We Are Not “Albertas Press”

After receiving a stinging rebuke via email, we realized that we had unintentionally been caught in the backlash of a recent announcement by London-based Albertas Press that they would be bringing back into print copies of Mein Kampf. The rebuke ended, “I  hope that as a result of this your company loses all credibility.”

We intensely desire to retain our credibility… So, for the record, the University of Alberta Press is not associated in any way with Albertas Press nor its publishing decisions.

McClelland & Stewart and Tundra Now Owned by Random House

This news is very discouraging. Here is what the Association of Canadian Publishers’ executive director had to say about the change in ownership for these two flagship publishers.

 The takeover of McClelland & Stewart and Tundra by a multinational corporation has been a dispiriting start to the new year. Although the transition of these two venerated houses from independent Canadian publishers to branch-plant imprints has been a gradual one, they have now landed at the bottom of the slippery slope with quite a thud. The final transfer of these quintessentially Canadian assets into the hands of foreign interests reflects the inadequacy of the net-benefit test and the ways in which it is applied.

The good news is that where once there were only a few Canadian publishers championing our authors and bringing them to a national and then an international audience, there are now many. Anansi continues its ride on the best seller lists; D&M/Greystone and Anvil both have books on the short list for the Taylor Prize announced this week. We congratulate them, and all the other independent publishers who carry on the legacy of Jack McClelland and May Cutler: an industry built on passion for great writing and commitment to the literary and cultural vitality of our country.

Carolyn Wood, Executive Director
Association of Canadian Publishers

On the Edmonton Journal’s Bestsellers List…

The Edmonton Journal’s Bestseller List of January 08, 2012 includes two books published by the University of Alberta Press. Congratulations to both authors on this achievement!

#1 - The Grads Are Playing Tonight! by M. Ann Hall

# 5 - Intersecting Sets by Alice Major

“People of the Lake” Wins Victor Turner Award

People of the Lakes: Stories of Our Van Tat Gwich’in Elders 

Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation and Shirleen Smith

This is, I believe, the third time that the Turner Prize Committee has decided to make an extraordinary award for the humanistic achievement of a project rather than the writing per se. The overall category of collaborative research and oral history encapsulates the goals of SHA in that the ethnography part of ethnographic writing is the sine qua non of our disciplinary credibility.

This year we acknowledge the Vuntut Gwitchin oral history project. The community’s anthropologist, Shirleen Smith, is less visible on the surface than most anthropologists as authors and we are delighted to have her with us today. Shirleen and I go back a long way, to the University of Alberta back in the dark ages. I first came to know Old Crow, Yukon Territory, through reading the Edmonton Sun columns of Edith Josie reprinted from the Whitehorse Star. Old Crow has also been mightily visible in the world outside its boundaries through its stewardship of the porcupine caribou herd and now shares its traditional knowledge of land and community through this elegant volume of texts and photos—kudos to U of A Press.

The text is organized by generation to reflect the real-world mode of transmission of knowledge, a longitudinal perspective that animates the dynamism of oral tradition by linking generations through experience-based narratives of known and named persons. “Long-ago Stories” come from the generations no longer remembered by name; the first generation of elders were interviewed in the 1980s and speak about 19^th century rapid changes. The second generation of elders, many of them still active, were the last generation to live fully on the land. Oral history continues today in the teamwork on the oral history project by young people from the community and in the archive they have built together around the words of generations of elders. It is a pedagogical resource for the community and for outsiders seeking to understand the continuity of traditional ways in northern communities despite extensive consequences of historical events.

Regna Darnell
Chair, Victor Turner Award Committee
Society for Humanistic Anthropology
University of Western Ontario, Anthropology

Regna Darnell and Shirleen Smith

Gift Ideas for Book Lovers

It might be a very last minute idea, but if you are still looking for holiday gifts, see what Susan Toy, writer, promoter of authors, and friend of the University of Alberta Press has come up with as possible gifts for those readers on your list. On her page, All you need for Christmas are books by Alberta authors, she created a list of books that includes three published by the University of Alberta Press.

