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)

Adopt an author at Word on the Street

Have you ever wanted to own your own author? Now you can, with a $100 donation to Word on the Street Toronto.

In exchange for a contribution to the non-profit organization, select from a list of 50 adoptee authors, including the latest Q&Q cover subject Guy Vanderhaeghe, Sheila Heti, Kenneth J. Harvey, and Sean Dixon. Adopters will receive a copy of their author’s book and a chance to meet them at WOTS. In addition, there will be a personalized certificate (and tax receipt) to honour the day,  just like when you adopt goats through Oxfam.

More details are available on the WOTS Toronto website. No word yet on how much water authors require, or how many times a day they need to be fed.

Word on the Street Halifax is on a boat

Word on the Street Halifax is moving closer to the ocean this year, with plans to host readings along its popular waterfront and on boats, including Theodore Tugboat and the CSS Acadia.

WOTS Halifax will also expand its programming to Alderney Landing, a cultural venue located across the harbour in Dartmouth. Ferry services will transport festivalgoers between the two waterfront locations.

Last year’s festival was the first time in 10 years the event was held outdoors. According to WOTS’s new director Colleen Ritchie, this year there will be three tented outdoor waterfront stages and an exhibitors’ tent, as well as two indoor stages.

Word On The Street is scheduled for Sept. 25.

Atwood’s LongPen comes in handy for The Year of the Flood

When her previous novel, Oryx and Crake, was published six years ago, Margaret Atwood was unable to make use of the LongPen, her quirky invention that allows authors to do remote book signings. But with The Year of the Flood due in September, the travel-averse author has already announced she’ll be using the LongPen to simultaneously link with fans in Toronto, Vancouver, and Halifax. Atwood will appear in person on Sept. 27 at Toronto’s The Word On The Street festival, which is celebrating its 20th year. From the WOTS release:

The interactive video broadcast will allow festival participants to engage in a question and answer session with Atwood. Atwood will sign books for fans in Vancouver and Halifax using the LongPen, allowing her to talk with each fan via private video chat and to transmit a genuine, personalized autograph instantly to their copy of the book.

Richard Poplak and more in the May Q&Q

Jet-setting author Richard Poplak travelled to 17 different countries to research his latest book, which looks at the influence of American pop culture in the Muslim world, and he’s Q&Q’s cover subject in the May 2009 issue. Also in the issue, we look at the surprising success of Harlequin Enterprises at 60 and at how print-on-demand is changing the bookstore of the future. Our Library Special Report examines the tricky task of putting Canada’s archival history online. Plus reviews of new books by Colin McAdam, Emily Schultz, Giles Blunt, Lynn Johnston, Barry Callaghan, and more.

Pop goes the world
Richard Poplak bets that tawdry TV and banal bubblegum can bring cultures together

Print-on-demand: The dream and the reality
The bookstore of the future, and why POD machines are waiting for books in the present

Love wins out
While other major publishers are bleeding money, Harlequin Enterprises is raking it in. How the firm has managed to beat the odds

History, bit by bit
What’s the best way to put our national heritage online?
AND MORE IN THE LIBRARY SPECIAL REPORT: Coping with rising patron demand, and learning to LOL at the reference desk

FRONTMATTER

• Ninety minutes with Stuart Ross
• Comedy is easy, kidlit is hard
• The adventures of Pierre Turgeon: a timeline
• Cover to Cover: Lauren Kirshner’s Where We Have to Go
• Snapshot: Alexandra Moore of Word on the Street
• Breakwater unbroken
• David Bezmozgis moves from control to collaboration

REVIEWS

• Heaven Is Small by Emily Schultz
• Though You Were Dead by Terry Griggs
• The English Stories by Cynthia Flood
• Plus more fiction, non-fiction, and poetry

BOOKS FOR YOUNG PEOPLE

• Dance Baby Dance by Andrea Spalding
• Dracula Madness by Mary Labatt and Jo Rioux
• Soccer Sabotage by Liam O’Donnell and Mike Deas
• Swim the Fly by Don Calame
• Plus more fiction, non-fiction, and picture books

THE Q&Q/BOOKNET CANADA BESTSELLERS

THE LAST WORD
Lesley Choyce does the math on three decades in writing