Book Launch at Paragraphe Bookstore

Join Terence Byrnes for the launching of his book, Closer to Home: The Author and the Author Portrait -a series of portraits that take us inside writers’ lives and inside the process of making portraits.


Where: Paragraphe Bookstore, 2220 McGill College Avenue
Date/Time: Tuesday, October 28, 7:00 pm

Bravo! Fred A. Reed up for GG

Fred A. Reed is a finalist for the 2008 Governor General’s Literary Awards for his translation of Hans-Jürgen Greif’s Orfeo.

This is what the judges had to say about Reed’s work:

Fred A. Reed’s English version of Hans-Jürgen Greif’s Orfeo is a well-orchestrated masterpiece. His elegant translation captures the unusual voice of this harmonious work. Reed beautifully brings to life the Italian piano teacher (La Signora), the
narrator (Weber) and the intriguing castrato, Orfeo.

The winners will be announced on Tuesday, Nov. 18 at 10 a.m. EST at the McCord Museum of Canadian History in Montreal.

A Full House

Congratulations to Andrew Hood (Pardon Our Monsters) and Jaspreet Singh (Chef) for being nominated for the 2008 QWF Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction, and to Peter Richardson (Sympathy for the Couriers) for his nomination for the 2008 QWF A.M. Klein Prize for Poetry.

It’s been a good year. Andrew Hood won the Danuta Gleed Literary Award for his short story collection, Pardon Our Monsters. Mary Dalton’s, poetry collection, Red Ledger was a finalist for the Newfoundland Heritage and History Award, and Asa Boxer’s The Mechanical Bird won the CAA Award for Poetry.

Good dog

The Rover is a new Montreal-based arts and culture webmag, founded by novelist, playwright and journalist Marianne Ackerman.

They've just published a very sharp review of Walid Bitar's new poetry collection. The Empire's Missing Link.

Stuff to do during a financial crisis

ASA BOXER, author of The Mechanical Bird, reads his poems on Thursday, Oct. 23 at the Westmount Public Library, 4574 Sherbrooke Street West, 7:00pm. Free for Canadian Authors Association members/ 7$ fee for non-members

Merrybegot author MARY DALTON headlines ARC magazine's 30th anniversary launch and celebration Thursday, Oct. 23 at . She'll be reading her poems alongside Steven Heighton and Roo Borson. Hosted by CBC Radio's Adrian Harewood. The event is being held at the Ottawa International Writer's Festival. 8:30pm, Library and Archives Canada, 395 Wellington St. $15 General / $10 Student or Senior

TAG-TEAM LAUNCH Sunday, October 26. ARC poetry magazine's 60th issue will be launched alongside Biblioasis anthology Jailbreaks: 99 Canadian Sonnets. The event will also feature one-set musical act from Orillia Opry. Ye Olde Orchard Pub, 20 Prince Arthur. 7: 30pm

Closer to Home

This photograph of North Hatley poet D.G. Jones was taken by Terence Byrnes, author of Closer to Home: The Author and the Author Portrait.
Don Denton has posted a wide-ranging and thoughtful interview with Byrnes on his site Literary Photographer.

LP: Your comments on the difference between photographing men and women were interesting, essentially that women are more sensitive about photographs of themselves. Care to comment on that further?

TB: Sure, but the word “sensitive” isolates women in a way that makes me a little uncomfortable. I’ll turn the tables for a moment and say that society finds endless ways to valorize men despite the way(s) they look. Male slackers, nerds, slobs, sexual indiscriminates, bikers, and outlaws can all find a place on the ladder of sexual status that Hollywood and society in general deliver to us. The range for women is much narrower and so often refers to their sexual availability (or not). Consequently, women have to be more “sensitive” because they’re judged by a different, and less flexible, standard.

"A Really Classy Trailer"

This Youtube video for Sean Stanley's surrealistic fable Etcetera and Otherwise (soon to be published by Tightrope books) is a real minder-bender. Bloody and bizarre, it features Leonard Cohen, Robertson Davies, Margaret Atwood, Yann Martel, and a magnificently headless Michael Ondaatjie. (Hat tip: Bookninja)