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ME & BANKSY DAVID NEEL COUGARS ORCA-STRATIONS Eighth graders Exploring Venice Roughing it in Mark Leiren-Young confront bullying. 33 by dugout canoe. 9 Bute Inlet. 7 brings kids to whales. 29

YOUR FREE GUIDE TO BOOKS & AUTHORS

BCBOOKWORLD VOL. 33 • NO. 4 • Winter 2019-20 FIRE & RAIN

Forest fires ravaged central B.C. as climate change comes to us all.

Chris Czajkowski and Fred Reid have documented the maelstrom of 2017 in Captured By Fire. see pages 10-11 #40010086 fred reid photo publication mail agreement BC DISTRIBUTION BOOKWORLD Thanks to our 100,000 readers & 660 outlets.

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2 BC BOOKWORLD • WINTER 2019-20 Valerie BC TOP Mason- John SELLERS PEOPLE Ian Ferguson It’s easy to type The Survival Guide

to British Columbia

(Heritage House $19.95) Trevor Marc Hughes the word porn t Hamilton Mack Laing: Riding the Continent Parents must take responsibility, (Ronsdale Press $19.95) be involved—and not turn a blind eye. Charles Ulrich From Queenie The Big Note: A Guide ngela Crocker has how much screen time is too much. to the Recordings of written one of the Her own father introduced her Frank Zappa (New Star $45) to James most important and her brother to computers at an Jean Barman books of the year. early age, starting with a TI99/4A (a Baldwin Invisible Generations: Living Following her in- Instruments home computer between Indigenous and orn in 1962 in Cam- White in the Fraser Valley A vestigation of what will released in 1981) and a Commodore (Caitlin Press $24.95) bridge, England, happen to your online self when you 64 (introduced in 1982). Valerie Mason- die, Digital Plan: A Guide to “I feel strongly that parents need John of Vancouver B was raised in foster the Personal and Practical Elements to feel empowered to parent,” Crocker of Your Digital Life Before You Die writes. “In some families, I’ve ob- homes and lived on the streets at age 14. She tried to take her (Self-Counsel $19.95), BCIT’s digital served situations where parents seem life three times, struggling as marketing instructor Angela Crocker unable or unwilling to wield that “an extreme anorexic bulimic” has tackled an even trickier subject power that comes with the title Mom with an addiction to cocaine until for parents and teachers alike—chil- or Dad.” she discovered mindfulness. Legacy: dren and cell phones—in Digital 978-1-77040-310-9 She adopted the name Life Skills for Youth: A Guide for Skills: ‘Queenie,’ and later became 9781770403147 known as Vimalasara, and was Parents, Guardians and Educators named Britain’s Black Gay Icon (Self-Counsel $21.95). in 1997. By 2007, she had “The biggest thing is acknowledg- received an Honorary Doctor- ing this is a ten-year process,” she ate from the University of East . She has thus far won Bill Richardson told CFRO Radio in an interview. “The teenager goes on a from being eleven awards and published eighteen books. parent-centric to being peer-group- Bill Richardson Since coming to Canada, she I Saw Three Ships: centric. Don’t be the sage. Don’t be co-produced Black Halifax: Four West End Stories grouchy and unapproachable. Be (Talonbooks $16.95) Centuries, One Community, on the journey with them. Don’t just Fourteen Stories in 2015, a Jody Wilson-Raybould ignore it.” collection of short vid- From Where I Stand: Crocker got the idea for Digital Life eos, and co-edited Rebuilding Indigenous the first national Nations for a Stronger Skills for Youth when dealing with Canada (UBC Press $24.95) anthology of African her teenaged son. “As a parent, I Canadian poetry, The Shelley Adams was frustrated by the internet safety Great Black North Whitewater Cooks: talks given at local schools,” she says. (2013). More Beautiful Food In February, Val- (Sandhill Book Marketing $34.95) “While serious incidents happen, I realized that the majority of tweens erie Mason-John will release her poetry G. Edmond Burrows and teens need guidance to learn Putting Your Affairs in collection, I Am Still Order: A Leave-Behind how to use technology in healthy, Your Negro: An Guide for Your Loved Ones productive, and creative ways in Homage to James (Self-Counsel Press $29.95) their everyday lives. Unlike toilet Baldwin (Universi- Elee Kraljii Gardiner training and algebra, there is no ty of Press Against Death: clear divide about what digital $19.99), described 35 Essays on Living as an emotional skills are taught at home and (Anvil Press $22) critique of colo- which are taught at school.” nization’s bitter Roy Henry Vickers Too much screen time is det- legacy. & Robert Budd rimental for users of any age. 978-1-77212-510-8 Sockeye Silver, Saltchuck Blue Recently, Google and Apple (Harbour $9.95) announced new products Richard Wagamese aimed at helping adults and One Drum: Stories and teens monitor and manage Ceremonies for a Planet their online usage. Crocker’s (D&M $18.95) book tackles the dicey of Angela Crocker and her son, Sean Jeff Lowenfels DIY Autoflowering Cannabis: An Easy Way Publication Mail Agreement #40010086 Annual subscription: $25 to Grow Your Own Return undeliverable Canadian (New Society $24.99) addresses to: BC BookWorld, 926 West Indigenous Editor: Latash-Maurice Nahanee BC 15th Ave., Vancouver, BC Canada V5Z 1R9 Contributing Editors: John Moore, Mark Margriet Ruurs BOOKWORLD Forsythe, Cherie Thiessen, Valerie Green, We gratefully acknowledge the unobtrusive Produced with the sponsorship of Caroline Woodward, Sage Birchwater. assistance of Canada Council, a continu- & Nizar ali Badr Winter 2019 Pacific BookWorld News Society. Writing not otherwise credited is by staff. ous partner since 1988, and creativeBC, a Stepping Stones: Volume 33 • Number 4 Publications Mail Registration No. 7800. provincial partner since 2014. A Refugee Family’s BC BookWorld ISSN: 1701-5405 Design: Get-to-the-Point Graphics Publisher: Journey (Orca $19.95) Beverly Cramp Advertising & editorial: Consultants: Christine Rondeau, BC BookWorld, 926 West 15th Ave., Sharon Jackson, Kenneth Li The current topselling titles from Editor/Production: Vancouver, BC Canada V5Z 1R9 Photographer: Laura Sawchuk major BC publishing companies, In-Kind Supporters: in no particular order. David Lester Tel: 604-736-4011 Proofreaders: Wendy Atkinson, T.T. Library; [email protected] Deliveries: Ken Reid, Acculogix Vancouver Public Library; UBC Library.

3 BC BOOKWORLD • WINTER 2019-20 PEOPLE doretta t Kogawa lau writer in Victoria residence Book Prizes he new writer in residence at Historic Joy Kogawa Kathy Page’s fictional portrait of House, Doretta Lau, will a 70-year-long marriage, Dear Evelyn (Bib- T be writing a comic novel about a lioasis $19.95) was awarded the $5,000 Vic- dysfunctional workplace called toria Butler Book Prize, and author-illustrator We Are Underlings and a collec- Aidan Cassie’s story for children aged 3–6 tion of poetry about grief. Lau will about a dog searching for a home, Sterling, Best Dog Ever (Farrar, Straus & Giroux also participate in public work- $17.99) took the $5,000 Victoria Children’s shops at Kogawa House, 1450 Book Prize at the 16th annual Victoria Book West 64th Avenue in Vancouver. Prize Gala. Held on October 9, 2019 at the With an MFA in writing from Co- Union Club of British Columbia, the event lumbia University, Lau lives in was hosted by CBC Radio’s Gregor Craigie. both Vancouver and Hong Kong. photo

Page, who grew up in the U.K., won for her . BC BookWorld’s Cherie Thiessen eighth novel, which a Guardian newspaper leung

kai favourably reviewed Lau’s fiction reviewer described as: “a love story, a com- ing-of-age story, and a brilliantly evocative ming collection, How Does A Single sketch of Britain in the 20th century.” Dear Blade of Grass Thank the Sun? Evelyn has also been awarded the $50,000 (Nightwood, 2014), which was Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize and was shortlisted for the City of Van- recognized as a Kirkus Best Book of 2018. and tell Shoe couver Book Award, longlisted for Sterling, Cassie’s first book, was also t who the Frank O’Connor International shortlisted for the BC Book Prize’s Christie Vancouver shoe designer, John Fluevog, Harris Illustrated Children’s Literature prize created an eponymous shoe brand and retail store empire named as Short Story Award and named earlier in the year. Cassie published her sec- one of the world’s most innovative fashion companies by Fast Forward by The Atlantic as one of the best ond book, Little Juniper Makes It Big (Far- magazine, has written Fluevog: Fifty Years of Unique Soles for books of 2014. rar, Strauss & Giroux $23.50) in July, 2019. Unique Souls (LifeTree/Greystone $65) to celebrate his company’s 50th anniversary in 2020. The coffee-table style Sakamoto 2nd win Kathy Page book shares behind-the-scenes glimpses into the erri Sakamoto’s Float- Fluevog brand evolution and its creator’s design ing City ( Ran- process. His original shoe sketches, handwritten dom House $21) concerns messages, and unpublished photos are combined the fortunes of Frankie KHanesaka, who, as an enterprising with stories and graphic novel elements to capture teen in Port Alberni, hopes to build the shoe designer/retailer’s history. It’s not often floating gardens to attract tourists. that a brand name becomes synonymous with the Interned with his family at Tashme after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, product, but “Fluevogs” have that cachet to fash- he has a sexual encounter with a ionistas around the world, instantly bringing to mind fellow internee, Reiko/Rose, that re- the whimsical qualities of his shoes. In addition to sults in a child out of wedlock. After the war he goes to where appearing on fashion runways, celebrities such as he works as a gardener for a Jewish Madonna and musician Jack White have donned financier, Uri Slonemsky, and cre- Fluevogs. The brand is also the official uniform ates a floating garden of irises, that draws Uri’s reclusive wife out of her shoe of flight attendants on Air Canada Rouge. shell. Appreciative, his boss intro- 978-1-928055-53-2 duces him to Buckminster Fuller. FARR The more Vancouver descends into vanity, awash in its city planners’ micro- OUT managing in a vain effort to compare itself to photo

Copenhagen, the more that people who knew tisch the city in its previous incarnations are ap- t daniel palled. As a hollow construct, Vancouver is Kerri Sakamoto almost Trumpian in its inability to face the has parallels with the reality that it has lost its soul. Roger Farr’s I real-life relationship between the Am a City Still But Soon I Shan’t Be (New visionary architect Fuller and his former student collaborator, Shoji Star $18) looks at “unreal cities” of today, Sadeo. The pair co-designed a bio- including Berlin, Newark and Nanaimo to sphere at Expo 67 in Montreal. The provide a “psycho-geographical I-witness novel earned Sakamoto her second Canada-Japan Literary Award. account” of transformation, in nine cantos, Roger Farr, Newark, New Jersey 9780345809902 or spheres of hell. 9781554201525

4 BC BOOKWORLD • WINTER 2019-20 Come home for the holidays with UBC Press thought that counts

Assembling Unity traces the Drawing on memory, Frank and impassioned, Unmooring the Komagata Maru history of pan-Indigenous unity legend, and his own art and this book charts a course challenges conventional in British Columbia through photographs, David Neel forward – one that will not only historical accounts to consider political negotiations, gendered recounts his struggle to empower Indigenous Peoples the national and transnational activism, and the balance and reconnect with his culture but strengthen Canada and the colonial dimensions of the exercise of power. after decades of separation. well-being of all . Komagata Maru incident.

available online at ubcpress.ca and from your local bookseller

New from Tradewind Books

“In this hilarious middle-grade novel, award-winning illustrator and author Cynthia Nugent captures the nostalgic charms of 1960s-style childhood without seeming dated or irrelevant. Nugent’s artistry shines in the neo- retro feel she brings to her story . . . Kiddo is a laugh-out- loud read, perfect for those whose tastes skew quirky.” —starred review Quill & Quire

“Nugent writes with levity and a keen eye for the memorable details of childhood. Young readers may be persuaded to put down their game-controllers and step out into the sunlight.” —Canadian Children’s Book News

www.tradewindbooks.com

5 BC BOOKWORLD • WINTER 2019-20 Congratulations!A  ne crop of Victoria writers

Winner of the City of Victoria Butler Book Prize

Hats o to the other n o m i n e e s …

ROBERT AMOS LORNA CROZIER ESI EDUGYAN DARREL J. MCLEOD KATHY PAGE E.J. Hughes Paints God of Shadows Washington Black Mamaskatch: A Cree Dear Evelyn Vancouver Island McClelland & Stewart HarperCollins Coming of Age Biblioasis TouchWood Editions Douglas & McIntyre

Winner of the Victoria Children’s Book Prize

THANK YOU TO OUR PRIZE SPONSORS: City of Victoria and Butler Bros. Supplies Hats o to Thank you also to our supporters: Munro’s Books, Russell Books, Tanner’s Books, the other Ivy’s Bookshop, Union Club of British Columbia, Greater n o m i n e e s … Victoria Public Library, Friesens, Island Blue, Magnolia Hotel & Spa, Inn at Laurel Point, Chateau Victoria and CBC Radio

AIDAN CASSIE These two juried prizes of $5,000 each are awarded JENNY MANZER KIT PEARSON & Sterling, Best Dog Ever KATHERINE FARRIS annually. The Victoria Book Prize Society My Life as a Diamond administers the prizes. Guidelines and details: Farrar, Straus and Giroux Orca Book Publishers The Magic Boat Orca Book Publishers www.victoriabookprizes.ca

6 BC BOOKWORLD • WINTER 2019-20 HISTORY REVIEW Cougar Companions: my dad at all. They were just Schnarr, the son of Marion to meet with her. And that was and winter. I don’t know what Bute Inlet Country and the Leg- like cats to us; we didn’t think Schnarr Parker. At the time, the beginning. he (August Schnarr) liked that endary Schnarrs of them as anything special, he had given her permission Initially, there were actually awful place for, but that’s (Raincoast Chronicles no. 24) nothing but a bunch of work.” to use the album for research three albums made by Marion what he chose. The older he by Judith Williams (Harbour Publishing $26.95) Today it is hard to imagine she was doing on a Bute Inlet Schnarr Parker; one each for got, the more Bute belonged anyone considering having a project for the Cortes Island her sisters, Pansy and Pearl, to him.” BY VALERIE GREEN cougar as a pet! Museum. and one for her father. Once Judith Williams of Cortes Judith Williams’ story of “Well,” Glen Macklin Judith Williams had agreed to Island was well-qualified for udith Williams the Schnarr family begins with claimed in that telephone call. return the album in her pos- this undertaking as author in her introduc- a telephone call she received “It’s not his … he’s not part of session to Macklin’s mother, of High Slack: Waddington’s tion to Cougar in 2010 from Glen Macklin, the family.” Williams remem- Pearl, they both agreed to tell Gold Road and the Bute Inlet Companions, saying he was Pearl Schnarr’s bered then that there was her the whole story of life in Massacre of 1864 (1996), Two J states that, “Of son and grandson of August some dispute about whether Bute and between them they Wolves at the Dawn of Time: the settlers, prospectors, trap- Schnarr. He sounded angry or not Marion was actually were able to piece the history Kingcome Inlet Pictographs pers, mountaineers and log- because he claimed she had a August’s daughter. together. 1863-1989 (2001), Dynamite gers who came to British photograph album in her pos- Once this was all sorted out The book is not only flaw- Stories (2003), and Clam Gar- Columbia’s remote Bute Inlet session that really belonged to and Macklin slowly realized lessly researched but beau- dens: Aboriginal Mariculture on between the 1890s and the him. The album in question how much fascination Bute tifully designed and all the Canada’s West Coast (2006), 1940s, few remained long.” had indeed been given to Wil- Inlet held for Judith Williams, reproduced images are excep- all from New Star Books. August Schnarr was the liams several years earlier by “his voice softened and he be- tional. I particularly enjoyed Her research for Cougar exception. Schnarr logged, another grandson of August came interested.” He wanted the style used at the beginning Companions was carried out and trapped in Bute Inlet of each chapter with larger with her husband on many for decades but he was also font, before dipping back into trips to Bute Inlet and the a photographer of note. His The Schnarr girls had cougars regular size font. It manages to Homathko Valley where she photo collection is probably draw the reader into the story conducted numerous inter- his most important legacy. as pets, only one of the remarkable in an unusual way. views and searched through His pioneering story has been I feel that this work will be old diaries and photo albums. delightfully told by Williams. aspects of their upbringing used by other historians for Schnarr’s collection of photo- Using Schnarr’s Kodak recordedby research purposes, as well as graphs also shows float hous- photographs and meticulous Judith Williams being read right through by es and other residents with research, Judith Williams in Cougar Companions. others as a story of pioneering their fish catches, boats, log was able to tell the Schnarr’s life in Bute Inlet. booms, and steam donkeys. family history, along with I particularly enjoyed the Cougar Companions cap- stories of other pioneering many colourful descriptions tures the hard ordeals of Bute residents. Possibly the of Bute Inlet such as “nothing homesteading on the remote most remarkable part of the small ever happens in Bute. B.C. coast and is told evoca- story is told through the pic- The wind blows the hardest, tively through the use of those tures in Schnarr’s albums of the temperature drops the interviews, diaries, and oral his three daughters (Marion, quickest and furthest. The histories and will not disap- Pansy, and Pearl) with their The 3 whole place is Guinness World point. 9781550178623 pet cougars. Record material.” Williams reports that Pan- Or, as Pansy Schnarr re- Valerie Green has written sy Schnarr, in a later inter- called, “It blew like heck up more than twenty non-fic- view with Maud Emery of the there all the time, summer tion historical and true-crime Victoria Times Colonist news- books. Her debut novel Provi- paper, recalled: “They were dence (Sandra Jonas Pub- nice pets, we could pet them sisters lishing) will be the first in a and they’d purr just like a cat, series of four novels depicting and they kept pawing at you. a family saga arising from They didn’t like anybody but early B.C. history called The us three . . . they didn’t like of Bute McBride Chronicles.

“They didn’t like my dad at all. They were just like cats to us; we didn’t think of them as anything special, nothing but a bunch of work.”

—PANSY SCHNARR(centre) with cougars, Girlie and Leo, and her sisters Marion and Pearl.

