Tuesday, March 31, 2009

3-Day Novel Contest

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3-Day Novel News

March 30, 2009

Are you ready for the 32nd Annual International
3-Day Novel Contest?

Registration is open now!

For more than three decades, this notorious literary marathon has driven writers everywhere to strive to create a masterwork of fiction in a single weekend. How many coffee-stained pages and great ideas will this year's contest produce? And what will you think up under pressure?

Rules and registration information at www.3daynovel.com.

And while you're at our website...

You may notice that something's a little different. We're all "Web 2.0" now, with a fancy new look and a Wordpress back-end that has made our lives here at 3-Day HQ much easier. We also have new features for you, like our writing resources page and our comment-ready news and events posts. Have a look now, and let us know what you think!

New 3-Day Flickr pool

Several of our 3-Day entrants—or members of their beleaguered families—have photodocumented their crazed weekend experience. (One such photo essay even made its way to the pages of Geist magazine.) We've made a place to gather these photos on Flickr, so if you have 3-Day related photos to show, join the group and add them to the pool! Find the contest's Flickr pool here. (There's also a link off our fancy new website.)

Fresh chat thread for entrants

We've started a new chat thread on Abebooks.com for those who have registered or plan to register for this year's contest. Find the link in the "Social" box in the sidebar at www.3daynovel.com.

Keeping in touch

It's a long time between 3-Day Novel Contests, so we're planning on making this newsletter a regular habit. If once a year is enough for you, you can unsubscribe using the links below. Otherwise, we'll be in touch again every few weeks with news about the contest, statistics on who's entering and from where, items of interest to writers, calls for submissions for sister organizations, and success stories from contest entrants.

On that note, are you a 3-Day survivor who has published work that came out of the contest? Let us know so we can add it to our next newsletter! Email us anytime at info@3daynovel.com.

In This Newsletter

Registration open
New website
3-Day Flickr pool
Fresh chat thread
Newsletter launches
The Videographer


About 3-Day Novel

New to the contest? Find out about it here, or send your questions or comments to us anytime at info@3daynovel.com.

You can also follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/3daynovel

Our Next 3-Day Novel Release

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The Videographer by Jason Rapczynski of New Haven , CT.

3-Day Books / $14.95 / ISBN: 978-1-55152-252-4

The winner of the 31st Annual International 3-Day Novel Contest will be released by 3-Day Books this August. Pre-order it with your registration or ask your favourite bookstore or library to order it in! Find details on The Videographer and other great reads from the 3-Day genre at our new Books section.

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Sunday, March 22, 2009

Toronto Dollar Hosts a Feast of Authors, a gathering of Toronto's writing community – on April 2nd

The evening will offer a banquet for book lovers. Almost 50 authors, primarily members of the Writers’ Union of Canada and the League of Canadian Poets, will sell and sign their books, meet readers and offer readings and interviews.

Our list of authors includes:

Abbott, Elizabeth
Amernic, Jerry
Beam, Matt
Bell, Bruce
Black, Karen M.
Blackwood, Yvonne
Brown, Edward
Cooper, Alan John
D'Costa, Dr. Jasmine
Dempsey, Sandra
Dickinson, Mary Lou
Downie, Glen
Ewan, Ann
Gallander, Benj
Gombor, Esther
Graham, Catherine
Gugler, Laurel Dee
Heaton, Gwynneth
Heffron, Dorris
Hume, Anne
Iacobelli, Luciano
Joyal, Lisa
Kogawa, Joy
McWaters, Graham
Marcus, Sharon
Matthews, Carolyn
McDonnell, Kathleen
Mirolla, Michael
Niedzviecki, Hal
Moss, Peggy
Patkau, Karen
Pearson, Patricia
Rabbani, Waheen
Rekai, Kati
Richards, Shadonna
Rock, Nora
Rooney, Frances
Rossi, Erno
Sadlier, Rosemary
Singer, Sharon
Stern, Reva
Strecker, James
Tardiff, Dee Dee
Vallee, Brian
Warsh, Sylvia Maultash
Westcott, Frank
Weston, Robert Paul
Young, Phyllis Brett

