Esi Does It On Winning Book Prizes

Edugyan Wins the Giller Again for Her Novel About A Bajan Slave.

 By Stephen Weir

Esi Edugyan has won Canada’s most prestigious fiction book prize again!  Earlier this week the young novelist captured the Giller Prize for her new book Washington Black, it is the second time that she has captured the $100,000 award.

She won the prize at a black tie dinner event in Toronto on Monday. The announcement was made in front of nearly 500 members of the publishing, media and arts communities.

Washington Black tells the story of George Washington Black; an eleven-year-old field slave living on a Barbados sugar plantation. From the brutal cane plantations to the icy waters of the Canadian Arctic, from the mud-filled streets of London to the eerie deserts of Morocco, Washington Black is the tale – inspired by a true story – of a world destroyed by slavery and the search to make it whole again.

Although the book is a work of fiction, the author told the CBC that details about slavery are unfortunately true. “"I was doing a lot of research into the history of slavery in the Caribbean. The acts of brutality described in the novel are things that came directly from history. There's nothing I made up."

"I just have to say that in a climate in which so many forms of truth telling are under siege this feels like a wonderful and important celebration of words," Esi Edugyan said shortly after she learned that she had once again won Canada’s top fiction award.

Esi Edugyan made history in 2011 by being the first Black woman to win the Scotiabank Giller Prize for her novel Half-Blood Blues.  The four other finalists were;

• Patrick deWitt for his novel French Exit,
• Eric Dupont for his novel Songs for the Cold of Heart, translated by Peter McCambridge,
• Sheila Heti for her novel Motherhood,
• Thea Lim for her novel An Ocean of Minutes, 

Ms Edugyan is currently Canada’s most successful fiction writer. She has won the Giller twice, was the winner of the Women’s Prize for Fiction, was a finalist for the Writer’s Trust Prize and was shortlisted for the world’s leading literature award, the UK’s Man Booker Prize.

Born and raised in Calgary, Alberta, to Ghanaian immigrant parents, Edugyan studied creative writing at the University of Victoria BC.  She lives and writes in Victoria, she and her husband poet Steven Price are the parents of a 7-year old child.  

Canadian Manda Group, Baker & Taylor sign on with Sutherland

Sutherland House announces sales and distribution agreements in Canada and USA

(Toronto) Sutherland House, Canada’s newest publisher of quality non-fiction, is pleased to announce its sales and distribution agreements in Canada and the United States.

Domestically, Sutherland House will be distributed by the University of Toronto Press. The press’s exclusive sales agent in Canada will be Canadian Manda Group. Founded in 1977, Manda has offices in every region of the country and one of the largest sales forces anywhere in North America.

“Canadian Manda is very excited to begin working for Ken Whyte and Sutherland House,” says Carey Low, vice-president and partner at Manda. “We are proud play a part in bringing to market books that will enrich the dialog around timely and important conversations, and look forward to many bestselling books in the years to come.”

In the United States, Sutherland House will be represented for distribution and sales by Baker & Taylor, a premier publishing services agency founded in 1828.

“We are pleased to be representing Sutherland House,” says Mark Suchomel, senior vice-president. “This small publisher stands out among thousands of others due to the high level of sophistication and sharp instincts of Ken Whyte. Like Ken, the list is smart and focused and a great addition to the book industry.”

Says Kenneth Whyte, publisher and editor of Sutherland House, “We are most appreciative of the support and enthusiasm of UTP, Manda, and Baker & Taylor. To reach sales and distribution agreements with these pillars of the industry simply on the strength of our list, without having produced any sales figures yet, is gratifying. We have put a lot of work into our list.”

Sutherland House, based in Toronto, will release eight books in 2019. It is accepting proposals and manuscripts from writers everywhere.

http://sutherlandhousebooks.com

For more information contact:

STEPHEN WEIR
Stephen Weir & Associates | stephen@stephenweir.com
109 Castlefield Avenue, Toronto, ON
CANADA. M4R 1G5
Tel: 416-489-5868 | cell: 416-801-3101
www.stephenweir.com twitter: sweirsweir

Late artist no longer obscure and forgotten

New Book about Peter Clapham Sheppard is launched in Toronto - Facebook postings

Collector Louis Gagilardi

By Stephen Weir 

Canadian curator and art author Tom Smart has written the long overdue first book about the late Toronto artist Sheppard. Peter Clapham Sheppard: His Life and Work, launched Friday, fittingly at Toronto's Arts & Letters Club on Elm Street.

Tom Smart at podium

Pictured Tom talks about Sheppard’s ability to arrest moments in the built world! The Firefly book is available in bookstore and on-line (I do know that Ben McNally's on Bay Street has copies).
Artist would have faded into obscurity if it wasn't for Woodbridge retired teacher and avid Sheppard collector, Louis Gagliardi (pictured at launch)
As well the Weekend Globe and Mail is always a good read but his weekend's paper is worth picking up for a major feature by Gregory Humenick about the undiscovered Peter Clapham Sheppard. Group of Seven contemporary died unknown and broke. 

