BIBLIOASIS WEEKLY ROUNDUP (WINTER INSTITUTE EDITION)

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If you’ve been wondering about the unusual quiet on the press front this week, wonder no more: our Publisher, Daniel Wells, and Director of Marketing and Publicity, Grant Munroe, spent the week at the American Booksellers Association’s 11th annual Winter Institute in beautiful Denver, CO. Here’s a small update and some photos from the event:

BOOKS, BOOKSELLERS, AND BOOK TOTES

After a five day trip to Denver, Colorado for the American Booksellers Association’s 11th Winter Institute—a cozy and very fun gathering of approximately six hundred of the best booksellers across North America—Dan and Grant are back at the press office. The pair brought author Ray Robertson along with them to promote his new book Lives of the Poets (with Guitars), a fun & irreverent book of essays that explores the lives and music of outsider artists from Sister Rosetta Tharpe to the Ramones.

Ray Robertson signing advanced copies of his forthcoming music book Lives of the Poets (with Guitars). Photo by Laura Meyer, House of Anansi's Director of Marketing and Publicity.

Ray Robertson signing advanced copies of his forthcoming music book Lives of the Poets (with Guitars). Photo by Laura Meyer, House of Anansi’s Director of Marketing and Publicity.

Speaking of the best booksellers from across North America, Dan and Grant ran into Stephanie from Page & Palette Bookstore in Fairhope, Alabama, who’s not just a huge fan of our books—but also of our totes.

Stephanie of Page & Palette Bookstore in Fairhope, Alabama showing off her collection of Biblioasis totes.

Stephanie of Page & Palette Bookstore in Fairhope, Alabama showing off her collection of Biblioasis totes.

UPCOMING EVENTS

Three of our authors are involved in readings and events across Canada this month. If you’re in Halifax, Toronto, Ottawa, or Montreal, be sure to check out some of these:

K.D. Miller, author of the genius All Saints (which was up for the 2014 Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize and Frank O’Connor Award), will be reading in Halifax on Tuesday, February 2nd as part of the 22nd annual Saint Mary’s Reading Series.

Kevin Hardcastle, whose debut short story collection Debris was released this year to great acclaim, will be reading at Ben McNally books in Toronto on February 25th alongside Patrick Warner and Kate Cayley. The event is free and will feature snacks, if literature isn’t enticing enough for you!

Zachariah Wells, poet, author, and essayist, will be on a bit of a tour supporting Sum, his newest book of poetry. He’ll be in Montreal on February 20th as part of the Atwater Reading Series; Ottawa on February 23rd as part of the Tree Reading Series at Black Squirrel Books; Toronto on February 24th as part of Pivot Readings at the Steady.

BIBLIOASIS WEEKLY ROUNDUP (WED.JAN.13 – WED.JAN.20)

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Although it’s been a frigid and blustery week in Windsor, we’ve had the kindness of (anonymous) strangers and the excitement of the impending publishing season to keep us warm at the press. Here’s the best of the news this week from Biblioasis:

GiftProject

GOT US LIFTED, FEELIN’ SO GIFTED

All of us at the press were pleasantly surprised to begin the week with a gift-wrapped, beautiful watercolour painting of the storefront, which our bookstore clerk Bob found tucked between a few books in our window display. The third in a series that includes local entertainment staples Phog Lounge and Milk Coffee Bar, the painting was clandestinely dropped off by the anonymous Windsor Gift Project group:

We couldn’t be more grateful to the group or proud to be associated with such important local institutions. As soon as we find a cool frame, it will be hanging in the store. You can check out Windsor Gift Project on Instagram @windsorgiftpro.

45 Years

CHARLOTTE RAMPLING GETS THE NOD FOR 45 YEARS

It’s on! Actress Charlotte Rampling snagged a nomination for 45 Years, which was adapted from the title story of a book we published in 2015: David Constantine’s collection In Another Country. Based on most early commentary (especially from Dan Kois of Slate.com), her chances are pretty great.

constantinewachtel

THE TRUTH WILL SET YOU FREE, BUT THERE’S A RISK IN IT

Speaking of 45 Years: After receiving a wonderful reception from North American critics last year — including a “best collection of the year” nod from Kirkus Reviews — 45 Years has attracted new interest in the brilliant David Constantine’s work. We suspect that this excellent, hour-long interview with Eleanor Wachtel on CBC’s Writers & Company is just the start. The interview sees Wachtel and Constantine delving deep into the topics of memory, art, and closure, and David speaks extensively on In Another Country and his upcoming novel for Biblioasis, The Life Writer.

This interview stacks up well among the 25 years worth of interviews Wachtel has conducted with writers as diverse as Jonathan Franzen, Alice Munro, Hilary Mantel, J.M. Coetzee, Zadie Smith, W.G. Sebald, Toni Morrison, and Seamus Heaney on Writers & Company, the best of which we’re proud to be gathering and publishing in Spring 2016. The good folks at 49th Shelf listed The Best of Writer’s & Company as one of their most anticipated non-fiction books of 2016.

Geist

FROM THE MOUTHS OF THE CRITICS

This week, Geist released their Winter 2015 issue, which featured a rave review of Martin John. The review ended with a poignant comment that’s been echoed by more than a few critics lately: “Martin John is the best novel I have read in years: long after reading it I feel that I am still reading it, being read by it.” Pick up the latest issue of Geist to read the full piece.

