BC Your FREE Guide to Books & Authors • 44 Pages BOOKWORLD Alex VOL

BC Your FREE guide to books & authors • 44 pages BOOKWORLD Alex VOL. 29 • NO. 2 • SUMMER 2015 van Tol Invasive animals & plants in B.C. BC BOOK PRIZES P.33 CAPTAIN COOK RYGA AWARD FEMINISM TEENLIT FICTION Barry Gough The wild life of explorer Peter Pond. P.38 “LoveLove whilewhile PHOTO

PAQUETTE youyou KEN can.can.” AislinnAislinn HunterHunter STAMINA uponupon acceptingaccepting thethe EthelEthel WilsonWilson FictionFiction PrizePrize atat thethe BCBC BookBook PrizesPrizes Amor coincidentalcoincidental withwith aa De Cosmos featurefeature reviewreview ofof herher Weakness & winningwinning novelnovel inin strength in a B.C. premier. PUBLICATION MAIL AGREEMENT TheThe NewNew YorkYork TimesTimes #40010086 P.17 see page 22

VPL Literary Landmarks P.11 Homebirthing in BC P.15 2 BC BOOKWORLD SUMMER 2015 OPINION TOPSELLERS * Bring back the tar ‘n’ feathers BCDerrick Penner The Bank of Mom and Dad: Surely Andrew MacLeod’s muckraking facts about poverty are in bad taste. Money, Parents, and Grown Children (Self Counsel Press $14.95) OBODY WANTS TO READ ABOUT POVERTY. SO Between 1981 and 2012, B.C. registered the biggest drop in Canada Andrew Struthers let’s ignore this article. Ever since Around the World on Minimum Wage in the percentage of workers who (New Star Books $24) slave owners in the United States were members of unions, dropping from 43 percent of the workforce to Carrie Saxifrage wrote a constitution that declared all 30 percent. The Big Swim: In 2012, the bottom half of the B.C. Coming Ashore in a World Adrift men are equal, Americans have been populace, about 2.25 million people, (New Society Publishers $16.95) delusionary about themselves. And held only 3.1 percent of the wealth Michelle Mulder British Columbia is a bit like the U.S. (the poorest ten percent actually owed Trash Talk: more than they owned), while the top Moving Toward a Zero-Waste World We comfortably and routinely believe in our superiority. 10 percent, some 450,000 people, held (Orca Book Publishers $19.95) N 56.2 percent of the wealth, a greater This unites us; it makes us strong. concentration than anywhere else in Helen McAllister & Hey, self-satisfaction is a good Canada. Jennifer Heath thing. For years our license plates Real estate in British Columbia Down to Earth: Cold Climate boasted Beautiful British Columbia —particularly in Vancouver—has Gardens and their Keepers (Oolichan Books $29.95) and our previous premier, before he been identified as the main factor in escaped to a safe job in England, generating the most severe economic Lori Beattie confidently boasted B.C. was the best divide between rich and poor in the Calgary’s Best Walks place on the planet. country. (Sandhill Book Marketing $26.95) Now party pooper Andrew MacLeod Mr. MacLeod is particularly critical Sylvia Olsen has come along with A Better Place On about the cutbacks to welfare rates made by the Liberals since they came Knitting Stories: Personal Essays Earth (Harbour $22.95) that examines PHOTO and Seven Coast Salish-inspired the ugly truth about wealth and pov- to power. We are told the number Knitting Patterns (Sono Nis Press $28.95) erty in B.C. of children living in poverty in B.C. MACLEOD We think British Columbians increased by more than 50,000 from Gordon Hawkins should be free to remain safely inside ANNIE 2010 to 2012. The De Cosmos Enigma our blissfully self-satisfied cocoons The public is advised to be on the Such muckraking with facts and (Ronsdale Press $17.95) of ignorance and superior physical lookout for Andrew MacLeod, a figures is thoroughly out of synch with Raziel Reid fitness. We think everyone should be naysayer of the worst magnitude. the times. Is it really in the public inter- Everything Feels like the Movies free to indiscriminately toss around the est for citizens to know Jim Pattison’s is the worst province for inequality (Arsenal Pulp Press $15.95) term world class. net worth in 2013 has been estimated Writing about widening inequality in Canada. at more than $7 billion? Cinda Chavich for The Tyee site is fine. Mr. MacLeod Mr. MacLeod has the gall to let us Bring back the tar ‘n’ feathers, we The Waste Not, Want Not can fritter away his pique all he likes know: say. Cookbook: Save Food, Save Money, on the internet. But putting his re- With 13.2 percent of Canada’s popu- No politics, please, we’re the new and Save the Planet (Touchwood $29.95) search into an actual book subtitled lation, B.C. is home to 14.6 percent of British Columbians. the people living in poverty. 978-1-55017-704-6 Meredith Quartermain Among the Haves and Have Nots in I, Bartleby Super Unequal British Columbia, well, (Talonbooks $14.95) that’s going too far. In Hong Kong, surely they would DO SOMETHING to Roy Henry Vickers gag Mr. MacLeod. & Robert Budd Didn’t most of our B.C. publish- Orca Chief (Harbour $19.95) ers wisely and quietly stop producing critical books with political content Robert Budd years ago? A Better Place On Earth Ted Harrison Collected (D&M $19.95) amounts to a backward step. We be- Chris & Josh lieve even poor people in B.C. would Hergesheimer much prefer not to know about how badly off they are compared to people The Flour Peddler: A Global Journey into Local Food in other provinces. We should just from Canada to South Sudan continue to accentuate the positives (Caitlin Press $24.95) like life expectancy. (If B.C. was a country we would be among the top John Belshaw ten in the world.) Everybody wants to Vancouver Confidential (Anvil Press $20) live here, right? That’s all we really need to know. Robert J. Muckle So who does this Andrew MacLeod The First Nations of person think he is spreading these British Columbia, 3rd edition: malicious truths. Every year we are An Anthropological Overview certain the Vancouver Canucks are (UBC Press $27.95) going to win the Stanley Cup. That’s ILLUSTRATION

how we go about our lives here. Delu- sion is a good thing. That’s why we

* The current topselling titles from major LESTER BC publishing companies, in no particular order. are pretty sure you do not want to

pick up BC BookWorld and learn B.C. DAVID

Publication Mail Agreement #40010086 Contributors: Beverly Cramp, John Moore, Return undeliverable Canadian addresses to: Joan Givner, Shane McCune, Mark Forsythe, BC BC BookWorld, 3516 W. 13th Ave., Louise Donnelly, Cherie Thiessen, Keven Drews, Vancouver, BC, Canada V6R 2S3 Caroline Woodward. Writing not otherwise credited is by staff. BOOKWORLD Produced with the sponsorship of For this issue, we gratefully acknowledge the unobtrusive Design: Get-to-the-Point Graphics assistance of Canada Council, a continuous partner since 1988. Pacific BookWorld News Society. Consultants: Christine Ron- Publications Mail Registration No. 7800. deau, Sharon Jackson BC BookWorld ISSN: 1701-5405 SUMMER 2015 Photographers: Barry Peter- Advertising & editorial: son, Laura Sawchuk Vol. 29 • No. 2 BC BookWorld, 3516 W. 13th Ave., Proofreaders: Wendy Atkinson, Tara Twigg Vancouver, B.C., Canada V6R 2S3 Deliveries: Ken Reid, Acculogix Publisher/Writer: Alan Twigg Tel/Fax: 604-736-4011 Email: [email protected] All BC BookWorld reviews are posted at In-Kind Supporters: Editor/Production: David Lester Annual subscription: $25 www.abcbookworld.com Simon Fraser University Library; Vancouver Public Library.

3 BC BOOKWORLD SUMMER 2015 4 BC BOOKWORLD SUMMER 2015 who’swho’s whowhoBRITISH COLUMBIA

Photo from Maria Bremner’s Cape Scott and the North Coast Trail

by taking it to America. After mastering er Tongue $19.95), is for Ayer the male-dominated art, she eventually is for Edge has been described A performed at Franklin Roosevelt’s E by poet Sharon The- White House, as described in Shadow sen as “at once a Paula Ayer rebelled against her Cana- Nearly all major North American cities Woman: The Extraordinary Career performance of the dian sausage-making family at age 15 still support at least one major daily of Pauline Benton (McGill-Queens archetypal feminine by going vegan. Her husband, raised by newspaper. It’s one of the many rea- $29.95). Lillian 9780786497195; forever at odds with Hindu vegetarians, rebelled by eating sons why Marc Edge felt compelled Shadow 978077354201-3 patriarchal order meat. Family dinners were interesting, to write Greatly Exaggerated: The Patrick Friesen and a libretto for the to say the least. Now Ayer’s first picture Myth of the Death of Newspapers wayward, solitary, book, Foodprints: The Story of What (New Star $21). Counteracting much of D is for Doucette and vulnerable spirit of art, passion We Eat (Annick $26.95), for ages 12 the hype from the high-tech industry, and expression.” Meanwhile Friesen’s and up, provides concise information A healthier work environment in- Edge reveals how and why the news- partner Eve Joseph has won the Hu- about our foods and production. Top- creases employee morale. The goal of paper business is still healthy and bert Evans Non-Fiction Prize for In the ics include history, science, marketing, Jill Doucette’s Greening Your Office: profitable. Marc Edge earlier published Slender Margin: The Intimate Strange- and economics, as well as tips regard- Strategies that Work (Self-Counsel Pacific Press: The Unauthorized Story of ness of Death and Dying (HarperCol- ing nutrition. Ayer, a Vancouverite, $12.95) is to help people implement Vancouver’s Newspaper Monopoly (New lins 2014). 978-1-896949-49-9 has worked as an editor, translator, affordable strategies to reduce an Star 2001). 978-1-55420-102-0 researcher and art director. office’s carbon footprint. Doucette’s 978-1-55451-719-0 other book, Greening Your Commu- G is for Gainor nity: The Environmentally Friendly F is for Friesen Way (Self-Counsel $12.95), provides A Space Race geek from way back, as B is for Bremner environmentally-friendly ideas to in- Patrick Friesen’s creation of a soul- well as the author of four books on avia- crease community ties and improve searching, eccentric, wild woman and tion, Chris Gainor had a special reason With its 115-kilometre-long coastline, your neighbourhood. Office 9781770402089; trickster for his 16th book, a short his- to go to Baltimore and Washington this Cape Scott Provincial Park at the Community 9781770402232 tory of crazy bone: long poem (Moth- spring to celebrate the 25th anniver- northernmost end of Vancouver Island sary of the Hubble space telescope’s contains the recently completed North launch on April 24, 1990. The Victoria- Coast Trail. Thousands of people now based journalist has been drafted onto annually make the trek as outlined in a team, hired by NASA, to write the Maria Bremner’s Cape Scott and the authoritative, post-launch history of North Coast Trail (Harbour $26.95), the Hubble space telescope. “I wanted the first comprehensive guidebook of to be an astronaut more than I wanted the trail. It offers maps, photographs, to play in the NHL,” says Gainor. trail details and history. Bremner first visited the area in 1998. 978-1-55017-691-9 H is for Hammond is for Carter C Kristie Hammond is the mother of five children, one of whom is an amputee. Grant Hayter-Menzies’ admiring por- In her new fictional novel for young trait of former U.S. president Jimmy adults, The Moment (Sono Nis $9.95), Carter’s mother, Lillian Carter: A James, a teenager in Kamloops, loses Compassionate Life (McFarland & Co. Paula Ayer dishes on food; Jill Doucette greens your office space an important hockey game and then $35), recalls how Lillian cared for black loses his lower leg that same night due families in the rural south as a young to a tragic accident. As he struggles to nurse and later served as a 68-year-old overcome his anger and bitterness at Peace Corps volunteer in 1960s India. having to accept a new life that will pos- Always a fearless supporter of human sibly make him an object of pity with his rights, she was dubbed “First Mother of prosthetic leg, James finds friendship the world” by the American press. It’s a in places he never expected. It takes a follow-up to Hayter-Menzies’ biography return to the ice and a secret friend to of Kansas-born Pauline Benton (1898- get him back into the game of hockey 1974) who discovered shadow theatre and the game of life. 978-1-55039-235-7 (piyingxi) in China in the 1920s and believed she could save the tradition Jimmy Carter with his mother Lillian; Kristie Hammond continued on page 6

5 BC BOOKWORLD SUMMER 2015 NEW from the Royal BC Museum

Aliens Among Us Invasive Animals & Plants in British Columbia Alex Van Tol / Illustrated by Mike Deas This informative book will help the next generation of responsible environmentalists identify unwanted aliens in BC and stop their invasion. More than 50 species covered, from the Black Rat to Giant Hogweed. $19.95 paperback, 128 pp., 7.5 x 9” Ages 8–12 / colour photographs & drawings ISBN 978-0-7726-6853-0

New Perspectives on the Gold Rush Edited by Kathryn Bridge Ten insightful essays by historians, curators and heritage professionals, each offering a new way of examining BC’s gold-rush years or exploring the legacies of those who remained in BC after the gold rush. Karen Connolly $24.95 paperback, 192 pp., 8 x 10” is featured in a History / colour and b/w photographs literary session at ISBN 978-0-7726-6854-7 the 39th Island Mountain School of the Arts , July 4-7. Treasures of the Royal British Columbia Museum and Archives Compiled by Jack Lohman Lavish photographs of the provincial I is for Island L is for Laurence mueum’s treasured objects and exhibitions highlight ﬁve essays reﬂecting on the The agenda for the 39th Island Moun- Susan Point’s sculpture ‘Cedar Con- importance of the collections and describing tain School of the Arts in Wells, near nection’ and Bill Reid’s stunning how and why they were acquired. Barkerville, is as strong as ever. Liter- bronze sculpture ‘The Spirit of Haida $39.95 hardcover, 144 pp., 9 x 11” ary sessions feature Karen Connelly Gwaii’ are just two of the art pieces History, culture / colour photographs (July 4-7), Michael Kluckner (Aug. described by Robin Laurence in A ISBN 978-0-7726-6830-1 17-20) and Richard Wright (Sept. Sense of Place: Art at Vancouver In- 11-13). There’s also a gallery exhibit ternational Airport (Figure 1 $24.95). (Aug. 29-Sept. 25) re-introducing This illustrated overview by long-time Distributed by Heritage Group. Robert Keziere’s compelling photos Georgia Straight visual arts critic and hgdistribution.com 1-800-665-3302. from The Days of Augusta (D&M 1992), curator Robin Laurence examines the the ground-breaking book by Jean E. commissioning of the pieces that com- Speare. The tribute to the life of Mary prise the YVR’s extensive gallery. Augusta Tappage, born in Soda Creek 9781927958261 in1888, ranks as the first in-depth, new from READ LEAF literary memoir of an individual First Nations woman in B.C. Visit www. THE AMAZING STORY OF THE LARGEST PUBLIC imarts.com for more info. ART PROJECT IN CANADIAN HISTORY

IAN SIGVALDASON / SCOTT STEEDMAN J is for Jarnail

Jarnail Singh of Surrey is an artist, ART FOR WAR illustrator, designer, photographer and AND PEACE art journalist who HOW A GREAT PUBLIC ART PROJECT immigrated to Can- Helped Canada Discover Itself ada in 2000. His art frequently main- Jarnail Singh tains the tradition isbn 978-1-927018-70-5 • $55 • 9” x 11” • 240 pages of portraying Sikh Gurus and historical events and also THE SILK SCREENS MADE DURING THE WAR WERE “ portrays Punjabi folklore. Now he has BY FAR THE BEST PUBLICITY CANADIAN ART EVER RECEIVED.” provided illustrations for Ajmer Rode’s — A.Y. Jackson, GROUP OF SEVEN PAINTER text in The Journey With Endless Eye: Stories of the Komagata Maru he Sampson-Matthews print incident (Ekstasis $34.95). The Spirit of Haida Gwaii program began as wartime T 978-1-77171-078-7 sculpture by Bill Reid at YVR. propaganda during WWII and lasted into the 1960s. It cost tens of millions of dollars. The bright K is for Kirton is for McLellan silkscreens hung in every school, M library, bank, and dentist’s office from Whitehorse to St. John’s, Metis/Icelandic poet Four junkies anx- shaping Canadians’ ideas about art — Jónína Kirton co- iously await a drug and their vast homeland. ordinated the first dealer. A gang leader The silkscreens were based on National Indigenous copes with racism, designs by a who’s who of Canada’s Writers Conference greed and mutiny. greatest artists, including Emily Carr, in Vancouver in A terminally ill man Lawren Harris, A.Y. Jackson, and 2013. Her page as plots his own de- Tom Thomson. bone—ink as blood mise. Veteran jour- ART FOR WAR AND PEACE tells Jónína Kirton (Talonbooks $16.95) Don McLellan nalist Don McLel- the remarkable story of the prints, is a memoir in verse lan’s second story with full-colour reproductions of exploring family secrets and retrieved collection, Brunch with the Jack- more than a hundred silkscreens memories. “What our minds have als (Thistledown $18.95), echoes and contributions from several art forgotten or locked away,” she has the “hard-boiled” style of Raymond writers, including Douglas Coupland. written, “the body never forgets.” Chandler and Mickey Spillane in

We acknowledge, for their Kirton is a graduate of Simon Fraser’s which urban life is fraught with dan- support of this project, the Writer’s Studio (2007) and attended ger. McLellan, who edits Insurance www.readleaf.ca the Emerging Aboriginal Writer’s People, a trade magazine in Vancou- Residency at the Banff Centre (2008). ver, has also worked in South Korea 978-0-88922-923-5 and Hong Kong. 978-1-77187-050-4

6 BC BOOKWORLD SUMMER 2015 WHO’S WHO

their environment. Jesse Vernon The N is for Neskonlith Trail’s first book, Quiver Trees, rd Phantom Orchids and Rock Split- A member of the Neskonlith Indian ters (ECW Press $24.95), highlights 33 Band of the Secwepemc Nation based the world’s most unusual plants for a annual in Kamloops, Arthur Manuel has general audience of plant and nature co-written Unsettling Canada: A enthusiasts. “Gardening will never go National Wake-Up Call (Between the out of fashion,” Trail told the Vernon Lines $29.95) with Grand Chief Ron Morning Star newspaper. “People will Derrickson. Including a foreword by always buy plants even when they Naomi Klein, Unsettling Canada lays don’t have very much money. There is out a plan for a sustainable indigenous something in the greenery and beauty economy. Whereas Derrickson made of plants that gives us a feeling of com- his reputation as a Syilx (Okana- fort and joy.” 978-1-77041-208-8 gan) businessman, Manuel is widely known as a Secwepemc activist intellectual and the son of revered leader George Manuel. 978-1-77113-176-6 Rockwood Centre | Sechelt O is for Olav August 13 -16 Much-decorated UBC geographer Olav 2015 Slaymaker surely has one of the most memorable names in B.C. literature. Recently appointed to the Order of Canada, he didn’t attend the recent Caroline Adderson investiture ceremony in May because Petar Rikić in Koprivnica, Croatia he was off in Siberia, doing whatever it Elizabeth Bachinsky is that venerable geography professors do. With degrees from Cambridge and R is for Rikić Cathie Borrie Harvard, Slaymaker is the author or editor of a dozen books and an expert At the age of 19, Petar Rikić of Croatia Kevin Chong on climate change in cold climates. decided to travel around the world by Ti Michael He shares an office with heavyweight motorcycle. Composed from the road on ck Christie ets geographer, Cole Harris, who is argu- a laptop, his published journals entitled on s ale now Nick ably better-known beyond academe, Around the World (Rocky Mountain Cutter but his name isn’t as much fun to say. Books $25) contain dozens of photos Craig Davidson and personal reflections from a variety 85.9631 of exotic locations, including a detailed tel: 604.8 Mark Forsythe P is for Penner account of his trip through Vancouver, 65.9631 : 00.5 Prince George, Whitehorse, Dawson toll free 1.8 Barbara Fradkin No other generation has accrued the City and Inuvik. 9781927330678 wealth of the Baby Boomers, but how Karyn L. Freedman will their children face the challenges of buying a home, and investing and S is for Suzuki Helen Humphreys saving money? How can parents help their children financially and still protect In Letters to My Grandchildren Doretta Lau themselves and their assets? Derrick (Greystone $27.95), David Suzuki Penner’s Bank of Mom and Dad (Self- presents an intimate and inspiring Rosella Leslie Counsel $14.95) offers advice to parents collection of stories and anecdotes that who are looking to assist their children encourage his six grandchildren (and Ann-Marie MacDonald all of us) to live lives full of “passion, financially without sacrificing their own Billeh security. Penner is a business reporter courage and conviction.” He addresses Nickerson with The Vancouver Sun where he writes the importance of such subjects as Alison about personal finance, banking and “sports, fishing, feminism and failure” Pick wealth management. 9781770402133 while offering his take on tackling some of life’s most profound questions. One The Precious Littles of the most prolific non-fiction authors Waubgeshig Rice Q is for Quiver of B.C. Suzuki has reportedly rejected offers to run for the New Democratic Aaron Shepard A dwarf mistletoe can shoot its seeds Party. His politics are global and envi- up to 50 feet away. The Arctic heather ronmental—and he Carrie Snyder plant can create subtropical conditions does things his within its leaves. Often exposed to own way. Kara Stanley bitter cold, relentless winds, intense 978-1-77164-088-6 heat, drought, fire, pollution and Jane Urquhart other adverse conditions, such plants demonstrate remarkable Nikki van Schyndel strategies for Sheila surviving Watt-Cloutier Ian Weir Sheri-d Wilson Michael Winter

www.writersfestival.ca

David Suzuki with Ganhi, his grandchild

7 BC BOOKWORLD SUMMER 2015 20 plus

varieties Customer Katrin Horowitz just dropped off a copy of her new novel The Best Soldier’s Wife A Walk on Broken Glass Cedar, Salmon and Weed (Quadra Books). Elisabeth, Empress of Austria >ŝƚĞƌĂƌǇ&ŝĐƟŽŶ Gloria M. Allan Louis Druehl In 1854, as a young bride, Sisi In the vein of Steinbeck’s is swept into the harsh world Cannery Row, a coming-of-age of the Habsburg Empire. An ŶŽǀĞůŽĨϭϵϳϬ͛ƐĂŵĮĞůĚ͕ŽŶ historical novel with an intricate the West coast of Vancouver plot that engages and holds Island, with its biologists, ƚŚĞƌĞĂĚĞƌ͛ƐĂƩĞŶƟŽŶĨƌŽŵ ŚŝƉƉŝĞƐ͕ĮƐŚĞƌŵĞŶ͕ŶĂƟǀĞƐĂŶĚ beginning to end. end-of-the-roaders. $18.95 / paperback $24.95 / paperback 978-1-926991-29-0 978-1-926991-66-5 6 x 9 in. – 322 pages 5.25 x 7.75 in. – 320 pages e-book 978-1-926991-34-4 e-book 978-1-926991-62-7

