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Current News
March 8, 2010
March 2, 2010
February 23, 2010 View all regional shortlists...
February 16, 2010 View the list of English-language finalists
February 8, 2010
February 1, 2010 The five finalists are:
For more information about the finalists, and to win a set of this year’s nominated titles, visit writerstrust.com.
January 26, 2010 A press release posted on their website attributes the closure to intense pressure from big-box stores and Amazon who, "ruthless in their drive for market share," have left the store unable to compete, as well as a book industry "in the throes of a technological transformation and book readers undergoing a major demographic shift." Owner Cathy Duthie Legate told the Vancouver Sun that the Christmas sales the store relies on to propel them throughout the year weren't as great as they needed them to be.The Duthie family has decided to cease operations in an orderly fashion that will see their suppliers and staff looked after financially. This is obviously a great loss to the bookselling community. A member of CBA for 51 years, Duthies is practically a founding member of the Association and has been a stalwart supporter of the industry--the name itself has become synonymous with independent bookselling in Canada. Legate's statement to the Sun touches on the void the store's closing will leave: "I've loved all the people who have come to the store over my bookselling career, some of them have been coming for 50 years ... They want to know what to do, where to go now and I don't know."
Read on to find out about bestselling titles, buying trends and
industry concerns... The winner will be announced at a gala awards ceremony in Toronto on February 8, 2010.
Read
more. The proposed re-organization would see two of McNally Robinson's stores close, at Polo Park in Winnipeg and Don Mills in Toronto. The remaining stores, at Grant Park in Winnipeg and in Saskatoon, will continue to operate. A Notice of Intention to Make a Proposal was filed and Ernst and Young Inc. has been named as Trustee under the proposal. It is expected that the company will apply to the court for sanctioning of a re-organization in the coming weeks. It is proposed that a new, smaller company comprising the e-commerce website www.mcnallyrobinson.com and Skylight Books (a wholesale division) as well as the two surviving stores will emerge from bankruptcy protection. The proposed restructuring will save approximately 250 jobs in Manitoba and Saskatchewan. Prior to the filing, McNally Robinson employed 425, including the staff at four Prairie Ink Restaurants.The Don Mills store and restaurant will close immediately and the Polo Park Prairie Ink Restaurant & Bakery will close immediately. The Polo Park bookstore will close on Sunday, January 3rd. The filing follows two difficult years in which market conditions reduced the profitability of McNally Robinson's established stores even as two new stores (Polo Park and Don Mills) proved substantially unprofitable. Booksellers in Canada are currently working against serious headwinds: recession, stagnant book prices, steep discounting, and increasing competition from internet sales and electronic text formats. Paul McNally, speaking on behalf of the McNally family, said, "It is heartbreaking to see so many hardworking booksellers and restaurant staff lose their jobs. We are very hopeful, however, that we can save many more jobs and renew the company." The stores slated to emerge after the restructuring have always been profitable, according to McNally. "This will work. We will still be the largest single independent bookseller in Canada and will try to be the best." McNally Robinson, founded in Winnipeg in 1981, has been Canada's independent Bookseller of the Year six times since 1995. It has a well-established customer loyalty and community profile in Winnipeg and Saskatoon. If the reorganization is approved, the new company will continue its dedication to author events and community involvement. November 24, 2009 Writers’ Trust Awards Swept By British Columbia Authors The Writers’ Trust of Canada announced winners today of $127,000 in prizes for literature in the fiction, non-fiction, and short fiction categories. The event, at the Isabel Bader Theatre in Toronto, is one of the richest awards nights for literature in Canada. Vancouver writer Annabel Lyon won the $25,000 Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize for The Golden Mean, a novel about Aristotle and his one-time pupil Alexander the Great. Brian Brett, a writer from Salt Spring Island, won the $25,000 Writers’ Trust Non-Fiction Prize for Trauma Farm: A Rebel History of Rural Life, an account of the author’s small island farm and an impassioned plea for maintaining a connection to the hands-on lessons of rural living. Three more authors received awards for their excellence in literature: novelist David Bergen (Winnipeg), children’s writer Marthe Jocelyn (Stratford, Ontario), and emerging writer Yasuko Thanh (Victoria). View prizes presented, with comments from the jurors.
