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.

BookNet bestsellers: nature

This week’s bestsellers list, which looks at the nature category, includes two titles from the 2012 Charles Taylor Prize shortlist. Andrew Westoll’s The Chimps of Fauna Sanctuary (#20) might have been the big winner at today’s Charles Taylor Prize announcement, but it’s Charlotte Gill’s Eating Dirt that takes the top spot on this list.

For the two weeks ending Feb. 26:

1. Eating Dirt, Charlotte Gill (D&M Publishers, $29.95 cl, 9781553659778)

2. Unlikely Friendships, Jennifer Holland (Workman Publishing, $16.95 pa, 9780761159131)

3. The Wave, Susan Casey (Anchor Canada, $21 pa, 9780385666688)

4. Edible and Medicinal Plants of Canada, Amanda Karst (Lone Pine Publishing, $29.95 pa, 9781551055725)

5. The Sacred Headwaters, Wade Davis (Douglas & McIntyre, $50 cl, 9781553658801)

6. Horse Breeds of North America, Judith Dutson (Storey Publishing, $12.95 pa, 9781580176507)

7. The Book of Deadly Animals, Gordon Grice (Penguin, $16 pa, 9780143120742)

8. Compact Guide to Ontario Birds, Andy Bezener (Lone Pine, $14.95 pa, 9781551054674)

9. Tar Sands, Andrew Nikiforuk (Greystone Books, $20 pa, 9781553655558)

10. Birds of Ontario, Andy Bezener (Lone Pine, $26.95 pa, 9781551052366)

11. National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America, Jon L. Dunn, (National Geographic, $32 pa, 9781426208287)

12. Plants of Coastal British Columbia, Andy MacKinnon (Lone Pine, $28.95 pa, 9781551055329)

13. Silent Spring, Rachel Carson (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt/Thomas Allen & Sons, $18.95 pa, 9780618249060)

14. The Rescue of Belle and Sundance, Birgit Stutz with Lawrence Scanlan (HarperCollins Canada, $14.99 pa, 9781554686209)

15. Edible Wild Plants, James Kavanagh (Waterford Press, $6.95 pr, 9781583551271)

16. Animal Tracks, James Kavanagh (Waterford Press, $6.95 pr, 9781583550724)

17. Trees (Waterford Press, $6.95 pr, 9781583551783)

18. Animal Tracks of Ontario, Ian Sheldon (Lone Pine, $9.95 pa, 9781551051093)

19. Animal (Dorling Kindersley, $55 cl, 9780756686772)

20. The Chimps of Fauna Sanctuary, Andrew Westoll (HarperCollins Canada, $29.99 cl, 9781554686490)

BookNet bestsellers list: Canadian non-fiction

Janet and Greta Podleski hold on to the top spot with The Looneyspoons Collection, just ahead of their self-publishing mentor David Chilton and his popular financial guide, The Wealthy Barber Returns. For the two weeks ending Feb. 19:

1. The Looneyspoons Collection, Janet and Greta Podleski
(Granet Publishing, $34.95 pa, 9780968063156)

2. The Wealthy Barber Returns, David Chilton
(Financial Awareness Corporation, $19.95 pa, 9780968394748)

3. Meals that Heal Inflammation, Julie Daniluk
(Random House Canada, $29.95 pa, 9780307359988)

4. Something Fierce, Carmen Aguirre
(Douglas & MacIntyre, $21 pa, 9781771000369)

5. Quinoa 365: The Everyday Superfood, Patricia Green and Carolyn Hemming
(Whitecap, $29.95 pa, 9781552859940)

6. The Game, Ken Dryden
(Wiley Canada, $24.95 pa, 9780470835845)

7. Damned Nations, Samantha Nutt
(McClelland & Stewart, $29.99 cl, 9780771051456)

8. The Book of Awesome, Neil Pasricha
(Berkley/Penguin $17.50 pa, 9780425238905)

9. The Tiger, John Vaillant
(Vintage Canada, $22 pa, 9780307397157)

10. Lynn Crawford’s Pitchin’ In, Lynn Crawford
(Viking Canada, $37 cl, 9780670065936)

11. Prisoner of Tehran, Marina Nemat
(Penguin Canada, $18 pa, 9780143052173)

12. Retirement’s Harsh New Realities, Gordon Pape
(Penguin Canada, $24 pa, 9780143179221)

13. Debt-Free Forever, Gail Vaz-Oxlade
(HarperCollins Canada, $21.99 pa, 9781554685912)

14. It’s Your Money, Gail Vaz-Oxlade
(HarperCollins Canada, $21.99 pa, 9781554688678)

15. Maya, Justin Jennings
(Royal Ontario Museum Press, $5 pa, 9780888544872)

16. Spilling the Beans, Julie Van Rosendaal
(Whitecap, $29.95 pa, 9781770500419)

17. Canadian Living: The One-Dish Collection
(Transcontinental Books, $26.95 pa, 9780981393896)

18. Cold Hard Truth, Kevin O’Leary
(Doubleday Canada, $29.95 cl, 9780385671743)

19. Falling Backwards, Jann Arden
(Knopf Canada, $32 cl, 9780307399847)

20. Never Too Late, Gail Vaz-Oxlade
(HarperCollins Canada, $21.99 pa, 9781554688685)

Book links roundup: Trillium Award reading series, unconventional publishers, and more

• Trillium Book Award launches a new reading series to celebrate its silver anniversary
• The Guardian profiles unconventional publishers
• Alex Epstein publishes short story collection as a Facebook photo album
• Original Charlotte’s Web illustrations by Garth Williams
• Amanda Knox signs a $4 million book deal with HarperCollins

BookNet bestsellers: romance

Revving up for Valentine’s Day? One of these best-selling romance titles may be just what Cupid ordered. For the two weeks ending Feb. 5:

1. The Next Always, Nora Roberts
(Penguin, $18.50 pa, 9780425243213)

2. A Lady Never Surrenders, Sabrina Jeffries
(Pocket Books/Simon & Schuster, $9.99 mm, 9781451642452)

3. Bennett and Camilla, Nora Roberts
(Silhouette/Harlequin, $9.99 mm, 9780373281558)

4. The Capture of the Earl of Glencrae, Stephanie Laurens
(Avon/HarperCollins, $9.50 mm, 9780062068620)

5. The Summer Garden, Sherryl Woods
(Mira/Harlequin, $9.99 mm, 9780778313090)

6. You … Again, Debbie Macomber
(Mira/Harlequin, $9.99 mm, 9780778312994)

7. Love in a Nutshell, Janet Evanovich and Dorien Kelly
(St. Martin’s Press/Raincoast, $29.99 cl, 9780312651312)

8. Once a Ferrara Wife …, Sarah Morgan
(Harlequin, $5.99 mm, 9780373130498)

9. The Lone Wolfe, Kate Hewitt
(Harlequin, $5.99 mm, 9780373130481)

10. Gabriella and Alexander, Nora Roberts
(Silhouette/Harlequin, $9.99 mm, 9780373281541)

11. Born in Ice, Nora Roberts
(Jove/Penguin, $8.99 mm, 9780515116755)

12. Table for Five, Susan Wiggs
(Mira/Harlequin, $9.99 mm, 9780778313823)

13. Fiancée for One Night, Trish Morey
(Harlequin, $5.99 mm, 9780373130511)

14. Lucky Penny, Catherine Anderson
(Signet/Penguin, $8.99 mm, 9780451236036 )

15. Spirit Bound, Christine Feehan
(Penguin, $8.99 mm, 9780515149562)

16. Lothaire, Kresley Cole
(Pocket/S&S, $19.99 pa, 9781451664232)

17. Princess from the Past, Caitlin Crews
(Harlequin, $5.99 mm, 9780373130504)

18. Next of Kin, Sharon Sala
(Mira/Harlequin, $9.99 mm, 9780778313120)

19. Forever Buckhorn, Lori Foster
(Harlequin, $9.99 mm, 9780373776474)

20. Secrets of the Lost Summer, Carla Neggers
(Mira/Harlequin, $9.99 mm, 9780778313113)

Penguin pulls out of OverDrive, stops ebook sales to libraries

Penguin Group has announced it will no longer provide ebooks to OverDrive, effective immediately. With the termination of the relationship between the publisher and the U.S. digital content distributor, public libraries are effectively cut off from acquiring and lending out Penguin ebooks and e-audiobooks.

The Digital Shift reports:

Penguin is negotiating a “continuance agreement” with OverDrive, which will allow libraries that have Penguin ebooks in their catalog to continue to have access to those titles.

