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June 2013

Thursday June 20, 2013
More on the Bell of Batoche in Honour of National Aboriginal Day

Thursday June 20, 2013
Adeena Karasick - 14th Annual Convention of The Media Ecology Association

Thursday June 20, 2013
Garry Thomas Morse Reads for the Teslin Tlingit Council, Yukon

Thursday June 20, 2013
The 2013 Whitehorse Poetry Festival

Sunday June 23, 2013
Songs and Stories from Tomson Highway’s The (Post) Mistress in Toronto

Monday June 24, 2013
Lilies by Michel Marc Bouchard in NYC

Thursday June 27, 2013
Dramaturges Conference (L.M.D.A.) in Vancouver, with Carmen Aguirre

July 2013

Thursday July 18, 2013
The 11th Annual Denman Island Readers and Writers Festival

Tuesday July 30, 2013
Taking Shakespeare - John Murrell - Stratford Festival

Tuesday July 30, 2013
Taking Shakespeare - John Murrell - Stratford Festival

August 2013

Monday August 19, 2013
KlezKanada 2013 - KlezKanada’s Poetry Retreat - Adeena Karasick and Jake Marmer

Tuesday August 20, 2013
A Brief Review of Jordan Abel’s The Place of Scraps

Wednesday August 21, 2013
Marcus Youssef’s Winners and Losers at Noorderzon Festival, Netherlands

October 2013

Tuesday October 1, 2013
James Bacque – Barton Lecture – Upper Canada College, Toronto

Tuesday October 1, 2013
The St. Leonard Chronicles - Steve Galluccio - Centaur Theatre

Friday October 4, 2013
Sidney Literary Festival, British Columbia – with M.A.C. Farrant

Wednesday October 16, 2013
James Bacque Addresses Senior Faculty, University of Toronto

Friday October 18, 2013
Victoria Writers Festival, British Columbia – with M.A.C. Farrant

Tuesday October 29, 2013
Seeds - Annabel Soutar - Centaur Theatre

November 2013

Sunday November 10, 2013
Marcus Youssef’s Winners and Losers in Toronto

Thursday November 21, 2013
Adeena Karasick - National Communication Association 99th Annual Convention: in the Applied Semantics and Practical Communication Across the Disciplines Session

Tuesday November 26, 2013
Adeena Karasick - Art Bar Series

December 2013

Saturday December 14, 2013
Adeena Karasick - Annual Christmas Party AB Series

Saturday December 14, 2013
Adeena Karasick - Annual Christmas Party AB Series

January 2014

Wednesday January 22, 2014
Seeds – Annabel Soutar – PuSh Festival, UBC

LPG Statement on End to Canada Book Fund Support

In a body blow to Canada’s independent literary publishers, on Monday, June 4, 2012, the Literary Press Group (LPG) of Canada received word that the Department of Canadian Heritage (DCH) has ended its financial support of the LPG’s activities for the fiscal year that began on April 1, 2012. As a result, the LPG will be obliged to shut down its sales force, an essential operation that brings hundreds of new Canadian-authored books from 47 Canadian-owned publishers to bookstores and libraries every year. Without the LPG, authors and publishers lose their access to their readers, and Canadian readers lose easy and affordable access to Canada’s literary culture.

The DCH funding represented approximately one third of the LPG’s operating budget and was its single largest revenue source. While the LPG’s finances are otherwise strong, a loss of this size means that the LPG will not be able to continue operation in its current form. The LPG is committed to selling publishers’ fall 2012 titles, but it will have to lay off all field sales representatives as of August 31, 2012 and most head-office staff will be released on November 30, 2012.

Beyond November 2012, the LPG will look to establish an agenting relationship with another sales force for publishers who wish to be a part of a new collective.

LPG Chair Karen Green said “This sudden news has been devastating, for our staff, several of whom will lose their jobs; for our members especially those in the sales force – 47 publishers are faced with sudden instability, and for Canadian literary culture, readers and writers – a large branch has fallen in the path between them.”

According to LPG Executive Director Jack Illingworth, what’s most harmful about the news of the loss of funding is the timing. “The LPG is two months into our fiscal year, with a contractual commitment and a duty of care to represent publishers’ books well into the fall. If we had received this news in January or February of this year (applications were submitted in October 2011), we could have made the transition in an orderly way with much less harm to our association, our members, or their authors.”

