Criminal charges dropped in Canada Customs manga case

After two years and $75,000 in legal fees, charges have been dropped against Ryan Matheson, a U.S. citizen accused of bringing child pornography into Canada after border officials discovered manga art on his computer.

According to the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, in exchange for pleading guilty to a non-criminal code regulatory offence under the Customs Act of Canada, Matheson, who faced up to a year in prison and the addition of his name to Canada’s sex offender registry, will not stand trial.

Last summer, the CBLDF formed a coalition to financially and legally assist Matheson, raising $20,000 toward his expenses. The arrest also inspired the resurrection of the Canadian Comic Legends Legal Defense Fund which collected $11,000. The two organizations will continue their campaign to raise the remaining $45,000 in outstanding legal fees.

For the first time, Matheson has made a personal statement, recounting the impact the arrest has had on his personal and professional life. His lawyer, Michael Edelson, has also posted a legal advisory about bringing comics into Canada.

Last May, Q&Q reported on a Canada Customs seizure of comics heading to the Toronto Comic Arts Festival. On May 6, TCAF participants Tom Neely and Dylan Williams were stopped at the Buffalo, N.Y., border, where copies of Blaise Larmee’s graphic novel Young Lions and black-humour anthology BLACK EYE 1: Graphic Transmissions to Cause Ocular Hypertension were confiscated by customs officers.

Book links roundup: CanLit Hunger Games, Kyung-sook Shin wins Man Asian Literary Prize, and more

• Who will win CBC’s CanLit Hunger Games?
• South Korean author Kyung-sook Shin becomes first woman to win Man Asian Literary Prize
• Censorship in publishing: more about money than ethics
• Toronto librarians accuse Toronto Public Library of moving toward “big-box store” model
• Marvel Comics to expand digital offerings

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.

Book links roundup: U.S. threatens Apple and publishers with lawsuit, Audible hires A-list celebrities, and more

• Apple and five U.S. publishing houses may face antitrust lawsuit
• Nicole Kidman, Colin Firth, Dustin Hoffman, and other celebrities record book series for Audible
• Video: Can bookstores maintain the same loyalty as record shops?
• Torontoist reflects on Ernest Hemingway’s time in Toronto
• Gabriel García Márquez celebrates his 84th birthday
• *World’s oldest film of a Charles Dickens’ character discovered

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.

Book links roundup: Smashwords in public libraries, poets named Sue, and more

• Indie ebook distributor Smashwords partners with Baker & Taylor to bring titles to Blio and public libraries
• Oolichan Books is looking for poets named Sue
• Silicon Valley entrepreneur builds “an ark” of physical books
• Do indie bookstores need a branded e-reader to crack the ebook market?
• OverDrive acquires Australian eBook company Booki.sh
• The man who saved the Los Angeles library system offers Toronto some advice

Book links roundup: Toronto Public Library’s advertising plans, Jackie Collins self-publishes, and more

• Toronto Public Library goes ahead with advertising sales plans
• Jackie Collins ditches her publisher for self-publishing
• Do video book trailers help sell more books?
• Apple refuses to sell books linked to Amazon
• The Boston Globe reports on the merge of libraries and bookstores

Canadian literary event roundup: Feb. 24-March 1

Freedom to Read Week kicks off Feb. 26. For a complete list of national events, visit the program’s website.

Here’s a sample of other literary events happening across the country:

• Galiano Literary Festival presents a weekend of readings and workshops with Kit Pearson, Audrey Thomas, Grant Lawrence, Gary Geddes, and others, Galiano Oceanfront Inn and Spa, Galiano Island, B.C. (Feb. 24–26)
• Dr. Shelagh Robinson invites parents and children to read reversed text with Mirror Read Books, Babar Books, Montreal (Feb. 24, 2 p.m., free)
• Jo Walton reads from her fantasy novel, Among Others, Bakka Phoenix Books, Toronto (Feb. 25, 3 p.m., free)
• Calinda B reads from her erotic paranormal romance, A Wicked Awakening, Caffe Misto, Victoria (Feb. 25, 3:30 p.m., free)
• Ontario Poetry Society presents For the Love of Poetry Festival with member readings, Rivoli, Toronto (Feb. 26, 12 p.m., free)
• Douglas Gibson presents his one-man show, Stories About Storytellers, Lower Ossington Theatre, Toronto (Feb. 26, 3 p.m., $25)
• Readings by Charlotte Gill, Robert Hough, and Kim Thúy, Harbourfront Centre, Toronto (Feb. 29, 7:30 p.m., $10)
• Iain Baxter& book and catalogue launch for Iain Baxter&: Works 1958–2011, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto (Feb. 29, 6 p.m., free)
• Peggy Blair launches her novel The Beggar’s Opera, Mambo Lounge, Toronto (Feb. 29, 6 p.m., free)
• World Literacy Canada presents readings by Randy Boyagoda, David M. Malone, and Syeda Nuzhat Siddiqui, Park Hyatt, Toronto (Feb. 29. 6:30 p.m., $60)
• Donna and Bridgitte Morrissey launch their picture book Cross Katie Kross, George Wright House, Halifax (March 1, 6:30 p.m., free, email RSVP)

Video: Interview with Anne Rice

Anne Rice is bringing gothic back (Photo: Toronto Public Library)

Anne Rice’s appearance at the Toronto Reference Library on Feb. 13 was her first in the city in a decade, and judging by the size of the sold-out crowd, she still has plenty of fans who prefer their supernatural creatures to be lusty and born of noble blood (and of legal drinking age).

Rice was interviewed by CBC’s Mary Hynes, who heralded Rice’s “returning to the gothic” with her new novel, The Wolf Gift, a reimagining of the traditional werewolf story.

If you missed out, the library has posted a three-part video of the evening: