{"id":276,"date":"2016-12-31T19:34:54","date_gmt":"2017-01-01T00:34:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/merilynsimonds.com\/books-unpacked-blog\/?p=276"},"modified":"2017-04-02T15:05:23","modified_gmt":"2017-04-02T19:05:23","slug":"december-2016-litbits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/merilynsimonds.com\/books-unpacked-blog\/december-2016-litbits\/","title":{"rendered":"December 2016 LitBits"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Every few months or so, LitBits offers\u00a0bookish bits and pieces that inform, intrigue, provoke, and, I hope, delight. Stay up-to-date on news from the literary world and from my writing casita. Every issue I give away a book to a lucky subscriber. I hope you enjoy this\u00a0first Litbits sample.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

News From the World<\/strong><\/h3>\n

2016 International Writer of Courage<\/strong><\/h4>\n

\"\"<\/a>Early last year Margaret Atwood won the PEN\/Pinter Prize, awarded\u00a0to a writer of outstanding literary merit who, in the words of Harold Pinter on winning the Nobel Prize, casts an “unflinching, unswerving” gaze upon the world and shows a “fierce intellectual determination…to define the real truth of our lives and our societies.”<\/p>\n

The PEN\/Pinter award is shared with a writer who has been persecuted for speaking out about their beliefs. In October, Atwood named Bangladeshi publisher and writer Ahmedur Rashid Chowdhury\u2014known as Tutul\u2014as winner of the International Writer of Courage Award. Tutul is a publisher, writer, and editor who founded Shuddhashar magazine and publishing house in Dhaka, where he promoted progressive work from Bangladeshi writers and bloggers. According to PEN, at least nine writers, intellectuals, and activists have been murdered in Bangladesh by Islamic extremists since the start of 2015, many of them Shuddhashar contributors. Tutul himself received death threats. After he was attacked by assailants with machetes and guns, he went into exile in Norway.<\/p>\n

“Text and books and writing can be the change in our social structure, in our mentality,” he wrote, calling on\u00a0critics to answer him with words instead of violence.<\/p>\n


\n\"Wonder<\/a>2016 Honorary Ambassador for the Empowerment of Women and Girls<\/strong><\/h4>\n

In October the United Nations welcomed its newest honorary ambassador\u2014Wonder Woman, who turned 75 this year. The septuagenarian has been given the daunting task of raising awareness about the fifth item on the list of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals: to achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls by 2030.<\/p>\n

Not a moment too soon. My eldest granddaughter turns thirty in 2030. I’ll be 81.<\/p>\n

2016\u00a0Holes in the Heart<\/strong><\/h4>\n

So many of my literary heroes and mentors dropped out of the so-called real world this year. I am stricken that they are gone, but grateful that they left their words behind.<\/p>\n

\"Harper<\/a> <\/em><\/p>\n

\u2014Harper Lee,<\/strong> from\u00a0To Kill a Mockingbird, <\/em>the first of her two novels, which\u00a0I studied in Grade Ten and have never forgotten.<\/h5>\n

Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2014E. L. Doctorow<\/strong>, author of 16 novels and story collections, including the one that got me writing,\u00a0The Book of Daniel.<\/em><\/h5>\n

We’re always attracted to the edges of what we are, out by the edges where it’s a little raw and nervy.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2014William Zinsser<\/strong>, journalist, writer, editor, teacher, author of On Writing Well,<\/em> the first writing book I ever read, which I still have.<\/h5>\n
\n

Writing is an intimate transaction between two people, conducted on paper.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u2014William Trevor<\/strong>, author of 39\u00a0works of fiction, including a\u00a0novel I read 17 times,\u00a0The Story of Lucy Gault<\/em><\/h5>\n

It’s a mystery how it’s done, even to the person doing it. If you think you know, you’re in deep, deep trouble.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2014Leonard Cohen<\/strong>, author of 14 albums of songs, two novels, and 13 collections of poetry, including The Book of Longing, <\/em>perpetually at my bedside.<\/h5>\n

Poetry is just the evidence of life. If your life is burning well, poetry is just the ash.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2014Fidel Castro<\/strong>, revolutionary in thought and action.\"Elie<\/a><\/h5>\n<\/div>\n

A revolution is not a bed of roses . . . A revolution is a struggle to the death between the future and the past.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2014Elie Wiesel<\/strong>, activist, essayist, and memoirist, whose autobiographical novel, Night<\/em>, I reread every few years, to remind myself what can happen if we relax our most humane vigilance.<\/h5>\n

We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. . .<\/em>The opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference.<\/em><\/p>\n

News from my Casita<\/strong><\/h3>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\n<\/strong><\/h3>\n

\"ECW<\/a>~Refuge<\/em><\/p>\n

What I’ve been calling my NAFTA novel, set in Montreal, New York, and Mexico City, Refuge\u00a0<\/em>will be published by ECW Press sometime in 2018. The contract was signed in the final days of 2016.<\/p>\n

The book was acquired by Susan Renouf, the wonderful editor whom I first met at McClelland & Stewart and who worked with me at ECW on Gutenberg’s Fingerprint.<\/em>\u00a0I’m thrilled to continue with ECW, a vibrant, all-Canadian indie publisher staffed by skilled, enthusiastic bibliophiles.\u00a0What more can a writer want?<\/p>\n

\"Cover<\/a>~Gutenberg’s Fingerprint<\/em><\/p>\n

After a last-minute subtitle change prompted by a NetGalley review, Gutenberg’s Fingerprint: Paper, Pixels, & the Lasting Impression of Books<\/em>\u00a0was sent\u00a0to the printers on Christmas Eve. The book will\u00a0be in bookstores by early April and can be preordered now. Official publication date is\u00a0April 12, 2017.<\/p>\n

I’ll be talking about the book at the following spring festivals:<\/p>\n

April 4-6 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 ImagiNation Festival<\/a> in Quebec CIty<\/p>\n

April 7-9 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0gritLIT Festival<\/a> in Hamilton, Ontario<\/p>\n

April 19-22 \u00a0\u00a0Prince Edward County Authors Festival <\/a>in Picton, Ontario<\/p>\n

April 29 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Wayzgoose\u00a0BookArts Fair<\/a> in Grimsby, Ontario<\/p>\n

The Kingston launch will take place in early May. For details of other readings, please visit my events page<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And From the Department of How-Time-Flies<\/em><\/strong><\/h3>\n

It’s hard to believe, but 2017 is the 25th anniversary of the ebook and the 40th anniversary of the first personal computer.<\/p>\n

Maybe it’s time for\u00a0those of us who were around for the inception of both to stop feeling smug about how avante-garde and tech-savvy we are. Do our grandparents\u00a0brag about being able to drive a car? Fly across the ocean? We’ve long since crossed the digital divide. We’ve survived the digital disruption.<\/p>\n

Oh, and the book is\u00a0not<\/em> dead. It survived, too. Hallelujah!<\/p>\n

Links I Love<\/strong><\/h3>\n

\"Sandra<\/a>Every day, historical novelist Sandra Gulland\u00a0posts a new article to her Flipboard magazine\u2014On Writing & Publishing & Everything In-between<\/a>,<\/em>\u00a0a fascinating resource for writers and readers curious about how it’s done. A sampling of her samplings:<\/p>\n