Two iconic Toronto bookstores hit hard times

Two of Toronto’s longstanding independent bookstores will face major changes in 2012.

This morning, Sue Houghting, owner of The Book Mark in the city’s Kingsway neighbourhood, announced she will close shop after 46 years in business. In a press release, Houghting cites an “unaffordable rent increase and high property taxes” as factors that have made the bookshop, believed to be Toronto’s oldest surviving indie, unsustainable. Houghting is aiming to shut down by Jan. 21, “but if stock dwindles before that we will close earlier,” she says.

News of The Book Mark’s demise follows reports that Glad Day Bookshop, the city’s iconic LGBT bookseller, is seeking new ownership. Last week, owner John Scythes told the Toronto Star he’s hoping to find a buyer within his customer base before opening the sale up to the general public.

Glad Day, the world’s oldest existing gay and lesbian bookshop, has struggled financially throughout most of its 42 years. A 2010 social media campaign by store staff brought its money problems to public attention. At the time, co-manager Sholem Krishtalka chalked them up to a steady decline in book sales, combined with significant legal fees left over from a decades-long censorship battle with the Ontario Film Review Board.

Burning of Lawrence Hill’s Book of Negroes planned for today

Lawrence Hill learned last week that a Dutch activist – Roy Groenberg, leader of a group known as the Foundation Honor and Restore Victims of Slavery in Suriname – objected to the use of the word “negro” in the title of the Hamilton author’s most famous novel, The Book of Negroes (published in Dutch as Het Negerboek).

Groenberg informed Hill in a letter that he intends to burn several copies of the book today in an Amsterdam park that contains a monument commemorating Dutch slavery and the struggle for freedom. The chilling publicity stunt has provoked strong reactions, most notably from the author himself. In an even-handed yet forceful op-ed in Monday’s Toronto Star, Hill wrote:

Burning books is designed to intimidate people. It underestimates the intelligence of readers, stifles dialogue and insults those who cherish the freedom to read and write. The leaders of the Spanish Inquisition burned books. Nazis burned books.

Hill went on to discuss the fungibility of terms used to describe race, noting that “racial terminology will always fail, because it is absurd to try to define a person by race.” Describing the “kaleidoscopic evolution” of racial terminology over the past five decades, Hill concluded there are no easy answers:

I tell my own children that no single word is entirely out of bounds. One must simply know the heft of each word, and use it appropriately. If that means employing discretion around archaic or racist terms, so be it. I don’t use “Negro” in day-to-day language. To this day, I still cringe at the sound of “Nigger” or “Nigga” in hip hop lyrics. But there is sometimes room to use painful language to reclaim our own history.

New Yorker blogger Ian Crouch has picked up on the story, comparing the burning of The Book of Negroes to a similar stunt perpetrated by radical Florida pastor Terry Jones, who torched a copy of the Koran earlier this year. In both cases, Crouch argues, totalitarian tactics are being used to scandalize the public. From The New Yorker‘s Book Bench blog:

[I]n Amsterdam, another small, passionate political group is using book-burning as a way of getting attention. The political motivations and desired ends are much different, but the means are precisely the same: spectacle, provocation, brutish and simple acts in response to complex issues.

Despite these similarities, though, the protest in Amsterdam does stand out as a rare example of a group with progressive political demands – in this case, the recognition of the ways in which the Netherlands benefited from the slave trade and a call to end contemporary discrimination – resorting to such an odiously reactionary practice…. Hill’s story, looked at more evenly, reminds us that attempts to control language by those who are eager to move society forward can be just as insidious as similar attempts by those who want to hold it back.

Egypt’s publishing industry picks up the pieces post-uprising

The mass protests in Egypt’s Tahrir Square that led to the overthrow of the Mubarak regime and sparked a complete overhaul of the country’s social and political systems, also, unsurprisingly, prompted the cancellation of this year’s Cairo International Book Fair. The demonstrations have given way to talks, the dust has started to settle, and and it’s clear Egypt’s publishing industry has been turned on its head. Small presses have faced huge losses in sales and many have dramatically cut back their lists. And yet, according to Ahram Online, the nation’s publishers are eager to test the waters in this emerging social order and are optimistic about the industry’s future.

