TDR
QUICKNEWS
Update: October 14, 2007
by Nathaniel G. Moore
Toronto
Writers Centre. No
it's not Starbucks, but a new centre in Yorkville for all of us to
conspire, create and panic. From the site, "TWC is the first of its
kind in Canada. Centrally located in Yorkville, TWC is open 24/7
including holidays. Members are issued security pass cards and keys. Our
staff is on site from 9 am to 5 pm, Monday to Friday. Users of TWC enjoy
a supportive environment - an incubator for literary endeavours - where
new ideas can be stimulated and nurtured among a vibrant cross section
of writers." I actually think this sounds exciting and
intimidating at the same time; very Patrick Bateman meets Michael Redhill,
the later is himself, a proud TWC member.
Torontoist.
There's an interview with Sheila Heti. Listings of art,
music, literary happenings in Toronto. Nice photography. A creative
and thorough resource for up-to-the-moment updates and
suggestions for happenings and current events here in
glorious T-Zero.
Pedlar Press Fall Launch. On
Tuesday October 23, 2007 at 8pm, Stan Rogal, Mike Blouin
and Jacob Wren launch their latest books with Pedlar Press
at SUPERMARKET, 268 Augusta Avenue in Kensington Market.
Coach
House Fall Launch. On
Wednesday October 24, 2007 8pm EST Coach House launches its fall wares.
Sarah
Lang was interviewed
by TDR contributor and CanLit Google Founder rob
mclennan. Look for a review of Lang's new book
The Work of Days soon at TDR.
Word,
Toronto. With some
tweaking and jpeg shuffling, the brand-spanking new site
for The Mercury Press has officially relaunched.
Subsequently, so has Word.
Open
Book Toronto Magazine. It
was one of the most anticipated URL teases in recent E-CanLit
history. It is now a global reality, and e-real estate. Check out the
inaugural issue of Open Book Toronto!
Montreal Literary Events.
The 2007-2008 season opener for Pilot Reading Series
was something to remember, something to hope for in any city. The
folks at Matrix
Magazine should be and are pleased with the turn
out, and on the heels of this, are excited about the reading series's
future. Approximately 80 fans showed up to support local and import
poets in a small Montreal hot spot. For poetry? Come on! On a Sunday
night? Look for TDR's The Rise of the Montreal Fall Book
Preview (including book reviews, photography by Montreal’s
Mary Williamson, Expozine previews and author interviews with
Conundrum, Snare, Vehicule and Coach House folks); it's coming so soon.
Novelist Anne
Stone is always up to something on her website/blog,
and it's always worth checking out. Look for Anne to contribute a piece
to TDR in early 2008.
Existere
is a literary journal that produces for the most part work that is
well written and engaging. For those of you who like their
literature in print form and on magazine stands, subscribe? It
might be a way of keeping these sorts of magazines afloat. They run
things out of an office at York University, and have more
information on their site. I think they should start a reading series.
My apologies if they already have and I have failed to notice.
 Drawn
& Quarterly Store Opens in Montreal. Do
you know Shary Boyle’s book Witness My Shame is one of the most
stolen books in Conundrum Press history? Yes, it's all too true.
That was a little LP (Loss Prevention) history for you. Certainly not
attempting to perfect the art of Sales Prevention (see www.indigo.ca
for more details) Drawn & Quartley have opened
up a beautiful store in Montreal on Bernard, and are
curating the exciting contents of the store on an ongoing basis. Andy
Brown, publisher of Conundrum Press is pleased that the store
is carrying his entire catalogue, and has its very own shelf. A lot of
graphic novel fans are getting misty eyed and clawing at the walls,
blogging about how much money they are going to spend when it opens.
Come to the official launch on Friday, October 19th at 7 pm. 211 Bernard
Street West, Montreal.
Vancouver's
International Writers & Readers Festival .
61 events with writers from around the
world from October 16 - 21 on Granville Island. An example of what
to expect from, let's say, Thursday October 18th is as
follows: Steven Price reads from his first book Anatomy
of Keys , a poetic biography of Harry Houdini.
"Gawk", hosted by Billeh Nickerson,
8 p.m. at Performance Works. Reading with Jenn Farrell,
Catherine Kidd, Jen Sookfong Lee, Brendan McLeod, Maureen Medved, Nick
Thran, Andrew Wedderburn. Says artistic director Hal Wake,
"This is also a year to honour prizewinners. Kiran Desai won
the 2006 Booker Prize, Vincent Lam the Scotiabank
Giller Prize, Peter Behrens the Governor General's
Literary Award for fiction, Lloyd Jones took home this
year's Commonwealth Writers Prize and Nancy Huston the
Prix Femina. Brian Doyle, one of the writers appearing
in our schools program, won the prestigious NSK Neustadt Prize for
lifetime achievement for his young adult fiction."
 Montreal
Launch for David
McGimpsey's Sitcom at The Word.
Tuesday
October 16, 2007. It will be a special night for Concordia University
professor, comedian and poet David McGimpsey, as
he had one of his first literary experiences at the tiny
but lovely Word Bookstore (469 Rue Milton) a few years ago.
