The second annual Alberta Book Day will be taking place on 6 November 2019! This day is meant to celebrate the importance of the publishing industry and highlight the diversity of books published in the province. The Alberta publishing industry is a small but mighty group of passionate and creative individuals committed to the work of enriching Canadian culture. Government support allows publishers to increase their profiles by publishing more books, by reaching larger audiences, and by acquiring the work of the best writers and thinkers. Unfortunately, such support is far more substantial in other provinces and Alberta Book Day is a small step toward acknowledging that imbalance.
This day is an excellent opportunity to share our passion (and our books) with Alberta MLAs. We are thrilled to be involved once again and will be showcasing a selection of books that represents the strength and unique character of our list. Here’s a little sampling of some of our books by Alberta authors.
Film and the City: The Urban Imaginary in Canadian Cinema by George Melnyk
Film and the City is the first comprehensive study of Canadian film and “urbanity”—the totality of urban culture and life. Building upon issues of identity formation in Canadian studies, George Melnyk considers how filmmakers, films, and urban audiences experience, represent, and interpret urban spatiality, visuality, and orality. In this way, Film and the City argues that Canadian narrative film of the postmodern period has aided in articulating a new national identity.
How Canadians Communicate V: Sports edited by David Taras and Christopher Waddell
Never has media coverage of sports been more exhaustive, and never has it been more driven by commercial interests and the need to fuel consumerism. At issue as well in the media capture of sports are the values that inform our daily lives, the physical and emotional health of the population, and the symbols so long central to a sense of Canadian identity. Writing from a variety of perspectives, the contributors to How Canadians Communicate V: Sports set out to explore the impact of the media on our reception of, and attitudes toward, sports—to unpack the meanings that sports have for us as citizens and consumers.
Unforgetting Private Charles Smith by Jonathan Locke Hart
In Unforgetting Private Charles Smith, Canadian poet and academic, Jonathan Locke Hart urges us to consider the life of a single soldier. Hart discovered Charles Smith’s diary from the First World War in the Toronto Reference Library and was struck by a voice full of life, and the presence of a rhythm, a cadence that urged him to bring forth the poetry in Smith’s words. From the fragments of information about this ordinary man’s life, Hart creates a legacy for Smith by setting the words of the young soldier’s diary in poetic form. Accompanying this poetry is a poignant essay describing how Hart pieced together a forgotten soldier’s story.
Alberta Oil and the Decline of Democracy in Canada edited by Meenal Shrivastava and Lorna Stefanick
Alberta Oil and the Decline of Democracy in Canada sets out to test the “oil inhibits democracy” hypothesis in the context of an industrialized nation in the Global North. In probing the impact of Alberta’s powerful oil lobby on the health of democracy in the province, contributors to the volume engage with an ongoing discussion of the erosion of political liberalism in the West. In addition to examining energy policy and issues of government accountability in Alberta, they explore the ramifications of oil dependence in areas such as Aboriginal rights, environmental policy, labour law, women’s equity, urban social policy, and the arts.
Alberta books are not just about Alberta or written by Albertans. They are about educating and empowering children and teens, decolonizing academic spaces through embodiment studies, foreign affairs, and online learning!
You can support Alberta books by checking them out of your local library, buying them at your favourite local bookstore, and talking about them on social media with the hashtag #ABBooks.
