Congratulations once again to Bob McDonald, whose book, Canadian Spacewalkers: Hadfield, MacLean and Williams Remember the Ultimate High Adventure (Douglas & McIntyre, $29.95), has been shortlisted for the 2014 Lane Anderson Award, which honours the best science writing in Canada. The winner receives a $10,000 prize. This is the second nomination for Canadian Spacewalkers this year, as the book was previously shortlisted for the Canadian Science Writers' Association's Science in Society General Book Award in April.
While all astronauts leave earth’s atmosphere in a spaceship, only some of them—spacewalkers—don pressure suits and step outside into the universe. In Canadian Spacewalkers, author Bob McDonald compiles the perspectives of the only three Canadian astronauts who have accomplished this feat: Chris Hadfield, Steve MacLean and Dave Williams. The astronauts tell tales of training underwater in the world’s largest swimming pool, recount how they learned to use power tools in zero gravity and describe the moment when they opened the hatch and stepped outside. McDonald, a science journalist and simulator-spacewalker, also shares his own experiences with astronaut training: the almost-reality of simulators, the sensory deprivation of the spacesuit, and even a zero-gravity airplane ride where he experiences the wonder and giddiness of floating weightless.
Bob McDonald has been the host of CBC Radio’s Quirks and Quarks since 1992. He is a regular science commentator on CBC News Network and science correspondent for CBC TV’s The National. He has been honored with the 2001 Michael Smith Award for Science Promotion from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada; the 2002 Sandford Fleming Medal from The Royal Canadian Institute; and the 2005 McNeil Medal for the Public Awareness of Science from the Royal Society of Canada.
Also shortlisted for the 2014 Lane Anderson Award is Planet Heart: How an Unhealthy Environment Leads to Heart Disease by Francois Reeves and Your Water Footprint: The Shocking Facts About How Much Water We Use to Make Everyday Products by Stephen Leahy.
Congratulations to author Darrell Dennis! Peace Pipe Dreams wins the Periodical Marketers of Canada Aboriginal Literature Award and is also the First Nation Communities Read Selection for 2015-2016! The awards were announced on June 24th as a part of the National Aboriginal Day Celebrations in Toronto. Five jury members agreed that the book “dispels myths and untruths about Aboriginal people in Canada today”. In winning the FNCR Selection, Peace Pipe Dreams is also the recipient of the $5,000 Periodical Marketers of Canada Aboriginal Literature Award.
Congratulations to writer and playwright Drew Hayden Taylor, who has been chosen as the Edna Staebler Writer in Residence for 2016 by Wilfrid Laurier University! The position was established in 2012 by a bequest from the late Edna Staebler, and Taylor will serve as a writing mentor and resource to the Laurier community during his term. Taylor, who is an award-winning author of 27 books including Me Artsy (2015), is from Curve Lake First Nation in central Ontario. He has held the writer-in-residence and playwright-in-resident positions at institutions including the University of Michigan, University of Western Ontario, Native Earth Performing Arts, Cahoots Theatre, Ryerson University, and the University of Lunenberg in Germany.
Congratulations to Wayson Choy, who has just received the 2015 George Woodcock Lifetime Achievement Award! Douglas & McIntyre was proud to publish his breakthrough novel, The Jade Peony, in 1995 and we're thrilled to see him honoured with this award. The George Woodcock Lifetime Achievement Award is given to an author for outstanding long-time contributions to B.C. literature, and Choy will be presented with the award at a public ceremony at VPL’s central branch on June 11.
Join the revolution with one of B.C.'s biggest champions of craft beer! Joe Wiebe, a.k.a. "The Thirsty Writer," is the author of Craft Beer Revolution: The Insider's Guide to B.C. Breweries. This May, he will tour Vancouver Island, celebrating the release of the newly revised second edition of the book, which—due to the explosion of craft brewers on the scene—has almost doubled in thickness since the first edition was published in 2013. Wiebe will visit some of the breweries that recently opened their doors and will also make some stops at places where there is a longer history of craft beer. Catch him at the following locations:
The second edition of Craft Beer Revolution: The Insider’s Guide to B.C. Breweries is a fascinating tour of British Columbia’s flourishing craft beer industry, with one of Canada’s best-known beer writers as a guide. This new edition contains an up-to-date and entertaining history of craft beer in the province as well as profiles of the people behind the kegs and casks. It is filled to the brim with recommendations for beer tasting tours, lists of the best brews that B.C. has to offer and entertaining trivia that will make beer geeks pop their tops.
