awards/2015/05/19/2015-atlantic-book-awards-winners-revealed/
YOUNG READERS
What children's stories inspired today's leading authors? "From sinister water-babies to Chinese warlords, Norse gods to star-crossed lovers...In a new edition of a volume first published in 1992, writers recall the tales that shaped their imaginations."
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/may/09/writers-books-inspired-young-the-pleasures-of-reading-edited-antonia-fraser
Amazon has launched a Young Adult book club. The first book is I’ll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson. Participants can submit questions for Nelson from now until May 30.
http://www.adweek.com/galleycat/amazon-editors-launch-a-young-adult-book-club/103360
NEWS & FEATURES
What city has more bookstores per capita than any other? You might be surprised by the answer: Buenos Aires!
http://publishingperspectives.com/2015/05/what-city-has-more-bookstores-per-capita-than-any-other/
If you're traveling through Toronto instead of Buenos Aires, you may not need to worry about the lack of bookstores. Free ebooks are now available at Toronto’s Pearson International Airport.
http://www.quillandquire.com/book-links/2015/05/13/toronto-airport-to-offer-free-harpercollins-ebooks-atwood-honoured-by-american-academy-of-arts-and-letters-and-more/
Have you ever made yourself read a book you didn't like? Believe it or not, there might be some benefits to the deed.
http://bookriot.com/2015/05/13/benefits-reading-book-dont-like/
Project Bookmark Canada, "which erects textual markers from stories and poems in the places where literary scenes are set," has announced that it will unveil a Cape Breton bookmark for Alistair MacLeod’s novel No Great Mischief. MacLeod died last year at 77.
http://www.quillandquire.com/authors/2015/05/12/cape-breton-bookmark-site-to-honour-alistair-macleod/
What's the state of digital publishing in Canada? This infographic provides some interesting facts.
http://www.booknetcanada.ca/blog/2015/5/11/infographic-state-of-digital-publishing-in-canada-2014.html
Hong Kong is "clamping down" on creative writing. In this piece, Madeleine Thien discusses the closure of a major university's MFA program. "The decision to close City University’s MFA programme is plainly intended to limit free expression–showing just how vital it is."
http://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2015/may/18/why-hong-kong-is-clamping-down-on-creative-writing
What's the future of reading? "There’s no mystery about it. Walter Mosley, best-selling author of the Easy Rawlins series, has good news for those who love to read."
http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-future-of-reading-theres-no-mystery-about-it-1430104991
BOOKS & WRITERS
Elizabeth Day's third novel, Paradise City, features four characters, the most interesting of which is a Ugandan asylum seeker. Day’s third novel is "her most accomplished yet," possessing " a propulsion that her earlier novels, for all their emotional courage, lacked."
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/may/16/paradise-city-elizabeth-day-review-novel
Michael V. Smith's new memoir, My Body is Yours, contains themes for which he's well known: "small towns, sexual orientation and familial ties." His first two novels cover similar territory, though they don't reach as far in terms of graphically capturing "the complicated relationships Smith has had with his father, addiction, sex, and his own body." Smith is interviewed here:
http://www.quillandquire.com/authors/2015/05/15/qa-michael-v-smith-on-public-persona-gender-in-memoir-and-writing-with-vulnerability/
Giving Up, by Mike Steeves, is a "profound and hilarious" book. The novel’s main theme is faith, "from the interpersonal trust required in romantic relationships to the surrogate systems and signifiers to which we assign meaning in a secular age."
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/book-reviews/not-your-traditional-book-review-giving-up-is-profound-and-hilarious-it-was-also-written-by-my-friend/article24453666/
Bahiyyih Nakhjavani's The Woman Who Read Too Much is "a haunting, complex portrait" of an 18th-century Persian mystic, "one of the most powerfully convincing characters in recent historical fiction." Alberto Manguel reviews the book, here:
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/may/16/woman-read-too-much-bahiyyih-nakhjavani-review
Kate Atkinson’s A God in Ruins is a "gorgeous novel" that visits a family changed by the Second World War. It tells the story of Edward "Teddy" Todd, an RAF wing commander who's life is defined by the paradox of combat: "to feel so alive in the midst of carnage."
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/book-reviews/kate-atkinsons-a-god-in-ruins-is-a-gorgeous-novel-that-visits-a-family-changed-by-war/article24434278/
The Gracekeepers, by Kirsty Logan, is "a watery dystopia" in which rising waters swallow the soil and survivors cluster on boats and islands. "Like Emily St John Mandel’s Station Eleven, The Gracekeepers circles the peculiar business of the culture humans make, and tries to understand why we would persist in the direst circumstances."
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/may/15/the-gracekeepers-kirsty-logan-watery-dystopia
COMMUNITY EVENTS
THE EXILES' GALLERY
Reading in honour of poet Elise Partridge. Featuring Jordan Abel, Caroline Adderson, Elizabeth Bachinsky, Elee Kraljii Gardiner, Aislinn Hunter, Gillian Jerome, Fiona Tinwei Lam, George McWhirter, Barbara Nickel, Christopher Patton, Miranda Pearson, Rob Taylor, and Rhea Tregebov. Thursday, May 21 at 7:00pm, free. Heartwood Cafe, 317 Broadway E., Vancouver. More information at heartwoodcc.ca.
MEET THE AUTHOR
BC Book Prize nominee, Brian Payton, discusses his novel The Wind is Not a River. Thursday, May 21 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.
MEGA FAUNA
Launch of Cloudscape Comics' latest anthology. Friday, May 22 at 6:00pm, free. Cloudscape Studio, 5955 Ross, Vancouver. More information at cloudscapecomics.com.
SHAWN CURTIS STIBBARDS
Launch of the author's debut novel, The Video Watcher. Friday, May 22 at 7:00pm, free. Pulpfiction Books, 2422 Main Street, Vancouver. More information at biblioasis.com.
VANCOUVER COMIC ARTS FESTIVAL
Weekend-long celebration of comics, with readings, panels and workshops. May 23-24, 2015. Roundhouse Mews, Vancouver. More information at vancaf.com.
DOUBLE BOOK LAUNCH
Featuring Meredith Quartermain (I, Bartleby) and Colin Browne (The Hatch). Saturday, May 23 at 2:00pm. Access Gallery, 222 East Georgia St., Vancouver. More information at talonbooks.com.
POETIC JUSTICE
Features Meagan Schlee-Bedard and Bernice Lever with host Franci Louann. Sunday, May 24 at 3:00pm. The Heritage Grill, 447 Columbia St., New Westminster. More information at poeticjustice.ca.
TWISTED POETS LITERARY SALON
Features Linda King and Anatoly Molotkov (Portland) plus open mic. Thursday, May 28, 7-9:30pm, at The Cottage Bistro, 4468 Main Street, Vancouver. Suggested donation at the door: $5. Sign up for open mic at 7pm. More information at www.pandorascollective.com.
THE FLOUR PEDDLER
Authors Chris Hergesheimer and Josh Hergesheimer discuss and sign on their new book, The Flour Peddler: A Global Journey into Local Food from Canada to South Sudan. Friday, May 29 at 7:00pm. Bolen Books, 11-1644 Hillside Ave., Victoria. More information at caitlin-press.com.
NEIL MCKINNON
Award winning author and Stephen Leacock Medal finalist will read from his latest novel, The Greatest Lover of Last Tuesday. Saturday, May 30 at 3:00pm. New Westminster Public Library, 716 6th Ave., New Westminster. Register at 604-527-4667 or listener@nwpl.ca.
Upcoming
WRITERS ADVENTURE CAMP
Join award-winning authors in Whistler, BC for a fun and immersive weekend designed for both published and emerging writers. Deadline to register is May 22, 2015. Dates are June 6-7, 2015. Complete information at thepointartists.com.
OWEN LAUKKANEN
Best-selling thriller author presents his latest work, The Stolen Ones. Tuesday, June 2 at 7:00pm. Vancouver Public Library, 350 W. Georgia St., Vancouver. More information at vpl.ca.
MELIA MCCLURE
Author reads from her book The Delphi Room. Wednesday, June 4 at 7:00pm. Vancouver Public Library, 350 W. Georgia St., Vancouver. More information at vpl.ca.
JANIE CHANG
Reading by the author from her new book Three Souls. Tuesday, June 9 at 7:00pm, Bob Prittie Metrotown. More information at bpl.bc.ca.
JOHN VAILLANT
Local, best-selling author reads from his latest book The Jaguar's Children. Wednesday, June 10 at 6:30pm. Carnegie Reading Room, 401 Main Street, Vancouver. More information at vpl.ca.
W. RUTH KOZAK
Canadian travel journalist and local author reads from her novel Shadow of the Lion. Wednesday, June 10 at 7:00pm. Vancouver Public Library, 350 W. Georgia St., Vancouver. More information at vpl.ca.
AIR INDIA MEDITATIONS
Award winning poet Renee Saklikar and renowned composer John Oliver present the Vancouver premiere of Air India Meditations-a sequence of soundscapes interwoven with poems from Children of Air India, about the bombing of Air India Flight 182. Saturday, June 13 at 1:00pm. Vancouver Public Library, 350 W. Georgia St., Vancouver. More information at vpl.ca.
ELIZABETH RENZETTI
National columnist with The Globe and Mail, presents her debut novel, Based on A True Story. Monday, June 15 at 7:00pm. Vancouver Public Library, 350 W. Georgia St., Vancouver. More information at vpl.ca.
