David Adams Richards recommends Michael Pacey's "brilliant" The First Step as one of the books to best explain his home turf of New Brunswick in The Globe & Mail's "Booked: A literary travel guide for the stay-at-home vacationer." http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/booked-a-literary-travel-guide-for-the-stay-at-home-vacationer/article12885203/

Signature Editions is once again taking part in the Fictionistas Author Tour from May 27 to June 4. Three of our authors--Stella Harvey (Nicolai's Daughters), Mary Hagey (Castles in the Air) and Judith Alguire (A Most Unpleasant Wedding, The Pumpkin Murders, Pleasantly Dead)--will be appearing in several cities across Canada for readings, and the special bonus of presenting a locally crafted knitting project based on their book.

More information, and details regarding each tour event, can be found at The Official Fictionistas Website.

Excellent news! Signature Editions has officially sold the translation rights to two of our well-known backlist titles: the French translation rights to Linda Leith’s non-fiction book, Writing in the Time of Nationalism (2010), sold to Leméac Éditeur of Montréal, and the Greek translation rights to Stella Leventoyannis Harvey’s first novel Nicolai’s Daughters (2012), sold to Psichogios Publications of Athens. More information will be forthcoming on the release of these translations in the coming months.

Poet Carolyn Marie Souaid, author of Blood is Blood, Snow Formations, and October, is interviewed and profiled on Poetry Quebec. Read the full interview here.

Endre Farkas and Carolyn Marie Souaid were declared winners at the ZEBRA International Poetry Film Festival which took place October 18th to 21st in Berlin, Germany.

Their videopoem, Blood is Blood, won in the category “Best Film for Tolerance” a prize worth 3,000 EUR created this year and sponsored by German Federal Foreign Office. The videopoem, which speaks to the ongoing turbulence in the Middle East, beat out El Sakia (The Water Wheel) from Egypt and the Turkish entry, Limewashed House in the Dark.

The ZEBRA festival is the largest and most important poetry film festival, biennially attracting film makers, poets and artists from around the world to Berlin. Of the 870 films submitted from 63 countries this year, the program committee nominated 33 for the various competitions.

Signature Editions will be at the St. Norbert Market on Saturday, August 18th, taking part in a co-operative bookselling initiative with the AMBP. We will be selling select titles from 8 am - 3 pm, and there will be various children's authors reading that day, as well. Feel free to drop by, say hi, and pick up something delicious for your weekend!

Carolyn Marie Souaid and Endre Farkas' video poem Blood is Blood has been selected for this year's programme at the 6th ZEBRA Poetry Film Festival, taking place in Berlin. Blood is Blood is a collaborative book-length poem for two voices, dealing with the bloodshed in the Middle East, a version of which was commissioned for CBC Radio in 2006. For more information, and to view the trailer, check out the Blood is Blood book page.

Margaret Macpherson was presented with the 2012 NorthWords Prize, awarded to an outstanding book set in the NorthWest Territories, for her new novel, Body Trade.

At the Manitoba Book Awards gala on Saturday, April 28, Alison Preston was awarded the Margaret Laurence Award for Fiction, Manitoba's premier fiction award, for The Girl in the Wall.

Follow the adventures of the fabulous Fictionistas this spring as they head across the country! For all the latest news and to find out how your book club can get involved (and get free books), go to: http://fictionistascanada.wordpress.com/

In December 2011, CBC journalist David Gutnick visited Richard Sommer at home near Freligsburg. He interviewed Richard and recorded him reading poems from his recently released Cancer Songs. Shortly after Richard's death, when the documentary played on CBC Montreal's Cinq à Six, Vicki Tansey, Richard's wife and partner of more than 40 years, listened in studio and was interviewed by Jeanette Kelly. Hear the reading and interview here: Richard & Vicki on 5 à 6

It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of Richard Sommer, on February 13, 2012 after a courageous battle with cancer.

Richard was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2004 and his recently published verse journal Cancer Songs was an important part of his response to this challenge. As Richard said, these were songs of refusal to go under, to surrender to the undertow of the disease, songs of newly discovered yearning, courage and awe. Despite the pain and suffering, or perhaps because of it, he recognized that there was also a heightening, a vividness and intensity of perception, a kind of awakening that resulted from experience of dealing with cancer.

Richard’s love of music ran deep and he was an accomplished flautist who in his later years volunteered in hospitals and personal care homes, playing for the sick and elderly. He also had an enthusiasm for dance; when some might retreat to their rocking chairs, he performed with his wife of more than forty years, dance improvisationalist, teacher, and artist Victoria Tansey.

The author of ten books of poetry — Cancer Songs, The Shadow Sonnets, Fawn Bones, Selected and New Poems, The Other Side of Games, Milarepa, left hand mind, Blue Sky Notebook, and Homage to Mr. Macmullin — Richard also taught poetry for many years at Concordia University and will be remembered by many as an engaged and generous teacher. Others will remember him as an ardent environmentalist. He served for three decades as a volunteer game warden in the Eastern Townships of Quebec, and led, with others, a citizens’ environmental group in a seven-year battle, ultimately successful, to save the Townships’ Pinnacle Mountain from developers.

May you rest in peace, Richard.

The Toronto Star's Whodunit columnist Jack Batten chooses Alison Preston's The Girl in the Wall as one of his Top 10 Mysteries of 2011.

Alison Preston guest blogs on CBC Radio's Manitoba Scene

Genni Gunn is travelling the blogosphere. Today she is the guest poster on Savvy Verse & Wit

The votes are in, and J.R. Léveillé's The Setting Lake Sun / Le soleil du lac qui se couche is the winner of the 2011-2012 On The Same Page competition! Thank you to all who made this win possible!

Genni Gunn's Solitaria is reviewed in Top Mystery Novels.

Genni Gunn's novel Solitaria has been nominated for the Giller Prize, Canada’s most distinguished literary prize, awarding $50,000 annually to the author of the best Canadian novel or short story collection published in English. The award was established in 1994 by Toronto businessman Jack Rabinovitch in honour of his late wife, literary journalist Doris Giller

Genni Gunn's Solitaria is reviewed on Jenn's Bookshelves.

Genni Gunn's Solitaria is reviewed on Bookslut.