Quillcast episode three: Charlotte Gill and Eating Dirt

Quillcast is a new podcast series from Quill & Quire featuring behind-the-scenes conversations with authors and publishing insiders. In this episode, the second in a two-part series on non-fiction authors, Vancouver writer Charlotte Gill speaks about her experiences as a professional tree-planter, the subject of her memoir Eating Dirt: Deep Forests, Big Timber, and Life with the Tree-Planting Tribe (Greystone Books), one of Q&Q’s 2011 books of the year.

Eating Dirt was shortlisted for the inaugural Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for non-fiction, and was recently longlisted for the B.C. National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction.

Scroll down to listen to the episode, and click on the thumbnails to view photos from Gill’s life as a tree-planter:

Quillcast is produced with media partners The Walrus, Open Book: Ontario, and Open Book: Toronto, with support from Toronto Life. This project has been generously supported by the Ontario Media Development Corporation’s Entertainment and Creative Cluster Partnerships Fund.

Subscribe to the podcast in iTunes.

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Patrick deWitt among Writers’ Trust prizewinners

Patrick deWitt has won the 2011 Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize for The Sisters Brothers (House of Anansi Press), kicking off the prize season for Canadian literary fiction and setting up a possible awards sweep for his novel about a pair of gunslingers on the trail of a California prospector.

Along with fellow B.C. author Esi Edugyan, deWitt has been nominated for all three major Canadian literary prizes, including the Scotiabank Giller Prize and the Governor General’s Literary Award for fiction, both of which are being handed out in the coming two weeks. The literary odd couple was also shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, awarded earlier this month to Julian Barnes.

DeWitt said all the attention comes as a relief after his first book, Ablutions (published in the U.S. by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and in the U.K. by Granta), did not appear here. “That was sort of a heartbreaker for me, because I really wanted my work to come out here and be discussed here,” he told Q&Q, after accepting the $25,000 prize at a gala in Toronto Tuesday night. “It’s been great to be with Anansi, who have shepherded the book through all this so gracefully and with such passion. I’m elated.”

DeWitt added that he had had “a lot of trepidation” before The Sisters Brothers came out last spring: “I was concerned that the Western fans wouldn’t like it because it strayed, and that the literary fans wouldn’t like it because it was a Western, or close enough to a Western. I found the opposite to be true in both cases. It’s had a charmed life so far, and that’s a meaningful thing.”

Besides Edugyan’s novel, Half-Blood Blues (Thomas Allen Publishers), deWitt beat out a pair of short story collections, Clarke Blaise’s The Meager Tarmac (Biblioasis) and Michael Christie’s The Beggar’s Garden (HarperCollins Canada), as well as Dan Vyleta’s sophomore novel, The Quiet Twin (HarperCollins Canada).

In addition to the fiction prize, the Writers’ Trust handed out three awards, totaling $65,000, given to authors for their bodies of work. Novelist Wayne Johnston received the $25,000 Writers’ Trust Engel/Findley Award, prolific YA author Iain Lawrence took home the $20,000 Vicky Metcalf Award for Children’s Literature, and David Adams Richards, who this year published a novel (Incidents in the Life of Markus Paul) and memoir (Facing the Hunter), was given the Matt Cohen Award, which “recognizes a lifetime of distinguished work by a Canadian writer.”

The Writers’ Trust Distinguished Contribution Award, given to an individual or organization for their long-standing involvement with the organization, was given to Alma Lee, the first executive director hired by The Writers’ Union of Canada and founding artistic director of the Vancouver International Writers Festival.

Also among the night’s winners was Miranda Hill, who won the $10,000 Writers’ Trust of Canada/McClelland & Stewart Journey Prize for “Petitions to Saint Chronic,” a story published by The Dalhousie Review. Hill, who lives in Hamilton, is the founder and executive director of Project Bookmark Canada, a not-for-profit organization that has erected plaques across Ontario commemorating real-life settings found in Canadian literature. She is also the wife of author Lawrence Hill, whose The Book of Negroes won the 2007 Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize on its way to becoming one of the best-selling Canadian novels of all time.