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8 BC BOOKWORLD SUMMER 2015 who’s who BRITISH COLUMBIA

Thomas Teuwen’s Greening Your House (Self-Counsel $12.95) will help you eco-build your life.

by Shaoli Wang. Born in China, Shaoli Wang graduated from the Department T is for Teuwen V is for Varcoe of Fines Arts of Qingdao Normal Col- lege, specializing in children’s book Thomas Teuwen spent 25 years in Lillian M. Varcoe was the first woman illustration. She immigrated in 1995 the manufacturing, mining, energy to fly across Canada, coast to coast, and now lives in Coquitlam. and technology sectors in Nova Sco- and the first person to do it in a 978-1-896580-68-5 tia before he came west to Sidney, floatplane. Darwin Marsh, the hero of B.C. in 2000 and became a vegetar- Lillian M. Varcoe’s first novel, Head- ian, went car-free and began a new winds: Seeing a Murder Forgotten adventure building The Biggest Little (Amazon $7.99), is a veteran floatplane Z is for Zwicky House in Sidney. His ‘eco-building’ pilot who lands an easy job flying Hol- Alkibidiades, a central figure in Plato’s project soon morphed into a lifestyle lywood North movie types—a swell Symposium, was frequently moved to project in which he was dedicated to change from flying into northern log- tears by the revelations of philosophi- reducing his carbon footprint. With ging camps and fishing resorts. Trou- cal dialogue. In her confounding col- Laura Lynn Parker he has subse- ble is, cold-case cops are accusing him Hans Tammemagi lection of essays in support of “lyric quently written a guide to conserving and his grandfather of complicity in a philosophy” contained in Alkibidi- energy and reducing waste, Greening murder. As far as Marsh can recall, he ades’s Love: Essays in Philosophy Your Home (Self-Counsel $12.95). was vacationing with his grandparents is for Correction X (McGill-Queens $34.95), Jan Zwicky They discuss green materials and on a Gulf Island when the murder seeks to re-invigorate modern philo- appliances, maintenance and design happened. He must revisit childhood Although Hans Tammemagi of Pender sophical discussion through the prism issues, and how to decide whether memories of a summer spent “in a Island says he was flattered to see cov- of music and metaphor. “What I wish to go “DIY” or hire a professional to rancorous community of draft dodgers erage of his book Winning Proposals to call to our collective attention is the eco-renovate your home. 9781770402072 and volatile losers” in order to clear his (Self-Counsel $16.95) in the spring consequence of re- name. 978-0-9878331-2-9 issue of BC BookWorld, he was less quiring analytic than impressed to see an accompa- structure for is for Uegaki nying photo of someone else—Tony U any claim Weich Ardizonne who recently published a W is for or view that Eleven years after her kidlit debut with novel partially set in Tofino. The ac- aspired to Suki’s Kimono (Kids Can, 2003), Chieri An admirer of the writing of Ivan E. complished freelance photographer philosophic Uegaki has again reflected Japanese Coyote and Jack Whyte, Lin Weich and writer Hans Tammemagi looks status.” culture with Hana Hashimoto, Sixth of Quesnel is a retired teacher whose a lot more like above... 978-1-77040-060-3 978-0-7735-4464-2 Violin (Kids Can $18.95). Even though first self-published thriller, Strength of she’s had only three lessons, Hana an Eagle, was inspired by the disap- signs up to play the violin at a talent pearances of women along the ‘High- Y is for Yee show. Her brothers laugh at her and way of Tears’ and the drug smuggling predict her failure. She perseveres, in- problems in Northern B.C. Half-Truths, Chinese Fairy Tale Feasts: A Liter- spired by her grandfather in Japan who Total Lies, her second novel, is a story ary Cookbook (Tradewind $24.95), played the violin daily of murder and blackmail in a rural with text by Paul Yee and when she visited school. In her new novel, Alone ($23), recipes by Judy Chan, has him. Uegaki lives parents try to protect their daughter won the 2015 Gourmand on the Sunshine Mary from bullying by following their Award for best Canadian Coast and grad- dream of being self-sufficient on a cookbook. Paul Yee has uated from UBC remote homestead on the West Coast. provided original stories Creative Writing. Mary and her sister Sara struggle with as well as his interpreta- 978-1-894786-33-1 the transition. Meanwhile, the get-rich tions of Chinese folklore. Jan Zwicky is a schemes of Karl Thorenson, the son of Each story is followed by co-winner of the 2015 P.K. Page the homestead’s previous owner, run a recipe for a traditional Chieri Founders’ Award Uegaki him afoul of mobsters so he returns to Chinese dish. With an for Poetry from the the old homestead hoping to unearth a introduction by Jane Malahat Review cache of buried money. 978-1-77097-388-6 Yolen, it was illustrated

9 BC BOOKWORLD SUMMER 2015 Because Babies Love Reading Too!

Orca is proud Top 3 reasons to to partner with s read to your kids a Children’s Book 1. Reading helps build a ecy child’s imagination. RRecycling Project A child who hears 2. Reading helps children learn about their world. 10001 books by age 5 3. Reading with your children strengthens your bond is more likely to enjoy with them. and succeed —courtesy of the in learning. Child Development Institute The 1000x5 project distributes donated picturebooks Did you to agencies know… that work BC poets with families Susan Musgrave in need so that & Lorna Crozier have written every child books for can grow a babies? home library. From Orca’s For more board book information, email [email protected] collection

Did you know… Richard Van Camp’s board book, Little You, was given to all BC babies born in 2013? And Thanks to… many more!

10 BC BOOKWORLD SUMMER 2015 LITERARY LANDMARKS

PEARHEADED by Vancouver’s Chief Librarian Sandra Singh, there’s a new Scivic project to celebrate B.C. writers sparked by the vision of poet and philan- thropist Yosef Wosk.

Literary historian Alan Twigg has been called upon to select literary locations and supply succinct texts for plaques around the city. Ten more will be added later this year. Initially, in alphabetical order, these 29 authors have been cited: Margaret Atwood, Sadhu Binning, George Bowering, Anne Cameron, Wayson Choy, Wayde Compton, Douglas Coupland, D.M. Fraser, Raymond Hull, W.P. Kinsella, Roy Kiyooka, Joy Kogawa, Evelyn Lau, Margaret Lawrence, Dorothy Livesay, Malcolm Lowry, Lee Ma- racle, Daphne Marlatt, Al Neil, Eric Nicol, Bud Osborn, Laurence J. Peter, Jane Rule, Andreas Schroeder, A.M. Stephen, Tom Wayman, Jim Willer, Ethel Wilson and George Woodcock. A interactive online map (vpl.ca/ literarylandmarks) highlights the new literary landmarks around the city and offers further details on the authors, as well as links to their works in the Vancouver Public Library catalogue. Lamp Post Lit “We wanted to bring out Vancouver’s literary history and make it come alive Cathy Nicol, daughter of right at street level,” says Mary Lynn humourist Eric Nicol, with Vancouver Public Library Chair Baum, Vancouver Public Library’s Mary Lynn Baum at the Eric board chair, “right where it happened.” Nicol plaque on Georgia Street. For instance, Malcolm Lowry, author of Under the Volcano, who lived in the West End as well as in a squatter’s Illustrated plaques are being added to that nurtured creativity. Ultimately, shack at Dollarton, is remembered with each of us is a library as is the city a plaque adjoining the The Haywood Vancouver’s streets—on lamp posts— itself.” bandstand (1755 Beach Ave.) at Eng- Daphne Marlatt has a plaque near lish Bay. The empty ‘bandstand where to publicize the richness of Vancou- the Burrard Bridge. no band stands’—and it remains that “This project sets words from our city’s way to this day—inspired Malcolm Low- ver as a literary city. These sites will literature into concrete features of the ry’s caustic poem “Lament in the Pacific also appear on The Literary Map of B.C. city itself” says Marlatt. “This delights Northwest” in which he bemoaned the me because my words want to dig their puritannical joylessness of Vancouver, way deep into the history and terrain of mainly because he objected to the city’s University Library. this ever-changing place. We are shaped antiquated liquor laws. “Vancouver is blessed to have such by the place we live in as much as it is The Insite supervised injection site a vibrant and dedicated public library shaped by us.” (139 East Hastings St.), North Ameri- system to support our curiosity and B.C. BookWorld will proceed, likely ca’s first facility of its kind, fittingly has love of knowledge,” says Yosef Wosk. in conjunction with VPL and other li- a lamp post plaque outside its door to “VPL’s new Literary Landmark initia- braries, to make a Literary Map of B.C. honour the late Bud Osborn, an activ- tive extends the definition of a library: The first stage will be designating ist and poet who was instrumental in It is not just a building but also the 100 literary sites around the province. establishing the service. authors, the publishers, the readers, Meanwhile plaques for several dozen Vancouver’s foremost writer for sev- the very streets of our city. authors can be found all over the city– eral decades, the humourist Eric Nicol, “The public library embraces these from the Metro Theatre in south Van- many writers’ homes as well as hide- couver to the PNE in east Vancouver to has a plaque on Georgia Street adjoin- Sadhu Binning, George Bowering, the street where Margaret Atwood lived ing the VPL’s “walk of fame” (where Andreas Schroeder are among the aways, apartments, parks and retreats marble plaques indicate the winners of ﬁ rst 29 writers who will have liter- when she was teaching at UBC—with the George Woodcock Lifetime Achieve- ary plaques in Vancouver. ten more to be added next year. ment Award, first won by Eric Nicol). The proliferation of “Lamp Post Lit” “Dad would have been extremely proud “It was just an idea to propagate can be discovered at vpl.ca/literary- of his inclusion in the landmarks proj- awareness,” he says. “Now we have landmarks. ect,” said his daughter, Cathy Nicol, the real things. This progress makes who was on hand when VPL unveiled me think of some lines at the end of a A PUBLIC INVITATION the Eric Nicol plaque. satirical poem that Earle Birney wrote Back in 1986, Alan Twigg, a former here in 1947: BC BookWorld VPL board member, wrote a book called ‘no Whitman wanted will soon be making a Vancouver & Its Writers: A Guide to Lit- it’s by our lack of ghosts Literary Map of B.C. erary Landmarks in which he identified we’re haunted.’” locations—in print only—to coincide The new plaques affirm that both If anyone has a suggestion or a photo with the works of 100 fiction writers Vancouver and British Columbia have for a place that ought to be designated for the city’s centennial. At the time the become literary hotbeds. There are as a Literary Landmark in B.C., let us know. You can send your photo—and city had only one official literary land- more than ten thousand B.C. authors your reasons for designating the site— mark for a local writer—the Pauline included in the ABCBookWorld public to [email protected] Johnson memorial in Stanley Park. reference site hosted by Simon Fraser Daphne Marlatt with her plaque

11 BC BOOKWORLD SUMMER 2015 ȱ

Runaway bestseller! Winner! in the Paris Book Awards OKANAGAN ENTERTAINING WHITEWATER COOKS A Celebration of the The Gluten-Free Way DUCHESS Bake Shop WITH Giselle Courteau Canadian Wine Region Kristina Stosek PASSION Shelley Adams Tarynn Liv Parker Edmonton's Duchess Bake Shop was Finding gluten-free recipes can sometimes be Topping the bestseller lists, the latest in the named the best bakery in Canada and This luxurious edition features 40 premium a challenge. This beautiful cookbook takes the legendary Whitewater Cooks series is a feast ranked 4th in the world by BuzzFeed.com. wineries of the Okanagan with stunning photos stress out of cooking for anyone with gluten RIVLPSOHIUHVKÀDYRXUVDQGDFRUQXFRSLD Like the bakery, this book is a feast for the of vineyards, vistas and more. A beautiful coffee sensitivities. Here are delicious, easy to make of recipes. Shelley's ideas will make you eyes and palate. It offers exquisite recipes table book, it also includes ample text describing and completely gluten-free recipes to serve look like a kitchen rock star with starters, with step-by-step photos and instructions the passion of each winery from key wines and when hosting guests. The recipes are so tasty, PDLQVDQGGHVVHUWVIRUFDVXDOWR¿QHGLQLQJ for everything from the bakery's renowned their styles to wine making philosophies. History those without gluten sensitivities will never know! Wonderful, healthy ideas for switching up tea-time treats to French classics: buttery is shared to bring to light the richness of this 7KH¿UVWLQDVHULHVZDWFKIRUSmall Bites The Sunday breakfasts and brunches, too! brioche, delightful macarons, mille-feuilles, beautiful area. A memorable keepsake or gift! Gluten-Free Way coming Fall 2015! 9780981142425 $34.95 pb Alicon Holdings salted caramel and more. 9780994766106 $39.95 hc Field Guide Publ 9780994037107 $19.95 pb Bluecap Books 9780993901201 $45.00 cl Duchess Bake Shop

BORN TO THE WILD Exploring SIX HIGHWAYS to HOME A Cycling Journey from Journals of a National WELLS GRAY PARK Whitehorse to Victoria Park Warden in the BC COAST EXPLORER WK(GLWLRQRoland Neave John Crouch &DQDGLDQ5RFNLHV Rob Kaye and Marine Trail Guide Roland Neave has spent most of his life The summer after he turned 70, John Couch Rob Kaye's job was to protect and preserve VOLUME 2John Kimantas chronicling almost every aspect of Wells Gray got on his bicycle in Whitehorse and pedalled wilderness and wildlife in his long career Park. This complete roads and trails guide to 2500 km along six highways, back to his home in with Parks Canada. His many adventures This long-awaited 2nd volume covers Canada's waterfalls park is now completely Victoria. This captivating account of his journey as a Park Warden chronicle backcountry 6RXWKHUQ 9DQFRXYHU ,VODQG IURP %DP¿HOG revised and updated. With hundreds of colour offers the day-by-day details of his trip, the encounters with wolves, bears, bighorns, to Comox Harbour including the West Coast photographs, it features new detailed colour people he met, as well as fascinating historical as well as stories of survival and adversity. Trail, the Juan de Fuca Trail, Greater Victoria, topographic maps with expanded sections on details about little known places and the people Kaye's passion for the preservation of Saanich Peninsula, the Gulf Islands, Bellenas- geology, history, natural history and more... who came before. wilderness is a theme throughout the book. Winchelsea Archipelago, Denman and 9780968193228 $24.95 pb Wells Gray Tours 9780973191356 $20.00 pb Chickadee Press 9780994051806 $21.95 pb Grey Wolf Books Hornby Islands. All colour! And watch for the new companion maps now available! 9780987985118 $34.95 pb Wild Coast Publishing

The LOST CANADIANS TOSHIKO FIGHTING for Taxpayers Michael Kluckner A Struggle for Citizenship Battles Fought & Battles Ahead Rights, Equality, and Identity FLY FLY Written and illustrated by award-winning BC Troy Lanigan artist Michael Kluckner, Toshiko is the story of a Don Chapman Daniel Anctil young Japanese-Canadian girl. Set during WWII, Illustrations by Corentin Hunter This book celebrates the 25th Anniversary of Chapman explores the often confusing when Japanese-Canadians were exiled from the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, one of and vague rules of Canadian citizenship. )O\À\OLNHDQHDJOH.. With a dream-like their homes on the West Coast , Toshiko's family Canada's most influential advocacy groups. He's become the voice for hundreds of quality, this book allows children to explore land on a small farm in the BC interior. Toshiko Written by the President of the CTF, it details thousands, collectively known as the wild animals and birds common to the forms a friendship with a local farm boy which the people, the campaigns and the ups and Lost Canadians. In hard-hitting prose, he 3DFL¿F1RUWKZHVWDQGWKH5RFNLHV,WIROORZV becomes a kind of Romeo and Juliette romance. downs of running such an association in the recounts in detail the stories of those who various creatures from sunrise to sunset With themes of bullying, discrimination, family, ever-changing world of Canadian politics. In a have had their identities torn from them and and presents various aspects of wildlife in friends and coming of age, this graphic novel time when government spending of taxpayers the struggle to rectify what he sees as a deep a rhyming cadence young children will love. has great appeal for teens and young adults. dollars is in the news, this is a must-read. social injustice. Midtown Press 9780988110168 $19.95 hc Midtown Press 9780988110175 $19.95 pb 9780994013200 $21.95 pb Canadian Taxpayers 9780994055408 $21.95 pb Pugwash Press

Sandhill Book Marketing Ltd ~ Distribution for Small Press & Independent Publishers ȱǛŚȱȬȱřřŖŞȱȱǰȱ ǰȱȱŗȱŘśȱȱȊȱȱǱȱŘśŖȬŚşŗȬŗŚŚŜȱȱȊȱȱ¡ǱȱŘśŖȬŚşŗȬŚŖŜŜȱȱȊȱȱǱȱȓǯ ȱȱ¢ȱȱȱȱȊȱȱ ǯǯ

12 BC BOOKWORLD SUMMER 2015 LITERARY LANDMARKS

A celebratory feast at the Musqueam Cultural Centre followed the formal April unveiling. One The (approximately) $1 million project had to be funded by the community. of the first pieces of Coast It received one federal Legacies Salish art to be installed in grant, which had to be matched. The Portuguese-Canadian community Stanley Park is a 14-foot raised more than $300,000, and finally, just months from the unveiling date, Luke Marston’s (4.2 metre) bronze-cast Shore to Shore Vancouver City Council, Parks Board was unveiled and the three First cedar sculpture, the sub- April 25 at Nations contrib- Brockton Point, uted some financial ject of Suzanne Fournier’s in Stanley Park. support. Shore to Shore: The Art Five of Suzanne Fournier’s forty of Ts’uts’umutl Luke Mar- years of writing about First Na- tions topics were ston (Harbour $26.95). Suzanne Fournier spent recording the “Along with Susan Point’s house creation of Marston’s Stanley Park portals and the Squamish Albert Yelton monument. Pole,” says Fournier, “Shore to Shore es- For Shore to Shore, Fournier ac- tablishes the rightful place of the Coast companied Marston to his ancestors’ Salish in Stanley Park, at a site which village on the Azores where Portuguese 9.5 million people visit each year, but Joe Silvey was raised to be a whaler. one which has until recently displayed ✫ only northern-style totem poles.” THE SHORE TO SHORE STATUE HAS A LITERARY In her new book, Suzanne Fournier heritage beyond Suzanne Fournier’s profiles First Nations artist, Luke Mar- book. Jean Barman uncovered the ston, who created the sculpture, and histories of Joe Silvey and the mixed- describes his journey to Portugal to race families of Stanley Park in two research the work. books, The Remarkable Adventures of The title of the Brockton Point Portuguese Joe Silvey (Harbour 2004) sculpture, Shore to Shore, references and Stanley Park’s Secret: Forgotten Marston’s great-great-grandfather, Families of Whoi Whoi, Kanaka Ranch, Portuguese Joe Silvey, who sailed and Brockton Point (Harbour, 2005). from the Azores Islands of Portugal She has also highlighted mixed-race to the West Coast of Canada in the B.C. families with Hawaiian origins in mid-1800s. Leaving Paradise: Indigenous Hawai- Silvey and his mixed race fam- ians in the Pacific Northwest, 1787- ily lived at Brockton Point, where the 1898 (University of Hawaii Press, 2006) Coast Salish had lived for millennia. and Maria Mahoi of the Islands (New The carving equally commemo- Star, 2004). Hence this unprecedented rates Silvey’s two First Nations wives, statue that celebrates the amalgama- therefore paying tribute to the largely tion of racial backgrounds symbolizes unwritten history of mixed-culture both the progressive devolution of “Brit- families in Coastal B.C. ish” Columbia and its evolution as a Silvey’s first wife, Khaltinaht, was a self-aware multi-racial construct. Musqueam and Squamish noblewoman “History is usually written by the who died tragically early of TB. winners,” Jean Barman wrote in 2003. Silvey’s second wife, Kwatleematt “Their lives comprise the archival col- (Lucy), was a Sechelt First Nation lections, and historically these have matriarch who was Marston’s great- been white men enjoying political and great-grandmother. economic privilege. So long as we rely Lucy raised eleven children to adult- on the materials at hand, we keep tell- hood and her second eldest child, ing the same old stories.” 978-1-55017-670-4 Elizabeth, was the first registered birth of the child of white/aboriginal parents. A PUBLIC INVITATION The sculpture rests on a 2.5-foot- high base of black-and-white Portu- BC BookWorld guese mosaic stone. It also includes will soon be making a images of seine nets, whaling harpoons Literary Map of B.C. and Pacific coast salmon. According to Fournier, the three If anyone has a suggestion or a photo First Nations who claim the park as for a place that ought to be designated unceded Coast Salish territory [Mus- as a Literary Landmark in B.C., let us know. You can send your photo—and queam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh] your reasons for designating the site— were consulted closely throughout the to [email protected] project. FromFrom thethe AzoresAzores toto BrocktonBrockton PointPoint

13 BC BOOKWORLD SUMMER 2015 New from The New York Times and Globe and Mail bestseller CHEVY STEVENS

COMING THIS JULY

The night the three Campbell sisters ran away, everything changed, including their names. Find out what happened to THOSE GIRLS on July 7.