7 BC BOOKWORLD • WINTER 2019-20 Spread love, joy, good food and good books this holiday season

WHITEWATER COOKS DIRTY FOOD VALLEYS of WINE COOKING without MOM More Beautiful Food Julie Van Rosendaal A Taste of British Columbia’s A Survival Cookbook Shelley Adams Wine Industry The Hen Party New! Here’s a joyful pushback against “clean” eating buzzwords and their Luke Whittall It’s entertaining season – and what better It’s Christmas break, the kids are home connection with purity and goodness. recipes to have at hand than those from Just released! British Columbia wine has never and asking how to make gravy and stuffing. With recipes like Eton Mess, Sloppy Joes, the Whitewater Cooks series! Impress your been more popular and our wine industry never John is wearing a grey hoodie you know Dirty Rice, Sticky Buns and Jelly Bombs, friends with recipes from Whitewater Cooks, stronger. Yet the industry’s history is short and used to be white and Jessica doesn’t know Dirty Food contains recipes that celebrate Whitewater Cooks at Home, Whitewater unknown. Here, Whittall examines its very how to make a basic white sauce or whipped the pleasure food brings and its ability to Cooks with Friends, Whitewater Cooks beginnings in the Okanagan Valley through cream. This domestic survival guide was bring people happily together - when it with Passion and Whitewater Cooks More to cultural and geological backgrounds in the written by seven BC mothers wanting their comes to food, there should be no guilt in Beautiful Food. But wait – watch for a new province that gave rise to grape growers, winery kids to have help in the world away from pleasure. Julie is a well known blogger and Whitewater cookbook in 2020! owners and today’s burgeoning wine industry. home – don’t let your child loose without it. author of 10 other bestselling cookbooks. 9780981142432 $34.95 pb Alicon Holdings Ltd 9781770503168 $29.95 pb Whitecap Books 9780920923122 $18.95 Sandhill Publishing 9780968756324 $19.95 pb Dinner with Julie

SONG of the EARTH The NORTH-WEST In the SHADOW The VICTIM CULT The Life of Alfred Joseph MOUNTED POLICE of ELEPHANTS Mark Milke Ross Hoffman with Alfred Joseph 1873 – 1885 Keith G. Powell Jack F. Dunn No one disputes that some people are true Grounded in the wisdom of his elders, This historical novel is a story of stampeding victims. We also all know someone trapped Gisdewe Alfred Joseph wove respect, elephants, -playing lumbermen, hockey- The arrival of a police force in 1874 was meant by victim thinking. This book details that kindness and courage into his years of loving miners, a women's hockey team sporting a to bring law and order to the western plains and phenomenon multiplied by millions and its service as a councillor, house chief, and swastika logo, titans of industry and the winds of prepare the way for white settlers. This account harm to entire societies. It also chronicles lead Witsuwit’en plaintiff in Delgamuukw- war. The 1920's were the golden era of company details the formative years of the Force and of positive lessons from those who were Gisday Wa – one of Canada’s most town baseball and hockey. Jimmie Peever leads the Canadian West over a 12 year period. First harmed but who yet succeeded such as important Aboriginal title cases. Song of the a life of action and intrigue, as he encounters hand descriptions of the frontier experience, early East Asian immigrants who trumped Earth opens the feast hall doors to show historically significant Kootenay events at every the relationships with the aboriginal population, prejudice and built a better civilization. the resilience of his people in the face of turn. As one reviewer said the challenges of weather, isolation and lack of Foreword by Ellis Ross of the Haisla First great losses. ”… (Powell) is an excellent writer, and — like his amenities are brought to life through the depth Nation. 9781928195054 $21.95 pb Creekstone Press previous novels — the most astonishing parts of of information here. 9780968791578 $28.95 pb Thomas & Black the book always turn out to be true.” 9780969859611 $34.95 hc Jack F. Dunn 9780981214641 $21.95 pb Wild Horse Creek Press

WTF?! (Willing to Fail) How Failing Can Be Your LET'S GO BIKING Easy Rides, Walks & Runs to Success A is for ADVENTURE Jan Sebastion LaPierre COMMON BIRDS Around Vancouver Brian Scudamore with Roy H. Williams of Southwestern BC Colleen MacDonald Here’s a great book that will encourage kids Lower Mainland & Vancouver Island Serial entrepreneur Brian Scudamore, to put down their electronic gadgets and get J.Duane Sept This is a great Christmas gift for anyone founder of 1-800-GOT-JUNK? and O2E active – to move, to get physical, to hike, bike wanting to explore the Lower Mainland. Brands, will convince you that you have and explore the natural world. The high energy Is there a bird lover (or two) on your Christmas From flat scenic trails and city greenways what it takes to succeed. With engaging A-Z rhyming verse format takes children through list? These concise guides offer easy bird to quiet county roads – this guide has stories from his thirty-plus years of failing a wide range of activities from biking, canoeing identification in the backyard, deep woods or on something for everyone whether on a upward, WTF?! (Willing to Fail) is full of and dancing to hiking, jumping, kayaking, Sunday strolls. All of the most commonly seen bike, or on foot. With a route per page, encouragement, wisdom, and lessons — riding and surfing – to ziplining! The book birds are here in vivid colour with descriptions, 84 maps and directions give turn-by-turn with practical advice on developing a clear also contains a list and map of all of Canada’s nesting info, habitat notes and fascinating instructions including info about surface vision, creating awesome culture, finding National Parks. details from birding sites to tips for better birding. conditions and level of difficulty. Illustrated gratitude, and using setbacks to change 9780994960702 $19.95 pb A is for Adventure Also available is Common Birds of Interior BC: with accompanying colour photographs, your business for the better. Okanagan & . this is the perfect companion for exploring. 9781544501086 $19.95 hc O2E Publishing 9780973981995 $19.95 pb Calypso Publishing 9781775308102 $24.99 pb Let’s Go Biking

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8 BC BOOKWORLD • WINTER 2019-20 REVIEW leisurely stop and marvel at the sights. I have been MEMOIR on ten canoe journeys and Neel’s canoe is one of the A relative of carver Mungo Martin and a best of the carved canoes I’ve experienced. grandson of Ellen Neel, the best-known fe- In addition to his canoe, David Neel showed many male First Nations artist in British Columbia of his carved masks in Venice, the “City of Masks.” during the 1950s and 1960s — David Neel, It was a mask that brought Neel home to Vancouver. born in 1960, overcame separation from his Exploring While he was starting out as a photographer in the Indigenous roots and trauma in childhood by U.S., he attended an art show in Texas and was following his passion for art to become a re- startled by one particular exhibit. nowned Kwakwaka’wakw artist. His decades- “I came to a case that contained a Northwest Coast long career ranges from photography, to Indigenous mask,” he writes, “the first I’d seen other totem poles and finely made jewelry. – Ed. than in photographs… I could feel my connection to Venice that mask as though it had an energy that made me The Way Home by David A. Neel need to know more – what it represented, where it (UBC Press $32.95) came from, and who had carved it.” It turned out there was indeed a deep connection BY LATASH-MAURICE NAHANEE by canoe to the person who had carved the mask. It had been made by Neel’s great-great grandfather, Charlie first met David Neel in Burnaby-based David Neel James. The experience lit a path for Neel back to his has paddled and carved homeland. 1987. I was an editor Inspired by the creativity of his famous Indigenous at Kahtou News, a his way from Bella Bella artist ancestors, Neel switched from photography to carving in red cedar, silver and gold. While creating provincial First Na- to “bella bella” Italy. within the artistic style of his ancestors, he has also tions publication, continued their tradition of following modern inter- to display the canoe and to see the city in its entire pretations—in other words, adding modern responses I when Neel visited the splendor. Fortunately for me, I was included in the to contemporary issues. 9780774890410 crew for the Venice trip. office one day. Upon learning he was a In a water taxi it is difficult to appreciate the ar- BC BookWorld’s Indigenous Editor Latash-Maurice news magazine photographer, we be- chitecture and art on the walls of the buildings due to Nahanee is a member of the Squamish Nation. He has the speed of the boats, but in Neel’s canoe we could a bachelor of arts degree (Simon Fraser University). came friends. I soon discovered he was learning Northwest Coast carving with Beau Dick and Wayne Alfred, two artists who were already established.

Over the next 30 years, I went through several career changes but Neel stayed true to art. While he was living in the United States, Neel was first a photographer. His portraits for the Pequot Museum in Connecticut captured the tribe’s resilience and success in a modern world. This tribe was all but wiped out until they won recognition of their treaty and Aboriginal rights. As part of their treaty with the U.S. government, they were able to build and operate the Foxwoods Casino. It became the most successful Native American-owned casino in the U.S. The Way Home is filled with portrait photography that conveys stories that cannot be told by words alone. In this image-filled memoir we are also invited into Neel’s creative journey through his descriptions and photos of his own carved masks and his pre- cious metal jewelry. Neel literally carves deeply into David Neel with his canoe the materials of wood and metal as a true master by the Rialto Bridge in of Kwakwaka’wakw art. As a result, his work has a Venice, 1999; the first time sculptural look, the sign of a good carver. a Kwakwaka’wakw canoe, O or any Northwest Coast d a v i d n e e l h a s a l s o b e e n a participant i n t h e Indigenous canoe had sailed renewed impetus for Indigenous canoe journeys. the canals of Venice. During the 1989 Washington State Commemorations, First Nations were invited to carve and paddle to Seattle, Washington. The event would prove to be a spark for the revival of Northwest Coast canoe culture. During that seminal event, Frank Brown, from Bella Bella, invited communities to visit Bella Bella on the central coast of B.C. for a canoe festival, which is a celebration of culture. Having joined a team from Campbell River, David Neel participated in that festival which inspired a broader rekindling of cultural practices. Neel was caught up in the excitement and began thinking about the creation of a canoe of his own. Upon returning to Campbell River, where Neel was living at the time, he located and carved a massive red cedar log. One of Neel’s many qualities is to be humble enough “to go to the one who knows.” He visited the great Haida artist to seek advice and Reid was generous in sharing his knowledge. It is interesting how talent and hard work take you on journeys beyond your own dreams. For instance, not only did the canoe journey to Bella Bella lead Neel to carve his own canoe; it also led him to Venice, Italy, photo

where he was invited to take part in the 48th Venice Biennale in 1999. nahanee

In Venice, Neel exhibited his canoe by paddling it around the city. With its canals providing the

highways for city life, Venice was the perfect venue maurice

9 BC BOOKWORLD • AUTUMN 2019 COVER REVIEW photo

koener

miriam

YOU MUST EVACUATE Captured by Fire: Surviving British for a friend to arrive by bus from Sas- t RCMP officers serve an Columbia’s New Wildfire Reality katchewan. Lightning had set off fires When fires evacuation order on by Chris Czajkowski and Fred Reid at 108 Mile Ranch south of Williams Chris Czajkowski, July 10, 2017. (Harbour $24.95) ravaged central Lake causing theNOW bus to be delayed. BY SAGE BIRCHWATER As they climbed Sheep Creek Hill Kleene from the first lightening strikes heading west toward the blue sky of B.C. in 2017, not of July 7 to the mop up stages in late he wildfires of 2017 the Chilcotin, Chris figured they had September. are still fresh in dodged the bullet. But her relief was all ten thousand O the minds of those short-lived. At Lee’s Hill, 50 km further i’m glad it took two years for fred and who experienced on, a roadblock prevented any further people affected Chris to publish their account of that them. For the travel along Highway 20. A fire touched hot and horrific summer. I’m not sure I people across the off by the same storm, was burning at obeyed the would have been ready to dive into their T broad landscape the foot of the hill at Hanceville. gut wrenching narrative any sooner. My that included Ashcroft, Clinton, 100 From the vantage point of the hill, order to leave. own trauma was still too fresh. Mile House, Williams Lake, Riske Chris photographed the plumes of four From the south side of Williams Creek, Hanceville, Kleena Kleene, Ana- fires on the horizon. With Chilcotin Lake I also witnessed the incendiary him Lake and the Blackwater region, ingenuity, she evaded the roadblock Environment and Climate Change lightening strikes that Chris describes it was a long hot summer many will by taking a back road detour to Alexis Canada scientists did a study on at the beginning of their book. From our never forget. Creek. From there she made her way the influence of human-induced cli- home we saw the black pyrocumulo- Two West Chilcotin residents who home to Kleena Kleene unimpeded. nimbus cloud rise from Fox Mountain, mate change on B.C.’s 2017 wild- experienced the maelstrom up close Approaching Kleena Kleene she then crest the hill and move aggressive- and personal, Chris Czajkowski and smelled smoke. Her guts took a twist fire season. Published in Earth’s ly toward the Secwepemc community of Fred Reid, have shared their uniquely as the night sky revealed two or three Future (2019), they found the Sugar Cane and 150 Mile House. More different but hauntingly similar experi- wildfires on the ridge above the high- area burned was seven to eleven stressing was learning that the airport ences in way. The road was wet from rain but and the Cariboo Fire Centre, the brain Captured by Fire: Surviving times larger than would have been British Columbia’s New Wildfire the country was tinder dry. centre for fighting wildfires in the re- expected without human influences Reality. O gion, had been evacuated. Do you run? Or do you stay? two hours further down highway 20, on the climate. Most experts pre- Eight days later the city of Williams Many people like Chris Czajkowski Fred and Monika also saw a plume of dict fires will be bigger, hotter and Lake was evacuated and we joined the and Fred Reid (along with his partner smoke. Monika spotted it first, west of more dangerous in B.C., Alberta, mass migration south to Kamloops. Monika and neighbour Caleb) chose their home in the Precipice Valley. They The normal three-hour trip took us ten- Australia and California. to stay and do what they could to pro- live 35 km down a bush road southwest and-a-half hours of bumper-to-bumper tect their homes and properties. Many of Anahim Lake. Like Chris they are gridlock, driving through the night. insist they would have lost everything off the grid and stay connected to the pression and public safety rings true We were locked out of our commu- otherwise. outside world through telephone and for many people across the region. nity for two weeks until the evacuation O internet. Although their two households are 100 order was lifted. We got home to a city chris czajkowski describes events That puff of smoke rising out of the km apart, Fred and Chris are neigh- in siege. The army manned checkpoints of July 7 in Williams Lake. From her Atnarko Valley later became designated bours in every sense of the word. to stymie looting, and we witnessed the mechanic’s shop on Mackenzie Avenue as Wildfire VA0778, or the Precipice/ Particularly delightful is the struc- sobering spectacle of a city being recon- she heard thunder and saw three bolts Stillwater/Hotnarko Fire. Within days ture of Captured by Fire, juxtaposing stituted. The complex infrastructure of of lightning strike Fox Mountain east the fires at the Precipice and Kleena chapters written by each author. In even a smallish city like Williams Lake of the city. Within minutes she says a Kleene erupted out of control and an uncanny way it’s like watching two had to be regrouped and its services black plume of smoke was “roiling to residents in both localities were given movies on a split-screen television, reintegrated. the heavens.” evacuation orders. with plenty of overlap linking the two Several major grocery stores like After seeing the fire explode on Fox Chris and Fred’s accounts of fac- narratives. The reader can track events Wal-Mart and the Superstore remained Mountain, her first instinct was to run. ing the firestorm and dealing with the happening simultaneously in Preci- closed for many days after people re- But she had to wait two more hours bureaucracy charged with fire sup- pice Valley and “downtown” Kleena turned, to undergo a thorough clean-

10 BC BOOKWORLD • WINTER 2019-20 Cross the border with confidence! “Asked if he would ignore an evacuation order again, Fred Reid says he probably would stay to defend his place. “But Monika [his wife] might go. I didn’t realize how the experience traumatized her.” ing and restocking of inventory. The of the massive wildfire event. They say hospital and seniors homes had closed local knowledge, expertise, manpower before the evacuation, and patients and and equipment was under-utilized residents were sent to facilities in other or outright disregarded. Distant fire cities. Sadly some individuals never managers from outside the region were survived the upheaval. calling the shots and sometimes made Chris and Fred’s telling of these decisions that accelerated the fires. It events speak for many across the re- was felt that employing local expertise gion. We returned home to Williams might have avoided those pitfalls. Lake at the end of July, but for them The book concludes with a disclaim- the worst was still ahead. er, however, encouraging citizens in Chris lives several kilometres down urban communities to obey evacuation a rough dirt road from Highway 20 on orders when confronted by wildfire. the back side of McClinchy Creek, and “Although we stayed in the face of the from her house she has a spectacular Precipice and Kleena Kleene fires, the view of the Klinaklini Valley. In the be- tragic loss of life in the 2018 California ginning, despite the evacuation order, fires highlights the need to obey early she was able to leave her property if evacuation calls,” state the authors. she traveled west, and return again to Chris and Fred are optimistic that water her garden and make her build- the BC Wildfire Service learned to do Calling all snowbirds...now in its twelfth edition, this ings more fire-safe. She was given ref- things differently after receiving feed- book is the definitive guide to everything financial for uge by friends Dennis Kuch and Katie back about mistakes made in 2017. those living a cross-border lifestyle in Canada and the Hayhurst in Stuix along the Atnarko Asked if he would ignore an evacua- US. If you are a Canadian living seasonally or year-round River at the foot of the Bella Coola Hill, tion order again, Fred says he probably about 120 km away. would stay to defend his place. “But in the US, a US citizen living in Canada, or if you have The route east was cut off because Monika might go. I didn’t realize how financial assets in both countries, this book can save of the Hanceville and Riske Creek fires, the experience traumatized her.” you time, money, and headaches. but the road west through Anahim Captured by Fire includes maps and Lake to Bella Coola Valley was unim- line drawings by Chris and Fred, along $39.95 CAD | Paperback | Download Kit peded during the early days of the fire. with dramatic photos taken by both Then the authorities clamped down. authors and various helicopter pilots. They told her if she left, she wouldn’t be As a first-time author, Fred says he allowed home again. So Chris chose to stay. She was in a quandary. Create believable sci-fi & fantasy! Staying home put her in harm’s way and also endan- gered the lives of those who ventured in to check on her and try to convince her to leave. Fred and Monika saw a positive side of the BC Wildfire Service. Throughout most of the fire they were under a dif- ferent fire management regime headquartered in the Central Coast. Unlike Chris, they had direct contact with the firefighters who established a

staging area at their farm, and photo

were given comprehensive in- formation about the fires right t czajkowski from the start.

