By Mark Leiren-Young When I walk into the downtown Toronto hotel room to meet Salman Rushdie, I can’t help scoping the halls for bodyguards. Even though he’s no longer in hiding, there’s still a three million dollar bounty on the writer’s head and he’s still the most buzzed about celebrity at the 2012 Toronto International […]
books
Open season on critics
By Zoe Grams Fringe, film fest and publishing season is upon us – a time when the smell of suntan lotion lingers as we push into theatres. But it’s the critics, not just the performers, who are making headlines. With 76 events in the Vancouver Fringe, more than 100 in the Toronto International Film Festival, […]
The Giller Prize deserves an award
By Frank Moher A bunch of years ago now, I wrote an article for Saturday Night magazine decrying the fact that the Giller Prize was a captive of big name publishers and authors. On the basis of the long list for the 2012 Giller that was released last week, as well as the one from […]
Supreme Court copyright ruling is (amazingly) sensible
By John Klein (aka Saskboy) Today’s Supreme Court of Canada ruling on copyright and fair dealing contains some not-so-small victories. In fact, there is so much common sense in it that I can’t help but feel the justices have taken leave of their old-people senses! Copyright expert Michael Geist has this summary: “[…] The clear […]
Terry Fallis gets it all wrong, brilliantly
By Mark Leiren-Young Somebody has to tell Terry Fallis how publishing works. When he couldn’t find a publisher for his debut novel – the story of a reluctant campaign manager managing an even more reluctant candidate for the Parliament of Canada — Fallis released his story a chapter at a time as a podcast series […]
Inside Read: “Cold Comfort” by Gil McElroy
Inside Read is our sampler of new Canadian books we think merit your attention. In Cold Comfort, Colborne, Ontario poet and curator Gil McElroy uses a box of photographs left behind by his late father, a DEW line operator during the Cold War, to reconstruct that era and “come to terms with the mysterious photographer, […]
Volunteers aim to avoid 200,000+ book-burning
A BoB short: Maybe it has something to do with the recent death of Ray Bradbury, and memories of Farenheit 451, but Shaunna Raycraft has found lots of help with her 200,000+ books. Seven years ago, the Pine Lake, Sask. woman rescued the massive literary hoard from a neighbour, who had threatened to burn it […]
More civil liberties at the Grand Prix
By Marilyne Veilleix This Sunday, June 10, 2012, I attempted to take part in a protest-action: over the course of a few hours, I would take the metro back and forth from Berri to Jean-Drapeau station to peacefully protest my disagreement with the Formula 1 Grand Prix, which in my opinion promotes sexism. Dressed in […]
LPG cut, Summerworks restored: Is this any way to run a culture?
Update, June 14th: Moore reverses cuts to LPG. By Frank Moher Let us now consider the Department of Canadian Heritage, and the confusion that is its Minister, James Moore. As we reported on the weekend, the Literary Press Group of Canada, a 37-year old organization whose job is to sell the books of Canadian authors, […]
Literary Press Group loses funding; some questions for Canadian Heritage
By Frank Moher I have been pursuing the story of the Literary Press Group getting its funding yanked by the Department of Canadian Heritage. In concert with that department’s decision to restore funding to the Summerworks theatre festival in Toronto, having pulled it last year, the matter raises questions about its management under Minister James […]
