Winners of the 3rd Edition of Canada's National Book Collecting Contest Annouced

Canada’s Third National Book Collecting Contest for Young Canadians under thirty years of age

The Bibliographical Society ofCanada (BSC), the W.A. Deacon Literary Foundation (DLF), and the Alcuin Society are pleased to announce the winners  

FIRST PLACE $1,000

Aesop’s Fables 

Samuel Jang 27 (Victoria, BC)

SECOND PLACE $500

The Imaginary of Books: Homosexualities, Images, and Texts

David Fernández 28 (Scarborough, ON)

THIRD PLACE $250

Tasteful Books 

Gideon Foley 25 (Saskatoon, SK)

Since the three winners are from Victoria, Scarborough and Saskatoon we have had to change the presentation of the prizes this year. The Bibliographical Society of Canada (BSC) AGM will be held on  Monday the 28 May 2012 at the University of Waterloo, ON. The BSC will announce the current winners at their AGM and present the cash prize for the Second Place winner from Scarborough. 

The W.A. Deacon Literary Foundation, with the Alcuin Society, will be presenting the cash prize for the First Place winner from Victoria, BC at a special event.

Monday 28 May 2011 @ 7:00 - 8:00 p.m.

Simon Fraser University Vancouver Campus

Room #2260 - 515 West Hastings Street

Vancouver, BC 

Current sponsors for the third 2011-12 contest include ABE Books, the National Post, CBC Books and Hemlock Printers.

This years winning essays will be uploaded onto the BSC and ABE Books website. 

Our AGM Speaker: John Pass of High Ground Press

We hope you will be able to attend this year's AGM and talk. Once again, we will serve a dessert buffet (but no dinner). Below is a complete schedule of the evening.

AGM: Tuesday, June 19, 2012
6:00 pm     Doors open; award winning books on display; Cash bar will be open

6:45 pm     Alcuin Society AGM

7:15 pm     Dessert bar

7:45 pm     Guest Speaker begins

9:00 pm     Event ends

Place: UBC Golf Club, 5185 University Blvd., Vancouver, BC

We're pleased to announce that John Pass of High Ground Press will be our guest speaker.

The talk will be preceded by a short AGM, for interested members. The AGM portion of the evening is open to members only; the guest speaker is open to the public.

The winning books from the 2011 Alcuin Awards for Excellence in Book Design in Canada will be on display. The awards will be given at another ceremony on Friday October 18 at the Vancouver Public Library.

If you would like to attend the lecture and dessert buffet on June 19, please RSVP and send prepayment at a cost of $22 per person.

RSVP required.

Contact Howard (604)733.1204 or Leah (604) 732.5403 for changes or to bring additional guests.

You can mail your RSVP to us at this address:

The Alcuin Society
PO Box 3216
Vancouver, B.C.
V6B 3X8

Canadian Books Recognized at 2012 Leipzig Competition

Frankfurt, Germany – The Stiftung Buchkunst, based in Frankfurt, Germany, curators of the international exhibition "BEST BOOK DESIGN FROM ALL OVER THE WORLD" at the Frankfurt and Leipzig Book Fairs, selected the 2012 award-winners (books published in 2010) in an international competition on February 3-4, 2012. The awards were presented at the Leipzig Book Fair in March 2012.

The Stiftung has just released their list of awards. Of 540 books submitted by 31 countries, 14 prizes were selected; five Canadian designers were honoured to have their books among the shortlisted titles. The Alcuin Society would like to congratulate the designers and publishers of these books:

 

• MARVIN HARDER, designer (Montreal, QC): Relations on Southeastern Hudson Bay by Toby Morantz (Avataq Cultural Institute)
  
  

• EMMELYNE PORNILLOS (1218A), assisted by LAURIE CASTILLOUX-BOUCHARD, designers; Liz Broes (Em Dash), jackets; Aurèle Parisien (IPCI-Canada), director of production (Montreal, QC): The Conservation, Restoration and Repair of Stringed Instruments and Their Bows edited by Tom Wilder (IPCI-Canada)
  

 

• JESSICA SULLIVAN & NAOMI MACDOUGALL, designers (Vancouver, BC): The Little Hummingbird by Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas (Greystone Books).
  

The 37 Canadian books on exhibit, participants in the international competition, were submitted by The Alcuin Society to the Stiftung. These books were the winners of the 2010 Alcuin Society Awards for Excellence in Book Design in Canada, held in March 2011. The collection has been donated to the German Book and Type Museum in Leipzig, where it will be available for consultation and exhibitions. The winners of this year's Alcuin Society competition will be forwarded to the Stiftung later this summer.

Information about the Stiftung Buchkunst may be found at:
http://www.stiftung-buchkunst.de/

The Alcuin Society is a Vancouver-based non-profit society for the support and appreciation of fine books. In addition to the annual Book Design Competition, the Society publishes a quarterly journal, Amphora, and organizes lectures, workshops, exhibitions, and field visits on various aspects of the book. Further information on the Alcuin competition may be obtained from awards at alcuinsociety.com.

For a PDF version of this press release, click here.

Best Canadian Book Designs of 2011 Announced

Stan Bevington, Bonne Zabolotney, & Ingrid Paulson judging the Alcuin Awards

Vancouver, BC - The Alcuin Society has announced the winners of its 30th annual Alcuin Society Awards for Excellence in Book Design in Canada. The winning books will be exhibited in Germany at the Frankfurt and Leipzig Book Fairs; in Japan, at the Canadian Embassy in Tokyo, in conjunction with the Tokyo International Book Fair; and, in Canada, in eight provinces. Exhibition venues will be posted on our web site. They will also be entered in the international book design competition in Leipzig, Germany in February 2013.

