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11 Ways You’re Annoying On Twitter

the Branta Webcrawler — Mon, 14 May 2012 16:26:43 +0000

1. Crowd-source your followers

Posted about an hour ago

Asking your followers to recommend restaurants/bars/tourist hot spots to you is the new Google, by which I mean: Why don’t you just use Google? Twitter-sourcing is the laziest form of research. It’s like going to the library, lying down on the floor, and asking relevant books to jump off the shelves onto your face. I don’t know. It’s fine. Just keep it to a minimum – like once a year, maybe. For example, I just asked MY followers what Twitter behavior they found annoying. If, in the next twelve months, I find myself wondering where the best Sasquatch hotspots in the Midwest are located, tough luck. I will be doing that woods-wandering unadvised.

2. Ignore your followers/fans

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I understand that at a certain point, a person can attract so many Twitter followers and @-replies that it becomes physically (and mentally) impossible to respond to all of them. Those people get a pass. But for the vast majority of us with fewer than 10,000 Twitter followers, ignoring the people who like you enough to read your stupid jokes and bizarre epiphanies on a daily basis is just rude. Not everything deserves a reply, of course — insults and weird come-ons are better left to rot unanswered on your interactions page, probably — but when someone tweets to tell you that they like you? Respond! Do you remember what it was like when NOBODY ever talked to you on Twitter? I do. It was less than a year ago. Those were the darkest days of my life.

3. Tweet about food

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Nobody has ever cared or will ever care about what you’re eating for lunch. I have literally never wanted to know anything less. An exception is granted if you are a food blogger or a chef. Presumably, the people who are twisted enough to follow you won’t mind if you tweet about your butter-braised quinoa or whatever. If you are JWOWW, or anyone else, just put food in your mouth about three times a day, chew it quietly, and swallow. There are no other necessary actions.

—

See the other eight over at Buzzfeed

Daphne Marlatt Receives Lifetime Achievement Award

the Branta Webcrawler — Mon, 14 May 2012 16:15:22 +0000

via Talonbooks

On June 28, the 2012 George Woodcock Lifetime Achievement Award will be presented to Daphne Marlatt at the Vancouver Public Library in an event that starts at 6:30 pm.

Born as Daphne Buckle, Marlatt spent six years in Malaysia after World War II before she immigrated to North Vancouver in 1951. Much of her postmodernist writing would be attuned to the adjustments, struggles and accomplishments of immigrants. While Marlatt attended UBC (1960-1964), her literary associations with the loosely-affiliated TISH group encouraged her non-conformist approach to language and etymological explorations.

She was the founding editor of two literary magazines: periodics and Tessera. She co-edited West Coast Review, Island, The Capilano Review, and TISH. In 2004 she was appointed as the first writer-in-residence at Simon Fraser University in three decades. She currently co-directs the annual Banff Writing Studio.

In 2006, Daphne Marlatt was appointed to the Order of Canada. She now lives with her partner, Bridget MacKenzie, in Vancouver. Collaboration has been a significant element of her career, beginning with her 1970s oral history research in the Japanese-Canadian community of Steveston and then in the multi-ethnic neighbourhood of Strathcona. Opening Doors in Vancouver’s East End: Strathcona was the first book to be republished under Vancouver’s 125 Legacy Books Collection program in 2011.

Daphne Marlatt’s recent ventures into theatre have extended this element. In 2008, The Gull, her contemporary Canadian Noh play, was awarded the international Uchimura Naoya Prize. In 2009, she won the Dorothy Livesay Prize for The Given. In 2011, Marlatt completed the libretto for a chamber opera, Shadow Catch.

We are also pleased to announce that Daphne Marlatt’s Liquidities: Vancouver Poems Then and Now will be appearing from Talonbooks in 2013.

C U l8r: Anne Trubek makes a kase 4 pour spelling

the Branta Webcrawler — Mon, 14 May 2012 13:51:19 +0000

via CBC.ca // Books

First aired on Day 6 (5/5/12)

Sometimes, the rules of English spelling don’t seem to make much sense. But these rules get even more problematic when technology invites us to ignore them at will. So we see “cuz” instead of “because” and “l8r” instead of “later.” Purists are appalled at how this corrupts our basic standards of composition. But Anne Trubek, a professor at Ohio’s Oberlin College, thinks we should just relax. In her essay “Proper Spelling? It’s Tyme To Let Luce!” she says uncommon or unusual forms of spelling are the result of writing’s evolution, not of its demise.

