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Winnipeg Free Press
Books Section
March 2, 2008

By Ariel Gordon


McNally Robinson Booksellers owners Paul and Holly McNally have been named to Quill & Quire's new Canlit 30, which features "the most influential, innovative, and just plain powerful people in Canadian publishing."

Published in the March issue of the writing and publishing trade magazine, the list lauds the McNallys for running "the most aggressive and impressive mini-chain in the country."

McNally Robinson Booksellers -- the Robinson part of the name comes from former CBC personality Ron Robinson -- made headlines recently when it announced it would be closing its store in Portage Place and moving to a new location in Polo Park.

The McNallys are also opening a store in October in Toronto. They currently have outlets in Saskatoon and Calgary, as well. Their daughter Sarah runs a McNally Robinson in New York City.

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The final ballot for this year's U.S. Nebula Awards in the novel category includes Toronto's Nalo Hopkinson.

Hopkinson's The New Moon's Arms is the story of Chastity "Calamity" Lambkin and the half-drowned toddler who washes up on the stretch of beach outside her Caribbean island home.

Hopkinson is no stranger to the Nebulas, sometimes called the "Academy Awards of Science Fiction." Her novels Midnight Robber and The Salt Roads made the final ballot in 2001 and 2003, respectively.

Her 1998 novel Brown Girl in the Ring was included in this year's CBC Radio Canada Reads competition but failed to win.

The Nebulas will be presented in Austin, Texas, on April 27.

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Winnipeg's Heartland Associates has purchased Canadian rights to the first installment of a new mystery series by local historian and novelist Allan Levine, Quill & Quire reports.

Set in 1870s New York, Evil of the Age introduces journalist Charles St. Clair in "an engaging story about political corruption, abortion, and murder."

Local press Great Plains Publications published Levine's first mystery series, featuring turn-of-the-century Winnipeg detective Sam Klein.

Levine, a St. John's-Ravenscourt School history teacher is also the author of two recent non-fiction books with McClelland & Stewart, Scattered Among the Peoples: The Jewish Diaspora in Ten Portraits (2002) and The Devil in Babylon: Fear of Progress and the Birth of Modern Life (2005).

Levine has also been commissioned by the Jewish Heritage Centre of Western Canada to pen a popular history on Jewish life in Manitoba, which will hit the shelves in 2009.

Q & Q did not have an Evil of the Age publication date, but Levine himself says it is set for mid-May. The launch at McNally-Robinson Grant Park is May 14.

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According to Statistics Canada's 2006 Survey of Household Spending, released this week, spending on reading materials decreased five per cent to $260.

Newspapers and periodicals fared no better, dropping seven and 10 per cent respectively.

The survey is based on interviews conducted from January to April 2007 from a sample of more than 21,000 private households in all 10 provinces.