Blog
Category: Vancouver
Conquer Creative Block with Canadian Artist Danielle Krysa!
by Danielle
Art & Photography + Craft + Design & Typography + Events + Vancouver / September 15, 2014
Danielle Krysa is a Vancouver-based artist, curator and writer. Her blog The Jealous Curator receives 250,000 page views a month.
Creative Block 
Get Unstuck, Discover New Ideas. Advice & Projects from 50 Successful Artists
Danielle Krysa
ISBN 9781452118888 | $36.95 pb
Chronicle Books
Creative block is a crippling—and unfortunately universal—challenge for artists. No longer! This chunky blockbuster of a book is chock-full of solutions for overcoming all manner of artistic impediment. The blogger behindThe Jealous Curator interviews 50 successful international artists and mines their insights on how to conquer self-doubt, stay motivated, and get new ideas to flow.
Collage
Contemporary Artists Hunt and Gather, Cut and Paste, Mash Up and Transform
Danielle Krysa
ISBN 9781452124803 | $33.95 pb
Chronicle Books | 16 Sept 2014
Collage has enjoyed a resurgence in popularity during the twenty-first century, resulting in an explosion of creativity. This showcase of cutting-edge contemporary art from across the globe features galleries of collage by 30 practitioners, from the surreal landscapes of Beth Hoeckel to Fabien Souche's humorous appropriations of pop culture.
Upcoming Events:
Vancouver September 22
Talk / Q&A / Collage Workshop
Granville Island Hotel, 1253 Johnston Street, Vancouver
Monday, September 22, 1:00 PM – 3:30 PM Cost: $10.
Space is limited and registration is required. To register, please visit Opus Granville Island or contact them at 604‑736‑7028.
Toronto September 24
Talk / Q&A / Book Signing
Swipe, 401 Richmond St. West, Toronto
Wednesday, September 24, 6:00pm-8:00pm
RSVP to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
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Celebrate the Launch of The Chocolate Tasting Kit (And indulge in some chocolate tasting yourself!)
by Melissa
Events + Food & Drink + Vancouver / March 14, 2014
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Do you live in Vancouver? Do you love chocolate? If you answered yes to these questions, we have the perfect event for you! Come celebrate the launch of Eagranie Yuh's The Chocolate Tasting Kit on March 20, 2014 at Xoxolat. This will be a fun filled evening of chocolate tastings with the opportunity to meet the author extraordinaire herself. We would love it if you could join us for this event.
Eagranie Yuh is a local author and chocolate educator who has recently published The Chocolate Tasting Kit with Chronicle Books. Her work has appeared in publications such as Best Food Writing 2012, Edible Vancouver, Flavours and more. She is also a permanent grand jury member of the International Chocolate Awards. In other words, she knows her stuff!
Xoxolat is located at 1271 Homer Street in Yaletown, and the Open House will be from 5-8 PM. This event is free, but you can RSVP here. We'll be selling kits, sampling chocolate, and there will be a cash bar.
We hope to see you there!
Hang Out with Marissa Meyer!
by Dan
Events + Vancouver + YA Fiction / February 21, 2014
Bestselling author Marissa Meyer is coming to Canada!
Marissa will be signing copies of Cress, the latest book in the Lunar Chronicles, and talking about her writing and the latest developments in the series in Vancouver on Saturday February 22nd (that's TOMORROW!), and Toronto on Monday February 24th.
And if you can't come to the events in person (and even if you can!) Marissa will be online this weekend for a very special Google Hangout with fans. All the details are below....
Vancouver February 22:
2:00pm at Chapters Metrotown
4700 Kingsway, Burnaby
604-431-0463
Facebook
Toronto February 24:
2:00pm at North York Central Library
5120 Yonge Street, Toronto
416-395-5535
Facebook
7:00pm at Indigo Yorkdale
3401 Dufferin Street Unit #29, Toronto
416-781-6660
Facebook
Google+
10:00am PST/1:00pm EST
What the fans are saying about Cress:
"A wonderfully plotted series that not only has a gripping plot, but ridiculously endearing characters."—A Glass of Wine
"These books exceed all expectations and every one of them has been better and more complex then the last."—Conversations of a Reading Addict
"Oh. My. God. Marissa Meyer, you genius."—Holes in My Brain
"I LOVE THIS SERIES!!! ... Marissa Meyer really is a storytelling genius, and I am so much in love with these science fiction re-workings of some of my favourite fairy tales."—Melissa, Mables Fables
"Cress is entertaining and thrilling, a brilliant continuation to this series of fairy tale retellings set in a distant future."—Me on Books
"Cress is an intricately woven thrill ride that will make the reader want to flip right back to page one and start all over again once they're finished."—Omfg!Books
"Oh wow, I didn't think the book would be this good! I'm really used to series dying down slowly after the first one but this series just keeps getting better and better!"—Secrets of Lost Words
"This is the kind of series that you hope will never end"—Xpresso Reads
Christina Rasmussen, author of Second Firsts, in Vancouver February 11th!
by Melissa
Events + Health & Wellness + Psychology & Self-Help + Spirituality + Vancouver / January 31, 2014
Christina Rasmussen, author of Second Firsts will be in Vancouver speaking at Urban Campfire: Winter Edition on February 11, 2014. A crisis-intervention specialist, Christina knows first hand how consuming grief can be, and how to overcome it.
