BIBLIOASIS WEEKLY ROUNDUP (WED.DEC.9-WED.DEC.16)

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We’re working hard on our Winter titles here at the press, but that doesn’t mean we don’t have time to stop and smell the roses. Take a look at the highlight’s from this week:

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BEYOND SCROOGE

If you’re a listener of Metro Morning, you probably heard Seth, our esteemed illustrator, chatting with Matt Galloway about his Christmas Ghost Stories, a new series of illustrated classics that we’ll be publishing each holiday season. The first two are in stores now across Canada. Next year we’ll be publishing three to four more — on both sides of the border. If you missed the interview, click here to read about the cool history of this forgotten tradition. Big thanks to Robert Earl Stewart, our bookstore manager and unofficial in-house photographer, for the photo that CBC ran.

Anakana with her two picks: Marina Endicott’s Close to Hugh and Liz Worth’s No Work Finished Here.

A TWIST ON THE BEST-OF LIST

This week, the folks at CBC Books, who already posted their extensive best-of list, published a different take on the format. Instead of listing books she enjoyed this year, Jane van Koeverden of CBC Books asked eight of Canada’s best-known authors—including our own Anakana Schofield—to choose one book (or, in Anakana’s case, a few books) they loved most. We were delighted to see that Nino Ricci chose Martin John and Andrew Pyper chose Arvida by Samuel Archibald (trans. by Donald Winkler). Many other great books were highlighted, so the list is definitely worth a read.

HIT SO HARD THAT HIS MOLARS SANG

“Montana Border,” a short story by our author and friend Kevin Hardcastle, was included among The Walrus‘s year-end recap. You can read the story—and you really should read the story—here. It’s also one of the stand-outs of Kevin’s debut collection, Debris.

Bob Duff signing books at Cindy’s in Kingsville.

DUFF HITS THE HAT-TRICK

In addition to rave reviews from Windsor Life and the Drive, Duff hit the local media hat-trick this week with a another excellent piece by Dalson Chen in the Windsor Star. Chen does a great job highlighting the contentious nature of the book and what separates it from other books about hockey greats: “[Duff] based a lot of it on talking to people who played with and against [his chosen 50].”

NOW MAGAZINE CHIPS IN WITH THEIR TOP 10

NOW Magazine published their list of the top 10 books of 2015 earlier this week. Clocking in at numbers 6 and 9, respectively, were Anakana Shofield’s Martin John and Russell Smith’s Confidence. Editor Susan G. Cole called Smith “the writer whose craft made the biggest leap this year” and lauded Martin John as a “formally daring story of a pathetic sexual abuser [and] a triumph of tone.” Check out the rest of the list here.

BIBLIOASIS WEEKLY ROUNDUP (WED.DEC.2-WED.DEC.9)

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Zoroaster’s Children made the Taylor longlist, the best-of mentions kept rolling in, and great discussions on art and culture abounded. Here’s a roundup of last week’s goings-on at Biblioasis:

ZOROASTER’S CHILDREN MAKES TAYLOR PRIZE LONGLIST

You might recall reading about our brilliant-but-often-overlooked author Marius Kociejowski a few weeks ago. His new collection of travel essays, Zoroaster’s Children, had just gotten a rave review in Maclean’s— but we were worried thatmight be the end of major publicity for his book. Not so! We are excited to announce that Zoroaster’s Children has made the RBC Taylor Prize longlist. Each year, the Taylor Prize is awarded to a non-fiction book that “best combines a superb command of the English language, an elegance of style, and a subtlety of thought and perception.” We’d say Marius fits the bill! The shortlist will be announced on Jan 12th, and we’ve got all our fingers crossed.

BOOKS IN THE BLOOD

Biblioasis and our publisher Dan Wells, an alumnus of Western’s graduate program in History, were the focus of an excellent and detailed article in the Western News. The piece details the perseverance, fantastic effort, and happy accidents that allow Biblioasis, or any independent press, to exist in a world of online shopping and e-readers. If you’re interested in learning about the press’ present and history, the origins of our logo, or just seeing some beautiful shots of the shop, give it a read!

Anakana Schofield as illustrated by Chloe Cushman, for the National Post.

GREATEST HITS AND YEAR-END LISTS

Death, taxes, and the inclusion of Anakana Schofield’s Martin John on ‘best of’ lists seem the new normal this holiday season. This week, three of Canada’s major news outlets published (or in the National Post‘s case, finished publishing) their ‘best of’ lists for 2015 and Biblioasis books found their way into all three! The National Post placed Martin John third among this year’s top 99 books, a list which featured a wonderful illustration of Anakana by the very talented Chloe Cushman. Martin John, Confidence, & Arvida made the Globe 100, the Globe & Mail‘s unnumbered offering of this year’s best lit. CBC Books published their similarly gargantuan Best of 2015 list, which featured Martin John and the Governor General’s award-winning My Shoes Are Killing Me among the likes of David Suzuki and famed Young Adult author Gordon Korman (a favourite of our excellent bookseller, Bob Stewart).

