| "I remember when Pages started with Peter Oliva in 1994," says Simone Lee. "I was in Toronto, and the publishers were so excited to have somewhere for their authors to go."
Pages Books on Kensington has had a reputation for excellence since it opened. It was run by Oliva until 2000, when it was purchased by Cathy McKay. Upon her death in 2003, it was inherited by Greg Gerrard. "I always saw myself as a caretaker-owner," says Gerrard. "My job was really to bridge between Cathy and a new owner, someone younger with energy and ideas."
That someone is Simone Lee, who, in partnership with Ben Falconer, takes Pages’s reins in July. She was born in Calgary, then moved to Toronto for a degree in art history and Italian. While in Toronto, she worked first for Edward’s Books and Art, then for The Book Company. After flirting with a career in radio and television, she became a publicist for Bantam/Doubleday.
Lee spent 13 years with the publisher then moved on to Harper-Collins’s Canadian line. "I figured if I was going to show books for a living, I might as well do it for Canadians and make a difference to people here," she says. She returned to Calgary in 2002 for her wedding. "My husband is from Texas, and we met in New York," she says. "I figured the only way he’d ever see Calgary was if we got married there." The day before the wedding, she had an interview with Fifth House Publishers. Two weeks later, she and her husband packed up their apartments and embarked on a cross-Canada road trip. She worked with Fifth House until the birth of her baby, Julia, when she decided it was time for a change. "Greg said he was thinking about selling the store," says Lee. "I told him to keep me in mind. How often do you get to be part of a cultural institution?"
Lee has grand plans for Pages, but no sweeping changes. "We want to keep doing everything that Pages does, just more of it," she says. "We want to do more events, and we’re looking at adding another 300 metres of shelf space in the basement. We want to cram the shelves full of books, books, books!" And Pages regulars can rest easy: the staff is sticking around. "Our staff is one of the best in Canada," says Lee, and Gerrard agrees. "Sara, Tyler and Katrina are great book-readers, and they give customers really good ideas."
As for Gerrard, he plans to take some well-deserved time off. "I hope to get out to the prairies and do some photography," he says. "I’ve got some projects that I’ve put off for a while. I want to sit down and get some of them done."
Watch this space for a whole slew of new Pages events – including, in July, a fall preview of new releases.
Clean water is fast becoming a rare and highly-disputed resource, so why do we keep pooping in it? In The Culture of Flushing, Jamie Benidickson focuses his lens on the history of waste treatment, and he shares his findings at McNally Robinson on June 28, 7 p.m.
You may remember Sara Bynoe from the 2006 High Performance Rodeo, where her show Bad Grad induced painfully familiar high school flashbacks. Now, the editor of Teen Angst: A Celebration of REALLY BAD Poetry returns to Calgary with F*ck Off and Die: Tales in Teen Angst Poetry, directed by Loose Moose’s AJ Demers. This hilarious presentation of torment and sorrow hits the Loose Moose Theatre (1235 26 Avenue S.E.) on June 28, 8 p.m. — and there’s an open mic after the show, so break out those teen-era notebooks.
Now that the sun’s shining, I keep meaning to jog down the Bow River bike paths, but it hasn’t happened yet. Judy Holt’s book, One Potato, Two Potato, Couch Potato to You, is right up my alley, aimed at getting us off the couch for a fit and active lifestyle. She speaks at McNally Robinson on July 5, 6 p.m.
For this month’s flywheel reading, filling Station magazine hosts one of its most twisted experiments yet. Five writers – Diane Guichon, Paul Hegedus, Ross Priddle, a.rawlings and William Neil Scott – have submitted samples of their writing, which has been distributed amongst a quartet of multidisciplinary artists. Those artists have been asked to interpret the writing samples in any way they wish. Will there be music? Dance? Performance art? Anything could happen. As if that weren’t enough, we’ll also be auctioning off Sandy Lam’s limited edition flywheel poster, complete with autographs from all the flywheel readers from the past six months, in support of Literacy Alberta. Join us for creative mayhem at McNally Robinson on July 5, 7 p.m.Attention, fiction writers – the deadline for Alberta Views’s short story competition is looming. If you have a short story, less than 3,500 words, be sure to submit it before June 30 to shortstory@albertaviews.ab.ca. For full submission details, visit www.albertaviews.ab.ca/competitions.html.
Ottawa poet jwcurry is in the midst of typing 26 copies of A Beepliographic Cyclopedia, an insane project that strives to document all the works of bpNichol, down to the last scraps of ephemera. On July 20, Broken City will host Holy Beep!, a fundraiser for the project, and filling Station magazine is currently collecting submissions for a limited edition chapbook. If you have any work about/inspired by/dedicated to bpNichol, submit it to nzwalschots@gmail.com by July 15. |
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