Thursday April, 2, 2009
6:00 - 8:30 p.m.
St. Lawrence Market, NORTH Market
92 Front Street E
















If you are a Toronto-based fiction or non-fiction author who would like to get involved, contact: authorliaison.feast@live.ca

anitAFRIKA! dub theatre - UPDATES

good mornin good people,

the weather is turning and shoulders are relaxing and smiles are returning to faces again - ase sun and everyone!

just wanting to let you know that we are sharing the space with another theatre group over the next two weeks and as a result

*we will not be keeping dub nite tomorrow nite (tues mar 17th,) see you again in april 7th and
*we will postpone capoeira angola until mon mar 30th 5:30pm, canceling the session tonight mon mar 16th and next week mon mar 23rd

we look forward to inviting you back into the space on friday feb 27th for the monthly adt! community dinner and potluck, a chance for artists and activist to connect and dialogue over good eats! this month, we'll combine the dinner with an open mic, send an email to village@anitafrika.com to share...

summer programming is already lookin amazing...
-mask making
-nia movement
-public speaking for emerging artists
-brazilian folkloric dance
-drum workshops
-oppression awareness sessions
-community dialogues and mobile monologues
get in touch if any of the above interests you!

so we slow down slightly only to gear up again. look out for our newly designed website later this month and more updates about programming coming soon!

we are mobilizing a core group of good people to be actively spreading the word about the adt! space, programming and rentals - if you'd like to be a part of 'the adt! word of mouth initiative,' link me, link me, link me!

remember to share your ideas and any questions you have, contact me at the number/emails below.

lovelovelove and more love,
--
jamilah malika
operations director (wombanager)
anitAFRIKA! dub theatre
village@anitafrika.com
www.anitafrika.com
62 fraser avenue
toronto, on m6k 1y6
416.434.1823

Saturday, March 21, 2009

Here is Where Literary anthology explores the contemporary Canadian city

(TORONTO) “Where is here?” Northrop Frye’s classic conundrum gets a refreshing spin in TOK: Writing the New City (Zephyr Press), a luminous new anthology from Canada’s established and emerging literary voices. From Vancouver to Halifax, and Toronto to Montreal, writers, poets and dramatists explore the diverse and contemporary issues of urban Canadian lives.

TOK: Writing the New City launches on Wednesday April 8, 2009 at the Gladstone Hotel with readings, conversations and live music!

Hosted by CBC’s Matt Galloway, the launch will feature fiction writers Antanas Sileika, Gul Joya Jafri, Sandra Tam, and Sabrina Ramnanan; and poets Ken Babstock and Marge Lam.

The writers will read selections from the book and discuss the process of capturing their particular takes on the city.

Copies of the brand-new book will be available, followed by a very special musical jam performance by LAQR – a group of Toronto musicians curated by LAL's Rosina Kazi especially for the launch, including Santosh Naidu, Matt Maaskant, Nuno Gervasio, Ian de Souza and Kazi.

TOK: Writing the New City is the fourth book in an annual anthology series published by Zephyr Press, and marks the anthology’s expansion into the creative exploration of Canadian cities beyond Toronto, including Montreal, Halifax and Vancouver.

The TOK anthology is the product of the annual Diaspora Dialogues mentoring program. “The mentorship is an opportunity to discover, develop and promote new literary voices,” says Diaspora Dialogues president Helen Walsh, “as well as to contribute to the expansion of contemporary urban Canadian literature. It’s always an exciting process to bring these diverse voices together, and we are very proud to present this newest volume which for the first time draws from writers outside of Toronto.”

Included in this anthology are: Anar Ali, Ken Babstock, Tanya Bryan, Maria Corbett, Shauntay Grant, Rawi Hage, Yiwei Hu, Gul Joya Jafri, Marge Lam, Jen Sookfong Lee, Daniel David Moses, Yvette Nolan, Sabrina Ramnanan, Pratap Reddy, Antanas Sileika, Moez Surani, Sandra Tam, and Naya Valdellon.