THOSE GIRLS is THIS SUMMER’S Blockbuster Thriller. Don’t miss these chilling bestsellers.

Now in Paperback! distributed in Canada by

10 Women (stories) by George Bowering 10 Women is a collection of ten new stories from one of Canada’s preeminent writers. Each of these stories offers us a portrait of a woman with whom the author may or may not have had either an intimate and/or a meaningful relationship. You can’t really tell for sure. Depending on your proclivities, some of them might even seem pretty hot. 192 pages | $20 can/usa | 978-1-77214-031-6 | September | Fiction/Stories M Is Dead: a collaborative novel by Michael V. Smith, Madeline Sonik, Annette Lapointe, Brian Kaufman, and Mary Ann n 1990, Anvil Press was nothing more than a M Is Dead is a collaborative novel written by fi ve writers about a FTM (female to male) transsexual dream. A small, one-room offi ce for $350 a month, performance artist known only as “M”. M Is Dead explores issues of gender identity, loss, the notion I of friendship, and the idea of “self.” Through the fi ve narrative threads we come to know M in all his a couple of desks, two PC home computers, a light table, waxer, coffee maker, sign for the door, and layered complexity. suddenly we were (sort of) legit. 160 pages | $20 can/usa | 978-1-77214-030-9 | November | Novel Flyers were made, calls went out, manuscripts slowly began rolling in. Much reading ensued, poten- Traversing Leonard by Craig Savel tial acquisitions were argued over. Sketches, photo- Winner of the 37th Annual 3-Day Novel Contest graphs, and cover mock-ups began to appear on the Paul is a young physics professor at a major university in New York state. He is drawn to Leonard wall above the art area; books were designed. It was Zavitsky, a once promising but now washed up and very annoying ex-professor who has some wild all DIY—fuelled by pots of coffee, day-old baked theories about quantum time travel. Everyone laughs – including Paul – until Paul realizes that goods, cigarettes, whisky. When the fi rst boxes of Zavitsky just might be onto something. books rolled in, we were hooked. Still are. 96 pages | $16 can / $14 usa | 978-1-77214-033-0 | July | Novel Now in our 25th year of publishing, Anvil has fi rmly established itself as an award-winning publish- Vancouver Vanishes er of contemporary Canadian literature known for its Essays by Caroline Adderson, Eve Lazarus, Kerry Gold, John Atkin, and Elise Partridge quality books and unconventional literary work. with Photographs by Tracey Ayton and Caroline Adderson Over the past two and a half decades we have sur- Foreword by Michael Kluckner vived bad plumbing, rent hikes, eviction, bankrupt distributors, the decimation of indie booksellers, big Based on the popular Facebook Page, Vancouver Vanishes is a collection of essays and photographs that box retailers, rising paper costs, soaring postal rates, together form a lament for, and celebration of, the vanishing character homes and apartments in the city. the arrival of ebooks, and numerous pronouncements Since 2005, nearly 9,000 demo permits for residential buildings have been issued in Vancouver. The on the “death of the book.” And through it all there story of our city is diminished every time one of these buildings disappears. have always been people who have wanted to buy, 224 pages | $25 can/usa | 978-1-77214-034-7 | November | Non-fiction hold, and read our books. We thank all of you for your support over the years 51 Lunch Poems & The Stories Behind Them and hope you enjoy this season’s offerings! by Wayde Compton & Renée Sarojini Saklikar, eds. 51 Lunch Poems is a diverse collection of poetry and short essays about the poems by the poets themselves. [email protected] The poems range from the lyric to the experimental and celebrate SFU’s Lunch Poems project, a vibrant exchange of poetic ideas held the third Wednesday of every month at SFU’s Harbour Centre Campus. www.anvilpress.com 160 pages | $18 can/usa | 978-1-77214-032-3 | August | Poetry

14 BC BOOKWORLD SUMMER 2015 FEMINISM Staff Homebirthing in B.C. Pick Lasqueti’s Bronwyn Preece has edited the second B.C. book about childbirth.

CCORDING TO STATISTICS births occur at home. Canada, approximately “We are not interested in lambasting , 1586 380,000 Canadian wom- the medical establishment,” Bronwyn Feminists protested the sexist campus PAINTING

en gave birth in 2011 and Preece writes. “In fact, there is much shenanigans of UBC only 1.6 percent did so gratitude expressed in these pages for engineers when they NOORT Aoutside of a hospital. the prowess of doctors who have helped co-opted Lady Go-

B.C. varies considerably from the with complications. I am one of those diva’s 11th century VAN national average. women. Though I birthed at home, I tax revolt ride. DAM In B.C., midwives deliver about later had to be transferred to a hospital A 5,500 infants each year. That’s about due to excessive bleeding. For the care 14 percent of the babies I received, I am extremely born in the province. thankful.” Approximately one-third Preece’s inclination to of the babies delivered collect and publish these Civil rights in B.C. by midwives in B.C. are testimonials was inspired by birthed at home. Ina May Gaskin’s Spiritual Mona Fertig edited Midwifery and Birth Mat- A Labour of Love (Pole- ters: A Midwife’s Manifesta. Equality Deferred reveals the extent to star) in 1986. Now Bron- Preece’s anthology contains which B.C. broke new ground for the rest wyn Preece has compiled numerous perspectives homebirth stories for In from First Nations parents. of the country in the 1970s and 1980s. the Spirit of Homebirth: As the youngest ✫ woman ever elected Modern Women, An An- NOT MERELY A HIPPIE BACK-TO- N ARGUMENT social initiatives—such to the Islands Trust, can easily cient Choice (Seven Sto- Bronwyn Preece the-lander, Preece has pub- as the first Agricultural ries $18.95). The stories served two terms on lished several peer-reviewed be made Land Reserves in North reflect a diversity of people the often fractious articles in academic jour- that Dom- America—but it was pri- and places, throughout BC: board of governance nals and her play Never Cry inique marily the groundswell from the Haida Gwaii to the for the Gulf Islands, Dam won the 2013 Act Now! AClément’s Equality of women seeking equal Kootenays, Vancouver to from 2002 to 2008. Sustainability Competition. Deferred: Sex Discrimi- rights and freedom from Prince George; and a variety Also an improvisational nation and British Co- discrimination and ex- of socio-economic, ethnic, cultural and performance artist, Bronwyn Preece lumbia’s Human Rights ploitation that catapult- educational backgrounds: highlighting completed her BFA in Theatre at UVic State, 1953-84 (UBC ed British Columbia into Canada Post issued a homebirth as being anything but niche. and was awarded UVic’s President’s Press 2014) is one of the the headlines in terms stamp in 2009 that These illustrated memoirs, all by Academic Award (2009) and a SSHRC most underappreciated showed Rosemary Brown of generating changes in mothers, fathers, midwives, doulas… grant (2013) en route to pursuing a recent books. in front of the B.C. the laws to protect and and even a few children in BC, are Ph.D in Theatre in the U.K. In Equality Deferred, Legislative Building. enhance freedoms. celebratory endorsements of the home- Having a daughter inspired her to Clément recounts how Whether it was femi- birth process: redefining in the process write two books for children, The Gulf and why B.C. became the first prov- nists protesting the annual sexploi- “traditional birth.” Islands Alphabet (Simply Read 2012) ince to enact laws prohibiting dis- tive Lady Godiva ride promoted by Preece’s “manifesta” does not seek and Off-the-Grid Kid (Eifrig Publish- crimination based on sex. the UBC engineers or stewardesses to counsel homebirth as the correct ing $14.95). First released as an expensive challenging the right of airlines to option for birth. Rather, it is a sharing Preece lives “off the grid” in a land hardcover, Equality Deferred will likely dismiss them when they married or of what this collection of people did, or cooperative in the Gulf Islands of B.C. garner more attention now that a pa- became pregnant, the women of B.C., hoped to do. that she helped to establish in 2000. perback version has become available encouraged by the likes of Rosemary However, she does note that the She continues to perform and give at $34.95. Brown, Shelagh Day, Kathleen Ruff, Netherlands has one of the lowest peri- workshops internationally. The rise of the NDP provincial gov- Ellen Woodsworth and the Vancouver natal mortality rates in the world—and ernment, under Dave Barrett, was Off-the-Grid Kid: 978-1-936172-84-9 Status of Women, were at the forefront approximately 35 percent of Dutch In the Spirit of Homebirth: 9781609805791 an important catalyst for numerous of change in the wake of counter- culturalism that arose in the Sixties. The ongoing activism of the BC Salt Spring Islander Civil Liberties Association, the coun- Reena Singh (left) try’s oldest organization of its kind, shares her ‘blessing- has also proven fundamental to way’ ceremony with progress in terms of civil rights (and friend Zarah Martz. it continues to lead the country in this regard, witness the fight for so-called Right to Die legislation). The case histories that Clément has recounted show how British Colum- bia—the province that gave the world Greenpeace and Terry Fox—was once at the forefront of idealism in Canada. Or, conversely, they reveal the extent to which present-day B.C. society has become comparatively conservative, powered by monetary values. Clément’s most recent project includes an historical review of Canadi- an human rights laws and their evolution to the present. His website www. HistoryOfRights.com details a timeline

PHOTO of Canadian human rights, including

law and state policy and key events and figures in history. His previous

YAGIHARA book is Canada’s Rights Revolution:

Social Movements and Social Change, 1937-82 (UBC Press, 2008).

ROSALEE 978-0774827492

15 BC BOOKWORLD SUMMER 2015 ~ The universe is expanding ~ and so is the imagination

The Journey with Endless Eye The Strong Box AJMER RODE & JARNAIL SINGH HEATHER SPEARS ISBN ---- (hardcover) FugitivesFu ISBN ---- ISBN ---- (paperback) Fiction  pages History & Art  pages LISSEE GAUVIN . Hardcover . Paperback . TRANS BY JONATHANONATHAN KAPLANSKY ISBNISBN ------ FFictioniction  pages Betsi Larousseusse . Tempo Rubato LOUIS HAMELIN LINDA ROGERS TRANS BY JEAN-PAUL MURRAY ISBN ---- ISBN ---- All Alone at the Fiction  pages Fiction  pages End of the World . . LESLEY CHOYCE ISBN ---- LashingLashing Skies Poetry  Pages . MADELEINE MONETTE The Terror Chronicles ISBNIS ---- PAUL CHAMBERLAND PoetryP  pages Riding theh Pig TRANS BY ANTONIO DALFONSO . MIKE DOYLE ISBN ---- ISBN ---- Poetry  pages Criticism  pages . . Little Eagle with a White Head The Body ROBERT LALONDE Vagabond TRANS BY JEAN-PAUL MURRAY MARTINE AUDET TRANS BY ANTONIO DALFONSO ISBN ---- Fiction  Pages ISBN ---- . Poetry  pages .

Words and MarleneMarlene Dietrichs the Stone Eyes PIERRETTE MICHELOUD ISABELLA COLALILLO KATZ TRANS BY ANTONIO DALFONSO ISBN ---- ISBN ---- Manhattan Poems Poetry  Pages Poetry  pages . . CLAUDIO ANGELINI TRANS BY ANTONIO DALFONSO Merging ISBN ---- PerfectP Answers to Dimsenions Poetry  pages Silent Questions . CANDICE JAMES TOM KONYVES ISBN ---- ISBN ---- Poetry  pages Images of Absence Poetry  pages . . MANOLIS ISBN --- Poetry  pages A Private . The Rising MMythology Vanish STEPHEN MORRISSEY The Big Thirst DEREK ROBINSON ISBNIS ---- JIM CHRISTY ISBN ---- PoetryP  pages Poetry  Pages . ISBN ---- . Poetry  pages . Ekstasis Editions Celebrating 33 years of fine literary publishing Ekstasis is the passport to the imagination Enter a parallel universe of the creative spirit

EKSTASIS EDITIONS BOX 8474, MAIN POSTAL OUTLET, VICTORIA, BC, V8W 3S1 WWW.EKSTASISEDITIONS.COM WWW.CANADABOOKS.CA

16 BC BOOKWORLD SUMMER 2015 review NON-FICTION

The De Cosmos Enigma time that ten newspapers were by Gordon Hawkins Like many consummate politicians, started in the city between (Ronsdale $17.95) Amor De Cosmos discovered that operating in the public 1858 and 1860, though few Staff lasted very long. The first issue arena masked his failures in personal relationships. of his British Colonist, with a INCE AMOR DE cos- print run of 200 copies, ap- mos, B.C.’s sec- Pick peared five months after his ond premier, arrival. The mission statement played such a A TEMPERAMENTAL was “to foster relationships large part in the with the mother country.” His Sannals of British Columbia, it chief target was James Doug- is surprising that no full scale las. To prevent a particularly biography has appeared since scurrilous attack, his victims George Woodcock’s Amor tried to shut down the paper De Cosmos: Journalist and by invoking statutes requiring Reformer in 1975. Now, forty 800 pounds be posted as libel years later, Gordon Hawkins insurance. This was thwarted makes up for that omission when the paper’s supporters in his judicious and compel- held a public meeting and ling portrait, The De Cosmos VISIONARY raised the required sum. The Enigma. controversy increased the cir- Hawkins pays close at- culation to 4,000 copies. tention to that extraordinary At this point De Cosmos pseudonym chosen by an found an even more satisfying ambitious 29-year-old, from outlet for his skills—he be- humble circumstances. It was came a professional politician. in California when he shed the While the ruling elite scorned humdrum name of William him as a semi-Yankee adven- Alexander Smith in favour turer and a man of no breed- of Amor De Cosmos, a change ing, he won a sizable following that had to be approved by the to his reform platform that California legislature. included his fight for freedom The legislators who debated of the press, true justice and the name-change bill were responsible government. Un- derisive. They asked, “Why der his influence, the political not Amor Muggins De Cosmos arena of B.C. became theatri- or Amor De Cosmos Caesar?” cal, the best entertainment in Slightly off-key, linguisti- town, with De Cosmos in his cally mismatched, with the unchanging, all-black garb as middle “de” word capitalized, the leading performer. Like Amor De Cosmos suggests many consummate politi- either a pretentious attempt cians, he had discovered that to sound erudite or a simple operating in the public arena preference for the unorthodox. masked his failures in per- Hawkins concludes this sonal relationships. On stage, name change was “the first he was amazing; close up he identifiable sign of an arro- was irritating, difficult to like. gance that, like his impatience He was anti-social, humour- and impetuosity, was to grow less and had few friends. B.C’s with time.” first agent-general in London Even today we can’t help noted that it took a couple of wondering, shouldn’t it be bottles of Napoleonic Cham- CARTOON “lover of the world” rather than bertin before he could relax “love of the world?” and converse normally. His WESTON . L

✫ capacity for bitterness and FOR ALL HIS BOMBAST, HISTRIONICS anger was huge. and flaws, Amor De Cosmos JAMES Published in 1879, this political cartoon depicts Amor De Cosmos telling a Chinese immigrant to leave B.C. At the end of his life, his made contributions to his because he refuses to assimilate. “You won’t drink whiskey, and talk politics and vote like us,” he says. mental state deteriorated to province and his country that the point that a guardian was remain significant. He was appointed to ensure his safety. so ahead of his time that he While De Cosmos can be credited with en- Was there always an underly- qualifies for that overused ing psychological disturbance word “visionary.” For instance: suring B.C. joined Confederation, he was not that in later years was aggra- • He called for abolition vated by the lack of recogni- of the Senate tion that was his due? Or had • He tried to modernize above the prevailing racism of his times. the toxic chemicals used in divorce laws his days as a photographer • He opposed the state’s attempt to impose Cosmos was al- fied and impres- California via Salt Lake City, affected his brain? Christianity on First ways his hatred sive persona. The Hawkins deftly separates facts George Woodcock sug- Nations of unearned privi- two betes noires, from myth. De Cosmos lin- gested that his symptoms were • He fought attempts to lege and his scorn he suggests, were gered in California working those of manic-depressive create an established for “our parvenu mirror images of as a photographer, until news psychosis. Gordon Hawkins church in the colony. aristocracy” who each other. arrived of gold to be found on sets out all the possibilities For a brief fifteen months, “might take a ✫ the Fraser River. but concludes that his subject Amor De Cosmos served as mushroom for a JOAN GORDON HAWKINS, AN With an eye always on the ultimately remains an enigma. premier of the province and for coat of arms.” Not GIVNER indefatigable remain chance, he was one of Above all, Gordon Hawkins several years he represented surprisingly, his searcher, traces the first arrivals in Victoria. insists that the weaknesses Victoria in the House of Com- arch enemy was Governor his subject from his early days He hopped briefly over to the and idiosyncrasies of Amor mons. He was a major player James Douglas and his coin Nova Scotia where his res- mainland but quickly returned De Cosmos should not over- in creating British Columbia horts. De Cosmos accused tiveness as a clerk in the gro- to Victoria, where he spent the shadow his achievements. and ensuring the province Douglas’ cronies of “toadyism, cery business was apparent. rest of his life. This sympathetic and serious joined Confederation rather consanguinity, and incom- Bent on self-improvement, Although his land specula- portrait amply succeeds in than the United States. He petency.” As a biographer, he took evening classes that tions set him up for life, De restoring to Amor De Cosmos clearly foresaw Britain and Hawkins is particularly good included English literature— Cosmos needed a channel for the respect that he deserves. Canada joined together in a on this relationship, seeing a crucial element in his later his combative political views 978-1-55380-353-9 Commonwealth. Douglas, a man of mixed oratorical skills. and his flair for expressing As Hawkins reveals, the race, straining exactly like De In describing his arduous them colourfully. Newspapers Joan Givner reviews from chief motivation of Amor De Cosmos to maintain a digni- journey from Nova Scotia to were in such demand at the Mill Bay on Vancouver Island.

