2010

November 16, 2010 My hosts White Rock Library and Semiahmoo Arts Literary series invite you to join me for a discussion of war and remembrance along with readings from my novel Underground. There will be two appearances in White Rock, B.C. on this date.

I’ll be the guest author at Titles and Tea Afternoon Book Club, White Rock Library, 15342 Buena Vista, 2:00 pm.

In the evening I’m at the Semiahmoo Arts Literary Series – Readings by the Salish Sea, Pelican Rouge Coffee House, 15142 North Bluff Rd. White Rock, 604-536-8333, 7:30 pm.

November 12, 2010 — Underground is now available in ebook format!

November 5-11 Veterans’ Week. I’ll be remembering in particular our volunteers in civil war Spain — the MacKenzie-Papineau Battalion, Canada’s forgotten soldiers. They won’t be named at any of the regular Remembrance Day ceremonies held across the country (click above link for locations) but we, as individuals, can remember them.

The winners of Room magazine’s 2010 Writing Contest have been announced. Click here. Judges: Fiction – June Hutton, Poetry – Jennica Harper, Non-fiction – Lynn Van Luven.

You, too, can vote until Oct. 24 for Underground or any of the other shortlisted titles by clicking on this 2010 Evergreen Award online ballot

Room Magazine‘s fall issue Past & Present features an interview by editor Janet Nicol with the SPiN writing group: Jen Sookfong Lee (The End of East), Mary Novik (Conceit) and me, June Hutton (Underground).

September 24, 2010 Underground is in the ring again as Barrie Councillor Jeff Lehman defends it against other Evergreen Award titles in the annual Barrie Reads.

September 23, 2010 Underground takes to the stage for the annual Kingston WritersFest Battle of the Books. Defending my novel against other titles nominated for the Evergreen Award will be Col. Rick Fawcett, Base Commander at CFB Kingston. Booyah!

Kingston Reads Book of the Week: Underground, including the pitch by Col. Rick Fawcett (see above).

As part of the 2010 Evergreen Award program, I’ll be reading from Underground at two branches of the Toronto Public Library:

September 16, 2010 An Evening with June Hutton Bloor Gladstone Library, 1101 Bloor Street West, 7 pm;

September 15, 2010 An Afternoon with June Hutton Maryvale Library, Parkway Mall, 85 Ellesmere Rd., 2 pm.

September 14, 2010 I’ll be appearing in the Toronto Heliconian Club‘s Literary Lecture Series to talk about Underground, 35 Hazelton Ave., 7:30 pm.

The Malaysian Insider posts an interview with me by Eric Forbes, senior book editor with MPH Publishing in Kuala Lumpur, Aug. 28, 2010.

Mary Soderstrom’s blog Recreating Eden looks at video trailers for novels, including Underground’‘s.

July 15, 2010 Extended deadline for Room magazine’s annual writing contest. 1st prize $500; 2nd prize $250. Judges: Fiction – June Hutton, Poetry – Jennica Harper, Non-fiction – Lynn Van Luven.

A lovely photo spread of book covers – just click on Underground‘s for a short but very sweet review from My Own Creations.

June 3, 2010 The 75th anniversary of the On to Ottawa trek, which began with street demonstrations in Vancouver protesting the treatment of unemployed men. Many of those protesters went on to fight against fascism in the Spanish Civil War, as did Al Fraser, protagonist of Underground.

“By turns lyrical and relentless in its unvarnished depiction of the impact of war, Underground offers a timely read as soldiers and civilians perish daily in Asia, the Middle East and elsewhere on the planet,” writes Evelyn C. White (Alice Walker: A Life, and, Every Goodbye Ain’t Gone: A Photo Narrative of Black Heritage on Salt Spring Island) , HERIZONS magazine, spring 2010 issue.

“An engaging and thoughtful story set in the early decades of the tumultuous 20th century” — review of Underground by Historical Novels Review, Charlston, Ill., Spring 2010 issue.

An interview with blog HistoricalNovels.info on the writing of Underground, April 22, 2010

Margaret Donsbach calls Underground “impressionistic, psychologically astute.” Read more in Portland, OR’s HistoricalNovels.Info, April 15, 2010

A terrific review of Underground in SubTerrain‘s special issue #54/55 Vancouver’s Literary Landscape. Says reviewer Heidi Greco: “Hutton’s Underground is every bit as important (and well-delivered) as those by her male colleagues. With this book, she’s not only broken new ground, she written an important addition to Canada’s literary canon of peace and war.”

Underground is shortlisted for the Ontario Library Association’s 2010 Evergreen Award (click to see the full list of nominees). How the award works: Librarians nominate titles, from which a short list is drawn. Then from April to October the public will read the books and vote In October for their favorite title. Steven Galloway is last year’s winner for The Cellist of Sarajevo. Check here for further details on this year’s program. In the meantime, here is my author page.

Underground gets some nice attention from Britain’s bookaholic litblogger Dovegreyreader Scribbles. Jan. 29, 2010.

A review of Underground is featured on New Zealand’s Beattie’s Book Blog. “The subject matter will be of interest to many in this part of the world,” says Bookman Beattie. Jan. 28, 2010.

My comments about The Writing Life appear on New Zealand’s Beattie’s Book Blog. Jan. 7, 2010.

I shared some thoughts about writing style, Underground and SPiN in a chat with Toronto’s  Evadne Macedo. Jan. 6, 2010.

It’s a brand-new year and I’m ringing it in with a few comments about The Writing Life in an interview with Kuala Lumpur’s Eric Forbes. Jan. 4, 2010.