Hill said that winning the Journey Prize had been a dream of sorts since she began, six years ago, avidly reading and collecting the prize anthology, which is published each year by McClelland & Stewart and includes all of the finalists. “I wanted to see what people were doing who were considered up-and-coming and promising, and I wanted to see what I could learn from that,” said Hill, whose debut collection is forthcoming from Doubleday Canada. “As I became confident and more practiced in my own writing I started thinking, ‘Someday I want to be considered a peer to these writers in this anthology.’”

Last week, the Writers’ Trust held a separate gala to hand out the inaugural Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize. Canada’s richest prize for non-fiction, worth $65,000, went to Charles Foran for Mordecai: The Life and Times.

Writers’ Trust shortlist trumpets unsung Canadian talent

Emphasizing accessibility and innovation over past literary laurels, the jury for this year’s Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize has put the spotlight on a mostly younger generation of authors who aren’t quite household names – at least not yet.

Two novels on the five-title shortlist have already been singled out by international prize juries: Patrick deWitt’s The Sisters Brothers (House of Anansi Press) and Esi Edugyan’s Half-Blood Blues (Thomas Allen Publishers) are both shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and appear on the 17-title longlist for the Scotiabank Giller Prize. In fact, four out of five shortlisted authors have also received Giller nods – all except Dan Vyleta, who was nominated for his second novel, The Quiet Twin (HarperCollins Canada), a noirish tale of Nazi-occupied Vienna.

The Writers’ Trust shortlist is rounded out by a pair of story collections from a newcomer and a veteran author. First-time author Michael Christie is nominated for The Beggar’s Garden (HarperCollins Canada), a collection of stories set in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. Clark Blaise, the only nominated author with a lengthy publishing history (but who lives in the U.S. and hasn’t published a book in Canada for a decade), got the nod for The Meagre Tarmac (Biblioasis).

Absent from the list are some of the big names of CanLit, including Michael Ondaatje, Guy Vanderhaeghe, Elizabeth Hay, and Miriam Toews. Juror Rabindranath Maharaj told Q&Q that the jury, which also comprised Emma Donoghue (who won the 2010 Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize for Room) and author Margaret Sweatman, approached each work without preconceptions.

“Four out of five people on this list aren’t recognizable names in Canadian literature. I don’t know why that is so this year, if it is a coincidence or what,” he said.

“I believe what these writers have done and what they’re doing is they’re very quietly innovative without drawing attention to their innovation. And they’re innovative in the sense that their books are more accessible – it’s more reader-friendly in many ways…. The elements of good storytelling are still there.”

The finalists for the $10,000 Writers’ Trust of Canada/McClelland & Stewart Journey Prize, given to the author of a short story published in a Canadian literary journal, were also announced. They are Seyward Goodhand for “The Fur Trader’s Daughter” (appearing in PRISM International), Miranda Hill for “Petitions to Saint Chronic” (The Dalhousie Review), and Ross Klatte for “First-Calf Heifer” (The New Orphic Review).

The Journey Prize jury comprises Alexander MacLeod, Alison Pick, and Sarah Selecky, who whittled down the list of three finalists from 10 authors appearing in this year’s Journey Prize anthology, published by M&S.

With two story collections appearing on the fiction shortlist, the short-story form appears to be alive and well in Canada. “I know readers tend to look at short stories as the lesser cousin of the novel, and we wondered why that is so,” Maharaj said. “Short stories are still kind of left behind. We tried to not do that with this jury.”

Ezra Levant wins Best Political Book contest

The Writers’ Trust of Canada, in collaboration with Samara, has named Ezra Levant’s Shakedown: How Our Government is Undermining Democracy in the Name of Human Rights (McClelland & Stewart, 2009) the Best Canadian Political Book of the Last 25 Years.

The WTOC and Samara, a non-profit organization for citizen engagement in Canada’s democratic system, announced the contest in June to recognize books “that have captured the Canadian political imagination and contributed in a compelling and unique way to how Canadians understand a political issue, event, or personality” as a means of teaching Canadian political history and sparking political debate. The public was asked to submit their top three recommendations for the longlist, revealed July 1st, and vote on the final 12.