WHAT: Launch of TOK: Writing the New City, Book 4
WHEN: Wednesday, April 8, 2009 – doors open at 7 pm
WHERE: Gladstone Hotel Ballroom, 1214 Queen Street West (at Gladstone)
COST: Free

CONTACT: Julia Chan, julia@diasporadialogues.com; 416-944-1101 x 277

Biographies

Ken Babstock has authored three poetry books (Mean, Days into Flatspin, and Airstream Land Yacht). He has won the Trillium Award for Poetry, the Milton Acorn Award, the Atlantic Poetry Prize, and the K.M. Hunter Award. He has been nominated for the Griffin Prize, the Governor General’s Award, and the Winterset Prize. His poetry is translated in five languages. He lives in Toronto.

Matt Galloway has been working at CBC Radio for almost 10 years, hosting the programs The Current, Sounds Like Canada, Metro Morning, The Arts Today, Global Village, Music and Company, Q and many others. In 2008, he hosted CBC Radio’s coverage of the Summer Olympics live from Beijing, mixing breaking sports results with interviews and insightful looks into the changing face of contemporary Chinese culture. Since 2004, he has been the host of Here & Now, the daily drive-home program on CBC Radio One 99.1 FM in Toronto.

Gul Joya Jafri was born in Pakistan and raised in Toronto. She has worked in international development in Ottawa, Amman, Ramallah, and Beirut. This is her first published work.

Marge Lam was born in Vancouver. A multimedia artist and community worker, she was published in The Colouring Book, a collection of multi-racial writing, and from this, created her first video short, Unkept, for the National Film Board of Canada. She freelances for CBC Radio One and CKLN, and co-hosts a show on CFRO. She lives in Toronto.

Sabrina Ramnanan was born in Toronto to Trinidadian parents. She is a graduate of the University of Toronto. Her poetry has been published in Cerulean Rain. Antanas Sileika is a novelist, magazine writer, and broadcaster. His last novel, Woman in Bronze, was a Globe and Mail Best Book. He is the artistic director of the Humber School for Writers. Sandra Tam writes about gender and racial aspects of women’s working lives, and has published articles in several newspapers, academic journals, and magazines. She lives in Toronto.

On your mark, get set, GET LIT!

Deadline: May 4, 2009

Celebrate creativity and share your stories in the first annual Get Lit! competition.

In celebration of the 35th anniversary of the Toronto Arts Council (1974-2009), Torontonians of all ages are invited to get creative and submit their Toronto-inspired works to the first-ever Get Lit! competition.

Get Lit! explores how text and spoken word can be presented in various media and will showcase interdisciplinary creativity and present new ways of telling city stories. This unique initiative, is open to all Torontonians, and celebrates the arts in Toronto by encouraging creative work that is inspired by this city and its citizens. Residents from every neighbourhood across Toronto are invited to tell their stories through a work of art.

Get Lit! invites submissions in any creative form provided the final work includes a literary element - either printed text or spoken word that is incorporated into or accompanies the work. There is no minimum word count required.

What to Submit:
Submit poetry, a short story, painting, collage, sculpture, poster art or banner design. You can even submit photography, a short video, or produce a sound recording. Limit one submission per person. All submissions must communicate stories that reflect the diversity of Toronto 's citizens and artists.

A special jury will review all applications and consider how the works make us think about Toronto in new, interesting, or inspiring ways. They will select the First $700, Second $200 and Third $100 prize winners.

All Get Lit! submissions will be featured at a special exhibition taking place May 23 and 24 at the Toronto Arts Council Foundation located 141 Bathurst Street (south of Richmond on the east side). The three winning entries will also be featured on the Toronto Arts Council Foundation website and through Open Book Toronto.

Entries must be submitted to the Toronto Arts Council Foundation no later than May 4, 2009.

