Goto, Coyote among the Lambda finalists



A poet’s exploration of his childhood experiences in the corporate town created during the construction of the Jenpeg Dam on the Nelson River is one of the nominees for this year’s Lambda Literary Awards.

Kasim Ali‘S Northern Lights: Power, Land and the Memory of Waterin which the poet revisits his childhood home to learn more about the impact of the dam on the Cross Lake community is nominated in the LGBTQ Nonfiction category.

It is one of several books with Canadian connections to be nominated in the 24 categories of the annual awards. Ivan Coyote‘S Care of: letters, connections and healingsa book of replies to letters received by the poet/performer is nominated in the Transgender Nonfiction category. Alex OhlinChair of the Creative Writing Program at the University of British Columbia, is nominated for her collection of short stories in the bisexual fiction category. We want what we want. Grace Zau is nominated for in Lesbian Poetry The language we were never taught. poet and novelist Hiromi Goto is nominated for in the LGBTQ Comics category shadow lifefor which she also won an Asian Pacific American Literature Award. PJ Vernon‘s novel bathhouse is nominated in the LGBTQ Mystery category.

The winners will be announced on June 11th in New York. The full list of nominees can be found at wfp.to/lambdas.

● ● ●

You can now add “butts” to the list of topics that could fire a teacher in the Deep South – topics like sex, racism and evolution.

A deputy principal in Mississippi told CBC How it happens recently that he was fired from his job for reading from a children’s book by the title I need a new butt.

Toby Price told the CBC the incident began when a group of second graders signed up for a reading event on Zoom and the guest reader didn’t show up. Filling in at short notice, he grabbed the book — about a boy who first notices the crack in his butt and worries it’s busted — and read from it. (The book is part of a series that includes the following I broke my butt and My butt is so loud.)

He was subsequently fired for his “inappropriate” book choices; The case has since been the subject of a petition by the freedom of expression organization PEN.

● ● ●

Amazon has abandoned an experiment in brick-and-mortar book retail that began in Seattle in 2015 and eventually led to the opening of 25 physical bookstores across the US

Accordingly Retail Wire, the company derived just three percent of its revenue from physical stores, mostly from its stake in high-end grocery retailer Whole Foods. While bookstores and many smaller retail stores are closing, Amazon plans to open clothing stores under the Amazon Fashion name.

● ● ●

An independent publisher in Calgary is reprinting a new edition of a Ukrainian-language anthology from 80 or more years ago as a fundraiser for the Canada-Ukraine Foundation.

Durvile Publications plans to publish The Little Book: Story Readers for a Free Ukraine on March 31, according to a CBC story.

The book, which contains letters of the Ukrainian alphabet, illustrations, stories and poems, was originally created for the Ukrainian-Canadian diaspora. The edition will include English translations by McMaster University linguistics and language professors Magda Stroniskaand a pronunciation guide.

See wfp.to/littlebook for details.

● ● ●

A wave of redundancies among young editors and medium-sized companies at large publishers highlights low wages, growing workloads and limited opportunities for advancement in the industry – even if the large publishing groups are reporting high revenues and profits.

A number of editorial assistants and junior editors have brought the challenges to the public and stimulated discussion on the topic. A recent story on the PublishersLunch website suggests that part of the problem is that senior editors are “technically illiterate” and offload all their computing challenges to junior editors and editorial assistants. The story can be found at wfp.to/QXx.

[email protected]


If coverage of Manitoba’s arts scene is important to you, help us do more.
Your contribution of $10, $25 or more allows Freie Presse to expand our coverage of theatre, dance, music and galleries while ensuring that the widest possible audience has access to our arts journalism.
BECOME A SUPPORTER OF ART JOURNALISM
Click here to learn more about the project.

Comments are closed.