The Buzz...About Books

Governor General's Literary Awards Announced

The fourteen winners of the Governor General's Literary Awards were announced earlier today.  The awards are presented for books in English and French and for both adult and juvenile literature.  Each winner will receive $25,000.  The presentation ceremony will take place on November 24 at Rideau Hall.

Fiction

    The Sisters Brothers, Patrick deWitt

    L'homme blanc,  Perrine Leblanc

Poetry

    Killdeer, Phil Hall

    Plus haut que les flammes, Louise Dupré

Drama

    If We Were Birds, Erin Shields

    Ce qui meurt un dernier, Normand Chaurette

Non-Fiction

    Mordecai: The Life and Times, Charles Foran

    Wanderer: essai sur le Voyage d'hiver de Franz Schubert, Georges Leroux

Children's Literature--Text

    From Then to Now: a Short History of the World, Christopher Moore

    Les aventures de Radisson--1: L'enfer ne brûle pas, Martin Fournier

Children's Literature--Illustrations

    Ten Birds, Cybèle Young

    Lili et les poilus, Caroline Merola

Translation--French to English

    Partita for Glenn Gould, Donald Winkler, translation of Partita pour Glenn Gould by Georges Leroux

Translation--English to French

    Toxique ou l'incident dans l'autobus, Maryse Warda, translation of The Toxic Bus Incident by Greg MacArthur

 

 

Writers' Trust of Canada Awards Announced

The Writers' Trust of Canada was formed in 1976 by a group of Canadian authors.  The non-profit organization administers a number of literary awards and grants for writers. 

On November 1, 6 of these awards were announced.

Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize:
The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt

Writers' Trust Engel/Findley Award:
Wayne Johnston

Matt Cohen Award: In Celebration of a Writing Life:
David Adams Richards

Vicky Metcalf Award:
Iain Lawrence

The Writers' Trust of Canada/McClelland & Stewart Journey Prize:
This prize is presented to the author of a short story published in a Canadian literary journal.  This year's winner was Miranda Hill for Petitions to Saint Chronic published in The Dalhousie Review.

Writers' Trust Distinguished Contribution Award:
This award celebrates individuals who have furthered the aims of the Writers' Trust.
Alma Lee the founding Executive Director of the Writers' Union of Canada and the Writers' Trust of Canada. She also spent 17 years as the Artistic Director of the Vancouver International Writers and Readers Festival.

These awards, also administered by the Writers' Trust of Canada were announced earlier in 2011.

Writers' Trust Hilary Weston Prize for Nonfiction:
Mordecai: The Life and Times by Charles Foran

Dayne Ogilvie Grant:
This year's recipient is Farzana Doctor, author of Stealing Nasreen and Six Metres of Pavement.  This grant is given annually to "an emerging gay or lesbian writer who has demonstrated literary promise through a body of work of exceptional quality".

The Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing:
The Ghosts of Europe: Journey's Through Central Europe's Troubled Past and Uncertain Future by Anna Porter

RBC Bronwen Wallace Memorial Award:
Presented to a writer under 35 years of age who has not yet published a book, this year's winner was poet Garth Martens.

75 Years of Excellence

This year marks the 75th anniversary of the Governor General's Literary Awards.  The finalists for the 2011 prize was announced on Tuesday, October 11.  One notable name missing from the fiction shortlist is Michael Ondaatje, whose novel The Cat's Table has received much critical praise.  In fact, Ondaatje asked that his book not be submitted for consideration this year.  He stated that although the award "has been very important to me and I greatly respect it and what it has done for our literature" he believes that "I have received it many times and felt I should not enter a book again". 

Ondaatje has won the Governor General's award 5 times for both poetry and fiction. He was also a finalist in 1987 for his novel In the Skin of a Lion and in 1998 for Handwriting, a poetry collection.

1970: The Collected Works of Billy the Kid (poetry category)

1979: There's a Trick with a Knife I'm Learning to Do: Poems 1963-1978 (poetry category)

1992: The English Patient (fiction category)

2000: Anil's Ghost (fiction category)

2007 Divisadero (fiction category)

In the history of the award, there has been only one other 5-time winner. Hugh MacLennan was honoured for his work in both fiction and nonfiction.

1945: Two Solitudes (fiction category)

1948: The Precipice (fiction category)

1949: Cross-Country (nonfiction category)

1954: Thirty and Three (nonfiction category)

1959: The Watch that Ends the Night (fiction category)

Tomas Tranströmer wins Nobel Prize for Literature

Swedish poet Tomas Tranströmer has won the 2011 Nobel Prize for Literature, considered the most prestigious literary award in the world.  The selection committee praised his work stating that Tranströmer's "condensed, translucent images" grant "fresh access to reality".