From Ahram Online:

Mohamed Hashim, owner of Dar Merit publishing house, talks enthusiastically of an expected major cultural and intellectual renaissance in the coming period. Hashim says he would not accept government compensation for the loss of sales caused by the revolution “no matter how much,” referring to the request by the publishers union for such reparations based on the size of rented space at the Cairo Book Fair grounds. Questions have been raised about the legitimacy of the request, which will be decided on by the minister of culture, the head of the National Book Organization and the minister of finance.

The biggest change will be the relaxing of state censorship policies:

Prior to the revolution, state security played a role primarily after publication, forcing the confiscation of published books and harassing and sometimes imprisoning publishers. After [small press Dar Noun's] publication in April 2010 of ElBaradei and the Dream of the Green Revolution by Kamal Ghobrial, state security investigated details about places [Ahmed Mehanna, the owner of Dar Noun,] visited, cafes he frequented, the address of his office (obviously already known to them), his views about the book’s content and even his opinions about Egyptian and Arab affairs. Mehanna was eventually arrested and spent two days in solitary confinement, and his entire personal library was destroyed.

In a few cases, state security intervened earlier. [Mohamed Salah, owner of Al-Dar publishing house] was harassed for eight months prior to the publication of Ibrahim Eissa’s My Book, which was merely a collection of Eissa’s articles that had been published in Al-Dostour newspaper during his time as editor.

Freedom to Read Week event round-up

Much of the debate preceding this year’s national Freedom to Read Week (Feb. 20-26) has focused on Alabama publisher NewSouth Books’ edited version of Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. No doubt this sensitive topic will be raised again at the Book and Periodical Council’s free event, “Challenging Books: Who Should Decide What Our Children Read?” on Wednesday, 6:30 p.m. at Toronto’s Gladstone Hotel. (To get primed, read George Elliott Clarke’s take, “N-Word Wickedness,” from NOW Magazine).

Freedom of sexual expression also generates plenty of public discussion. Here are a few national FTRW events that peer between the sheets:

• Censoring Manga for Fun and Profit (Feb. 23, Toronto Public Library, Lillian H. Smith Branch)
• Sexual Outliers: Censorship, Advocacy Journalism and the Gay Press (Feb. 23, Toronto Public Library, Yorkville Branch)
• Freedom to Read … Out Loud: Risky and Risqué Stories for Adults (Feb. 24, The ARTery, Edmonton)
• Banned Books: Madame Bovary (Feb. 28, Toronto Public Library, Deer Park Branch)

For a complete list of national events, visit freedomtoread.ca.

Pentagon celebrates Banned Books Week by destroying spy memoir

Just in time for Banned Books Week comes news that the Pentagon has overseen the destruction of a book deemed to contain classified information about the war in Afghanistan.

Earlier this month, The Washington Post reported that the Department of Defense was attempting to buy the entire 9,500-copy first print run of Operation Dark Heart by former Defense Intelligence Agency officer Lt. Colonel Anthony Shaffer. The Pentagon and publisher St. Martin’s Press have since come to an agreement to publish a redacted version of the controversial memoir.

AFP reports:

With Pentagon representatives looking on, St. Martin’s Press pulped the first print run of Operation Dark Heart a week ago and has released a revised version in a deal with the U.S. government.

“There were approximately 9,500 copies of the book that contained classified information that the department entered into an agreement with the publisher to destroy,” Pentagon spokesman Colonel Dave Lapan told reporters.

“The publisher conducted that destruction a week ago on Monday the 20th, with DoD (Department of Defense) observers there to witness it.”

Elsewhere, it has been reported that the DoD, which originally approved the manuscript, has reimbursed the publisher to the tune of $47,000 (U.S). As for the supposedly dangerous secrets contained in the book, they still might see the light of day: apparently, an unknown number of electronic versions of the uncensored first edition have already been sent to reviewers.

Barrick Gold blocks mining book from B.C. small press

Talonbooks has postponed a controversial book about the Canadian mining industry after being threatened with legal action by Barrick Gold, the Toronto-based mining giant. Speaking yesterday on CBC Radio’s Q, Talonbooks publisher Karl Siegler told host Jian Ghomeshi that Imperial Canada Inc.: Legal Haven of Choice for the World’s Mining Industries, originally scheduled to be published in spring 2010, has been pushed back to the fall at the earliest.