Trubek points to the origins of the English language as proof of the fact that change is a constant. “Before the mass production of writing, people spelled words many different ways,” she said recently on Day 6. Before then “there were 114 variant spellings of ‘through.’ Shakespeare used seven different ways to spell his name.” Even once the advent of the printing press encouraged spelling convention, linguists argued to make changes to the language. Benjamin Franklin, for example, advocated for the addition of two vowels and the removal of several letters, including c, j, q, w and x. Noah Webster, of the eponymous Webster’s Dictionary, is the reason why Americans spell “colour” without the u. For Trubek, the argument that English is a static, rigid sets of rules is not only silly, it ignore the rich history of the language itself.

Additionally, Trubek argues that English spelling conventions make no sense. “It’s full of arbitrary contrivances and exceptions that outnumber rules.” Daughter and water rhyme, despite being spelled differently. Through, cough and dough don’t, even though they all end in -ough. “English has always been a mish-mash of other languages and weird spelling,” Trubek pointed out, so why not welcome these new conventions instead of fighting them?

Besides, it’s already happening. Whether we like it or not, language play occurs every day in emails, on Twitter, in texts and on facebook. Who knows what communication tools — and how they will impact language — lie ahead. Trubek argues that instead of lamenting that kids are saying “C U l8r” to their friends online, we should celebrate it. “Computers, smartphones and tablets are changing how we reproduce language as radically as it did with the printing press,” Trubek said. “We need to keep evolving with this radical new technology.”

This kind of spelling suggests innovation and outside-the-box thinking, which are skills we need to push civilization forward. Because of that, Trubek has a suggestion for anyone who’s ever sent a text message or wrote a document in Microsoft Word: relax and enjoy the ride.

“Turn off Autocorrect. Turn off Spell Check. Play around, make your own rules. It’s not like the English language has any good ones anyway.”

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Read original article and comment here.

Goose Lane Events: May

the Branta Webcrawler — Mon, 14 May 2012 13:37:33 +0000

On exhibit until May 13, 2012
May 13, 2012
Headliner(s): Dennis Reid
Featured Titles: Jack Chambers
10:00 am at Art Gallery of Ontario, 317 Dundas Street West, Toronto, ON

Jack Chambers at the AGO

There were many sides to artist Jack Chambers. He was a passionate defender of artists’ rights, an experimental filmmaker with an international reputation, and a painter who continually reinvented his language of expression. Chambers initially created dreamlike surrealist paintings during an eight-year stay in Spain. Back home in London, Ontario, he developed a strikingly realistic style he called Perceptual Realism. He would focus his camera on his family, his home or on favourite places around the city, and then painstakingly recreate the photographs in paint.

Four recurring themes in Chambers’s work — light, place, spirit and time — are reflected in the layout of this exhibition. Collectively they open our eyes to new ways of seeing both his world and ours.

If you’re not able to make it to the exhibition at the AGO, you can revel in Chambers’ life and work with Jack Chambers

Noah Richler returns to Montreal
May 13, 2012
Headliner(s): Noah Richler
Featured Titles: What We Talk About When We Talk About War
10:00 am at Le Centre Sheraton, 1201, Boulevard Rene-Levesque West, Montreal, QC

Please join Noah Richler as discusses his new book What We Talk About When We Talk About War at the Books and Breakfast at Paragraphe.

Noah will be joining a number of authors for the event, all TBA.

Tickets are $32 + tax. Breakfast included. Tickets are not refundable. All sales final.

For more information or to purchase tickets call Paragraphe Books at 514-845-5811.

Dartmouth to drown in authors!
May 14, 2012
Headliner(s): Riel Nason
Featured Titles: The Town That Drowned
7:00 pm at Alderney Gate Public Library, 60 Alderney Drive , Dartmouth, NS

Riel Nason joins her fellow Atlantic Book award nominees in an evening of literature and maritime frivolity.

