The novel tells the story of a Roman Catholic priest who is tasked with keeping his colleagues in line and stamping out sex abuse scandals before they go public.
MacIntyre, who is best known for his work with the CBC's "The Fifth Estate," beat out Kim Echlin, Annabel Lyon, Colin McAdam and Anne Michaels to take home the $50,000 prize.
Read more...http://scotiabankgillerprize.ca
Scotia Giller Prize 2009 continues the Canadian tradition of awarding prestige and exposure to some of our best writers and their literary achievements. Read any of the titles or authors work? Post your feedback below.
The 2009 Scotiabank Giller Prize finalists are:
• Kim Echlin for her novel THE DISAPPEARED, published by Hamish Hamilton Canada
• Annabel Lyon for her novel THE GOLDEN MEAN, published by Random House Canada
• Linden MacIntyre for his novel THE BISHOP’S MAN, published by Random House Canada
• Colin McAdam for his novel FALL, published by Hamish Hamilton Canada
• Anne Michaels for her novel THE WINTER VAULT, published by McClelland & Stewart
Other 2008 TitlesLike every year, the shortlist for the 2009 Scotiabank Giller Prize – unveiled in Toronto on Tuesday – contained a few surprises. Perhaps the biggest shock was the omission of Margaret Atwood’s widely praised The Year of the Flood, which seemed a likely contender for the $50,000 prize. With Atwood absent from the shortlist and Alice Munro having already removed herself from consideration, the field is now open to works by several writers in mid-career, including Colin McAdam’s Fall, Kim Echlin’s The Disappeared, and Annabel Lyon’s The Golden Mean (Random House Canada). Also nominated are Linden MacIntyre’s The Bishop’s Man (Random House) and The Winter VaultAnne Michaels’ long-awaited follow-up to Fugitive Pieces.( QuillQuire)
Hilarious, bizarre and heart-breaking by turns, these three novellas of
Mennonite life in Canada from the 1950s to the 1970s fill in the gap between
Rudy Wiebe's Of This Earth (a generation older) and
Miriam Toews' A Complicted Kindness (a generation
younger)...more
Set during the siege of Sarajevo, the Cellist of Sarajevo tells the story of three of the city’s inhabitants: a female sniper who calls herself Arrow; Kenan, a dutiful father; and Dragan, a baker on his way to work. Connecting them is the cellist, who plays each afternoon in a crater left by a mortar shell in front of his building where twenty-two people were killed while waiting to buy bread. The cellist vows to sit in the hollow where the mortar fell and play Albinoni’s Adagio once a day for each of the twenty-two victims. The Adagio had been re-created from a fragment after the only extant score was firebombed in the Dresden Music Library, but the fact that it had been rebuilt by a different composer into something new and worthwhile gives the cellist hope. Steven Galloway is the author of Finnie Walsh and Ascension. He teaches creative writing at UBC and SFU, and lives with his family in New Westminster, BC. More
On a recent Vancouver Sunday afternoon, a young man stumbles upon a secret sport invented more than a century before, at the birth of his city. In 1886, out of the smouldering ashes of the great fire that destroyed much of the city, a former vaudeville performer and two lumberjacks invent a new sport that will change the course of the fledgling city’s history. Thus begins The Man Game, Lee Henderson’s epic tale of loved requited and not, that crosses the contemporary and historical in an extravagant, anarchistic retelling of the early days of a pioneer town on the edge of the known world. Lee Henderson is the author of the award-winning short story collection The Broken Record Technique and is a contributing editor to the arts magazines Border Crossings and Contemporary. He lives in Vancouver. More
An epic novel of unrequited dreams and forestalled lives, Red Dog, Red Dog is set in the mid-1950s, in a small town in the interior of B.C. in the unnamed Okanagan Valley. The novel focuses on the Stark family, centering on brothers Eddy and Tom, who are bound together by family loyalty and inarticulate love. Filled with moments of harrowing violence and breathtaking description, of shattering truths and deep humanity, Red Dog, Red Dog is about the legacies of the past and the possibilities of forgiveness and redemption. Patrick Lane is the author of 21 books of poetry, and has received many awards for his writing, including the Governor General’s Award for Poetry (1979), the Canadian Authors Association Award for Poetry (1988), and two National Magazine Awards. Lane lives near Victoria with poet Lorna Crozier. More