British Columbians are embracing craft beer like never before, enticed by the diverse variety of beers and unique beer-tasting experiences available in B.C., as well as an urge to reject the status quo of the mass market in favour of local artisan products made thoughtfully with high-quality ingredients. According to Wiebe, “craft brewers are in the business to make good beer, not just sell a whack of it.”
Until fairly recently, most towns on Vancouver Island outside Victoria were "Lucky towns"—that is, the primary drink of choice was Lucky Lager. But the breweries that are opening in Island towns, such as Gladstone Brewing and Cumberland Brewing, hope that their product will persuade mass-market beer drinkers to join the movement to consume locally-made brews. It has already worked well in places such as Tofino and Powell River, with the emergence of Tofino Brewing and Townsite Brewing. Given the pace of B.C.'s craft beer revolution, Islanders are sure to have the good fortune to have an unprecedented variety of quality beer in the years to come.
Joe Wiebe, a.k.a. the “Thirsty Writer” is one of Canada’s leading beer writers and has been telling the stories of B.C.’s craft beer community since 2006. His writing has appeared in publications throughout Canada and the Pacific Northwest, including enRoute, BCBusiness, The Globe and Mail, The Growler and Beer West and Taps magazines. Based in Victoria, B.C., he is the craft beer correspondent for CBC Radio’s All Points West broadcast. The first edition of Craft Beer Revolution was a B.C. bestseller and won the Gourmand Award for the Best Beer Book in Canada. For more information about these events, or to connect with the author and the craft beer community, visit www.craftbeerrevolution.ca or follow "BCCraftBeerRevolution" on Facebook and on Twitter.
Congratulations to Bob McDonald, whose book, Canadian Spacewalkers: Hadfield, MacLean and Williams Remember the Ultimate High Adventure, was shortlisted for the Canadian Science Writers' Association's Science in Society General Book Award. The winners will receive $1,000 and will be announced on April 23, 2015.
All spacewalkers are astronauts, but not all astronauts are spacewalkers. Astronauts leave earth’s atmosphere in a spaceship. Spacewalkers don pressure suits and step outside into the universe. In Canadian Spacewalkers, author Bob McDonald compiles the perspectives of the only three Canadian astronauts who have accomplished this feat —Chris Hadfield, Steve MacLean and Dave Williams. The astronauts tell tales of training underwater in the world’s largest swimming pool, recount how they learned to use power tools in zero gravity while wearing bulky gloves and describe the moment when they opened the hatch and stepped outside. McDonald, science journalist and simulator-spacewalker, also shares his own experiences with astronaut training: the almost-reality of simulators, the sensory deprivation of the spacesuit, and even a zero-g airplane ride where he experiences the wonder and giddiness of floating weightless.
Bob McDonald has been the host of CBC Radio’s Quirks and Quarks since 1992. He is a regular science commentator on CBC News Network and science correspondent for CBC TV’s The National. He has been honored with the 2001 Michael Smith Award for Science Promotion from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada; the 2002 Sandford Fleming Medal from The Royal Canadian Institute; and the 2005 McNeil Medal for the Public Awareness of Science from the Royal Society of Canada
Also shortlisted for the Science in Society General Book Award is The End of Memory by Jay Ingram, Pain and Prejudice: What Science can Learn about Work from the People Who Do It by Karen Messing, Is that a Fact? by Dr Joe Schwarcz and Bee Time by Mark L. Winston.
