In 1922, a 15-year-old girl, tired of life in a French convent school, answered an advertisement for a traveling secretary. Almost a century later, Aloha Wanderwell has just been recognized by Guinness World Records as the first female to drive around the world. The daring youth, who would fill the role of pilot, actress, and ambassador for world peace, is the subject of Christian Fink-Jensen and Randolph Eustace-Walden’s Aloha Wanderwell: The Border-Smashing, Record-Setting Life of the World’s Youngest Explorer.
Coauthor of Let Them Eat Dirt B. Brett Finlay, PhD and Jessica M. Finlay’s FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH: HARNESSING YOUR MICROBES FOR LIFELONG HEALTH, exploring cutting-edge science on how microbes everywhere in and on the body, beyond just the gut microbiome, affect health and longevity, to Matthew Lore at The Experiment (US) and Anna Comfort O’Keefe at D&M (Canada), for publication in January 2019, by John Pearce at Westwood Creative Artists in association with Chris Casuccio.
Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize and Sheila Egoff Children’s Literature Prize-winner Ashley Little has sold world rights to her new YA novel, CONFESSIONS OF A TEENAGE LEPER, about a Texan cheerleader who must re-define her sense of self when she receives a rare diagnosis, to Samantha Swenson at Penguin Teen, for publication in fall 2018 by Hilary McMahon of Westwood Creative Artists.
Congratulations to Kamal Al-Solaylee, whose book Brown: What Being Brown in the World Today Means (to Everyone) won the Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing.
The jury, composed of CBC foreign correspondent Nahlah Ayed, National Postcolumnist Colby Cosh, and former Member of Parliament Megan Leslie selected the winner. Their citation reads:
Not black, not white, but brown: how do skin colour and its shades play out in our relationships, our economy, and our politics? Kamal Al-Solaylee’s book dares to propose and define an emerging racial category, drawing on a lifetime’s travel and inquiry to discuss the common experience and the awkward status of the Latin, Asian, and Mediterranean peoples of the fast-rising global south. Thoughtful and refreshing, Brown has a chance to become a made-in-Canada intellectual landmark.
We’re delighted to announce that Embers: One Ojibway’s Meditations, from the late Richard Wagamese, won the 2017 BC Booksellers’ Choice Award. In this beautiful collection of reflections Wagamese shares his hard-won wisdom on how to feel the joy in everyday things.
Congratulations to 2017 Ethel Wilson Prize winner Jennifer Manuel! In her debut novel, The Heaviness of Things That Float, Manuel explores the delicate dynamic between First Nations Communities and non-native outsiders.
In her review of Jessica Raya’s new novel, Please Proceed to the Nearest Exit, Winnipeg Free Press writer Sharon Chisvin calls it “delightful, engaging… a surprising pleasure to read.” Read the full review here.
We are absolutely thrilled for Lynne Kutsukake, winner of the Kobo Emerging Writer Prize in the category of Literary Fiction for The Translation of Love. In her debut novel Kutsukake tells the story of Aya Shimamura, a newly repatriated girl, as she helps a classmate find her missing sister in war-devastated Tokyo.
Author Zoe Whittall, this year’s Literary Fiction judge, says: “The Translation of Love is a tremendously accomplished work, a propulsive and layered story, the scope of which is quite unusual for a first novel. I was gripped and often very moved while reading and it stayed with me for weeks.”
Now in its third year, the Kobo Emerging Writer Prize recognizes exemplary Canadian authors in the categories of Literary Fiction, Specualtive Fiction, and Non-Fiction. Each winner receives a $10,000 cash prize as well as promotional, marketing, and communications support to help kick off their burgeoning careers.
On July 13, 2017 Ann Y.K. Choi joined host Nam Kiwanuka on TVO’s The Agenda to talk about her debut novel Kay’s Lucky Coin Variety. Check out her interview here.
We are thrilled for 2017 Porter Fund Literary Prize winner Padma Viswanathan. Presented annually to an Arkansas writer with a substantial and impressive body of work, the $2,000 prize makes it one of the state’s most lucrative and prestigious literary awards.
From The Idle Class Magazine:
“It seemed somehow fitting that I received the call about being selected for the Porter Prize while watching my kids play in Central Park: no matter where I go now, Arkansas, my adopted home, exerts an irresistible pull,” said Viswanathan. “I didn’t know, when I moved to Fayetteville eleven years ago, whether Arkansas would have me, nor what I would have to offer this place. To be awarded the Porter Prize feels like a response to those questions. I am profoundly honored.”
Viswanathan, a Scotiabank Giller Prize finalist, is the author of The Toss of a Lemon and The Ever After of Ashin Rao.