Wayzgoosery!

Our tenth annual wayzgoose and open house was a great success on Saturday. The printshop was overflowing with enthusiastic citizens and book arts fans of all ages. You can find a number of wayzgoose photos on my Flickr photostream.

ANDREW STEEVES ¶ PRINTER & PUBLISHER

PROCEED & BE BOLD!

Tonight, as a teaser for this weekend's wayzgoose, Gaspereau Press and the Fundy Film Society will screen Proceed and Be Bold, a documentary film that follows the life and work of Alabama letterpress printer Amos Paul Kennedy Jr., and his socially and politically charged works of art. The film starts at 7:00 at the fabulous Al Whittle Theatre, Wolfville, and the society’s usual film admission charge applies. Even if you can’t make it to the show, you can view the film’s trailer at www.brownfinchfilms.com/currentfilms

Also, a modest sampling of letterpress work by Gaspereau Press has been hung in ‘Jack’s Galley’ in the lobby of the Whittle. Some of Amos’s bombastic posters are presently in the mail somewhere between Alabama and Nova Scotia, and we’ll add them to our little exhibition too if they show up in time.

It also looks as if Amos Kennedy Jr. will be our special guest next fall at the 11th annual Gaspereau Press Wayzgoose (23 October 2010). Amos will be the first American artist to be featured and fussed over at our goose, joining an esteemed group of domestic guests which has included the likes of Wesley Bates, Robert Bringhurst, Jim Rimmer, Rod McDonald, Dan Steeves, Rudolf Kurz, and Tim Inkster. Stay tuned for details.

ANDREW STEEVES ¶ PRINTER & PUBLISHER

The Goose Approaches!

Our annual wayzgoose and open house is just a few days away. As well as working overtime to get books shipped to launches and events, we’re dusting off some of our lesser-used typefaces and presses in preparation for our many guests on Saturday. Visitors will be able to try their hands at three different presses – an Albion, a Vandercook, and likely a Chandler & Price – in order to print a three-coloured broadside. I’m also putting together my slides for the evening talk on the Wild Letterforms of Kentville, though I think I’ll forage a few more times before I settle on the final line-up. For more information about wayzgoose activities and events, click here.

Starnino nominated for the Governor General’s Literary Awards and the A.M. Klein Prize

Gaspereau Press is pleased to announce that Carmine Starnino’s poetry collection, This Way Out, is a finalist for both the Governo General's Literary Awards and the Quebec Writers' Federation A.M. Klein Prize.

The Governor General’s Literary Awards are funded, administered and promoted by the Canada Council for the Arts. The English and French awards are in the categories of fiction, non-fiction, poetry, drama, children’s literature (text and illustration) and translation. Jurors for the award called This Way Out, “a book of marvelous skill and heart, at once accessible and rigorous, serious and humorous, protean and profound.” The winners will be announced on November 17, 2009. Her Excellency the Right Honourable Michaëlle Jean, Governor General of Canada, will present the awards on November 26, 2009, at Rideau Hall.

The A.M. Klein Prize for Poetry is sponsored by the Quebec Writers’ Federation. The Prize was established in memory of Sydney Weisbord and is granted each year to an English-language poet residing in the province of Quebec. The awards will be presented at the Federation’s Awards Gala on November 17, 2009, at the Lion D’or, Montreal.

Steinmetz, McKay & Starnino

This fall, Geist magazine features an excerpt from Andrew Steinmetz's novel, Eva's Threepenny Theatre, and a review of Don McKay's The Muskwa Assemblage.




While in Iceland for the Reykjavik International Literary Festival, Don McKay answered the question, Why Poetry? Visit the Griffin Trust website to read the entire speech.

Meanwhile, back in Canada, Andrew Steinmetz has been busy jumping on shortlists for the Ottawa Book Awards and the Roger's Writers' Trust Fiction Prize. He's still had time for other pursuits though - Andrew recently set one of Carmine Starnino's poems to music. Visit the Vehicule Press blog to listen to Carmine Starnino's poem 'Shag' from This Way Out adapted and performed by Andrew Steinmetz.

Where in the world is Soren Bondrup-Nielsen?

In late August, Soren Bondrup-Nielsen toured northern Ontario with his new memoir, A Sound Like Water Dripping: In Search of the Boreal Owl. With stops in Ottawa, North Bay and New Liskeard, Soren retraced the travels of his graduate student days in the 1970s when he was researching the Boreal Owl. Below are a few pictures from one of his readings.





Soren will be reading at the Biscuit Eater Books & Cafe in Mahone Bay, NS tonight at 7:00 pm and at the Granville Ferry Community Hall in Granville Ferry, NS on October 14th at 7:30 pm. He'll also be giving an illustrated talk at our tenth anuual Wayzgoose & Open House on Saturday, October 24th. For more information about readings and events by Gaspereau Press authors, check our Readings & Events page or join our Facebook group: Gaspereau Press.

The Printshop

There are many interesting printing presses housed at Gaspereau Press. Perhaps the most historically significant one is this little 3 × 5 Kelsey parlor press which Canadian typographer and type designer Carl Dair used at his private press in the 1940s. Dair later gave the press to his friend Oscar Ross, and Ross in turn gave it to Gaspereau Press in 2007.

Steinmetz finalist for the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize

Gaspereau Press is pleased to announce that Andrew Steinmetz’s novel, Eva’s Threepenny Theatre, is a finalist for the 2009 Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize. Established in 1997, the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize recognizes Canadian writers of exceptional talent for the year’s best novel or short story collection.

The other finalists are Nicole Brossard for Fences in Breathing, translated by Susanne de Lotbiniere-Harwood; Douglas Coupland for Generation A; Alice Munro for her short story collection Too Much Happiness; Annabel Lyon for The Golden Mean. For more information about the award, visit The Writers' Trust.

All of the 2009 finalists will read during the International Festival of Authors in Toronto on October 28, 2009. Tickets for the event can be purchased online through the IFOA website.

The prize winner will be announced at the Writers' Trust Awards on November 24, 2009 at the Isabel Bader Theatre in Toronto.



Photo by Ryan Hunt