Award-winning Author
Speakeasy is the University of Guelph MFA in Creative Writing’s monthly reading series. Readings take place on the last Thursday of the month at the Magpie Tavern, 831 Dundas Street West, Toronto. Nino Ricci reads on Thursday, January 26th, 2012 at 7 PM.
Long derided as an enemy of the book, Prime Minister Stephen Harper is now poised to publish one.
Bucking a tradition established by fellow neoconservative Mike Harris, who named the picture book Mr. Silly as his favourite work of literature, the Prime Minister’s book will purportedly contain actual text.
News of the impending publication has led to a softening of opinion toward Harper in the country’s writing community.
Bucking a neoconservative tradition, the Prime Minister’s book will purportedly contain actual text.
“Finally the Prime Minister’s copyright policy is starting to make sense,” said a spokesperson for the Writers’ Union, referring to legislation currently before Parliament that critics complain will claw back writers’ rights and threaten the livelihoods of both writers and publishers. “We all thought he had a thing against literature, but it turns out he was just trying to clear some space for himself by killing off the competition. You have to admit it’s a pretty clever strategy.”
Two-time Governor General’s Award winner Nino Ricci, recently appointed to the Order of Canada, has had a similar change of heart.
“When I was up in Ottawa for the GG awards in 2008, people were saying he prorogued Parliament just so he wouldn’t have to congratulate the winners. So I wasn’t surprised when he didn’t show up for the Order of Canada shindig last fall.”
News of Harper’s book, however, got Ricci thinking. He had noted that among his fellow Order of Canada inductees were a number of prominent business leaders, including the CEO of a tar sands corporation.
“I mean, the arts types were in a minority, so logically, Harper should have been there. Then when I heard about his book I got to wondering if maybe it was just crowds he didn’t like, or award ceremonies.”
Industry insiders say an aversion to crowds and award ceremonies should stand Harper in good stead for the book circuit, where awards typically go only to friends of the jurors and where crowds traditionally fall well below those of even a typical Senate sitting or Liberal fundraiser.
Sources inside the PMO say that promotional efforts for Harper’s book will include an initiative they are calling “One Country, One Book,” in which every man, woman and child in the country will be encouraged to buy and read what is officially being referred to as “The Harper Book.” The project is envisioned as a multi-year one.
“After all, it took the Prime Minister eight years to write the thing,” said a spokeperson. “We’re anticipating it might take that long for people to actually read it.”
Harper himself has stated unequivocally that he doesn’t expect to make any money from the book, which will put him squarely in the ranks of many of the country’s finest writers. For the time being he is able to get by on the salary he receives as prime minister, though he may eventually be reduced to subsidizing his writing with Canada Council grants and his government pension. Pensions for former parliamentarians run from $30,000 to $100,000 annually, while Canada Council grants provide successful applicants with as much as $24,000 to get them through the several years it may take to complete a book.
“Incarceration opens up a whole new avenue of funding for artists.”
News of the Prime Minister’s book comes just as he has been reaping dividends from the arts community on another front, his omnibus crime bill. A recent study has shown that artists are one of the groups most likely to see increased jail time under the bill, thanks to the volatile combination of their general tendency toward anti-authoritarian behaviour and their increased economic vulnerability under other Harper initiatives.
“Incarceration opens up a whole new avenue of funding for artists,” opined one arts pundit. “Free board, free lodging, and all the time in the world to create.”
Catch the documentary based on Nino Ricci’s biography of Pierre Elliott Trudeau in PMA Productions’ Extraordinary Canadians series.
Directed by the award-winning documentarian Helene Klodawsky and produced by PMA Productions, based on the book in Penguin Canada’s Extraordinary Canadians series. For more information, visit Extraordinary Canadians.
Nino joins Franca Iacovetta, Ferdinando Dell’Omo, Lillia Topouzova and others to talk about culture and personal history at the 2nd National Conference of the Italian-Canadian Archive Project.
See the entire conference program: Towards a National Italian-Canadian Archive
Write a letter and help save a life. Join Amnesty International on Human Rights Day for Write for Rights and be part of the world’s largest human rights event.
Date: December 10th, 2011
Time: 12:00pm-7:00pm
Location: Bram & Bluma Appel Salon, Toronto Reference Library, 2nd floor, 789 Yonge Street, Toronto (1 street north of Bloor)
Amnesty International invites you, your family, friends, and colleagues to be part of Write for Rights. Enjoy an afternoon and evening of mingling, letter writing, and inspirational words from guest speakers. Nino Ricci speaks about his own involvement with Amnesty International at 4 PM.
For more information visit www.amnesty.ca/writeathon or contact Nancy Cameron at 416.363.9933 ext. 328 or ncameron@amnesty.ca.
John Miller of the Toronto Writers’ Co-operative talks to Nino Ricci as part of his ongoing series of literary interviews. Following the interview, two authors from the Toronto Writers’ Co-operative will read from their work.
2 PM on Saturday, December 10th, 2011 in the Toronto Reference Library’s Elizabeth Beeton Auditorium East. 789 Yonge Street, Toronto, just north of Bloor Street. Telephone 416-395-5577.
Join Joan MacLeod,John Pass, John Vaillant, and Nino Ricci for the Vancouver International Writers Festival’s Governor General’s Award Party, hosted by Hal Wake. Sunday, October 23, 2011 at 8:00pm at the Waterfront Theatre.
For decades the most significant recognition a writer can receive in Canada has been a Governor General’s award. On the 75th anniversary of the awards the festival brings together four acclaimed writers who will read from the books that won the prize, and talk about what the reward has meant for their careers. They’ll also offer their frank opinions about literary prizes in general and what they contribute to our literary culture and whether we have relied too heavily on prizes to tell us what to read. Two-time winner for fiction Nino Ricci will be joined by John Pass (poetry), Joan MacLeod (drama) and John Vaillant (non-fiction). Come celebrate the GG’s and the end of the Festival with cake and conversation.
Steven Hayward and Nino Ricci join Clark Blaise in a conversation about mentoring and the teaching of creative writing. Monday, October 10th, 2011 at Colorado College in Colorado Springs.
In addition to his renown as a teacher, novelist andwriter of non-fiction, Clark Blaise is a longtime master of the short story. His most recent collection is The Meagre Tarmac, published by Biblioasis.
This October Nino Ricci is the Maclean Distinguished Visiting Professor at the esteemed Colorado College in Colorado Springs, home of NORAD and the U.S. Air Force Academy as well as command central for the U.S. evangelical movement, boasting the headquarters of some eight-one right-wing Christian groups.
Nino will be teaching creative writing to anyone who dares to listen.
Looking for a good time in Sudbury? Check out Alistair MacLeod, Iain Baxter& and Nino Ricci at the Art Gallery of Sudbury as part of the ongoing Sense of Place roadshow. Wednesday, September 28, 2011 at 7 PM. For more information on Sense of Place, see Nino’s article in the July/August issue of Canadian Geographic.
The 23rd Eden Mills Writers’ Festival takes place this September in lovely Eden Mills, Ontario, with events that run from September 16th to 19th. On Sunday, September 18th, join Nino and more than thirty other authors reading from their work, signing their books, and being generally witty and entertaining, in a bucolic setting reminiscent of the world as it was before Google and social media. A good time is promised for all.
Join Nino for “Where the Words Are,” part of the York River Festival in Bancroft, Ontario. Saturday, September 17th, 2011 at 7 PM or thereabouts at Bancroft’s Village Playhouse. For more information, call 613.332.0873.