For anyone still struggling with choosing a New Year's resolution, how about "I resolve to learn the name of one Canadian writer in 2009."
Preferably, you will learn this name by purchasing and reading a Canadian book. And if this resolution doesn't seem difficult enough, you could try "I resolve to introduce at least one friend to an excellent Canadian book this year."
Why the resolution? Because the National Post finished 2008 with some of the most depressing news Canadian writers and publishers have seen in a long while:
"Almost half of Canadians could not name a single Canadian author unprompted, according to results of a government-sponsored survey."
And apparently those who could name an author named ... well... how to put this politely?... very few young (or actually alive) authors. Margaret Atwood, Farley Mowat and the late Pierre Berton were the most frequent names given.
Entire lists of Canadian authors, and their books, can be found on the websites of Ontario's excellent literary publishers, in the links section of the righthand menu on this site.
the book room: novelist, John Degen interviews other writers, and talks about copyright way too much
1 comment:
I have seen this article posted and commented on a number of times during the last week (or so) and it never fails to depress me. I'm going to start polling my friends to see what Canadian authors they can think of just because I am curious as to where everyone stands.
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