Download Complete Submission Details and Entry Form at: www.torontoarts.org/GetLit.pdf
Get Lit! - is produced by the Toronto Arts Council Foundation (TACF), in association with Lit City, where Toronto stories meet Toronto settings taking place from March to May 2009. An initiative of City of Toronto , Lit City is a three-month festival launching Friday, March 6 as part of Toronto 's 175th birthday celebrations at City Hall and culminating on the 10th anniversary weekend of Doors Open Toronto, May 23 and 24. Lit City celebrates stories set in Toronto and those writers inspired by this city for over 175 years. Find out what's going on at www.toronto.ca/litcity

Created by the City in 1974, the history of Toronto Arts Council parallels the meteoric rise of Toronto as an arts and culture destination. In 2009 the TAC commemorates 35 years of supporting and investing in the arts.
Media/Contact Information:
Cara Williamscara@torontoartscouncil.org 416-392-6802 ext 214

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

2009 De Colors Festival of New Works

April 24 & 25, 2009Bread & Circus, 299 Augusta Ave. (in Kensington Market)

April 24, 2009- 8pm

The Intruder by Amaranta Leyva
Directed by Guillermo Verdecchia
Dramaturged by Stephen Colella

Lizardboy by Victor Gomez
Directed by Ruth Madoc-Jones
Dramaturged by Erica Kopyto

April 25, 2009- 8pm

My Secret Romeo by Michelle Amaya-Torres
Directed by Bea Pizano
Dramaturged by Erica Kopyto

Coyote by Emma Ari Beltran & Catherine Hernandez
Directed by Nina Lee-Aquino
Dramaturged by Stephen Colella

Tickets $12, $10 for Students & Seniors
Call (416) 428-7638 for information.www.alamedatheatre.com

I always envisioned a place where Latin Canadian theatre artists, especially the writers, could be free to explore their voices,” says Marilo Nuñez, Artistic Director of Alameda Theatre Company. The result? A new works festival for Latin Canadian playwrights that is all about planting seeds – and watching them bloom. In full colour for the festival’s second year is a lineup of new works that is guaranteed to incite discussion, debate and inspire.

Here’s the festival’s lineup:

WHAT? The Intruder
WHAT ABOUT? What am I? Or who? What distinguishes one person from the next, and what unites the many faces of a person in a single identity? Catalina, a Mexican girl whose parents have recently divorced is trying to answer these questions for herself. Her quest will be aggravated by the abrupt entry of her mother’s new boyfriend into her life. The man she calls “The Intruder” fled his home country of Argentina with a fake passport to escape its murderous military dictatorship. Catalina doesn’t know about The Intruder’s past but suspects that he is not quite who he says he is. As she launches her own investigation to find out what dark secrets are hidden behind this man’s soothing presence, she will explore the limits between good and evil, the power of social conformity, and the puzzles of identity.
WHO?Amaranta Leyva was born in Mexico in 1973. She is puppeteer and playwright. Puppet theatre has been her means of expression, in particular, writing for children’s audiences. In her own words: “to explore a child’s world allows me to find my most hidden, profound and intense emotions of being human.” She has been a member of the Mexican Puppetry Company, Marionetas de la Esquina, since 1989. Her work has been largely viewed in Mexico and abroad. Among those include: Dibújame una vaca (featured at the Kenedy Center in Washington DC), Mía and El Vestido, which was awarded the National Award of Theatre for Children in Mexico. Her books have been published and they are part of the National Program of Reading in Mexico.

WHAT? My Secret Romeo
WHAT ABOUT?Welcome to suburban Winnipeg. Six years after the Rwandan genocide, a middle-class man is obsessed with Romeo Dallaire. When he finds his compulsively clean wife with her working-class lover, a secret begins to emerge, and the couple grapples with what it means to be a survivor.
WHO?Michelle Amaya-Torres is a parent and educator living in Winnipeg. She teaches English as an Additional Language to adult students. When she was younger, she lived for a period of time in England, Colombia, Guyana, the United States and Nunavut. Now she is interested in bringing experiences -- experiences that are not uncommon in the rest of the world -- back home to Canada. "My Secret Romeo" is Michelle's first play, written after her young cousin was tortured and killed in Colombia. She hopes people will reflect on why death is not prevented, as well as consider the impact of violent death on those who survive.