Hilarious, bizarre and heart-breaking by turns, these three novellas of Mennonite life in Canada from the 1950s to the 1970s fill in the gap between Rudy Wiebe’s Of This Earth (a generation older) and Miriam Toews’ A Complicted Kindness (a generation younger). Leaving Germany with little more than their 16th century Anabaptist faith and lifestyle to guide them, Andreas Schroeder’s family settles on a small Fraser Valley farm in British Columbia and proceeds to try making sense of the perplexing mores and values of “The English” who surround them. Andreas Schroeder is the author of twenty books of poetry, fiction, nonfiction, translations, journalism and literary criticism. His books have won or been shortlisted for many awards including the Governor General’s Award, the Stephen Leacock Award, the Arthur Ellis Award for Best Non-Fiction and the Red Maple Award. He lives in Roberts Creek on BC’s Sunshine Coast with his wife, Sharon Oddie Brown. More
On the eve of her first day of senior high, May Sutherland’s mother gives her a diary in which to record her experiences. It’s 1948 and the entire student body at Magee High in Vancouver is divided according to their preference for Bing Crosby or Frank Sinatra. After losing her two best friends overnight, May struggles between her disdain for the debate and her loneliness as one of only a handful of neutrals. In the often hilariously rigid turns of phrase with which May records her misunderstandings and attempts at maturity, Headrick captures the inner life of a good girl coming of age. Paul Headrick lives in Vancouver with his partner, novelist Heather Burt. He teaches literature and creative writing at Langara College and his work has been published in numerous journals, including The Malahat Review and The Antigonish Review. More
Supported by Abebooks
Judges: Robert Brighurst, Barbara Jo May, and Jan Whitford
The globe is running out of water. Lakes, aquifers and rivers disappear, but we consume more than ever. Many fast-growing places—the U.S. Southwest, B.C.’s Okanagan, the Great Lakes area—face deadly scarcity. Yet even as the world dries, some parts are getting more violently stormy. Dry Spring tells dramatic stories of floods and droughts that will worsen over the next 25 years. Chris Wood shows that Canada overall will get more water—and America less. He calls provocatively upon Canada to find solutions and opportunities jointly with the U.S. And he describes inspiring choices by which we can save this precious resource for our future. Journalist and former Maclean’s editor Chris Wood has written in the Globe and Mail, the Financial Post, the Walrus, the Tyee and has won two Gold National Magazine Awards for his work. He is the co-author of Blockbusters and Trade Wars, shortlisted for the Donner Prize. More
Tim Lilburn has long been a deep thinker on issues of ecology and writing, and on how the two fit together philosophically, morally, and ethically. In Going Home, Lilburn addresses how we relate (often uneasily) to our physical landscape in Canada and the United States. Surprising and enlightening, the collection finishes with two unforgettable personal essays, where Lilburn writes about his effort to enact desire in the place where his ancestors are buried, the flatlands and coulees of southern Saskatchewan. Masterful and timely, Going Home is a wake-up call for the whole of North America to the fact that our “home” is endangered because of the way we live in it. Tim Lilburn is a poet and essayist, and the author of six books of poems, including Kill-site, To the River, Moosewood Sandhills, and most recently, Orphic Politics. He has been nominated for the Governor General’s Literary Award twice. Lilburn lives in Victoria, BC, where he teaches at the University of Victoria. More
