Thomas exploring B.C. coast by boat

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This article was published 14/10/2017 (3139 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Winnipeg novelist Joan Thomas has joined a number of leading novelists, poets and journalists to write a book inspired by a 150-day coastal voyage this year as a Canada 150 project.

Canada C3 (Coast to Coast to Coast) travelled from Toronto to Victoria, via the Northwest Passage, carrying artists, writers, musicians, community leaders, elders, scientists and youth ambassadors to communities along the way.

Thomas boarded the ship in Prince Rupert, B.C., for leg 13 of the voyage to Haida Gwaii and down the Inside Passage to Bella Bella. Other writers who took part and who will contribute to the book include journalists John Vaillant and Ian Brown, novelist Madeleine Thien and poet Lorna Crozier.

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One of Canada’s oldest independent publishers celebrates 50 years in business in October with a literary party at the Vancouver Writers’ Fest.

Talon began life as a high school poetry journal in 1963, moved to UBC in 1965 and two years later became publisher Talonbooks. Since then, the company has published more than 500 books, won more than 300 awards and become known as an important force in publishing drama and Quebec writers in translation.

Early successes included George Ryga’s The Ecstasy of Rita Joe, the English translation of Michel Tremblay’s Les Belles Soeurs and the first book by Canada’s first parliamentary poet laureate, George Bowering.

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Fans of Nordic crime fiction have made Iceland’s Yrsa Sigurdardottir into an international sensation, with translations of her work in 30 languages. The winner of the 2015 Petrona Award for best Scandinavian crime novel (for The Silence of the Sea) visits Winnipeg on Tuesday to launch her latest book, The Legacy. She will read from the new book starting at 7 p.m. at McNally Robinson Booksellers.

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Winnipeg writer, editor and illustrator S. M. Beiko launches the first book of a Winnipeg-set fantasy series Wednesday at 7 p.m. at McNally Robinson. In Scion of the Fox (ECW Press), the first book of her Realms of Ancient series, a high school student encounters a fox spirit and has to contend with a hungry snake monster that lives underneath the Assiniboine River.

Beiko, who was nominated for the 2014 Best First Book Award in the Manitoba Book Awards, is also co-publisher of the ChiZine Publications and Chi Graphic. In addition to her other gigs, Beiko works with friend and fellow writer/editor/designer Clare Marshall on Business BFFs, a podcast about creative entrepreneurship.

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Michael Adams, the founding president of the polling firm Environics, takes a good, hard look at Canada’s reputation for moderation in Could it Happen Here? Canada in the Age of Trump and Brexit (Simon & Schuster).

Examining recent votes in western democracies where large groups of citizens rejected moderation and the status quo, Adams looks at Canadian trends and values to assess the force of population and the degree of social fracture in our society.

He’ll talk about the book Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. at McNally Robinson.

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Much of the world knows him as the Oscar- and Grammy-winning writer of 1970s hits such as We’ve Only Just Begun, Evergreen and Rainbow Connection. But to Winnipeggers, Paul Williams will always be the man who gave us The Phantom of the Paradise.

Behind both sides of the man is a story of alcoholism and recovery. Williams has teamed up with screenwriter Tracey Jackson (Confessions of a Shopaholic) to write Gratitude and Trust: Six Affirmations That Will Change Your Life.

They’ll visit McNally Robinson Thursday at 7 p.m. to launch the book, which applies principles from the recovery movement to issues like anger, money management and pain.

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