A few articles on government support of the arts.
Harper government, enemy of the arts?By Jamie Portman, Postmedia News April 26, 2011 3:01 PM
Platform Primer: Arts and Culture
By Patrick Metzger on April 25, 2011 3:30 PM torontoist.com
'Wrecking Ball' thrusts politics into arts spotlight
CBC News Posted: Apr 25, 2011 5:27 PM ET
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Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Monday, March 14, 2011
Reading in the News - Literary Reviews, etc.
Kevin Brockmeier (b. 1972, Little Rock, Arkinsas) new novel The Illumination reviewed in the Globe & Mail by Matt Kavanagh.
Six characters in search of a connection
other books by Brockmeier:
* Things That Fall from the Sky (2002) stories
* The View From The Seventh Layer (2008) stories
* The Truth About Celia (2003) novel
* The Brief History of the Dead (2006) novel
Mark Bernstein on "short press runs and electronic books" and Jo Walton's new book Among Others, article: The Other Book Revolution in the Atlantic. See also Mothers & Magic in G&M.
Luminato Announces 2011 Literature and Illuminations Programs
Toronto's Luminato Festival of Arts and Creativity, ten days in June 2011.
Will include writers such as Randa Jarrar, Mohammad Hassan Alwan, Joyce Carol Oates, Jeanette Winterson, Ann Patchett, Hanan al-Shaykh, Geraldine Brooks, Leila Aboulela, Elizabeth Hay, Maxine Hong Kingston, Miriam Toews.
"For 10 extraordinary days in June, Toronto’s stages, streets, and public spaces are illuminated with arts and creativity. Luminato is an annual multi-disciplinary celebration of theatre, dance, music, literature, food, visual arts, fashion, film, and more."
Six characters in search of a connection
other books by Brockmeier:
* Things That Fall from the Sky (2002) stories
* The View From The Seventh Layer (2008) stories
* The Truth About Celia (2003) novel
* The Brief History of the Dead (2006) novel
Mark Bernstein on "short press runs and electronic books" and Jo Walton's new book Among Others, article: The Other Book Revolution in the Atlantic. See also Mothers & Magic in G&M.
Luminato Announces 2011 Literature and Illuminations Programs
Toronto's Luminato Festival of Arts and Creativity, ten days in June 2011.
Will include writers such as Randa Jarrar, Mohammad Hassan Alwan, Joyce Carol Oates, Jeanette Winterson, Ann Patchett, Hanan al-Shaykh, Geraldine Brooks, Leila Aboulela, Elizabeth Hay, Maxine Hong Kingston, Miriam Toews.
"For 10 extraordinary days in June, Toronto’s stages, streets, and public spaces are illuminated with arts and creativity. Luminato is an annual multi-disciplinary celebration of theatre, dance, music, literature, food, visual arts, fashion, film, and more."
Expresso Book Machine
Article in Globe & Mail about a small bookstore in N.B. which prints on demand between 30 to 100 books a day. Article talks about these machines becoming popular. Now only some university libraries have them in North America. I used one printer here in Taiwan to print my own book in copies of 5 for less that $5 CDN each.
Is this contraption (still) the future of publishing?
Hannah Sung
Another article in G&M talks about Cdn Government support of book publishing in Canada. Is a system of small publishers better than one dominated by the large publishers?
Our Time to Lead
Supporting CanLit means shelving our protectionist policy
JOHN BARBER
How do EBMs work?
See this YouTube video at OnDemandBooks website:
Is this contraption (still) the future of publishing?
Hannah Sung
Another article in G&M talks about Cdn Government support of book publishing in Canada. Is a system of small publishers better than one dominated by the large publishers?
Our Time to Lead
Supporting CanLit means shelving our protectionist policy
JOHN BARBER
How do EBMs work?
See this YouTube video at OnDemandBooks website:
Monday, March 7, 2011
Notes on ebooks and ebook readers
CNN's Amy Gahran tells us Why Amazon would be smart to give away the Kindle
Wired Magazine's Charlie Sorrel tells us How To Strip DRM from Kindle E-Books and Others
Wired Magazine's Charlie Sorrel tells us How To Strip DRM from Kindle E-Books and Others
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Charles Taylor Prize 2011
The five finalist for the Charles Taylor Prize were announced January 11, 2011.
The prize is "awarded to the author whose book best combines a superb command of the English language, an elegance of style, and a subtlety of thought and perception," according to the Taylor Prize website.
http://www.thecharlestaylorprize.ca/
Previous winners:
2000--Wayne Johnston for Baltimore’s Mansion, published by Knopf Canada;
2002--Carol Shields for Jane Austen, published by Penguin Books Canada;
2004--Isabel Huggan for Belonging: Home Away From Home;
2005--Charles Montgomery for The Last Heathen: Encounters With Ghosts and Ancestors in Melanesia, published by Douglas & McIntyre;
2006--J. B. MacKinnon for Dead Man in Paradise, published by Douglas & McIntyre;
2007--Rudy Wiebe for Of This Earth: A Mennonite Boyhood in the Boreal Forest, published by Knopf Canada;
2008--Richard Gwyn for John A.: The Man Who Made Us, The Life and Times of John A. Macdonald, Volume One: 1815 – 1816, published by Random House Canada;
2009--Tim Cook for Shock Troops: Canadians Fighting the Great War, 1917 – 1918, Volume Two, published by Viking Canada Canada.