November 19, 2009 This year’s winning titles will captivate the hearts and imaginations of children and adults everywhere. Readers will be introduced to a lonely boy and the Popsicle sticks, puddles, poetry and paint that help him find hope; to two children’s tragic yet optimistic experiences in a residential school; to a child victim of the Sierra Leone war and her inspiring journey; and to 15-year-old Ben and the place that he so wants to escape. These books exemplify some of the best work by Canadian authors and illustrators.
November 19, 2009 RCC, CCGD and its Coalition partners, including Canadian Booksellers Association, believe that the success of the Code will depend heavily on both implementation and compliance, and therefore today announced the establishment of the Payments Accountability Council (PAC), which will provide input to the consultation process and ultimately, report on compliance with the Code. "Minister Flaherty deserves a great deal of credit for tackling this important and complex issue, and merchants across Canada appreciate the introduction of the Code," says Diane J. Brisebois, President and CEO, Retail Council of Canada. "Properly implemented, the Code will keep the card companies' feet to the fire with their business practices and our coalition will be holding them publicly accountable." Read more the Code of Conduct.
November 17, 2009 English-language winners include: Kate Pullinger, The Mistress of Nothing, McArthur & Company (Fiction); David Zieroth, The Fly in Autumn, Harbour Publishing (Poetry); Kevin Loring, Where the Blood Mixes, Talonbooks, distributed by Publishers Group Canada (Drama); M.G. Vassanji, A Place Within: Rediscovering India, Doubleday Canada (Non- fiction); Caroline Pignat, Greener Grass: The Famine Years, Red Deer Press, a division of Fitzhenry & Whiteside (Children's - Text); Jirina Marton, Bella's Tree, text by Janet Russell, Groundwood Books / House of Anansi Press, distributed by HarperCollins Canada (Children's - Illustration); Susan Ouriou, Pieces of Me, Kids Can Press, distributed by University of Toronto Press (Translation - French to English).
Her Excellency the Right Honourable
Michaëlle Jean, Governor General of Canada, will present the 2009
Literary Awards on Thursday, November 26 at Rideau Hall.
November 10, 2009
The largest annual prize for fiction
in the country, the Scotiabank Giller Prize awards $50,000 to the
author of the best Canadian novel or short story collection
published in English and $5,000 to each of the finalists. A
shortlist of five authors and their books was announced on October
6, 2009.
November 3, 2009 Dublin City Council will announce the shortlist on April 14, 2010. The Lord Mayor will reveal the winning novel on June 17.
View the
longlist.
View the shortlists.
Kim Echlin
Find out more about the finalists. This year’s nominees transport readers from Alexandrian Greece to the near future, and explore ancient wisdom and why it matters in the modern world. The novels include a tale of people in disparate places united by a shared experience in a digital world; a Jewish actress’s escape from Nazi Germany; and an English translation of a French novel about writing in a language that makes meaning foreign. A collection of short stories that examine the human ability to transcend adversity and emotions also makes the short list.
The winners of the awards, along with
four other prizes, will be announced at the ninth annual Writers’
Trust Awards event on November 24, 2009, at the Isabel Bader Theatre
in Toronto. Total prize money awarded that night to Canadian writers
will amount to $147,000, making the event one of the richest awards
nights for literary excellence in Canada. The shortlisted finalists will be announced at a news conference at the Four Seasons Hotel in Toronto on Tuesday, October 6.
View the longlist...
Read article (Flaherty's HST Pitch Fails to Woo Holdouts)
on CBCNews.ca Read the press release containing key recognitions and recommendations.
