Slideshow: RBC Bronwen Wallace Award

On Wednesday evening, The Writers’ Trust of Canada celebrated a trio of emerging authors at the RBC Bronwen Wallace Award in Toronto. The prize alternates every year between stories and poetry by authors under the age of 35 who haven’t published in book form.

Alissa York, a Bronwen Wallace Award winner herself, emceed the event at the Royal Conservatory of Music. During her introductions, York explained the general importance of the award to a writer (“money equals time to write”) and shared with finalists Dina Del Bucchia, Kathy Friedman, and Jen Neale her own reaction to the phone call announcing her nomination for the prize back in 1999 (she laughed, shrieked, and “had a good cry”).

Neale’s “Elk-Headed Man” took home the first prize of $5,000, while Del Bucchia and Friedman each received $1,000 for their respective stories “Under the I” and “At the Bottom of the Garden.”

Click through the slideshow for photos from the RBC Bronwen Wallace Award for Emerging Authors.

IBBY launches new fund for children’s literacy in UAE

The International Board on Book for Young People Foundation and the United Arab Emirates Board on Books for Young People have launched a fund that will see 1 million Swiss Francs earmarked for children’s literacy projects in the UAE.

The main objective of the Sharjah IBBY Fund is to support “children whose lives have been disrupted through war, civil disorder or natural disasters in the region of Central Asia and North Africa through implementing reading-related projects.” The government of Sharjah, the third largest emirate of the UAE, has endowed the fund with 1 million Swiss Francs for the next 10 years.

IBBY and its UAE branch announced the fund at the end of April during the Sharjah Children’s Reading Festival 2012.

LeftWords Festival to relaunch this weekend

A number of independent publishers have paired up with the Mayworks Festival of Working People and the Arts to relaunch LeftWords Festival of Books and Ideas, a celebration of progressive, critical writing and publishing. The event, which takes place May 6 at Toronto’s Ryerson University, will feature a full day of author and activist panels, and a book and magazine fair.

The program features a roster of notable political thinkers and writers – including Alan Filewod, Deb Barndt, Jeet Heer, and Emily Pohl-Weary, to name a few – with talks by American activist and scholar Frances Fox Piven and by journalist and activist Michele Landsberg, whose Toronto Star columns were recently published in the collection Writing the Revolution (Second Story Press). (The full program can be found at the LeftWords website.)

The book fair will exhibit such alternative publishers as Between The Lines, Fernwood Press, Another Story, Coach House Books, Brunswick Books, and a host of independent magazines, such as Briarpatch, FUSE, Shameless, This Magazine, Herizons, and Broken Pencil.

The first LeftWords festival took place in 1999 and every year until 2005. According to Matt Adams, a LeftWords organizer and publicist at Toronto’s Between the Lines, they packed it in due to a lack of funding. “We never really had the marketing budget we needed or the space rental budget that we wanted so we finally thought, ‘We should quit while we’re ahead and wait for better times.’”

Social media and the new partnership with Mayworks has now permitted organizers to put on the event in “an affordable and efficient way,” Adams says. Politically, he adds, “it’s an exciting time” thanks to the Occupy movement, the Arab Spring, and renewed public interest in Canada around environmental issues and left-of-centre politics. “All these topics are becoming much more prevalent and LeftWords is a place where these ideas are talked about, and where books and magazines in which people address these critical issues are sold,” Adams says.

Michele Landsberg, pictured above, will deliver the keynote lecture at LeftWords Festival in Toronto on May 6.

Killer comics, part two: Editions Tchai, Top Shelf, and Jeff Lemire

In less than a decade, the Toronto Comic Arts Festival (May 5–6) has grown from a niche event into an annual gathering that attracts upward of 15,000 attendees. In the May 2012 issue, Q&Q takes a look at four graphically inclined small presses that hope to make a splash at this year’s fest.

Editions Tchaï
Eugene Zhilinsky started Editions Tchaï with his wife, illustrator and fashion designer Tatyana Yuditskaya, in 2005. The Russian-born, Toronto-based couple was having a hard time getting published, so they decided to go it alone. It’s been a hard-knock education in publishing, but the pair has figured it out on the fly. “It was easy,” Zhilinsky deadpans. “We just bought a printing machine.”

