Gail Anderson-Dargatz

4/27/08

Mary Novik wins Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize

Mary Novik has won the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize with her first novel Conceit. Congratulations Mary!

Winners of the 24th Annual BC Book Prizes were announced at the Lieutenant Governor’s BC Book Prize Gala at The Fairmont Waterfront Hotel, in Vancouver on Saturday, April 26. When I contacted Mary about her win the following Monday morning she was still a little in shock. "I still can't believe my good fortune," she said. "The other shortlisted novels are so well-written that it must have been very hard for the judges to pick a winner. David, Heather, Claire, Shaena, and I have all become good friends, and we all felt the honour of being shortlisted. Touring the province with other writers to talk to students and give readings in libraries and bookstores was a real highlight. The BC Book Prizes must be unique in making such a fuss over the finalists in the weeks leading up to the gala and we all feel very encouraged to continue with our writing."

Mary joined the other four authors short-listed for this prize on my forum,Gail's Kitchen , earlier this month. She also joined me for an on-line book launch of both our novels on the forum last fall. To view these conversations, click on: Gail's Kitchen

For more of Mary's reaction to her win, visit her website at: http://www.marynovik.com/.

And for the complete list of BC Book Prize winners, go to: http://www.bcbookprizes.ca/winners

4/26/08

Karen X. Tulchinsky wins One Book, One Vancouver prize

Karen X. Tulchinsky has won the 2008 One Book, One Vancouver Prize.

I had the opportunity to talk with Karen just after she received the prize this past week. She was thrilled, of course. "It's a wonderful program that encourages people to read," she said. "I hope to be in Chinatown, or on the skytrain, or even better, on Wreck Beach and notice someone reading my book."

Karen described the book for readers of this blog: "The Five Books of Moses Lapinsky, which is about a Jewish Russian immigrant family in Toronto throughout the Depression and Second World War, is very specific culturally, yet there is a truism about fiction: 'The more specific you are the more universal it is.' I've read from my book all over North America, in the UK and the Middle East, and I've had people of all cultures come up to me and say how much the family in my book reminded them of their families. In Vancouver, I once had a Chinese Canadian woman say, 'well my mother didn't have a Jewish accent, but the mother in your story reminded me of my mother.' Once when I read in San Francisco, an African American man told me the father and son story in my book reminded him of his relationship with his dad."

It is indeed a novel with universal themes and appeal. Congratulations, Karen!

For a schedule of events associated with this prize, including a boxing demonstration, go to: www.vpl.ca/obov/events.html

4/20/08

One Book, One Vancouver 2008 Short-List authors chat on forum Gail's Kitchen

Two of the writers on our Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize event (see Gail's Kitchen) -- Karen X. Tulchinsky and David Chariandy -- are on the One Book, One Vancouver 2008 Short-List. The three books on that short list are:

The Five Books of Moses Lapinsky by Karen X. Tulchinsky
Loose End by Ivan E. Coyote
Soucouyant by David Chariandy

Of being on this short-list, Karen told me she was very excited. "It's a wonderful program that encourages people to read Canadian books. How cool is that? I am honoured to be on their shortlist. And of course, like all authors, I'm pleased that it will introduce my novel to new readers."

For more from both Karen and David, check out our forum Gail's Kitchen.

For more on this prize on go to: http://www.vpl.ca/obov/index.html

4/12/08

Vancouver a UNESCO World City of Literature?

Could Vancouver be recognized as a UNESCO World City of Literature? Alma Lee, the founding artistic director of the Vancouver International Writers and Readers Festival, and Margaret Reynolds, executive director of the Association of Book Publishers of British Columbia, will chair a public consultation on April 23 at at Library Square in Vancouver to see if there is enough support behind this idea.

I contacted Alma Lee to find out more about how all this came about. Here's what she had to say:

"I was in Edinburgh when it received the designation as the first World City of Literature," said Lee. "I know the folks over there who were involved in that application and they encouraged me to go for it here. I received an introduction to the person at UNESCO in Paris who was in charge of receiving and reviewing applications. It so happened that I was going to Paris immediately after my trip to Edinburgh so I arranged to meet the UNESCO contact (sounds like a spy novel!). She was hugely encouraging and later that summer I was invited to return to Edinburgh to attend a seminar hosted by UNESCO so that they could explain how the process worked and discuss with the attendees whether or not they felt eligible. There were only four cities invited - Amsterdam, Alexandria, Crakow and Vancouver. After that meeting I came back and started to slowly work on how I could best go about doing this."

At the time, Lee was still with the at Vancouver International Writers and Readers Festival, so, said Lee, "this project was simmering on the back burner for almost a year."

"When I left the Festival I just jumped in to the deep end," she said, "and started in on the research, finding out whether people were enthusiastic and supportive etc. etc. And here we are three years later with a finished document ready to send off to Paris. However, since this application will be coming from the Mayor and City Council we have to jump through some bureaucratic hoops, have a public meeting to acquire 'tangible evidence' that people in general think this is a good idea."

If you'd like to lend your support to this initiative, please attend the meeting:

Wednesday, April 23, 4:00-6:00 pm
Alma van Dusen Room
Vancouver Public Library at Library Square
350 West Georgia Street, Vancouver