June
20,
2009 Margaret Atwood, Joseph Boyden and Mélanie Watt were among the big winners revealed at Canadian Booksellers Association’s (CBA's) Libris Awards 2009 Presentation, which took place on June 20, 2009 at the Radisson Admiral Hotel in Toronto during CBA’s inaugural Summer Conference. Unique in their commitment to acknowledging the best among the chain of talented professionals who deliver great books to Canadian readers, and nominated and voted on by members of the Canadian bookselling community, CBA Libris Awards honour outstanding achievement by authors and editors, sales reps and distributors, booksellers and publishers. Joseph Boyden and Mélanie Watt were both double-winners. Boyden’s critically acclaimed Through Black Spruce won the Fiction Book of the Year Award, and he won Author of the Year honours for his outstanding literary work, contribution to Canadian culture and support to the bookselling industry. For the second year in a row, Mélanie Watt was recognized for both her storytelling and illustration talents, when she was named Children’s Author and Children’s Illustrator of the Year. In the Non-fiction category Margaret Atwood’s thoughtful take on the concept of debt, Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth (House of Anansi Press), came out on top. Capturing the Book Design of the Year Award was Mariko Tamaki’s Skim (Groundwood Books), stunningly designed by Jillian Tamaki. The Sales Rep winner, from Ontario, was Penguin Canada’s Adrienne Kerr, and the Editor of the Year recipient was Cormorant Books’ Marc Côté. In the Bookseller categories, winners include Specialty Bookseller of the Year honouree Little Sister’s Book & Art Emporium (Vancouver) and Titles Bookstore – McMaster University (Hamilton ON), which took The Campus Bookseller of the Year title. The industry’s pick for Bookseller of the Year is McNally Robinson Booksellers, an independent chain with stores in Winnipeg, Saskatoon and—as of last spring—Toronto In the publishing arena, the reigning Small Press and Publisher of the Year are Toronto’s Cormorant Books (for the second year in a row) and House of Anansi Press, respectively, while North 49 Books has earned Distributor of the Year bragging rights for the third year running. Last year’s Publisher of the Year, Penguin Group (Canada) was recognized this year for Marketing Achievement relating to their Extraordinary Canadians campaign. A complete list of winners of CBA Libris Awards 2009 can be found on page two of the press release.
Read
more. Best known for her short stories, Munro is one of Canada's most celebrated writers. On receiving the news of her win, she said, ‘I am totally amazed and delighted.'
Read more
here.
Find out more about the talented candidates
for this year's CBA Libris Awards, celebrating the best in the
Canadian book business.
May 7, 2009 Pitts is a business writer for The Globe and Mail and has been nominated four previous times for the National Business Book Award; this is his first win. The award comes with a $20,000 prize. The other National Business Book Award nominees were Margaret Atwood, Peter C. Newman, Ted Rogers, and Kenneth Whyte. Read more here.
May 5,
2009 The winners will be announced at the CAA Literary Awards gala on June 6, 2009, at the Metropolitan Hotel in Toronto.
April 23, 2009 This year marks the 26th anniversary of the prestigious awards, named after the nom de travail of Canada's official hangman. The awards are presented in six “published” crime-writing categories – novel, first novel, non-fiction/true crime, juvenile, short story, and book in the French language. In addition, the CWC has an award for yet-to-be-published crime writers – the Unhanged Arthur for the best unpublished first crime novel. The CWC would like to thank Sleuth of Baker Street mystery book store in Toronto for donating the cash prize for best novel, to Book City in Toronto for donating the cash prize for best first novel, and to publisher McArthur & Company for donating the cash prize for best unpublished first crime novel.
Past winners of
the Arthur have included such major names in Canadian crime writing
as Howard Engel, Eric Wright, Peter Robinson, the late L.R. Wright,
the late Carol Shields, James W. Nichol, William Deverell, Gail
Bowen, Louise Penny, Stevie Cameron, Julian Sher, Norbert Spehner,
Giles Blunt, Barbara Fradkin, and Shane Peacock. View the list of nominees.
