July Author of the Month: KEVIN KWAN

Kevin Kwan is the author of Crazy Rich Asians, the international bestselling novel that has been translated into more than 30 languages. Its sequel, China Rich Girlfriend, was released in 2015, and Rich People Problems, the final book in the trilogy, followed in 2017. For several weeks in 2018, the Crazy Rich Asians trilogy commanded the top three positions of the New York Times bestseller list — an almost unprecedented single-author trifecta, and the film adaptation of Crazy Rich Asians became Hollywood’s highest grossing romantic comedy in over a decade. In 2018, he was named by Time Magazine as one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World.

Sex and Vanity is the first novel in a new trilogy by Kwan, each of whose books will be set in one of the world’s greatest cities: New York, London, and Paris. Sex and Vanity is a glittering tale of love andlonging as a young woman finds herself torn between two worlds — the WASP establishment of her father’s family and George Zao, a man she is desperately trying to avoid falling in love with. Moving between summer playgrounds of privilege, peppered with decadent food and extravagant fashion, it is a truly modern love story, a daring homage to A Room with a View, and a brilliantly funny comedy of manners set between two cultures.

Saskatchewan Book Awards 2020 winners

The winners of the 2020 Saskatchewan Book Awards have been announced! These awards highlight the best recent literature from Saskatchewan authors and publishers, honouring books in a variety of categories.

Congratulations to all of the winners! The complete list can be found after the jump...

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The 2020 Women's Prize for Fiction shortlist

The finalists for the 2020 Women's Prize for Fiction, formerly known as the Orange Prize and the Bailey's Women's Prize, have been announced.

The Women's Prize is awarded annually to a female author of any nationality for the best novel written in English in the past year. 2020 marks its 25th anniversary.

The 2020 shortlist includes:

• Dominicana by Angie Cruz
• Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo
• A Thousand Ships by Natalie Haynes*
• The Mirror and the Light by Hilary Mantel
• Hamnet & Judith by Maggie O’ Farrell
• Weather by Jenny Offill

The winner will be announced on September 9, 2020.

(*As of posting this article, A Thousand Ships is not yet released in North America, though a NA edition is scheduled to be released in January 2021. Contact your nearest McNally Robinson bookstore to pre-order.)

April's Author of the Month: VIVEK SHRAYA

Vivek Shraya is a Canadian musician, writer, and visual artist. She currently lives in Calgary where she is an assistant professor at the University of Calgary and a director on the board of The Tegan and Sara Foundation, which fights for the rights of LGBTQ women.

In 2010, Shraya published her first book, God Loves Hair, an illustrated collection of linked short stories about a brown, genderqueer child growing up in an immigrant family in Alberta. Her second book, She of the Mountains, a lyrical novel consisting of two intertwined love stories, was named one of The Globe and Mail's Best 100 Books of 2014.

Shraya released her debut poetry collection entitled even this page is white. It’s an incisive exploration of the effects of everyday racism and colonialism in Canada that won a 2017 Publishing Triangle award and was longlisted for CBC's Canada Reads. The Boy & The Bindi, a children's picture book about a young boy's fascination with the dot on his mother's forehead, was also published that year. Shraya's first non-fiction book, I’m Afraid of Men, was released in 2018.

Everyone talks about falling in love, but falling in friendship can be just as captivating. In The Subtweet by Vivek Shraya, when Neela Devaki’s song is covered by internet-famous artist Rukmini, the two musicians meet and a transformative friendship begins. But as Rukmini’s star rises and Neela’s stagnates, jealousy and self-doubt creep in. With a single tweet, their friendship implodes, one career is destroyed, and the two women find themselves at the centre of an internet firestorm. (Softcover. $21.95. RRC Price $19.75. ECW Press. April)

In Winnipeg, join us for An Evening with Vivek Shraya on April 25 at 7:00 PM!