Siegler received a letter from Barrick in February demanding that the firm hand over the manuscript to the book, which was adapted from inspired by a French-language book published in Quebec called Noir Canada: Pillage, corruption et criminalité en Afrique, which looks at the African mining operations of Canadian companies. (Both books are by Alain Deneault, but Imperial Canada does not look at the mining operations of particular companies, focusing instead on the legal framework that allows a majority of the world’s mining companies to register in Canada.) Siegler initially chose to ignore Barrick’s request. From CBC.ca:

“As far as we were concerned, they had no right to demand or see copies of manuscripts that were in development prior to their public release. Anyone working on a book has a right to privacy and should not be subject to this kind of supervision.”

However, the two translators working on the book, Fred A. Reed and Robin Philpot, also received threatening letters from Barrick and immediately stopped working on the book. After consulting a lawyer, Siegler was advised to halt publication to avoid facing years in court and legal bills that could wipe out the company’s finances:

“Everyone involved stood to lose millions of dollars,” Siegler said. “In the publisher’s case, we stood to lose not just the company but all of the titles we have in print, roughly 500 titles dating back to the 1960s, many of which are Canadian classics.”

While the Talonbooks website lists the book as cancelled, Siegler told the CBC that he hopes to publish Imperial Canada as early as this fall if he can convince everyone involved to continue.

Apparently, Barrick’s bully tactics are nothing new: along with another mining company, Banro, Barrick is suing the Quebec publishers and authors of Noir Canada for $11 million in a case that will go before the courts this fall.

[UPDATE] Talonbooks president Kevin Williams has told Q&Q that the company is receiving pro bono legal representation from the B.C. Civil Liberties Association and hopes to resume work on the manuscript for Imperial Canada soon.

Free speech advocates defend anthology about teen homosexuality

Egypt is not the only place where authors run afoul of censorship. It also happens with distressing regularity in the so-called Land of the Free to Canada’s south. In the latest instance, the New Jersey chapter of conservative pundit Glenn Beck’s 9.12 Project has succeeded in getting an anthology of writing and art focusing on teen homosexuality removed from Rancocas Valley Regional High School. According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, 9.12 member and local grandmother Beverley Marinelli challenged the book Revolutionary Voices: A Multicultural Queer Youth Anthology for being “pervasively vulgar, obscene, and inappropriate.”

Marinelli might have a fight on her hands. An article in the Guardian claims the issue has galvanized free speech and pro-GLBT organizations, which are rallying in support of Revolutionary Voices and two other books Marinelli’s group is attempting to get banned:

“There are undoubtedly GLBTQ [gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered, and questioning] students at Rancocas Valley High School, regardless of whether they are openly recognised. Removing any of these titles would send a clear message to those students that they are the objects of social disapproval – different, vulnerable, and marginal – whose needs for information of particular relevance to their lives are not respected,” wrote the directors of a collection of organisations to the school’s board. The letter, the signatories to which include the National Coalition Against Censorship, the National Council of Teachers of English, American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression, the Association of American Publishers, and PEN America, added that there was “no question that these books are not obscene.”

Marnielli, who insists that she “is not a homophobe,” is also trying to get Revolutionary Voices removed from the Lenape Regional High School District, New Jersey’s largest high school district.

When not trying to ban books, Marinelli spends her time protesting “indoctrination” of vulnerable American youth. The Philadelphia Inquirer points out that she recently participated in a demonstration at New Jersey’s B. Bernice Young Elementary School after seeing a video of schoolchildren singing a song praising U.S. president Barack Obama.

She told the Philadelphia Daily News: “We did it for the children.”

Egyptian author could face jail term for novel accused of “insulting Christianity”

Last year, Egyptian author Youssef Ziedan won the Man Booker prize foundation’s $60,000 International Arabic Fiction Prize for his novel Azazeel. This year, that same novel could land the author up to five years in jail if his book is found guilty of “insulting Christianity.” From the Guardian:

Azazeel has provoked controversy in Egypt ever since its publication. The Coptic church denounced it as offensive for its violent portrait of Coptic church father St. Cyril, and one critic said it “tries to Islamise Christian beliefs and takes the side of heretics.” Now a group of Egyptian and international Coptic organisations have filed a complaint with the country’s public prosecutor against Ziedan, a philosophy professor, accusing him of insulting Christianity.