Reading from her work The Town That Drowned, Riel takes the stage at the Alderney Gate Public Library alongside Carol Campbell, James Smith, Mary Rose Donnelly, Bruce Graham, Heather Jessup, Frank Macdonald, Dianne Marshall, and Harry Thurston.

This is a free event.

John Boyko and Bennett, together again
May 16, 2012
Headliner(s): John Boyko
Featured Titles: Bennett
11:45 am at The Rideau Club, 99 Bank Street, Ottawa, ON

To celebrate the paperback release fo the bestselling Bennett, author John Boyko takes to one of Ottawa’s oldest political Clubs to talk on “Political Reputation: the transient nature of the political reputation of public figures.”

This event will be hosted by Member of Parliament Dean Del Mastro.

This is a private event.

Beginning May 17 - Jacques Hurtubise at the Musée d’art de Joliette
May 17, 2012 - August 26, 2012
Headliner(s): Sarah Fillmore
Featured Titles: Jacques Hurtubise
12:00 pm - 5:00 pm at Musée d, Joliette, QC

The brilliance of Jacques Hurtubise travels to Quebec for an exhibition at the Musée d’art de Joliette.

Showcasing the major career highlights and some of the most recent work of abstract painter Hurtubise, this exhibit will be on display until August 26.

Times and prices may be found on the museum website.

Noah Richler at the Incite Reading Series
May 23, 2012
Headliner(s): Noah Richler
Featured Titles: What We Talk About When We Talk About War
7:30 pm at Alice MacKay room, Central Library, Vancouver, BC

Noah Richler heads out to the west coast in support of his new book What We Talk About When We Talk About War.

Noah will be reading and talking at the Incite Reading Series in Vancouver. Joining him at the event are fellow authors Trevor and Debbie Green (March Forth).

Admission is free, and books will be available for purchase. Incite asks that attendees register in advance. Admission on the night is always on a first-come-first-served basis.

Night Street makes its North American debut
May 23, 2012
Headliner(s): Kristel Thornell
Featured Titles: Night Street
7:00 pm at Oakville Galleries, 1306 Lakeshore Road, Oakville, ON

Kristel Thornell introduces her award-winning novel Night Street to Canada with a stop at Oakville, Ontario.

Kristel will be reading from and discussing her novel at the Oakville Galleries on May 23. A fictional treatment of the life of Australian painter Clarice Beckett, Night Street is a bold and original historical fiction, and should make for some interesting discussion on the research and writing of such a story.

This event is free and open to the public. Books will be available for purchase.

IAIN BAXTER&: Super 8
May 25, 2012
Featured Titles: IAIN BAXTER&
2:00 pm at Art Gallery of Windsor, 401 Riverside Drive West, Windsor, ON

Super 8 Film Screening, Book Launch and Panel Discussion

Organized jointly by Media City Film Festival and the Art Gallery of Windsor, this program marks the first ever screening of IAIN BAXTER&’s Super 8 films created from the mid-1960s through the 1970s. During this period, BAXTER& used Super 8 film to both document the activities of the N.E. Thing Co. and create independent artworks. Many of the films are of great historical significance to both BAXTER&’s own practice and to the larger field of conceptual art of the era (e.g. Lucy Lippard Walking North [1970]). Intended to celebrate one of Canada’s most significant artists, this special program will feature between 12-16 single-reel Super 8 films (shown in their original format) accompanied by an animated talk by BAXTER& himself.

Following the screening the AGW will host a panel discussion and book signing. The 224-page exhibition catalogue IAIN BAXTER&: Works 1958-2011, produced by the Art Gallery of Ontario, includes essays by David Moos, Lucy R. Lippard and others, as well as original interviews with the artist and more than 200 reproductions.

Keith Oatley on how fiction affects your brain
May 28, 2012
Headliner(s): Keith Oatley
Featured Titles: Therefore Choose
7:00 pm at Women’s Art Association, 23 Prince Arthur Avenue, Toronto, ON

Good stories can entertain and move us. They can also help us to better understand ourselves and others — and to change.