The LPG has been instrumental in the development of Canadian literary publishing and culture. It has proven to the market at large that Canadian literary books can reach a wide and diverse audience. Some of Canada’s top literary publishers, including Talon Books, Goose Lane Editions, Arsenal Pulp Press, Coteau Books, and Biblioasis are “graduates” of the LPG’s programs that have moved on to more commercially focused sales and distribution. The LPG is often the first stop for promising new firms seeking access to readers, and it remains the way that dozens of literary publishers, from seven provinces, get books into independent bookstores, retail chains, libraries, and online booksellers across Canada. Without the LPG these publishers could not access their readers as effectively or efficiently.

Defunding the LPG puts all of these publishers, and their authors, at risk. Most of these publishers receive support from federal and provincial government departments and agencies, including the Canada Book Fund. According to Illingworth, “We believe that this decision is seriously misguided and has the potential to irreparably damage literary publishing in Canada. It just isn’t good public policy to fund the production of books and attack their connection to readers in the most destructive way possible.”

The Literary Press Group of Canada was founded in 1975 as a project of the Independent Publishers Association (which was later re-named the Association of Canadian Publishers). The goal of this affiliate was to further the promotion of Canadian publishers producing primarily literary works. Its sales force and distribution operations were initiated in earnest in 1987 and 1988. In 1995, the LPG was incorporated as its own organization, in recognition of its importance as a sales and distribution agency, and in 1998, it shifted from using part-time, commissioned sales representatives to full-time, salaried sales staff, with the support of the Department of Canadian Heritage. Since that time DCH has been consistent in its support of the LPG’s sales activities, recognizing their importance in being the bridge that brings Canadian-published literary books to their readers.

• Six Weeks Running on the B.C. Bestsellers List for They Called Me Number One!
• Kevin Kerr’s You Are Very Star in Vancouver
• John Murrell’s new play, Peace in Our Time, Premieres at the Shaw Festival
• David W. McFadden Wins 2013 Griffin Poetry Prize!
• Mariner Janes on Co-op Radio out of Vancouver
• Meta-Talon: For the Pleasure of Seeing Her Again at the Magnetic North Theatre Festival, In Review
• Meta-Talon: Drew Hayden Taylor’s Political Persuasions
• Meta-Talon: Quill & Quire Reviews Daphne Marlatt’s Liquidities
• B.E.A. and Congress 2013: Talonbooks Was Here
• Phyllis Webb in the Poet’s Corner of the Sunday Times
• Talonbooks at Congress 2013 in Victoria, B.C., with Authors Marie Clements, Lucia Frangione, and Bev Sellars
• Video: Talonbooks Spring 2013 Poetry Launch, Vancouver
• Video: Stephen Collis Reads at the Talonbooks Spring Poetry Launch in Vancouver, 2013
• Video: Daphne Marlatt Reads at the Talonbooks Spring Poetry Launch in Vancouver, 2013
• Video: Dina Del Bucchia Reads at the Talonbooks Spring Poetry Launch in Vancouver, 2013
• Video: Wanda John-Kehewin Reads at the Talonbooks Spring Poetry Launch in Vancouver, 2013
• Video: Mariner Janes Reads at the Talonbooks Spring Poetry Launch in Vancouver, 2013
• “The Universe of Michel Tremblay” at the Musée de la Civilisation in Quebec City
• 2013 Jessie Richardson Award Nominations for Talonbooks Playwrights
• Fall 2013 Catalogue Now Available Online!
• Baba Brinkman’s Evolutionary Tales Series in NYC
• They Called Me Number One on B.C. Bestsellers List!
• Two of Talon’s Translators Recently Celebrated in Montreal
• Stephen Collis on Co-op Radio
• Montreal Celebrates Fifty Years of English Theatre!
• Interurban Launch for the Monument Cycles!
• Michel Tremblay and Magnetic North!
• This Poem in May 2013!
• They Called Me Number One Is Now Available!
• Cliff Matias and Vassar Students in The Rez Sisters!
• Le Chant de Sainte Carmen de Michel Tremblay!
• Wanda John-Kehewin in Port Hardy!
• Stephen Collis and Margaret Christakos at A B Series!
• Haute Créature - NatPoMo Tours in Toronto and Montreal!
• Girl in the Goldfish Bowl Down Under!
• Drew Hayden Taylor on Urban Rush
• Can Hardly Wait For Vigil!
• A Trailer for My Turquoise Years
• Monuments, Dog House, Otters!
• Wanda John-Kehewin For World Poetry Canada
• Interview with Stars of My Turquoise Years
• David W. McFadden Up For 2013 Griffin Poetry Prize!
• Legoland: The Lambs Sing Eminem
• God and the Indian at the Firehall Arts Centre
• Coping with Emotions and Otters - A Book Trailer
• Talonbooks Launches Five New Poetry Titles for Spring!
• Seeds Announced For NAC's 2013-14 Season
• What's Wrong With Our Food System?
• Ricepaper Magazine Double Issue Launch at Historic Joy Kogawa House
• Catch the Wave at the Arts Club!
• Carmen Aguirre Dishes Up Chile Con Carne!
• The Edward Curtis Project in April!
• Centaur Theatre Plays in Colour!
• Mom's the Word at the Grand Theatre
• Lizzie Borden Took an Axe...
• Fred Wah and Friends at Words on the Water!
• Burning Vision at Walterdale Playhouse
• What Kind of University Do We Want?
• Hesiod at the Hellenic Community Centre
• Urban Change, Urban Unrest!
• Sainte-Carmen of the Main Comes to Winnipeg
• Indigenous Writing Program at Banff
• The Properties Up For BC Book Prize!
• Stephen Collis and Rachel Rose at Lunch Poems at SFU!
• okanagan hungree 4 bill bissett
• Wanda John-Kehewin and Friends on Tour!
• Meet the Cast of A.C.T.'s Dead Metaphor
• Palace of the End
• Ask the Panel
• Les Belles Soeurs in Baltimore!
• The Ends of the Earth at Vertigo Mystery Theatre!
• The Rez Sisters at Orillia Opera House!
• Gil McElroy Joins Versefest in Ottawa
• The Line Has Shattered
• Criminal Genius at Walking Fish Theatre!
• Terminus!
• The Regina Monologue
• Mining, Justice and Censorship at the University of Victoria!
• Love in a Storage Locker
• In Search of Lost Childhood
• Freedom to Read Week and Carmen Aguirre!
• Rogue Beats at the Sidewalk Café
• Daphne Marlatt at Scrivener's Monthly in March!
• Carmen Aguirre Talks Chile Con Carne
• Baba Brinkman Wins Friend of Darwin Award!
• Atwood & Co. in Calgary
• Albertine in Five Times in Duncan!
• Okanagan Reads Loves George Bowering
• Drew Hayden Taylor Is Writer-In-Residence at Ryerson!
• Sound Po-ing with the Stars
• Colin Browne Reads at the CAG!
• Glace Bay Miner's Museum at Neptune Theatre
• Tracing the Lines to Launch in Vancouver!
• Where the Blood Mixes at the Roxy!
• Billy Bishop Goes to The Gladstone!
• Promo for Leave of Absence
• Participate at the National Indigenous Writers Conference at SFU!
• Carmen Aguirre Visits Octopus Books!
• Carmen Aguirre Serves Up Chile Con Carne in Toronto
• Wagner's Dream at VIFF Vancity Theatre