Ziedan claims not to have expected the book to be charged with “disdaining religions,” and goes on to say that he and “the majority of intellectuals” in the country thought the charges would be dismissed. Instead, they have been referred to the Egyptian State Security Prosecution for trial.

Azazeel has already been the subject of numerous attacks and attempts to have it banned, according to the Guardian:

The author said that there had been many calls to ban Azazeel, with four books written attacking his novel, but so far the Egyptian government has not complied with the demands. “Other books have been published to defend the novel, not to mention hundreds of pro-Azazeel articles,” he added. “Azazeel has kept on its wide circulation; 18 editions have been published within two years – an unprecedented incident in the history of Arab literature. All such events have increased the ire of the church, which resorted to a new technique last week.”

Controversial children’s novel allowed to remain in Toronto schools

Three weeks after a parent complaint prompted pro-Israeli groups and at least one school trustee to call for the banning of children’s novel The Shepherd’s Granddaughter, it seems that calmer minds have prevailed, with the Toronto District School Board opting to keep the book on library shelves. According to a report in the Toronto Star, the school board’s executive officer of student and community equity, Lloyd McKell, wrote in a letter to trustees that the novel, about a young Palestinian girl whose family is harassed by Israeli settlers, “does not cross the line into literature promoting hate or animosity towards others.” McKell went on to acknowledge that while the book is written from a “Palestinian-sympathetic point of view,” it can be used as a teaching tool to spark debate about the current Middle East conflict. From McKell’s letter to trustees:

The Shepherd’s Granddaughter contains several themes for creative discussions in our classrooms, such as multigenerational families and relationships; aging; experiencing loss; influences of religion and faith; gender role, and gender stereotypes; effects of family separation through emigration; the value of education.… As well, this book can certainly be used to explore issues of bias and prejudice…

Last week, the book’s publisher, Patsy Aldana of Groundwood Books, called on the TDSB to stand up for freedom of expression. From Aldana’s letter to the school board:

Librarians are a bulwark for freedom of speech. They are the most effective reading promoters we have. The TDSB should be lauding them and supporting them unconditionally – not allowing this kind of attack upon them.

The Shepherd’s Granddaughter censorship controversy heats up

The war of words surrounding children’s book The Shepherd’s Granddaughter (Groundwood Books) has escalated, with a Toronto District School Board trustee calling on the country’s largest school board to ban the book and to suspend its involvement with the Ontario Library Association, which is promoting the book as part of its province-wide Forest of Reading program.

Toronto Centre-Rosedale trustee Sheila Ward, who admits she hasn’t read the novel, told the Jewish Tribune last week that she will “move heaven and earth to have The Shepherd’s Granddaughter taken off the school library shelves.” Ward also alleged an anti-Israel bias on the part of the OLA, which selected a similarly controversial book, Deborah Ellis’ Three Wishes (also published by Groundwood), for the Forest of Reading in 2007. From the Jewish Tribune:

“This is the second book in three years [...] that has made a winning list [on the OLA] and that in my view is biased against the Israeli people,” [Ward] continued. “One can be a genuine mistake; two is a pattern. I’d like an investigation. Until I have some really hard answers, I’d like to suspend our involvement with the OLA.”

Groundwood publisher Patsy Aldana has responded to Ward’s comments in an open letter to TDSB director of education Chris Spence, reminding him of the TDSB’s “duty to integrate and reflect the multiple communities which make up this city.” From Aldana’s letter:

Librarians are a bulwark for freedom of speech. They are the most effective reading promoters we have. The TDSB should be lauding them and supporting them unconditionally – not allowing this kind of attack upon them.

Written by Toronto librarian and teacher Anne Laurel Carter, The Shepherd’s Granddaughter is told from the perspective of a young Palestinian girl whose family’s land and home is destroyed by Israeli settlers. The TDSB first received a complaint about the book last month. The book has since been condemned by Jewish advocacy groups B’nai B’rith and Friends of the Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies (read Quillblog’s report).