Russell Smith’s acclaimed story collection, Confidence, which we published last spring, got a smart review in the latest issue of PRISM International . “Smith’s Toronto is a city under siege,” writes reviewer Adrick Brock. “In so many of the stories, one group of people (or animals, in the case of ‘Raccoons’) is invading another.” In his view, Smith’s is a vital, aggressive book that “draws from the city’s stark contrasts: the glitzy restaurants and fabulous people coexist with the grime and violence that gentrification is attempting to scrub away.” These reflect the growing pains, Brock argues, that have attended “Toronto’s identity shift into a hip global metropolis.” Good read!

Alexandra Oliver 4

GAPING LIKE A DOPE IN THE WARMTH OF THE SUN

We’re waiting with bated breath for the April (CAN) / May (US) release of Alexandra Oliver’s new collection of poetry, Let The Empire Down, especially since her last collection, Meeting the Tormentors in Safeway, earned her the Pat Lowther Memorial Award and the National Post‘s Canadian Poetry Book of the Year. You can read a poem, called “Mihiz,” from Alexandra’s new collection on Partisan, one of the best online spots for poetry and cultural criticism in Canada.

BIBLIOASIS WEEKLY ROUNDUP (WED.DEC.23-WED.JAN.13)

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As you may’ve noticed, ‘weekly’ is a bit of a misnomer for this week’s roundup. The press enjoyed a restorative holiday break from December 23rd to January 4th, but we’re back in full-swing for the New Year and ready to get you caught up on everything we’ve been up to.

FROM THE MOUTHS OF THE CRITICS

These last few weeks have been some of the most exciting we’ve experienced in our eleven years as publishers of exceptional books. Upon arriving back at the office after the break, we were thrilled to begin the day with reviews of Martin John in two of the world’s most prestigious, storied venues: The New Yorker and The New York Times. This marks the first time a Biblioasis title has been reviewed in The New Yorker, whose critic called Martin John a “frenetic, risk-taking novel … deliberately cryptic and bleakly funny.” Hours before that review hit newsstands, The New York Times Sunday Edition featured the brilliant Irish novelist Eimear McBride’s thoughtful, glowing review of Martin John. Anakana’s novel was also listed as a favourite by the editors of The New York Times Books.

Kevin Hardcastle’s Debris received some well-deserved attention south of the border in anticipation of his debut’s US release on Feb. 9. Booklist’s reviewer wrote that “[Debris] has its own strong voice … smoothly connected by uncompromising settings and Hardcastle’s authentic, plainspoken country-noir voice, the 11 stories collected here will appeal to fans of gritty, back-country crime fiction, even those who typically shun short stories.”

Kerry-Lee Powell’s most recent collection of poetry, Inheritance, was recently reviewed in the prestigious Times Literary Supplement. “Kerry-Lee Powell’s poems are full of lively vignettes in which realism strikes lyrical sparks off harshness,” wrote reviewer Jan Montefiore. “[Her] language is colloquial, unshowy, her free-verse lines organized in compact quatrains or tercets, but there is a relish for sprees, extremities and oddities.” We truly couldn’t have said it better ourselves.

EXAMINING THE GUN CULTURE, LOCK, STOCK, & BARREL

US President Barack Obama tears up during the announcement of his plan to take executive action on gun control.

Not long before, and after, a solemn US President Obama announced he would be taking executive action regarding gun control, The Toronto Star and CBC Ideas ran long-form stories on gun culture in a North American context. The Toronto Star’s Insight section featured a lengthy excerpt from A.J. Somerset’s Arms: The Culture and Credo of the Gun, as well as his take on the book’s reception in the US and Canada. He said the NRA, gun nuts, and gun lobbyists would like his book to disappear, so they can maintain the illusion that they speak for all gun owners. “They do not speak for me,” wrote Somerset. “I speak for myself.”

This week’s episode of Ideas was dedicated to issues discussed in Arms. A.J., bestselling author and activist Christopher Hedges, and Mohawk thinker Dr. Taiaiake Alfred spoke with host Paul Kennedy about the current state of gun culture in North America, the roots of its dysfunction, and ways in which it can be reformed. It was an excellent hour-long program on an issue that, sadly, just won’t seem to go away. You can listen to that episode here.

LOOSENING WINTER’S GRIP

Although this year’s has been a notably mild winter, the literary world has joined the wider world in eager anticipation of spring. Spring previews have emerged from Quill & Quire and CBC Books and we’re happy to report that a host of Biblioasis titles garnered mentions. Quill & Quire featured Worldly Goods, a powerful gathering of stories by Montreal-based Alice Petersen; Bad Things Happen, a collection of short fiction by Halifax’s Kris Bertin; The Party Wall, a fantastic novel by all-star Quebecois author Catherine Leroux (translated by the amazing Lazer Lederhendler); Let the Empire Down, a new collection of poetry by Pat Lowther Memorial Award winner Alexandra Oliver; and Lives of the Poets (with Guitars): Thirteen Outsiders Who Changed Modern Music, a fun grouping of musical bios by Mr. Ray Robertson of Toronto. Alexandra’s Let the Empire Down was also included among CBC Books’ Spring 2016 preview.

IDEAS, NOT MONEY

We know as well as anybody that authors and publishers have to eat too. While galas and grand-prizes are good fun, and an important part of the literary landscape to boot, the concept of the ReLit Awards is a refreshing departure from regular award protocol. As Amazon.com explains, “Canada’s ReLit Awards—founded to acknowledge the best new work released by independent publishers—may not come with a purse, but it brings a welcome, back-to-the-books focus to the craft.” We’ve got all fingers crossed for Kathy Page and Diane Schoemperlen, whose respective short fiction collections Paradise & Elsewhere and By the Book: Stories and Pictures made the 2015 shortlist. The ReLit Rings are given out this month!