IN THE MEDIA: Brode, Huebert, Cooper

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].