The courage to speak truth against the lies of tyrants

21 April 2011

I have to speak for the generations who don’t have any way to speak out. Before they speak out the first sentence, they are crushed. I also have to speak out for the people around me who are afraid… So I want to set an example: You can do it. And this is OK, to speak out.  -- Ai Weiwei
From Yan Liang: Ai Weiwei's Disappearance

19 April 2011

After 60 years of absolute power, the Chinese Communist Party is more fragile than the world thinks – and has trouble dealing with any criticism or challenge, especially from its own people.

 
Opening Night in Quebec City

11 April 2011

Looking forward to getting together with the other festival participants: Todd Denault, Sheree Fitch, Paul Kropp, Rabindranath Maharaj, Andrew Potter, Ami Sands Brodoff, Claire Holden Rothman, Alexander MacLeod, Nigel Thomas, Charles H. Mountford and John Whitt.
Becoming a writer in the digital age

7 April 2011

Some writers will choose not to self-publish. They may prefer not to spend the time it takes to edit, publish, market and sell their own work. But if they do wish to self-publish, it is now possible to do so without losing face and without losing money. That’s the game changer.
From Yan Liang: The Terracotta Warriors Go West

3 April 2011

“The First Emperor could never have dreamed that 2200 years later, his terracotta soldiers would travel to almost every corner of the world, while he still rests in his mysterious underground palace.”
From Margaret O'Brien: John Vaillant's The Tiger: A True Story of Vengeance and Survival

2 April 2011

The Tiger is a Poe-like thriller, an analysis of post-perestroika economic disintegration (with plenty of black humour included), a treatise on biodiversity, an overview of paleoanthropology, and a completely absorbing read. But its essence is an intricate and measured plea for humans to understand and value our co-existence with the natural world.
April Fool

1 April 2011

In the venerable tradition of the 1957 BBC documentary on the Spaghetti Harvest and other media hoaxes which combine familiar formatting and a plausible style with invented (and inventive) content, Canada’s book trade paper Quill & Quire has produced a clever online April Fool’s joke on the Canadian book world.
Launch of $50,000 Montreal International Poetry Prize

28 March 2011

Asked to comment on the audacity of launching a global English poetry prize in Montreal, Epp says, “It’s not necessarily audacious. It’s certainly interesting. We think it’s a great thing for Montreal, not just for the English-speaking community.
Becoming a writer

27 March 2011

Email, the Internet, Facebook and newspapers – whether in print or online – are the enemies of writing. Reading is the enemy of writing.
The Literary Life (Part 2 of 2)

23 March 2011

Writers are always complaining they don’t have enough time to write, even those who are “full-time” writers. I used to find that puzzling, but now that I have joined the ranks of full-time writers, I understand better. The question, “When do you write?” is not a silly question. This is why writers are careful to broach it only with close friends. The answer has something to do with what I write – and a lot to do with whether I write at all.
The Literary Life [Part 1 of 2]: A day to bottle?

21 March 2011

Is there a way of bottling the good reviews? Steeping them in brine? Or, given the wintry day, flash-freezing them so that there they'll be ready to cheer me up all over again another day?

Photo: Linda Leith

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