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I Know Why The Jaspreet Singhs | India-born author Jaspreet Singh made a career switch from chemical engineering to literature — and his Alberta Literary Award suggests he made the right move.

GENEROUS HEARTS!
New On The Scene
Artists and businesspeople are often suspicious of each other, but marketing maven Ken Bautista thinks they make natural partners. He’s the chair of ArtsScene Alberta, which was officially launched on Tuesday. Boil away the marketing jargon and the Richard Florida shout-outs, and you’ve got a plan to connect young business professionals with arts groups — in essence, cultivating the next generation of arts volunteers and patrons. Arts News approves! You can connect with ArtsScene at www.businessforthearts.org, where you’ll also find info about the launch party tonight (Thursday) at Planet Ze.

FULL STOMACHS!
Our Compliments To The Chef
In a 2008 interview with the Calgary Herald, Jaspreet Singh said the idea for his first novel Chef came when he realized that there have been lots of novels about soldiers and generals, but none about the people who feed them. Well, last Saturday, Chef won the Georges Bugnet Award for Fiction at the 2009 Alberta Literary Awards. Hungry to know the other winners? Caterina Edwards won the nonfiction category for her memoir Finding Rosa, Sharon Pollock’s Kabloona Talk won for drama, and Lisa Martin-DeMoor’s One Crow Sorrow won for poetry. The full list is available at www.writersguild.ab.ca.

TIRED FEET!
This Marathon Has Zero Miles
Dance marathons have gotten a bum rap ever since They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?, but maybe Mile Zero Dance can improve their reputation this Saturday at Riverdale Hall (9231-100 Ave), the site of Dance-a-Thon 2009. They’ll be challenging volunteers to keep up with their tireless troupe of terpsichoreans all night long — well, okay, from 7:30 p.m. to 1:30 a.m., anyway. The participants will be collecting pledges for each hour they survive without succumbing to cramps or “lack of jive.” Contact admin@milezerodance.com to become a dancer, or pay $10 at the door to be a spectator.