DEE HOBSBAWN-SMITH
Author reads from her first collection of short fiction, What Can't Be Undone. Tuesday, June 16 at 7:00pm, White Rock Library. More information at fvrl.bc.ca.
SPOKEN INK
Melia McClure reads from her debut novel, The Delphi Room. Tuesday, June 16 at 8:00pm. La Fontana Caffe, 101-3701 East Hastings Street, Burnaby. More information at burnabywritersnews.blogspot.ca.
LUNCH POEMS @ SFU
Featuring Kevin Spenst and Louis Cabri. Wednesday, June 17 at 12:00 noon. Teck Gallery, SFU Harbour Centre, 515 West Hastings Street, Vancouver. More information at sfu.ca.
NOVEL NIGHTS
BC Book Prize winner Aislinn Hunter in discussion of her award-winning novel The World Before Us. Wednesday, June 17 at 7:00pm. Book Warehouse, 4118 Main Street. For further details please call 604 879-7737.
A Dram Come True
Single cask whisky and locally distilled spirits at A Dram Come True
The 13th annual Dram Come True highlights single cask whiskies. Tasting whisky from a single cask is a rare opportunity made even more special by the fact that once it's all been drunk, it's gone for good. This year, the Scotch Malt Whisky Society, which bottles some of the finest single cask whisky in the world, will be pouring seven of their latest bottlings-a privilege usually reserved solely for society members.
Your ticket gets you full access to the whisky tasting, access to the Tinhorn Creek wine bar, spirits from Odd Society Spirits, chocolate pairing by Chocolate Arts and appetizers from Emelle's catering. Don't wait to purchase your tickets-this event sold out last year!
Tickets: $120
Preview Tasting Tickets (access to bars 45 minutes early): Add $40
7:30pm, June 5 at Hycroft
Details and to purchase tickets here, http://writersfest.bc.ca/events/dram-come-true.
AWARDS & LISTS
Hungarian author Laszlo Krasznahorkai, the author of Satantango and The Melancholy of Resistance, among others, has won this year's Man Booker International Prize.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/laszlo-krasznahorkai-wins-man-booker-international-prize-1.3079381
Debut novelist Christine Piper is among five selected for the Miles Franklin Prize's 2015 shortlist. The award is Australia’s most prestigious literary prize.
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/may/18/debut-novelist-christine-piper-joins-shortlist-for-2015-miles-franklin-prize
The 2015 Atlantic Book Awards winners were announced, and included Linden MacIntyre for Punishment.
http://www.quillandquire.com/awards/2015/05/19/2015-atlantic-book-awards-winners-revealed/
YOUNG READERS
What children's stories inspired today's leading authors? "From sinister water-babies to Chinese warlords, Norse gods to star-crossed lovers...In a new edition of a volume first published in 1992, writers recall the tales that shaped their imaginations."
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/may/09/writers-books-inspired-young-the-pleasures-of-reading-edited-antonia-fraser
Amazon has launched a Young Adult book club. The first book is I’ll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson. Participants can submit questions for Nelson from now until May 30.
http://www.adweek.com/galleycat/amazon-editors-launch-a-young-adult-book-club/103360
NEWS & FEATURES
What city has more bookstores per capita than any other? You might be surprised by the answer: Buenos Aires!
http://publishingperspectives.com/2015/05/what-city-has-more-bookstores-per-capita-than-any-other/
If you're traveling through Toronto instead of Buenos Aires, you may not need to worry about the lack of bookstores. Free ebooks are now available at Toronto’s Pearson International Airport.
http://www.quillandquire.com/book-links/2015/05/13/toronto-airport-to-offer-free-harpercollins-ebooks-atwood-honoured-by-american-academy-of-arts-and-letters-and-more/
Have you ever made yourself read a book you didn't like? Believe it or not, there might be some benefits to the deed.
http://bookriot.com/2015/05/13/benefits-reading-book-dont-like/
Project Bookmark Canada, "which erects textual markers from stories and poems in the places where literary scenes are set," has announced that it will unveil a Cape Breton bookmark for Alistair MacLeod’s novel No Great Mischief. MacLeod died last year at 77.
http://www.quillandquire.com/authors/2015/05/12/cape-breton-bookmark-site-to-honour-alistair-macleod/
What's the state of digital publishing in Canada? This infographic provides some interesting facts.
http://www.booknetcanada.ca/blog/2015/5/11/infographic-state-of-digital-publishing-in-canada-2014.html
Hong Kong is "clamping down" on creative writing. In this piece, Madeleine Thien discusses the closure of a major university's MFA program. "The decision to close City University’s MFA programme is plainly intended to limit free expression–showing just how vital it is."
http://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2015/may/18/why-hong-kong-is-clamping-down-on-creative-writing
What's the future of reading? "There’s no mystery about it. Walter Mosley, best-selling author of the Easy Rawlins series, has good news for those who love to read."
http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-future-of-reading-theres-no-mystery-about-it-1430104991
BOOKS & WRITERS
Elizabeth Day's third novel, Paradise City, features four characters, the most interesting of which is a Ugandan asylum seeker. Day’s third novel is "her most accomplished yet," possessing " a propulsion that her earlier novels, for all their emotional courage, lacked."
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/may/16/paradise-city-elizabeth-day-review-novel
Michael V. Smith's new memoir, My Body is Yours, contains themes for which he's well known: "small towns, sexual orientation and familial ties." His first two novels cover similar territory, though they don't reach as far in terms of graphically capturing "the complicated relationships Smith has had with his father, addiction, sex, and his own body." Smith is interviewed here:
http://www.quillandquire.com/authors/2015/05/15/qa-michael-v-smith-on-public-persona-gender-in-memoir-and-writing-with-vulnerability/
Giving Up, by Mike Steeves, is a "profound and hilarious" book. The novel’s main theme is faith, "from the interpersonal trust required in romantic relationships to the surrogate systems and signifiers to which we assign meaning in a secular age."
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/book-reviews/not-your-traditional-book-review-giving-up-is-profound-and-hilarious-it-was-also-written-by-my-friend/article24453666/
Bahiyyih Nakhjavani's The Woman Who Read Too Much is "a haunting, complex portrait" of an 18th-century Persian mystic, "one of the most powerfully convincing characters in recent historical fiction." Alberto Manguel reviews the book, here:
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/may/16/woman-read-too-much-bahiyyih-nakhjavani-review
Kate Atkinson’s A God in Ruins is a "gorgeous novel" that visits a family changed by the Second World War. It tells the story of Edward "Teddy" Todd, an RAF wing commander who's life is defined by the paradox of combat: "to feel so alive in the midst of carnage."
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/book-reviews/kate-atkinsons-a-god-in-ruins-is-a-gorgeous-novel-that-visits-a-family-changed-by-war/article24434278/
The Gracekeepers, by Kirsty Logan, is "a watery dystopia" in which rising waters swallow the soil and survivors cluster on boats and islands. "Like Emily St John Mandel’s Station Eleven, The Gracekeepers circles the peculiar business of the culture humans make, and tries to understand why we would persist in the direst circumstances."
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/may/15/the-gracekeepers-kirsty-logan-watery-dystopia
COMMUNITY EVENTS
THE EXILES' GALLERY
Reading in honour of poet Elise Partridge. Featuring Jordan Abel, Caroline Adderson, Elizabeth Bachinsky, Elee Kraljii Gardiner, Aislinn Hunter, Gillian Jerome, Fiona Tinwei Lam, George McWhirter, Barbara Nickel, Christopher Patton, Miranda Pearson, Rob Taylor, and Rhea Tregebov. Thursday, May 21 at 7:00pm, free. Heartwood Cafe, 317 Broadway E., Vancouver. More information at heartwoodcc.ca.
MEET THE AUTHOR
BC Book Prize nominee, Brian Payton, discusses his novel The Wind is Not a River. Thursday, May 21 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.
MEGA FAUNA
Launch of Cloudscape Comics' latest anthology. Friday, May 22 at 6:00pm, free. Cloudscape Studio, 5955 Ross, Vancouver. More information at cloudscapecomics.com.
SHAWN CURTIS STIBBARDS
Launch of the author's debut novel, The Video Watcher. Friday, May 22 at 7:00pm, free. Pulpfiction Books, 2422 Main Street, Vancouver. More information at biblioasis.com.
VANCOUVER COMIC ARTS FESTIVAL
Weekend-long celebration of comics, with readings, panels and workshops. May 23-24, 2015. Roundhouse Mews, Vancouver. More information at vancaf.com.
DOUBLE BOOK LAUNCH
Featuring Meredith Quartermain (I, Bartleby) and Colin Browne (The Hatch). Saturday, May 23 at 2:00pm. Access Gallery, 222 East Georgia St., Vancouver. More information at talonbooks.com.
POETIC JUSTICE
Features Meagan Schlee-Bedard and Bernice Lever with host Franci Louann. Sunday, May 24 at 3:00pm. The Heritage Grill, 447 Columbia St., New Westminster. More information at poeticjustice.ca.
TWISTED POETS LITERARY SALON
Features Linda King and Anatoly Molotkov (Portland) plus open mic. Thursday, May 28, 7-9:30pm, at The Cottage Bistro, 4468 Main Street, Vancouver. Suggested donation at the door: $5. Sign up for open mic at 7pm. More information at www.pandorascollective.com.