Fred tells how the com- chris munity of Anahim Lake sup- Lindsay Gano carries Chris Czajkowski’s mail ported the residents of the after it was delivered for the first time in a Precipice Valley by showing up month to the Kleena Kleene post office. with sprinklers and pumps to fireproof the buildings, and help out in learned a lot working with Chris Cza- other ways as the fire got ever closer to jkowski who has eleven other titles to their property. her credit. “She did three edits of my Through it all Fred and neighbour work before we sent it to the publisher, Two best-selling sci-fi & fantasy authors come together Caleb, hayed their two ranches. Not and I think working with me affected to show writers how to craft believable worlds, plausible only were the fields ready to harvest, her writing, too.” but the dry lanky uncut hay was a Czajkowski is no stranger to wild- characters, and captivating stories. With a combined potential fire hazard. fires. In her 2006 book, Wildfire in nearly 50 years of experience, Kilian and Moreno-García Chris, on the other hand, was the Wilderness (Harbour, 2006), she know how to save writers time, energy, and grief by shrouded in a thick blanket of smoke describes her harrowing experiences and mostly dealt with authorities con- when the 2004 Lonesome Lake fire showing them how to master the craft of storytelling and cerned with her safety. forced her to evacuate from her Nuk how to market their stories as successfully as possible. O Tessli wilderness cabin above Char- captured by fire g i v e s t h e r e a d e r lotte Lake. $26.95 CAD | Paperback | Download Kit a peek at the inner workings of the Both authors have been visiting wildfire-fighting system. You learn the communities throughout British Co- difference between evacuation alert and lumbia, giving slideshows to promote evacuation order, and are introduced to their book. wildernessdweller.ca the complexity and uncertainty of shift 978-1-55017-885-2 changes of those managing a mega fire. Having a new fire boss brought in to re- Author of nine books, Sage Birchwater lieve the old one can lead to confusion. of Williams Lake has long served as one www.self-counsel.com Many people across the region were of B.C.’s most essential historians and critical of the government’s handling journalists. 1-800-663-3007

11 BC BOOKWORLD • WINTER 2019-20 Moon Madness Alan Twigg This biography recounts how Dr. Louise Aall travelled solo to Tanganyika in 1959, where she built a clinic to treat epilepsy — still running today. The Red Cross then sent her to a hospital in the Congo during the horrendous civil war. She went on to work alongside Dr. Albert Schweitzer in his world-famous clinic in Gabon, before immigrating to Canada and working with the Indigenous peoples. With 55 photos.

978-1-55380-593-9 (PRINT) 978-1-55380-594-6 (EBOOK) 230 pp $21.95

Gold in British Columbia The York Marie Elliott THE York Factory Express Elliott features the men and women of FactorY express Nancy Marguerite Anderson B.C.’s gold rushes from 1858 to B.C.’s entry Incredible, first-hand accounts of the Hudson’s Bay into Confederation, explaining their central Company brigade canoes that paddled from the importance to Canada’s history. With mouth of the Columbia to Hudson Bay and back 50 photos & maps. — all in one year. With 30 photos and maps. 978-1-55380-517-5 (PRINT) NaNcy Marguerite aNdersoN 978-1-55380-578-6 (PRINT) 978-1-55380-518-2 (EBOOK) 475 pp $24.95 978-1-55380-579-3 (EBOOK) 360 pp $24.95

“These Hodgins stories are at their most powerful and challenging.”

Damage —Quill & Quire Damage Damage Done Service on the Skeena done by the by the done Damage Geoff Mynett done Storm by the Storm by theStorm - StorieS Jack Hodgins Horace Wrinch served as the first doctor at Hazelton in B.C.’s northern interior, working This new edition of Hodgins’ short story collection with and treating the Gitxsan and Wet’suwet’en portrays the damage done by physical and emotional

Jack Hodgins Jack peoples, and helped build a hospital with his storms, with settings including Australia, Faulkner own hands. With 50 photos and maps. Service on the country, and Vancouver Island. Includes a new story. Skeena fiction / $18.95 Horace Wrinch, Frontier Physician 978-1-55380-575-5 (PRINT) 978-1-55380-559-5 (PRINT) Jack Hodgins GEOFF MYNETT 978-1-55380-576-2 (EBOOK) 450 pp $21.95 978-1-55380-560-1 (EBOOK) 198 pp $18.95

“Pamela Porter is a poet to be grateful for.” —Patrick Lane Likely Stories Riding the Continent riding Pamela Porter the Hamilton Mack Laing In striking and sensuous imagery, these new continent One of Canada’s first environmentalists records poems poems from Pamela Porter ask the ultimate his experiences as a motorcycle-naturalist as he questions: How did you get here, and how rides one of the earliest Harley-Davidsons on a will you get home? 1915 cross-North America tour. With 40 photos. 978-1-55380-590-8 (PRINT) 978-1-55380-556-4 (PRINT)

NONfictiON / $19.95 PoeTrY / $17.95 978-1-55380-591-5 (EBOOK) 978-1-55380-557-1 (EBOOK)

PAMELA PORTER 94 pp $17.95 Hamilton Mack Laing 228 pp $19.95

FOR YOUNG READERS SECRETS IN THE FOR YOUNG READERS SHADOWS

uris dans so m a la p , i o

p c

h u

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Y Y Y Un ami pour Livre 3 Youpi Un rebelle en sous-marin Philip Roy A Newfoundland boy teams up with a junkyard genius

S to build a submarine to sail around the Maritimes. bonbon S Youpi et Se Youpi Histoire par Illustrations par Philip Roy Andrea Torrey Balsara High-speed chases, daring rescues, and treasure n ami pour Youpi u hunting ensue. histoire par philip roy

Ronsdale PRess illustrations par andrea torrey Balsara HEIGE S. BOEHM www.ronsdalepress.com 12,95 $ 978-1-55380-553-3 (PRINT) 978-1-55380-554-0 (EBOOK) Secrets in the Shadows Tree Musketeers 282 pp $12.95 FRENCH LANGUAGE Heige S. Boehm Norma Charles Two boys growing up in 1930s Germany Jeanie Leclare discovers that a giant cedar Un ami pour Youpi excitedly join the Hitler Youth division and tree next to her school is going to be Philip Roy & Andrea Torrey Balsara are sent to the Western Front, where the bulldozed by her uncle. How can she Wonderfully touching full-colour illustrations tell how horrors on the battlefield and the anti- become a tree musketeer and save Youpi, the pocket mouse, informs his friend Jean that Semitism turn them against Nazi ideology. the tree? he wants a most unusual pet, and then decides that 978-1-55380-572-4 (PRINT) 978-1-55380-550-2 (PRINT) the pet needs a pet. What will it be? 978-1-55380-573-1 (EBOOK) 978-1-55380-551-9 (EBOOK) 978-1-55380-581-6 (HARDCOVER) 304 pp $14.95 130 pp $11.95 32 pp $12.95 FRENCH LANGUAGE

Available from your favourite bookstore or order from PGC/Raincoast Ronsdale Press Visit our website: www.ronsdalepress.com

12 BC BOOKWORLD • WINTER 2019-20 HEALING REVIEW

Surviving with words t

Editors Jen Sookfong Lee and Stacey May Fowles. Photo by Nathan Denette, Canadian Press. The stories paint a vivid, sometimes stomach-churning, violation, all over again. Whenever I heard the atonal picture of the torment that follows survivors of sexual demonic music of my abusers, my mind would shut off and I would dance. Though my body ached and assault. Whatever Gets You Through will draw those my feet bled I was pre-set to dance. Freud would term this defence mechanism societal sublimation. Then, who have similar stories and provide a sense of inclusion. just as I was about to sublimate things under the proverbial “I am a good survivor” rug (as per usual), I saw the bigger picture and thought perhaps I should Whatever Gets You Through: and feelings. Only bare text woven on the tapestry of direct the anger outward. “Fuck this.” These perverted Twelve Survivors on Life after Sexual Assault tragedy; sincere, straightforward threads of how they men from my past are not holding onto MY BODY by Stacey May Fowles and Jen Sookfong Lee (editors), died and then survived the most savage and ruthless or MY MIND for one more year, one more week, one with a foreword by Jessica Valenti invasions of personal I know. more day, one more HOUR. I will not let the demons (Greystone Books $22.95) When I first picked up the book and flipped win. I will get up. I will live again. through the pages I got angry, and then defensive. You’ve gone out too far from shore in your boat. BY KIMBERLY WEBSTER WITH CHRIS MONTOYA “I am not these women!” I thought. I fought with my Rape is the storm that hits, sudden and inescapable. thoughts. God is the lighthouse. This book can be one map to his book will piss you off. Who wants In my mind: I was not broken. I was fine. My demon help get to shore. They can violate your body, but to be the perfect—or worse, the was denial and it had me. As I read the stories, page they can’t touch your soul. Joy always prevails. May imperfect—victim? Who wants by page, I felt as though I had been repeatedly kicked I suggest two other books that should be read in their loved one to be a victim? and punched in the stomach. The first story left me conjunction with this nasty piece of pithy narrative? Further, who wants to be known angry, wondering why there were so many similarities The first is Battlefield of the Mind: Winning the Battle for surviving sexual assault? It between this “broken survivor” and myself. I almost in your Mind, by Joyce Meyer (Warner Books, 2002), T isn’t exactly a glorious claim to threw the book in the trash. and Bounce Back Creating Resilience from Adversity, fame. This book makes you want to mentally bury The stories that followed that first account only by Reva Nelson (Words.Worth, 1997). At first blush the people who hurt you in a red anthill and never reinforced one piercing, undeniable truth. Our both opposing camps may be horrified by the stark look back. thoughts are eerily synchronous. Why, in the presence contrast; however, having lived through the personal The stories paint a vivid, sometimes stomach- of angry men, did I continue to sway hell of abuse I feel that both sides churning, picture of the torment that follows survivors to my demon’s music and to dance have something to bring to the table. of sexual assault. Whatever Gets You Through will a dance I/we had never wanted to 9781771643733 draw those who have similar stories and provide a dance (ever)? I am these women. I sense of inclusion. It may help some to realize that am broken. But I am also like them Kimberly Webster is a fourth-year they are not alone in their battle. Those in relation- in another way: I survived. My mind, student at Thompson Rivers Univer- ships with survivors may gain an understanding of like theirs, betrays me more than I sity with a major in psychology and the daily internal and external struggles endured by would like to admit. I made it but a minor in English. She has run her the abused. As real and painful as a heart attack, so did they. own photography business since many are never able to put their story of sexual as- From the perspective of violated 2008. She is a survivor of sexual sault into words. and discarded women, the effects of assault, substance abuse, and teen- As a survivor of abuse, I felt anxious when I opened rape frequently manifest as physical age pregnancy. She still battles on. the book. I was fearful that I would relive my expe- symptoms of pain and fatigue, with- Her mentor, Christopher Montoya is riences once again in full dying colour. I was met, in, on, and throughout our minds an associate professor at Thompson however, with words that rang with such raw emotion and bodies. The minds and bodies of Rivers University in the psychology (rage) and honest clarity that I felt an immediate com- abused women have been screaming department. He received his doctor- mon bond and a jigsaw-like jagged connection with the same message across millennia. ate in brain-based psychology at the the twelve survivors. There was no condescension With that burning realization came University of Calgary in 1988. He is or degradation knitted into their words, thoughts, the disgusting pungent stench of also an inventor and author.

13 BC BOOKWORLD • WINTER 2019-20 THE RISK THEATRE MODEL OF TRAGEDY: REVIEW Gambling, Drama, and the Unexpected SCIENCE Why are tragedies endearing to the human heart? This question has haunted inquiring minds from Aristotle to Hegel and Nietzsche. Edwin Wong reveals that tragic heroes, by making delirious wagers, trigger unintended consequences. Tragedy functions as a valuing mechanism. Because tragic heroes lose all, audi- ences wonder: how did the perfect bet go wrong? The Risk Theatre Modern Tragedy Competi- Anthro-what? tion—inspired by this book—is hosted by one of Canada’s oldest and most respected theatres. It is the world’s largest playwriting competition for It’s time for everyone to take the writing of tragedy (risktheatre.com). 378 pp • ISBN: 978-1-5255-3756-1 Munro’s Books, Bolen Books, Seeking a Canadian Distributor, contact Amazon, Chapters, and B&N [email protected] $22.95 more responsibility for earth, ocean and sky.

Changing Tides: As an adjective, anthropocene basi- An Ecologist’s Journey To Make Peace cally stands for human-influenced. It with the Anthropocene by Alejandro Frid includes climate change, but it is not (New Society $19.99) limited to it. In his Changing Tides, subtitled ‘An Ecologist’s Journey to Make Peace with the Anthropocene,’ Based on Gabriola Island, New Society Frid is trying to encourage us all, as a Publishers has been recognized as a species, and as individuals, not to be Best For The World: Changemaker in disheartened. recognition of their overall impact on There is hope. He envisions a future their workers, customers, communities, in which we can increasingly fuse West- the environment and governance. ern science with the ways of Indigenous Best For The World recognition is ad- cultures who have, over thousands of ministered by B Lab, a global non-profit years, developed “intentional and so- that certifies and supports Certified B cially complex practices” for resource Corporations, which are for-profit com- management. panies dedicated to using business as a We have to get our minds out of the force for good. There are 3,000 Certified previous century. And get our minds B Corporations across 64 countries and back through many centuries… Cyn- 150 industries. ics are free to dismiss such idealistic They are unified by the common goal fusion as pie-in-the-sky claptrap, but of redefining success in business.—Ed. cynicism only speeds our collective demise as a species. Frid sincerely be- hanging Tides lieves different cultures can and should TOLSTOY’S WORDS to LIVE BY is the latest intermingle. Sequel to A Calendar of Wisdom release from “A fundamental characteristic of Bowen Island Coastal First Nations and other Indig- Available for the first time in English, ecologist Ale- enous peoples,” he writes, “is their, , in here is the original “calendar book” jandro Frid collective and culturally-based ethos which he seeks for kinship and responsibility towards compiled by Leo Tolstoy to share C to merge science the non-human world that goes back inspiring quotes for each day of the year. and Indigenous knowledge to “steer us for many centuries. Aphorisms and ideas from the likes of towards a more benign Anthropocene.” “These are the ripples and powerful Confucius, Aristotle, Lao-Tse and think- Say what? waves that emanate from a long line of ers of Tolstoy’s era—people who have Anthropocene has become an envi- ancestors speaking on behalf of Earth, affected the lives of millions—were col- ronmental buzzword since the atmo- Ocean and Sky.” lected by Tolstoy over a seven-year period. spheric chemist and Nobel laureate Frid credits the tremendous gener- Paul Crutzen popularized it in 2000. osity of First Nations who have allowed Translated & edited by Basically, anthropocene, as a noun, him to get out and get wet and dirty Peter Sekirin & Alan Twigg is a fancy new term for our current alongside them, sharing their knowl- geological age—since the Industrial edge during collaborative research, Revolution—during which human ac- while also fishing or hunting and tivity has been the dominant influence butchering ungulates, or gathering on climate and the environment. medicinal plants.

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readers! 604-736-4011 t [email protected] Alejandro Frid and Gail with their daughter Twyla Bella.

14 BC BOOKWORLD • WINTER 2019-20 Kitasoo/Xai’xais researchers Sandie Hankewich and Ernie Mason survey Dungeness crab at Mussel Inlet,

t a northeast extension of Sheep Passage, and part of the Fiordland Conservancy.

First Nations of coastal B.C. since the 1980s, Frid is not averse to evoking spiritual moments, waxing poetic when the surface bubbles as herring aggre- gate, when the sea turns light turquoise as males release clouds of milt… when Stellar sea lions and Pacific white-side dolphins charge into massive fish schools… when Humpback whales breach… When Frid finds himself on a boat, with the engine turned off, the scientist becomes a meditative philosopher, and he stops thinking about the impacts of colonization, he stops imagining the carbon dioxide being absorbed into the water… “Temporary insanity, willful myo- pia—call it whatever you wish. All I know is that such moments help shape the stories I continue to tell myself about where humanity could go.” photo

Frid, an adjunct UVic professor, was born and raised in City blaine and has lived most of his adult life in B.C. He has been arrested twice for tristan civil disobedience against fossil fuel Changing Tides chiefly describes companies. In his first book, originally specific West Coast instances in which “Twyla Bella gives me a reason to keep self-published with a limited print run the knowledge of Wuikinuxv, Nuxalk, writing; it is my hope that this book will do its as Storms and Stillness (2014) and then Heiltsuk and Kitasoo/Xai’xais peoples re-edited as A World for my Daughter has benefitted conservation and influ- small part in inspiring her—and the rest of (Caitlin, 2015), he also focussed on enced the attitudes and policies of the grounds for optimism. Department of Fisheries and Oceans us—to do all we can to rebuild a world where Protest. (DFO). There is also recognition for Cooperation. the expertise and contribution of DFO people from different cultures relate to each Cultural empowerment. officers who have increasingly learned other, and to our non-human kin, with respect, Social justice. the merits of cooperation versus the Climate justice. pitfalls of confrontation. reciprocity and love.”— ALEJANDRO FRID A better Anthropocene. Recalling his collaborations with 978-0-86571-909-5

