BOOK NEWS
Special Offers
If being a member of the VIWF didn't already have enough benefits, we've added an extra incentive! Every two weeks new and renewing members will have a chance to win a book by a Festival or Incite author. At the end of August we'll have a grand prize draw for a deluxe pack of Festival tickets - two tickets to any event of your choice for each day of the Festival! Sign up now here, https://www.writersfest.bc.ca/secure/secure_membership.php.
cStories eBook Singles - currently running the "Get Into Our Shorts" contest at http://win.cstories.ca - will also offer Russell Wangersky's ebook "Bolt" to VWF members as part of the VWF membership drive; watch for the special offer in the INK Member eNewsletter. Not a member yet? Join us here, https://www.writersfest.bc.ca/secure/secure_membership.php.
VIRTUAL FESTIVAL
Listen to the ninth installment in our series of audio archives from past Festival events. This week you'll hear "Montreal Mystery and Music" from the 2011 Festival, featuring Trevor Ferguson, aka John Farrow. Experience the thrill of old Montreal, through flutes and whistles and a dramatic story of corruption and murder. Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/multimedia/audio-archives.
AWARDS & LISTS
British writer Jon McGregor has won the €100,000 ($131,000 Cdn) 2012 International Impac Dublin Literary Award for his novel Even the Dogs. Winnipeg's David Bergen was the sole Canadian on the short list.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/story/2012/06/13/impac-dublin-award.html
Jerry Kobalenkoc's Arctic Eden: Journeys through the Changing High Arctic has won the 2012 William Mills Prize for Nonfiction Polar Books.
http://www.cbabook.org/files/Arctic%20Eden%20wins%20the%20William%20Mills%20Prize%20for%20Nonfiction%20Polar%20Books.pdf
Irish author Sebastian Barry has won the £25,000 Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction for his novel On Canaan's Side.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-south-scotland-18472443
Max Hastings, a British historian, journalist and editor known for his writing about the Second World War, has won the $100,000 US Pritzker Military Library’s Literature Award. The award is given for lifetime achievement in military writing.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/story/2012/06/19/pritzker-military-writing.html
Anna Funder has won the 2012 Miles Franklin Award for All That I Am.
http://www.milesfranklin.com.au/
YOUNG READERS
Cold Cereal, by Adam Rex is a roller-coaster ride of wit, wordplay, magic and mystery that requires a suspension of disbelief to some degree. The story involves 11-year-old Scott Doe, 13-year-old Emily Utz and her twin brother, Erno. Creatures from the fairy world, from mythology and from the world of magic are intertwined with contemporary issues. Black-and-white full-page drawings, smaller cartoon-like strips and occasional spot illustrations add visual appeal. For age 9 and older.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/books/Kids+quiet+moments+rainy+days/6782904/story.html
Kevin Sylvester's Neil Flambé and the Crusader’s Curse is the third of the Flambé Capers, a series about a hotshot teenage chef whose super-sensitive nose sniffs out mysteries and makes him a crime-solving sleuth as well as help when he’s cooking,. A 13th century curse against one of Neil’s ancestors explains why the young chef appears to have lost his golden touch with food. For ages 8 to 12.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/books/Kids+quiet+moments+rainy+days/6782904/story.html
Geoff Rodkey's Deadweather and Sunrise has a wonderful hybrid plot: islands, buried treasure, a lad avenging violence against his family, sea voyages, tourist cruises, real pirates, fake pirates for the tourist trade, and leftover pirates, too maimed for sea work.For ages 10 to 13.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/books/chi-deadweather-and-sunrise-by-geoff-rodkey--20120614,0,4117902.story
NEWS & FEATURES
Michael Chabon writes that he hates dreams, referring to them as the Sea Monkeys of consciousness: in the back pages of sleep, they promise us teeming submarine palaces but leave us, on waking, with a hermetic residue of freeze-dried dust.
http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2012/jun/15/why-i-hate-dreams
Researchers have unveiled new evidence suggesting that a long-disputed portrait depicts a thirteen-year-old Jane Austen. This unearthed picture reinforces the celebrity aura that has developed around Austen in recent years, writes Andrea DenHoed.
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2012/06/new-jane-austen-portrait.html
Cory Doctorow writes of Andrew Hyde’s experience when he submitted the travel book he wrote and self-published. Amazon’s markup of digital delivery to indie authors is ~129,000%.
http://boingboing.net/2012/06/12/indie-author-gets-sticker-shoc.html
Asked if he intends to write a sequel to Go the F*** to Sleep, award-winning novelist Adam Mansbach says he would focus on one of two things: the insanely violent frenemy relationships three-year-olds form with one another, or playground etiquette.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/adam-mansbach-the-sequel-father-knows-sweet/article4266609/
Roxanne Gay, with the support of a graduate assistant, has learned that nearly 90% of the books reviewed by The New York Times are written by white writers, not reflective of the racial makeup of the U.S. According to the 2010 census, 72% of the population is white.
http://therumpus.net/2012/06/where-things-stand/
Stephen Colbert asked Maurice Sendak what makes a successful celebrity children's book. "You've started already by being an idiot," replied Sendak, and gave Colbert a tutorial on how to draw a pole. That improvised illustration inspired Colbert's I Am a Pole (And So Can You!)—NOT a children’s book.
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-ca-stephen-colbert-20120617,0,1917907.story
George Elliott Clarke, Roméo Dallaire, Charles Foran, and Marina Nemat among others have contributed articles, essay, poems to Omar Khadr, Oh Canada, edited by University of Alberta professor Janice Williamson. They differ on some issues, but share a common voice in their conviction that Khadr’s treatment has been shameful and unjust.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/books/wake+call+Omar+Khadr/6757431/story.html
In an interview with Tim Adams, Richard Ford talks about his novel Canada, the joys of growing old and the dangers of criticizing the US. "You are not allowed to complain. Or even have a dialogue," says Ford.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/theobserver/2012/jun/17/richard-ford-canada-interview
Louisa Lim and Jeffrey Wasserstrom write about the ways Chinese writers elude censors: many words cannot be written, many cannot be spoken. Among other things, the Arab Spring has made the Chinese leaders jittery.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/17/books/review/how-chinese-writers-elude-censors.html
In an interview with Stuart Jeffries, Mario Vargas Llosa says: "The Nobel prize is a fairytale for a week and a nightmare for a year. The first year was very difficult. I could barely write."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2012/jun/15/mario-vargas-llosa-life-in-writing
Tales of the City author Armistead Maupin is leaving San Francisco for a city with another kind of magic, he says. He’s heading for Santa Fe, where he plans to write a new 'Tales’ book, The Days of Anna Madrigal.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/06/19/DDCN1P4DG2.DTL&tsp=1
The Erasure Poetry Contest invites you to create your own poetic masterpiece from an excerpt of How Should a Person Be? by Sheila Heti—erasing letters, words and sentences until your own genius emerges. Visit geist.com/erasure for more details and to read the excerpt. All entries must be postmarked no later than August 1, 2012.
http://www.geist.com/
BOOKS & WRITERS
Chris Cleave’s Gold is set in the months leading up to the London Olympics. A rule change means only one British female track cyclist may compete. There is engrossing human drama as two women vie to get the single Olympics spot for track cycling.
http://www.thestar.com/news/books/article/1208353--chris-cleave-s-golda-gripping-story-about-two-female-champion-cyclists
James Laxer’s Tecumseh & Brock: The War of 1812 cleverly explains the war and the emergence of a Canadian identity through the lives of British Major General Sir Isaac Brock and Shawnee chieftain Tecumseh. Laxer proves Canadian history doesn’t have to be dull, writes Jennifer Hunter.
http://www.thestar.com/news/books/article/1210913--tecumseh-and-brock-the-war-of-1812-column
Stories in Elaine McCluskey’s collection Valery the Great are linked by their small-town Maritime settings as well as by a shared episodic structure, writes Rob Sternberg. Each story is told through a series of short scenes separated by page breaks.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/book-reviews/valery-the-great-by-elaine-mccluskey/article4242489/
Burying the Typewriter refers to the act carried out every night after Carmen Bugan’s father wrote pro-democracy pamphlets during the Ceausescu regime in Romania. Bugan writes from a child's perspective of a political system she barely understands.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2012/jun/16/carmen-bugan-romanian-childhood
Jim Downs’s Sick From Freedom shows the reality of emancipation, brutally short of its positive image. About a quarter of the four million freed slaves either died or suffered from illness between 1862 and 1870, writes Downs.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jun/16/slavery-starvation-civil-war
The focus of Gordon Bowkers’ James Joyce is almost strictly on Joyce the human being, writes Michael Dirda. In his personal life, the young Joyce is thoroughly disreputable. It’s not always a pretty picture, says Dirda, but it seems like a true one.http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/gordon-bowkers-james-joyce-portrait-of-the-author-as-a-man/2012/06/13/gJQAOhuraV_story.html
Alix Ohlin’s novel Inside and short-story collection Signs and Wonders reflect her knowledge of Ingmar Bergman and Woody Allen films, writes T.F. Rigelhof, but the readers discover a lot of smarts and a wry sense of humour.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/book-reviews/alix-ohlin-a-writer-who-should-be-famous/article4267001/
COMMUNITY EVENTS
TOM WAYMAN AND KATE BRAID
Award-winning authors present a dynamic evening of poetry. Wayman reads from Dirty Snow and Braid reads from several collections, including a new edition of To This Cedar Fountain. Thursday, June 21 at 7:00pm, free. Meeting room, level 3, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia Street. More information at 604-331-3603.
TRIPLE THREAT: CHICKS WHO SOLVE CRIME!
Three Canadian mystery authors - Deryn Collier, Hilary Davidson, and Robin Spano - team up for an evening of readings & discussion. Thursday, June 21 at 7:00pm. Free but register in advance at 604-299-8955. McGill branch, Burnaby Public Library, 4595 Albert Street, Burnaby.
CHRIS GUILLEBEAU AND DANIELLE LAPORTE
Appearances by the author of The Art of Non-Conformity (Guillebeau) and The $100 Startup (Laporte). Thursday, June 21 at 7:00pm. Chapters Robson, 788 Robson St. More information at 604-682-4066.
TWISTED POETS LITERARY SALON
Readings by Jen Currin and Lisa McInnes. Thursday, June 21 at 7:00pm. Suggested donation at the door: $5. The Prophouse Cafe, 1636 Venables Ave., Vancouver. More information at www.pandorascollective.com.
GORDON LONG
Book signing/meet the author for the comic fantasy A Sword Called...Kitten? Saturday, June 23 at 11am. Blackberry Books, 1666 Johnston Street.
RICHELLE MEAD
Signing by the author of the Bloodlines series. Saturday, June 23 at 2:00pm. Chapters Metrotown, 4700 Kingsway, Burnaby. More information at 604-431-0463.
VANCOUVER POETRY SLAM
Nerd-themed youth poetry slam open to all poets 13-22 years of age, costumes encouraged. Also featuring Metis spoken word artist Moe Clark. Monday, June 25 at 8:00pm. Admission: $4 for 18 and under, $6 for 19 and up. Cafe Deux Soleils, 2096 Commercial Drive. More information at www.vancouverpoetryhouse.com.
WORDS AND MUSIC
Four evenings of poetry, spontaneous song and improvised music events. Featuring Daniela Elza, James, Mark Weber and Kate Braid. June 25-28, 2012. Admission by donation. Prophouse Cafe, 1636 Venables St. More information at vancouverjazz.com.
DAPHNE MARLATT
Presentation of the 19th Annual George Woodcock Lifetime Achievement Award to Daphne Marlatt for an outstanding literary career in British Columbia. Thursday, June 28 at 7:00pm, free. Alice MacKay room, lower level, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia St. More information at 604-331-3603.
OUR FRIEND JOE: THE JOE FORTES STORY
Authors Lisa Anne Smith and Barbara Rogers give a presentation on Vancouver humanitarian Joe Fortes. Saturday, June 30 at 1pm, free, refreshments provided. Door prizes include a $150 gift certificate to the Joe Fortes Restaurant! Roedde House Museum, 1415 Barclay Street.
Upcoming
THE RED SHOES
Based on Hans Christian Andersen's story and filmed in 1947, The Red Shoes, beautiful and talented Vicky is hired by the top impresario of the day, Lermontov, to dance in his company. Hosted by Alma Lee. Tuesday, July 3 at 7:30pm. Vancouver International Film Centre, 1181 Seymour Street. More information here, http://filmguide.viff.org/tixSYS/vifcguide/filmguide/films/2279.
TWISTED POETS LITERARY SALON
Readings by bill bissett and Susan Cormier. Thursday, July 5 at 7:00pm. Suggested donation at the door: $5. The Prophouse Cafe, 1636 Venables Ave., Vancouver. More information at talonbooks.com.
DEAD POETS READING SERIES
Readings by Kate Braid, George McWhirter, Daniela Elza, Ken Klonksy, and Hal Wake. Sunday, July 8 at 3:00pm. Entry by donation. Project Space, 222 East Georgia Street, Vancouver. Details and registration here, www.deadpoetslive.com.
TIM WARD
Author reads from Zombies on Kilimanjaro: A Father-Son Journey Above the Clouds. Thursday, July 17 at 7:00pm, free. Alice MacKay room, lower level, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia Street. More information at 604-331-3603.
DENMAN ISLAND READERS & WRITERS FESTIVAL
Annual summer event featuring Tseporah Berman, Steven Galloway, Loran Goodison, Timothy Taylor and many others. July 19-22, 2012. For complete details, visit www.denmanislandwritersfestival.com.
VISIBLE VERSE FESTIVAL 2012
VVF seeks videopoems that wed words and images, the voice seen as well as heard. Deadline for submissions is August 1, 2012. For more information, contact Artistic Director Heather Haley at hshaley@emspace.com.
Thursday, June 21, 2012
Thursday, June 14, 2012
Book News Vol. 7 No. 21
BOOK NEWS
Special Offers
If being a member of the VIWF didn't already have enough benefits, we've added an extra incentive! Every two weeks new and renewing members will have a chance to win a book by a Festival or Incite author. At the end of August we'll have a grand prize draw for a deluxe pack of Festival tickets - two tickets to any event of your
choice for each day of the Festival! Sign up now here, https://www.writersfest.bc.ca/secure/secure_membership.php.
cStories eBook Singles - currently running the "Get Into Our Shorts" contest at http://win.cstories.ca - will also offer Russell Wangersky's ebook "Bolt" to VWF members as part of the VWF membership drive; watch for the special offer in the INK Member eNewsletter. Not a member yet? Join us here,
https://www.writersfest.bc.ca/secure/secure_membership.php.
VIRTUAL FESTIVAL
Listen to the eighth installment in our series of audio archives from past Festival events. This week you'll hear "An Intimate Afternoon" from the 2011 Festival, featuring Russell Banks. Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/multimedia/audio-archives.
AWARDS & LISTS
Canadian literary icon Margaret Atwood was honoured at the CBA's Libris Awards, where she was presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award. Atwood's acceptance speech is here:
http://www.cbabook.org/files/LibrisAwards/Margaret%20Atwood's%20Acceptance%20Speech.pdf
The Libris Awards recognize the best in the Canadian book industry. The winners of this year's Libris Awards can be found here:
http://www.cbabook.org/files/LibrisAwards/LibrisWINNERSannouncement12FINAL.pdf
Natasha Trethewey has been appointed the US Poet Laureate, the first to hail from the south since Robert Penn Warren in 1986.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Natasha+Trethewey+explored+forgotten+Civil+history+named/6745858/story.html
Canadian Ken Babstock and Briton David Harsent won the 2012 Griffin Poetry Prize Thursday, each taking home $65,000.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/babstock-harsent-win-2012-griffin-poetry-prize/article4241056/
Poet Seamus Heaney has won the Griffin 2012 lifetime achievement award. Griffin trustee Robin Robertson referred to Mr. Heaney as "our greatest living poet".
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/poet-seamus-heaney-wins-griffin-prize-for-lifetime-achievement/article4237660/
American author Nathan Englander, along with Kevin Barry, Etgar Keret, Sarah Hall, Lucia Perillo, and Fiona Kidman are shortlisted for the lucrative short-story prize, the 2012 Frank O'Connor award.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jun/07/nathan-englander-favourite-frank-oconnor-award
Philip Roth paid tribute to his "dear friend" Carlos Fuentes on winning Spain's prestigious literary prize the Prince of Asturias award.
http: //www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jun/07/philip-roth-asturias-carlos-fuentes
Toronto author Ian Williams is the 2011 winner of the Danuta Gleed Literary Award, for Not Anyone's Anything.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/ian-williams-named-winner-of-danuta-gleed-literary-award/article4239253/
Beryl Young's Follow the Elephant, Michelle Superle's Black Dog Dream, and Linda Bailey's Stanley's Little Sister have won Chocolate Lilly 2012 awards. The awards gala took place at Devon Gardens Elementary School in Delta, B.C.
http://chocolatelilyawards.com/?p=296
The Walrus was the toast of Canada's National Magazine Awards last week, winning six gold awards and six silver. A complete list of winners and nominees is available here:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/walrus-wins-big-at-national-magazine-awards/article4241029/.com
Sri Lankan author Shehan Karunatilaka has won the Commonwealth book prize for his debut novel Chinaman: the Legend of Pradeep Mathew.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jun/08/shehan-karunatilaka-commonwealth-book-prize
YOUNG READERS
Isabella's Garden By Glenda Millard, illustrated by Rebecca Cool. Beginning with "the soil/ all dark and deep/ in Isabella's garden," the book stays through the expected planting, the end of the growing season, through winter and on to the next growing season. The rhythm of the words matches well the roundness of the naturally
growing world. Ages 5 to 9.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/books/ct-books-isabellas-garden-by-glenda-millard,0,438383.story
Two books for Fathers Day or for fathers to read to their children: Australian author/illustrator Nick Bland's Some Dads; and Klaas Verplancke's Applesauce: images of polar bears, cautious elephants, sporty dads, naughty dads, "and some dads who just brighten your day". Ages 3 to 7.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/books/Kids+Books+share+with/6751217/story.html
Violet had no idea how important her interest in all things Japanese would become when she went to live with her artist dad for a summer. In Diana Renn's mystery novel Tokyo Heist, Violet learns about the art world and tracks stolen art. Ages 12 and up.
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-ca-diana-renn-20120603,0,2002959.story
Step Gently Out, In the Sea, Outside Your Window: A First Book of Nature by Helen Frost and Rick Lieder. Ages 2 to 6.
http://www.thestar.com/news/books/article/1207616--step-gently-out-in-the-sea-outside-your-window-a-first-book-of-nature-who-needs-an-iceberg-an-arctic-ecosystem-50-climate-questions-a-blizzard-of-blistering-facts-mini-reviews
NEWS & FEATURES
Margaret Atwood and 25 other writers agreed to write a short story in Bradburyesque mode to contribute to a tribute volume on Ray Bradbury. It's no accident that he was descended from Mary Bradbury, convicted as a witch during the Salem witchcraft trials, writes Atwood.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jun/08/margaret-atwood-on-ray-bradbury
Booker prize-winning writer Barry Unsworth, author of Sacred Hunger (18th Century slave trade) and other historical novels, has died, age 81.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jun/08/barry-unsworth
New secrecy laws proposed for South Africa have provoked a rare public intervention from JM Coetzee, the Nobel laureate and double Booker prize winner, and fellow Nobel laureate Nadine Gordimer. "We are going back to apartheid censorship under a new guise," says Gordimer.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jun/06/south-african-campaigners-secrecy-bill
The South African press law is 'more harmful than apartheid-era censorship', says Wendy Woods, widow of anti-apartheid journalist and editor Donald Woods.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jun/06/south-african-press-law-harmful
Nicholas Lezard writes that Victor Serge's Memoirs of a Revolutionary should be required reading for anyone who cares about justice and freedom of speech.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jun/05/memoirs-revolutionary-victor-serge-review
Alberto Manguel reflects on art as a witness to the human desire to be infinite and eternal.
http://www.geist.com/articles/observer-and-observed/index.html
Four up-and-coming mystery writers—Hilary Davidson, Deryn Collier, Robin Spano and Ian Hamilton—are on a crime tour of Vancouver and the Lower Mainland in June, writes Tracy Sherlock. All four are fresh faces on the crime fiction scene.
http://blogs.vancouversun.com/2012/05/30/crime-authors-on-a-mystery-tour-of-vancouver/
Fictional sleuths have a habit of bouncing back from retirement. Author Ian Rankin said there was "unfinished business" with his celebrated character, Inspector Rebus. Rebus will return in the novel Standing in Another Man's Grave, to be released in November.
