PAPER CHASE: Lawrence Hill on O’s summer reading list

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This article was published 03/07/2010 (5894 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

THE U.S.-based O magazine’s 20-book summer reading list includes Someone Knows My Name, the historical novel by Ontario author Lawrence Hill.

The book’s Canadian title is The Book of Negroes, which was changed for the American market.

The novel won the 2008 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize, the 2008 Rogers Writers’ Trust Award and the CBC’s Canada Reads competition. A movie deal has also been made for the book.

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University of Toronto Press has released a new collection of essays on one of Canada’s greatest literary icons.

Edited by academics Irene Gammel and Benjamin Lefebvre, Anne’s World: A New Century of Anne of Green Gables comes on the heels of the 100th anniversary of L.M. Montgomery’s famous first novel.

Topics discussed include the worldwide Anne industry, Anne in fashion, and the possibility that Anne suffered from Fetal Alcohol Syndrome.

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Winnipeg author John Einarson’s new book, Forever Changes: Arthur Lee and the Book of Love, has received a thumbs-up in the July issue of Rolling Stone.

"Einarson draws on Lee’s unfinished memoirs in this frank, propulsive account of Love’s majesty and dysfunction, and Lee’s emergence from free fall in his last years, singing for new audiences forever changed by his music," writes reviewer David Fricke.

Einarson is the curator of the Manitoba Museum’s new exhibition on local music history, Shakin’ All Over.

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Managing editor Christina Palassio of Coach House Books stepped down effective Friday, after six years with the Toronto-based company.

Coach House editor Alan Wilcox says the plan is to name a replacement as soon as possible.

Palassio will continue to co-edit the sixth and final instalment of Coach House’s uTOpia series, Local Motion: The Art of Civic Engagement in Toronto.

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Also stepping down will be Doubleday Canada editor-in-chief Martha Kanya-Forstner, after almost 12 years with the publisher.

Kanya-Forstner will not return from maternity leave, but will continue as a freelance editor. She will have continued involvement in acquisitions and the maintenance of pre-existing relationships with authors.

According to Doubleday vice-president and publisher Kristin Cochrane, the editor-in-chief position will not be filled.

In 2009, two of Kanya-Forstner’s titles claimed the Governor General’s Literary Award for fiction and non-fiction — Nino Ricci’s The Origin of Species and Christie Blatchford’s Fifteen Days, respectively.

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Fantasy novelist Sir Terry Pratchett and Transworld Publishers are launching a new literary award for debut Commonwealth fantasy novelists.

The Terry Pratchett Anywhere but Here, Anywhen but Now Prize comes with an impressive £20,000 advance and a contract with Transworld Publishing.

Pratchett, Tony Robinson, Michael Rowley and two senior members of the Transworld editorial team will judge the award.

Deadline for submissions is Dec. 31. More information can be found at Pratchett’s website, www.terrypratchett.co.uk.

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