Ling Zhang responds to accusations of plagiarism

This week, the controversy dogging Chinese-Canadian author Ling Zhang’s second novel, Gold Mountain Blues, flared up again as prominent Chinese-Canadian authors Wayson Choy, Sky Lee, and Paul Yee signed a letter asking Penguin Canada to delay publication of its English-language translation of the book. Zhang has been accused of plagiarizing work by Choy, Lee, and Yee, as well as other well-known Chinese-Canadian writers. In their request, the trio criticize Penguin’s efforts to substantiate the accusations and they’ve asked for the delay so that an independent review might take place. (For more details on the controversy please follow the links to previous posts on Quillblog.)

In response, Zhang has issued a statement in which she claims not to have read the works from which she has allegedly borrowed, and expresses her disappointment at the recent turn of events:

Gold Mountain Blues is the result of years of research and several field trips to China and Western Canada. The research data obtained over the years is voluminous enough to allow me to write another complete novel if I chose to. A hundred and fifty years of Chinese-Canadian history is a “common wealth” for all of us to share and discover. I have not read The Jade Peony, Disappearing Moon Café, The Bone Collector’s Son, or Tales from Gold Mountain. I have a great respect for the authors who have already explored this rich territory before me: Wayson Choy, Denise Chong, Paul Yee, and Sky Lee.  I welcome and encourage authors interested in Chinese-Canadian history to do the same. When I started to write this book, I hoped it would serve to bring the Chinese-Canadian community a little more closely together, by sharing such a long and meaningful history.  I am deeply saddened to see that things do not seem to be going in that direction.

CLA kicks off Canadian Library Month

The Canadian Library Association kicked off Canadian Library Month on Tuesday. Throughout the month of October, libraries across the country will host events to raise awareness about the importance of libraries in the nation’s communities.

According to a press release from the CLA, the theme for 2011, Your Library: A Place Unbound, strengthens this message by pointing to libraries as hubs of information and personal connection in the midst of a quickly evolving world. “From coast to coast to coast, libraries are without boundaries, places of endless opportunity where Canadians have an equal right to access resources,” says CLA president Karen Adams in the media release.

Within the span of a few months, Canadian libraries have faced threats from municipal funding cuts, union strikes, devastating fires, and natural disasters — to name but a few challenges. It’s nice, then, to have some positive library-related news to report.

And in case a month of library celebrations isn’t uplifting enough, here’s a quick round up of other library-friendly news:

• The Nova Scotia Library Association names Tracey Jones-Grant winner of the 2011 Norman Horrocks Award for Library Leadership, and Rachel Crosby winner of the 2011 Emile Theriault Library and Information Technology Award for support staff
• Newfoundland and Labrador Public Libraries celebrates 75 years on Oct. 28
• Toronto Public Library’s Arthur Conan Doyle Room is getting a face lift
• Vancouver Public Library may have closed its Riley Park Branch last month, but Vancouver City Council has approved an increase in VPL funding for the brand new Terry Salman Branch

Happy Canadian Libraries Month!

Canadian literary event round-up: Sept. 23-29

Here are just a few of the literary events happening across the country in the next week:

• Kingston WritersFest, various locations, Kingston, Ontario (Sept. 23–25; schedule at kingstonwritersfest.ca)
• We Are Here: Telling African-Canadian Stories, World Trade and Convention Centre, Halifax (Sept. 23, 6:30 p.m., $10)
• Graphic novelist Craig Thompson launches Habibi, Drawn & Quarterly, Montreal (Sept. 23, 7 p.m., free)
• Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia hosts Fall into Writing with Ami McKay, Stephens Gerard Malone, and Sue Goyette, Pier 21, Halifax (Sept. 24, 7 p.m., $10)
• The Word on the Street national book and magazine festival, various locations in Vancouver, Lethbridge, Saskatoon, Kitchener, Toronto, and Halifax (Sept. 25; schedules at thewordonthestreet.ca)
• Peter Knegt launches Queer Rights, Drawn & Quarterly, Montreal (Sept. 26, 6 p.m., free)
• Leanne Prain launches HOOPLA: The Art of Unexpected Embroidery with a stitch-and-bitch, Type Books, Toronto (Sept. 27, 6 p.m., free)
• Evan Munday launches The Dead Kid Detective Agency, No One Writes to the Colonel, Toronto (Sept. 29, 7 p.m., free)

Canadian literary event round-up: July 22-28

Here are just a few of the literary events happening across the country in the next week:

• Melancthon (7 Directions & the African Reparations Fund) poetry reading with NourbeSe Philip, Jumari Giles, Truth Is, Zainab Amadahy, Sonny Be, and Sedina Fiati, Blue Moon, Toronto (July 22, 9 p.m., $10 or pwyc)
• Don Banting signs Two Shadows Have I, Indigo South Edmonton Common (July 23, 1 p.m., free)
• Dorothy Ellen Palmer, author of When Fenelon Falls, reads with Chad Pelley, The Ship, St. John’s (July 24, 7:30 p.m., free)
• Alison Uitti reads from First Days Night Movies, McNally Robinson, Saskatoon (July 25, 7:30 p.m., free)
• Chevy Stevens signs Never Knowing, Chapters Granville, Vancouver (July 25, 7 p.m., free)
• Farzana Doctor reads from Six Metres of Pavement, Little Sister’s Book & Art Emporium, Vancouver (July 26, 7 p.m., free)
• Misha Glouberman and Sheila Heti launch The Chairs Are Where the People Go, The Garrison, Toronto (July 27, 7 p.m., free)

In the July/August issue of Q&Q: 2011 fall preview

The busy season for publishers has no shortage of big new releases, with novels from Ondaatje, Vanderhaeghe, and Endicott, the Massey Lectures from Adam Gopnik, and kids’ books from Kenneth Oppel and Kit Pearson. In the July/August 2011 issue, Q&Q takes a look at the fall season’s top titles.

Also in this issue, QR-code marketing, novelist Esi Edugyan’s sophomore blues, and publishers’ reactions to Indigo’s new co-op program. Plus reviews of new books by Lynn Coady, Nicole Lundrigan, Cary Fagan, and more.

FEATURES
Fall preview
A sneak peek at the season’s top fiction, non-fiction, children’s, and international titles

The CBA’s balancing act
The Canadian Booksellers Association looks to new digital partnerships – and old-school member outreach – to regain its place as the united voice of booksellers

After the collapse
Canadian book distributors remain optimistic following the bankruptcy of H.B. Fenn and Company

FRONTMATTER
Esi Edugyan finds an unlikely inspiration for her sophomore novel, Half-Blood Blues
Winnipeg’s Aqua Books revinvents itself as a popular community hangout
Joshua Knelman’s art-theft investigation landed him a book deal
Best short stories: Michael Christie on David Bezmozgis’s “Tapka”
Indigo’s new co-op program faces mixed publisher reaction
Is QR-code marketing just a fad, or can it sell books?
Cover to cover: Caitlin Sweet’s The Pattern Scars
Snapshot: eBound Canada CEO Robert Hayashi

REVIEWS
The Water Man’s Daughter by Emma Ruby-Sachs
Alone in the Classroom by Elizabeth Hay
Glass Boys by Nicole Lundrigan
The Antagonist by Lynn Coady
How Shakespeare Changed Everything by Stephen Marche
PLUS more fiction, non-fiction, and poetry

BOOKS FOR YOUNG PEOPLE
Dear Baobab by Cheryl Foggo; Qin Leng, illus.
Nini by François Thisdale
The Summer of Permanent Wants by Jamieson Findlay
Testify by Valerie Sherrard
Born Ugly by Beth Goobie
Peter Nimble and His Fantastic Eyes by Jonathan Auxier
PLUS more fiction, non-fiction, and picture books

THE Q&Q/BOOKNET CANADA BESTSELLERS

THE LAST WORD
Authors who borrow from historical events face real ethical issues, writes novelist D.J. McIntosh

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Book links round-up: booksellers charging for events, nasty author-on-author insults, and more

• You can meet your favourite author, but you’ll have to buy a ticket
• Ouch, that hurts: 30 of the nastiest author-on-author insults
• Contrary to media reports, Lady Gaga and philosopher Slavoj Žižek are not caught in a bad romance
• Over 24,000 pages of Sarah Palin’s e-mails condensed into I Hope Like Heck: The Selected Poems of Sarah Palin
• Last chance to nominate your favourite Canadian political books for The Writers’ Trust of Canada/ Samara list, and read current nominations
  

Canadian literary event round-up: June 3-9

Here are just a few of the literary events happening across the country in the coming week:

• Canadian Women in Afghanistan presents Fawzia Koofi reading from her memoir Letter to My Daughters, John Dutton Theatre, Calgary (June 3, 7 p.m., registration required)
• Children’s rights activist Craig Kielburger reads from his new book Lessons From a Street Kid, Me to We, Toronto (June 4, 10 a.m., free, RSVP)
• Dialogic Series on the writings of poet and editor Dr. John Asfour with Professor Norman Cornett, Lallouz, Montreal (June 6, 6 p.m., $25, $15 f0r students and seniors)
• Joel Thomas Hynes will launch his new chapbook God Help Thee: A Manifesto, The Ship Pub, St. John’s (June 7, 7:30 p.m., free)
• Elisabeth Mann Borgese, Paul Kennedy, and ocean-inspired writers Kathy Mac and Donna Morrissey celebrate Oceans Day, Scotiabank Auditorium, Dalhousie University, Halifax (June 8, 7 p.m., free)
• Andre Gerard read from Fathers: A Literary Anthology, McNally Robinson Booksellers, Saskatoon (June 9, 7:30 p.m., free)