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/ian-rankin-brings-back-rebus-for-unfinished-business-7817887.html
Riel Nason's The Town that Drowned won the Commonwealth Book Prize for Canada and Europe, was inspired by Hawkshaw, NB, population of about 35 (including Nason). The book is now in contention for the main award.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/books/Canadian+Commonwealth+Book+Prize+contender+inspired+drowned+town/6739714/story.html
In a major overhaul of the national curriculum for schools in England, children as young as five will be expected to learn and recite poetry by heart.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2012/jun/10/primary-school-children-recite-poetry
Two hundred love letters between Rainer Maria Rilke and Andreas-Salomé have been gathered into a book called Rilke and Andreas-Salomé: A Love Story in Letters. Each of the letters reveals a different facet of Rilke, writes Maria Popova.
http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2012/06/06/rilke-salome-love-letters/
When W. H. Auden met Edward Mendelson, professor of English at Columbia University and discovered Mendelson's work, he decided that Mendelson, and not he, should select the essays for his next collection. Later, Auden asked Mendelson to become his literary executor.
http://www.scotsman.com/lifestyle/books/features/interview-edward-mendelson-literary-executor-and-wh-auden-fan-1-2333608
BOOKS & WRITERS
Skagboys is the prequel to Irvine Welsh's debut novel, Trainspotting and so, we revisit the lives of those characters—or, as Don Gillmore describes them, trainspotters-in-training. Perhaps we'll see the gang again in 2014 when the referendum on Scottish independence takes place, writes Gillmore.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/book-reviews/irvine-welshs-skagboys-trainspotters-in-training/article4241642/
Winning Words: Inspiring Poems for Everyday Life chosen by William Sieghart is an anthology to rejoice in, full of poems trying to make one feel better about being alive. The only off-putting thing about this anthology is its title, writes Kate Kellaway.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jun/10/winning-words-william-sieghart-review
Stories in Elaine McCluskey's collection Valery the Great are linked by their small-town Maritime settings as well as by a shared episodic structure, writes Rob Sternberg. Each story is told through a series of short scenes separated by page breaks.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/book-reviews/valery-the-great-by-elaine-mccluskey/article4242489/
Amber Dermont's The Starboard Sea conforms to the German idea of the bildungsroman, the story of a youth's transition to adulthood, writes Robert J. Wiersema, adding that The Starboard Sea is a well-constructed, well-paced character study.
http://www.vancouversun.com/entertainment/books/Starboard+Coming+tale+sensitive+retelling+distant+past/6751858/story.html
Modern Russia is still unwilling to acknowledge the butchery of Stalin's rule, writes John Kampfner. Stephen F. Cohen's The Victims Return is not a history of the camps, but a history of the survivors and their legacy, with Russia locked in historical denial.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jun/10/stephen-cohen-survivors-gulag-stalin-review
In Our Way Out, Marq de Villiers shows that democracy has probably peaked and the globe's financial system has become a casino for the rich, writes Andrew Nikiforuk. We have exercised God-like energy powers badly; now we must learn how to use our "little powers" better.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/book-reviews/our-way-out-by-marq-de-villiers/article4248191/
Anakana Schofield has titled her debut novel Malarky, defined as "exaggerated or foolish talk, usually intended to deceive." The voice is always Our Woman's, a working class middle-aged woman and one of the most vivid fictional creations to come along in years, writes Ian McGillis.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/books/Malarky+heroine+revels+freedom/6751318/story.html
The Matter with Morris, initially published in 2010, is now shortlisted for the €100,000 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, to be announced this week. This is a moving and engaging novel of grief and loss, impeccably written and fully imagined, writes Michel Basilières.
http://www.thestar.com/news/books/article/1201844--the-matter-with-morris-by-david-bergen-review
COMMUNITY EVENTS
ROBSON READING SERIES
Readings by Phil Hall (Killdeer) and Aaron Bushkowsky (Curtains for Roy). Thursday, June 14 at 7:00pm, free. BC Bookstore/Library at Robson Square, 800 Robson Street. More information at www.robsonreadingseries.ubc.ca.
TWS READING SERIES
The Writer's Studio at SFU presents an evening with guest author Robyn Michele Levy, who has been shortlisted for the 2012 Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour for her book All of Me:Surviving My Medical Meltdown. Thursday, June 14 at 7:00pm. Admission by donation. Rhizome Cafe, 317 East Broadway.
V6A - POSTAL CODE READINGS
Launch of a five-part reading series to support the anthology V6A with readings by Cathleen With, Brenda Prince, Antonette Rea and Sen Yi. Friday, June 15 at 7:00pm, free. Carnegie Community Centre, 401 Main Street, Vancouver. More information at www.thursdayswritingcollective.ca.
WAYDE COMPTON
The Canadian poet reads from a sequence of elegies about Canada and the Air India bombing. Friday, June 15 at 8:00pm. People's Co-op Bookstore, 1391 Commercial Drive. More information at 604-253-6442.
CHRISTINA JOHNSON-DEAN
Launch of the fifth book in the series The Unheralded Artists of BC, The Life and Art of Ina D.D. Uhthoff. Saturday, June 16 at 8:00pm, free. Martin Batchelor Gallery, 712 Cormorant St., Victoria. More information at www.mothertonguepublishing.com.
THE OPENING ACT: CANADIAN THEATRE HISTORY 1945-1953
Book launch of Susan McNicoll new theatre history book. Sunday, June 17 at 2 pm, free. Trout Lake Community Centre, Lakewood Room, 3360 Victoria Drive. More information at www.ronsdalepress.com.
VAN SLAM
Slam featuring Dave Morris. Monday June 18 at 8:00pm. Cost: $6-$10 at the door. Cafe Deux Soleils, 2096 Commercial Drive. More information at vancouverpoetryhouse.com.
LUNCH POEMS @ SFU
Readings by Sonnet L'Abbe and Renee Sarojini Saklilkar presented by Simon Fraser University. Wednesday, June 20 at 12:00pm, free. Teck Gallery, SFU Harbour Centre, 515 West Hastings.
BEHIND BARBED WIRE
Literary reading from Behind Barbed Wire: Creative Works on the Internment of Italian Canadians and Beyond Barbed Wire: Essays on the Internment of Italian Canadians with B.C. authors Lynne Bowen, Anna Foschi Ciampolini, Robert Pepper-Smith, and Osvaldo Zappa. Wednesday, June 20 at 7:00pm, free. McGill branch,
Burnaby Public Library, 4595 Albert Street, Burnaby.
TOM WAYMAN AND KATE BRAID
Award-winning authors present a dynamic evening of poetry. Wayman reads from Dirty Snow and Braid reads from several collections, including a new edition of To This Cedar Fountain. Thursday, June 21 at 7:00pm, free. Meeting room, level 3, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia Street. More information at 604-331-3603.
TRIPLE THREAT: CHICKS WHO SOLVE CRIME!
Three Canadian mystery authors - Deryn Collier, Hilary Davidson, and Robin Spano - team up for an evening of readings & discussion. Thursday, June 21 at 7:00pm. Free but register in advance at 604-299-8955. McGill branch, Burnaby Public Library, 4595 Albert Street, Burnaby.
CHRIS GUILLEBEAU AND DANIELLE LAPORTE
Appearances by the author of The Art of Non-Conformity (Guillebeau) and The $100 Startup (Laporte). Thursday, June 21 at 7:00pm. Chapters Robson, 788 Robson St. More information at 604-682-4066.
TWISTED POETS LITERARY SALON
Readings by Jen Currin and Lisa McInnes. Thursday, June 21 at 7:00pm. Suggested donation at the door: $5. The Prophouse Cafe, 1636 Venables Ave., Vancouver. More information at www.pandorascollective.com.
RICHELLE MEAD
Signing by the author of the Bloodlines series. Saturday, June 23 at 2:00pm. Chapters Metrotown, 4700 Kingsway, Burnaby. More information at 604-431-0463.
Upcoming
DAPHNE MARLATT
Presentation of the 19th Annual George Woodcock Lifetime Achievement Award to Daphne Marlatt for an outstanding literary career in British Columbia. Thursday, June 28 at 7:00pm, free. Alice MacKay room, lower level, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia St. More information at 604-331-3603.
TWISTED POETS LITERARY SALON
Readings by bill bissett and Susan Cormier. Thursday, July 5 at 7:00pm. Suggested donation at the door: $5. The Prophouse Cafe, 1636 Venables Ave., Vancouver. More information at talonbooks.com.
DEAD POETS READING SERIES
Readings by Kate Braid, George McWhirter, Daniela Elza, Ken Klonksy, and Hal Wake. Sunday, July 8 at 3:00pm. Entry by donation. Project Space, 222 East Georgia Street, Vancouver. Details and registration here, www.deadpoetslive.com.
DENMAN ISLAND READERS & WRITERS FESTIVAL
Annual summer event featuring Tseporah Berman, Steven Galloway, Loran Goodison, Timothy Taylor and many others. July 19-22, 2012. For complete details, visit www.denmanislandwritersfestival.com.
VISIBLE VERSE FESTIVAL 2012
VVF seeks videopoems that wed words and images, the voice seen as well as heard. Deadline for submissions is August 1, 2012. For more information, contact Artistic Director Heather Haley at hshaley@emspace.com.
Special Offers
If being a member of the VIWF didn't already have enough benefits, we've added an extra incentive! Every two weeks new and renewing members will have a chance to win a book by a Festival or Incite author. At the end of August we'll have a grand prize draw for a deluxe pack of Festival tickets - two tickets to any event of your
choice for each day of the Festival! Sign up now here, https://www.writersfest.bc.ca/secure/secure_membership.php.
cStories eBook Singles - currently running the "Get Into Our Shorts" contest at http://win.cstories.ca - will also offer Russell Wangersky's ebook "Bolt" to VWF members as part of the VWF membership drive; watch for the special offer in the INK Member eNewsletter. Not a member yet? Join us here,
https://www.writersfest.bc.ca/secure/secure_membership.php.
VIRTUAL FESTIVAL
Listen to the eighth installment in our series of audio archives from past Festival events. This week you'll hear "An Intimate Afternoon" from the 2011 Festival, featuring Russell Banks. Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/multimedia/audio-archives.
AWARDS & LISTS
Canadian literary icon Margaret Atwood was honoured at the CBA's Libris Awards, where she was presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award. Atwood's acceptance speech is here:
http://www.cbabook.org/files/LibrisAwards/Margaret%20Atwood's%20Acceptance%20Speech.pdf
The Libris Awards recognize the best in the Canadian book industry. The winners of this year's Libris Awards can be found here:
http://www.cbabook.org/files/LibrisAwards/LibrisWINNERSannouncement12FINAL.pdf
Natasha Trethewey has been appointed the US Poet Laureate, the first to hail from the south since Robert Penn Warren in 1986.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Natasha+Trethewey+explored+forgotten+Civil+history+named/6745858/story.html
Canadian Ken Babstock and Briton David Harsent won the 2012 Griffin Poetry Prize Thursday, each taking home $65,000.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/babstock-harsent-win-2012-griffin-poetry-prize/article4241056/
Poet Seamus Heaney has won the Griffin 2012 lifetime achievement award. Griffin trustee Robin Robertson referred to Mr. Heaney as "our greatest living poet".
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/poet-seamus-heaney-wins-griffin-prize-for-lifetime-achievement/article4237660/
American author Nathan Englander, along with Kevin Barry, Etgar Keret, Sarah Hall, Lucia Perillo, and Fiona Kidman are shortlisted for the lucrative short-story prize, the 2012 Frank O'Connor award.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jun/07/nathan-englander-favourite-frank-oconnor-award
Philip Roth paid tribute to his "dear friend" Carlos Fuentes on winning Spain's prestigious literary prize the Prince of Asturias award.
http: //www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jun/07/philip-roth-asturias-carlos-fuentes
Toronto author Ian Williams is the 2011 winner of the Danuta Gleed Literary Award, for Not Anyone's Anything.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/ian-williams-named-winner-of-danuta-gleed-literary-award/article4239253/
Beryl Young's Follow the Elephant, Michelle Superle's Black Dog Dream, and Linda Bailey's Stanley's Little Sister have won Chocolate Lilly 2012 awards. The awards gala took place at Devon Gardens Elementary School in Delta, B.C.
http://chocolatelilyawards.com/?p=296
The Walrus was the toast of Canada's National Magazine Awards last week, winning six gold awards and six silver. A complete list of winners and nominees is available here:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/walrus-wins-big-at-national-magazine-awards/article4241029/.com
Sri Lankan author Shehan Karunatilaka has won the Commonwealth book prize for his debut novel Chinaman: the Legend of Pradeep Mathew.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jun/08/shehan-karunatilaka-commonwealth-book-prize
YOUNG READERS
Isabella's Garden By Glenda Millard, illustrated by Rebecca Cool. Beginning with "the soil/ all dark and deep/ in Isabella's garden," the book stays through the expected planting, the end of the growing season, through winter and on to the next growing season. The rhythm of the words matches well the roundness of the naturally
growing world. Ages 5 to 9.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/books/ct-books-isabellas-garden-by-glenda-millard,0,438383.story
Two books for Fathers Day or for fathers to read to their children: Australian author/illustrator Nick Bland's Some Dads; and Klaas Verplancke's Applesauce: images of polar bears, cautious elephants, sporty dads, naughty dads, "and some dads who just brighten your day". Ages 3 to 7.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/books/Kids+Books+share+with/6751217/story.html
Violet had no idea how important her interest in all things Japanese would become when she went to live with her artist dad for a summer. In Diana Renn's mystery novel Tokyo Heist, Violet learns about the art world and tracks stolen art. Ages 12 and up.
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-ca-diana-renn-20120603,0,2002959.story
Step Gently Out, In the Sea, Outside Your Window: A First Book of Nature by Helen Frost and Rick Lieder. Ages 2 to 6.
http://www.thestar.com/news/books/article/1207616--step-gently-out-in-the-sea-outside-your-window-a-first-book-of-nature-who-needs-an-iceberg-an-arctic-ecosystem-50-climate-questions-a-blizzard-of-blistering-facts-mini-reviews
NEWS & FEATURES
Margaret Atwood and 25 other writers agreed to write a short story in Bradburyesque mode to contribute to a tribute volume on Ray Bradbury. It's no accident that he was descended from Mary Bradbury, convicted as a witch during the Salem witchcraft trials, writes Atwood.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jun/08/margaret-atwood-on-ray-bradbury
Booker prize-winning writer Barry Unsworth, author of Sacred Hunger (18th Century slave trade) and other historical novels, has died, age 81.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jun/08/barry-unsworth
New secrecy laws proposed for South Africa have provoked a rare public intervention from JM Coetzee, the Nobel laureate and double Booker prize winner, and fellow Nobel laureate Nadine Gordimer. "We are going back to apartheid censorship under a new guise," says Gordimer.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jun/06/south-african-campaigners-secrecy-bill
The South African press law is 'more harmful than apartheid-era censorship', says Wendy Woods, widow of anti-apartheid journalist and editor Donald Woods.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jun/06/south-african-press-law-harmful
Nicholas Lezard writes that Victor Serge's Memoirs of a Revolutionary should be required reading for anyone who cares about justice and freedom of speech.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jun/05/memoirs-revolutionary-victor-serge-review
Alberto Manguel reflects on art as a witness to the human desire to be infinite and eternal.
http://www.geist.com/articles/observer-and-observed/index.html
Four up-and-coming mystery writers—Hilary Davidson, Deryn Collier, Robin Spano and Ian Hamilton—are on a crime tour of Vancouver and the Lower Mainland in June, writes Tracy Sherlock. All four are fresh faces on the crime fiction scene.
http://blogs.vancouversun.com/2012/05/30/crime-authors-on-a-mystery-tour-of-vancouver/
Fictional sleuths have a habit of bouncing back from retirement. Author Ian Rankin said there was "unfinished business" with his celebrated character, Inspector Rebus. Rebus will return in the novel Standing in Another Man's Grave, to be released in November.
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/ian-rankin-brings-back-rebus-for-unfinished-business-7817887.html
Riel Nason's The Town that Drowned won the Commonwealth Book Prize for Canada and Europe, was inspired by Hawkshaw, NB, population of about 35 (including Nason). The book is now in contention for the main award.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/books/Canadian+Commonwealth+Book+Prize+contender+inspired+drowned+town/6739714/story.html
In a major overhaul of the national curriculum for schools in England, children as young as five will be expected to learn and recite poetry by heart.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2012/jun/10/primary-school-children-recite-poetry
Two hundred love letters between Rainer Maria Rilke and Andreas-Salomé have been gathered into a book called Rilke and Andreas-Salomé: A Love Story in Letters. Each of the letters reveals a different facet of Rilke, writes Maria Popova.
http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2012/06/06/rilke-salome-love-letters/
When W. H. Auden met Edward Mendelson, professor of English at Columbia University and discovered Mendelson's work, he decided that Mendelson, and not he, should select the essays for his next collection. Later, Auden asked Mendelson to become his literary executor.
http://www.scotsman.com/lifestyle/books/features/interview-edward-mendelson-literary-executor-and-wh-auden-fan-1-2333608
BOOKS & WRITERS
Skagboys is the prequel to Irvine Welsh's debut novel, Trainspotting and so, we revisit the lives of those characters—or, as Don Gillmore describes them, trainspotters-in-training. Perhaps we'll see the gang again in 2014 when the referendum on Scottish independence takes place, writes Gillmore.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/book-reviews/irvine-welshs-skagboys-trainspotters-in-training/article4241642/
Winning Words: Inspiring Poems for Everyday Life chosen by William Sieghart is an anthology to rejoice in, full of poems trying to make one feel better about being alive. The only off-putting thing about this anthology is its title, writes Kate Kellaway.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jun/10/winning-words-william-sieghart-review
Stories in Elaine McCluskey's collection Valery the Great are linked by their small-town Maritime settings as well as by a shared episodic structure, writes Rob Sternberg. Each story is told through a series of short scenes separated by page breaks.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/book-reviews/valery-the-great-by-elaine-mccluskey/article4242489/
Amber Dermont's The Starboard Sea conforms to the German idea of the bildungsroman, the story of a youth's transition to adulthood, writes Robert J. Wiersema, adding that The Starboard Sea is a well-constructed, well-paced character study.
http://www.vancouversun.com/entertainment/books/Starboard+Coming+tale+sensitive+retelling+distant+past/6751858/story.html
Modern Russia is still unwilling to acknowledge the butchery of Stalin's rule, writes John Kampfner. Stephen F. Cohen's The Victims Return is not a history of the camps, but a history of the survivors and their legacy, with Russia locked in historical denial.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jun/10/stephen-cohen-survivors-gulag-stalin-review
In Our Way Out, Marq de Villiers shows that democracy has probably peaked and the globe's financial system has become a casino for the rich, writes Andrew Nikiforuk. We have exercised God-like energy powers badly; now we must learn how to use our "little powers" better.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/book-reviews/our-way-out-by-marq-de-villiers/article4248191/
Anakana Schofield has titled her debut novel Malarky, defined as "exaggerated or foolish talk, usually intended to deceive." The voice is always Our Woman's, a working class middle-aged woman and one of the most vivid fictional creations to come along in years, writes Ian McGillis.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/books/Malarky+heroine+revels+freedom/6751318/story.html
The Matter with Morris, initially published in 2010, is now shortlisted for the €100,000 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, to be announced this week. This is a moving and engaging novel of grief and loss, impeccably written and fully imagined, writes Michel Basilières.
http://www.thestar.com/news/books/article/1201844--the-matter-with-morris-by-david-bergen-review
COMMUNITY EVENTS
ROBSON READING SERIES
Readings by Phil Hall (Killdeer) and Aaron Bushkowsky (Curtains for Roy). Thursday, June 14 at 7:00pm, free. BC Bookstore/Library at Robson Square, 800 Robson Street. More information at www.robsonreadingseries.ubc.ca.
TWS READING SERIES
The Writer's Studio at SFU presents an evening with guest author Robyn Michele Levy, who has been shortlisted for the 2012 Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour for her book All of Me:Surviving My Medical Meltdown. Thursday, June 14 at 7:00pm. Admission by donation. Rhizome Cafe, 317 East Broadway.
V6A - POSTAL CODE READINGS
Launch of a five-part reading series to support the anthology V6A with readings by Cathleen With, Brenda Prince, Antonette Rea and Sen Yi. Friday, June 15 at 7:00pm, free. Carnegie Community Centre, 401 Main Street, Vancouver. More information at www.thursdayswritingcollective.ca.
WAYDE COMPTON
The Canadian poet reads from a sequence of elegies about Canada and the Air India bombing. Friday, June 15 at 8:00pm. People's Co-op Bookstore, 1391 Commercial Drive. More information at 604-253-6442.
CHRISTINA JOHNSON-DEAN
Launch of the fifth book in the series The Unheralded Artists of BC, The Life and Art of Ina D.D. Uhthoff. Saturday, June 16 at 8:00pm, free. Martin Batchelor Gallery, 712 Cormorant St., Victoria. More information at www.mothertonguepublishing.com.
THE OPENING ACT: CANADIAN THEATRE HISTORY 1945-1953
Book launch of Susan McNicoll new theatre history book. Sunday, June 17 at 2 pm, free. Trout Lake Community Centre, Lakewood Room, 3360 Victoria Drive. More information at www.ronsdalepress.com.
VAN SLAM
Slam featuring Dave Morris. Monday June 18 at 8:00pm. Cost: $6-$10 at the door. Cafe Deux Soleils, 2096 Commercial Drive. More information at vancouverpoetryhouse.com.
LUNCH POEMS @ SFU
Readings by Sonnet L'Abbe and Renee Sarojini Saklilkar presented by Simon Fraser University. Wednesday, June 20 at 12:00pm, free. Teck Gallery, SFU Harbour Centre, 515 West Hastings.
BEHIND BARBED WIRE
Literary reading from Behind Barbed Wire: Creative Works on the Internment of Italian Canadians and Beyond Barbed Wire: Essays on the Internment of Italian Canadians with B.C. authors Lynne Bowen, Anna Foschi Ciampolini, Robert Pepper-Smith, and Osvaldo Zappa. Wednesday, June 20 at 7:00pm, free. McGill branch,
Burnaby Public Library, 4595 Albert Street, Burnaby.
TOM WAYMAN AND KATE BRAID
Award-winning authors present a dynamic evening of poetry. Wayman reads from Dirty Snow and Braid reads from several collections, including a new edition of To This Cedar Fountain. Thursday, June 21 at 7:00pm, free. Meeting room, level 3, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia Street. More information at 604-331-3603.
TRIPLE THREAT: CHICKS WHO SOLVE CRIME!
Three Canadian mystery authors - Deryn Collier, Hilary Davidson, and Robin Spano - team up for an evening of readings & discussion. Thursday, June 21 at 7:00pm. Free but register in advance at 604-299-8955. McGill branch, Burnaby Public Library, 4595 Albert Street, Burnaby.