Keith Oatley is a psychologist who also writes novels (such as his wonderful Goose Lane publication Therefore Choose). Raymond Mar is a psychologist who also uses brain imaging to study how people understand stories and how they understand other people. At the May Editors’ Association of Canada meeting, they will discuss what goes on in our minds and brains when we read, write, and edit fiction.

Raymond and Keith (with two other colleagues) publish the weekly online magazine-blog OnFiction.

Event Schedule:
7:00 p.m. Q & A session for new and prospective members
7:30 p.m. Business meeting and program
9:00 p.m. Mix-and-mingle

This event is free to members of the association; non-members pay $10.

All members are welcome to come to the Bedford Academy (36 Prince Arthur Avenue) for dinner and drinks before the program. Meet at 6:00 p.m. — or a little earlier if you can make it.

Presented by the Editors’ Association of Canada.

Kristel Thornell comes up with some Un/Certain Words
May 28, 2012
Headliner(s): Kristel Thornell
Featured Titles: Night Street
7:00 pm at Wilfrid Laurier University, Graduate Lounge, First floor, Student Services Building, 232 King Street, Waterloo, ON

As part of Congress 2012, Kristell Thornell will be reading from her new novel Night Street at the Un/Certain Words Literary Salon at Wilfred Laurier University.

Over two nights, the salon will feature Congress writer-scholars and creative writers from the Waterloo region. Come and reconnect with literature as the foundation of our scholarship! Food for mind and body available.

In addition to Kristel, the evening includes readings by Brian Henderson (Nerve Language, Sharawadji), Chris Banks (Winter Cranes), Rob Winger (Muybridge’s Horse), Jamie Dopp (The Birdhouse Or), Shannon Maguire (Vowel Wolves and Other Knots), Tanis MacDonald (Rue the Day) and David Walter-Toews (The Complete Tante Tina).

All those interested in reading, please contact Tanis MacDonald at tmacdonald@wlu.ca.

Brantford, prepare your dungarees!
May 29, 2012
Headliner(s): Catherine C. Cole
Featured Titles: GWG
7:00 pm at Brant Historical Society, 57 Charlotte Street , Brantford, ON

A blast from the Canadian past is due to hit Brantford in May, as Catherine C. Cole travels to Ontario to celebrate her new book on that most Canadian of pop icons, GWG: Piece by Piece.

Catherine will be leading a lecture on her work at the Brant Historical Society. Don’t be afraid to put on the old dungarees, and if you’ve got a classic pair of George W. Groovy’s lying around, bring it along!

The is a free event. Books will be available for purchase.

Kristel Thornell comes back to Canada
May 29, 2012
Headliner(s): Kristel Thornell
Featured Titles: Night Street
7:00 pm at Preston Library, 435 King Street East, Cambridge, ON

Kristel Thornell introduces her award-winning novel Night Street to Canada with a stop at Cambridge, Ontario.

Kristel will be reading from and discussing her novel at the Preston Library on May 29. A fictional treatment of the life of Australian painter Clarice Beckett, Night Street is a bold and original historical fiction, and should make for some interesting discussion on the research and writing of such a story.

This event is free and open to the public. Books will be available for purchase.

More information may be found at the Cambridge Libraries website.

Toronto gets a taste of denim
May 30, 2012
Headliner(s): Catherine C. Cole
Featured Titles: GWG
6:30 pm at The Textile Museum of Canada, 55 Centre Avenue, Toronto, ON

Prepare yourself, Toronto, for a blast from the past, as Catherine C. Cole hits the Big Smoke to celebrate her new book on that most Canadian of pop icons, GWG: Piece by Piece.

Catherine will be leading a lecture on her work with the venerable organization at The Textile Museum of Canada. Don’t be afraid to put on the old dungarees, and if you’ve got a classic pair of George W. Groovy’s lying around, bring it along!

The is a free event. Books will be available for purchase.

Noah Richler discusses war at Wilfred Laurier University
May 30, 2012
Headliner(s): Noah Richler
Featured Titles: What We Talk About When We Talk About War
7:00 pm at Laurier Centre for Military, Strategic and Disarmament Studies, Wilfrid Laurier University, 232 King, Waterloo, ON

The Laurier Centre for Military Strategic and Disarmament Studies and Goose Lane Editions present a lecture from author Noah Richler discussing his new book, What We Talk About When We Talk About War.

