News

« Headlines

Canada's shot in the arm

26.02.08

A radio show is providing a glimmer of light for Canada's book business, reports the Globe and Mail. Canada Reads, CBC Radio One's annual "battle of the books" the seventh instalment of which begins its five-day run this week, is now second only to the Scotiabank Giller Prize in drawing attention to the splendors of Canadian fiction. The show has also been known to raise up books from the dead, or at least the Twilight Zone.

BookNet Canada CEO Michael Tamblyn thinks Canada Reads succeeds precisely because it doesn't ape the traditional awards programs or events which are "about the new book, the new author, the current state of literature today." And since the country's big fiction prizes, the Giller and the Governor-General's Awards, happen in the busy fall season, "the decision to hold it in the February-March time frame is a really nice shot in the arm for the industry".



Globe and Mail

International Canada

See Also