17 BC BOOKWORLD SUMMER 2015 review NON-FICTION Staff

Pick Photo from Arctic Ambitions

No preceding voyage—and no voyage since—surveyed as much territory as James Cook’s third and ﬁ nal Pa- ciﬁ c voyage that reached Nootka Sound in 1778. The great, dispassionate mariner navigated between 49ºS in the Antarctic to NORTHWEST 70ºN in the Arctic. Arctic Ambitions: take before being published Captain Cook and the as the factual account of a Northwest Passage edited by James Barnett voyage. The edited accounts and David Nicandri sold very well indeed; the more (Heritage $59.95) lurid, the better. PASSAGES Robin Inglis and Gudrun A new Cook book looks at his doomed adventure. Bucher conclude the anthol- APTAIN JAMES ogy with a contemporary view Cook’s mission JAMES COOK WAS A YORKSHIRE- were embedded on his ships Imagine trying to find a of the far north in ‘The Arctic in to find and chart man who rose from humble that he refused to have any Northwest Passage when Alas- Focus: National Interests and a route through agricultural origins to work in such with him on his third and ka is whimsically depicted as International Cooperation.’ the NorthWest the merchant navy. He rose in final voyage. an island! ✫ CPassage was the 18th cen- the officer ranks of the British Instead, Cook appointed Then imagine sailing two THE BEAUTY OF A WELL-EDITED tury equivalent of a trip to Royal Navy during the Seven other people under his com- dilapidated wooden ships book, if I may paraphrase the moon. Years’ War (1756-63). mand to try their hand at sci- north in late August and en- Forrest Gump, is that there Now scholars have pro- Following military service, entific collecting instead. They countering pack ice as high is something for nearly every duced a handsome, 428-page Cook undertook surveying were all sent out with the Carl as houses, blocking the way. kind of reader. assortment of eighteen essays work in Newfoundland and Linnaeus classification mantra ✫ With its footnotes and that explore the scope and Quebec, as masterfully out- ringing in their ears: Animal, PRIOR TO GETTING AS FAR AS PRINCE scholarly intellectual rigour, grandiosity of Cook’s most lined by Australian history Vegetable and Mineral. William Sound, Cook sailed Arctic Ambitions succeeds in northerly adventure. professor John Gascoigne. Cook’s expeditions were into Friendly Cove on Nootka being thoroughly engaging by Generously illustrated with Arctic Ambitions offers also required to Sound for repairs virtue of its variety. maps, archival sketches, paint- wide-ranging essays about make observations and to rest his crew Given that Canada and ings and recent colour pho- preparations for Cook’s third about People: their during the month other circumpolar countries tographs, Arctic Ambitions: voyage, the prevailing views of numbers, customs of April, 1778. Also are putting forth their claims Captain Cook and the North- the Spanish, Norwegians and and friendliness (or on board were mid- to the untapped resources west Passage is the literary Russians, the advances in the lack thereof). Cook shipman George of the Arctic, and given the companion for a 7500-sq.-foot use of astronomy and survey- himself was very Vancouver and a relentless fall-out of environ- visual exhibit of the same ing equipment on land and interested in cus- CAROLINE young master, Wil- mental pollution and the pace name that can be viewed at sea, and the analysis of sea ice toms. We learn he WOODWARD liam Bligh. of climate change in the true the Anchorage Museum at and of trading customs. once appalled his Richard Inglis, North, this timely book affords Rasmuson Centre in Anchor- A prologue by Nicholas fellow officers by stripping to former head of anthropology a well-grounded cultural, age, Alaska until September 7. Thomas, professor of anthro- the waist and letting his hair at the Royal BC Museum in historical and political under- Presented in partnership pology at the University of hang loosely to better fit in dur- Victoria, has contributed the pinning for what southerners with the Washington State Cambridge, deals effectively ing a tribal ceremony in Tonga. chapter ‘Encounters: View need to know. History Museum, the exhibit with how Cook’s two earlier ✫ of the Indigenous People of Whether you are a Captain will re-open in Tacoma, Wash- South Pacific explorations and A TERRIFIC CHAPTER, ‘A NEW LOOK Nootka Sound from the Cook Cook fan or a Captain Cook de- ington from October 16, 2015 his subsequent murder by at Cook: Reflections on Sand, Expedition Records’ which bunker, an activist concerned to January 10, 2016. stabbing at Kealakekua Bay Ice, and His Diligent Voyage contains accounts of the trad- with colonialism or—like me— Numerous Canadian and in Hawaii in 1778—after he’d to the Arctic Ocean,’ by David ing process and the concept of someone fascinated by All British Columbian contribu- sailed north—have tended L. Nicandri, co-editor of this private property. Things Arctic, Arctic Ambitions tors to the exhibit and book to overshadow Cook’s third book and retired director of The many contributions to will get you dreaming of some- include Barry Gough, I. S. North Pacific Voyage. the Washington State His- the book by the ship’s artist day travelling by boat through MacLaren, Richard Inglis ✫ torical Society, offers a lively John Webber are especially the Northwest Passage. and Robin Inglis. ARCTIC AMBITIONS CUMULATIVELY account of the frustrations strong in his depictions of the www.anchoragemuseum.org University of British Co- succeeds in bringing Cook’s Cook endured in his attempt Nootka encounter. Richard 978-1-77203-061-7 lumbia’s Rare Books and personality to the fore. to tackle the western route Inglis offers valuable critical Special Collections Library Cook is presented as a re- beyond the Bering Sea. insight not only to aesthetic Currently based on Lennard is among the contributing markable mapmaker, naviga- Cook’s Arctic ambitions deletions and embellishments Island, Caroline Woodward organizations that range from tor, explorer and captain who came to an icy, grinding halt applied after the original has been a relief lighthouse New Zealand, Australia, Rus- grew so vexed with the civilian because he relied on a fanci- sketches (in the form of exotic keeper for seven years. sia, Norway, England and the (and often well-connected) ful map which all sorts of engravings and paintings), but Her eighth book, a memoir, United States. botanists and other gentlemen important people had naively also to the four editorial stages is forthcoming from Har- ✫ gardener/philosophers who approved. a ship’s log would typically bour Publishing in 2015.

18 BC BOOKWORLD SUMMER 2015 The sweetness of  summer reading  www.greystonebooks.com

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WHEN EVERYTHING WELL FED, FLAT LOST BOI MY BODY IS YOURS WHERE THE TIN FISH GOURMET FEELS LIKE THE BROKE WORDS END AND Sassafras Lowrey Michael V. Smith Barbara-jo McIntosh MOVIES MY BODY BEGINS Emily Wight Raziel Reid “A coming-of-age story “A fresh and moving Amber Dawn “A cookbook with easy, “Stuffed to bursting with that is as tender as it is set of variations on the imaginative recipes using CBC Canada Reads imaginative recipes, colour kinky, and as sweet as it is themes of memory, family, “Amber Dawn’s poems tinned fish.” finalist: The controversial photos, and charmingly subversive.” —Vice.com gender, addiction and hit the pavement —Vancouver Sun and edgy young-adult frank advice.” masculinity.” running … they are loud novel about a glamorous —Where Vancouver —Vancouver Sun with truth-telling and boy named Jude. raging.” —Vancouver Sun

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ARSENAL PULP PRESS arsenalpulp.com

19 BC BOOKWORLD SUMMER 2015 review NON-FICTION

The Big Swim: classes in soil science, cover Coming Ashore in a World cropping, and planting. It was Adrift by Carrie Saxifrage on a land trust with a sustain- (New Society $16.95) LEADING A CLIMATE-SAFE LIFE able stewardship mission. It was food security, growing

FORMER ENVIRON- “My idea of ‘goodness’ has to do with food for your community. They mental lawyer in belonging in a small yet reciprocal way to talked about soil science and the U.S., Carrie soil nutrients and biodynam- Saxifrage has something huge and beautiful beyond my ics and planting by the moon.” After transplanting herself climbed moun- understanding.” — CARRIE SAXIFRAGE Atains such as the Matterhorn to Cortes Island in 1995, she and Chimborazo. She begins found work at a local school her memoir with a gripping to agree that family members the 500 million people who hearings and the local politics and began to report for The description of her marathon should limit their carbon constitute the world’s wealthi- of logging on Cortes. Vancouver Observer, founded swim in the Salish Sea. emissions to the world aver- est 8 percent, with an income Her persona is practical by her friend and fellow is- Saxifrage’s ardent per- age, a quarter of what the of more than $40,000 per year, yet sensitive, with eccentric lander, Linda Solomon Wood. sonality is as original as the average American or Canadian emit 50 percent of the carbon tendencies. She pokes fun at As a sustainability correspon- content of her first book. emits. into the atmosphere. herself. Some pieces feature dent, she documented the That could explain why the They sold the Subaru and This is the new frontier. deadpan comedy, while others burgeoning movement against epiphany that resulted in The bought a Prius. They hung It wasn’t enough for Saxi- balance tragedy, lyricism and the Northern Gateway project. Big Swim: Coming Ashore in their laundry on a clothesline. frage to serve “on the triple small absurdities in everyday “I see The Vancouver Ob- a World Adrift (New Society They rode bikes more often. crown of tree hugger commu- experiences. Whatever its server as covering things $16.95)—and prompted her to They chose electricity over nity boards [on Cortes Island]: genre, The Big Swim is a self- from a community and a First change her name and radically natural gas. But the single the Linnea Farm Society, the assured first book. Nations and a science-based alter her lifestyle—isn’t even largest source of emission on Hollyhock Lifelong Learning Carrie and husband Barry perspective,” says Saxifrage. “I mentioned until the fourth their spreadsheet was a trip Centre and the Cortes Ecofor- avoid flying, choosing to make see my role as trying to com- story of her memoir. to Europe—four tons each. estry Society.” She had to find long distance bus journeys municate science-based ideas It was 2005. She and her Vacation flights exceeded an redemption, to be good. instead. “Carrie doesn’t assail because I’m not a science- husband had bought 20 acres entire year’s worth of climate- To fortify their resolve to us with the facts,” said Tzepo- based person, so I think that on Cortes Island in 1995. She safe emission in a few hours. work in tune with nature, Sax- rah Berman at the Vancouver gives me a real advantage.” was on a brass bed, looking That’s why Saxifrage’s ifrage and her husband legally book launch, “we live it with Solomon Wood plans to start a at dripping cedar trees, as her fourth story describes her changed their surname to her.” National Observer edition later nine-year-old son was reading taking a Greyhound bus to Saxifrage, after the tiny white Growing up in southern this year. Tintin in Tibet beside her. La Manzanilla, Mexico, there flowers that burst from stone California, Saxifrage worked The Big Swim began to be Flipping through old New and back. “We had commit- crevices in high meadows. as a nurse and then an envi- a book when Saxifrage took Yorkers, she chanced upon ar- ted ourselves to trying to live High profile environmen- ronmental lawyer. She kept a writing course at nearby ticles by Pulitzer Prize winning a climate-safe life,” she says. talist Tzeporah Berman has a journal from an early age. Hollyhock. Urged on by a author Elizabeth Kolbert According to her research, generously endorsed The Big While studying law in Seattle friend, she recounted her “self- called ‘The Climate of Man.’ Swim as “Eat, Pray, Love for during the 1980s, Saxifrage imposed marathon,”—her long The series ended with this the climate era.” That’s a was inspired by a professor to distance swim from Cortes to statement: bit much because Saxifrage consider a legal career protect- Quadra—and submitted her “It may seem impossible comes across more as a know- ing the environment. essay to CBC Radio. It became to imagine that a technologi- it-all than a searcher. But “I was working in the fed- an episode in the ‘Living Out cally advanced society could her stories are galvanizing, eral courthouse during the Loud’ series. A podcast is choose, in essence, to destroy well-edited, memorable and spotted owl decision,” she archived on the CBC website. itself, but that is exactly what provocative. recalls, “and I remember look- After fifteen years on Cortes we’re now in the process of Here David Conn offers ing out the window and seeing Island, the Saxifrage family doing.” his impressions after meeting the logging trucks with the big has moved to Vancouver so The matter-of-fact Saxifrage at a book launch. trees in the protests snarling their son can attend an urban tone scared her. Saxi- up traffic, and big signs that high school. Accepted into the frage got her husband BY DAVID R. CONN said, ‘your morning paper’ and SFU Writers Studio, Saxifrage ‘your Starbucks cup.’ It really benefited from mentoring by fter her title piece brought home the two sides Brian Payton and remains describes swimming of the coin, and made me feel part of a group of alumni, The Aseven km across chilly like the situation was too com- Nonfictionistas, that meets Sutil Channel, from Cortes Is- plicated for me to figure out.” every two weeks. land to Quadra Island, Carrie ✫ In March, Carrie Saxifrage Saxifrage describes her expe- SAXIFRAGE FIRST TRAVELLED NORTH went on her first national book riences with homesteading, to Cortes Island to attend the tour—by bus. 978-0-86571-798-5 gardening, wilderness travel, Linnea Farm Ecological Gar- being present at the end of her den Programme. She stayed David R. Conn is a mother’s life, a trip to Kitimat eight months, “working in the Vancouver-based freelance for Northern Gateway pipeline production garden, and taking researcher, writer and editor.

The Big Swim recounts how, on a daily basis, Carrie Saxifrage Staff is trying to find ways “to live with the wound of climate change.” Pick

20 BC BOOKWORLD SUMMER 2015 WAYSON CHOY 22nd Annual Wayson Choy was the first Chinese Canadian to enrol in a creative writing class at UBC where he began writing a short story GEORGE that would be turned into his best-known novel some 30 years later. This novel, The Jade Peony (1995), is an inter-generational WOODCOCK saga about an immigrant family during the Depression. It was selected as the co-winner of the 1996 Trillium Prize; it won the LIFETIME City of Vancouver Book Award and it spent 26 weeks on the Globe & Mail’s bestseller list. The Jade Peony was followed by Paper Shad- ACHIEVEMENT ows: A Memoir of a Past Lost and Found (1999), which won the Edna Staebler Creative Non-Fiction Award and was shortlisted AWARD for a Governor General's Award, the Charles Taylor Prize and the Wayson Choy Drainie-Taylor Biography Prize. The award will be presented at the Vancouver Public Library, in conjunction with the mayor’s office of Vancouver, on June 11th, 2015. FOR FURTHER INFO: abcbookworld.com

Since 1995, Pacific BookWorld News Society, Writers Trust of Canada, RYGA AWARD Yosef Wosk and the Vancouver Public Library have co-sponsored the George Woodcock Lifetime Achievement Award and the Writers Walk FOR SOCIAL at 350 West Georgia Street in Vancouver. AWARENESS SHELLEY WRIGHT IN LITERATURE Shelley Wright has won the Ryga Award for Our Ice Is Vanishing / Sikuvut Nunguliqtuq: A History of Inuit, Newcomers, and Cli- mate Change (McGill-Queens). The award will be presented at the Vancouver Public Library, in conjunction with the Mayor’s Of- Shelley Wright fice of Vancouver, on June 11th, 2015. Finalists: Unmanned: Drone Warfare and Global Security (Pluto Press/Between the Lines) by Ann Rogers and John Hill; Meltdown in Tibet: China’s Reckless Destruction of Ecosystems from the Highlands of Tibet to the Deltas of Asia PB (Raincoast) by Michael Buckley. Since 2004, Pacific NS THE BASIL BookWorld News Society has sponsored this award. PacificBookWorld STUART-STUBBS FOR FURTHER INFO: bcbookawards.ca NewsSociety

PRIZE JEAN BARMAN for Outstanding Jean Barman has won the Stuart-Stubbs Prize for French Canadi- Scholarly Book ans, Fur, and Indigenous Women in the Making of the Pacific North- on British Columbia west (UBC Press). Finalists were Nancy J. Turner for Ancient Pathways, Ancestral Knowledge: Ethnohistory and the Ecologi- cal Wisdom of Indigenous Peoples of Northwestern North Jean Barman America (McGill-Queen’s) as well as Richard Beamish and Gordon Macfarlane, eds., for The Sea Among Us: the Amazing Strait of Georgia (Harbour). The award ceremony was hosted by UBC Library (Ingrid Parent, chief librarian) on June 9th, co-sponsored by Pacific BookWorld News Society. FOR FURTHER INFO: JIM DOUGLAS about.library.ubc.ca/awards/basil-stuart-stubbs-prize PUBLISHER OF CAITLIN PRESS THE YEAR AWARD The Douglas Award for a B.C. book publishing company that has earned the respect of the province’s community of publishers will

The Association of Book Publishers of BC be presented by the Association of Book Publishers of B.C. to is grateful for the sponsorship of Caitlin Press under the leadership of Vici Johnstone. Since 2005, Friesen Printers, International Web she has produced titles by and about women, and stories from Express, Rhino Print Solutions and BC BookWorld. the Central Interior, that have had both popular and Vici Johnstone critical success. Her energy and commitment have been exemplary.

JEAN WILSON The Campbell Award for a significant contribution to the book pub- GRAY CAMPBELL lishing industry in B.C. will be presented by the Association of Book Publishers of B.C. to former publisher/editor Jean Wilson, DISTINGUISHED who has worked in the publishing industry since 1968. Wilson began working at UBC Press in 1988. In addition to her formida- SERVICE AWARD ble editorial contributions, she has also given back to the community through the Editors’ Association of Canada, the Association The Association of Book Publishers of BC of Canadian Publishers and the ABPBC. is grateful for the sponsorship of Friesen Printers, International Web Express, Rhino Print Solutions The ABPBC Awards Dinner for the Douglas and and BC BookWorld. Campbell Awards will be held September 17, 2015. Jean Wilson

ALL PRIZES SUPPORTED BY PACIFIC BOOKWORLD NEWS SOCIETY BC INFO ON THESE & OTHER PRIZES: 604-736-4011 • BCBOOKAWARDS.CA BOOKWORLD

21 BC BOOKWORLD SUMMER 2015 Cecily Nicholson BC BOOK PRIZES

OINCIDENTAL WITH A FEATURE RE- Written Arts in Sechelt, The New York Times the first ongoing literary view in , gathering of its kind in Aislinn Hunter’s The World B.C. “She is one of those rare writers who has put Before Us (Doubleday) re- more effort into enabling ceived the Ethel Wilson Fic- and promoting other NY writers than into her own Ction Prize at the 31st BC Book Prizes held cause,” said publisher in Vancouver at the Pinnacle Howard White. “Her contribution to letters Vancouver Harbourfront Ho- AISLINN in B.C. has been huge, tel on April 25th. Hunter’s and until now, mostly Female nominees dominated 31st gala, unsung.” PHOTO novel was reviewed in BC First Nations illus- Bill Richardson trator Julie Flett took BookWorld eight months ago. hosted by in Vancouver

BUCHWITZ home her second Chris-

“This is a book about affec- RITA tie Harris Illustrated Aislinn Hunter Children’s Literature tion,” she said in her accept- that very few people know anything about. I think it’s the first Prize, this time for Dol- ence speech. “…Our time on this earth can time any book has been written about a marine eco-system phin SOS (Tradewind), To the Poplars anywhere in the world. We want people to understand the co-written by poet and (Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize winner) be fleeting. Love while you can.” complexity.” civil rights activist Roy Eve Joseph won the Hubert Evans Non-Fiction Prize for her Miki and his wife Slavia Hunter acknowledged the strength of her fellow nominees multi-faceted In the Slender Margin: The Intimate Strange- Miki. See page 19. (“If there was a butterfly that flapped its wings in Mexico any ness of Death and Dying (HarperCollins). She thanked her Maggie de Vries won PHOTO Congratulations to Cecily Nicholson! Nicholson’s latest book, differently on a Tuesday, any one of you could be standing publisher for allowing her to write an exploratory work on the the Sheila A. Egoff Prize

From the Poplars, won the 2015 Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize. subject, as well as her partner, poet Patrick Friesen. TWIGG here.”) and she thanked her editor, for Children’s Literature

Lynn Henry (“the editor of my life), Aaron Chapman primarily thanked former Commodore TARA for Rabbit Ears (Harp- From the Poplars is a collection of documentary poetry that her mentor, Jack Hodgins and her club owner Drew Burns when he received the Bill Duthie Betty Keller erCollins). See page 19.

PHOTO Booksellers’ Choice Award, along with his publisher, Brian Bill Richardson epit- reflects on the storied history of Poplar Island in New husband who has never said to her, Westminster, B.C. Rabble.ca hailed it as “a compelling blend “Maybe you should take more teaching Lam, for Live at the Commodore: The omized dignity and aplomb as the only person courses [to become a teacher].” Story of Vancouver’s Historic Commo- to have hosted the B.C. Book Prizes four times. BUCHWITZ of poetic research, personal infusion, and historical As co-editors, marine scientists dore Ballroom (Arsenal Pulp). Lam made CBC-affiliated hosts emcee the gala about half subjectivity while remaining urgent and insightful. It’s a call to RITA Richard Beamish and Gordon reference to the fact that either Harbour or the time. Multiple appearances over the past arms for environmental consciousness, and a text monument McFarlane took home the coveted D&M titles have won this prize more than 31 years as host have been made by Susan of loss and shame.” Roderick Haig-Brown Regional half the time since 1986. Musgrave (3), Vicki Gabereau (2), Bob Rob- Prize for best book about B.C. with Cecily Nicholson took home the Doro- ertson of Double Exposure (2) and Charles 978-0-88922-856-6 • $16.95 • Poetry • 104 pp • talonbooks.com The Sea Among Us: The Amaz- thy Livesay Poetry Prize for From the Pop- Demers (2). ing Strait of Georgia (Harbour). lars (Talonbooks), see page 24. Of 35 titles nominated this year for seven PHOTO “This book is about the Strait Sechelt-based author and mentor Betty prizes, there were 26 nominations for women; of Georgia,” said Beamish. “We Keller was humble to a fault when receiv- 17 for men. In terms of the books, 17 were TWIGG

have an incredible eco-system ing her Lieutenant Governor’s Award for from B.C. publishers and 18 were from non- # TARA # # Literary Excellence from the Honourable Booksellers’ Choice winners B.C. publishers. Ten nominated titles were Hubert Evans Non-Fiction Judith Guichon. Keller is most widely Aaron Chapman and his published from the Sunshine Coast. Congratulations Prize winner Eve Joseph known for having started the Festival of the publisher Brian Lam. For more info: www.bcbookprizes.ca Elizabeth Stewart from your publisher, Annick Press

#Sheila A. Egoff Children’s Literature Prize finalist

#Best Bets, Top 10 Young Adult Fiction, Ontario Library Assoc.

