Book links roundup: 20th Century Fox options self-published novel, attempt to ban Tintin fails, and more

• 20^th Century Fox options film rights to self-published science fiction novel
• Effort to ban Tintin comic books in Belgium fails
• Stephenie Meyer buys film rights to horror novel
• The future of publishing, according to an Amazon executive
• A guide to the Nebula Awards
• Author websites: the digital business card

Q&A: David Balzer on the digital launch of his fiction debut

Tonight, David Balzer launches his short fiction ebook Contrivances (Joyland) with “MELODRAMZ: A Night of Contrivances,” featuring an art show, drag performers, and dancing at the White House Studio Project in Toronto. (Admission is $8 and includes a copy of the ebook, downloadable through a QR-coded postcard.)

Q&Q spoke to Balzer, a well-known visual art critic, about his fiction debut, which he says is inspired by “Old Hollywood, Gothic novels, art-world gossip, and maybe a Lifetime movie or two.”

What is the connection between the paintings that appear in your book and your stories?
I’ve always been really interested in painting and portraiture. When I started writing stories they seemed like exercises to me. I wasn’t sure where they were going, but then it became clear to me that there was a strong element of whatever I was seeing in historical portraiture happening somehow within the psychology of the characters I was writing about. Around the time my confidence in fiction writing began to solidify, about six or seven years ago, I saw a show by the painter Janet Werner, whose painting is now on the front of the book. I wouldn’t say it inspired the book, but it confirmed a bunch of things for me, like the literary sensibility around portraiture.

It also dawned on me that a lot of the literature that I was into from the 19th century was illustrated in that Victorian tradition. Adding illustrations was a way to ground the collection within the art world because that’s where my audience is.

Did you always know who you wanted to get to illustrate the book?
A lot of the artists I had in mind, like Janet Werner. Many of the artists are my friends, like Marcel Dzama and Alison Fleming. In some cases, I worked with the artist to find a match for the story. It was a fun process.

How has your work as an art critic impacted your fiction?
I’m interested in characters who look at life the way I would look at a work of art: always asking questions around significance, and analyzing surfaces and aesthetics in terms of their philosophical and moral implications. I like the rigour of working your mind through strange situations like you would when you see a work of art and you don’t know what it means.

Why did you decide to publish Contrivances as an ebook?
Short fiction is incredibly hard to publish, and the illustrations didn’t seem to be a selling point – after about two years of queries I didn’t have any bites. You always dream that your first book is going to be a physical entity, but what Joyland is doing is so interesting. There’s so much momentum around their imprint as a champion of new short fiction.

What do you have planned for the launch party?
I thought it was really important to have a counterpoint to the fact that the book is virtual and to make it come alive. The obvious way to do that was to have an art show of the works in the book. My friend Rea McNamara has curated a bunch of projected .gif art – it’s a way to bring weird online culture into an event space.

In terms of the readings, it struck me that because there are so many women in the book – I’m gay but there are no gay characters, but I feel like the book has a strong queer sensibility, anyway – it would be good to have a cast of drag performers doing short readings. And because I’ve been working on this book for five years, the DJ part is just me wanting to dance.

Canadian literary event roundup: May 11-17

• The Atlantic Book Awards (May 11-17); Events across the east coast include:

Jacques Poitras reads from Imaginary Line: Life on an Unfinished Border, St. Croix Public Library, St. Stephen, N.B. (May 11, 7:30 p.m., free)

Readings by nominees of the Bruneau Family Children’s/Young Adult Literary Award, featuring Andy Jones, Susan M. MacDonald, and Janet McNaughton, A.C. Hunter Public Library, St. John’s, (May 12, 2 p.m., free)

Bruce Graham reads from Diligent River Daughter, Confederation Centre Library, Charlottetown, PEI (May 16, 7 p.m., free)

