SUSAN SANFORD BLADES HILTON ANNE CAROL HILTON ANNE CAROL Hesquiaht BigSisterspeaks up. INDIGENOMICS YOUR FREE GUIDE TOBOOKS&AUTHORS post-riot grrrl momresurfaces. Abandoned byapunkrocker BC BOOKWORLD VOL. 35•NO.1Spring2021 26 PRINTED??????/TARA / BEV MADELINE SONIK Sequel toTheCorporation: phoney green capitalism. Havoc inthecityof JOEL BAKAN Fountainebleau. P.8 24 6 AMANDA WATSON Why theJugglingMother MARY JAYNEBLACKMORE needs todoless. Growing upinBountiful and learning . 22 13

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Good Morning, Takaya Takaya’s Journey Time to Wonder – Volume 1 Birding for Kids Cheryl Alexander and Alex Van Tol Cheryl Alexander and Jenaya Copithorne Sue Harper and S. Lesley Buxton A Guide to Finding, Identifying, and Photographing Birds in Your Area The remarkable story of Told in verse and containing details of A colourful, fun, and fact-filled kid’s Damon Calderwood and Donald E. Waite Island’s lone wolf, Takaya, is told in this Takaya’s life, this picture book introduces guide to BC’s regional museums in charming, lyrical picture book for infants. young readers to Takaya, the lone wolf. the Thompson-Okanagan, Kootenays, A fun, educational guide to watching birds $12 bb | $10 pb | $5.99 ebook $20 hc | $15 pb | $9.99 ebook and Cariboo-Chilcotin. in their natural habitat. RMB | Rocky Mountain Books RMB | Rocky Mountain Books $22 pb | $10.99 ebook $19.95 pb | $15.99 ebook RMB | Rocky Mountain Books Heritage House

A Lethal Lesson Orphans of Empire Waterfall Hikes in Southern A Home Away From Home A Lane Winslow Mystery (#8) A Novel True Stories of Wild Animal Sanctuaries Iona Whishaw Grant Buday Steve Tersmette Nicholas Read Lane Winslow trades crime-solving for Discover the untold history of the New Packed with photos, hand-drawn maps, A fascinating book for young readers substitute teaching while Inspector Brighton Hotel, in a novel that combines and written with families in mind, about wild animal sanctuaries across Darling searches for not one, but three very different historical voices to this guidebook will appeal to outdoor North America. two missing school teachers. tell the story of Vancouver’s infancy. enthusiasts of all ages. $19.95 pb | $9.99 ebook $16.95 pb | $8.99 ebook $22 pb | $12.99 ebook $22 pb | $10.99 ebook Heritage House TouchWood Editions TouchWood Editions RMB | Rocky Mountain Books

v i c t o r i a u n b u t t o n e d a r e d - l i g h t h i s t o r y o f b c’s c a p i t a l c i t y

Linda J. Eversole

Victoria Unbuttoned Craigdarroch Castle in Home on the Strange Flourishing and Free A Red-Light History of BC’s Capital City 21 Treasures Chronicles of Motherhood, Mayhem, and More Stories of Trailblazing Women of Linda J. Eversole Moira Dann Matters of the Heart Vancouver Island Susan Lundy Haley Healey A nuanced history of prostitution in Told in 21 objects, this approachable Victoria told through newly uncovered museum guide takes readers into the A funny, heart-warming ode to Groundbreaking true stories of Vancouver stories of women who lived it. family history, local lore, and oddities of motherhood written by an award-winning Island’s most inspiring women. $20 pb | $12.99 ebook one of Victoria’s most famous landmarks. journalist and humour columnist. $9.95 pb | $7.99 ebook TouchWood Editions $20 pb | $12.99 ebook $22.95 pb | $11.99 ebook Heritage House TouchWood Editions Heritage House

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2 BC BOOKWORLD • SPRING 2021

PRINTED BC TOP Angie Abdou on Mount Hosmer in PEOPLE the Kootenays. SELLERS Wayne Sawchuk Crossing the Divide: Discovering a Wilderness Ethic in Canada’s Northern Rockies (Sandhill Book Marketing $21.95) Claudia Cornwall British Columbia in Flames: Stories from a Blazing Summer (Harbour $26.95) Julia Zarankin Field Notes from an Unintentional Birder: A Memoir (D&M $24.95) photo

, editor

Patrice Dutil hafke The Unexpected

Louis St-Laurent marty (UBC Press $49.95)