# Best Books for Kids & Teens, starred selection, Canadian ’ Children s Book Centre# ## annick press | excellence & innovation #

Tradewind Books congratulates Roy & Slavia Miki and Julie Flett on their nomination for the 2015 Christie Harris Illustrated From left to right: Children's Literature Prize Julie Flett, Richard Beamish, and Aislinn Hunter, Maggie de Vries, Julie Flett Betty Keller, Gordon McFarlane, Lieutenant Governor Judith on her nomination for the Guichon, Aaron Chapman, 2015 Amelia Frances Slavia Miki, Brian Lam, Roy Miki, Howard-Gibbon Award Cecily Nicholson, Eve Joseph. PHOTO

PAQUETTE

KEN

22 BC BOOKWORLD SUMMER 2015 23 BC BOOKWORLD SUMMER 2015 BC BOOK PRIZES Return to Poplar Island

Little-known history of an island in New Westminster wins poetry prize

ERSELF A RABBLE-ROUSER OF ernment declared Poplar a part of its the first degree, Doro- “nature legacy” program. thy Livesay would have Cecily Nicholson’s book is partially been delighted to know inspired by the efforts of the revived Cecily Nicholson took Qayqayt First Nation to regain con- Hhome the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize trol of the island. They assert they for From the Poplars (Talonbooks), a are the only chartered First Nations book that examines the little-known government in Canada without any history of Poplar Island in New West- land base. minster. ✫ Located at the east end of the North THE BC BOOK PRIZES WERE ESTABLISHED IN Arm of the Fraser River, unpopulated 1985 to celebrate the achievements of Poplar Island was a part of three re- British Columbia writers and publish- serves relegated to the New Westmin- ers. The prizes are administered and ster Indian Band in 1879 by the federal awarded by a non-profit society that government. After the 27 acres of represents all facets of the publishing reserve land became a smallpox quar- and writing community. antine area for Qayqayt First Nations, Harbour Publishing had six nomina- reducing their numbers from about tions; HarperCollins from Ontario had 400 to 100, the remaining Qayqayt four; Caitlin Press of Halfmoon Bay and mostly joined the Musqueam Band, Kids Can of Ontario had three each. making it much easier for the B.C. Double nominees were Caroline government to enable the New West- Adderson for adult fiction and illus- minster Construction and Engineering trated children’s literature; scientists Company to build a large shipyard on Richard Beamish and Gordon McFar- the island in 1916. lane for Haig-Brown and Booksellers’ By 1936, only fisheries warden Wil- Choice; and Toronto illustrator Qin PHOTO liam Albert Bowcott and his family Leng twice in the same category for the lived on the island. In 1945, the city of Christie Harris Illustrated Children’s PAQUETTE

New Westminster allowed the island Literature Prize.

KEN to be used by forestry giant Rayonier Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize winner Cecily Nicholson Canada. In 1995, the provincial gov- For more info: www.bcbookprizes.ca

B BDI=:GIDC

THE LIFE AND ART OF JACK AKROYD JUST RELEASED AARON CHAPMAN THE LIFE AND ART OF Winner, Bill Duthie Booksellers’ Choice Award JACK AKROYD {}(BC Book Prizes) Peter Busby

Introduction by Paul Wolf “A blazing illustrated history of the Unheralded Artists of BC #8 fabled room that’s hosted most of the ﬁgures who have made a big musical PETER BUSBY dent in Vancouver … Indispensable.” AKROYD EXHIBITION The Unheralded Artists of BC —georgia straight Burnaby Art Gallery July 3-August 23 $35.95 | 156 pgs | 120 colour plates ARSENAL PULP PRESS arsenalpulp.com DEADLINE: SEPTEMBER 1, 2015 DETAILS O N WEBSITE

Congratulations to the 2014

British Columbia Historical Federation Historical Writing Winners 1st prize, $2500 and The Lieutenant-Governor’s Medal for Historical Writing Reading Service for Writers From the West Coast to the Western Front: British Columbians and the Great War by Mark Forsythe and Greg Dickson (Harbour Publishing) If you are a new writer, or a writer 2nd prize, $1500 with a troublesome manuscript, Echoes of British Columbia: Voices from the Frontier, by Robert Budd EVENT’s Reading Service for Writers (Harbour Publishing) may be just what you need. 3rd prize, $500 Blood and Sweat Over the Railway Tracks: Chinese Labourers Construct-

photo by Anne Grant ing the Canadian Paciﬁc Railway (1880-1885) by Lily Siewsan Chow Visit eventmagazine.ca (UBC & Chinese Canadian Historical Society of BC) Community History prize, $500 Live at the Commodore: The Story of Vancouver's Historic Commodore Ballroom, by Aaron Chapman (Arsenal Pulp Press)

24 BC BOOKWORLD SUMMER 2015 PRIZES

AYSON CHOY WAS BORN IN Chinese roots. Vancouver in 1939. Four years after a combined asth- His mother was a Woodcock Award winner ma-heart attack in 2001, when Wayson meat-cutter. He was Choy was kept alive by machines and told his father was a the loving kindness of friends, his heart Wcook aboard CPR ships. nearly failed him again. His subsequent Dreaming of being a cowboy, Choy Wayson Choy comes home memoir of his two near-death experi- was raised in various households in ences is Not Yet: A Memoir of Living and Chinatown and later became the first “You have to risk everything Almost Dying (2009). Chinese Canadian to enrol in a creative In 2002, The Jade Peony was select- writing class at UBC. to make a breakthrough. Be on ed by the Vancouver Public Library for Now he has become the first non- the side of the monster.” its annual One Book, One Vancouver B.C. resident to win the $5,000 George city-wide book club project. A sympo- Woodcock Lifetime Award co-sponsored sion, The Jade Peony was selected as sium on Wayson Choy and his work by the Writers Trust of Canada, Yo- the co-winner of the 1996 Trillium Prize was held in Toronto in May of 2003. sef Wosk and the Vancouver Public (along with Margaret Atwood’s Alias A video biography of Choy has been Library. Grace) and won the City of Vancouver produced by his Humber College col- A permanent plaque for Choy, au- Book Award. league Michael Glassbourg, entitled thor of The Jade Peony, will be installed Soon afterward Paper Shadows: A Wayson Choy: Unfolding the Butterfly. in the library’s ‘Walk of Fame’ that in- Memoir of a Past Lost and Found (1999), An hour-long documentary about cludes Alice Munro, Jane Rule, W.P. about his childhood, won the Edna Choy’s trip to China, Searching for Con- Kinsella, David Suzuki and 16 others. Staebler Creative Non-Fiction Award fucius, premiered on VisionTV in 2005. ✫ and was shortlisted for a Governor Gen- “You have to risk everything to make WAYSON CHOY MOVED TO TORONTO IN 1962 eral’s Award, the Charles Taylor Prize a breakthrough,” he says. “Be on the and began teaching English at Humber and the Drainie-Taylor Biography Prize. side of the monster. Until we can make College in 1967. He emerged foremost At age 56, Wayson Choy accidentally someone understand that any of us among Chinese Canadian fiction writ- discovered he had been adopted and could have been the guard at a Nazi ers with his first novel, The Jade Peony that his biological father had been a concentration camp or the uncle that (1995), based on a short story member of the Cantonese Opera Com- abused his niece or the soldiers that he’d written at UBC. pany. Choy could vividly recall attend- napalmed Vietnam, until we can make An inter-generational saga ing Chinese operas with his mother. others see that, it is not literature. A about an immigrant family, Choy subsequently returned to writ- writer has to reverse things to get at the Chens, during the Depres- ing about the Chen family for All That what they know.” Matters (2004), a sequel and prequel ✫ told through the eyes of First Son, Kiam- WAYSON CHOY HAS BEEN INCLUDED Kim, who arrives by ship with his father in the Vancouver Public Library’s ini- and grandmother Poh-Poh, in 1926. tiative to erect new literary landmarks “My character, Kiam-Kim, is het- for the city. His marker can be found PHOTO

erosexual which I am not,” Choy has at 15 East Pender, the former head- said. Choy fell ill while completing All quarters of the Jin Wah Sing Musical HARRIS Wayson Choy That Matters, leading him to examine Association, former producers of Chi-

AARON his past more deeply, including his nese opera.

st Read the winners of the 31 annual BC Book Prizes Win Th e Winners Contest BILL DUTHIE BOOKSELLERS’ CHOICE AWARD HUBERT EVANS NON-FICTION PRIZE CHRISTIE HARRIS ILLUSTRATED CHILDREN’S Enter to win a collection of all seven Aaron Chapman Eve Joseph LITERATURE PRIZE winning titles. See participating Live at the Commodore In the Slender Margin Roy Miki, Slavia Miki & Julie Flett stores and contest details online at Arsenal Pulp Press HarperCollins Publishers Ltd Dolphin SOS www.bcbookprizes.ca. Contest runs ETHEL WILSON FICTION PRIZE DOROTHY LIVESAY POETRY PRIZE Tradewind Books from May 10 – June 7, 2015. Aislinn Hunter Cecily Nicholson Th e World Before Us From the Poplars Betty Keller Doubleday Canada Talonbooks recipient of the 2015 LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR’S AWARD RODERICK HAIG-BROWN REGIONAL PRIZE SHEILA A. EGOFF CHILDREN’S FOR LITERARY EXCELLENCE LITERATURE PRIZE Richard Beamish & Gordon Established in 2003 by the Honourable Iona McFarlane Maggie de Vries Campagnolo to recognize British Columbia writers Th e Sea Among Us Rabbit Ears who have contributed to the development of Harbour Publishing HarperCollins Publishers Ltd literary excellence in the province. SEE FINALIST BOOKS, TOUR PHOTOS AND MORE AT WWW.BCBOOKPRIZES.CA

VICTORIA BINDERY Bindery | Webcom

25 BC BOOKWORLD SUMMER 2015 PRIZES Still Hungry Alisa Gordaneer 9781927426647, $14.95

Painting Over Sketches of Anatolia And the Leonard Neufeldt 9781927426654, $14.95 Bazzy goes to... POETRY Jean Barman continues her winning ways Home Grown in BC with a francophone history. NON-FICTION AVING WON LAST YEAR’S “Only twice during the course of the Woodcock Lifetime trip,” Barman writes, “... did Macken- I Wasn’t Always Like This Rain on a Distant Roof Achievement Award, zie acknowledge all or any of the men Shelley A. Leedahl Vanessa Farnsworth Jean Barman has now by name.” 9781927426517, $18.95 9781927426241, $19.95 won the third annual ✫ HBasil Stuart-Stubbs Prize for best aca- SIMILARLY, ACCORDING TO BARMAN, ONLY ONE Tracks Genni Gunn demic book about B.C. with French Ca- of the nineteen men who did the grunt nadians, Furs, and Indigenous Women work for Simon Fraser on his expedi- 9781927426326, $18.95 in the Making of the Pacific Northwest tion can be identified with any certainty: (UBC Press, 2014). Jean Baptiste Boucher. This franco- Jean Barman received her Stuart- phone became the earliest ‘not wholly Stubbs Prize (aka The Bazzy) from UBC indigenous person’ known to engage in Librarian Ingrid Parent on June 9 at family life in the Pacific Northwest. UBC Library. Over half of the 1,240 French Cana- The judges were last year’s recipi- dians who reached the Pacific North- ent David Stouck, who won for Arthur west as fur trade employees prior to Erickson: An Architect’s Life; former BC 1858 opted to stay on the western side Studies editor Allan Smith and UBC of the Rockies. Librarian Brenda Peterson. The largely unsung work of these This ground-breaking work rewrites men—often in league with Scots—en- the early history of the Pacific North- sured that, when the region was divided west from the perspective of French in 1846, the northern half would go Canadians who were the largest group to Britain, giving Canada its Pacific of newcomers west of the Rockies for shoreline. half a century. The better-known Jules Maurice Simultaneously, Barman empha- Quesnel was a francophone officer sizes the role that indigenous women on Fraser’s journey who stayed in the played in encouraging them to stay. Pacific Northwest until 1811. The town WWW.LIBROSLIBERTAD.CA ★ WWW.LIBROSLIBERTAD.CA ★ WWW.LIBROSLIBERTAD.CA ★ WWW.LIBROSLIBERTAD.CA She also identifies some descendants. of Quesnel now bears his name, but his ★ ★ A founding director of the Chinese case is an anomaly. Canadian Historical Society, Barman Barman’s unprecedented overview has written or edited 22 books, includ- greatly benefited by the spadework of ing The West Beyond the West: A His- fur trade historian Bruce McIntyre tory of B.C., generally regarded as the Watson. Barman acknowledges his foremost history of B.C. meticulous primary research that Her books about First Nations, resulted in the publication of his Portuguese, Chinese, French, English, three-volume Lives Lived West of the Hawaiians and women have continued Divide: A Biographical Dictionary of Fur to widen the spectrum of B.C. history. Traders Working West of the Rockies, ✫ 1793-1858. IT WAS MAINLY FRANcoPHONES WHO FACILITATED As well, Barman was greatly as- the early overland crossings into the sisted by Nicole St.-Onge who made Pacific Northwest, but you wouldn’t available her Voyageurs Contracts know that from school texts. Database, which contains 36,000 in- Alexander Mackenzie, for instance, dividual fur trading contracts signed has long been identified as the first before notaries, principally in Montreal, non-Aboriginal to traverse the North between 1714 and 1830. EROTOKRITOS American continent, [For Collectors of Rare Books] $20 from east to west, in poetry by Vitsentzos Kornaros, CARESSING MYTHS 1793. Poems by Dina Georgantopoulos, translated by Manolis transcribed by Manolis ISBN: 9781926763378 ISBN: 9781926763361 Mackenzie was knighted almost immediately. He had his portrait painted by a leading artist and became rich. At age 50, he married his 14-year-old cousin. Few Canadians are taught the extent to which Mackenzie and his second-in- command Alexander MacKay relied on indigenous interpreters and six French Cana- dian paddlers: Jacques The Chinese Canadian Beauchamp, Francois Historical Society of Beaulieu, Baptiste BC (CCHS) also recently Bisson, Francois Cour- honoured Dr. Jean Bar- $25 $25 tois, Charles Ducette man for her outstanding TASOS LIVADITIS: SELECTED POEMS IDOLATERS and Joseph Landry. work behind the scenes

Poems by Tasos Livaditis, translated by Manolis Novel by Ioanna Frangia, translated by Manolis PHOTO ISBN: 9781926763354 ISBN: 9781926763347 Mackenzie’s account to encourage ethnically- TWIGG

does not distinguish WWW.LIBROSLIBERTAD.CA ★ WWW.LIBROSLIBERTAD.CA ★ WWW.LIBROSLIBERTAD.CA ★ WWW.LIBROSLIBERTAD.CA based histories in B.C.

between the six men. ALAN

26 BC BOOKWORLD SUMMER 2015 RYGA AWARD

BY BEVERLY CRAMP Ryga Award winner Shelley Wright took this photo of Matthew Nuqingaq tory. Our ancestors were never com- drum dancing as Aaju Peter looks on at Thule site, Dundas Harbour. pensated, never paid even though the N JUNE 11, qallunaat came up here and took over our land. Shelley “I know our ancestors were very Wright re- skilled people. They had very few tools but they survived. They were ceived the The Nunavummiut very strong and very capable. Thanks $2,000 to their ability to survive we are here today. I know if we tried today to do OGeorge Ryga Award for So- what our ancestors did, we would die because we don’t have the same skills.” cial Awareness at Vancou- get their say As well as receiving the Ryga Award, ver Public Library. Shelley Wright can now also boast the George Ryga Award for Social Awareness most northerly book launch in Cana- Her ground-breaking Our Ice Is dian history. Vanishing / Sikuvut Nunguliqtuq: A goes to an unprecedented view of the Arctic Our Ice is Vanishing was launched at History of Inuit, Newcomers and Cli- a latitude of 74.2167 degrees north in mate Change (McGill-Queens $39.950 Lancaster Sound, aboard the Akademik reveals how the Nunavummiut 9the Sergei Vavilov, one of the ships that was people of Nunavit0 have become the involved in the successful search to that is currently changing our weather, would be snow all the way up. You witnesses for climate change. find the ship for the doomed Franklin atmosphere, and oceans. could go all the way to the top by Wright lived and travelled in the expedition. “One thing is clear: as global tem- dogteam. You could also go upwards Arctic for more than ten years as the Wright was aboard the Akademik peratures rise, Arctic temperatures rise from the point. You could build igluit Northern Director of the Akitsiraq Law Sergei Vavilov in September of 2014, faster. We may well have pushed polar anywhere it sloped downwards. There School based in Iqaluit. about one week after the much- ecosystems into a ‘positive feedback is not that much snow anymore.” Now a professor of Aboriginal Stud- publicized discovery of the sunken loop’ that could be unstoppable.” ✫ ies at Langara College, she has com- Franklin ship, the finding of which Simply put, with more heat from IT IS NOT JUST THE VANISHING ICE THAT IS bined scientific and legal information, was a pet project of Prime Minister global warming, the more melting creating havoc in the Arctic. along with political and individual Stephen Harper. perspectives, to elucidate how serious there will be. “Inuit sometimes ask what Euro- ✫ are the effects of climate change in the And the more melting, the more pean Canadians are doing on their THE JUDGES FOR THE RYGA AWARD THIS YEAR Arctic. heat because the white ice acts as a re- land in the first place,” Wright writes. included retired Ukrainian Canadian “The rapidity of the melting of sum- flector of the sun’s rays. “By what right does archivist George Brandak and George mer ice in the Arctic over the past five With less ice, more of any non-Inuit nation Ryga’s sister Anne Chudyk, who came years is unprecedented,” she writes, the sun’s warmth affects claim sovereignty over to Vancouver from Summerland to “both since satellite records began to the Earth. the land or sea of the present the award. be kept in 1979 and in the much longer Wright quotes Inuit Arctic?” oral history of Indigenous peoples. elders such as Corne- She goes on to cite RUNNERS-UP “An ice-free summer in the Arctic lius Nutaraq to explain First Nations author • Unmanned: Drone Warfare and Ocean was not predicted to occur until the impact of global Lucassie Nutaraaluk Global Security (Pluto Press/Between the middle or end of this century. Now, warming. talking about qallu- the Lines $31.95) by Ann Rogers and according to some predictions, it may “When I was a child, naat—the Inuit word John Hill. occur by the end of this decade.” there would be much for Southern Canadians • Meltdown in Tibet: China’s Reck- Wright firmly places much blame on more snow … to build meaning ‘big eyebrows.’ less Destruction of Ecosystems from human behaviour. igluit [houses],” he says. “After England de- the Highlands of Tibet to the Deltas of “Rapid economic development in “There was enough feated Germany in the Asia (Raincoast $31.50) by Michael Asia and sustained industrial activity snow for a slope to form First World War, the Buckley. in the ‘developed’ world underlie much from the top of the hills qallunaat came up here Vanishing:78-0-7735-4462-8 Unmanned: 978-1-77113-153-7 of the human-made global warming on downwards. There Shelley Wright and claimed our terri- Meltdown: 978-1-137-27954-5

