Shameless publisher Stacey May Fowles has been honoured with a pick in the National Post’s Canada Also Reads panel of books for her novel Fear of Fighting (Invisible Publishing, 2008).

The Canada Also Reads panel was set up by the National Post’s The Afterword in response to the mainstream CBC Canada Reads, which has sometimes been criticized for showcasing already well-known books. Canada Also Reads put out a call for nominations of books that were relatively new and comparatively unknown. A very long longlist was eventually shortened to five, including Fear of Fighting.

Want to read Stacey May’s novel but can’t shell out $19.95? You’re in luck! The book will be available as a free e-book download from the publisher’s website until April.

As you may have heard, Toronto’s Women Bookstore is in danger of closing its doors. A number of fundraisers have been arranged to help out…
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OPEN CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS!

OTHER TONGUES: Mixed-Race Women Speak Out

Co-editors Adebe D.A. and Andrea Thompson are seeking submissions for an anthology of writing by and about mixed-race women, intended for publication in Fall 2010 by Inanna Publications.

The purpose of this anthology is to explore the question of how mixed-race women in North America identify in the 21st Century. The anthology will also serve as a place to learn about the social experiences, attitudes, and feelings of others, and what racial identity has come to mean today. We are inviting previously unpublished submissions that engage, document, and/or explore the experiences of being mixed-race, by placing interraciality as the center, rather than periphery, of analysis.
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(via flickr user masaaki miyara)

Over two weeks have passed since the death of mystified literary icon, J.D. Salinger, the author of The Catcher in the Rye and creator of its angst-ridden and much-loved antihero Holden Caulfield. Headlines and obituaries emphasize Salinger’s reclusive and secretive lifestyle, mentioning diehard fans’ wild goose chases for the man in his small town of Cornish, New Hampshire.

Although Mikki Halpin at Salon.com says she understands the appeal to see Salinger as a “higher intellect who has rejected it all,” she also finds this portrait of him “curious,” suggesting it conveniently bars the public from facing some uneasy assertions about the late writer’s relationships with women.

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It’s no secret that I adore Sarah Kramer and her amazing vegan cookbooks. I’ve profiled her pocket-sized Vegan A Go-Go and interviewed her for my Shameless Women column. Now the 10th Anniversary Edition of How It All Vegan has been released and it’s better than ever!

Ten years after its first release HIAV is still one of the most popular vegan cookbooks around and a staple of any vegan cook’s kitchen.

I had the chance to interview co-author Sarah Kramer about the success of the book, the continuing rise in veganism, and even tried a few recipes from my very own treasured copy of How It All Vegan 10th Anniversary Edition (check out a pic of the results below).

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Our long-anticipated issue #13 is finally here!

Now hitting newsstands and mailboxes near you!

Inside:
* Cut your own hair! Our love letter to DIY, plus some great projects to get you started
* Unpack before you pack! What you need to know before volunteering abroad
* The history and politics of hoodies
* The skinny on the word “skinny”
* Why campus radio is an important feminist space
* Why boys need a Shameless of their own
plus comics, reviews and more!
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The 2009 Scream Literary Festival Presents
Youth These Days: The Scream Youth Workshop
Sunday, July 12th, 2009 – 1 pm
The Loop Studio at Wychwood Barns
601 Christie Street, Toronto
Cost: PWYC

The book may be dead, but words aren’t. What’s old is new again —
narrative hip hop music is a dynamic occurrence of a thriving oral
literary tradition. Led by hip hop artist Paul Sackichand and professional
storyteller Rico Rodriguez, the Scream’s youth workshop provides an
opportunity to learn how to add suspense to your rhymes and rhythm to your
stories—participants will get to create, as well as perform, their own
narrative raps.

There’s a great write-up of the She’s Shameless launch and an interview with editor Megan Griffith-Greene, posted on BlogTO:

When I was a kid there was Chickadee magazine and then Owl, and then the thinking girl was unceremoniously dumped off the science train of the Mighty Mites, and into the world of Tiger Beat.

“Maybe you can think big thoughts again when you’re older,” the magazine rack seemed to say. “But the teen and pre-teen magazines that tide you over until then will be wholly populated by doe-eyed boys, glossy ads for lip gloss, and vanilla-flavoured sex tips. Be prepared for a solid decade where your interests are presumed limited to bangles and boyfriends.”

Then 2004 rolled around, and a Canadian upstart broke through these piles and piles of flippant frou frou and frizz — Shameless, a magazine “for girls who get it.”

Read the entire post here.

(L-R) She’s Shameless on sale now, Teen Workshop Leader and celebrated author Ibi Kaslik, Megan signs books. Image via BlogTO.

Also, check out coverage and a great photoset of the event on Newsfix:

She’s Shameless, a compilation from emerging and established female writers, shares honest, intimate, sometimes embarrassing stories about growing up. Edited by Stacey May Fowles and Megan Griffith-Greene, the magazine’s publisher and editor-in-chief, this book talks about things most people experienced in their teenage lives but were too ashamed to speak up about.

The anthology is in bookstores now, so you can order or buy it from your local independent, ask for it at your local library, or get it online here or here.

Author Virgina Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own is an eloquent argument in support of the idea that a woman, should she want to pursue her own dreams and goals, must have a measure of financial and material independence.

For Woolf this was because:

Intellectual freedom depends upon material things. Poetry depends upon intellectual freedom. And women have always been poor, not for two hundred years merely, but from the beginning of time. Women have had less intellectual freedom than the sons of Athenian slaves. Women, then, have not had a dog’s chance of writing poetry. That is why I have laid so much stress on money and a room of one’s own. (Full essay here)

(If you have not taken the time to read this brilliant but dense essay I urge you to do it. It is a great argument, although long.)

So it was surprising to me to read the headline “Females who rent weigh less”. The subhead? “Home-owning women outweigh their renting counterparts by an average of 12 pounds.” That’s right ladies, do not try to own property - you may think it leads to a greater degree of financial security, and thus more social power and control over your life circumstance, but in fact it just makes you fat. And we all know fat, stressed out, property-owning ladies are not as good as skinny, care-free, renting ladies.

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