After studying to become a therapist and crisis intervention counselor - even doing her master's thesis on the stages of bereavement - Christina Rasmussen thought she understood grief. But it wasn't until losing her husband to cancer in her early 30s that she truly grasped the depths of sorrow and pain that accompany loss. Using the knowledge she gained while wading through her own grief and reading hundreds of neuroscience books, Rasmussen began to look at experiences in a new way. She realized that grief plunges you into a gap between worlds - the world before loss and the world after loss. She also realized how easy it is to become lost in this gap.
In Second Firsts, Rasmussen walks you through her Life Reentry process to help you break grief's spiral of pain, so you can stop simply surviving and begin to live again. She shows you that loss can actually be a powerful catalyst to creating a life that is in alignment with your true passions and values. The resilience, strength, and determination that have gotten you through this difficult time are the same characteristics that will help you craft your wonderful new life. Her method, which she has used successfully with thousands of clients, is based on the science of neuroplasticity and focuses on consciously releasing pain in ways that both honor suffering and rewire the brain to change your perception of the world and yourself. Using practical exercises and stories drawn from her own life and those of her clients, Rasmussen guides you through five stages of healing that help you open up to new possibilities. From acknowledging your fear, to recognizing where you stand now, to taking active steps toward a new life, Rasmussen helps you move past the pain and shows that it's never too late to step out of the gap and experience life again - as if for the first time.
Christina will be speaking about her experience and her book, Second Firsts. Tickets to the conference are available for purchase here: Urban Campfire
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My Favourite Books of 2013, Jamie Broadhurst
by Jamie
Vancouver / December 09, 2013
My favourite books of 2013 are two books that I started 2012 but am still reading due to technical difficulties.
I started reading Far From the Tree: Parents, Children and the Search for Identity by Andrew Solomon last November. I was on an early morning Friday flight home from New York having been away for the week on business. I needed to do class prep for a class I was teaching that afternoon so naturally I went to the newspaper stand for some procrastinatory reading material for the six hour flight. Both the New Yorker and New York magazine had picked Far From the Tree for their lead extended reviews. I was in tears reading both articles (fortunately I had no seat mates) and when I landed in Vancouver I downloaded the book. When I saw my son that night I squeezed him especially tight.
Because it was digital I didn't know the book is a doorstopper. Yet Solomon is a rare thing; a double National Book Award winner and Pulitzer Prize shortlisted genius. It is the best book on ethics I have ever read. Or almost finished reading.
Most parents have children with the expectation they will form what Solomon calls “vertical relationships.” That like the proverbial apple, your children will not fall far from the tree. What happens when they don't? Solomon maps the contours of "horizontal relationships” where children are different from their parents in ways that are sometime shattering and analyzes the communities that form around disabilities and differences that sometimes rival or replace parental bonds. Deaf children, blind children, Downs’s children, children of rape, autistic children, gifted children. It is debatable whether all these situations are as thematically similar as Solomon would have us believe, but his thesis about horizontal communities allows Solomon to catalogue some of the very best of human behaviour and the very worst of what can happen to the most vulnerable.
And you are surprised. One mother of severely disturbed boy states she copes with his violent fits because in their house with few amenities he has smashed all that there is to smash and all that they have left is each other.
The second book is War and Peace which I am also reading on my Kobo. I had been given a copy as school prize years ago and never progressed too far but thanks to digital readers and public domain it was easy to start again. It is said that part of the success of Penguin Paperbacks is that they fit into the pocket of solder’s uniforms in the Second World War. It is the same for the Kobo reader. Very handy on buses and in coffee shops.
And it fits in the inside pocket of my jacket.
War and Peace seems far less intimidating on a digital reader, as you never really have any idea how much more text you have in front of you and soon you are caught up in the storylines and the miracle of immersive reading. I find it strangely comforting that the Tolstoy’s characters can’t get beyond the chaos of the incidental and the see the grand sweep of history. Who can? And the scene where the Russians are trying to fire a bridge to stem the French advance and where clearly the colonel in charge has no real control over events but has the supreme confidence to appear to have control over events seems to me a potent lesson on both the strength and futility of human leadership.
