Jun 28 2010
Anabel a stunning debut
[Stephen Clare, The Chronicle Herald, June 27th 2010]:
It has been a long and winding road for Newfoundland’s Kathleen Winter, but the time of arrival is at last upon her.
Archive for June, 2010
Jun 26 2010
Volumes of pleasure: Exploring the bookshops of Sidney, B.C.
[Karen Burshtein, National Post, June 25th 2010]:
Anyone who has flown to Victoria or gone there by ferry via the Swartz Bay terminal has driven past Sidney, known locally as Sidney-by-the-Sea. Few turn in, though. The fast-food restaurants and big-box stores at the mouth of the town don’t do much to lure you off Hwy. 17. But those who take the exit ramp will discover a charming town, a mix of British seaside and Pacific Northwest community engagement.
Last year, I was based in Sidney while exploring the surrounding Saanich Peninsula’s emerging foodie culture — nascent vineyards and cideries, family enterprises making handcrafted gin and raw chocolate. But I was also pleasantly surprised to discover Sidney’s other angle: Inspired by Hay-on-Wye, the medieval Welsh town known for its many secondhand and antiquarian bookstores, Sidney, population 11,000, is a bibliophile’s paradise — with no fewer than 12 independent specialty bookstores. There are rare, collectible and bargain books, with topics ranging from military history to gardening. And, yes, there are enough Stieg Larssons to go around.
Jun 23 2010
Michael Winter in The Walrus
[from 'Rattling Books blog', June 22nd 2010]:
The incomparable Walrus (see how they run like pigs from a gun) has published a new piece by Michael Winter, illustrated by Seth. It’s an excerpt from Winter’s upcoming book, The Death of Donna Whalen.
Jun 21 2010
Cape Breton’s D.C. Troicuk pens triumphant first book
[Judith Meyrick, Chronicle Herald, June 13th 2010]:
This first collection of stories from D.C. Troicuk is quietly understated as life flows gently below the surface of daily life.
Family cold wars are buried deep, and sometimes the glue holding things together, no matter what, is tainted by dislikes and resentments and bound inextricably by duty. The boiling point is not an explosion but rather an understanding that takes hold, a clarity of vision which builds until her characters begin to see the reality of their truths.
Jun 16 2010
Charlie Chan is Dead and Living in Honolulu
[Susan Schultz, from 'Tinfish Editor's Blog', June 15th 2010]:
And he performs a turnabout on the othering of Asians according to their “nese-ness”:
“One day, in the street of New York City, he was asked by a white man who was apparently annoyed by his exotic appearance: ‘What sort of ‘nese are you? A Chinese, Japanese, or Javanese?’ The famous author of The Book of Tea replied: ‘What sort of ‘key are you? A Yankee, donkey, or monkey?’” (59)
Jun 15 2010
bpNichol Chapbook Award shortlist
Newfoundland poet Mark Callanan’s Sea Legend, a chapbook of poems recently published by Frog Hollow Press, has been nominated for this year’s bpNichol Chapbook Poetry Award.
The other nominees are Larissa Lai for Eggs in the Basement, Alisha Piercey for You have hair like flags, flags that point in many directions at once but cannot pinpoint land when lost at sea, and Aaron Tucker for Apartments.
Jun 14 2010
Icelander’s view of Nova Scotia
[Jeffrey Simpson, The Chronicle Herald, June 6th 2010]:
Stories of immigrants leaving their homeland to forge a new life in North America have been written for almost as long as people have known about the New World.
But The Young Icelander may be of special interest to Nova Scotians because it’s a fictionalized memoir of a boy who moved to the province’s Eastern Shore at the end of the 19th century.
And it was the book that catapulted Johann Magnus Bjarnason to literary stardom in his home country, establishing him as one of Iceland’s most respected writers. It has now been translated into English by Borga Jakobson, who was born into an Icelandic immigrant community in Manitoba.
Jun 13 2010
Intellectuals criticize repression in Cuba
[The Americano, June 13th 2010]:
Peruvian writer Mario Vargas Llosa and famed movie Spanish movie director Pedro Almodovar, were among those who signed the document that denounced the “ferocious and painful” dictatorship that governs Cuba. Their protest came shortly after a Cuban dissident Orlando Zapata died of a hunger strike demanding freedom for jailed Cuban dissidents.
Rosa Montero, another famous Spanish writer said: “Because of our relations with Cuba and because of our shared historical experience as a country that has also suffered the brutality of a dictatorship, we are obliged to put our weight and support (behind these dissidents). ”
Jun 11 2010
Dig Up My Heart – artistic practice in the field
[Confederation Centre of the Arts]
“Dig Up My Heart,” the title of the 1983 collection of poetry by Prince Edward Islander Milton Acorn, captures a sense of poetics emerging from a deeply visceral bond to the land and to place. This exhibition brings together a group of practitioners who start from the same impulse—connection to their lived environments and the transformative potential of that attachment in response to issues of landscape change. Combining art with social practice, at the heart of the creative approaches is the desire to reconcile the personal with the political, working critically and responsively to experiences in primarily rural contexts. Representing a diversity of distinctive forms of “fieldwork,” they offer powerful narratives that connect local sites to global change and touch upon a broad range of entwined concerns.
Jun 10 2010
Pelley acknowledged as national up and comer
[Ashley Fitzpatrick, The Telegram, June 9th 2010]:
The Canadian Authors Association (CAA) released the shortlists for its annual literary awards on Tuesday. With emerging writers from across the country to select from, Newfoundland and Labrador’s Chad Pelley (“Away From Everywhere”) has been named to the shortlist for the emerging author award.