“Northrop Frye is Moncton’s most famous son, and we want to celebrate his amazing legacy with the entire community,” says Dawn Arnold, Chair of the Frye Festival. “Frye wrote a lot about how literature helps us to train our imaginations, develop critical thinking skills and the power of literature to create a tolerant and civil society. In 2012, the Frye Festival will continue to feed imaginations will all our regular Festival fare, but we are also thrilled to add exciting projects to our program, like public art, a 24-hour playwriting competition and much more.”

The Frye Festival is pleased to announce the support of Canadian Heritage, as part its Building Communities through Arts and Heritage program, for Frye’s centennial celebrations. The program is designed specifically to increase opportunities for local artists and artisans to be involved in their community and for local groups to commemorate their local history and heritage.

Bronze sculpture of Northrop Frye
The Frye Festival has commissioned three local artists to create a life-size bronze sculpture of Northrop Frye. The commission was awarded to Darren Byers of Byers Harrison Studios Inc. who will be collaborating with artists Fred Harrison and Janet Fotheringham. The three have partnered to create the artwork, which will feature Northrop Frye sitting on a park bench with a book open on his lap. The sculpture will be installed in front of the Moncton Public Library (Downing St. entrance), and the Festival’s hope is to unveil the sculpture in time for Frye’s birthday in July.

Janet Fotheringham has extensive experience in molding and casting and has been doing life sculpture since 1996. Darren Byers has worked as a furniture maker for over 25 years and as a sculptor for the last 18 years, producing commissions and private work throughout North America and Fred Harrison has worked on many murals throughout Canada. In April 2011 Darren and Fred completed “The Workers Memorial” in Saint John, a larger than life size bronze monument to honour anyone who has suffered physical or mental injuries or who has died while on the job in the greater Saint John area. This will be the first time that all three artists have collaborated.

24-hour playwriting competition
The Frye Festival is inviting amateur and established playwrights to take part in a unique 24-hour competition. From 4 pm on Friday, April 20 to 4 pm on Saturday, April 21, individuals will have the chance to prove their writing skills as they write a one-act play about Northrop Frye and/or his ideas. Participants will be fed, caffeinated and encouraged, and will participate in the official language of their choice in one of two categories: student and other. Four winners (one for each language and each category) will walk away with $500. Plays will be judged by Governor General award-winning playwrights Catherine Banks and Herménégilde Chiasson, along with local celebrity and playwright Marshall Button.

The model for the Festival’s 24-hour playwriting competition is based on an established model by the Saskatchewan Playwrights Centre, which has been organizing their event for 15 years.

Special issues of ellipse magazine
A special issue of ellipse magazine will be published to mark the 100th anniversary of Frye’s birth. Under the direction of Jo-Anne Elder, ellipse is mandated with promoting literary translation and intercultural awareness. The Special Edition will feature new writing by authors from the Maritimes and across Canada, all of which will honour this great thinker. An official launch reception will be held on Saturday, April 28 at 4 pm at Moncton City Hall.

Frye Centennial Talk and Conversation between Frye and McLuhan
Professor Ian Balfour of York University will present an original talk on Northrop Frye, the man and the ideas. However, before his presentation, two local actors will present a short, hilarious conversation between Northrop Frye and his contemporary, Marshall McLuhan.

The Frye Festival is also planning many more events and community projects, which will be unveiled throughout the year.

About Northrop Frye
Northrop Frye was one of Canada’s most prominent and celebrated public thinkers and a pioneer in literary criticism. He wrote extensively about symbols in literature and about structure, and his theories attracted international attention. He was considered one of the greatest scholars and thinkers of the 20th century, hailed as the “modern Aristotle” and the “Einstein of the Humanities” after his death. He is also “one of the top dozen most-cited intellectual writers of all time,” with the likes of Plato and Shakespeare.

