Beverly Akerman Explains Mysteries of Childhood and Children
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
MONTREAL, April 15, 2011 – Beverly Akerman's award-winning story collection The Meaning of Children launches April 28th at Westmount's Nicholas Hoare Books, from 6 to 8 pm. At that time, Akerman promises to reveal her answers to the conundrums of children.
"What do children know and feel that we adults have forgotten? Why, despite the pain, mess, and occasional heartbreak, do we continue bringing children into the world? What's really in it for us?" Ms. Akerman says she's puzzled over these questions for decades. "And I know I'm not alone." She describes her first book as a three-dimensional look at children in our emotional universe.
Winner of the 2010 David Adams Richards Prize
Judge JoAnne Soper-Cook said The Meaning of Children had a keen, incisive vision into the hidden world of children, as well as intimate knowledge of the secret spaces existing between the everyday events of life. "There is knowledge here, knowledge of those important, life defining moments of puberty, the birth of a sibling, an encounter with a possibly dangerous stranger. Overall, a work with a brilliant sense of story."
"Each story [is] a reminder of what an optimistic endeavour it is to parent… a good gift for a new mother. Akerman holds up our greatest fears, not to dwell on them, but to marvel at our commitment to life, especially to passing it on to others." Anne Chudobiak, The Montreal Gazette.
"This isn't the invented childhood of imagination and wonderment…[here] children both corrupt and redeem: each other, family relationships and the female body." Katie Hewitt, The Globe & Mail
About Beverly Akerman
Ms. Akerman's recent honours include nominations for the Pushcart Prize in fiction and nonfiction and for the National Magazine Awards. Her credits include The Antigonish Review, Best New Writing 2011, carte blanche, cellstories.net, The Dalhousie Review, Descant, Grain, Joyland.ca, The Nashwaak Review, The New Quarterly, Rampike, Red Wheelbarrow, The Vocabula Review, Windsor Review, Maclean's, The Toronto Star, The National Post, The Montreal Gazette and CBC Radio's Sunday Edition, myriad scientific journals, and other publications. Ms. Akerman's work will be featured in Blue Met's April 29th "Imagine Montreal" event.
Contact Information
Michael Callaghan
Exile/Excelsior Publishing Inc.,
134 Eastbourne Ave., Toronto ON M5P 2G6
Email: info@exileeditions.com
Website: http://www.exilequarterly.com/quarterly/
