Pearl Luke's Blog: Pearl Luke's Book and Writing Blog, page 15
October 11, 2012
Oct 11, OCT 11th BOOK GIVEAWAY: TWO BOOKS up for grabs this week!
36 CORNELIAN AVENUE by Christopher Wiseman. October 11th BOOK GIVEAWAY at BookClubBuddy.com.
In clear, quick-moving colloquial poetry, Chris Wiseman explores how the Second World War affected his family and his neighbours, and how the experience toughened the frightened women and children into survivors, waiting for their men to come home.
About the Author
Christopher Wiseman has a daunting list of literary accomplishments. He founded the Creative Writing Program at the University of Calgary, and was first Founding Vice-President, and later President of the Writers’ Guild of Alberta.
Only last month, he received the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal from the Lieutenant-Governor of Alberta, and in 2010, he was elected to the Order of Canada for his writing, mentoring, editing and many other contributions to Canadian literature, as both a poet and professor.
I asked him about his reaction to these honours:
Christopher Wiseman: My reaction to being elected to the Order of Canada was surprise. I had won awards before - Alberta Order of Excellence, the Writers Guild Poetry Award, the Alberta Literary Arts award, the W.O.Mitchell City of Calgary Award, a Teaching Excellence Award at the UofC, etc. They had all been wonderful, but not totally from left field. I knew I might possibly be lucky enough to win one or two of them, but the Order of Canada (2010) was a huge and unexpected honour, as was the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Medal(2012) as these are national awards that put me in a company of extremely distinguished Canadians.
I still wonder if they made a mistake giving these awards to me, but I am so pleased and humbled, and delighted to have them, in the name of poetry and teaching and literature, and on behalf of all my poetry students at UofC, from whom over 150 books have been published since I knew them as my eager students. I am unbelievably lucky.
To read more about this book and enter the draw, please visit 36 Cornelian Avenue at BookClubBuddy.com and follow the directions at the bottom of the page.
ALSO FEATURED THIS WEEK: The Secret Keeper, fiction by New York Times bestselling author Kate Morton. Enter by October 16th for your chance to win a copy of either book.
October 8, 2012
Oct 9, Short Story and Creative Writing Contests and Competitions
October 4, 2012
Oct 4, October 4th BOOK GIVEAWAY: The Whirling Girl by Barbara Lambert
Cormorant Books (Feb 1 2012)
As a child, botanical artist Clare Livingston was enthralled by her uncle’s tales of lost civilizations. Now, after years of estrangement, she has unexpectedly inherited his property in Italy.
She travels to the hill town of Cortona, hoping to find the meaning of this disturbing gift, left her by the uncle who fled his family when she was a teen. Instead she is swept up in a world of archaeological intrigue where new friends and lovers reveal suspect aims.
About the author
Barbara Lambert has won the Danuta Gleed Award for Best First Collection of Short Fiction and the Malahat Review Novella Prize, and been a finalist for the Ethel Wilson Prize and the Journey Prize. The Whirling Girl is her third published book of fiction.
I asked Barbara a few questions about herself and her writing:
Q: What charms you?
A:The remarkable complexity of human beings, and the music of Mozart. There’s a theory that the ancient Etruscans lured their prey into nets with music.
Q. What is your creative process?
A:Notebooks, file cards, pencil stubs, the back of grocery lists. Pulling to the side of the road while driving, likewise scrabbling in my pocket for a bit of paper while on a hike. But I figure this is the patchwork background of any writer’s life, stitched together by long hours at the desk – in my case generally starting early in the morning, and rarely continuing beyond noon.
I love my new MacBook, but in moments when things aren’t working there can be something softly helpful about taking my fountain pen and notebook outside, or into another room, to get things flowing in a freer less self-censored way.
Q. In addition to writing, what else are you passionate about?
A: My amazing and widely-extended family. And – well – the future of the world. The environment, in other words. The need to embrace alternative ways of thinking that will enable us to save this miraculous thing, this tiny dot in the firmament that has somehow sprouted this complex life system.
To read more about this book and enter the draw, please visit The Whirling Girl (http://www.bookclubbuddy.com/2012/the...) at BookClubBuddy.com and follow the directions at the bottom of the page. Draw ends October 9,2011
You might also like this interesting INTERVIEW with Barbara Lambert.
Oct 4, The Taste of Ashes by Sheila Peters
The Taste of Ashes by Sheila Peters
Caitlin Press (March 15, 2012)
Isabel Lee’s early life in rural BC was forever changed by a brief but powerful love affair with a young Oblate priest from Guatemala. Now a recovering alcoholic, Isabel struggles to pull the tattered fragments of her life together and repair the damage to her relationship with her estranged daughter.
Once idealistic and hopeful, Father Àlvaro Ruiz now has his own demons to confront. Tortured at the hands of the Guatemalan authorities and unable to escape the wounds of his past, Àlvaro returns to Canada seeking sanctuary, a broken man with a tenuous grip on his faith.
Isabel’s and Àlvaro’s stories slowly weave back together and they are eventually faced with their greatest challenge yet: can they bring themselves to forgive and help each other find a way into their daughter’s damaged heart?
About the author:
Sheila Peters' work has been widely anthologized, and has been published in several Canadian literary journals, including Event, Prairie Fire, Grain, The Malahat Review, and Descant.
Creekstone Press published her first book, Canyon Creek: A Script in 1998 and Beach Holme Press in Vancouver published Tending the Remnant Damage, a collection of linked short stories, in 2001. The weather from the west came out in 2007 and now The Taste of Ashes, a novel, has been published by Caitlin Press.
I asked Sheila a few questions about herself and her writing:
Book Club Buddy: Why do you write? Why do you believe writing matters?
Sheila Peters: I write to explore how I think and feel about things; it’s only when I’m writing that I go into the zone where distractions disappear and I feel connected at some deep level to being in the right place in the world.
BCB: What do you enjoy most about writing?
Sheila Peters: Once I’ve created the substance of a story, I love fine tuning it, polishing it, playing with both the ideas and the words to dig deeper.
BCB: What quality do you most value in yourself or others?
Sheila Peters: Speaking out on social justice and environmental issues. On the flip side, I admire those who see people clearly but are non-judgmental – something I’m working on.
BCB: In addition to writing, what else are you passionate about?
Sheila Peters: Reading, of course. Literary fiction, mysteries, travel writing, good journalism. I live in the mountains and I love hiking, snowshoeing – that wonderful feeling when you emerge from the trees into the high alpine – not much beats that feeling.
To read more about this book please visit The Taste of Ashes by Sheila Peters at Book Club Buddy.com
You might also like this interesting INTERVIEW
October 2, 2012
Oct 3, Short Story and Creative Writing Contests and Competitions
October 1, 2012
Oct 2, Short Story and Creative Writing Contests and Competitions
September 28, 2012
Sep 28, Creative Writing Degree Programs in Canada and the United States
Sep 28, Short Story and Creative Writing Contests and Competitions
September 20, 2012
Sep 20, Short Story and Creative Writing Contests and Competitions
Sep 20, Creative Writing Contest
Pearl Luke's Book and Writing Blog
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