Frye was born on July 14, 1912 in Sherbrooke, Québec. He was seven years old when he moved with his family to Moncton, New Brunswick, where he developed many of the ideas that he would go on to explore the rest of his life. In 1929 Frye won a typing contest and left Moncton to study at the University of Toronto, where he remained as student and teacher most of the rest of his life. Over the course of his life he wrote more than 20 books, lectured at more than 100 universities around the world, received 39 honorary degrees, won the Governor General’s Award for Literature, was a Companion of the Order of Canada, had a postage stamp created in his image and in 2010 the Northrop Frye School in Moncton was named in his honour.

About the Frye Festival
The Frye Festival is Atlantic Canada’s largest literary happening and Canada’s only bilingual international literary Festival. The 13th edition of the Festival will take place from April 23 to 29, 2012 in the Greater Moncton area. The complete list of authors will be unveiled February 20, 2012. More information about the Festival and its mission is available at www.frye.ca.

Upcoming Events
Pop & Frye with George Elliott Clarke
Monday, March 19, 2012, Navigator’s Pub, Moncton

Pop & Frye with Herménégilde Chiasson (La vieille femme près de la voie ferrée)
Wednesday, March 29, 2012, Théatre l’Escaouette, Moncton

Margaret Atwood

The Frye Festival, Atlantic Canada’s largest literary event, unveiled its spectacular line-up today for the 2011 edition, which will be held from April 25 to May 1^st in Greater Moncton, NB. On the guest list, several prominent writers including the great Margaret Atwood, Charles Foran, Susan Juby, Kenneth Oppel, Shandi Mitchell, Karen Connelly, Jean-Christophe Rufin, and Gilles Leroy.

The 2011 Frye Festival features new events, returning favourites, evenings filled with words and music, afternoons of book clubs, various workshops and a new Poet flyé! Seven days of discoveries and wonderful encounters for the curious, creative, and imaginative of all ages!

“For the 12^th consecutive year, the Frye Festival offers everyone in our community the chance to come together, meet fascinating people, explore new ideas and celebrate our vibrant cultural community,” states Dawn Arnold, Chair of the Festival. “Thirty authors from across Canada and abroad will share their passion for words, stimulate our imaginations and demonstrate the importance of literacy in our world today. Thanks to our partners, volunteers and dedicated team, the Festival is shaping up to be our best ever.”

The line-up

Margaret Atwood is the author of more than forty works of fiction and poetry, essays and books for children, and has received top honours and awards in Canada, the United States, the U.K. and many other countries. Ms. Atwood will give the Antonine Maillet – Northrop Frye Lecture, which will take place on Saturday, April 30 at 8pm at the Capitol Theatre. She will also read at the Festival’s annual gala, Soirée Frye, which will be held Thursday, April 28 at 8pm at the Capitol Theatre. Tickets are $25 ($15 for students) and $20 ($10 for students) respectively.

A doctor, writer and diplomat, Jean-Christophe Rufin was elected to the Académie française in 2008. He is best known for his dedication to large humanitarian organizations (Doctors without Borders and Red Cross). Rufin draws on his experiences to write a rich body of essays, and novels such as L’Abyssin (winner of the Goncourt for a first novel in 1997), Rouge Brésil (Goncourt 2003), and Le Parfum d’Adam. Everyone will have the opportunity to spend An Evening with Jean-Christophe Rufin with host Jean Fugère on Friday, April 29. The author will take part in a roundtable the same day.

Karen Connelly is one of Canada’s most successful younger authors and has written nine books of best-selling non-fiction, fiction and poetry. Her latest novel Burmese Lessons is a love story and memoir of her time in Burma. Karen will be in conversation with Fereshteh Molavi, an Iranian author.

Charlie Foran is the author of ten books, including four novels and the recent biographies Mordecai: The Life and Times (for which he won the Charles Taylor Award for Non-Fiction) and Maurice Richard.  He will be the focus at “Hockey and Hops”, where he will discuss Canadian hockey icon Maurice “Rocket” Richard on Tuesday, April 26 at the City Grill in Moncton.

