Read Local BC

It’s an undisputed fact that poets love the moon. Since the days are getting shorter and Earth’s sole satellite is spending more time in the night sky, we thought it would be the perfect time to feature some of our favourite poetry collections from the season to read under moonlight. BC has a longstanding reputation as a hotspot for great, contemplative poetry, but don’t take our word for it! Check out what BC publishers Nightwood Editions, Arsenal Pulp Press, Ronsdale Press, Caitlin Press and Anvil Press have on tap for you! https://www.readlocalbc.ca//by-the-light-of-the-moon-bc-p/

Returning faves from Heritage House and RMB | Rocky Mountain Books, plus a new number one! Check out this week's BC Bestseller list

Congratulations Nightwood Editions! Jean Marc Ah-Sen’s sophomore release, In the Beggarly Style of Imitation, has been named one of five finalists for the 2020 Toronto Book Awards, which acknowledge books of exceptional literary merit that are evocative of Toronto.

Titles from Creekstone Press and Midtown Press make their debut, along with a returning Douglas & McIntyre fave, on this week's BC Bestseller list https://mailchi.mp/d5080ca28015/bc-bestsellers-list-4898906

The 2020 longlist for the 7th Annual Fred Cogswell Award For Excellence in Poetry has been announced! Congratulations to Adèle Barclay, Cassandra Blanchard and Chantal Gibson for their nominations, and best of luck to the winner! You can learn more about "Renaissance Normcore" and "Fresh Pack of Smokes" on Nightwood Editions's website, and "How She Read" on Caitlin Press's website or social media. Celebrate and support these amazing collections by purchasing your copy today! #readlocal #buylocal

The Pacific Northwest Bookseller Awards has released its shortlist, which includes local offerings "Cedar and Salt" by DL Acken and Emily Lycopolus (TouchWood Editions) and "Birdsong" by Julie Flett (Greystone Kids). Congratulations nominees!

DEAL ALERT! Arsenal Pulp Press is offering a limited time discount on select titles for the season of spook! Nab 20% off these scary good local reads by visiting the link below: https://t.e2ma.net/message/7sya7g/npmnr6n

"Fighting for Space: How a Group of Drug Users Transformed One City’s Struggle with Addiction by Travis Lupick (Arsenal Pulp Press) is the story of a grassroots group of addicts in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside who waged a political street fight in the 1990s and 2000s to change how the city treats its most marginalized citizens. As the same overdose crisis patterns emerge in cities across North America, there is much that advocates for reform can learn from Vancouver’s past experience." Read this (still) timely piece from the archives of Read Local BC: https://www.readlocalbc.ca//drug-epidemic-overdose-crisis/

Get your keyboards ready! Read Local BC is seeking writers for its blog to help celebrate British Columbia's vibrant publishing community. We are now accepting pitches for 2021 about a wide variety of subjects, including interviews or Q&As with local authors. Have an idea? Send us a pitch [email protected]. A few necessary stipulations: Books or authors featured in pitches to Read Local BC must be published by an ABPBC member publisher. A full list of eligible pu...blishers can be found on http://books.bc.ca. We accept pitches with article outlines and also articles on spec. Final articles should be at least 600 words and no more than 1,000 words in length and be geared towards readers as an audience Contributors of accepted submissions will receive $150 per article. Only articles accepted for publication will be eligible for payment. See more

Glossy, tactile, stunningly beautiful: Roy Henry Vickers and Lucky Budd's First West Coast Board Book series is a triumph of BC's diverse, one-of-a-kind ecosystem. Looking for that perfect board book bundle for -your- bundle? Look no further than Harbour Publishing's gorgeous and educational series.

New titles from Rocky Mountain Books and Nightwood Editions on this week's BC Bestseller list

A beautiful gem from Theytus Books: "Neekna and Chemai are two little girls growing up in the Okanagan Valley in the time before contact. Through these two friends, we learn about the seasonal life patterns of the Okanagan First Peoples." "Neekna and Chemai" is by Jeannette Armstrong and illustrated by Barbara Marchand. Consider purchasing this book today for any young reader.

Upcoming event from Caitlin Press and Claire Finlayson for her book "Dispatches from a Ray's Planet." Be sure to tune in at 7pm on October 29 to learn more about this beautiful collective memoir of siblings, autism and healing. --- ABOUT THE BOOK... A collective memoir that explores a woman’s journey to understand the complexities of her adult brother’s symptoms of Autism Spectrum Disorder. As a child, Claire’s big brother Ray was bright and inquisitive, but as the two became teenagers, Ray struggled to acquire the social skills that came more easily to others. Claire tried to help, pointing out what he should or shouldn’t have said or done. Ray insisted that he wasn’t the problemOn my planet he would explain, there were no social climbers, no subtle hints or subliminal messages to miss, and the telling of little white lies would be a capital offence. At sixteen, sitting with him in the high school cafeteria, Claire vowed to find Ray’s planet. After graduation, Ray took a job as a letter carrier with Canada Post, but after thirty-three years on the job he was fired, blew his appeal, and spiralled into a suicidal depression. Claire didn’t know he was in trouble until he reached out to her by email. Thus began a remarkable written correspondence that pulled back the curtain on an inner life Claire couldn’t have imagined. Where in-person interactions plunged him into hot water, Ray’s writing revealed a compassionate, funny, sad man who showed extraordinary insight into his way of navigating the world. Ray was fifty when Claire realized he might have Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), but by then, having survived without a diagnosis his whole life, Ray was reluctant to have a label pinned on him and resisted Claire’s efforts to fix him by trying, in all sincerity, to make him more like her. Dispatches from Ray’s Planet draws on Ray and Claire’s correspondence to tell the story of two siblings from two very different planets. There are thousands of Rays in our world. In this collective memoir, Claire and Ray share their journey with the hope that others can also learn that we all perceive the world in different ways, and that different does not necessarily mean wrong.