27 BC BOOKWORLD SUMMER 2015 review TEENLIT

You Seeing Me? It all hung around in my head for a cou- ASD BROTHER, ple of months before I started to put words on the page.” ✫ WHERE ART THOU? A FORMER SPECIAL EDUCATION teacher and the father of a Most of Darren Groth’s research son with ASD, Groth had pre- was not about ASD but about viously taught several children with ASD. “It was a real life- earthquakes, Ogopogo shaping experience,” he says, and Jackie Chan. “and, as Fate would have it, quite a useful preparation for Are You Seeing Me? to ‘inappropriate behaviours’ being a parent.” by Darren Groth and he has problems mixing Groth’s own twins are now (Orca $19.95) with people. 14. On his website [Darren- To further complicate mat- groth.com] Groth smiles with ters, for over a year, since their his son as they both hold up WINS DON’T ALWAYS father’s death, Justine has Darren Groth a sign that reads: “We need know everything been his sole caregiver. Their and his son DiverseBooks because dis- about one an- mother left them when they ability is too often portrayed other, especially were four. in fiction as ‘other’ rather than when they’re not That’s the set-up for Dar- ‘another.’ ” Tthe same sex. ren Groth’s engaging and In an interview with BC “What is it about sea mon- heartfelt Are You Seeing Me?. BookWorld, Groth articulated sters?” nineteen-year-old Jus- Thanks to their father’s life the underlying message of Are tine Richter asks Perry, her insurance policy, the twins You Seeing Me? brother. “Why are you into have made their first plane “Don’t subscribe to the them so much?” trip from their Aus- is not dealing so well with a to write,” says Groth, “much whole ‘perception is reality’ The twins are tralian home to very new problem: Perry says easier than his ‘normal’ sister. myth. For people like my son in the Okanagan, meet up with their he wants to leave her and go There’s a certain fictional free- and Perry, the distance be- about to fulfill one mother, now liv- into independent specialized dom that comes with exploring tween assumption and truth of Perry’s dreams— ing in Vancouver. housing. the mind of a unique person. I can be huge, so avoid snap on the lookout for The mother and Their father had started wanted to produce an authen- judgments and instant opin- Ogopogo. her other daugh- researching a care facility for tic voice for the story and be ions. If you can do that—if Perry’s two-fold CHERIE ter have nervously Perry before his death. Justine honest to the characters and you can pause, wait, pay at- answer is slow in THEISSEN awaited the visit. is perplexed: Is her brother do- their circumstances.” tention—you might notice a coming. The first Perry is unaware of ing this for himself? or for her? Groth says the original reason or hear an explanation. reason is because sea mon- the tension. He mostly wants The only hint that this en- manuscript took about a year And you’ll be a better person sters are excellent at hiding. to see Ogopogo. joyable and engaging novel is to write. Most of the research for it, guaranteed.” They’ve survived for thou- Perry is also passionate written for young he had to do was Originally from Brisbane, sands of years without being about Jackie Chan movies adults comes to- not about Autism Australia, Darren Groth caught. The second reason is and earthquakes. He is rarely wards the end. Plot Spectrum Disorder moved to Vancouver in 2007 because sea monsters have without his earthquake moni- rules, plausibility but about earth- with his Canadian wife and learned to survive in a difficult toring equipment: a portable not so much. While quakes, Ogopogo their then five-year-old twins. and changing world. seismograph, notebook, and ‘Saint’ Justine is and Jackie Chan. Are You Seeing Me? has also Any reader who has been seismometer that come out sometimes too “Following the been published by Random paying attention will realize whenever he feels uneasy. good to be true, publication of my House Australia. that high functioning, autistic Perry is uneasy often. Like her twin brother is previous novel, 978-1-45981-079-2 Perry is describing himself. when they’re going through an intriguing, wise, Kindling,” he says, As a child born with Autism Canada Customs. Justine has and ultimately lov- “I started playing Cherie Theissen reviews Spectrum Disorder (ASD), un- learned how to cope with her able character. with the ideas that fiction from her home like his sister, Perry is subject brother’s volatility. But she “He was a joy would become Are on Pender Island

and Hastings on April 14, 1998 in Vancouver. On August 6, 2002, Vancouver police met with KIDLIT PRIZES de Vries and gave her the news that a sample of Sarah’s DNA (from a tooth) was found by Christie Harris Illustrated police on the Port Coquitlam property of Robert Children’s Literature Prize Pickton, the convicted serial killer of Vancouver BIT OF A WUNDERKIND WHEN IT COMES TO THE prostitutes. BC Book Prizes, First Nations illustra- After hope was replaced by grim certainty, de A tor Julie Flett took home her second Vries kept searching for the answers as to how Christie Harris Illustrated Children’s Literature and why her sister had disappeared, leading her Prize for Dolphin SOS (Tradewind), co-written by to write Missing Sarah: A Vancouver Woman Re- PHOTO poet and civil rights activist Roy Miki and his members Her Vanished Sister (Penguin, 2003), a wife Slavia Miki. heart-rending memoir that won the first annual ATKINSON Based on true events, Dolphin SOS recounts George Ryga Award for Social Awareness in B.C. the story of three dolphins trapped in an ice- Literature in 2004 as well as the 13th annual covered cove off the coast of Newfoundland. After Julie Flett, illustrator of Dolphin SOS and the writers VanCity Book Prize for best book pertaining to Roy Miki and Slavia Miki (below). the government fails to provide assistance, boys women’s issues by a B.C. author. take matters into their own hands in order to Maggie de Vries wasn’t finished paying hom- save the distressed dolphins. age to her sister. While repeatedly watching a Flett previously provided illustrations for Earl video of Sarah being interviewed in 1993 for a Einarson’s children’s story, The Moccasins (They- television program in which Sarah warned about tus, 2004), which was nominated for the Harris the dangers of being addicted to heroine, de Vries Prize in 2004, and she won her first Harris Prize noticed her sister had a small insignia of a Play- in 2011 for her picture book, Owls See Clearly boy bunny tattooed on her chest. at Night: A Michif Alphabet (Simply Read, 2010). As she explained to her audience at the B.C. Book Prizes gala, that tattoo gave rise to the title PHOTO WENDY Sheila A. Egoff Children’s Literature Prize of Rabbit Ears (HarperCollins), winner of this Maggie de Vries’s 28-year-old, adopted, younger year’s Sheila A. Egoff Prize for Children’s Litera- PAQUETTE sister Sarah vanished from the corner of Princess ture (non-illustrated). KEN

28 BC BOOKWORLD SUMMER 2015 Celebrating 47 Years of Publishing in Canada

B.C. BESTSELLER

Knitting Stories Life Cycle of a Lie Shack Island Summer The Moment Sylvia Olsen Personal Essays and Seven Coast Penny Chamberlain Kristie Hammond Salish–inspired Knitting Patterns Have you ever told a lie, then It’s the summer of 1969, the When a devastating train Sylvia Olsen told another to cover up the summer of fl ower children and accident results in the loss of his fi rst? Is failing to correct a the fi rst moon landing. 12-year- leg, James cannot imagine ever Master storyteller and expert knitter misunderstanding lying at all? old Pepper knows she’s adopted leading a ‘normal’ life again. Sylvia Olsen’s essay collection A complex novel of love, gender and decides this summer will be As James struggles to adapt to is both personal and political, relations, friendship, betrayal, an excellent time to fi nd out who his new life, he’s helped by true historical and practical. Includes truth, and lies. her birth family is, along with friends he didn’t know he had. seven stunning Coast Salish- exploring ESP, dreams, friendship inspired knitting patterns. TEEN FICTION • Ages 12+ and infatuation. JUVENILE FICTION • Ages 8–12 978-1-55039-233-3 • $14.95 NON-FICTION/ESSAYS 978-1-55039-235-7 • $9.95 978-1-55039-232-6 • $28.95 Also available as an ebook JUVENILE FICTION • Ages 9–13 Also available as an ebook 978-1-55039-175-6 • $10.95 Also available as an ebook Also available as an ebook

Ting Ting The Lost Diary Riding Through Fire Under the Wire Kristie Hammond Julie White Julie White Julie White Ting is a happy 8-year-old in In the fourth Hillcroft Farm Faye’s out horse jumping, and Reid Widmark is at the gate… China when Tiananmen Square novel, Julie White skillfully Kirsty’s doing chores. A cattle At 16, Reid Widmark is on his forces her family to a new life intertwines a tale from the early drive seems like fun—until the way to becoming a professional in faraway Vancouver, Canada. days of women in international wind changes. Suddenly, Kirsty jockey. Th en his mother takes a Suddenly everything is strange competition with Faye’s journey and Lancelot smell smoke… fall—and suddenly, so does his and diﬃ cult. What will it take back to the show ring after a An exciting new story from the future. How can he prove that for Ting to belong? nasty accident. Gripping! stables of Hillcroft Farm! he’s got what it takes to win? 3Asian/Paciﬁ c American Award for Juvenile Fiction • Ages 8–12 Juvenile Fiction • Ages 8–12 Juvenile Fiction • Ages 10–14 Literature (Honor Title) 978-1-55039-234-0 • $9.95 978-1-55039-199-2 • $9.95 978-1-55039-198-5 • $9.95 Juvenile Fiction • Ages 8–12 Also available as an ebook Also available as an ebook Also available as an ebook 978-1-55039-210-4 • $9.95 Also available as an ebook

Tilly Sabotage Prove It, Josh Vancouver Island’s Karen Autio Esquimalt & Nanaimo A Story of Hope and Resilience Jenny Watson Railway Monique Gray Smith German spies? Sabotage plots? Josh is 11, dyslexic, and suﬀ ering Internment camps? Believe it or at his new school on Vancouver The CPR Via Rail and A powerful, loosely autobiographi- not, this is northwestern Ontario in Island. Sailing is his escape, until Shortline Years, 1949–2013 cal story of a young Indigenous 1915. Th e danger hits close to home he’s goaded into a bet: lose a Robert D. Turner & woman coming of age in Canada for siblings Saara and John Mäki in sailing race and he reads aloud on Donald F. MacLachlan in the 1980s. Gray Smith illumi- this exciting story, the last in Autio’s Literacy Day! nates her people’s history—forced ISBN 978-1-55039-212-8 popular historical ﬁ ction trilogy. displacement, residential schools, 3Silver Birch Express Award (Nominee) softcover • $39.95 tuberculosis hospitals, the Sixties 3 Manitoba Young Readers’ Choice Award (Nominee) Juvenile Fiction • Ages 8–12 978-1-55039-213-5 Scoop—with insight and humour. hardcover • $49.95 3 Arthur Ellis Best Juvenile/Young Adult 978-1-55039-211-1 3 Winner of the 2014 CODE Burt Award for Crime Book (Finalist) $9.95 11 x 9 • 324 pages • 475+ photos First Nations, Métis and Inuit Literature Also available as an ebook 978-1-55039-209-8 • $19.95 Juvenile Fiction • Ages 8–12 978-1-55039-208-1 • $10.95 Also available as an ebook Also available as an ebook Sono Nis Press • 1-800-370-5228 • www.sononis.com • [email protected]

29 BC BOOKWORLD SUMMER 2015 DISTRIBUTION CHANGES Effective on the dates listed below, the following publishers and their respective client publishers will move distribution from HarperCollins Canada (HCC) to University of Toronto Press Distribution (UTP). Orders will be consolidated with other UTP client publishers and billed by UTP Distribution.

May 1, 2015: UTP starts shipping orders. All new orders should be submitted to UTP. July 29, 2015: Last day to return books to HCC for credit.

The following ISBN preﬁxes are affected: Greystone Books: 978-1-77164, 978-1-55054, 978-1-55365, 978-1-926812, 978-1-77100 LifeTree Media: 978-1-928055, 978-0-9936530 Me to We Books: 978-0-9784375, 978-1-927435, 978-1-55365

Greystone’s sales representation continues unchanged: Hornblower Books in Eastern Canada and the Heritage Group Distribution reps in Western Canada and the Territories.

Questions: Call 604.875.1550 or email [email protected]

May 1, 2015: UTP starts shipping orders. All new orders should be submitted to UTP. July 29, 2015: Last day to return books to HCC for credit.

The following ISBN preﬁxes are affected: 978-0-88894, 978-1-55054, 978-1-55365, 978-1-926685, 978-1-926706, 978-1-926812, 978-1-77100, 978-1-77162

Douglas & McIntyre’s sales representation continues unchanged: Ampersand Inc. in Western Canada and the Territories, and Hornblower Books in Eastern Canada.

Questions: Call 604.883.2730 or email [email protected]

May 1, 2015: UTP starts shipping orders. All new orders should be submitted to UTP. July 29, 2015: Last day to return books to HCC for credit.

The following ISBN preﬁxes are affected: 978-0-86571, 978-1-90217, 978-0-97733, 978-0-97892, 978-0-91042, 978-0-97841, 978-0-96667, 978-0-61569, 978-1-55092

New Society Publishers sales representation remains unchanged: Ampersand Inc. nationwide.

Questions: Call 250.247.9737 or email [email protected]

June 19, 2015: Last day orders will be accepted at HCC. June 26, 2015: Last day orders will ship from HCC. Remaining unshipped backorders for active and forthcoming titles will be transferred to UTP. July 2, 2015: UTP starts shipping orders. All new orders should be submitted to UTP. September 25, 2015: Last day to return books to HCC for credit.

The following ISBN preﬁxes are affected: Anansi: 978-088784, 978-177089, 978-14870 Groundwood: 978-088899, 978-155498

House of Anansi’s sales representation continues unchanged: Michael Reynolds and Associates in BC and Alberta; Lisa Pearce in Manitoba and Saskatchewan; Martin and Associates in Ontario and Quebec; and Ali Hewitt in Atlantic Canada. Questions: Call 416.363.4343 or email [email protected]

Customer Service: 1.800.565.9523 SAN: 1151134

30 BC BOOKWORLD SUMMER 2015 reviews TEENLIT reader—enter the world of the diary.

Glen Lovett Soon we’re enmeshed in the and Jenna struggles of a 14-year-old girl who loves to fearlessly jump fences bareback on her splen- PONY TALES did palomino mare, Colleen. Mary’s Dad, the head wrangler “Nothing can replace desire in riding, at White Valley Ranch in the B.C. Interior, trained the wild in writing, in life.” — Julie White horse and gave it to her as compensation for not having DOG TALES The Lost Diary thoroughbreds for racing and As a follow-up, White fash- a Mum. by Julie White (Sono Nis $9.95) Colleen and Mary are in- Glen Lovett worked for many years jumping, with her husband ioned another horse-driven on animation storyboards for major Robert, a former jockey. tale of divided loyalties and separable. film companies including Disney TV, The appeal of White’s writ- complicated friendships, High Mary’s willingness to show Warner Brothers, Hanna Barbera, off Colleen’s remarkable T’S A HORSE RACE, OF SORTS. ing is largely derived from her Fences (Sono Nis 2007). After Nelvana, Nickelodeon and Atomic jumping prowess leads to an Cartoons before coming to B.C. in Nikki Tate of Saanich sophisticated knowledge of Faye agrees to sell her beloved unexpected challenge. The 1994 with his partner Kay and their set the pace. Between riding. On almost every page horse Robin to help save the first Husky (Ruby). For Lovett’s 1997 and 2002, she it’s abundantly clear she really family farm, Faye refuses to new ranch manager and his third illustrated novel about a husky published seven nov- knows horses. The ‘personali- tell its new owner, the pretty wife, both of whom are experi- named Jasper, The Solar Trail Iels in her Stablemates series, ties’ of the horses make them and pampered Nicole, the enced in competitive jumping, (Lovett Pictures $18.95), Ruby (a decide Colleen should com- human) visits her American cousin aimed at teenage girls who into dual protagonists with the secret to making Robin jump. pete with them at the PNE in Banjo in Australia. As an engineer- want to read about girls and two-legged heroines who take Under the Wire (Sono Nis ing student, Banjo has entered a horses. tumbles. 2013) and Riding through Fire Vancouver. sun-powered car in a 3,000-km race Now equestrian-minded In Julie White’s first book (Sono Nis 2013) came next. Mary is perplexed. It’s her through the Australian outback. Julie White of Armstrong The Secret Pony (Sono Nis Now White has continued her horse, nobody else’s. And she When they’re hijacked halfway, it’s has never been to the big city. up to Jasper to track them down. is catching up fast. She has 2004), young Kirsty empties Hillcroft Farm series with The 778-0-978311667 just released her fourth girl- her piggy bank to buy Lance- Lost Diary, an audacious leap Her Dad doesn’t dissuade meets-horse novel for slightly lot—a skinny, half-trained back in time to 1955. them. He thinks it could be younger readers, aged 8-12. pony—and makes herself While she is recovering good for her. “I’m going to have White first wrote about useful at the pony farm to pay from a riding accident, Faye to do this. I sure don’t want horses as a girl in Vancouver for his board and to earn rid- finds an old diary at a craft to,” she writes in the diary. after her parents told her she ing lessons. Only problem is sale. It once belonged to a “Just thinking about it makes couldn’t keep a pony in their Kirsty doesn’t tell her parents. promising show jumper, Mary my stomach hurt. But I know Dad wants me to and I’m not Kathleen Cook back yard. When a riding accident puts Inglis, similar in age. To take Waldron Now she lives on a horse Kirsty in the hospital, Kirsty her mind off the trauma of going to let him down.” farm in Armstrong, raising is told Lancelot must go. her accident, Faye—and the She out-jumps Mr. Zelin- ski, the new ranch manager, CABIN SAVING at the PNE. It’s a thrilling In Between Shadows (Coteau triumph. She and Colleen are $8.95), the eleventh book for youth perfect, the only pair not to by Kathleen Cook Waldron of miss a single jump. Nobody 100 Mile House, 12-year-old Ari has just inherited his grandfather’s can ride Colleen like Mary. log cabin, but Ari’s family wants to She wins against experienced sell the property to developers. The riders twice her age in the first family is having financial problems jumping competition that she and needs the money, and the developers want to build a luxury and her high-spirited horse hotel on the desirable lakeside land. have ever entered. With the deadline to sell nearing, The trouble starts when the how can Ari save the place that is a ranch manager’s wife surmis- cherished connection to his beloved es there must be some thor- grandfather? 9781550506129 oughbred in Colleen. Where did her father really get the ROCK VS RAP horse? When the new owner As a follow-up to her much-dis- of the ranch starts asking the cussed teen ‘verse novels,’ Auda- same question, Mary’s father cious and Capricious, Gabrielle Prendergast has fashioned an is forced to give back Colleen Orca Limelights novel for ages to the ranch owner. 11-14, Frail Days (Orca $9.95), It gets worse when the new about two girls who compete for ranch owner wants the new status and power within a rock ‘n’ ranch manager to ride Col- roll band in which the two other musicians are boys. It’s written leen at the Canadian National from the perspective of a Chinese Exhibition in Toronto. Other Canadian girl drummer, Stella Wing, powerful people want Colleen who asks talented Tamara Donnelly to be made available to the to be their singer after Tamara sings the national anthem at a baseball Canadian Olympic squad. game. Stella, who likes rock ‘n’ roll, Everyone knows Colleen believes it’s in the best interest of trusts Mary more than any the band to mold Tamara into a rock other rider. But even if Mary goddess, but rap has become more still owned the horse, she cool and Tamara is not about to be pushed around as a sex symbol. couldn’t enter the Olympics 9871459804647 with Colleen. She would have to be eighteen, for one thing. DYSLEXIA Also, four years earlier, in 1951, powers that be decided Jenny Watson’s first juvenile novel, Prove It Josh (Sono Nis $9.95) high-risk horse jumping at the is about a dyslexic eleven-year-old Olympics was too dangerous named Josh who loves living at the for women. marina on Dad’s cruising yacht for Mary and her brother ac- the summer. At first, when a mean company Colleen to the CNE classmate, Brittany, bets Josh he Julie White with Keno, age 25: “We took a gamble can’t beat her in an upcoming boat where there’s an exciting fi- race, Josh isn’t too worried because and bought him at our local livestock auction. nale. But it’s White’s surprise he expects his older brother will He’s pretty much retired to pasture after a long and useful melding of Faye’s contempo- arrive from Toronto to help him rary story with the life of Mary

win the race. But when Matt has PHOTO to enroll in summer school instead, career that spanned the horse show ring to the racetrack Inglis that makes The Lost BLAIR Josh must overcome his lack of where he ponied our racehorses to the starting gate.” Diary particularly satisfying confidence. 978-1-55039-211-1 and memorable. ANDREA 978-1-55039-234-0 31 BC BOOKWORLD SUMMER 2015 Our Ice Is Vanishing / Sikuvut Nunguliqtuq A History of Inuit, Newcomers, and Climate Change SHELLEY WRIGHT

Winner The George Ryga Award for Social Awareness in Literature

“… authoritative and entertaining, original, exhaustively researched, and informed by personal experience. Wright spent years living in the Arctic and it shows. She has written a wonderful book.” –Ken McGoogan, author of 50 CanadiansWho Changed theWorld

McGILL-QUEEN’SUNIVERSITY PRESS mqup.ca Follow us on Facebook.com/McGillQueens and Twitter.com/Scholarmqup

Fatal Glamour The Life of Rupert Brooke PAUL DELANY Unravelling the Franklin Mystery, Second Edition “Paul Delany has produced a fascinating study of Rupert Brooke.” Inuit Testimony –BC BookWorld DAVID C. WOODMAN “The central achievement of this book looms most “It is a book anyone obsessed with Franklin will want to have.” largely in its cultural iconoclasm … likely to –Toronto Star become the deﬁnitive biography of Rupert Brooke.” –David Williams, University of Manitoba “Undoubtedly the most authoritative, cool-headed and thrilling investigation so far.” –London Observer

32 BC BOOKWORLD SUMMER 2015 review NON-FICTION

After five years as an FROM author, Victoria-based freelancer Alex Van Tol is releasing her ninth, tenth and eleventh titles this ALGAE summer. She is currently co-authoring a thriller TO series for young adults. ZEBRA MUSSELS PHOTO