Susan Juby’s novels have been published all over the world. She is the author of the bestselling Alice MacLeod trilogy, which was adapted into a television series called Alice, I Think. Her latest novel is The Woefield Poultry Collective.

Gilles Leroy is a novelist, short-story writer, and playwright. He has published thirteen works of literature, including Alabama Song, winner of the 2007 Prix Goncourt. He will lead a book club on Wednesday, April 27, at L’Idylle in Dieppe. Tickets are $20 (includes hors d’oeuvre). He will also take part in a roundtable discussion on Thursday, April 28, at noon at Moncton City Hall, and he will read at Soirée Frye the same day.

Shandi Mitchell’s first novel, Under This Unbroken Sky, has sold in eleven countries and won the 2010 Commonwealth Prize. This excellent book on the Ukrainian immigrant experience to Canada during the Depression will be the focus of a book club.

Johanna Skibsrud is the author of two books of poetry, but it was her debut novel, The Sentimentalists, that shot her career to stardom when it won the 2010 Scotiabank Giller Prize. Meet her at an informal book club on Wednesday, April 27.

Sylvia Tyson is a musician, performer, singer-songwriter and broadcaster and during the 1970s was half of the popular folk duo Ian & Sylvia. Sylvia will be at the Festival to discuss her first novel, Joyner’s Dream, a sweeping story of a family’s dubious legacy: an abiding love of music coupled with a persistent knack for thieving.

Other participants include Christine Adjahi, a remarkable and passionate storyteller born in Benin; Tammy Armstrong a poet from NB, Doug Harris, the author of the You, Comma Idiot and Mark Anthony Jarman whose fiction tops Amazon’s list of best hockey fiction.

Meet some of children’s literature’s brightest stars!

Kids will be pleased to meet Geronimo Stilton, the famous mouse from Sourisia, the capital of Mouse Island! Geronimo Stilton has a Ph. D. in mouse literature rodentology and comparative archeomousic philosophy. He is also the editor in chef of the Rodent’s Gazette, the most read newspaper in Sourisia.

Kenneth Oppel is the author of the Silverwing series, which has sold over a million copies worldwide, and Airborn, which won the Governor General’s Award in 2004. His most recent novel is Half Brother.

Annie Groovie has written more than 42 books for children and her character Léon can be seen animated on TV. Students will have the chance to win the opportunity to have Kenneth or Annie visit their school for a day by entering a contest citing the Top 10 Reasons why their school deserves a visit from these superstars!

Martine Latulippe has written over thirty novels for young readers, including the popular Lorian Loubier, Julie, Mouk and Marie-P series. Helaine Becker has written over 40 books for children including the best-selling Looney Bay All-Stars series.

Events

Beer and Books is back for a second year, allowing audience members the opportunity to enjoy a beverage and hear readings by authors in a relaxing atmosphere on Friday, April 29. Also back this year: The Literary Lounge, which will happen on Saturday, April 30 at 4pm in the lobby of the Delta Beauséjour. Everyone is invited to meet the authors, chat, and have a book or two autographed!

Every year, the Festival offers workshops for anyone interested in learning more about the creative process. This year’s Writing for Comedy workshop with Randy Pearlstein (who has written for the Chappelle Show and Ugly Americans) promises to be a hit as he will focus on helping to incorporate comedy into any kind of writing you do: fiction, screenplays, stand-up or sketch. The Festival will also present fiction and poetry workshops, as well as workshops for children at KidsFest.

A new Poet flyé!

A new Poet flyé is joining the Frye team in 2011! Gabriel Robichaud is a young poet, actor, and musician, a graduating theatre student at the Université de Moncton and is currently working on his first poetry collection. He will take over from Jesse Robichaud, so be on the lookout for his “Frye Crown” and make sure you give him inspiration for his epic poem!

