In its 4-year existence, the Youth Peace-Poem Competition hosted by IPPWA and executed by the Live Poets' Guild has seen wondrous change and growth in the poems our kids submit and in their engagement with verse and music.
In 2011, PR kids contributed 3,385 lines of poetry to the International Peace Poem, more than ever before. Almost 450 poems were submitted and judged by a panel of a dozen judges. Shari Ulrich, of UHF and Pied Pumkin fame, led the Poem-to-Song workshop in its third year and produced some memorable songs which we will hear on PR occasions and abroad for years. (www.shariulrich.com) Read more »
by E. van Loon, Editor
R U Speshul, Ed? has gone into hiding to transform itself into a book. Welcome to a new column by the CHPPPR (Community Heritage Publishing Project Powell River) putting a spotlight on local authors and books. CHPPPR is a community project dedicated to local writing, editing, publishing and book manufacture—in ways far greener than the publishing world of the past. Powtwon, as some call our community, can be Booktown, a center for communities near and far to find books and produce their own through our growing facilities and expertise. CHPPPR aims not only to grow a new sustainable industry for Powell River but within five years to hear it said far and wide that Powtown IS Booktown! Read more »
The Community Heritage Publishing Project Powell River now has an office in Oceanview School and a Project Manager, Eva van Loon.
The purpose of the project is to turn Powtown into Booktown, and to develop, within five years, a cadre of people versed in permutations and combinations of writing, editing, publishing, and manufacturing trade paperbacks right here in Powell River. The green quality of the project will be enhanced by the acquisition of an Espresso Book Machine and the use of—we hope—locally made and recycled papers.
The Project Manager hopes CHPPPR will become part of the core of activities that could, within a few years, become a school of the fine arts providing a new economic engine for Powell River. Although this dream is still far from realisable, the first step, according to the Project Manager, is engaging the entire community with the written word. Once Powell River has easy and immediate access to publishing its many voices, doors into all the arts, and the technical support for them, will open more often and more quickly.
A CHPPPR focus group will meet on the afternoon of February 16 to envision the first and second phases of the project. If you have a interest in the arts in Powell River and wish to be part of the focus group or to be kept in the loop, please contact the Project Manager by email: mettalaw@gmail.com.
by Eva van Loon
The Community Heritage Publishing Project Powell River center on the acquisition of an Espresso Book Machine (EBM), also known as “an ATM for books.” CHPPPR plans to raise $150,000 to purchase the machine by the end of the school year.
EBMs manufacture quality trade paperbacks in a few minutes each, just like books in bookstores. The EBM makes two kinds: up to three million books from its own catalogue, or any book plugged into it in PDF, provided it has a b/w interior and does not exceed certain sizes.
When a book is bought from the EBM catalogue, the royalty and profit due the publisher and author is automatically tracked back to them by the EBM. When a book is published locally through the EBM, the EBM owner can give the publisher a wholesale price on a flat fee per book, eliminating—for the first time in history—the economics of scale for the publisher.
Local publishers can “permission” books through the EBM, connected to Ingram’s, the world’s biggest book distributor, thus achieving instant distribution wherever EBMs are located.
As the EBM proliferates around the world, both the need to warehouse and ship books, and the habit of printing more books than actually needed, will dwindle—the EBM takes a giant step towards a green publishing industry.
The difference between the cost of making a book on the EBM and the SRP (Suggested Retail Price) leaves enough room for a wholesale cost structure with levels to benefit non-profits, institutions, small presses and self-published entities.
For the first time, local writers, families and organisations will have access to publishing real books for just a few hundred dollars, rather than the thousands now required by other publishing and manufacturing methods.
by Barb Rees
Fooled you? You thought the Winners chain was coming to PR? No such luck, but even better, Powell River Writers Conference has been holding contests since its inception in 2003, turning up winners in words, year after year. This year’s fall contest reflected a Centennial theme. We are proud to regularly have entries from afar and this year was no different: the top winning entry came from Saanichton. Congratulations, G. E. Thompson!
Gwen Thompson resides in Saanichton but heard about the contest through her mother, who had moved here. Both mother and daughter are taking part in the NaNoWriMo, a 50,000-word novel project to be completed during the month of November.
Heidi Sullivan, an avid fisher, writes how-to fishing books and is now working on her first novel. She has been involved with the PR Writers’ Conference for many years.
Stay tuned for a fun 2011 contest along with the 8th annual Powell River Writers’ Conference, April 15 and 16. Contact www.prwriters.org.
Centennial
One small, smooth hand rests in another, the latter lined with age.
The small hand belongs to a four-year-old boy. This year, the boy’s great-grandfather will receive a letter from the Queen.
They sit quietly with their heads together, solving the problems of the world. Or possibly, why worms come up when it rains. On a nearby park bench, a woman smiles, watching her son and her grandfather.
She is aware of how precious this is—how little time her grandfather may have remaining. Yet his white teeth still shine when he laughs, tousling the child’s hair. The child’s great-grandfather has been his hero since the day he was born, and opened blue eyes to meet brown.
The sun is setting on the horizon. Below her the park runs from grass to sand. Seagulls swoop and dive, calling to each other. She feels as though the world around her is frozen in time.
CHPPPR (Community Heritage Publishing Project Powell River) is about to be born as an initiative of PRESS (Powell River Educational Services Society).
A fund-raising project will soon be rolled out to earn Powell River its very own Espresso Book Machine. The goal? $150,000 by the end of 2010!