Canada: Home to a Dangerous Industry

By Fred A. Reed & Robin Philpot

Alain Deneault and William Sacher wrote Imperial Canada Inc.: Legal Haven of Choice for the World’s Mining Companies (2012) to provide Canadian and international public opinion with tools to help ask critical questions about Canadian activities in the South and in Eastern Europe, as well as about the role of the Canadian government in relation to these activities. It is hoped that the evidence presented here will encourage Canadians to enter public debate about how the mining industry is regulated in Canada and to form an opinion on this topic independent from the one suggested by official agencies or media that belong to large Canadian financial conglomerates and tend to espouse their interests.

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In Review: For the Pleasure of Seeing Her Again at the Magnetic North Theatre Festival, National Arts Centre, Ottawa

For the Pleasure of Seeing Her Again, a play by Michel Tremblay, is currently being staged at the National Arts Centre (N.A.C.) in Ottawa, Ontario, as part of the Magnetic North Theatre Festival.

The following are excerpts from two reviews of the show, originally published in the Ottawa Citizen on June 3 and June 8, 2013, written by Patrick Langston.

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Drew Hayden Taylor’s Political Persuasions

By Drew Hayden Taylor

Award-winning Ojibwa author and playwright Drew Hayden Taylor (Dead White Writer on the Floor, 2011) writes the occasional column for the Peterborough Examiner in Peterborough, Ontario. In his latest column, available in its original form here, he discusses his approach to storytelling and politics.

As a First Nations writer of fiction and non-fiction, and frequent lecturer on the university/college and conference circuit, I am commonly asked about my political persuasion. Do I swing left, right, or am I more ambidextrous?

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A Postmodernist Examines the Contours of a Western Canadian City: Quill & Quire Reviews Daphne Marlatt’s Liquidities

The June 2013 issue of Quill & Quire includes a review of Daphne Marlatt’s latest book of poetry, Liquidities (Talonbooks, 2013). We republish this review here with permission from Quill & Quire.

Liquidities: Vancouver Poems Then and Now extends a project Daphne Marlatt began over 40 years ago with the 1972 publication of Vancouver Poems …

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