Festival goers can still expect popular activities such as Frye Jam, KidsFest, Prelude, Night Howls, the Saturday literary brunch, book clubs and conversations between authors. Several activities will take place on the second floor of City Grill, located on Westmorland Street in Moncton. All specific details will be available by early April at www.frye.ca.

A major literary “happening”!

The Frye Festival program now extends year-round with events such as Community Read, Pop & Frye and Frye Academy (a battle of the books for bilingual high school students). During the Festival, most authors will visit schools throughout the province as part of the Authors in Schools program, impacting more than 10,000 students.

All authors participate in Festival events in the language in which they write. Many events will be broadcast on YouTube and you can follow all the latest breaking Festival news on Facebook, Twitter (@FryeMoncton) and the Festival’s blog (http://fryefan.blogspot.com/).

Tickets for many events can be purchased at www.tickets.moncton.ca today, but there are Festival events for all budgets, with many free or “pay what you can”. For more information about the Festival visit www.frye.ca.

The Frye Academy Award that will be given to the author of the winning book.

It’s time to gear up for the second Frye Academy battle of the books of the 2010-2011 season. Participants will debate Les murs by Olivia Tapiero (VLB éditeur) and Pattern Recognition by William Gibson (Berkley Publishing – Penguin Group). The event will take place at 7 pm on February 16 and will be moderated by Renée Morel, a local filmmaker and avid reader. The battle grounds will be Timothy’s World Coffee located at 735 Main Street in Moncton—and admission is free!

Launched in 2009, the Frye Academy is a component of the Frye Festival’s School-Youth Program that brings together readers from several high schools in the Greater Moncton area. The 16-member student jury reads four shortlisted books by Canadian authors (two in English and two in French) and discusses them during the bilingual debates in order to vote on a winner.

The first public debate of the 2010-2011 season took place in December and the jury debated Tout bouge autour de moi by Dany Laferrière (Éditions Mémoire d’encrier) and Kit’s Law by Donna Morrissey (Penguin Canada). Kit’s Law won the match and is now a contender in the final round. The overall winner will be chosen after the second debate and its author will then be invited by the Festival to come to Moncton to meet with the young readers and receive the coveted Frye Academy Award!

The public is encouraged to read the books—or the reading guides posted on the Frye Festival website—and take part in the discussion and the debates. The Frye Academy debates will be recorded and made available online.

Further information on the Frye Academy Award and the Frye Festival is available at www.frye.ca.

Presented by Atlantic Books Today/Atlantic Publishers Marketing Association (APMA), Atlantic Author Day features writers included in this year’s Summer Reading Guide, available at all book retailers in Atlantic Canada.  APMA Executive Director Peggy Walt commented, “Atlantic Author Day is a time to celebrate our home-grown authors.  By joining the celebrations at your local bookstore, you will be supporting our local book community.”

There are 124 featured books in this year’s Summer Reading Guide, representing 28 different Canadian publishers.  The books range from fiction, cookbooks, kids’, mystery, history, guidebooks, art and the list goes on – something for every reader’s summer enjoyment.  This year’s promotion once again features a chance to win a beautiful basket of books – fill out a ballot from the Guide at your local bookstore and you could win.  The contest closes Friday, September 10 and one basket will be awarded per province.

For more information and times and locations of author signing, please visit www.atlanticpublishers.ca and click on the links for Nova Scotia or the PEI, New Brunswick and Newfoundland.  The website serves as a hub for publishing and books in Atlantic Canada.  You can also check out Atlantic Books Today on Facebook and Twitter.

Please note that all schedules are subject to change and will be updated until June 26.

By Mayra Calvani

Virtual book tours, also known as blog tours, are an effective way of book promotion. A virtual book tour puts your name and book in front of hundreds—sometimes thousands—of readers. If you hire a publicist to coordinate it for you, the price can go from a few hundred to several thousand dollars. However, if you do it yourself, it’s practically free. Best of all, you don’t need a car or an airplane to travel through the blogosphere. You can do it in your pajamas from the comfort of your own home. All you need is a computer, internet connection, and a basic knowledge of blogs. However, be prepared to spend a lot of time at the computer for the duration of the tour. A virtual book tour is time consuming because the bloggers who host you will ask you to write guest posts, articles, and answer interview questions for them.

