Vermette lands senior editor gig at Simon & Schuster
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 29/06/2024 (806 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
Simon & Schuster Canada has appointed Winnipeg Michif author katherena vermette to the position of senior editor.
Vermette’s bestselling trio of novels, The Break, The Strangers and The Circle, earned her widespread critical acclaim as well as a number of awards and nominations including the Amazon.ca First Novel Award, the Atwood Gibson Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize and more. Her 2012 collection of poems, North End Love Songs, won the Governor General’s Literary Award for poetry in 2013.
In her new role, vermette will focus on work by Indigenous, LGBTTQ+ and other underrepresented authors. Of vermette, Simon & Schuster Canada president and publisher Nicole Winstanley said in a press release, “We’re incredibly honored to welcome her talent, voice and spirit which will undoubtedly enrich Simon & Schuster’s publishing vision and that of our industry.”
Vermette’s next novel, real ones, publishes Sept. 3 via Hamish Hamilton, an imprint of Penguin Random House Canada.
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Patrick deWitt has once again proven he’s one of Canada’s funniest writers.
The B.C.-born, Oregon-based deWitt has won the $25,000 2024 Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour for his novel The Librarianist, published in July 2023 by House of Anansi. The book follows Bob Comet, an introverted, retired librarian who volunteers at a nearby retirement home, and a resident who unlocks some of Bob’s wide-ranging memories of his formative years.
This is deWitt’s second time winning the Leacock medal — he first won the award in 2012 for his novel The Sisters Brothers.
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Winnipeg poet Brandi Bird took one of the two top English-langauge prizes at this year’s Indigenous Voices Awards (IVAs).
Bird’s debut poetry collection The All + Flesh, published by House of Anansi in August 2023, won the English poetry prize at the IVAs. Bird is currently studying at UBC and working on a second collection of poetry about “eating disorders and body sovereignty,” according to their website.
Meanwhile Brantford, Ont.-based Mohawk writer Alicia Elliott won the award for English prose for her debut novel And Then She Fell, published in September 2023 by Doubleday Canada. The horror novel explores aspects of motherhood, mental illness and intergenerational trauma through the story of a young Haudenosaunee woman struggling with the early days of motherhood and imposter syndrome.
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The Science Writers & Communicators of Canada (SWCC) have announced the three-book short lists in the general and youth categories for the 2023 SWCC Book Awards.
The finalists for the youth category are Becoming Bionic and Other Ways Science Is Making Us Super, by Heather Camlot and illustrated by Victor Wong, A Kid’s Guide to Plants of the Pacific Northwest by Philippa Joly and Polar, by L.E. Carmichael with illustrations by Byron Eggenschwiler.
In the general category, the finalists are Her Space, Her Time: How Trailblazing Women Scientists Decoded the Hidden Universe by Shohini Ghose, Kings of Their Own Ocean: Tuna, Obsession, and the Future of Our Seas by Karen Pinchin and Message in a Bottle: Ocean Dispatches from a Seabird Biologist by Holly Hogan. In March, Hogan won the 2023 BMO Winterset Award for Message in a Bottle; that $12,500 prize celebrates excellence in writing from Newfoundland and Labrador.
The winners of the SWCC Book Awards will be announced in September.
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McClelland & Stewart has announced the fall publication of a new book by the Honourable Murray Sinclair.
Who We Are: Four Questions for a Life and a Nation embraces the tradition of oral history in Indigenous culture, examining the role of history and resistance in our culture, the fraught relationship between Indigneous and non-Indigenous people and the ways Sinclair’s life as an Anishinaabe man, father and grandfather have been shaped by it all. The book publishes Sept. 24.
books@freepress.mb.ca
Ben Sigurdson
Literary editor, drinks writer
Ben Sigurdson is the Free Press‘s literary editor and drinks writer. He graduated with a master of arts degree in English from the University of Manitoba in 2005, the same year he began writing Uncorked, the weekly Free Press drinks column. He joined the Free Press full time in 2013 as a copy editor before being appointed literary editor in 2014. Read more about Ben.
In addition to providing opinions and analysis on wine and drinks, Ben oversees a team of freelance book reviewers and produces content for the arts and life section, all of which is reviewed by the Free Press’s editing team before being posted online or published in print. It’s part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.
Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber.
Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.
Ben Sigurdson
Literary editor, drinks writer
Ben Sigurdson is the Free Press‘s literary editor and drinks writer. He graduated with a master of arts degree in English from the University of Manitoba in 2005, the same year he began writing Uncorked, the weekly Free Press drinks column. He joined the Free Press full time in 2013 as a copy editor before being appointed literary editor in 2014. Read more about Ben.
In addition to providing opinions and analysis on wine and drinks, Ben oversees a team of freelance book reviewers and produces content for the arts and life section, all of which is reviewed by the Free Press’s editing team before being posted online or published in print. It’s part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.
Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber.
Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.
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History
Updated on Tuesday, July 2, 2024 10:36 AM CDT: Corrects reference to Nicole Winstanley