But since the company does not have a contract with 3M, the still fledgling but growing competitor to OverDrive, the practical effect of the decision will be to shut down public library access to additional Penguin ebook titles (not physical titles) for the immediate future.

The news is not entirely unexpected. In November of last year, Penguin Group stopped selling frontlist ebook titles to OverDrive and other digital distribution platforms, and stopped offering new e-audiobooks to library distributors last month.

Penguin is not the only major publisher to demonstrate an unwillingness to provide digital content to libraries. Even as circulation numbers for ebooks grow at libraries, multinational publishers have tightened the reins on providing ebooks and e-audiobooks to these institutions. In March, HarperCollins capped library lending of its e-titles at 26 loans. Random House held off providing digital content to libraries until spring of last year (the availability of Canadian backlisted titles has been notoriously limited). Simon & Schuster and MacMillan have so far refused to provide e-titles to libraries. Now, HarperCollins remains the only large multinational publisher to provide digital titles to OverDrive.

In each of these cases, publishers have cited concerns over piracy and the potential for a loss of consumer sales. Canadian publishers such as House of Anansi Press, Douglas & McIntyre, and Orca Books do presently deal with the distributor.

This latest development with Penguin strengthens the argument for a Canadian-made solution to e-content distribution, championed by groups such as the Canadian Urban Libraries Council, the Association of Canadian Publishers, and the Canadian Publishers Council (of which Penguin Canada, Simon & Schuster Canada, HarperCollins Canada, and Random House of Canada are members).

[This post was updated Feb. 10.]

Best publicity stunt of the day: Lemony Snicket and Seth collaborate on new series

Quill & Quire is not in the habit of publishing emails, but this one demands sharing.

This afternoon, Q&Q was blind-copied on a correspondence between Vikki VanSickle, marketing and publicity coordinator at HarperCollins Canada, and the curmudgeonly children’s author Daniel Handler, better known as Lemony Snicket. The email revealed the “confidential” news that HarperCollins Canada is publishing a four-book series by Snicket, with illustrations by Canadian artist Seth.

From Lemony Snicket:

From: LemonySnicket
Sent: Wednesday, February 08, 2012 11:43 AM
To: Vansickle, Vikki
Subject: RE: Lemony Snicket Announcement – CONFIDENTIAL

My Dear Ms. VanSickle,

As I have already explained at length to you and others in this publishing conspiracy: no.

Take this press release back, please. I have attached it here. I have sympathy for anyone wanting to promote my work, but none of this information can be released.

In particular, I do not want to see this press release distributed to the list of people I’ve taken care to blind copy above. May they remain forever blind to any information about myself or my work.

These books are questionable and contain questions. I, for one, question why anyone would be interested in reading them.

And have the decency to leave Seth out of it. He has enough trouble as a celebrated artist imprisoned in a basement studio in some wretched university town, not to mention the fact that he’s Canadian.

I would appreciate it if you didn’t contact me again. I’ll be in my office until 4.

With all due respect,

Lemony Snicket

The email was accompanied by a “press release” with a placeholder for a quote from Seth (“if and when he recovers from the trauma of your last encounter”), and a marked-up version of the cover.

The official press release, which arrived 15 minutes later, confirmed that the first book in Snicket’s series, Who Could That Be at This Hour?, will be available in ebook and print formats on Oct. 23.

BookNet bestsellers: Canadian non-fiction

Even though Marina Nemat’s Prisoner of Tehran was voted off CBC Canada Reads today, it still charts on this week’s Canadian non-fiction bestsellers’ list. For the two weeks ending Jan. 29:

1. The Looneyspoons Collection, Janet and Greta Podleski
(Granet Publishing, $34.95 pa, 9780968063156)

2. The Wealthy Barber Returns, David Chilton
(Financial Awareness Corporation, $19.95 pa, 9780968394748)

3. Meals that Heal Inflammation, Julie Daniluk
(Random House Canada, $29.95 pa, 9780307359988)

4. Quinoa 365: The Everyday Superfood, Patricia Green and Carolyn Hemming
(Whitecap, $29.95 pa, 9781552859940)

5. Retirement’s Harsh New Realities, Gordon Pape
(Penguin Canada, $24 pa, 9780143179221)

6. It’s Your Money, Gail Vaz-Oxlade
(HarperCollins Canada, $21.99 pa, 9781554688678)

7. Debt-Free Forever, Gail Vaz-Oxlade
(HarperCollins Canada, $21.99 pa, 9781554685912)

8. The Book of Awesome, Neil Pasricha
(Berkley/Penguin $17.50 pa, 9780425238905)

9. Maya, Justin Jennings
(Royal Ontario Museum Press, $5.05 pa, 9780888544872)

10. The Supercharged Hormone Diet, Natasha Turner
(Random House Canada, $32 cl, 9780307356512)

11. Lynn Crawford’s Pitchin’ In, Lynn Crawford
(Viking Canada, $37 cl, 9780670065936)

12. Canadian Living: The One-Dish Collection
(Trancontinental Books, $26.95 pa, 9780981393896)

13. The Tiger, John Vaillant
(Vintage Canada, $22 pa, 9780307397157)

14. Chef Michael Smith’s Kitchen, Michael Smith
(Penguin Canada, $32 pa, 9780143177630)

15. Prisoner of Tehran, Marina Nemat
(Penguin Canada, $18 pa, 9780143052173)

16. Money-Smart Kids, Gail Vaz-Oxlade
(HarperCollins Canada, $6.99 pa, 978-1443412292)

17. Cold Hard Truth, Kevin O’Leary
(Doubleday Canada, $29.95 cl, 9780385671743)

18. The Ice Pilots, Michael Vlessides
(Douglas & McIntyre, $21.95 pa, 9781553659396)

19. Never Too Late, Gail Vaz-Oxlade
(HarperCollins Canada, $21.99 pa, 9781554688685)

20. Persuasion, Arlene Dickinson
(HarperCollins Canada, $32.99 cl, 9781443405966)

BookNet bestsellers: Canadian fiction

Esi Edugyan’s Scotiabank Giller Prize–winning novel, Half-Blood Blues, remains on top of this week’s Canadian fiction bestsellers’ list. For the two weeks ending Jan. 22:

1. Half-Blood Blues, Esi Edugyan
(Thomas Allen Publishers, $24.95 pa, 9780887627415)

2. The Winter Palace, Eva Stachniak
(Doubleday Canada, $24.95 pa, 9780385666565)

3. The Sisters Brothers, Patrick deWitt
(House of Anansi Press, $22.95 pa, 9781770890329)

4. The Virgin Cure, Ami McKay
(Knopf Canada, $32 cl, 9780676979565)

5. The Cat’s Table, Michael Ondaatje
(McClelland & Stewart, $32 cl, 9780771068645)

6. Bride of New France, Suzanne Desrochers
(Penguin Canada, $16 pa, 9780143173397)

7. Secret Daughter, Shilpi Somaya Gowda
(HarperCollins Canada, $19.99 pa, 9780061974304)

8. The Book of Negroes, Lawrence Hill
(HarperCollins Canada, $10.99 mm, 9781443408981)

9. Room, Emma Donoghue
(HarperCollins Canada, $19.99 pa, 9781554688326)

10. An Irish Country Village, Patrick Taylor
(Forge Books/Raincoast, $9.99 mm, 9780765368256)

11. The Midwife of Venice, Roberta Rich
(Doubleday Canada, $22.95 pa, 9780385668279)

12. Water for Elephants, Sara Gruen
(HarperCollins Canada, $16.50 pa, 9780006391555)

13. The Best Laid Plans, Terry Fallis
(McClelland & Stewart, $19.99 pa, 9780771047589)

14. Ru, Kim Thuy; Sheila Fischman, trans.
(Random House Canada, $25 cl, 9780307359704)

15. Bad Boy, Peter Robinson
(McClelland & Stewart, $9.99 mm, 9780771076336)

16. Annabel, Kathleen Winter
(Anansi, $19.95 pa, 9780887842900)

17. The Wild Beasts of Wuhan, Ian Hamilton
(Spiderline/Anansi, $19.95 pa, 9780887842535)

18. The Illustrated Book of Negroes, Lawrence Hill
(HarperCollins Canada, $19.99 cl, 9781443412193)

19. Hark! A Vagrant, Kate Beaton
(Drawn & Quarterly, $19.95 cl, 9781770460607)

20. The Cellist of Sarajevo, Steven Galloway
(Random House of Canada, $21 pa, 9780307397041)