Shakedown, the conservative commentator’s critique of government-appointed human rights commissions and their impact on civil liberties, edged out On the Take: Crime, Corruption and Greed in the Mulroney Years by Stevie Cameron (Seal Books/Random House, 1995), Harperland: The Politics of Control by Lawrence Martin (Penguin, 2010), and Fights of Our Lives: Elections, Leadership, and the Making of Canada by John Duffy (HarperCollins Canada, 2002) to win the popular vote.

The other eight finalists were:

• 1867: How the Fathers Made a Deal by Christopher Moore (McClelland & Stewart, 1997)
• A Fair Country: Telling Truths About Canada by John Ralston Saul (Viking Canada, 2008)
• The Best Laid Plans by Terry Fallis (M&S, 2008)
• John A: The Man Who Made Us by Richard Gwyn (Random House Canada, 2007)
• One-Eyed Kings: Promise & Illusion in Canadian Politics by Ron Graham (HarperCollins, 1996)
• Right Side Up: The Fall of Paul Martin and the Rise of Stephen Harper’s New Conservatism by Paul Wells (M&S, 2006)
• Trudeau and Our Times by Christina McCall and Stephen Clarkson (M&S, 1990)
• While Canada Slept: How We Lost Our Place in the World by Andrew Cohen (M&S, 2003)

The sponsoring organizations are planning an event with the contest finalists on the topic of political writing in Canada later this year.

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
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• 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
  

Writers’ Trust turns spotlight on political books

Spurred by the recent federal election, The Writers’ Trust of Canada has partnered with Samara, a non-profit organization that seeks to strengthen citizen engagement in Canada’s democratic system, to launch a project called The Best Canadian Political Books of the Last 25 Years.

In a press release, the WTOC describes the project as an opportunity to “highlight books that have captured the Canadian political imagination and contributed in a compelling and unique way to how Canadians understand a political issue, event, or personality” — and they want everyone to join in.

The public is encouraged to nominate their top three titles in Canadian politics via Samara’s online nomination form before June 23. A longlist will be announced July 1 (Canada’s most patriotic of day of the year, of course).  Throughout the month of July, Canadians will again be encouraged to vote and comment on the list, with the winning books announced Aug. 1.

WTOC and Samara have asked a few notable Canadian political writers and activists to nominate their favourite books. Here are a some of the titles already in the ring:

Anna Porter’s Nominees:
• The Player: The Life & Times of Dalton Camp by Geoffrey Stevens
• Harperland: The Politics of Control by Lawrence Martin
• Right Side Up: The Fall of Paul Martin and the Rise of Stephen Harper’s New Conservatism by Paul Wells

Terry Fallis’s Nominees:
• King John of Canada by Scott Gardiner
• Louis Riel: A Comic Strip Biography by Chester Brown
• Just Watch Me: The Life of Pierre Elliott Trudeau, Volume II: 1968–2000 by John English

Tim Cook’s Nominees:
• The Worldly Years: Life of Lester Pearson, Volume II: 1949–1972 by John English
• Memoirs: 1939–1993 by Brian Mulroney
• Empire to Umpire: Canada and the World into the 1990s by J. L. Granatstein and Norman Hillmer

Anna Porter, Tim Cook among Shaughnessy Cohen nominees

The Writers’ Trust of Canada has announced the finalists for the $25,000 Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing, awarded annually to a non-fiction book that has the “potential to shape or influence Canadian political life.” This year’s nominees, as chosen by journalists L. Ian MacDonald, Rosemary Speirs, and Paul Wells, are as follows:

• Tim Cook for The Madman and the Butcher: The Sensational Wars of Sam Hughes and General Arthur Currie (Allen Lane Canada)
• Shelagh D. Grant for Polar Imperative: A History of Arctic Sovereignty in North America (Douglas & McIntyre)
• Lawrence Martin for Harperland: The Politics of Control (Viking Canada)
• Anna Porter for The Ghosts of Europe: Journeys Through Central Europe’s Troubled Past and Uncertain Future (Douglas & McIntyre)
• Doug Saunders for Arrival City: The Final Migration and Our Next World (Knopf Canada)

The winner will be announced on Feb. 16 at the Politics and the Pen Gala in Ottawa.