This event is free and open to the public. Books will be available courtesy of WordsWorth Books.

Jacques Poitras hops the border
June 2, 2012
Headliner(s): Jacques Poitras
Featured Titles: Imaginary Line
10:30 am at Cary Library, 107 Main St, Houlton, ME

Celebrated author and journalist Jacques Poitras will be on the ohter side of the Canada/US border for a time, signing copies of his acclaimed (and award-nominated) book Imaginary Line at the Cary Library in Houlton, Maine.

This is a free event, so please stop on by and chat with Jacques about Canadian/U.S. border issues. Believe us, he’s got plenty to say on the matter.

Books will be available for purchase.

On exhibit until June 3 - David Askevold: Once Upon a Time in the East
June 3, 2012
Headliner(s): David Diviney
Featured Titles: David Askevold, David Askevold
11:00 am at Confederation Centre Art Gallery, 145 Richmond Street, Charlottetown, PE

David Askevold (1940-2008) is recognized as an important contributor to the development and pedagogy of conceptual art, and his work has been included in many of the genre’s seminal exhibitions and texts. The exhibition David Askevold: Once Upon a Time in the East will be on display at the Confederation Centre Art Gallery, until 3 June 2012. Wed. to Sat. 11 am to 5 pm.

A retrospective of Jacques Hurtubise at the Musée d’art de Joliette
June 3, 2012
Headliner(s): Sarah Fillmore
Featured Titles: Jacques Hurtubise
12:00 pm at Musée d’art de Joliette, Joliette, QC

The brilliance of Jacques Hurtubise travels to Quebec for an retrospective exhibition at the Musée d’art de Joliette.

Showcasing the major career highlights and some of the most recent work of abstract painter Hurtubise, this exhibit will be on display until September 2.

This exhibition is organized and circulated by the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia. The curator is Sarah Filmore

Times and prices may be found on the museum website.

IAIN BAXTER& conceptualizes Vancouver
June 17, 2012 - November 18, 2012
Featured Titles: IAIN BAXTER&
12:00 pm - 5:00 pm at Museum Presentation House, 209 West 4th St, NV, Vancouver, BC

The North Vancouver Museum and Archives is pleased to display a new work from one of Canada’s most recognized artists.

The multi-site exhibition “Iain Baxter&: Information/Location” will take place at the North Vancouver Museum, the North Vancouver Archives, and the City of North Vancouver Library. The exhibition is framed by the time the artist spent living and working in North Vancouver (between 1966 and 1978). Baxter& (who legally changed his name in 2005 to Iain Baxter&, pronounced “Baxterand”) is internationally known through the work of the N.E. Thing Co, an art enterprise launched in North Vancouver during the late 1960s.

Full details may be found on the museum website.

Robert Dallison starts a Neighbourly War in St Andrews!
June 24, 2012
Headliner(s): Robert Dallison
Featured Titles: A Neighbourly War
7:00 pm at The Charlotte County Courthouse, 123 Frederick St., St. Andrews, NB

Robert Dallison launches his new historical account A Neighbourly War: New Brunswick and the War of 1812 at the Charlotte County Courthouse in St. Andrews.

St Andrews figures into Robert’s account, as New Brunswick used the opportunity of war to try and resolve the disputed boundary issues they still had with Maine. Declaring the northern part of Maine to be New Brunswick territory, St Andrews had a prime seat for the action.

This is a free and public event. Books will be available for purchase.

Care to speculate?
June 27, 2012
Headliner(s): Scott Fotheringham
Featured Titles: The Rest is Silence
8:00 pm at The Augusta House, 152 Augusta Avenue , Toronto, ON

Scott Fotheringham laces up his boots and heads on over to Toronto, to speculate on the speculative during a visit with the Chiaroscuro Reading Series.

The Chiaroscuro Reading Series is open to the public and offers monthly readings from authors of science fiction, fantasy, and horror. The aim of the series is to provide a casual environment for fans of genre material to discover new authors and meet with old favourites.

Joining Scott will be up-and-coming horror writer David Nickle and New York Times’ best-selling novelist Kelley Armstrong.

