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VBC 'Views -- Your Literary Weekend

ReVIEWS, preVIEWS, interVIEWS, and overVIEWS: here's where you'll find out what the Vancouver Book Club team thinks about the literary scene in Vancouver. What you should read, where you should go, who you should sit up and notice.

Here in Vancouver, Thursdays are the start of the weekend for those of us who love words and books and the people who bring them to you.

ReVIEWS, preVIEWS, interVIEWS, and overVIEWS: here's where you'll find out what the Vancouver Book Club team thinks about the literary scene in Vancouver. What you should read, where you should go, who you should sit up and notice.
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The next four days are pretty packed with book launches, celebrations, video poetry, readings and workshops. Most of the events are FREE while the rest are reasonably priced.

Thursday

If you plan things right tonight you'll be able to get in a double dose of book launches and 5-year anniversary parties.

Tightrope Books presents the launch of the latest iteration of The Best Canadian Poetry in English. Launched in 2008, the Best Canadian Poetry Series each year features fifty Canadian poets, drawn from Canadian literary journals and magazines.

Celebrating the 5th anniversary of the series will be hosts (and poets) Dina Del Bucchia and Nathaniel Moore, with readings by Jordan Abel, Joy Russell, Anna Swanson, Keith Maillard, Rhea Tregebov, Daniel Zomparelli, Karen Correia Da Silva, and Ray Hsu.

You can preview the book here.

7:00 pm (readings start at 7:30)

Montmartre Café, 4362 Main Street

Free Admission

A little later in the evening Saltspring Island-based Mother Tongue Publishing marks its 5th anniversary with the launch of  111 Westcoast Literary Portraits. This book by photographers Barry Peterson and Blaise Enright features rare portraits of emerging, midcareer and well-known writers who have lived in B.C. It is a culmination of a project that began in 1997, and each photograph is accompanied by an excerpt from the subject's writing.

Twelve of the photos will be on show tonight, and a number of the images are exhibiting throughout the province, including a current showing at the Burnaby McGill library. A detailed list can be found at the Mother Tongue website.

doors at 8:00 pm, with brief talks beginning at 8:30 pm

Heritage Hall, 3102 Main Street

Free Admission

Friday

Hosted by Sean Cranbury, the evening is also the Vancouver launch of Gordon's new short fiction collection Cosmo. Dress for the weather as there's sure to be a lot of pop culture references flying around.

The reading brings together authors representing Talonbooks, Nightwood Editions, Pedlar Press, Ferno House, Tightrope Books, Coach House Books, and will be sponsored in part by Geist Magazine.

Friday, October 12, 2012

7:00 pm (readings start at 7:30 pm)

W2 Media Café, 111 W Hastings Street

Free Admission

Dina Del Bucchia and Nathaniel Moore are pulling double duty this weekend, this time facing off in a Vancouver vs Toronto literary smackdown. Local scribes Del Bucchia and Elizabeth Bachinsky take on Moore and Spencer Gordon in this Real Vancouver Writers Series event at W2.

Saturday

Visible Verse Festival

Integrating verse with media-art visuals, the 2012 Visible Verse Festival presents almost 50 video poems selected from entries received from more than 50 international artists. Curated by Vancouver poet, author, musician, and media artist Heather Haley, the event also hosts Alberta artist Phillip Jagger, who will perform his poetry and present "Reigning In Chaos: Words Into Video", a hands-on workshop demonstrating the use of handcrafted video, the Kaos pad, iPod and video jamming software.

Saturday October 13 - Pacific Cinémathèque, 1131 Howe St.

4 - 6 pm: Phillip Jagger performance and workshop - FREE

7 - 10 pm: Screenings - $10-12 for the single bill of all screenings

Tickets can be purchased online or at the door.

A full list of the films can be found at the Pacific Cinémathèque website.

Saturday & Sunday

Create. Collaborate. Celebrate.

Aboriginal Writers Collective West Coast and the Asian Canadian Writers' Workshop is hosting a series of writing workshops and reading events this weekend as a way to celebrate community and cultural collaboration between Asian Canadian and Aboriginal communities in the Greater Vancouver area.

Workshops (at Strathcona Community Centre, 601 Keefer Street)

Saturday October 13, 9 am - 12 pm: Ancestors

Saturday October 13, 1 - 4 pm: Youth

Sunday October 14, 9 am - 12 pm: Speculative Fiction

Sunday October 14, 1 - 4 pm: Land/scapes

Workshop details can be found at ricepapermagazine.ca/ccc. Workshops fees are 1 workshop for $30, 2 workshops for $40, and 3 workshops for $50. The Youth workshop is free!

Readings

Saturday Oct. 13, 7-9 pm, Rhizome Café, 317 E. Broadway

Readings by Joanne Arnott, Fiona Tinwei Lam, Janet Rogers,  Mercedes Eng, and Workshop participants.

Sunday Oct. 14, 7-9 pm, Native Education Centre, 285 East 5th Ave, Vancouver
Readings by Daniel Justice, Hiromi Goto, Jordan Abel, Rita Wong, and Workshop participants.