The couple tends to all aspects of production, even collating the final pages by hand. Add to that Zhilinsky’s full-time work as an architectural illustrator, Yuditskaya’s new clothing line, and their three-year-old daughter, and an already labour-intensive process becomes that much more complex. It’s why they keep print runs to 20 copies.

That said, in seven years, Tchaï has released 14 titles and published in three languages. Hungry Heart, a psycho-thriller about a small-town woman’s search for a glamorous man, and Ah, Gilgamesh, about the immigrant experience in the Middle East, both by Yuditskaya, were published in French and English. Sketches of the Time, an anthology edited by Zhilinsky, appeared in Russian.

Eugene Zhilinsky’s Rock Testament, co-written by Kimberley Whitchurch (Photo: Editions Tchaï)

The pair believes their breakthrough title will be Rock Testament, co-written by Toronto caricaturist Kimberley Whitchurch and illustrated by Zhilinsky. Starring a street prophet preaching the gospel of rock ’n’ roll in biblical Jerusalem, the book is part comic, part carnet de voyage.

Inspired by his 12-year stay in Jerusalem, Zhilinsky spent years working on the volume. Galleys in hand, however, he reluctantly admitted the text didn’t live up to his vision. Whitchurch, who originally agreed to proofread the manuscript, quickly found herself rewriting the book frame by frame. “Sometimes you do need somebody on the outside,” says Whitchurch, who’s now collaborating with Zhilinsky on a book of Toronto sketches.

Tchaï originally hand-printed Rock Testament last year, and has sold a smattering of copies online and at a few local bookshops. For the book’s official debut at TCAF, the pair hired a commercial printer to produce 500 copies and is hoping to land a distributor.

While he would happily sell his work to another publisher, Zhilinsky is proud of what he and Yuditskaya have accomplished at Tchaï. All along, their aim has been to produce books that spark thoughtful discussion – an ambition summed up by the company’s name. “Tchaï” is Russian for “tea,” and, Zhilinsky says, in his home country, the most engaged conversations happen over a cuppa.

Jeff Lemire and Top Shelf
U.S. publisher Top Shelf will have a big presence at this year’s TCAF. The featured publisher will spotlight six authors from its stable, including a couple of Canadians: up-and-comer Kagan McLeod, whose 2011 debut, Infinite Kung Fu, was praised by CNN, Paste Magazine, and USA Today; and Jeff Lemire, who will launch the Top Shelf edition of his 2003 self-published graphic novel, Lost Dogs.

That volume is in advance of the summer release of Lemire’s widely anticipated follow-up to his Essex County trilogy, which won a Joe Shuster Award and a Doug Wright Award, and brought Lemire to national prominence thanks to its appearance on last year’s CBC Canada Reads. Due in August, The Underwater Welder is a surreal sci-fi story about a tradesman who works on a Nova Scotia oil rig.

Top Shelf was formed 15 years ago as a joint venture between Brett Warnock, who had been publishing a comics anthology since 1995, and Chris Staros, an agent for several international cartoonists and the author of an annual comics-industry directory.

Jeff Lemire’s Lost Dogs (Photo: Top Shelf)

In 2003, Top Shelf published Craig Thompson’s coming-of-age memoir Blankets, a book credited with introducing the graphic novel format to a general readership. Since then, the publisher has grown into a five-person outfit operating on both coasts, publishing 20 to 30 books annually in both print and digital formats, selling into foreign markets, and attending more than 20 major events each year.

“In the comic book industry we’re sort of considered an alternative publisher,” explains marketing manager Leigh Walton. “[Staros] cut his teeth in heavy metal bands back in the 1980s and, to a certain extent, I think we still operate the company like a band: we put out a new release and then we tour behind it.”

Top Shelf’s author-focused approach attracted Lemire as a publishing newbie in 2006. Though his initial submission was rejected, the manuscript was returned, to Lemire’s surprise, with editorial comments. “No other publisher did that,” he recalls. “It was really valuable to me because I was just starting out and I was still finding my voice as a storyteller.”

