Sonia Tilson, Andrew Steinmetz Shortlisted for Ottawa Book Awards

Wonderful news from our friends at the Ottawa Citizen:

This year’s list of finalists for the Ottawa Book Awards includes an first-time novelist at age 80, a Citizen journalist, a former prime minister, a political pundit, a rising young writer and a popular Canadian historian.

Can you spot the Biblioasis authors? We're very proud to announce that both Sonia Tilson (The Monkey Puzzle Tree) and Andrew Steinmetz (This Great Escape: The Case of Michael Paryla) have been shortlisted for Ottawa Book Awards, in the fiction and non-fiction category respectively.

In fiction the other condtendors are Henry Beissel (Fugitive Horizons, Guernica Editions Inc), Rita Donovan (Maura Quell, Buschek Books), Barbara Fradkin (The Whisper of Legends, Dundurn Press), and David O’Meara (A Pretty Sight, Coach House Books). In non-fiction the awards highlight new books from Joe Clark (How We Lead: Canada in a Century of Change, Penguin Random House of Canada), Charlotte Gray (The Massey Murder, HarperCollins), Robert Sibley (The Way of the 88 Temples, University of Virginia Press), and Paul Wells (The Longer I’m Prime Minister: Stephen Harper and Canada, Penguin Random House of Canada). 

The awards will be presented on Oct. 22, at 8 p.m at the Shenkman Arts Centre in Orleans. For more information please see: https://ottawa.ca/en/liveculture/ottawa-book-awards-finalists. Our heartfelt congratulations to Sonia and Andrew!

Down the Rabbit Hole

Hello, all, and happy Monday. This weekend the Rover ran a review of Andrew Steinmetz's This Great Escape (appropriately timed, since only a week ago veterans were celebrated the 70th anniversary of the historical break out of Stalag III). "Steinmetz’s fragments are gripping, moving and funny," observes Kit Jenkins, and on the whole he describes Andrew's biography of Michael Paryla as "a stellar book. This Great Escape is a must-read." For the full review—or heck, just for a good time—visit the Rover.

Antanas Sileika reviews This Great Escape on The Next Chapter

About 27 minutes in to Monday's episode of The Next Chapter, Shelagh Rogers and Antanas Sileika talk about Andrew Steinmetz's Weston Prize-shortlisted This Great Escape. It was an honest take, with Antanas discussing some of the frustrations he experienced as a reader attempting to navigate the fragmented facts of Michael Paryla's life, but the ultimate conclusion was positive: he called it a worthwhile, interesting, complex, existential book. He even threw in the names of a few high modernists as comp titles. And who doesn't want to be compared to Beckett? No, really. Who?

"Stardust Memory": The Brooklyn Rail on Andrew Steinmetz

"Ever since I first saw Billy Wilder’s Stalag 17 (1953) and became addicted to re-runs of Hogan’s Heroes (1965 – 71) during my early youth in Los Angeles," writes movie historian Noah Isenberg in the latest issue of The Brooklyn Rail, "I’ve been intrigued by prisoner-of-war stories, comic and heroic alike."

What better bookish match for a POW-junkie than This Great Escape? Isenberg goes on: "As it turns out, my obsession nowhere near matches what Canadian writer Andrew Steinmetz experienced when he learned, at some point in his adolescence, that his second cousin Michael Paryla had played a bit part in one of the most famous, big-budget P.O.W. films Hollywood ever produced."

So commences a smart, insightful take an Andrew's book from (and I think this is the first time this has happened—?) a critic with a strong background in 50s and 60s film. You should check it out, along with the latest issue of the Rail, which (and I'll say it freely!) is quickly becoming one of my favourite rags.

Biblioasis at Incite Vancouver

For 25 years the Vancouver Writers Festival has strived to connect authors with their readers, and present the public with the very best of literature. In the Spring, through their Incite reading series, they provide an atmosphere to promote the exchange and cultivation of ideas, encourage reluctant readers to crack open a book and present opportunities for lovers of literature to get in contact with their favourite writers. In keeping with this tradition, Biblioasis author Andrew Steinmetz will be making an appearance on Wednesday, February 19 as part of the Incite reading series, to discuss his Hilary Weston Prize-nominated biography This Great Escape.

This Great Escape is the story of Michael Paryla, a Canadian actor with an uncredited 57 seconds of screen time in the 1963 blockbuster The Great Escape, and his history—from childhood flight from Nazism to suspicious death twenty years later—intersects bitterly, ironically and movingly with the plot of Sturges's great war film.

This opportunity to connect with Steinmetz and learn about the process behind the writing of This Great Escape is not to be missed. Also appearing are Catherine Bush, shortlisted for Ontario's Trillium Award, and Adrianne Harun, a finalist for the Washington State Book Award.

The event starts at 7:30pm and is located in the Alice MacKay Room of their Central Library. Admission is free.

Visit their website for more information about upcoming events and to RSVP. And stay tuned for more Biblioasis authors at InCite: Cynthia Flood on March 5th, Kathy Page on April 2nd, and Ondjaki on May 8th!

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Ghosts & Goblins

Afternoon, all, and a happy-ish All Saints'. There's a thing we will NOT do today, no sir—we shall not talk about a certain goblinish review for a certain gigantoid Canadian novel released on Hallowe'en in a certain large-circulating New York newspaper, no, no we shan't—nope. Nary a word. That was yesterday. In the past. The Trick part of the holiday. Plus if we were going to talk about it then there would be that last sentence, right? And that was sort of okay.  Instead, instead instead instead, we're going to talk about the LOVELY review of This Great Escape that came in yesterday from the Montreal Gazette. We also might discuss the fact that Lucie Wilk's The Strength of Bone is today's "First Fiction Friday" pick over at the LPG blog. Yes indeed! Those are the things to mention. TGIF, ladies & gentlemen. Welcome to November.

