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On a very snowy evening in Toronto this week, folks filled the event space at Glad Day Bookshop to hear all about the history of the Freedom to Read in Canada. In this episode of The Book Room, we hear from Marcus McCann, lawyer and co-owner of Glad Day, as he details the bookstore’s many run-ins with state censorship and book seizure.
Bonus feature: Jael Richardson and the Festival of Literary Diversity win the 2019 Freedom to Read Award.
Image courtesy me and my little camera.
February 24th to March 2nd is Freedom to Read week in Canada. I briefly examine the recent(ish) history of book challenges and book suppression in Canada, and point listeners to FTR Week events of note.
Today, I celebrate the arrival of a cheque from the federal government as compensation for the use of my three books in Canada's public library system. Over 17,000 authors across Canada are also celebrating. If your country does not have a Public Lending Right system (looking at you, USA), you might want to get on that. Libraries are awesome. Paying authors for their contributions to library collections is also awesome.
A quick hit in The Book Room to discuss Europe's new law designed to give authors greater control of their work online, and to level the playing field in terms of author contract transparency, and fair royalties.
Also, I walk my little dog, Birdy.
As always, thanks to Sandy Crawley for the music.