By: Kenton Smith
HAS Nobel Prize-winner V.S. Naipaul thrown in the towel?
In the space of one week, the veteran British-based writer told The Independent that he “would write one more book and then stop,” then pulled out of the European Writers’ Parliament in Istanbul after Turkish writers threatened to boycott the event because of his past criticism of Islam.
The writers cited comments Naipaul made about the religion the same year of his Nobel Prize win, in 2001.
Naipaul compared Islam to colonialism, saying the religion “has had a calamitous effect on converted peoples. To be converted you have to destroy your past, destroy your history.”
Naipaul, a Trinidadian of Indian descent, is the author of such acclaimed novels as A House for Mr. Biswas and the Booker Prize-winning In a Free State.
— — —
Canadian literary philanthropist Scott Griffin is taking poetry on the road.
Griffin announced the new Poetry in Voice project, a bilingual recitation contest that will award thousands of dollars to students and school libraries. A pilot program at a dozen Ontario high schools is planned to expand to the rest of Canada.
Competing students will be judged according to physical presence, voice and articulation, accuracy and dramatization. Finalists will face off in the spring.
Griffin is founder of the Griffin Poetry Prize, the world’s largest prize for a first edition single collection of poetry written in English.
— — —
CBC Radio host Grant Lawrence will appear in Winnipeg Sunday to promote his debut book, Adventures In Solitude: What Not to Wear to a Nude Potluck and Other Stories from Desolation Sound.
Lawrence will provide a reading, slideshow and signing at McNally Robinson at 2 p.m.
Lawrence is host of the CBC Radio 3 Podcast and has guest-hosted numerous other radio shows and music festivals. The book describes how B.C.’s Desolation Sound shaped his life in music, and the country’s history.
— — —
The University of California Press has had its biggest success in 60 years with the Autobiography of Mark Twain, Vol. 1, an official with the publisher has told the New York Times.
The first print run was for 50,000 copies; the book has now gone back to press six times, for a total print run of 275,000 to date.
— — —
For local scribes with too many distractions at home, the Manitoba Writers’ Guild has two writing studios for lease; the first is available starting Dec. 1, 2010, the other starting Jan. 1.
The studios in the Artspace building at 100 Arthur St. rent for $100 a month and are available for either a six-month or one-year lease to MWG members.
Interested parties should contact the guild at [email protected] or 944-8013.
Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition November 27, 2010 H8
via PAPER CHASE: V.S. Naipaul says he’ll stop after one more book – Winnipeg Free Press.
Leave a Reply