Arts Without Borders Festival Society P. O. Box 12632 Lloydminster, AB T9V 0Y4

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Arts Without Borders Festival Lloydminster Reads!

Arts Without Borders Festival 2007, a celebration of performing, literary, and visual arts communities in Lloydminster and the surrounding area, is pleased to present “ Lloydminster Reads!” an evening with Author Todd Babiak and a lively, open discussion of his novel,” The Garneau Block.

Lloydminster Reads! will be held on May 23 rd , 2007 at 7PM at the Best Western Wayside Inn at the Crown Ballroom. There will be no host refreshments available; there is no charge for this event. Lloydminster Reads! will be facilitated by Dave Reynolds, Regional Consultant/ SAP Inventory Specialist, Alberta Indigo. Dave is knowledgeable and enthusiastic to be in Lloydminster and to promote and celebrate regional authors.

We are extremely pleased and excited to have Todd Babiak with us in Lloydminster. Todd Babiak grew up in Leduc and moved to to attend the and graduated in 1995 with a BA in Political Science. He then moved to Montreal to do a Master's Degree in English literature at Concordia University and became proficient in French. In 1998, Todd returned to Alberta and took a position at the Edmonton Journal. Todd is a columnist at the Journal; his novel ‘The Garneau Block’ has been serialized in the Journal as will his next book, ‘The Book of Stanley’. Todd Babiak is an author, journalist and screenwriter. His first novel, Choke Hold, won the Henry Kreisel Award for best first book and was a finalist for the Rogers Writers Trust Fiction Prize. He is a Praxis Fellow and not long ago, he was voted Lord Mayor of Old Strathcona. His screenplay, The Great One, co-written with Jason Margolis, won a Praxis Screenwriting Fellowship. It is a magical realist comedy about the day Wayne Gretzky left Edmonton to play for the Los Angeles Kings. He is culture columnist for the Edmonton Journal and is currently writing in the editorial pages of the Journal. The Garneau Block was long listed for the Giller Prize. His third novel, ‘The Book of Stanley will be released this year and has been serialized in the Journal.

The Garneau Block, as reviewed by Anne McDermid and Associates has been touted as “a subtly satirical look at modern life, the story follows a cast of colourful characters in a small neighbourhood in Edmonton- in oil rich Alberta. Three weeks after a violent death among them, the residents of the Garneau block discover mysterious signs on all of their trees. It is a call to escape the shadow of the death and, they will learn, to save their homes from destruction. The Garneau Block is a warm and hilarious satire, a mystery and a romance. The residents of

www.artswithoutborders.ca Arts Without Borders Festival Society P. O. Box 12632 Lloydminster, AB T9V 0Y4 the block, a secretly pregnant travel agent with a master's degree specializing in the haiku, her politically opposed parents, the best actor of his generation, a philosopher of death and his sweet, deluded wife endeavor to transform the Garneau Block, the city, and their lives.”

The event is part of the festival presented by the Arts Without Borders Festival Society and its many sponsors, and aims to promote and create public awareness and appreciation of the arts, culture, and heritage in the Lloydminster region. The 5 days will be filled with practicing artists who live and work in Lloydminster and the Midwest region. The intent of this 5-day public festival to be held May 23 – 27, 2007, is to celebrate excellence in the arts and to underline the importance of the arts in our seamless community. In developing a regional, annual cultural festival, the goal is to showcase and promote practicing artists from all arts disciplines as a whole, unified group. The Arts Without Borders Festival Society is proud to present to our citizens and visitors a truly unique, literary and cultural experience, culminating in the Lieutenant Governor of Alberta Arts Awards Gala, which will be hosted in Lloydminster on May 26, 2007. The Lieutenant Governor of Alberta Arts Awards program was created with the original support and patronage of Her Honour Lois Hole, and continues under the patronage of her successor, The Honourable Norman L. Kwong, CM, AOE.

