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This week in Writers’ Rooms Mary Novik tells us when the best ideas arrive to her and how she consoles herself when they are slower coming. Novik’s debut novel Conceit recently won the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize.
http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/community/rooms
Lucy Maude Montgomery’s home in Oxbridge, Ontario has been anointed a national historic site.
http://www.cbc.ca/arts/books/story/2008/06/14/montgomery-home-anne.html
Andrew Pyper writes that although publishers, like Hollywood producers, are increasingly on the lookout for the next blockbuster, they have a more difficult job because readers are a less predictable animal than moviegoers.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20080614.BKREAD14/TPStory/Entertainment/Books
Dentistry and literature are inextricably linked for bestselling author Alaa al-Aswany whose book The Yacoubian Building broke sales records in Egypt and the Arab world before spawning the country’s biggest-budget movie.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080617.wegyptian17/BNStory/International/home
Rebecca Miller’s novel The Private Lives of Pippa Lee is poised to become a bestseller this summer. Her novel, along with seven others, was selected by the UK duo Richard and Judy as a must-read.
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/millers-novel-set-to-become-a-bestseller-this-summer-847837.html
AWARDS
Barbara Gowdy has won a Trillium Book Award for her seventh novel Helpless.
http://www.cbc.ca/arts/books/story/2008/06/12/trillium-gowdy.html
Elizabeth Hay, Lawrence Hill, Naomi Klein, and Mélanie Watt are honoured by the CBA.
http://www.cbc.ca/arts/books/story/2008/06/17/cba-libris-awards.html
BOOKS & WRITERS
Quill & Quire profiles 2008 IMPAC Dublin Literary Award winner Rawi Hage.
http://www.quillandquire.com/authors/profile.cfm?article_id=9996
The stories in Lorna Jackson’s latest collection Flirt are structured as mock-interviews with musicians, athletes and writers. Check out a rather flirtatious interview with Jackson here:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20080614.BKLORN14/TPStory/Entertainment/Books
Mary Soderstrom’s new novel The Violets of Usambara is a “wonderfully matter-of-fact portrayal of two pragmatic characters struggling to find themselves and reconnect with each other,” writes the Globe & Mail.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20080614.BKVIOL14/TPStory/Entertainment/Books
This reviewer suggests that Douglas Arthur Brown’s new novel Quintet is similar to Alistair MacLeod’s No Great Mischief in the way that it is a quiet book while at the same time gripping and compellingly readable.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20080614.BKQUIN14/TPStory/Entertainment/Books
The Globe & Mail recommends four collections of poetry from four very different writers.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20080614.BKPOET14/TPStory/Entertainment/Books
Bill Richardson weighs in on David Sedaris’s latest collection When You are Engulfed in Flames.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20080614.BKSEDA14/TPStory/Entertainment/Books
Not in the Flesh is the latest installment in Ruth Rendell’s Chief Inspector Wexford novels, the first of which was published in 1964.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/16/books/16masl.html?_r=1&ref=books&oref=slogin
Nobel-prize winning author Naguib Mahfouz’s 1945 novel Cairo Modern has been translated into English for the first time. The novel offers a “singular look at a historical moment in the lives of Egyptians raised in traditional households whose existences were rocked by modernity.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/19/books/19smith.html?ref=books
Michael Chabon’s collection of essays Maps and Legends is an “unobstructed tour of [his] art and inner life, his own deftly constructed looking-glass anthology,” writes the Globe & Mail.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20080614.BKCHAB14/TPStory/Entertainment/Books
Prize-winning Belgian author Amélie Nothomb’s 16 novels represent only a fraction of her prodigious output. In this interview she discusses autobiographical fiction, what she considers to be life’s true reward, and why reading from her work would constitute a betrayal.
http://books.guardian.co.uk/departments/generalfiction/story/0,,2285551,00.html
EVENTS
STEPHEN MILLER
Launch of the author’s new book Last Train to Kazan. Thursday, June 19 at 7:00pm. White Dwarf Books, 3715 10th Ave. W. More info: 604-228-8223.
THE WORLD BEHIND THE WORLD
Banyen Books and the Mosaic Multicultural Foundation present a talk and booksigning with author, mythologist, and social activist Michael Meade. Friday, June 20 at 7:30pm. Tickets: $10 at the door. Canadian Memorial United Church (1805 W. 15th, at Burrard). More information at www.mosaicvoices.org/.
BOOK LAUNCH AND CD RELEASE
Diamond Thought launches Pearls & forbidden fruit, a book of love poetry by Angela Hryniuk, and releases Sitting in the Light, her CD of meditations for relaxation and self-balancing. Saturday, June 21 at 7:00pm, free. Canadian Memorial Centre for Peace (1825 W. 16th). More information at www.diamondthought.com/.
THE GRAVEYARD HOUNDS
Launch of Vi Hughes’ new book, The Graveyard Hounds. Illustrated by Christina Leist. Tuesday, June 24 at 6:30pm. Kidsbooks (3083 West Broadway). More information at: 604.738.5335.
DONNA CARUSO
Storyteller launches her new memoir Journey Without a Map: Growing Up Italian. Wednesday, June 25 at 7:30pm, free. People’s Co-op Bookstore (1391 Commercial Dr.).
GORDON BITNEY
The author will read from his new book Provence, je t’aime in which he describes buying a villa in Provence, and living there with his wife and two cats. The book explores the outdoor markets, vineyards, Roman ruins and French foods. Thursday, June 26 at 7:30pm, free. Alma VanDusen Room, Lower Level Central Library 350 West Georgia Street. For more information please contact Vancouver Public Library at 604-331-3603.
THE FIVE BOOKS OF MOSES LAPINSKY BOOK DISCUSSIONS
Join author Karen X. Tulchinsky for a lively and intimate discussion of this year’s One Book, One Vancouver selection, The Five Books of Moses Lapinsky. Thursday, June 26 at 7:00pm, free but registration required. Kitsilano Branch 2425 Macdonald Street. For more information please contact Vancouver Public Library at 604-331-3603.
FEDERATION OF BC WRITERS LITERARY WRITES COMPETITION
This Year’s Category: Short Fiction, any genre (literary, mystery, romance, science fiction, etc.) First Prize: $500 and publication in WordWorks, Second Prize: $300, Third Prize: $150. Blind jury. Judge: Pauline Holdstock. Deadline: Postdated July 1, 2008. Web: http://www.bcwriters.com/literary.php. Visit website for guidelines.
Upcoming
DENMAN ISLAND READERS AND WRITERS FESTIVAL
The 6th annual festival features Elizabeth Bachinsky, bill bissett, Dennis Foon, Howard White and many more. July 17-20, 2008. Complete information at: http://www.denmanislandwritersfestival.com.
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Produced by the Book News Collective: Hal Wake, Clea Young, Brenda Berck, Ann McDonell, and Sandra Millard.
Hal Wake
Artistic Director
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2008 Festival – 21-26 October inclusive
Vancouver International Writers Festival
Suite 202, 1398 Cartwright Street
Vancouver, BC V6H 3R8
Canada
p: 604 681 6330 x102
f: 604 681 8400
e: hw***@wr*********.ca
w: www.writersfest.bc.ca