This event is free and open to the public. Books will be available for purchase courtesy of Bakka Phoenix Books, and Scott will be pleased to sign your copy.

David Askevold on display at the Armory
July 8, 2012 - September 15, 2012
Headliner(s): David Diviney
Featured Titles: David Askevold
9:00 am - 5:00 pm at Armory Center for the Arts, 145 N. Raymond Ave, Pasadena, CA

David Askevold (1940-2008) is recognized as an important contributor to the development and pedagogy of conceptual art, and his work has been included in many of the genre’s seminal exhibitions and texts. This full-career retrospective exhibition considers the four strains of Askevold’s exploratory journey – sculpture/installation, film and video, photo-text works, and digital images and includes key pieces from each stage of his career.

The accompanying catalogue, David Askevold: Once Upon a Time in the East, features essays by celebrated writer-curators Ray Cronin, Peggy Gale, Richard Hertz (author of The Beat and the Buzz), and Irene Tsatsos as well as several of Askevold’s contemporaries including Aaron Brewer, Tony Oursler, and Mario Garcia Torres.

Organized by the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia with the support of the Museums Assistance Program (MAP), Department of Canadian Heritage.

For full times and prices, please visit the Armory website.

On exhibit until August 12 - IAIN BAXTER&: Works 1958-2011
August 12, 2012
Headliner(s): David Moos
Featured Titles: IAIN BAXTER&
12:00 am at Art Gallery of Ontario, 317 Dundas Street West, Toronto, ON

In conjunction with the new book IAIN BAXTER&: Works 1958-2011, the Art Gallery of Ontario opens a new exhibit of IAIN BAXTER&’s works, an artist sometimes referred to as the Marshall McLuhan of the visual arts. The exhibit is curated by former AGO curator David Moos.

Hours and ticket prices may be found on the AGO website.

For page images from our new release IAIN BAXTER&: Works 1958-2011, please click here.

Noah Richler prepares to be engaging
September 17, 2012
Headliner(s): Noah Richler
Featured Titles: What We Talk About When We Talk About War
7:00 pm at Burlington Public Library, 2331 New Street, Burlington, ON

As part of the Engaging Ideas Author Lecture Series, Noah Richler will be bringing his trademark intellect to Burlington to speak on the ideas behind his new book What We Talk About When We Talk About War.

Tickets are $10/person. Advance tickets available at the library (3rd Floor Central) or at Different Drummer Books. Limited tickets available at the door.

Books will be available for purchase courtesy of Different Drummer Books.

On exhibit until March 2016 - A Matter of Abstraction
March 1, 2016
Featured Titles: Jacques Hurtubise
11:00 am at Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, 185 Sainte-Catherine Ouest (corner Jeanne-Mance), Montreal, QC

A personal encounter with the artists and artistic movements that have defined the development of abstraction since the 1940s in Québec and across Canada: that’s what is in store for visitors to the exhibition A Matter of Abstraction, on view at the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal starting April 12, 2012. The broad overview provided by the exhibition covers the period from 1940 to 2010, in a display of 110 pieces produced by 60 artists. This multidisciplinary selection encompasses painting, drawing, video and sculpture, with particular emphasis on Québec works in the Collection.

A Matter of Abstraction is laid out in a series of groupings. The circuit continues with spaces devoted to pieces by the Automatists, the Early Plasticians, and gestural expression and structural dynamics as represented in the works of artists like Jacques Hurtubise.

Full information, including hours and prices, may be found on the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal website.

Farley Mowat’s legacy

the Branta Webcrawler — Mon, 14 May 2012 13:32:24 +0000

via The Star // Greg Quill

Days begin now as they always did for Farley Mowat, back when he was a rowdy member of a club of CanLit giants who seemed ubiquitous and larger than life.

At 91, Canada’s most revered storyteller, a standard-bearer for white Anglo-Canadian culture in the 1960s and ’70s, still gets up around 6:30, walks his ancient dog, Chester, then makes breakfast for the two of them — and a cup of tea for his wife of 54 years, Claire, who’s still in bed.

