Editing Canada Reads (section)

==Overview==
During ''Canada Reads'', five personalities champion five different books, each champion extolling the merits of one of the titles. The debate is broadcast over a series of five programs. At the end of each episode, the [[panelist]]s vote one title out of the competition until only one book remains. This book is then billed as the book that all of Canada should read.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/canada-reads/|title=Canada Reads|last=Hazlett|first=Emily|work=The Canadian Encyclopedia|access-date=2018-05-19|language=en}}</ref>

CBC Radio producer [[Peter Kavanagh (producer)|Peter Kavanagh]] proposed the general idea of a national radio book campaign during the fall of 2001.<ref name=gm>{{cite news|first=Lisa |last=Fitterman |title=Peter Kavanagh: Author and radio producer had a 'furious intellect' |url=https://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/television/peter-kavanagh-author-and-radio-producer-had-a-furious-intellect/article32204841/|work=[[The Globe and Mail]] |date=2016-10-02 |access-date=2016-10-04}}</ref> Later that year, Talin Vartanian conceived ''Canada Reads'' and created the essential structure of the program: an annual campaign to select a book for the nation to read. She proposed the idea of five panelists, each championing a different title in a national on air debate. Vartanian was producer in the first edition (with Kavanagh), then she became executive producer from 2002 to 2007. In 2007 the program was an "All Star Edition", a reunion of the winning panelists from the first five years. From 2007 to 2017, Ann Jansen produced the program.

''Canada Reads'' was first broadcast on the CBC's [[CBC Radio One|Radio One]] in 2002, and has aired annually on radio since then. The third and fourth editions also were broadcast on television, on [[CBC Newsworld]]. Broadcast dates were February 16 to February 20, 2004, and February 21 to February 25, 2005, respectively. The seventh edition was also broadcast on [[Bold TV]], broadcasting from February 25 to February 29. Beginning with the third edition, the daily debates could be heard online as well as on Radio One. The fifth edition was broadcast from April 17 to April 21, 2006. The sixth edition aired February 25 to March 2, 2007. The seventh edition of ''Canada Reads'' was broadcast on February 25 to February 29, 2008, and for the first time, it was available as a [[podcast]].

The books in the running for each edition of ''Canada Reads'' are announced several months before the programs are broadcast. Titles must be Canadian fiction, poetry or plays. They are promoted in bookstores, in the hope that the ''Canada Reads'' audience will purchase and read them all before the programs air. In some cases, publishers have published special editions of the nominated titles.

The publisher of the winning ''Canada Reads'' title donates a portion of sales proceeds from the winning book to a charitable organization working in the field of literacy. Recipients have included Frontier College, the Movement for Canadian Literacy, ABC Life Literacy Canada (formerly ABC CANADA Literacy Foundation) and Laubach Literacy of Canada.

Beginning in 2004, Radio-Canada, the [[French language|French-language]] service of the CBC, produced a French version of ''Canada Reads'' entitled ''Le Combat des livres'' ("Battle of the books"). It was broadcast on [[Première Chaîne]] until 2014, following which it was discontinued for three years until being revived in 2018.

Both the English and French programs sometimes, but not always, include one personality more commonly associated with the other language community, who champions a [[translation|translated]] work. One advocate, [[Maureen McTeer]],  has appeared on both programs in the same year, championing the same novel in both its original English and translated French editions. Several other novels have also been chosen for both programs, although their English and French versions were not chosen by the same advocate or in the same year; one novel to date, [[Lawrence Hill]]'s ''[[The Book of Negroes (novel)|The Book of Negroes]]'' (French title ''Aminata'') has won both competitions.