In this timely and profoundly original new book, bestselling writer and physician Gabor Maté looks at the epidemic of addictions in our society, tells us why we are so prone to them and what is needed to liberate ourselves from their hold on our emotions and behaviours. He proposes a compassionate approach to helping drug addicts and, for the many behaviour addicts among us, to addressing the void addiction is meant to fill. For over seven years Gabor Maté has been the staff physician at the Portland Hotel, a residence and harm reduction facility in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. More
Jesus never said he was the son of God, he made no mention of the devil, and he didn’t instruct his followers to wait for their reward in the eternal afterlife. Today, many people are shocked by these sober conclusions of modern biblical scholarship. So what did Jesus teach? In The Jesus Sayings, writer and religion commentator Rex Weyler provides a fresh and provocative view of Jesus’ message and his mission. Weyler uses the latest scholarship applied to the complete range of sources to bring this astounding and important message to the general reader in a way that is entertaining, inspiring, and enlightening. Rex Weyler is the critically acclaimed author of Blood of the Land, which was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, and Greenpeace: The Inside Story, which was a finalist for the Shaughnessy Cohen Award for Political Non-fiction and the Hubert Evans Non-Fiction Prize. He lives in Vancouver. More
Brimming with insight into history and human behaviour, and written in Ronald Wright’s captivating style, What Is America? shows how this came to pass; how the United States, which regards itself as the most modern country on earth, is also deeply archaic, a stronghold not only of religious fundamentalism but of “modern” beliefs in limitless progress and a universal mission that have fallen under suspicion elsewhere in the west, a rethinking driven by two World Wars and the reckless looting of our planet. Ronald Wright is the internationally acclaimed author of A Scientific Romance, winner of Britain’s David Higham Prize for Fiction. His other major bestsellers include Time Among the Maya and Stolen Continents, and an acclaimed collection of travel pieces, Home and Away. He lives on Salt Spring Island, BC. More
SD23 Education Week 2009-
Central Okanagan Teacher librarians present-
David Bouchard
David Bouchard is an engaging speaker with a passion for reading.
As a writer, educator and presenter, Mr. Bouchard has touched the lives
of children, teens and adults but mostly he exemplifies the literacy
and cultural richness of our country! He often starts sessions with an
honour song dedicated to his aboriginal grandmother.
Mr. Bouchard, " whose passions are children, reading, and writing, art
and music and dance, aboriginal people and culture...", has published
more than 35 titles...including: I am Raven, An Aboriginal Carol, If
You Are Not From the Prairie, C'est du Hockey, Notes to My Daughter
and The Gift of Reading.
Mr. Bouchard has received the Governor General Literacy Award and recently been awarded the Order of Canada, C.M.
Schools
Partcipating and Presentation Times and Locations” 3000+ studetns and
staff from 30 schools (24 elementary, 3 middle, 3 secondary) will be
participating by attending a Bouchard presentation.
The Presentation: What to expect?”Mr. Bouchard is an engaging speaker with a passion for reading. His sessions often start with an honour song dedicated to his aboriginal grandmother. Presentations typically last an hour and are followed by a half hour of questions, answers and autographing of books.
Prepare your students to be engaged”. In order for students to get the most our of Bouchard's presentation it is important that they know a little about the presenter, be familiar with 2-3 of this books, and perhaps have visited his informative website. The more students know about Bouchard, his books and his reading message, the greater his impact will be during the presentation.
Interview with David Bouchard in which he discusses his aboriginal background and the influence it has had on his life: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BdPtMZbgEBY
WABI SABI By Mark Reibstein. Illustrated by Ed Young.
Little, Brown & Company Books for Young Readers. $16.99. (Ages 3 to 6)
THE KINGDOM ON THE WAVES
The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume 2.
By M. T. Anderson.Candlewick Press. $22.99. (Ages 14 and up)
SUNRISE OVER FALLUJAH
By Walter Dean Myers
Scholastic Press. $17.99. (Ages 12 and up)
Book Illustrated Books Slideshow...
