Buzz

Beaverbrook gallery dispute ending?

Is the long-running conflict between the The Beaverbrook Art Gallery and the British Beaverbrook Foundation about to come to an end?

According to new reports, both sides in the dispute have agreed to negotiate to settle their battle over the Fredericton Gallery’s holding of over 130 paintings. An arbitrator resolved that 85 of the paintings were gifts to the gallery, but the Foundation had wanted to take its case to the New Brunswick Court of Queen's Bench.

Click here for the latest report from the Daily Gleaner.

Acclaimed author Gary Geddes starts the early buzz!

"Sometimes, voices from the past reach out and take me by the throat, demanding to have their story told. It's a phenomenon that has been aptly called the "ventriloquism of history." Why do they do that? What is it about figures, scenes or objects from the past that makes them speak to me?"

Acclaimed author and poet Gary Geddes has not one but two (2!) releases timed for late summer/fall with Goose Lane, and he's not being shy about it!

Justifiably proud of both his new collection Swimming Ginger and the re-release of his award-winning work The Terrocotta Army, Gary has been writing up a storm as of late, penning essays in both The Globe and Mail and The Vancouver Sun about his past and current experiences with regard to ancient Chinese culture and tradition.

History, he writes, "reads us as much as we read history. It's a mirror in which we see more deeply into ourselves, undistracted by insignificant details or familiar, attention-grabbing surfaces. What we locate in this ancient scroll, or what it surrenders to us, is information about who we are and how to live in the here and now."

Read more about Gary's interactions with history here and here, and look for The Terracotta Army and Swimming Ginger to be on bookseller shelves very soon.

Philip Lee excerpted in Reader's Digest

"Can a man learn from his mistakes and make his second marriage work? Author and award-winning journalist Philip Lee’s journey from dark to light."

In the June 2010 issue of Reader's Digest, subscribers were treated to a lengthy except of Philip Lee's book Bittersweet: Confessions of a Twice-Married Man.

Through Lee's wry wit, warmth, and sensitivity, Reader's Digest readers shared a portion of his personal journey that took him from the rivers and coastlines of Eastern Canada to the cities of China and the Greek island of Naxos.

Shortlist Nominees

The Manitoba Writers' Guild (MWG) and the Association of Manitoba Book Publishers (AMBP) announced the Manitoba Book Awards shortlists this week. Winners will be announced at the Manitoba Book Awards gala, on Sunday, April 25, 2010, in Winnipeg, Manitoba. For complete details visit http://www.mbwriter.mb.ca/index.php/org_news/mba_2010_shortlists.html

MARGARET LAURENCE AWARD FOR FICTION
The Players Margaret Sweatman (Goose Lane Editions)
An Unexpected Break in the Weather Deborah Schnitzer (Turnstone Press)
Automatic World Struan Sinclair (Doubleday Canada)
Meteor Storm Wayne Tefs (Turnstone Press)

MCNALLY ROBINSON BOOK OF THE YEAR
The Players by Margaret Sweatman, (Goose Lane Editions)
An Unexpected Break in the Weather Deborah Schnitzer (Turnstone Press)
Automatic World Struan Sinclair (Doubleday Canada)
Coming of Age: A History of the Jewish People of Manitoba Allan Levine (Heartland Publications/Jewish Heritage Centre)
Mama Dada: Songs of the Baronessès Dog Jan Horner (Turnstone Press)

Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures on HBO

On January 10, HBO will air the first of an eight-part television miniseries entitled Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures based on the 2006 Scotiabank Giller Prize-winning novel by Toronto emergency-room physician Vincent Lam.

This adaptation of the story collection promises to be a mix of E.R. and Grey's Anatomy, with its sexy cast, love triangle storyline and hospital setting. Lam's collection of short stories, inspired by his own experiences as an ER doctor at a Toronto hospital, outlines a messy tangle of relationships that provide the jumping off point for this romantic drama. X-Men's Shawn Ashmore stars as Fitz, a cocky former air evacuation paramedic battling alcoholism and his emotions for ex-girlfriend Ming. ReGenesis's Mayko Nguyen plays the conflicted Ming, who is married to fellow med-school student Chen, played by Byron Mann. Lam makes a cameo midway through the series as a patient with an interesting backstory of his own.

This mini-series is a great relaunch pad for the BTC Audio adaptation of Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures. Featuring the voices of William Johnston and Michael Scholar Jr., this 2 1/2 hr audio recording follows the lives of four young medical students and physicians - Ming, Fitz, Sri, and Chen — transforming the way we think about doctors.

For more news on the mini-series, see the Chronicle Herald and Globe and Mail news stories.