Many new authors often ask if virtual book tours guarantee book sales. The answer is NO. A virtual book tour doesn’t guarantee sales but it does guarantee a certain amount of visibility and exposure for you and your work.

The following steps will help you coordinate your own virtual tour:

• Start planning at least 3 months in advance. This will give you enough time to research blogs, contact bloggers, send review copies (if requested), and write guest posts or answer interview questions. You want readers to be entertained when they read about you and your book, so you’ll have to give them something new in every interview. Writing the same answers in the different interviews doesn’t work and you’ll only be turning readers away.

• Decide how long you’ll want the tour to be and how many stops you’ll make. Virtual book tours can be as short as one week (mini book tour) or as long as several months. It depends on your schedule and on how much time you’re willing to allocate for it. Two-week and one-month tours seem to be the most popular. Usually, there are 3 stops for each week and many authors prefer the stops to be on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. The choice is really up to you. It all depends on how much time, work and commitment you’re willing to give.

• Decide when your tour will take place. If you have a holiday book, like a Christmas children’s book or a horror novel, you’ll want to schedule your tour during December or October, respectively, in order to maximize your book’s marketing potential.

• Spend some time online researching blogs and make a list of those that match the content or theme of your book. If your book is a mystery novel about a violinist, for instance, you’ll want to make a list of mystery and violin blogs. That’s were the potential readers and buyers of your book are. That’s where your audience is. If you choose general blogs, then make sure they get a decent amount of traffic a month. You can check how many hits a blog or site gets on Alexa.com.

• Write a template for contacting hosts, this way you won’t have to write individual ones for each one. The message should include a brief intro, full information about your book (blurb, link to cover art, purchase page, reviews, etc.), and a polite request to be hosted on their blogs. Mention that you’re available for an interview or a guest post. As an alternative, you can request a book review, but you must be willing to send them a review copy. If you’re lucky, the blogger will accept an ebook copy, saving you the expense of a print copy and postage. Be aware, however, that not all bloggers are willing to read electronic copies unless they have ebook-reading devices. Keep in mind that reviews are one of the most effective ways of book promotion, and when you compare it to ads, they’re reasonably cheap. Let the bloggers know you’ll be aggressively promoting the tour, thus bringing traffic to their blogs.

• Prepare a schedule. Get a weekly or monthly calendar with enough space for notes. This will help you visualize the entire tour. As the bloggers’ responses start flowing in and you agree on specific tour stop dates, record the following information on the calendar: blog name and URL, host’s name, whether it’s for a guest post, article, interview or review. In case of reviews, send the book to the blogger as soon as possible (at least two months in advance), giving him or her enough time to read and review the book.

• Don’t leave writing guests posts and answering interview questions for the last minute. Take your time. Remember readers want to be entertained and informed. Give them valuable information, add a touch of humor and keep your voice fresh and interesting. Also, don’t wait until the last day to send the material to the host. Send it at least a week in advance.

• A few days before the tour starts, double check your calendar to make sure all is in order, then post the complete schedule, with the correct hosts’ links, on your website and/or blog. Also, send a reminder to all your hosts. To make this easy, put your hosts’ contact info in a separate email folder and email them together when needed. Make sure you update your tour schedule on a daily basis in case of last minute changes.

• Once the tour starts, promote it! Announce it to all your friends, colleagues and relatives and in all forums, groups and lists you belong to. You can also send a press release for extra exposure.

• For the duration of the tour, be sure to visit your tour stops to write comments or answer questions via the ‘Leave a Comment’ feature on the blogs. Interacting with readers will make your virtual book tour more interesting and entertaining.

