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Philip Lee's Bittersweet Longlisted for BC National Award for Non-Fiction

Goose Lane Editions proudly announces that Philip Lee's autobiographical Bittersweet: Confessions of a Twice-Married Man has been named one of fifteen finalists for the BC National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction.

Confessional, sensitive, and eloquent, award-winning journalist and author Philip Lee's Bittersweet is a personal narrative full of self-realizations and learning from personal mistakes during his struggle to rebuild his life and those of his children after his first marriage falls apart. Guilt and sorrow accompany Lee on his journey, and he draws parallels between his life, Ulysses in Homer's The Odyssey, and other literary and philosophical references recovered from his days in classical studies at University. He begins by asking, "How could I allow myself to seek happiness in my life when the members of my family were suffering because of my actions?"

Despite his terror of screwing up again, Lee shoulders new challenges with wry humour and keen observations to arrive at what he calls "home." He finds he has a second chance at love and an opportunity to get it right. He marries again, knowing the narrow odds of success with a second marriage, and adopts a baby girl - all with full awareness of what making such choices entails and requires.

The $40,000 BC Achievement Foundation BC National Award for Non-Fiction is Canada's largest literary non-fiction prize. 163 titles were submitted and the longlist also includes: John Ralston Saul, James Orbinski, Russell Wangersky, Mark Kingwell, Marq de Villiers, Mary Henley Rubio, Maggie Siggins, Susan Olding, Ken McGoogan, Abigail Carter, Daphne Bramham, Susan Pinker, Christopher Shulgan, and Ronald Wright.

The finalists for the BC National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction will be announced in early December. The award presentation will be in Vancouver on February 2, 2009. To contact the BC National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction, please call: toll-free 1-866-882-6088.

For more information, images, an interview, or review copies, please contact:

QUEBEC, ONTARIO, AND THE WEST: Sarah Stevens, Publicist, Meisner, de Groot & Associates, 416-368-3763, sarah@mdgassociates.com

ATLANTIC CANADA: Susan Baker, Publicity & Promotions, Goose Lane Editions, 506-450-4251, sbaker@gooselane.com

Small wonders . . . Big ideas: What a blast

Goose Lane Editions celebrated the fall 2008 season with a big party at the Black Box Theatre on the campus of St. Thomas University.

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Authors Herb Curtis, Melynda Jarratt, Philip Lee, John Leroux, Bob Mersereau, Jacques Poitras, and Tony Robinson-Smith were on hand to sign books for adoring fans.

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Beatitudes nominated

Goose Lane Author Shortlisted for Translation — French to English

The Canada Council for the Arts 2008 Governor General's Literary Awards

Fredericton (October 21, 2008) - Goose Lane Editions is proud to announce that Jo-Anne Elder has been named by the Canada Council for the Arts 2008 Governor General's Literary Awards Jury as one of five finalists in the category Translation - French to English for her translation of Beatitudes by His Honour the Lieutenant-Governor of New Brunswick Herménégilde Chiasson.

Published simultaneously in French by Prise de Parole, Chiasson's book-length poem draws on the organic forms of Walt Whitman and the beat poetry of Jack Kerouac. A post-modern tour de force, Beatitudes introduces men and women performing simple tasks, tending to their chores, and trying to make sense of a sometimes absurd world. Beginning in mid-sentence and ending with a comma, the book is punctuated not by periods but by the people who populate its pages.

The Governor General's Literary Awards jury cited that "In translating Herménégilde Chiasson's Beatitudes, Jo-Anne Elder has met the challenges of both the emotionally charged content of the original, and its specific literary form, the litany. She has movingly rendered the complexity expressed in this contemporary 'sermon on the mount,' while providing an English text rich with sensuality, rhythm and a sense of communion."

The Canada Council for the Arts funds, administers, and promotes the Governor General's Literary Awards. Each winner will receive $25,000 and a specially bound copy of the winning book. The publisher of each winning book will receive $3,000 to support promotional activities. Non-winning finalists will each receive $1,000 in recognition of their selection as finalists, bringing the total value of the Awards to approximately $450,000.

The winners will be announced on Tuesday, November 18 at 10 a.m. EST at the McCord Museum of Canadian History in Montreal.

For review copies of Beatitudes, publication excerpts, or to schedule an interview with Jo-Anne Elder or Herménégilde Chiasson, please contact Susan Baker at sbaker@gooselane.com or call (888) 926.8377. High-res book cover and author image files are available at win the media section of this website.

Grubisic shortlisted for A.M. Klein Prize

Goose Lane Author Shortlisted for Quebec Writer's Federation A.M. Klein Prize for Poetry

Fredericton (October 17, 2008) - Goose Lane Editions is proud to announce that author and poet Katia Grubisic has been named as one of three finalists on the shortlist for the Quebec Writer's Federation A.M. Klein Prize for Poetry for her first full-length collection of poetry What if red ran out.

In this shimmering, playful work, Grubisic introduces a voice still defining its contours and pushes against the boundaries of a nascent poetics. This is poetry "dense with ideas," as the award-winning poet Karen Solie describes it, "but still free-feeling, honest and intelligent . . . How unafraid of both the abstract and the visceral, and of bringing them bang up against each other."

Born in Toronto, Katia Grubisic pursued a career in contemporary dance before graduating from the University of New Brunswick with degrees in French and English literature. In 2005, Grubisic completed her Master's degree at Concordia University in Montreal, where she now lives. Her poems, short stories, translations, and reviews have been published in The Globe and Mail, Books in Canada, The Spoon River Poetry, Review, Arc, The Antigonish Review, The Croatian Reader, CV2, echolocation, ellipse, The Fiddlehead, The Nashwaak Review, Front & Centre, Room, Grain Magazine, The New Quarterly, Qwerty, and Matrix.

Grubisic is a past recipient of the Writers' Federation of New Brunswick's Poetry Prize, has received grants from the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec, the Canada Council for the Arts, and the Banff Centre, and has been shortlisted for the CBC Literary Awards and the Winston Collins / Descant Prize for Poetry.

The 10th Annual QWF Literary Awards Gala will be held at the Lion d'Or in Montreal on Wednesday, November 19, at 7 p.m. This year's host is well-known writer Joel Yanofsky, who will be assisted by the saucy librarian and national spokesperson for Quebec's English-language writers and publishers, the lovely Ms. Julie!

For event ticket information, call (514) 933-0878. More information about the shortlisted authors, as well as photos and book summaries, are online at the QWF Literary Database.

For review copies of What if red ran out, publication excerpts, or to schedule an interview with Katia Grubisic, please contact Susan Baker at sbaker@gooselane.com or call (888) 926.8377. High-res book cover and author image files are available at win the media section of this website.

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