Lambda Literary Awards finalists include Canadian authors
This morning, the finalists for the LGBT-focused Lambda Literary Awards – or the Lammys – were announced. A total of 462 books were nominated (about 10% more than last year), and 112 finalists have been chosen in 23 different categories, ranging from LGBT anthologies to gay and lesbian erotica. And for the first time in the awards’ 22-year history, the category for bisexual books has been divided into two separate categories: bisexual fiction and bisexual non-fiction.
Among the finalists were four Canadian titles:
- LGBT SF/Fantasy/Horror: Fist of the Spider Woman, by Amber Dawn (Arsenal Pulp Press)
- Gay Erotica: I Like It Like That: True Tales of Gay Desire, edited by Richard Labonté & Lawrence Schimel (Arsenal Pulp Press)
- Transgender: The Nearest Exit May Be Behind You, by S. Bear Bergman (Arsenal Pulp Press)
- Lesbian Fiction: This One’s Going to Last Forever, by Nairne Holtz (Insomniac Press)
Winners will be announced in New York City on May 27.
Daily book biz round-up, March 16
Another day, another news round-up:
- British Airways doesn’t care about book people
- A sneak preview of the new titles publishers are taking to the London Book Fair
- Colin Thatcher ordered to hand over book profits
- Pride and Prejudice and Overkill: the new book trailer
- British publisher Arden manages to wring one more play out of William Shakespeare
- Your daily Martin Amis WTF: “I wish my sister had converted to Islam”
- John Grisham joins the e-book revolution
- Demand for iPad tapers off after boffo first-day sales
American Book Review goes negative
The American Book Review has released a list of the “Top 40 Bad Books” of all time. Selected largely by academics, the list contains some surprises. D.H. Lawrence’s Women in Love is described as what might appear if “someone put a gun to Nietzsche’s head and made him write a Harlequin romance.” Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God is described as “wondrously bad: stylistically precious, lavishly sentimental, ludicrous of characterization … incoherent of theme.” And Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley’s Frankenstein is called “the greatest bad book in the English language.”
Writing about the selections on the L.A. Times’ book blog, Carolyn Kellogg calls upon the academic respondents to heal themselves before presuming to judge what qualifies as bad writing:
On the one hand, these are some of America’s best-read people, so we should be able to trust their analysis. On the other hand, their analysis sometimes reads like this: “Badness enters the nonparodic historical novel when an author overtly uses historically situated people, places, and cultures as mirrors, and denies their difference.” That’s part of a critique of Toni Morrison’s A Mercy, E.L. Doctorow’s The March and Ian McEwan’s Saturday – whatever those three writers’ offenses, their sentences are certainly more direct and graceful.
Meanwhile, over at the Guardian, Alison Flood says she is less interested in the major works that are kneecapped, but is intrigued by some of the lesser-known titles that sound truly dreadful:
I haven’t read Nelson Hayes’s Dildo Cay, but Pennsylvania State University’s Jonathan P. Eburne almost tempts me into giving it a go. “It is so earnestly bad as to call its own existence into question,” he writes, calling the novel “the product less of an unsteady hand than of a resoundingly tin ear, [with prose] so categorically graceless as to supersede camp and plunge straight into ontological confusion.”
Pondering whether “even the most sober war-era reader would leap to associate the titular islet with the tall Caribbean cactuses that populate it, rather than, say, with artificial phalluses,” Eburne quotes a wonderfully bad extract from the novel. “‘Father, I want to talk with you!’ Adrian had been watching his father walk the dike unsteadily, and suddenly he had seen himself at the age of sixty walking the dike unsteadily, and on top of his restlessness it was too much for him. ‘How strong do you think that pickle is?’ his father asked, ignoring the tone of Adrian’s voice.” I want to know more.
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo: feminist or blatantly misogynistic?
Back in October 2009, Quillblog pointed to an article in the Guardian about novelist Jessica Mann, who had decided to cease reviewing certain violent crime novels because of what she saw as their “sadistic misogyny.” One of the novels that has divided critics about whether it is a feminist thriller or an exercise in hatred toward women is Stieg Larsson’s novel The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (published in English in 2008). The book, which features a 24-year-old heroine named Lisbeth Salander who is the victim of a violent rape, was originally titled Men Who Hate Women. Lisbeth has been lionized in some circles as a feminist, take-no-prisoners character; in other circles her creator has been demonized as a writer who takes great pleasure in depicting acts of sexual violence toward women. (It is also interesting to note that Lisbeth eschews therapy after her rape, and the sequel, The Girl Who Played with Fire, opens with the revelation that she has received breast implants.)