• Joey Comeau launches The Complete Lockpick Pornography, Type Books, Toronto (May 11, 6 p.m., free)
• Alison Pick reads from Far to Go, Hanover Public Library (May 11, 7 p.m., $5)
• Letterbox Reading with Sue Goyette and Elizabeth Phillips, Brickhouse Bistro, Lumsden, Saskatchewan (May 11, 7 p.m.)
• David Balzer launches his ebook of short stories, Contrivances, The White House Studio Project, Toronto (May 11, 8 p.m., $8, includes a copy of Contrivances)
• Readings by B.C. Book Prize poetry finalists including John Pass, Susan McCaslin, Garry Thomas Morse, and Sharon Thesen, Vancouver Public Library (May 11, 7 p.m., free)
• ECW Press Spring Literary Party, featuring readings by David Balzer, Heather A. Clark, Joey Comeau, Sky Gilbert, and George Murray, The Sister, Toronto (May 14, 7 p.m., free)
• Vertigo Reading Series featuring Jen Kunlire, Keith Foster, Jamella Hagen, and Claire Tacon, Craves Kitchen & Wine Bar, Regina (May 14, 7 p.m., $5 suggested donation)
• Joan Donaldson-Yarmey reads from Back Roads of Southern Alberta, Calgary Public Library, Central Branch (May 14, noon, register online or in person)
• Poetry launch with Robyn Sarah (Digressions) and Beverly Bie Brahic (White Sheets), Ben McNally Books, Toronto (May 15, 6:30 p.m., free)
• Anakana Schofield launches Malarky, Dora Keogh Pub, Toronto (May 15, 7 p.m., free)
• Paul Almond discusses the latest book in his Alford series, The Pioneer; Atwater Library, Westmount, Quebec (May 15, 6 p.m., free; donations invited)
• Richard Stursberg (The Tower of Babble: Sins, Secrets and Successes Inside the CBC) interview and discussion with Marsha Lederman (The Globe and Mail), Vancouver Public Library (May 15, 7:30 p.m., free)
• Ontario Library Association Festival of Trees, featuring Deborah Ellis, Marie-Louise Gay, Cary Fagan, Ian Wallace, Jan Andrews, and Dušan Petričić, Harbourfront Centre, Toronto (May 15-16, $10)
• PEN Canada hosts Funny Strange: Satire after Mordecai Richler, featuring Charles Foran, Calvin Trillin, and Seán Cullen; Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto (May 17, 7 p.m., $40)
• Evening of Poetry with Bert Almon, G.P. Lainsbury, and David Eso, Auburn Saloon, Calgary (May 17, 7:30 p.m., free)

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt to file for Chapter 11

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt has initiated bankruptcy proceedings, The New York Times reports.

The Boston-based education and trade publisher will file for protection under Chapter 11 in order to wipe out a debt of approximately $3.1 million.

From the NYT:

The publisher has struggled financially for years, laden with debt that was taken on when Education Media and Publishing Group, an Irish private-equity concern, borrowed heavily to finance the acquisitions of Houghton Mifflin in 2006 and Harcourt in 2007.

More than 70 percent of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt’s senior lenders and bondholders have agreed to the terms of the restructuring plan, which would convert its existing long-term debt to equity, the company said in a statement. … Employees will be paid as usual, there are no plans for layoffs and the company has more than $135 million in cash on hand to pay for operating costs.

The company expects the process to be completed by June.

Atwood, Gibson meet with Windsor Star editorial board

Margaret Atwood and Graeme Gibson met with the editorial board at the Windsor Star on Thursday to talk ferries, farming, and living anonymously on Pelee Island.

The couple stopped in at the newspaper’s offices on their way to Springsong, an annual event held on Pelee Island, about 100 kilometres southeast of Windsor, Ontario, on Lake Erie. Now in its 11th year, the fundraiser is put on by the Pelee Island Heritage Centre in celebration of local bird populations and Canadian literature. Atwood and Gibson,who have owned property on the island since 1987, regularly take part in the festivities. They will be joined this year by authors Wayne Grady and Merilyn Simonds.

In a video posted to the Star‘s website, Atwood discusses how the lack of transportation to the island (the area’s ferries have been out of service since April) has had devastating effects on the community. “The people who are really being hard hit at the moment are the farmers, because they cannot get their seed onto the island so they can’t plant anything,” Atwood says. Gibson adds: “And no one seems prepared to do anything realistic for them.”

Later in the interview, Atwood explains the island’s appeal to a CanLit icon: “Tourists go over and say, ‘You’re Margaret Atwood.’ … People on the island say, ‘Margaret who? … When people say, ‘Come and do such-and-such,’ I say, ‘Well, I actually can’t because I’m on the island.”

Book links roundup: John Updike museum in the works, British Library gets new chief executive, and more

• John Updike’s house to become a museum
• BBC archive director moves to British Library
• Best-selling Winnipeg author’s Bible from 1896 found
• Grateful Dead drummer gets book deal
  
• James Patterson establishes new scholarships at Manhattan College
  
• Blogging through the Caine Prize shortlist
• Library e-lending a threat to booksellers?

Creative writing Q&A: Nicole Markotic on the delicate art of teaching sex scenes

CCWWP conference presenters Nicole Markotic (Photo: Don Denton) and Suzette Mayr

This weekend, creative writing practitioners and educators from across the country will descend on Toronto for the Creative Writing in the 21st Century conference, hosted by the Canadian Creative Writers and Writing Programs organization and held at Humber College.

One of the conference’s most provocatively titled presentations comes from creative writing teachers Nicole Markotic and Suzette Mayr: “He put his what, where? Or: How to teach students to write plausible sex scenes, prevent them from winning the Bad Sex Fiction Award, while not suffering from fear, alarm, dread, or embarrassment in the process.”

Q&Q spoke to Markotic about the ins and outs of teaching sex scenes.

How did this presentation originate?
Suzette and I decided we want to write a paper together. We teach creative writing in different cities and in different ways. A friend of ours had either asked her students to write a sex scene or they covered a sex scene, and she was appalled by the discussion. I remember thinking I would never encourage writing sex scenes for class, and Suzette said the same thing.

