Dancing Cat Books is thrilled to announce that Live to Tell, a young adult mystery-thriller written by Lisa Harrington and published in September 2012, is has won the Ann Connor Brimer Award for Children’s Literature of the Atlantic Book Awards!

More info and purchase links for Live to Tell

Lisa Harrington’s website

The full list of Atlantic Book Awards winners

A Toronto-area book launch for The Family Took Shape, the first novel by Halifax author Shashi Bhat (who was born and raised in Richmond Hill, where the book is set), took place this past Saturday at the Sringeri Community Centre. The entire launch was planned and thrown by Shashi’s family, and was a resounding success. Cormorant Books publisher Marc Côté says a few words to recap the event:

“The launch itself was attended by about 300 guests, who sat in an auditorium to listen to speeches and a reading. I was asked to pull the ribbon tied around a stack of copies of The Family Took Shape, in order to release it officially. Then I spoke very briefly. Shashi read. Then her father – with her mother and her brother, the entire family on stage together, standing behind him – spoke about his daughter. His pride in her accomplishment was something to hear and behold; he began by explaining that he and his wife had tried their best to direct Shashi into becoming a doctor, but that she had become a writer instead. (Big laugh in the audience.) Then he said, ‘And now, she has published her first novel with the very prestigious Cormorant Books.’ He then thanked us all for our work on his daughter’s behalf.

Afterwards, no fewer than about ten people came up to thank John and me for attending the launch and for publishing an Indian immigrant writer. ‘Multiculturalism works when companies like yours publishes our children’ was a phrase we heard at least three times. (Every time I responded, ‘Thank you. But we published Shashi because of her talent and the novel she wrote.’)

It was a terrific afternoon.”

Shashi Bhat’s short fiction has been published in numerous journals, and her story “Indian Cooking” was a finalist for the 2010 RBC Bronwen Wallace Writers’ Trust Award. The official Halifax launch of The Family Took Shape will take place Tuesday June 4, at The Bitter End pub.

Our prize will be a copy of Dark Days at Saddle Creek, the latest in Shelley Peterson’s Saddle Creek series of YA novels.

This is to coincide with a special ebook sales promotion for Sundancer, the first Saddle Creek book. For a limited time only, Sundancer is available from the ebook retailer of your choice for only $0.99!

Entry is easy: all you need to do is subscribe to our email newsletter (featuring all the latest in Cormorant/DCB news, events, and contests), and you’re set!

The winner will be selected from our newsletter subscribers at the end of next week (that’s Sunday, May 19th, 2013).

And just for fun, here’s a video of Cormorant/DCB marketing guy Bryan Ibeas riding a horse at Shelley Peterson’s farm:

Over a hundred talented young writers told us, in prose and in poetry, what keeps them up at night. Unfortunately, only a handful could win our sweet prize packages. It took a lot painful back-and-forth between the judges (Deborah Kerbel and the DCB staff), but we eventually narrowed down the entries we just couldn’t say no to.

So, without further ado, here are the winners of the What Keeps You Up St Night? contest!

1st Place

Ocean Debusschere
North West Central School
Plenty, SK

Hidden Pain

Laying in the middle of the broken glass.

Pieces shattered from all of the tears shed at night.

No way out. Every thought makes the cuts a little deeper.

Pain seeps through. Takes over my whole body.

Hours get darker and colder.

I’m blinded by misery. Sorrow hides me -

Makes me who I really am.

Invisible …

Getting suffocated and strangled at night. Losing sleep.

Images I cannot erase destroy my dreams.

Playing games of hide and seek with agony during the day.

Hoping to hide it with a smile.

This battle of hurt cannot be won on my own.

I am afraid to take a risk. To break free.

I have to obliterate the past. Begin a new life.

But I can’t heal what is already broken – so,

This is my cry for help …

***

Tied 2nd Place

Miguel Angel Becerra
Saint Kateri School
Kitchener, ON

What’s Keeping Others Up at Night

As a person who, generally, sleeps like a rock most of the time, I rarely find myself suffering from insomnia. Although, I do find that there is a specific thought that occasionally keeps me up late into the early-morning hours. These thoughts that kept me up are true, non-fictional problems that happen all around the world. By the same token, this event that occurred in Colombia really opened my eyes to the issues around the world.

It was a Friday evening in Bogota, Colombia. My sister, my dad and I went out to go buy something to eat for dinner. There was a vendor on the street offering arepas (tortillas made of corn flour), as he was making them on the grill. We bought three so we could all have one, although this was just a snack, not our actual dinner. We kept walking down the sidewalk until we reached our favourite restaurant to eat in. As my dad was making the order for takeout, I took a look around the restaurant. I hadn’t been in that restaurant for about five years, ever since I moved to Canada. It was then that I spotted a little boy, holding his father’s hand. Their clothes were dirty and they looked tired. The father of the boy stood at the door of the restaurant and asked everyone inside if they could spare some change. I looked around the restaurant and I noticed that nobody seemed to care about them. They all carried on with their dinner as if nothing was unusual. All things considered, I felt very sympathetic for the boy and his father. I checked my pockets for change, but I didn’t have any. The only thing I had was an arepa with a small bite in it. I realized that the least that I could do for them was give the little boy my snack. I approached the boy and asked him if he wanted my tortilla. The look in his eyes was probably the saddest thing I have ever seen. He looked up at his dad for reassurance and then received the arepa with gratitude. For this moment, he was the happiest boy on earth. I realized how much a small tortilla can mean to someone that doesn’t have money for food, that sleeps on the streets, and that doesn’t have the privilege of a typical childhood. This small gesture made me feel like a special person, and made me think about the many people that suffer from poverty.

