One of the mainstay offsite parties of the BookExpo Canada weekend is missing this year. Typically the Book Promoters Association of Canada gives out its Jack Award on the Friday evening of the show weekend, but BPAC boardmember Stephen Myers says the group’s activities are currently on hiatus. The plan is to revive operations in July and announce new programming then. (The Jack, named for Jack McClelland, goes to someone who’s made “a significant contribution to the promotion of Canadian authors and books. Last year’s winner was bookseller Richard Bachmann.)

This is also the second BookExpo in a row with no Canadian Manda Group party, which was the Sunday night event of choice for many years. Not that there’s no partying to be done. The Canadian Booksellers Association is hosting a booksellers-only get-together on Friday evening. And while Raincoast Books and its subsidiary Publishers Group Canada may be firmly in retrenchment mode, they’re still coming through with a Saturday night shindig, this year at Pauper’s Pub on Bloor. We salute them. Also on Saturday, the annual Children’s Gala is proceeding as usual in the early evening at the downtown nightspot Montana.