Jazz in Little Burgundy, Irish-Canadian writer Neil Smith & Boo, Margaret Atwood's end of the world...again, Hemingway and Spaghetti-Os?: Books books book October 1

• Three Guys, One Book review Margaret Atwood's latest novel, The Heart Goes Last. NPR interviewed her yesterday, too. I haven't read it, but I have to say that I am a big fan of Atwood's earlier works from the 70s (which I read in my twenties in the late 90s): Surfacing, The Edible Woman. Perhaps they are a bit dated now (3rd wave feminism and all that...), but they are enjoyable and thoughtful. I'm tired of the end of the world thing...
• A writer goes through Hemingway's books and cooks meals that his characters eat. Yuk. 
• How did I only discover the brilliant work of Irish Canadian writer, Neil Smith now?
• This book, too, looks interesting: a history of Jazz in Montreal's Little Burgundy. I wonder if I can add another book to my long reading list...

Canadaland: just what Canada needs

I'm just going to sing the praises of Canadaland for a second. This is what Canada has been missing: a fresh, intelligent and non-corporate take on Canadian news. It's not derivative of US podcasts like other existing podcasts often are; it has a unique and engaging personality behind it (Jesse Brown) and I'm really enjoying his take on events, politics and culture of interest to Canadians.

It's really well done.

Some recent episodes have featured an interview with Christine Blatchford (which, though pressing, ended up as a fairly mild piece in the end), Anne Kingston on Canada's international reputation, Margaret Atwood, and a Green Party of Canada follow-along as one candidate campaigns door to door, to name just a few.

My only gripe is their clunky website which, though workable and easy to use, is striking for its complete lack of a design aesthetic. It looks like a cross between a 1998 MySpace page and a tabloid journalism broadsheet of the 1960s.

But that's a minor quibble. They are doing solid work there that all Canadians should be listening to and supporting.

David Hume and Buddhist notions, Wellness and Capitalism, CK Williams' new collection, Margaret Atwood talks technology, Patrick Modiano: Books and Writers for September 22

Mags on technology

• I really liked this long piece in The Atlantic, about a woman's mid-life crisis and how discovering that British philosopher, David Hume, may have encountered Catholics with experience in Eastern religions, mainly Buddhism, in a small town in France, which may have radically changed his entire philosophical approach. Montreal makes a cameo appearance here as it turns out Alison Gopnik is the sister of Adam Gopnik.
• 3AM Magazine continues to amaze me with their solid roster of writers who explore all kinds of topics. This one is a review of a book about how our entire capitalist-based approach to "wellness" continues to grow at the same time that neo-capitalism continues to present us with problems that contradict our approach to wellness. "Our concern in this book is not with wellness per se. Our concern is how wellness has become an ideology. As such, it offers a package of ideas and beliefs which people may find seductive and desirable, although, for the most part, these ideas appear as natural or even inevitable. The ideological element of wellness is particularly visible when considering the prevailing attitudes towards those who fail to look after their bodies. These people are demonized as lazy, feeble or weak-willed. They are seen as obscene deviants, unlawfully and unabashedly enjoying what ever sensible person should resist."
• Poet C.K. Williams has died. I ripped apart my bookshelves yesterday because I swear I had a collection of his (I could even picture it in my mind) somewhere, but either I've lost it or I've given it away.  In any case, he has a new collection out today, Later Poems.
• Someone's gone and animated Margaret Atwood as she talks about how technology influences the way stories are told and created.
• A piece on Patrick Modiano. Winner of the Nobel Prize last year, Modiano is one of the first authors I read in its original French. I found the language not nearly as challenging as in other French-language works. Not to say he's a lightweight but that his language is accessible and clear.