Finalist for 2010:
1] Stevie Cameron for On the Farm: Robert William Pickton and the Tragic Story of Vancouver’s Missing Women, published by Alfred A. Knopf Canada;
2] Charles Foran for Mordecai: The Life & Times, published by Alfred A. Knopf Canada;
3] Ross King for Defiant Spirits: The Modernist Revolution of the Group of Seven, published by Douglas & McIntyre/ McMichael Canadian Art Collection;
4] George Sipos for The Geography of Arrival: A Memoir, published by Gaspereau Press;
5] Merrily Weisbord for The Love Queen of Malabar: Memoir of a Friendship with Kamala Das, published by McGill-Queen’s University Press.
Charles B. P. Taylor (1935-1997) was a Canadian-born journalist with the Globe & Mail. His books include:
Reporter in Red China (1966)
Snow Job : Canada, the United States and Vietnam 1954 to 1973 (1974)
China Hands : The Globe and Mail Peking (editor) (1984)
Six Journeys: A Canadian Pattern (1977) [Biographical portraits of Scott Symons, James Houston, Emily Carr, Herbert Norman, Bishop William White, and Brigadier James Sutherland Brown.]
The prize is "awarded to the author whose book best combines a superb command of the English language, an elegance of style, and a subtlety of thought and perception," according to the Taylor Prize website.
http://www.thecharlestaylorprize.ca/
Previous winners:
2000--Wayne Johnston for Baltimore’s Mansion, published by Knopf Canada;
2002--Carol Shields for Jane Austen, published by Penguin Books Canada;
2004--Isabel Huggan for Belonging: Home Away From Home;
2005--Charles Montgomery for The Last Heathen: Encounters With Ghosts and Ancestors in Melanesia, published by Douglas & McIntyre;
2006--J. B. MacKinnon for Dead Man in Paradise, published by Douglas & McIntyre;
2007--Rudy Wiebe for Of This Earth: A Mennonite Boyhood in the Boreal Forest, published by Knopf Canada;
2008--Richard Gwyn for John A.: The Man Who Made Us, The Life and Times of John A. Macdonald, Volume One: 1815 – 1816, published by Random House Canada;
2009--Tim Cook for Shock Troops: Canadians Fighting the Great War, 1917 – 1918, Volume Two, published by Viking Canada Canada.
Finalist for 2010:
1] Stevie Cameron for On the Farm: Robert William Pickton and the Tragic Story of Vancouver’s Missing Women, published by Alfred A. Knopf Canada;
2] Charles Foran for Mordecai: The Life & Times, published by Alfred A. Knopf Canada;
3] Ross King for Defiant Spirits: The Modernist Revolution of the Group of Seven, published by Douglas & McIntyre/ McMichael Canadian Art Collection;
4] George Sipos for The Geography of Arrival: A Memoir, published by Gaspereau Press;
5] Merrily Weisbord for The Love Queen of Malabar: Memoir of a Friendship with Kamala Das, published by McGill-Queen’s University Press.
Charles B. P. Taylor (1935-1997) was a Canadian-born journalist with the Globe & Mail. His books include:
Reporter in Red China (1966)
Snow Job : Canada, the United States and Vietnam 1954 to 1973 (1974)
China Hands : The Globe and Mail Peking (editor) (1984)
Six Journeys: A Canadian Pattern (1977) [Biographical portraits of Scott Symons, James Houston, Emily Carr, Herbert Norman, Bishop William White, and Brigadier James Sutherland Brown.]
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Here is a partial list of books that I have read this year:
Alex Caine. The Fat Mexican: The Bloody Rise of the Bandidos Motorcycle Club (2009)
J.M. Coetzee. Summertime (2009)
Hari Kunzru. My Revolution (2007)
Owen Davies. Grimires: A History of Magic Books (2009)
John Gribbon. In Search of the Multiverse (2009)
George Barker, Martin Bell, Charles Causley. Penguin Modern Poets 3 (1962)
A full list of books can be found here on the North Door Books website.
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
The Giller Prize was awarded last night. The Giller provides a list of the top Canadian fiction writers for the year. The winner may not always be the most interesting, but the list of writers posted may have some that I might enjoy reading.
This year's 2010 Scotiabank Giller Prize winner is Johanna Skibsrud's The Sentimentalist.
It gets a great deal of publicity. There are 246 news articles listed on Google News. At my local library, but there are already 8 holds on the book before it even arrives.
Johanna Skibsrud, aged 30, of Montreal, is the youngest-ever Giller recipient and picked up the $50,000 book prize. Skibsrud grew up in Pictou County, N.S.
There appears to be a shortage of the winner's book. Gaspereau Press can only print about 1,000 books a week. Gaspereau's headquarters are in Kentville, N.S. The publisher noted that readers can download the book onto an ereader if they are desperate to get it right away. It is not available at my local Coles Book Store.
online price: $18.44
eBook: $9.89
eBook: $9.89
Other finalists on short list:
This Cake is for the Party by Toronto's Sarah Selecky
Light Lifting by Alexander MacLeod of Dartmouth, N.S.
(Son of author Alistair MacLeod.)
The Matter With Morris by Winnipeg's David Bergen
(I've read one of his previous novels.)
Annabel by Montreal-based Kathleen Winter.
The long list of Giller finalists:
David Bergen The Matter With Morris
Douglas Coupland Player One
Michael Helm Cities of Refuge
Alexandar MacLeod Light Lifting
Avner Mandelman The Debba
Tom Rachman The Imperfectionists
Sarah Selecky This Cake is for the Party
Johanna Skibsrud The Sentimentalists
Cordelia Strube Lemon
Joan Thomas Curiosity
Jane Urquhart Sanctuary Line
Dianne Warren Cool Water
Kathleen Winter Annabel
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