I broke my Kobo last summer alas, with a quarter of Far From the Tree to go and on the eve of the battle of Borodino, when the haughty Austrians are convinced that victory is in their grasp. (Spoiler alert: it isn't). But I just bought a new reader this week and so Andrew Solomon and the Napoleonic Wars will continue for me over Christmas. They will be excellent company.
Jamie Broadhurst, VP Marketing
Authors at the 2013 Vancouver Writers Fest
by Dan
Events + Vancouver / October 22, 2013
The Vancouver Writers Fest starts today and Raincoast has FOUR authors attending this year.
Annie Barrows, beloved author of the fabulously successful Ivy + Bean books, will be introducing the latest installment in the series, Ivy + Bean Take the Case, on Thursday October 24 at Performance Works, between 10am and 11am.
Tickets for the event, suitable for grades 1-4, are $17 or $8.50 for school groups.
(Request School Group Tickets)
For one night only, author and New Yorker staff writer George Packer will be talking about his critically acclaimed new book, The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America.
Described by the New York Times as "something close to a nonfiction masterpiece," The Unwinding is surely one of the 'must-read' books of 2013. Packer's sole Canadian appearance this year is not to be missed.
The event starts at 8pm on Thursday October 24th at the Frederic Wood Theatre, UBC. Tickets are $19.
Pulitzer Prize-winning Irish poet Paul Muldoon—whose most recent collection of poem is called The Word on the Street—is involved in a number of events during the festival.
On Friday, October 25, he will be taking part in Found in Translation, a panel with translator Susanna Basso and author/translator Wayne Grady in Studio 1398. The event starts at 1:00pm, and tickets are $17.
On Saturday October 26, Paul will be in conversation with John Freeman in the Waterfront Theatre. The event starts at 2pm, and tickets are $17.
Later on that evening, Muldoon will be joining Anne Carson, Brad Cran, Michael Crummey, Mathew Henderson, and Anne Michaels for the sold-out Poetry Bash, starting at 8pm at Performance Works.
In addition to his conversation with Paul Muldoon on Saturday, writer and critic John Freeman will be discussing his illuminating new book, How to Read a Novelist, with festival director Hal Wake on Sunday, October 27 at the Improv Centre.
The one-time president of the National Book Critics Circle, and the former editor of Granta, Freeman has reviewed thousands of books and interviewed scores of writers. In How to Read a Novelist, he pulls together his best profiles, and shares what he's learned.
The event begins at 2:00pm, and tickets are $17.
Julie Morstad at Lucky’s This Weekend!
by Dan
Events + Graphica + Vancouver / October 30, 2012
Join award-winning, Vancouver-based illustrator Julie Morstad launch The Wayside, her new book from Drawn + Quarterly, on Saturday evening at Vancouver comics store Lucky's starting at 7pm!
Julie Morstad
Saturday November 3rd, 7pm
Lucky's Comics
3972 Main Street, Vancouver
T: 604-875-9858
PS: If you don't live in Vancouver, Julie will also have events in Toronto at TYPE, and at the Librairie D+Q in Montreal next month! (Yay!)
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Diane Morgan’s new cookbook Roots
by Danielle
Events + Food & Drink + Vancouver / October 03, 2012
North by Northwest Cooking Club Taping
Friday, October 5, 12:00 p.m.
Pop by the shop for a live taping with CBC's NXNW host, Sheryl MacKay. Diane will chat about her new book Roots and will demonstrate a recipe.
Thanksgiving Primer for Root Vegetables
Friday, October 5, 6:00 to 9:00pm
Demonstration/Book signing, $45 (includes book)
Digging into Asian Root Vegetables
Saturday, October 6, 10:30am to noon
Cooking Class/book signing, $95
ALSO
Catch Diane Morgan tomorrow morning at 8:30 on BT (Vancouver) making this recipe from her new book Roots: The Definitive Compendium with More Than 225 Recipes
Beet Hash with Spicy Chicken Sausage and Soft-Cooked Eggs
Consider this as a main course for weekend brunch or even Sunday supper—it’s all about comfort food. Adding beets puts a spin on classic potato hash, bringing a shock of color and an earthy sweetness to an otherwise traditional dish. Bring out the hot sauce if your guests want some spice--that’s traditional, too.
Serves 6 as a main course
4 tbsp/60 ml olive oil
8 oz/225 g spicy Italian chicken sausages (about 2 links)
2 lb/910 g red-skinned, Yukon Gold, or Yellow Finn potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2-in/12-mm dice
1 lb/455 g red beets, peeled and cut into 1/2-in/12-mm dice
1 tsp kosher or fine sea salt
1 large yellow onion, cut into 1/2-in/12-mm dice
1 tbsp fresh thyme leaves
1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper
6 large eggs
In a 12-in/30.5-cm frying pan, preferably cast iron, heat 2 tbsp of the oil over medium heat and swirl to coat the pan. Add the sausages and brown on all sides until cooked through, about 8 minutes. Remove the sausages from the pan and set aside to cool.