Writing in the Guardian, Viv Groskop advances the feminist line:
Not being a thriller fan, I spurned the Dragon Tattoo bandwagon for a long time. When a book is as hyped as this, you have certain preconceptions: I imagined cliches and extreme violence. I was pleasantly surprised, then, to discover it is neither formulaic nor disturbingly graphic. And it was indeed Larsson’s take on feminism that made it stand out as an original read.
The book promotes a very Scandinavian sort of equality. The message I took from it was that gender is irrelevant. We behave the way we do because of our individual characters and personal histories. In Larsson’s world, it’s the psychopaths who split the world along gender lines. And, boy, do they get their comeuppance.
Groskop goes on to say that the film adaptation, which opened in the U.K. on March 12, has been “universally panned as anti-women”:
In her review in Harper’s Bazaar this month, Mariella Frostrup writes: “A potentially good mystery is lost in scenes – such as a violent rape – that dwell too much on what feels to me like Larsson’s misogynistic fantasies.” On the Arts Desk blog, Graham Fuller judges the film “scarcely feminist.” He writes: “In frankly depicting Lisbeth’s rapes and presenting an obscene array of photographs of murdered women in a killer’s lair, it comes across as glibly indulgent of those visual horrors.”
The jury may still be out on Larsson’s book, but the verdict seems to be in on Niels Arden Oplev’s adaptation. Meanwhile, Quillblog would like to give the last word to Melanie Newman, writing on The F Word blog, who sees Larsson’s novels as simply the most recent in a long line of thrillers that use rape and sexual violence as mechanisms to titillate readers: “Face it, Stieg Larsson, James Patterson, Dean Koontz: only misogynists make money from rape.”
Daily book biz round-up, March 15
What you missed over the weekend:
- Yet more op-ed pieces about Amazon setting up shop in Canada. Michael Geist argues for. Morley Walker argues against. (Oh, and some writer from the Calgary Herald rips the Canadian Booksellers Association a new one)
- Still no decision on Amazon from Ottawa
- E-reader that nobody cared about to be delayed
- Doug Wright Awards finalists named
- Spanish author Miguel Delibes dies
- Norman Mailer’s son posts e-book “that explores post-Katrina New
Orleans from the perspective of strippers” - The evolution of Joan Thomas
- Scottish author A.L. Kennedy doesn’t want to be part of club that would have her as member
- Does iPad text-to-voice function violate an author’s audiobook rights?
- The Millions on how to get started in publishing
- St. Martin’s to publish sordid, tawdry details of Dame Judi Dench’s life
Nikolski wins Canada Reads
Nikolski, the debut novel by Quebec author Nicolas Dickner, has won the 2010 Canada Reads competition on CBC Radio. The book, which was first published in French by Éditions Alto in 2005 and then published in English by Knopf Canada in 2008 (with translation by Lazer Lederhendler), beat out runner-up The Jade Peony (Douglas & McIntyre) by Wayson Choy. Winning Canada Reads generally means a phenomenal increase in sales and profile for the winning book.
According to Vintage Canada publisher Marion Garner (Vintage publishes the book in paperback), Nikolski was a hit in Quebec, but English Canada was slow to warm to it. “[The win] is just terrific news because this book has deserved more attention since it was translated…. Now the entire country is aware of it and will invest in it,” she says, adding that she expects sales to go up by “100 per cent.”
In preparation for the win, Vintage recently reprinted the book. Though Garner wouldn’t divulge the size of the new print run, she revealed that 30,000 copies have been printed in total.
Vintage also had a second novel in the running for the 2010 Canada Reads crown – the 1996 bestseller Fall On Your Knees by Ann-Marie MacDonald. Garner reports an elevation in sales for both books immediately following the Canada Reads shortlist announcement.
Dickner says he was overjoyed when he heard the news two months ago that his book had won. “We don’t have anything like [Canada Reads] in Quebec,” he says, adding that he was shocked at the amount of people that attended some of the lead-up events in Toronto. “Books very seldom get a second chance nowadays, so Canada Reads is really a unique opportunity to reach a wider audience.”
According to Dickner, he was too sensitive and fearful to listen to the debates himself. “I wouldn’t have been able to bear the punches and the blows to the book,” he says. “Paul Quarrington had the same feeling a few years ago. You’re [listening] to the jurors debating the books on air – you’re seeing something you don’t usually see in the awards.” He did, however, look at some of the online recaps after the fact. “After several years of being a writer I should be used to [criticism], but you never get used to it.”
Though Dickner didn’t expect to win, he wasn’t entirely shocked, because he knew that his on-air defender, editor and reviewer Michel Vézina, would be an excellent panelist, describing him as “very passionate about books, very clever, and a bookworm.”
