Here’s a video of managing editor Jared Bland’s recent interview with Stephen Marche, for the first Walrus Reads event at McNally Robinson’s new Toronto bookstore.

This Thursday, in celebration of our new Summer Reading issue, The Walrus and McNally Robinson are proud to present managing editor Jared Bland in conversation with writer Stephen Marche.

Stephen Marche is the author of Shining at the Bottom of the Sea (2007) and Raymond and Hannah (2005). He currently writes “A Thousand Words About Our Culture,” a monthly column for Esquire magazine, and “Close Reading,” a weekly column for The National Post, in addition to opinion pieces for The New Republic, Salon, the Globe and Mail and Toronto Star. He received a doctorate in Early Modern Drama in 2005 from the University of Toronto.

The event will take place on Thursday, July 9 at 7pm, at the McNally Robinson bookstore at Don Mills Road & Lawrence Avenue East. Full map here. Call the store at 416-384-0084 for more info.

At last night’s Canadian National Magazine Awards, The Walrus won one silver and five gold medals for its writing and illustration – the most gold awards given to any of the 79 magazines in competition.

Gold awards were presented for:

Humour: “A Liar’s Life,” by Bruce McCall.

Society: “Not So Down,” by Peter Valing.

Art Direction for a Single Magazine Article: “Part One: A Legend is Born,” by Antonio De Luca, Bree Seeley and Miles Collyer.

Illustration: “The Lynching of Louie Sam,” by Jillian Tamaki.

Words & Pictures: “Our Faces, Our Selves,” by Matthew McKinnon, Daniel Baird, Bree Seeley, Antonio De Luca, Giles Revell and Matt Willey.

And the silver award was presented for:

Essays: “Geared Up,” by Bill Reynolds.

To mark the release of The Walrus summer reading issue, managing editor Jared Bland

NEXT WEEK, JUNE 10: THE WALRUS AT LUMINATO!

To mark the release of The Walrus summer reading issue, managing editor Jared Bland hosts a discussion about genre fiction: westerns, sci fi, fantasy, romances, and ghost stories. Walrus contributors Stephen Marche and Guy Gavriel Kay will share their thoughts.

As part of Luminato’s lunchtime Illuminations series, admission to this event is FREE!

Date: 10 June, 1230-130pm
Location Third Floor, Roots flagship store, 100 Bloor Street West, Toronto.

Write a genre short story and win prizes from Fairmont Hotels & Resorts Joost Swarte’s Summer Reading issue cover for The Walrus.
Click the picture to see a larger image.

To celebrate The Walrus’s annual summer reading issue—featuring thrilling science fiction, adventure, romance & mystery stories from an all-star line-up including Lee Henderson, Rivka Galchen, Stephen Marche & 2008 Giller Prize winner Joseph Boyden—we are pleased to announce The Walrus Guilty Pleasures Writing Contest!

To enter, write the first paragraph of a novel in one of the following genres: Science Fiction, Romance, Western, Ghost Story/Gothic.

Your challenge? To make that paragraph the most gripping, titilating, and action-packed read of the summer! Send your submissions to guiltypleasures@walrusmagazine.com by July 31, and you could win a prize package from Fairmont Hotels & Resorts or a Walrus prize package, and have your work published at walrusmagazine.com!

The Walrus has won the 2009 Utne Independent Press Award for Best Writing.

The awards, presented by the Utne Reader, were given out last night at the Independent Magazine Conference in Boulder, Colorado. ”The goal is to honor independently minded publications that don’t shy away from tough stories and innovative ideas,” the magazine explained.

The editors said:

“It is, once again, the year of The Walrus. Since launching in 2003, the Canadian general-interest magazine “with an international outlook” has nabbed three Utne Independent Press Award nominations, taking the prize in 2004 for best new publication. Five years later and counting, it’s been consistently delightful to read—and last year the magazine outdid itself, its sparkling articles and fluid essays orbiting high above the rest of us earthbound publications. (more…)

Listen to Walrus editor John Macfarlane talk about the magazine, on this excerpt from Here and Now on CBC Radio One from May 14, 2009.