Interview in the “Vancouver Sun”: author “hopes to turn novel into a movie”!

Thanks to Dana Gee for the beautiful interview in the “Vancouver Sun” on my novel “The Afrikaner” and for getting the gist of it: “Arianna Dagnino hopes to turn novel into a movie”! :-)))

If you are interested in reading the full interview, you can find it at this link: https://vancouversun.com/entertainment/books/vancouver-writer-heads-to-south-africa-for-new-novel

Tags: Canadian literature, Canadian writers, novel, novelist, Vancouver, South Africa, fiction writing, film, filmic transposition

#theafrikaner

The flash fiction movement hits Vancouver

Flash Fiction - ‘Brief, condensed stories written in under 1000 words, and read in a ‘flash’!
‘Vancouver Flash Fiction' is a Resource Hub and Critique Circle for flash fiction writers living in and around Vancouver, British Columbia, serious about honing their craft.
The Critique Circle is available locally to flash fiction writers interested in receiving and giving feedback on their flash fiction 'works in progress' on a regular and ongoing basis. The Resource Hub is accessible to anyone anywhere, anytime.
Its purpose is:
To connect with other flash fiction writers and create a dynamic community of Canadian flash fiction writers.
To advance the flash fiction writing skills, production, and market opportunities, amongst Critique Circle participants.
http://VancouverFlashFiction.weebly.com

"The Afrikaner" on its tour across Canada!

Join me and my fellow writers in our across-Canada group book launches!

The Afrikaner will be in Montreal on May 2 at Paragraphe bookstore as part of the Blue Metropolis Festival, then in Ottawa on May 5 at the new event space of the Vimy Brewing Company, and finally in Toronto on May 16 at the Columbus Event Centre. See posters here and also the Events page: https://blogs.ubc.ca/afrikaner/events/events/
Share wildly and let's meet on the road!

FB page for the Montreal event:
https://www.facebook.com/events/398275820960768/
FB page for the Ottawa event:
https://www.facebook.com/events/2252357811649148/
FB page for the Toronto event:
https://www.facebook.com/events/390089534911221/

Cosmic Connections - Beyond Vancouver

Past or present, literature helps forge our future paths. “Cosmic Connections” – Asymptote’s Spring 2019 edition – traces the work of writers and translators from 27 countries and in 17 languages. This quarter's special feature spotlights the art of translation. From interviews with Viet Thanh Nguyen and Dubravka Ugrešić to poetry by Gertrud Kolmar and Raymond Queneau. Cooler than black holes. Check this whole galaxy of creative reflections here:
https://www.asymptotejournal.com/

Thanks to Massy Books & all the attendees for a beautiful book launch!

Thank you all for attending our group book launch at Massy Books in Vancouver.
It was a delightful evening, the bookstore was packed, as this kind of places should be all the time.
I am glad that this was also the occasion for many of us to discover “Massy Books," a book-lover secret corner (100% First-Nation owned) and a refuge for the soul in the East End. Thanks to Patricia Massy for hosting us!
I attach some pics, including the one of Dr Cecil Hershler reading from my bok "The Afrikaner" with his beautiful South African accented voice, and of me with authors Michael Springate and Ian Thomas Shaw.
I wish you all a pleasant reading time!

Somewhere Inside The Rainbow

“Art must be cathartic, original and memorable," Vancouver-based writer-cum-critic Alan Twigg writes in his engaging review of The Afrikaner. I heartily thank Alan for his words of appreciation and the thought-provoking reflections on the writer’s freedom to cross cultural, ethnic and racial boundaries. I hope his concluding remarks will bring good luck to the book now that it is out there, in the big world of letters and readers: "North Americans have gleaned a deeper awareness of South Africa through Alan Paton’s Cry the Beloved Country, Sir Laurens Jan van der Post, Nadine Gordimer and J.M. Coetzee. We’ve also seen Invictus or A Dry White Season or Richard Attenborough’s Cry Freedom about Stephen Biko, the man that Nelson Mandela described as “the spark that lit a veld fire across South Africa. The Afrikaner deserves its place in that pantheon.”
Read the whole review here: https://bcbooklook.com/2019/03/31/somewhere-inside-the-rainbow/#more-38597

Book Launch of "The Afrikaner" in Vancouver - April 6

The time has come for my novel "The Afrikaner" (Guernica Editions, Toronto) to be launched.
In a nutshell, The Afrikaner is an on-the-road adventure story (from Cape Town to the Kalahari Desert) that covers the terrains of race, love, cultural survival, and historical guilt. 
The book draws upon the five years (1996-2000) I spent in newly post-apartheid South Africa as an international reporter for the Italian press. 

The event will be held in downtown Vancouver at Massy Books (229 E. Georgia Street, Vancouver) on April 6, at 7.00 pm and will be part of a group launch with other three Guernica authors, whose books I find particularly in tune with mine, since they all deal with issues of cultural/ethnic conflict, mediation and reconciliation  (see attached flier).

Please, mark the date in your calendar and, hopefully, I will see you there!
Also, feel free to share this invitation with friends, colleagues and anyone who might be interested.

Here is:
• the book trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXmKFWMLgKM
• the book’s website: https://blogs.ubc.ca/afrikaner/  
• the Facebook Page with the invitation to the event:  https://www.facebook.com/events/2385165691511896/

For those interested, there will also be a book signing on March 29 at 6.00 pm at the opening night of the Vancouver South African Film Festival (Simon Fraser University’s Goldcorp Centre for the Arts, 149 West Hastings Street), with part of the proceedings going to the charity Education Without Borders, https://www.educationwithoutborders.ca.