Tranströmer was born in 1931 and published his first book of poetry in 1954.  He studied psychology at Stockholm University and worked as a psychologist at a juvenile correctional facility during the 1960s while continuing to write and publish poetry.  In 1990, he suffered a stroke leaving him unable to speak, although he continued to write releasing his final original collection, The Great Enigma, in 2006. 

He has since retired from writing.

 

 

Books by Tomas Tranströmer available at Toronto Public Library:

The Half-Finished Heaven: the Best Poems of Tomas Tranströmer

For the Living and the Dead

Tomas Tranströmer: Selected Poems 1954-1986

 

 

ReLit Award Nominees

The ReLit awards were created in 2000 by Newfoundland author Kenneth J. Harvey as an alternative to mainstream Canadian literary prizes.  The award is presented to a Canadian author living in Canada, published by an independent publisher. 

This year's shortlist:

Poetry

Every Day in the Morning (Slow) by Adam Seelig

The Good News About Armageddon by Steve McOrmond

A Good Time Had by All by Meaghan Strimas

The Inquisition Yours by Jen Currin

Marimba Forever by Jim Christy

Sweet by Dani Couture

You Know Who You Are by Ian Williams

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Short Fiction

Bats or Swallows by Teri Vlassopoulos

The Devil You Know by Jenn Farrell

I Still Don't Even Know You by Michelle Berry

I'm a Registered Nurse, Not a Whore by Anne Perdue

Missed Her by Ivan E. Coyote

Punishing Ugly Children by Darryl Joel Berger

Ravenna Gets by Tony Burgess

Ronald Reagan, My Father by Brian Joseph Davis

There is No Other by Jon Papernick

Novel

Blood Relatives by Craig Francis Power

Book by Ken Sparling

Bourgeois Empire by Evie Christie

The Cube People by Christian McPherson

The Find by Kathy Page

Good Evening, Central Laundromat by Jason Heroux

The Goon by Jerrod Edson

Krakow Melt by Daniel Allen Cox

One Bloody Thing After Another by Joey Comeau

Sweet England by Steve Weiner

 

 

 

Poetic Honours

Recently at the 2011 NHL scouting combine, draft prospects were asked whether they would rather own a  gun or write a poem.  Numerous athletes opted for poetry.  Although the NHL gives out lots of awards at this time of year, poetry writing is not one of them. 

Over the past several weeks, several Canadian poetry awards have been presented.  The shortlists and winners are listed below.

The Griffin Poetry Prize

The largest award for a single volume of poetry, the Griffin Poetry Prize presents winners in two categories annually. 

International

Adonis by Adonis, translated by Khaled Mattawa

The Book of the Snow by François Jacqmin, translated by  Philip Mosley

Heavenly Questions by Gjertrud Schnackenberg (winner)

Human Chain by Seamus Heaney

 

 

Canadian

The Irrationalist by Suzanne Buffam

Ossuaries by Dionne Brand (winner)

Lookout by John Steffler

 

 

Gerald Lampert Memorial Award

The Gerald Lampert Memorial Award recognizes the best first volume of poetry by a Canadian.  It is sponsored by the League of Canadian Poets.

[sic] by Nikki Reimer

The Crow's Vow by Susan Briscoe

Here is Where We Disembark by Clea Roberts

The Nights Also by Anna Swanson (winner)

Tiny, Frantic, Stronger by Jeff Latosik

That Other Beauty by Karen Enns

Pat Lowther Memorial Award

This award celebrates a book of poetry written by a Canadian woman.  Also sponsored by the League of Canadian Poets, it is named after British Columbia poet Pat Lowther, who was murdered by her husband in 1975.

Cathedral by Pamela Porter

Living Under Plastic by Evelyn Lau (winner)

Memory's Daughter by Alice Major

Ossuaries by Dionne Brand

Walking to Mojácar by Di Brandt with French and Spanish translations by Charles Leblanc and Ari Belathar

Canadians Honoured at Lambda Awards

Four Canadian authors won Lambda Awards on May 27.  Presented by the Lambda Literary Foundation, the "Lammys" are presented to works that celebrate or explore LBGT themes.

Vancouver-based filmmaker and performance artist Amber Dawn was honoured in the Lesbian Debut Fiction category for her novel Sub Rosa.  In the novel, Little, a teenage runaway becomes involved with a mystical underground society of sex workers.  Dark, quirky and compelling, it was named one of the top 5 books of 2010 by Globe and Mail reviewer Jim Bartley.

The Lesbian Poetry Award was presented to Anna Swanson for her collection The Nights Also.  Her work examines the impact of illness, sexuality and solitude on the formation of identity.  The collection has also been nominated for the Gerald Lampert Memorial award.