CHRIS GUILLEBEAU AND DANIELLE LAPORTE
Appearances by the author of The Art of Non-Conformity (Guillebeau) and The $100 Startup (Laporte). Thursday, June 21 at 7:00pm. Chapters Robson, 788 Robson St. More information at 604-682-4066.
TWISTED POETS LITERARY SALON
Readings by Jen Currin and Lisa McInnes. Thursday, June 21 at 7:00pm. Suggested donation at the door: $5. The Prophouse Cafe, 1636 Venables Ave., Vancouver. More information at www.pandorascollective.com.
RICHELLE MEAD
Signing by the author of the Bloodlines series. Saturday, June 23 at 2:00pm. Chapters Metrotown, 4700 Kingsway, Burnaby. More information at 604-431-0463.
Upcoming
DAPHNE MARLATT
Presentation of the 19th Annual George Woodcock Lifetime Achievement Award to Daphne Marlatt for an outstanding literary career in British Columbia. Thursday, June 28 at 7:00pm, free. Alice MacKay room, lower level, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia St. More information at 604-331-3603.
TWISTED POETS LITERARY SALON
Readings by bill bissett and Susan Cormier. Thursday, July 5 at 7:00pm. Suggested donation at the door: $5. The Prophouse Cafe, 1636 Venables Ave., Vancouver. More information at talonbooks.com.
DEAD POETS READING SERIES
Readings by Kate Braid, George McWhirter, Daniela Elza, Ken Klonksy, and Hal Wake. Sunday, July 8 at 3:00pm. Entry by donation. Project Space, 222 East Georgia Street, Vancouver. Details and registration here, www.deadpoetslive.com.
DENMAN ISLAND READERS & WRITERS FESTIVAL
Annual summer event featuring Tseporah Berman, Steven Galloway, Loran Goodison, Timothy Taylor and many others. July 19-22, 2012. For complete details, visit www.denmanislandwritersfestival.com.
VISIBLE VERSE FESTIVAL 2012
VVF seeks videopoems that wed words and images, the voice seen as well as heard. Deadline for submissions is August 1, 2012. For more information, contact Artistic Director Heather Haley at hshaley@emspace.com.
Thursday, June 7, 2012
Book News Vol. 7 No. 20
BOOK NEWS
Special Offers
If being a member of the VIWF didn't already have enough benefits, we've added an extra incentive! Every two weeks new and renewing members will have a chance to win a book by a Festival or Incite author. At the end of August we'll have a grand prize draw for a deluxe pack of Festival tickets - two tickets to any event of your choice for each day of the Festival! Sign up now here, https://www.writersfest.bc.ca/secure/secure_membership.php.
Newfoundland writer Russell Wangersky will be appearing at this year's Festival - but you don't have to wait until October to experience his acclaimed new collection. cStories eBook Singles is a new program that offers short Canadian fiction in ePub format for download on a wide array of digital devices, desktop or mobile, to be read anytime, anywhere. Russell's ebook single Bolt is now available to Book News subscribers free on cstories.ca - get it now! Details: http://win.cstories.ca.
VIRTUAL FESTIVAL
Listen to the seventh installment in our series of audio archives from past Festival events. This week you'll hear "An Intimate Evening" from the 2011 Festival, featuring Aminatta Forna. How does hope exist for a generation shaped and scarred by war? Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/multimedia/audio-archives.
AWARDS & LISTS
Victoria author Kit Pearson has won a 2012 Ruth and Sylvia Schwartz Children's Book Award for The Whole Truth. The annual literary honour celebrates writing and illustration excellence in English-language Canadian children's literature.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/story/2012/05/31/schwartz-awards-pearson-griek.html
Author Annabel Lyon, and Michal Kozlowski, Assistant Publisher of Geist, have been short listed for the 2012-2013 Chocolate Lily Book Awards: Lyon, for Encore Edie; Kozlowski, for Louis the Tiger who Came from the Sea. The full list of nominees is here:
http://chocolatelilyawards.com/?p=298
The Walrus Foundation and the Hal Jackman Foundation have launched the Walrus Poetry Prize, which offers a $5,000 cheque and a chance to be published in the Walrus magazine. The contest is accepting submissions until July 31.
http://www.thestar.com/news/books/article/1204364--5-000-poetry-prize-offers-a-chance-to-be-published-in-the-walrus-magazine
Sir Terry Pratchett has a new honour: a pig named after one of his books. He was given the unusual award after his novel Snuff won the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction. The prize includes a case of champagne.
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/sir-terry-pratchett-wins-wodehouse-book-prize-7803946.html
Peter Robinson and his novel Before the Poison have won the Arthur Ellis Award for the best crime novel of the year, the sixth Arthur Ellis triumph for Robinson. Go here for the full list of winners.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/story/2012/06/04/arthur-ellis-awards.html
The winner of the Griffin Poetry Prize will be announced Thursday. The short listed contenders for the Prize can be found here:
http://www.thestar.com/news/books/article/1203657--griffin-poetry-prize-contender-redefined-polish-poetry
YOUNG READERS
As Kit Pearson's The Whole Truth begins, Polly and Maud are newly orphaned and are travelling by train from Winnipeg to B.C., where they will live with relatives they've never met. A sequel, entitled And Nothing But The Truth, will be published later this year. For ages 10 to 13.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/story/2012/05/31/schwartz-awards-pearson-griek.html
The Hueys are a horde of egg-shaped characters that "looked and thought the same, and did the same things." Until one of them, named Rupert, knitted himself an orange jumper (read: sweater). The other Hueys were horrified but Gillespie "thought being different was interesting". Ages 5 to 7.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Kids+Embracing+individuality/6707662/story.html#ixzz1wbfPv69v
Listen to Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker reading from Oliver Jeffers's new picture book, The Hueys in the New Jumper here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/childrens-books-site/video/2012/may/31/jarvis-cocker-hueys-video
Lee Wardlaw's Won Ton: A Cat Tale Told in Haiku is about a homeless feline that wiggles his way out of the shelter and slips into your heart. "Letmeoutletme / outletmeoutletmeout. / Wait — let me back in!" Ages 5 to 7.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/best-childrens-books-of-2011/2011/11/15/gIQAwyLfiO_story.html
UnBEElievables: Honeybee Poems and Paintings by Douglas Florian. With facts tucked in at the bottom of the page. His bees sound like confident rappers. For ages 5 to 8.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/books/sc-ent-0418-books-kids-20120425,0,4336840.story
NEWS & FEATURES
Ray Bradbury, master of science fiction, has died, at 91.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/07/books/ray-bradbury-popularizer-of-science-fiction-dies-at-91.html?_r
Read Ray Bradbury's last article in the June 4 edition of the New Yorker here:
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2012/06/04/120604fa_fact_bradbury
Both Enid Blyton and JK Rowling have proved that if children find a book, series or author they love, they'll read – regardless of what their parents think about it, writes Julia Eccleshare.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/childrens-books-site/2012/jun/05/book-doctor-enid-blyton
Lemony Snicket's new series, All the Wrong Questions, is the first authorised account of his childhood. Who Could That Be at This Hour? – the first wrong question – will be published on 23 October. For one week, you can read the first chapter here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/childrens-books-site/interactive/2012/jun/04/lemony-snicket-new-book-first-chapter
Are literary classics obsolete? Laura Miller reports that a new study says today's writers are influenced by authors of the present, not the past. More than anything else, these writers hate the prose of the past.
http://www.salon.com/2012/05/31/are_literary_classics_obsolete/
Kira Cochrane interviews Madeline Miller, the most recent (and last-ever) recipient of the Orange Prize for her novel, The Song of Achilles.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jun/02/madeline-miller-orange-prize-achilles
An original Tintin comic book cover that the legendary Belgian artist Hergé created in 1932 has fetched more than €1.3 million at a Paris auction. An anonymous collector paid €1,338,509.20 (about $1.7 million Cdn) for the rare cover illustration of Tintin in America.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/story/2012/06/04/tintin-cover-art-auction.html
The world's first known one book bookshop was established. A bookshop selling only one title: Pig Iron. The upshot of the impromptu bookshop is that Pig Iron is currently out-selling Hilary Mantel in the area by 3-1. A phyrric victory, of course, writes Ben Myers.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/the-northerner/2012/jun/04/ben-myers-pig-iron-hebden-bridge
BOOKS & WRITERS
Sir Andrew Motion's 10-year tenure as Britain's Poet Laureate almost killed the poet in him, he says. Now promoting Silver, a sequel to Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island, Motion has begun writing a sequel to his own sequel.
http://www.thestar.com/news/books/article/1202346--poet-finds-novel-treasure-in-classic-pirate-yarn
In his Complete Poems, Philip Larkin writes: "What will survive of us is love." Ron Rosenbaum comments: "The line is so uncharacteristic of Larkin, you can barely believe it. Elsewhere, there are quotes from Larkin suggesting he could barely believe it either."
http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/the_spectator/2012/05/_what_will_survive_of_us_is_love_poet_philip_larkin_s_controversial_line_from_on_arundel_tomb_.html
Chris Cleave's Olympics-themed novel Gold is timely, sentimental...and thrillingly good, writes Alex Preston. As much a domestic drama as a trackside thriller, the novel takes us deep into the lives of three Olympic sprint cyclists in the lead-up to the London games.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jun/03/gold-chris-cleave-review-olympics
Reality, Reality, Jackie Kay's most recent short story collection is both hilarious and heartbreaking, writes Anita Sethi, although loss is the connecting theme in the collection. Often recounted by unreliable narrators, the stories probe one of Kay's obsessions: the tricksy nature of our perceptions.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jun/03/reality-reality-jackie-kay-review
Paul Krugman's End This Depression Now has a plan for escaping the financial crisis, and it doesn't involve austerity measures or deregulating the banks, writes Decca Aitkenhead. It's the sort of book you wish were compulsory reading, says Aitkenhead.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/jun/03/paul-krugman-cassandra-economist-crisis
Orhan Pamuk's plan was to write a novel in the form of a museum catalogue, writes Elif Batuman, while simultaneously building the museum to which it referred. Pamuk's first step was to contact a real-estate agent.
http://www.lrb.co.uk/v34/n11/elif-batuman/diary?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=3411&hq_e=el&hq_m=1750968&hq_l=11&hq_v=e88626cf24
Martin Amis, now living in New York, has written Lionel Asbo: State of England, whose key character is a criminal who has won the lottery. The press conjectures that Amis's move to New York is due to disaffection for England are entirely wrong.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jun/03/martin-amis-brooklyn-lionel-asbo-interview
Thanks to Peggy Dymond Leavey‘s Laura Secord: Heroine of the War of 1812, we who believed that Laura Secord was Canadian, now know that she was born in Massachusetts. Still, Secord walked 30 km. to warn the Brits the Americans were coming.
http://www.thestar.com/news/books/article/1203013--laura-secord-heroine-of-the-war-of-1812-column
Herta Müller's The Hunger Angel reduces life to its essentials, endowing objects with human characteristics and reducing people to objects. The novel is based on the memories of her fellow German-Romanian poet Oskar Pastior, who was carted off to a labour camp at 17.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/the-hunger-angel-by-herta-mller/article4226026/
In What We Talk About When We Talk About War, Noah Richler writes that Canada's former self-identity as a peacekeeping nation has switched to one as a warrior nation. "Using the word terrorist excuses us from having to think about what it means to be someone else," says Richler.
http://www.vancouversun.com/entertainment/books/Noah+Richler+explores+role+combat+affects+folklore+book/6715936/story.html
A farm girl has a compelling tale to tell in Nell Leyshon's evocative novella The Colour of Milk, says Lettie Ransley. The charm of Leyshon's novella is to be found as much in its spare, evocative style as in the candour of its narrator.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jun/03/colour-milk-nell-leyshon-review
Paul Theroux's new novel The Lower River tells a story of an American who goes back to Africa where he was once happy. The Lower River is all about being misunderstood: madly, wildly and very nearly fatally, writes Christopher Hope.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/may/31/lower-river-paul-theroux-review
HHhH, the brilliant, haunting debut novel by French writer Laurent Binet, focuses on Operation Anthropoid, the 1942 military plan to assassinate Reinhard Heydrich. HHhH is as much the story of Binet's lifelong obsession with the mission as it is the story of the mission itself, writes Anthony Domestico.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/05/27/RVFO1OADP9.DTL
COMMUNITY EVENTS
GRIFFIN VANCOUVER
Livestream video of the prize ceremonies in Toronto. Thursday, June 7 at 6:00pm. Performance Space, W2 Media Cafe, 111 West Hastings Street. More information at griffinvancouver.com.
KUCKI LOW
Author will talk about her memoir recalling her life as South Africa's first female airline pilot, This is Kucki Your Pilot Speaking. Thursday, June 7 at 7:00pm. Free but please register in advance by phoning 604-299-8955. McGill branch, Burnaby Public Library, 4595 Albert Street, Burnaby.
TWISTED POETS LITERARY SALON
Reading by Lisa Shatzky and Robin Susanto. Thursday, June 7 at 7:00pm. Suggested donation at the door: $5. The Prophouse Cafe, 1636 Venables Ave., Vancouver. More information at www.pandorascollective.com.
TALE OF THE GREAT WHITE FISH
Reading by Maggie de Vries. Saturday, June 9 at 1:00pm. Free but registration required. Bob Prittie Metrotown, 6100 Willingdon Ave., Burnaby. More information at 604-436-5420.
MICHAEL SCOTT
The award-winning Irish author of the popular Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel series will be coming to Kidsbooks to present the sixth and final book: The Enchantress. Wednesday, June 13 at 7:00pm. Tickets: $23 and include a copy of the book. Kidsbooks, 3083 West Broadway. More information at www.kidsbooks.ca.
ROBSON READING SERIES
Readings by Phil Hall (Killdeer) and Aaron Bushkowsky (Curtains for Roy). Thursday, June 14 at 7:00pm, free. BC Bookstore/Library at Robson Square, 800 Robson Street. More information at www.robsonreadingseries.ubc.ca.
TWS READING SERIES
The Writer's Studio at SFU presents an evening with guest author Robyn Michele Levy, who has been shortlisted for the 2012 Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour for her book All of Me:Surviving My Medical Meltdown. Thursday, June 14 at 7:00pm. Admission by donation. Rhizome Cafe, 317 East Broadway.
CHRISTINA JOHNSON-DEAN
Launch of the fifth book in the series The Unheralded Artists of BC, The Life and Art of Ina D.D. Uhthoff. Saturday, June 16 at 8:00pm, free. Martin Batchelor Gallery, 712 Cormorant St., Victoria. More information at www.mothertonguepublishing.com.
THE OPENING ACT: CANADIAN THEATRE HISTORY 1945-1953
Book launch of Susan McNicoll new theatre history book. Sunday, June 17 at 2 pm, free. Trout Lake Community Centre, Lakewood Room, 3360 Victoria Drive. More information at www.ronsdalepress.com.
Upcoming
LUNCH POEMS @ SFU
Readings by Sonnet L'Abbe and Renee Sarojini Saklilkar presented by Simon Fraser University. Wednesday, June 20 at 12:00pm, free. Teck Gallery, SFU Harbour Centre, 515 West Hastings.
BEHIND BARBED WIRE
Literary reading from Behind Barbed Wire: Creative Works on the Internment of Italian Canadians and Beyond Barbed Wire: Essays on the Internment of Italian Canadians with B.C. authors Lynne Bowen, Anna Foschi Ciampolini, Robert Pepper-Smith, and Osvaldo Zappa. Wednesday, June 20 at 7:00pm, free. McGill branch, Burnaby Public Library, 4595 Albert Street, Burnaby.
TOM WAYMAN AND KATE BRAID
Award-winning authors present a dynamic evening of poetry. Wayman reads from Dirty Snow and Braid reads from several collections, including a new edition of To This Cedar Fountain. Thursday, June 21 at 7:00pm, free. Meeting room, level 3, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia Street. More information at 604-331-3603.
TRIPLE THREAT: CHICKS WHO SOLVE CRIME!
Three Canadian mystery authors - Deryn Collier, Hilary Davidson, and Robin Spano - team up for an evening of readings & discussion. Thursday, June 21 at 7:00pm. Free but register in advance at 604-299-8955. McGill branch, Burnaby Public Library, 4595 Albert Street, Burnaby.
TWISTED POETS LITERARY SALON
Readings by Jen Currin and Lisa McInnes. Thursday, June 21 at 7:00pm. Suggested donation at the door: $5. The Prophouse Cafe, 1636 Venables Ave., Vancouver. More information at www.pandorascollective.com.
RICHELLE MEAD
Signing by the author of the Bloodlines series. Saturday, June 23 at 2:00pm. Chapters Metrotown, 4700 Kingsway, Burnaby. More information at 604-431-0463.
DAPHNE MARLATT
Presentation of the 19th Annual George Woodcock Lifetime Achievement Award to Daphne Marlatt for an outstanding literary career in British Columbia. Thursday, June 28 at 7:00pm, free. Alice MacKay room, lower level, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia St. More information at 604-331-3603.
VISIBLE VERSE FESTIVAL 2012
VVF seeks videopoems that wed words and images, the voice seen as well as heard. Deadline for submissions is August 1, 2012. For more information, contact Artistic Director Heather Haley at hshaley@emspace.com.
Special Offers
If being a member of the VIWF didn't already have enough benefits, we've added an extra incentive! Every two weeks new and renewing members will have a chance to win a book by a Festival or Incite author. At the end of August we'll have a grand prize draw for a deluxe pack of Festival tickets - two tickets to any event of your choice for each day of the Festival! Sign up now here, https://www.writersfest.bc.ca/secure/secure_membership.php.
Newfoundland writer Russell Wangersky will be appearing at this year's Festival - but you don't have to wait until October to experience his acclaimed new collection. cStories eBook Singles is a new program that offers short Canadian fiction in ePub format for download on a wide array of digital devices, desktop or mobile, to be read anytime, anywhere. Russell's ebook single Bolt is now available to Book News subscribers free on cstories.ca - get it now! Details: http://win.cstories.ca.
VIRTUAL FESTIVAL
Listen to the seventh installment in our series of audio archives from past Festival events. This week you'll hear "An Intimate Evening" from the 2011 Festival, featuring Aminatta Forna. How does hope exist for a generation shaped and scarred by war? Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/multimedia/audio-archives.
AWARDS & LISTS
Victoria author Kit Pearson has won a 2012 Ruth and Sylvia Schwartz Children's Book Award for The Whole Truth. The annual literary honour celebrates writing and illustration excellence in English-language Canadian children's literature.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/story/2012/05/31/schwartz-awards-pearson-griek.html
Author Annabel Lyon, and Michal Kozlowski, Assistant Publisher of Geist, have been short listed for the 2012-2013 Chocolate Lily Book Awards: Lyon, for Encore Edie; Kozlowski, for Louis the Tiger who Came from the Sea. The full list of nominees is here:
http://chocolatelilyawards.com/?p=298
The Walrus Foundation and the Hal Jackman Foundation have launched the Walrus Poetry Prize, which offers a $5,000 cheque and a chance to be published in the Walrus magazine. The contest is accepting submissions until July 31.
http://www.thestar.com/news/books/article/1204364--5-000-poetry-prize-offers-a-chance-to-be-published-in-the-walrus-magazine
Sir Terry Pratchett has a new honour: a pig named after one of his books. He was given the unusual award after his novel Snuff won the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction. The prize includes a case of champagne.