• Rudy Wiebe: Collected Stories, 1955–2010 [Rudy Wiebe]
• Intersecting Sets: A Poet Looks at Science [Alice Major]
• Will the Real Alberta Please Stand Up? [Geo Takach]

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Canada’s Best Team. EVER!

With a 95% winning average, this team IS Canada’s best team ever, yet The Grads Are Playing Tonight! is the first book documenting their unmatched success.

Between 1915 and 1940, the amazing Edmonton Grads dominated women’s basketball in Canada. Coached by J. Percy Page, they played over 400 official games, losing only 20; they travelled more than 125,000 miles in Canada, the United States, and Europe; and they crossed the Atlantic three times to defend their world title at exhibition games held in conjunction with the Summer Olympics in Paris, Amsterdam, and Berlin.

What made these remarkable women so incredibly successful? M. Ann Hall’s meticulously researched and documented the story of the Edmonton grads, including capsule biographies of all 38 women who played for the Grads over the years and over 100 photos.

“This wonderful work by M. Ann Hall is like opening a time capsule. [She makes] this now so difficult-to-believe story believable.”  -Terry Jones, sports columnist

“As a group of women basketball players, we were proud and happy to be members of this remarkable team, and I believe their exploits will never be equalled. When you finish reading this book, I’m sure you will agree with me.” – Kay MacRitchie MacBeth, former Edmonton Grad

Check out a short video on The Historica Dominion Institute’s website about the Edmonton Grads.

I used to like Monika, but…

My friend and colleague, Monika, went off to Cuba and left us to -20 C. weather. Knowing that she’s enjoying cooling drinks and 30-plus temperatures while we are freezing is rather hard to take.

Don’t be fooled — this grin is actually a grimace. Yup. I used to like Monika…

Walking to work and wishing I was in Cuba.

And now, Monika has thrown down the gauntlet…er…towel. Here is an image from her trip. Quite the contrast.

Kick up Canadian Finals Rodeo Week with Geo Takach!

What is the real Alberta? Is it cowboys, blue skies, oil, all that larger-than-life stuff? It’s all that, and then some… Come celebrate the greatness and the craziness of Wild Rose Country in a special Rodeo-Week screening of the documentary film Will the Real Alberta Please Stand Up? by Geo Takach.

Art Gallery of Alberta                              
2 Sir Winston Churchill Square
Edmonton, Alberta
Tel: 780-422-6223
Email:  info@youraga.ca

Wednesday, November 9, 7:00-8:30 p.m.

Geo will be in attendance with his book — also cleverly titled Will the Real Alberta Please Stand Up? and published by the University of Alberta Press — to hear your thoughts and take your questions right out of the chute!

Cultivating Canada

The Aboriginal Healing Foundation released a new book, Cultivating Canada: Reconciliation through the Lens of Cultural Diversity, edited by Ashok Mathur, Jonathan Dewar and Mike DeGagne. This is the third book in a three-volume series addressing the complex notion of reconciliation in a national landscape, featuring 29 essays by new Canadians and those outside the traditional settler communities, representing the diverse cultures of the nation.

This book is free to anyone who is interested in reading it and can be obtained by writing to the Aboriginal Healing Foundation. If  you’d like to use it as a teaching instrument in classes, write to the editor, Ashok Mathur, explaining what you need and he can put in an official request to supply copies, to be shipped at no charge.

Intersecting Sets, Another Great Book Launch

On October 18th, we launched Alice Major’s new book, a collection of essays, Intersecting Sets: A Poet Looks at Science, at the Milner Library Theatre. The launch, a collaboration with LitFest, was very well attended. Alice was joined on stage by playwright David Belke and by audio artist Shawn Pinchbeck.

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We all thoroughly enjoyed the night, including the steady beat of the drumming circle next door (!), and would like to congratulate all for a remarkable program. Alice, David, and Shawn were fabulous, provoking new ideas and conversations that will persist for some time.

Don’t miss LitFest’s Facebook page; they have posted some great pictures of the CBC Centre Stage panel discussion that took place between Alice and François Paré on October 13th at noon.