THE FLOUR PEDDLER
Authors Chris Hergesheimer and Josh Hergesheimer discuss and sign on their new book, The Flour Peddler: A Global Journey into Local Food from Canada to South Sudan. Friday, May 29 at 7:00pm. Bolen Books, 11-1644 Hillside Ave., Victoria. More information at caitlin-press.com.
NEIL MCKINNON
Award winning author and Stephen Leacock Medal finalist will read from his latest novel, The Greatest Lover of Last Tuesday. Saturday, May 30 at 3:00pm. New Westminster Public Library, 716 6th Ave., New Westminster. Register at 604-527-4667 or listener@nwpl.ca.
Upcoming
WRITERS ADVENTURE CAMP
Join award-winning authors in Whistler, BC for a fun and immersive weekend designed for both published and emerging writers. Deadline to register is May 22, 2015. Dates are June 6-7, 2015. Complete information at thepointartists.com.
OWEN LAUKKANEN
Best-selling thriller author presents his latest work, The Stolen Ones. Tuesday, June 2 at 7:00pm. Vancouver Public Library, 350 W. Georgia St., Vancouver. More information at vpl.ca.
MELIA MCCLURE
Author reads from her book The Delphi Room. Wednesday, June 4 at 7:00pm. Vancouver Public Library, 350 W. Georgia St., Vancouver. More information at vpl.ca.
JANIE CHANG
Reading by the author from her new book Three Souls. Tuesday, June 9 at 7:00pm, Bob Prittie Metrotown. More information at bpl.bc.ca.
JOHN VAILLANT
Local, best-selling author reads from his latest book The Jaguar's Children. Wednesday, June 10 at 6:30pm. Carnegie Reading Room, 401 Main Street, Vancouver. More information at vpl.ca.
W. RUTH KOZAK
Canadian travel journalist and local author reads from her novel Shadow of the Lion. Wednesday, June 10 at 7:00pm. Vancouver Public Library, 350 W. Georgia St., Vancouver. More information at vpl.ca.
AIR INDIA MEDITATIONS
Award winning poet Renee Saklikar and renowned composer John Oliver present the Vancouver premiere of Air India Meditations-a sequence of soundscapes interwoven with poems from Children of Air India, about the bombing of Air India Flight 182. Saturday, June 13 at 1:00pm. Vancouver Public Library, 350 W. Georgia St., Vancouver. More information at vpl.ca.
ELIZABETH RENZETTI
National columnist with The Globe and Mail, presents her debut novel, Based on A True Story. Monday, June 15 at 7:00pm. Vancouver Public Library, 350 W. Georgia St., Vancouver. More information at vpl.ca.
DEE HOBSBAWN-SMITH
Author reads from her first collection of short fiction, What Can't Be Undone. Tuesday, June 16 at 7:00pm, White Rock Library. More information at fvrl.bc.ca.
SPOKEN INK
Melia McClure reads from her debut novel, The Delphi Room. Tuesday, June 16 at 8:00pm. La Fontana Caffe, 101-3701 East Hastings Street, Burnaby. More information at burnabywritersnews.blogspot.ca.
LUNCH POEMS @ SFU
Featuring Kevin Spenst and Louis Cabri. Wednesday, June 17 at 12:00 noon. Teck Gallery, SFU Harbour Centre, 515 West Hastings Street, Vancouver. More information at sfu.ca.
NOVEL NIGHTS
BC Book Prize winner Aislinn Hunter in discussion of her award-winning novel The World Before Us. Wednesday, June 17 at 7:00pm. Book Warehouse, 4118 Main Street. For further details please call 604 879-7737.
Thursday, May 14, 2015
Book News Vol. 10 No. 8
BOOK NEWS
A Dram Come True
A Dram Come True, the VWF's signature scotch tasting fundraiser, captures the spirit of World Whisky Day (May 16) with a celebration of the pleasures of uisge beatha (the water of life).
A Dram Come True is Vancouver's best single malt scotch event-we've just confirmed that there will be 35 select and rare malts poured. Click here, https://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/dram-tasting-menu, for a sneak peek at the 2015 tasting menu.
Your ticket gets you full access to the single malt tasting, plus the Tinhorn Creek wine bar, chocolate pairing by Chocolate Arts and appetizers by Emelle's, in the elegant surroundings of Hycroft.
Tickets: $120
Preview Tasting Tickets (access to bars 45 minutes early): Add $40
7:30pm, June 5 at Hycroft
Details and to purchase tickets here, http://writersfest.bc.ca/events/dram-come-true.
Incite 2015
Three seasoned voices of CanLit: Guy Vanderhaeghe (Daddy Lenin and Other Stories), Mark Anthony Jarman (Knife Party at the Hotel Europa), and Joan Thomas (The Opening Sky). Details: https://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/incite.
FREE!
7:30pm, May 20
Alice MacKay room, VPL Central Library
Click here for details: https://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/incite
AWARDS & LISTS
Margaret Atwood has been named a foreign honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. "The academy is an honour society based in New York and founded in 1898, with members over the years ranging from James Baldwin and William Faulkner to Leonard Bernstein and Jasper Johns."
http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/arts-and-life/entertainment/arts/atwood-named-member-of-american-arts-academy-303035941.html
Canadian novelist Emily St. John Mandel has won the U.K.'s Arthur C. Clark Award for Science-fiction for her dystopian novel Station Eleven. The novel was also shortlisted for the PEN-Faulkner Award and longlisted for the Baileys Women's Prize.
http://www.quillandquire.com/awards/2015/05/07/emily-st-john-mandel-wins-arthur-c-clarke-award-for-science-fiction/
Neel Mikherjee's The Lives of Others has been awarded the Encore Prize. "The 'ambition and depth' of the Booker-shortlisted novel secures £10,000 award for the best second novel of the year."
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/may/12/neel-mukherjees-the-lives-of-others-wins-encore-prize
Paul Kingsnorth's crowdfunded novel, The Wake, has won Bookseller Magazine's Book of the Year award. The novel was written in an invented form of Old English.
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/may/12/paul-kingsnorth-crowdfunded-novel-the-wake-wins-book-of-the-year-award
YOUNG READERS
A new children's book is taking environmentalism to a whole new level—hand-stitched and made from acid-free paper, ecological ink and jacaranda seeds; after reading the story, kids can plant the book in soil and it will grow into a tree!
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/05/11/plantable-book-tree_n_7244060.html
NEWS & FEATURES
A 52,438-word dissertation by a UBC Ph.D. candidate has made headlines for eschewing almost all punctuation. The student "wanted to make a point about aboriginal culture, colonialism, and 'the blind acceptance of English language conventions in academia.'"
http://news.nationalpost.com/news/canada/ubc-student-writes-52438-word-architecture-dissertation-with-no-punctuation-not-everyone-loved-it
What's in a name? That's the question being explored in this new infographic, called 'A History of Pen Names!' "The image features several literary icons including Alice in Wonderland author Lewis Carroll, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer author Mark Twain, and Jane Eyre author Charlotte Brontë"
http://www.adweek.com/galleycat/the-pseudonyms-of-icons-infographic/103203
Does typeface still matter in our digital age? A new typeface used to take years to create, and now "thousands are available at the click of a drop-down menu. So why do most of us still rely on the old classics?"
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/they-came-in-with-william-caxtons-printing-press-but-typefaces-still-matter-in-the-digital-age-10230301.html
Is Twitter a useful platform for short fiction? Earnest Hemingway's famous six-word story "For Sale: Baby shoes, never worn" would have been "the perfect candidate for this year's #TwitterFiction Festival, where writers such as Margaret Atwood and Celeste Ng will practice crafting very brief tales online, beginning on May 11."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/05/07/twitter-fiction_n_7205686.html
What do Anthony Doerr, Joyce Carol Oates and Elissa Schapell all have in common? They've all published work in the same magazine! "It wasn't one of the usual literary outlets, like Tin House, The Paris Review or The New Yorker. It was Rhapsody, an in-flight magazine for United Airlines."
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/04/business/media/rhapsody-the-in-flight-magazine-is-becoming-a-first-class-literary-journal.html
If you're living in the United States, here's a fact you might not know: "your local library is on the front lines against government surveillance!"
http://www.thenation.com/article/206561/librarians-versus-nsa
What do we want from writing? "It's time to rethink everything. Everything. What it means to write and what it means to write for a public—and which public."
http://flavorwire.com/517331/what-do-we-want-from-writing-money-a-career-recognition
BOOKS & WRITERS
Anne Enright's new novel, The Green Road, was partially written on the dramatic west coast of Ireland. "Over the years I had avoided what I call 'the landscape solution' in Irish prose...But there I was myself, getting fixed on the green road, and it seemed to me that this was something I should allow myself to write about now."
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/may/09/return-western-shore-anne-enright-yielding-irish-tradition
In David Gates' new collection, A Hand Reached Down to Guide Me, each character "has an arsenal just special enough to make the damage he or she wreaks distinctive." Most of the stories have already been published, but "their cumulative effect is still powerful."
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/11/books/review-david-gates-delivers-more-havoc-in-a-hand-reached-down-to-guide-me.html
Look Who's Back, a German book that satirizes Hitler, has been an extraordinary success. It's "evidence of a generational shift, a sense that 70 years after the Nazis, it's time to use dark humor to address Germany's past."