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/sir-terry-pratchett-wins-wodehouse-book-prize-7803946.html
Peter Robinson and his novel Before the Poison have won the Arthur Ellis Award for the best crime novel of the year, the sixth Arthur Ellis triumph for Robinson. Go here for the full list of winners.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/story/2012/06/04/arthur-ellis-awards.html
The winner of the Griffin Poetry Prize will be announced Thursday. The short listed contenders for the Prize can be found here:
http://www.thestar.com/news/books/article/1203657--griffin-poetry-prize-contender-redefined-polish-poetry
YOUNG READERS
As Kit Pearson's The Whole Truth begins, Polly and Maud are newly orphaned and are travelling by train from Winnipeg to B.C., where they will live with relatives they've never met. A sequel, entitled And Nothing But The Truth, will be published later this year. For ages 10 to 13.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/story/2012/05/31/schwartz-awards-pearson-griek.html
The Hueys are a horde of egg-shaped characters that "looked and thought the same, and did the same things." Until one of them, named Rupert, knitted himself an orange jumper (read: sweater). The other Hueys were horrified but Gillespie "thought being different was interesting". Ages 5 to 7.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Kids+Embracing+individuality/6707662/story.html#ixzz1wbfPv69v
Listen to Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker reading from Oliver Jeffers's new picture book, The Hueys in the New Jumper here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/childrens-books-site/video/2012/may/31/jarvis-cocker-hueys-video
Lee Wardlaw's Won Ton: A Cat Tale Told in Haiku is about a homeless feline that wiggles his way out of the shelter and slips into your heart. "Letmeoutletme / outletmeoutletmeout. / Wait — let me back in!" Ages 5 to 7.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/best-childrens-books-of-2011/2011/11/15/gIQAwyLfiO_story.html
UnBEElievables: Honeybee Poems and Paintings by Douglas Florian. With facts tucked in at the bottom of the page. His bees sound like confident rappers. For ages 5 to 8.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/books/sc-ent-0418-books-kids-20120425,0,4336840.story
NEWS & FEATURES
Ray Bradbury, master of science fiction, has died, at 91.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/07/books/ray-bradbury-popularizer-of-science-fiction-dies-at-91.html?_r
Read Ray Bradbury's last article in the June 4 edition of the New Yorker here:
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2012/06/04/120604fa_fact_bradbury
Both Enid Blyton and JK Rowling have proved that if children find a book, series or author they love, they'll read – regardless of what their parents think about it, writes Julia Eccleshare.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/childrens-books-site/2012/jun/05/book-doctor-enid-blyton
Lemony Snicket's new series, All the Wrong Questions, is the first authorised account of his childhood. Who Could That Be at This Hour? – the first wrong question – will be published on 23 October. For one week, you can read the first chapter here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/childrens-books-site/interactive/2012/jun/04/lemony-snicket-new-book-first-chapter
Are literary classics obsolete? Laura Miller reports that a new study says today's writers are influenced by authors of the present, not the past. More than anything else, these writers hate the prose of the past.
http://www.salon.com/2012/05/31/are_literary_classics_obsolete/
Kira Cochrane interviews Madeline Miller, the most recent (and last-ever) recipient of the Orange Prize for her novel, The Song of Achilles.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jun/02/madeline-miller-orange-prize-achilles
An original Tintin comic book cover that the legendary Belgian artist Hergé created in 1932 has fetched more than €1.3 million at a Paris auction. An anonymous collector paid €1,338,509.20 (about $1.7 million Cdn) for the rare cover illustration of Tintin in America.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/story/2012/06/04/tintin-cover-art-auction.html
The world's first known one book bookshop was established. A bookshop selling only one title: Pig Iron. The upshot of the impromptu bookshop is that Pig Iron is currently out-selling Hilary Mantel in the area by 3-1. A phyrric victory, of course, writes Ben Myers.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/the-northerner/2012/jun/04/ben-myers-pig-iron-hebden-bridge
BOOKS & WRITERS
Sir Andrew Motion's 10-year tenure as Britain's Poet Laureate almost killed the poet in him, he says. Now promoting Silver, a sequel to Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island, Motion has begun writing a sequel to his own sequel.
http://www.thestar.com/news/books/article/1202346--poet-finds-novel-treasure-in-classic-pirate-yarn
In his Complete Poems, Philip Larkin writes: "What will survive of us is love." Ron Rosenbaum comments: "The line is so uncharacteristic of Larkin, you can barely believe it. Elsewhere, there are quotes from Larkin suggesting he could barely believe it either."
http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/the_spectator/2012/05/_what_will_survive_of_us_is_love_poet_philip_larkin_s_controversial_line_from_on_arundel_tomb_.html
Chris Cleave's Olympics-themed novel Gold is timely, sentimental...and thrillingly good, writes Alex Preston. As much a domestic drama as a trackside thriller, the novel takes us deep into the lives of three Olympic sprint cyclists in the lead-up to the London games.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jun/03/gold-chris-cleave-review-olympics
Reality, Reality, Jackie Kay's most recent short story collection is both hilarious and heartbreaking, writes Anita Sethi, although loss is the connecting theme in the collection. Often recounted by unreliable narrators, the stories probe one of Kay's obsessions: the tricksy nature of our perceptions.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jun/03/reality-reality-jackie-kay-review
Paul Krugman's End This Depression Now has a plan for escaping the financial crisis, and it doesn't involve austerity measures or deregulating the banks, writes Decca Aitkenhead. It's the sort of book you wish were compulsory reading, says Aitkenhead.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/jun/03/paul-krugman-cassandra-economist-crisis
Orhan Pamuk's plan was to write a novel in the form of a museum catalogue, writes Elif Batuman, while simultaneously building the museum to which it referred. Pamuk's first step was to contact a real-estate agent.
http://www.lrb.co.uk/v34/n11/elif-batuman/diary?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=3411&hq_e=el&hq_m=1750968&hq_l=11&hq_v=e88626cf24
Martin Amis, now living in New York, has written Lionel Asbo: State of England, whose key character is a criminal who has won the lottery. The press conjectures that Amis's move to New York is due to disaffection for England are entirely wrong.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jun/03/martin-amis-brooklyn-lionel-asbo-interview
Thanks to Peggy Dymond Leavey‘s Laura Secord: Heroine of the War of 1812, we who believed that Laura Secord was Canadian, now know that she was born in Massachusetts. Still, Secord walked 30 km. to warn the Brits the Americans were coming.
http://www.thestar.com/news/books/article/1203013--laura-secord-heroine-of-the-war-of-1812-column
Herta Müller's The Hunger Angel reduces life to its essentials, endowing objects with human characteristics and reducing people to objects. The novel is based on the memories of her fellow German-Romanian poet Oskar Pastior, who was carted off to a labour camp at 17.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/the-hunger-angel-by-herta-mller/article4226026/
In What We Talk About When We Talk About War, Noah Richler writes that Canada's former self-identity as a peacekeeping nation has switched to one as a warrior nation. "Using the word terrorist excuses us from having to think about what it means to be someone else," says Richler.
http://www.vancouversun.com/entertainment/books/Noah+Richler+explores+role+combat+affects+folklore+book/6715936/story.html
A farm girl has a compelling tale to tell in Nell Leyshon's evocative novella The Colour of Milk, says Lettie Ransley. The charm of Leyshon's novella is to be found as much in its spare, evocative style as in the candour of its narrator.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jun/03/colour-milk-nell-leyshon-review
Paul Theroux's new novel The Lower River tells a story of an American who goes back to Africa where he was once happy. The Lower River is all about being misunderstood: madly, wildly and very nearly fatally, writes Christopher Hope.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/may/31/lower-river-paul-theroux-review
HHhH, the brilliant, haunting debut novel by French writer Laurent Binet, focuses on Operation Anthropoid, the 1942 military plan to assassinate Reinhard Heydrich. HHhH is as much the story of Binet's lifelong obsession with the mission as it is the story of the mission itself, writes Anthony Domestico.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/05/27/RVFO1OADP9.DTL
COMMUNITY EVENTS
GRIFFIN VANCOUVER
Livestream video of the prize ceremonies in Toronto. Thursday, June 7 at 6:00pm. Performance Space, W2 Media Cafe, 111 West Hastings Street. More information at griffinvancouver.com.
KUCKI LOW
Author will talk about her memoir recalling her life as South Africa's first female airline pilot, This is Kucki Your Pilot Speaking. Thursday, June 7 at 7:00pm. Free but please register in advance by phoning 604-299-8955. McGill branch, Burnaby Public Library, 4595 Albert Street, Burnaby.
TWISTED POETS LITERARY SALON
Reading by Lisa Shatzky and Robin Susanto. Thursday, June 7 at 7:00pm. Suggested donation at the door: $5. The Prophouse Cafe, 1636 Venables Ave., Vancouver. More information at www.pandorascollective.com.
TALE OF THE GREAT WHITE FISH
Reading by Maggie de Vries. Saturday, June 9 at 1:00pm. Free but registration required. Bob Prittie Metrotown, 6100 Willingdon Ave., Burnaby. More information at 604-436-5420.
MICHAEL SCOTT
The award-winning Irish author of the popular Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel series will be coming to Kidsbooks to present the sixth and final book: The Enchantress. Wednesday, June 13 at 7:00pm. Tickets: $23 and include a copy of the book. Kidsbooks, 3083 West Broadway. More information at www.kidsbooks.ca.
ROBSON READING SERIES
Readings by Phil Hall (Killdeer) and Aaron Bushkowsky (Curtains for Roy). Thursday, June 14 at 7:00pm, free. BC Bookstore/Library at Robson Square, 800 Robson Street. More information at www.robsonreadingseries.ubc.ca.
TWS READING SERIES
The Writer's Studio at SFU presents an evening with guest author Robyn Michele Levy, who has been shortlisted for the 2012 Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour for her book All of Me:Surviving My Medical Meltdown. Thursday, June 14 at 7:00pm. Admission by donation. Rhizome Cafe, 317 East Broadway.
CHRISTINA JOHNSON-DEAN
Launch of the fifth book in the series The Unheralded Artists of BC, The Life and Art of Ina D.D. Uhthoff. Saturday, June 16 at 8:00pm, free. Martin Batchelor Gallery, 712 Cormorant St., Victoria. More information at www.mothertonguepublishing.com.
THE OPENING ACT: CANADIAN THEATRE HISTORY 1945-1953
Book launch of Susan McNicoll new theatre history book. Sunday, June 17 at 2 pm, free. Trout Lake Community Centre, Lakewood Room, 3360 Victoria Drive. More information at www.ronsdalepress.com.
Upcoming
LUNCH POEMS @ SFU
Readings by Sonnet L'Abbe and Renee Sarojini Saklilkar presented by Simon Fraser University. Wednesday, June 20 at 12:00pm, free. Teck Gallery, SFU Harbour Centre, 515 West Hastings.
BEHIND BARBED WIRE
Literary reading from Behind Barbed Wire: Creative Works on the Internment of Italian Canadians and Beyond Barbed Wire: Essays on the Internment of Italian Canadians with B.C. authors Lynne Bowen, Anna Foschi Ciampolini, Robert Pepper-Smith, and Osvaldo Zappa. Wednesday, June 20 at 7:00pm, free. McGill branch, Burnaby Public Library, 4595 Albert Street, Burnaby.
TOM WAYMAN AND KATE BRAID
Award-winning authors present a dynamic evening of poetry. Wayman reads from Dirty Snow and Braid reads from several collections, including a new edition of To This Cedar Fountain. Thursday, June 21 at 7:00pm, free. Meeting room, level 3, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia Street. More information at 604-331-3603.
TRIPLE THREAT: CHICKS WHO SOLVE CRIME!
Three Canadian mystery authors - Deryn Collier, Hilary Davidson, and Robin Spano - team up for an evening of readings & discussion. Thursday, June 21 at 7:00pm. Free but register in advance at 604-299-8955. McGill branch, Burnaby Public Library, 4595 Albert Street, Burnaby.
TWISTED POETS LITERARY SALON
Readings by Jen Currin and Lisa McInnes. Thursday, June 21 at 7:00pm. Suggested donation at the door: $5. The Prophouse Cafe, 1636 Venables Ave., Vancouver. More information at www.pandorascollective.com.
RICHELLE MEAD
Signing by the author of the Bloodlines series. Saturday, June 23 at 2:00pm. Chapters Metrotown, 4700 Kingsway, Burnaby. More information at 604-431-0463.
DAPHNE MARLATT
Presentation of the 19th Annual George Woodcock Lifetime Achievement Award to Daphne Marlatt for an outstanding literary career in British Columbia. Thursday, June 28 at 7:00pm, free. Alice MacKay room, lower level, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia St. More information at 604-331-3603.
VISIBLE VERSE FESTIVAL 2012
VVF seeks videopoems that wed words and images, the voice seen as well as heard. Deadline for submissions is August 1, 2012. For more information, contact Artistic Director Heather Haley at hshaley@emspace.com.
Thursday, May 31, 2012
Book News Vol. 7 No. 19
BOOK NEWS
Membership
If being a member of the VIWF didn't already have enough benefits, we've added an extra incentive! Every two weeks new and renewing members will have a chance to win a book by a Festival or Incite author. At the end of August we'll have a grand prize draw for a deluxe pack of Festival tickets - two tickets to any event of your choice for each day of the Festival! Sign up now here, https://www.writersfest.bc.ca/secure/secure_membership.php.
VIRTUAL FESTIVAL
Listen to the sixth installment in our series of audio archives from past Festival events. This week you'll hear "Non-Fiction After Noon" from the 2011 Festival, featuring Gary Geddes, Charlotte Gill, and Andrew Nikiforuk. Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/multimedia/audio-archives.
UPCOMING VIWF EVENT
A Dram Come True
7:30pm Friday June 1
While we can't guarantee the weather, we can promise an excellent array of rare, cask-strength bottles and experts at six different tasting bars. So dust off your kilt and unpack your sporran - this is an event that a true connoisseur won't want to miss! Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/content/dram-come-true.
AWARDS & LISTS
Amelia Gentleman has won the Orwell journalism prize for what the judges described as 'beautifully crafted examinations of hardship, welfare and justice' in a series of articles.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012/may/24/guardian-amelia-gentleman-orwell-prize
Terry Pratchett has won the P.G. Wodehouse Award for his 39th Discworld novel, Snuff, hailed by judges as a comic masterpiece.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/may/30/pg-wodehouse-award-terry-pratchett
Singing from the Darktime: A Childhood Memoir in Poetry and Prose, by S. Weilbach, an 80-year-old Holocaust survivor and first-time writer, has won the 2012 Helen and Stan Vine Canadian Jewish Book Award. David Bezmozgis won the fiction award for The Free World. Other winners are here:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/story/2012/05/23/jewish-book-awards.html
Debut novelist Rahul Bhattacharya's The Sly Company of People Who Care has won the £10,000 Ondaatje award for his "brilliant" evocation of the history, inhabitants and landscape of Guyana. The prize is for the book which best summons up "the spirit of a place".
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/may/29/ondaatje-prize-rahul-bhattacharya
American author Madeline Miller has won the Orange prize for fiction 2012 for The Song of Achilles, a retelling of one of the most enduring Greek myths.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/may/30/orange-prize-2012-madeline-miller
YOUNG READERS
Dork Diaries by Rachel Renee Russell is a hilarious story of a not so fabulous life, writes whizzydizzy. It's about Nikki, a British teenage girl who has gone to a private secondary school in America and finds she has a locker right next to the most popular girl in the school. For ages 10 to 13.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/childrens-books-site/2012/may/26/the-book-dork-diaries-rachel-renee-russell-review
Sandy beaches, teeming tide pools, endless waves. That's what kids see from the summer shore. But what lies beneath the water's surface? Fascinating answers abound in Life in the Ocean: The Story of Oceanographer Sylvia Earle, by Claire A. Nivola. For ages 4 to 8.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/05/27/RVC41OL7PL.DTL
Jazz. Risky. Dangerous. Scary. A way to break the rules. We're not talking about failing to study for your final math test or disobeying your parents. We're talking about a type of music called jazz. For all ages.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/all-about-jazz-a-unique-form-of-american-music/2012/05/24/gJQA4bswnU_story.html
John Jensen Feels Different. John Jensen is not the most attractive of reptiles. His penchant for bow ties makes him look a bit nerdy, and his toenails (claws?) could use a trim. He lives in a nice apartment and keeps up with the news. He holds down a decent job. But, as the title tells us, John Jensen feels different. Finally, he learns to celebrate his individuality. To age 10.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/books/Kids+Croc+blames+tail/6678393/story.html
NEWS & FEATURES
Queen Victoria, the first monarch to celebrate a diamond jubilee, tells of meetings with prime ministers, childbirth and love for Albert in over 43,000 pages. Her private journals have been launched online by her great-great-granddaughter, Queen Elizabeth.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/may/24/queen-victoria-private-journals-online
Despite a revolution that called for an end to the rampant censorship that prevailed under the Ben Ali regime, literary censorship has yet to be eradicated in Tunisia. Instead, it has simply changed forms.
http://www.tunisia-live.net/2012/05/20/literary-censorship-persists-in-post-revolutionary-tunisia/
The New Yorker is trying Twitter fiction with Jennifer Egan. Black Box will be serialized on Twitter over 10 nights. Each night, it will be tweeted from @NYerfiction and will appear on the New Yorker's revamped book blog, Page-Turner. The magazine hits newsstands May 28—look for the science fiction issue, dated June 4 and June 11.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/jacketcopy/2012/05/new-yorker-twitter-fiction-jennifer-egan.html
Twitter is a clunky way of delivering fiction, writes Sarah Crown.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2012/may/25/twitter-feed-clunky-delivery
Before the success of The Corrections, Jonathan Franzen was broke, depressed and stuck in an unhappy marriage. In a lecture on autobiography and fiction, he explains how he overcame shame, guilt and disloyalty, beginning by responding to four unpleasant questions novelists are asked.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/may/25/jonathan-franzen-the-path-to-freedom
In an interview with Jian Ghomeshi, Toni Morrison expresses her puzzlement at the nostalgic yearning for the 1950s that runs through U.S. culture, given the violence against blacks at that time. Morrison's new book, Home, paints a portrait of the 1950s.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/story/2012/05/24/toni-morrison-audio-q.html
To mark the 50th anniversary of Michael Harrington's The Other America, Scribner has brought out a paperback and ebook reprint with a new foreword by Harrington biographer Maurice Isserman. It's chilling to discover that I found much to identify with in Harrington's book, writes Scott Martelle.
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-ca-michael-harrington-20120527,0,6329542.story
With his ReadKiddoRead website and popular series like 'Witch & Wizard,' prolific writer James Patterson aims to turn children's lives around through reading. This year has brought new installments of his bestselling children's series, Witch & Wizard and Middle School.
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-et-james-patterson-20120528,0,7278092.story
Costa-winning novelist Kishwar Desai talks to William Skidelsky about India's surrogacy industry and the art of writing topical fiction.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/may/27/kishwar-desai-interview-meet-author
Nicholas Lezard describes Alan Bennett's re-published The Uncommon Reader as a little gem that is the best thing about the jubilee.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/may/29/uncommon-reader-alan-bennett-review
BOOKS & WRITERS
What attracts us to tomes with apocalyptic-sounding titles about impending financial collapse? asks Todd Hirsch. Jeff Rubin's The End of Growth is another with an alarming-sounding title, yet it departs from others in its accessible writing and more hopeful conclusion, says Hirsch.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/the-end-of-growth-by-jeff-rubin/article2443650/
Time after time, Ona Simaite, the subject of Julija Sukys's compelling and beautifully crafted biography, would enter the Jewish ghetto of Nazi-occupied Vilnius with food and money and forged documents for those forced behind its walls. Julija Sukys's Epistolophilia, honours Lithuanian librarian Ona Simaite.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/books/Epistolophilia+Montrealer+Julija+Sukys+honours+Lithuanian+librarian/6678385/story.html
Joseph Brodsky was tried in Leningrad for the crime of writing poetry: his “crime” was that he did not have a regular job, and was therefore a “parasite.” Lev Loseff's Joseph Brodsky: A Literary Life confirms that Brodsky never intended to be a Soviet dissident.
http://www.tnr.com/article/books-and-arts/magazine/103341/joseph-brodsky-russian-literature-lev-loseff
The title story of Yasuko Thanh's Floating Like the Dead, is based on a documented 1895 visit by the capital city's medical officer and a journalist, and enables a subtle exploration of racial power dynamics, alienation and camaraderie.
http://www.vancouversun.com/entertainment/books/Noble+dreams+pretty+places+prisons+making/6673054/story.html
Peter Hobbs's In the Orchard, the Swallows is a book about resisting the kinds of darkness of which men are capable–hate, vengeance, sadism as a palliative for boredom. This is simple yet breathtaking storytelling, writes Krista Foss.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/in-the-orchard-the-swallows-by-peter-hobbs/article2443896/
Borys Conrad has published an account of life with his eccentric father which exemplifies the curious practice of filial writing. Conrad's memoir is an affectionate portrayal of his father, avoiding Joseph Conrad's literary achievements in favour of an entertaining narrative, writes Kristen Treen.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/may/27/my-father-joseph-conrad-review
Rosemary Counter writes that Augusten Burroughs's This Is How: Proven Aid in Overcoming Shyness, Molestation, Fatness, Spinsterhood, Grief, Disease, Lushery, Decrepitude & More for the Young and Old Alike is equal parts self-help and anti-self-help, with a dash of memoir.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/this-is-how-by-augusten-burroughs/article2445447/
Peggy Blair's The Beggar's Opera, is an impressive debut novel, shortlisted for the Crime Writers Association's Debut Dagger Award in 2010, writes Robert J. Wiersema. The story features Inspector Ricardo Ramirez and the Cuban setting is treated almost like a character in its own right.
http://arts.nationalpost.com/2012/02/10/book-review-the-beggars-opera-by-peggy-blair/
Juli Zeh's The Method presents a vision of a dystopian future, writes Lucy Popescu, that includes an obsession with health, mass surveillance, and dependence on The Method—a system to ensure "a happy and healthy life, free from suffering and pain". Stepping outside the regime's norms is considered subversive.
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/the-method-by-juli-zeh-7800875.html
It's always a delight to stumble upon a chick-lit novel that is smart, well-crafted and witty, writes Joanna Goodman. Such is the case with Kim Izzo's The Jane Austen Marriage Manual, a debut novel that brings class to the genre.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/the-jane-austen-marriage-manual-is-it-mr-right-or-mr-rich/article2446365/
COMMUNITY EVENTS
REEL READS MOVIE NIGHT
Screening of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, the 2011 movie based on the John Le Carre spy novel. Thursday, May 31 at 6:30pm, free. Alice MacKay room, lower level, Central Branch, 350 W. Georgia St. More information at www.vpl.ca.
BEN NUTTALL-SMITH
Local author reads from his novels Secrets Kept—Secrets Told and Blood, Feathers, and Holy Men. Thursday, May 31 at 7:30pm. Pelican Rouge Coffee House, 15142 North Bluff Rd., White Rock. More information at www.semiahmooarts.com.
DAVID STARR
Reading by the author of From Bombs to Books: the remarkable stories of refugee children and their families at an exceptional Canadian school. Tuesday, June 5 at 6:30pm. Free but please register by phoning 604-522-3971. Tommy Douglas branch, Burnaby Public Library, 7311 Kingsway.
PIERRE COUPAY
Local poet and artist shares poetry, slides and discusses poetry and painting. Wednesday, June 6 at 7:00pm, free. Dr. G. Paul Singh Study Hall, North Vancouver City Library, 120 14th Street W., North Vancouver. More information at 604-998-3450.
KUCKI LOW
Author will talk about her memoir recalling her life as South Africa's first female airline pilot, This is Kucki Your Pilot Speaking. Thursday, June 7 at 7:00pm. Free but please register in advance by phoning 604-299-8955. McGill branch, Burnaby Public Library, 4595 Albert Street, Burnaby.
Upcoming
MICHAEL SCOTT
The award-winning Irish author of the popular Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel series will be coming to Kidsbooks to present the sixth and final book: The Enchantress. Wednesday, June 13 at 7:00pm. Tickets: $23 and include a copy of the book. Kidsbooks, 3083 West Broadway. More information at www.kidsbooks.ca.