Besides The Jade Peony, Nikolski beat out Good to a Fault by Marina Endicott (Freehand Books), championed by news anchor Simi Sara; Generation X by Douglas Coupland (St. Martin’s Press/H.B. Fenn and Company), defended by poet Roland Pemberton (aka. Cadence Weapon); and Fall On Your Knees, defended by athlete Perdita Felicien.
The five Canada Reads panelists all agreed that Nikolski is one of the more challenging reads of the bunch, partly because it doesn’t adhere to a traditional linear narrative. In the end, however, Vézina was able to champion the book for this very reason. Dickner, however, found it odd that his book succeeded with the same panel that booted off Coupland’s Generation X in the very first round. “There is something very classic and very experimental in what Douglas Coupland does,” he says. “It is very ironic that his book was the first voted out and that Nikolski got to win. We’re kind of lauding the fact that it’s unconventional, but that didn’t help Generation X.”
Dickner’s second novel, Apocalypse for Beginners, will be released in English by Knopf Canada in 2011. (It has already been published in French by Éditions Alto under the name Tarmac.) “We’re speeding it up a bit because of Canada Reads,” he says. Dickner is currently at work on his third novel.
Daily book biz round-up, March 12
Come ‘n get yer scoops:
- Hilary Mantel wins National Book Critics Circle Award
- Margaret Atwood to sing her little heart out in Score: A Hockey Musical. And if you don’t believe that, here’s some pics.
- Crummey and Mitchell win Commonwealth book prizes
- You can’t have an iPad yet, but you can pay for one right now!
- More breathless iPad revelations: book selections to be categorized … and sub-categorized!
- Hachette Livre takes off glove, slaps Paris Book Fair in face
- “Unknown mid-list author from Canada” begs for dough on Dragon’s Den
- Macmillan CEO (and heartthrob) John Sargent ponders the “thorny” problem of e-books and libraries
- John Sargent again, this time taking questions from his adoring fans
Daily book biz round-up, March 11
News, news, and more news:
- Graphic novel glitch just keeps getting worse as Amazon removes Diamond’s buy buttons
- Stephenie Meyer floats Hachette’s boat
- Italy falls in Google’s big game of Axis & Allies
- How many ISBN codes does one e-book need? Discuss.
- Simon Winchester gets in time machine, sets dial to “good ol’ days”
- First Nelson Mandela, then the Dalai Lama, now… John Ralston Saul
- Can e-books save long form journalism?
Event photos: Ann Towell gets Grease-y, Chantal Simmons gets Love Struck, and Stuart Ross goes Rogue
Ann Towell launched her YA novel Grease Town (Tundra Books) on March 6, at the Oil Museum of Canada in Oil Springs, Ontario. Furthermore, oil. (Photo by Larry Towell/Magnum/Courtesy of Tundra Books)
Chantal Simmons launched her new novel, Love Struck (Key Porter Books), on March 4 at Mark Burstyn Photography Studio at an event co-sponsored by Key Porter, Centennial, and Barefoot Wines. Flanking the befrocked Simmons (who is displaying the classic “three-fingered novel grip”) are Key Porter publicist Kelly Ward and vice-president of marketing Tom Best. (Photo by David Cuthbertson of DC Photography/Courtesy of Key Porter Books)
Stuart Ross braved both the cold and a MacGyver-esque approach to microphone technology at the Feb. 27 Parliament Hill launch for Rogue Stimulus: The Stephen Harper Holiday Anthology for a Prorogued Parliament (Mansfield Press), co-edited by Stephen Brockwell and Ross himself. (Photo by Pearl Pirie)
Ian Weir doles out writing advice at the Afterword Reading Society wrap-up
Last night, book lovers gathered at Ben McNally Books in Toronto for the National Post’s inaugural Afterword Reading Society wrap-up. Brad Frenette, Afterword co-editor, hosted a Q&A with Ian Weir, whose novel Daniel O’Thunder (Douglas & McIntyre) has been discussed on the Post book blog for the past two months or so (and was one of Q&Q’s “Overlooked Books” of 2009). The novel has also been shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writer’s Prize and the Amazon.ca First Novel Award.
Weir, a successful playwright and screenwriter, spoke frequently of how his background influenced the writing process of his first novel, and offered up some writing advice.
“I find it really useful to think of myself as an actor playing the role of the character,” he said. “If I were an actor, what would I be doing with this moment? What would I be doing with this character? So often as a writer you stay outside the character and discover that you’ve written characters who make a certain intellectual sense to you, but don’t actually have life.”
Weir also said that he appreciated the creative freedom that comes with writing a novel – the usual budget constraints associated with writing for the screen or stage did not apply.
“That’s the wonderful thing about being a writer,” he said. “It costs just the same to set a story with a bazillion characters in the streets of London in Victorian England as it does to write a novel with one character in the streets of London in 2011.”