Holding Still For as Long as Possible by Zoe Whittall won the newly created Transgender Fiction category.  Set in Toronto, the novel explores the lives of a trio of friends in their mid-20s.  The book was also on the shortlist for the Relit award.

Toronto writer S. Bear Bergman and Kate Bornstein's Gender Outlaws: The Next Generation won best LGBT Anthology.  Bergman's book The Nearest Exit May Be Behind You was a Lambda nominee in 2009.

The Lambda Awards are presented in 23 categories. 

For futher suggestions:

LGBT Recommended Reading 2011

 

 

Star-Crossed Lovers

After seeing the movie Bright Star I just had to read poet John Keats' letters to Fanny Brawne. Thankfully I found just the book!

Bright Star is a movie that starts slowly and pulls you in. By the end, you find yourself hoping against all odds that things will work out, despite already knowing how it will end. Director Jane Campion and stars Ben Whishaw (Keats) and Abbie Cornish (Fanny) do a lovely job with this movie wonderfully portraying the true love story.

Keats and Fanny are complete opposites, he a poor poet and she a flirty seamstress, interested in fashion. Despite their differences they fall deeply in love, which is a shock to friends and family, who at first try to dissuade the couple. Just when things are looking up for our lovers, Keats falls ill. Due to his worsening health, he must move to Italy and the lovers are kept apart. This separation causes Keats to write some of the most moving and celebrated poetry and love letters of the English language. However, upon his death at the age of 25, Keats was still separated from his love and considered himself a failure. After his death, Fanny went into mourning and secluded herself from the world. She wore his ring for the rest of her life.

So Bright and Delicate: Love Letters and Poems of John Keats to Fanny Brawne is a collection of Keats' letters and poetry, inspired by his love for Fanny. This edition also includes and introduction by Jane Campion. Andrew Motion's biography of the poet, simply entitled Keats, inspired Jane Campion to create the film. It is the first major biography of Keats in thirty years and examines how his works still resonate today.

 

Posted by Erin

The Warwick Prize for Writing

The shortlist for the Warwick Prize was announced on February 11, 2011.  It may be one of the most unusual literary awards and certainly one of the most lucrative with the winner receiving £50,000.  Presented biennially, the prize is open to writers in English in any discipline for writing on a specific theme which changes for each award.  The theme in 2011 is colour and the shortlist includes fiction, poetry, biology and anthropology.

Michael Rosen, chair of the judges noted that "each in their own way, the books explore color either on its own terms or as a prism through which the writing emerges".

The titles on the shortlist are:

Dazzled and Deceived: Mimicry and Camouflage by Peter Forbes explores the uses of camouflage in the natural world and describes the human use of the technique in art and war.

The Literature Police: Apartheid Censorship and its Cultural Consequences by Peter D. McDonald describes the impact of censorship during the Apartheid era.

The Memory of Love by Aminatta Forna is a novel set during the civil war in Sierra Leone.

The Wasted Vigil by Nadeem Aslam follows a Russian woman on a quest to find her missing brother in Afghanistan.

What Color is the Sacred? by Michael Taussig is an anthropological exploration of colour.

White Egrets by Derek Walcott celebrates the language and life of the West Indies in poetry.

The winner will be announced on March 22.

The Strange Life of Edgar Allan Poe

On January 29, 1845 Edgar Allan Poe’s poem The Raven was published in the New York Evening Mirror.  He was paid $9. 

Poe had a short but eventful life.  Parentless by the age of three he lived with a foster family and was educated in European boarding schools.  He attended the University of Virginia for a short time but left because of gambling debts.  A stint at West Point ended in court-martial.  Unable to support himself through his writing, he worked as a literary editor.  He remained close to his biological relatives marrying his 13-year-old first cousin Virginia in 1835.  Her death from consumption in 1842 is believed to have influenced his writing. 

On October 3, 1849, a delirious Poe was found on a Baltimore street in someone else’s clothes.  He died on October 7 at the age of 40.  Newspaper reports attributed his death to cerebral inflammation, a euphemism for alcoholism.  There is speculation however that he may have been a victim of cooping.  It was a practice in which men of voting age were disguised and coerced into casting multiple votes for a specific candidate.  The victims of this practice were often drugged or physically forced to go along with this plan.   

Poe’s life was brief, but his influence was great.  Considered the father of the modern detective story, he also inspired countless science fiction and horror writers. 

In addition, Poe lives on as a fictional character in these novels.

The American Boy by Andrew Taylor
Nevermore by Harold Schechter
Not Quite Dead by John MacLachlan Gray
The Poe Shadow by Matthew Pearl