Belated post-Sydney post

I've been meaning to post about the amazing whirlwind week at the Sydney Writers' Festival for the Commonwealth Writers' Prize finals since getting back about four weeks ago. I could try to blame my busy schedule or my digital camera for failing and causing me to resort to grainy disposable pix, but the most truthful explanation is that I just didn't get around to it.

Luckily for me, overall Best First Book winner Craig Cliff (from New Zealand) wrote promptly, beautifully and at length about it all on his blog (and with lots of good photos!) so I'm going to be lazy and link to his account here. 

While our experiences were quite similar, there were a couple of small differences, such as Craig hiking up and across the Harbour Bridge and Craig winning the overall Commonwealth Writers' Prize 2011 for Best First Book with his whopping great short story collection A Man Melting, which is now available internationally on Kindle and (presumably?) other electronic reading devices. It was a deserved win for a wonderful collection by a talented author and all round great guy and I highly recommend it.

My mini wrap-up:

There were six of the eight CWP finalists present - David Mitchell (UK), Kim Scott (Australia) and Aminatta Forna (Sierra Leone, she won for overall Best Book) as well as the aforementioned overall Best First Book winner Craig Cliff, Cynthia Jele (from South Africa) and myself. [Emma Donoghue and Mischa Hiller were unfortunately not able to be there.]

It was a privilege to meet and spend time with the other authors and, unless they were faking it, we all got along brilliantly, which is just as well given the amount of time we spent together (readings, panels, meals, outreach, ferry crossings, drinks at hotel, champagne receptions at the Governor General's residence, incredibly long bus rides to the suburbs...)

The judges were also very nice and supportive (and inscrutable - we only met them after they'd made their decisions about the two overall winners) and they accompanied us for some of the outreach and readings. Meanwhile, the organizers worked tirelessly the whole week - a big thank you to the CWP's Lucy Hannah, publicist Laura Brodie and local organizer/agent/publicist/miracle worker Benython Oldfield. Hats off to SWF's director Ben Strout and creative director Chip Rolley, as well as all their staff and volunteers - the size of the festival is astounding with hundreds of participants and thousands of attendees so pulling it off is quite a feat, yet it had a wonderful laid back, friendly feeling. Of course the beautiful harbourfront setting doesn't hurt, and nor did the glorious weather we enjoyed all week.

A few other specifics:

Montreal to Sydney (via Vancouver) was the longest flight I've ever taken and I discovered (happily!) that Melatonin really does help in combatting jetlag. This differs slightly from Craig Cliff's method - he simply denies that jetlag exists. 

On my first morning in Sydney (so groggy and looking fabulous - VERY glad it was radio) I was interviewed about my book for ABC's The Book Show with the lovely, easy to talk to (and, thankfully, skilful editor) Kate Pearcy. The download is (hopefully) still available here: http://www.abc.net.au/rn/bookshow/stories/2011/3222012.htm 

As well as participating in readings and panels, we did a fair bit of outreach in the community reflecting the Commonwealth's commitment to such causes as promoting global literacy. We visited a juvenile detention centre for girls aged 10-21 and three separate schools. In each case, we workshopped and/or talked with the kids, which was a lot of fun.

The teenaged girls at Juniperina Detention Centre were at first only really interested in reading their horoscopes from the magazine we'd brought to help with writing prompts. But they quickly got into the idea of brainstorming stories and came up with some great stuff, including one about a celebrity chef, a celebrity football star and a hooker in Las Vegas. The story ended well (and cleanly!) with the celebrities teaching the hooker to cook and play footie, then bringing her back to Australia where they helped her get on her feet and become a model. One of the girls showed us her book of poetry that she'd been writing almost daily, and another girl, Emilie, who was being released the next day, impressed me with her innate talent for writing - she wrote fluently and with a lyrical use of language. I hope she keeps it up.

I did promise I would mention the awesome girls in my workshop group at Blacktown Girls High School. So hello to Britanie, Atifa, Nadia, Rakshita and Maja, who revealed she has already written a novel (which is more than I've managed!). It's available in chapters on Quizilla and titled "The Arbitrary Life of Avery Blake".

At Penrith High School, the co-ed students impressed me with their knowledge, intelligence and ambition, and afterwards I answered a few questions for student journalist Jessica Washington. A little piece she wrote appears here.

The third school we visited, Gawura, was also a total pleasure. The pupils (indigenous kids aged from about 6 to about 12) were bright and engaged and all were excited to read their stories which they had created using interesting and eclectic words selected from their fabulous "word wall". They also have the coolest urban playground I've ever seen - a very creative use of space atop a downtown high-rise.

I'm also very grateful to my Sydney-dwelling friends Talya and Nick, who were not only fabulously supportive throughout the week, but also hospitable hosts and awesome tour guides.

