Kamal Al-Solaylee Wins 2017 Shaughnessy Cohen Prize

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Al-Solaylee BROWN coverCongratulations to Kamal Al-Solaylee, whose book Brown: What Being Brown in the World Today Means (to Everyone) won the Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing.

The jury, composed of CBC foreign correspondent Nahlah Ayed, National Postcolumnist Colby Cosh, and former Member of Parliament Megan Leslie selected the winner. Their citation reads:

Not black, not white, but brown: how do skin colour and its shades play out in our relationships, our economy, and our politics? Kamal Al-Solaylee’s book dares to propose and define an emerging racial category, drawing on a lifetime’s travel and inquiry to discuss the common experience and the awkward status of the Latin, Asian, and Mediterranean peoples of the fast-rising global south. Thoughtful and refreshing, Brown has a chance to become a made-in-Canada intellectual landmark.

Lynne Kutsukake Wins Kobo Emerging Writer Prize

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The Translation of Love KutsukakeWe are absolutely thrilled for Lynne Kutsukake, winner of the Kobo Emerging Writer Prize in the category of Literary Fiction for The Translation of Love. In her debut novel Kutsukake tells the story of Aya Shimamura, a newly repatriated girl, as she helps a classmate find her missing sister in war-devastated Tokyo.

Author Zoe Whittall, this year’s Literary Fiction judge, says: “The Translation of Love is a tremendously accomplished work, a propulsive and layered story, the scope of which is quite unusual for a first novel. I was gripped and often very moved while reading and it stayed with me for weeks.”

Now in its third year, the Kobo Emerging Writer Prize recognizes exemplary Canadian authors in the categories of Literary Fiction, Specualtive Fiction, and Non-Fiction. Each winner receives a $10,000 cash prize as well as promotional, marketing, and communications support to help kick off their burgeoning careers.

Padma Viswanathan Wins 2017 Porter Fund Literary Prize

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We are thrilled for 2017 Porter Fund Literary Prize winner Padma Viswanathan. Presented annually to an Arkansas writer with a substantial and impressive body of work, the $2,000 prize makes it one of the state’s most lucrative and prestigious literary awards.

From The Idle Class Magazine:

“It seemed somehow fitting that I received the call about being selected for the Porter Prize while watching my kids play in Central Park: no matter where I go now, Arkansas, my adopted home, exerts an irresistible pull,” said Viswanathan. “I didn’t know, when I moved to Fayetteville eleven years ago, whether Arkansas would have me, nor what I would have to offer this place. To be awarded the Porter Prize feels like a response to those questions. I am profoundly honored.”

Viswanathan, a Scotiabank Giller Prize finalist, is the author of The Toss of a Lemon  and The Ever After of Ashin Rao.

Apply for a Fall Internship at WCA!

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Westwood Creative Artists, Canada’s largest literary agency representing more than 400 writers, is looking for a candidate to fill a full-time 12 week internship position, beginning Monday August 21st and ending Friday November 10th, with possible flexibility for the right candidate.

A considerable amount of time during this internship will be spent working with WCA’s international rights director and rights assistant in preparation for the Frankfurt Book Fair in October. There will also be the opportunity to work with other WCA agents and at the reception desk. In the rights department, the intern will be involved in catalogue proofreading, general preparation and follow-up for the London Book Fair. There will also be some data entry and other administrative tasks. While working with individual agents, the intern will understand how the agent manages his or her authors, learn about Canadian and US submissions, and provide needed support in a varied number of capacities. At the reception desk, the intern will really be at the “nerve centre” of the agency. Tasks will include daily administration work, reading submissions, and receiving authors and publishers as they arrive at the agency.

We offer a competitive honorarium of $1500, a lively and congenial work environment in Toronto’s Annex neighbourhood, and an excellent opportunity to gain an overview of the publishing industry in Canada and abroad through the lens of the literary agent and the writers we represent.

The ideal candidate will be eager to learn, highly organized, energetic, and have a positive outlook. Strong proofreading and computer skills required; previous office experience and knowledge of the publishing industry an asset; passionate attention to detail and accuracy a must. Please send your cover letter, resume, and references to the attention of Carolyn Forde at Carolyn@wcaltd.com at your earliest convenience or by July 12th. We appreciate all applications but will only reply to candidates selected for an interview.

 

Martel, Herriot Among 2017 Saskatchewan Book Awards

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Martel - THMOP coverHerriot - AtonementCongratulations to 2017 Saskatchewan Book Awards winners Yann Martel and Trevor Herriot! Martel’s The High Mountains of Portugal won the Regina Public Library Book of the Year Award and the City of Saskatoon and Public Library Saskatoon Book Award. Through different characters – a Portuguese pathologist, a Canadian senator, and our protagonist Tomas – Martel weaves a contemporary fable offering a haunting exploration of great love and great loss.

Herriot’s Towards a Prairie Atonement won the City of Regina Book Award. With the help of a Metis Elder, Herriot revisits the history of one corner of the Great Plains and finds himself facing his own responsibility as a decedent of settlers.

Anticipated Summer Reads: Gowdy and Hynes

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Gowdy - Little SisterHynes - Burnt in our BedsBarbara Gowdy and Joel Thomas Hynes are in good company on The Globe and Mail’s most anticipated books of 2017. Gowdy’s Little Sister explores the limits of the human mind through Rose, who runs a small repertory cinema with her widowed mother. As a series of storms strike Toronto, Rose experiences vivid, ultra-realistic dreams about living someone else’s life. In Hynes’ We’ll All Be Burnt in Our Beds Some Night, scrappy Johnny Keough sets out on a cross-country road trip to scatter his girlfriend’s ashes on a B.C. beach and accept the man he needs to become.