Douglas & McIntyre is pleased to announce that Allan Levine's Toronto: Biography of a City is a finalist for not one, but two Manitoba Book Awards! Toronto is shortlisted for the Alexander Kennedy Isbister Award for Non-Fiction and the McNally Robinson Book of the Year Award. The award announcement and ceremony will take place on April 25, 2015 in Winnipeg. Congratulations Allan!
Congratulations to Barry Gough, whose book, The Elusive Mr. Pond: The Soldier, Fur Trader and Explorer Who Opened the Northwest, has been shortlisted for the Hubert Evans Non-Fiction Prize. The Hubert Evans Non-Fiction Prize is awarded to the author of the best original non-fiction literary work. The winner will be announced at an awards gala in Vancouver on April 25, 2015.
In The Elusive Mr. Pond, award-winning author Dr. Barry Gough sheds light on one of recent history's most influential and shadowy figures. While most North Americans won't recognize his name, Peter Pond mentored Sir Alexander Mackenzie and mapped much of northwestern Canada before him. His legendary exploits in the fur trade, including opening up the far distant Arctic watershed, elevated him to become a founding partner of the North West Company. These experiences, combined with his implication in two murders and reputed violent temper, make him a compelling historical figure—whose life has been shrouded in mystery. In The Elusive Mr. Pond, Gough re-examines Pond's surviving memoirs, explorers’ journals and many other sources to create the most complete biography of this eccentric, industrious and secretive fellow ever published.
Dr. Barry Gough is one of Canada’s foremost historians, well recognized for the authenticity of his research and for his engaging narratives. He is the author of many critically acclaimed books, including Fortune’s a River: The Collision of Empires in Northwest America (Harbour, 2007), which won the John Lyman Book Award for best Canadian naval and maritime history and was shortlisted for the Nereus Writers’ Trust Non-Fiction Prize. Over four decades, his contributions to Imperial, Commonwealth and Canadian studies have earned him many honours at home and abroad. He lives in Victoria, British Columbia.
The BC Book Prizes are awarded annually in seven categories, with the intent to celebrate the best writing and publishing in the province. The awards carry a cash prize of $2000 plus a certificate. Also shortlisted for the Hubert Evans Non-Fiction Prize is Julie Angus's Olive Odyssey, Kevin Chong's Northern Dancer, Eve Joseph's In the Slender Margin and Nancy J. Turner's Ancient Pathways, Ancestral Knowledge.
University of Toronto Press (UTP) will be the new Canadian distributor for Douglas & McIntyre, effective May 1, 2015.
“We believe UTP is the best choice for Douglas & McIntyre moving forward,” says Howard White, publisher of Douglas & McIntyre. “With 40 years of distribution experience, and a well-earned reputation of passionate commitment to the Canadian publishing industry, UTP is best able to look after our customers and offer them the kind of excellent customer service they are accustomed to.”
UTP President John Yates announced that UTP will add customer service and fulfillment staff to meet the demands of the increased volume, and it will offer a new freight program whereby publishers it distributes may choose to offer different freight options to their customers.
“UTP is very pleased to welcome Douglas & McIntyre to UTP as a new distribution client,” says President John Yates. “D&M; is one of the best-known names in Canadian publishing and it continues to publish an engaging list of award-winning titles that will complement the outstanding trade, children’s, and scholarly titles of our other distribution clients.”
The current distributor for Douglas & McIntyre, HarperCollins Canada, will accept orders until April 23, ship books until April 30, and accept returns until July 29 at its current warehouse or another location in Canada as designated by HarperCollins. The sales representation for Douglas & McIntyre (Ampersand Inc. for western Canada, Hornblower Group Inc. for eastern Canada) remains unchanged.
University of Toronto Press Distribution maintains facilities in Toronto, with more than 60,000 square feet of warehouse space. They represent more than 70 book imprints for distribution in Canada, the United States, and around the world. UTP’s clients include publishers specializing in scholarly, general and literary trade, children’s, and educational titles. University of Toronto Press website
Douglas & McIntyre has made a publishing deal, arranged with associate editor Carol Pope, for world rights to a garden-to-kitchen book by Dan Jason, Hilary Malone and Alison Malone Eathorne. The Power of Pulses is an inspiring do-it-yourself guide to growing and eating pulses, a versatile, nutritious and highly sustainable crop that includes beans, peas, chickpeas, lentils and favas.