McGimpsey's one of the nicest writers you'll ever meet, and
an incredible poet to hear live. Sitcom is his new poetry
collection from Coach House. Expect this event to pile out into the
street and pull on your heart strings. Just for old time's
sake, let's take a look at an archived interview with David, here at
TDR.
 The
40-Year-Old-Publishing-House. I
remember my excitement whenever I was assigned Anansi coverage
back during my legendary interning at Quill & Quire
in early 2004. It was thrilling talking to Anansi
editor Martha Sharpe and current president Sarah
MacLachlan about the growth of the iconic press. This was still
only a couple of years after Scott Griffin had
purchased the press, and the team was beefing up its
acquisition mode and bidding on major titles overseas. I believe it
was Sharpe who said something to the effect of Anansi wanting
to take up more space, which is good, when you release great books that
people buy. I should know, I hand sold Lisa Moore's Alligator
for months back when I wore an Indigo vest. Sometimes I didn't even have
to, hand sell it that is, alway had to wear the vest... Staying in
business for 40 years is a very good thing. The historical
significance of Anansi will be brought into
focus even closer when The Anansi Reader is
launched. From press material,"In September 1967, then-unknown
writers David Godfrey and Dennis Lee
founded a tiny press they grandly named " The House of
Anansi," after an African trickster spider-god (Godfrey
was fresh from a trip to Africa). Their goal was to publish
groundbreaking new Canadian work in three core genres: literary fiction,
poetry, and topical nonfiction. Jack McClelland, the
legendary publisher of McClelland & Stewart, is said to have given
the enterprise eighteen months. Forty years later, Anansi is not only
going strong, it is enjoying a fascinating creative renaissance,
bolstered in part by the strength of its rich backlist and in part by
its renewed independence and commitment to seeking out the best new
writers and ideas to publish alongside its established, now iconic
ones." The Anansi Reader is edited by Lynn
Coady and launches at the big Anansi
anniversary party in Toronto (October 20) and Calgary (October 12).
The
Ottawa International Writers Festival
October 13th-21st
Saturday October 13th
LITERARY AWARDS CEREMONY:
THE OTTAWA BOOK AWARDS/ LE PRIX DU LIVRE D'OTTAWA AND
THE LAMPMAN-SCOTT AWARD FOR POETRY
The City of Ottawa is pleased to
celebrate the city's outstanding literary scene with the
presentation of awards to authors in the amount of $5,000 for winning
books in English fiction, English non-fiction and French fiction. The
Ottawa International Writers Festival takes place at Library
and Archives Canada, 395 Wellington St.
The Book Lounge @ Rabble.
I really like the Rabble.
Maybe we can organize a Rabble vs. Danforth soft
ball or ice hockey game to raise money for literacy or book returns for
LPG publishers. I will play goal or sell popcorn. Right now at Rabble's
Book Lounge, Marc Ngui has some
work previewed in conjunction with Greentopia and
rabble contributor Melanie Redman reviews three
activist handbooks.
International
Festival of Authors. October
17-27 2007 - The
International Festival of Authors
(IFOA) was inaugurated in 1980 with a mandate to bring together the best
writers of contemporary world literature. Like the weekly reading
series, the IFOA includes readings, interviews, lectures and round table
discussions as well as public book signings and a festival bookstore.
The IFOA also presents a number of special events including readings by
Scotiabank Giller Prize and Governor General's Literary Awards
finalists, as well as and the highly anticipated awarding of the
Harbourfront Festival Prize.
- Littlest Babyface in CanLit…Well
Good For Her. Souvankham
Thammavongsa at the IFOA. Give me an S. Give me an O… Souvankham
Thammavongsa is all over the place.
- Saturday, October 20, 8:00pm
Brigantine Room
Shalom Auslander, Amy Bloom, Anne Enright and Vendela Vida read from
their most recent works. Poetry by Souvankham Thammavongsa opens the
event. John van Driel hosts.
- LIFT: Poetry Projections II
Sunday, October 21, 3:00pm| Studio Theatre
The Liaison of Independent Filmmakers of Toronto (LIFT) presents its
second Poetry Projections project as part of IFOA. Poets and
filmmakers
who have collaborated on the project include Souvankham Thammavongsa,
Priscila Uppal, Kelly Egan, Vicky Moufawad-Paul. This is a free
event.
- Tuesday, October 23, 8:00pm|
Premiere Dance Theatre
A reading by novelists Gail Anderson-Dargatz, A.L. Kennedy, Helen
Oyeyemi and Célestine Hitiura Vaite opens with a reading by poet
Souvankham Thammavongsa.
 Tell
‘Em The Hitman Sent You! On Monday October 22nd at 7pm,
Chapters, Festival Hall in Toronto get a copy of Canadian wrestling hero
Bret Hart’s new memoir signed by the Hitman! The book is well
over 550 pages, (yes he wrote it) and covers his legendary career from
Stampede Wrestling to the Montreal Screwjob to his brother’s death to
his career ending concussion and 2002 stroke. HITMAN: My Real Life In
The Cartoon World of Wrestling is published by Random House Canada.
And if you go to an Indigo or Chapters these days, you’ll see him in
black and white collages with Rick Mercer, Ben Mulroney
and Margaret Atwood.
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