Tory MP to launch outdoors collection

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This article was published 07/02/2015 (4096 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A Conservative MP and former outdoors columnist for the Winnipeg Free Press launches a book of essays on outdoor life Monday at 7 p.m. at McNally Robinson Booksellers.

Robert Sopuck, elected in the Dauphin-Swan River-Marquette constituency in 2010, writes about hunting, fishing, conservation and life on his 195 hectares south of Riding Mountain National Park in A Life Outdoors: Essays on Hunting, Gathering and Country Living in the 21st Century.

Before entering politics, Sopuck had a career as a fisheries biologist for both the federal and provincial governments.

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If the one thing you’d carry with you while escaping a house fire is your old-school Winnipeg Jets jersey, Winnipeg writer Jon Waldman has the book for you.

He Shoots, He Saves: The Story of Hockey’s Collectible Treasures, published by Toronto’s ECW Press, looks at the history of hockey collectibles, from cards to beer cans to postage stamps and beyond. Waldman has written about hockey for a variety of publications, including The Hockey News and the Toronto Sun. He launches his book Wednesday at 7 p.m. at McNally Robinson Booksellers.

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Writers and publishers alike know that readers and shoppers do indeed judge a book by its cover, which is why book designers and cover artists are the unsung heroes of the literary world.

A display by the Association of American University Presses, at the U of M’s Dafoe Library until Friday, honours 22 of the best book covers in scholarly publishing.

One of them is for the U of M Press’s new edition of Mitiarjuk Nappaaluk‘s Sanaaq, one of the first Inuit novels, designed by Marvin Harder, who has also designed several other books for the scholarly publisher. The cover recently caught the eye of YA author Daniel Handler (a.k.a. Lemony Snicket), who tweeted his appreciation of the book.

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Canada’s literary world is waiting nervously to learn what the future model of national arts funding — promised in January in a speech by the head of the Canada Council for the Arts — will look like.

Canada Council CEO Simon Brault announced a plan to pare 142 grant programs down to fewer than 10 national, “non-disciplinary” funding programs as part of a commitment to streamline administrative operations.

The Canada Council currently has 21 separate grant programs for writing and publishing, including support for publishers, book tours, residencies, writing grants, spoken-word performances as well as writing and publishing grants for indigenous writing.

A book about kids helping kids is being launched by a kid Friday at 7 p.m.

Eight-year-old author and illustrator Hazel Mariko Latimer will launch Dreams Really Can Come True! at McNally Robinson Booksellers. The book describes what happens after the young narrator sees a group of children outside in the cold without jackets, and then comes up with a plan to help other children in need. Though she’s just in Grade 3, the author had a head start in the arts, growing up with musicians Keri and Devin Latimer of the band Nathan as parents.

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A recent Paper Chase column listed the wrong date for the launch of M.J. Matheson‘s illustrated children’s book Hokey Dowa Gerda and the Snowflake Girl. The book will actually be launched Feb. 15 at 2 p.m. at McNally Robinson Booksellers.

 

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