Word!

International Festival of Authors Returns to Markham

 

Following a tremendously successful inaugural event last fall, Markham has again been chosen to host the International Festival of Authors (IFOA) touring event for York Region. Markham is one of only two IFOA touring event locations in the GTA. The City of Markham, in partnership with the Markham Arts Council (MAC), will host an exclusive engagement on Tuesday, October 23rd, 2012 at the Flato Markham Theatre, featuring four of the world’s best writers of contemporary literature.

This year’s headlining author, Dr. Vincent Lam, is a past recipient of the prestigious Scotiabank Giller Prize, and the inaugural One Book, One Markham author. He will be joined by world-renowned authors Marjorie Celona (recently long-listed for the Scotiabank Giller Prize), Ayesha Chatterjee, and Chan Koonchung. All will read from their latest works, followed by the popular informal audience discussion and a book signing.

The Mayor’s Hour: “World Cuisine and Wine” Reception will be hosted by Markham Mayor Frank Scarpitti beginning at 6 pm. This exclusive meet-and-greet opportunity with the four world-renowned authors will feature cuisine with international flair, thanks to IFOA 2012 Presenting Sponsor: Whole Foods Unionville. The reception will also showcase a stimulating visual arts exhibit and performances by YorkSlam performers from the 2012 season. 

The success of the sold out 2011 IFOA event showed Markham to be a growing epicentre of arts and culture. Organizers expect strong demand for tickets again this year.

TICKETS
Advance Tickets can be purchased through the Markham Arts Council at 905-947-9054 or e-mail [email protected], or from the Flato Markham Theatre box office at 905-305-SHOW (7469).

• Mayor’s Hour and VIP Authors’ Reception - $65 (6 pm start; includes premium seating for Author Readings)
• Author Readings in Theatre - $18 (7.15 pm start)

The Markham Arts Council’s Board of Directors extends special thanks to Mayor Frank Scarpitti and to Regional Councillor Gordon Landon for their enthusiastic support of the IFOA Markham event.

About Markham
Markham, a municipality with more than 310,000 residents centrally located in the Greater Toronto area, is home to 400 corporate head offices and 900 high tech and life science companies. Founded in the 1790s, today Markham is Canada’s most diverse community, enjoys a rich heritage, outstanding community planning and services, and a vibrant local economy. Canada’s newest city as of July 1, 2012, Markham has received the Excellence Canada PEP III Integrated and Accessibility Awards, and multiple heritage and environmental awards.
www.markham.ca, 905-415-7520 or [email protected] for more information.

About Markham Arts Council
The Markham Arts Council enriches lives by educating, developing and supporting a vibrant cultural community that champions the arts, while promoting the work of professional and emerging visual, literary and performing artists. www.markhamartscouncil.com

About IFOA Touring Events
IFOA Ontario Touring Events take place from October 16th through November 3rd, 2012 at various locations across Ontario. IFOA Ontario, the International Festival of Author’s (IFOA) touring component, brings authors from IFOA’s roster of the best contemporary writers from around the globe to a number of Ontario locations. For More on IFOA please visit www.readings.org.

PRAISE FOR IFOA 2011:

"The audiences in Markham and Uxbridge were extremely warm and welcoming, energetic and engaged."- Shilpi Somaya Gowda, Author of The Secret Daughter, 2011 IFOA Markham Author

"Fantastic event tonight! Loved hearing Shilpi Gowda and Bharati Mukherjee and interviewing them." Priya Chopra, ATN Asian Radio xm159

"I had a wonderful time! I hope the audience and authors did too." Thom Ernst, TVO host and host of IFOA Markham 2011

AUTHOR BIOS:

Vincent Lam - CANADA
Dr. Vincent Lam is from the expatriate Chinese community of Vietnam, and was born in Canada. Dr. Lam is an emergency room physician in Toronto and the youngest writer and the only first-time author to be given Canada's most prestigious literary award, the Scotiabank Giller Prize, for his short story collection Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures. Based on the experiences of his grandparents, The Headmaster's Wager is Lam’s first novel, about a Chinese compulsive gambler and headmaster of an English school in Saigon during the Vietnam War.

Ayesha Chatterjee – INDIA
Born and raised in Kolkata, Ayesha Chatterjee has lived in England, the USA, Germany, and currently resides in Toronto. Her work gained notice when one of her poems was shortlisted in the Guardian Unlimited Poetry Workshop in October 2004. Her poetry has appeared in nthposition, Autumn Sky Poetry and BluSlate. In 2010, she read at the Poetry with Prakriti Festival in Chennai, India. Her first poetry collection, The Clarity of Distance, is a meditation on the complexity of existence and the search for moments of truth within it.

Marjorie Celona – CANADA
Marjorie Celona was born and raised in Victoria, B.C., and lives in Cincinnati. She holds an MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, where she was an Iowa Arts Fellow and recipient of the Ailene Barger Barnes Prize. Her stories have appeared in Harvard Review, The Best American Non-required Reading, Glimmer Train and Crazyhorse. Celona’s debut novel, Y, tells the unforgettable story of a newborn baby dropped on a YMCA doorstep, and that of her mother, who is just a girl herself.