A year later, Top Shelf accepted and published Essex County: Tales from the Farm. “It instantly became like I was working with this close family,” Lemire says. “I’ve worked with a lot of publishers since, and I’ve never seen that anywhere else.”

Jen Neale wins Bronwen Wallace Award

Jen Neale has won the RBC Bronwen Wallace Award for Emerging Writers for her story “Elk-Headed Man.”

The Writers’ Trust of Canada presented the $5,000 prize to the 28-year-old Vancouver writer at a ceremony in Toronto on Wednesday evening. The award celebrates the work of authors under the age of 35, who have yet to publish in book form.

The jury — consisting of Alexander MacLeod, Johanna Skibsrud, and Madeleine Thíen — describes Neale’s story as one that “has it all: pure imaginative power, sharp humour, emotional honesty and real insight. Throw in a hard-to-resist main character – he’s the strong silent type – and add a few flourishes of raw writerly style and you get a finely crafted story that re-plants the hot seed of Latin American magic realism into the cold heart of the Canadian wilderness.”

Other shortlisted stories included Dina Del Bucchia’s “Under the ‘I’” and Kathy Friedman’s “At the Bottom of the Garden.” Both runners-up received $1,000.

All three shortlisted titles are available as free downloads through Apple’s iBookstore.

Donner Prize goes to book critiquing scope of prime minister’s power

A book criticizing the ever-growing influence of Canada’s Prime Minister’s Office has won the $50,000 Donner Prize.

The Donner Canadian Foundation named Democratizing the Constitution: Reforming Responsible Government by Peter Aucoin, Mark D. Jarvis, and Lori Turnbull (Emond Montgomery Publications) the best book on public policy by a Canadian author Tuesday night at a gala in Toronto.

In a press release, the prize jury called the book “an important and timely book — one that calls into question the legitimacy of our most fundamental institutions of democracy.” The jury was made up of Anne McLellan, acting academic director at University of Alberta’s Institute for United States Policy Studies; Marcel Boyer, professor emeritus at Université de Montréal; Wendy Dobson, professor at University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management; Kevin Lynch, vice-chair of BMO Financial Group; and Denis Stairs, professor emeritus at Dalhousie University.

It was a bittersweet win for Democratizing the Constitution – co-author Aucoin, a professor emeritus of political science and public administration at Dalhousie University, passed away in July.

The other finalists, who each received $7,500, were:

• Toward Improving Canada’s Skilled Immigration Policy: An Evaluation Approach by Charles M. Beach, Alan G. Green, and Christopher Worswick (C.D. Howe Institute)
• Museum Pieces: Toward the Indigenization of Canadian Museums by Ruth B. Phillips (McGill-Queen’s University Press)
• XXL: Obesity and the Limits of Shame by Neil Seeman and Patrick Luciani (University of Toronto Centre for Public Management)

Playwrights Guild of Canada celebrates 40 years with reading series

The Playwrights Guild of Canada is marking four decades of service to the Canadian theatre community with a week-long reading series.

Beginning Monday and running until May 4, five award-winning Canadian playwrights will read from some of their best known work. Maja Ardal kicked off the festivities yesterday with an excerpt from her latest piece, The Cure for Everything. Tonight, Drew Hayden Taylor will read from Motorcycles & Sweetgrass and Dead White Writer on the Floor. The rest of the week will see Hannah Moscovitch reading from East of Berlin and The Russian Play (Wednesday), Brad Fraser reading from True Love Lies (Thursday), and Marcia Johnson reading from Courting Johanna (Friday).

Each performance starts at 6 p.m. and takes place at Chapters’ downtown Toronto location (at John and Richmond streets).

First Nation Communities Read shortlist revealed

Ontario’s First Nation public librarians have announced the shortlist for the annual First Nation Communities Read contest.