Bonne Zabolotney, Stan Bevington, & Ingrid Paulson above.

This year's judges, Stan Bevington, Ingrid Paulson, and Bonne Zabolotney, selected 35 winning titles from 252 entries, from 9 provinces and 103 publishers.

 

This year's winners have been posted to the Alcuin Society website. You can also view this list of winners as a PDF press release.

More photos will be posted to the Alcuin flickr account in the coming days. A catalogue of the winners will begin production shortly, and the awards will be given out this fall in both Toronto and Vancouver.

Congratulations to all the winners!

Alcuin Patron Honoured with a Queen's Jubilee Award

Congratulations go out to our longtime supporter and patron Yosef Wosk, who will receive the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Medal from the Governor General of Canada through the Canadian Museums Association in recognition of his exceptional contributions to Canadian culture and heritage. From the Governor General's website:

A new commemorative medal was created to mark the 2012 celebrations of the 60^th anniversary of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II’s accession to the Throne as Queen of Canada. The Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal is a tangible way for Canada to honour Her Majesty for her service to this country. At the same time, it serves to honour significant contributions and achievements by Canadians.
During the year of celebrations, 60 000 deserving Canadians will be recognized.
The Chancellery of Honours, as part of the Office of the Secretary to the Governor General, administers the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal program.

Congratulations Yosef!

Toronto: Two Typoscrumptious Happenings Upcoming

Andrew Steeves of Gaspereau Press recently wrote on his blog:

...I'll be participating in a couple of events at the University of Toronto and Massey College at the end of the month, where I’ll be talking about printing, the state of literary publishing and the art of fine typography. Wherever I start, I’ll most likely end up talking about ecology, economics and civics too, putting the issues facing ‘the book’ into some sort of historical context. I’m into that kind of thing.

The events are open to the public, and I’d love to meet some of our Toronto readers and authors. If you live in that neck of the woods and are interested in the way we like to roll at Gaspereau Press, please come out to one or both of these events and make sure you take a minute to say hello.

Get the Lead Out, a symposium of letterpress printers includes Stan Bevington, Briam Maloney, Will Rueter, and Andrew Steeves. The event takes place at Massey College Wednesday, March 28, 2012 3pm - 4:30pm.

The following day, the Ecology of the Book, an illustrated talk by Andrew Steeves takes place at the Jackman Humanities Building on March 29, 2012 1pm.


The events are sponsored by the Dean's Student Initiative Fund in the Faculty of the Arts and Science at the University of Toronto and by Massey College.

Grimsby Art Gallery presents their 34th Wayzgoose

Coming the last Saturday in April, the Grimsby Art Gallery in Ontario presents the 34th edition of their Annual Wayzgoose Bookarts Fair.

April 28, 2012, 9am - 5pm
FREE ADMISSION

GRIMSBY PUBLIC ART GALLERY
18 Carnegie Lane, Grimsby, Ont. L3M 1Y1
Ph: 905-945-3246 Fx: 905-945-1789

twitter.com/TheGPAG

grimsbypublicartgallery.blogspot.com

From their website:

Each year on the last Saturday in April practitioners of traditional book related crafts including letterpress printers, printmakers, paper makers and hand bookbinders gather at the Grimsby Public Art Gallery to present their work to the public, renew connections with colleagues and share their expertise with the next generation of artists and artisans.

Started in 1979, Wayzgoose was a small gathering of friends and colleagues that attracted about 300 visitors. Since then it has grown into an eagerly awaited annual event with an attendance of between 2000 and 2500 people. Participants and visitors come from across Ontario, from Quebec and from the North Eastern states. There are also often a few travelers from Europe, Japan and across the U.S. who find their way to Grimsby to enjoy and appreciate this fascinating craft.

Wayzgoose provides a wonderful opportunity to experience first-hand the traditions that turned us into a literate society. This annual book arts fair brings together private presses from all across Canada and the United States representing the renewal of old friendships, the beginning of new ones, and the appreciation for handmade book and paper arts.

Demonstrations and displays of paper making, book binding, calligraphy, paper marbling, and book making celebrates the love of fine art, fine craft, and stories.

Workshop: Simple Sewn Bookbinding Structures with Adele Shaak

This announcement has come to our attention, and we thought it would be worthwhile to feature here. Sponsored by The BC Lower Mainland Chapter of the Canadian Bookbinders and Book Artists Guild, this workshop costs $60 for CBBAG Members and $75 for non-members, plus there is a $10 materials fee for all students.

Date and Time: Sunday April 22, 2012 10am - 2pm
Room C509, Langara College, 100 West 49th Avenue, Vancouver BC, V5Y 2Z6

In this one day workshop students will make four books, including a pamphlet, two stab-stitch bindings (one with up and down stitching, the other with Japanese binding), and one multi-section book. They will come away with ideas for variations on those structures. They will also explore different ways of covering the books, and of providing lettering, labels, and other cover decoration. Adele will provide the pages and cover materials for the books. Paper will be pre-cut. Adele will bring extra supplies "in case speedy types have a chance to make another book."


Please email the organizers to register before Sun, Apr 9, 2012.