Until recently, publishing a Powell River book meant the investment of thousands of dollars and the use of printing, manufacturing, or publishing companies outside Powell River. The summer of 2009 saw the publication of Powell River’s first totally locally made book, the youth-peace-poem anthology Can You hear Peace? This milestone was reached by the Live Poets’ Guild and CMG Printing’s bringing in a perfect-binding machine, which facilitates binding one book at a time, by hand. The ground-breaking Can You Hear Peace? was followed by the publication of Kaimana Wolff’s Bitters and Katje van Loon’s glasstown, using the same method. While a great improvement, this method is labor-intensive and slow, which in turn makes it difficult to produce a cost-effective book.
The discovery of the Espresso Book Machine promised to change all that. “All those years of practising law had to be good for something,” laughs Eva van Loon, who first read about the EBM in a report of a contracts-and-copyright case in a legal newsletter. “At first I thought, Oh-oh, this makes our little publishing initiative obsolete, but as soon as I understood what the EBM does, I realised the real revolution in publishing has begun—and Powell River can be at the head of the change.
by Barb Rees
Are you ready to take your writing to the next level? Do you need more tools in your writing kit? You’re just starting out and want encouragement? All this and more awaits you as the former Festival of Writers, all grown up into a world-class Writers’ Conference, celebrates its 7th anniversary.
Presenters include Heidi Greco with “The Prickly Art of Self-Editing” and award-winning author Brian Brett on creative non-fiction with “Writing Your Life.” Federation of BC Writers’ Director Sylvia Taylor offers a master class on “Building Your Professional Platform: A Blueprint for Success.” Canadian Association of Authors’ President, Anthony Dalton, brings his master class, “Don’t Give Away All Your Rights: Understanding Publishing Contracts.” Back by popular demand, the writing contest, this year entitled “So You Think You Can Write”, offers cash prizes and conference registration. Join us for entertaining opening ceremonies on April 30 at Dwight Hall as Powell River’s version of American Idol judges take on the contest winners. Contestants will write poetry or prose using “Take it to the next level” as the theme.
A West Coast Writers’ Banquet on May 1 at 6:00 p.m wraps up the weekend with entertainment. Everyone welcome!
For the first time, PRWC Society is offering sponsorship to people who are serious about writing but have financial difficulties. Businesses or individuals have the opportunity to sponsor a writer’s $120 registration or a portion thereof. Writers who want to be considered should write a letter outlining how serious they are about writing, why financial circumstances make it a hardship to attend, and what they can pay towards registration. Sponsors’ names are posted online and on some promotional material. Send requests or offers to sponsor to: Powell River Writers Conference, #14-7624 Duncan St. Powell River, V8A 5L2 Read more »
by Eva van Loon
Words have been diligently watered over the summer in Powell River, with spectacular new results: a second anthology of our kids’ peace poems, several totally local books out of two new publishing houses, and a wave of word-wrighting activity in the community.
Live Poets’ Guild have published PRIPPA 2009: Can You Hear Peace? This is Powell River’s first totally locally written, edited, published, and manufactured perfect-bound book. Not only does it make a great memento of Powell River or Christmas gift, it is the first step in affordable, accessible community publishing.
A new local publishing house, The Pack Press, has published glasstown, a poetry collection by young local poet Katje van Loon, a 23-year-old VIU student. The Pack Press accepts submissions of literary work and intends to publish a literary journal commencing 2010.
Another new publishing house, situated in Nanaimo but owned by a Powell Riverite, Motley Crew House, has published Bitters, by local author Kaimana Wolff. This suspenseful novella features art by Powell River painter Skye Morrison on the cover and recently brought world-famous Frank Deiter, of Okanagan Spirits, to host an absinthe tasting in honor of launching the book. Like Can You Hear Peace and glasstown, the book is available at Kingfisher and Breakwater bookstores and at Paperworks. At under $20 retail, both books are outstanding examples of local initiative in literacy and publishing, demonstrating to the community the affordability and accessibility of publishing eco-friendly real books right here in our town.
Next on the press are The Pack Press’ Parallel: forty-nine Canadian poets speak to Obama. In this book, some of Canada’s best poets tell Obama something of what it means to be Canadian. Stuff we thought he should know. Read more »
by Martin Rossander
Our ship of state did spring a leak, although festooned with bells and whistles. Who could have dreamed of such a glitch to well laid plans by free-trade tycoons? Were affairs not assured, in full-blown knowledge that market value knows what’s best? For all? CRASH! The Titanic—no less.
So came today’s “Meltdown”, reminiscent of the 1929 stock-market crash. Had you been there, as I was, you’d still remember the lean years that followed: a full decade of hunger amidst plenty, the destruction of produce to bring back prices, the situation finally rescued in great smears of global violence and waste known as World War II. Nevertheless we were repeatedly assured, “Prosperity is just around the corner. Have faith!”
Naughty! Must not point the finger! When one finger points at another, three fingers point back. Why blame elected officials for a situation engendered by grassroots apathy? Politics has neither imagination nor elbow room to cope with anything beyond routine and taxes.
Hear now this clarion call to jumpstart a new initiative: Beyond Survival, last known as a one-hour weekly talk show broadcast by JUMP radio in Powell River, feels obliged to switch to the printed word and invites the community to join in creating think tank #2.. Artists, writers, thinkers, children, housewives, mothers, recyclers, bankers, and bill collectors, give us your thoughts! To all salespersons engaged in furthering consumerism, in an idle moment, jot down your impressions, your “druthers” in a positive vein for inclusion in a soon to be published book—to be published entirely in Powell River! (PR has a new cottage industry—community publishing!)