Canadian literary event round-up: May 13-19

Here are just a few of the literary events happening across the country in the next week:

• Caroline Woodward launches Penny Loves Wade, Wade Loves Penny, Pages Books on Kensington, Calgary (May 13, 7:30 p.m., free)
• World Poetry International Festival, Richmond Cultural Centre, Vancouver (May 14-15, 10 a.m.-5 p.m., free)
• Josie Penny, Kate Evans, and Ramona Dearing read as part of the Atlantic Book Festival, 
The Ship Pub, St. John’s (May 15, 8 p.m., free)
• Launch for Arsenal Pulp Press anthology Persistence: All Ways Butch and Femme, Buddies in Bad Times Theatre, Toronto (May 17, 7 p.m., $5-$15 sliding scale)
• Tribute to Jones, The Shop, Toronto (May 18, 7:30 p.m., free)
• Pivot Readings at the Press Club with Maureen Hynes, Stan Rogal, and Matthew J. Trafford, The Press Club, Toronto (May 18, 8 p.m., PWYC)
• Atlantic Book Awards ceremony, Alderney Landing, Dartmouth (May 19, 6 p.m., $10)

Event photos: Toronto Comic Arts Festival

Thousands of comics fans crowded into the Toronto Reference Library last weekend for the Toronto Comic Arts Festival. “I remember when it was 100 people in a parking lot,” said one attendee, navigating through the line-up for Saturday’s discussion with American cartoonist Chris Ware.

This year’s event included over 300 publishers, artists, and authors from across North America.

The crowds at TCAF

Chester Brown signs autographs at the Drawn and Quarterly booth

Pop Sandbox’s Alex Jansen (left) and The Next Day illustrator John Porcellino

The Never Weres author Fiona Smyth

Lockpick Pornography and A Softer World author Joey Comeau

Selling merchandise at Owlkids

TCAF fans show their support

Publishing at the polls: Foreign-ownership regulations

As Canadians head to the polls on May 2, Q&Q looks at key federal policies affecting the publishing industry. Stay tuned for upcoming features on federal funding and mass digitization.

When it comes to foreign ownership in Canada’s book businesses, the only thing all industry players seem to agree on is that the current policy is woefully outdated. Known as The Revised Foreign Investment Policy in Book Publishing and Distribution, an amendment to the Investment Canada Act, the current regulations have been in place since 1992.

Since that time the global economy has adapted to an increasingly consolidated business scene and the advent of digital publishing. In light of these massive changes, the federal government initiated a review of the guidelines and their effectiveness in the industry’s three main sectors – publishing, distribution and wholesale, and retail – four years ago. An announcement regarding the review findings and the government’s subsequent decision, officially slated for 2011, was unofficially expected sometime this month. And then the election was called, which halted any further discussion or review.

In July 2010, the department of Canadian Heritage released “Investing on the Future of Canadian Books,” a discussion paper that addressed the “evolving book industry landscape.” The paper presented policy review options available to the government, and solicited feedback from industry players. Phase two of the book policy review saw this feedback posted to Canadian Heritage’s website, where the public could comment on submissions.

The third phase involved three roundtable discussions with industry representatives, which took place December in Montreal, Vancouver, and Toronto.

Canadian Publishers’ Council executive director Jacqueline Hushion reports the sessions were well attended and represented an array of industry interests. On the publishing side, CPC members included David Swail, president and CEO of McGraw-Hill Ryerson; Kevin Hanson, president of Simon & Schuster Canada; Greg Nordal, president and CEO of Nelson Education; and Brad Martin, president and CEO of Random House of Canada, among a number of others.

The Association of Canadian Publishers was represented at both English-language events in Vancouver and Toronto. “Publishers who attended from the ACP at both of those roundtables all got the message that the status quo for the policy is not, in [Canada] Heritage’s view, a viable option,” says ACP executive director Carolyn Wood. “There’s going to be change.”

The ACP supports the current policy, and has pushed for increased accountability, as opposed to relaxing or repealing restrictions. “We think the current system needs to be more carefully applied, and that a greater degree of transparency would be valuable and productive,” Wood says. “We think the limiting of ownership to Canadians, except where net benefit can be demonstrated, is a sound basis. We believe the application, measurement, and reporting of the net benefits process need to be strengthened.”

So what’s to become of this intensive multi-year review? Wood suggests it may be “quietly shelved” for the moment, though she quickly adds it’s possible the Department of Canada Heritage will push ahead. Hushion agrees that once the election dust settles, there’s likely going to be a long delay getting the process back on track, but she’s confident it will happen.

“The process will have to go forward, because the process was something that came from Cabinet,” Hushion says. “It’s just now a question of how much later it will be completed.”