Zach Loeks The Edible Ecosystem Solution: Growing t Biodiversity in Your Backyard and Beyond (New Society $39.99) New Brighton Hotel makes a fictional HIKE NOT NIKE comeback n her preceding book, Angie Abdou gave us a truthful account of her experiences as a hockey mom, frankly ayne Island author, Grant Buday has describing her young son’s sporting experiences on turned his social crit- and off the ice in Fernie. ic’s eye on the early settler days of Van- Now, over the course of the summer holidays, she M I couver in Orphans of takes to the great outdoors with her daughter, Katie. Empire (TouchWood $22), in which he Their peak-a-week adventures are shared in This One Wild Life: A brings to life three characters whose

lives converge at the site of the historic

Mother-Daughter Wilderness Memoir (ECW $21.95). New Brighton Hotel in the late 1880s. t “Writing this book taught me the value of a simple life, the restor- Having grown up and spent his early adult years in , Buday ative powers of nature, the serenity to be found in a simple walk in says he frequented New Brighton Park Cheryl Alexander the woods and the happiness of spending as much time as possible (the site of the long- Takaya: Lone Wolf with my immediate family,” says Abdou. gone hotel), swam in (Rocky Mountain Books $30) its pool and walked Yes, Katie and Mom bonded. And an important lesson was learned. past the park to- Lin Grensing-Pophal Abdou, herself a serious athlete, has a passion for the great outdoors ward the Alberta photo Managing Remote Staff: Wheat Pool. Capitalize on Work-from- and hiking; Katie does not. 9781770416000

buday Buday imagines Home Productivity to life Colonel Rich-

(Self-Counsel Press $26.95) eden Politics and Grant Buday ard Moody, whom Vera Maloff the British govern- Our Backs Warmed by t fatal love ment sent to found British Columbia the Sun: Memories of a (and establish a ‘second England’). Shaena Lambert’s novel Petra Doukhobor Life “Great things are expected of you,” a (Caitlin $24.95) (Random House $22.95) is in- fellow traveller taunts Moody.

The second character introduced Monique Gray Smith spired by the life of German Green (illos by Nicole Niedhardt) is Frisadie, a Hawaiian who arrives in When We Are Kind Party co-founder Petra Kelly, Victoria at the age of seven after her fa- (Orca Books $19.95) ther dies on the voyage leaving her and who was murdered in 1992. Petra her mother destitute. Frisadie grows Charles Ulrich explores love, jealousy, and the up and buys the New Brighton Hotel, The Big Note: A Guide making it the toast of the settlement. to the Recordings of power of social change. It also And finally, there’s Henry Fannin, Frank Zappa (New Star $45) explores Kelly’s unlikely romance orphaned in London, England but Glen Huser with a Nato general who con- makes his way to New Brighton where Firebird Petra Kelly (1947-1992) he becomes an embalmer and finds (Ronsdale Press $12.95) verted to her cause. 9780735279575 happiness. 9781927366899 Jesse Donaldson Fool’s Gold: The Life and Publication Mail Agreement #40010086 Annual subscription: $25 Legacy of Vancouver’s Return undeliverable Canadian Official Town Fool addresses to: BC BookWorld, 926 West Indigenous Editor: Latash-Maurice Nahanee (Anvil Press $18) 15th Ave., Vancouver, BC Canada V5Z 1R9 Contributing Editors: John Moore, Heidi Greco, We gratefully acknowledge the unobtrusive BC assistance of Canada Council, a continuous BOOKWORLD Mark Forsythe, Caroline Woodward, Produced with the sponsorship of Valerie Green, Sage Birchwater. partner since 1988, and creativeBC, a Dukesang Wong Spring 2021 Pacific BookWorld News Society. provincial partner since 2014. & David McIlwraith Volume 35 • Number 1 Publications Mail Registration No. 7800. Design: Get-to-the-Point Graphics The Diary of Dukesang Wong BC BookWorld ISSN: 1701-5405 Accounts: Ingela Kasparaitis (Talonbooks $18.95) Publisher: Beverly Cramp Advertising & editorial: Consultants: Christine Rondeau, BC BookWorld, 926 West 15th Ave., Sharon Jackson, Kenneth Li CANADA BOOK FUND The current topselling titles from Photographer: Laura Sawchuk major BC publishing companies, Editor/Production: Vancouver, BC Canada V5Z 1R9 In-Kind Supporters: in no particular order. David Lester Tel: 604-736-4011 Proofreader: Wendy Atkinson Simon Fraser University Library; [email protected] Deliveries: Ken Reid, Acculogix Vancouver Public Library; University of BC Library

