| Calgary readers have bought their books and welcomed them in large numbers at readings. And now novelist Miriam Toews and Lt.-Gen. Romeo Dallaire have been awarded Governor-General’s Literary Awards.
In a November 16 ceremony at her Ottawa residence, Rideau Hall, Gov. Gen. Adrienne Clarkson presented Toews with the 2004 award for fiction, for her novel A Complicated Kindness. Dallaire’s Shake Hands With the Devil: The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda garnered the non-fiction prize.
After being short-listed in 1984 and 1994, Toronto poet Roo Borson won the poetry award for Short Journey Upriver Toward Oishida. Vancouver playwright Morris Panych’s Girl in the Goldfish Bowl won the drama award. And the French translation award went to Ivan Steenhout for Les Indes accidentelles, his translation of The Accidental Indies, by 2003 Markin-Flanagan writer in residence Robert Finley.
Kenneth Oppel’s Airborn won the children’s literature award. In French-language fiction, the award went to Pascale Quiviger for Le cercle parfait, while André Brochu won for poetry with Les jours à vif. For more information, author bios and jurors’ comments, see www.canadacouncil.ca/prizes/ggla.
The Giller Prize. You must have heard about it by now. It’s $25,000.00. It’s glamorous. The jury this time was Charlotte Gray, Alistair MacLeod and M.G. Vassanji, who thought this year’s crop of fiction was so good that they added an extra title to their short list. Toews, nominated for A Complicated Kindness, was gracious when she did not win last week. Alice Munro won for the second time, to no one’s surprise, for her book Runaway. She looked glamorous doing it. She spoke with verve.
Calgary poets who want their work to go places and be widely read have until the beginning of next month to submit their poems for this year’s bus poetry program. Poems have been riding around on Calgary buses and trains since 1999, when Robert Kroetsch stood on the City Hall steps and read one of his poems. Then he watched said poem "drive away on the side of a bus," in the words of Peter Oliva, one of the engines of this collaboration between the Canada Council, Pattison Outdoor Signs and Calgary Transit. Transit riders, publishers, booksellers and even the poets themselves benefit from poetry’s presence beyond bookstores and the usual notorious smoky, beret-wearing, finger-snapping bohemian venues. Fred Wah, says Oliva "was even ‘star-sighted’ in London Drugs when an employee noticed his credit card and remembered his poem." How often does that happen to a poet?
And how do you, too, get to join the ranks of the bus-published? By submitting a poem by December 1. The rules? The poets must have some sort of link to Calgary (or nearby Calgary). The poems can be about anything, but they must be good. They must be short: maximum 10 lines. They must be original. They can be published or unpublished. Please include a brief bio (of two or three lines). Winning entries will be paid a princely $200. Send submissions to: Oliva, care of oliva@shaw.ca. And please remain behind white line while bus is in motion.
Lots of activity this week at McNally Robinson, starting with Robert Majzels, author of City of Forgetting, now promoting his new murder mystery-Talmudic inquiry Apikoros Sleuth. The same night, Toronto’s Rachel Zolf, poetry editor for The Walrus magazine, reads from the found-text and poetry mélange she creates in Masque. Both readings are Monday, November 22, beginning at 7 p.m.
The mixture of religious belief and political violence is as old, quite literally, as the hills. But what is it that allows "a human being, imagining himself empowered by God, to go on a campaign of mass destruction?" Political science professor Barry Cooper looks at this issue (in relation to terrorism, not recent elections in North America), when he presents his book New Political Religions, or: An Analysis of Modern Terrorism, at McNally Robinson on Tuesday, November 23 at 7:30 p.m.
Then, on Wednesday, November 24 at 7:30 p.m., Sarah Murphy and Sharron Proulx-Turner present Portfolio Milieu 2004: An Anthology. The collection gathers writing from women across the country. Murphy and Proulx-Turner will read from their contributions to the book. And the next night, Winnipeg author Linda Holeman launches her new novel and her first book for "old" adults – as opposed to young adults. She reads from The Linnet Bird at McNally on Thursday, November 25 at 7:30 p.m.
Best-sellers
Best-selling books for November 7 to 13 at Pages on Kensington
Fiction and Poetry
1. Monkey
by Michael Bryce
2. Casanova in Bolzano
by Sandor Marai
3. To Everything There is a Season
by Alistair MacLeod
4. Mob: Feather & Bone
by Clem Martini
5. Queen's Park
by Garry Ryan
6. Wolves Eat Dogs
by Martin Cruz Smith
7. A Complicated Kindness
by Miriam Toews
8. Hunger's Brides
by Paul Anderson
9. Runaway
by Alice Munro
10. Fleshmarket Close
by Ian Rankin
Non-fiction
1. A Short History of Progress
by Ronald Wright
2. Future: Tense
by Gwynne Dyer
3. Tree
by David Suzuki
4. Here Be Dragons
by Peter C. Newman
5. To Rule the Waves
by Arthur Herman
6. Long Way Round
by Ewan McGregor & Charley Boorman
7. Beauty Tips From Moose Jaw
by Will Ferguson
8. Alberta Politics Uncovered
by Mark Lisac
9. Dark Age Ahead
by Jane Jacobs
10. Eats, Shoots and Leaves
by Lynne Truss
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