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/05/books/look-whos-back-germans-reflect-on-the-success-of-a-satire-about-hitler.html
Tina Packer's Women of Will takes a "look at Shakespeare's feminine side," taking a detailed look at his literary heroines. Packer knows the territory well—she's the founding artistic director of Shakespeare & Company in Lenox, Massachusetts.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/05/books/review-women-of-will-by-tina-packer-a-look-at-shakespeares-feminine-side.html
In his new collection, Confidence, Russell Smith "plumbs the psyches of the seemingly superficial in frequently funny prose that exudes an understanding of their anxieties about ambition, class, stature and their own desirability." The book walks the fine line between satire and humanity, balancing "contempt and compassion."
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/book-reviews/as-an-anthropologist-of-the-urbane-russell-smith-plumbs-the-psyches-of-the-seemingly-superficial-in-confidence/article24337359/
COMMUNITY EVENTS
SOUTHBANK WRITERS READING SERIES
Featuring Surrey-based poet Phinder Dulai, author of dream / arteries, Ragas from the Periphery, and Basmati Brown. Thursday, May 14 at 6:00pm, free. City Centre Library, Surrey. More information at surreylibraries.ca.
EE COOPER
Book signing and launch party for the author's latest YA book, Vanished. Sunday, May 17 at 2:00pm. Chapters/Indigo, 1025 Marine Drive, North Vancouver.
VAN SLAM
Featuring San Jose-based stand-up poet Mike McGee. Monday, May 18 at 7:00pm. Cafe Deux Soleils, 2096 Commercial Drive, Vancouver. More information at vancouverpoetryhouse.com.
W.P. KINSELLA
Author will read from his new book The Essential W.P. Kinsella. Tuesday, May 19 at 6:30pm. Hope Library, More information at fvrl.bc.ca.
SPOKEN INK
Kayla Czaga reads from her first poetry collection For Your Safety Please Hold On. Tuesday, May 19 at 8:00pm. La Fontana Caffe, 101-3701 East Hastings Street, Burnaby. More information at burnabywritersnews.blogspot.ca.
LUNCH POEMS AT SFU
Featuring Chelene Knight and Dina Del Bucchia. Wednesday, May 20 at 12:00 noon. Teck Gallery, SFU Harbour Centre, 515 West Hastings Street, Vancouver. More information at sfu.ca.
NVCL LOCAL AUTHOR SERIES
Featuring Janie Chang, Carol M. Cram and Marie Sadro. Wednesday, May 20 at 7:00pm. 3rd floor program room, North Van City Library, 120 14th Street W., North Vancouver.
THE EXILES' GALLERY
Reading in honour of poet Elise Partridge. Featuring Jordan Abel, Caroline Adderson, Elizabeth Bachinsky, Elee Kraljii Gardiner, Aislinn Hunter, Gillian Jerome, Fiona Tinwei Lam, George McWhirter, Barbara Nickel, Christopher Patton, Miranda Pearson, Rob Taylor, and Rhea Tregebov. Thursday, May 21 at 7:00pm, free. Heartwood Cafe, 317 Broadway E., Vancouver. More information at heartwoodcc.ca.
MEET THE AUTHOR
BC Book Prize nominee, Brian Payton, discusses his novel The Wind is Not a River. Thursday, May 21 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.
MEGA FAUNA
Launch of Cloudscape Comics' latest anthology. Friday, May 22 at 6:00pm, free. Cloudscape Studio, 5955 Ross, Vancouver. More information at cloudscapecomics.com.
SHAWN CURTIS STIBBARDS
Launch of the author's debut novel, The Video Watcher. Friday, May 22 at 7:00pm, free. Pulpfiction Books, 2422 Main Street, Vancouver. More information at biblioasis.com.
VANCOUVER COMIC ARTS FESTIVAL
Weekend-long celebration of comics, with readings, panels and workshops. May 23-24, 2015. Roundhouse Mews, Vancouver. More information at vancaf.com.
DOUBLE BOOK LAUNCH
Featuring Meredith Quartermain (I, Bartleby) and Colin Browne (The Hatch). Saturday, May 23 at 2:00pm. Access Gallery, 222 East Georgia St., Vancouver. More information at talonbooks.com.
POETIC JUSTICE
Features Meagan Schlee-Bedard and Bernice Lever with host Franci Louann. Sunday, May 24 at 3:00pm. The Heritage Grill, 447 Columbia St., New Westminster. More information at poeticjustice.ca.
TWISTED POETS LITERARY SALON
Features Linda King and Anatoly Molotkov (Portland) plus open mic. Thursday, May 28, 7-9:30pm, at The Cottage Bistro, 4468 Main Street, Vancouver. Suggested donation at the door: $5. Sign up for open mic at 7pm. More information at www.pandorascollective.com.
THE FLOUR PEDDLER
Authors Chris Hergesheimer and Josh Hergesheimer discuss and sign on their new book, The Flour Peddler: A Global Journey into Local Food from Canada to South Sudan. Friday, May 29 at 7:00pm. Bolen Books, 11-1644 Hillside Ave., Victoria. More information at caitlin-press.com.
NEIL MCKINNON
Award winning author and Stephen Leacock Medal finalist will read from his latest novel, The Greatest Lover of Last Tuesday. Saturday, May 30 at 3:00pm. New Westminster Public Library, 716 6th Ave., New Westminster. Register at 604-527-4667 or listener@nwpl.ca.
Upcoming
WRITERS ADVENTURE CAMP
Join award-winning authors in Whistler, BC for a fun and immersive weekend designed for both published and emerging writers. Deadline to register is May 22, 2015. Dates are June 6-7, 2015. Complete information at thepointartists.com.
OWEN LAUKKANEN
Best-selling thriller author presents his latest work, The Stolen Ones. Tuesday, June 2 at 7:00pm. Vancouver Public Library, 350 W. Georgia St., Vancouver. More information at vpl.ca.
MELIA MCCLURE
Author reads from her book The Delphi Room. Wednesday, June 4 at 7:00pm. Vancouver Public Library, 350 W. Georgia St., Vancouver. More information at vpl.ca.
JANIE CHANG
Reading by the author from her new book Three Souls. Tuesday, June 9 at 7:00pm, Bob Prittie Metrotown. More information at bpl.bc.ca.
JOHN VAILLANT
Local, best-selling author reads from his latest book The Jaguar's Children. Wednesday, June 10 at 6:30pm. Carnegie Reading Room, 401 Main Street, Vancouver. More information at vpl.ca.
W. RUTH KOZAK
Canadian travel journalist and local author reads from her novel Shadow of the Lion. Wednesday, June 10 at 7:00pm. Vancouver Public Library, 350 W. Georgia St., Vancouver. More information at vpl.ca.
AIR INDIA MEDITATIONS
Award winning poet Renee Saklikar and renowned composer John Oliver present the Vancouver premiere of Air India Meditations-a sequence of soundscapes interwoven with poems from Children of Air India, about the bombing of Air India Flight 182. Saturday, June 13 at 1:00pm. Vancouver Public Library, 350 W. Georgia St., Vancouver. More information at vpl.ca.
ELIZABETH RENZETTI
National columnist with The Globe and Mail, presents her debut novel, Based on A True Story. Monday, June 15 at 7:00pm. Vancouver Public Library, 350 W. Georgia St., Vancouver. More information at vpl.ca.
DEE HOBSBAWN-SMITH
Author reads from her first collection of short fiction, What Can't Be Undone. Tuesday, June 16 at 7:00pm, White Rock Library. More information at fvrl.bc.ca.
SPOKEN INK
Melia McClure reads from her debut novel, The Delphi Room. Tuesday, June 16 at 8:00pm. La Fontana Caffe, 101-3701 East Hastings Street, Burnaby. More information at burnabywritersnews.blogspot.ca.
LUNCH POEMS @ SFU
Featuring Kevin Spenst and Louis Cabri. Wednesday, June 17 at 12:00 noon. Teck Gallery, SFU Harbour Centre, 515 West Hastings Street, Vancouver. More information at sfu.ca.
NOVEL NIGHTS
BC Book Prize winner Aislinn Hunter in discussion of her award-winning novel The World Before Us. Wednesday, June 17 at 7:00pm. Book Warehouse, 4118 Main Street. For further details please call 604 879-7737.
A Dram Come True
A Dram Come True, the VWF's signature scotch tasting fundraiser, captures the spirit of World Whisky Day (May 16) with a celebration of the pleasures of uisge beatha (the water of life).
A Dram Come True is Vancouver's best single malt scotch event-we've just confirmed that there will be 35 select and rare malts poured. Click here, https://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/dram-tasting-menu, for a sneak peek at the 2015 tasting menu.
Your ticket gets you full access to the single malt tasting, plus the Tinhorn Creek wine bar, chocolate pairing by Chocolate Arts and appetizers by Emelle's, in the elegant surroundings of Hycroft.
Tickets: $120
Preview Tasting Tickets (access to bars 45 minutes early): Add $40
7:30pm, June 5 at Hycroft
Details and to purchase tickets here, http://writersfest.bc.ca/events/dram-come-true.
Incite 2015
Three seasoned voices of CanLit: Guy Vanderhaeghe (Daddy Lenin and Other Stories), Mark Anthony Jarman (Knife Party at the Hotel Europa), and Joan Thomas (The Opening Sky). Details: https://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/incite.
FREE!