3 BC BOOKWORLD • SPRING 2021 bc bookword full page spring 2021_bc bookworld full page 21-02-18 1:43 PM Page 1

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4 BC BOOKWORLD • SPRING 2021 Lynn Henry t Getting silted on PEOPLE THE FRASER

Neo-noir in Carol Blacklaws counts herself as one of the lucky few to have perilous times traveled the entire 1,375-kilometer length of the Fraser River. With her fter receiving award nom- husband, Rick Blacklaws, she has also inations for his first floated down much of the waterway and two books of short sto- witnessed “the river’s chameleon-like ries, retired journalist character as it transforms from an icy A Don McLellan has re- glacial stream in the Rocky Mountains leased his third collec- to a cauldron of water sinkholes—with tion, Ouch: 20 Stories (Page Count hydraulics that could suck a boat into Press $20), equally worthy of notice. its boiling whirlpools—in the narrow Each story encapsulates a slice of the canyon walls of Hells Gate, and finally to lives of characters sparely drawn who drift west into the river’s estuary at the are usually stuck in troubling if not metropolitan city of Vancouver.” downright perilous situations. Like the Both Carol and Rick Blacklaws have fireman and his wife, a nurse, who are worked in the fields of archeology and about to have a child while living in a teaching, which led them to accompany neighbourhood terrorized by homeless and organize many student rafting trips people in The Unravelling. on the river. Now they have collaborated McLellan injects humour, mostly on a coffeetable book about their trips black, which enlivens his dark tales. He on B.C.’s defining river, The Fraser: also adds sharp perceptions of contem- River of Life and Legend (Image West porary issues, such as this backdrop in $34.95). Carol wrote the text and Rick Neighbours, about a diverse collection contributed the photography. of people who come together to help a homeless woman (the homeless are a major feature in McLellan’s book). Also included in this scenario is a family from Hong Kong, so successful that the mother can stay home to raise their kids. And there is also Augie, an Indigenous, sometime longshoreman Bonnie&LynnBonnie&Lynn who lives in a basement rental. “He’s a good man,” writes McLellan, adding Dr. has gone from being “he’s always happy to lend a hand to Bonnie Henry

a faceless bureaucrat to a well-known, well-trusted health officer in her handling his non-Native neighbours, whom he only half-jokingly refers to as ‘tourists of the Covid-19 health menace. Her approach caught the attention of people far who’ve outstayed their visas.’” away from B.C. including The New York Times, which called her “one of the most t A major theme runs throughout effective public health figures in the world.” McLellan’s neo-noir: wounded people There is another talented sibling in the family: Bonnie Henry’s sister Lynn struggling to make their way in a dif- Carol Blacklaws and Rick Blacklaws ficult world. 9781777361600 Henry, publishing director of Knopf Canada. Some may remember Lynn Henry as Covering the wild upper reaches of the chief editor of Polestar, a B.C. publisher founded in 1981 that was eventually the Fraser (land of the lodgepole pine), bought by Raincoast Books. “I had the good fortune to work at one of B.C.’s most through the dry rangelands of the Cari- innovative independent literary houses, alongside two wonderful colleagues, Mi- boo and down the treacherous canyon, chelle Benjamin and Emiko Morita,” says Lynn Henry. “We were three dedicated and finally the fertile delta of Metro Vancouver, the book provides insights people running this crazy dream of a press on a shoestring, and we published into the landscapes of the river and the books I’m still proud of today.” people who live on its banks. It so happened that Lynn Henry was visiting her sister Bonnie in March The Fraser has remained a big part of 2020, just as the Covid-19 virus was identified as a pandemic. Lynn witnessed the Blacklaws’s life. For example, when most wives are getting jewelry and a first-hand the whirlwind that became her sister’s daily life. With her knowledge candle-lit dinner for their tenth wedding of Bonnie Henry’s personal and professional background (that includes fighting anniversary, Carol Blacklaws was getting SARS in Toronto in 2003 and the Ebola outbreak in Uganda in 2000 among other “silted”—i.e., drenched by river water

crises), Lynn Henry teamed up with Bonnie to write Be Kind, Be Calm, Be Safe that dries and leaves a light dusting of sediment. Rick had given her a raft trip t (Allen Lane/Penguin $26.95). Including Dr. Bonnie Henry’s recollections of how down the Fraser. and why decisions were made, the book delves into the delicate balance between And the name of their oldest son? Don McLellan individuals, society and the value placed on keeping everyone safe. 9780735241862 It’s Fraser. 9780994817518

