Writing and reading group gives voice to Downtown Eastside women

Writing and reading group gives voice to Downtown Eastside women

Article by Jeremy Shepherd, Vancouver Courier, October 4, 2010.

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Have you been following news accounts of the Intrepid Pens or been interested in the EastWest Book Club started by the VTLA? Read at least one article attached to this blog to find out more. The downtown eastside ladies recently read Alexander McCall Smith's No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency on our recommendation! This is a project dear to our hearts. The donations made last year by our local unions and our local specialist association made a difference to getting this group going.

In the Pepsi Refresh community grant program, Amanda's Intrepid Pens are currently (as of Sunday morning, that is) ranked #23. Winning $25 000 will go a long way to keeping the momentum for this amazing young woman and the DTES writers' and book club. Please vote every day -- sign up to vote.

You can vote every day for Intrepid Pens here.

Summer Reading Suggestions

Just4U: Adult Summer Reading

The Walrus: Pick up and carry in your beach bag a copy of the July/August issue of The Walrus: it is "the only mass magazine in the country that publishes fiction in every issue .... The Summer Reading Issue will bring you the work of nine Canadian writers (“Canadian Studies,”) who were given a simple challenge: write a truly Canadian short story" (from Editorial by John Macfarlane).

NOTE: Zsuzsi Gartner, one of our wonderful FOSL reps whom we recognized with an award at our VTLA year-end dinner, crafted the response that spoke for school libraries during the recent VSB budget process. Her story, "Say the Names," is included in this issue of The Walrus. We can feel very privileged to have her speaking for Vancouver's school libraries.

Canada Reads: This year's book is Nikolski by Nicholas Dickner, translated by Lazer Lederhendler. But you could choose any one of the selected titles, including Good to a Fault, by BC writer Marina Endicott; Generation X by Douglas Coupland; The Jade Peony by Wayson Choy; and Fall on Your Knees by Ann-Marie MacDonald, if you were looking for good Canadian fiction but didn't feel compelled to join in by reading the cross-country summer book choice.

CBC suggests you listen to the Between the Covers audio reading of Nikolski and check out the CBC Book Club's celebration of Nikolski. And join host Hannah Sung and other book lovers in the Book Club all year long.

Indigo's Top 100 List: choose one from the list of best books as determined in an online survey of Canadian readers in 2007.

Project Gutenberg's Top 100 eBooks: a list based on downloads

The Bookmark: The June 2010 (50:2) issue of this BCTLA tradition is now online and it's free! What are Living Libraries? What's New on the Net? How do you get a teen book club going? What's this about "convergence or confusion" about eBooks? What's worth reading in YA and children's literature? The answers are all here for your summer enjoyment.

VPL Digital Resources: now includes Best of BC Books Online; use your VPL card to access this pilot project of 1000 ebooks published in BC.

VPL Book Clubs: there's one for every reading and social need -- Reel Reads, World Authors, Online, Drop-in, Poetry, Summer Reading, One Book: One Vancouver -- or find out how to start your own.

Or plan to attend one VPL event this summer: the Book Lovers' Reading Circle starts July 3 and the Summer Book Sale is July 8.

VPL Recommends: Fiction &Literature (for Adults) offers loads of lists, including Staff Picks (June 2010). Something for every taste! If you prefer lists of recommended non-fiction, check here.

The list of lists of Fiction & Literature is long, including but not limited to Award Winners, Banned Books, Canadian Mysteries, CanLit, Delectable Reads, Historical Fiction, Graphic Novels for Adults, Books Made into Movies, Life in Venice, Lusty Reads, Reading the City Series: Vancouver is for Readers, Manly Fiction, Vancouver Fiction, and Women’s Fiction.

4them: Kids and Summer Reading

TD Summer Reading Club: Destination Jungle

This online reading club is sponsored by TD, the Toronto Public Library, and Library and Archives Canada, its goals are to encourage and strengthen the habit of reading for pleasure to create life-long learners, as well as to increase children's reading skills and reduce summer learning loss.

VPL Summer Reading Club: Children ages six to twelve are invited to join the Reading Rocks! Summer Reading Club. Vancouver Public Library also invites school age children to join the Multilingual Summer Reading Club - read books in any language!

Chris Tougas, author and illustrator of Art's Supplies and Mechanimals has created the hilarious poster and reading record for Reading Rocks! Summer Reading Club. Members will receive a reading record, bookmark, and stickers to collect. Children can record the titles and authors of the books they read on the reading record. It's lots of fun and absolutely free!

This summer reading initiative is sponsored by the British Columbia Library Association and the Vancouver Public Library, with the assistance of the Public Library Services Branch, Ministry of Education.

VPL’s Summer Writing and Book Camp: Got the Write Stuff (August 9-13) is for 11-13 year olds and for 14+. It’s FULL already but there is a waiting list.

Keynotes include well-known YA authors Carrie Mac, Sarah Ellis, Polly Horvath, Susan Nielsen, and Meg Tilly. Also working with young writers and readers will be Maggie de Vries and Julie Burtinshaw. Get your teen or pre-teen writer on that waitlist now! This extremely popular summer camp is a bargain for $225. If you can't get your teen or pre-teen in this year, remember to look for this earlier next year.

VPL Recommends: Kids & Teens

Check out the great lists for your reading kids and teens.

eastmeetswest book club

A few of us came to meet Amanda, community volunteer and creator of the women's book club that meets twice monthly at the Downtown Eastside Women's Centre. This project has a kind of magic. It began with a letter to the BCTLA from community literacy volunteer Amanda who needed help providing books for their monthly reading. It was a project that Vancouver TLs could work with better than the provincial organization; Chris nabbed it and sold the idea to me.

Yes, we could probably help with books. But we also had an idea that our union brothers and sisters would also see the "magic" in this request. We loved the reading list and knew they would too. We loved the commitment and the authentic delivery of reading and education to women whose lives might just be enhanced by time together, conversation, books, and nutritious snacks. We thought we might like to read the same books and have our own conversations. Our first book was Heather O'Neill's Lullabies for Little Criminals.

Amanda brought news that her readers were delighted that their project had prompted our reading. Reciprocal interest in promoting reading ... can you beat that? Yes, you can ... by sharing responses to the shared experience. We are going to try working with a web-based conversation.

Is there more magic to this? Well, yes, there is. You see, tonight we discovered that Amanda's grandfather taught Science for many years here in Vancouver at Byng and Kits. Thanks, Bud, for this delightful contribution to the building of communities of learning. Thanks, Amanda, for creating our real opportunity to engage in profound reading and thinking and to be part of the virtual eastmeetswest book club.

The next meeting is December 11. The book is The Liar's Club by Mary Karr. I think this one may best be found in used bookshops. Contact me for more details.