The Assiniboia and District Public Library hosted a noon-hour author read and lunch to mark Saskatchewan Book Publishing Week on October 5 in Assiniboia. On hand were two representatives from SaskBooks, Daniel Parr, programs director, and Victoria Utman, project coordinator for Book Publishing Week, as well as new authors Catherine Milos and Courtney Bates-Hardy who read excerpts from their books.
As visitors munched on a selection of cold cuts, fruits and cakes, Utman spoke about Saskatchewan Book Publishing Week and the importance of supporting the province鈥檚 authors. Milos discussed with the audience aspects of self-publishing and read from her Angels and Avalon series about a para-normal investigator. She noted that self-publishing opens up opportunities for writers who would never get published in traditional publishing houses. She explained the self-publishing process which is not easy. It requires the writer to not only write the book, but also be involved in the business and marketing sides as well.
Bates-Hardy illustrated a different route to publishing. She worked with the small publisher Jack Pine Press, a niche publisher, to produce a small hand-made book of poetry called Sea Foam. She worked with artist Faith Logan to design the book. The books used two types of paper, including a special Japanese paper, that creates an underwater look.
Bates-Hardy read several poems from this book on fairy-tale themes such as 鈥淭hree Girls鈥� and 鈥淢editations on Yellow鈥�. She also read a brand-new poem for the first time called 鈥淭he Bride of Frankenstein鈥�.
The Assiniboia stop marks the last day in the tour that took Utman and Parr from La Ronge and Prince Albert in the north to Assiniboia in the south. The tour also stopped in Ogema and Weyburn later in the day.
SaskBooks serves as a good resource about publishing for writers in the province. SaskBooks is Saskatchewan鈥檚 provincial creative industry association for book publishers. It receives support from Creative Saskatchewan, Canada Council for the Arts, Canada Book Fund from the Department of Canadian Heritage, SaskCulture, Access Copyright Foundation, and Friesen鈥檚 Book Division.
