Event photos: Freedom to Read Week in Calgary

Last night author John Reilly spoke to a sold-out crowd for Freedom to Read Week in downtown Calgary. The former provincial court judge is the author of Bad Medicine: A Judge’s Struggle for Justice in a First Nations Community published by Rocky Mountain Books. The event was sponsored by The Writers Guild of Alberta and WordFest.

WordFest’s new director, Jo Steffens, and Mary Kapusta, the festival’s marketing manager.

Don Gorman, publisher of Rocky Mountain Books, with event host Russell Bowers from CBC Radio, and Judge Reilly.

Samantha Warwick, author and southern Alberta program coordinator for the Writers Guild of Alberta.

Daily book biz round-up: Feb. 28

• Emma Donoghue talks about her latest non-fiction book Inseparable: Desire Between Women in Literature
• Books you loved at 16 that are embarrassing at 25
• The Guardian‘s panel on the 12 best debut novelists in the U.K.
• Matthew J. Trafford on how 2011 is the YOSS (Year Of the Short Story)
• Today in irony: the author of The Help gets sued by the help
• Unsurprisingly, William S. Burroughs’ biggest fans were rock stars, not writers
• New audio archive at the Centre for the Art of Translation

On gender parity in literary publishing

Last week VIDA, a literary arts organization, released the results of a study that showed a lack of gender parity in established literary publications. The following links are some reactions to the data that tackles the myth of a female-dominated publishing industry:

• The editor of Tin House responds
• Laura Miller on the gender gap
• The New Republic looks at why magazines aren’t reviewing more female writers
• Slate tries to explain the numbers
• Bookslut’s editor-in-chief Jessa Crispin corresponds with associate editor Michael Shaub in a series about the VIDA findings
• The Guardian on the U.K. response

For those inevitably curious: In the March issue of Quill & Quire, 15 of the 34 books reviewed were by women authors. Of the 20 fiction and non-fiction books for adults, six books by women were reviewed, and 14 books by men. Twelve of those books were reviewed by male critics, 8 by female critics. The Books for Young People section featured 10 female critics and three men.

Daily book biz round-up: saving libraries, and more

• U.K. activists on Save Our Libraries Day
• protesters protect libraries in Egypt
• The problem with memoirs
• The Canadian Children’s Book Centre’s reading list for Black History Month
• E-book sales: slower than we think

Daily book biz round-up: Feb 3

• Publisher’s office in Cairo attacked by Mubarak loyalists
• The gender gap in coverage of female writers
• A.L. Kennedy on why arts cuts are a big deal
• Andrew Pyper on a writer’s least favourite question
• Stacey May Fowles v. Rebecca Eckler

Winnipeg author dies suddenly on book tour

Michael Neelak Van Rooy, 42, was in Montreal yesterday to promote his latest novel, A Criminal to Remember (Turnstone), when he died of a heart attack. From CBC.ca:

In 2009 Van Rooy received the John Hirsch Award for Most Promising Manitoba Writer, according to an online biography. He was also shortlisted for both the Margaret Laurence for Fiction and the Arthur Ellis Award for Best First Novel. His other books are An Ordinary Decent Criminal and Your Friendly Neighbourhood Criminal. He was due to give a reading at a Chapters-Indigo store on Ste-Catherine Street West in Montreal Thursday afternoon.

Kelly Hughes, who owns Aqua Books in downtown Winnipeg, said Van Rooy was a “gentle giant” who was also accommodating and soft-spoken.

Hughes said he hadn’t heard of Van Rooy having health issues.

Van Rooy leaves behind his wife and three children.

Van Rooy was the program coordinator for the Writers’ Collective for Professional and Developing Writers, a mentor for the Arts and Cultural Industries Fiction program, the publicist for the Thin Air Winnipeg International Writers Festival and the administrator for the Canadian Mennonite University School of Writing. He was also the vice-president of the Board of Directors of Prairie Fire Press.

Book biz round-up: the latest links

• Martin Worthy, Paul Quarrington’s oldest friend, on the one year anniversary of his passing
• Kobo’s walk-on part in The Office
• Emily Landau interviews 2010 Canada Reads winner Nicolas Dickner
• Charles Taylor Prize nominees discuss the non-fiction genre
• Speaking of Kobo, OpenBook Toronto’s questionless interview with Kobo’s Michael Tamblyn

Daily book biz round-up: the latest links

• Stuff made from books
• Google acquires eBook Technologies
• On the courage to admit when your book isn’t good yet
• Reading as exercise
• Larsson’s partner to write final Millenium novel
• Joseph Conrad’s sci-fi novel
• Neko Case auctions car for 826 Valencia
• Tom Waits sells limited edition Chap Book for charity

Publishing: not always a downer

There’s some funny book stuff floating around the internets today. Lest the trolls be confused or angered by humour, this is indeed an attempt to offer some Friday afternoon levity:

Eye Weekly columnist Sarah Nicole Prickett defends Chapters as her favourite bland non-space to rest without people judging her:

They don’t complain about how many magazines I’ve read for free and possibly ripped things from. They don’t look askance at my taste. Their eyebrows don’t say, “Oh, you’re just getting into Murakami now?” They make no suggestions, having nothing to prove; they work at Chapters. “Are you sure you want The Paris Review?” says absolutely nobody to me. “What about The Believer?” I never feel like I have to buy anything, the way I do everywhere else books are sold, as though upon walking in I’ve been handed a bucket, and now I must scoop out my share of the water to prevent us all from drowning. Not here. This ship will float on.

Those crazy kids at CBC Radio’s Day Six provide us with an audio track of Giller winners reading from Snooki’s debut novel, A Shore Thing:

Linden “Giller Gorilla” MacIntyre is a journalist with CBC’s The Fifth Estate, the winner of eight Gemini Awards, an International Emmy, and the 2009 Giller Prize for his novel, The Bishop’s Man.

Johanna “Skib-WOWW” Skibsrud is the 2010 Giller winner for The Sentimentalists, and the author of several collections of poetry.

The New York Times points to a project by a group of history teachers with an inventive and bizarre way to engage students. They produce music videos for altered versions of their favourite songs that replace the original lyrics with lyrics based on classic books and historical figures. Witness – for serious -  “Jenny From the Block” as Mary, Queen of Scots.

Daily book biz round-up: 2010

• John Barber’s re-cap of 2010 in publishing
• The Star counts down the top newsmakers in publishing this year
• HuffPo delights readers with the 13 most obnoxious publishing stories this year
• Poet Michael Lista says the best poetry books of 2010 are all by men, mostly American, and published by the same house.