Don McKay wins BMO Winterset Award

Last week, Don McKay’s The Shell of the Tortoise (Gaspereau Press) became the first ever essay collection to win the $10,000 BMO Winterset Award.

On March 22, the Newfoundland and Labrador Arts Council presented the prize to McKay, who was born in Owen Sound, Ontario, and now calls St. John’s home.

The jury — made up of Noreen Golfman, Kevin Major, and Lisa Moore — selected McKay’s collection because it “gets at something very fresh, very intelligent and very accessible,” Moore told The Telegram. “[H]e’s also really witty — those essays keep you awake. … He’s got a kind of sensitivity to his reading audience about very difficult ideas. He’s talking about science, but bringing science into line with poetry, and none of us had ever read anything like that.”

Finalists Edward Riche, nominated for Easy to Like (House of Anansi Press), and Mark Callanan, nominated for Gift Horse (Signal Editions), both received $2,500.

The Winterset Award celebrates writing by authors from Newfoundland and Labrador. Journalist Richard Gwyn founded the prize in 2000 to commemorate his late wife, author Sandra Fraser Gwyn.

Book links roundup: Mad Men’s literary leanings, Pottermore opens its ebook shop, and more

• Is Mad Men the most literary show on TV? The Globe and Mail‘s John Doyle thinks it replaces the novel in terms of cultural significance
• Harry Potter ebooks now available in Canada for the Sony Reader, Kindle, Nook, and Google Play
• Amazon’s problems with manga
• Toronto gets a new comics bookshop, the Comic Book Lounge & Gallery
• Salman Rushdie calls on India to defend free speech
• Long-lost Eugene O’Neill play recovered, to be performed at the Eugene O’Neill Festival in Washington, D.C.

Book links roundup: The Hunger Games attracts older audiences, no one is buying Mike Daisey’s book, and more

• The Hunger Games film predicted to net older audiences, thanks to the YA book’s popularity with adults
• Mike Daisey’s 15 minutes of notoriety are not translating into book sales
• British poet Ruth Padel on how “poetry has a responsibility to look at the world”
• Newly resurrected Occupy Wall Street Library dismantled
• Kumaran Nadesan launches reading series to benefit Sri Lankan literacy programs
• Toronto arts community rallies to help author and bookseller Derek McCormack during his recovery from cancer treatment

Book links roundup: National Geographic to launch digital singles, Thoreau helps scientists, and more

• National Geographic enters the digital shorts market
• Scientists examine Henry David Thoreau’s journals to track climate change
• Will the success of Fifty Shades of Grey “spawn a wave of repurposed fan-fiction erotica?”
• IPG client sales fall as the distributor continues to fight Amazon
• Former death-row inmate released, thanks in part to Pulitzer Prize-winning author Raymond Bonner

Alice Munro leads literary programming at this year’s Luminato

Luminato, one of Toronto’s biggest annual cultural festivals, has announced a rare appearance by Alice Munro, who will be interviewed onstage June 10 by Deborah Treisman, fiction editor for The New Yorker.

Running from June 8 to 17, this year’s festival will explore the historical and contemporary relationship between Canada and the U.S., with a timely focus on the War of 1812.

In a press release, Devyani Saltzman, Luminato’s literary programming curator, says, “I’m very excited to explore what it means to write about revolution and transformation – whether political, personal, social, or artistic. Do borders simply exist to transcend, or do they enhance collaboration? We’re thrilled to host wonderful authors engaged in rich conversation about these ideas and more.”

Other writers appearing at the festival include Richard Ford, Vincent Lam, Chris Cleave, Irvine Welsh, Peter Carey, Nicole Krauss, Adam Gopnik, Ayad Akhtar, Jim Lynch, Hari Kunzru, Linden MacIntyre, Michael Ondaatje, and Kyo Maclear.

BookNet bestsellers: Canadian children’s books

Just in time for March Break, this week’s bestsellers list, which looks at Canadian children’s books, illustrates that readers will love Robert Munsch forever.