"As my muse, I had those prisoners of Stalag Luft III. Their ingenuity and courage was outrageous. So you escape a prison camp, you escape obscurity, you escape genre and convention. It’s a prisoner’s duty to attempt escape. Most of us are prisoners of something."
—Andrew Steinmetz on This Great Escape (Montreal Gazette)

Biblioasis in Toronto at the Garrison Tonight!

The readings continue tonight in Toronto as Biblioasis brings you more of the authors you love.

Cynthia Flood, Norm Sibum, Andrew Steinmetz, Lucie Wilk,  Richard Norman, Alexandra Oliver and Mauricio Segura are appearing on the next stop in their tour to bring you readings from their newest books.

Music will be provided by Massey Harris, and our wildly popular t-shirts will be available for purchase.

To make the evening more exciting the purchase of a book will give you the chance to win a limited edition leather-bound copy of David Manson's The Pope's Bookbinder. The drawing for which will take place in November.

So come down to The Garrison at 1197 Dundas St W, and let the words fly and the drinks flow.

Doors open at 7 pm, admission is free.
For more information call Biblioasis at 519-968-2206 or email info@biblioasis.com.

Andrew Steinmetz is a busy, busy man...

Still in the whirlwind of the Weston Prize shortlist, Andrew Steinmetz has been all over the internet discussing his acclaimed book This Great Escape and writing life in general.

You'll be able to catch him in person as part of Biblioasis' big Toronto launch at the Garrison tomorrow night, but until then, here's a few ways to get your This Great Escape fix:

The Toronto Star published their wonderful review of This Great Escape today:
"With extraordinary emotional intensity, Steinmetz reclaims this son, friend, actor, cousin, for us all. His close-up of an almost-famous man challenges easy assumptions about who deserves a biography … beguiling."

Open Book Toronto featured Andrew in their Weston Words feature last week, in which he talks about his reaction to the award nod, his favourite non-fiction books and his future projects.

He also chatted with CBC Books on All in a Day back in September and the LPG's Writer's Block about books that have influenced his work, his work space, and his reasons for writing.

If you're in the Toronto area, head to The Garrison (1197 Dundas St. W.) tomorrow (Thursday) night for the big Biblioasis launch where you'll be able to catch Steinmetz live, as well as Cynthia Flood, Lucie Wilk, Mauricio Segura, Norm Sibum, Alexandra Oliver and Richard Norman.

We'll also have music from Massey Harris, and a chance to win a beautiful limited-edition leather-bound copy of David Mason's The Pope's Bookbinder, to be drawn in November.

Not enough Biblioasis for you? You'll also have the chance to proclaim your love in t-shirt form with our brand new (and already in great demand) South Detroit shirts. Get yours for only $15 at the launch.

spiderwebs, bats, and plastic torso not included

"This Great Escape" Shortlisted for $60,000 Hilary Weston Prize

Biblioasis is proud to announce that

THIS GREAT ESCAPE

The Case of Michael Paryla

by Andrew steinmetz

has been shortlisted for the 2013

HILARY WESTON WRITERS’ TRUST PRIZE FOR NONFICTION

Valued at $60,000

At a ceremony held this morning at Maple Leaf Gardens, the Honourable Hilary M. Weston announced that Andrew Steinmetz’s This Great Escape: The Case of Michael Paryla (Biblioasis 2013) has been shortlisted for the Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Nonfiction.

Praising Steinmetz for his “obsessive and poetic gaze,” Weston called This Great Escape—the biography of a part-Jewish actor, cast as a Gestapo agent in the 1963 Steve McQueen/John Sturges film—“inventive and suprisingly humorous.”

At $60,000, the Weston is Canada’s richest nonfiction prize, and one of the largest nonfiction prizes in the world. First established by the Writers’ Trust in 1997 and sponsored by Viacom, the prize was endowed by philanthropist and former Lieutenant Governor of Ontario Hilary M. Weston in 2011. Previous winners include Candace Savage, Charles Foran, James FitzGerald, Brian Brett, and Anna Porter.

The other nominees include Thomas King (The Inconvenient Indian), J.B. McKinnon (The Once and Future World), Graeme Smith (The Dogs are Eating Them Now), and Priscila Uppal (Projection). Each will receive a prize of $5,000, and the winner, to be announced at the annual gala on Oct. 21^st, will receive an additional $55,000.

This year’s judges are Hal Niedzviecki, Samantha Nutt, Candace Savage, Andreas Shroeder, and Evan Solomon.

For more about This Great Escape, trade reviews, ordering information, or for a Q&A with Andrew Steinmetz, please read on. An interview also appeared in last Saturday’s Ottawa Citizen.

Launching Next Thursday: This Great Escape

We're less than a week away from the Ottawa launch of Andrew Steinmetz's This Great Escape, and I know a lot of you are excited to hold the book in your hands. Looking for a sneak preview? Check out the Saturday edition of the Ottawa Citizen, where Peter Robb conducts a lengthy interview with Andrew about obsession, family history, genre-bending and more. We've also had a couple nice trade reviews of TGE which I'm posting below. Happy Friday, all, and enjoy your weekend!

From Publishers Weekly
“[A] touching biography … Paryla was never a household name and may not seem worthy of attention, but the founding editor of Esplanade Books succeeds in making the case that anyone’s biography can provide insight into the context in which he or she existed. Paryla’s too-short life was defined by Europe during World War II and after, and through his life, those periods are themselves defined.”

From Library Journal
"Fascinating reading … elliptical and often intense … This book will appeal to readers who have seen The Great Escape, are interested in film history and/or acting, or have an interest in World War II and its effects on survivors."