Final tips:

Consider offering a prize at the end of the tour to one lucky winner. This will encourage visitors to comment on your tour stops and follow you all through the tour. The prize could be a gift certificate, a goody basket, or even a free critique. It’s not recommended to offer a copy of the book you’re promoting as gift. If people think they might win it, they won’t buy it.

Once the tour is over, don’t forget to thank your hosts and offer to return their favor in the future. This makes for good internet networking and protocol.

Award-winning author Mayra Calvani writes fiction and nonfiction for children and adults. She’s had over 300 reviews, articles, short stories and interviews published in print and online. Visit her website at www.mayracalvani.com.

Two participants of the Frye Academy Awards, Sébastien Lord and Katie Robertson from l’Odyssée High School.

The second and final “Battle of the Books” of the 2010 Frye Academy Award will be fought on Wednesday, March 17^th, in Moncton. An evening of dynamic and interesting debate between 18 passionate young readers!

Participants will choose a winner between graphic novel George Sprott (1894-1975) by Seth and French novel Tarmac

by Nicolas Dickner. It’s an event not to miss at the Aberdeen Cultural Centre Café starting at 6:30 pm. The public is invited to take part in the bilingual discussion. Admission is free.

The Frye Academy Award is a component of the Frye Festival’s School-Youth Program. During the first debate on January 26^th, participants, who attend English and French high schools in the area, preferred Hadassa by Myriam Beaudoin over The Gum Thief, by Douglas Coupland even though the latter was the favourite contender at the beginning of the evening. “The students really got into the project and we are delighted by their enthusiasm and motivation, says Rachelle Dugas, interim Executive Director for the Frye Festival.

This second round of the battle will be even more interesting. I am sure that their arguments will be further developed and they will really be ready to defend their choice.”

After this second debate, the participants will choose the winner of the first Frye Academy Award between Hadassa by Myriam Beaudoin, and the winner of the night. The official announcement will be made at the closing event of the Frye Festival, on April 25^th. The public and the young readers will have the opportunity to meet with the winning author in a future Frye Festival event yet to be announced.

Renée Morel, filmmaker and fervent reader will moderate the debate. The participants from Harrison Trimble, Moncton High, and Bernice MacNaughton in Moncton as well as from l’Odyssée in Moncton, Mathieu-Martin in Dieppe, and Mgr-Marcel-François-Richard in Saint-Louis-de-Kent are all bilingual avid readers. As a matter of fact, they read the novels in their original language of publication.

All of those who wish to participate in the 2010 Frye Academy Award are invited to consult the reading guide available at http://www.frye.ca/docs/Guide-final.pdf and attend the March 17th event. The Frye Academy Award debates will be recorded and made available on the Frye Festival web site (www.frye.ca).

Interim Executive Director, Rachelle Dugas, and Festival Chair, Dawn Arnold, during this morning’s News Conference.

Canada’s only bilingual international literary festival is heading into its second decade and has again attracted some of the world’s best authors to Moncton. The Festival unveiled its line-up today for the 2010 edition which will be held from April 19-25 in Moncton, NB. These renowned authors will ALL meet with students in their classrooms and auditoriums; they will conduct workshops, participate in on-stage conversations, chat with booklovers in book clubs, and feed imaginations of all ages.

“The Frye Festival has grown and flourished in the last ten years thanks to our many partners, sponsors, volunteers, and a great team. We are set to enter this new decade on excellent footing,” says Festival Chair, Dawn Arnold. “We have been privileged to witness many memorable moments over the last ten years and literature has gained great grounds in our schools, among our youth, and throughout our entire community.” There is truly something for everyone at this year’s Festival,” says Arnold and “there is no need to read the books in advance, we promise there will be no tests!”

A Great line-up
Thirty invited authors from Canada and France will take part in the event including three who are currently on national bestseller lists and two who are long-listed for the prestigious International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award.