STUDIOS

BREEDERSBREEDERS DIGESTDIGEST BK

Aliens Among Us: Invasive birds to hatchling turtles and of predation pressure on this you should go planting Car- Animals and Plants in Brit- our own native frogs. They lay Alex Van Tol particular species. pet Burweed in Stanley Park. ish Columbia by Alex Van Tol (RBCM $19.95) up to 20,000 eggs at a time. identiﬁ es The voracious Green Crab Don’t dump your pet goldfish Scotch Broom smells so first landed on the New Eng- into lakes or ponds. Don’t buy pretty in spring, but its yellow invasive species land coast in the late 1800s. It exotic turtles at the pet store. ORTHERN SNAKEHEAD, blooms are dastardly to eradi- immediately set to work ruin- Don’t feed the raccoons. And Dalmatian Toad- cate. Not long after Captain beyond ing the clam, scallop and soft- please wash the felt soles flax, Red-eared Slid- Walter Colquhoun Grant ar- shell crab industries there. in your waders before you er and Giant Hog- rived at Fort Victoria in 1849, humans. Ballast water carried it to San change rivers so you don’t N spread algae. weed are not characters from Grant gave his neighbour John Francisco in 1989, and it was Game of Thrones, but they are Muir three bushes of Scotch first spotted in B.C. in 1998. For more tips on how to slow teristics experts use to classify aliens who have entered B.C. broom that had come from the Fond of snails, mussels and the spread of aliens into Brit- an alien species as invasive. unbeknownst to CSIS. Sandwich Islands. These fast- clams, the Green Crab also ish Columbia, visit the Royal The second is a species’ ability Along with the cute Eastern spreading plants were a gift to isn’t afraid of taking down a BC Museum or check out Van to thrive in its new home and Grey Squirrel and ubiquitous Grant from the British Consul lunch that’s the same size as Tol’s sometimes humorous, to displace native species as a Himalayan Blackberry, Alex in Honolulu, who in turn had itself. It can even eat a juvenile sometimes sobering, always result. The final characteristic Van Tol has outlined more bought them in Tasmania. Dungeness Crab. enlightening compendium. that denotes an alien species than 50 animals and plants for “That,” Muir said later, “may ✫ ✫ as an invader is a relative Aliens Among Us: Invasive explain why they proliferated SCIENCE AND MOTHER NATURE ALEX VAN TOL S OTHER NEW BOOK scarcity of predators or dis- ’ Animals and Plants in Brit- in the devilish way they did.” don’t have an immigration is Chick: Lister (Orca Cur- eases that serve to keep that ish Columbia. Purple Loosestrife was first policy. So what is really native rents $9.95) for ages 10-14. species’ population in check. Not all invasives are unwel- planted in a Port Alberni to B.C.? Who decides? Grizzly A self-described ‘recreational The Brown Bullhead Catfish come. We use English Holly at garden in 1916. It has sub- Bears arrived from the east, list maker,’ she has written made its way into the wilds of Christmas; English Ivy twines sequently elbowed its way across the Rockies. Where’d a novel about an over-anx- B.C. when a Vancouver Island its way through gardens and across stream banks, ditches the Sockeye come from? Is ious teen named Chick who restauranteur decided he no up the sides of stately old and marine estuaries, setting Western Red Cedar really feels burdened by his father’s longer wished to have the foot- homes; some people enjoy the down its greedy roots in pretty western? overbearing and impossible long fishes in his aquarium trilling of Starlings; the Drum- much any wetland habitat It’s a tricky business, de- expectations. Chick copes by and instead elected to throw ming Katydid goes about its where the sun shines. Gorse termining which plants and making lists, lots and lots of them—from a train window, foot-tapping business to no and English Ivy are also alien animals “belong” and which lists. It helps a lot to have a no less—into Elk Lake. As ill effect. plants. don’t. We tend to see invasive budding romance with Audrey the spines on its dorsal and But many alien invasives The Norway Rat is a mul- species as evil things to be on his debating team, but her pectoral fins are too sharp for are pushing native species out. tiplying menace. It produces stopped, rather than as rep- advice to simply confront his the herons and cormorants to The American Bullfrog was up to seven litters a year, resentatives of a necessary father is hard to take. bother with, there’s not a lot imported by the thousands each with eight to twelve and expected evolutionary Van-Tol’s biography of the in the late 1940s for the res- pups. Having first washed trajectory. There’s a strong actor who played Gale in The taurant industry. When the ashore when European ships counter argument to be made Hunger Games, Liam Hem- market for frogs’ legs proved sank off the West Coast in the that the inexorable forward sworth (Crabtree $8.95), is to have no legs whatsoever, 19th century (with a few more march of invasive species is another installment in the they were released into the stealing down the gangplanks just evidence of Earth do- Superstars! series that traces wild. Now our freshwater lakes of ships), rats live anywhere ing her thing. Evolving. the careers of celebrities from are festooned with these big they can find shelter, in- Which is not to say their first breakthroughs and burpers—which can some- side your walls or your challenges to their current times grow as large as a din- unused barbecue. The Norway Rat superstardom. can reach sixteen ner plate—as they chow down Rapid reproduction is Aliens 978-0-7726-6853-0 inches in length. Lister 9781459810006 on everything from mice and just one of three charac- Liam 978-0778780830

33 BC BOOKWORLD SUMMER 2015 The World, Dance Moves of I Guess the Near Future George Bowering Tim Conley

George Bowering remains in ﬁne form Tim Conley’s prose whipsaws between in his 36th book of poetry. The World, carefully observed realism and batshit I Guess displays a catholic variety of insanity to create surreal, compact worlds. interests and echoes of a lifetime of These 24 stories are unpredictable — even reading and learning. It ends with a suite volatile — but they all share a wicked of translations of the “modern” Canadian sense of humour and a piercing eye for poetry canon: Margaret Atwood, human (and inhuman) fallibility. Archibald Lampman, Irving Layton, Phyllis Webb, and more. *Ebook available from Kobo and BitLit

New Star Books New Star Books newstarbooks.com | [email protected] newstarbooks.com | [email protected]

Around the World Greatly Exaggerated The Myth of the on Minimum Wage Death of Newspapers Andrew Struthers Marc Edge

Marc Edge reveals the facts behind A hilarious, philosophical travel memoir the doomsaying about the “death of about the author’s ill-fated attempt to newspapers” in an entertaining book that conquer Everest (and an esoteric sexual provides both a note of hope for and a deviancy), featuring numerous illustrations. scathing critique of the newspaper business.

“To understand this culture, we need “Thoroughly researched... a provocative writers with a genuine sense of humour, thesis... a breezy, readable style.” such as Struthers. ” — Georgia Straight — National Post *Ebook available from Kobo and BitLit New Star Books New Star Books newstarbooks.com | [email protected] newstarbooks.com | [email protected]

Salt Chuck Stories from Vancouver Island's West Coast by Eleanor Witton Hancock

uring the early prostitution openly oper- D 1980s, Eleanor ated between the town Hancock interviewed and the mines. Also in- 120 people about the pio- cluded are the Perry neers at Nootka Sound, Brothers of Nootka Zeballos and Kyuquot, Sound, carpenter Alder publishing several articles Bloom, Swiss trapper about old-timers in the and prospector Andy Times-Colonist, the Eleanor Hancock Morod of Nootka Sound Journal of the BC His- and Eva Benjamin of torical Federation, the Seniors Zeballos, and many more. Review and the Bank of British Co- Born in Viking, Alberta in 1942, lumbia’s Pioneer News. Eleanor Witton Hancock grew Now her Salt Chuck Stories up in Zeballos from age three on- from Vancouver Island’s West wards. Her family mainly ran the Coast recalls big-time counterfeit- Zeballos general store after her ers near Yuquot in 1911, Rebecca grandfather Seth Witton pur- McPhee and the first Red Cross chased it in 1939. She later settled Hospital at Kyuquot and the in Kamloops where she became in- highballing Gibson Brothers who terested in researching Canada’s logged airplane spruce at Zeballos last signficant gold boom that oc- back in the days when a house of curred in Zeballos in 1938.

128 pages • 62 photos three maps • Bibliography • $17.95 • ISBN: 0-9739980-3-2 Distributed by Sandhill Book Marketing Ltd., Kelowna • [email protected] • (250) 491-1446

34 BC BOOKWORLD SUMMER 2015 THEATRE

Led by Bill Millerd since 1973, the Arts Club of Vancouver has produced Moody meets nearly 100 original plays. The first homegrown box office success was Sherman Snukal’s Talking Dirty in 1981-82. Mumbai

Long before Anita Majumdar became a film Arts Club turns 50 starlet, she broke into the theatre scene with her one-woman play Fish Eyes, in 2005. Spearheaded by Yvonne Firkins and Otto Lowy, the Arts Club was founded in 1958 as This autobiographical play about Meena, a a private club for artists, musicians, actors classically trained Indian dancer who dreams and writers (including novelist Jane Rule). of getting out of Port Moody, has now been On the second floor of a converted gospel hall Anita Majumdar published, along with two more of her plays, at 1181 Seymour Street, the Arts Club first in a collection called Fish Eyes (Playwrights produced Moss Hart’s Light Up the Sky in Canada $22.95). 1964 (the same year Jane Rule’s Desert Performing all three roles in Fish of the Heart was published in England). Eyes, on stage, got Majumdar no- The 650-seat Granville Island main ticed by a Toronto producer. Shortly stage was added in 1979; the 225- after, she was cast in the CBC seat Arts Club Revue Theatre nearby television film Murder Unveiled. opened in 1983; the refurbished Her portrayal of a Canadian Sikh Stanley Theater at 12th and Gran- beautician who is murdered by her ville re-opened as an Arts Club venue family for secretly marrying a poor in 1998 after being closed since 1991. Indian rickshaw driver earned her a The original Seymour building was de- Best Actress Award at the 2005 Asian molished in the 1990s. Festival of First Films. Rachel Ditor became literary manager and dra- Majumdar has since played the character of Emerald in maturge at the Arts Club Theatre in 2001 having first Canadian director Deepa Mehta’s adaptation of Salman worked in play development in 1992 at Playwrights’ Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children. Workshop in Montreal. Majumdar grew up in Port Moody, where she did not speak She has since published articles on new-play dra- English until the age of six. As the daughter of Hindu Bengali maturgy, taught dramaturgy at UBC and directed many immigrants, she trained in classical dance including Bharata plays for the Arts Club Theatre. Also a director of the Natyam, Kathak and Odissi. Canadian Women and Words Foundation, she has ed- She earned degrees in English, Theatre and South Asian ited a collection of six plays developed and produced Languages at UBC prior to graduating from the National by the Arts Club for The Arts Club Anthology (Play- Theatre School in 2004. Most recently she has penned a Bol- wrights Canada $24.95) to mark the 50th anniversary lywood-inspired musical, Same Same but Different, about of the largest theatre company in Western Canada. an affliction she calls ‘shadism—the desire of a person of 978-1-77091-218-2 colour to have fair skin. 9781770913271

ISLAND MOUNTAIN ARTS Wells/Barkerville, BC ~ An experience like no other.

*RLQJ7R7KH:HOO 7KH:RUNRI0HPRU\ Instructor: Karen Connelly Saturday, July 4 – Tuesday, July 7 :KHWKHUZULWHUVDUHZRUNLQJLQÀFWLRQQRQÀFWLRQRUSRHWU\ the well they must draw from is personal and historical memory. Join acclaimed novelist, memoirist and poet Karen Connelly for a workshop about accessing, working with, and WUDQVIRUPLQJPHPRU\LQWRSROLVKHGÀFWLRQQRQÀFWLRQDQG poetry.

KAREN CONNELLY is the author of ten books of DZDUGZLQQLQJÀFWLRQQRQÀFWLRQDQGSRHWU\LQFOXGLQJ The Lizard Cage, winner of Britain’s Orange Broadband New Writers Prize; Burmese Lessons, a love story, nominated for the Governor General’s Award and the %&1DWLRQDO$ZDUGIRU&DQDGLDQ1RQÀFWLRQDQG7RXFK Half-Truths, the Dragon, winner of the Governor General’s Award. Total Lies She is a long-time mentor at the Humber School for 978-1-77097-388-6 pb :ULWHUVLQ7RURQWRDQGWHDFKHVWKH&UHDWLYH1RQÀFWLRQ 978-1-77097-389-3 eb Seminar in the MFA program at the University of Guelph. Strength This fall, she will be the lead faculty of the Memoir of an Eagle Workshop at the Banff Centre for the Arts. 978-1-77097-385-5 pb 978-1-77097-386-2 eb

Alone Creating Your 1RQÀFWLRQ:ULWLQJ 978-1-4602-4032-8 pb Graphic Novel Fall Retreat 978-1-4602-4033-5 eb Instructor: Michael Kluckner Instructor: Richard Wright • August 17 – 20, 2015 September 11 – 13, 2015 Info on novels and purchasing details see linweich.com

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35 BC BOOKWORLD SUMMER 2015 RECLAIM. RECOVER. RESTORE VISITING OUR ROOTS

Equality Deferred Islands’ Spirit Rising Sex Discrimination and British Columbia’s Reclaiming the Forests of Haida Gwaii Human Rights State, 1953-84 LOUISE TAKEDA DOMINIQUE CLÉMENT Tells the story of how the Haida people, This award-winning history of the battle over human together with their community allies, regained rights laws reveals the surprising untold story of the control of the land and forests of Haida Gwaii. struggle for women’s rights in British Columbia. July 2015 | paperback | 978-0-7748-2766-9 January 2015 | paperback | 978-0-7748-2750-8

Resettling the Range Animals, Ecologies, and Human Communities in British Columbia JOHN THISTLE An unsettling story of early campaigns to eradicate wild horses and grasshoppers from BC’s interior – and a broader history of humans, animals, and ecology in the province’s age of resettlement.

July 2015 | paperback | 978-0-7748-2838-3

www.ubcpress.ca stay connected thought that counts

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36 BC BOOKWORLD SUMMER 2015 review FRONTIER

All True Not A Lie In It land-claims decision in the Su- by Alix Hawley (Knopf $29.95) preme Court of Canada a year ago, and recently the public BY KEVEN DREWS learned of the chaos within the B.C. Treaty Commission, the ANIEL BOONE organization that was created is one of the to guide current talks. most-storied [In a Supreme Court of Dfrontiersmen in Canada ruling in June of United States’ 2014, the Tsilhqot’in won title history, but I didn’t know to 1,750 square kilometres of much about him prior to Alix territory land near Williams Hawley’s All True Not A Lie Lake. That September, Pre- In It (Knopf $29.95). And nei- mier Christy Clark apologized ther did Hawley. for the wrongful hangings of She says in her author’s six chiefs during the Chilcotin note that she once saw an War of 1864. This past March, image of him when she was the government and First Na- nine-years-old in a National tion announced the successful Geographic article. negotiation of several interim That was about it. agreements to implement the Much later she saw high-court decision.] a painting of him and ✫ she was hooked. She THE LEGACY OF THE FRONTIER EP- couldn’t stop think- och is still with us. Hawley’s ing about the man depiction of Boone’s efforts she now describes as to lead European culture “a slippery character, westward-ho has resonance, a peculiar mix of the The only portrait of even though the action occurs Daniel Boone painted familiar and forgot- from real life (1820). south of the 49th parallel. ten.” Unfortunately, I couldn’t All True Not A Lie In It is dismiss a nagging question about finding Daniel Boone that kept rising in my mind: within the myth-making tradi- Where does the truth end and tion of fiction, moving some of fiction begin in this novel? Alix Hawley the dates of Boone’s chronol- has won the Perhaps, it’s not so much a ogy, and making guesses. “His $10,000 Amazon criticism of Hawley and her story is about trying to find First Novel Award for story but of the sub-genre of All True Not A Lie In it. paradise,” says Hawley, “and historical novels. about what happened when he What I now know about brought about its ruin.” Daniel Boone, I know from this ✫ HOW THE WEST WAS novel. I now question just how ALONG THE FRONTIER ROAD TO RUIN, much of what is “all true” and there’s enough sex, adventure, “not a lie” is a lie. I’d have to love, betrayal, infidelity, war, read much more about Boone violence, and money to keep in order to determine how most readers captivated. The much of Hawley’s version is opening sentence, “Your sister fictional. Hawley has sparked is a whore,” is an accusation my curiosity, but perhaps she that’s repeated three times RUINEDRUINED could have included some in- while a young Boone fights dications in her preface as to with some boys, including Wil- how and where her novel de- liam Hill, a supporting charac- There’s enough sex, adventure, love, betrayal, infidelity, viates from the known truth. ter who will appear, disappear Daniel Boone lived until and re-appear throughout the war, violence and money to keep most readers captivated. 1820. This novel ends in 1778 novel. on the eve of a siege of Boones- Over the next 85 pages, visits a Philadelphia brothel into Kentucky and is captured invaders—and what continues borough, one of the first Amer- Boone moves between Penn- where he loses his virginity to twice by native Americans— to happen today. ican settlements west of the sylvania, Virginia and Caro- a woman named Maria who and the rest we’ll leave un- Much of Hawley’s novel Appalachians. On-line, the lina. He grows into a young claims to have “lost her virtue disclosed. deals with the clash of Euro- Kelowna-based Hawley says man, accompanies his broth- at the top of a volcano in Italy.” ✫ pean and aboriginal civiliza- readers want to know more er, Israel, on a hunting trip, Boone joins the army, runs I WAS DRAWN INTO THE STORY. tions in the U.S., a clash that about Rebecca, Boone’s wife, stands by his family as it is away from a battle, marries I couldn’t help but feel a sense cost the Indians (as they’re and Jemima, the second of shunned and then driven out and has a daughter. Here the of connection to its characters, still called in the U.S.) dearly. their four daughters and also of the Quaker community, real, westward-ho adventure possibly because of what has This clash continues to play a major character. watches his sister in-law and begins and continues for the happened in B.C. between out in B.C. The Tsilhqot’in in A sequel is in the works. brother die from disease, and next 285 pages. Boone pushes First Nations and the colonial the Cariboo won a landmark 9780345808554

and the killing had occurred in self-defence. DEATH OF A It was a difficult decision because McLoughlin was the illegitimate son of the venerable John McLoughlin who SALESMAN managed HBC affairs in the Columbia district. In her novel The Bastard of Fort Stikine: The Hud- son’s Bay Company and the Murder of John McLough- Using modern forensics lin, Jr. (Goose Lane $19.95), Komar retells history, mostly to solve an old mystery assuming the worst in terms of interpreting the morals and behaviour of the fur traders, in her efforts to reconstruct ebra Komar’s second historical novel inves- the crime scene and solve the mystery of the death using tigates the shooting death of Hudson’s Bay archival research and modern forensic science. Company employee John McLoughlin Jr. just Debra Komar has worked as a forensic anthropologist Dafter midnight on April 21, 1842. for over twenty years. She has investigated human-rights As the chief trader at remote Fort Stikine, on the Sti- violations for the United Nations and testified as an expert kine River in present-day northern B.C., McLoughlin Jr. witness at the International Criminal Court in The Hague. was known for his violent rampages. The HBC’s governor Komar also authored Forensic Anthropology: Contempo- George Simpson accepted the fort’s employees’ version rary Theory and Practice (Oxford University Press, 2007). John McLoughlin: Chief Factor and Superintendent of the of events–that their commander was drunk and abusive, Hudson’s Bay Company at Fort Vancouver from 1824 to 1845. 9780864927217

37 BC BOOKWORLD SUMMER 2015 review FRONTIER

The Elusive Mr. Pond: general features of the river The Soldier, Fur Trader and system that would one day Explorer who Opened the Northwest by Barry Gough bear Alexander Mackenzie’s (D&M $34.95) name. As Gough puts it, it was NO SAINT PETER Peter Pond who “sprang open the secrets” of the northwest. BY KEVEN DREWS Alleged murderer Peter Pond was notorious, “His greatest gift, however, was to the ungrateful and self- HE LATE 18TH- AND but he should be better known for leading ish Alexander Mackenzie. His early 19th-century findings fire the young Scot explorer and fur Alexander Mackenzie to his discoveries. with the possibilities of discov- trader Peter Pond ery in the north and the lure of T Marie-Josephte who pressed Portage by the summer of fought for the British in the glory that led him to follow the Seven Years War, won a duel, charges against the two men. 1787, and then travelled east course of the great river to its was implicated in two murders Historians disagree whether to Montreal. So significant was mouth in 1789 and overland but evaded prosecution. Pond ever stood trial. Ross’ death, says Gough, that to the Pacific in 1793.” These adventures alone When the North West Com- the North West Company and In 1789, Pond had pre- would have been enough to pany was reorganized in 1783, Gregory, MacLeod and Com- sented his findings to the merit a biography but Barry Pond refused to take a share pany united. The incident led governor of Quebec, findings Gough tells a bigger story in and returned for his third to Pond’s withdrawal or forced that became the subject of The Elusive Mr. Pond: The winter at the Athabasca Post. retirement from the fur trade talks in London the next year. Soldier, Fur Trader and In 1784, he returned to Grand in 1790 at the age of 50. A map of his discoveries was Explorer who Opened the Portage and Montreal and Alexander Mackenzie once first published in Gentleman’s Northwest (D&M $34.95). began drawing maps of the provided this description of Magazine, a London periodical. Gough reveals how Pond northwest. One year later, he Peter Pond: Pond started writing a “opened Canada’s and North joined the prestigious Beaver “Pond stalked into the memoir in 1793 and he died in America’s greatest fur pre- Club and even presented his hall, a pack of dogs at his the town of his birth in 1807. serve, the vast untamed Atha- map and a memorandum to heels. The gray-haired giant ✫ the U.S. Congress. had not shaved in weeks, basca,” and even “lit the way,” For his 17th book, Barry Gough his buckskins were stained, ABOUT TWO CENTURIES LATER for famed explorer Alexander A former North West Com- has declined the seduction of and he was badly in need Barry Gough began the dif- engaging in creative non-ﬁ ction of a bath. Mackenzie, but Pond “holds pany trader named John Ross to ﬂ ush out the details of Peter ficult task of piecing together But his natural dignity no secure place in American was the second alleged mur- Pond’s tempestuous life. Pond’s story when the editors was overwhelming. He ate der victim of Pond. Ross had history and no firm place in a large venison steak, a of the Dictionary of Canadian Canada’s either.” been dropped when the com- zenly, he set up a post under platter of bear-bacon, and a Biography handed him a file ✫ pany re-organized in 1783. He Pond’s nose,” writes Gough. moose liver. He insisted his and asked him to “take a fresh joined another firm connected Competition escalated to a dogs be given fresh meat, PETER POND WAS BORN IN MILFORD, too.” look at Pond.” Connecticut in 1740, of Puri- with Alexander Mackenzie: point in 1786 and 1787 that a Harold Innis had writ- tan heritage, the third of 11 Gregory, MacLeod and Com- scuffle with Pond’s men broke History books tend to skip ten a “pioneering biography” children. He received a ru- pany. “His job was to draw off out, and Ross was shot. News over the fact that it was Pond called Peter Pond: Fur Trader dimentary education. Barely his rival’s traffic,” and “bra- of the murder reached Grand who disclosed to the world the and Adventurer in 1930 and literate, he fought in the Seven Gough had access to Pond’s Years War and was present for 36-sheet memoir but the the fall of Montreal. trader’s early letters on Great After travelling to the West Slave Lake had disappeared Indies and marrying, he fol- and the records of the North lowed in his father’s foot- West Company and its rivals steps and commenced trading are “furtive and fragmentary.” for six years in present-day Much of his research fo- Michigan, Wisconsin and cused on The English River Minnesota. Book, a surviving journal of At one point, Pond recorded the North West Company kept he was abused “in a Shamefull during Pond’s latter years in manner.” Pond challenged the Athabasca, and edited by the man to a duel. “We met Barry Duckworth, as well as the next morning eairley,” he maps that Pond drew. writes, “and Discharged Pis- It’s not a light read. Gough tels in which the Pore fellow has declined the seduction was unfortennt.” of engaging in creative non- Pond moved to Saskatch- fiction to flush out the details, ewan in the 1770s and took This fanciful “save where I have speculated control of an Athabasca River image of on Pond’s appearance.” trading venture in 1778. He Peter Pond by Pond is mentioned only left for Grand Portage a year Illona Campbell a few times in chapter 3, later with his furs and took is based on “Wilderness Tangles: Robert one of 16 shares in the newly- Alexander Rogers, Jonathan Carver, and founded North West Company. Mackenzie’s the Northwest Passage,” and a Not long after, Pond would be description of few more maps or illustrations accused of murder. him. No other could have eased the way for The North West Company likeness of Peter people who aren’t scholars. sent Jean-Etienne Waden to Pond exists. But these are minor points the Athabasca region to take when considering Gough’s over the fur trade that Pond purpose. had opened. He created a post Barry Gough accomplishes at Lac la Ronge, about 250 ki- what he sets out to do, and he lometres north of present-day does it in a way that merits our Prince Albert, Saskatchewan. curiosity and time. We know Pond joined him It is reassuring to see that there in 1781. Somebody shot a serious work such as this Waden in early March of 1782 one can be nominated for the and he was buried the follow- Roderick Haig-Brown Prize for ing morning, in frozen ground. best book about B.C. “An absence of details,” 978-1-77162-039-0 clouds the shooting, according to Gough, who believes Keven Drews is a full-time Waden was shot by either his journalist who is concurrently clerk, Toussaint Lesieur, or pursuing a Master’s degree in Pond. Word of the killing trav- creative writing at Pacific Lu- elled east to Waden’s widow, theran University in Tacoma.