7:30pm, May 20
Alice MacKay room, VPL Central Library
Click here for details: https://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/incite
AWARDS & LISTS
Margaret Atwood has been named a foreign honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. "The academy is an honour society based in New York and founded in 1898, with members over the years ranging from James Baldwin and William Faulkner to Leonard Bernstein and Jasper Johns."
http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/arts-and-life/entertainment/arts/atwood-named-member-of-american-arts-academy-303035941.html
Canadian novelist Emily St. John Mandel has won the U.K.'s Arthur C. Clark Award for Science-fiction for her dystopian novel Station Eleven. The novel was also shortlisted for the PEN-Faulkner Award and longlisted for the Baileys Women's Prize.
http://www.quillandquire.com/awards/2015/05/07/emily-st-john-mandel-wins-arthur-c-clarke-award-for-science-fiction/
Neel Mikherjee's The Lives of Others has been awarded the Encore Prize. "The 'ambition and depth' of the Booker-shortlisted novel secures £10,000 award for the best second novel of the year."
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/may/12/neel-mukherjees-the-lives-of-others-wins-encore-prize
Paul Kingsnorth's crowdfunded novel, The Wake, has won Bookseller Magazine's Book of the Year award. The novel was written in an invented form of Old English.
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/may/12/paul-kingsnorth-crowdfunded-novel-the-wake-wins-book-of-the-year-award
YOUNG READERS
A new children's book is taking environmentalism to a whole new level—hand-stitched and made from acid-free paper, ecological ink and jacaranda seeds; after reading the story, kids can plant the book in soil and it will grow into a tree!
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/05/11/plantable-book-tree_n_7244060.html
NEWS & FEATURES
A 52,438-word dissertation by a UBC Ph.D. candidate has made headlines for eschewing almost all punctuation. The student "wanted to make a point about aboriginal culture, colonialism, and 'the blind acceptance of English language conventions in academia.'"
http://news.nationalpost.com/news/canada/ubc-student-writes-52438-word-architecture-dissertation-with-no-punctuation-not-everyone-loved-it
What's in a name? That's the question being explored in this new infographic, called 'A History of Pen Names!' "The image features several literary icons including Alice in Wonderland author Lewis Carroll, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer author Mark Twain, and Jane Eyre author Charlotte Brontë"
http://www.adweek.com/galleycat/the-pseudonyms-of-icons-infographic/103203
Does typeface still matter in our digital age? A new typeface used to take years to create, and now "thousands are available at the click of a drop-down menu. So why do most of us still rely on the old classics?"
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/they-came-in-with-william-caxtons-printing-press-but-typefaces-still-matter-in-the-digital-age-10230301.html
Is Twitter a useful platform for short fiction? Earnest Hemingway's famous six-word story "For Sale: Baby shoes, never worn" would have been "the perfect candidate for this year's #TwitterFiction Festival, where writers such as Margaret Atwood and Celeste Ng will practice crafting very brief tales online, beginning on May 11."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/05/07/twitter-fiction_n_7205686.html
What do Anthony Doerr, Joyce Carol Oates and Elissa Schapell all have in common? They've all published work in the same magazine! "It wasn't one of the usual literary outlets, like Tin House, The Paris Review or The New Yorker. It was Rhapsody, an in-flight magazine for United Airlines."
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/04/business/media/rhapsody-the-in-flight-magazine-is-becoming-a-first-class-literary-journal.html
If you're living in the United States, here's a fact you might not know: "your local library is on the front lines against government surveillance!"
http://www.thenation.com/article/206561/librarians-versus-nsa
What do we want from writing? "It's time to rethink everything. Everything. What it means to write and what it means to write for a public—and which public."
http://flavorwire.com/517331/what-do-we-want-from-writing-money-a-career-recognition
BOOKS & WRITERS
Anne Enright's new novel, The Green Road, was partially written on the dramatic west coast of Ireland. "Over the years I had avoided what I call 'the landscape solution' in Irish prose...But there I was myself, getting fixed on the green road, and it seemed to me that this was something I should allow myself to write about now."
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/may/09/return-western-shore-anne-enright-yielding-irish-tradition
In David Gates' new collection, A Hand Reached Down to Guide Me, each character "has an arsenal just special enough to make the damage he or she wreaks distinctive." Most of the stories have already been published, but "their cumulative effect is still powerful."
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/11/books/review-david-gates-delivers-more-havoc-in-a-hand-reached-down-to-guide-me.html
Look Who's Back, a German book that satirizes Hitler, has been an extraordinary success. It's "evidence of a generational shift, a sense that 70 years after the Nazis, it's time to use dark humor to address Germany's past."
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/05/books/look-whos-back-germans-reflect-on-the-success-of-a-satire-about-hitler.html
Tina Packer's Women of Will takes a "look at Shakespeare's feminine side," taking a detailed look at his literary heroines. Packer knows the territory well—she's the founding artistic director of Shakespeare & Company in Lenox, Massachusetts.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/05/books/review-women-of-will-by-tina-packer-a-look-at-shakespeares-feminine-side.html
In his new collection, Confidence, Russell Smith "plumbs the psyches of the seemingly superficial in frequently funny prose that exudes an understanding of their anxieties about ambition, class, stature and their own desirability." The book walks the fine line between satire and humanity, balancing "contempt and compassion."
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/book-reviews/as-an-anthropologist-of-the-urbane-russell-smith-plumbs-the-psyches-of-the-seemingly-superficial-in-confidence/article24337359/
COMMUNITY EVENTS
SOUTHBANK WRITERS READING SERIES
Featuring Surrey-based poet Phinder Dulai, author of dream / arteries, Ragas from the Periphery, and Basmati Brown. Thursday, May 14 at 6:00pm, free. City Centre Library, Surrey. More information at surreylibraries.ca.
EE COOPER
Book signing and launch party for the author's latest YA book, Vanished. Sunday, May 17 at 2:00pm. Chapters/Indigo, 1025 Marine Drive, North Vancouver.
VAN SLAM
Featuring San Jose-based stand-up poet Mike McGee. Monday, May 18 at 7:00pm. Cafe Deux Soleils, 2096 Commercial Drive, Vancouver. More information at vancouverpoetryhouse.com.
W.P. KINSELLA
Author will read from his new book The Essential W.P. Kinsella. Tuesday, May 19 at 6:30pm. Hope Library, More information at fvrl.bc.ca.
SPOKEN INK
Kayla Czaga reads from her first poetry collection For Your Safety Please Hold On. Tuesday, May 19 at 8:00pm. La Fontana Caffe, 101-3701 East Hastings Street, Burnaby. More information at burnabywritersnews.blogspot.ca.
LUNCH POEMS AT SFU
Featuring Chelene Knight and Dina Del Bucchia. Wednesday, May 20 at 12:00 noon. Teck Gallery, SFU Harbour Centre, 515 West Hastings Street, Vancouver. More information at sfu.ca.
NVCL LOCAL AUTHOR SERIES
Featuring Janie Chang, Carol M. Cram and Marie Sadro. Wednesday, May 20 at 7:00pm. 3rd floor program room, North Van City Library, 120 14th Street W., North Vancouver.
THE EXILES' GALLERY
Reading in honour of poet Elise Partridge. Featuring Jordan Abel, Caroline Adderson, Elizabeth Bachinsky, Elee Kraljii Gardiner, Aislinn Hunter, Gillian Jerome, Fiona Tinwei Lam, George McWhirter, Barbara Nickel, Christopher Patton, Miranda Pearson, Rob Taylor, and Rhea Tregebov. Thursday, May 21 at 7:00pm, free. Heartwood Cafe, 317 Broadway E., Vancouver. More information at heartwoodcc.ca.
MEET THE AUTHOR
BC Book Prize nominee, Brian Payton, discusses his novel The Wind is Not a River. Thursday, May 21 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.
MEGA FAUNA
Launch of Cloudscape Comics' latest anthology. Friday, May 22 at 6:00pm, free. Cloudscape Studio, 5955 Ross, Vancouver. More information at cloudscapecomics.com.
SHAWN CURTIS STIBBARDS
Launch of the author's debut novel, The Video Watcher. Friday, May 22 at 7:00pm, free. Pulpfiction Books, 2422 Main Street, Vancouver. More information at biblioasis.com.
VANCOUVER COMIC ARTS FESTIVAL
Weekend-long celebration of comics, with readings, panels and workshops. May 23-24, 2015. Roundhouse Mews, Vancouver. More information at vancaf.com.
DOUBLE BOOK LAUNCH
Featuring Meredith Quartermain (I, Bartleby) and Colin Browne (The Hatch). Saturday, May 23 at 2:00pm. Access Gallery, 222 East Georgia St., Vancouver. More information at talonbooks.com.
POETIC JUSTICE
Features Meagan Schlee-Bedard and Bernice Lever with host Franci Louann. Sunday, May 24 at 3:00pm. The Heritage Grill, 447 Columbia St., New Westminster. More information at poeticjustice.ca.
TWISTED POETS LITERARY SALON
Features Linda King and Anatoly Molotkov (Portland) plus open mic. Thursday, May 28, 7-9:30pm, at The Cottage Bistro, 4468 Main Street, Vancouver. Suggested donation at the door: $5. Sign up for open mic at 7pm. More information at www.pandorascollective.com.
