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News Releases - 2010

Authors Ken McGoogan and Aline Apostolska at the helm of the Public Lending Right Commission

Ottawa, June 9, 2010 — Writers and journalists
Ken McGoogan and
Aline Apostolska are, respectively, the newly elected Chair and
Vice-Chair of the Public Lending Right Commission (PLRC). 

Both Ken McGoogan, who represents The Writers’ Union of Canada on the Commission, and Aline Apostolska, who represents the Union des écrivaines et des écrivains québécois, underlined that they will bring a perspective to PLRC discussions based on the views of the many members of their associations. The pair is well-matched to embody the spirit of inclusivity, a core value of the PLRC. 

Their two-year terms will coincide with the 25th anniversary of the Commission. Throughout 2011-2012, events marking the 25th anniversary of the PLRC will celebrate Canadian literature and its authors, the raison d’être of the Commission. 

Ken McGoogan (Toronto, originally from Montreal)

Novelist, journalist, historian and essayist, Ken McGoogan is
best-known for his four non-fiction books about Arctic exploration:
Fatal Passage, Ancient Mariner, Lady Franklin’s Revenge, and
Race to the Polar Sea. He has received the Pierre Berton Award for History, the UBC Medal for Canadian Biography, the Drainie-Taylor Biography Prize, and an American Christopher Award. A former journalist with The Toronto Star, The Montreal Star and Calgary Herald, he currently writes for The Globe and Mail and Canada’s History magazine. A fellow of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society, he teaches narrative nonfiction at the University of Toronto and sails in the Northwest Passage as a resource historian with Adventure Canada.

Aline Apostolska (Montreal, originally from Paris, France)

A historian by training as well as a novelist, short story writer,
non-fiction writer, journalist and cultural event organizer,
Aline Apostolska has a full and diversified career. A listing of her appearances in the written press and on radio (France-Inter, RTL, Paris-Match, Lui, Newlook, Globe, Libération, Le Devoir, La Presse, Journal de Montréal, Radio-Canada), her work as a literary editor with Leméac Éditeur (for the « Ici l’Ailleurs » collection, among others) and her thirty-odd works for adults and young people, would still not cover the entire range of her accomplishments.

In 2005, she created her first performance combining her love of literature and dance, Du Vent, for the Festival international de littérature (FIL). In the fall of 2010, again for FIL, she will present another performance combining dance and literature.

The Public Lending Right Commission

Made up of representatives of national organizations of writers, librarians and publishers, and of two representatives from the Department of Canadian Heritage and the Canada Council for the Arts, the Public Lending Right Commission has the mandate to recognize the significant contribution that Canadian authors make to Canada’s culture by compensating authors for the presence of their published work in Canada’s public libraries. 

To learn more about the Commission, its members and its program, visit their website.