Winter 2006 Volume 20
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YOUR GUIDE TO BOOKS & AUTHORS • DISTRIBUTED BY 700 OUTLETS IN BC FREE news& reviews FROMFROM BUDBUD TOTO WORSEWORSE GrantGrant Buday’sBuday’s sobering grow-op novelnovel exploresexplores badbad potpot luck.luck. P.P. 2828 BOOKWORLDBC VOL. 20 • NO. 4 • WINTER • 2006 SHELAGH ROGERS: POIGNANT BABYTALK P. 2 1 FIND MORE THAN GARRY 8000 GOTTFRIEDSON: B.C. AUTHORS COWBOYS AND INDIANS AND www.abcbookworld.com POETS. P. 15 MARILYN BOWERING: SANITY INSIDE THE CUCKOO’S NEST. P. 31 BLAZINGBLAZING NEWNEW TRAILSTRAILS IVANIVAN E.E. COYOTECOYOTE goes beyond conservative Alberta boundaries in her first novel. SEE STORY P. 22 ALSO INSIDE: PHOTO SAWCHUK LAURA EARLE BIRNEY: Publication Mail Agreement #40010086 REELING IN THE YEARS...35 HAIDA ART P. 7 • CHAINSAWS P. 8 • SHARKS P. 13 • JERRY WASSERMANIA P. 16 CANADA We’ve got the world’s Beware the longest, bisecting bison east-west highway udbury has the Big Nickel. Echo Bay has the Big SLoonie. Sault Ste. Marie has a huge baseball, seemingly left behind by giants. orth America’s longest north-south road, Highway 97, connects Not to be outdone, Wawa has a giant N Weed, California and the Yukon bor- goose; Moose Jaw has Mac the Moose, der. ten metres high. White River has a The Long and Winding Road (Her- marbelite statue of Winnie the Pooh itage $18.95) is Jim Couper’s illus- clutching his honey pot. trated guide to the “pleasures and They’re some of the roadside attrac- treasures” of the two-thousand-mile tions in Dan Francis’ paean to mo- route that passes lava beds, bison, deserts, torized transport, A Road for Canada orchards, vineyards, forests and a full- (Stanton, Atkins, Dosil $39.95), mar- scale replica of Stonehenge at Maryhill keted as an illustrated history of the on the Columbia River gorge. Trans-Canada Highway. Founder of Canada’s national cycling As Francis first discovered during his magazine Pedal, Couper lives within ten three-month honeymoon journey in an miles of Highway 97 in Kelowna and orange Volkswagen camper, Canada’s wrote Discovering the Okanagan in other National Dream is an automotive 2004. 1-894974-12-3 spinal cord that stretches from Victoria to St. John’s—making it twice as long as the Great Wall of China. Fueled by “Driving the Trans-Canada is a rite Mac, the of passage,” he recalls, “but it can also world’s largest blackberries be a trial by fire.” Back in the late sixties, he and his bride always parked on a moose, greets s self-described Geriatric Gypsies, slope, enabling them to jump-start the A Barb and Dave Rees of vehicle each morning. “Canada was sev- visitors in Powell River hit the road in an old 27- eral days wider than I had given it credit Moose Jaw. ft. motor home loaded down with drift- for,” he recalls. wood, books, brandied blackberry sauce While paying heed to iconic mo- and sold their possessions as they went. ments—such as watching a weathered With advice on free camping and grain elevator grow larger on the hori- roadside survival tips on locating farm- zon—Francis also explores the roadway’s ers’ and flea markets, RV Canada on a historic and symbolic significance. “As Dime and Dream ($19.95) recounts Canadians know from our periodic con- how they financed their way across stitutional squabbles, the thread might Canada, starting with only $300 in their break. Meanwhile, the highway reveals pockets. us to ourselves.” “It wasn’t without many down-to-the- The first province to complete its Dan Francis (right) celebrates how the wire moments,” she says, “but more of- share of the Trans-Canada was Saskatch- Trans-Canada Highway ties our country ten it was filled with the wonderful ewan. The highway’s half-way point is together in A Road for Canada. generous people that make up our great Chippewa Falls in Ontario. 09732346-7-9 country.” 0-9736198-8-0. Info at www.abcbookworld.com Contributors: Grant Shilling, Mark Forsythe, Sheila Munro, Joan Givner, Sara Cassidy, Louise Donnelly, Hannah Main-van der Kamp, INDEX to Advertisers BC Heather Ramsay. Cherie Thiessen, John Geary, BOOKWORLD Shane McCune Alford, Patsy...40 Heritage House...9 Royal BC Museum...32 Writing not otherwise credited is by staff. Arsenal Pulp Press...17 Hignell Printing...42 Sandhill...14 Winter Issue Vol. 20, No. 4 Photographers: Barry Peterson, Laurie Sawchuk Banyen Books...36 Hooper, Jackie...40 Save-On Foods...34 BC Book Prizes...27 Houghton Boston Printers...42 SFU Writing & Publishing...28 Publisher/ Writer: Alan Twigg Proofreaders: Wendy Atkinson, Betty Twigg BC Historical Federation...38 Howard, Ruth...40 Sidney Booktown...38 Editor/Production: David Lester Design: Get-to-the-Point Graphics BCIT...26 Julian, Terry...40 Sono Nis Press...10 Deliveries: Ken Reid Publication Mail Agreement #40010086 Bolen Books...32 Literary Press Group...34, 36 