Elizabeth Street by Sheppard. Painting was used in Globe story

Ring of Peace around City Shul in Toronto

Media Advisory

DATE: SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 2018

TIME: 9:30 A.M.

WHERE: 300 BLOOR STREET WEST, TORONTO

post event pick-up

In response to the murders of eleven worshippers at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, the Christian and Muslim faith communities have come together in Toronto to form a ring of peace around the Bloor Street United Church (300 Bloor Street West) where the congregants of City Shul will be worshipping. In February 2017, the Christian and Jewish communities came together to form a ring of peace around the Islamic Information and Dawah Centre for their first day of prayers after the murders in Quebec City on January 27.

 

Toronto Sun TV/Print

It is expected that hundreds of people will stand peaceful watch from 9:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. on both sides of Bloor Street, from Spadina to Huron, and Huron to Prince Arthur.

  

The Ring of Peace will conclude at 10:30. All are asked to depart at this time. The Shabbat for Solidarity is for the members of City Shul - please do not enter the house of worship following the Ring of Peace.

“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that good people should do nothing.” – a twenty-first century paraphrasing of Edmund Burke.

Front Page Toronto Star

For more information, please contact:

The Reverend Canon Gary van der Meer at St. Anne's Church: gary.vandermeer@saintanne.ca

Marc Côté: m.cote@cormorantbooks.com or 416 925 8887, x 200

Stephen Weir: | stephen@stephenweir.com
Tel: 416-489-5868 | cell: 416-801-3101 

CBC National News TV

King and Shields Talk Water Lilies (and Claude Monet)

ROSS KING DELIVERS THE 2018 RBC Taylor Prize Talk at Toronto International Festival of Authors Sunday October 28th, 2 pm. Brigantine Room, 205 Queens Quay West.

For immediate release – Art historian, Ross King, winner of the 2017 RBC Taylor Prize will discuss his award-winning book, Mad Enchantment: Claude Monet at the Painting of the Water Lilies, with AGO’s Caroline Shields, at the Toronto International Festival of Authors, Sunday October 28th, at 2pm. The book tells the true story of Manet’s iconic paintings at Giverny, widely touted as the last hurrah of Impressionism, and  also discusses Manet’s personal turmoil during WW1 and the last years of his life.  He will discuss this with Caroline Shields, Asst Curator of European Art at the Art Gallery of Ontario, and a specialist in 19thCentury European Art. Tickets and information are available at www.festivalofauthors.ca. About the RBC Taylor Prize Established in 1998 by the trustees of the Charles Taylor Foundation and first awarded in 2000, 2018 marks the seventeenth awarding of the RBC Taylor Prize, which commemorates Charles Taylor’s pursuit of excellence in the field of literary non-fiction. Awarded to the author whose book best combines a superb command of the English language, an elegance of style, and a subtlety of thought and perception, the Prize consists of $5,000 for each finalist, and a further $25,000 for the winner. All authors are presented with a custom leatherbound version of their shortlisted book at the awards ceremony. The Prize provides all the finalists with promotional support to help all of the nominated books to stand out in the media, bookstores, and libraries. Earlier this year, Tanya Talaga won the 2018 RBC Taylor Prize for her book Seven Fallen Feathers: Racism, Death and Hard Truths in a Northern City, published by House of Anansi Press.

COMMFFEST'S FIRST CANADIAN SCREENING OF LITTLE RUDE BOY

Commffest community film and arts festival celebrates Antigua and Barbuda Sunday October 14, 2018

Commffest community film and arts festival presents, as part of its thirteenth year, "Antigua and Barbuda Day" of film screening, live music, poetry and food, on Sunday, October 14, 2018, from 3 to 7 pm at the Lucy and Thornton Blackburn Conference Centre, 80 Cooperage St. in Toronto's historic Distillery District.

In Toronto Sunday: Antigua Minister of the Arts Darryl Matthew

A number of Antiguan and Barbudan artists and government officials will be on hand, including
New York based filmmaker Dr. Noel Howell screening his film "Little Rude Boys", as well as answer audience questions; Antigua and Barbuda Minister of Sports, Culture, National Festival and the Arts Darryl Matthew, alongside the island's Director of the Festival Commission and it's head of Marketing and Toronto Consul-General Ann Marie Layne. Poet Clifton Joseph and musicians Naomi Smith, Dylan and Edan Smith will perform, in addition to discussions on the Antigua and Barbuda Film and Arts Festival 2019 and Antigua and Barbuda's hosting of regional arts festival "Carifesta" in 2021.
Award-winning Dr. Howell is a key part of the burgeoning film industry in Antigua and Barbuda.
Howell graduated from the Film School of New York University. His 2009 feature film Redemption of Paradise was named best Caribbean film at the 2010 Jamaica International Reggae Film Festival.
In February 2010, he was appointed roving film ambassador for the Motion Picture Association of Antigua & Barbuda.  In 2014 Howell established a mathematics award with the Ministry of Education in Antigua and Barbuda, providing nine outstanding public school students with $500 each for outstanding performance in mathematics.
"Little Rude Boys" is a coming of age family drama set in Antigua in which a sick grandmother is duped into taking care of her fourteen grandchildren over the summer as numerous situations there's then to destroy her family.
This will be Dr. Howell's first screening in Canada.    