ROBSON READING SERIES
Readings by Phil Hall (Killdeer) and Aaron Bushkowsky (Curtains for Roy). Thursday, June 14 at 7:00pm, free. BC Bookstore/Library at Robson Square, 800 Robson Street. More information at www.robsonreadingseries.ubc.ca.
CHRISTINA JOHNSON-DEAN
Launch of the fifth book in the series The Unheralded Artists of BC, The Life and Art of Ina D.D. Uhthoff. Saturday, June 16 at 8:00pm, free. Martin Batchelor Gallery, 712 Cormorant St., Victoria. More information at www.mothertonguepublishing.com.
BEHIND BARBED WIRE
Literary reading from Behind Barbed Wire: Creative Works on the Internment of Italian Canadians and Beyond Barbed Wire: Essays on the Internment of Italian Canadians with B.C. authors Lynne Bowen, Anna Foschi Ciampolini, Robert Pepper-Smith, and Osvaldo Zappa. Wednesday, June 20 at 7:00pm, free. McGill branch, Burnaby Public Library, 4595 Albert Street, Burnaby.
TOM WAYMAN AND KATE BRAID
Award-winning authors present a dynamic evening of poetry. Wayman reads from Dirty Snow and Braid reads from several collections, including a new edition of To This Cedar Fountain. Thursday, June 21 at 7:00pm, free. Meeting room, level 3, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia Street. More information at 604-331-3603.
TRIPLE THREAT: CHICKS WHO SOLVE CRIME!
Three Canadian mystery authors - Deryn Collier, Hilary Davidson, and Robin Spano - team up for an evening of readings & discussion. Thursday, June 21 at 7:00pm. Free but register in advance at 604-299-8955. McGill branch, Burnaby Public Library, 4595 Albert Street, Burnaby.
VISIBLE VERSE FESTIVAL 2012
VVF seeks videopoems that wed words and images, the voice seen as well as heard. Deadline for submissions is September 1, 2012. For more information, contact Artistic Director Heather Haley at hshaley@emspace.com.
Membership
If being a member of the VIWF didn't already have enough benefits, we've added an extra incentive! Every two weeks new and renewing members will have a chance to win a book by a Festival or Incite author. At the end of August we'll have a grand prize draw for a deluxe pack of Festival tickets - two tickets to any event of your choice for each day of the Festival! Sign up now here, https://www.writersfest.bc.ca/secure/secure_membership.php.
VIRTUAL FESTIVAL
Listen to the sixth installment in our series of audio archives from past Festival events. This week you'll hear "Non-Fiction After Noon" from the 2011 Festival, featuring Gary Geddes, Charlotte Gill, and Andrew Nikiforuk. Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/multimedia/audio-archives.
UPCOMING VIWF EVENT
A Dram Come True
7:30pm Friday June 1
While we can't guarantee the weather, we can promise an excellent array of rare, cask-strength bottles and experts at six different tasting bars. So dust off your kilt and unpack your sporran - this is an event that a true connoisseur won't want to miss! Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/content/dram-come-true.
AWARDS & LISTS
Amelia Gentleman has won the Orwell journalism prize for what the judges described as 'beautifully crafted examinations of hardship, welfare and justice' in a series of articles.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012/may/24/guardian-amelia-gentleman-orwell-prize
Terry Pratchett has won the P.G. Wodehouse Award for his 39th Discworld novel, Snuff, hailed by judges as a comic masterpiece.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/may/30/pg-wodehouse-award-terry-pratchett
Singing from the Darktime: A Childhood Memoir in Poetry and Prose, by S. Weilbach, an 80-year-old Holocaust survivor and first-time writer, has won the 2012 Helen and Stan Vine Canadian Jewish Book Award. David Bezmozgis won the fiction award for The Free World. Other winners are here:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/story/2012/05/23/jewish-book-awards.html
Debut novelist Rahul Bhattacharya's The Sly Company of People Who Care has won the £10,000 Ondaatje award for his "brilliant" evocation of the history, inhabitants and landscape of Guyana. The prize is for the book which best summons up "the spirit of a place".
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/may/29/ondaatje-prize-rahul-bhattacharya
American author Madeline Miller has won the Orange prize for fiction 2012 for The Song of Achilles, a retelling of one of the most enduring Greek myths.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/may/30/orange-prize-2012-madeline-miller
YOUNG READERS
Dork Diaries by Rachel Renee Russell is a hilarious story of a not so fabulous life, writes whizzydizzy. It's about Nikki, a British teenage girl who has gone to a private secondary school in America and finds she has a locker right next to the most popular girl in the school. For ages 10 to 13.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/childrens-books-site/2012/may/26/the-book-dork-diaries-rachel-renee-russell-review
Sandy beaches, teeming tide pools, endless waves. That's what kids see from the summer shore. But what lies beneath the water's surface? Fascinating answers abound in Life in the Ocean: The Story of Oceanographer Sylvia Earle, by Claire A. Nivola. For ages 4 to 8.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/05/27/RVC41OL7PL.DTL
Jazz. Risky. Dangerous. Scary. A way to break the rules. We're not talking about failing to study for your final math test or disobeying your parents. We're talking about a type of music called jazz. For all ages.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/all-about-jazz-a-unique-form-of-american-music/2012/05/24/gJQA4bswnU_story.html
John Jensen Feels Different. John Jensen is not the most attractive of reptiles. His penchant for bow ties makes him look a bit nerdy, and his toenails (claws?) could use a trim. He lives in a nice apartment and keeps up with the news. He holds down a decent job. But, as the title tells us, John Jensen feels different. Finally, he learns to celebrate his individuality. To age 10.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/books/Kids+Croc+blames+tail/6678393/story.html
NEWS & FEATURES
Queen Victoria, the first monarch to celebrate a diamond jubilee, tells of meetings with prime ministers, childbirth and love for Albert in over 43,000 pages. Her private journals have been launched online by her great-great-granddaughter, Queen Elizabeth.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/may/24/queen-victoria-private-journals-online
Despite a revolution that called for an end to the rampant censorship that prevailed under the Ben Ali regime, literary censorship has yet to be eradicated in Tunisia. Instead, it has simply changed forms.
http://www.tunisia-live.net/2012/05/20/literary-censorship-persists-in-post-revolutionary-tunisia/
The New Yorker is trying Twitter fiction with Jennifer Egan. Black Box will be serialized on Twitter over 10 nights. Each night, it will be tweeted from @NYerfiction and will appear on the New Yorker's revamped book blog, Page-Turner. The magazine hits newsstands May 28—look for the science fiction issue, dated June 4 and June 11.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/jacketcopy/2012/05/new-yorker-twitter-fiction-jennifer-egan.html
Twitter is a clunky way of delivering fiction, writes Sarah Crown.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2012/may/25/twitter-feed-clunky-delivery
Before the success of The Corrections, Jonathan Franzen was broke, depressed and stuck in an unhappy marriage. In a lecture on autobiography and fiction, he explains how he overcame shame, guilt and disloyalty, beginning by responding to four unpleasant questions novelists are asked.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/may/25/jonathan-franzen-the-path-to-freedom
In an interview with Jian Ghomeshi, Toni Morrison expresses her puzzlement at the nostalgic yearning for the 1950s that runs through U.S. culture, given the violence against blacks at that time. Morrison's new book, Home, paints a portrait of the 1950s.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/story/2012/05/24/toni-morrison-audio-q.html
To mark the 50th anniversary of Michael Harrington's The Other America, Scribner has brought out a paperback and ebook reprint with a new foreword by Harrington biographer Maurice Isserman. It's chilling to discover that I found much to identify with in Harrington's book, writes Scott Martelle.
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-ca-michael-harrington-20120527,0,6329542.story
With his ReadKiddoRead website and popular series like 'Witch & Wizard,' prolific writer James Patterson aims to turn children's lives around through reading. This year has brought new installments of his bestselling children's series, Witch & Wizard and Middle School.
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-et-james-patterson-20120528,0,7278092.story
Costa-winning novelist Kishwar Desai talks to William Skidelsky about India's surrogacy industry and the art of writing topical fiction.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/may/27/kishwar-desai-interview-meet-author
Nicholas Lezard describes Alan Bennett's re-published The Uncommon Reader as a little gem that is the best thing about the jubilee.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/may/29/uncommon-reader-alan-bennett-review
BOOKS & WRITERS
What attracts us to tomes with apocalyptic-sounding titles about impending financial collapse? asks Todd Hirsch. Jeff Rubin's The End of Growth is another with an alarming-sounding title, yet it departs from others in its accessible writing and more hopeful conclusion, says Hirsch.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/the-end-of-growth-by-jeff-rubin/article2443650/
Time after time, Ona Simaite, the subject of Julija Sukys's compelling and beautifully crafted biography, would enter the Jewish ghetto of Nazi-occupied Vilnius with food and money and forged documents for those forced behind its walls. Julija Sukys's Epistolophilia, honours Lithuanian librarian Ona Simaite.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/books/Epistolophilia+Montrealer+Julija+Sukys+honours+Lithuanian+librarian/6678385/story.html
Joseph Brodsky was tried in Leningrad for the crime of writing poetry: his “crime” was that he did not have a regular job, and was therefore a “parasite.” Lev Loseff's Joseph Brodsky: A Literary Life confirms that Brodsky never intended to be a Soviet dissident.
http://www.tnr.com/article/books-and-arts/magazine/103341/joseph-brodsky-russian-literature-lev-loseff
The title story of Yasuko Thanh's Floating Like the Dead, is based on a documented 1895 visit by the capital city's medical officer and a journalist, and enables a subtle exploration of racial power dynamics, alienation and camaraderie.
http://www.vancouversun.com/entertainment/books/Noble+dreams+pretty+places+prisons+making/6673054/story.html
Peter Hobbs's In the Orchard, the Swallows is a book about resisting the kinds of darkness of which men are capable–hate, vengeance, sadism as a palliative for boredom. This is simple yet breathtaking storytelling, writes Krista Foss.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/in-the-orchard-the-swallows-by-peter-hobbs/article2443896/
Borys Conrad has published an account of life with his eccentric father which exemplifies the curious practice of filial writing. Conrad's memoir is an affectionate portrayal of his father, avoiding Joseph Conrad's literary achievements in favour of an entertaining narrative, writes Kristen Treen.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/may/27/my-father-joseph-conrad-review
Rosemary Counter writes that Augusten Burroughs's This Is How: Proven Aid in Overcoming Shyness, Molestation, Fatness, Spinsterhood, Grief, Disease, Lushery, Decrepitude & More for the Young and Old Alike is equal parts self-help and anti-self-help, with a dash of memoir.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/this-is-how-by-augusten-burroughs/article2445447/
Peggy Blair's The Beggar's Opera, is an impressive debut novel, shortlisted for the Crime Writers Association's Debut Dagger Award in 2010, writes Robert J. Wiersema. The story features Inspector Ricardo Ramirez and the Cuban setting is treated almost like a character in its own right.
http://arts.nationalpost.com/2012/02/10/book-review-the-beggars-opera-by-peggy-blair/
Juli Zeh's The Method presents a vision of a dystopian future, writes Lucy Popescu, that includes an obsession with health, mass surveillance, and dependence on The Method—a system to ensure "a happy and healthy life, free from suffering and pain". Stepping outside the regime's norms is considered subversive.
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/the-method-by-juli-zeh-7800875.html
It's always a delight to stumble upon a chick-lit novel that is smart, well-crafted and witty, writes Joanna Goodman. Such is the case with Kim Izzo's The Jane Austen Marriage Manual, a debut novel that brings class to the genre.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/the-jane-austen-marriage-manual-is-it-mr-right-or-mr-rich/article2446365/
COMMUNITY EVENTS
REEL READS MOVIE NIGHT
Screening of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, the 2011 movie based on the John Le Carre spy novel. Thursday, May 31 at 6:30pm, free. Alice MacKay room, lower level, Central Branch, 350 W. Georgia St. More information at www.vpl.ca.
BEN NUTTALL-SMITH
Local author reads from his novels Secrets Kept—Secrets Told and Blood, Feathers, and Holy Men. Thursday, May 31 at 7:30pm. Pelican Rouge Coffee House, 15142 North Bluff Rd., White Rock. More information at www.semiahmooarts.com.
DAVID STARR
Reading by the author of From Bombs to Books: the remarkable stories of refugee children and their families at an exceptional Canadian school. Tuesday, June 5 at 6:30pm. Free but please register by phoning 604-522-3971. Tommy Douglas branch, Burnaby Public Library, 7311 Kingsway.
PIERRE COUPAY
Local poet and artist shares poetry, slides and discusses poetry and painting. Wednesday, June 6 at 7:00pm, free. Dr. G. Paul Singh Study Hall, North Vancouver City Library, 120 14th Street W., North Vancouver. More information at 604-998-3450.
KUCKI LOW
Author will talk about her memoir recalling her life as South Africa's first female airline pilot, This is Kucki Your Pilot Speaking. Thursday, June 7 at 7:00pm. Free but please register in advance by phoning 604-299-8955. McGill branch, Burnaby Public Library, 4595 Albert Street, Burnaby.
Upcoming
MICHAEL SCOTT
The award-winning Irish author of the popular Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel series will be coming to Kidsbooks to present the sixth and final book: The Enchantress. Wednesday, June 13 at 7:00pm. Tickets: $23 and include a copy of the book. Kidsbooks, 3083 West Broadway. More information at www.kidsbooks.ca.
ROBSON READING SERIES
Readings by Phil Hall (Killdeer) and Aaron Bushkowsky (Curtains for Roy). Thursday, June 14 at 7:00pm, free. BC Bookstore/Library at Robson Square, 800 Robson Street. More information at www.robsonreadingseries.ubc.ca.
CHRISTINA JOHNSON-DEAN
Launch of the fifth book in the series The Unheralded Artists of BC, The Life and Art of Ina D.D. Uhthoff. Saturday, June 16 at 8:00pm, free. Martin Batchelor Gallery, 712 Cormorant St., Victoria. More information at www.mothertonguepublishing.com.
BEHIND BARBED WIRE
Literary reading from Behind Barbed Wire: Creative Works on the Internment of Italian Canadians and Beyond Barbed Wire: Essays on the Internment of Italian Canadians with B.C. authors Lynne Bowen, Anna Foschi Ciampolini, Robert Pepper-Smith, and Osvaldo Zappa. Wednesday, June 20 at 7:00pm, free. McGill branch, Burnaby Public Library, 4595 Albert Street, Burnaby.
TOM WAYMAN AND KATE BRAID
Award-winning authors present a dynamic evening of poetry. Wayman reads from Dirty Snow and Braid reads from several collections, including a new edition of To This Cedar Fountain. Thursday, June 21 at 7:00pm, free. Meeting room, level 3, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia Street. More information at 604-331-3603.
TRIPLE THREAT: CHICKS WHO SOLVE CRIME!
Three Canadian mystery authors - Deryn Collier, Hilary Davidson, and Robin Spano - team up for an evening of readings & discussion. Thursday, June 21 at 7:00pm. Free but register in advance at 604-299-8955. McGill branch, Burnaby Public Library, 4595 Albert Street, Burnaby.
VISIBLE VERSE FESTIVAL 2012
VVF seeks videopoems that wed words and images, the voice seen as well as heard. Deadline for submissions is September 1, 2012. For more information, contact Artistic Director Heather Haley at hshaley@emspace.com.
Thursday, May 24, 2012
Book News Vol. 7 No. 18
BOOK NEWS
Membership
If being a member of the VIWF didn't already have enough benefits, we've added an extra incentive! Every two weeks new and renewing members will have a chance to win a book by a Festival or Incite author, or tickets to our special event with Richard Ford on May 28. At the end of August we'll have a grand prize draw for a deluxe pack of Festival tickets - two tickets to any event of your choice for each day of the Festival! Sign up now here, https://www.writersfest.bc.ca/secure/secure_membership.php.
VIRTUAL FESTIVAL
Listen to the fifth installment in our series of audio archives from past Festival events. This week you'll hear "We're Not the Centre of the Universe" from the 2011 Festival, featuring 2007 Griffin Prize for Poetry winner Don McKay. Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/multimedia/audio-archives.
UPCOMING VIWF EVENTS
Richard Ford
In advance of his on-stage interview with Hal Wake on Monday, Richard Ford talks with Greg Quill about his novel, Canada.
http://www.thestar.com/news/books/article/1181186--richard-ford-talks-about-his-novel-canada
Ford named the story idea 23 years ago, long before he'd formulated it as a novel. "Canada" was an attractive word, says Ford, always possessingits own pleasing sonority. Writers often choose what they write because of the words they get to use, says Ford.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/richard-ford-why-i-called-my-new-novel-canada/article2437364/
Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/richardford.
A Dram Come True
7:30pm Friday June 1st
A beautiful June evening, a wonderful Shaughnessy heritage home, a fabulous selection of scotches... Well, we can't guarantee the weather, but we can assure you of an excellent array of rare and cask strength bottles and experts at six tasting bars to guide you. So dust off your kilt and get out your sporran, this is an event that a true connoisseur won't want to miss! Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/content/dram-come-true.
AWARDS & LISTS
Riel Nason, a New Brunswick-based writer, is a regional winner of the Commonwealth Book Prize for her debut novel, The Town That Drowned.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/story/2012/05/22/commonwealth-prize.html
Inspired by his experiences during the Holocaust, Blooms of Darkness, a novel by the 80-year-old Israeli author Aharon Appelfeld has won the Independent foreign fiction prize.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/may/15/aharon-applefeld-independent-foreign-fiction-prize
The Canadian Booksellers Association's Lifetime Achievement Award will be awarded to Canadian author Margaret Atwood June 3, 2012, in recognition of Ms. Atwood's outstanding and longstanding contribution to the book industry.
http://www.cbabook.org/files/LibrisAwards/News%20release%20Margaret%20Atwood%20Award.pdf
Nine winners of Atlantic Book Awards 2012, representing a wide range of literary categories, were announced last week. Go here for the full list of winners.
http://www.atlanticbookawards.ca
Twelve authors and illustrators were named popular-vote winners of the 2012 Forest of Reading awards over the course of the two-day Festival of Trees children's literature festival. The awards for fiction, non-fiction, and French-language books were based on votes from 250,000 participating student readers. Go here for the full list of winners.
http://www.thestar.com/news/books/article/1179975--forest-of-reading-awards-highlight-children-s-literature-festival
YOUNG READERS
Taka-chan and I: A Dog's Journey to Japan by Runcible, as told to Betty Jean Lifton, is a dreamlike tale of a dog who digs his way to Japan, where he encounters a young girl who joins him in an adventurous quest to defeat the Black Dragon. Beautifully illustrated. For all ages.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/books/Kids+Books+that+take+near+backyard+Japan/6638885/story.html
Katherine Longshore's Gilt tells the fictionalized story, in the 16th Century, of Henry VIII's fifth wife, Catherine Howard, from the perspective of a friend, Kitty. Catherine doesn't believe in love—just social advancement. She does marry the king and is executed when she is 21. Ages 12 and up.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/books/la-ca-katherine-longshore-20120520,0,6791752.story
Meg Rosoff's There is No Dog is a tart, satirical work of unrelenting humour and creative energy. There is No Dog looks at the world and surmises that it's the creation of a self-absorbed, sex-obsessed, adolescent boy God. Original and highly entertaining. Ages 13 and up.
http://www.thestar.com/news/books/article/1089506--non-fantasy-book-choices-for-gifts-for-kid-lits
Pamela Porter's I'll Be Watching is a story in poetry tracking the inner and outer lives of the miscellaneously flawed inhabitants of their tiny town of Argue, Saskatchewan in the early 1940's. Ages 12 and up.
http://www.thestar.com/news/books/article/1089506--non-fantasy-book-choices-for-gifts-for-kid-lits
NEWS & FEATURES
As the children's classic The Phantom Tollbooth turns 50, Daniel Hahn interviews the author, Norton Juster.