WHAT? Coyote
WHAT ABOUT?“’The moon! The moon! Look at the moon!’ We all wanted to say, but couldn’t. It was a howl caught on the inside of our cheeks, the same howl that made us want to cry for water, water, water please.” Inspired by poet Emma Beltrán’s crossing of the border into the United States as a child, Coyote tells the story of five Mexicans whose clandestine journey into the north is hindered when their guide, the “coyote” goes missing.
WHO? Emma Beltrán is a poet from Mexico. Since 1994, she has been involved in the struggle of indigenous peoples facilitating poetry and popular theatre workshops for women and children throughout Mexico. Beltrán was a founding member of the first community radio station in Mexico’s history during the student strike at the National Autonomous University of Mexico in 1999. This work caused her to be subject to political charges, kidnapping and torture, by the Mexican National Army (March 2001). Exiled in Canada since May 2002, Beltran was an award-winning artist selected for Artscape’s Gibraltar Point International Artist Residency Program in 2005. Her poetry has been published in various literary journals and anthologies. She is a member of PEN Canada’s Writers in Exile Network and was a Writer in Residence at the University of Windsor during the spring of 2006. Beltrán had recently finalized her participation at the Wired Writing Studio at The Banff Centre for the Arts, from which she was granted a full-scholarship. Emma worked as a Writer-Consultant for the TAXI-Project with PEN Canada and ARCfest and is a member of freeDimensional, an international human rights and arts organization that engages in a particular style of networking that builds on existing resources in the art, media and entertainment sectors in order to engage and financially underwrite direct actions necessary to help culture workers-in-distress and use their stories to illustrate critical, contemporary issues.Catherine Hernandez is a writer and theatre practitioner. Her first play, Singkil, was produced by fu-GEN Asian Canadian Theatre Company in association with Factory Theatre and garnered seven DORA nominations including Best New Play, Independent Division. Singkil is part of the Scarborough Stories anthology of works which tell the tales of Toronto's dodgier east side. She has worked in one capacity or another with Carlos Bulosan Theatre, Native Earth Performing Arts, Buddies in Bad Times Theatre and numerous others. Her new plays Kilt Pins and Future Folk (with the Sulong Theatre Collective) are in development at Theatre Passe Muraille where Catherine is the 08/09 playwright in residence.

WHAT? Lizardboy
WHAT ABOUT? Lizardboy, the “trouble-making” rascal from the barrio – the neighborhood… is escaping from another furious neighbour who, once again, has come to beat him up. From his secret hiding place he unravels the story of an “up-side-down” family from the emerging Colombian middle class of the early 1980’s. The spotlight shines on the characters, colours, contradictions –la vida of a country in the middle of a landslide, seen through the eyes of a mischievous nine-year-old boy. The only times Lizardboy finds freedom is when he fights, climbs walls, talks tirelessly, and creates adventures out of chaos.
WHO? Victor Gomez is an award winning actor, writer and filmmaker from Colombia, where he studied Theatre, Journalism and Communications. He appeared as Pedro in the Rubicon Theatre (California), and Manitoba Theatre Centres’ international co-production of The Night Of The Iguana. North American TV and Film includes: Get Rich Or Die Trying, (Paramount Pictures/Jim Sheridan); Ambition, (ABC); Missing; Bliss-Tango (CBC/Showcase), G-Spot (TMN/W Network/ Movie Central), The Letter (Nepantla Films), Carino (Ryerson University), Brothers (Canadian Film Centre), and Ricardo Against Ricardo, his short adaptation of Shakespeare’s Richard III, which won best Canadian Experimental Film at the Alucine Film Festival. Other credits back in Colombia include: The Lovers (Leonardus Theatre); The Revolution (Iberoamerican Theatre); Blood Wedding (Irrespeto Teatro); Angelus (Teatro Patria); I Rise In Flame, Cried the Phoenix; The Floating Light Bulb; The Party (Chamber Theatre Estudio); and more than a dozen leading roles in TV and Film.

