Book News Vol. 10 No. 13

BOOK NEWS

Win a romantic oceanside Getaway!

Our Romantic Oceanside Getaway Raffle is off to a great start! We've already sold 70 tickets, so make sure to purchase yours before it's too late. The getaway consists of a roundtrip flight from Vancouver to Comox and a two night stay for two in the Romance Suite at the Kingfisher Oceanside Resort & Spa, which features an oceanfront balcony, whirlpool tub and cozy fireplace.

Tickets are only $25.00 each. The winner will be drawn at 12pm on June 30, 2015. Details (http://writersfest.bc.ca/support-us/kingfisher-raffle) and to purchase tickets:
https://www.writersfest.bc.ca/secure/secure_raffle_requests.php

Special Event

An Evening with Louise Penny

Eagerly awaiting the latest installment in Louise Penny's Inspector Gamache series? Tickets are now on sale for our special event with Louise Penny on Monday, August 24. Louise will be discussing the 11th book in the series, The Nature of the Beast, which has Inspector Armand and Reine-Marie Gamache investigating the disappearance of a nine year old boy in Three Pines, a small village with a dark, even monstrous, past.

Monday, August 24 at 7:30pm
Vancouver Playhouse
600 Hamilton Street
Details and to purchase tickets, https://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/louise-penny.

FESTIVALS

The TD Vancouver International Jazz Festival (June 18-July 1) features 14 days of great music including headliners Buddy Guy, Erykah Badu, Pink Martini, and The Roots, the North Shore jazz series featuring The Campbell Brothers and The Waifs, free concerts at the Vancouver Art Gallery/Robson Square (June 18-21), David Lam Park/Roundhouse(June 27-28) and Granville Island (Canada Day, July 1), and much more. Details at http://www.coastaljazz.ca.

AWARDS & LISTS

The Canadian Authors Association has announced the shortlists for its annual literary awards, which recognize "excellent titles published by the country's writers in the previous year." Ann-Marie MacDonald, Miriam Toews and Eliza Robertson all made the list.
http://www.quillandquire.com/awards/2015/06/10/miriam-toews-sean-michaels-among-2015-canadian-authors-association-literary-awards-finalists/

Darrell Dennis has won the PMC Aboriginal Literature Award. "Peace Pipe Dreams: The Truth About Lies About Indians (Douglas & McIntyre), in which Dennis tackles misconceptions about First Nations people in Canada with personal anecdotes, history, and humour, will also serve as the official selected title of FNCR 2015–2016."
http://www.quillandquire.com/awards/2015/06/10/darrell-dennis-wins-pmc-aboriginal-literature-award/

John Spurling has been awarded the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction for The Ten Thousand Things, a book that was rejected by publishers 44 times. According to Spurling, "I always thought that I would like success to be in my seventies, and I'm seventy-nine this year, so have just made it!"
http://www.teleread.com/award/keep-those-rejection-slips-coming-authors-scottish-prize-goes-to-book-rejected-44-times/

Jack Livings has won the PEN Prize for Debut Fiction. His short story collection, The Dog, is set in China, where Livings lived for a time during the 1990s.
http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/06/08/jack-livings-wins-pen-prize-for-debut-fiction/

YOUNG READERS

June 11 was Robert Munsch's 70th birthday. Here are 70 facts "you might not know about the iconic storyteller to celebrate."
http://www.cbc.ca/books/2015/06/70-amazing-facts-about-robert-munsch.html

NEWS & FEATURES

Vancouver has topped Amazon.ca's "Canadian Cities that Love to Read" list. "The West Coast city not only ranked number one overall, but Vancouver residents are proving to be a worldly bunch - buying more cookbooks, travel guides, business books, health guides and self-help titles than anyone else in the country."
http://www.cbc.ca/books/2015/06/vancouver-is-1-on-amazoncas-canadian-cities-that-love-to-read-list.html

Juan Felipe Herrera has been named U.S. Poet Laureate. A son of migrant farmworkers, his writing "fuses wide-ranging experimentalism with reflections on Mexican-American identity." He is the first Latino to occupy the position.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/10/books/juan-felipe-herrera-of-california-to-be-next-poet-laureate.html

It was Bloomsday this week, celebrated every June 16th (the day in which the events of James Joyce's novel, Ulysses, take place.) How would Ulysses be received today?
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/14/books/review/how-would-ulysses-be-received-today.html

Missouri's Ferguson Municipal Public Library has been chosen as Library Journal's library of the year. The tiny library's only full-time employee, Scott Bonner, "gained international attention after he and a handful of volunteers kept the doors open for patrons despite the breakout of riots last November."
http://www.cbc.ca/books/2015/06/ferguson-library-named-library-of-the-year.html

A U.K. publisher has vowed to publish only women for a year in response to author Kamila Shamsie's call for direct action to beat gender bias in publishing. Called And Other Stories, they release 10 to 12 new titles a year.
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/jun/11/no-men-allowed-publisher-accepts-novelists-year-of-women-challenge

Why is English the only language that capitalizes the letter "I"? "Could ‘I' actually affect English speakers' sense of self?" Find out the answer, here:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/06/09/english-first-person-pronouns_n_7485402.html

Are big publishers taking over fan-fiction? It has become a boon for licensors and publishers, who have used online forums to search out new authors who might be interested in contributing to the creative process.
http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/licensing/article/66650-embracing-the-fans.html

