M.G. Vassanji launches The Assassin’s Song

Two-time Giller winner M.G. Vassanji launched his new novel, The Assassin’s Song (Doubleday Canada), within the cramped-yet-stylish confines of Xacutti in Toronto’s Little Italy on Sept. 10.

Andrew Pyper chats with Doubleday Canada publisher Maya Mavjee.

Camilla Gibb (left) and The Globe and Mail‘s Sandra Martin (right) flank Doubleday’s Martha Leonard.

Author and Random House art director CS Richardson stares down Christine Innis of Doubleday.

A Doubleday trifecta with Martha Leonard, Lara Hinchberger (who is decamping for M&S), and Tim Rostron. (In the background, Richardson hasn’t yet blinked.)

The man of the hour, M.G. Vassanji, stands before the merch table. (Note: the loyal and trustworthy Q&Q camera was dropped and broken shortly after this picture was taken, in a clumsy, Clouseau-esque move on the cameraman’s part.)

Agent Bruce Westwood holds down the fort with Westwoodians Carolyn Forde, Alison Hardacre, and Chris Casuccio.

Launch for Paul Watson’s Where War Lives

McClelland & Stewart toasted the launch of photographer and journalist Paul Watson’s memoir Where War Lives at Crush wine bar in downtown Toronto.

M&S president and publisher Doug Pepper chats with Maclean’s writer Brian Bethune.

Lisa Fender, a producer for CBC’s The Hour, shares a laugh with M&S editor Chris Bucci and publicist Ruta Liormonas.

Paul Watson, flanked by M&S editors Trena White and Bucci.

A stamp of disapproval for M&S

Every publisher gets a little bad press now and then; it’s part of the game. But rarely does it come from the stamp-collecting media.

McClelland & Stewart, though, has gotten some unflattering attention from Canadian Stamp News. The publisher launched a new postage stamp last year to commemorate its 100th anniversary, and it seems the design was not a hit with the philately journal’s readers. In a mail-in poll of 6,000 collectors, the M&S stamp placed first … in the Least Favourite Stamp category.

Plans for the Q&Q stamp have gone back to the drawing board.

Pashley’s party

A farewell celebration for retiring U of T Bookstore bookseller Nick Pashley was a big draw on Thursday night – 60-odd people attended, including a who’s who of indie booksellers and a healthy sampling of publishing types.

The party was held at a North Toronto pub and organized by Peter and Diane Waldock of North 49 Books and Kate Walker & Company’s Saffron Beckwith. Pashley received an honorary Libris award, and Peter Waldock broke out his impression of the Queen (see picture, above). Ben McNally, about to open his own bookstore, delivered a speech, as did David Stimpson, who first hired Pashley at the U of T Bookstore. Pashley himself, who will leave the store at the end of this month after 27 years, spoke to the assembled partygoers.

Booksellers on the scene included Richard Bachmann; Bryan Prince; Frans Donker and son Ian; Charlie Huisken; Al Navis; Chuck Erion and Tricia Siemens; Paul McNally and daughter Sarah; John Snyder; and Samantha Holmes. Also on hand were Carey Low and Nick Smith from Canadian Manda Group; Random House’s Louise Dennys; M&S’s Doug Gibson; Kids Can Press’s Judy Brunsek; PGC’s Graham Fidler; HarperCollins Canada’s Lloyd Kelly; and many more.

To view photos from the event, click here.

BookExpo survival tips

Herewith some handy advice for first-timers at the BookExpo Canada convention, and perhaps a refresher for show veterans.

• Plan your getaway: the St. Andrew subway station (King and University) is slightly closer to the convention centre than Union Station.
• Joking about the security at the entrance probably won’t earn you a full-body cavity search, but better safe than sorry.
• The chip trucks in front of convention centre? Once a day, max. There’s actual healthy food across the street in the food court.
• There are clean and relatively untrafficked bathrooms in the building, but their location is a closely guarded Q&Q secret.
• ARC grabbers: Don’t be a greedyguts. Exhibitors: Don’t get huffy; you want them read, don’t you?
• Remember: even though there’s no LongPen booth this year, Margaret Atwood is always watching.
• Once you’ve seen one of the film-adaptation trailers, move on – there’s no feature to follow.
• If a conventioneer is not displaying his or her name badge, “Hey buddy” will do as a greeting. “Hey baby” is not encouraged.
• Some of the author breakfasts and lunches are open to the public this year, so please keep the “death of Canadian publishing/bookselling” talk to a minimum – we don’t want to freak out the civilians.
• Q&Q always welcomes feedback – positive and negative – but if you have any urgent criticism and you can’t find us on the show floor, the statue of Glenn Gould across the street is always a sympathetic listener.
• Beer before wine, everything’s fine; beer before liquor, never been sicker.
• Know your beards: Stan Bevington runs Coach House; Frans Donker owns Book City; Graeme Gibson is an author; Doug Gibson is with M&S; Nick Pashley runs the U of T Bookstore trade section (though he’s retiring); Richard Bachmann is this year’s Jack winner.
• Lifting display copies is always wrong, but it may be slightly less wrong at 3:55 p.m. on Monday.
• What happens at BookExpo rarely stays at BookExpo.

Event Photos: The Writers’ Trust Awards Gala

Toronto’s St. Lawrence Centre was packed with glitterati as the Writers’ Trust held its annual awards ceremony. All photos by Ian Crysler.

