Edmonton has not one, but two representatives in the CBC’s Canada Reads 2010 debate! The contenders were announced on Jian Ghomeshi’s show (Q) this morning.
Edmonton’s poet laureate, rapper Cadence Weapon aka Rollie Pemberton, is one of this year’s panelists. He will be debating and defending Douglas Coupland’s book “Generation X”, which he feels is representative of him, his friends and the transient nature of youth. Pemberton’s choice is the oldest book on the panel.
“Anyone can identify with the characters,” said Pemberton, when asked to defend his choice. He also added that his secret weapon is his ability to say a lot of words in a very short time period.
The other Edmonton component to this year’s race is the book “Good to a Fault”, written by Edmonton author Marina Endicott, a creative writing teacher at the University of Alberta. Endicott’s book was nominated for the 2008 Scotiabank Giller prize and was named as one of the Globe and Mail’s Top 100 books of 2008. The book was chosen as a Canada Reads pick by Simi Sara, a Vancouver based broadcaster.
This is a major coup for both Rollie and Marina! The Canada Reads debates, which will be held March 8-12, 2010 are a big driver of sales for Canadian books. Hundreds of people across the country will read the book and listen to the debates to find out which book Canadians should be reading in 2010.
The other books and panelists in the debate are:
The CBC Canada Reads site will feature a variety of podcasts, contests and information in the three months leading up to the debates.
If you’d like to stick with content closer to home, you can also participate in the Canada Reads Challenge at my site. To participate in the challenge, you sign up to read all five books before the air date of the debates.
Tune in March 8-12 to listen to Rollie and see how his choice fares.
Alexis Kienlen is an Edmonton based author, poet, fiction writer and journalist who reads too much. She’s one of the bloggers at the Canadian literary site roughingitinthebooks.com
Rad.
If not for a giant pile of books to read, I’d consider reading the 4 of 5 here I haven’t yet read.
I’ve read Generation X though; good, good book.