Related: 100 Notable Books 2008...
http://www.walrusmagazine.com/articles/2008.12-online-exclusive-walrus-joseph-boyden-giller-prize/
An interview with the winner of the 2008 Giller Prize
http://www.canadacouncil.ca/prizes/ggla/2008/eh128686361169042140.htm
Toronto, October 21, 2008 – The Canada Council for the Arts today announced the finalists for the 2008 Governor General’s Literary Awards. The finalists include authors from ages 28 to 77, several previous finalists and three first-time finalists who are journalists. The awards are in the categories of fiction, non‑fiction, poetry, drama, children’s literature (text and illustration) and translation.
A total of 1,469 books were nominated for this year’s awards. Thirty-two of the 73 finalists are nominated for the first time. At least nine of the finalists are under the age of 35. The themes of mortality, war and place figure prominently in several of the books.
The names of the finalists and the titles of their works are listed below, together with the juries’ citations for each work. The names of the members of the 14 juries (seven English and seven French) are listed at the conclusion of this release.
Canada Council for the Arts funds, administers and promotes the Governor General’s Literary Awards. Each winner will receive $25,000 and a specially-bound copy of the winning book. The publisher of each winning book will receive $3,000 to support promotional activities.
Non-winning finalists will each receive $1,000 in recognition of their selection as finalists, bringing the total value of the Awards to approximately $450,000.
Nino Ricci, The Origin of Species
(Doubleday Canada; distributed by Random House of Canada) (ISBN 978-0-385-66360-1)
Nino Ricci's first novel, Lives of the Saints, won the 1990 Governor General's Award, spent 75 weeks on the Globe and Mail's best-seller list, and garnered international acclaim. This book was extended over the following years into a trilogy about the experiences of an Italian family before and after they emigrated to Canada. In 2003, the trilogy was adapted for a miniseries staring Sophia Loren. An active member of Toronto's writing community, Nino Ricci is past president of PEN Canada, a human rights organization that assists writers around the world who are persecuted for their work. Born in Leamington, Ontario, he lives in Toronto.
Alex Fratarcangeli, a modern Prufrock, must survive in the multiethnic complexity of Montreal in the 1980s. The Origin of Species is written with great humanity, realism and wit. Told in windowpane prose, this story reads as if it has come up through our collective memory. With the shock of recognition, we gain a new understanding of our fragility and our strength.
Christie Blatchford, Fifteen Days: Stories of Bravery, Friendship, Life and Death from Inside the New Canadian Army
(Doubleday Canada; distributed by Random House of Canada) (ISBN 978-0-385-66466-0)
Christie Blatchford is a high-profile columnist with The Globe and Mail. Over her 25-year career she has worked with other major dailies. Notably, she covered sports, lifestyle, current affairs and crime at the Toronto Sun. She is a winner of the National Newspaper Award for column writing and is known for her ability to connect emotionally with her subjects and readers on a wide range of topics. In 2006 she took three trips to Afghanistan's Kandahar province to report on the experiences of Canadian soldiers, which formed the basis of Fifteen Days. A first-time winner of the Governor General's Award, Christie Blatchford was born in Rouyn-Noranda, Quebec and now lives in Toronto.
Christie Blatchford's Fifteen Days: Stories of Bravery, Friendship, Life and Death from Inside the New Canadian Army is a dramatic and vivid chronicle that proves reportage and the language of common speech can rise to the challenge of literature. Blatchford's writing allows the soldiers and their families to speak to us in their own voices, without adornment.
A laureate in children's literature, John Ibbitson is probably best known as a journalist. At present the Globe and Mail's Washington correspondent and columnist, he has worked for major dailies for the past 20 years and was nominated for a National Newspaper Award for his coverage of the inner workings of Paul Martin's government. He is the author of three books on Ontario and Canadian politics, including, most recently, The Polite Revolution: Perfecting the Canadian Dream (2005). John Ibbitson has also written several novels for young adults, and this year wins his first GG. Born in Gravenhurst, Ontario, and formerly living in Ottawa and Toronto, he is currently based in Washington, D.C.