April 22, 2009 Voted on by members of the Canadian book industry, CBA Libris Awards celebrate the best in Canadian books and the people behind their success—those whose passion, ingenuity, creativity and collaborative spirit helped books connect meaningfully with readers in the previous year. Below is the list of books, authors, editors, sales reps, distributors, publishers and, of course, booksellers who are nominated for CBA Libris Awards 2009, the winners of which will be announced during an awards ceremony on Saturday, June 20 at the Radisson Admiral Hotel during CBA’s Summer Conference.
View the
shortlist
announcement. The winners of the 2009 Ruth and Sylvia Schwartz Children’s Book Awards will be announced at Market Lane Junior and Senior Public School, 246 The Esplanade, at 1 p.m. on May 20, 2009. The Ruth and Sylvia Schwartz Children's Book Awards are funded by the Ruth Schwartz Foundation. The administration of these awards is shared by the Ontario Arts Foundation, the Ontario Arts Council which manages the jury process, and the Canadian Booksellers Association whose members choose the short list of books. “We are delighted that the Market Lane Junior and Senior Public School created book clubs to allow so many students to participate in this experience”, said Janet Stubbs, Executive Director of the Ontario Arts Foundation.
“The
jury process encourages students to discuss the books they
read and think critically”, said John Degen, Literature
Officer at the Ontario Arts Council.
April 14, 2009 Winners will be announced on May 8 at the Alberta Book Publishing Awards Gala in Edmonton. View the shortlists.
April 14, 2009 Last week finalists for the the 2009 National Business Book Award were announced in Toronto. There are some real heavy hitters in the running this year, including Margaret Atwood, Peter C. Newman, Gordon Pitts, Ted Rogers and Kenneth Whyte. The winner of the National Business Book Award will be announced on May 7, 2009 at a luncheon in Toronto hosted by PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP and BMO Financial Group. Read more about the finalists.
March 26, 2009
Canadian
Booksellers Association (CBA) extends its congratulations
to Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty and Minister of Finance
Dwight Duncan for today’s announcement that books will be
excluded from the provincial portion of
Ontario’s
proposed harmonized sales tax.
March 19, 2009 Finalists in seven categories for the 2009 BC Book Prizes have been announced. Vying for the BC Booksellers' Choice Award in Honour of Bill Duthie are British Columbia: Spirit of the People by Jean Barman (Harbour Publishing); Flight of the Hummingbird: A Parable for the Environment by Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas (Greystone Books); Following the Curve of Time: The Legendary M. Wylie Blanchet by Cathy Converse (TouchWood Editions); Madness, Betrayal and the Lash: The Epic Voyage of Captain George Vancouver by Stephen Bown (Douglas & McIntyre); and Tar Sands: Dirty Oil and the Future of a Continent by Andrew Nikiforuk (Greystone Books). View finalists in the other six categories here. Winners will be announced at an awards ceremony on April 25. Finalists, "representing everything from the funny and the forthright to the traditional and the avant-garde," for the 2009 Doug Wright Awards (DWAs), which recognize emerging cartooning talent and comics-based works published in English, were announced yesterday in three categories: Best Book, Best Emerging Talent and the Pigskin Peters' Award. View the shortlists here. Filmmaker Don McKellar will host this year's awards ceremony, which will be held at the Art Gallery of Ontario on May 9.
The
ATLANTIC INK Awards have just named finalists in
four categories: the 12th annual Atlantic Poetry Prize,
19th annual Ann Connor Brimer Award for Children's
Literature, the 19th annual Thomas Head Raddall Atlantic
Fiction Prize and the 32nd annual Evelyn Richardson
Non-fiction Prize. View the
nominees. Last Wednesday, the regional winners of the 2009 Commonwealth Writers' Prize were revealed. In the Canadian/Caribbean region, the winners are both Canadians: Marina Endicott took the Best Book prize for Good to a Fault (HarperCollins Canada), and Joan Thomas was awarded the Best First Book title for Reading by Lightning (Goose Lane Editions). View all the regional winners here. The announcement of the overall Best Book and Best First Book winners will be made during the 2009 Auckland Writers' and Readers Festival in New Zealand on Saturday, May 16.