Lovely new review for Bird Eat Bird

It's always flattering to get a review but especially so when the review is by someone respected within the literary community as being an avid reader, book lover and a smart and thoughtful critic. And it's undeniably nicer to receive a rave review than one that gets referred to, rather delicately, as "mixed"...

So I was very pleased and honoured when I saw the wholly positive and generous review of Bird Eat Bird by Steph VanderMeulen on her excellent blogsite Bella's Bookshelves. As well reading and reviewing an incredible number of books and blogging regularly about all things literary, Steph works as a copy editor, independent bookseller and writer. She's also been helping to promote 2011 - The Year of the Short Story or YOSS 2011. And she is active on Twitter and should be followed immediately by anyone who has ever read a book as well as anyone who might possibly contemplate reading one in the future.

Side note: Even more heart-and-ego-warming than the review itself was hearing directly from Steph afterwards that reading my book had re-inspired her to start writing fiction again.*

*Side note re: side note: I suspect she was going to start anyway and it just happened coincidentally while reading my book but I'm of course more than happy to take some credit when her award-winning tales are published in the future!...

Interview, judging an award and upcoming reading

For a change I'm actually posting ahead of an event. I'll be reading this (Easter) Sunday April 24th at the April Pilot, Matrix magazine's monthly reading series, alongside an amazing line-up of writers who may or may not be wearing Easter Bonnets.

I'm also going to be the Fiction judge for this year's Litpop Awards which is co-sponsored by Pop Montreal and Matrix and is currently accepting entries - please see submission guidelines.

Finally, here is a link to a recent interview I did with Angela Hibbs who's the current writer-in-residence at Open Book: Toronto.

Sydney Writers' Festival

The program for the 2011 Sydney Writers' Festival is now out. It's a really big, week-long festival and there are some big name authors participating, which is exciting.

I'm scheduled to take part in four different events, two panel discussions with the other Commonwealth Writers' Prize regional winners in the First Book category: New Voices From Across The Globe and The First Time and two "special" events featuring readings by the CWP finalists in both the First Book and Best Book categories: Eyes On The Prize and the Commonwealth Writers' Prize Presentation. There will apparently also be some "outreach" activities organized by the Commonwealth Foundation including visiting schools etc. which should be interesting.

So I think it'll be a full and busy week but I'm hoping to have time to attend some of the other cool-sounding events at the festival, and also to explore Sydney a little. People keep telling me what a fabulous city it is. The only thing I'm not looking forward to is the 20-hour plane flight. Oh, and the jetlag, though my Australian friend Mira has assured me it's far worse on the return journey...

Synapse reading featuring Kathleen Winter

This is a rather belated post about the reading I did the other night (still getting used to the whole idea of blogging, so better late than never hopefully)...

Anyway, it was for the Synapse reading series which brings together student, emerging and established writers to read from their work in a warm, ambient, art-gallery setting, and this was the last reading of the academic year. The series was created by award-winning poet and Concordia creative writing prof Sina Queyras who is not only an outstanding writer herself but also an incredible reader.  Sina wasn't reading that night but, as it turned out, it was an all-female line-up (not by design apparently, it just turned out that way) and it was truly a pleasure and an honour to be a part of it.

I read alongside "three to watch" student readers ajBishop, Colleen Young and Heather Davidson, all great. The headliner, billed in advance only as a "very special guest author" and whose identity was kept secret until just before she read, was revealed to be Kathleen Winter, award-winning author of the short story collection Boys as well as the bestselling novel Annabel which has just made the prestigious Orange Prize 2011 longlist. This novel has been on my To Buy And Read list for a while but even if I'd never heard of it before, Kathleen's wonderful reading would have compelled me to race off and purchase it.  And it turns out she's not only a talented author but a lovely person too - interesting, warm, funny and smart, just like her writing.

So, a big thank you to Sina Queyras for inviting me to participate, as well as everyone at Synapse, including curators Steph Colbourn and Lizy Mostowski and the evening's Q&A moderator Deanna Fong.

Bird Eat Bird wins Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best First Book, Caribbean and Canada region

I've been meaning to activate this blog for a while now, but I guess I needed a good excuse.

This week I was given one - I was totally shocked but very happy to find out that my debut book of short stories has won the 2011 Commonwealth Prize for Best First Book, Caribbean and Canada region!

As part of the prize, I'll be going to Sydney, Australia in May along with the other regional winners where we'll all participate in the Sydney Writers' Festival (May 16-22). At the end of the week, the two overall winners (one for each category - Best Book and Best First Book) will be announced.

I'm of course thrilled and excited but also still feeling rather stunned - it really was a total surprise, not least because I was in such impressive company: the other five books on the regional shortlist are all excellent and many had been nominated for and/or won other major literary prizes.

Big shout out to my amazing editor Jon Paul Fiorentino (who also designed the book's cover) and everyone at Insomniac Press!