A superbly crafted story, The Landing takes us to the Ontario Muskoka region of the 1930s. As an interpretation of a place and time, and a young man's coming-of-age, it never falters. It is a novel as timeless as the music and the adolescent imagination that lie at its centre.
Stéphane Jorisch, The Owl and the Pussycat
Text by Edward Lear. (Kids Can Press; distributed by University of Toronto Press) (ISBN 978-1-55337-828-0 (bound) / 978-1-55453-232-2 (pbk))
_________________________________________The winners will be announced on Tuesday, Nov. 18 at 10 a.m. EST at the McCord Museum of Canadian History in Montreal.
Montreal, November 18, 2008 – Two four-time winners are among the list of winners of the 2008 Governor General’s Literary Awards announced today by the Canada Council for the Arts. The awards are given in the categories of fiction, poetry, drama, non-fiction, children’s literature (text and illustration) and translation, in English and in French.
Five of this year’s winners are previous recipients and ten are receiving the award for the first time. For Marie-Claire Blais, winner in
French-language fiction, it is her fourth award. Stéphane Jorisch, nominated in two categories in 2008, has also won his fourth award as the winner in children’s literature ‑ illustration. For Nino Ricci, winner of the award in English-language fiction, this is his second award. Other previous winners include: Pierre Ouellet (French-language non-fiction), and Janice Nadeau (children’s illustration - French).
“Reading is discovering that our roots encompass the world. It also means stepping outside of ourselves and reaching the Other. Reading allows us to find our truth and share it with all of humanity. We need to live to read and read to live,” said Her Excellency the Right Honourable Michaëlle Jean, Governor General of Canada.
Her Excellency will present the winners with their awards at Rideau Hall on December 10. This year marks the 72nd presentation of the
Governor General’s Literary Awards, Canada’s oldest and most prestigious awards for English- and French-language Canadian literature.
Nino Ricci, Toronto, The Origin of Species.
(Doubleday Canada)
Alex Fratarcangeli, a modern Prufrock, must survive in the multiethnic complexity of Montreal in the 1980s. The Origin of Species is written with great humanity, realism and wit. Told in windowpane prose, this story reads as if it has come up through our collective memory. With the shock of recognition, we gain a new understanding of our fragility and our strength.
Marie-Claire Blais, Westmount, Quebec,
Naissance de Rebecca à l’ère des tourments.
(Les Éditions du Boréal)
The heart of a world in all its maledictions and beauty, the inexhaustible outpouring of life in the darkness of an end that began a long time ago, this breathtaking paroxysm of a novel turns any commonly held vision upside down. Marie-Claire Blais’ transcendental prose illuminates the depths of the characters with an extraordinary light of survival.
Jacob Scheier, Toronto, More to Keep Us Warm.
(ECW Press)
More to Keep Us Warm invites the reader into a world of hope, pain, laughter and forgiveness – elements that reconcile the human drama through the power of love and sheer poetic invention. With deep affection for his work, Jacob Scheier manages his debut collection with precision, grace and stunning metaphor.
Michel Pleau, Quebec City, La lenteur du monde.
(Les Éditions David)
In La lenteur du monde, Michel Pleau uses simple, moving images that go straight to the heart. He shapes words like a sculptor carves, with painstaking care, to give us moments of pure beauty and flashes of luminous landscape. He evokes the nostalgia of childhood in language as refreshing and bracing as the wind.
Catherine Banks, Halifax, Bone Cage.
(Playwrights Canada Press)
With her expert command of dramatic metaphor, Catherine Banks shows us the life-blood of rural Canada flowing through the conflicted, bone-caged human heart. What is the cost to the human spirit, she asks, when good people are forced by circumstance to kill the thing they love – in this case, the Canadian wilderness? The playwright finds that which is most noble in unexpected places, the heroic in what appears to be the simplest of lives.
