If you happen to be in Montreal this weekend, the 26th Montreal Antiquarian Book Fair is taking place at Concordia University (Pavillon McConnel, 1400 de Maisonneuve Blvd W.) Saturday 12pm-6pm and Sunday 11am-5pm. Admission is $6 for the two days.
The September issue of Fine Books and Collections has an excellent Special Report article on the history of star mapping and the rise of the celestial map in the 16th century. Even cooler is that the article is written by local Library & Archives senior archivist Jeffrey Murray (author of Terra Nostra, 1550-1950: The Stories behind Canada’s Maps) and contains [...]
Not sure if this monstrous poem of grafted Twitter posts should be described as creative, crafty or just plain creepy.  “The Longest Poem in the World” is composed by aggregating real-time public twitter updates and selecting those that rhyme. It is constantly growing at ~4000 verses/day. Then again, finding amongst the clutter the odd couplet [...]
Apartment613 (the best site for what’s happening in Ottawa), is holding a Fall Fiction Contest.  Even better, yours truly will be on the panel of judges for the contest along with Angela Putz from CBC Radio and Barbara Clubb, Ottawa’s Head Librarian. The contest is looking for entries of original fiction of 1000 words or less with no [...]
Ink Oink Art has just released an anthology of speculative fiction entitled Escape Clause which features stories from 3 Ottawa writers. Will have to see about getting my hands on a copy! They are also accepting submissions for stories under 5,000 words, so you budding speculative writers may want to send off a story or [...]
Just a quick humorous post to tide you over until we are fully back at the shop and ready to go. Will start posting on our Anticipation adventure starting tomorrow once I’ve got the boxes unpacked and photos loaded up. In the meantime, a little literary humour sent by a friend:
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. www.jackpinepress.com Â
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.”