Words To Go

Author Carole Giangrande hosts WORDS TO GO, a podcast showcase for up-and-coming writers, great reads and the spoken word.

If you’re a listener who’d love a few quiet moments with a story well told, join us.

If you’re reading something great, tell us why it grabs you — and we’ll tell the world!

Here’s how to connect and listen:

Check out the podcast at www.wordstogopodcast.com

(Google may list it as "under construction," but click on it anyway -- it works!)

...and if you’d like to subscribe(it’s free):

click on RSS on the left side of the podcast page.

Be a fan on Facebook: read about submitting work, and post your good reads. Our page is “Words To Go Podcast.”

Coming Soon: a new website with a podcast link.

The mayor of the Big Smoke has a Big Book

This is Mayor David Miller:





















This is the city of Toronto:






















Next year, we're going to be publishing Witness to a City: David Miller's Toronto, compiling "some of the most powerful and inspirational of [Torontonians'] stories to articulate his vision of Toronto: a 21st century city that shows the world how different cultures can live, work and dream together as one community."

Gotta tell you, I'm pretty excited. The book promises to be an interesting take on a city I've lived my whole life in. And the idea of working with a sitting mayor of Toronto who's had a very eventful tenure is going to be an experience worth writing home about.

Or in this case, blogging about. So stay tuned!

Read the official press release

The Heart Specialist longlisted for the 2009 Scotiabank Giller Prize

We're ecstatic to announce that Claire Holden Rothman's The Heart Specialist is one of the twelve novels longlisted for the 2009 Scotiabank Giller Prize, along with works by such esteemed authors including Margaret Atwood, Ann Michaels, Shani Mootoo, and Colin McAadam.

View the list here.

And now for something completely different ...

Starting next week, I'm going to take a new approach to this blog that will hopefully be even more interesting than what we've got right now. We're going to try and provide more access, more candor, more insight into the day-to-day operations of a small press. So look forward to that!

In the meantime, here's a Wordle based on the entry page of this blog. Interesting what comes up as the most oft-repeated word:



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We're going to be in Eden Mills on Sunday for the Eden Mills Writers Festival. Charles Pachter, Hélène Rioux, and Jonathan Kaplansky will be there.

Or if you're in the Sharon, ON area this weekend, why not check out the Words Alive Literary Festival? Jeffrey Round will be there to promote his new novel, The Honey Locust.

Ten Questions with Claire Holden Rothman

The good folks at Open Book Toronto have just released their interview with The Heart Specialist author Claire Holden Rothman. Go on and check it out - she's a fantastic author with lots to say.

Read Ten Questions here

Arty launch for Death in Key West

Last night we threw a fantastic launch for Jeffrey Round's fun gay murder-mystery Death in Key West. The party took place at Charles Pachter's home/studio/gallery, The Moose Factory, featured music by the jazz duo of Omel Masalunga and Jeri Aniceto, and soprano Lilac Caña, and sold books from Glad Day Bookstore.

The launch was also a fundraiser for the Writers Trust of Canada's Dayne Ogilvie Award for young LGBT writers. They're lovely people working for a good cause, and you should donate to them.

Unfortunately, we forgot to bring a camera (my fault - BI), but that's okay - we were way too busy and having way too much fun to take pictures.

Thanks to everyone who showed up!

www.claireholdenrothman.com

Claire Holden Rothman, author of The Heart Specialist, has a snazzy new website. Go check it out at www.claireholdenrothman.com

Underground launch photos

June Hutton (right) and Deb McVittie of 32 Books (left)

Check out all the photos from the event!

On March 30, the launch for June Hutton's debut novel Underground was held at Zocalo restaurant in Vancouver. Fabulous food was served, many books were sold, and a great time was had by all. There may have even been some Spanish spoken.

Special thanks to the SPiN writing group and 32Books.

The Gift from Berlin reviewed at The Globe & Mail

This morning brings us a fantastic review of The Gift from Berlin, written by the delightful Lucette ter Borg and translated by the nicest lady on Earth, Liedewy Hawke.

Ter Borg shows great restraint with her characters, who give little away but nonetheless pose profound questions about compassion, responsibility and self-preservation. She sees no need for easy answers and doesn't try to smooth the tangles of a complicated story that spans almost a century and is weighted down by two world wars. With every page, there is a mounting sense of the things that don't get talked about.

Read the rest ...

Lucette ter Borg @ The Toronto Star

Lucette ter Borg, author of The Gift from Berlin, is in town for the Shift festival down at Toronto's Harbourfront Centre. Yesterday, she was interviewed by The Toronto Star - which you can read here.

Uh, yeah. I thought it ended a little ... abruptly. But still, you should see Lucette's resume. Visual artist? Filmmaker? Journalist? She's a fascinating woman.

June Hutton @ The Globe & Mail

The current Tuesday Essay at Globe Books (Raising gems, together) is a collaborative piece written by the SPiN writing group (Underground author June Hutton, Jen Sookfong Lee, and Mary Novik). It's a neat little profile about three writers who've stuck together through thick and thin, and are now starting to experience success.

Go on, have a read.

Mark Blagrave shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writer's Prize for Best First Book

Rumble, young man, rumble.

Fantastic news for Cormorant author (and blog contributor) Mark Blagrave: his debut novel Silver Salts has been shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writer's Prize for Best First Book. Previous winners of the award include Anne-Marie Macdonald (Fall On Your Knees) and Mark Haddon (The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time).

Our congratulations go out to Mark, and we wish him the best of luck in the next round!

