Friday, September 5, 2014

QBF and the brand new Ottawa Review of Books want your book reviews

Quick Brown Fox welcomes your book reviews. I also welcome other book related pieces and reviews of plays, movies, restaurants and anything else that catches your fancy, particularly if your (non-book) review is tongue in cheek.

You might review restaurants you can’t afford, based on what you can see peering through the window. Or you might review the patrons of some event, rather than the event itself. Or you might review something that doesn’t usually get reviewed, such as your former lovers or other people's kids (no names please), or you might review the baristas at your favourite and least favourite coffee shops. Or otherwise use your imagination to get up to some mischief. 

See a good example of a film review here or of a quirky film review here. And see many examples of book reviews published on Quick Brown Fox here. If you're curious about how to write a book review, see here.

Please keep reviews short and as free of long paragraphs and clumsy prose as you can manage.
Email your review to me (Brian Henry) at: brianhenry@sympatico.ca


The Ottawa Review of Books (ORB) is a brand new Canadian on-line journal, and it's also looking for your book reviews.

Read the ORB's review of
Sex and Samosas by Jasmine Aziz here
In the inaugural issue, ORB reviewed Sean Haldane's The Devil's Making, the winner of the 2014 Arthur Ellis Award; Palawan Story by Montreal novelist Caroline Vu; Sex and Samosas by Ottawa's Jasmine Aziz; Humanity's Saving Grace by Ottawa journalist Alex Binkley; and The Reluctant Journal of Henry K. Larsen by Susin Nielsen, one of Canada's leading scriptwriters (Degrassi Junior High).

ORB will review new works of fiction by established and emerging Canadian authors on a monthly basis. It will start modestly with 4-5 reviews, with a goal of reaching eight professionally written reviews per issue within 12 months. While a small core group of reviewers will write some of the reviews, independent reviewers are invited to submit reviews for possible publication.

Publishers are welcome to request reviews of new releases before or after publications. The ORB will respond to to these requests based on capacity.

While authors of the reviewed works of fiction must be either Canadian fiction writers or non-Canadians living in Canada, there are no nationality or residence criteria for the reviewers or publishers. ORB will consider reviews of self-published works of fiction provided that there is a clear demonstration of high quality. All reviews must be original. After publication on the ORB website, ORB will promote the reviews through re-posting to other social media pages and sites in order to optimize readership. ORB reviews may also be re-published (with acknowledgement of ORB) on an unrestricted basis.

If you are a book reviewer looking for a home for a professionally written review or a publisher seeking to increase your authors' exposure, don't hesitate to contact the Ottawa Review of Books at: ottawareviewbooks@gmail.com

See Brian Henry's schedule here, including writing workshops and creative writing courses in Barrie, Brampton, Bolton, Burlington, Caledon, Cambridge, Collingwood, Georgetown, Guelph, Hamilton, Kingston, London, Midland, Mississauga, Newmarket, Niagara on the Lake, Oakville, Orillia, Ottawa, Peterborough, St. Catharines, Stouffville, Sudbury, Toronto, Halton, Kitchener-Waterloo, Muskoka, Peel, Simcoe, York, the GTA, Ontario and beyond. 

2 comments:

  1. Hello, I was wondering if you might, sometime, bring one of your writing courses closer to the London area, and perhaps during a time a working stiff might join in too.
    I would very much like to take the creative writing course you are offering in Burlington this month, but the time is just not one that is achievable for this hack with training wheels. Could you consider something for us in the appendix of the province? Or even a crash course, just a few hours of your time, as you will do in March? You always seem to be going north, young man, never toward the southerners.
    Very sincerely,
    (in need of writing help),
    BD Bowman

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi, I do come to London regularly. The nexxt workshop will be Saturday, March 4: "Writing and Revising." Details here: http://quick-brown-fox-canada.blogspot.ca/2016/10/writing-revising-workshop-saturday.html

    ReplyDelete

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