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15 BC BOOKWORLD • WINTER 2019-20 and a general store shopkeeper. The kamura’s first wives are given exactly postwar grouping is made up mostly two paragraphs between them, and the REVIEW of the wives of men employed by the rest of the chapter, albeit a brief one, COAST mill, but there are a few exceptions. is about Charlie himself, who had, the As for the final category, it includes reader learns, a very interesting life. three women married to men in the Still, it creates confusion: if this is a Boom & Bust: the title of Butler’s book. In its lifetime whale-watching business; two of the book focusing on the experiences of The Resilient Women of as a vibrant community—ninety years women were married to the same man, women, why do the men keep showing Historic Telegraph Cove and counting—Telegraph Cove has although not, it must be said, at the up and insisting on being included? by Jennifer Butler experienced none of the trauma as- same time. Butler’s female-centric approach (Touchwood Editions $26) sociated with economic extremes; its Given the various obstacles they pulls in women who don’t have much BY HEATHER GRAHAM early history is more a story of ups and had to deal with in their everyday of a role to play, while the men whose downs, with really only one down, the lives, never mind emergencies and lives were inextricably bound up with elegraph Cove had its Great Depression, at the very begin- the unexpected, the sheer tenacity of many of these women consistently re- inauspicious begin- ning. Times were tough, yes, but the the women described is remarkable. fuse to take a back seat, undermining ning around 1911 little community grew and the mill con- Some of the women are given much Butler’s stated intent to make this a when Alfred Mar- book about the women. Her goal was maduke Wastell, laudable, but perhaps it was always known to all as going to be a difficult one to pull off. Duke, informed his That said, the book is undeniably a T wonderful read, and the photographs wife, Mame, that he had “bought out a bad loan on some are outstanding. land across the ” and Resilience acquired 376 acres of bush in an iso- lated cove five miles away from their The lives of women at home on Cormorant Island. Mame would call him a jackass Telegraph Cove is a wonderful more than once over the years. Duke liked to dabble in financial matters read that was difficult to and, much to Mame’s dismay, he wasn’t very good at it. research says reviewer From Duke’s point of view, his purchase made perfect sense. The land had already been surveyed for logging, Heather Graham. so he also bought the timber lease from the previous owner and started hauling logs to the mill in Alert Bay. The telegraph part of the story made its appear- ance in 1912, when the federal gov- ernment came in search of a site for a telephone-telegraph line from Campbell River to northern Vancouver Island. Duke thought his little cove was just the place. A name was required so that Emma Wastell The reader learns that whale watch- the station could be (above and cen- ing as a business began in Telegraph located on a map, tre, with baby), Cove in 1979, and that the mill closed t Telegraph Cove. and Duke proposed down not long after. But there’s more the obvious: Telegraph Cove. tinued to produce, and to the story. In 1979, Fred Wastell had Within a few years the line would there was always some- entered into an agreement to lease land be moved to Alert Bay, but the name one looking for work. to a couple from Port Alice who wanted Telegraph Cove would remain. In the Soon enough there was to build a campground/RV park and mid 1920s, Duke built a basic sawmill a school. Fred’s sawmill marina. The highway to the North at the Cove and went into business closed in the early 1980s, Island had just opened, and Marilyn with some Japanese partners in a but by then there was a and Gordie Graham could see an op- salmon saltery. Unemployed during new kind of economic ac- portunity. the Depression and newly married, tivity at Telegraph Cove, When the Telegraph Cove prop- the couple’s son Fred and his wife, and a new generation erty was sold following Fred’s death in Emma relocated to Telegraph Cove, of residents. Nature as 1985, the Grahams bought the land photo where they set up housekeeping in tourism, rather than as they wanted from the new owner, in- the house originally occupied by the a source of market com- mackie cluding the village itself. linesman who had once looked after modities, had made its t Almost forty years later, Telegraph the long-departed telegraph station. appearance in the world. Jennifer Butler Cove Resorts Ltd. welcomes 100,000 Jennifer L. Butler’s Boom & Bust: The subtitle of But- mercedes visitors annually and is a major em- The Resilient Women of Historic ler’s book, The Resilient Women of His- more prominence than others—Emma ployer on the North Island. It would Telegraph Cove is not the first book to toric Telegraph Cove, accounts for the Wastell’s life, for example, is presented be unfair to criticize Butler for not tell the story of this coastal community, division of the book into four sections, in great detail. In her preface Butler including an account of events since but it’s the first to gather together its two of them chronological—pioneer states that she did her best to include the Grahams became involved with the female residents and position them in women, postwar women—two of them as many women as possible, but this Cove; after all, it was never her intent the foreground of the canvas. thematic —professional women, whale- abundance might have benefited from to write a general history. On the other In 1995, Harbour Publishing put watching women—although the section a little judicious curating. hand, some context for the last section out Time & Tide: The History of Tele- on whale-watching women is inextrica- The most obvious example of the of the book, about the development of graph Cove (Raincoast Chronicles no. bly linked to a particular time and is effort to leave no one out concerns the whale-watching as a major draw for 16), written by Pat Wastell Norris, therefore just as much chronological two nameless first wives of business- visitors, would have added depth to the who just happens to be Jennifer But- as thematic. man Charlie Nakamura: both of them stories of the three women she profiles. ler’s aunt. Not surprisingly, then, both The pioneer women were Mame hated the Cove and couldn’t wait to get 9781771512985 books include a great deal about the Wastell, her daughter-in-law Emma, out, and both of them died not long Wastells, the Cove’s founding family, and four Japanese women married to after leaving. Charlie eventually mar- Heather Graham worked as an editor but Butler’s book is much more expan- men involved in the Telegraph Cove ried again, but wife No. 3 seems to have for nearly thirty years, and during that sive, sometimes in spite of the author’s economy. The professional women were remained in Japan, so she is not part same time made more than one foray intention to focus on the experiences the schoolteachers who passed through of the Telegraph Cove story. into the seductive but fraught business of its women. the community over the years, plus a In the chapter entitled “Unknown of bookselling. She lives on Malcolm Boom & Bust is an odd choice for couple of bookkeepers, a postmistress, Women Who Died Young,” Charlie Na- Island in Queen Charlotte Strait.

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17 BC BOOKWORLD • WINTER 2019-20 18 BC BOOKWORLD • WINTER 2019-20 TRAVEL REVIEW Riding the Continent: Hamilton Mack Laing edited by Trevor Hughes (Ronsdale Press $19.95) Uneasy rider amilton Mack Laing (1883-1982) is one of The transcontinental diaries of those great British O Columbian authors Hamilton Mack Laing “after richard mackie suggested i read who most people have Hamilton Mack Laing’s memoir,” says H still never heard of. Trevor Hughes, “I quickly surmised Way back in 1985, when Richard finally see the light of day. that if I liked reading this tale of what Mackie published his biography of the it was like to ride a motorcycle over a multi-faceted, Comox-based outdoors- He later described his three years History—which really meant writing. hundred years ago, prior to GPS and man, Hamilton Mack Laing: Hunter- at the Pratt, “painting nudes by day It didn’t need a judge of the Supreme Google Street View—or, heck, even be- naturalist (Sono Nis), two paragraphs and whacking a typewriter by night,” Court to decide which branch I would fore reliable maps or roads—then sure- were devoted to Laing’s account of his as three of the most pleasant years of take. Art, though I loved it, had let ly others might be equally charmed. motorcycle journey across the United a long life. During his New York sum- me down. The other branch had paid “What fascinated me through La- States in 1915. mers, Mack set up a camp at Oak Lake, my board and tuition for the year and ing’s account, is that, no matter how More than a century later, motor- Manitoba, at a place he called “Heart’s bought me another Harley-Davidson bad the roads got during his journey, cycle essayist Trevor Hughes, author Desire” where he constructed a dark motorbike.” and believe me they got bad, he was al- of two motorcycle travelogues, has re- room made of prairie sod to develop and So it was in the spring of 1915 he ways taking notes about the surround- trieved and edited Laing’s unpublished print his glass plate negatives. He sold devised a plan to ride to San Francisco ing bird life and natural landscape. He memoir as Riding the Continent. so many stories that he was able to buy on his second, unflappable “Barking was a very meticulous and disciplined When we think of motorcycle jour- his first Harley-Davidson motorcycle in Betsy,” before heading north to Port- individual. He knew he was going to neys, Peter Fonda in the film Easy the spring of 1914. land. By the time Laing submitted his write something of significance after Rider comes to mind, or perhaps the On completing his studies in 1915, manuscript to Harley-Davidson for completing the journey. nine-month journey of Che Guevara at Mack was in a quandary. Canada their consideration, in a 1922 reply “I think readers will enjoy Laing’s age 23 that resulted in a book and the was now in the depths of war. Most it was considered a “most interesting description of the birds he met. He had Spanish biopic, The Motorcycle Diaries. of Laing’s Canadian friends, contem- narrative” but it was deemed too long an ability to give character to every bird Both adventures were fueled by a thirst poraries, and former students would to run in serial form in their Enthusiast he met, to describe their songs with for freedom and rebellion. join up and some would die, but the magazine. enthusiasm. He always made a point Having been raised on a farm south United States would remain neutral Hamilton Mack Laing would return of picking a camping spot at the end of Winnipeg, where his father had first until 1917. His parents had moved to to Canada in 1917 to join the Royal of a long riding day near a tree or at a settled in a tent in 1872, Mack Laing’s Oregon to be close to his sister. Flying Corps. From 1920 to 1940, spot that would give him the best op- thirst for the open road was fueled by “I came to the Y in my way of life,” he became a natural history special- portunities to look and listen. a love of natural history. As a child, he later recalled. “Over the left branch ist with the Smithsonian Institution, “After setting out solo from Brook- he was the self-appointed “official was the sign Art. Over the right way the National Museum of Canada, the lyn, he would also meet fellow appre- pest warden” or “game warden” of his there was a very different sign! Natural Dominion Parks Branch and the Carn- ciators of the open road, and people parents’ farm, trapping mice, pocket egie Museum. In 1930, he became the in communities from Pennsylvania to gophers and Franklin’s ground squir- first park naturalist ever hired by the Nevada. From his unexpected friend- rels. At eleven, he was using a rifle to “The man who Dominion Parks Branch (now Parks ships, we get a sense of how motorcy- shoot hawks preying on the chickens. Canada) in Jasper and Banff. He col- clists found camaraderie through their He started school in 1888 at age five knows not the roads lected over 10,000 vertebrate speci- mutual love of travel on two wheels. and graduated as a qualified teacher mens in his lifetime and is credited “Although he set out to have close in 1900, at only seventeen. of a country knows with discovering two species of mouse. contact with the bird life he loved Having bought his first camera, a 4 Mack Laing wrote his first book in to write about, Riding the Continent x 5” plate glass Kodak in 1906, hop- not the country.” 1913, Out With The Birds, becomes much more than that. It’s a ing to become a nature photographer, and during his lifetime he vivid, candid and light-hearted descrip- he sold his first story, “The End of the HAMILTON MACK LAING published over 700 articles. tion of the United States before its entry Trail,” to the New York Tribune in 1907, His biography Allan into the first World War. Now it serves and studied Fine and Applied Arts at Brooks: Artist-Natu- us as a vivid time capsule of 1915, as the Pratt Institute in New York, in ralist was published seen from a motorcycle—as an uneasy 1910. Laing was soon selling articles by the BC Provincial rider.” 978-1-55380-556-4 illustrated with his own photos to Museum in 1979. American magazines including Field The motorcycle naturalist: and Stream, Country Life in America, Hamilton Mack Laing, 1915. and Tall Timber. t

19 BC BOOKWORLD • WINTER 2019-20 a key reason this province had the highest per capita enlistment rate in REVIEW the country. WAR • Coal miner Robert Davidson died one day after being gassed on April 25, 1915 at the Second Battle of Ypres. Once Well Beloved: was “Killed Remembering A British Columbia Great • John Clyde McGee War Sacrifi ce by Michael Sasges in Action” on May 24th at French (Royal BC Museum $17.95) Remembering Flanders • Carpenter John Enoch Birch was BY MARK FORSYTHE “shot through the head and instantly not to forget killed.” ll that remains of Four Nicola Valley men died at Vimy, Phoenix, a mining including 23-year-old David Hogg who town in the moun- Small towns and big sacrifices are was killed during a trench raid before tains between the main attack. Grand Forks the stuff of Once Well Beloved “The officers organizing the assault and Greenwood, on Vimy were determined to discover A is a lone cenotaph what and who was in front of the Ca- perched on a hillside. When the Great nadians and how the Germans might War ended in 1918, so did demand for defend themselves during a major as- copper. The Granby Consolidated Min- sault. There was a cost to the knowl- ing company closed its operations one edge gained, a blood price, and David year later. It began to sell buildings for Hogg paid it.” salvage. The pain of losing fifteen local Hogg’s uncle, Alexander Hogg, was boys in the war was acute. By selling also killed in the Vimy battle. The vic- the skating and curling rink, money tory came at tremendous human cost was raised to build that cenotaph. with 3,598 Canadians killed, in what Today it overlooks an empty townsite. the French press called, “Canada’s More than 60,000 Canadians were Easter Gift to France.” killed in the Great War. Those numbers Another name brought back to are hard to grasp, and the humanity life is John Nash, born in Britain to of these individuals fades over time. So a well-heeled fam- retired journalist Michael Sasges has ily. He ventured to placed the names of twelve Merritt-area the Nicola Valley in soldiers in high relief for his compelling the 1880s, preempted book, Once Well Beloved. land, served during Sasges has searched attestation the Boer War, re- papers, census documents, battalion turned home to play diaries and local newspaper accounts polo and organize a for telling details. A letter home from shooting club, and twenty-two-year old Malcom McAuley was a well-liked fire was published in the Merritt Herald: and game warden. “Dear Curley...I got a bullet right He married Eleanor through the face...I did not get much of Flora Wilson just a the gas, but I saw lots of them that did few days before leav- and anyone who gets a good dose dies ing for training. Nash was killed before in agony, and anyone who gets a small their second anniversary. dose lives in agony. I have seen it both Once Well Beloved reminds us of the ways and I know.” horrifying human toll from a war that Other letters printed were equally was supposed to be over by Christmas frank and graphic. “Canadian military up were Indigenous men with deep George McLean (above right) single- of 1914. Sasges concludes with the authorities could and did censor let- roots in a landscape renowned for rich handedly killed 19 at the battle of Spanish flu pandemic that claimed Vimy Ridge and captured 40 oth- ters home,” Sasges writes, “but the bunchgrasses. Denied land and rights another 50,000 lives at the end of the ers. He was welcomed home as a continuing publication of letters from as citizens, they still enlisted at rates war. The Nicola Valley was not spared, hero in Kamloops. One of the many valley soldiers through war’s end sug- comparable to the white population. cenotaphs (above, Phoenix) in B.C. with soldiers and settlers succumbing, gests they couldn’t censor everything.” George McLean, a man of mixed while the local Indigenous population Eleven days after Britain declared Indigenous and Scottish descent, coal mines, ranches and rules, trans- who faced minimal care lost one-sixth war on Germany, the first volunteers was from the Upper Nicola Valley. His formed from traditional Indigenous of its population. from the Nicola Valley were boarding “conspicuous gallantry” at Vimy Ridge lands to settler territory. Four years “All are remembered firstly as indi- trains for Kamloops, and were bound in 1917 earned him a Distinguished before the Great War, the Nlaka’pamux viduals and secondly as the collective for military training at Valcartier, Que- Conduct Medal. Only a Victoria Cross chiefs and other tribes in the region creators of legacies that both help and bec. At least 335 men (and two women) was considered a greater honour. had demanded action on land treaties hurt us today—that we might live,” from the valley enlisted. The names of George McLean single-handedly killed —claims that have yet to be settled Sasges writes. He dedicates this book 44 killed are etched into the granite of 19 of the enemy and captured 40 oth- more than a century later. to his grandchildren. 9780772672551 Merritt’s cenotaph. ers and was welcomed home as a hero The first three men from the Nicola The volunteers included cowboys, in Kamloops. Valley to die in the Great War all faced Mark Forsythe is co-author with Greg railway workers, coal miners and a Once Well Beloved portrays a valley deadly chlorine attacks. Like many Dickson of From the West Coast to the drifter or two. Among the first to sign in transition: transformed by railways, from B.C., they were Britons by birth, Western Front (Harbour, 2014)

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21 BC BOOKWORLD • WINTER 2019-20 EMILY CARR ART REVIEW “My sense of From Paris social justice only gets stronger as I to Whistler “European painters have sought to witness more of express Europe. Canadian painters must strive to express Canada. Misty landscapes and gentle cows do the struggles our not express Western Canada, even Kootenay art the cows know that.” emily carr world faces.” ew research into the extent that Emily Carr’s art evolved when a n n k u j u n d z i c she was abroad is the subject of Na new exhibition at Whistler’s Audain Art Museum. Emily Carr: Fresh Seeing: & activism French Modernism and the West Coast College) from 1959 to 1963. After that, he (Figure 1 $40) has been published in con- and Ann moved to Kelowna where they junction with the exhibit (on until January “I love memoirs like this. So many stories still built an art gallery together. Eventually, 19, 2020). Zeljko was hired to be head of the art de- Carr’s early training in San Francisco remain to be told, but are slowly being lost in partment at Pennsylvania State University’s and London had been conservative. It time, left behind in the misty blue mountains Fayette Campus where he worked from wasn’t until she studied art in France be- 1971 to 1982. tween 1910–1911 that her whole approach to painting changed and she began to ex- of the B.C. Interior.” — l u a n n e a r m s t r o n g Zeljko was born in Subotica, Yugoslavia. He received his master’s of fine arts degree periment with broad, loose brushstrokes from the Institute of Fine Arts in Budapest. and vivid, colours deemed “unnatural” for He died at the age of 82 in Osoyoos. His the time. artistic media included sculpture, clay, New Ground: a job teaching school. They both got equally involved painting, printmaking, metal, stained glass A Memoir of Art and Activism in BC’s Interior in the arts community there. They bought an old by Ann Kujundzic, with a foreword and weaving. church and turned it into a vibrant arts centre. They by Mary Schendlinger (Caitlin Press $24.95) Zeljko’s award-winning art has been made friends with playwright George Ryga and his exhibited in public and private collections wife Norma. Ann and Norma quickly became friends BY LUANNE ARMSTRONG around the world including Italy’s Pala- since they were both from Scotland, both married to zzo Medici-Ricardi, the Smithsonian in artist husbands, and both struggling to bring up small Washington D.C., Edinburgh University, was children on a limited income. nn Kujundzic Pennsylvania State University, National one of the many women who Ann and Zeljko’s house was a constant whirlwind Sculpture Collection, Toronto, and Kyoto shaped Kootenay commu- of artists and writers such as Patrick Lane coming National Museum in Japan. nities through their hard in and out the door. During their Kelowna years, He was commissioned to create the volunteer work, and their they were involved in various causes and concerns in Thunderbird sculptures at UBC’s Thun- devotion to both the idea Canada, and they travelled extensively in Mexico and derbird Stadium, and The Gate of Life, a and the formation of a sense North America. 135-ton sandstone archway. His monu- of community, whether through But two artists with a houseful of kids, and a con- A ment at the Jewish Community Centre in art, or potluck dinners, or community organizations, stant ongoing stream of visitors, is a hard structure Uniontown, Pennsylvania is dedicated to or all of the above. to maintain. Kujundzic also continued to study, make remembering those who died in the Ho- Ann Kujundzic grew up in an unconventional fam- art, work at various jobs, plus care for her family. t locaust. His autobiography, Torn Canvas ily in Edinburgh, Scotland. Eventually, Zeljko was Cover of Emily Carr: Fresh Seeing, featuring (Paterson, 1957) documents his early years Her mother believed in offered a job at Pennsyl- Le Paysage (Britanny Landscape), 1911. and his experiences during the Second naturopathic medicine and vania State University and World War, including escapes from both her parents supported their Kujundzic was clear that After her stint in France, Carr shipped the Nazis and the Russians. family by taking in board- she didn’t want to live in back over a hundred of her oil paintings Zeljko was survived by his second wife ers from a naturopathic the U.S., nor did she want and watercolours to Canada. “It showed Elizabeth and his children Laszlo, Kate, clinic. Kujundzic went to to raise her children there. that she believed in these paintings, was Judy, Andrew, Natanis and Claire, who is school in both Scotland At this point, their lives proud of her accomplishments,” writes Dr. a well-respected activist artist whose work and England and met her diverge, and Zeljko falls out Kathryn Bridge, co-curator of the Audain has been reproduced by Amnesty Inter- husband Zeljko Kujun- of the narrative. exhibit, “and thought she would profit from national, CoDevelopment Canada, the In- dzic (1920-2003) after he There are really two their sales.” ternational Congress of Midwives, and the moved from Yugoslavia to books here, the story of But after Carr returned to B.C., her stu- Health Sciences Association, and she was Scotland after the Second Ann, Zeljko, their family, dio show of 70 French works generated few commissioned to create a poster by CUPE World War. He got a job as and their huge community sales in the spring of 1912. A visitor com- BC to commemorate the 100th anniversary an artist, and boarded at commitments; and then the mented on the “riot of colour… I confess I of International Women’s Day. 9781773860015 Ann’s parents’ house. story of Kujundzic on her was a little startled. The blues seemed so

They had three chldren. own, working as a massage very blue, the yellows so unmitigated, the