Can Instagram be used as a platform for memoir writing? An art history student at Cambridge University is "in the process of writing a fragmented memoir entirely on Instagram. Along the way, she's collected 339,000 readers—and a literary agent who's now turning her adventures into a book."
http://mic.com/articles/120102/caroline-calloway-instragram-memoir-book

BOOKS & WRITERS

Are you ready for some summertime reading? Here's the Georgia Straight's guide.
http://www.straight.com/life/469081/bright-books-warm-weather

Backlands, by Victoria Shorr, is "the fictionalized account of a real-life one-eyed bandit called Lampião and his lover, Maria Bonita — famous Brazilian outlaws who took from the rich and gave to the poor." Backlands is "less a tale of adventure than an exploration of love and loyalty, of the relationship between a people and their land."
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/14/books/review/backlands-by-victoria-shorr.html

Tracey Lindberg's debut novel, Birdie, has introduced "an important new voice in Canadian fiction." It's an idiosyncratic and relatable tale about a Cree-Métis woman who moves from northern Alberta to B.C.'s Sunshine Coast, thanks to a girlhood obsession with the long-running CBC TV series The Beachcombers.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/book-reviews/review-tracey-lindbergs-debut-novel-birdie-introduces-an-important-new-voice-in-canadian-fiction/article24940197/

Jami Attenberg's new novel, inspired by a 1940 New Yorker profile, "centers on a bawdy, bighearted woman in Depression-era New York." Called Saint Mazie, it makes "sainthood seem not only attainable, but seductive!"
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/14/books/review/saint-mazie-by-jami-attenberg.html

Tua Forsström poem, Houdini in Karis), has been named Poem of the week by the Guardian Newspaper. "In this piece from the Finnish-Swedish poet's new collection, Houdini is an escape artist who longs for human connection." You can read the poem (and a discussion of it), here:
http://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2015/jun/15/poem-of-the-week-houdini-in-karis-by-tua-forsstrom

Irina Kovalyova's debut short story collection, Specimen. is "a humanist collision of art and science." The science comes naturally to Kovalvoa, who has a PhD in microbiology and immunology.
http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/books/2015/06/13/specimen-by-irina-kovalyova-review.html

COMMUNITY EVENTS

W. RUTH KOZAK
Author reads from her new novel Shadow of the Lion. Thursday, June 18 at 7:00pm. Kitsilano branch, 2425 MacDonald St., Vancouver. More information at 604-665-3976.

HEATHER HALEY
Author reads from her debut novel The Town Slut's Daughter. Thursday, June 18 at 7:00pm. Storm Crow Tavern. More information at howesoundpublishing@gmail.com.

VOICE TO VOICE
Launch of the latest book from the Thursdays Writing Collective. Thursday, June 18 at 7:00pm. Lost and Found Cafe, 33 W. Hastings.

ACTIVE FICTION PROJECT
Call for writers: real life choose your own adventure fiction The Active Fiction Project is a public art initiative that explores the intersection of public space and literary fiction. They're looking for a few talented authors to create short pieces of choose your own adventure fiction (max 10 pages) for this summer/fall. More information at www.activefictionproject.com/submissions.

DON MCLELLAN
Author reads from his first collection of stories, In the Quiet After Slaughter. Tuesday, June 23 at 7:00pm. Collingwood branch, 2985 Kingsway. More information at 604-665-3953.

TWISTED POETS LITERARY SALON
Features Adrienne Gruber and Raoul Fernandes with open mic. Thursday, June 25 at 7:00pm. The Cottage Bistro, 4468 Main Street, Vancouver. Suggested donation at the door: $5. Sign up for open mic at 7 pm. More information at
www.pandorascollective.com.

A GATHERING OF POETS
An evening of poetry by B.C.'s finest wordsmiths featuring Jane Munro, Cecily Nicholson, Rob Budde, Kayla Czaga, Patrick Lane and Russell Thornton. Moderated by Vancouver's Poet Laureate Rachel Rose. Friday, June 26 at 7:00pm. Central library, 350 W. Georgia St., Vancouver. More information at 604-331-3603.

DEBRA KOMAR
Author discusses her new book Murder at Fort Stikine: Solving a Centuries Old Crime in the Hudson's Bay Company. Sunday, June 28 at 2:30pm. Central library, 350 W. Georgia St., Vancouver. More information at vpl.ca.

CARELLIN BROOKS AND MICHAEL V. SMITH
Authors read from their latest works: One Hundred Days of Rain (Brooks) and My Body Is Yours (Smith). Tuesday, June 30 at 7:00pm. Central library, 350 W. Georgia St., Vancouver. More information at 604-331-3603.

Upcomings

TWISTED POETS LITERARY SALON
Features Kevin Spenst and Jennifer Zlim plus open mic. Wednesday, July 8 at 7pm. The Cottage Bistro, 4468 Main Street, Vancouver. Sign up for open mic at 7 pm. Suggested donation at the door: $5. More information at
www.pandorascollective.com.

CHEVY STEVENS
Author presents her latest work, Those Girls. Wednesday, July 8 at 7:00pm. Central library, 350 W. Georgia St., Vancouver. More information at 604-331-3603.

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, July 12 at 3:00pm. Central library, 350 W. Georgia St., Vancouver. More information at deadpoetslive.com.