Marathon Reading #2
The W.A. Deacon Literary Foundation is pleased to announce that we are partnering with the Heart of the City Festival for a Marathon Reading of award winning author Paul Yee’s Saltwater City: The Chinese in Vancouver. Festival participants of all ages are welcome to take turns reading from the book. A big thank you to the Heart of the City Festival organizers, Douglas & McIntyre Publishing (for providing copies of the book) and our volunteers. Please join us for our second Marathon Reading!
For more information: Heart of the City Festival
Date of event: Sunday 31 October 2010
Location: Carrall Street & East Hastings, Vancouver
Time: 12:00 pm to 5:00 pm
About the author:
Paul Yee is a third generation Canadian who was born in Saskatchewan in 1956 but grew up in Vancouver’s Chinatown. He holds a Masters degree in history from the University of British Columbia. Yee is the author of several children’s books: Teach Me to Fly, Skyfighter, The Curses of Third Uncle and Ghost Train – winner of the 1996 Governor General’s Literary Award for English language children’s literature. In 1990, he won the Sheila A. Egoff Children’s Literature Prize for the collection Tales from Gold Mountain. His 1988 book Saltwater City: The Chinese in Vancouver is an examination of Vancouver’s Chinese-Canadian culture and experience. It won the City of Vancouver Book Award in 1989. (Wikipedia)
W.A. Deacon Foundation,
I am writing you to thank you for staging the Marathon Reading of Saltwater City by Paul Yee at Pidgeon Park in Vancouver’s Dowtown Eastside on Oct.31, 2010. I enjoyed reading the story of my community. I think reading in public is a brilliant idea! I like the fact that it is participatory in a public area and adds life to the street. And what an appropriate choice of book give that Chinatown is on the next block over. I am of the view that your concept has many checkmarks: Canadian content, spotlights literacy, moves the book from library shelf to the streets, and builds community. Great concept. Keep up the fabulous work. I hope it snowballs into something Canada wide. Thanks for the great weather too. Elwin Xie- Vancouver