Reduce the heat to medium-low, add the remaining 2 tbsp oil, and swirl to coat the pan. Add the potatoes, beets, and salt and sauté just until coated with the oil, about 1 minute. Cover and steam for 5 minutes, stirring once. Add the onion and stir to incorporate, then re-cover cook, stirring once or twice, until the onion is softened, about 7 minutes longer.
Meanwhile, cut the sausages into rounds 1/4 in/6 mm thick. Set aside.
Uncover the pan, increase the heat to medium-high, and add the thyme and pepper. Stir to dislodge any bits stuck to the pan bottom, then continue to sauté the potatoes and beets until tender, about 10 minutes longer. Gently fold in the sliced sausages and cook until heated through, about 2 minutes longer. Taste and adjust the seasoning.
Using a large spoon, make 6 shallow depressions in the hash, spacing them evenly around the pan and putting one in the center. Carefully crack an egg into each depression. Cover the pan, reduce the heat to medium, and cook the eggs until the whites are set and the yolks are still runny, about 5 minutes. Serve immediately, topping each egg with a sprinkle of salt and pepper.
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Cory Doctorow Vancouver Kidsbooks
by Dan
Events + Fiction + Science Fiction and Fantasy + Vancouver / September 28, 2012
If you live in Vancouver and you're asking yourself "when, oh when, can I meet Cory Doctorow?" I want to let you know that you don't have long to wait!
The outspoken and controversial author/blogger/podcaster will be giving his take on technology, sci-fi and writing at West Point Grey Unitied Church Sanctuary in Vancouver on Sunday October 21 staring at 7pm. Organized by our amazing friends at Kidsbooks, tickets are $23.50 each and include a copy of his new book Pirate Cinema .*
Kidsbooks Cory Doctorow Vancouver Event
Sunday October 21st at 7:00pm
OffSite venue:
West Point Grey Unitied Church Sanctuary
4595 West 8th Ave., Vancouver BC
Download flyer (PDF)
*The book will be available for pickup from October 2/12, or at the event, WITH THE PRESENTATION OF THE TICKET.
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Hilary Davidson BC Crime Tour
by Dan
Events + Fiction + Mysteries and Thrillers + Vancouver / June 13, 2012
Award-winning Canadian crime-writer Hilary Davidson (The Damage Done, The Next One To Fall) is visiting the fair province of British Columbia next week, kicking off a tour of bookstores and libraries with fellow authors Ian Hamilton, Robin Spano and Deryn Collier with an event at the W2 Media Cafe in Vancouver on Sunday afternoon. Full details of the tour, which includes Squamish, Richmond and Burnaby, are below. See you there?
Sunday June 17 2012: Vancouver, 2-5 p.m.
Real Vancouver Crime: Join Sean Cranbury of Books on the Radio as he hosts The Crime Tour (Hilary Davidson, Ian Hamilton, Robin Spano and Deryn Collier) for an afternoon of readings at W2 Media Café (111 West Hastings St., Vancouver; 604-689-9896) on Vancouver's Lower East Side. Open to the public; $5 cover.
Monday June 18 2012: Squamish, BC, 6:30pm-8pm
Murder in the Woods: The Crime Tour (Hilary Davidson, Ian Hamilton, Robin Spano and Deryn Collier) travels up the Sunshine Coast to the Squamish Public Library (37907 2nd Avenue, Squamish, BC; 604-892-3110) for an evening of chatting mystery and writing in the wooded beauty of the Sea-to-Sky highway. This event is free and open to the public. Books will be for sale on site by Armchair Books.
Tuesday June 19 2012: Vancouver, 1pm-3pm
Come down to Chapters on Robson & Howe (788 Robson Street, Vancouver, BC; 604-682-4066) to meet and visit with The Crime Tour authors (Hilary Davidson, Ian Hamilton, Robin Spano and Deryn Collier).
Tuesday June 19 2012: Richmond, BC, 7pm-9pm
A Mystery Evening to Die For: Join The Crime Tour authors (Hilary Davidson, Ian Hamilton, Robin Spano and Deryn Collier) for a full evening of author readings, a panel discussion on the writing process and a lengthy Q&A at the Richmond Public Library Brighouse (Main) Branch (100-7700 Minoru Gate Richmond, BC; 604-231-6422). Books will be available for sale on site from Dead Write Books.
Thursday June 21 2012: Burnaby, BC, 7pm-8:30pm
“Triple Threat: Chicks Who Solve Crime!” featuring Hilary Davidson, Robin Spano, and Deryn Collier at the McGill Branch of the Burnaby Public Library (4595 Albert Street, Burnaby, BC).The program is free but the library asks that people sign up in advance online, or by calling 604-299-8955.