• Bear Walker: Adventures of Rabbit and Bear Paws, Chad Solomon and Christopher Meyer (Little Spirit Bear Productions)
• Call of the Fiddle, Wilfred Burton and Anne Patton; Sherry Farrell Racette, illus. (Gabriel Dumont Institute)
• The Giving Tree: A Retelling of a Traditional Métis Story, Leah Dorion (Gabriel Dumont Institute)
• Shannen and the Dream for a School, Janet Wilson (Second Story Press)
• We Are All … Treaty People, Maurice Switzer; Charley Hebert, illus. (Union of Ontario Indians)

The community reading program, which alternates yearly between books for adults and books for children, was established in 2003 to encourage family literacy and storytelling between generations, while promoting the publishing, sharing, and discussion of aboriginal artists and their experiences.

A six-member jury of librarians from First Nation public libraries will select the winning title for 2012–2013, which will be revealed in late May to coincide with the launch of National Aboriginal History Month celebrations in June.

Scholastic, Kids Can among winners at 2012 Hackmatack awards

The winners of the Hackmatack Children’s Choice Book Awards were announced at a ceremony in Moncton on Friday.

The awards recognize children’s writing in Atlantic Canada and are voted on by students in Grades 4 to 6 in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland. The ceremony wrapped up a week of author readings and literary programming for kids in Eastern Canada.

The winners are:

English fiction
Hugh Brewster, I Am Canada: Prisoner of Dieppe: World War II, Alistair Morrison, Occupied France, 1942 (Scholastic Canada)

English non-fiction
Catherine Rondina; Kevin Sylvester, illus., Don’t Touch that Toad & Other Strange Things Adults Tell You (Kids Can Press)

French fiction
Richard Petit, Ton journal intime Zone Frousse (Z’Ailées)

French non-fiction
Stéphanie C. Dubois, Le petit livre des affaires dégueulasses (Les Malins Éditions)

BookNet bestsellers: Canadian fiction

From literary to crime, sci-fi to historical, this week’s bestsellers list runs the gamut of Canadian fiction.

For the two weeks ending April 22:

1. Alone in the Classroom, Elizabeth Hay
(McClelland & Stewart, $22 pa, 9780771037979)

2. The Accident, Linwood Barclay
(Seal Books/Random House, $11.99 mm, 9781400026395)

3. Why Men Lie, Linden MacIntyre
(Random House Canada, $32 cl, 9780307360861)

4. Irma Voth, Miriam Toews
(Vintage Canada, $22 pa, 9780307400697)

5. The Winter Palace, Eva Stachniak
(Doubleday Canada, $24.95 pa, 9780385666565)

6. The Sisters Brothers, Patrick deWitt
(House of Anansi Press, $22.95 pa, 9781770890329)

7. Half-Blood Blues, Esi Edugyan
(Thomas Allen Publishers, $24.95 pa, 9780887627415)

8. Web of Angels, Lilian Nattel
(Knopf Canada, $22 pa, 9780307402097)

9. Room, Emma Donoghue
(HarperCollins Canada, $19.99 pa, 9781554688326)

10. The Midwife of Venice, Roberta Rich
(Anchor Canada, $22.95 pa, 9780385668279)

11. Flash and Bones, Kathy Reichs
(Pocket/Simon & Schuster, $17 pa, 9781451675290)

12. Secret Daughter, Shilpi Somaya Gowda
(HarperCollins Canada, $19.99 pa, 9780061974304)

13. The Headmaster’s Wager, Vincent Lam
(Doubleday Canada, $32.95 cl, 9780385661454)

14. Tiger Hills, Sarita Mandanna
(Penguin Canada, $18 pa, 9780143174714)

15. The Thirteen, Susan Moloney
(Vintage Canada, $14.95 pa, 9780307361585)

16. Kaleidoscope, Gail Bowen
(M&S, $29.99 cl, 9780771016899)

17. Dead Cold, Louise Penny
(Little, Brown/Hachette, $10.99 mm, 9780351322280)

18. 419, Will Ferguson
(Penguin Canada, $32 cl, 9780670064717)

19. The Book of Negroes, Lawrence Hill
(HarperCollins Canada, $10.99 mm, 9781443408981)

20. Wonder, Robert J. Sawyer
(Viking Canada, $13.50 mm, 9780143056324)