Tuesday, December 02, 2008

Announcing EarLit Shorts: a new series of audio short fiction anthologies


Canadian fiction anthologies with a difference — you can read them while you drive a car, ride a bike, walk a dog, put your feet up, close your eyes.

Tors Cove, Newfoundland and Labrador – December 2, 2008.

Rattling Books is proud to announce its new adventure in “literature to listen to” with the release of EarLit Shorts, a series of audio short fiction anthologies. The first three volumes are now available. Four more are planned for 2009.

Edited by Susan Rendell and Janet Russell, each EarLit Shorts anthology features a selection of previously unpublished works by Canadian authors. Stories are narrated by a variety of voices, including the authors’. EarLit Shorts are available as MP3 CDs or as iPod friendly digital downloads.

EarLit Shorts 1
Stories by Joel Thomas Hynes, Carmelita McGrath and Kathleen Winter.

EarLit Shorts 2
Stories by Prudence Grieve, Catherine Hogan Safer, Russell Wangersky and Claire Wilkshire.

EarLit Shorts 3
Stories by Richard Cumyn, Jessica Grant, Steven Heighton, Susan Rendell, Patrick Warner and Emily White.

Launch

On Sunday December 7 from 2 – 5 pm books and a selection of authors will be at Chapters in St. John’s, NL. Join us later at the Ship Inn, St. John’s, NL 8 – 10:30 pm to celebrate the launch of EarLit Shorts with readings and nibbles.

The Authors

Joel Thomas Hynes's Down to the Dirt won the Percy Janes First Novel Award and is now a feature film. His second novel, Right Away Monday, was published by HarperCollins in 2007.

Carmelita McGrath's story collection Stranger Things Have Happened (Killick Press, 1999) won the Writers' Alliance/Bennington Gate Newfoundland Book Award and was short-listed for the Thomas Head Raddall Atlantic Fiction Award.

Kathleen Winter’s story collection, boYs (Biblioasis 2007), won the Metcalf Rooke Award and the Winterset Award. Her fiction has appeared in leading Canadian and UK literary journals, and has appeared in Best Canadian Stories (Oberon, 2008).

Prudence Grieve’s work can be found in The Eye in the Thicket: Essays at a Natural History (Thistledown Press, 2002).

Catherine Hogan Safer’s first novel Bishop's Road (Killick Press, 2004) was nominated for the Amazon.ca/Books in Canada First Novel Award.
Russell Wangersky’s short story collection, The Hour of Bad Decisions (Coteau Books, 2006)) was short-listed for the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize, Best First Book (Canada and the Caribbean).

Claire Wilkshire’s short fiction can be found in the Burning Rock anthologies Hearts Larry Broke and Extremities. She and John Metcalf are the co-editors of Writers Talking.

Richard Cumyn is the author of four collections of short fiction and a novella. His work has appeared in The Journey Prize Anthology.
Jessica Grant was the 2003 recipient of the McClelland & Stewart Journey Prize. Her first novel will be published by Knopf Canada in 2009.

Steven Heighton has received numerous awards for his poetry and short fiction, including the Gerald Lampert Memorial Award and the Petra Kenney Prize.

Susan Rendell’s fiction has appeared in The Journey Prize Anthology; her short story collection was a runner-up for the Danuta Gleed Literary Award and won a Newfoundland and Labrador Book Award.

Patrick Warner's book of poetry, There, there (VĂ©hicule Press, 2005) won the E.J. Pratt Poetry Award. Mole will be published by House of Anansi Press in 2009.

Emily White’s work has appeared in Adbusters, The Ecologist and The Journey Prize Anthology. McClelland & Stewart will publish her non-fiction work, The Empty Room, in 2009.

Rattling Books

Rattling Books is a “so small, we’re fine” Canadian audio press, publishing poetry, fiction, and historical outdoor adventure non-fiction audiobooks from a perch overlooking the Northwest Atlantic.

Rattling Books has won three Earphones awards from the U.S. magazine AudioFile. AudioFile selected our edition of Montreal Stories by Mavis Gallant as one of the twelve best audio fiction books for 2007, placing us in the company of Penguin Audio, Random House Audio, Harper Audio and BBC Audiobooks America.

Consumers can obtain Rattling Books audio book CDs or downloads directly from rattlingbooks.com.

Rattling Books are distributed in Canada through House of Anansi Press by HarperCollins. U.S. orders are handled directly by Rattling Books. Digital distribution for libraries is through Overdrive.com. Additional information is available on our website.

Contact
If you are interested in reviewing EarLit Shorts titles or radio play, please contact the publisher:

Janet Russell Email: info@rattlingbooks.com
Phone: (709) 334-3911