Dan Jason, owner of Salt Spring Seeds, is a long-time advocate of following a healthy plant-based diet with pulses as the main protein source, rather than meat or tofu. While the ecological and health benefits of cutting down on meat consumption are widely known, not all meat-replacements are created equal. Soy products have long been a staple of vegetarian diets, but soybeans are often grown in pesticide-heavy monocultures, processed in factories and shipped long distances. By contrast, pulses are easy on the environment: versatile in their unprocessed state, needing no refrigeration and little packaging, and many are a snap to grow organically, even for new gardeners. In addition to being easy to grow at home, millions of tonnes of pulses are commercially harvested across North America, making them an ideal daily food for locavores.
In The Power of Pulses, Jason provides tips on how to grow your own and preserve a rainbow of delicious, vividly hued heirloom pulses using sustainable, organic methods.
Talented foodie-sister team Hilary Malone and Alison Malone Eathorne collaborate with Dan Jason to create 40+ vegetarian recipes featuring fresh and inventive uses for the garden’s bounty, from Broad Bean Succotash with Fresh Ricotta & Poached Eggs on Toast and Crispy Chickpea Power Bowl with Kale, Quinoa & Dukkah Crunch to Black Bean Brownies with Espresso Ganache.
Alison Malone Eathorne says “We are thrilled to be working with Dan and the D&M; team on this project, and to share our fresh, West Coast-inspired approach to cooking with pulses.”
Incredibly adaptable in the kitchen, pulses are rich in fibre, high in vitamin B, and remarkably low on the glycemic index—strongly contributing to good health and helping to reduce the risk of diabetes, heart disease and other chronic illness. And pulses are gluten-free and perfect as a grind-your-own flour for non-gluten breads and baking.
Readers will be sure to be both inspired and tempted by photography from garden and lifestyle photographer Christina Symons, who previously collaborated with Alison Malone Eathorne and Hilary Malone on Sea Salt: Recipes from the West Coast Galley (Harbour Publishing, 2013).
The publication of The Power of Pulses in 2016 will coincide with the kick off of the United Nations’ International Year of Pulses, devoted to promoting the exceptional nutritional and environmental benefits of this versatile ingredient.
Dan Jason is committed to empowering people to grow their own food and save their own seed. Since 1976 he has lived on Salt Spring Island, BC, where he created the mail-order seed company Salt Spring Seeds. He has written many bestselling books about growing and preparing food sustainably, including The Whole Organic Food Book and Saving Seeds as if Our Lives Depended on It.
Alison Malone Eathorne is a freelance travel and food writer and has contributed to various publications including Pacific Yachting, Western Living and BC Home. She is co-author of the award-winning Sea Salt: Recipes from the West Coast Galley.
Hilary Malone holds a Diploma in Culinary Arts from Vancouver Island University and is co-owner(with Alison) of Sea Salt Food Company, a boutique catering and recipe development business. Hilary is also co-author Sea Salt: Recipes from the West Coast Galley.
Both Alison and Hilary live in Nanaimo, BC.
Thu, September 24
Drew Hayden Taylor reading at Kingston Writers Festival
Ontario ➥
Fri, September 25
Adam Lewis Schroeder reading at Winnipeg International Writers Festival
Winnipeg ➥
Thu, September 24
Michelle Nelson presentation and book signing at Russell Books
Victoria ➥
Sat, September 19
Michelle Nelson demonstration and book signing
Gabriola Library ➥
Sun, September 27
Mark Bulgutch at Word on the Street Toronto
Harbourfront Center ➥
Mon, September 21
Nick Sibbeston launches book in Yellowknife
The Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre ➥
Thu, September 24
Nick Sibbeston launches book in Ottawa
Metropolitain Brasserie ➥
Sun, September 27
Kevin Gibson at Word on the Street Toronto
Harbourfront Center ➥
D&M; e-newsletter