Jennifer Tremblay, Sorel, Quebec, La liste.
(Les Éditions de la Bagnole)
Absolutely inspired. The author proposes a simple, syncopated tale of everyday to-do lists in which the essential and the ordinary are inextricably entwined. Jennifer Tremblay achieves the universal with economy and lucidity.
Christie Blatchford, Toronto, Fifteen Days: Stories of Bravery, Friendship, Life and Death from Inside the New Canadian Army.
(Doubleday Canada)
Christie Blatchford's Fifteen Days: Stories of Bravery, Friendship, Life and Death from Inside the New Canadian Army is a dramatic and vivid chronicle that proves reportage and the language of common speech can rise to the challenge of literature. Blatchford's writing allows the soldiers and their families to speak to us in their own voices, without adornment.
Pierre Ouellet, Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Quebec,
Hors-temps: poétique de la posthistoire.
(VLB éditeur)
Pierre Ouellet does an exceptional job of combining the inspiration of poetry with the rigours of philosophy. He positions himself at the dawn of post-history and, through the power of language, reveals a dazzling vision of the future. He blends the political, dreams and intimacy into a critical reflection of immense lucidity.
John Ibbitson, Washington (D.C.), formerly of Ottawa and Toronto, The Landing.
(Kids Can Press)
A superbly crafted story, The Landing takes us to the Ontario Muskoka region of the 1930s. As an interpretation of a place and time and a young man’s coming-of-age, it never falters. It is a novel as timeless as the music and the adolescent imagination that lie at its centre.
Sylvie Desrosiers, Longueuil, Quebec, Les trois lieues.
(Les éditions de la courte échelle)
Sylvie Desrosiers has written a profoundly moving story about the difficult relationship between a father and son. The book takes us on an extraordinary adventure in the far North, a place where magic is closely connected to reality. A gentle reflection on courage, forgiveness, life, love and death.
Stéphane Jorisch, Montreal, The Owl and the Pussycat, text by Edward Lear.
(Kids Can Press)
Light, poetic, playful, imaginative, bizarre and ingenious illustrations match the text superbly. Stéphane Jorisch’s art brings new colour and depth to this well-known poem. Sit down in an armchair with this book and let it transport you into its magical world.
Janice Nadeau, Montreal, Ma meilleure amie, text by Gilles Tibo.
(Québec Amérique)
Janice Nadeau uses a quiet, sober approach to illustrate the delicate subject of death. Her brushstroke evokes ashes and dust, and the restrained use of colour imbues Ma meilleure amie with an emotional charge that goes straight to the heart.
Lazer Lederhendler, Montreal, Nikolski.
(Knopf Canada)
English translation of Nikolski by Nicolas Dickner (Éditions Alto)
One senses the affinity between the translator and his writer in this English-language version of Nikolski, a delightfully light-hearted,
deeply-rooted story. The wonderful magic in the original is also present in the translation. Lederhendler is clearly a translator with imagination and a terrific sense of language. His work remains wickedly faithful to the original.
Claire Chabalier, Notre-Dame-de-l’Île-Perrot, Quebec, and
Louise Chabalier, Mascouche, Quebec, Tracey en mille morceaux
(Les éditions Les Allusifs)
French translation of The Tracey Fragments by Maureen Medved (House of Anansi Press)
This extraordinary feat of fragmentation, already a tour-de-force in English, ran the risk in translation of appearing juxtaposed, assembled artificially in an attempt to reproduce the original welter of words. But the fluidity is natural, and the tension is constant and palpable. The translation avoids any vulgarity or obscenity – a work utterly lacking in complacency or concession.
http://www.canadacouncil.ca/prizes/ggla/2008/eh128686361169042140.htm
Celebrating canadian fiction writing but perhaps celebrating canadians love of reading. Everyone should read at least one! Enjoy..