Dave Hugelschaffer at the Toronto Reference Library

Last Thursday I got my first taste of an author reading from one of Cormorant’s very own at the Toronto Reference Library. It was an amazing experience — to feel a part of the show rather than just an audience participant, even though I wasn’t the one reading!

Dave Hugelschaffer flew in from his hometown of Edson, Alberta to read from the second instalment of the Porter Cassel firefighter mystery series, One Careless Moment. The book is about a firefighter, Porter Cassel, who finds himself on loan in Montana to help fight a recent outbreak of fires. When a sudden burnover claims the life of a firefighter, Porter, as the highest rank official, is blamed and asked to leave.

Dave read this opening scene of the book and held his audience captivated. There were audible gasps and murmurs at all the right times, and at the end of the chapter — a cliff hanger — there were disappointed groans, people wanting to know more. I couldn’t help but get caught up in the emotion involved too, letting loose my own sigh. It was intense.

I was pleasantly surprised at the turn out for the event. Roughly 50 mystery lovers showed up and seemed quite excited by the whole process. Everyone was chatty and seemed to enjoy the show. I got to speak candidly with a few members of the audience, and their enthusiasm was contagious. Everyone left the Beeton Auditorium with a smile on their face.

As a recent addition to the Cormorant team, I don’t think I could have asked for a better first time experience when attending one of our events.

As mentioned, the Toronto Reference Library hosted the event, which is part of their Lit Lunches Series. In particular, this instalment is known as their Mystery Novelists with Killer Careers. Also in attendance was April Lindgren’s, reading from her debut novel, Headline: Murder.

Their website can be found at: http://www.torontopubliclibrary.ca/pro_trl.jsp

Josh Davie is a production editorial intern at Cormorant Books

One Careless Moment - The Media Blitz!

Seems nowadays like Dave Hugelschaffer, author of One Careless Moment, is all over the internets. We've got an interview with him up at Open Book Toronto, a review at Quill & Quire, and another review (and video!) up at The Globe and Mail.

And we're also proud to present the official trailer for One Careless Moment.

(Note: For those of you with a faster connection, you can view the high quality version of the video. Just click on the little HQ button at the bottom-right corner of the screen.)

Proust and Company

Thought I should mention a neat little reading series being held at Toronto's Glad Day Bookshop called Proust and Company. As described at the official website:

Author, editor and filmmaker, Jeffrey Round hosts this bi-monthly event featuring renowned authors and musical guests. Drop by for some first-rate reading, great music and a rousing Question & Answer period, as well as food and drinks. Admission is free.

Jeffrey Round, as you may know, is a Cormorant author (The P-Town Murders, Death in Key West) as well as past contributor to this blog.

The next Proust and Company event will be taking place on Saturday, February 7, from 8-10 PM at the Glad Day Bookshop. Readers will be Sky Gilbert, Zoe Whittall, and Nairne Holtz.

Proust and Company also has a facebook group you can join to receive updates. So do it.

Ten Questions With Dave Hugelschaffer at Open Book Toronto

The intrepid Dave Hugelschaffer.

Hop on over to our friends at Open Book Toronto and take in an interview with Dave Hugelschaffer, author of the Porter Cassel Mystery Series (Day Into Night, and most recently, One Careless Moment).

Here's the interview - go and read it! The man was a firefighter. Who fought forest fires. Aren't you the least bit intrigued?

Look for One Careless Moment in a bookstore near you!

Our New Home, some news

The new Cormorant website is up. Check it out - and let us know what you think.

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And in case you missed it, here's the trailer for Underground, by June Hutton, due out in March:



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A big hand and plenty of kudos to the good people at the Slaight Foundation, who will be donating copies of Charles Pachter's M is for Moose to more than 4000 schools in Ontario this month.

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Last, but not least, our own Jeffrey Round (author of the upcoming murder-mystery Death in Key West), has had six of his poems published at the Maple Tree Literary Supplement website. Have a read, why don't you?

Congratulations

... to Darcy Tamayose, author of Odori and newest recipient of the Canada Council of the Arts' 2008 Canada-Japan Literary Award ...

... and to Neil Bissoondath, whose novel The Soul of All Great Designs was named to The Globe and Mail's Top 100 of 2008!

Good week.

2008 Molson Prize

Huge congratulations to Sheila Fischman, one of the recipients of this year's Molson Prize. Sheila is one of Cormorant's longest contributors, having translated many of our French-language novels including The Perfect Circle, Volkswagen Blues, and most recently Aegean Tales.

The jury had this to say about her: “With more than 125 translations of works by Quebec authors to her credit, Sheila Fischman has introduced Canada’s French-language literature to countless English-language readers both at home and abroad. Her phenomenal body of work has made a significant contribution to Canadian heritage by giving expression to a wide range of voices and building bridges between the two cultures. Literary translation is an under-recognized art form, an act of creation in which the creator is often anonymous. Ms. Fischman has perfected this art form and deserves to be applauded by all Canadians.”

Here are some photos from the ceremony, which took place last night in Montreal:

Kathlyn Bradshaw!

Kathlyn Bradshaw (The Frankenstein Murders) was recently interviewed on CBC Radio Ottawa's All In A Day. Listen to the podcast here.


Kathlyn was also a guest at the Vancouver International Writers' Festival. She took plenty of photos of her trip, and was kind enough to let us post some here:

Near the marvelous Granville Island Marketplace

The lineup for the Sunday Brunch (Kathlyn's event)

Signing books and chatting after Brunch

At the book signing table with CC Humphreys

Kathlyn and her husband at an Inukshuk on English Bay Beach