By 8 he’s writing, driven by the passion, the hot blood, the rage, and the awe of the wonders of the natural world that have always enlivened Mowat’s adventure yarns.

His office and what’s left of his immense archive — most of his manuscripts and letters are enshrined at McMaster University in Hamilton — are in the vine-covered brick house next door to the Mowats’ butter-yellow Victorian cottage on a quiet, tree-lined street in Port Hope, the Loyalist town they literally sailed into from Newfoundland 44 years ago.

It’s not far from where Mowat was born exactly 91 years ago come Saturday, in Belleville, the son of a librarian who made him self conscious about his literary efforts until the budding writer/amateur biologist devised his own brand of real-life non-fiction, yarns spun from threads of his own experience, and fired with imagination and indignation.

“No one had done that before,” Mowat said one grey afternoon earlier this week, settled in his favourite soft armchair in the book-lined living room of the cozy and quaintly cluttered cottage that smells faintly of old paper.

“I was alone on that road, and I went for it.”

With a vengeance. Mowat’s books have sold more than 14 million copies in 52 languages, and have defined the Canadian wilderness for readers all over the world — the landscape, the isolation, the weather, animal and native life — with a heightened sense of reality no other writer has achieved over the last six decades.

Five titles have been made into feature or TV movies — The Snow Walker (2003), Never Cry Wolf (1983), Lost in the Barrens (1990) and A Whale for the Killing (1981) — and Mowat has been, for much of his life, one of the most popular authors on Canadian school reading lists.

But he’s no old wolf, self-alienated and waiting for the end.

—

read rest of the article at The Star

Call for Submissions: Dave Greber Freelance Writers Book And Magazine Awards

the Branta Webcrawler — Fri, 11 May 2012 16:23:13 +0000

Dave Greber Freelance Writers Book And Magazine Awards

As of 2012, the book award is valued at five thousand dollars and the magazine award is valued at two thousand dollars. Both awards are made available to freelance writers of non-fiction for social justice writing that is exceptionally well written and researched. The Book and Magazine awards provide financial support while the writer completes a book or magazine project for publication.

Writers of books on social justice are asked to satisfy the criteria set out in the Call for Submissions and Competition Guidelines for Book Award.

Writers of magazine articles on social justice are asked to satisfy the criteria set out in the Call for Submissions and Competition Guidelines for the Magazine Award.

For magazine articles, applicant must be working on completion for publication of a contracted English language magazine article (non-fiction) or have published the article in the first six months of the year of the competition they are applying for (e.g. between January 1 and June 30, 2010 when applying for the 2010 award). Any magazine article published after June 30 must meet the criteria for a magazine article in the process of being readied for publication.

The winners of each award will be next announced in September 2012.

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Eligibility Criteria:

Applicant must be a continuing resident of Canada and at the date of application lived in Canada for the last twelve months.
Applicant must be working a minimum of seventy per cent of their work time as a self-employed freelance writer.
Applicant must be working on completion for publication of an English language book (non-fiction).
Submissions that are to be published on the Internet will be accepted with the proviso that the writer meets all other applicable basic requirements of the Call for Submissions.
Submissions that are to be self- published are not eligible.
Applicant must agree to submit proof of a publishing contract and and a copy of the book proposal sent to the publishers.
Applicant must agree to make a considered effort to acknowledge this prize upon publication and to acknowledge the Dave Greber Freelance Writing Awards when interviewed by the media about the winning submission.

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Award Conditions:

Awards are made in the form of cash prizes.
One prize will be awarded in the sum of $5000.00. However, if there are two entries of equal merit, an award of $2500.00 will be granted to each writer.
If in the opinion of the jury members no work merits an award, no award will be given.

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Submission Requirements:

Submit:

five printed copies of a chapter without identifying information other than the title of the work OR a PDF version of the chapter. If submitting in PDF format, two files must be submitted. The actual submission is to be sent as one PDF file and is to have only the title of the work and no other identifying information. The second PDF file is to contain the remainder of the documentation outlined in the Call for Submissions. To ensure that the files have been received, the writer must send a separate email indicating that the submission is being sent via Internet. Regardless of how the chapter is submitted, it must be the actual submission of the self-authored book that represents the work being readied for the publication named in the contract
a one-page description of your life and work
a list of your published works
complete contact information (name, address, mailing address, telephone numbers and email address)

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Assessments:

All aspects of submissions are assessed by jury on a competitive basis and the decisions of the judges regarding all aspects of the award are final.