The National Book Critics Circle handed out awards in nine
categories last week in New York.
Among the winners were Fiction award recipient Roberto
Bolaño (2666, Farrar, Straus), who won the award
posthumously, and General Nonfiction award winner Dexter
Filkins (The Forever War, Knopf). All the winners are
listed
here. March
5, 2009
February 9, 2009
TORONTO: The
winner of the 2009 Charles Taylor Prize for Literary Non-Fiction is
Tim Cook (Ottawa) for his book Shock Troops: Canadians Fighting
the Great War, 1917 – 1918, Volume Two, published by Viking
Canada. The prize of $25,000 was awarded
Of the book,
the jury said: “With tremendous detail and almost unstoppable
narrative momentum, this book gives a harrowing account of a pivotal
moment in world history that would transform
Responding to the news, Canadian Booksellers Association (CBA) Executive Director Susan Dayus said, "We are disappointed that Reed Exhibitions was not able to garner publisher support for BookExpo Canada, the annual convention and tradeshow. We believe there is a need for a national gathering of booksellers, publishers, authors and others connected to the book industry and CBA will work to make that happen." Nancy Frater, CBA President, agrees: "Canadian booksellers need a time to come together for educational sessions, meetings with our suppliers and an Annual General Meeting, so we are saddened by Reed's decision. Reed worked hard to maintain BookExpo Canada; however, it is clear we are living in changing times." Publishers who put down a deposit for BEC exhibition space will receive a full refund and will be contacted by Reed this week. Reed has also confirmed that they will not pursue the proposed launch of the Toronto Book Fair (originally planned for this fall).
January 27, 2009
View
other winners, including Honor Books. Nancy Frater, CBA president, is pleased to announce that Susan Dayus, CBA Executive Director, has agreed to postpone her retirement until the end of 2009. "There are a number of initiatives in the works that the Board would like to have Susan oversee and we are delighted that she has agreed to stay on," says Frater.
CBA's Search Committee will post a job description this summer and
begin accepting applications in early fall. January
20, 2009 By Emily Sinkins
While October and November saw a near even split between those
independent booksellers whose sales were down compared to the same
period in 2007 and those whose sales were better or the same,
December proved a tough month for most Independents who responded to
CBA's annual Holiday Sales Survey, with 64% reporting a decrease in
dollar sales. What was selling? Joseph Boyden’s Through Black Spruce and Lawrence Hill’s The Book of Negroes were strong fiction sellers, while for young readers (and, yes, many an adult) Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight Series and J.K. Rowling’s The Tales of Beedle the Bard were the hot ticket items. Nonfiction findings this year were interesting in that nearly half of bookseller respondents named a local interest title as their store’s bestseller: Our Towns, Vancouver Island Book of Everything, Fresh and Local Cookbook, Building New Brunswick, Captured Hearts: New Brunswick’s War Brides, The Black Grizzly of Whiskey Creek, the list goes on. Based on the aggregate data, the top non-fiction titles were Greg Mortenson’s Three Cups of Tea and Margaret Atwood’s Payback. Product trends, not surprisingly, consisted of significant growth in both the YA and local interest categories. On a related note, a number of booksellers observed growing talk and enthusiasm among their customers around shopping local. More than half of responding booksellers incorporated Independents Matter materials in their stores over the holidays, and the bags, in particular, were a big hit with customers.
January 13, 2009 January 6, 2009
Here
are some of the people who left us with only backlist in 2008... January 6, 2009
This year's nominees are: The Prize winner will be announced on February 9 at a luncheon event held at Toronto's Le Meridien King Edward Hotel. Read
more.
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