For the two weeks ending March 4:

1. Love You Forever, Robert Munsch; Sheila McGraw, illus.
(Firefly Books, $5.95 pa, 9781443107648)

2. We Share Everything! Robert Munsch; Michael Martchenko, illus.
(Scholastic Canada, $9.99 bb, 9781443113441)

3. It’s My Room! Robert Munsch; Michael Martchenko, illus.
(Scholastic Canada, $7.99 pa, 9781443113656)

4. Up, Up, Down, Robert Munsch; Michael Martchenko, illus.
(Scholastic Canada, $9.99 bb, 9781443113465)

5. The Paper Bag Princess, Robert Munsch; Michael Martchenko, illus.
(Annick Press, $6.95 pa, 9780920236161)

6. Love You Forever, Robert Munsch; Sheila McGraw, illus.
(Firefly Books, $14.95 cl, 9780920668368)

7. The Gathering, Kelly Armstrong
(Doubleday Canada, $14.95 pa, 9780385668538)

8. Neil Flambé and the Marco Polo Murders, Kevin Sylvester
(Simon & Schuster, $14.99 cl, 9781442446045)

9. Blood Red Road No.1, Moira Young
(Doubleday Canada, $12.95 pa, 9780385671859)

10. Moose! Robert Munsch; Michael Martchenko, illus.
(Scholastic Canada, $7.99 pa, 9781443107181)

11. Thomas’ Snowsuit, Robert Munsch; Michael Martchenko, illus.
(Annick Press, $1.99 pa, 9781554511150)

12. 
I Have to Go! Robert Munsch; Michael Martchenko, illus.
(Annick Press, $1.99 pa, 9780920303511)

13. Sing a Song of Mother Goose, Barbara Reid
(Scholastic Canada, $9.99 bb, 9780545997249)

14.Half Brother, Kenneth Oppel
(HarperCollins Canada, $12.99 pa, 9781554686117)

15. The Paper Bag Princess, Robert Munsch; Michael Martchenko, illus.
(Annick Press, $1.99 pa, 9780920236253)

16.Nighty-Night: A Bedtime Song for Babies, Richard Van Camp
(McKellar & Martin Publishing, $8.95 bb, 9780986576744)

17.I See Me, Margaret Manuel
(Theytus Books, $6.95 cl, 9781894778855)

18. Give Me Back My Dad!, Robert Munsch; Michael Martchenko, illus.
(Scholastic Canada, $7.99 pa, 9781443107648)

19. Smelly Socks, Robert Munsch; Michael Martchenko, illus.
(Scholastic Canada, $7.99 pa, 9780439967075)

20. Zoe’s Year, Barbara Reid
(Scholastic Canada, $9.99 bb, 9781443113724)

Esi Edugyan, JJ Lee, Charlotte Gill nominated for B.C. Book Prizes

The West Coast Book Prize Society has announced the shortlists for the 28th annual B.C. Book Prizes, and for Esi Edugyan, the competition cuts close to home.

Edugyan, whose novel Half-Blood Blues won the 2011 Scotiabank Giller Prize and this morning was longlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction, is competing against her husband, Steven Price, and his novel, Into That Darkness, for the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize. Both books are published by Thomas Allen Publishers.

Charles Taylor Prize for Non-fiction shortlisted authors Charlotte Gill and JJ Lee face off again, this time for the Hubert Evans Non-fiction Prize, alongside 2012 Canada Reads finalist Carmen Aguirre. Gill is also nominated for the Bill Duthie Booksellers’ Choice Award.

The winners in all seven categories will be announced at the Lieutenant Governor’s B.C. Book Prizes Gala on May 12 in Vancouver.

Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize:

• Michael Christie, The Beggar’s Garden (HarperCollins Canada)
• Esi Edugyan, Half-Blood Blues (Thomas Allen Publishers)
• Frances Greenslade, Shelter (Random House Canada)
• Steven Price, Into That Darkness (Thomas Allen)
• D.W. Wilson, Once You Break a Knuckle (Hamish Hamilton Canada)

Roderick Haig-Brown Regional Prize:

• Chuck Davis, The Chuck Davis History of Metropolitan Vancouver (Harbour Publishing)
• Fred Herzog, Fred Herzog: Photographs (Douglas & McIntyre)
• Andrew Nikiforuk, Empire of the Beetle: How Human Folly and a Tiny Bug Are Killing North America’s Great Forests (Greystone Books)
• Sheryl Salloum, The Life and Art of Mildred Valley Thornton (Mother Tongue Publishing)
• Scott Watson, Thrown: British Columbia’s Apprentices of Bernard Leach and Their Contemporaries (Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery)

Hubert Evans Non-fiction Prize:

• Carmen Aguirre, Something Fierce: Memoirs of a Revolutionary Daughter (Douglas & McIntyre)
• Gary Geddes, Drink the Bitter Root: A Writer’s Search for Justice and Redemption in Africa (Douglas & McIntyre)
• Charlotte Gill, Eating Dirt: Deep Forests, Big Timber, and Life with the Tree-planting Tribe (Greystone Books)
• Theresa Kishkan, Mnemonic: A Book of Trees (Goose Lane Editions)
• JJ Lee, The Measure of a Man: The Story of a Father, a Son, and a Suit (M&S)

Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize:

• Patrick Lane, The Collected Poems of Patrick Lane (Harbour)
• Susan McCaslin, Demeter Goes Skydiving (University of Alberta Press)
• Garry Thomas Morse, Discovery Passages (Talonbooks)
• John Pass, crawlspace (Harbour)
• Sharon Thesen, Oyama Pink Shale (House of Anansi Press)

Christie Harris Illustrated Children’s Literature Prize:

• Dan Bar-el and Rae Maté, Pussycat, Pussycat, Where Have You Been? (Simply Read Books)
• Nicola I. Campbell and Kim La Fave, Grandpa’s Girls (Groundwood Books)
• Mike Deas, Dalen & Gole: Scandal in Port Angus (Orca Book Publishers)
• Robert Heidbreder and Marc Mongeau, Shake-Awakes (Tradewind Books)
• Sara O’Leary and Julie Morstad, When I Was Small (Simply Read)

Sheila A. Egoff Children’s Literature Prize:

• Glen Huser, The Runaway (Tradewind)
• Pamela Porter, I’ll Be Watching (Groundwood)
• Karen Rivers, What is Real (Orca)
• Caitlyn Vernon, Nowhere Else on Earth: Standing Tall for the Great Bear Rainforest (Orca)
• Moira Young, Blood Red Road (Doubleday Canada)

Bill Duthie Booksellers’ Choice Award:

• Chuck Davis, The Chuck Davis History of Metropolitan Vancouver (Harbour)
• Charlotte Gill, Eating Dirt (Greystone)
• Fred Herzog, Fred Herzog: Photographs (Douglas & McIntyre Editions)
• Gary Hynes, Island Wineries of British Columbia (TouchWood)
• Robert J. Wiersema, Walk Like a Man: Coming of Age with the Music of Bruce Springsteen (Greystone)

Esi Edugyan, Emma Donoghue make Orange Prize longlist

Esi Edugyan

In honour of International Women’s Day, the Orange Prize for Fiction, celebrating “excellence, originality, and accessibility in women’s writing,” has announced its 2012 longlist, which includes two celebrated Canadian authors.

Emma Donoghue, whose novel Room was shortlisted for the 2011 Orange Prize and won the 2010 Writers’ Trust Prize, is nominated for The Sealed Letter, a 2008 novel published by HarperCollins. Picador reissued a special paperback version for the U.K. market in early 2012, one of 12 titles marking the publisher’s 40th anniversary.

Donoghue is accompanied by fellow Canadian Esi Edugyan, who made the longlist with Half-Blood Blues (Thomas Allen Publishers), which won the 2011 Scotiabank Giller Prize and was  nominated today for the B.C. Book Prize.

Here is the Orange Prize longlist:

• Esi Edugyan, Half-Blood Blues (Thomas Allen Publishers)
• Karin Altenberg, Island of Wings (House of Anansi Press)
• Aifric Campbell, On the Floor (Serpent’s Tail/Consortium)
• Leah Hager Cohen, The Grief of Others (Riverhead/Penguin)
• Emma Donoghue, The Sealed Letter (HarperCollins)
• Anne Enright, The Forgotten Waltz (McClelland & Stewart)
• Roopa Farooki, The Flying Man (Headline Review)
• Jaimy Gordon, Lord of Misrule (Vintage Canada)
• Georgina Harding, Painter of Silence (Bloomsbury)
• Jane Harris, Gillespie and I (HarperCollins)
• Francesca Kay, The Translation of the Bones (Phoenix)
• A.L. Kennedy, The Blue Book (Jonathan Cape)
• Erin Morgenstern, The Night Circus (Doubleday Canada)
• Madeline Miller, The Song of Achilles (HarperCollins)
• Cynthia Ozick, Foreign Bodies (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt/Thomas Allen)
• Ann Patchett, State of Wonder (HarperCollins)
• Ali Smith, There but for the (Penguin)
• Anna Stothard, The Pink Hotel (Alma Books)
• Stella Tillyard, Tides of War (Vintage Canada)
• Amy Waldman, The Submission (HarperCollins)

Judged by Joanna Trollope, Lisa Appignanesi, Victoria Derbyshire, Natalie Haynes, and Natasha Kaplinksy, the Orange Prize awards the winner with a cheque for £30,000 and a limited-edition bronze figurine known as “Bessie.” The shortlist will be announced April 17 and the awards ceremony takes place May 30.