THE FLOUR PEDDLER
Authors Chris Hergesheimer and Josh Hergesheimer discuss and sign on their new book, The Flour Peddler: A Global Journey into Local Food from Canada to South Sudan. Friday, May 29 at 7:00pm. Bolen Books, 11-1644 Hillside Ave., Victoria. More information at caitlin-press.com.
NEIL MCKINNON
Award winning author and Stephen Leacock Medal finalist will read from his latest novel, The Greatest Lover of Last Tuesday. Saturday, May 30 at 3:00pm. New Westminster Public Library, 716 6th Ave., New Westminster. Register at 604-527-4667 or listener@nwpl.ca.
Upcoming
WRITERS ADVENTURE CAMP
Join award-winning authors in Whistler, BC for a fun and immersive weekend designed for both published and emerging writers. Deadline to register is May 22, 2015. Dates are June 6-7, 2015. Complete information at thepointartists.com.
OWEN LAUKKANEN
Best-selling thriller author presents his latest work, The Stolen Ones. Tuesday, June 2 at 7:00pm. Vancouver Public Library, 350 W. Georgia St., Vancouver. More information at vpl.ca.
MELIA MCCLURE
Author reads from her book The Delphi Room. Wednesday, June 4 at 7:00pm. Vancouver Public Library, 350 W. Georgia St., Vancouver. More information at vpl.ca.
JANIE CHANG
Reading by the author from her new book Three Souls. Tuesday, June 9 at 7:00pm, Bob Prittie Metrotown. More information at bpl.bc.ca.
JOHN VAILLANT
Local, best-selling author reads from his latest book The Jaguar's Children. Wednesday, June 10 at 6:30pm. Carnegie Reading Room, 401 Main Street, Vancouver. More information at vpl.ca.
W. RUTH KOZAK
Canadian travel journalist and local author reads from her novel Shadow of the Lion. Wednesday, June 10 at 7:00pm. Vancouver Public Library, 350 W. Georgia St., Vancouver. More information at vpl.ca.
AIR INDIA MEDITATIONS
Award winning poet Renee Saklikar and renowned composer John Oliver present the Vancouver premiere of Air India Meditations-a sequence of soundscapes interwoven with poems from Children of Air India, about the bombing of Air India Flight 182. Saturday, June 13 at 1:00pm. Vancouver Public Library, 350 W. Georgia St., Vancouver. More information at vpl.ca.
ELIZABETH RENZETTI
National columnist with The Globe and Mail, presents her debut novel, Based on A True Story. Monday, June 15 at 7:00pm. Vancouver Public Library, 350 W. Georgia St., Vancouver. More information at vpl.ca.
DEE HOBSBAWN-SMITH
Author reads from her first collection of short fiction, What Can't Be Undone. Tuesday, June 16 at 7:00pm, White Rock Library. More information at fvrl.bc.ca.
SPOKEN INK
Melia McClure reads from her debut novel, The Delphi Room. Tuesday, June 16 at 8:00pm. La Fontana Caffe, 101-3701 East Hastings Street, Burnaby. More information at burnabywritersnews.blogspot.ca.
LUNCH POEMS @ SFU
Featuring Kevin Spenst and Louis Cabri. Wednesday, June 17 at 12:00 noon. Teck Gallery, SFU Harbour Centre, 515 West Hastings Street, Vancouver. More information at sfu.ca.
NOVEL NIGHTS
BC Book Prize winner Aislinn Hunter in discussion of her award-winning novel The World Before Us. Wednesday, June 17 at 7:00pm. Book Warehouse, 4118 Main Street. For further details please call 604 879-7737.
Thursday, May 7, 2015
Book News Vol. 10 No. 7
BOOK NEWS
A Dram Come True
A Dram Come True, the VWF's signature scotch tasting fundraiser, captures the spirit of World Whisky Day (May 16) with a celebration of the pleasures of uisge beatha (the water of life).
A Dram Come True is Vancouver's best single malt scotch event, featuring more than 25 select and rare malts. Click here for a sneak peek at the 2015 tasting menu.
Your ticket gets you access to the single malt bars, plus the Tinhorn Creek wine bar, chocolate pairing and Emelle's awesome catering, in the elegant surroundings of Hycroft.
Tickets: $120
Preview Tasting Tickets (access to bars 45 minutes early): Add $40
7:30pm, June 5 at Hycroft
Details and to purchase tickets here, http://writersfest.bc.ca/events/dram-come-true.
Incite 2015
Three seasoned voices of CanLit: Guy Vanderhaeghe (Daddy Lenin and Other Stories), Mark Anthony Jarman (Knife Party at the Hotel Europa), and Joan Thomas (The Opening Sky). Details: https://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/incite.
FREE!
7:30pm, May 20
Alice MacKay room, VPL Central Library
Click here for details: https://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/incite
Festivals
The 14th annual DOXA documentary film festival features Censored Voices, a series of interviews made with young Israeli soldiers immediately following the Six-Day War. Saturday May 9, 4:45pm. Details at doxafestival.ca/film/censored.
AWARDS & LISTS
Terry Fallis's fourth book, No Relation, has won the Leacock Medal for Humour. This is the second time Fallis has won the prize (he also won in 2008 for The Best Laid Plans).
http://www.quillandquire.com/book-news/2015/04/30/terry-fallis-wins-second-leacock-medal-for-no-relation/
Margaret Atwood, Heather O'Neill and Eliza Robertson are among 16 Canadians longlisted for the Frank O'Connor Award. The €25,000 award is "given to a story collection published in English between July 2014 and June 2015."
http://www.quillandquire.com/awards/2015/05/01/margaret-atwood-heather-oneill-and-eliza-robertson-among-16-canadians-longlisted-for-the-frank-oconnor-award/
Canadian novelist Emily St. John Mandel has been named winner of the U.K.'s Arthur C. Clarke Award for Science-fiction for her dystopian novel Station Eleven.
http://www.quillandquire.com/awards/2015/05/07/emily-st-john-mandel-wins-arthur-c-clarke-award-for-science-fiction/
YOUNG READERS
Frank Viva's "ingenious" new picture book, Outstanding in the Rain, fashions a delightful story out of sound-alike phrases. What exactly does that mean? Just consider the book's title.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/15/books/review/frank-vivas-outstanding-in-the-rain.html
NEWS & FEATURES
Does the Leacock Award discriminate against women? "It's the biggest award for humour writing in Canada—and women have only won it six times since 1947." Here's why the award's history of overlooking women is "no laughing matter!"
http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/books/2015/04/29/leacock-awards-history-of-overlooking-women-is-no-laughing-matter.html
The Banff Centre will be offering a new slate of residencies this fall (the first in more than a decade), including ones dedicated to memoir, crime, and mountain and wilderness writing. Salman Rushdie will also be appearing at a public event.
http://www.cbc.ca/books/2015/04/banff-centre-to-introduce-slate-of-new-residencies.html
President Obama has teamed up with publishers to distribute $25 million worth of ebooks to low-income students. "We're going to provide millions of e-books online so that they're available for young people who maybe don't have as many books at home or don't always have access to a full stock of reading materials," Obama said during a virtual town hall.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/04/30/obama-e-book-low-income-students_n_7182476.html
A lost Dylan Thomas notebook, "rediscovered after lying forgotten in a drawer for decades," is set to go on public display later this month. The notebook is one of only five used by Thomas.
http://www.southwales-eveningpost.co.uk/Rare-Dylan-Thomas-notebook-opened-public/story-26420539-detail/story.html
A cache of Mark Twain stories has also appeared, thanks to the work of scholars at the University of California, Berkeley. The stories, many of which are 150 years old, were written by Twain when he was a 29-year-old newspaperman in San Francisco.
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/may/04/mark-twain-cache-uncovered-berkeley
Mr. Darcy's real-life inspiration might have been identified! Dr Susan Law, a historian, "believes the fictional aristocrat was based on the first Earl of Morley, John Parker, who was married to a friend of Austen and said to be 'intense.'"
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/11569673/Jane-Austens-real-Mr-Darcy-unmasked-by-historian.html
More than 30 authors, including Junot Díaz and Lorrie Moore, have signed a letter in protest of PEN's recent decision to give Charlie Hebdo the James C. Goodale Freedom of Expression Courage Award. "There is a critical difference between staunchly supporting expression that violates the acceptable, and enthusiastically rewarding such expression," stated the letter.
http://flavorwire.com/newswire/more-than-30-authors-including-junot-diaz-and-lorrie-moore-sign-letter-in-protest-of-pen-award-to-charlie-hebdo
And on the other side of the spectrum, there's Salman Rushdie. "Is Salman Rushdie a Voltaire for our age? His fierce defence of PEN America's prize for Charlie Hebdo's defiant provocations recalls the Enlightenment hero, but sets Rushdie against other public figures."
http://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2015/may/01/salman-rushdie-charlie-hebdo-pen-award-voltaire
BOOKS & WRITERS
Lynn Crosbie's new novel, Where Did You Sleep Last Night, is "a grunge elegy akin to author Michael Turner's iconic punk novel, Hard Core Logo," with "so many pop culture references it slides seamlessly in and out of true confessions." It follows the story of two lovers—one a disaffected teen and the other a dead rock star she meets in the hospital.
http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/books/2015/05/02/where-did-you-sleep-last-night-by-lynn-crosbie-review.html
When Miriam Toews wrote All My Puny Sorrows, she "worried people would think, what is wrong with this family?" In this interview, Toews discusses "growing up Mennonite and how she managed to transform family tragedy into a novel suffused with joy."
