Standing in front of the giant map, I’m struck by the reach of the Mackenzie Delta. Flying overhead a few days earlier in an Air North Hawker Siddeley 748, I’d certainly noticed the expanse of water and earth. The tributaries and lakes, the dead ends where the water is trying to push into new territory; they had all caught my attention as I tried to memorize the topography of a foreign land. On the ground in Inuvik in the Northwest Territories, though, it’s easy to forget this place is more water than terra firma.

Contested Land, Contested Memory: Israel's Jews and Arabs and the Ghosts of Catastrophe, by Toronto-based writer and anthropologist Jo Roberts, has become the first Canadian publication to place second at the prestigious Dayton Literary Peace Prize, it was announced today. Roberts will be honored at a gala ceremony in Dayton, OH on November 9th, alongside non-fiction winner Karima Bennoune, author of Your Fatwa Does Not Apply Here.

A book by Toronto-based writer and anthropologist Jo Roberts has been shortlisted for the prestigious Dayton Literary Peace Prize, it was announced yesterday.  Roberts is the only Canadian among the twelve finalists for the international award, a list that includes Jesmyn Ward, whose novel Salvage the Bones won the 2011 National Book Award for Fiction, and David Finkel, noted Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist.

 “I’m delighted and honoured that my work has been chosen,” said Roberts.

Among all the cities of Europe that fell under the Nazi boot in the Second World War, the loss of Paris touched a raw nerve among those who fought the German war machine.

Paris was no Stalingrad, fought over from house to house, nor was it the victim, like London, of merciless aerial attack. It stood as a symbol of culture and freedom — of what had been lost to the Nazis and what must be regained for the world.

When Paris fell to the Germans on June 10, 1940, it truly seemed as if, in the words of an earlier British foreign minister, the lights had gone out all over Europe.

We are happy to annouce that Kid Soldier by Jennifer Maurno, has been nominated for the 2015 Rocky Mountain Book Award!

Today (August 1st 2014) marks the 180th anniversary of Emanciapation Day. Natasha L. Henry joins us today to talk about her book Emancipation Day

Tell us about your book.

Tell us about your book.
My book, Emancipation Day: Celebrating Freedom in Canada, is about the history and evolution of the August first commemoration of the abolition of slavery in Canada and the diverse people who celebrated this popular annual event.

Tell us about your book.
My book, Emancipation Day: Celebrating Freedom in Canada, is about the history and evolution of the August first commemoration of the abolition of slavery in Canada and the diverse people who celebrated this popular annual event.

One of the challenges of writing a book that is at least partly tied to current events is how fast those events change.

If I have learned one thing in over four decades as a student, teacher, and diplomat, it is that it is vitally important for Canadians to know their history, to understand who we are and why our experience matters in the world.