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/the-curious-world-of-norton-juster-7768624.html
Neil Gaimon, who never attended college, recently delivered the commencement address at the University of the Arts' graduation ceremony, where he also was awarded an honorary Ph.D. in fine arts. "Leave the world more interesting for your being here," he said.
http://articles.philly.com/2012-05-19/news/31778731_1_neil-gaiman-anansi-boys-comic-book
A toast to John Cheever, the master of the short story, who would have turned 100 on May 27.
http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/a-toast-john-cheever-100th-birthday-article-1.1075778
The mobile services company Orange has announced that it will not be renewing its sponsorship of the prize for women's fiction. After this year's award is presented, Orange will withdraw its support of the prize in order to focus on film industry sponsorship.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/may/22/orange-withdraws-sponsorship-prize-fiction
Marjorie Perloff writes about how prizes are ruining poetry.
http://www.bostonreview.net/BR37.3/marjorie_perloff_poetry_lyric_reinvention.php
Anne Boleyn: witch, bitch, temptress, feminist, Hilary Mantel talks about Henry VIII's second wife, one of the most controversial women in English history. Much of what we think we know about Anne melts away on close inspection.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/may/11/hilary-mantel-on-anne-boleyn
A recent article raises the question: should David Sedaris' s pieces be fact-checked? Is his work true? Is it fiction? Nonfiction? Does it matter? Opinions from readers are included in the article.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/david-sedariss-exaggerations-in-memoirs-npr-nonfiction-program-raise-questions/2012/05/13/gIQAm9QONU_story_1.html
A book discussion in Jakarta, featuring Canadian writer Irshad Manji, was broken up by the Jakarta Police, with several people injured. Protesters claimed their opposition to Manji, who is openly lesbian, was due to her viewpoint that Islam should accept homosexuality.
http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2012/05/17/homophobic-indonesians-still-large-sociologist.html
Thousands of protesters joined a march organized by Russian writers in Moscow, May13. "We see by the number of people that literature still has authority in our society," said poet Lev Rubinstein, one of the organizers. "No one will forget it," he said.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/14/world/europe/russian-writers-demonstrate-the-might-of-a-march.html
A treasure trove of pre-revolutionary books and magazines has been discovered in the archives of the Russian State Polytechnical Museum Library in Moscow, hidden behind false walls.
http://mhpbooks.com/russian-library-discovers-hidden-treasure/
We've been taught that Gutenberg invented the printing press, changing the course of civilization forever. It is, however, an undisputed historical fact that Johannes Gutenberg did not invent the printing press. Printed books existed nearly 600 years before Gutenberg's Bible.
http://io9.com/5910249/printed-books-existed-nearly-600-years-before-gutenbergs-bible
Amazon reviews are as likely to give an accurate summary of a book's quality as those of professional newspapers, according to a study from Harvard Business School. Amazon reviewers tend to look favourably on debut authors, while professionals prefer prizewinners.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/may/16/amazon-consumer-reviews-media-experts?CMP=EMCNEWEML1355
So, do we need professional reviewers? asks Lionel Shriver who is, herself, a professional reviewer.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/may/18/battle-book-reviews
Margaret Atwood will mentor British novelist Naomi Alderman as part of the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative. Launched in 2002, the Arts Initiative was developed because Rolex wanted to extend its arts philanthropy.
http://www.thestar.com/news/books/article/1180409--meet-margaret-atwood-s-protege
Authors Isabel Allende, Junot Díaz, Jonathan Kozol, Rudolfo Anaya, bell hooks, Sandra Cisneros, James Baldwin, and Howard Zinn, have been banned from Arizona schools, as well as Thoreau's Civil Disobedience. And a teacher was fired for assigning an upper-level class an essay on censorship.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/may/18/anti-intellectualism-us-book-banning
With May being mystery month, Canada Writes! will publish six new short stories by some of Canada's top mystery novelists: William Deverell, Gail Bowen, Peter Robinson, Mary Jane Maffini, Therese Greenwood and Doug Moles. More information, including about Louise Penny's master class, is here:
http://www.cbc.ca/books/canadawrites/
Mark Kingwell's essay on the mystery of mysteries is equally timely.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/the-mystery-of-mysteries-what-really-keeps-us-reading/article2436927/
Margaret Cannon's latest list of recommended thrillers and mysteries is here:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/new-in-crime-fiction-the-latest-thrillers-and-mysteries/article2436916/
12 masters of suspense name their favourites here:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/clued-in-12-mystery-masters-name-their-favourites/article2436950/
BOOKS & WRITERS
Nahlah Ayed's A Thousand Farewells: A Reporter's Journey from Refugee Camp to the Arab Spring is part memoir and part history lesson, writes Enza Micheletti. Ayed brings insight to the "modern Arab identity," as she recounts the stories of ordinary Arabs she meets along the way.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/books/Nahlah+Ayed+destined+cover+Middle+East/6638468/story.html
Peter Carey's novel, The Chemistry of Tears draws compelling parallels between a Victorian-era automaton of a defecating duck and the 2010 BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, a tour-de-force performance, writes Emily Donaldson. Carey is the finest writer Australia has produced, says Donaldson.
http://www.thestar.com/news/books/article/1179439--the-chemistry-of-tears-by-peter-carey-review
Lynn Crosbie's Life is About Losing Everything chronicles her slouching toward middle age. She does not go gently. The seven years she documents were clearly harrowing ones for Crosbie but slowly, she is putting everything back together, writes Laura Penny.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/life-is-about-losing-everything-by-lynn-crosbie/article2437002/
Eight people are stuck together for a week in Mark Haddon's The Red House, a closely observed domestic drama that gives the impression of being a random slice-of-life, says Carol Birch. But every character is coming to terms with something.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/may/09/red-house-mark-haddon-review
In Just Send Me Word, Orlando Figes tells the true story of two young Moscow scientists, whose love for each other endured the Gulag, Stalin's attempts to "reforge" them, and Hitler's 1941 invasion. Their correspondence is preserved in a Moscow archive.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/may/20/just-send-word-orlando-figes-review
Pamela Porter writes novels in verse for young adults, which have acquired many awards. No Ordinary Place, her latest book of poetry for older adults, reflects her life in the natural world on her family's acreage outside Sidney, on Vancouver Island.
http://www.vancouversun.com/entertainment/books/Pamela+Porter+finds+confidence+natural+world/6644446/story.html
Alison Flood writes that Gillian Flynn's Gone Girl's dark, disturbing story of a wife's sudden disappearance is a contender for thriller of the year.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/may/20/gillian-flynn-gone-girl-review
The Marlowe Papers, the first novel of poet Ros Barber, brings to life the premise that playwright Christopher Marlowe was not killed in a Deptford tavern in 1593, but survived in exile and became the secret author of William Shakespeare's works.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/may/20/ros-barber-marlowe-papers-review
Two decades after Nobel Laureate Jose Saramago shocked the religious world with his novel The Gospel According to Jesus Christ, he has done it again with Cain, a satire of the Old Testament, and part of Saramago's long argument with religion.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/data/book/fiction/9780099552246/cain?commentpage=1#comment-16137197
Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, or Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease are some of the neurodegenerative terrors that haunt boomers as they age. In Fatal Flaws, Jay Ingram, whose métier is simplifying science for Canadians, examines new research into these illnesses and the molecule called a prion.
http://www.thestar.com/news/books/article/1179393--fatal-flaws-by-jay-ingram-column
Award-winning author Brian Brett writes in The Tyee on his duty to ‘confront the world'.
http://thetyee.ca/Books/2012/05/19/Writer-Fight/?utm_source=mondayheadlines&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=210512
COMMUNITY EVENTS
BOOKTOPIA
Annual festival of children's literature intended to promote literacy, celebrate language arts and cultivate creative thought in West Vancouver. Now until May 31, 2012. Complete details at www.booktopia.ca.
ROBSON READING SERIES
Readings by Jamella Hagen (Kerosene), Clea Roberts (Here Is Where We Disembark), and Claire Tacon (In the Field). Thursday, May 24 at 7:00pm, free. BC Bookstore/Library at Robson Square, 800 Robson Street. More information at www.robsonreadingseries.ubc.ca.
SARAH LEAVITT
Sarah Leavitt discusses her graphic memoir Tangles: A Story About Alzheimer's, My Mother and Me. Thursday, May 24 at 7:00 PM. Christianne's Lyceum. 3696 W. 8th Ave. $20 (includes refreshments). To reserve your space call 604.733.1356 or email lyceum@christiannehayward.com. More information at www.christiannehayward.com.
TORN APART
Susan Aihoshi will read from her new book Torn Apart: The Internment Diary of Mary Kobayashi , about a young girl whose life changes when the Japanese bomb Pearl Harbour. Thursday, May 24 at 7:30pm. Admission by donation. Historic Joy Kogawa House, 1450 64th Ave. W. More information at kogawahouse@yahoo.ca.
JEFF RUBIN
Canadian economist and author reads from his new book The End of Growth. Thursday, May 24 at 7:30pm. Tickets: $24. Admission includes one free copy of the book. North Shore Credit Union Centre for the Performing Arts, 2055 Purcell Way, North Vancouver. More information at www.capilanou.ca/nscucentre.
DIONNE BRAND
26th annual Margaret Laurence Lecture featuring Canadian poet, novelist, essayist and documentarian. Friday, May 25 at 8:00pm. Alice MacKay room, Central Branch, 350 W. Georgia Street. More information at www.writerstrust.com.
ARSON BOOK LAUNCH
Jellyfish Publishing presents poetry by Michael Twist and original music from Megan Twist. Saturday, May 26 at 7:30pm. Arbutus Coffee, 2200 Arbutus. More information at michaeltwist.com.
NATIONAL BOOK COLLECTING CONTEST 2011-12
The W.A. Deacon Literary Foundation and Alcuin Society will be presenting the cash prize to this year's first place winner of the National Book-Collecting Contest for young Canadians under 30 years of age. Monday, May 28 at 7:00pm. Room 2260, SFU downtown, 515 W. Hastings. More information at www.deaconfoundation.com.
THAT SUMMER IN FRANKLIN
Linda Hutsell-Manning talks about her writing career and reads from her novel. Monday, May 28 at 7:00pm, free. Meeting room, level 3, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia Street.
VANCOUVER POETRY SLAM
Fan appreciation night and the debut of the 2012 Vancouver Youth Poetry Slam team. Monday, May 28 at 8:00pm. Cafe Deux Soleils, 2096 Commercial Drive. More information at www.vancouverpoetryhouse.com.
EPISTOLOPHILIA
Please join Montreal writer Julija Sukys for a reading and discussion of her new book Epistolophilia: Writing the Life of Ona Simaite. Tuesday, May 29 at 7:00pm, free. Peter Kay room, lower level, Central Library, 350 West Georgia Street. More information at 604-331-3603.
AN EVENING OF ART AND POETRY
Featuring Ahava Shira, Avie Estrin, Taslim Jaffer, Daniela Elza, Bonnie Nish, Ms. Spelt and David Shewel, who will read their poetry inspired by the art exhibit, Celebrating Jerusalem. Tuesday, May 29 at 7:00pm. Gallery Room, Jewish Community Centre, 950 W. 41st Ave. More information at blnish@pandorascollective.com.
REEL READS MOVIE NIGHT
Screening of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, the 2011 movie based on the John Le Carre spy novel. Thursday, May 31 at 6:30pm, free. Alice MacKay room, lower level, Central Branch, 350 W. Georgia St. More information at www.vpl.ca.
BEN NUTTALL-SMITH
Local author reads from his novels Secrets Kept—Secrets Told and Blood, Feathers, and Holy Men. Thursday, May 31 at 7:30pm. Pelican Rouge Coffee House, 15142 North Bluff Rd., White Rock. More information at www.semiahmooarts.com.
Upcoming
DAVID STARR
Reading by the author of From Bombs to Books: the remarkable stories of refugee children and their families at an exceptional Canadian school. Tuesday, June 5 at 6:30pm. Free but please register by phoning 604-522-3971. Tommy Douglas branch, Burnaby Public Library, 7311 Kingsway.
PIERRE COUPAY
Local poet and artist shares poetry, slides and discusses poetry and painting. Wednesday, June 6 at 7:00pm, free. Dr. G. Paul Singh Study Hall, North Vancouver City Library, 120 14th Street W., North Vancouver. More information at 604-998-3450.
KUCKI LOW
Author will talk about her memoir recalling her life as South Africa's first female airline pilot, This is Kucki Your Pilot Speaking. Thursday, June 7 at 7:00pm. Free but please register in advance by phoning 604-299-8955. McGill branch, Burnaby Public Library, 4595 Albert Street, Burnaby.
ROBSON READING SERIES
Readings by Phil Hall (Killdeer) and Aaron Bushkowsky (Curtains for Roy). Thursday, June 14 at 7:00pm, free. BC Bookstore/Library at Robson Square, 800 Robson Street. More information at www.robsonreadingseries.ubc.ca.
CHRISTINA JOHNSON-DEAN
Launch of the fifth book in the series The Unheralded Artists of BC, The Life and Art of Ina D.D. Uhthoff. Saturday, June 16 at 8:00pm, free. Martin Batchelor Gallery, 712 Cormorant St., Victoria. More information at www.mothertonguepublishing.com.
VISIBLE VERSE FESTIVAL 2012
VVF seeks videopoems that wed words and images, the voice seen as well as heard. Deadline for submissions is September 1, 2012. For more information, contact Artistic Director Heather Haley at hshaley@emspace.com.
Membership
If being a member of the VIWF didn't already have enough benefits, we've added an extra incentive! Every two weeks new and renewing members will have a chance to win a book by a Festival or Incite author, or tickets to our special event with Richard Ford on May 28. At the end of August we'll have a grand prize draw for a deluxe pack of Festival tickets - two tickets to any event of your choice for each day of the Festival! Sign up now here, https://www.writersfest.bc.ca/secure/secure_membership.php.
VIRTUAL FESTIVAL
Listen to the fifth installment in our series of audio archives from past Festival events. This week you'll hear "We're Not the Centre of the Universe" from the 2011 Festival, featuring 2007 Griffin Prize for Poetry winner Don McKay. Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/multimedia/audio-archives.
UPCOMING VIWF EVENTS
Richard Ford
In advance of his on-stage interview with Hal Wake on Monday, Richard Ford talks with Greg Quill about his novel, Canada.
http://www.thestar.com/news/books/article/1181186--richard-ford-talks-about-his-novel-canada
Ford named the story idea 23 years ago, long before he'd formulated it as a novel. "Canada" was an attractive word, says Ford, always possessingits own pleasing sonority. Writers often choose what they write because of the words they get to use, says Ford.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/richard-ford-why-i-called-my-new-novel-canada/article2437364/
Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/richardford.
A Dram Come True
7:30pm Friday June 1st
A beautiful June evening, a wonderful Shaughnessy heritage home, a fabulous selection of scotches... Well, we can't guarantee the weather, but we can assure you of an excellent array of rare and cask strength bottles and experts at six tasting bars to guide you. So dust off your kilt and get out your sporran, this is an event that a true connoisseur won't want to miss! Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/content/dram-come-true.
AWARDS & LISTS
Riel Nason, a New Brunswick-based writer, is a regional winner of the Commonwealth Book Prize for her debut novel, The Town That Drowned.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/story/2012/05/22/commonwealth-prize.html
Inspired by his experiences during the Holocaust, Blooms of Darkness, a novel by the 80-year-old Israeli author Aharon Appelfeld has won the Independent foreign fiction prize.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/may/15/aharon-applefeld-independent-foreign-fiction-prize
The Canadian Booksellers Association's Lifetime Achievement Award will be awarded to Canadian author Margaret Atwood June 3, 2012, in recognition of Ms. Atwood's outstanding and longstanding contribution to the book industry.
http://www.cbabook.org/files/LibrisAwards/News%20release%20Margaret%20Atwood%20Award.pdf
Nine winners of Atlantic Book Awards 2012, representing a wide range of literary categories, were announced last week. Go here for the full list of winners.
http://www.atlanticbookawards.ca
Twelve authors and illustrators were named popular-vote winners of the 2012 Forest of Reading awards over the course of the two-day Festival of Trees children's literature festival. The awards for fiction, non-fiction, and French-language books were based on votes from 250,000 participating student readers. Go here for the full list of winners.
http://www.thestar.com/news/books/article/1179975--forest-of-reading-awards-highlight-children-s-literature-festival
YOUNG READERS
Taka-chan and I: A Dog's Journey to Japan by Runcible, as told to Betty Jean Lifton, is a dreamlike tale of a dog who digs his way to Japan, where he encounters a young girl who joins him in an adventurous quest to defeat the Black Dragon. Beautifully illustrated. For all ages.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/books/Kids+Books+that+take+near+backyard+Japan/6638885/story.html
Katherine Longshore's Gilt tells the fictionalized story, in the 16th Century, of Henry VIII's fifth wife, Catherine Howard, from the perspective of a friend, Kitty. Catherine doesn't believe in love—just social advancement. She does marry the king and is executed when she is 21. Ages 12 and up.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/books/la-ca-katherine-longshore-20120520,0,6791752.story
Meg Rosoff's There is No Dog is a tart, satirical work of unrelenting humour and creative energy. There is No Dog looks at the world and surmises that it's the creation of a self-absorbed, sex-obsessed, adolescent boy God. Original and highly entertaining. Ages 13 and up.
http://www.thestar.com/news/books/article/1089506--non-fantasy-book-choices-for-gifts-for-kid-lits
Pamela Porter's I'll Be Watching is a story in poetry tracking the inner and outer lives of the miscellaneously flawed inhabitants of their tiny town of Argue, Saskatchewan in the early 1940's. Ages 12 and up.
http://www.thestar.com/news/books/article/1089506--non-fantasy-book-choices-for-gifts-for-kid-lits
NEWS & FEATURES
As the children's classic The Phantom Tollbooth turns 50, Daniel Hahn interviews the author, Norton Juster.
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/the-curious-world-of-norton-juster-7768624.html
Neil Gaimon, who never attended college, recently delivered the commencement address at the University of the Arts' graduation ceremony, where he also was awarded an honorary Ph.D. in fine arts. "Leave the world more interesting for your being here," he said.
http://articles.philly.com/2012-05-19/news/31778731_1_neil-gaiman-anansi-boys-comic-book
A toast to John Cheever, the master of the short story, who would have turned 100 on May 27.
http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/a-toast-john-cheever-100th-birthday-article-1.1075778
The mobile services company Orange has announced that it will not be renewing its sponsorship of the prize for women's fiction. After this year's award is presented, Orange will withdraw its support of the prize in order to focus on film industry sponsorship.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/may/22/orange-withdraws-sponsorship-prize-fiction
Marjorie Perloff writes about how prizes are ruining poetry.
http://www.bostonreview.net/BR37.3/marjorie_perloff_poetry_lyric_reinvention.php
Anne Boleyn: witch, bitch, temptress, feminist, Hilary Mantel talks about Henry VIII's second wife, one of the most controversial women in English history. Much of what we think we know about Anne melts away on close inspection.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/may/11/hilary-mantel-on-anne-boleyn
A recent article raises the question: should David Sedaris' s pieces be fact-checked? Is his work true? Is it fiction? Nonfiction? Does it matter? Opinions from readers are included in the article.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/david-sedariss-exaggerations-in-memoirs-npr-nonfiction-program-raise-questions/2012/05/13/gIQAm9QONU_story_1.html
A book discussion in Jakarta, featuring Canadian writer Irshad Manji, was broken up by the Jakarta Police, with several people injured. Protesters claimed their opposition to Manji, who is openly lesbian, was due to her viewpoint that Islam should accept homosexuality.
http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2012/05/17/homophobic-indonesians-still-large-sociologist.html
Thousands of protesters joined a march organized by Russian writers in Moscow, May13. "We see by the number of people that literature still has authority in our society," said poet Lev Rubinstein, one of the organizers. "No one will forget it," he said.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/14/world/europe/russian-writers-demonstrate-the-might-of-a-march.html
A treasure trove of pre-revolutionary books and magazines has been discovered in the archives of the Russian State Polytechnical Museum Library in Moscow, hidden behind false walls.
http://mhpbooks.com/russian-library-discovers-hidden-treasure/
We've been taught that Gutenberg invented the printing press, changing the course of civilization forever. It is, however, an undisputed historical fact that Johannes Gutenberg did not invent the printing press. Printed books existed nearly 600 years before Gutenberg's Bible.
http://io9.com/5910249/printed-books-existed-nearly-600-years-before-gutenbergs-bible
Amazon reviews are as likely to give an accurate summary of a book's quality as those of professional newspapers, according to a study from Harvard Business School. Amazon reviewers tend to look favourably on debut authors, while professionals prefer prizewinners.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/may/16/amazon-consumer-reviews-media-experts?CMP=EMCNEWEML1355
So, do we need professional reviewers? asks Lionel Shriver who is, herself, a professional reviewer.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/may/18/battle-book-reviews
Margaret Atwood will mentor British novelist Naomi Alderman as part of the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative. Launched in 2002, the Arts Initiative was developed because Rolex wanted to extend its arts philanthropy.
http://www.thestar.com/news/books/article/1180409--meet-margaret-atwood-s-protege
Authors Isabel Allende, Junot Díaz, Jonathan Kozol, Rudolfo Anaya, bell hooks, Sandra Cisneros, James Baldwin, and Howard Zinn, have been banned from Arizona schools, as well as Thoreau's Civil Disobedience. And a teacher was fired for assigning an upper-level class an essay on censorship.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/may/18/anti-intellectualism-us-book-banning
With May being mystery month, Canada Writes! will publish six new short stories by some of Canada's top mystery novelists: William Deverell, Gail Bowen, Peter Robinson, Mary Jane Maffini, Therese Greenwood and Doug Moles. More information, including about Louise Penny's master class, is here:
http://www.cbc.ca/books/canadawrites/
Mark Kingwell's essay on the mystery of mysteries is equally timely.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/the-mystery-of-mysteries-what-really-keeps-us-reading/article2436927/
Margaret Cannon's latest list of recommended thrillers and mysteries is here:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/new-in-crime-fiction-the-latest-thrillers-and-mysteries/article2436916/
12 masters of suspense name their favourites here:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/clued-in-12-mystery-masters-name-their-favourites/article2436950/
BOOKS & WRITERS
Nahlah Ayed's A Thousand Farewells: A Reporter's Journey from Refugee Camp to the Arab Spring is part memoir and part history lesson, writes Enza Micheletti. Ayed brings insight to the "modern Arab identity," as she recounts the stories of ordinary Arabs she meets along the way.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/books/Nahlah+Ayed+destined+cover+Middle+East/6638468/story.html
Peter Carey's novel, The Chemistry of Tears draws compelling parallels between a Victorian-era automaton of a defecating duck and the 2010 BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, a tour-de-force performance, writes Emily Donaldson. Carey is the finest writer Australia has produced, says Donaldson.
http://www.thestar.com/news/books/article/1179439--the-chemistry-of-tears-by-peter-carey-review
Lynn Crosbie's Life is About Losing Everything chronicles her slouching toward middle age. She does not go gently. The seven years she documents were clearly harrowing ones for Crosbie but slowly, she is putting everything back together, writes Laura Penny.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/life-is-about-losing-everything-by-lynn-crosbie/article2437002/
Eight people are stuck together for a week in Mark Haddon's The Red House, a closely observed domestic drama that gives the impression of being a random slice-of-life, says Carol Birch. But every character is coming to terms with something.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/may/09/red-house-mark-haddon-review
In Just Send Me Word, Orlando Figes tells the true story of two young Moscow scientists, whose love for each other endured the Gulag, Stalin's attempts to "reforge" them, and Hitler's 1941 invasion. Their correspondence is preserved in a Moscow archive.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/may/20/just-send-word-orlando-figes-review
Pamela Porter writes novels in verse for young adults, which have acquired many awards. No Ordinary Place, her latest book of poetry for older adults, reflects her life in the natural world on her family's acreage outside Sidney, on Vancouver Island.
http://www.vancouversun.com/entertainment/books/Pamela+Porter+finds+confidence+natural+world/6644446/story.html
Alison Flood writes that Gillian Flynn's Gone Girl's dark, disturbing story of a wife's sudden disappearance is a contender for thriller of the year.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/may/20/gillian-flynn-gone-girl-review
The Marlowe Papers, the first novel of poet Ros Barber, brings to life the premise that playwright Christopher Marlowe was not killed in a Deptford tavern in 1593, but survived in exile and became the secret author of William Shakespeare's works.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/may/20/ros-barber-marlowe-papers-review
Two decades after Nobel Laureate Jose Saramago shocked the religious world with his novel The Gospel According to Jesus Christ, he has done it again with Cain, a satire of the Old Testament, and part of Saramago's long argument with religion.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/data/book/fiction/9780099552246/cain?commentpage=1#comment-16137197
Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, or Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease are some of the neurodegenerative terrors that haunt boomers as they age. In Fatal Flaws, Jay Ingram, whose métier is simplifying science for Canadians, examines new research into these illnesses and the molecule called a prion.
http://www.thestar.com/news/books/article/1179393--fatal-flaws-by-jay-ingram-column
Award-winning author Brian Brett writes in The Tyee on his duty to ‘confront the world'.
http://thetyee.ca/Books/2012/05/19/Writer-Fight/?utm_source=mondayheadlines&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=210512
COMMUNITY EVENTS
BOOKTOPIA
Annual festival of children's literature intended to promote literacy, celebrate language arts and cultivate creative thought in West Vancouver. Now until May 31, 2012. Complete details at www.booktopia.ca.
