Our Latest Contest Congratulations to Marci Catania, winner of Open Book's June contest.
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recently on open book: toronto
Submitted by CTON on July 3, 2009 - 10:40am.
Welcome to Rodeo Magic, my new webcomic for Open Book Toronto. It will be running once a week, usually posted on fridays, and will follow the adventures & observations of a comic-loving hick who has relocated to the Big Smoke to pursue his dream of working as a professional creative person. Enjoy!

Submitted by clelia on July 3, 2009 - 9:28am.
Chris Eaton, novelist, frontman of Rock Plaza Central and former Open Book writer in residence, is launching an interesting micro-fiction experiment on twitter on Saturday, July 4. While touring with his band, Chris will be tweeting daily stories of 140 characters in length from www.twitter.com/RockPlaza. Readers are asked to respond to Chris's stories with stories of their own. Selections from the results will be published in Steel Bananas's forthcoming anthology, GULCH: An Assemblage of Poetry and Prose, to be released this fall from Tightrope Books.
Submitted by lkirshner on July 3, 2009 - 9:16am.
The literary myth that writers must leave their hometowns in order to write about them played a big role in my teenage imagination. I fantasized about doing dishes in Paris like Orwell or risking it all for Europe like Mavis Gallant (only I pictured myself as Patti Smith off the A-train in Manhattan). But I did neither escape and I think I am better for it.
Submitted by clelia on July 2, 2009 - 12:46pm.
Coach House founder and publisher Stan Bevington was appointed to the Order of Canada on July 1st. Congratulations from Open Book!
From our friends at Coach House Books:
On Wednesday, July 1, Michaëlle Jean, Governor General of Canada, announced 60 new appointments to the Order of Canada. Stan Bevington, master printer and literary publishing champion, was among the appointees– a list which also includes hockey legend Wayne Gretzky, theatre artist Robert Lepage, broadcaster Jay Ingram and the man behind the Giller Prize, Jack Rabinovitch, among others.
Video of the Week
Submitted by clelia on June 29, 2009 - 8:21am.
In Episode 4 of Type, dancer Rex Harrington and novelist Claudia Dey get personal and introspective on what motivates them as artists. It's a beautiful conversation. Filmed in the Tower Suite at the Gladstone Hotel.
Type is an Open Book series of "co-interviews" in which authors are paired with creative people in other fields of art and culture such as fashion, art, culinary arts, music, film/TV, theatre, dance and more.
In each segment, our guests open up a discussion by asking each other about their respective work and inspirations. Full of natural curiosity and without any pre-set questions or previous encounters, this series is filled with the type of spontaneous, engaging conversation that can happen at really good dinner parties, cocktail parties and other chatty gatherings...and then stick in your head for days.
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Claudia Dey is a novelist, playwright and columnist. She writes the weekly "Group Therapy" column for the Globe and Mail, and during its brief but illustrious life, Claudia also wrote the sex column for Toro magazine under the pseudonym Bebe O'Shea. Her plays have been translated into French and German and produced internationally. They include Beaver, Trout Stanley and The Gwendolyn Poems, which was nominated for the Governor General's Award and the Trillium Award. Her debut novel, Stunt (Coach House Books), has been praised by -- among others -- the Globe and Mail, Quill and Quire and Time Out Chicago, which called it "deeply weird and totally beautiful." |
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During his 20-year career as a dancer, Rex Harrington galvanized and thrilled audiences around the world with his magnetic stage presence and powerful gift for dramatic characterization. Renowned both at home and internationally for his portrayals of Romeo in Romeo and Juliet, Siegfried and Rothbart in Swan Lake, Albrecht in Giselle and Prince Florimund in The Sleeping Beauty, Mr. Harrington's name is synonymous with ballet at its most charismatic. |
Type is presented on Novel-tv, a new web channel offered exclusively by Open Book and produced by Spontaneously Combusted Films.
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Writer In Residence July 1st to July 31st, 2009Lauren Kirshner is the author of the novel Where We Have to Go (McClelland & Stewart, 2009). Her short stories, arts reviews, interviews and poetry have appeared in newspapers and literary journals such as The Toronto Star, Now, The Hart House Review and Exile.
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Coming Next MonthMarianne Paul
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Random Recommended Reading
by D. Paul Schafer
University of Ottawa Press, 2008-06-07
MarkoAndrew writes...
In Revolution or Renaissance, D. Paul Schafer subjects two of the most powerful forces in the world – economics and culture – to a detailed and historically sensitive analysis.
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