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/may/02/miriam-toews-interview-all-my-puny-sorrows-mennonite
Elena Johnson is a Vancouver-based poet whose first book, Field Notes for the Alpine Tundra, "was written and researched during a month-long stint in 2008 as writer-in-residence at a remote ecology research station in the Yukon." In this interview, she discusses nature poetry, data and writing from the alpine tundra.
http://www.quillandquire.com/book-news/2015/05/01/poetry-month-qa-elena-johnson-on-nature-poetry-data-and-writing-from-the-alpine-tundra/
"Bellow's nonfiction has the same strengths as his stories and novels: a dynamic responsiveness to character, place and time (or era)." Martin Amis reviews a new collection of Saul Bellows' nonfiction, There Is Simply Too Much to Think About, here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/03/books/review/there-is-simply-too-much-to-think-about-saul-bellows-nonfiction.html
The Green Road by Anne Enright, is "an exquisite collage of Irish lives. A reunion dominates this moving family drama but it's the distinct individual stories that fascinate." It could almost read as a collection of short stories, a genre in which Enright is fêted.
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/may/03/the-green-road-anne-enright-review-exquisite-collage
K.I. Press is a poet from rural Alberta, who now lives in Winnipeg. In her fourth collection, Exquisite, "Press turns mothering poems on their ear, while focusing on biomechanical androids and pop culture."
http://www.quillandquire.com/authors/2015/04/29/poetry-month-qa-k-i-press-on-motherhood-and-her-latest-collection/
COMMUNITY EVENTS
CATHIE BORRIE
Author reads from her memoir, The Long Hello: Memory, My Mother and Me. Thursday, May 7 at 7:00pm. McGill branch, Burnaby Public Library.
TWS READING SERIES
Celebrate 15 years of The Writer's Studio! Special reading event with a line-up of TWS alumni authors, featuring Betsy Warland, founder and first director of TWS and author of Breathing the Page–Reading the Act of Writing. Thursday, May 7 at 8:00pm. Cottage Bistro, 4470 Main Street, Vancouver.
JACQUELINE WOODSON
An evening with Jacqueline Woodson, 2014 National Book Award Winner for her memoir, Brown Girl Dreaming. Friday, May 8 at 7:00pm. Cost: $25. Robson Square Auditorium. Registration and information at vclr.ca.
AUTHORS AMONG US
Meet authors who use historical events to create fictional worlds or share narrative experiences. Featuring Sumi Kinoshita, Robert W. Mackay, Roger R. Blenman, and Sabina Khan. Saturday, May 9 at 2:00pm. Readability Lounge, City Centre Library, Surrey. For information and registration, call 604-598-7426.
THIS PLACE A STRANGER
Caitlin Press and Room magazine celebrate women's literature with the launch of This Place A Stranger: Canadian Women Travelling Along. Take a trip around the world with readings from Karen J Lee, Nadine Pedersen and others. Saturday, May 9 at 7:00pm. Artspeak, 233 Carrall St. Vancouver.
WHISKY FUNDRAISER
The North Vancouver District Public Library is holding a ceilidh music and whisky fundraiser in support of their children's literature department. Saturday, May 9. Details at http://www.nvdpl.ca/article/whisky-library.
MUSLIM WOMEN BETWEEN FICTION AND REALITY
Author Monia Mazigh leads a presentation and discussion of her novel Mirrors and Mirages. Monday, May 11 at 7:00pm, free. Alice MacKay room, Central Branch, 350 W. Georgia Street. More information at vpl.ca.
IAN WEIR
Award-winning local author Ian Weir presents his critically acclaimed recent work, Will Starling. Tuesday, May 12 at 7:00pm, free. Alice MacKay room, Central Branch, 350 W. Georgia St., Vancouver. More information at vpl.ca.
CUFFED!
Readings by William Deverell (Sing a Worried Song) and Owen Laukkanen (The Stolen Ones). Hosted by Sheryl McKay. Tuesday, May 12 at 7:30pm, by donation. Studio 1398, 1398 Cartwright Street, Granville Island, Vancouver. More info at cuffedfestival.com.
TWISTED POETS LITERARY SALON
Features Patrick Friesen, Kayla Czaga, and Jillian Christmas plus open mic. May 13 at 7:00pm. Suggested donation at the door: $5. The Cottage Bistro, 4468 Main Street, Vancouver. More information at www.pandorascollective.com.
Upcoming
EE COOPER
Book signing and launch party for the author's latest YA book, Vanished. Sunday, May 17 at 2:00pm. Chapters/Indigo, 1025 Marine Drive, North Vancouver.
SPOKEN INK
Kayla Czaga reads from her first poetry collection For Your Safety Please Hold On. Tuesday, May 19 at 8:00pm. La Fontana Caffe, 101-3701 East Hastings Street, Burnaby. More information at burnabywritersnews.blogspot.ca.
LUNCH POEMS AT SFU
Featuring Chelene Knight and Dina Del Bucchia. Wednesday, May 20 at 12:00 noon. Teck Gallery, SFU Harbour Centre, 515 West Hastings Street, Vancouver. More information at sfu.ca.
NVCL LOCAL AUTHOR SERIES
Featuring Janie Chang, Carol M. Cram and Marie Sadro. Wednesday, May 20 at 7:00pm. 3rd floor program room, North Van City Library, 120 14th Street W., North Vancouver.
THE EXILES' GALLERY
Reading in honour of poet Elise Partridge. Featuring Jordan Abel, Caroline Adderson, Elizabeth Bachinsky, Elee Kraljii Gardiner, Aislinn Hunter, Gillian Jerome, Fiona Tinwei Lam, George McWhirter, Barbara Nickel, Christopher Patton, Miranda Pearson, Rob Taylor, and Rhea Tregebov. Thursday, May 21 at 7:00pm, free. Heartwood Cafe, 317 Broadway E., Vancouver. More information at heartwoodcc.ca.
NEIL MCKINNON
Award winning author and Stephen Leacock Medal finalist will read from his latest novel, The Greatest Lover of Last Tuesday. Saturday, May 30 at 3:00pm. New Westminster Public Library, 716 6th Ave., New Westminster. Register at 604-527-4667 or listener@nwpl.ca.
WRITERS ADULT ADVENTURE CAMP
Join award-winning authors in Whistler, BC for a fun and immersive weekend designed for both published and emerging writers. Deadline to register is May 22, 2015. Dates are June 6-7, 2015. Complete information at thepointartists.com.
A Dram Come True
A Dram Come True, the VWF's signature scotch tasting fundraiser, captures the spirit of World Whisky Day (May 16) with a celebration of the pleasures of uisge beatha (the water of life).
A Dram Come True is Vancouver's best single malt scotch event, featuring more than 25 select and rare malts. Click here for a sneak peek at the 2015 tasting menu.
Your ticket gets you access to the single malt bars, plus the Tinhorn Creek wine bar, chocolate pairing and Emelle's awesome catering, in the elegant surroundings of Hycroft.
Tickets: $120
Preview Tasting Tickets (access to bars 45 minutes early): Add $40
7:30pm, June 5 at Hycroft
Details and to purchase tickets here, http://writersfest.bc.ca/events/dram-come-true.
Incite 2015
Three seasoned voices of CanLit: Guy Vanderhaeghe (Daddy Lenin and Other Stories), Mark Anthony Jarman (Knife Party at the Hotel Europa), and Joan Thomas (The Opening Sky). Details: https://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/incite.
FREE!
7:30pm, May 20
Alice MacKay room, VPL Central Library
Click here for details: https://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/incite
Festivals
The 14th annual DOXA documentary film festival features Censored Voices, a series of interviews made with young Israeli soldiers immediately following the Six-Day War. Saturday May 9, 4:45pm. Details at doxafestival.ca/film/censored.
AWARDS & LISTS
Terry Fallis's fourth book, No Relation, has won the Leacock Medal for Humour. This is the second time Fallis has won the prize (he also won in 2008 for The Best Laid Plans).
http://www.quillandquire.com/book-news/2015/04/30/terry-fallis-wins-second-leacock-medal-for-no-relation/
Margaret Atwood, Heather O'Neill and Eliza Robertson are among 16 Canadians longlisted for the Frank O'Connor Award. The €25,000 award is "given to a story collection published in English between July 2014 and June 2015."
http://www.quillandquire.com/awards/2015/05/01/margaret-atwood-heather-oneill-and-eliza-robertson-among-16-canadians-longlisted-for-the-frank-oconnor-award/
Canadian novelist Emily St. John Mandel has been named winner of the U.K.'s Arthur C. Clarke Award for Science-fiction for her dystopian novel Station Eleven.
http://www.quillandquire.com/awards/2015/05/07/emily-st-john-mandel-wins-arthur-c-clarke-award-for-science-fiction/
YOUNG READERS
Frank Viva's "ingenious" new picture book, Outstanding in the Rain, fashions a delightful story out of sound-alike phrases. What exactly does that mean? Just consider the book's title.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/15/books/review/frank-vivas-outstanding-in-the-rain.html
NEWS & FEATURES
Does the Leacock Award discriminate against women? "It's the biggest award for humour writing in Canada—and women have only won it six times since 1947." Here's why the award's history of overlooking women is "no laughing matter!"
http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/books/2015/04/29/leacock-awards-history-of-overlooking-women-is-no-laughing-matter.html
The Banff Centre will be offering a new slate of residencies this fall (the first in more than a decade), including ones dedicated to memoir, crime, and mountain and wilderness writing. Salman Rushdie will also be appearing at a public event.
http://www.cbc.ca/books/2015/04/banff-centre-to-introduce-slate-of-new-residencies.html
President Obama has teamed up with publishers to distribute $25 million worth of ebooks to low-income students. "We're going to provide millions of e-books online so that they're available for young people who maybe don't have as many books at home or don't always have access to a full stock of reading materials," Obama said during a virtual town hall.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/04/30/obama-e-book-low-income-students_n_7182476.html
A lost Dylan Thomas notebook, "rediscovered after lying forgotten in a drawer for decades," is set to go on public display later this month. The notebook is one of only five used by Thomas.
http://www.southwales-eveningpost.co.uk/Rare-Dylan-Thomas-notebook-opened-public/story-26420539-detail/story.html
A cache of Mark Twain stories has also appeared, thanks to the work of scholars at the University of California, Berkeley. The stories, many of which are 150 years old, were written by Twain when he was a 29-year-old newspaperman in San Francisco.