o bring awareness of B.C.’s caribou to Kathy Sager and daughters. children, West Kootenays writer Kathy Mother Reindeer Sager collaborates with Cortes Island t illustrator Kristen Scholfield-Sweet for Mother Reindeer’s Journey to T the Sun: A Tribute to Mountain Caribou (Maa $12). The story follows Mother Reindeer on her annual journey to bring warmth and light back to the north. Sager includes facts about mountain caribou and photos of the animal in its habitat. B.C.’s southeastern South Selkirk herd is considered extirpated while the South Purcell herd, with only three males remaining in the wild, is functionally extirpated according to the Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resources. Thirty of B.C.’s 54 caribou herds are at risk of local extinction, and 14 of those herds have fewer than 25 animals. Kathy Sager, an early childhood educator, previ- ously published a baking story and recipe book for chil- dren, Suzie’s Sourdough Circus: with Amazing Recipes! (Harbour, 2011). 9781777306106

5 BC BOOKWORLD • SPRING 2021

PRINTEDWENDY/TARA / BEV BUSINESS REVIEW Psychopaths i n b o a r d r o o m s

The New Corporation: The New Corporation reveals how work. “Much of what goes into recycling How “Good” Corporations are bins ends up in landfills and is burned, Bad for Democracy by Joel Bakan causing pollution and greenhouse gas (Allen Lane/Penguin $19.95) billionaires are using the rhetoric of emissions,” he says. “It’s the same for climate change, serving nature and the public to further where corporations deflect blame by hen fraudster Ber- insisting we are all responsible for the nie Madoff and problem.” He points out that Petro- thousands of manipulate our bodies and minds. Canada has stickers on its gas pumps: other Wall Street “Play your part on helping reduce swindlers jeopar- climate change by using our products dized the lives of responsibly” This is a rare Canuck W millions of Ameri- reference. Bakan shows a tendency to cans, big corpora- overlook or avoid distinctly Canadian tions did nothing to bail out the poor perspectives possibly in favour of court- folks who lost their homes. Instead, ing a much larger American audience. President Obama bailed out the The New Corporation is published with swindlers. a distinctly, non-indie imprint owned by Empowered by the following presi- the German media group Bertelsmann. dential administration of Donald Essentially, corporations are work- Trump, who rejected the Paris Accord, ing hard to convince you that profit is U.S.-based corporations mostly failed not their primary purpose—but Bakan to protect the general populace from a declares it’s a smokescreen. For start- plague far more deadly than the 9/11 ers, the collusion of large corporations terrorist attacks in 2020. Big business with repressive regimes around the in North America kept those meat planet is rarely deemed newsworthy. packing plants open where Covid-19 He notes these corporations “escape was easily spread, sacrificed next to blame, quietly slipping out the back nothing and accepted government door while they bemoan the dysfunc- bailouts whether needed or not. tional state of affairs they’ve helped When the Dow Jones Industrial create.” Average Index reached a record high, In the so-called “free world,” Bakan most Americans believed that was writes that corporations are “leverag- a good thing. Meanwhile, it was the ing their new personas” to replace dreaded boogeyman of — government in providing public goods government bailouts—that kept North and services. (In December, Canada’s American society functioning. federal government announced it would