Luanne Armstrong has written twenty-one Kujundzic was pregnant therapist in Vancouver for reds so aggressive, the greens so verdant.” t books, including young adult, fiction, non- with their fourth child twenty-five years and trav- The French were more sympathetic. In fiction and poetry. She mentors emerging when they moved from elling extensively. I would fact, two of her works had been accepted Ann Kujundzic and her daughter, artist writers. Her last book was A Bright and Scotland to B.C. in 1958 have enjoyed hearing more at the 1911 Salon D’Automne. This was a Claire Kujundzic, Wells, 2017. Steady Flame, The Story of an Enduring because they believed there about the first section, more vital venue for experimental artists such Friendship (2018). She is now working on would be better and more open opportunities to make about the kids and Zeljko’s career, more about what as Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso and a book of essays called, Going to Ground as art in Canada. They settled briefly in Cranbrook be- happened to other members of this vibrant family and Paul Gaugin.

well as a new book of poetry titled, When fore moving on to Nelson. It was a time of great social the many organizations and initiatives they founded. One of Carr’s works chosen by the sa-

We Are Broken. and political ferment in Canada, and especially in The travel narratives are equally interesting but not as lon, Le Paysage (Britanny Landscape), has the . engrossing to me as much as the first part of the book. t now been purchased by Michael Audain, During their Nelson years, Ann and Zeljko helped I was so glad to learn about this history since so founder of the Audain Art Museum. found the Kootenay School of Art, where Zeljko taught. much of the history of the sixties and seventies in B.C., “For the work of an unrecognized artist Initially Ann stayed home with their four children and particularly in the Kootenays, still remains to be and Caitlin Press for their ongoing efforts to publish Nativity (above), to think for themselves, always educating herself, from Victoria to have been featured at such (eventually five), and she also became involved in peace written: for example, the story of the brave, bold, early B.C. stories and, in particular, B.C. women’s history. a tapestry by artist and and living as a self-determined person whose life and a prestigious international exhibition dur- issues and helped found a chapter of the international feminist movements in the Kootenays; the story of the And many thanks to the great Mary Schendlinger for decisions were all her own. Zeljko ing the early 1900s was unprecedented,” peace group, Voice of Women. environmental movement; the huge and broadly-based editing this book. We are fortunate that Kujundzic, activist Ann Kujundzic, This is a wonderful portrait of a deeply interesting Kujundzic, says Audain of Carr’s inclusion in Salon Kujundzic writes that the whole story of the Koo- peace movement; and the many alternative communi- who is now in her nineties, brought this book to vivid who co-founded the woman living in a remarkable transitional and politi- t painter, D’Automne. tenay School of Art remains to be told and as far as ties such as Argenta. life with her writing. cally important time in B.C. I felt as if I were being sculptor, In a 1930 speech she gave in Victoria I can tell, this is very true. Ann and Zeljko also built Much of this history is scattered or remains within I am sure Kujundzic’s path and mine might have Kootenay School told a story by a brilliant elder who shared many of metalworker, on Modern art, Carr said, “unless we bring ceramicist a house in the Quaker community of Argenta, at the the memories of people who are aging quickly. Unfor- crossed at some point, since I was also involved in my own concerns. Thanks to all who brought this to our picture something additional—some- of Art in Nelson. and graphic north end of Kootenay Lake. tunately, there is little incentive to collect it and no thing creative—something of ourselves— peace work and in the Voice of Women, but at a much She lives in Victoria. book into being. artist. Political turbulence over the direction and adminis- funding for research, and, because the books will prob- later stage. From her writing, it is clear that Kujundzic O our picture does not live… ‘Creative Art’ is tration of the Kootenay School of Art eventually forced ably have a fairly limited market, not a big incentive was a determined, brave woman committed to mak- zeljko kujundzic was a founder and director of the ‘fresh seeing.’” 978-1-77327-091-3 Ann and Zeljko to move to Kelowna, where Zeljko got for publishers either. Huge kudos to Vici Johnstone ing art, supporting artists, bringing up her children Kootenay School of Art in Nelson (now part of Selkirk

22 BC BOOKWORLD • WINTER 2019-20 23 BC BOOKWORLD • WINTER 2019-20 bc bookword full page fall 2019_bc bookworld full page 10/29/19 3:52 PM Page 1

n e w a n d t i m e l e s s E k s t a s i s t i t l e s f r o m t h e d e e p w e l l o f t h e i m a g i n a t i o n

Saying hello city of beasts Gregor Samsa to the hangman robert MartenS Was never in Stanley evanS ISBN ---- the beatles ISBN ---- Poetry  pages J. J. SteinFelD Fiction  pages . ISBN ---- . Fiction  pages .

letters from the old Country Cutting Knots What Can i Say? Ken CatherS MiKe Doyle CharleS noble ISBN ---- ISBN ---- Poetry  pages Memoir  pages ISBN ---- . . Poetry  pages .

Catching Desire CarMelo Militano a Poet’s Journey ISBN ---- StePhen MorriSSey Fiction/Poetry  pages ISBN ---- . Non-fiction  pages .

in Formless Circumstance trevor Carolan ISBN ---- Poetry  pages . it began with a Story Pelin batu Selected Poems ISBN ---- Paulette Claire Poetry  pages turCotte . ISBN ---- Poetry  pages . the Devil’s Wind Western terrace anDré MaJor allan GraubarD Selected Poems ISBN ---- Katerina anGhelaKi Fiction  pages GreG SMith . rooKe ISBN ---- Poetry  pages ISBN ---- . Poetry  pages .

158 Fragments a thousand of a Francis bacon Pieces a Poet’s Journey exploded Joanne MorenCy StePhen MorriSSey larry treMblay ISBN ---- ISBN ---- ISBN ---- Poetry  pages Non-Fiction  pages Poetry  pages . . .

Ekstasis Editions       :        EKSTASIS EDITIONS BOX 8474, MAIN POSTAL OUTLET, VICTORIA, BC, V8W 3S1 W W W. E K S TA S I S E D I T I O N S . CO M W W W. C A N A D A B O O K S . C A

24 BC BOOKWORLD • WINTER 2019-20 photo—he grew up on the safe edge of hooliganism rather than as a public REVIEW nuisance. A tough guy would not write a paean to cribbage: ESSAYS “It was an empowering rite of pas- sage that earned you a seat at the Raincity: big table with the adults, where there Vancouver Essays by John Moore was no set bedtime and bowls of salty (Anvil Press $20) snacks. Peanuts and pretzels were not Small claim, rationed as they were to kids watching cartoons on TV… I still love crib but any students en- it’s getting hard to find players among tering university generations of people who grew up with these days have big talent Game Boys, Nintendo, X Boxes and difficulty writing Net-linked personal computers.” their own names. His father was a firefighter; his Penmanship, once For four decades John Moore has mother was a housewife. They bought M taught in schools as a house near the Capilano Suspension a mandatory subject, is going the way been a thoroughly original craftsman. Bridge for $30,000. “We went feral of the dodo bird. The advent of comput- faster than escaped ferrets,” he writes. ers has also wrought standardization Moore’s reverie for Mosquito Creek of composition. Fewer authors have a cuts the deepest, showing Moore is as distinct style. much a fabulist storyteller as he is a All of which serves as an introduc- trenchant essayist. tion to Squamish’s John Moore, an Then came Paradise Lost. “The iconoclastic social critic whose me- abrupt escalation of property values ticulously contrived sentences and snapped the saliva thread of oral trans- balloon-popping humour can make mission by which the bedrock values you laugh out loud and wonder why of a real neighborhood are conveyed,” he’s not famous. Moore’s non-fiction Moore writes. articles wend their way unpredictably, “By the mid-1980s, working class more like stories. Always clever and families could no longer afford to live frequently wise, he is an original stylist. where I grew up. Those who could were Or as he more deftly puts it: “Since the kind of dual-income professional I may be among the last generation of partnerships that surrender their freelance journalists to enter the job children to nannies at birth, then to like a rat coming up the toilet drain, private schools and extracurricular re- instead of via college courses in media gimes that take them out of the neigh- writing, they may have a small claim borhood; couples whose demanding on history.” careers let them spend very little time A few other original stylists who in their extensively renovated designer- immediately spring to mind in B.C. decorated homes, yet who bitch that literature—if we discount Malcolm they don’t know their neighbours as

an indictment of contemporary society Lowry—are William Gibson, D.M. photo

Fraser, Andrew Struthers and Ivan over crème brûlée in some downtown t moore Coyote. bistro.” John Moore Moore’s shrewd, often hilarious and

O joseph the subject matters in john moore’s sometimes mocking book reviews are long-in-fermentation anthology of non- upbringing in the wilds The storyteller excluded from Raincity. Perhaps if we fiction articles, Raincity: Vancouver of North Vancouver, back “We went in Moore can’t re- lived in less-polite New York or more Essays, include backyard bomb shel- in the bad ol’ days when sist veering into an erudite London, someone would admire ters (Cuban Missile Crisis), marbles it was still the déclassé, imaginative descrip- his wicked wit, sprinkled with deft cru- (childhood variety), cribbage and crib poor cousin of West Van- feral faster tion of a hoodlum’s dities, and collect those reviews, too. boards, umbrellas, sports cars, back- couver, brilliantly evoke exultant deflowering Meanwhile, Moore’s articles—in- yard traplines (a satire on foodies called his anti-gentrification than escaped of a West Van debu- cluding a brilliant takedown of Whis- “Roadkill”), Whistler, tattoos, depres- perspective. tante; having to dive tler—don’t really reflect Vancouver; sion, a novelty pop song (“Sukiyaki”) “In West Vancouver ferrets.” out the window, leg instead they mostly reflect North Van- and eco-tourism. in the 1960s, all teen- it around the pool couver. Arguably the moniker Raincity After the opener about childhood age boys from North Vancouver were lights and into the shrubbery when the doesn’t really fit and the term didn’t ex- memories of post-WW II paranoia, the presumed to be ‘hoods’ unworthy of Caddy or Mercedes unexpectedly pulls ist back in the rougher era that Moore reader soon realizes that Moore is the the affections of daughters educated into the garage, “savouring the thrill of mainly describes. Mosquito Creek and sort of talent who could be given almost at downtown private schools like York a double violation.” other Distractions? any topic and make a meal of it. House and Crofton House—girls whose While Moore relishes his remem- Well, no matter. Even if nobody in The best pieces are his most person- virtue, by reputation at least, was an brances of Tom Sawyer-ish hijinks the rest of Canada has noticed, there’s al. Possibly editors dissuaded him from item of parental barter as the recently along his beloved Mosquito Creek gotta be a few fervent and discriminat- intimate disclosures over the decades; affluent sought to marry into bigger (searching for and finding its head- ing John Moore fans out there, people or else Moore simply viewed such can- or older money. Those social-climbing waters) and he likes to hint at being capable of delighting in Moore’s mav- dour as being not commercially viable. West Van parents were wise to be leery the tough guy—posing a bit like an erick intelligence and his sly, Mark Either way, three accounts of Moore’s of us….” old school gumshoe for an author Twain-like wit. 978-1-77214-139-9

25 BC BOOKWORLD • WINTER 2019-20 The relationship FICTION REVIEW between these three self-exiled females is Sveva Caetani was born in 1917 in Rome, Italy, of Italian, French, English and Polish descent. The Caetani family was one of the oldest in Rome, complex and intriguing; with many prominent figures in the family history. When Fascism was on its what remains hidden by rise in 1921, Sveva and her parents came to the Okanagan where she was raised in a multilingual household, steeped in European traditions. Her father, two of them makes for Leone Caetani, Duke of Sermoneta and Prince of Teano, had been an Islamic scholar and a radical socialist deputy in the Italian parliament. When Sveva’s Sveva Caetani (1917-1994) a perfect denouement. father died in 1935, she and her moth- er, Ofelia Fabiani, entered a 25-year home-seclusion out of grief. It wasn’t until her mother died that Sveva re-entered the community of Vernon where she flourished with her A trust triangle artistic skill as a painter and a high school teacher. Daphne Marlatt illu- minated Sveva’s life as a female artist and her search for belonging in Reading in the Okanagan Sveva (Talonbooks, 2016), after Heidi Thompson edited her tribute, Recapit- ulation: A Journey (Coldstream Books, 1995). Now Laisha Rosnau’s second novel revisits the true story of how the Duke and Duchess came to Vernon as transplanted nobility in 1921. —Ed.

Little Fortress by Laisha Rosnau (Wolsak & Wynn $20) BY CHERIE THIESSEN

n 1921, fleeing Fas- cism, the Duke, Leone Caetani di Sermoneta takes his small entou- rage into voluntary I exile in B.C. He brings his mistress, Ofelia Fabiani, and their four-year-old daughter, Sve- va, as well as a 32-year-old household staff member, Inge-Marie Juul. The tale that follows in Little For- tress is related through the voice of Inge-Marie. In 1906, we meet Inge-Marie as she leaves the family farm at 17 and moves to Copenhagen, hoping for a job and a new life. A sudden and rash decision to accompany a boy she has only known for a few days, to go to yet another rural community in Denmark, seems to put her back to square one, except now she’s pregnant. First, she works as a shop girl, then a bakery assistant; next she’s a house- keeper/nanny to two children of a Laisha Rosnau teaches at UBC Okanagan, lighthouse keeper who has recently lost and has authored four collections of poetry, including his wife. When he proposes to make an Our Familiar Hunger (Nightwood, 2018) which won honest woman of her, she turns him the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize. down and he turns nasty. In her mid-twenties, she goes back to Copenhagen to find work with the ent structures,” author Laisha Rosnau woman who trusted her is the one who In 2010, when Rosnau lived less British ambassador and his wife. When told BC BookWorld, “and finally it was is also deceived by a woman that she than two kilometres from the Caetani that couple is posted to America, the my editor who suggested this one. I trusted. Sveva, the dutiful daughter home, she began to research their wife introduces Inge-Marie to the wanted the reader to have the feeling of whose life was so narrow and confined, story, poring over twenty boxes of Brandts, and she is soon accompany- circling around and spiralling through finally sees her life widen and open into material containing the papers and ing the wife and her child to join the time and memory as I imagined the friendships and artistic expression. archives of the family and the lesser- husband in Cairo where she will run women must have done during those O known Inge-Marie. Rosnau also in- the household and make yet another twenty-five years in isolation in Ver- in her first book, sudden weight of snow terviewed those who knew them and bad decision. non.” (Emblem Editions, 2003), Laisha studied Sveva’s art and writings. Eventually she meets the Caetanis. The isolation to which Rosnau is Rosnau also placed her characters “One of the biggest challenges,” Ros- Although Little Fortress is ostensibly referring is that which Ofelia imposed in a rural and claustrophobic B.C. nau says, “was to choose which stories told from the point of view of Inge- on Sveva once the Duke died. For years setting. While the protagonist in that to focus on for the novel, sprawling and Marie, it doubles as the true story afterwards, it’s only Inge-Marie who book, Harper, was dying to get away, shifting in time as it is. I did go down of the enigmatic Sveva Caetani, after ever leaves the house. Inge-Marie, the narrative voice in Little any of a number of rabbit holes. If I whom the Caetani Cultural Centre in The relationship between these Fortress, seems much more resigned were to start writing the novel from the Vernon is named. three self-exiled females is complex to her fate. same research today, I would likely end O and intriguing; what remains hidden In both books, the women made up with a different novel. along the way there will be ten shifts by two of them makes for a perfect decisions when teenagers to give them- 978-1-928088-99-8 in place and time, and they won’t fol- denouement. selves the lives they initially wanted; low chronologically. Why that format? Little Fortress can be seen as a trust and those decisions, not surprisingly, Cherie Thiessen reviews fiction “I experimented with several differ- triangle: The woman who deceived a had a lot to do with the wrong men. from Pender Island.

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27 BC BOOKWORLD • WINTER 2019-20 incapable of faithfulness for long. In 1811, he is re-tracing a journey he REVIEW made ten years earlier as a lovesick FICTION young man obsessed with a woman Biographical fiction much older than he was. Meanwhile, Marie Vernet is constantly reflecting on for historians, her past and seems afraid to embark academic researchers, on an unknown future before accepting The year of and understanding the past. and lovers of the Although the book contains pas- collection

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descriptive passages would be invalu- by Ann Pearson

Comet able to a researcher, despite not being (Granville Island Publishing $24.95) particularly conducive to an attention- t courtesy

BY VALERIE GREEN grabbing novel. In a non-fiction book on image the Napoleonic era, they would shine. Engraving of 1811 comet, Ottobourne nn Pearson’s A 1811 journal where we learn about his Pearson explains her reason for Hill, near Winchester, England. Promise on the motley group of fellow travel compan- writing A Promise on the Horizon in Horizon takes the ions as well as his compelling and over- of means, it is independence, while at this way: “Stendhal kept copious notes reader on a jour- bearing opinions. As Pearson herself the same time she is trying to come to on his Italian journey which I could ney of discovery to says, “his frankness can still surprise terms with her past. In Beyle’s case, reframe and interweave with fictional Napoleon’s Italy. the modern reader.” it is something far deeper. Bored with events to create this moment in the A The story is seen She then introduces another travel- his life in Napoleon’s bureaucracy, he Napoleonic era when a threatened through the eyes of two travellers— ler, Marie Vernet, the fictitious young takes unauthorized leave from his post invasion of Russia is on the horizon.” Henri Beyle (to be known later as woman whose account begins: to search for happiness and a better For most of the book, Pearson man- Stendhal, the French novelist, 1783- For the first time in my life I am understanding of his restless nature. ages to pull off this gigantic feat with 1842) and a mysterious young woman, completely alone. Though I had an- He believes that by returning to Italy an easy style. With so much material to Marie Vernet, travelling alone—an un- ticipated the discomforts of the road, I he might find answers. work with, it must have proved difficult usual occurrence in those days. had not foreseen the anguish on find- Both protagonists are drawn to the to omit anything. The year is 1811—a very auspi- ing myself at nightfall in a rich culture of Italy and An avid student of both Napoleonic cious time. It was called the year of place where I do not know tell of their parallel experi- history and Stendhal, Pearson has the Emperor Napoleon’s Comet which a single soul. But I cannot ences as they travel. It is captured the era and all its nuances. appeared in the sky and was seen as an turn back now. intriguing for the reader to Born in England, she gained a BA in omen because, in March of 1811, the With these lines, Pear- see life in 1811 from both French from the University of London long-awaited heir to the Emperor was son hooks the reader into a man’s and a woman’s and later, a Ph.D. from UBC. She now born. Most people thought this meant the story. Who is this perspective. lives in Vancouver and is currently the old order was finally over and great woman? And what is she In his diary, Beyle ap- working on a second Napoleonic-era new things lay ahead on the horizon. trying to escape from? Or pears to be obsessed with novel, set in Cornwall. 9781989467022 But, despite the dawn of a possible run to? love and women. He ad- new dynasty, the prospect of war also Like Beyle, Vernet also mits that he only seems Valerie Green has authored over twenty still lies ahead. appears to be searching happy in an intimate re- non-fiction books. In 2020, her debut Pearson bases her story on Henri for something. In her case, lationship and yet his novel, Providence will be released, a Beyle’s observations in his authentic now that she is a woman fickle nature makes him B.C. historical family saga. Gifts for Change

for the spiritual for the climate for the nurse for the for the foodie and questioning concerned environmentalist

for the nature for the social for the teacher for the ocean lover for the feminist lover activist

WWW.CAITLIN-PRESS.COM | WHERE URBAN MEETS RURAL

28 BC BOOKWORLD • AUTUMN 2019 WHALES COMMENTARY Mark Leiren-Young’s screenplay for The Hundred-Year-Old Whale won the 2017 Writer’s Guild of Canada Award for best documentary film and his The Killer Whale Who Changed the World won the 2017 Sci- ence Writers and Communicators (SWCC) Book Award. Now he has responded to Orca-strations the need to educate young people about whales with Orcas Everywhere: The It was love at first splash when Mystery and History of Killer Whales (Orca $24.95). The title was inspired by Mark Leiren-Young met Granny the idea that Orca whales live in every ocean on earth.—Ed.