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/may/04/mark-twain-cache-uncovered-berkeley
Mr. Darcy's real-life inspiration might have been identified! Dr Susan Law, a historian, "believes the fictional aristocrat was based on the first Earl of Morley, John Parker, who was married to a friend of Austen and said to be 'intense.'"
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/11569673/Jane-Austens-real-Mr-Darcy-unmasked-by-historian.html
More than 30 authors, including Junot Díaz and Lorrie Moore, have signed a letter in protest of PEN's recent decision to give Charlie Hebdo the James C. Goodale Freedom of Expression Courage Award. "There is a critical difference between staunchly supporting expression that violates the acceptable, and enthusiastically rewarding such expression," stated the letter.
http://flavorwire.com/newswire/more-than-30-authors-including-junot-diaz-and-lorrie-moore-sign-letter-in-protest-of-pen-award-to-charlie-hebdo
And on the other side of the spectrum, there's Salman Rushdie. "Is Salman Rushdie a Voltaire for our age? His fierce defence of PEN America's prize for Charlie Hebdo's defiant provocations recalls the Enlightenment hero, but sets Rushdie against other public figures."
http://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2015/may/01/salman-rushdie-charlie-hebdo-pen-award-voltaire
BOOKS & WRITERS
Lynn Crosbie's new novel, Where Did You Sleep Last Night, is "a grunge elegy akin to author Michael Turner's iconic punk novel, Hard Core Logo," with "so many pop culture references it slides seamlessly in and out of true confessions." It follows the story of two lovers—one a disaffected teen and the other a dead rock star she meets in the hospital.
http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/books/2015/05/02/where-did-you-sleep-last-night-by-lynn-crosbie-review.html
When Miriam Toews wrote All My Puny Sorrows, she "worried people would think, what is wrong with this family?" In this interview, Toews discusses "growing up Mennonite and how she managed to transform family tragedy into a novel suffused with joy."
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/may/02/miriam-toews-interview-all-my-puny-sorrows-mennonite
Elena Johnson is a Vancouver-based poet whose first book, Field Notes for the Alpine Tundra, "was written and researched during a month-long stint in 2008 as writer-in-residence at a remote ecology research station in the Yukon." In this interview, she discusses nature poetry, data and writing from the alpine tundra.
http://www.quillandquire.com/book-news/2015/05/01/poetry-month-qa-elena-johnson-on-nature-poetry-data-and-writing-from-the-alpine-tundra/
"Bellow's nonfiction has the same strengths as his stories and novels: a dynamic responsiveness to character, place and time (or era)." Martin Amis reviews a new collection of Saul Bellows' nonfiction, There Is Simply Too Much to Think About, here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/03/books/review/there-is-simply-too-much-to-think-about-saul-bellows-nonfiction.html
The Green Road by Anne Enright, is "an exquisite collage of Irish lives. A reunion dominates this moving family drama but it's the distinct individual stories that fascinate." It could almost read as a collection of short stories, a genre in which Enright is fêted.
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/may/03/the-green-road-anne-enright-review-exquisite-collage
K.I. Press is a poet from rural Alberta, who now lives in Winnipeg. In her fourth collection, Exquisite, "Press turns mothering poems on their ear, while focusing on biomechanical androids and pop culture."
http://www.quillandquire.com/authors/2015/04/29/poetry-month-qa-k-i-press-on-motherhood-and-her-latest-collection/
COMMUNITY EVENTS
CATHIE BORRIE
Author reads from her memoir, The Long Hello: Memory, My Mother and Me. Thursday, May 7 at 7:00pm. McGill branch, Burnaby Public Library.
TWS READING SERIES
Celebrate 15 years of The Writer's Studio! Special reading event with a line-up of TWS alumni authors, featuring Betsy Warland, founder and first director of TWS and author of Breathing the Page–Reading the Act of Writing. Thursday, May 7 at 8:00pm. Cottage Bistro, 4470 Main Street, Vancouver.
JACQUELINE WOODSON
An evening with Jacqueline Woodson, 2014 National Book Award Winner for her memoir, Brown Girl Dreaming. Friday, May 8 at 7:00pm. Cost: $25. Robson Square Auditorium. Registration and information at vclr.ca.
AUTHORS AMONG US
Meet authors who use historical events to create fictional worlds or share narrative experiences. Featuring Sumi Kinoshita, Robert W. Mackay, Roger R. Blenman, and Sabina Khan. Saturday, May 9 at 2:00pm. Readability Lounge, City Centre Library, Surrey. For information and registration, call 604-598-7426.
THIS PLACE A STRANGER
Caitlin Press and Room magazine celebrate women's literature with the launch of This Place A Stranger: Canadian Women Travelling Along. Take a trip around the world with readings from Karen J Lee, Nadine Pedersen and others. Saturday, May 9 at 7:00pm. Artspeak, 233 Carrall St. Vancouver.
WHISKY FUNDRAISER
The North Vancouver District Public Library is holding a ceilidh music and whisky fundraiser in support of their children's literature department. Saturday, May 9. Details at http://www.nvdpl.ca/article/whisky-library.
MUSLIM WOMEN BETWEEN FICTION AND REALITY
Author Monia Mazigh leads a presentation and discussion of her novel Mirrors and Mirages. Monday, May 11 at 7:00pm, free. Alice MacKay room, Central Branch, 350 W. Georgia Street. More information at vpl.ca.
IAN WEIR
Award-winning local author Ian Weir presents his critically acclaimed recent work, Will Starling. Tuesday, May 12 at 7:00pm, free. Alice MacKay room, Central Branch, 350 W. Georgia St., Vancouver. More information at vpl.ca.
CUFFED!
Readings by William Deverell (Sing a Worried Song) and Owen Laukkanen (The Stolen Ones). Hosted by Sheryl McKay. Tuesday, May 12 at 7:30pm, by donation. Studio 1398, 1398 Cartwright Street, Granville Island, Vancouver. More info at cuffedfestival.com.
TWISTED POETS LITERARY SALON
Features Patrick Friesen, Kayla Czaga, and Jillian Christmas plus open mic. May 13 at 7:00pm. Suggested donation at the door: $5. The Cottage Bistro, 4468 Main Street, Vancouver. More information at www.pandorascollective.com.
Upcoming
EE COOPER
Book signing and launch party for the author's latest YA book, Vanished. Sunday, May 17 at 2:00pm. Chapters/Indigo, 1025 Marine Drive, North Vancouver.
SPOKEN INK
Kayla Czaga reads from her first poetry collection For Your Safety Please Hold On. Tuesday, May 19 at 8:00pm. La Fontana Caffe, 101-3701 East Hastings Street, Burnaby. More information at burnabywritersnews.blogspot.ca.
LUNCH POEMS AT SFU
Featuring Chelene Knight and Dina Del Bucchia. Wednesday, May 20 at 12:00 noon. Teck Gallery, SFU Harbour Centre, 515 West Hastings Street, Vancouver. More information at sfu.ca.
NVCL LOCAL AUTHOR SERIES
Featuring Janie Chang, Carol M. Cram and Marie Sadro. Wednesday, May 20 at 7:00pm. 3rd floor program room, North Van City Library, 120 14th Street W., North Vancouver.
THE EXILES' GALLERY
Reading in honour of poet Elise Partridge. Featuring Jordan Abel, Caroline Adderson, Elizabeth Bachinsky, Elee Kraljii Gardiner, Aislinn Hunter, Gillian Jerome, Fiona Tinwei Lam, George McWhirter, Barbara Nickel, Christopher Patton, Miranda Pearson, Rob Taylor, and Rhea Tregebov. Thursday, May 21 at 7:00pm, free. Heartwood Cafe, 317 Broadway E., Vancouver. More information at heartwoodcc.ca.
NEIL MCKINNON
Award winning author and Stephen Leacock Medal finalist will read from his latest novel, The Greatest Lover of Last Tuesday. Saturday, May 30 at 3:00pm. New Westminster Public Library, 716 6th Ave., New Westminster. Register at 604-527-4667 or listener@nwpl.ca.
WRITERS ADULT ADVENTURE CAMP
Join award-winning authors in Whistler, BC for a fun and immersive weekend designed for both published and emerging writers. Deadline to register is May 22, 2015. Dates are June 6-7, 2015. Complete information at thepointartists.com.
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