A big splash on the other side of the pond

A series of articles recently released have revealed that Canadian literature is receiving a great deal of admiration and attention overseas. Industry mag, the Quill and Quire has reported that poet Ken Babstock, (whose most recent book of poems Airstream Land Yacht was featured at The Word On The Street in 2006,) has been invited to a poetry festival in Berlin. Invited as well are eleven other poets including Paul Vermeersch, Tim Lilburn, Suzanne Buffam, Karen Solie, and six francophone poets. The delegates will participate in a workshop with 12 German poets, in which they will do translations of each other’s poems with the help of prepared word-for-word literal translations and interpreters. The translations will later be published in a trilingual anthology.

Reported recently in the Toronto Star, for the first time in its history, the Budapest Book Festival has shone a spotlight on Canada and Canadian literature. No non-European country has been featured previously in the event's 14-year history. Six Canadian authors, among them Anna Porter, Joseph Boyden and Sharon Pollock, travelled across the Atlantic to be present for the launch of Hungarian translations of their work. Alice Munro, was also invited but declined the invitation to visit Hungary for the launch of Csend, vetkek, szenvedely, the Hungarian version of her story collection Runaway.

Now is as great a time as ever to visit your local bookstore and pick up something one of your fellow Canadians has written recently. Every year, hundreds of Canadian works of fiction, non-fiction, poetry and plays go into print adding more and more volume to the voice of Canadian literature. Make this year yours to celebrate Canadian literature.

source and source

Raw Shark is Delicious!

Following up on a post from a few weeks ago, here's more on the Raw Shark Texts.

Last night a couple of us from the office decided to head down to the Raw Shark Texts launch at the SPIN Gallery -- what a show! The gallery is a really great space, big and bright, very malleable, and had enough room for the HarperCollins team to assemble a mock-up of the boat 'The Orpheus' featured briefly in the book.

HarperCollins also treated the assembled booklovers to a special book-bonus: 'In every country except Canada," said author Steven Hall, "the book starts on page 3. However, in Canada the story begins on page -22." The publisher created only 100 copies of a special Chapter 0 only available in Canada that starts the story even earlier than Hall had originally anticipated.

Hall was a lovely man to speak with, in turns both proud of his books success and flattered by the out-pouring of admiration by the books' (and the publicity campaigns') fans. All in all, a fantastic evening, supported by Pages This Is Not a Reading Series.

You Can Make it BIG!

Great news for all those Torontonians who typically burst at the seams with ideas: there's a new event in Toronto perfect for spilling your idea guts out to. Except instead of getting the rolled eyes and you-must-be-nuts stares from your fellow TTC riders, creative folks can all convene in a single time and place to pitch their ideas to real, actual industry professionals.

iCan Pitch invites well-respected members of the film and television community to participate in this unique event, designed to offer writers and ‘creative types' the chance to pitch their fresh ideas in a fast paced, exciting environment. It's an ideal opportunity for the power brokers in the film and television industry to find a “diamond in the rough”, and to help shape the lives and careers of many talented, aspiring Canadian writers.

Word from event organizers is that last year's debut event sold-out uber-quickly and was incredibly successful. Aside from pitching your ideas to industry professionals, the event gives you a chance to network with other folks just like you and attend useful and inspiring workshops to refine your craft and your pitch.

Writing about Writing about Writing

It's great to read and read and read, but if you're a writer, eventually you'll have to stop reading (and become, dare I say, 'aliterate'?) and start writing. Before that happens though, and most especially if this is the first time it's happening, you'll want to read this first.

In a SlushPile.net article unpacking the book, Scott McKenzie, says that the ocean of DIY writing is full of garbage reference books, and in contrast to that, Mosley really seems to know what he's talking about.

But Mosley's book is neither the first nor the last place any aspiring writer should look to. In the city of Toronto there are dozens of writers organizations who will gladly share their experiences and expertise in the writing life, and be equally glad to hear your version of things too. How fortunate for readers of Read. Write. Think! that our all-new website, coming this April, will have a directory of support for writers!

