PoetryReviews.ca

Book Ends - December 11, 2008 - 0 Comments

The Top 10 Everything of 2008 - TIME

Posted by Eric

TIME Magazine is currently running “The Top 10 Everything of 2008,” with a category dedicated to

Top 10 Fiction Books. A lot of these look interesting to me, and I picked up a few as gifts from the list. Any opinions on the inclusions?

Book Ends - December 04, 2008 - 0 Comments

The 10 Best Books of 2008 - NYTimes.com

Posted by Eric

The New York Times has once again published its list of The 10 Best Books of 2008.

Book Ends - November 28, 2008 - 0 Comments

The 18th Annual Fiddlehead Contests

Posted by Eric

Prizes:

$1,000 Ralph Gustafson Prize for Best Poem
$500 each for Two Runners-Up

$1,000 for Best Story
$500 each for Two Runners-Up

Deadline: Postmarked by December 1, 2008

Book Ends - April 02, 2008 - 0 Comments

Dektet 2010

Posted by Eric

To mark the 10th anniversary of its highly regarded Quartet poetry series, Frontenac House is planning a significant expansion of the format to feature 10 books instead of four, to appear in 2010. Appropriately, the new series will be titled Dektet 2010.

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Book Ends - March 06, 2008 - 0 Comments

24th Annual BC Book Prizes Shortlists Announced

Posted by Eric

I’m happy to announce the launch of the newly redesigned BC Book Prizes website. Thank you to Monique Trottier at Work Industries for bringing Shadow Box on board to code and program the site, and kudos to Joslin Green at Player Industries for the great new design.

More importantly, congratulations go out to the five Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize finalists:

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Book Ends - February 10, 2008 - 3 Comments

Six Word Memoirs

Posted by Eric

National Public Radio currently has an interesting feature on their website called Six-Word Memoirs. The images and text are excerpted from the book Not Quite What I Was Planning: Six Word Memoirs by Writers Famous and Obscure.

The memoirs have a kind of word sonnet/haiku feel to them, and are inspired by Hemingway’s “For Sale: baby shoes, never worn.”

Is there any kind of literary merit to a book like this, or is it just a kind of vanity publication? Thoughts?

Book Ends - November 30, 2007 - 0 Comments

10 Best Books of 2007

Posted by Eric

The New York Times has posted its list of the 10 best books of 2007 (fiction and non-fiction). Here’s the list.

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Book Ends - June 29, 2007 - 1 Comment

Adventures in the Reviewing Trade

Posted by Eric

Alex Good discusses reviewing at Canadian Notes & Queries:

I suspect a large part of this failure to engage a wider debate is the fact that so few Canadians have actually read the books being reviewed. And without that sense of a shared culture to feed on, reviews become only another disposable form of infotainment and advertising tossed into the void. This in turn leads to a downward spiral as reviewers both in print and online attempt to become the next Oprah or Richard and Judy and demonstrate their “power” to sell product, something they can only do by selling out.

To summarize: You’re seeing as much book reviewing in print, and probably even on the internet, now as you are ever likely to see. We’re not getting any more. There aren’t going to be more book reviews unless there’s a demand for more book reviews, and that demand does not exist. You aren’t going to get better book reviews unless there is a real critical debate about the quality of today’s book reviews, and that debate and that critique do not exist.

So, what do you think? CNQ doesn’t seem to have a comment system, so feel free to come back here and share your opinions.

(Via Bookninja)

Book Ends - April 25, 2006 - 2 Comments

Northern Poetry Review

Posted by Eric

Alex Boyd and Dani Couture have started a new site for poetry reviews, articles and interviews, with emphasis on Canadian work. Check out Northern Poetry Review.