Commencement Date:

Monday March 12, 2012

Competition Deadline:

Friday June 15, 2012 at 5:00 P.M. PST

Submissions should be sent to:

Dave Greber Freelance Writers Awards
c/o S. Dunn
606 52 Avenue SW
Calgary, Alberta, T2V 0B4
Phone: 1.403.259.5689
1.877.271.3283
dunnss@telusplanet.net

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See original information at greberwritingaward.com

Talks at Google presents: Jane Espenson

the Branta Webcrawler — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 23:17:05 +0000

Jane Espenson, American television writer and producer, came to Google on April 3, 2012 to talk with her Google fans about writing for T.V. Among her serial dramas are Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Caprica, Torchwood, Firefly, Angel, Tru Calling, Dollhouse, and Once Upon a Time. In 2010 she wrote an episode of HBO’s Game of Thrones. Jane also talked about her experience working on the new web series “Husbands” with Brad Bell. The series premiered at HusbandsTheSeries.com on Sept. 13, 2011. The second season is due out later this summer, 2012.

CBC: CanLit Quiz: Poetry in motion

the Branta Webcrawler — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 22:42:42 +0000

It’s National Poetry Month! What do you know about Canadian poetry? Test your knowledge on all things poetry by taking this month’s CanLit Quiz!

Don’t forget to fill out your name and email address for a chance to win. One lucky reader will take home all seven of this year’s Griffin Poetry Prize nominees:

International category:

Night by David Harsent
The Chameleon Couch by Yusef Komunyakaa
November by Sean O’Brien
Sobbing Superpower: Selected Poems of Tadeusz Rózewicz by Tadeusz Rózewicz, translated by Joanna Trzeciak

Canadian category:

Methodist Hatchet by Ken Babstock
Killdeer by Phil Hall
Forge by Jan Zwicky

The winner will be drawn at random from all the entrants. The deadline for this contest is Sunday, April 29, at 11:59 p.m. ET. The complete rules and regulations are here. Good luck!

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Click here to take the quiz on the CBC page.

No Pulitzer Prize given for fiction in 2012

the Branta Webcrawler — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 22:31:22 +0000

via Los Angeles Times / Jacket Copy
The 2012 Pulitzer Prize for fiction went to no one, it was announced Monday. The Pulitzer judges did reveal that three books had been named finalists, but declined to award one the prize.

The three finalists were “Train Dreams” by Denis Johnson, “Swamplandia!” by Karen Russell and “The Pale King” by the late David Foster Wallace.

In deciding the Pulitzer Prize for fiction, a committee of readers, which changes annually, recommends a small slate of titles to a panel of judges, who choose the winner.

“The three books were fully considered, but in the end, nonemustered the mandatory majority for granting a prize, so no prize was awarded,” said Sig Gissler, administrator of the Pulitzer Prizes, declining to go into further detail. “This is the 11th time this has happened in the fiction category; the last time was 1977. It’s unusual, but it does occur.”

On occasion, the decision not to award the fiction prize has been marked by controversy. In 1941, the committee’s recommendation of “For Whom the Bell Tolls” by Ernest Hemingway was deemed offensive by the president of Columbia University, and no award was given.

Other book prizes were awarded by the committee. The Pulitzer for biography went to John Lewis Gaddis for “George F. Kennan: An American Life”; the prize for history went to “Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention” by Manning Marable; the Pulitzer for general nonfiction went to “The Swerve: How the World Became Modern” by Stephen Greenblatt; and the award for poetry went to Tracy K. Smith for “Life on Mars.”

Master and Madman trailer

the Branta Webcrawler — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 15:45:24 +0000

Master and Madman
by Peter Thomas and Nicholas Tracy
$35 HC published March 2012 by Goose Lane Editions
Here for the first time is the spectacular story of that astonishing rise and tumultuous fall of the Honourable Anthony Lockwood, a member of New Brunswick’s Executive Council, and Surveyor General of the province.