This all comes as no surprise to rely on FedEx to deliver its vaccines,

Joel Bakan. His 2003 documentary not Canada Post.) and television mini-series called The t He notes the “new” corporations Corporation provocatively explained looked “distinctly less noble” as they why and how corporations are, by their lined up during the coronavirus pan- very design, akin to psychopaths. Cor- demic for bailouts despite record prof- Joel Bakan credits Bruno and his staff at the Corner Cup Café in Vancouver’s porations, he discerned, are constructs its, tax dodging and stock buybacks Kitsilano for providing writing fuel (coffee) and a welcoming place to write. invented to absolve their managers while pushing for more tax cuts, de- and investors of responsibility for their percent, according to Bakan, while for thing we’ve seen,” says Weissman. regulation and privatization. failures and transgressions. the bottom 90 percent wages grew by “The real danger,” said Greta Thun- “The decades-long refrain that cor- Now Bakan’s The New Corpora- only 15 percent. He states CEOs now berg at the 2019 UN climate conference porations are our friends and govern- tion: How “Good” Corporations are make nearly three hundred times what in Madrid, “is when politicians and ments our enemy rings hollow now,” Bad for Democracy examines the ruse the average worker makes—compared CEOs are making it look like real ac- Bakan writes. “It’s telling that even of posturing that is currently in vogue with thirty times as much in 1980. tion is happening, when in fact almost presidential contender [now president], with corporations that want to per- Bakan echoes the words of Robert nothing is being done, apart from clever Joe Biden, has veered toward a pro- suade you they are now suddenly and Weissman, president of Ralph Nader’s accounting and creative PR.” gressive stance, invoking Roosevelt’s fully on the side of the environment. Public Citizen (a consumer rights ad- If you feel virtuous about using your New Deal.” The UBC-based law professor exam- vocacy group), who notes there are no blue box and putting papers in a yellow Echoing Bernie Sanders, the new ines how corporations are attempting limits in the Paris Accord on continued bag, you might want to consider why U.S. president has insisted “that big to-rebrand themselves as do-gooders, exploration and drilling on the Alberta corporations love to promote recy- corporations, which we’ve bailed out as partners with progressive organiza- tar sands. “Thanks to big oil’s help in cling. It shifts the responsibility onto twice in twelve years, step up and take tions working to counteract climate crafting it,” Bakan says, “the Paris Ac- the shoulders of private citizens and responsibility for their workers and change, etc. cord is toothless.” government. According to their communities.” Again, in tandem with a documen- The list of corporate New York Times reporters But nearly 50% of the Americans tary of the same name (The New Cor- entities who have ab- Tala Schlossberg and who voted in 2020 failed to repudiate poration: The Unfortunately Necessary sorbed multi-billion dol- Nayeema Raza, the re- Trump. Joe Biden and the Democrats Sequel), Bakan sets out to convince the lar fines is astonishing cycling movement is “the are now stuck with a crumbling econ- reader that by slickly advertising how (Volkswagen tops the greatest trick corpora- omy due to an unchecked pandemic social and environmental values are list at $25 billion) but photo tions ever played.” that will give rise to multi-dimensional at the core of their agenda, corporate companies continue to 2020 Marriott Hotels happily social insecurity equal to The Great union entities are simultaneously subverting weigh the probabilities of reduces laundry costs by Depression of the 1930s. the public good, seeking more priva- getting caught; Google, asking customers to reuse We can now expect to see Joel

tization, stagnating wages and only Apple, Amazon and Mi- european towels and “Help Save Bakan’s third volume, perhaps entitled posing as environmentalists. crosoft continue to evade -4.0 The Planet.” Meanwhile, The Next Corporation, ten years from by -

He also does some math. Between taxation. Corporations cc Bakan maintains there is now, to once more lay bare the unjust 1979-2013, wages for the top one per- are breaking the law “on Greta Thunberg at the Eu- overwhelming evidence fault lines of our corporate-led society. cent in the U.S. grew by nearly 150 a grander scale than any- ropean Parliament, 2020. that recycling doesn’t 978-07352-3884-8

6 BC BOOKWORLD • SPRING 2021 CONNECT WITH US ONLINE: www.douglas-mcintyre.com ∙ facebook.com/DMPublishers ∙ instagram.com/douglasmcintyre2013 ∙ twitter: @DMPublishers FOR TRADE: All Douglas & McIntyre titles are available from University of Toronto Press Distribution

