PAPER CHASE: Rushdie memoir covers years in hiding

BRITISH author Salman Rushdie is writing a memoir concerning his years underground after publication of his 1988 novel The Satanic Verses, Reuters reports.

Rushdie was forced into hiding, under the watch of Scotland Yard, after the late Iranian leader Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa for Rushdie's death based upon the novel's alleged blasphemy against Islam. Rushdie said he has already written 100 pages. The memoir could be completed by the end of next year.

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Will a movie adaptation of Winnipeg novelist David Bergen's work soon grace screens?

The Time in Between, winner of the 2005 Scotiabank Giller Prize, has been optioned by Cinetel Film Productions.

Dara Rowland of Westwood Creative Artists arranged the deal, as reported by Canadian literary magazine Quill & Quire's blog.

Bergen's latest novel, The Matter with Morris, is on the short list for this year's Giller Prize

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In alternative literary award news, Victoria author Matthew Hooton's debut novel, Deloume Road, this week tied to win the Not the Booker Prize.

The consolation award is extended annually by U.K. newspaper The Guardian.

The novel polled the same number of votes as The Canal, by U.K. author Lee Rourke.

Set on Vancouver Island, Deloume Road received multiple enthusiastic online comments by Guardian readers.

A blogger for the paper, Sam Jordison, called the book "a promising debut by a talented writer who would have received hardly any publicity in the U.K. in the normal run of things."

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The Aqua Books Lansdowne Prize for Poetry Series will feature Manitoba poets Jan Horner, Barbara Schott and Ted Landrum Wednesday at 7 p.m. at Aqua Books, 274 Garry St.

Horner is this year's winner of the Aqua Lansdowne Prize, Manitoba's largest poetry award, for her most recent collection Mama Dada: Songs of the Baroness's Dog, published by Winnipeg's Turnstone Press.

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The Canada Year Book 2010 is now available from Statistics Canada.

Originally published in 1867, this almanac is a treasure trove of raw information about Canada.

A free online database of these almanacs from 1867 to 1967 is available at www.statcan.gc.ca.

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LiteracyWorks, a charitable Winnipeg organization that assists adults with reading problems, is holding a book sale at centre court, Portage Place Mall, Oct. 18-23.

The sale is a fundraising effort to keep the organization alive after recent funding cuts.

Customer service at Portage Place is accepting donations of books for the sale, which takes place during regular mall hours.

ksmithpaperchase@gmail.com

 

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition October 16, 2010 H8