Heading the bestseller list is Linden MacIntyre, author of the 2009 Scotiabank Giller Prize-winning novel The Bishop’s Man. MacIntyre will be joined on stage by Annabel Lyon and Nino Ricci for an evening of English Canadian literature, hosted by journalist and radio broadcaster, Noah Richler (author of This is My Country, What’s Yours?). Annabel Lyon won the 2009 Rogers Writers Trust Award for Fiction for her novel The Golden Mean and Nino Ricci’s most recent novel, The Origin of Species, earned him his second Governor General’s Award for Fiction.

As always, the Festival will feature local New Brunswick authors (Beth Powning, author of The Sea Captain’s Wife), children’s authors such as Cary Fagan and Nancy Wilcox Richards, and poets such as Christian Bök, winner of the Griffin Prize for Poetic Excellence for his book Eunoia. Fred Stenson (The Great Karoo) and Steven Galloway (The Cellist of Sarajavo) are also among the invited authors.

On the Francophone side, bridging the two solitudes like no other living Canadian author is the award-winning novelist Daniel Poliquin. Poliquin’s novel A Secret Between Us (Douglas & McIntyre 2007, short-listed for the Giller Prize) will be featured in a giant Community Read during the Festival. Daniel Poliquin is the author of nearly a dozen books in French and all have been translated into English. The author is a noted literary translator himself, who has translated many important books into French, including works by Mordecai Richler, Jack Kerouac, and W.O. Mitchell.

Fans will surely be looking forward to meeting and hearing from Guy Gavriel Kay whose books have increasingly blurred the boundaries between history and fantasy. Other invited authors not to miss: Jungian analyst Craig Stephenson; children’s author and performer Jacob Berkowitz; novelist and creative writing professor Kathryn Kuitenbrouwer; folklorist and storyteller Kay Stone; and playwright and poet Robert Moore.

New location, new events
This year, the Frye Festival will hold many of its activities in the congenial atmosphere of the second floor of the City Grill Restaurant in Moncton. The location will be the venue for the first edition of Beer and Books as well as the popular Night Howls evenings. For the 2010 edition, the Festival welcomes a new Poète Flyé: young up and coming Moncton poet Jesse Robichaud will replace Paul Bossé.

Connecting with the Festival’s audience will take on new impetus this year. With the help of WestJet and the Poète Flyé, audience members can give their feedback on who they would like to see at future festivals to be eligible to win a trip for two anywhere WestJet flies. Residents of Moncton, Dieppe, and Riverview should keep their eyes open for the Poète Flyé who will be riding Codiac Transit buses during the Festival with the ballots while on his quest to create the best Poem Flyé ever!

Storytelling at its best: the Frye Festival joins forces with the McCain Research Chair in Acadian Ethnology and Folklore to present an evening of Anglophone, Francophone, and First nation’s stories. Again this year, the public is invited to join the authors in the Delta Beauséjour Lobby on Saturday afternoon for a chance to meet, have a chat, and event get a few books signed!

As always, a great list of must-see events: Antonine Maillet-Northrop Frye Lecture, Frye Jam, KidsFest, Brunch and Books, round tables, book clubs, and dialogues. This year’s popular events such as Soirée Frye and Night Howls will have a Pay What You Can (P.W.Y.C.) policy.

The Festival is keeping up with the times: more events will be recorded and added to its YouTube channel, the event’s Facebook page will feature additional information and photos, and the Festival will be tweeting the latest news for its followers via @FryeMoncton on Twitter!

The Frye Festival is Canada’s only bilingual international literary festival. Every year thousands of New Brunswickers meet face-to-face with some of the brightest literary minds of our times. The Frye Festival has hosted winners of all the major international literary prizes bringing globally renowned literary talent to New Brunswick communities. Tickets for the 2010 edition of the Frye Festival can be purchased from the Greater Moncton ticketing network. For more information on the Frye Festival and its program, go to www.frye.ca.

This first of two public events surrounding the 2010 Frye Academy Award will be hosted by filmmaker and avid reader, Renée Morel, who will act as moderator for the debate. The public will be invited to take part in the discussion and comment on the books featured that night. The event will take place in English and in French in a dynamic atmosphere. All of the members of the jury are bilingual, passionate about reading, and have read the books in their original language of publication.

