Stephen Weir articles, editorials and popular social media weir postings

K.J Mullins interviews Toronto writer Camilla Gibb Camilla Gibb believes in keeping journals, in fact her students at June Callwood Professor in Social Justice are required to keep one during their studies using an actual pen for the art of writing. With five award winning books under her belt Gibb knows the importance of catching those moments that may be forgotten if not written down in the moment.  Camilla Gibb Camilla Gibb is the author of 'This Is Happy,' one of the five shortlisted books for this year's RBC Taylor Prize to be announced on March 7 in Toronto. Snow was falling outside as we sat in the lobby at Toronto's King Edward Hotel to discuss her book and how life has changed since it was written.  Gibb said that her book was documenting a moving target (the birth and first few years of her daughter's life) while looking back to her own upbringing. That moving target, life in motion, has grown in the two years since the book was written.

Buy Book Lovers Canada's Best Nonfiction From 2014 (Charles Taylor Prize Longlist Announced!) Originally Posted on Huffington Post: 12/17/2014 5:20 pm EST Updated: 12/18/2014 1:59 pm EST     It is almost Christmas, the stretch run that authors and publishers in Canada live for. As the clock ticks down book buying consumers push some book genre sales an amazing 280 per cent. The industry watchdog Booknet Canada explains the book buying frenzy as consumerism fueled by "desperation dollars." Former Booknet Canada CEO (and now president of Kobo) Michael Tamblyn once described it as the " 'What Do I Buy for Dad? Effect.' All categories see a meteoric rise during the December rush. Book buyers seem to save their trickiest recipients until the end (this week)!" Publishers plan for the Buy For Daddy Effect and release hundreds of n

. BIG NAMES. SRO EVENT. SPONSORED BY RBC TAYLOR PRIZE RBC Taylor Prize for Literary Non-Fiction Spotlight: We Were Here First   with  Thomas King ,  Lee Maracle ,  Samual Watson  and  Waubgeshig Rice . "We weren't concerned because we never thought you (white people) would stay ..." laughed  First Nation's author Lee Maracle at  last night's RBC Taylor Prize for Literary Non-Fiction Spotlight: We Were Here First.  Well-known CBC Host (not that one - it was CBC videographer Waubgeshig Rice) had asked Maracle and three other celebrated indigenous writers from Canada and Australia to comment on the evening's theme  - We Were Here First. The Friday evening book event was an integral part of the closing weekend of Harbourfront's International Festival of Authors.  The festival, now in its 35th year, brings the world's biggest names in literature to a number of Harbourfront stages  along Toronto's waterfront. The  Friday night panel had two fa

It has been a good year for the Massey Murder (http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/stephen-weir/charlotte-grays-true-toro_b_6004036.html#es_share_ended) Ottawa author Charlotte Gray   is the winner of the 2014 Toronto Book Award for her non-fiction book,   The Massey Murder: A Maid, Her Master and the Trial that Shocked a Country.  She is 40th author to capture Toronto's annual literature prize.  Gray $10,000 win was announced at last night's award ceremony, held at the downtown Toronto Reference Library.  "I offer my warm congratulations to  Charlotte Gray , who has drawn an unforgettable portrait of   Toronto's   social life at the beginning of the 20 th   century," said Acting City Librarian   Anne Bailey . "In telling the true story of   Carrie Davies , the maid who shot a  (famed)  Massey ,   Charlotte Gray   captures the class conflict and societal upheaval that marked our city's reinvention of itself at the onset of the Great War. As the author no

 . APRIL 2nd – Big Big Day For Three Canadian Book Prizes Today is an important day for three book prizes – one prize announces its grand winner tonight, while two other prizes announce their shortlists this morning . In Ottawa this evening, the Writer’s Trust will be awarding the Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing . The winner will receive $25,000, the runner-ups received $2,,5000. The shortlist has five authors including one who is a past RBC Taylor Prize winner and one a RBC Taylor Prize finalist: • Margaret MacMillan - The War That Ended Peace: The Road to 1914 • RBC CTP winner: Charles Montgomery - Happy City: Transforming Our Lives Through Urban Design • Donald J. Savoie -Whatever Happened to the Music Teacher? How Government Decides and Why • RBC CTP Finalist Graeme Smith -The Dogs Are Eating Them Now: Our War in Afghanistan • Paul Wells - The Longer I’m Prime Minister: Stephen Harper and Canada, 2006 – This morning the John W. Dafoe Boo

Three Major Cultural Events Staged On Just One (Very Cold) Day In Toronto (Culled From Popular Weir Social Media Posts) MORNING, JANUARY 21st. Carlton Theatres, downtown Toronto Fabienne Colas Colas' advice to Toronto? Buy tickets early (like today) Award winning-actress, director, producer and film festival founder Fabienne Colas advises film lovers to buy tickets to her Toronto Black Film Festival as soon as possible.  " Like today! Don't be disappointed, these are great films and will sell out fast" Colas hosted a morning press briefing at the Carlton Cinema to introduce the line up to this year's festival.  33 films from around the world will be shown at the Festival between February 11th and 16th at the downtown Toronto Carlton Cinemas, the TIFF Bell Lightbox theatre and the Al Green Theatre. Keynote films include From Above (starring Danny Glover), Grigris (Chad's choice for the Oscar's Best Foreign Film category) and director Chris Eska