95.8% -- No Surprise To Us

An interesting study was recently released about the reading habits of Canadians -- here are some highlights:

• 86.7% of the population 15 or older read a newspaper (22.6 million Canadians);
• 78.2% read a magazine (20.4 million Canadians);
• 66.6% read at least one book (17.4 million Canadians);
• a total of 95.8% read at least one of these items (25.0 million Canadians); and
• 52.5% read a newspaper, a magazine and a book in 2005 (13.7 million Canadians).

• 42.6% of the population 15 or older read a magazine at least once a week (11.1 million
Canadians)

• 40% of the population 15 or older read at least one book each month (i.e. 10.5 million Canadians read at least 12 books during the year)

See the full article.

Bitter Irony

E-books have, for many years, been touted as "the next big thing" and some are suggesting that we can start dropping the 'next'. Digital publishing is not new, and publishers like Harlequin are reporting that at least a hundred books go digital every month digitally. As usual, it's going to take society a while to catch up to it's technology. For example, there's a growing need for publishers to become more aware of the ever-increasing number of books published only digitally. Montreal publisher Les Éditions des Intouchables learned that the hard way this week.

Toothpaste, cereal boxes, street signs

What do these things have in common? They're ubiquitous, everywhere. And you read them -- probably without knowing it. Everyday we're confronted by things, various products, our environs, commuter papers and more, that we read without consciously reading. It's sort of non-reading reading.

Isn't that the beauty of things like reading (like breathing, like walking?) Once you know how to do it, reading just happens automatically, without much fanfare or notice. How many times have you heard yourself use a word or a phrase that you picked up clandestinely through something you didn't even realize you had read? Where do words like 'conjuction', 'selenium', or 'quotient' come from when they're not in your typical vocabulary? I think the truth is that a lot of the non-reading reading we consume comes in the form of advertisements and other messaging that's meant to be discretely inserted one's consciousness. Though it's not a pure form of literature by any means, is it ever bad to keep reading?

Daily Head Scratcher

"The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who can't read them." -- Mark Twain

The ability to read is not a right, it's not a privilege -- it is a gift. Like the ability to sing or paint or handle alligators, reading opens doors that would otherwise stay closed. John G. Ramsay, in an article entitled "Hells bibliophiles", discusses the scourge of aliteracy in North America: "[Twain's] point is that aliteracy is a chosen form of illiteracy, and therefore borders on being a self-inflicted handicap--a radical rejection of literate and literary culture and the recorded wisdom of the ages." More.

Daily Guerilla Gorilla

While wading through the often unusual, ever-interesting posts for artists on craigslist.org, I found something extraordinarily bizarre. On first glance I thought it was just a really wacko sort of post. When I glanced at the reply-to address I noticed it was to raw shark texts at gmail, which is when it hit me -- HarperCollins Canada has just released a book called The Raw Shark Texts and which I of course Googled, and lo and behold. It's a bit of a mystery thus far who planted the post, but it's cool nonetheless.

Shiny, Happy Blogging

Hi. Welcome to Foreword the new blog from The Word On The Street in Toronto -- the best way to celebrate Toronto's biggest and most popular festival of Canadian books and magazines.

Why a blog?

1) This is a really easy way to share interesting articles, links, videos, pictures, etc.
2) It's also a good way to share stuff that's going on in Toronto that The Word On The Street loves and supports, but that aren't necessarily our event.
3) It's a way to provoke discussion - post your opinion about our festival and see where it leads.
4) Because we here at The Word On The Street love our jobs, love this festival, and love the industry -- there's so much cool stuff happening all the time, why not talk about it all in one place???

Everyone who works at The Word On The Street in Toronto will be able to contribue to this blog, so stay tuned -- you're gonna read some really neat stuff.

Feel free to share your thoughts in comments, please remember that all ages will view this site and nothing offensive will be allowed on the blog.

Let's get this party started!