The second Battles of the Books is set for March 17^th and will feature graphic novel George Sprott (1894-1975) by Seth and Tarmac by Nicolas Dickner. The winning author will be chosen after the second debate when the jury works together to arrive at a consensus. The winner will be announced at the Frye Festival closing event on April 25^th. The author will then be invited to come to Moncton to meet with the young readers and the public.

The jury for this first edition of the Frye Academy Award is composed of eighteen young students from Harrison Trimble, Moncton High, and Bernice McNaughton in Moncton as well as from l’Odyssée in Moncton, Mathieu-Martin in Dieppe, and Mgr-Marcel-François-Richard in Saint-Louis-de-Kent.

All avid readers, both young and old, wishing to participate in the 2010 Frye Academy are invited to consult the reading guide available at http://www.frye.ca/docs/Guide-final.pdf and attend the January 26^th event. The Frye Academy Award debates will be recorded and made available on the Frye Festival web site (www.frye.ca).

The Frye Festival School / Youth Program
The Frye Festival School / Youth Program is composed of four elements: Bell Aliant Young Writers where students of all ages are invited to share their literary creations with the public; Great-West Life/ London Life Writing Contest for students at the high school level; TD Canada Trust Writers in the Schools, where guest authors of the Frye Festival visit classrooms all over the province, and various family oriented activities held during the Frye Festival.

Further information on the Frye Academy Award and the Frye Festival is available at www.frye.ca.

Joe Blades commits random act of poetry in Doaktown, NB.

Random Acts of Poetry, a celebration of poetry and literacy, begins its sixth year during the week of October 5 to 11, 2009. Random Acts of Poetry is a project of the Victoria READ Society, a non-profit literacy organization, established in 1976. Random Acts of Poetry is funded by The Canada Council for the Arts.

During the week, 31 acclaimed poets across Canada, from Victoria to St. John’s, will commit Random Acts of Poetry in their cities and adjacent small towns. On buses and subways, in doughnut shops and cafes, police stations, grocery stores, shelters, curling rinks, on city streets and country lanes, poets will read poems to strangers and give them their books. Poets will also read their poems in ESL and Adult Literacy classes.

In Fredericton, NB, Joe Blades will participate for the third year. On the editorial board of revue ellipse mag, he is Vice President–Membership Chair of the League of Canadian Poets, producer–host of the Ashes, Paper & Beans community radio program, founding publisher of 25-year-old Broken Jaw Press, and a grad student at the University of New Brunswick. The author of five published poetry books, including River Suite and from the book that doesn’t close, he has several books in the works, including Casemate Poems (Collected). Two of his books have been translated and published in Serbian editions.

Patrick Lane, one of Canada’s premier poets, says of Random Acts of Poetry, “There are no accidents. Nothing is random. A poem sits in a poet’s pocket and jumps out when you least expect it. It can nestle in a mechanic’s ear, a politician’s hand, a waitress’s bright eye, somewhere, anywhere. You look up from work and there’s a poem. It reads itself to you. It asks you to take a break. It says: Right here. Right now.”

“Poetry,” says Wendy Morton, founder of Random Acts of Poetry, “is the shortest distance between two hearts. I have read poems to hundreds of people, many of whom hadn’t heard a poem in thirty years, and watched their eyes fill up with tears.  Some burst into laughter or laid a hand on my shoulder, hugged me, took my hand. Poetry can connect us with each other as humans as no other art form I know. Poetry is a gift that we can create from whatever life has in store for us.”

Across Canada poets will commit random acts in: Victoria, Nanaimo, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Saskatoon, Regina, Winnipeg, Desboro, Toronto, Port Perry, Trenton, Ottawa, Port McNicoll, Windsor, Montreal, Laval, Fredericton, Charlottetown, Wolfville, Halifax, and St. John’s.