The scene in the St. Lawrence Centre lobby. Note Marian Engel Award winner Caroline Adderson, second row, in red dress.

Random House Canada editor Craig Pyette, Westwood agent Jackie Kaiser, and HarperCollins Canada editor Phyllis Bruce.

M&S pres Doug Pepper waits patiently behind fiction juror Anna Porter for a hug from non-fiction nominee Rudy Wiebe.

Penguin Canada

Random imprints stand united (from left): Angelika Glover from Knopf Canada, Pam Murray from Random House Canada, Maya Mavjee from Doubleday Canada, and overall pres Brad Martin.

Vicky Metcalf Award winner Ken Oppel with his wife, Philippa Sheppard (left) and HarperCollins Canada

Rogers fiction prize winner Kenneth J. Harvey.

Journey Prize winner Heather Birrell.

Timothy Findley Award winner Douglas Glover.

Nereus non-fiction prize winner Dragan Todorovic.

Harbourfront’s pre-IFOA party

A huge crowd turned out for Harbourfront Centre’s annual pre-party for the International Festival of Authors, held at Toula in Toronto. (Photos by Rick Mugford / Courtesy of IFOA.)

Former M&S owner Avie Bennett embraces Harbourfront Festival Prize winner Dionne Brand, while ECW Press editor Michael Holmes (right) is caught mid-growl.

Book TV’s Peter Wolfe catches the camera’s eye from the middle of the throng.

International Readings at Harbourfront director Geoffrey Taylor welcomes the crowd, with Avie Bennett’s encouragement.

 This time it’s Cormorant Books owner Marc Cote.

Blast from the past, part 2: ACP Banquet

Banquet! The Association of Canadian Publishers’ annual wine-and-dine, held on June 7, brings out all the CanLit honchos. (Photos by Peggy Walt.)

Formac publisher Jim Lorimer begins to edge away as BookNet Canada CEO Michael Tamblyn plants a wet one on Fernwood Books president Errol Sharpe.

ECW Press’s David Caron and Michelle Peters from the Association of Manitoba Book Publishers.

Second Story Press publisher Margie Wolfe and M&S rights director Marilyn Biderman.

Greystone Books publisher Rob Sanders tries to put the hook on former employee and current Atlantic Publishers Marketing Association staffer Adam Cummins.

Dundurn Books topdog and ACP past-president Kirk Howard and M&S non-fiction editor Susan Renouf.

The women of M&S and Tundra Books: Kathy Lowinger, Ellen Seligman, Marilyn Biderman, Susan Renouf, and Catherine Mitchell, from left to right.

Some past and present M&S employees gather for a photo on the eve of the publisher’s big 100th anniversary bash.

Vehicule Press publisher Simon Dardick.

This just in: Munro still not retired

One of the most interesting book stories of the week started in the Edmonton Journal, when books editor Richard Helm wrote that Alice Munro was set to announce her retirement at Wednesday’s PEN Canada benefit and Writing Life launch in Toronto. It’s understandable that one would leap to this conclusion based on Munro’s contribution to Writing Life, an essay in which she writes about plans to give up, er, the writing life. We here at Q&Q were also alarmed, but a few weeks ago we contacted Munro’s editors at M&S, Douglas Gibson, and The New Yorker, Deborah Treisman, who both reassured us that this was not to be taken seriously.

Munro, of course, did not announce her retirement on Wednesday, although the Journal item had already been picked up by the National Post and blogged by Bookslut, Bookninja, and The Elegant Variation (at least most of the bloggers used question marks to denote some amount of skepticism). Whoops! On Thursday, Helm had a follow-up describing how Munro “may not be through with books after all.” (Many thanks to our Alberta correspondent Gordon Morash for following this for us.)

In other Munro news, the apparently press-shy author (for example, there are no pictures of Munro in Q&Q‘s photo gallery of the PEN event because she asked that her photo not be taken) is the subject of a lengthy Q & A in the forthcoming issue of the Virginia Quarterly Review (hat-tip to Bookslut).

Related links:
Click here for the Edmonton Journal story
Click here for The Elegant Variation item
Click here for the VQR interview

PEN Canada’s Writing Life launch

The University of Toronto’s Hart House was the setting for the June 20 launch of Writing Life. Proceeds from sales of the anthology, published by McClelland & Stewart and edited by PEN Canada president Constance Rooke, will benefit PEN Canada. (Photos by Ian Crysler.)

Portia Leggat and Wendy Pitblado check out Writing Life.

M&S fiction publisher Ellen Seligman catches up with former M&S marketing director and current LongPen pitchman Bruce Walsh, as author Camilla Gibb listens in.

 Isobel Harry, Janet Somerville, and author Alison Gordon.

PEN Canada past president and Toronto Star columnist Haroon Siddiqui turns on the charm.

Guest of honour June Callwood and her escort.

Knopf Canada v-p Louise Dennys, Jane Urquhart, Leon Rooke, M&S fiction publisher Ellen Seligman, and Marsha Butterfield.

Volunteers Linda Kanelakos and Jennifer Kuratczyk.

Joseph Boyden, Barry Callaghan, and Haroon Siddiqui share a laugh.

Authors Howard Engel and Jane Urquhart.

Playwright Susan Coyne, writer Bernice Eisenstein, and a skeptical Jonathan Garfinkel.