(Two Thousand and) Eleven Days in Review

Well this morning the Bibliomanse flings wide its gates once again--or, rather, we're now open for business after a whole week off. A week! How is it so much can happen in 11 days? Review-wise, Ray Robertson was featured on That Shakespearean Rag ("The Three Stooges or Voltaire," Dec. 22), and interview-wise, David Hickey talks to Elan Paulson on The Rusty Toque (Dec. 23); Biblioasis furthered its global blog invasion with appearances on The Story Prize Blog by Cathy Stonehouse (Dec. 29) and Alexander MacLeod (Dec. 31); and last but not least, our authors continued to be highlighted in best-of lists both at home and abroad. The Irish Times recommended Light Lifting for readers in 2012, and Clark Blaise's The Meagre Tarmac was tenderly mentioned by Philip Marchand (National Post), Ian McGillis (Montreal Gazette), and Quentin Mills-Fenn (Uptown) in their years-in-review. ("You know it's going to be a stellar year for fiction when Clark Blaise publishes something," QMF writes: damn straight it was!) Amanda Jernigan's Groundwork appeared (officially) on NPR's best 100 Poetry Books of 2011, with a paragraph praising her "daunting formal skill," "emotional intensity," and "light, perfecting touch"; and last (but certainly not least), our very own Laura Boudreau came in fourth (fourth!) in the National Post's Readers' Choices survey. That makes her the second Biblioasis author to have beat out Ondaatje's The Cat's Table in recent weeks. (Suitable Precautions may also be topping the import lists in Switzerland, but that's another story.)

So! That was the break. Keep tuned for more news, and an annum faustum to you all!