Ottawa’s mother tongue books to close doors; come help wind down the store,

A sad email circulated yesterday, citing the demise of mother tongue books [photo credit: Pearl Pirie] in Old Ottawa South. 

One of but a handful of independent booksellers left in the city (apart from Collected Works Bookstore and Coffeebar and Octopus Books, for example), so it’s heartbreaking to see it close. I’ve been both participant and audience for a great many readings there over the years, and they’ve been an incredible supporter of a number of local communities, not just of writers [see the article I wrote on them last fall, posted in Open Book: Ontario]. 

You should go by their store and thank them, and help them leave the business without their massive debt. It’s the least we can do.

Here’s the notice posted to their website, yesterday (highlights mine):

Celebrate mother tongue books

Help us close the store, start a new chapter and leave a lasting legacy

June 12, 2012

Help us wind down the store

June 12, 2012

Dear Friends,

There is no easy way to say this…

“After almost 18 years of serving our community it is time to close our beloved mother tongue books!”

There, we said it!

It’s okay to mourn a little bit, but then let’s celebrate together what mother tongue has achieved and the supportive role it has played in our community. We need your help to do that and create the strongest possible legacy of our small shop, from buying books to donating towards our closing costs, to attending events (more on this below).

It is obvious to everyone that there have been dramatic changes in the “book industry” since we opened in 1994. Running a bookshop, like running any small business, is a challenge. Bookselling is not for the faint of heart, but it is a dynamic way to engage, nourish and build community.

Bookselling is a beautiful way to share ideas (and ideals), and to support new journeys of discovery, learning and change. One of the great joys of being a bookseller is putting the right book in the right hands. What a wonderful gift to be a part of the reading and creative lives of our customers and community!

We have been blessed to be able to support the ideals, dreams and struggles of others. It is deeply gratifying, and humbling to have been part of our customers’ lives. We have built up a very loyal community – we appreciate you more than you can know!

Still, there are many others who love the “idea” of small, neighbourhood bookshops, and other local businesses, but who no longer shop in them. The scales have tipped in the past 5 or 6 years. The “ideal” life of bookselling is outweighed by financial and emotional exhaustion. In short, we are tired! For us, this little shop no longer translates into a sustainable business model or a way to serve our community. We have other things we need and want to do!

In this spirit, we are asking for your help to close the bookshop. We want to engage our community to help wrap things up, to help us celebrate what we have grown together and to plant seeds for a thriving legacy for mother tongue books.

To wrap things up we need to sell a lot of books, raise some money, and put things in order. Here are 5 things you can do to help:

1. Buy books from us!

2. Donate. No amount is too small. Join the Friends@200 fund, where individuals or groups purchase $200 worth of books or donate $200 toward our closing costs. Offer a service or special item for our online auction (details to follow!). Or just pass the hat at your next meeting, group or event! We appreciate every gift.

3. Join us at our series of events starting Friday, June 22, with Giller award-winner Elizabeth Hay and acclaimed Ottawa-based singer-songwriter Jill Zmud. Events are every Friday evening until July 20.

4. Send us a note of support or share a special “mother tongue moment” on our open blog at celebratemothertongue.ca. We will be sharing these stories and memories as a way to honour the store’s history. And spread the word! Circulate this blog’s URL http://www.celebratemothertongue.ca

5. Buy local. Now, more than ever, it is important to support your remaining local booksellers and businesses. They are the building blocks of vibrant neighbourhoods and communities. Next time you are at a community event, take the time to see which local businesses that supported it; in turn, support those businesses.

Our work is rooted in our feminist politics and our commitment to justice and equality for our LGBTTQQ family. Over the years we have supported many community-based organizations, from local arts groups to anti-violence agencies, from community choirs to international charities, from cooperative preschools to hospices. We want to thank those organizations for the work they do and we want to encourage all of you to consider donating time or money to those who make our communities richer. Their energy is incredible. We hope that that energy will be part of our legacy.

We are people who believe that the most rewarding thing in life is to be of service. So help us work in this spirit over the next weeks. Let’s celebrate what needs to be celebrated, close what needs to close, and support what needs to open! We have faith that other projects, businesses, and initiatives will come after us

Friends, we have not made this decision lightly. We ask that you please honour our choice and be happy for us, even as we all mourn a little bit for our community’s collective loss. We believe that there will be a renaissance in bookselling, but we are aware that we cannot be part of that rebirth. Please know that this moment is both frightening and exciting for us as we move into a new phase in our own lives.

Thank you for your trust, support and friendship. These things, we will never leave behind!