Book-scented candles, Margaret Atwood beermeister, Film Festivals, London Ontario as serial killer-ville, Marilyn Monroe in psychiatric hospital: Cultural Digest August 28

Mags' brew

• This creeps me out just a bit but if you're really crazy about books, you can now make your entire place smell like books with book-scented candles. I can't imagine old pages of Shakespeare are creating this smell; I'm sure it's chemicals made in some laboratory somewhere. Ik.
• Isabella at Magnificent Octopus writes about discovering Margaret Atwood's beer, made with her husband and a brewery. Cool label and cheers.
• Seven Italian films in competition at TIFF this year. I'm glad to see that Italian filmmakers are doing interesting stuff again after years of making shlock.
• Speaking of film, the MWFF, which opened yesterday, continues to rile controversy as Denis Coderre, Montreal's mayor, asks Losique (the Festival's long-time director) to step down. The Festival has pulled off an almost unheard of feat in Canada: putting on a festival this year and last with no government funding at all (469 films in total) after varying levels of government refused to support the Festival (after some fishy accounting possibly). This links to the story in French.
• An intriguing new book looks at London, Ontario, and all that exists beneath the surface, including the fact that at one point, it was considered the serial killer capital.
• One of her letters shows the terrifying experience that Marilyn Monroe went through when she spent time in a psychiatric hospital. 

Sheila Heti's first time, Mathias Énard in Granta, Atwood censored?, Assassination of Trotsky, Mia Coutu on Cecil the Lion: Cultural Digest, Monday August 24

Heti: amazing things happen while crashing in dad's basement

• Paris Review interviews writers on their first writing experiences. Here Sheila Heti talks about how she started out thinking she'd be a playwright but started writing stories while living in her father's basement. The first in the series is an interview with Tao Lin (I like his novel, Taipei).
• French writer Mathias Énard in Granta with a creepy little story that I've been thinking about for days.
• Odd goings-on: Margaret Atwood's article on Stephen Harper appears on National Post website, then disappears, then reappears again...
• Mental Floss retells the story of the assassination of Leon Trotstky. Long fascinated by the life and death of Trotsky, I didn't learn anything new here but it's still a story that I can't help but read again. I love all the intrigue, but all the peripheral characters are interesting too (people who include Frido Kahlo and Diego Rivera). For me, the best (fictional) version is Cuban writer Leonardo Padura's take on it in his novel The Man Who Loved Dogs.
• Mozambiquan writer, Mia Coutu (Blue Met 2013) spoke last week with The Guardian about Cecil the Lion, his legacy as a white African, and his latest novel, Confession of the Lioness. His book The Tuner of Silences was one of the best things I read in 2013.

Mags gets censored?

Blue Met Grand Prize: our short list

So every year our Grand Prize announcement is one of our biggest "ooh and aaah" moments. I remember clearly the murmur that went through the packed room last year at our Press Conference when we announced Joyce Carol Oates as our 2012 winner. And what a winner she was: her event at the Grande Bibliotheque was amazing (and sold out!).

In anticipation of our announcement next week, we release our short-list. It wasn't easy but this year our jury came back with three short-listed winners (we had a longer list that the short list was pulled from). They are:

Orhan Pamuk: Nobel Prize-winner (the first time we've short-listed a former Nobel Prize-winner though we have awarded the prize to someone who later won the Nobel Prize!), author of The Black Book, Snow and many other works, Pamuk, who hails from Turkey but lives in Istanbul and New York, is one of the best-known writers working today.


Colm Tóibín: Irish writer whose best-known works include The Master, Brooklyn and The Testament of Mary, his books are moving, haunting and full of a fierce intelligence and understanding of human nature. Personally he's been one of my favorite writers my entire adult life.



Rohinton Mistry: one of Canada's best-loved sons, Mistry has been nominated and/or won just about every major prize there is. His works shine with his finely crafted prose that he seems to work so diligently at since he doesn't publish every year like many writers do. The publication of a new Mistry work is celebrated and anticipated throughout the world. A Fine Balance is one of those works I can return to every few years and revel again in the world he creates.

One of these writers, it will be announced next week, has one our 2013 Grand Prize. The prize, awarded every year since the year 2000, has featured some of the world's best-loved writers: from Mavis Gallant (2002) to Carlos Fuentes (2005) to Norman Mailer (2001) to Joyce Carol Oates (2012), Margaret Atwood (2007) and Paul Auster (2004), the prize quite literally is one of the highlights of the spring season in Montreal...

Tune in to find out who wins for 2013: we announce our winner next week at our official launch and press  conference: Tuesday, March 26 at 10:00 a.m. at l'Espace Fontaine in Park Lafontaine.