Tertulia: No Amnesia

Tertulia: No Amnesia will take place on Thursday, March 26, at Bread & Circus, 299 Augusta Avenue. Doors open at 7 pm, and the performance begins at 7:30 pm. Pay What You Can. Bread & Circus is located at 299 Augusta Avenue, in Kensington Market.

Featuring Victoria Freeman, Lee Maracle and M. NourbeSe Philip - three extraordinary writers, who have given us essential texts that map the legacies of colonialism and slavery. We read them as individual and interlocking stories, acts of the imagination that confront the history of an amnesiac nation. Freeman, Maracle and Philip will read and participate in a discussion with the audience facilitated by Aisha Sasha John.

Music by Not the Wind Not the Flag: Brandon Valdivia and Colin Fisher. On any occasion their music could echo the traditions of Balinese music, West African music, Persian or Turkish music or it could be devastatingly loud Post-Hardcore, Noise, Free jazz eruptions. Or all of the aforementioned at once! The music refrains from being derivative but comes from a place of deep respect for the music that has lifted and guided their spirits.

The Tertulia Reading Series is generously supported by the Toronto Arts Council. Victoria Freeman's participation is supported by the Writers Union of Canada and the Canada Council for the Arts.
---
Victoria Freeman is the author of Distant Relations: How My Ancestors Colonized North America. She is a Ph.D candidate in History at the University of Toronto, just completing her dissertation on the historical memory of the Indigenous and colonial past of Toronto. She is working with Metis actor and director Jani Lauzon and other Indigenous artists to create and stage a theatrical production on Toronto's Indigenous history.

Lee Maracle, Sto: Lo nation, grandmother of seven, mother of four, was born in North Vancouver, B. C. and now resides in Ontario. Her works include: the novels Ravensong, Bobbi Lee, Sundogs, and Daughters are Forever, Will’s Garden, the short story collection Sojourner’s Truth, the poetry collection, Bent box, and the non-fiction work I Am Woman. She is Co-editor of My Home as I Remember and Telling It: Women and Language across Cultures, editor of a number of poetry works and of Gatherings journals, and has published in dozens of anthologies in Canada and America. Ms. Maracle is a both an award winning author and teacher. She currently Aboriginal writer-in-residence for First Nation’s House, and Visiting Scholar in the Aboriginal Studies and English Department at the University of Toronto.

M. NourbeSe Philip, is a Canadian poet, novelist, playwright, essayist and short story writer. Born in Woodlands, Moriah, Trinidad and Tobago, NourbeSe Philip was educated at the University of the West Indies. She pursued graduate degrees in political science and law at the University of Western Ontario, and practised law in Toronto, Ontario for seven years. She left her law practise in 1983 to devote time to her writing. NourbeSe Philip has published three books of poetry, two novels, three books of collected essays and two plays. Her short stories, essays, reviews and articles have appeared in magazines and journals in North America and England and her poetry has been extensively anthologized. Her work - poetry, fiction and non-fiction is taught widely at the university level and is the subject of much academic writing and critique. NourbeSe Philip is currently the Writer in Residence at the University of Windsor.
Aisha Sasha John is a writer and performer living in Toronto. Her work has appeared in such places as Exile Quarterly, Contemporary Verse 2, Carousel and TOK 3: Writing the New Toronto. In her second year of the University of Guelph’s MFA in Creative Writing program, Aisha is working on a poetry manuscript about self-portraiture. She is proud to be part of the 2008/2009 Obsidian Theatre Company Playwrights Unit. Visit her at ai5ha.blogspot.com.
Not the Wind, Not the Flag is a duo consisting of Colin Fisher (guitar, bouzouki, ney, tenor sax, guzheng, hulusi, misc percussion) and Brandon Valdivia (trap set, mbira, slit drum, percussion).