RBC Taylor Prize announces its 2019 jury

October 3, 2018 • Toronto, Ontario: For immediate Release

 RBC Taylor Prize Announces New Jury for 2019

Canada’s Most Prestigious Non-Fiction Prize

The Trustees of the Charles Taylor Foundation are pleased to announce that the jurors for the 2019 RBC Taylor Prize are: Camilla Gibb, Roy MacGregor and Beverley McLachlin.

Camilla Gibb is the author of many books, including a memoir, This Is Happy, which was shortlisted for the RBC Taylor Prize, and four novels, including Sweetness in the Belly, shortlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize and winner of the Trillium Award. She most recently wrote and produced the documentary Evidence of a Father for CBC Radio. She is the June Callwood Professor in Social Justice at Victoria College, University of Toronto, and holds a PhD in social anthropology from Oxford University.

Roy MacGregor has been a journalist for 45 years, winning multiple National Newspaper and National Magazine Awards, as well as twice receiving the ACTRA Award for television screenwriting. He is the author of more than 50 books, 30 of them in the internationally successful Screech Owls hockey mystery series for young readers. His book Home Team: Fathers, Sons & Hockey was shortlisted for the Governor-General’s Award. His most recent book is Original Highways: Travelling the Great Rivers of Canada, which was just shortlisted for the Ottawa Book Award. In 2005, he was named an Officer in the Order of Canada.

Rt Hon Beverley McLachlin was appointed Chief Justice of Canada on January 7, 2000. She is both the first woman in Canada to hold this position and the longest serving Chief Justice of Canada. She retired on December 15, 2017. Throughout her judicial career, she has covered countless areas of the Canadian legal system. In addition to her duties at the Supreme Court, Ms. McLachlin has chaired the Canadian Judicial Council, the Advisory Council of the Order of Canada and the Board of Governors of the National Judicial Institute. She is the author of numerous articles and publications. Her debut mystery novel, Full Disclosure, was published in spring 2018.

Noreen Taylor, Prize Founder and Chair of the Charles Taylor Foundation, remarked: “In today’s environment of fragmented media and constant accusations of “fake news”, literary non-fiction remains a critical medium for writers and readers — a trusted source of nuance and thoughtful argument. Our esteemed jurors will read over 120 submissions and deliberate over which books to include in December’s long-list for the 2019 RBC Taylor Prize.

Key Dates: The Longlist will be shared on Wednesday, December 12, 2018; the Shortlist will be announced at a news conference on Wednesday, January 9, 2019; and the winner revealed at a gala luncheon on Monday March 4, 2019.

The RBC Taylor Prize recognizes excellence in Canadian non-fiction writing and emphasizes the development of the careers of the authors it celebrates.

 About The RBC Taylor Prize:

Established in 1998 by the trustees of the Charles Taylor Foundation and first awarded in 2000, 2018 marks the seventeenth awarding of the RBC Taylor Prize, which commemorates Charles Taylor’s pursuit of excellence in the field of literary non-fiction. Awarded to the author whose book best combines a superb command of the English language, an elegance of style, and a subtlety of thought and perception, the Prize consists of $5,000 for each finalist, and a further $25,000 for the winner. All authors are presented with a custom leatherbound version of their shortlisted book at the awards ceremony.

The Prize provides all the finalists with promotional support to help all of the nominated books to stand out in the media, bookstores, and libraries.

Earlier this year, Tanya Talaga won the 2018 RBC Taylor Prize for her book Seven Fallen Feathers: Racism, Death and Hard Truths in a Northern City, published by House of Anansi Press.

Ms. Talaga selected Alicia Elliott as the 2018 recipient of the RBC Taylor Prize Emerging Writer Award. This award, featuring a $10,000 cash award, and mentorship from the naming author was established in 2013 to provide recognition and assistance to a Canadian published author who is working on a significant writing project in literary non-fiction. Ms. Elliott, a Tuscarora writer living near Brantford ON, has been widely published. Her essay "A Mind Spread Out on The Ground" won the National Magazine Award in May 2017, and her story "Tracks" has been longlisted for the 2018 Journey Prize.

The trustees of the Charles Taylor Foundation are: Vijay Parmar, David Staines, 
Edward Taylor, Nadina Taylor, and Noreen Taylor. The Executive Director is Su Hutchinson.

The presenting sponsor of the RBC Taylor Prize is RBC Wealth Management. Its media sponsors are The Globe and Mail, CBC Books, Cision, and Quill & Quire magazine; its in-kind sponsors are Ben McNally Books, Event Source, Toronto International Festival of Authors (TIFA), The Omni King Edward Hotel, and the Toronto Public Library Board.

To download high-resolution images of the trustees and the jury

please go to: www.rbctaylorprize.ca/2019/2019_trustees_and_jury.zip

For general information about the Prize please go to: www.rbctaylorprize.ca.

Follow the RBC Taylor Prize on Twitter at www.twitter.com/taylorprize

Follow the RBC Taylor Prize on Facebook at www.facebook.com/RBCTaylorPrize