Orcas Everywhere: The Mystery and History of Killer Whales by Mark Leiren-Young (Orca $24.95) For ages 9-12 BY MARK LEIREN-YOUNG

everybody knows orcas are awesome and they will steal your heart. They are part of the logo of the Vancou- ver Canucks and the E Royal British Columbia Museum will be launching a major exhibit about orcas in May. They are so important that I think it’s now illegal to create a tourism ad for B.C. (or Washington State) that doesn’t feature an orca spy-hopping or soaring above the water in a mind-blowing breach. The orcas we know best are the “south- ern residents.” These were the first orcas in captivity that humans met... the orcas that the Canadian government once plotted to exterminate so we wouldn’t have to share salmon with them... Orcas used to spend all summer long in the Salish Sea. When I discovered that some people believed that “Granny,” the matriarch of the southern residents, might be over a hundred years-old, I set out to make a movie about her. The southern residents were in the middle of a baby boom. The population wasn’t thriving, but it was recovering from the era when we’d wiped them out by shoot- ing them and taken a generation of their children to perform in marine parks. t Granny had just been elected honorary Mayor of Orcas Island. Almost everyone I Mark Leiren-Young (above); Powell River’s Ta’Kaiya Blaney interviewed was upbeat, hopeful, optimis- Ta’Kaiya Blaney, age 14 (below) “You can only see so from Sliammon First Nation was tic. The moment I saw Granny fly through much inequality as a eight when she started speaking the air—like she was ready for her close- still doing—to destroy them. out—and singing—about the dan- up—the matriarch and her pod owned me. I wanted to write a book that would young person before gers of a spill from the proposed Those were ancient times. Justin not only surprise and excite readers who Northern Gateway Pipeline. Trudeau was Canada’s shiny new Prime were already into whales, but also inspire your naiveté and I’ve always enjoyed writing the- Minister. Barack Obama was president of readers who’d never really thought about atre for young audiences because the United States. The iPhone seven had them. Equally important, I wanted to let natural sense of they’re engaged. They don’t just just been released. The year was 2016. young readers know what they could do justice propels you ask questions, they want and, That January, the southern residents to make a difference. sometimes demand, answers. So, lost J55—an orca who died so soon after O to take action.” doing Orcas Everywhere was an birth that researchers never confirmed one of the most compelling speakers offer I couldn’t refuse.

—Ta’Kaiya the young whale’s gender or mother. Six fighting for the southern resident orcas in In a lot of ways, this book was tBlaney more southern residents were gone before Washington State is London Fletcher. For created as Orcas 101—for adults, the end of the year. The Center for Whale the last few years she’s been battling to too—as an all-purpose introduc- Researchers waited until the start of 2017 breach dams in the U.S. to help save the tion to these magnificent beings. I to announce the death of Granny. Chinook salmon—the primary food source want to inspire readers of all ages That’s when we realized these orcas were for the southern residents. to join with leaders like London, in trouble. I wanted to do what I could to It’s pretty hard not to dub her the Greta Ta’Kaiya and Ella to fight on behalf inspire people to fight for them. So, I was Thunberg of whale conservation. of another species. thrilled when Ruth Linka, the editorial Fletcher is a member of the Society of It all starts with love. director at Orca Book Publishers asked if Marine Mammology and the Acoustical So- 978-1-4598-1998-6 I’d be interested in writing about her com- ciety of America. She’s twelve and she has pany’s namesake for young readers. told politicians, the media and the public, Mark Leiren-Young is an accomplished I wanted to share how and why I fell “We just can’t let them go without a fight.” dramatist , performer and critic. He for these whales. I wanted to share stories But she’s hardly alone. also hosts the Skaana podcast about how intelligent they are, how they Ella Grace from Ontario was eight where he interviews experts look after each other and what humans when she was inspired by eco-warrior about orcas, oceans and the can do to help them. I also wanted to write Rob Stewart to fight for sharks and the environment. www.leiren- about what humans have done—and are oceans. young.com

29 BC BOOKWORLD • WINTER 2019-20

Your

Holiday

Gift Guide

9781459818644 BB • $10.95 • Ages 0–3 9781459823204 BB • $10.95 • Ages 0–3 ★ “Sure to jump-start readers’ ★ “Simple but versatile, imaginations and create wacky yet charming.” moon-y, luminous dreams.” —Quill & Quire, starred review —Publishers Weekly, starred review

9781459821033 HC • $19.95 • Ages 5–8 ★ Booklist ★ Publishers Weekly ★ School Library Journal ★ “A beautifully rendered tale of loss, love, grief, and gentle healing.” —Kirkus Reviews, starred review

9781459821095 BB • $10.95 • Ages 0–3 9781459818286 BB • $10.95 • Ages 0–3 “Simple and engaging.” “A delightful experience.” —CM Magazine —CM Magazine

9781459819610 PB • $14.95 • Ages 6–8 9781459822269 PB • $19.95 • Ages 9–12 “A fun, magical romp.” “Rabble-rousing, —Booklist smart-talking kids.” —School Library Journal 9781459816244 BB • $10.95 • Ages 0–3 9781459817340 HC • $19.95 • Ages 4–8 “A wonderful testament to beginning and ★ “The natural world delights at every turn.” ending each say with gratitude.” —Kirkus Reviews, starred review —Canadian Children’s Booknews

“Like the Witness Blanket itself, Picking Up the Pieces will educate and enlighten Canadians for generations to come. It’s a must-read.” —Waubgeshig Rice, journalist & author of Moon of the Crusted Snow

9781459821637 PB • $10.95 • Ages 8–11 9781459819986 HC • $24.95 • Ages 9–12 “This brief sojourn in an “An amazingly accessible alternative 18th-century and fun book.” France is an unexpectedly —Elizabeth May, leader of the rich one.” Green Party of Canada —Kirkus Reviews

9781459819955 HC • $39.95 Ages 16+

30 BC BOOKWORLD • WINTER 2019-20 mother to go to the exhibition (which seems very much like REVIEW the PNE) because she has a coupon. CHILDHOOD “A coupon? That’s a whole different box of buttons,” Ma Kiddo by Cynthia Nugent replies. (Tradewind $12.95) And off Nugent went, trust- The importance ing her Proustian instincts, not knowing what was sup- elcome to Can- posed to come next. She had tilever, a fic- of being plucky no plans or ideas. tional town “Words popped out like somewhere Ma and darn tootin’,” she re- in Canada. Kiddo is not overtly identified as calls, “and toot sweet (for tout W The Beatles de suite). The Warbles also have recently released Love children’s literature; instead it can be say horse doovers (for hors

Me Do and it costs $3.46 to d’oeuvres). place a personal ad in the lo- read as a Proustian evocation of the Sixties. t “Thinking about it now, the cal paper. words and the mispronounc- Spunky protagonist, Kath- ing probably came from my erine—known to everyone Cynthia Nugent mother who liked to camp it as Kiddo—is going to tell and her cover up. I don’t have any children, you, confidentially, nearly illustration (above) so my own childhood is the for Kiddo. everything there is to know only one I know firsthand. My about herself as a grade four decision to fix on a time period student. didn’t come until I was well Ma has a star-gazing club into the novel. and works as a manager at “My own childhood was the Sally Ann [Salvation Army miserable, and I only found Thrift Store]. Ma, aka Con- refuge in books, the public nie, has studied the history library and school,” Nugent of bingo and collects bingo says, “But that day in the Ker- paraphernalia. risdale library, a fragment of Pop makes welded metal a comedic world came to me sculptures when he’s not and I just kept expanding it.” coddling his beloved 1941 O 9781896580661 Studebaker. “Pop [Fred] was laura langston’s tenth title always looking for Stupid- since 1994, Stepping Out baker parts,” Kiddo tells us. (Orca $9.95), traces the ambi- For the most dramatic sto- tions of an insecure, 15-year- ryline in Cynthia Nugent’s old, disabled comedian, Paige Kiddo, Kiddo and her Chi- Larsson, who attempts to nese Canadian pal Winston, graduate from the relative intrepid on their bicycles, help safety of being a YouTube the police catch a thief who comedy vlogger to competing takes advantage of Kiddo’s on stage at a prestigious com- innocence to steal precious edy festival. Studebaker parts from her A former broadcaster now father’s vintage car. living in Victoria, Langston The Viet Nam war might or take the dog for walks as Kiddo with a child might be feminism incarnate. has been a co-recipient of have been ragin’, but Kiddo’s punishment, she accepts she the optimal approach. Kiddo arose organically the $25,000 Kobzar Literary adventures somewhere in deserves to pay a price for her This is the boldness of from a few scribbled passages Award presented every two Western Canada remained recklessness, but her resolve Cynthia Nugent’s retrospective that Nugent wrote in the Ker- years to a Canadian writer tame—charmingly ordinary. is never diminished. experiment. Not everybody is risdale library one day, while who best presents a Ukrainian If you like the kind of plots going to like it or even under- she was killing time before an Canadian theme with literary that made The Beachcombers O kiddo is not overtly identified stand it, because it includes appointment. Suddenly she merit through poetry, play, our province’s greatest export as children’s literature be- lingo like “darn tootin.” Well, found herself describing an musical, fiction, non-fiction prior to Greenpeace and after cause there is an authenticity tough titty, as they used to say energetic child who slid on her or young people’s literature. the Bannister-Landy race, to the details that makes Kiddo back when children wandered socks into the kitchen. Her winning Kiddo is a high-grade retro- double as an investigation into their neighborhoods for hours, “You’re looking as zippy title was Le- grade fare, when princess a Sixties childhood as much unsupervised, trusted. Kiddo as a bumblebee, Kiddo,” her sia’s Dream. phones were the rage, and the as it’s a beguiling exploration presents backwards as for- mother says. 9781459808959 internet was undreamed-of. of innocence. Who were Little wards, as only sophisticated “Darn tootin’ I’m zippy,” Kiddo’s thirteen-year-old Lulu, Archie, Nancy, Peanuts, literature can. replied Kiddo. “Guess what? sister Pat wants a boyfriend— Laura Dick Tracy, Blondie, Marmad- Kiddo, in a word, is plucky. The exhibition’s on! So, what and gets one. Kiddo wins a Langston uke, Popeye and Dennis the Nobody can tell Kiddo what to about tonight?” contest at the opening of a Menace? What were comic do. She takes risks. She fails. Her mother balks at first, new gardening store and the strips? An adult co-reading She takes risks again. She is but then Kiddo convinces her prize is a shed. Her father refurbishes it for stargazing. How can anyone not pull for a heroine who loves entering Human trafficking contests, collecting coupons Werewolves get four-book deal and going to the library? Wendy Phillips’ young adult t’s not everyday an author is bombarded with calls Even though she’s a rot- novel Baggage (Coteau $14.95) from agents across North America, vying for the right delves into human trafficking ten speller, Kiddo desperately to publish their books. That’s what happened to Cherie and Canadian attitudes to refu- wants to be named the next I Dimaline within days of winning the Governor General’s gees. When a young African who Junior Journalist for the local Literary Award for Young Peoples’ Literature and the Kirkus speaks no English turns up aban- Town Crier newspaper. Her Prize for young readers’ literature in 2017 for The Marrow doned at the Vancouver airport, efforts to distinguish herself Thieves (Dancing Cat Books). By the following spring Dima- an enthusiastic young woman are frustrated at nearly every line, a member of Ontario’s Georgian Bay Métis community, tries to help. The concerns and turn, but Kiddo is resolute to had signed a four-book deal with Penguin Random House. The preoccupations of Canadian a fault, even if it means irritat- first book in the series, Empire of Wild ($29.95), inspired teens are thrown into sharp re- ing others. It would be divine by a traditional Métis story of the Rogarou—a werewolf-like lief in the glare of the truly dire to replace her condescending creature that prowls the roads and woods of Métis commu- circumstances of people from full-of-himself Junior Jour- nities—has been published. Dimaline started writing at the elsewhere in the world. Everyone nalist rival, Jeremy “Germ” age of five, influenced by hearing her grandmother’s stories. has to find a way to cope with Marroon. Her first two books, Red Rooms (2011) and The Girl Who their baggage. Kamloops-raised Kiddo is never deterred. Grew a Galaxy (2013) were published by B.C.-based Theytus Wendy Phillips lives on Gabriola. Cherie Dimaline When her sympathetic mother Books. Dimaline now lives in Vancouver. 978-0735277182 9781550509700 makes her water the garden

31 BC BOOKWORLD • AUTUMN 2019 32 BC BOOKWORLD • WINTER 2019-20 YOUNG ADULT REVIEW

Me and Banksy by Tanya Lloyd Kyi (Puffin Canada $18.99) Subversive ominica Rivers, or Dom as she’s known to her eighth-grade schoolfriends, brunches with street art vs. her grandmoth- D er Georgina and mother every Sunday. Georgina treats them both at La Patisserie, a fancy café where Georgina enjoys flirting with the waiter. surveillance It doesn’t bother Dom, the heroine in a new YA novel, Me and Banksy. At her grandmother’s request, Dom Tanya Lloyd Kyi tackles the use of cameras calls her George, especially in public. “She says the word grandma nulli- and social media bullying in high schools, fies the hundreds of dollars per month she spends on salon coloring,” Dom showing how friendship, art and self- reveals in an interior monologue. George owns a successful art gal- empowerment save the day. lery and brings Dom a new art book to read each week. She also begins pay- ing for Dom to attend a private school out and quickly whipped it off to turn Dom is horrified and endures unbear- find the culprit causing havoc in their for gifted children when she discovers it right side before putting it back on, able teasing. It takes an emotional toll lives. They also decide to initiate a so- her granddaughter has special artistic in what she thought was a quiet library on her. But Dom is supported by her cial activist project to protest against abilities. corner, discovers a slowed-down video friends, Holden and Saanvi. The three the cameras in the classroom. Dom is being raised by a single is making the rounds of her removing decide to take on the job of hacking One of the art books George gives mother—her father died before she her shirt as if performing a striptease. into their school’s security system to to Dom is about the mysterious street was born—but they aren’t struggling artist and political activist known as financially. Dom’s family are well into Banksy [a real-life character] whose the upper tiers of the middle class. spray paint stencil art appears to great Her mother runs her own business, a acclaim on public spaces like walls, lucrative catering business, and drives sidewalks and bridges. The social com- a silver Lexus. mentary conveyed by Banksy’s stencils Dom is close to her mother and combines satire and dark humour grandmother despite going through the with poignant images. It is not known difficult teen years when most young if Banksy is a male, female or a group people prefer to be as far away from of artists but Dom is fascinated by the parents and guardians as possible. art. Banksy’s graffiti first appeared in When George enquires about Dom’s England and now these political sten- new school project, her mother knows cils pop up in public places throughout nothing about it and has to ask her the world. daughter. “If she were a different type of Dom becomes empowered when, in- mom, she’d already know the answer,” fluenced by Banksy, she starts creating Dom notes. “Our Sunday brunches stencils of squirrels and spray paints are an update for her as much as for them on her school’s walls where she George. Which might be why George knows there are surveillance camera insists that she turn up every week.” blind spots. This playful graffiti is As it turns out, Dom’s project is for Dom’s way of thumbing her nose at the an ethics class (not the kind of course lack of privacy in her school. on your average high school curricu- Eventually Dom convinces her ex- lum) and it’s about privacy and security panding group of high school friends technology that’s changing the world, a to use this graffiti art to subvert an topic that is about to become very real upcoming public event at her school for Dom and her friends. to publicize their plight. In the process Dom’s principal has installed an more than just the identity of the social over-the-top security system that media bully is revealed. requires students to wear ID tags Tanya Lloyd Kyi has created a tracking their movements when they sprawling YA novel tap in and out of school every day. with a large cast of Cameras throughout the schoolrooms characters. One of and hallways surveil activities with a her strengths is be- closed-circuit television (CCTV) system. lievable teen dialogue Dom and her best friends, Holden including cell phone —a former child star recovering from text conversations; being over-exposed and overscheduled not an easy feat for —and Saanvi, a mathematical prodigy, an adult to pull off. abhor the surveillance system. Over-arching themes Someone hacks into the CCTV in the book, in addi- system, gaining access to footage of tion to art, include students who have forgotten that they timely issues such as are on camera all the time. Images of the use of cameras, one of the students picking her nose is social media bully- shared via social media. A teacher’s ex- ing, privacy and the posed thigh as her dress rides up when importance of friend- she leans against ship and social iden- her desk, goes viral. Tanya Lloyd tity. Kyi makes it clear on which side Kyi reading at Then Dom, who had she stands, dedicating her new book to Kidsbooks in t realized one day that her “anti-authoritarian” son. Vancouver. her shirt was inside 97807352266919