ROBSON READING SERIES
Readings by Jamella Hagen (Kerosene), Clea Roberts (Here Is Where We Disembark), and Claire Tacon (In the Field). Thursday, May 24 at 7:00pm, free. BC Bookstore/Library at Robson Square, 800 Robson Street. More information at www.robsonreadingseries.ubc.ca.
SARAH LEAVITT
Sarah Leavitt discusses her graphic memoir Tangles: A Story About Alzheimer's, My Mother and Me. Thursday, May 24 at 7:00 PM. Christianne's Lyceum. 3696 W. 8th Ave. $20 (includes refreshments). To reserve your space call 604.733.1356 or email lyceum@christiannehayward.com. More information at www.christiannehayward.com.
TORN APART
Susan Aihoshi will read from her new book Torn Apart: The Internment Diary of Mary Kobayashi , about a young girl whose life changes when the Japanese bomb Pearl Harbour. Thursday, May 24 at 7:30pm. Admission by donation. Historic Joy Kogawa House, 1450 64th Ave. W. More information at kogawahouse@yahoo.ca.
JEFF RUBIN
Canadian economist and author reads from his new book The End of Growth. Thursday, May 24 at 7:30pm. Tickets: $24. Admission includes one free copy of the book. North Shore Credit Union Centre for the Performing Arts, 2055 Purcell Way, North Vancouver. More information at www.capilanou.ca/nscucentre.
DIONNE BRAND
26th annual Margaret Laurence Lecture featuring Canadian poet, novelist, essayist and documentarian. Friday, May 25 at 8:00pm. Alice MacKay room, Central Branch, 350 W. Georgia Street. More information at www.writerstrust.com.
ARSON BOOK LAUNCH
Jellyfish Publishing presents poetry by Michael Twist and original music from Megan Twist. Saturday, May 26 at 7:30pm. Arbutus Coffee, 2200 Arbutus. More information at michaeltwist.com.
NATIONAL BOOK COLLECTING CONTEST 2011-12
The W.A. Deacon Literary Foundation and Alcuin Society will be presenting the cash prize to this year's first place winner of the National Book-Collecting Contest for young Canadians under 30 years of age. Monday, May 28 at 7:00pm. Room 2260, SFU downtown, 515 W. Hastings. More information at www.deaconfoundation.com.
THAT SUMMER IN FRANKLIN
Linda Hutsell-Manning talks about her writing career and reads from her novel. Monday, May 28 at 7:00pm, free. Meeting room, level 3, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia Street.
VANCOUVER POETRY SLAM
Fan appreciation night and the debut of the 2012 Vancouver Youth Poetry Slam team. Monday, May 28 at 8:00pm. Cafe Deux Soleils, 2096 Commercial Drive. More information at www.vancouverpoetryhouse.com.
EPISTOLOPHILIA
Please join Montreal writer Julija Sukys for a reading and discussion of her new book Epistolophilia: Writing the Life of Ona Simaite. Tuesday, May 29 at 7:00pm, free. Peter Kay room, lower level, Central Library, 350 West Georgia Street. More information at 604-331-3603.
AN EVENING OF ART AND POETRY
Featuring Ahava Shira, Avie Estrin, Taslim Jaffer, Daniela Elza, Bonnie Nish, Ms. Spelt and David Shewel, who will read their poetry inspired by the art exhibit, Celebrating Jerusalem. Tuesday, May 29 at 7:00pm. Gallery Room, Jewish Community Centre, 950 W. 41st Ave. More information at blnish@pandorascollective.com.
REEL READS MOVIE NIGHT
Screening of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, the 2011 movie based on the John Le Carre spy novel. Thursday, May 31 at 6:30pm, free. Alice MacKay room, lower level, Central Branch, 350 W. Georgia St. More information at www.vpl.ca.
BEN NUTTALL-SMITH
Local author reads from his novels Secrets Kept—Secrets Told and Blood, Feathers, and Holy Men. Thursday, May 31 at 7:30pm. Pelican Rouge Coffee House, 15142 North Bluff Rd., White Rock. More information at www.semiahmooarts.com.
Upcoming
DAVID STARR
Reading by the author of From Bombs to Books: the remarkable stories of refugee children and their families at an exceptional Canadian school. Tuesday, June 5 at 6:30pm. Free but please register by phoning 604-522-3971. Tommy Douglas branch, Burnaby Public Library, 7311 Kingsway.
PIERRE COUPAY
Local poet and artist shares poetry, slides and discusses poetry and painting. Wednesday, June 6 at 7:00pm, free. Dr. G. Paul Singh Study Hall, North Vancouver City Library, 120 14th Street W., North Vancouver. More information at 604-998-3450.
KUCKI LOW
Author will talk about her memoir recalling her life as South Africa's first female airline pilot, This is Kucki Your Pilot Speaking. Thursday, June 7 at 7:00pm. Free but please register in advance by phoning 604-299-8955. McGill branch, Burnaby Public Library, 4595 Albert Street, Burnaby.
ROBSON READING SERIES
Readings by Phil Hall (Killdeer) and Aaron Bushkowsky (Curtains for Roy). Thursday, June 14 at 7:00pm, free. BC Bookstore/Library at Robson Square, 800 Robson Street. More information at www.robsonreadingseries.ubc.ca.
CHRISTINA JOHNSON-DEAN
Launch of the fifth book in the series The Unheralded Artists of BC, The Life and Art of Ina D.D. Uhthoff. Saturday, June 16 at 8:00pm, free. Martin Batchelor Gallery, 712 Cormorant St., Victoria. More information at www.mothertonguepublishing.com.
VISIBLE VERSE FESTIVAL 2012
VVF seeks videopoems that wed words and images, the voice seen as well as heard. Deadline for submissions is September 1, 2012. For more information, contact Artistic Director Heather Haley at hshaley@emspace.com.
Thursday, May 17, 2012
Book News Vol. 7 No. 17
BOOK NEWS
Mother's Day
Give the gift of great writing and ideas! Purchase an annual membership for your mom for just $35 and she'll receive discounts on books and Festival events, and a personal invitation to attend our Members' Reception. We'll also package her new membership in an attractive gift envelope! To purchase, call the office at 604-681-6330 x109.
Membership
If being a member of the VIWF didn't already have enough benefits, we've added an extra incentive! Every two weeks new and renewing members will have a chance to win a book by a Festival or Incite author, or tickets to our special event with Richard Ford on May 28. At the end of August we'll have a grand prize draw for a deluxe pack of Festival tickets - two tickets to any event of your choice for each day of the Festival! This week's winner Dave Reid, received a signed copy of Timothy Taylor's The Blue Light Project. On May 2 we will draw the winner of Linden MacIntyre's latest novel, Why Men Lie. Sign up now here, https://www.writersfest.bc.ca/secure/secure_membership.php.
VIRTUAL FESTIVAL
Listen to the fourth installment in our series of audio archives from past Festival events. This week you'll hear "Conversations with Bill" from the 2011 Festival, featuring Kate Beaton and Helen Oyeyemi. Whether drawing or writing, these young, bright storytellers explore their influences with the insatiably curious Bill Richardson. Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/multimedia/audio-archives.
UPCOMING VIWF EVENTS
Incite
Join us on May 23 for the final spring event of the Incite series. Noah Richler will read from his book What We Talk About When We Talk About War and Trevor and Debbie Greene will present March Forth, their inspiring true story of a Canadian soldier’s journey through love, hope and survival. This is your last chance to enjoy the Incite series this season, so register today, http://incitevpl2012.eventbrite.com.
Richard Ford
Pulitzer Prize and PEN/Faulkner Award-winning author Richard Ford will be interviewed on stage by Hal Wake on May 28. He will talk about his latest novel, Canada, a visionary novel of vast landscapes, complex identities and fragile humanity. Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/richardford.
A Dram Come True
The Vancouver International Writers Festival presents the tenth annual single malt scotch whisky sampling. Enjoy the superb, complex flavours of a variety of rare and distinguished single malts. Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/content/dram-come-true.
AWARDS & LISTS
Norwich has been named as England's first City of Literature by the United Nation's organisation, UNESCO. "Writers have known for centuries that Norwich is a dreamy city", says Ian McEwen.
http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-norfolk-18016481
David Gilmour, David Bezmozgis, Ken Babstock, Tony Burgess, Kirsten den Hartog and Phil Hall are shortlisted for the Trillium Prize, an Ontario award for fiction or poetry. Helen Guri, Jacob McArthur Mooney and Nick Thran are shortlisted for a separate $10,000 Trillium Award offered for poetry in English. Five French-language books and three French poets are also finalists for Trillium Awards.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/story/2012/05/09/trillium-book-award.html
Johanna Skibsrud is one of five authors shortlisted for the Danuta Gleed Award for best debut collection, named in honour of late short fiction writer, Danuta Gleed. The other four shortlisted authors are: Andrew J. Borkowski, Daniel Griffin, Jessica Westhead and Ian Williams.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/Giller+winner+Skibsrud+among+finalists+Danuta+Gleed+prize/6592645/story.html
2012 Independent Book Awards have been won by Robert W. Mackay's Soldier of the Horse, Gordon Cope's Secret Combinations (the Silver Award in the Suspense/Thriller category), and Angie Abdou's The Canterbury Trail (in the Canada-West: Best Regional Fiction category).
http://www.independentpublisher.com/article.php?page=1536
Four books are on the shortlist for the Ondaatje prize, for the "book of the highest literary merit evoking the spirit of a place". They include: Rahul Bhattacharya's The Sly Company of People Who Care, Olivia Laing's To the River, Teju Cole's Open City and Edgelands by Paul Farley and Michael Symmons Roberts.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2012/may/10/books-sense-place-ondaatje
Julie Otsuka has won the $15,000 first prize at the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction for The Buddha in the Attic, her slim prose poem about Japanese picture brides coming to America after WWI.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/arts-post/post/julie-otsuka-wins-penfaulkner-prize-for-the-buddha-in-the-attic/2012/05/06/gIQAJT0h5T_blog.html
The BC Book Prizes have been awarded. Go here for the full list of winners:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/esi-edugyans-half-blood-blues-wins-fiction-award-at-bc-book-prizes/article2431291/
YOUNG READERS
Almost 10 years ago, award-winning animator and illustrator Mo Willems wrote Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!, which became an instant classic: fans will welcome the return of Pigeon, in a new volume titled The Duckling Gets a Cookie? Ages 2 and up.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/books/Kids+Pigeon+feathers+ruffled/6605863/story.html
Tillie McGillie's Fantastical Chair by Vivian French is about a little girl called Tillie who is in a wheelchair. This is unusual because there aren't many stories about children in wheelchairs. It's a very funny story about a magical Gran who waves her spotty hankie and strange things happen. Ages 7 and under.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/childrens-books-site/2012/may/12/review-tillie-mcgillies-fantastical-chair-vivian-french
Prince Charming doesn't know how to use a sword. And most princesses are perfectly capable of taking care of themselves. Do they live happily ever after? Christopher Healy's The Hero's Guide to Saving Your Kingdom asks why old fairy tales were written as they were. Ages 8 and up.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/books/la-ca-christopher-healy-20120513,0,7312583.story
Lots of adult readers know Alexander McCall Smith's No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency. Here, The Great Cake Mystery is solved by the No. 1 Girls' Detective Agency. Precious must solve her very first case in a country that readers may know nothing about. Ages 7 and up.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/kidspost/the-no-1-girls-detective-agency/2012/04/26/gIQAUqkrjT_story.html
NEWS & FEATURES
The Capilano Review celebrates its 40th anniversary on May 17.
http://www.allianceforarts.com/files/enet/pdf/12/05/literary.pdf
Happy Birthday, A Clockwork Orange! Anthony Burgess's diabolical tale of juvenile ultraviolence is 50. Five decades on, the novel holds a lofty position as one of pop culture's most influential and enduring pieces of literature, writes Ben Myers.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2012/may/14/happy-birthday-a-clockwork-orange?CMP=EMCNEWEML1355
This year, the Pulitzer Prize committee declined to award a prize for fiction. So The New York Times asked eight experts to do it instead.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/13/magazine/the-great-pulitzer-do-over.html
Mexico's most celebrated novelist Carlos Fuentes died Tuesday, at 83.
http://arts.nationalpost.com/category/arts/afterword/
Farley Mowat is 91. He can't not write. He's still angry, writes Greg Quill. Douglas & McIntyre is reissuing 13 gems of his vast catalogue of 44 books, beginning this month with A Whale for the Killing (1972) and And No Birds Sang (1979).
http://www.thestar.com/news/books/article/1176847--farley-mowat-s-legacy-our-supreme-storyteller
What's behind the boom in dystopian literature for young readers? asks Laura Miller. "It somehow fits the paranoid spirit that adults are the ones who write and publish them, assign them in classes, and decide which ones win prizes," she writes.
http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/atlarge/2010/06/14/100614crat_atlarge_miller?currentPage=all
Jeanette Winterson has been appointed professor of creative writing at Manchester University, in the city of her birth. Winterson, 53, is best known for her 1985 debut novel, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/may/12/jeanette-winterson-professor-manchester-university
On May 25, fans of Douglas Adams will honor the author's memory with the annual Towel Day, a nod to Adams's delirious novel The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/20/books/review/inside-the-list.html?_r=1&nl=books&emc=edit_bk_20120511
Ontario composer Abigail Richardson has composed music for the iconic Roch Carrier story The Hockey Sweater. The work made its official debut in a pair of concerts Saturday at Roy Thomson Hall.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/music/with-help-of-roch-carrier-composer-sets-the-hockey-sweater-to-music/article2429409/
The bicentenary of the birth of Charles Dickens shouldn't pass by without an example of his verse, writes Carol Rumens. The novelist's poetic output was small. The Fine Old English Gentleman: New Version pours scorn on his era's complacent Conservatives.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/may/14/charles-dickens-gentlemen-poem-week
Nadine Gordimer writes in The New York Review of Books about the new threat in South Africa of updated versions of the suppression of freedom of expression that gagged South Africans under apartheid.
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2012/may/24/south-africa-new-threat-freedom/
Joanne Kaufman writes that publishers are losing patience with multi-year, multi-volume biographies.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304723304577368220130272922.html
Author Barry Eisler, having signing with Amazon as his book publisher, ventured to Bainbridge Island to explain his views to a community that loves its library and its local bookstore. Jim Thomsen describes the conference discussion.
http://crosscut.com/2012/05/09/amazon/108372/books-whats-good-amazon-good-writers-readers/
With May being mystery month, Canada Writes! will publish six new short stories by some of Canada's top mystery novelists: William Deverell, Gail Bowen, Peter Robinson, Mary Jane Maffini, Therese Greenwood and Doug Moles. More information, including about Louise Penny's master class, is here:
http://www.cbc.ca/books/canadawrites/
BOOKS & WRITERS
John F. Hulcoop describes Leslie Hall Pinder's Bring Me One of Everything as 'big': big-hearted, socially important, ambitious in its scope. The novel gathers together aboriginal landscapes of Haida Gwaii, ethnography, anthropology, history, art music and personal relationships. Un-putdownable, says Hulcoop.
http://www.vancouversun.com/entertainment/books/hearted+novel+extraordinarily+rich+book/6608235/story.html
In Time to Start Thinking, Edward Luce quotes Oliver Wendell Holmes's: "An ounce of history is worth a pound of logic." What emerges from Luce's evocative analysis and reportage is the denial of history by the current crop of American leaders, writes John Gray.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/may/11/time-start-thinking-edward-luce-review
Alison Bechdel's Are You My Mother? might be the truest Mother's Day card ever sent, writes Ian McGillis, adding that reviewing a book like Are You My Mother? demands a whole new vocabulary.
http://blogs.montrealgazette.com/2012/05/12/alison-bechdels-are-you-my-mother-might-be-the-truest-mothers-day-card-ever-sent/
Cunning foxes have long prowled through the pages of fairytales. In Mr. Fox, Helen Oyeyemi harks back to these fictional foxes while creating her own fantastical creatures, blurring boundaries through magic realism, writes Anita Sethi.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/may/13/mr-fox-helen-oyeyemi-review
Skagboys, a hefty, 548-page prequel to Irvine Welsh's Trainspotting, is an uneasy hybrid, but it has a firmer grasp of the social forces that keep the gang at the bottom of the food chain, writes Peter Murphy. Skagways was published in April.
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/weekend/2012/0512/1224315929170.html
US National Book Award Jesmyn Ward's novel Agate, which won the 2011 National Book Award, is based on her, and her family's, experience of Katrina. She speaks of the experience at the Sydney Writers Festival.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/arts/books/katrina-survivor-struck-by-racial-divide/story-e6frg8nf-1226356719812
Vancouver author Owen Laukkanen is leading a wave of Canadian crime writers being published around the world, says Jack Batten. In Laukkanen's The Professionals, the bodies start falling even when killing is the last thing on the minds of the nominal bad guys.
http://www.thestar.com/news/books/article/1177435--owen-laukkanen-leads-the-great-canadian-crime-wave
In Monkey Ranch, Julie Bruck's stories-in-poetry are deceptively chatty, using plain language that doesn't shy from pop-culture references to evoke little scenes. A success by any measure, says George Murray.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/monkey-ranch-by-julie-bruck/article2433199/
COMMUNITY EVENTS
BOOKTOPIA
Annual festival of children's literature intended to promote literacy, celebrate language arts and cultivate creative thought in West Vancouver. Now until May 31, 2012. Complete details at www.booktopia.ca.
YOUTH INSPIRE ETHIOPIA BOOK LAUNCH
Launch of the youth organization's book that explores Ethiopian communities through the eyes of Ethiopian youth. Proceeds from the book go back to the involved centers or schools to support youth community and leadership programs. Thursday, May 17 at 6:30pm, free. Robert Lee YMCA, 955 Burrard. More information at humanities_healing@hotmail.com.
ROBSON READING SERIES
Readings by Catherine Owen (Catalysts) and Waubgeshig Rice (Midnight Sweatlodge). Thursday, May 17 at 7:00pm, free. UBC Bookstore/Library at Robson Square, 800 Robson Street. More information at www.robsonreadingseries.ubc.ca.
SKAGIT RIVER POETRY FESTIVAL
Three days of poetry, song and storytelling featuring Carolyn Forche, Tony Hoagland and many others. May 17-20, 2012. La Conner, WA. Complete information at www.skagitriverpoetry.org.
JOHN IRVING
The author will talk about his new novel In One Person on Friday, May 18th, 2012 at 7:30 pm at the North Shore Credit Union Centre for the Performing Arts. Capilano University, 2055 Purcell Way, North Vancouver. Ticket price of $30 includes a copy of the new novel available for pick up at the event. More information at 604.990.7810 or http://www2.capilanou.ca/news-events/nscucentre.html.
CHEN LIZRA
Author discusses her travel guidebook My Seductive Cuba. Saturday, May 19 at 2:00pm, free. Chapters Robson, 788 Robson Street, Vancouver. More information at 604-682-4066.
UPROOTED AGAIN
Book launch features author Tatsuo Kage, UVIC prof John Price, retired SFU prof Roy Miki, and former president of the National Association of Japanese Canadians Grace Eiko Thomson. Saturday, May 19 at 3:00pm. Nikkei National Museum & Cultural Centre, 100-6688 Southoaks Cres., Burnaby. More information at www.nikkeiplace.org.
JANET MARIE ROGERS
Part of the Pen-In-Hand Poetry/Prose Reading Series, the featured reader is Victoria's Poet Laureate, Janet Marie Rogers. Monday, May 21 at 7:15pm. Cost: $3. Serious Coffee, Cook Street Village, 230 Cook Street, Victoria.
LYNNE BOWEN
Author reads from her book Whoever Gives Us Bread, that tells the stories of BC's Italian immigrants. Tuesday, May 22 at 7:00pm, free. Meeting room, level 3, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia Street.
ROBSON READING SERIES
Readings by Jamella Hagen (Kerosene), Clea Roberts (Here Is Where We Disembark), and Claire Tacon (In the Field). Thursday, May 24 at 7:00pm, free. BC Bookstore/Library at Robson Square, 800 Robson Street. More information at www.robsonreadingseries.ubc.ca.