Laura Rayner, Evelyn Huer, Julie Gagnon

mother tongue books

www.celebratemothertonguebooks.ca

www.mothertonguebooks.ca

Poetry Month chapbooks by Lisa Robertson + George Elliott Clarke available in April through Mother Tongue Books and Collected Works Bookstore and Coffeebar

Ottawa chapbook publisher above/ground is pre-releasing two poetry chapbooks for poetry month at two Ottawa bookstores: mother tongue books in Old Ottawa South, and Collected Works Bookstore and Coffeebar in Parkdale. Fifty copies of each title, normally sold for four dollars each, will be pre-released at one of two Ottawa bookstores gratis, with bookstore purchase only. Given the plight of independent bookstores the past few years, this project hopes to highlight the importance of the independent, community bookseller by encouraging the public to explore just what these businesses provide, not just for readers, but for writers, in the city.

Lisa Robertson’s On Physical Real Beginning and What Happens Next will be available free (with purchase) starting April 1, 2012 at mother tongue books, 1067 Bank Street, Ottawa.

One of Canada’s most engaged poets, Lisa Robertson was born in Toronto and lives in France. Bookthug has just published her new book of essays, Nilling.

George Elliott Clarke’s Selected Canticles will be available free (with purchase) starting April 16, 2012 at Collected Works Bookstore and Coffeebar, 1242 Wellington Street West, Ottawa.

Poet, playwright, novelist and literary critic George Elliott Clarke won the Governor General's Award for Poetry for Execution Poems (Gaspereau Press, 2001). His most recent book is Red (Gaspereau Press, 2011). He is currently the E.J. Pratt Professor of Canadian Literature at the University of Toronto.

Fifty copies of each title will be distributed free through the respective bookstores, and will be made publicly available through the above/ground press site two weeks after their bookstore release date.

Edited and published by Ottawa writer rob mclennan, above/ground press was founded in August, 1993 in Ottawa, and has produced over six hundred publications, including works by George Elliott Clarke, Stephen Brockwell, George Bowering, Deanna Young, Monty Reid, Max Middle, Patrick Lane, Christine McNair, John Lavery, Pearl Pirie, Robert Hogg, derek beaulieu, Marcus McCann, Amanda Earl, Sandra Ridley, Louis Cabri, Shane Rhodes, Marilyn Irwin, John Newlove, Rae Armantrout, Barry McKinnon, Cameron Anstee, Phil Hall, Robert Kroetsch and Gwendolyn Guth. A list of recent titles can be accessed through the above/ground press website.

An anthology of the first decade of the press’ operations, Groundswell: the best of above/ground press 1993-2003, edited by rob mclennan, with an introduction by Stephen Cain, appeared in 2003 with Fredericton publisher Broken Jaw Press. A second volume is currently in production.

For more information, contact rob mclennan at 613 239 0337 or rob_mclennan@hotmail.com


Or, check out the above/ground press link for further information, as well as links

Profile: Ottawa bookstore mother tongue books (at open book ontario)

My profile of Ottawa bookstore mother tongue books is now on-line at Open Book. Be sure to check them out at their Old Ottawa South location at 1067 Bank Street (at Sunnyside Avenue), or their website, here.

The Factory Reading Series: A reading/talk with Janice Williamson,‏

span-o (the small press action network - ottawa) presents:
The Factory Reading Series
 

A reading/talk by Janice Williamson (Edmonton)

lovingly hosted by rob mclennan

mother tongue books, 1067 Bank Street (at Sunnyside), Ottawa ON
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
doors 7pm, reading 7:30

link to facebook event here; 


Janice Williamson: mothers a teenager, writes, and teaches at the University of Alberta's Department of English and Film Studies, latitude 53, Edmonton, Alberta.

Her blog/website: the pomegranate (http://pomegranatewomenwriting.wordpress.com) is devoted to Canadian women writing nonfiction and issues of equity.

She is at work on a series of linked creative nonfiction essays. Her story "Fu: the turning point" about adoptive mothering was published in Dropped Threads 3. "The Turquoise Sea,"an essay about suicide and mourning, was originally published in AlbertaViews Jan/Feb 2010. The essay won a Silver Medal in the 2011 National Magazine Awards and was a finalist for the Jon Whyte Essay Prize in Alberta.

She is completing an interdisciplinary and multi-genre anthology about the case of Omar Khadr (see http://omarkhadranthology.wordpress.com). This explores human rights, torture, Canadian domestic and foreign policy, writing in a state of exception, the limits of tolerance, anti-racism, Islamophobia and the culture of fear.

Two of her five books are image/text works. Through family photography and memory work, a memoir Crybaby! investigates trauma, infertility, and a father's suicide. Tell Tale Signs used found images and engravings to tell cryptic stories. Her chapbook a boy: named won the national bpNichol Chapbook Award.

Over almost three decades, she lectured widely and published innovative essays on: mothering and adoption; twentieth-century Canadian women's writing including hybrid genre-blurring work; feminist cultural studies (women's trauma narratives, feminist performance and women's film); nonviolent civil disobedience & peace activism; and popular culture including written and video readings of West Edmonton Mall.