This is what kept me up at night; the thought of all the people in the world who have to sleep on the street; the thought that there are people who appreciate a piece of bread more than PlayStations, iPods, and brand name clothes; the thought that some people can’t sleep at night because they don’t have the luxury of a bed and a pillow. What keeps me awake at night is knowing that there are other people lying awake too.
 

***

Tied 2nd Place

Miranda Zahra
Blessed Mother Teresa
Cambridge, ON

What’s Wrong With Me

Tires squealed, metal crunched, glass shattered and sirens screamed. Every night the events play out in my head like an old movie, one frame after another.

A month ago, my sister Rose died in a car crash. My parents were driving us to our grandparent’s house for the holidays. Rose climbed into our car but I had gotten upset because she was trying to sit in “my” seat and had refused to sit elsewhere. Eventually, my parents told me to get over it and sit down.

When we were halfway there I realized that I had forgotten my favourite sweater at home. It was from my grade eight graduation. It was vibrant green and as soft as a cloud. I demanded that we go back and get it. My dad started to turn around. He was looking the other way and didn’t see the ambulance driving toward us. Before he could turn away it slammed into Rose’s car door. She died on impact.

Ironic isn’t it, to be killed by a vehicle that is supposed to save lies.

Now I go to school and avoid any social contact. I’m known as “the freak with the dead sister.” I don’t sleep. It feels as if all the life and emotions have been sucked out of me.

My dad suggested that I find a way to relieve the stress. At first it seemed pointless but it might help distract me. I pulled out my notebook and started scrawling words down.

Every night, sleepless

What’s wrong with me?

Every hour, endless,

What’s wrong with me?

Every day I go to school, an actress,

What’s wrong with me?

People hardly notice me, cheerless,

What’s wrong with me?

I stare at the sky, starless,

What’s wrong with me?

It represents my future, hopeless,

What’s wrong with me?

I listen to the night, voiceless,

What’s wrong with me?

I think about my day tomorrow, friendless,

What’s wrong with me?

Something makes my eyelids heavy, tiredness,

What’s wrong with me?

The pain is coming to an end, justice,

What’s wrong with me?

My muscles relax, slackness,

What’s wrong with me?

I love this feeling, priceless,

What’s wrong with me?

I will go to school tomorrow, joyfulness,

What’s wrong with me?

It won’t be normal for me, madness

What’s wrong with me?

From now on I will sleep every night, promise.

I tried to focus on the words but tears blurred my vision: a wave of anger crashed over me. I didn’t know why but I was resentful, upset at the world. Another wave of emotion crashed over me, but this time I was sad, sad that I had lost my sister.

Through the tears in my eyes I could see the glow of the numbers on my clock: it was 7:00 am. I dragged myself over to my mirror and plastered my best fake smile on. I felt awful, but the whole school didn’t have to know I was dying inside.

***

3rd Place

Dylan Turk
North West Central School
Plenty, SK

What Keeps You Up At Night?

I can’t go to sleep

All I hear is screaming

He’s hitting her again

I want it to stop

I don’t want to

Be next

He said, don’t say

A word, or I’ll

Get it

What keeps you up at night?

***

And now that it’s here, you can win a free copy! Here’s how:

1. Sign up to our free email newsletter, featuring all the latest releases, events, and news from Cormorant Books

2. Wait until Monday, May 6th, when we’ll select a winner of this here giveaway.

The accolades continue to roll in for Lisa Harrington’s YA thriller, Live to Tell. This morning, the Crime Writers of Canada announced that Live to Tell has been shortlisted for the 2013 Arthur Ellis Award in the Best Juvenile/YA category.

Click here for the full list of nominees

This week, our prize will be a copy of Elizabeth Ruth’s Matadora, set to launch in Toronto on Wednesday with This is Not a Reading Series (check here for launch details)!

Entry is easy: all you need to do is subscribe to our email newsletter (featuring all the latest in Cormorant/DCB news, events, and contests), and you’re set!

The winner will be selected from our newsletter subscribers at the end of the week (that’s Sunday, April 14th, 2013).

This week, our prize will be the pair of award-nominated titles featured in our latest blog post: Words to Live By by William Whitehead, and Live to Tell by Lisa Harrington.

Entry is easy: all you need to do is subscribe to our email newsletter (featuring all the latest in Cormorant/DCB news, events, and contests), and you’re set!

The winner will be selected from our newsletter subscribers at the end of the week (that’s Friday, April 5th, 2013).

William Whitehead’s memoir Words to Live By, about his life working in Canadian culture (both on his own and together with his partner Timothy Findley), was recently shortlisted for the 2013 Stephen Leacock Medal for Humor.

Past recipients of the prize include Robertson Davies, Farley Mowat, and W.O. Mitchell. The winner of the $15,000 prize will be announced  on June 6. Click here for the rest of the shortlist

Also recently announced was the shortlist for the Atlantic Book Awards’ 2013 Ann Connor Brimer Award for Children’s Literature, featuring Live to Tell by Lisa Harrington.

Live to Tell is Harrington’s sophomore YA novel, featuring a teenage girl who awakes in a hospital with no memory of the previous night and accused of a crime she isn’t sure she committed. Harrington joins Kathleen Martin and Sharon E. McKay on this year’s shortlist.

The winner will be announced on May 16.

Dave Hugelschaffer was recently interviewed by Shelagh Rogers on CBC Radio’s The Next Chapter about Whiskey Creek, his latest murder-mystery starring forest fire forensics expert Porter Cassel. Click here to listen to the interview!

And from now until April 1st, we’re offering the first novel in the Porter Cassel series, Day Into Night, at a special promotional price of only 99 cents on Kobo and Kindle! Light the spark, but watch out for the inferno!