Why had you avoided teaching sex scenes?
The students write such horrible things. The worst we get are these rape scenes that are really horrific, but the students think they are really realistic and gritty, and show they can take on the tough topics.

At least one girl in the class just shrinks into herself when we’re discussing these stories. The last thing you want to do is force someone to read awful things, on the other hand, awful things happen in the world. The problem though, is they’re seeing those scenes as sex scenes.

What made you decide to tackle such a delicate topic in your own class?
I’m teaching a full-year course on poetry and fiction, and thought maybe I can deal with this head-on. And Suzette had a situation where a student came to her and wanted to write erotica. You can’t say to students that you’re not allowed to do something – the attitude is you can write what you want, but it has to be a literary work. So she did a bunch of research on literary erotica and writers from the modernist period, and it grew from there.

I think the trigger for us was the contest for the worst sex scene. There are so many writers that I admire who write terrible sex scenes. A lot of them, even if they’re not violent or offensive, are just really boring: he put his thing there, and she stroked this, he moaned, and he said, “Oh baby, baby.”

Is boring the biggest pitfall?
A lot of our students are in their early twenties, and like many young people they think they’ve discovered sex, so just writing about it all they think is radical. One of the things we cover in the paper is that, in my class of 18 students, all of them wrote heterosexual scenes. None of them considered anything but the heterosexual couple. Just the idea of an active male character and a passive female character – not that they would see her as passive, which is a problem, too – is something they want to describe. For a lot of them, they don’t understand it’s boring because we’ve been reading this for a couple thousand years.

What did you learn from the experience?
In my class there was a lot of poetry and fiction where the woman was very unhappy and unfulfilled. Usually there’s intercourse and the guy falls asleep. When we were workshopping the pieces, one of my male students, who is really very lovely, surprised me by asking about all the frigid women. Wow. There are still a lot of horrible clichés out there that come out without any of us realizing it. When you go to write a sex scene, a lot of the presumptions you have about bodies come out, too.

Can you teach someone to write a compelling sex scene?
I think so. One of the things I’ve done for my students is to bring in sex (or sexual) scenes from Canadian literature and poetry. Michael Ondaatje writes very sensual scenes in both his fiction and poetry.
There is a history in Canada of really disturbing sex scenes, but not necessarily in a violent way, like the Leonard Cohen scene where one of his characters has sex with a vibrator and the vibrator seems to be in control.

One of my students asked if there were any “normal” sex scenes in Canadian literature, and so we talked about it. They enjoyed the discussion – they want the sex scenes to matter to the narrative as a whole, to teach us something about the character.

What do you hope to achieve at the conference?
I’m curious to find out if others have deliberately taught sex scenes or deliberately avoided them. I do know that when you teach Canadian literature – when you teach Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale or Timothy Findley’s Not Wanted on the Voyage, or Leonard Cohen and Robert Kroetsch, you can’t do it without discussing the sex scenes. So we’ve taught it a lot, but rarely to creative writing students.

Slideshow: Pongapalooza

Publishing and ping-pong enthusiasts put on their game faces on May 8 for the first Pongapalooza fundraiser for First Book Canada. It was a hit, raising $22,000.

“We had no idea how enthusiastically people from the publishing and business worlds would embrace this event. Clearly this was a group who do love a good paddle, dimpled rubber, and lots of balls!” says Tom Best, executive director of First Book Canada.

The event, held at SPiN Toronto, boasted 30 volunteers and 32 writers and illustrators leading registered teams as honorary captains.

“I’m very confident we will be doing it again next year and already know that certain teams are planning to begin training soon to exact revenge for early eliminations at this first tournament,” Best says.

Azrieli Foundation to launch film series companion to Holocaust memoirs

Series four of the Azrieli Foundation's Holocaust Survivor Memoirs launched in fall 2011. Series five will roll out this spring along with a collection of short films.

The Azrieli Foundation, a Canadian philanthropic organization has produced a number of film shorts to complement its series of memoirs by Holocaust survivors.

The Azrieli Series Short Films will premiere at Toronto’s Beth Tzedec Congregation on May 14, in conjunction with the launch of five new titles in the Azrieli Series of Holocaust Survivor Memoirs.

According to a press release, the films feature interviews with and readings from the books’ authors. The promotional films aim to “arouse people’s interest in reading the memoirs by celebrating the lives and achievements of the authors” and to “enable us [Azrieli] to reach more people and keep history current for new generations.”

Book links roundup: Sara Nelson’s big move, Harry Potter enters Kindle library, and more

• Former Publishers Weekly editor Sara Nelson moving to Amazon
• Harry Potter ebooks to be added to Kindle lending library
• Wiley acquires textbook publisher Harlan Davidson
• Harlequin has slow start in first quarter
• Chelsea Cain’s thriller series to be adapted for television
• Lippincott Williams & Wilkins win 21 awards for healthcare publications
• Jazz as an analogy for the publishing process?