33 BC BOOKWORLD • WINTER 2019-20 POETRY REVIEW “At one and the same time a lyric poet, experimentalist, typewriter pioneer, sound poet, political writer, poet of environmental consciousness, sexual trailblazer and celebrator, biographer, visual artist, bookmaker extraordinaire, alien... bill bissett can be many different poets to many different readers.” —Tim Atkins, from the introduction to breth

breth/th treez uv lunaria: lines of type, gone over so many times selektid rare n nu pomes n drawings, that they become dark as if they’d been 1957-2019 by bill bissett redacted. (Talonbooks $29.95) Like Birney, surely one of our earli- BY HEIDI GRECO est eco-poets, bissett worries for the planet, especially for the whales and bissett salmon—and of course, the “treez.” ooking at my shelves Consider this excerpt from “sum ideas of poetry, I see uv evreething,” the title Atkins bor- that bill bissett rowed for his introductory notes: books occupy the i think breadth of an out- a tree stretched hand, yet is mor L these don’t consti- WORLD lovlee tute even half of this prolific poet’s thn a mass output. The fact that these books Reviewer Heidi Greco finds xekusyun extend along the shelf from Birney to Blake also seems right—both of those bill bissett to be a philosopher, Go ahead. Read it out loud. Tell your men being dreamers whose poems are mouth to make all the sounds, just as so distinctively individual, each in his a comedian, and a canary in the he suggests in the following: own way ahead of his time in form as sound pome yu can riff each well as subject. Blake’s visionary works coalmine with a voice that is as lettr each sylabul each phrase of angels and other worlds, Birney’s make yr own variaysyuns n still-contemporary-seeming songs of important as sustaining “breth.” sustaining lines or parts uv green and his “shape” poems. O For those not so fortunate as to bissett’s spelling stands as a weak have such an extensive collection, this but “organiklee.” He explains this de- But looking at the poems—and excuse for those who choose not to newest bissett book, breth/th treez uv cision by mentioning time itself: “… falling into them—is exactly what this read him. All it takes is the willingness lunaria could fill quite a bit of that gap, time i wanted 2 b continuing back n book offers. Even the oversize font (I to give his work the due any poem de- as it sits at over 500 pages. 4th not chronological 4 me ths way can only guess, but many of the poems serves—that of honouring its past as Fellow poet Tim Atkins has written creates a mor fluid flow uv th pomes n could well be set in 32-point, bold), an oral tradition. a useful foreword to the collection, “bill lets th pomes speek 4 them selvs.” impossible to ignore, serves as an And once you decide to immerse bissett: sum ideas uv evreething.” It And speak for themselves, invitation that’s hard to say no to. yourself in his work, you’ll discover the supplies all that any reader might need they do. And in amongst the poems breadth of worlds—from bombs drop- to know to be brought up to speed on When you see him are many examples of bis- ping in wars to the terrible island of who bissett is and how he got to be one perform, it’s hard to sett’s distinctive artwork, plastic that whirls in the Pacific. With of the country’s most well-known and grasp that he’ll be both his drawings as references to everyone from Shake- respected troubadours. He too alludes turning 80 in No- well as his “typewriter” speare and Stein to Gorbachev and to “the decades-old cliché that bissett vember (along with art. While some may Reagan and our friends who’ve gone to is a modern day William Blake” call- Margaret Atwood, choose to call these lat- spirit, bissett is philosopher, comedian, ing it one that “remains a reasonable his “astral twin”), ter “concrete poems,” canary in the coalmine. His is a voice claim.” Of course, he goes on with an as his readings are they often go beyond that is important, as urgent as sustain- exhaustive list of the many other facets much more than the usual examples of ing breth. 9781772012262 of bissett and his work. simple “readings”—he that particular form Bookending the collection is a set of chants, he dances, he in that words are not One of Heidi Greco’s poems was in- “notes” from bissett himself in which may even seem to howl only incorporated, but cluded in the tribute anthology, radiant he offers a rationale for the uncon- at the moon—he makes are often obliterated by danse uv being: a poetic portrait of bill ventional way he chose to arrange the words come alive so bissett (blewointment books, Nightwood Illustration by the work—not in the order in which you’ll never look at one of bill bissett, from Editions, 2006). Greco’s most recent they’d been written or published, as his poems in the same way breth (Talonbooks) collection is Practical Anxiety (Inanna is generally the case with a collection, again. Publications, 2018).

34 BC BOOKWORLD • WINTER 2019-20 REVIEW • WILDFIRES • ART POETRY • MEMOIR • ESSAYS From Chile to Victoria

The Schedule of Loss to another world, one I hadn’t travelled by Valentina Cambiazo to before, with a cast of characters far (Ekstasis Editions $23.95) beyond the usual workshop suspects. I had no idea Valentina wrote poetry but she does. Wow.” 978-1-77171-265-1 rom vanishing wild O cats, to poisoned after kerry gilbert won the gwendolyn oceans, to drown- MacEwen Poetry Award for Best Suite ing valleys, the by an Emerging Writer 2016-2017, her poems in The suite of poems served as the core of Schedule of Loss a verse manuscript called Little Red F by Valentina Cam- (Mother Tongue Publishing $19.95). biazo are an elegy to elemental forces. It’s a contemporary response to the The Way Home This debut collection explores memory, classic Red Riding Hood fairy tale, fully dreams, aspirations and the remnants cognizant of the missing and murdered by David Neel (UBC Press, On Point Press, $32.95) of self. women in Canada. Captured by Fire: Surviving Born in Santiago, Chile, Valen- Kwakiutl artist David Neel was tina Cambiazo of Victoria has lived in British Columbia’s New Canada since the age of twelve. She Wildfire Reality separated from his West Coast has also lived in Spain, France, and by Chris Czajkowski and Fred Reid homeland as an infant. Then, as (Harbour Publishing $24.95) the U.S. Her travels have taken her to an aspiring young photographer in eastern Canada, Chile, Mexico and Eu- Climate change has brought the U.S., he stumbled upon a mask rope. Her first novel, Dark Spirit, is set carved by his great-great-grandfa- in 14th century France. Her memoir- raging wildfires to B.C. threaten- in-progress is entitled Into the Heart of ing citizens and their property. ther in a Texas museum. He im-

Darkness: Six Harrowing Months in the This is the real-life story of what mediately returned to his ancestral

South of France. happened to three people who home and began the journey “back “Her childhood in Chile and her teen t home.” Neel’s memoir includes years in Victoria, where her mother chose to ignore evacuation orders over 100 colour and B&W photos. started a theatre company (they fled Kerry Gilbert teaches creative during the particularly bad wildfire Chile during turbulent times), meant writing at Okanagan College. season of 2017 in order to stay and that when she arrived in Nelson to defend their homes and animals. attend David Thompson University- Gilbert explores deeply entrenched College’s School of Writing at the age of lessons in gender roles with poetry 19, she was already an old soul,” says about characters she calls Wolf, Nana, author and BC BookWorld contributor Scarlet, and the Woodcutter; and in- Caroline Woodward who was a fellow cludes notions like the forest, lost and student with Cambiazo in 1983/84, the innocent children, crows, bears, acci- last year of the Nelson-based writing dents and homelessness. The end re- school. “I always looked forward to her sult is a melding of modern cautionary stories because they were like travelling tales with the intention to encourage readers to find new ways to navigate “the forest” with hope instead of fear. Song Cycle Three of Gilbert’s poems made the long list for the 2017-2018 Ralph by Valentina Cambiazo Gustafson Prize for Best Poem. She is co-founder of Spoke Literary Festival, Once the wreckage was spokefestival.com, a celebration of complete, writers in and around the Okanagan. I exchanged my heart with 978-1-896949-74-1 Emily Carr: Fresh Seeing: that of a nightingale: French Modernism and the it was small, by Dr. Kathryn Rain City: Vancouver Essays easy to hide, West Coast unbreakable, Bridge et al. (Figure 1 $40) by John Moore (Anvil $20) and all it wanted to do was sing. In 1910, at the age of 38, Em- After a poetry book and three ily Carr traveled from Victoria novels, John Moore has released The nightingale was left to dwell on all the grief in the world, to Paris to study art because, a book of essays about life in all the suffering she’d seen, as she wrote in an unpublished . It’s where he and was silenced. manuscript, “everyone said Paris grew up and held jobs such as a was the top of art and I wanted cab driver, bartender, emergency I didn’t care. My heart and I now soared to get the best teaching I knew.” room security guard, reporter up to a bright, blue sky; She came back to Canada a and wine reviewer. His black we saw the world from a changed artist, an enthusiastic humor is ever-present as he delves great height modernist, set to break new into issues such foodies, umbrel- cleansed of pain and poison. ground with her paintings as las, Whistler, and the prolifera- And we sang, how we sang. explained in this new book. tion of anti-depressant meds.

Thought provoking books available on

Valentina Cambiazo Selected by BC BookWorld t

35 BC BOOKWORLD • AUTUMN 2019 WHO’S WHO BRITISH COLUMBIA

A IS FOR AALBORG Spur Awards have been presented Suzanne since 1953. Winners have included Chiasson’s debut Larry McMurtry for Lonesome Dove and Michael Blake for Dances With novel is Tacet. She Wolves. G.K. (Gordon) Aalborg of Van- previously studied couver Island has won the 2019 West- acting, directing ern Writers of America’s Spur Award and playwriting at for Best Western Historical Fiction for his novel River of Porcupines (Five Queen’s University, Star $25.95). It describes the rivalry and wrote scripts between the Hudson’s Bay Company for the Vancouver and the North-West Company in the Fringe Festival. early 1800s, complicated by the arrival of Ilona Baptiste, a much-desired Métis maiden who could become the catalyst for a bloody trade war in the Rockies and West Coast. Married to historical romance author Denise (Deni) Dietz in 2000, Aalborg has published twenty romances under the pen name Victoria Gordon and founded the Tasmanian Gundog Trial Association. 9781432838157 photo Marilyn Bowering photo maddalozzo by her

daughter andie Xan Shian home of an overbearing French patron- for centuries for everything from wine, of Upper Arrow Lake) isn’t operating a ess of the arts. Feeling trapped within syrup, and medicines to textile dyes, summer mountaineering camp with an opulent but unsympathetic world and more. The Elderberry Book: her husband, she’s launching a new

of privilege, the singer goes silent until Forage, Cultivate, Prepare, Pre- career as a novelist with Viaticum

impetuous Theo arrives and renews her serve (New Society $24.99) by John (Now or Never $19.95). Having over- t strength for a possible escape. Tacet is Moody covers the history of this plant come a divorce and a fundamentalist a word that indicates a voice or instru- and provides guidelines for the many upbringing, cancer survivor Annika ex- ment that remains silent. 9781771834216 uses of elderberries, including simple pects some clear sailing—only to cross wine-making techniques, food recipes, paths with a debt-ridden realtor, Matt, medicine preparations, and its use in who leads her into a web of deception B IS FOR BOWERING D IS FOR DICKINSON crafts and tools. 9780865719194 and desire. In fiction, invariably there Poet Marilyn Bowering’s What is Long Set in London during the 1974 Irish are more snakes than ladders. Origi- Past Occurs in Full Light (Mother Republican Army bombing campaign, nally from Halifax, Fitzgerald holds a Tongue $21) reflects her long-held Don Dickinson's Rag & Bone Man F IS FOR FITZGERALD journalism degree from the University interests in culture as ecology. These (Coteau $24.95) follows the misad- When journalism graduate Natelle of King’s College and a Bachelor of new poems include meditations on ventures of an unemployed Canadian Fitzgerald of tiny Beaton, B.C. (for- Science degree from Mount Allison absences and loss, and verses link- hockey player named Rob Hendershot merly Thomson’s Landing, at the head University. 978-1-988098-87-6 ing literature, civilization and history. who is led into intrigue by his 83-year- Bowering’s other recent writing in- old roommate. As a somewhat naive cludes, Threshold: an encounter with Canadian who went to England to play G IS FOR GARDINER the seventeenth-century Hebridean pro hockey, Hendershot is perplexed We get two lives. The second one starts bard Màiri nighean Alasdair Ruaidh by the volatile politics of the era as when you realize you only get one. Elee (Leaf Press 2015), and a libretto, Mari- he looks for love in some of the wrong Kraljii Gardiner has edited Against lyn Forever, with music composed by places—and in an art studio. To make Death: 35 Essays on Living (Anvil Gavin Bryars, which premiered in ends almost meet, he works as an art- $22) to explore and recount near- Europe in 2018. The recipient of many ist’s model, posing as a modern-day death experiences or, as she puts it, awards, Bowering’s kudos include the Beowulf for the mesmerizing artist, "near-deathness." The collection is an Pat Lowther Award, the Dorothy Live- Margaret Lowenstein, with whom he attempt to avoid "the usual platitudes, say Prize, the Ethel Wilson Prize and is smitten. Dickinson of Lillooet, who feel-good bromides, and pep talks as- several National Magazine awards. lived in London during the time period sociated with near-death encounters." 978-1-896949-72-7 described, published his first book of t Against Death follows Gardiner’s fiction in 1982. 9781550502749 second book of poems, Trauma Head (Anvil, 2018), a memoir of unwellness C IS FOR CHIASSON Elee Kraljii Gardiner is the founder and that recalls her mini-stroke in 2012 The debut novel of Paris-raised Su- E IS FOR ELDERBERRY creative mentor of Thursdays Writing that caused her to lose feeling on her zanne Chiasson, Tacet (Guernica Elder trees ward off evil according to Collective, a non-profit organization of left side, leading to a discovery that $20), concerns a gifted jazz singer, folkore. That may account for why its Downtown Eastside writers, and editor there was a tear in the lining of an Charlotte, who takes refuge in the fruit, the elderberry, has been used and publisher of eight of its anthologies. artery. 978-1-77214-127-6

36 BC BOOKWORLD • WINTER 2019-20

WHO’S WHO BC tShelley Hrdlitschka’s daughter reading her mom’s book.

fiancé and family don't believe Kiran, she leaves for Canada to raise her H IS FOR HRDLITSCHKA child as a single mother, becoming an Shelley Hrdlitschka has co-authored undocumented immigrant. Abbotsford- with Rae Schidlo the kidlit story, based Kaur is an elementary school The Grizzlies of Grouse Mountain: teacher who also works internationally The True Adventures of Coola and as an arts facilitator to help troubled Grinder (Heritage House $19.95) about youth, work for which she has been two orphaned grizzly cubs rescued featured in Harper's Bazaar India and from different parts of the province, the Huffington Post. 9780062912619 leading to a bear refuge for them be- ing built high on Vancouver’s Grouse Mountain. Illustrations are by Linda K IS FOR KELM Sharp. The book steers away from The Indian Act remains central to being sensational and focuses instead Canada’s relationship with indigenous on motivating young readers to be in- peoples and their communities. SFU’s terested in the welfare of grizzlies. That Mary-Ellen Kelm, a specialist in set- means not anthropomorphizing the tler, colonial and medical histories of bears; though they have names—Coola North America, has co-authored with and Grinder—the authors are careful Keith D. Smith, Chair of First Nations to say they were “given” those names. Studies at Vancouver Island Univer- 9781772032772 sity, Talking Back to the Indian Act: Critical Readings in Settler Colonial I IS FOR IRANI Histories (UTP $29.95) as a ‘how-to’ guide for engaging with primary source In his book of short documents. With analyses of more stories, Translated than 35 sources pertaining to the In- from the Gibber- dian Act, the authors provide insight ish: Seven Stories into the dynamics of the Act’s creation & One Half Truth and maintenance. 978148758735 (Penguin Random- House $24.95) Anosh Irani imag- L IS FOR LOHMAN Anosh Irani ines a swimming in- Royal B.C. Museum structor determined CEO Jack Lohm- to reenact John Cheever’s short story an's third book, The Swimmer in the pools of Mumbai; Great Expecta- a famous Indian chef who breaks down tions: Reflections on a New York talk show; and an illegal on Museums and immigrant in Vancouver who meets Canada (RBCM disaster playing a game of cricket. $14.95) shares his 20 plus The first and last stories, however, are Jack Lohman belief that muse- Yoka directly from Irani’s own life “between ums must reflect varieties is reading & worlds,” reflecting his birth home, In- and promote "big-picture ideas" to con- recommends: dia, and chosen home in Vancouver. tribute to societal progress regarding After Life: While he succeeded in his goal of com- issues such as Indigenization, global- Ways We ing to Canada—to reinvent himself as a ization, migration and loss of biodiver- Think About writer—it came at a personal cost that sity. Lohman cites the successes and Death he explores in this new book. failures of the Royal B.C. Museum in by Merrie-Ellen 9780735278523 Victoria and pro- Wilcox poses Canada (Orca Books). could become ISBN: 9781459813885 J IS FOR JASMIN a safe haven Halfway through Jasmin Kaur's for cultural debut collection of poetry, prose artifacts and illustrations, When You Ask "imperiled" Me Where I'm Going (Harper- around the Collins $23.99) we’re introduced world. to Kiran, a young Sikh woman in 9780772673039 India, who is raped by her fiancé's brother and gets pregnant. When her Mary-Ellen Kelm t #5 - 1046 Mason St. Victoria, B.C. V8T 1A3 (just off Cook Street) 1-250-384-0905 • Hand sorted for premium quality • Full selection of exotic teas • B.C. honey and Belgian chocolates • Mail orders welcome PremiumAffordable Quality Pricesat www.yokascoffee.com

