25th Trillium Award

Five Things Literary: Stratford, Ontario with Marthe Jocelyn

 
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Open Book: Ontario welcomes Tundra author Marthe Jocelyn, who has stopped by to contribute Five Things Literary about her hometown of Stratford. This week Marthe Jocelyn is travelling through a host of great literary blogs on a virtual book tour for her inspiring new release, Scribbling Women: True Tales from Astonishing Lives.

For links to previous stops on her tour and to find out where she'll be next, go to Talking with Tundra. And you can join the tour on Facebook and Twitter (they will be using the hashtag #ScribblingWomen).

CONTEST!
With the blog tour, Tundra is giving away an amazing contest prize: A collection of Marthe Jocelyn books, which include books for the very young to young adults. To enter the contest, you simply need to leave a comment on any (or all!) of the blog posts on the "Scribbling Women" blog tour. The contest closes on April 10th. Visit Talking with Tundra to view the complete prize pack!

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Five Things Literary: Stratford, Ontario

1. With a population of 32,000 people and in a time of ebook rampage, Stratford supports seven independent bookstores (including one for children and Book Stage, which specializes in rare and antiquarian books) plus one chain outlet — that?s EIGHT BOOKSTORES!

 

2. The Stratford Public Library was built using funds donated by Andrew Carnegie and opened in 1903. It is now the oldest Carnegie library in Canada still used for its original purpose. Although the librarians — and the collection — would like a little more space, this building (and its marvelous staff) is a real treasure.

 

3. Countless book clubs and unofficial writing groups add to the culture of writing being a good and valued occupation. The Stratford Chefs School hosts a Writer-in-Residence each year to promote eloquent writing about food (the magnificent Ian Brown has just finished his time here), and we proudly support an online magazine called Start that features monthly profiles of local literary figures (among other artists).

 

4. Many writers have made Stratford a home base, and several books have highlighted Stratford as a setting, including one of my childhood favourites, Lyn Cook's Pegeen and the Pilgrim (Tundra Books), about the first summer of the theatre festival named below.

 

5. The Stratford Shakespeare Festival has celebrated a mighty scribe for 59 years, along with dozens of other playwrights and a few book and poetry writers as well. As home of the largest theatre festival in North America, Stratford has no shortage of words...

 

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Toronto-born Marthe Jocelyn is the award-winning author and illustrator of over 20 books. Her picture book Hannah?s Collections was shortlisted for the Governor General?s Literary Award for Illustration and her novel Mable Riley won the inaugural TD Canadian Children?s Literature Award. Marthe Jocelyn is the 2009 recipient of the prestigious Vicky Metcalf Award for her body of work.

Visit Marthe Jocelyn at her website.

For more information about Scribbling Women: True Tales from Astonishing Lives please visit the Tundra Books website and Talking with Tundra.

Buy this book at your local independent bookstore or online at Chapters/Indigo or Amazon.

Would you like to contribute five things about literary life in your community? Send an email with your ideas to [email protected]

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