SUPER SECRET FESTIVAL OF LIT

The good folks over at All Lit Up are rolling out a new sort of advent calendar-inspired feature. Each day they highlight several books under a specific genre: they’ve done First Nations voices, LGBT voices, etc. On Monday, they featured short stories — and guess which author showed up on their list? Our very own Kevin Hardcastle. “We see many books every season by debut authors but rarely do they come with endorsements like Debris,” wrote the editors. “With this much high praise, we knew it had to be good. And it was. Like any reader with a newly discovered literary treasure, we’re going to tell everyone we know until they listen.” Check out the full list. Big thanks to ALU!

Biblioasis publisher Dan Wells (left) speaks with TIFF artistic director Cameron Bailey at Art Gallery of Windsor.

CULTURE TALKS, WINDSORITES LISTEN

Last Thursday, the Ontario Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sport made Windsor the final stop on their “Culture Talks” tour through the province. Officials have spent the past little while meeting with the public — including many workers in Ontario’s culture industry — to get feedback on the government’s 10 year strategic plan for the arts. In our city, Biblioasis publisher Daniel Wells was called on to chat with TIFF artistic director Cameron Bailey about the importance of art to our community, not just as a cultural practice, but as a significant economic driver. Attendance was great and discussions abounded!

DON’T FORGET:

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The Biblioasis Holiday Party is tomorrow evening at 7pm! The combination launch-party/reading/schmoozer is sure to be the most joyful (not to mention joyously literary) night of the holiday season.

BIBLIOASIS WEEKLY ROUNDUP (WED.NOV.25-WED.DEC.2)

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If you weren’t tipped off by the thirty minutes windshield defrosting has added to your commute, we’re here to tell you that the holiday season is finally upon us. Here at the press, we’re celebrating with party planning and the launch of our Seth-illustrated Christmas Ghost Stories series. And while mall traffic and the ubiquity of holiday radio may give the impression that all normal life has paused for the season, it isn’t so—here’s a look at what we’ve been up to this week at Biblioasis:

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THE GRINCH’S SMALL HEART GREW THREE SIZES THAT DAY

In the world of indie lit, few voices are more well regarded than that of David Gutowski. For nearly 14 years, Gutowski has been the driving force behind largehearted boy, a website devoted to music, literature, and “that spot in the venn diagram where the two arts overlap.” While we were excited just to see that he published a list of his favourite novels of 2015, we were absolutely honoured to find out that Anakana made the cut! Gutowski called Martin John “a profound, innovative, and poignant meditation on identy.”

As the National Post rolls out its highly anticipated year-end list in segments (a behemoth at 99 books!), we’re proud to report that Russell Smith’s Confidence comes in at #46. The National Post staff called it “sexy and solid…[painting] a richly dark portrait of what it means to be down and out (metaphorically and, occasionally literally) in increasingly moneyed Toronto.”

We’re very pleased to see that Man Booker-finalist Mia Couto’s Pensativities, the debut collection of his essays in English translation, was listed among Weird Fiction Review‘s End-of-Year Book List for 2015. Leif Schenstead-Harris, who chose the book, wrote that Couto’s essays are “firmly located in Mozambican natural and social contexts, yet in them it is possible to see how flashes of weird lightning illuminate Couto’s observations on the world.” The entire list is full of great works you might have overlooked. Definitely worth a look.

NEW REVIEWS

Great reviews keep rolling in for Andrew Somerset’s Arms: The Culture and Credo of the Gun — even months after its publication. The latest two were published recently by the Winnipeg Free Press and the Waterloo Region Record. Somerset “provides a witty and informed survey of the terrain,” writes Alex Good for the Record, “albeit one that doesn’t hold out a lot of hope for change,” while Douglas Johnston praises Arms ability to “[entertain] – even as it educates.”

The holiday issue of Windsor Life just arrived at our shop, and it includes the first big feature on Bob Duff’s 50 Greatest Red Wings. “A terrific book,” raves writer Dick Hildebrand. “A must read for the Red Wing devotee — or any hockey fan for that matter!”

On the other side of the border, Asymptote, an exceptional journal that focuses exclusively on works in translation, paid Samuel Archibald’s Arvida a high compliment: reviewer Gnaomi Siemens writes in her rave review that Arvida’s small-town Canadian stories reveal “another America, a hidden America, maybe even more American than the America we think we know.” What a testament to the relevance and power of works in translation and literature from Quebec!

UPCOMING:

KEEP WARM AT THE BIBLIOASIS HOLIDAY BARNBURNER!

Nothing pairs better with a good book than a party and a (few) glass(es) of wine! We’re gearing up for our annual holiday party here at the shop, which is set for Friday December 11th. At 7PM, we’ll be officially launching Bob Duff’s excellent 50 Greatest Red Wings, alongside readings by Marty Gervais, Michael Januska, and Kate Hargreaves. As if that wasn’t enough, we’ll be featuring the soft launch of “The Poets Series,” a series of paintings by artist Melanie Janisse Barlow. There’ll be door prizes, refreshments, 15% off all books, and the ideal environment for some impromptu caroling. See you there!