Chan Koonchung – CANADA/HONG KONG
Chan Koonchung is a novelist, journalist and screenwriter. Born in Shanghai and raised and educated in Hong Kong, he studied at the University of Hong Kong and Boston University. He has published more than a dozen Chinese-language books and in 1976 founded the magazine City, of which he was the chief editor and then publisher for 23 years. He has been a producer on more than 13 films. Banned in China, Koonchung’s politically charged novel, The Fat Years, tells the story of the search for an entire month erased from official Chinese history.

Click HERE for more information.

This event is proudly sponsored by MyBindi.com.

Ali Kazimi makes short-list for 2012 City of Vancouver Book Award

Since 1989, the annual City of Vancouver Book Award has been recognizing authors of excellence of any genre who contribute to the appreciation and understanding of Vancouver’s history, unique character, or the achievements of its residents.

This year’s short-list is dominated by books from independent presses, with writing from, about, around, and through Vancouver’s literary, cultural, and geographic margins. The list celebrates the creative impulse of emerging and established writers and historic and contemporary icons who helped shape Vancouver’s diverse cultural and creative communities. It embraces the examination of dark confrontations and entrenched racism in our collective history.

The winner of the 2012 City of Vancouver Book Award will be announced at the Mayor’s Arts Awards gala on 20 September 2012.

Finalists

John Mikhail Asfour and Elee Kraljii Gardiner, editors, V6A: Writing from Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside (Arsenal Pulp Press)

This remarkable anthology, which grew out of the Thursdays Writing Collective at Carnegie Community Centre, shows the intellectually and culturally rich heart of the Downtown Eastside. Work by writers both known and new makes for a potent mix.

 

Finalist Claudia Cornwall, At the World’s Edge: Curt Lang’s Vancouver (Mother Tongue Publishing)

This biography of Curt Lang reveals, with precision and suspense, how he packed his too-short life with pursuits ranging from poetry and painting to log salvage, boat building, and software development. His story parallels Vancouver’s own mid-twentieth-century evolution.

 

 

Finalist Ali Kazimi, Undesirables: White Canada & the Komagata Maru (Douglas & McIntyre)

In this splendidly illustrated and designed book, Ali Kazimi enlarges our understanding of the months-long Komagata Maru standoff, where racist immigration policies were challenged and transformed when more than 350 South Asian people were turned away from Vancouver’s shores.

 

 

Finalist Jen Sookfong Lee, The Better Mother (Random House Canada)

This atmospheric novel follows Danny Lim, a gay photographer from Chinatown, and Valerie Nealy, an older burlesque artist who grew up in abject poverty on River Road. Vancouver, in its many moods and guises, is witness to the blossoming of their unlikely friendship.

 

 

 

Finalist WH New, YVR (Oolichan Books)

The city of Vancouver reverberates with life as Bill New explores it in verse. His powerful poems capture history, geography, politics, and more. In his hands, even the place names of city parks thrive with rhythm.

 

 

 

This article first appeared HERE.

Radio Mango :: Canada Goes Konkani!

Konkani speaking people of Mangalore and Goa will now be able to tune into nostalgia every Saturday, 7 – 8 pm. Starting 29th September, konkani music will hit the airwaves for the very first time in Canada.

Every Saturday, konkani speakers can proudly turn up the volume to get the true Mango flavour with the best from Mangalore and Goa - konkani music, garamai’s remedies, mai’s recipes, ganvantleo khobro, Balcaoantleo gozzaleo, what’s happening in the Goan and Mangalorean communities in Canada, and a lot more. 

The Mission for Radio Mangalore is clear:
To bring together the konkani speaking communities of Goa and Mangalore through the medium of radio and to help the community identify with it roots and heritage through a common touch point: language.

RADIO MANGO’S final destination is to be the voice of the approximately 25,000 konkani speaking community in the GTA. It will be the platform for small businesses and entrepreneurs to reach potential customers within the konkani speaking community.

Radio Mango’s goal is to be the preferred choice of each and every konkani speaker by creating an aura of nostalgia. And by creating an emotional impact with listeners through a cultural connection.

The program is being hosted by Milena Marques-Zachariah and Wilson D’Souza. For details call 416.897.2631 and 647.295.9504.

Click HERE for more information.

Just Matata

By Braz Menezes.

Matata means trouble in Swahili, as Chico discovers in 1928, after jumping ship on a journey from India to Africa. With some skills and much sweat, he navigates the channels open to him under the segregated colonial structure of Kenya, while doing all to keep his heritage alive, and dreaming only of retirement to his beloved Goa. Enter son Lando, two decades later, and all plans are on hold.

Just Matata, narrated by Lando, brings to life these multi-layered stories that straddle two distinct colonies in mid 20^th century: the bucolic and romantic Goa (Portuguese India) and the adventure-filled, yet precarious world of British Kenya.

The stories, alternatively funny, sad and evocative, deal with the enduring dichotomy between generations, race, cultures and love, and the transformational impact of destiny-changing events in life’s cyclical journey.

Click HERE for more information and to purchase the book.