Archive for category: Latest News

Montreal’s Blue Metropolis Literary Festival, one of Canada’s premier literary festivals, is no stranger to Eleanor Wachtel: The thoughtful and intrepid host of CBC’s Writers & Company, who is celebrating 25 years hosting the national literary staple, has attended all but one Blue Metropolis since its inception in 1999. Wachtel loves the festival for its wide scope and its location, her hometown of Montreal, which she says has “tremendous joie de vivre and savoir faire and je ne sais quoi.”

Although she’s more than comfortable interviewing the big names who grace the Blue Met stage, Wachtel found herself the interview subject at this year’s event, as she thoughtfully engaged with interviewer and Montreal author Will Aitken’s questions on hosting the show, interviewing authors, and the launch of her new book, The Best of Writers & Company. Listen to the full interview, from April 15 2016, right here:

In addition to a much-appreciated provincial holiday on Monday, it’s been a quiet week at the press office. Here’s a quick look at what we’ve been up to (and what we’ve been listening to!) since last week.

THE HARD PART IS NOT MAKING A PLAYLIST 400 SONGS LONG

Kevin Hardcastle (left) and Kathy Page (right).

One of our favourite places to read about music and literature on the internet is Largehearted Boy, a blog operated by the steadfast David Gutowski for fourteen years and counting. In addition to Gutowski’s keen eye for music and books, what makes Largehearted Boy special is the sheer breadth of its content. The site features free and legal music downloads; daily music, literature, and popular culture news; book reviews; mixtapes created by authors related to their latest books; reading lists by musicians; soundtrack discussions by directors and composers; and “The Largehearted Boy Cross-Cultural Media Exchange Program,” where authors interview musicians (and vice-versa).

We’re proud to share two playlists by Biblioasis authors featured this week, who are joining the ranks of Anakana Schofield, Bret Easton Ellis, Garth Risk Hallberg, and Eimear McBride. Kathy Page created a playlist for Frankie Styne & the Silver Man, a novel Gutowski called “imaginative and crisply written… one of the creepiest novels I have ever read.” You can stream Kathy’s playlist on Spotify. A few days later, Page’s Biblioasis peer Kevin Hardcastle created a playlist for his debut collection Debris, which Gutowski called “gritty and visceral.” You can stream Kevin’s playlist on Spotify as well.

REVISITING A MONSTER

Speaking of Frankie Styne & the Silver Man, which was recently published for the first time in the US and Canada, author Kathy Page took to her blog this week to answer questions about the book’s origin. Kathy posted a short essay describing the origin of the novel and its recent revision — which was quite substantial. We recommend it especially to those interested in how authors view (and revise) works written at an earlier stage in their careers.

MYRIAD JOYS

Quill & Quire‘s review of Lives of the Poets (with Guitars), which features an early cover design.

The most recent edition of Quill & Quire arrived in the office this week with a huge review of Ray Robertson’s Lives of the Poets (with Guitars). Adam Nayman was somewhat critical of the selective appeal of the book (it focuses mostly on roots, blues, and gospel), but he concluded on a high note. “The achievement of [Robertson’s] book is that it directs fans and novices alike toward the myriad joys offered up by its subjects,” he wrote, “while also prodding us to think and feel more deeply about the other poets with guitars — or boom boxes or turntables — who lie beyond these pages, in our own personal pantheons.”

OF SCHOFIELD’S PECULIAR DECENCY AND CANDOUR

With the UK release of Martin John, we’re experiencing a pleasant bit of déjà vu as publications overseas rave about the novel as passionately as their North American counterparts did. This week, The Spectator called Martin John “a grown-up tale of how blighted lives carry on … fizzl[ing] with surface humour.” The same day, Eileen Battersby, the famed Irish Times literary correspondent and author who John Banville described as “the finest fiction critic we have,” raved about the novel, calling it “a comic tour de force … many writers have brazenly wandered into the minefield of mental illness, but few with Schofield’s peculiar decency and candour in not only depicting Martin John’s scheming turmoil, but also the bewildered righteousness of those surrounding him.”

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.

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.

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.

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!