Event photos: Writers’ Trust Awards

The 10th annual Writers’ Trust Awards ceremony took place in Toronto on Nov. 2. Here are some photos from the event.

The winners of the 2010 Writers’ Trust Awards: The Walrus editor John MacFarlane (Distinguished Contribution Award); author Miriam Toews (Engel/Findley Award); writer and Q&Q reviewer Devon Code (Journey Prize); children’s writer Polly Horvath (Vicky Metcalf Award for Children’s Literature); journalist and author James FitzGerald (Writers’ Trust Non-fiction Prize); author Myrna Kostash (Matt Cohen Award); and Emma Donoghue (Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize).

CBC’s Shelagh Rogers hosts the awards.

Novelist Shyam Selvadurai and author Devyani Saltzman.

Michael Winter and Trevor Cole, both of whom were shortlisted for the fiction prize.

Writers’ Trust chair Peter Kahnert, his wife Bernadette, Emma Donoghue, and Writers’ Trust executive director Don Oravec.

(Photos courtesy of Writers’ Trust of Canada)

Both Winters make Writers’ Trust shortlist

The Writers’ Trust shortlists were announced at Toronto’s Ben McNally Books this morning, and journalists everywhere have a great hook in that brother and sister team Michael and Kathleen Winter were both among the nominees for the Fiction Prize. (Another potential hook: family friend Lisa Moore was among the fiction jurors.) The three shortlists are as follows:

Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize:

• Trevor Cole, Practical Jean (McClelland & Stewart)
• Emma Donoghue, Room (HarperCollins Canada)
• Michael Helm, Cities of Refuge (M&S)
• Kathleen Winter, Annabel (House of Anansi Press)
• Michael Winter, The Death of Donna Whalen (Penguin Canada)

(Jurors: Lisa Moore, Andrew Pyper, Eden Robinson)

Writers’ Trust Non-fiction Prize:

• James Fitzgerald, What Disturbs Our Blood: A Son’s Quest to Redeem the Past (M&S)
• Ross King, Defiant Spirits: The Modernist Revolution and the Group of Seven (Douglas & McIntyre/McMichael Canadian Art Collection)
• Sarah Leavitt, Tangles: A Story About Alzheimer’s, My Mother and Me (Freehand Books)
• John and Mary Thebarge, The Ptarmigan’s Dilemma: An Exploration into How Life Organizes Itself (M&S)
• Merrily Weisbord, The Love Queen of Malabar: Memoir of a Friendship with Kamala Das (McGill-Queen’s University Press)

(Jurors: Hadani Ditmars, Sid Marty, Michael Mitchell)

Writers’ Trust/McClelland & Stewart Journey Prize:

• Devon Code, “Uncle Oscar” (The Malahat Review)
• Krista Foss, “The Longitude of Okay” (Grain Magazine)
• Lynne Kutsukake, “Mating” (The Dalhousie Review)

(Jurors: Pasha Malla, Joan Thomas, Alissa York)

The Writers’ Trust of Canada presents 2010 Dayne Ogilvie Grant to Nancy Jo Cullen

Poet Nancy Jo Cullen has won the 2010 Dayne Ogilvie Grant for best emerging gay writer in Canada, with honours of distinction presented to fiction writers Lisa Foad and George K. Ilsley. The jury was made up of writers Brian Francis and Suzette Myer, and grant founder Robin Pacific.

Cullen is the author of three books of poetry: Science Fiction Saint, Pearl, and Untitled Child, all published by Frontenac House. She has received an Alberta Book Publishing Award and was shortlisted for the Gerald Lampert Memorial Award for best first book of poetry, the Writers Guild of Alberta’s Stephan G. Steffanson Award for Poetry, and the City of Calgary W.O. Mitchell Book Prize.

Established in 2007, the annual award is presented by the Writers’ Trust of Canada to an emerging gay or lesbian writer “who demonstrates great promise through a body of work of exceptional quality.” It is sponsored by donor Robin Pacific, in honour of her late best friend Dayne Ogilvie, an editor, writer, and passionate supporter of literature. The prizes will be presented at a ceremony during Pride Week in Toronto.