Lisa Moore still “unreadably Canadian,” Barbara Kay says

National Post columnist Barbara Kay really has it in for novelist Lisa Moore. The one-sided feud began last July, when Kay responded to Post reporter Katherine Laidlaw’s “gushy” profile of the two-time Giller Prize nominee, calling Moore’s most recent novel, February, “unreadably Canadian,” a prime example of the “navel-gazing narrative stasis” that defines Canadian literature. “Welcome to the unrelenting self-regard of CanLit,” Kay wrote, “where it’s all about nobly suffering women or feminized men.”

The only catch was that Kay had yet to read the book in question. However, the opinionated journalist rectified the situation on her summer vacation, reading February and a handful of other literary titles sent to her by Moore’s publisher, House of Anansi Press. Not surprisingly, Kay’s summer reading only confirmed her assumptions about the novel’s unmanly approach to character and plot. “February is 99% writerly foreplay, 1% readerly orgasm,” she writes:

Moore is an enormously talented writer, but like so many others of her sensitive, creative workshopped-to-death ilk, a writer’s writer privileging an artistic, leisured rendering of memory and feeling over prole-friendly dialogue, action and, above all, plot.

According to Kay, the woeful state of CanLit can be blamed on the impact that feminism has had on the industry (Canadian publishing is “highly feminized by comparison to 40 years ago,” she observes) and indulgent public-sector grants, which encourage writers to “start writing for bureaucrats, academics, theorists and literary elites, not for flesh and blood readers,” Kay argues.

Of course, it’s impossible to take seriously a critic whose pre-judgments are so ingrained and politically charged. Unfortunately for Moore, any number of authors could have stood in as the target of Kay’s screed.

The undead of CanLit

In the footsteps of Quirk Books’ Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and its just-announced follow up, Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters, Coach House Books publicist Evan Munday wants to know which Canadian book would be best suited for a zombie mash-up. He’s posted some suggestions over at Open Book: Toronto; they include Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town Under Siege by Zombies, Crabwise to the Hounds of Hell, and The Fat Woman Next Door Is Pregnant … and a Zombie. Readers can vote for their favourite, or suggest titles of their own. Some of the best suggestions include For Those Who Hunt the Zombies Down, Who Has Seen the Zombie, and (Quillblog’s favourite) In the Skin of a Zombie.

Getting into the mash-up spirit, Quillblog would like to suggest the following additions:

Headhunter
The Edible Woman
The In-Between Life of Vikram Lall
Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures

See? It’s easy if you put your mind to it.

Authors challenge the idea of a national literature

Canadian authors Margaret Atwood and Anne Michaels, along with Britain’s Monica Ali and Ireland’s Joseph O’Neill, have contributed their thoughts on the idea of a national literature to The Atlantic‘s Fiction 2009 special issue, created in partnership with the Luminato Festival of Arts and Creativity held in Toronto last month. The four essays, grouped under the title “Border Crossings,” discuss how globalization, immigration, and the internet have affected the concept of a national literature, and question whether the notion that books and authors belong only to one place can still exist.

In her essay “Reading Faust in Korean,” Michaels argues that the idea of a national literature is created by the reader who relates to the book in his or her own way, rather thanby the writer’s place of birth. Atwood, for her part, thinks that it’s impossible to place an author or a book into a single category. In her essay “The Beetle and the Teacup,” she writes:

“Do you identify as a woman, or as a writer?” I’ve been asked. “A North American? A Torontonian? An environmentalist? A poet, or a novelist?” As if we were so divisible.

Hot Docs meets CanLit

Hot Docs, the annual documentary film fest in Tornto, has released its spring lineup of 150 films. A couple of films with CanLit tie-ins have caught Quillblog’s attention: Inside Hana’s Suitcase tells the story behind Karen Levine’s book Hana’s Suitcase, about a Czech victim of the Holocaust, which went on to become a bestseller for Second Story Press and spawned a series of Holocaust-related titles. Paris 1919 is based on the book by Margaret MacMillan about the months following the First World War. And Poetry in Motion showcases 24 avant-gardish poets, including Michael Ondaatje, performing their work.

Hot Docs passes are already on sale, and the fest runs from April 30 to May 10.

Debating CanLit

Calgary Herald columnist Naomi Lakritz (whom you might remember from Quillblog past) weighs in on that story about Canadians being unable to name their own authors. Her drive-by attack on Carol Shields doesn’t exactly raise the literary-criticism bar, but much of what she has to say generally is fair enough:

That’s another thing about the aura around CanLit – you’re not really supposed to admit that you don’t like some of the authors’ works.

[...]

[I]f people aren’t even reading these authors, then no debate as to their merits is possible, and the illusion – or rather, the requirement – that everyone should swoon over a book simply because its author is Canadian, continues unchecked.

It’s unclear where exactly the problem or remedy is supposed to lie here – if “people aren’t even reading these authors,” then how much unwarranted swooning is really going on? – but it’s hard to argue with the general sentiment that debate is good.

And at one point in reading Lakritz’s column, Quillblog couldn’t help chipping in a spontaneous “amen”:

Adrian Stein, of Books in Canada magazine, calls the results of the poll “dreadful but not surprising.”

He claims that it’s hard “for any country to maintain a literary culture when the vehicles that support this expression are disappearing, one by one,” and says Canadian Heritage itself doesn’t grasp the importance of book reviews.

That sounds like a thinly disguised plea for more money to shore up the magazine….

More favourite books of 2008

The L.A. Times has put together a special “Favorite Books of 2008″ issue, and there are a few honourable mentions for CanLit.

In fiction and poetry, Miriam Toews’s The Flying Troutmans has a spot alongside other books that have been touted in multiple year-end roundups, like 2666 by Robert Bolaño and A Mercy by Toni Morrison.

For kids, Jeremy Tankard’s Me Hungry is singled out in the children’s picture book category, and Cory Doctorow’s Little Brother is mentioned in the YA category — a list dominated by books featuring “utopias and apocalyptic scenarios.”

National Post hosts online Giller roundtable

In preparation for tomorrow’s Scotiabank Giller Prize gala award ceremony, the National Post has recruited a cadre of industry insiders, authors, and commentators for a special online roundtable about literary awards and their effects on the nominated titles.

The panellists are:

Moderators:
Brad Frenette and Mark Medley, National Post

Guests:
Doug Pepper, president and publisher, McClelland & Stewart
Lewis DeSoto, author of Blade of Grass, longlisted for the Booker Prize
Nino Ricci, author of The Origin of Species, 2008 Governor General’s Literary Awards nominee
Yvonne Hunter, director of marketing and publicity, Penguin Canada
Vincent Lam, author of Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures, 2006 Scotiabank Giller Prize winner
Sarah MacLachlan, president of House of Anansi
Douglas Hunter, author of God’s Mercies, 2008 Governor General’s Literary Award nominee
Martha Kanya-Forstner, editorial director, Doubleday Canada
Terry Fallis, author of The Best Laid Plans, 2008 Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour winner
George Murray, moderator of Bookninja.com

Although he’s not on the official list, it appears that Pasha Malla, author of the Giller-longlisted story collection The Withdrawal Method, is also on hand for the discussion.

So far, the questions have ranged from the inane — Where will you be on Giller night? — to the provocative — Are we witnessing the emergence of a new generation of CanLit superstars?

In the early going, Doug Pepper has invited Martha Kanya-Forstner out for drinks prior to the gala, Pasha Malla has declared Lee Henderson’s novel The Man Game to be “badass,” and Nino Ricci has called literary juries “just three people horse-trading.” This roundtable discussion might be worth following.

There’s also a ticker at the bottom of the roundtable keeping track of people’s votes for which shortlisted novel should win tomorrow night. As of 12:34 this afternoon, the leader is Joseph Boyden’s Through Black Spruce, with 43% of the vote, followed by Anthony De Sa’s Barnacle Love, with 23%.

TPL-approved books for preschoolers

The Toronto Public Library has released its second annual “first and best” list. Masterminded by Ken Setterington, the library’s child and youth advocate (who was named one of Q&Q‘s CanLit 30 earlier this year), the list highlights recommended Canadian titles for children. A brief Toronto Star item on this year’s list is here, and last year’s list is here.

The 2008 titles are listed below, with links to Q&Q reviews where available.

• Chicken, Pig, Cow by Ruth Ohi (Annick Press)
• It’s Moving Day by Pamela Hickman; Geraldo Valério, illus. (Kids Can Press)
• Little Panda by Renata Liwska (Houghton Mifflin/Thomas Allen & Son)
• One Watermelon Seed by Celia Barker Lottridge; Karen Patkau, illus. (Fitzhenry & Whiteside)
• A Pocket Can Have a Treasure in It by Kathy Stinson; Deirdre Betteridge, illus. (Annick Press)
• Ready for Winter (and Spring, Summer, Autumn – four-book series), by Marthe Jocelyn (Tundra Books)
• The Sweetest One of All by Jean Little; Marisol Sarrazin, illus. (Scholastic Canada)
• Thing-Thing by Cary Fagan; Nicolas Debon, illus. (Tundra Books)
• Time Is When by Beth Gleick; Marthe Jocelyn, illus. (Tundra Books)
• A Visitor for Bear by Bonny Becker; Kady MacDonald Denton, illus. (Candlewick Press/Penguin Canada)

Mr. Brown wants to go to Ottawa

As eye weekly reports, Louis Riel author Chester Brown is looking to get in on the federal election as a Libertarian candidate. He’s currently trying to amass the 100 signatures necessary to get the party’s nomination for the Trinity-Spadina riding, though even if he does, it’s unlikely that incumbent Olivia Chow will be too worried.

As eye‘s Marc Weisblott writes, The Beguiling is soliciting signatures on Brown’s behalf, with this caveat: “Please note: You can nominate Chester and then decide to vote for someone who might actually get elected.”

Weisblott also notes that Brown received a $16,000 Canada Council grant for his next graphic-novel project, “a 200-page chronicle of his experiences paying for sexual services.” Is anyone else worried that the Tories are smelling blood in the water?

Furthermore:

How is a candidate telling voters that the government should keep as much distance as rationally possible going to explain that one?

“I don’t understand why those grants are there,” says Brown. “If you can’t make money off your art then you should get a real job to support yourself.

“I also don’t think that people collecting welfare are doing anything wrong. What I’m taking a stand against are the people who do the distributing.

“And, if I didn’t take it, the money would probably go to someone less deserving than me.”

Let’s not forget that star CanLit author Thomas King – whose next project, I think we can assume, is probably not a 200-page chronicle of his experiences paying for sexual services – is also running in this election. He’s an NDP candidate in Guelph, under the presumably more voter-friendly name of Tom King.

Bookmarks: Rawi Hage, Fletch done, and more

• Is any CanLit author getting more press this season than Rawi Hage? He was profiled here a few months back, and since then he’s been covered in the National Post, the Toronto Star, the Ottawa Citizen, The Globe and Mail (subscriber-only), and on the CBC Arts site, and undoubtedly much more
• Oh, right, there’s also this Andrew Davidson guy, on the Guardian site, the Post, Maclean’s, CBC Arts, the Globe (subscriber-only again), etc., etc., including here
• Gregory Mcdonald, author of Fletch and its many sequels, is dead at 71
• In search of the next bestseller (The Times)