Critical acclaim is no longer good enough to guarantee a book’s success. Writers need to sell it, and sell it big. On today’s podcast we have a playful look at some of the methods employed to up a writer’s celebrity quotient. Plus, we have interviews with some of the authors nominated for this year’s IMPAC Dublin award – Rawi Hage, Peter Behrens and Ami McKay.
In terms of book publicity, it doesn’t get any better than being nominated for awards. Lebanese born Rawi Hage hit the “literary jackpot” with his first book, DeNiro’s Game, published by House of Anansi Press. The novel catapulted his career from taxi driver to writer. He was nominated for the Governor General’s Award, the Scotiabank Giller Prize, the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize, the Commonwealth Writer’s Prize, and most recently, the IMPAC Dublin Award, - the biggest international prize for fiction, offering the winner 100,000 euros (approx $160,000 Canadian). In 2006, just after the book was released, Hage was interviewed by the CBC in a taxi cab in Montreal. By the way, he's the one driving the cab.
While only eight books are shortlisted to compete for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, a dozen Canadians made the 2008 long list, including Peter Behrens for The Law of Dreams, and Ami McKay for her first book, The Birth House. A Montreal native, Behrens is a short story writer and a screenwriter. Michael Enright of CBC’s The Sunday Edition, spoke with him in April 2007 about his book The Law of Dreams, which won the Governor General’s Award for English-language fiction.
Originally from the U.S, Ami McKay married a Canadian and settled in Nova Scotia. When she signed a deal with Knopf Canada for her first book, The Birth House, she was fortunate enough to be selected as the sole author in their New Face of Fiction campaign, which previously helped launch the careers of Ann-Marie MacDonald and Gail Anderson-Dargatz. This week's podcast features McKay in conversation with Shelagh Rogers on Sounds Like Canada in March 2006.
Words at Large is CBC’s online destination for Canadians who love books. Look for something new every day, from CBC programs and podcasts, to interviews with writers and more. Stay tuned for our newly designed and expanded site.
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There is a reason that people are fleeing the pews of the United Church in droves, and towards churches with stronger theological convictions, and it is in large part illustrated by Gretta's new take on what the church should be and do. Ethics and biblical love cannot form in a vacuum, but forms only in the context of WHO God is, and HOW he acts towards humans.
Posted by: Rusty | April 25, 2008 08:25 AM
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