Joseph Boyden
THROUGH BLACK SPRUCE
Viking Canada
Through Black Spruce is a novel of contemporary aboriginal life, full of the dangers and harsh beauty of both forest and city. When beautiful Suzanne Bird disappears, her sister Annie, a loner and hunter, is compelled to search for her, leaving behind their uncle Will, a man haunted by loss. While Annie travels from Toronto to New York, from modeling studios to A-list parties, Will encounters dire troubles at home. Both eventually come to painful discoveries about the inescapable ties of family.
Joseph Boyden is a Canadian with Irish, Scottish and Métis roots. His first novel, Three Day Road, has been published in 10 languages. The book was selected for The Today Show book club, won the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize, the CBA Libris Award’s Fiction Book of the Year, the Amazon.ca/Books in Print First Novel Award, the 2005 McNally Robinson Aboriginal Book of the Year Award, and was shortlisted for the Governor General’s Literary Award for Fiction. Boyden is the author of Born with a Tooth, a collection of stories that was shortlisted for the Upper Canada Writer’s Craft Award. Boyden divides his time between Northern Ontario and Louisiana, where he teaches writing at the University of New Orleans.
Anthony De Sa
BARNACLE LOVE
Doubleday Canada
In stories brimming with life, the innocent dreams and bitter disappointments of the immigrant experience are captured. A young fisherman washes up nearly dead on the shores of Newfoundland. It is Manuel Rebelo who has tried to escape the suffocating smallness of his Portuguese village and the crushing weight of his mother’s expectations to build a future for himself in a terra nova. Manuel’s son, Antonio, is born into Toronto’s little Portugal, a world of colourful houses and labyrinthine back alleys. In the Rebelo home the Church looms large, men and women inhabit sharply divided space, pigs are slaughtered in the garage, and a family lives in the shadow cast by a father’s failures.
Anthony De Sa grew up in Toronto’s Portuguese community. His short fiction has been published in several North American literary magazines. He attended The Humber School for Writers and now heads the English department and directs the creative writing program at a high school for the arts. Barnacle Love is his first book and he is currently at work on a novel. He lives in Toronto with his wife and three sons.
Marina Endicott
GOOD TO A FAULT
Freehand Books/Broadview Press
Absorbed in her own failings, Clara Purdy crashes her life into a sharp left turn, taking the young family in the other car along with her. When bruises on the mother, Lorraine, prove to be late-stage cancer, Clara – against all habit and comfort – moves the three children and their terrible grandmother into her own house. In Good to a Fault, Clara decides to give it a try, and then has to cope with the consequences: exhaustion, fury, hilarity, and unexpected love. But she must question her own motives. Is she acting out of true goodness, or out of guilt?
Marina Endicott was born in Golden, BC and grew up in Nova Scotia and Toronto. She worked as an actor and director before moving to London, England, where she began to write fiction. Since returning to Canada in 1984, Endicott has worked as Dramaturge at the Saskatchewan Playwrights Centre and Associate Dramaturge at the Banff Centre’s Playwrights Colony. She now teaches creative writing at the University of Alberta. Endicott’s first novel, Open Arms, was nominated for the Amazon/Books in Canada First Novel award in 2002 and serialized on CBC Radio’s Between the Covers. Her stories have been shortlisted for both the Journey Prize and the Western Magazine Awards. She is currently at work on a novel about the Bell Auroras, a sister-trio vaudeville act that toured the Canadian prairies in 1909.
Rawi Hage
COCKROACH
House of Anasi Press
The novel takes place during one month of a bitterly cold winter in Montreal's restless immigrant community, where a self-described "thief" has just tried but failed to commit suicide by hanging himself from a tree in a local park. Rescued against his will, the narrator is obliged to attend sessions with a well-intentioned but naïve therapist. This sets the story in motion, leading us back to the narrator's violent childhood in a war-torn country, forward into his current life in the smoky émigré cafés where everyone has a tale, and out into the frozen night-time streets of Montreal, where the thief survives on the edge, imagining himself to be a cockroach invading the lives of the privileged, but wilfully blind, citizens who surround him.
