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.