38 BC BOOKWORLD SUMMER 2015 The Hills Are Shadows “My Own Portrait in Writing” by Joan Givner Lost in an unfamiliar world, Self-Fashioning in the Letters of Vincent van Gogh a girl named Tennyson and her friends search for home and Patrick Grant parents and have strange,

Vincent van Gogh’s highly recognizable paintings are dangerous encounters with as well-known as his intensely lived, brief life. A careful humans and non-humans. reading of the more than  letters written by Van Gogh also reveals him to be a great writer, one deserving of a spot alongside the greatest writers of his time. ---- • $27.95 “Plenty of action . . . To order, please visit www.aupress.ca a fantasy to transport readers from their daily reality to another world.” C.M. MAGAZINE

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39 BC BOOKWORLD SUMMER 2015 OBITS

QUICKIES gentrification. Parkway (New Star, A COMMUNITY BULLETIN BOARD FOR INDEPENDENTS Leonard McCann 2013) completed the trilogy. Culley was influenced by poets who have written (1927-2015) about particular B.C. places such as QUICKIES is an affordable advertising vehicle for writers, artists & events. HE VANCOUVER MARITIME MUSEUM AR- Daphne Marlatt (Steveston), Brian For info on how to be included: [email protected] chives are named for Leonard Fawcett (Prince George) and George TMcCann, curator emeritus of the Stanley (Terrace). museum, who was born on February Previously Culley wrote Twenty-one

This book 3, 1927, in Shanghai where his fa- (Oolican, 1980), Fruit Dots (Tsunami, records the ther’s family had lived since the 1860s. 1985), Natural History (Fissure, 1986) good fortune of A passion Peter John for social Interned in a Japanese prisoner-of-war and The Climax Forest (Leech, 1995). Leech, when justice camp at Santo Tomas in he was given and global As a critic Culley wrote command of human the Vancouver the Philippines from extensively on such art- rights Island 1941 to 1945, he came ists as Stan Douglas, Exploring illuminate Expedition these to Victoria with his Roy Arden, Kelly (VIEE) in 1864. poems. Captain Joe & mother after the war. Wood and Geoffrey The Gold Will He joined the Vancou- Grateful Jake Love and Resistance Farmer. Peter Culley’s Speak for Itself ver Maritime Museum To The Dogs (Arsenal, Peter Leech & Leechtown – Victoria’s Goldrush by Emily Madill by Theresa J. Wolfwood as an assistant curator 2008) contains 150 full- by Dr. Patrick Perry Lydon Confidence boosting books for kids. Smallberry Press, London, UK ISBN 978-0981257907•$11.95 each ISBN: 978-0993031502 in 1968. page photos of dogs, ISBN 9780987969002 • $22 AVAILABLE: AVAILABLE: Amazon, Barnes & Noble & Chapters Ivy’s bookshop (Victoria) & on-line McCann wrote the both historical and con- lydonshore.wordpress.com emilymadill.com www.smallberrypress.co.uk introduction to Gerald temporary, along with HISTORY KIDLIT POETRY Rushton’s Echoes of the an essay by Culley about PHOTO Whistle: An Illustrated the international PARIS

History of the Union citizenry of canines

True story of Steamship Company MIKE and their connections aeronautical design and (D&M, 1980) and pub- Leonard McCann to humans. Peter espionage lished his own book that Culley died on April 24, between the Your great wars, same year on the steamship The Bea- 2015, prior to the publication of a new focusing on Beverley ver, having organized a cross-Canada ex- poetry anthology from Leaf Press, to Shenstone, ad developer of hibit entitled The Honourable Company’s which he contributed. the Spitfire’s Beaver. In addition, McCann provided elliptical wing. A young Aboriginal activist and her the foreword to a re-issue of W.K. friend survive a traumatic quake and here. Lamb’s Empress to the Orient (Vancou- Mary Billy tsunami in Vancouver. Together, they inspire a generation to rebuild while Storm Rising ver Maritime Museum, 1991). finding love and growing up. Call A Movie Treatment (1936-2015) City of Desire McCann was the first link in the 604-736-4011 by Vernon Brooks, PhD by Monika Sonya Ullmann process that culminated in the acquisi- GRASS ROOTS FEMINIST MARY E. BILLY OF ISBN 978-1-927755-19-8 • $19.23 ISBN 978-0-9921449-0-6 • $20 or email tion of Captain George Vancouver’s Squamish was the editor of www.StormRising-movie.com www.monikasonyaullmann.com [email protected] “Arnold 176” chronometer from his voy- Herspectives magazine from 1989-1995, NOVEL HISTORICAL age to the West Coast as well as mate- a quarterly publication that provided a rial pertaining to Joseph Baker, one of lively forum for a broad range of women Captain Vancouver's officers on his until it ceased publication in 1995. She Darwin 1792 expedition. McCann also helped re- had attended West Coast Women & Marsh, a Political floatplane intrigue, store historic vessels such as the Maple Leaf, Words Writing School and Retreat at pilot is racial accused prejudice the oldest registered sailing vessel in B.C. UBC in 1988, during which she dis- by and ruthless covered herself as a writer. cold-case ambition Leonard McCann served as president of cops of prevail after Influenced by Margaret Laurence being the death of the Vancouver Historical Society, 1978-1983. and the poetry of Al Purdy, Mary Billy involved Alexander In 2014, despite ill health, he was able to in a the Great self-published She is Carved in Stone Gulf Island at age 33, attend a reception at the Vancouver Maritime murder. in 323 B.C. (2009), Under My Blue Hat (Herspectives, Erotokritos Museum in order to receive the SS Beaver by Vitzentzos Kornaros 2001); In The Turning: Summer Journal Headwinds Shadow of the Lion: Medal for outstanding contributions to Brit- Transcribed by Manolis Seeking a murder forgotten of a Sojourner in the Women’s Movement The only longhand book of its kind–a Blood on the Moon ish Columbia’s Maritime Heritage. long poem 500 years old–transcribed by Lillian M. Varcoe (Herspectives, 1986) and Over The Falls by an 11-year-old boy. by W. Ruth Kozak ISBN 978-0-9878331-2-9 Leonard McCann died of pneumonia at (Herspectives, 1998). ISBN 978-0992715519 • $36.95 ISBN 978-1-926763-36-1 • $5,000 Amazon (pb): $7.99 • Kindle: $3.99 In 1998 Mary Billy was one of 20 libroslibertad.ca Chapters.Indigo: $6.25 • iTunes: $4.99 mediaaria-cdm.com/w-ruth-kozak Burnaby Hospital on March 27, 2015. women from around the world to be EPIC POEM MYSTERY NOVEL HISTORICAL NOVEL awarded the International Helen prize, Peter Culley named after Dr. Helen Caldicott, which honours “ordinary women for

A humorous, (1958-2015) their many heroic, significant, but of- collection of short stories PETER CULLEY LIVED IN SOUTH WELLINGTON, ten unrecognized contributions to the set in 1986 Graphic quality of life on our planet.” in a fictional novel of near Nanaimo, since 1972. His lyrical village called the year poems in Hammertown (New Star, 2003), Mary Billy was honoured for Chat, finalist. population FOREWORD re-imagined his hometown of Nanaimo mentoring young women and for 170, REVIEWS somewhere and took his odd title from the fiction- keeping The Femicide List, a list of in rural B.C. alized port on Vancouver Island that the names and incidents of women Part memoir and guidebook on 35 was visited by George Perec in his Life: and girls murdered by men in Chitchat years coaching girls’ and The Listener women’s soccer. Canada, until 2000. When she re- by Laurel Mae Hislop by David Lester A User’s Manual. The second book in Foot Notes his Hammertown series, The Age of tired in Squamish, she kept her- eBook: 978-0-9938237-0-1 Telling Stories of Girls’ Soccer “A dense and fiercely intelligent work... Apple iBook: $4.99 (eBook) all in a lyrical and stirring tone.” Briggs and Stratton (New Star, 2008), self busy making dishcloths for Print: 978-0-9938237-1-8 by Laurie Ricou — Publishers Weekly (NY) Amazon at $10 print owes its title to the noise pollution The Stephen Lewis Foundation on ISBN 978-0-88982-314-3 • $12.95 ISBN 9781894037488 • $19.95 laurelhislop.tumblr.com oolichan.com amazon.ca from two-stroke engine-powered HIV/AIDS in Africa and contribut- SHORT STORIES GIRLS’ SOCCER GRAPHIC NOVEL lawnmowers and leaf blowers that con- ing to The Defiant Women’s Sup- tributed to the decline of Nanaimo port Fund. wrought by development and Mary Billy died on April 12, 2015.

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40 BC BOOKWORLD SUMMER 2015 POETRY Vaira-fied Award nominations GoodbyeGoodbye rsula Vaira’s lively imprint, Leaf UPress, headquartered in Lantzville, has gradually gained ground in the B.C. publishing scene since 2011 to become one of the leaders in new poetry by female authors. The second book of poetry by Bowen Islander Jude Neale, A Quiet Coming of Light: A Poetic DubaiDubai Memoir (Leaf Press $17), has recently been nominated for the Pat Lowther Award for best poetry collection by a female Canadian poet. Vaira earned her publisher’s stripes during her ten-year association with Oolichan “I am amazed at the Books, an imprint privilege of getting that has now Ursula Vaira to have all these moved to Fernie. At least four of the six nominated titles peculiar thoughts of for this year’s Lowther competition mine collected into are B.C.-connected: Joanne Arnott a book and reaching for Halfling Spring: an internet romance (Kegedonce Press); Jen Currin out into the world.” for School (Coach House); and Lisa RAOUL FERNANDES Robertson for Cinema of the Present (Coach House). Jude Neale is the only poet whose nominated title emanates later, not long after he got married and from a B.C. publisher. orn and raised in the United had his first child, Fernandes had his Patrick Lane with Washita (Har- Arab Emirates, where his family manuscript accepted by the second bour) and Laisha Rosnau with Pluck publishing house he sent it to. (Nightwood) have been nominated for spoke English, debut poet Raoul Transmitter and Receiver (Night- the Raymond Souster of Award for the Fernandes attended a Catholic wood $18.95) is not easy to define. best book of poetry from a member of There’s a poem about a tulip vending the League of Canadian Poets. school where he earned the nick- machine. A poem about kids getting high on a roof. A call-centre poem. A name Dreamer. janitor poem. A poem about building a Life is marketing flying machine with old walkmans. Po- B ems from the point of view of a sad ATM Coming of age in Surrey machine. Poems about trying and failing Reluctant to play the race card, The Fernandes family emigrated to connect. Love poems. Trust poems. his is not how Wordsworth went Raoul Fernandes provides scanty in- from Dubai to Tsawwassen in 1993. “When people ask what I write about,” Tabout it… Having orchestrated a formation about his youth in Dubai. “The relative open-mindedness of he says. “I don’t have a simple explana- 100-venue, cross-Canada reading tour “My childhood was not that strange,” the western world was appealing to tion. I could say I write poems that strug- in 2014, Kevin Spenst recently un- he says. “Riding bikes, camping, be- my parents, too. The kind of freedom gle with ‘what it means to be a human dertook a 50-venue, all-in-B.C. tour to ing bored at church or school, being of thought and agency here is easy to being right now,’ but that’s too grand promote his collection Jabbering with nervous around girls, Archie comics, take for granted, but for a person com- and too vague at the same time. And Bing Bong (Anvil $18). Super Mario brothers, kicking a ball ing from that part of the world, you who writes poems that aren’t about that? Digitally-driven, Spenst wrote a new around on a street. notice it within days. You feel like you “I often start with an image, a line. story, online, every day for the entire “Maybe some things could have can breathe deeper. Something resonant, something that year, in 2013. Another internet proj- influenced me,” he concedes. “The “I was happy, or as happy as an makes me curious. I’ll move around it, ect involved writ- sparseness of the desert landscape, the awkward 14-year-old could be. I re- seeing if I can build a world for it. The ing and emailing tension between the many groups of member music being a big deal in what problem I often face is that, if there’s stories to people people there. The muezzin chanting in was keeping me grounded; bands like a central image, the other things form around the world the evenings. It was hot, it rained only a Nirvana, Pearl Jam, REM. I wasn’t too tight an orbit around it. It becomes who were called few times a year. But it was not exotic.” reading poetry at all. I was filling up too flat, too rational. upon to print and In those days Dubai didn’t have the notebooks with what I thought poetry “I love poems that light up my head hide the writings world’s tallest building and the world’s was. Angsty, melodramatic stuff.” in new ways, so I attempt to do that so that others second-most expensive hotel rooms (af- Fernandes dropped out of college, with my own. Some lines turn into Kevin Spenst ter Geneva). It was still a small, sandy worked at a Dairy Queen and filled poems, most go nowhere. I try new would find them. city with far more immigrants than more notebooks. He found work as a moves, I improve on old moves, I learn a Each piece had a plea for the finder to local Arabs (and that’s still the case). janitor. “Of course, the main reason for bit, forget what I’ve learned. I try to get identify their whereabouts. Fernandes lived minutes away from moving to Canada was that my parents strange and honest. If a poem seems to In 2008 he revisited his story-a-day- the open desert. There were stretches were wanting a better education and have a heart, a spine, a central nervous for-a-year challenge, this time using a of people-less beaches. prospects for us, their children,” he system, that’s great, I’ll keep it.” different pseudonym for every piece. Fernandes’ parents—both from In- says. “When I think about this, I can’t Section one of Transmitter and Reader feedback ranged from fan mail dia—had met and married in Dubai, so help feel bad about the disappointment Receiver is playful, about writing and to hatemail when Spenst wrote under there were occasional trips to India to they must have felt, after all they had communication. Section two has Weird the pseudonym Yann Martel. see grandparents and other relatives done, to see me drop out of college and Suburbia poems. Section three has You can check out Spenst reading who lived within a large community decide that poetry and the arts was the home poems, domestic poems, love his poem inspired by the theme of Gil- of Catholics of Portuguese ancestry— only thing I cared about.” poems. “I am trying to figure out my ligan’s Island on Youtube. hence the surname Fernandes. His fa- He kept writing. Sixteen years after relationship with the outside world, Spenst’s debut collection of poetry, ther’s family was from a suburb called arriving in Canada, he was accepted work, strangers, concerns about the Jabbering with Bing Bong opens as a Bandra, in West Mumbai. into the SFU Writer’s Studio, in 2009, environment,” he says. “Paradoxically, coming-of-age narrative of lower-middle “Most of the kids we played with on with Rachel Rose as his SFU poetry this is what love and having a child can class life in Surrey. the street in UAE,” he recalls, “were mentor. “I didn’t realize how hungry I force one to reckon with.” Spenst is a founding member of from many different parts of the world. was for an educational environment,” These days Raoul Fernandes works Thursday’s Editing Collective at Carn- We were influenced by western TV, he says, “and what a deep pleasure it as a maintenance worker. “I do most egie Centre to assist writers in Vancou- music, and movies, so we saw North was to be invested in and practicing a of my writing in coffee shops while my ver’s Downtown Eastside. America as an exciting free place. discipline that meant so much to me.” son naps,” he says. 978-1-77214-014-9 So when the possibility of moving to Shortlisted for the Bronwen Wallace He has never gone back to Dubai. Canada came up, I looked forward to it. Award for Emerging Writers a year 978-0889713093

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Leonard N. Neufeldt reflects on his roots.

Coming to Hignell Book Printing is a smart move. Our customers tell us that we do an T’S ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE TO population, the 1960s a pre- exceptional job of handling the little things that make a big difference in their publishing program. find any town or city in cipitous one,” Neufeldt says. We consistently produce high quality books because our experienced production team is as B.C. that doesn’t have at ✫ demanding and meticulous as our customers. Whether you want 100 books or 2500 books we I have the equipment and expertise to handle your next book printing job. Tell us what you need least an author or two. LEONARD NEUFELDT GRADUATED and we’ll execute. Superior service, beautiful books, on time, on budget. Take Yarrow, at the foot summa cum laude from We would love to help you. of Vedder Mountain, twelve Waterloo Lutheran Univer- kilometres southwest of sity (Wilfred Laurier) and Please contact Dave Friesen at: [email protected] or 1.204.784.1049 www.hignell.mb.ca Chilliwack. received his MA and Ph.D The Dutch-Russian Men- in the USA. He and his wife nonite hamlet of Yarrow is have since spent most of the birthplace and the home Leonard N. Neufeldt their professional years in of Leonard N. Neufeldt who America and abroad, nota- Self-Publish.ca has become a widely published poet bly in Europe and Turkey. Your Story. and was a professor of American Stud- “Rootless lives may be as endemic ies at Purdue in 1978. to the Canadian and American West as Your Legacy. Two previous books edited by root-bound ones,” Neufeldt laments, Neufeldt have recalled Yarrow’s origins “but in a world of change, there is little and his poetic recreation of life in Yar- defence for either condition.” Memoir Publishing row, Raspberrying (2003), has recalled Now his seventh book of poetry, Video Book Trailers how refugees from the Soviet Union Painting Over Sketches of Anatolia came to the Fraser Valley to grow fruit (Signature $14.95) offers reflections Audio & eBooks and serve God. on both Turkey and coastal B.C. as " ' '( Neufeldt’s grandfather and father he considers, “wars, revolutions, the were both placed under arrest by Bol- Holocaust, obsolete belief systems, &)*$+$#,+- shevik agents for transport to the Gulag Alzheimer’s and ever-present poten- ./( but they escaped to Canada via Spain, tialities of the autistic as well as the Cuba and Mexico. illusory in the spoken or written word.” They eventually found sanctuary in Yarrow is also home to Barbara Yarrow soon after a thriving Mennonite Nickel, a widely-published poet and community was established there in novelist who is married to her physi- 1928 when 86 settlers arrived from cian/poet husband Robert Martens, www.aldridgestreet.com !"#$%& Europe. who grew up in Yarrow. Other Yarrow “The 1950s witnessed a modest poets include Yarrow-born Larry Night- but gradual decline in the Mennonite ingale and Elmer Wiens. 978-1-927426-65-4 DYED IN THE GREEN BY GEORGE MERCER Part one of a six-book mystery-suspense series about Canadian national park wardens and their exploits with poachers, developers and bureaucrats.

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Another stellar line-up:

In her haunting memoir, Trisha Cull lays bare her struggles with mental illness using poetic narrative. Meanwhile, Canada Reads Poetry winner Rita Wong reﬂ ects on the power and sacredness of water, Bren Simmers’ collection of poems is a love lett er to a neighbourhood in the midst of upheaval, and Raoul Fernandes explores the nature of human interaction in the age of machines.

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