Comments (0) Saskatoon-based chapbook publisher JackPine Press is seeking writer-artist collaborations that challenge the conventional notions of literary book publishing in the genres of poetry, essay, short fiction, graphic/art books and children’s literature. Proposals will be accepted from both emerging and established writers and artists from June 1 through August 15, 2009.
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Mark Webber, creator of the very impressive linocut below, is asking that very question as he searches for someone who can print his roughly 6′ x 5′ typographically exquisite linocut map of Paris.  Check out this blogpost with more details and photos of Webber’s project.
The list of nominees for the 2009 Man Booker Prize has been announced with one of my favourite authors, J.M. Coetzee, getting the nod again.  As one commentor on the CBC article noted rather succinctly, “There’s no better ‘recommended reading list’ anywhere than the list of finalists for the Man Booker.”
We called in a ringer this weekend to make sure preparations were well on their way for our booth-space at Anticipation. My cousin Tim helped me all Saturday sorting Sci-fi, bagging and pricing vintage paperbacks and cleaning up and making suggestions for our Young Adult section which was in desperate need of attention. Thanks for all your help Tim! Next time I’ll put you to work in the dungeon (he’s the only one I know who actually likes venturing into the basement of forgotten books).
Just a quick post to show off some of the nicer books that we’ve added to our fine press and illustrated editions sections. The first is a beautiful edition of The Idylls of the King by Tennyson illustrated by Eleanor Brickdale.
  
The second is In Powder and Crinoline, one of the famous Kay Neilsen illustrated books.  While the cover is somewhat lack lustre, the illustrations are what give this gem it’s beauty.
And finally, we’ve managed to acquire our first Kelmscott Press book. While not the six-figure Kelmscott Chaucer we’ve dreamed of, Rossetti’s Hand and Soul is a nice start and show’s all the finer touches that made the Kelmscott Press so reknown.
We’ve been buying like crazy this summer, so there are many more books to come.
This year, to focus on our main niches, we decided to try a few new book shows in more specialized venues. The first was back in June when Bytown Bookshop sponsored and had a table at the CBBAG – Ottawa Valley Chapter Book Arts Fair. The fair was a resounding success and really helped our shop make a name for ourselves as one of the few Canadian dealers in private/fine press editions and books on the printing, collecting, design and history of books.  Â
To try and emulate this success in our other specialty, Sci-fi/Fantasy/Horror, the Bytown Bookshop will be working in cahoots will fellow Ottawa SF&F aficionado Cornell Booksellers (the guy to contact if you collect Arkham House) to host a booth in the Dealer’s Room at this years World Science Fiction Convention, Anticipation, being held in Montreal Aug 6-10.   There was no way we could pass up the opportunity of such a prime venue to promote our shop and show off our wares, not to mention hob-knob with other fans and the slew of great authors attending. So, if we look a little frazzled over the next couple weeks, it’s more than likely due to us trying to figure out what stock to take and how much we need to bring for the 5 days of sci-fi fun. Will definitely have plenty of pictures and tales to tell come August.
As an advanced heads-up to our regulars, the Bytown Bookshop will be closed Aug 5th-10th while we attend Anticipation.
Yesterday saw the Ottawa Press Gang hold it’s first Wayzbrunch at the Arrow & Loon in Ottawa. We had a great turn out with over a dozen Press Gang members showing up to swap shop talk over plates of bacon & eggs and steaming cups of coffee.  Although France & I had to sneak out a bit early to go open up the store, things were in full swing when we left with press pieces being passed about, new projects being discussed and a general good time being had by all. Unfortunately there are no photos of the event as yours truly forgot to bring a camera and then proceeded to embarass himself trying to use a cellphone camera with horrific results (the pictures look like a scene from Jacob’s Ladder).
The Wayzbrunch concept was devised by our group as a means of trying to bring some order to our ever-expanding membership (up to 24 at last count) and ad hoc meetings by creating at least one regular meeting at a central location every second month.  With yesterday’s brunch a resounding success, I’m looking forward to many more Wayzbrunches in the future. Next OPG event, St. Bartholomew Tide Feast in August.
In an attempt to broaden our electronic horizons a bit, we’ve started up a Twitter account (see little blue bullet at the top of the page) which we will use to post news tidbit, interesting links, book sales alerts, and other such short tidbits rather than constantly clog the site with short time sensitive posts.  Bytown Bookshop Twitter posts can be follow here:
First and foremost, my apologies to those who frequent(ed) the site for bearing with me over the past couple months while the site was down.  Wordpress, the software we use to manage our site, kind of blew up on me out of the blue while trying to update to the newest version (an upgrade I should have done ages ago) leaving the site in shambles and me scrambling.Â
So, after tinkering around with things for a few weeks trying to fix things myself, I finally smartened up and enlisted the help of my tech guru friend Jason Prini who has us now set up with the latest and greatest which should make the site more dynamic. The bad news is it will take a few weeks to rebuild all the links and pages we had on the site and try to figure out if we can reintegrate all of our past posts which are currently stuck in an SQL back-up file. The good news is that I’ll be posting regularly again and have a number of new books, links and news to share. Â
The biggest news however is that our little Emma has grown quite a bit over the past month and has already developed a great affinity for books, demanding at least two stories a day. She’s already got a few books that are her favourite and is mesmerized by them even when not being read to as is clearly evident from the pictures below.
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