SARAH LEAVITT
Sarah Leavitt discusses her graphic memoir Tangles: A Story About Alzheimer's, My Mother and Me. Thursday, May 24 at 7:00 PM. Christianne's Lyceum. 3696 W. 8th Ave. $20 (includes refreshments). To reserve your space call 604.733.1356 or email lyceum@christiannehayward.com. More information at www.christiannehayward.com.
TORN APART
Susan Aihoshi will read from her new book Torn Apart: The Internment Diary of Mary Kobayashi , about a young girl whose life changes when the Japanese bomb Pearl Harbour. Thursday, May 24 at 7:30pm. Admission by donation. Historic Joy Kogawa House, 1450 64th Ave. W. More information at kogawahouse@yahoo.ca.
JEFF RUBIN
Canadian economist and author reads from his new book The End of Growth. Thursday, May 24 at 7:30pm. Tickets: $24. Admission includes one free copy of the book. North Shore Credit Union Centre for the Performing Arts, 2055 Purcell Way, North Vancouver. More information at www.capilanou.ca/nscucentre.
DIONNE BRAND
26th annual Margaret Laurence Lecture featuring Canadian poet, novelist, essayist and documentarian. Friday, May 25 at 8:00pm. Alice MacKay room, Central Branch, 350 W. Georgia Street. More information at www.writerstrust.com.
Upcoming
NATIONAL BOOK COLLECTING CONTEST 2011-12
The W.A. Deacon Literary Foundation and Alcuin Society will be presenting the cash prize to this year's first place winner of the National Book-Collecting Contest for young Canadians under 30 years of age. Monday, May 28 at 7:00pm. Room 2260, SFU downtown, 515 W. Hastings. More information at www.deaconfoundation.com.
THAT SUMMER IN FRANKLIN
Linda Hutsell-Manning talks about her writing career and reads from her novel. Monday, May 28 at 7:00pm, free. Meeting room, level 3, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia Street.
VANCOUVER POETRY SLAM
Fan appreciation night and the debut of the 2012 Vancouver Youth Poetry Slam team. Monday, May 28 at 8:00pm. Cafe Deux Soleils, 2096 Commercial Drive. More information at www.vancouverpoetryhouse.com.
EPISTOLOPHILIA
Please join Montreal writer Julija Sukys for a reading and discussion of her new book Epistolophilia: Writing the Life of Ona Simaite. Tuesday, May 29 at 7:00pm, free. Peter Kay room, lower level, Central Library, 350 West Georgia Street. More information at 604-331-3603.
AN EVENING OF ART AND POETRY
Featuring Ahava Shira, Avie Estrin, Taslim Jaffer, Daniela Elza, Bonnie Nish, Ms. Spelt and David Shewel, who will read their poetry inspired by the art exhibit, Celebrating Jerusalem. Tuesday, May 29 at 7:00pm. Gallery Room, Jewish Community Centre, 950 W. 41st Ave. More information at blnish@pandorascollective.com.
DAVID STARR
Reading by the author of From Bombs to Books: the remarkable stories of refugee children and their families at an exceptional Canadian school. Tuesday, June 5 at 6:30pm. Free but please register by phoning 604-522-3971. Tommy Douglas branch, Burnaby Public Library, 7311 Kingsway.
PIERRE COUPAY
Local poet and artist shares poetry, slides and discusses poetry and painting. Wednesday, June 6 at 7:00pm, free. Dr. G. Paul Singh Study Hall, North Vancouver City Library, 120 14th Street W., North Vancouver. More information at 604-998-3450.
KUCKI LOW
Author will talk about her memoir recalling her life as South Africa's first female airline pilot, This is Kucki Your Pilot Speaking. Thursday, June 7 at 7:00pm. Free but please register in advance by phoning 604-299-8955. McGill branch, Burnaby Public Library, 4595 Albert Street, Burnaby.
Mother's Day
Give the gift of great writing and ideas! Purchase an annual membership for your mom for just $35 and she'll receive discounts on books and Festival events, and a personal invitation to attend our Members' Reception. We'll also package her new membership in an attractive gift envelope! To purchase, call the office at 604-681-6330 x109.
Membership
If being a member of the VIWF didn't already have enough benefits, we've added an extra incentive! Every two weeks new and renewing members will have a chance to win a book by a Festival or Incite author, or tickets to our special event with Richard Ford on May 28. At the end of August we'll have a grand prize draw for a deluxe pack of Festival tickets - two tickets to any event of your choice for each day of the Festival! This week's winner Dave Reid, received a signed copy of Timothy Taylor's The Blue Light Project. On May 2 we will draw the winner of Linden MacIntyre's latest novel, Why Men Lie. Sign up now here, https://www.writersfest.bc.ca/secure/secure_membership.php.
VIRTUAL FESTIVAL
Listen to the fourth installment in our series of audio archives from past Festival events. This week you'll hear "Conversations with Bill" from the 2011 Festival, featuring Kate Beaton and Helen Oyeyemi. Whether drawing or writing, these young, bright storytellers explore their influences with the insatiably curious Bill Richardson. Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/multimedia/audio-archives.
UPCOMING VIWF EVENTS
Incite
Join us on May 23 for the final spring event of the Incite series. Noah Richler will read from his book What We Talk About When We Talk About War and Trevor and Debbie Greene will present March Forth, their inspiring true story of a Canadian soldier’s journey through love, hope and survival. This is your last chance to enjoy the Incite series this season, so register today, http://incitevpl2012.eventbrite.com.
Richard Ford
Pulitzer Prize and PEN/Faulkner Award-winning author Richard Ford will be interviewed on stage by Hal Wake on May 28. He will talk about his latest novel, Canada, a visionary novel of vast landscapes, complex identities and fragile humanity. Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/richardford.
A Dram Come True
The Vancouver International Writers Festival presents the tenth annual single malt scotch whisky sampling. Enjoy the superb, complex flavours of a variety of rare and distinguished single malts. Details: http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/content/dram-come-true.
AWARDS & LISTS
Norwich has been named as England's first City of Literature by the United Nation's organisation, UNESCO. "Writers have known for centuries that Norwich is a dreamy city", says Ian McEwen.
http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-norfolk-18016481
David Gilmour, David Bezmozgis, Ken Babstock, Tony Burgess, Kirsten den Hartog and Phil Hall are shortlisted for the Trillium Prize, an Ontario award for fiction or poetry. Helen Guri, Jacob McArthur Mooney and Nick Thran are shortlisted for a separate $10,000 Trillium Award offered for poetry in English. Five French-language books and three French poets are also finalists for Trillium Awards.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/story/2012/05/09/trillium-book-award.html
Johanna Skibsrud is one of five authors shortlisted for the Danuta Gleed Award for best debut collection, named in honour of late short fiction writer, Danuta Gleed. The other four shortlisted authors are: Andrew J. Borkowski, Daniel Griffin, Jessica Westhead and Ian Williams.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/Giller+winner+Skibsrud+among+finalists+Danuta+Gleed+prize/6592645/story.html
2012 Independent Book Awards have been won by Robert W. Mackay's Soldier of the Horse, Gordon Cope's Secret Combinations (the Silver Award in the Suspense/Thriller category), and Angie Abdou's The Canterbury Trail (in the Canada-West: Best Regional Fiction category).
http://www.independentpublisher.com/article.php?page=1536
Four books are on the shortlist for the Ondaatje prize, for the "book of the highest literary merit evoking the spirit of a place". They include: Rahul Bhattacharya's The Sly Company of People Who Care, Olivia Laing's To the River, Teju Cole's Open City and Edgelands by Paul Farley and Michael Symmons Roberts.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2012/may/10/books-sense-place-ondaatje
Julie Otsuka has won the $15,000 first prize at the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction for The Buddha in the Attic, her slim prose poem about Japanese picture brides coming to America after WWI.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/arts-post/post/julie-otsuka-wins-penfaulkner-prize-for-the-buddha-in-the-attic/2012/05/06/gIQAJT0h5T_blog.html
The BC Book Prizes have been awarded. Go here for the full list of winners:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/esi-edugyans-half-blood-blues-wins-fiction-award-at-bc-book-prizes/article2431291/
YOUNG READERS
Almost 10 years ago, award-winning animator and illustrator Mo Willems wrote Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!, which became an instant classic: fans will welcome the return of Pigeon, in a new volume titled The Duckling Gets a Cookie? Ages 2 and up.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/books/Kids+Pigeon+feathers+ruffled/6605863/story.html
Tillie McGillie's Fantastical Chair by Vivian French is about a little girl called Tillie who is in a wheelchair. This is unusual because there aren't many stories about children in wheelchairs. It's a very funny story about a magical Gran who waves her spotty hankie and strange things happen. Ages 7 and under.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/childrens-books-site/2012/may/12/review-tillie-mcgillies-fantastical-chair-vivian-french
Prince Charming doesn't know how to use a sword. And most princesses are perfectly capable of taking care of themselves. Do they live happily ever after? Christopher Healy's The Hero's Guide to Saving Your Kingdom asks why old fairy tales were written as they were. Ages 8 and up.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/books/la-ca-christopher-healy-20120513,0,7312583.story
Lots of adult readers know Alexander McCall Smith's No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency. Here, The Great Cake Mystery is solved by the No. 1 Girls' Detective Agency. Precious must solve her very first case in a country that readers may know nothing about. Ages 7 and up.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/kidspost/the-no-1-girls-detective-agency/2012/04/26/gIQAUqkrjT_story.html
NEWS & FEATURES
The Capilano Review celebrates its 40th anniversary on May 17.
http://www.allianceforarts.com/files/enet/pdf/12/05/literary.pdf
Happy Birthday, A Clockwork Orange! Anthony Burgess's diabolical tale of juvenile ultraviolence is 50. Five decades on, the novel holds a lofty position as one of pop culture's most influential and enduring pieces of literature, writes Ben Myers.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2012/may/14/happy-birthday-a-clockwork-orange?CMP=EMCNEWEML1355
This year, the Pulitzer Prize committee declined to award a prize for fiction. So The New York Times asked eight experts to do it instead.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/13/magazine/the-great-pulitzer-do-over.html
Mexico's most celebrated novelist Carlos Fuentes died Tuesday, at 83.
http://arts.nationalpost.com/category/arts/afterword/
Farley Mowat is 91. He can't not write. He's still angry, writes Greg Quill. Douglas & McIntyre is reissuing 13 gems of his vast catalogue of 44 books, beginning this month with A Whale for the Killing (1972) and And No Birds Sang (1979).
http://www.thestar.com/news/books/article/1176847--farley-mowat-s-legacy-our-supreme-storyteller
What's behind the boom in dystopian literature for young readers? asks Laura Miller. "It somehow fits the paranoid spirit that adults are the ones who write and publish them, assign them in classes, and decide which ones win prizes," she writes.
http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/atlarge/2010/06/14/100614crat_atlarge_miller?currentPage=all
Jeanette Winterson has been appointed professor of creative writing at Manchester University, in the city of her birth. Winterson, 53, is best known for her 1985 debut novel, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/may/12/jeanette-winterson-professor-manchester-university
On May 25, fans of Douglas Adams will honor the author's memory with the annual Towel Day, a nod to Adams's delirious novel The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/20/books/review/inside-the-list.html?_r=1&nl=books&emc=edit_bk_20120511
Ontario composer Abigail Richardson has composed music for the iconic Roch Carrier story The Hockey Sweater. The work made its official debut in a pair of concerts Saturday at Roy Thomson Hall.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/music/with-help-of-roch-carrier-composer-sets-the-hockey-sweater-to-music/article2429409/
The bicentenary of the birth of Charles Dickens shouldn't pass by without an example of his verse, writes Carol Rumens. The novelist's poetic output was small. The Fine Old English Gentleman: New Version pours scorn on his era's complacent Conservatives.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/may/14/charles-dickens-gentlemen-poem-week
Nadine Gordimer writes in The New York Review of Books about the new threat in South Africa of updated versions of the suppression of freedom of expression that gagged South Africans under apartheid.
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2012/may/24/south-africa-new-threat-freedom/
Joanne Kaufman writes that publishers are losing patience with multi-year, multi-volume biographies.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304723304577368220130272922.html
Author Barry Eisler, having signing with Amazon as his book publisher, ventured to Bainbridge Island to explain his views to a community that loves its library and its local bookstore. Jim Thomsen describes the conference discussion.
http://crosscut.com/2012/05/09/amazon/108372/books-whats-good-amazon-good-writers-readers/
With May being mystery month, Canada Writes! will publish six new short stories by some of Canada's top mystery novelists: William Deverell, Gail Bowen, Peter Robinson, Mary Jane Maffini, Therese Greenwood and Doug Moles. More information, including about Louise Penny's master class, is here:
http://www.cbc.ca/books/canadawrites/
BOOKS & WRITERS
John F. Hulcoop describes Leslie Hall Pinder's Bring Me One of Everything as 'big': big-hearted, socially important, ambitious in its scope. The novel gathers together aboriginal landscapes of Haida Gwaii, ethnography, anthropology, history, art music and personal relationships. Un-putdownable, says Hulcoop.
http://www.vancouversun.com/entertainment/books/hearted+novel+extraordinarily+rich+book/6608235/story.html
In Time to Start Thinking, Edward Luce quotes Oliver Wendell Holmes's: "An ounce of history is worth a pound of logic." What emerges from Luce's evocative analysis and reportage is the denial of history by the current crop of American leaders, writes John Gray.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/may/11/time-start-thinking-edward-luce-review
Alison Bechdel's Are You My Mother? might be the truest Mother's Day card ever sent, writes Ian McGillis, adding that reviewing a book like Are You My Mother? demands a whole new vocabulary.
http://blogs.montrealgazette.com/2012/05/12/alison-bechdels-are-you-my-mother-might-be-the-truest-mothers-day-card-ever-sent/
Cunning foxes have long prowled through the pages of fairytales. In Mr. Fox, Helen Oyeyemi harks back to these fictional foxes while creating her own fantastical creatures, blurring boundaries through magic realism, writes Anita Sethi.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/may/13/mr-fox-helen-oyeyemi-review
Skagboys, a hefty, 548-page prequel to Irvine Welsh's Trainspotting, is an uneasy hybrid, but it has a firmer grasp of the social forces that keep the gang at the bottom of the food chain, writes Peter Murphy. Skagways was published in April.
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/weekend/2012/0512/1224315929170.html
US National Book Award Jesmyn Ward's novel Agate, which won the 2011 National Book Award, is based on her, and her family's, experience of Katrina. She speaks of the experience at the Sydney Writers Festival.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/arts/books/katrina-survivor-struck-by-racial-divide/story-e6frg8nf-1226356719812
Vancouver author Owen Laukkanen is leading a wave of Canadian crime writers being published around the world, says Jack Batten. In Laukkanen's The Professionals, the bodies start falling even when killing is the last thing on the minds of the nominal bad guys.
http://www.thestar.com/news/books/article/1177435--owen-laukkanen-leads-the-great-canadian-crime-wave
In Monkey Ranch, Julie Bruck's stories-in-poetry are deceptively chatty, using plain language that doesn't shy from pop-culture references to evoke little scenes. A success by any measure, says George Murray.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/monkey-ranch-by-julie-bruck/article2433199/
COMMUNITY EVENTS
BOOKTOPIA
Annual festival of children's literature intended to promote literacy, celebrate language arts and cultivate creative thought in West Vancouver. Now until May 31, 2012. Complete details at www.booktopia.ca.
YOUTH INSPIRE ETHIOPIA BOOK LAUNCH
Launch of the youth organization's book that explores Ethiopian communities through the eyes of Ethiopian youth. Proceeds from the book go back to the involved centers or schools to support youth community and leadership programs. Thursday, May 17 at 6:30pm, free. Robert Lee YMCA, 955 Burrard. More information at humanities_healing@hotmail.com.
ROBSON READING SERIES
Readings by Catherine Owen (Catalysts) and Waubgeshig Rice (Midnight Sweatlodge). Thursday, May 17 at 7:00pm, free. UBC Bookstore/Library at Robson Square, 800 Robson Street. More information at www.robsonreadingseries.ubc.ca.
SKAGIT RIVER POETRY FESTIVAL
Three days of poetry, song and storytelling featuring Carolyn Forche, Tony Hoagland and many others. May 17-20, 2012. La Conner, WA. Complete information at www.skagitriverpoetry.org.
JOHN IRVING
The author will talk about his new novel In One Person on Friday, May 18th, 2012 at 7:30 pm at the North Shore Credit Union Centre for the Performing Arts. Capilano University, 2055 Purcell Way, North Vancouver. Ticket price of $30 includes a copy of the new novel available for pick up at the event. More information at 604.990.7810 or http://www2.capilanou.ca/news-events/nscucentre.html.
CHEN LIZRA
Author discusses her travel guidebook My Seductive Cuba. Saturday, May 19 at 2:00pm, free. Chapters Robson, 788 Robson Street, Vancouver. More information at 604-682-4066.
UPROOTED AGAIN
Book launch features author Tatsuo Kage, UVIC prof John Price, retired SFU prof Roy Miki, and former president of the National Association of Japanese Canadians Grace Eiko Thomson. Saturday, May 19 at 3:00pm. Nikkei National Museum & Cultural Centre, 100-6688 Southoaks Cres., Burnaby. More information at www.nikkeiplace.org.
JANET MARIE ROGERS
Part of the Pen-In-Hand Poetry/Prose Reading Series, the featured reader is Victoria's Poet Laureate, Janet Marie Rogers. Monday, May 21 at 7:15pm. Cost: $3. Serious Coffee, Cook Street Village, 230 Cook Street, Victoria.
LYNNE BOWEN
Author reads from her book Whoever Gives Us Bread, that tells the stories of BC's Italian immigrants. Tuesday, May 22 at 7:00pm, free. Meeting room, level 3, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia Street.
ROBSON READING SERIES
Readings by Jamella Hagen (Kerosene), Clea Roberts (Here Is Where We Disembark), and Claire Tacon (In the Field). Thursday, May 24 at 7:00pm, free. BC Bookstore/Library at Robson Square, 800 Robson Street. More information at www.robsonreadingseries.ubc.ca.
SARAH LEAVITT
Sarah Leavitt discusses her graphic memoir Tangles: A Story About Alzheimer's, My Mother and Me. Thursday, May 24 at 7:00 PM. Christianne's Lyceum. 3696 W. 8th Ave. $20 (includes refreshments). To reserve your space call 604.733.1356 or email lyceum@christiannehayward.com. More information at www.christiannehayward.com.
TORN APART
Susan Aihoshi will read from her new book Torn Apart: The Internment Diary of Mary Kobayashi , about a young girl whose life changes when the Japanese bomb Pearl Harbour. Thursday, May 24 at 7:30pm. Admission by donation. Historic Joy Kogawa House, 1450 64th Ave. W. More information at kogawahouse@yahoo.ca.
JEFF RUBIN
Canadian economist and author reads from his new book The End of Growth. Thursday, May 24 at 7:30pm. Tickets: $24. Admission includes one free copy of the book. North Shore Credit Union Centre for the Performing Arts, 2055 Purcell Way, North Vancouver. More information at www.capilanou.ca/nscucentre.
DIONNE BRAND
26th annual Margaret Laurence Lecture featuring Canadian poet, novelist, essayist and documentarian. Friday, May 25 at 8:00pm. Alice MacKay room, Central Branch, 350 W. Georgia Street. More information at www.writerstrust.com.
Upcoming
NATIONAL BOOK COLLECTING CONTEST 2011-12
The W.A. Deacon Literary Foundation and Alcuin Society will be presenting the cash prize to this year's first place winner of the National Book-Collecting Contest for young Canadians under 30 years of age. Monday, May 28 at 7:00pm. Room 2260, SFU downtown, 515 W. Hastings. More information at www.deaconfoundation.com.
THAT SUMMER IN FRANKLIN
Linda Hutsell-Manning talks about her writing career and reads from her novel. Monday, May 28 at 7:00pm, free. Meeting room, level 3, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia Street.
VANCOUVER POETRY SLAM
Fan appreciation night and the debut of the 2012 Vancouver Youth Poetry Slam team. Monday, May 28 at 8:00pm. Cafe Deux Soleils, 2096 Commercial Drive. More information at www.vancouverpoetryhouse.com.
EPISTOLOPHILIA
Please join Montreal writer Julija Sukys for a reading and discussion of her new book Epistolophilia: Writing the Life of Ona Simaite. Tuesday, May 29 at 7:00pm, free. Peter Kay room, lower level, Central Library, 350 West Georgia Street. More information at 604-331-3603.
AN EVENING OF ART AND POETRY
Featuring Ahava Shira, Avie Estrin, Taslim Jaffer, Daniela Elza, Bonnie Nish, Ms. Spelt and David Shewel, who will read their poetry inspired by the art exhibit, Celebrating Jerusalem. Tuesday, May 29 at 7:00pm. Gallery Room, Jewish Community Centre, 950 W. 41st Ave. More information at blnish@pandorascollective.com.
DAVID STARR
Reading by the author of From Bombs to Books: the remarkable stories of refugee children and their families at an exceptional Canadian school. Tuesday, June 5 at 6:30pm. Free but please register by phoning 604-522-3971. Tommy Douglas branch, Burnaby Public Library, 7311 Kingsway.
PIERRE COUPAY
Local poet and artist shares poetry, slides and discusses poetry and painting. Wednesday, June 6 at 7:00pm, free. Dr. G. Paul Singh Study Hall, North Vancouver City Library, 120 14th Street W., North Vancouver. More information at 604-998-3450.
KUCKI LOW
Author will talk about her memoir recalling her life as South Africa's first female airline pilot, This is Kucki Your Pilot Speaking. Thursday, June 7 at 7:00pm. Free but please register in advance by phoning 604-299-8955. McGill branch, Burnaby Public Library, 4595 Albert Street, Burnaby.
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