7 BC BOOKWORLD • SPRING 2021

PRINTED??????/TARA / BEV BUSINESS REVIEW

Indigenomics: 2,000 square kilometres of land, while Taking a Seat at the Economic Table RE-SLICING paying the Nisga’a $190 million in com- by Carol Anne Hilton (New Society $19.99) pensation for the release of the rest of their traditional territory. In that case, BY LATASH-MAURICE NAHANEE all judges agreed that Aboriginal Title and Rights had existed at the time of ndigenous people THE PIE Confederation. Three agreed that those have been in North rights continued to exist. Three judges America for thou- Carol Anne Hilton and other Indigenous busi- said the rights were extinguished at sands of years. the time of Confederation. The seventh They lived in a judge said he could not make a ruling bountiful land ness leaders are part of a select group of Indig- because of a technicality. So, it was a I filled with natural draw. But the Supreme Court of Can- resources. With such bounty they enous economists working at the forefront of ada did mention to the prime minister flourished. They built sustainable that he must address the concerns of economies and cultures. Then came Indigenous people and negotiate fair the catastrophe of colonization. With an estimated $100 billion Indigenous economy. settlements of grievances. the settlement of Canada came the In his inimitable style, Trudeau the displacement of Aboriginal people, First responded, “Apparently, they resulting in the loss of control of their have more rights than I thought.” lives, culture and economy. The next major step forward was In Indigenomics: Taking a Seat at This essential background informa- of Indian Affairs Jean Chretien pro- also British Columbian: Neil Sterritt, the Economic Table, Carol Anne Hil- tion establishes Hilton as a culturally- posed the White Paper Policy on Indig- a member of the House of Gitluu- ton takes us deeper. She takes us back rooted person. It tells me that she enous people. Had they been success- daahlxw, served as president of the to 1763 when King George III of Eng- comes from a noble family and is a ful in passing this policy they would Gitxsan-Wet’suwet’en Tribal Council land penned the Royal Proclamation person that I should pay attention to. have fulfilled the Canadian dream of from 1981 to 1987, key years leading which was supposed to help coordinate With the release of her first book, now eliminating the “Indian Problem” in up to the precedent-setting Aboriginal the settlement of the northern part of others can do the same. Hilton is the Canada by getting rid of the special rights case known as Delgamuukw v. North America. This document recog- founder of the Indigenomics Institute status of Indigenous people. Their B.C. As one of the principal architects nized the rights and title of Indigenous and, as such, works and serves as an efforts were defeated by the outrage of the 1987-1990 court case, Sterritt peoples. Hilton proceeds to examine advisor to business, governments and and protests led by Indigenous people was on the stand for 34 days during how and why this Royal Proclamation First Nations particularly with regards across Canada. the Delgamuukw trial. He later wrote was largely ignored by Canada after to economic development. She is part It is important to remember the extensively on Aboriginal rights and Confederation. of a select group of Indigenous econo- extent to which British Columbian governance and served as a consul- One of the urban myths started by mists who are working at the forefront politics and activism have long been tant to many Aboriginal organizations Canada’s first Prime Minister, Sir John of an estimated 100-billion-dollar at the forefront of progress. As Wendy around the world, having co-authored A. Macdonald and later Canada’s Indigenous economy. As this economy Wickwire’s recent biography of the Tribal Boundaries in the Nass Water- deputy superintendent of the Depart- emerges, Bill Gallagher, Don Richard- Scottish-born translator James Teit shed (UBC Press, 1999). ment of Indian Affairs from 1913–1932 son, Dara Kelly, JP Gladu, Shannin reiterates, in her acclaimed At The Indigenous peoples’ economies have Duncan Campbell Scott, was that Metawabin and Clint Davis are some Bridge: James Teit and an Anthropology always depended on natural resources; “Indians are a problem.” of the business leaders who are inter- of Belonging (UBC Press, 2019) delega- Hilton adds, so do Canada’s. But there Indigenous people became such a preting and shaping a new economic tions of B.C.’s Indigenous leaders made is a marked difference in world views thorn for government policy makers landscape in favour of Indigenous articulate presentations in Ottawa to between settlers and First Nations. that an amendment to the Indian Act economies. Their combined years of assert their rights, with Teit as their Indigenomics reiterates and examines was enacted to forbid them from hiring experience in community development writer, as early as 1912. how and why Indigenous people place lawyers and bringing lawsuits against are helping to forge new horizons to The crucial game-changer was the a high value on spirituality, fairness Canada. Since that odious legislation stimulate Indigenous wealth. Nisga’a victory in the Supreme Court and sharing versus the Canadian val- was struck down in 1951, according to It’s been a long time coming. The of Canada in 1971 spearheaded by ues of commerce, non-religious state Hilton, Aboriginal people have had 275 federal government imposed Chief Frank Calder and several and personal accumulation of wealth. Supreme Court rulings in their favour. so many roadblocks to eco- other Nisga’a leaders. While it This clash of values has hurt Indig- These rulings are still changing the nomic success and com- was not an outright victory, enous economic development. But as political and economic landscape in munity development that this now-famous decision Indigenous rights are being clarified Canada. it has taken a plethora paved the way for not only and verified by the Canadian Courts, O of court cases to break independent First Nations’ ideally this social progress will lead to carol anne hilton received her master the shackles of exclu- governance, but also a a more socially equitable distribution of Business Administration from the sion set up by Cana- social climate to stimu- of wealth. University of Hertfordshire, England dian governments. late Indigenous commerce. In Indigenomics, Hilton asserts through a partnership with Vancouver In 1969, for exam- The long-sought agree- that Canadian and international re- Island University. ple, Prime Minister ment confirmed the band’s source development corporations are Among Indigenous people, it is also Pierre Trudeau right to a measure of self- now learning just how important it is important to not only introduce your- and then Minister government and nearly to recognize the power of Indigenous self, but to also acknowledge your an- rights and title. Working together as cestry. This helps people to understand equal partners should be the aim of your position in a community. reconciliation between settlers and Carol Anne Hilton describes her- First Nations. We are now in an era of self this way: “I am most influenced consultation when it comes to the use by being a Hesquiaht woman. I am of natural resources. of Nuu chah King George III nulth descent is mostly known from the west in history as the coast of Vancou- monarch who lost ver Island—a name the thirteen colonies that gave rise to (Nuu chah nulth, replac- the United States. He got a bad rap. ing Nootka) that describes the The foresight and fairness of his In- location and identity meaning “all digenous policies have finally given rise along the mountains” and serves to to a new era of hope concerning Indig- centre me in this world. They call me enous enterprise in the 21st century, W’aa?katuush, which refers to Big led by articulate leaders such as Carol Sister, a name that means I come from Carol Anne Anne Hilton, who speaks for herself, a line of the oldest women. I am from Hilton and for Indigenous people everywhere, the house of Mam’aayutch, a chief’s in Indigenomics. 978-0-8657-194-0-8 house that means “on the edge.” My roots stretch from Ahousat, Ehatte- Latash-Maurice Nahanee is a member saht, and as far as the Makah people of the Squamish Nation. He has a B.A. in Washington State.” degree (Simon Fraser University).

