Archive for month: March, 2018

Look, Ma, we’re in the legislative assembly!

At last Thursday’s meeting of the Ontario Legislative Assembly, MPP Percy Hatfield (Windsor—Tecumseh) secured a 90-second Member’s  Statement to honour three authors with Windsor connections who were shortlisted for the 2017 Speaker’s Book Award. Among them, our very own Patrick Brode, whose Border Cities Powerhouse: The Rise of Windsor: 1900-1945 made the list of nine titles. Other Windsor-affiliated nominees were Dr. Cheryl Collier, professor of political science at the University of Windsor, for The Politics of Ontario, and Shawn Micallef, who was born and raised in Windsor, for Frontier City: Toronto on the Verge of Greatness.

The award is given annually to a book by an Ontario author that reflects the province’s diverse culture and history.

“I was overjoyed this year when three writers from Windsor were honoured,” Hatfield said in his address to the assembly. “[Brode] has written extensively about our history in his latest book . . . published by Biblioasis, a local firm I mentioned several times in this house, especially around the Giller Prize.”

Border Cities Powerhouse is Brode’s second book of local history, following The River and the Land: A History of Windsor to 1900. His work has been called “Fascinating” by the Windsor Star, and Biz X Magazine calls his books “thoroughly researched and superbly written.”

Brode’s next book is Why Babe Trumble Died: Enforcing Temperance on the Detroit River Border, 1920. In it, Brode tells the story of Trumble’s death at the hands of Reverend J.O.L. Spracklin, “The Fighting Parson.” Why Babe Trumble Died will be published by Biblioasis in November 2018, and I move we each put it on our To-Read list right now. Seconded? Don’t make me get out my gavel . . .

Peninsula Sinking … under the weight of all these nominations

 We’re over the moon for David Huebert, whose Peninsula Sinking has been shortlisted for not one, but two Atlantic Book Awards: the Alistair MacLeod Prize for Short Fiction and the Jim Connors Dartmouth Book Award. Congrats, David, and good luck! We knew you when!

Another day, another glowing review of Paige Cooper’s Zolitude

In a beautifully written review of Zolitude, Helen Chau Bradley says all the things we’ve been trying to say about this stunning debut collection, but she uses people words whereas we tend to wave our arms around and make oddly-pitched squeaks of adoration. To wit: “Zolitude is Cooper’s first short story collection, but it reads like the work of a far more seasoned writer. . . With each opening paragraph, she pitches us into a new atmosphere, full of gorgeous detail and emotional rawness, a world that feels too real to be a fantasy, or perhaps just fantastic enough to be real.” To which your humble Biblioblogger would like to add: [verbal equivalent of multiple cat-eyes-emoji].

Years, Months, and Days and envelopes and tape and mailing labels

Amanda Jernigan’s new book has arrived and the Bibliognomes are busy spreading the word. Years, Months, and Days is a transfiguration of Die Gemeinschaftliche Liedersammlung—a collection of Protestant hymns originally compiled by a Pennsylvanian-born Swiss-German Mennonite—into heart-breaking lyric poems that bridge secular spirituality and holy reverence with the commonalities of life, death, love, hope, and pain. Translation: it’s beautiful and good. And perfectly sized to tuck into a pocket or a basket filled with chocolate bunnies. Amen.

Speaking of beautiful!

The Winnipeg Free Press calls Paige Cooper’s Zolitude “beautiful and strange.” “[A] timely exploration of love and humanity…urgent and energetic,” writes Melanie Brannagan Frederiksen. With all the praise this debut collection has been garnering, what would really be strange is not getting your hands on a copy of your own. I mean, just saying.

Ray Robertson hits the road through South Ontario to party like it’s 1979.

Well ok he’s hitting the road to promote and read from his AWESOME new novel, 1979, and if there’s any partying it will also probably involve music from iPods and other stuff so maybe none of the above is true except for the hitting-the-road-part BUT! The dates are:

Toronto — Tuesday, March 20th, 7 PM, Monarch Tavern (12 Clinton St)

Windsor — Thursday, March 22nd, 7:30 PM, Biblioasis Bookstore (1520 Wyandotte St E)

Chatham — Friday, March 23rd, 7 PM, The Book Brothers (25 King St E)

Will you be in Toronto, Windsor, or Chatham next week? We will, so COME OUT AND LET’S…well, you know. 1979 tells the story of Tom Buzby, thirteen years old and living in Chatham, Ontario. Set in the year that real newspaper headlines told of the rise of Reagan and North America’s hard turn to the right, 1979 is a novel of innocence not so much lost as smashed, and experience gained the hard way, the kind that brands memories forever and permanently changes lives.