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Read
David Chariandy’s Brother just won the 2019 Windham-Campbell Prize, an anonymously judged literary award worth US$165,000. The prize was established in 2013 with a gift from writer Donald Windham, in memory of his partner, Sandy Campbell.
Listen
Smart Podcast, Trashy Books covers romance and there’s no better way to get into the genre than tuning in to host Sarah Wendell, who interviews authors and publishing insiders.
Do
Stephanie Land will be in Toronto on April 9 to talk about her memoirs, MAID: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother’s Will to Survive at the Toronto Reference Library at 7 p.m. This is part of a new collaborative series between the Toronto Public Library and the Art Gallery of Ontario.
What are people in Etobicoke, Ont., reading?
A Novel Spot.Supplied
- A Novel Spot
- Etobicoke, Ont.
- Sarah Pietroski
The Novel Spot may not be the biggest bookstore – it’s just 634 square feet, including the office – but owner Sarah Pietroski packs a lot into that space. Opened in 2012, the biggest seller in the store has been Cormorant Books’s Great Village by Mary Rose Donnelly, who lives in Mississauga. “We’ve sold more copies of that than anything else. We’re huge hand-sellers in this store, and when we love something, we recommend it. It’s set in Nova Scotia, the writing is beautiful and we’ve all read it," Pietroski says. She’s also eagerly awaiting the new Maureen Jennings book Heat Wave, which she’s already read and thinks will do well. “It’s 1936 Toronto during the Great Depression and features a murder mystery rounded out with wonderful historical detail and great characters (including well-known Detective William Murdoch’s son, Jack). I really can’t wait to get it in,” she adds.
Mark your literary calendar
April 18
Come meet Adam Tooze, the winner of this year’s Lionel Gelber Prize for non-fiction for his book Crashed: How a Decade of Financial Crises Changed the World. Tooze will sit down with Derek DeCloet. The Globe and Mail’s executive editor and head of Report on Business, at a subscriber-only event at 351 King St. E. Visit here for more details.
Oct. 14-18, 2020
Canada will be the host country at next year’s Frankfurt Book Fair.Supplied
Okay, so it might be a bit early to be peering ahead to 2020, but this is big news for the domestic publishing industry: Canada will be the host country at next year’s Frankfurt Book Fair (the literary equivalent to TIFF), and Canada FBM 2020 just gave publishers, authors, cultural organizations and media a sneak peek of its “slogo.” This has been six years in the making – Canada was offered the chance to host the 2017 fair, but the Harper government declined – and the organizing committee will shift into high gear in the next few months.
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