V-Day? More like FREE Day.

(For those of you looking closely, yes, that IS an
excerpt from The Bell Jar. Someone on the
interwebs was having a laugh.)

Good afternoon, all, and a happy, hearty, TGIFfy St. Valentine's to everyone. (Am I the only one to own that T-shirt that says Book Lovers Never Go to Bed Alone?) In lieu of chocolates, flowers, or cinnamon hearts—which thanks to Douglas Coupland we all know are REALLY used to mask the smell of decomposing flesh—Biblioasis would like to tell you about this nifty little app, which we probably should have told you about ages ago, but, well, here we are. Better late than never. Thirsty, meet BOOKSLINGER. Bookslinger, Thirsty. Bookslinger's a frisky lass who, thanks to our pals at Consortium, now slings (flings?) out one free story a week to her readers. All pieces drawn from independent presses across North America. The app is available (also for free) through the iTunes store. And guess what? Today, which is also International Book Giving Day, it seems Bookslinger's slung our very own "About Love." For those of you who are new, that's one of our three Chekhov tales that was translated by David Helwig and illustrated by Seth. So go at 'er, folks! Happy hearts!

(Though, um, I should say that if you really are looking for a happy day, you may want to hold off reading the Chekhov til tomorrow.)

New Manse News

"Fans of satirical fiction will love this book," the National Post said of C.P. Boyko's Psychology and Other Stories last weekend: "so will anyone who has reclined on a therapist’s couch, or taken a psychology course from a larger-than-life professor with obvious neuroses, or read a self-help book by an author whose biography reveals them to be a total mess."

Dan Wells and Chris Andrechek
wrestle the Counter of Death 

The BiblioManse Office in its
Final Hours

The New (Blue!) Office

First Books on the Shelves. Does
anyone else smell poetry?

We know something about total messes over here at the new Bibliomanse. Oh yes we do. That's why we've let a WHOLE WEEK go by without talking to you about the VERY EXCITING THINGS that are happening, will happen, HAVE happened, to our VERY EXCITING authors. We've had a spate of reviews and we have people at festivals and gosh darnit we've even had an award nod. And, of course (of course? really? is it real?), we've moved. Last Friday was the Great Migration. We've been phoneless and internetless to varying degrees over the past four days. Which is just my way of saying, er, if you've perhaps been trying to get in touch and found us slightly less responsive than usual, please do just give another poke and we'll get back to you as soon as we're able. It's been, er, zany. (Imagine steel desks with undersides like the death star and an old cash counter from the Bay [and then from the old shop on Ouellette, and most recently from the basement of Dan's house], an old cash counter made entirely of pressboard, glue and maybe some secretly of anvils—imagine all that good stuff being discombobulated and hauled around some staggering corners on steepish stairs, and then imagine something of the 10,000 books in said basement, and you've got an inkling of our week.)
In any event. I apologize for not giving each of these a proper write-up, but here are a few of the wonderful happenings that we've neglected in our boxish and internet-starved state. We'll have pictures of the new office-in-progress up soon. Till then!

Here's the little swooning-on-the-couch for Boyko that ran in the Post on Saturday (what a glower)! 

Here's an interview that David Helwig did with Seth for CBC PEI last week. 

Here are Mark Kingwell's "Seven Pathways to the Stars," which peeped out this Saturday in the Globe, and here is his upcoming IFOA interview with John Ralston Saul.

Here is Alice Petersen's All the Voices Cry reviewed in the Montreal Review of Books. And HERE—ding ding, exciting!—is the press release announcing that Alice Petersen has been shortlisted for the QWF's First Book Prize! Congratulations to Alice from all of us. 

Here are Rebecca Rosenblum's first and second appearances at the Vancouver International Writers Festival, starting today (the Human Carnival with Anne Fleming, AL Kennedy, and Jessica Westhead, then an Afternoon Tea with Steven Heighton, Linda Svendsen, Bill Gaston, Lorna Crozier and J. Jill Robinson);

Here is Anakana Schofield's appearance tonight at said VIWF, in the always-spectacular Literary Caberet (brought to you by Joe Biden—wait, what?—and for which she did an interview on CiTR); 

and here are her appearances at IFOA!

Tonight's an event night here at HQ, with Eugene McNamara reading from Dreaming of Lost America at 7 PM. RSVP on FaceBook today (now, always)—hope to see you soon!

About About Love

Those of you in the Toronto-area have probably heard that today's BiblioBash features a special guest appearance from David Helwig: novelist, translator, and former Poet Laureate of PEI. It's true. He'll be reading from and signing copies of one of the handsomest books the BiblioManse has issued. About Love, designed and illustrated by the inimitable Seth, is 114 pages of hunky hardback in 5.5x7.25 format with two-colour printing. BEAUTIFUL. Here's a little preview:

 

See? Innit pretty? Innit??

David Helwig will be reading alongside the full BiblioBash cohort: Alice Petersen, Nadine McInnis, C.P. Boyko, and Norm Sibum. Should be a great night. Come on out! RSVP on Facebook today.
About About Love

Written in France toward the end of his career, these stories are Chekhov’s only attempt at the linked collection. The first is a grotesque Gogolian comedy; the second a narrator's impassioned response; and the third a poignant story of failed love. Altogether the stories of About Love comprise three virtually unknown works by one of the greatest short story writers in world literature. "While there are many translators whose Russian is better than mine," writes Helwig of his translation, "there are not so many who have had a long experience of writing narrative prose. These narratives are my personal versions of Chekhov’s stories; they are also as close as I can make them to the precision and suggestiveness of the originals."
 Critics agree. Francine Prose calls his earlier translations “absolutely wonderful,” and Publishers Weekly has remarked that Helwig is “a pleasure to spend time with.” The book is furthermore designed and illustrated by Seth, author of Palookaville and designer for The Complete Peanuts, who has produced covers for The New Yorker and was the recipient of the 2011 Harbourfront Prize.

About Love is a beautiful contribution to the works of Chekhov in English, and a must-have for all Seth enthusiasts. 

See what happens? A little fanfare and we all pass out.

G'morning, folks, from the Bibliomanse, where it's a nippy 10 degrees and there's malarky in the air. Okay, fine: Malarky in the air, and maybe (sigh) a touch of influenza. There're just 6 measly days till AK's launch at the People's Co-op in Vancouver! It's Sunday afternoon between 3 and 6. That's April 1st, for those of you too congested to count, and it's after noon, which means all Fool's Day hijinks will be over and done with. Ain't nobody putting saran wrap on the toilets of the People's Co-op while AK's in the house. No sir. Really. No pranks. We promise.

Ahem.

April 1st also means we'll be (oh bliss!) kicking off National Poetry Month. I thought I'd set the stage with a little vignette that ran Saturday in the Kingston Whig Standard, and which features our own David Helwig in its listing of local literati. Be warned: it's not an anecdote for the faint-of-heart. Or the pregnant. Or anyone who dislikes loud noises. Helwig, the article notes, was hired at Queen's by George Whalley, who was (apart from a poet) a secret intelligence agent; prior to Whalley Kingston's poetic eccentric-par-excellence was Wallace Havelock Robb. And Robb? Well ...

Robb dressed in robes and struck a ceremonial bell on his property on Abbey Dawn Road when a poet or a pregnant woman came to visit. A visiting Montreal poet died within minutes of striking the bell.

Al Purdy also stopped by but (it seems) was not so easily felled.

A lesson for the ages, folks. Be careful when the trumpets sound. And keep an eye out for David Helwig's translations of Chekhov, which (appropriately enough for spring) are called About Love, and on whose illustrations Seth is now hard at work. It'll be a beaut!