Don McKay becomes a Member of the Order of Canada

Congratulations to Don McKay.

The Government of Canada has included author and publisher Don McKay on the list of Canadians recognized for excellence, courage or exceptional dedication to service in ways that bring special credit to this country.

Don McKay was one of the latest contributors to Canadian culture to be named a Member of the Order of Canada.

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In 2008 Don McKay released an audio recording of his poems selected on the themes of birds, birding and flight. Entitled Songs for the Songs of Birds, the poems were selected and read by the author and accompanied by field recordings of birds by Dave Fifield.

On the fourth day of Christmas my favorite audiobook publisher gave to me!

On the fourth day of Christmas

my favorite audiobook publisher

gave to me

40% off

on a feast of formidable audiobooks



May happiness betide you!

They are Married by Claire Wilkshire, narrated by the author, is now available as a downloadable short fiction single from Rattling Books

New Single Available from EarLit Shorts 2

They are Married
by Claire Wilkshire

narrated by the author
from the short fiction audiobook EarLit Shorts 2
is now available as a downloadable short fiction single from Rattling Books.

The True Meaning of Crumbfest airs on CBC Radio's WAM this Saturday

The True Meaning of Crumbfest

by David Weale

performed by Antonia Francis

(when she was a wee five years!)

will air this Saturday on CBC Radio's Weekend Arts Magazine in Newfoundland and Labrador. Anyone not on the dial can tune in online.

The True Meaning of Crumbfest was originally published by Acorn Press of Prince Edward Island in 1999. It won the Ann Connor Brimer Award for Children's Literature in that year.

The unabridged audio edition by Rattling Books won an Earphones Award from AudioFile Magazine.

You can hear it this Saturday and again on January 27 on CBC Radio here. Or you can mail order the CD or purchase a digital download here.

New Page for Canadian Libraries interested in ordering Rattling Books

Rattling Books has long had a wonderful full service e-commerce site for the consumer at rattlingbooks.com.

We are now developing a sattelite site to serve the Library Market.

We invite Library audiobook buyers in Canada to bookmark the following page where we will continue to develop helpful information to assist you in selecting Rattling Books audiobooks for your library.

Information for Canadian Libraries interested in purchasing Canadian audiobooks published by Rattling Books.

Word of the week: gaffer

Word of the week over at our REDEFiNE iT: Dictionary of Newfoundland English blog:

gaffer

Brought to you each week by Rattling Books, an audiobook publisher overlooking the Northwest Atlantic.

Russell Wangersky's Burning Down the House on the B.C. National Award for Canadian Non-fiction short list

Russell Wangersky is on the short list for the 2008-09 B.C. National Award for Canadian Non-fiction, at $40,000 the richest non-fiction book prize in the country.

Read all about it in today's Globe and Mail.

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Russell Wangersky is also included in the recently released EarLit Shorts series of audio short fiction anthologies from Rattling Books. Russell can be heard reading his story McNally's Fair from the EarLit Shorts 2 collection while actor Charlie Tomlinson narrates the story, Echo.

Mom by Catherine Hogan Safer narrated by the author is now available as a downloadable short fiction single

Mom

by Catherine Hogan Safer
narrated by the author
from the short fiction audiobook EarLit Shorts 2
is now available as a downloadable short fiction single from Rattling Books.

Carmelita McGrath imagines a memoir by Camilla Coaker

To Be My Father's Daughter
Written by Carmelita McGrath
with research/writing by Sharon Halfyard
and edited by Marion Cheeks

Educational Resrouce Development Co-operative (ERDC)
St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador
2008

ISBN 978-0-9688806-2-3

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"William Coaker shaped Newfoundland's history. He was the man who showed Newfoundlanders that organizing themselves gave them the power to try to make their lives better.

To Be My Father's Daughter is a fascinating memoir by his daughter Camilla, his only child. Although it is in part a work of imagination, it is based upon the unique and hitherto largely-unused papers and photographs which she kept - remembrances of her father, always a distant and remote figure in her life. Sharon Halfyard and Carmelita McGrath have given us an interesting and important book. Fascinating in its own right, the book offers new and challenging insights into one of the most imporant Newfoundlanders of all time."

Honourable Edward Roberts
Former Lieutenant Governor Newfoundland and Labrador

(review quote featured on the book jacket)

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Recent fiction by Carmelita McGrath can be heard in the EarLit Shorts audio short fiction series from Rattling Books.

The Princification Process by Jessica Grant, narrated by the author is now available as a downloadable short fiction single from Rattling Books

The Princification Process
by Jessica Grant
narrated by the author
from the short fiction audiobook EarLit Shorts 3
is also available as a downloadable short fiction single from Rattling Books.

McNally's Fair by Russell Wangersky, narrated by the author is now available as a downloadable short fiction single from Rattling Books

McNally's Fair
by Russell Wangersky
narrated by the author
from the short fiction audiobook EarLit Shorts 2
is also available as a downloadable short fiction single from Rattling Books.

Word of the Week (Dec 7 - 13): larrigan

Word of the Week over at REDEFiNE iT: Dictionary of Newfoundland English

larrigan

Each week Rattling Books brings you a word of the week from the Dictionary of Newfoundland English.

Doubleness, the Disease of Life by Patrick Warner, from EarLit Shorts 3 also available as a short fiction single from RattlingBooks.com

Doubleness, the Disease of Life

by Patrick Warner

narrated by the author

from the short fiction audiobook EarLit Shorts 3

is also available as a downloadable short fiction single from Rattling Books.

EarLit Shorts readings at Chapters and the Ship Inn Sunday, December 7

This Sunday, December 7, there will be two events to launch Rattling Books' new EarLit Shorts series of audio short fiction anthologies:


Chapters Bookstore, Kenmount Rd., St. John's
2 - 5 pm

The publisher will be in the store to answer any questions and the following authors will read from their work at 3 pm. There will be copies of all three of the EarLit Shorts series of audiobooks for sale.


Joel Thomas Hynes

Catherine Hogan Safer

Russell Wangersky

Claire Wilkshire



Ship Inn, Duckworth St. , St. John's
8 - 10:30 pm


Join us for a celebration of the EarLit Shorts series. There will be food and readings.

Eat, drink and be merry.

There will be copies of all three of the EarLit Shorts series of audiobooks for sale.


The following authors will read from their work at around 8:30 pm:


Jessica Grant

Carmelita McGrath

Patrick Warner



Hope you can join us for one or the other or both.


If not, EarLit Shorts, volumes 1, 2 and 3 are all available from our website at rattlingbooks.com.

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 (Véhicule 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

New Single available from the audiobook edition of Open by Lisa Moore

One by one Rattling Books is making the short stories in various short fiction audiobooks available individually as singles. Here's the latest.

The Stylist by Lisa Moore (Short Fiction Single) narrated by Holly Hogan is now available as a digital download short fiction single from Rattling Books.

Listening Time: 27 minutes

The Stylist is drawn from the unabridged audiobook collection of short fiction entitled Open. The unabridged audio book edition of Open is also available from Rattling Books as both an MP3-CD and as a Digital Download.