Read this incredibly essay from Julia Zarankin on her book, "Field Notes from an Unintentional Birder" (Douglas & McIntyre): "Fifteen years ago, I accidentally became a birdwatcher. I didn’t just start watching birds calmly: they engulfed my world, my bookshelves, my vocabulary, my jokes and even my aesthetic sensibilities. My unlikely transformation is the subject of my first book, Field Notes from an Unintentional Birder. I haven’t yet succumbed to the multi-pocketed vest, but I’m no longer ruling out the possibility."

Three events you won't want to miss at this year's Vancouver Writers Fest and we've got the scoop! We are pleased to support local authors and partner with the Vancouver Writers Fest for A Recipe for Anything, streaming tonight at 7:30pm PT. The perfect appetizer for what is certain to be a week of powerful, inspiring and hopeful literary events, A RECIPE FOR ANYTHING also features some of BC’s most-discussed books of the season. Learn more about our top picks for this week's... offerings on the Read Local BC blog: https://www.readlocalbc.ca//a-recipe-for-reading-vancouve/ See more

Earlier this week, The Ormsby Review shared "Seven Sacred Teachings," by Wanda John-Kehewin (Talonbooks; 2018) an "unfettering of writing styles, including prayer, poetry, prose, and letters, that reflect Wanda John-Kehewin’s personal exploration of self through a healing journey." Read more about this stunning work at https://ormsbyreview.com//939-alphonse-john-kehewin-sacre/

Titles from Heritage House and Arsenal Pulp Press debuting on this week's BC Bestseller list

Congratulations to all of the winners of the 2019 Alcuin Society Awards for Excellence in Book Design, including six of Association of Book Publishers of British Columbia member publishers' books. Celebrating all of the standouts from this year's award ceremony: CHILDREN ... First Prize (Tie): SARA GILLINGHAM, designer of Hello, Crow by Candace Savage; illustrated by Chelsea O’Byrne (Greystone Kids) Third Prize (Tie): SARA GILLINGHAM, designer of Birdsong by Julie Flett; illustrated by Julie Flett (Greystone Kids) PROSE ILLUSTRATED Second Prize (Tie): BELLE WUTHRICH, designer of Winterlust by Bernd Brunner (Greystone Books) Third Prize: NAOMI MACDOUGALL, designer of Carpe Fin by Michael Nicoll Yahgulanass; illustrated by Michael Nicoll Yahgulanass (Douglas & McIntyre) PROSE NON-FICTION Third Prize (Tie): NAYELI JIMINEZ & SUZANNE DEAN, designers of How to Catch a Mole by Marc Hamer; illustrated by Joe McLaren (Greystone Books) REFERENCE First Prize (Tie): TREE ABRAHAM, designer of Cedar and Salt by DL Acken & Emily Lycopolus; illustrated by Tree Abraham; photographed by DL Acken (TouchWood Editions)

A new number one and debuts from RMB | Rocky Mountain Books and Arsenal Pulp Press on this week's BC Bestseller list

How do we get our children ready for conversations about difficult or even painful topics? Books can help make it easier to approach these tricky subjects with kids. Vibrant, exciting stories can help them understand what’s going on in their own lives and help develop empathy for the struggles of others. We’ve put together a list of helpful and engaging books by BC publishers to help the kids in your life understand the complicated world around them. You can feel confident and prepared to help them through these conversations by reading up on the best techniques beforehand, or by reading together with the children in your life. Read more on the blog: https://wp.me/p8ANDP-2Cn

Celebrating the announcement today that two BC authors have become finalists for the Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Nonfiction! Congratulations to both David A. Neel (The Way Home, UBC Press) and Lorna Crozier (Through the Garden: A Love Story (with Cats); McClelland and Stewart). As The Georgia Straight reports: "The $60,000 prize is not only the largest monetary award for Canadian nonfiction writers but is the only national award for literary nonfiction for 2020due to the discontinuation of the RBC Taylor Prize and the suspension of the Governor General’s Literary Awards for this year." Read more about this exciting news: https://www.straight.com//two-bc-writers-chosen-as-finalis