37 BC BOOKWORLD • WINTER 2019-20 ?? BC BOOKWORLD SPRING 2019 the Hubert Evans Non-Fiction Prize BC in 1989. His latest book is a collection of sonnets, The Poets Don’t Write WHO’S WHO Sonnets Anymore (Plume of Cockatoo Press $15.95). 7980981066615 “Homophobia,t M IS FOR MARCEL biphobia and Ninety-five-year-old Sechelt veteran transphobia are S IS FOR STEVENSON Marcel Croteau was decorated by King still common, and Stevenson’s Ghost’s Journey: George VI for surviving an unprec- A Refugee Story (Rebel Mountain edented thirty-nine missions during they hurt people. $21.99) was inspired by the story of the Second World War—but not un- So it is up to all two gay refugees, Rainer and Eka, scathed. He has endured a half-lifetime of us to challenge and their cat Ghost, with illustrations of PTSD. In 2014, that, and to created from their photographs. When France made life in Indonesia becomes too danger- Croteau a Knight change that.” ous for LGBTQ people, Ghost and her of the Legion of robin stevenson two dads are forced to leave their home Honour, its high- and escape to freedom in Canada. It’s est honor, to go Stevenson’s 22nd title in a dozen years. with a plethora 9781775301943 of previous med- als. Rejection, abandonment, T IS FOR TÉA Marcel Croteau bullying, alcohol- Rogers Trust Prize ism, reconcilia- nominee Téa Mu- tion, redemption, love, enlightenment tonji’s debut story and hope are themes of his memoir, collection, Shut Up Conquering the War Within: Conver- You’re Pretty (VS. sations with a WW II RCAF Rear Air Books $17.95), not Gunner (Austin MacCauley $13.95), only gets our vote co-authored with Lynda Manson. for best ‘title’ of the 9781643787077 Téa Mutonji year; it’s the only published-in-B.C. contender for the Rogers Writers’ N IS FOR NEEKAH Trust Fiction Prize. It’s the inaugural “Will you teach me how to knit?” Robin Stevenson, author of twenty-two books, she lives in Victoria. release from Arsenal Pulp Press’s new five-year old Neekah asks her mom VS. Books imprint, curated and ed- in Neekah’s Knitting Needles (Sono ited by writer-musician Vivek Shraya Nis $21.95). Neekah’s Coast Salish featuring work by new and emerging family has been renowned for their P IS FOR PRICE Q IS FOR QUINN Indigenous or Black writers, or writers woolen sweaters, hats, mittens and Steven Price’ s Identical gay twins Tegan and Sara, of colour. Born in Congo-Kinshasa, socks—in the style referred to as Lampedusa: A now living in Vancouver, have released Mutonji of Scarborough reflects life Cowichan knitting. This children’s Novel (McClelland nine studio albums and sold more within Congolese traditions and the story of how Neekah gets her knitting & Stewart $32) than a million records. Having col- challenges of being a Congolese im- needles (carved by her Grandpa Carl) imagines the life of lected three Juno awards, a Governor migrant “interrogating the moments is by Sylvia Olsen who marketed Giuseppe Tomasi General’s Performing Arts Award and a in which femininity, womanness, and Cowichan sweaters for sixteen years (1896–1957), a real- Grammy nomination, they have played identity are not only questioned but from the Tsartlip First Nation until life Sicilian aristo- on some of the world’s biggest stages imposed.” 978-1551527550 the early 1990s. Illustrated by Sheena Steven Price crat (and last prince and are known simply by their first Lott, the book marks Sono Nis Press’s of Lampedusa, a names, their last name is Quin. Their return to publishing after its office and small island in the Mediterranean Sea) coming-of-age memoir, High School U IS FOR UNSPEAKABLE warehouse were destroyed in a fire on who wrote but one novel during his (Simon & Schuster $32.95), is about Vic Parsons has revised his 1995 August 4, 2016. 978-1-55039-255-5 lifetime, The Leopard (1958). Published skipping school, dropping acid, fight- title Bad Blood: The Tragedy of the posthumously, Tomasi’s novel became ing over a landline telephone, hang- Canadian Tainted Blood Scandal in one of the greatest Italian novels of the ing out at the mall and getting facial the aftermath of the CBC miniseries O IS FOR O’CALLAGHAN 20th century. Lampedusa: A Novel has piercings. Their musical influences Unspeakable largely based on his book, Shelley O’Callaghan’s How Deep is been shortlisted for the 2019 Giller included Green Day, Ani DiFranco and Bad Blood: The Unspeakable Truth the Lake: A Century at Chilliwack Prize. Price’s previous historical fiction Courtney Love. 9781982112660 (Optimal $26.68). This edition contains Lake (Caitlin $24.95) is a history of book, By Gaslight (M&S, 2016) was several new chapters focusing on the nearly one hundred years of summers long-listed for the 2016 Giller Prize. fact that hepatitis C has in recent years at a Chilliwack Lake cabin. Similar to 9780771071683 R IS FOR RIDINGTON had a much greater impact on those the structure of The Curve of Time, Robin Ridington has been working infected by tainted blood than HIV. Par- in which M. Wylie Blanchet with the Beaver Indians, or Dane- sons looks back at the telescoped her family’s zaa, since 1964. As a UBC- fate of many people coastal cruising adven- based anthropologist, he initially affected Tegan and tures into one summer, studied storytelling tech- by bad blood in How Deep is the Lake Sara, the teen years niques of the Dane-zaa the 1980s and features expeditions in the subarctic Peace visits the con- taken by O’Callaghan River area of northern troversy over and six grandchildren t British Columbia whether do- as they investigate the for Trail to Heaven: nors should headstone of an Amer- Knowledge and be paid for ican scout with the Narrative in a donating 1858 International Northern Na- plasma. Boundary Commis- tive Commu- 9780888902924 sion Survey, a 1916 nity (1988), silver mine set up by which won Chief Sepass, and remnants of an indig- enous trail. 9781987915396

38 BC BOOKWORLD • WINTER 2019-20 Curious, rigorous, and V IS FOR VAN TOL interdisciplinary. Freelance writer and Literature, politics, program editor Alex Van Tol philosophy, humanity. grew up reading a Graduate degrees in liberal wide range of books, studies. Explore MA GLS. from Enid Blyton to Stephen King, and spent part of every summer in the Alex Van Tol Rockies, paddling the back country. With fourteen other titles to her credit, she has now co-authored, with Ian

McAllister, Great Bear Rainforest: A Part-time

Giant-Screen Adventure in the Land (Orca $29.95). of the Spirit Bear t 978-1-4598-2279-5

W IS FOR WILSON-RAYBOULD Chief Rande Cook with Linda Rogers. for working adults Cook was born in Alert Bay, on the The last collec- northern tip of Vancouver Island. tion of speeches Rogers was born in Port Alice. by a Canadian politician that we can recall in book form was Y IS FOR YO! Graduate Liberal Studies Tommy Doug- A collaborative kidlit book in English and las Speaks: Kwak’wala, Yo! Wik’sas? Hello! How Looking back to look forward. Till Power is Are You? (Exile Editions $19.95) is Brought to based on paintings by Kwakwaka’wakw SFU Vancouver: Pooling from artist Chief Rande Cook and writing The intellectual Jody Wilson-Raybould Oolichan Books by Linda Rogers. It takes the form of a heart of the city. in 1979. Forty conversation between Siri (an enigmat- years later, Jody Wilson-Raybould, ic creator) and Rande Cook’s two real- www.sfu.ca/gls the independent Member of Parliament life kids, Isla and Ethan, who question for Vancouver Granville, has published friendship, the future of the planet From Where I Stand, Rebuilding and what besides coffee motivates Indigenous Nations for a Stronger dads. When Linda Rogers suggested a Canada (UBC Press $24.95), an edited book be written, Cook replied, “Good, collection of her speeches and lectures go right ahead.” There is also a short made over a ten-year period. It debuted glossary to introduce a few Kwak’wala at #1 on the BC Bestseller List. words. 978-1550968286 Also known by her initials JWR and by her Kwak'wala name Puglaas, JWR served as Minister of Justice and Z IS FOR ZUEHLKE Attorney-General in the cabinet of Jus- Following the tin Trudeau from 2015 until January War of 1812, 2019 and then as Minister of Veterans it was several Affairs of Canada from January 14, decades before 2019, until resigning on February 12, British North 2019. Wilson-Raybould lives with her American colo- husband Tim Raybould in Vancouver. nies became a 9780774880534 country, Canada. Mark Zuehlke’s first graphic X IS FOR CLOSED novel, The Lox- Beltane Books on Hornby Island, at leys and Confederation (Renegade the ferry dock, has closed, to be re- Arts $19.99) tells the story of this era placed by a beer and wine store. But through the lives of the Loxley family don’t despair. The owners (including on the Niagara peninsula when pre- antiquarian bookseller Michael John Canada colonies again faced the threat Thompson) are hoping to rebound with of an American invasion. Zuehlke’s a caravan bookstore, as illustrated in co-writers are Alexander Finbow and The Wind in the Willows by their friend James Sinclair; illustrations are by Charles van Sandwyk. Beltane Books Claude St. Aubin and Christopher was founded in 1983. Chuckry. 9780992150891

E D - t I Art from a commemorate edition of Kenneth Grahame’s The Wind in the Willows (The Folio Society, 2008) by North Vancouver’s Charles van Sandwyk.

39 BC BOOKWORLD • WINTER 2019-20 LETTERS

O Congratulations about passing the BC Bombs away BookWorld torch to Beverly Cramp. Thanks for printing the eloquent, Alan Twigg has made a beautiful im- heartfelt and succinctly put “Last pact on B.C.’s book scene. May his Word” by Alan Twigg. [Autumn 2019] legacy last for generations. My favourite quote is “we’ve continued —Mona Houle, Victoria to lob media bombs over the Rocky O Mountains…” B.C. does have its own Happy trails to Alan Twigg as he heads culture!! Sometimes it feels there’s an into retirement. He created something alternate reality out there, but BCBW very important in B.C. My knowledge confirms my world. It serves us as a about the book business goes back strong protester to hang onto, under to the early ‘80s, and I know that BC difficult circumstances. Thirty-three BookWorld means a lot to many people years of making BC BookWorld takes in this province. perseverance. So thank you to both —Heather Graham, Sointula Alan, aka Robin Hood of Canadian Lit- O erature, and David Lester, in Sherwood My main reason for writing is to thank Forest. There’s no rest for the literary. Alan Twigg for all he has done for my Sharon Keen books over the years. But thank you Victoria sooooo much for featuring a LOVELY full-page review of my latest book in the

current issue of BCBW! Because BCBW

Torch passing has such a large readership, I know Alan Twigg’s retirement is something t this will give my book a huge boost. And of an earthquake in our cultural land- I love that each issue of BCBW has a scape. I won’t lament, but instead will three-month life span. celebrate and thank him for the 33 Originating board members of Pacific BookWorld —Wendy Wickwire, Sidney years during which he created so much News Society in 1988: George Woodcock, Aileen O of our B.C. literary identity. His career Any smart boxer knows the best time has been exemplary for its energetic Tufts (VPL Chief Librarian), Jane Rule, Alan Twigg to hang up the gloves is when you’re undertakings and good judgment. No (publisher), Howard White (society president), David at the top of the game. Keeping track other province to my knowledge has of 12,000 B.C. writers is enough! I’ve had an advocate for its culture that Kerfoot (bookseller, Duthie Books). always been grateful for Alan Twigg’s matches what he has done for writing efforts on behalf of all B.C. writers. Now in B.C. he can get down to work on all those David Stouck ing about new voices, a few of them unwritten books. West Vancouver belonging to former students. I don’t —John Moore, Garibaldi Highlands know what else to say about how much Samplings I appreciate him putting so many B.C. Alan Twigg has done me many favours On track writers onto the cultural map. So well over the years. I am thankful that I was Alan Twigg’s new biography of the last I just read about Alan Twigg stepping done and so important. one of the thousands to whom he gave surviving physician to have worked down in the latest issue. I have thanked By including so many B.C. writers, a helping hand. I admire him for his him before, but this seems an appro- of all kinds, in so many pages of BC courage to move on and I wish him the alongside Albert Schweitzer, Moon priate time to do so again. I am sure BookWorld, he has assured us that very best. —Fred Braches, Whonnock Madness: Dr. Louise Aall, Sixty Years that I am seeing evidence of greater there will be a record of our work that O awareness of Indigenous culture than is noticed. I have much admiration for I want to thank Alan Twigg for the kind- of Healing in Africa, is now available. I did before he started publishing BC his passion, and wish him all the very ness he has shown me as a new author. His forthcoming book, Tolstoy’s Words BookWorld. best for whatever he does next. Whatever he is going to do next, I pray to Live By, with translator Peter Sekirin, I have also enjoyed following the Mary Burns for every success for him. Good luck! careers of contemporaries and learn- The Sunshine Coast —Kunio Yamagishi, Courtenay will be available in the spring. – Ed.

Richard Kelly Kemick 44• 2 Read. Deadline December 31 They can hear your stomach churn,

smell the cavities in your molars, elevendollarsninetyfive For the 37th Annual BCHF seepoetry your pulse gallopingand prose into the soft parts of your neck. Subscribe. There is no place they do not know you. Historical Writing Competition Submit. The BC Lieutenant-Governor’s Medal for Historical Writing may be awarded to the author whose book makes the most signi cant Because every issue contribution to the historical literature of British Columbia. is an EVENT. HISTORIC BIA AL M F U E L D O E C R A H T Eligibility S I I O Top prize: $2,500 T I N

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T FINALIST T I E N R A W Second prize: $1,500 N T HISTOLRIC IA A A For historical writing of non- ction G B C L O M I FE V U R D • 2017 Canadian Magazine Awards E L R O TO E NO C IS R R'S R H A MEDH L FO T S A I I O T I N Third prize: $500 books published in 2019 by authors of R

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L Winner, Best Literature and Art Story, G

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T WINNER T I E N R A W N British Columbia history. T L Community History Award: $500 including Poetry G A O IC V E R R TO NO IS R'S H MEDAL FOR • 2016 National Magazine Awards Finalist, Fiction and Personal Winners announced at our annual conference in 2020. See our website for entry details. • Journalism • 2015 National Magazine Awards Finalist, Poetry

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41 BC BOOKWORLD • WINTER 2019-20 LETTERS QUICKIES Sail on, read on Ferry fan What a boost it was see my book, Thank you for featuring the book in a A QCOMMUNITY BULLETIN Brother XII: The Strange Odyssey of two-page spread! I can hardly believe a 20th Century Prophet, in the “BC it—I travel the ferry regularly to visit BOARD FOR INDEPENDENTS BookWorld Recommends” advertise- family on the mainland and my (al- ment from BC Ferries. Thank you most) first stop is to grab the latest BC QUICKIES is an affordable advertising for selecting it. This means a helluva BookWorld issue—so to be included lot, I know, because it guarantees all inside the pages is a real treat. vehicle for writers, artists & events. those millions of passengers who ride Lynn Salmon For info on how to be included: the BC Ferries each year get to see Courtenay [email protected] my book. This sort of literal showcase is pretty much incomparable in this day and age. Who’s Who John Oliphant Thank you for including me in the No Ordinary Vancouver Who’s Who author listings in the lat- Seaman est issue of BC Bookworld. I’ve had a A Memoir number of people contact me about by Gary H. Karlsen Avec Quebec Hughes news it—all quicker on the draw than I am. Beckoned by the sea: tales Having come across BC BookWorld on- Thanks for the great coverage of my All delighted with the write-up, as am of a young man shipping out of Vancouver in 1965. line, I’ve been enjoying the magazine E.J. Hughes book, E.J. Hughes Paints I. It is encouraging to see my book, $22.95 • ISBN 978-1-7752669-0-7 in digital form from Montreal. Most of Vancouver Island. At the moment Every Shameless Ray mentioned in noordinaryseaman.com eBook at Amazon & Kobo us easterners who’ve spent some time volume two—the Hughes story in such a good magazine. SEAFARING MEMOIR in B.C. forever feel the tug to return Vancouver, up the coast and across Leslie Timmins someday, and I’m no exception. Until the mainland—is expected out this Vancouver I can make it back, BC BookWorld is fall. With your boost for summer sales A Secret Garden a great way to experience the B.C. (Volume one is now in reprint pro- Woo woo The story vibe that resonates between the lines. duction) we all hope for a wonderful of Darts Hill Thanks for providing a connection to year for Mr. Hughes. This is the sort Another season, another reason to Garden Park adventures in my younger days of tree of response I had hoped for with my write a love note to BC Bookworld. by Margaret planting, hitchhiking, hiking-hiking, previous ten books. With your help, Three of its many delights: 1. A new Cadwaladr and kayaking around Galiano Island. at last it’s here! BCBW publisher! 2. More signs of isbn: 978-1-9995465-0-2 Paul DuVernet Robert Amos the reawakening of our magnificent $29.95 • dartshill.ca Montreal Victoria Indigenous cultures and, last but not [email protected] least, 3. the word “woo” three times in LOCAL / GARDEN HISTORY Send letters or emails to: BC BookWorld, 926 West new book titles. Ha! 15th Ave., Vancouver, BC V5Z 1R9 John Harris [email protected] • Letters may be edited for clarity & length. Nanaimo The Chocolate Pilgrim by Marie Maccagno Fearless, honest. A must- read for those walking their PRIZES own personal journeys. 978-1-7750721-0-2 now be sent to the UBC Library instead of BC $25 cdn/pb • e-book versions available NEUSTADT BookWorld. Info: (604) 822-5142 or stacy. mariemaccagno.com/books INTERNATIONAL PRIZE [email protected] MEMOIR Send entries to: Basil Stuart-Stubbs Sto:Lo author and poet Lee Maracle was Book Prize, UBC Librarian’s Office, Irving K. among nine finalists for the $50,000 Neus- Barber Learning Centre, 202A – 1961 East tadt International Prize for Literature. Ma- Direct Action Mall, Vancouver, B.C., V6T 1Z1 Canada Gets The racle earned the nomination for her novel Goods Celia’s Song (Cormorant, 2014). The Neus- A Graphic History of tadt is awarded to a work of poetry, fiction or GOVERNOR GENERAL’S

the Strike in Canada drama that has significantly contributed to by The Graphic History AWARDS 2019

Collective world literature. The award has been nick- named the “American Nobel” because more Titles from three Talonbooks authors re- $14.95• 9781771134170 t Between The Lines than 30 laureates, finalists and jurors have ceived Governor General’s nominations this www.btlbooks.com gone on to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. year: 1 Hour Photo by Tetsuro Shigematsu Lee Maracle GRAPHIC NOVEL This year’s winner was Albanian novelist, (for Drama), Thanks for Giving by Kevin poet, essayist and playwright Ismail Kadare. Loring (for Drama) and Synapses by Simon Brousseau, translated by Pablo Strauss (for Translation). Translator 1919 Linda Gaboriau won a GG for Translation for Talon author A Graphic History BASIL STUART-STUBBS PRIZE Wajdi Mouawad’s Birds of a Kind that was published by of the Winnipeg General Strike Publishers and authors are reminded that the deadline Playwrights Canada Press. by The Graphic History for submitting entries for this year’s Basil Stuart-Stubbs All seven winning books for the Governor General’s Collective and David Lester Prize is December 15th (or, if published later in the year, Award for literature in English were published in Toronto; $19.19 notification that it will arrive subsequently). Established in only one of the seven winning authors lives west of On- ISBN 9781771134200 Between The Lines memory of Basil Stuart-Stubbs, UBC’s University Librar- tario—in Winnipeg. In the French language categories, www.btlbooks.com ian for 17 years (1964-1981), this annual prize recognizes Catherine Leroux’s translation of the novel Do Not Say We GRAPHIC NOVEL the best scholarly book published on a B.C. topic by a Have Nothing (Vintage Canada, 2017) received a transla- Canadian author. New this year is the value of the prize tion prize. Its author is former Vancouverite, Madeleine has risen from $1,000 to $2,500. Also, submissions should Thien, who now lives in Montreal.

Anvil Press...17 Graduate Liberal Studies (SFU)...39 Nightwood Editions...25 Self-Counsel Press...11 Banyen Books...43 Granville Island Publishing...27 Orca Books...30 Tanglewood Books...43 BC Ferries Books...35 Greystone Books...32 Pavlick, Ann M...20 Tanner’s Books...43 BC Historical Federation...40 Harbour Publishing...44 Penguin/Random House...15 Tradewind Books...5 Caitlin Press...28 Jewish Book Festival...6 People’s Co-Op Books...43 UBC Press...5 Crossfield Publishing...14 The Heritage Group of Publishers...21 Polestar Calendars...27 Victoria Book Prizes...6 Douglas & McIntyre...18 Marquis Printing...41 Printorium/Island Blue...41 Wong, Edwin...14 Douglas College/EVENT...40 Mercer, George...39 Proud Horse...14 Yoka’s Coffee...37 Ekstasis Editions...24 Mermaid Tales Bookshop...43 Ronsdale Press...12, 14 AD Friesens Printers...41 Mother Tongue Publishing...20 Royal BC Museum...37 INDEX Galiano Island Books...43 New Star Books...17 Sandhill Book Marketing...8

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