Q&A with art star and kidlit up-and-comer Cybèle Young

Cybèle Young may have seemed like an overnight kidlit success when her most recent picture book, Ten Birds (Kids Can Press), won a Governor General’s Literary Award last fall, but the Toronto-based artist actually began working on it more than 15 years ago. Young first made her name in the art world, where her miniature paper sculptures have attracted galleries and collectors in Vancouver, London, and New York, and landed her a recent residency in Paris. In the March 2012 issue of Q&Q, she discusses how her art informs her literary work, the transporting power of story, and what readers can expect next.

It might surprise some to learn that you trained as a sculptor. How did you get into publishing?
From a very young age, there was no question in my mind that I was an artist. At the Ontario College of Art, I did all sculpture courses. But in my final year of school, when I was pregnant with my daughter, everything shifted. I took a book-arts class and discovered that books were sculptural, too, on a private yet accessible level. I found myself going to kids’ book sections a lot more than I would go to galleries. And I still do.

You started Ten Birds in 1996. How did it finally come to fruition?
I drew most of the pictures for Ten Birds right after my daughter was born. I went to Groundwood Books with it 15 years ago because co-publisher Patsy Aldana is a friend’s mother. Then I illustrated a bit for Groundwood while focusing mainly on art – I felt I could only have one focus in addition to parenting.

Three years ago, after Groundwood had agreed to publish another picture book of mine, A Few Blocks (2011), I thought, “Well, I already showed this to Patsy, and we’re working together on something else,” so I showed it to Kids Can publisher Karen Boersma, whom I’d met at Groundwood. It clicked. We added one or two pages at the beginning and one or two at the end, but other than that, we used only the original drawings.

Some of your illustrations look like your sculptures. How does your art affect your books, and vice versa?
They definitely inform each other – I’m really half a person without one or the other. I had to find my voice in art first, but one of the things I love about books is being able to reach a wide audience. My sculptures imply stories, and in my books there are definitely themes I explore in my art, like my interest in small day-to-day experiences. Another thing I learned in sculpture that I apply to everything else: if I don’t enjoy it, it’s going to suck.

Has being a mom affected your publishing career?
Certainly I fell in love with children’s books when I was pregnant. And as a parent, there’s nothing more heavenly than knowing your kid, who could be climbing the walls, will sit happily in your lap if you offer them a book, and you can both be transported to another world.

Click on the thumbnails to see examples of Young’s fine art and illustration work.

Andrew Westoll wins the Charles Taylor Prize

The $25,000 Charles Taylor Prize for Literary Non-fiction was awarded to Andrew Westoll for his book The Chimps of Fauna Sanctuary: A Canadian Story of Resilience and Recovery at a ceremony in Toronto this afternoon. The book follows Westoll’s experience with 13 chimps that have been “retired” from biomedical research. The jury citation for Westoll’s book reads in part:

Westoll deftly draws the reader into the wild day-to-day ride of life with the Fauna chimps and soon their “otherness” falls away. Through his lens, the chimps are revealed as the individuals they are, with all their foibles, damage, and possibility – and the reader’s world view shifts on its axis. Heartrending and heart-warming, this is a stunning and important work of art and documentary and science.

A tweet from CBC Books indicates that Westoll thanked his wife and dedicated his award to the chimps.

The other shortlisted titles, culled from a longlist of 11 books, were:

• Into the Silence: The Great War, Mallory, and the Conquest of Everest by Wade Davis (Knopf Canada)
• Eating Dirt: Deep Forests, Big Timber, and Life with the Tree-Planting Tribe by Charlotte Gill (Greystone Books)
• The Measure of a Man: The Story of a Father, a Son, and a Suit by J.J. Lee (McClelland & Stewart)
• Afflictions and Departures: Essays by Madeline Sonik (Anvil Press)

This year’s jury consisted of Harvard University dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Allan M. Brandt; investigative journalist (and former Charles Taylor nominee) Stevie Cameron; and editor Susan Renouf. The runners-up each receive $2,000.

You can listen to Q&Q podcasts featuring Westoll and Gill, and watch for more coverage later today on Q&Q Omni.