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Look for these titles at your favourite 9781459819115 PB $24.95 9781459823952 HC $19.95 9781459824690 HC $24.95 bookstore! ★ “Informative, diverse, “A high-quality and highly engaging.” introduction to a topic —Kirkus Reviews, not often covered.” starred review —School Library Journal

9 BC BOOKWORLD • SPRING 2021 Before becoming a lawyer, REVIEW David Greig wanted to be a musician. BUSINESS t

The Mediation Guide: as information intakes, agreements to Navigate the Faster, Cheaper, mediate and screening participants Kinder Process by David Greig (usually done by the mediator to de- (Self-Counsel $19.95) termine who gets to participate during the mediation). Greig includes many case studies oing to court to settle and they are interesting to read. Like a disagreement is the divorced mother, struggling finan- expensive and cially who wanted to move away from unpredictable her children’s father for cheaper rent. according to a Or the man hit by a car who wants seasoned lawyer compensation for a knee injury that G of 34 years, David the driver later finds out had previ- Greig. ously been injured at a soccer game. Even judges say this notes Greig in Also uncovered is the injured man has The Mediation Guide: Navigate the a drinking problem. Could be nasty in Faster, Cheaper, Kinder Process, and a court, but a mediator deals directly will invariably recommend all parties with the injured man and they negoti- think carefully “before drawing swords ate an acceptable monetary settlement and marching off to trial.” that both parties can live with. Furthermore, judges make it clear Greig is well qualified, coming from the courts are not the best adjudica- a family of legal experts: his father was tors; only the last resort. The judge’s a judge, his mother a legal secretary spiel goes something like this, writes and his sister a lawyer. At first, Greig Greig: took a different route when he left high “I have three to five days to listen school as he wanted to be a musician. to your stories… at the end, I remain MEDIATE MEDIATE But after taking an English degree at an outsider, and yet I am empowered the he wound and required to decide how the rest DON’T LITIGATE up getting a law degree in 1986 and of your lives will proceed. That deci- eventually set up his own law practice sion is really one which you should be Getting a private settlement is easier and group. making—not me. Talk to your lawyers. “Fortunately, it has been my experi- Make sure that you have tried every less nasty than fighting in a public court. ence that most disputes are amenable single alternative to litigation—whether to dispute resolution, and particularly it be simple negotiation, mediation, or preferable route, most people are un- it’s better, what types of disagreements mediation,” he says. “That is so, I be- arbitration—and do that before you familiar with how to go about it. Greig are best suited to mediation; how the lieve, because most parties in conflict come back here, and commit to having provides a concise, clear and interest- process works; how to find a media- understand, or can be shown, that me (or another judge like me) decide ing treatise on the mediation process. tor; who pays; and what a mediation peace is best. Even a “so-so” settlement your fate for you.” He outlines the history of mediation agreement looks like. He also gives tem- is better than a great war.” Accepting that mediation is the (it’s more than 4,000 years old), why plates for documenting sessions such 978-1-77040-333-8