Rawi Hage was born in Beirut, Lebanon, and lived through nine years of the Lebanese civil war during the 1970’s. He immigrated to Canada in 1992. Hage is a writer, visual artist and a curator. His first book, De Niro’s Game, was a finalist for the Scotiabank Giller Prize and the Governor General’s Literary Award, and won numerous awards, including the Prix des libraires du Québec and the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award for the best English-language book. De Niro’s Game is now published in 15 countries and several languages. Rawi Hage lives in Montreal.
Mary Swan
THE BOYS IN THE TREES
Henry Holt/H.B. Fenn
Newly arrived to the countryside, William Heath, his wife, and two daughters appear the picture of a devoted family. But when accusations of embezzlement spur William to commit an unthinkable crime, those who witnessed this affectionate, attentive father go about his routine of work and family must reconcile action with character. A doctor who has cared for one daughter, encouraging her trust, examines the finer details of his brief interactions with William, searching for clues that might penetrate the mystery of his motivation. Meanwhile the other daughter's teacher grapples with guilt over a moment when fate wove her into a succession of events that will haunt her dreams.
Mary Swan is the winner of the 2001 O. Henry Award for short fiction and is the author of the collection The Deep and Other Stories published by Random House. Her work has appeared in several Canadian literary magazines, including the Malahat Review and Best Canadian Stories, as well as American publications such as Harper’s. She lives with her husband and daughter near Toronto.
The KSS Library celebrates the literary community because we know reading, of all varieties, is critical to young adults. World class 'made-in-Canada' fiction is worth highlighting. The 'Giller' is a prestigious award for fiction. Sponsored by: http://www.scotiabankgillerprize.ca/
Celebrate the best in Canadian Fiction and Guess the Giller from October 7 – November 10. Select the Finalist you think will win the 2008 Scotiabank Giller Prize Visit the Giller 2008 longlist at Mosaic Books Catalogue Visit the Giller Shortlist 2007 from our KSS Catalogue
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Event Date(s) Wed. April 23, 2008
Location Kelowna Secondary School Library
Event Description
Four shortlisted authors and one shortlisted illustrator will hit the road On Tour, with FREE public readings at
bookstores and libraries in Southern BC, including the Okanagan. They are:
Meet the authors and get personally signed books for yourself, friends or family at the public events listed below. While On Tour, our authors will also visit select local schools, leaving behind signed copies of their books for the school libraries.
Kelowna Secondary School Library visit:
This event was a wonderful way to personalize literature for students and advocate for the goals of a strong school library. Community members, public librarians, booksellers and educators contacted the library,(some for the very first time) because of this event. We madeup a book display shared posters and forwarded announcements around the community. It gave us, the school's teacher-librarians, a chance to discuss with BC authors about the book business, literacy and education.
Claire Mulligan, a Westbank grad, read from her novel, The Reckoning of Boston Jim. She added anecdotes of her writing inspiration from travels around the globe. Don Gayton discussed his non-fiction writing in a personal way while sharing environmental photos from his BC travels and research and reading passages from his Interwoven Wild: An Ecologist Loose in the Garden. Arleen Paré, Paper Trail , discussed her poetry from the perspective of entering authorship late in her life. While reviewing her writing process and thoughts of Kafka, Arleen shared the literary devices she uses.
Thanks to the authors, sponsors and teachers who brought their students to share presentations. 2 english classes and 1 Creative Writing class attended. Students presented cards and gifts of thanks to each author.
Kay Treadgold introduces authors to 79 seniors.
Photos: ( wmv) Persistant Link
rEAD mORE....
http://www.bcbookprizes.ca/events/archive/tour-southern-leg-2008