Stanton, Atkins & Dosil...20 Return undeliverable Canadian We acknowledge the assistance of Canada Council and the Book Warehouse...30 Lived Experience...41 Temeron Books...34 addresses to: BC BookWorld, Province of British Columbia, through the Ministry of Caitlin Press...30 McClelland & Stewart...5 Terasen...4 3516 W. 13th Ave., Vancouver, Community, Aboriginal, and Women’s Services. BC V6R 2S3 Crown Publications...32 Morriss Printing...42 Thomas Allen...12 Douglas & McIntyre...2 Multicultural Books...26 Thomson, Ann...40 Produced with the sponsorship of Pacific BookWorld News Society. Douglas College/EVENT...34 New Star Books...34, 36, 38 Transcontinental Printing...42 Publications Mail Registration No. 7800. ECW Press...30 Nightwood...36 Treeline Books... 39 BC BookWorld ISSN: 1701-5405 Ellis, David...38 Northstone...32 UBC Creative Writing...38 Advertising & editorial: Federation of BC Writers...40 Oolichan Books...18 UBC Press...41 BC BookWorld, 3516 W. 13th Ave., Vancouver, B.C., V6R 2S3 First Choice Books...36 Orca Books...24 Vancouver Desktop...40 Friesens Printers...42 Penguin Books...13 White Knight Books...26 Tel/Fax: 604-736-4011 Givner, Joan...36 People’s Co-op Bookstore...38 Woewoda, James...40 Email: available on request . Annual subscription: $12.84 Granville Island Publishing...36 Playwrights Canada Press...34 Wolsak & Wynn...34 Harbour Publishing...44 Printorium...42 Yoka’s Coffee...39 All BC BookWorld reviews are posted online at www.abcbookworld.com HarperCollins...18 Random House...29 TO ADVERTISE CALL Hedgerow...34 Ronsdale Press...6 604-736-4011 3 BOOKWORLD WINTER 2006 ART QUEEN CHARLOTTE CITY BOOK LAUNCH: Curator Nika Collison (left) and Skidegate Haida Immersion coordinator Kevin Borserio hold Raven Travelling as elder Jackie Casey reads from the book. HAIDA REDUX PHOTO HAIDA REDUX RAMSAY TWO CENTURIES OF ART HEATHER n front of a fire pit in the Performance House at the old the rude and funny stories he creates are rendered in a village site of Qay’llnagaay or Sea Lion Town, near Japanese comic book style, Skidegate on Haida Gwaii, direct and indirect contribu- rich with Haida symbols and imagery. “We haven’t lost tors to Raven Travelling (D&M $65) gathered to celebrate anything,” he says. Accord- the launch of the lavish coffee table book that coincides ing to Yahgulanaas, the great masters of Haida art from with a national touring exhibit of the same name that cel- two centuries ago are still ebrates two centuries of Haida art. here, as evidenced by Raven Travelling. “And they are still The celebration com- started out in high school,” he here through the names,” he Imenced when the Haida ver- says, “there were five books says. sion of a wild man of the available and they were all by Yahgulanaas notes the woods slipped into the room, Marius Barbeau.” Haida, like the raven, are two women screamed and the Giitsxaa, 61, says he didn’t also travelling afar, gaining creature was ceremonially choose to be an artist, he sim- global recognition. “We are PHOTO drummed out of the hall. ply is one, but he envies the on the $20 bill,” he says, re- RAMSAY RAMSEY Then the emcee spoke about HEATHER young artists of today. “I won- ferring to the image of Bill which bathrooms were work- der what it would be like to start Reid’s Black Canoe, the ing in the still-to-be-completed, $25 mil- out with all of these books and knowl- HEATHER original of which stands out- Giitsxaa, a carver who grew up in Skidegate. lion Haida Heritage Centre. It was a edge that people were trying to sup- side the Canadian Embassy seamless mix of tradition and contem- press,” he said. When he was growing in Washington, DC. “And porary reality—like the book itself. up in Skidegate, there were carvers but relatives that recognize the pieces and also we have infiltrated the most militarily ✍ they were less visible. The potlatch ban know its history, even more so, and tell us powerful city in the world. The Raven is For the unprecedented exhibit, now effectively silenced the political, social the stories behind it…It’s so important, the about to erupt!” touring across Canada, gold and silver and economic system of the Haida and strength that comes through that.” Newly commissioned pieces in Raven bracelets, deeply-carved feast dishes, many young people were sent to resi- The book features more words from Travelling include an impassioned essay spruce root hats, argillite pipes and silk- dential schools. the artists themselves including poems by Haida Gwaii museum curator Nika screen prints were gathered from muse- Artist Jim Hart also talks of the by Bill Reid and political leader Collison, the story of the repatriation ums around the world. importance of seeing these pieces of the Guujaaw and interviews with Don of Haida ancestors by two key partici- And like the exhibit, Raven Travel- past.