. For more information with regards to the AWB Festival or Lloydminster Reads!, please refer to the AWB website: www.artswithoutborders.ca

"This is a wonderful contribution to a revived literary genre, the novel serialised in a newspaper. Mr Babiak is blazing a trail - every city should have a story like this." -Alexander McCall Smith, author of The N° 1 Ladies' Detective Agency

"The Garneau Block is screamingly funny. There is at least one laugh on every single page. This novel is fast-paced, savvy, bursting with vivid characters. A celebration of Edmonton! Satire that sucker punches everything sacred. Babiak comes out swinging." -Lisa Moore, author of Alligator

“As only the best writers can, Todd Babiak has taken a small patch of turf and, through sparkling satire and a passionate eye, made it a world. A neighborhood in Edmonton is about to get a lot of honorary citizens.” – Ian McGillis, author of A Tourist’s Guide to Glengarry

Word Fest 2006 Todd Babiak (Can) first came to WordFest with his début novel Choke Hold , which won the Writers’ Guild of Alberta Henry Kreisel Award for Best First Book and was shortlisted for the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize. Todd studied English literature and Political Science in Montreal and Edmonton respectively, and is now an entertainment writer for the Edmonton Journal – the paper that first serialized his second book, The Garneau Block and is doing the same with his third novel, The Book of Stanley. Journal readers were effusive in their praise of The Garneau Block , a sparkling, wittily-told satire set on an average city block in Edmonton

"Todd Babiak is my new favourite social satirist. He's observant, cynical and unrelenting . . . He mercilessly lampoons Alberta's Progressive Conservative Party, the peak oil crisis, self-indulgent SUV drivers, the social climbers and the all-consuming greed. Even the liberal activists get a few knocks. . . . Like all good satirists, Babiak spares none. You may even find yourself, like I did, wincing with self-recognition. The Garneau Block is fast paced, vicious and funny. In other words, it's great therapy in the Dark Age of Stephen Harper, and peak oil." - Toronto Star

“Babiak’s book will make you snicker and guffaw in public places. The Garneau Block is about an oddball cast of characters in a make-believe cul-de-sac in Edmonton, where life is one nonstop block party rife with political intrigue, neighbourly shenanigans, death, and romance.” -Canadian Living

www.artswithoutborders.ca Arts Without Borders Festival Society P. O. Box 12632 Lloydminster, AB T9V 0Y4

"Sublime. It’s the only word for The Garneau Block ." -Vue Weekly (Edmonton)

"Hilarious . . . Any fool arguing that the serial is dead would laugh away any real resistance to The Garneau Block 's many charms. . . . [Babiak's] characters are as memorably outlandish and archetypal as anything old C.D. [Charles Dickens] ever wrote. . . . Striking a balance between satirical farce and plausible realism, Block is sentimental but never mawkish, a love letter to Edmonton." - The Georgia Straight

"The Garneau Block not only is funny, it's sophisticated and hokey at the same time - the very essence of Edmonton, fermented, bottled and best served with crackers and brie." -The Gazette (Montreal)

"In Babiak's hands . . . what seems like modern malaise is actually screwball comedy -- Douglas Coupland by way of Preston Sturges. . . . The story catches you, the characters immediately endear. Babiak has such an evident affection for them, for all their personal faults. Pushed a little bit beyond themselves, they become ridiculous but also "mythic," to steal an idea from ex-philosophy professor and Garneau Block inhabitant Raymond Terletsky. The Garneau Block is the kind of story you'd expect from another city -- literature that highlights its citizens, sets ideas spinning, starts a mythology -- and now it's finally ours." -The Edmonton Journal

"Capturing Edmonton's essence is like nailing jelly to the wall, but [Todd Babiak] manages it handily." -Globe and Mail

"Babiak's language isn't lofty, but dense with keen observation -- highlighting the beauty, kindness, cynicism, sense of humour and contradiction found in many Edmontonians, most Canadians and modern life in general." -The Ottawa Citizen

"The neurotic high comedy of the best Woody Allen films." -The Calgary Herald

“...cleanly written, inventive, fast-moving, stuffed with zingers about everything from Satanists to cellphone ringtones, extremely affectionate toward its nutty cast of players, and laugh-out-loud funny. . . . Babiak’s highest achievement, though, lies in introducing us to the motley charms of the people and the city, whether they be bohemians who shop at Value Village or grandees who dine on bison with blueberry sauce at the Hardware Grill. If there really are a million stories in Champion City, let this one be the first.” -Quill & Quire

www.artswithoutborders.ca Arts Without Borders Festival Society P. O. Box 12632 Lloydminster, AB T9V 0Y4

www.artswithoutborders.ca