TALONBOOKS SPRING 2021

A HISTORY OF THE ONE AND HALF ONE GOOD THING: PAINTING TIME THEORIES OF RAIN OF YOU A Living Memoir by Maylis De Kerangal by Stephen Collis by Leanne Dunic by M.A.C. Farrant translated by Jessica Moore A History of the Theories of A poety-memoir exploring sib- One Good Thing is a delightful An exquisite and highly aesthetic Rain explores the strange effect ling and romantic love, and the hybrid of creative non- ction and coming-of-age novel by the our current sense of impending complexities of being a biracial memoir. Written in sixty-four short author of Birth of a Bridge and doom has on our relation to person looking for completion epistolary chapters, set as a series Mend the Living. of letters to gardening columnist time, approaching the unfolding in another. Includes links to “KERANGAL BALANCES THE GLORIOUSLY climate catastrophe conceptual- recordings of three songs. extraordinaire Helen Chesnut of SENSUOUS WITH THE DEEPLY REFLEC- ly through its dissolution of the Victoria’s Times Colonist. TIVE IN AN EXQUISITE AND OMNISCIENT categories of “man-made” and 978-1-77201-286-6; $16.95; POETRY STREAMING NARRATION … RESPLEN- “FILLED WITH THE BOUNTY AND SURRENDER “natural” disasters. DENTLY EVOCATIVE AND EXHILARATING.” OF CREATION EACH PIECE IS A MARVEL , !” —BOOKLIST LATNER WRITERS’ TRUST POETRY PRIZE —EVE JOSEPH, AUTHOR OF QUARRELS, 2019 WINNER WINNER OF THE GRIFFEN POETRY PRIZE 978-1-77201-283-5; $19.95; FICTION EBOOK ALSO AVAILABLE 978-1-77201-288-0; $16.95; POETRY 978-1-77201-284-2; $19.95; MEMOIR / GARDENING; EBOOK ALSO AVAILABLE

Talonbooks

10 BC BOOKWORLD • SPRING 2021 new this spring

Glorious Birds is a celebratory homage to Hal Ashby’s 1971 film, Harold and Maude. This off-kilter rom-com is a paean to nonconformity and independence and has, over the decades, earned the classification of “cult classic.” 978-1-77214-171-9 | NonFiction | Paper $18.00 | March

Scofflaw is a long poem, a playful exploration of Indigenous-Settler relations amid globalized pressures. 978-1-77214-172-6 | Poetry | Paper $18 | March

il virus brings together 113 poems of beauty and desperation written over seventy- eight uncertain days during the spring 2020 pandemic lockdown in Toronto. 978-1-77214-173-3 | Poetry | Paper $18 | April

White Lie is a collection of super-short fictions about how our stories today blend into factual-seeming fictions and lying propaganda. 978-1-77214-174-0 | Short Fiction | Paper $18 | May

WINNER OF THE 42ND INTERNATIONAL 3-DAY NOVEL CONTEST Just Like a Real Person is a story about broken cars and broken people. A story of intoxication, sobriety, and potent memories of a woman in a yellow sundress. 978-1-77214-176-4 | Novel | Paper $18 | June

Geoff Inverarity writes poems for people who don’t like poetry (and those who do). All the Broken Things is a debut collection about broken things and broken hearts, and love too. 978-1-77214-175-7 | Poetry | Paper $18 | May

www.anvilpress.com | [email protected] “Distinctly urban, with a twist!” AvAilAble to the trAde from pgc/rAincoAst

Voices at the Intersection of Art, Science, and Activism

My Vancouver Dance History Story, Movement, Community peter dickinson Paper $37.95 384pp

“Peter Dickinson’s passion for dance is clear. He is to be commended for his astute close readings of choreography and … profiling individual dance artists Fighting for a Hand to Hold and their creative processes. Dickinson Confronting Medical Colonialism against has a talent for describing movement Indigenous Children in Canada in prose that is simultaneously erudite and accessible.” –Allana Lindgren, samir shaheen-hussain author of Renegade Bodies: Canadian Foreword by Cindy Blackstock, afterword Dance in the 1970s by Katsi’tsakwas Ellen Gabriel Cloth $29.95 360pp Watermelon Snow

Science, Art, and a Lone Polar Bear “A necessary and sobering read. Shaheen-Hussain lynne quarmby masterfully exposes the ways in which the logics Plants, People, and Places of settler colonialism and genocide are structurally Cloth $24.95 184pp The Roles of Ethnobotany and Ethno -

embedded into Canada’s healthcare system. He ecology in Indigenous Peoples’ Land “Take a trip to the top of the world illuminates how egregious racial violence takes Rights in Canada and Beyond through the eyes of an impassioned place – in plain sight – under the direction of a scientist who experiences the unique edited by nancy j. turner publicly funded institution that is broadly under- landscape first-hand and, as an activist, Cloth $49.95 554pp stood, by most Canadians, as a social good. The mourns the loss of a frozen world that book, meticulously researched, firmly centres once was. This is a must-read for anyone “Plants, People, and Places is a remarkably Canada’s medical system as a crucial site for concerned about the rapid changes eloquent and collaborative statement ongoing anti-colonial struggle.” –Robyn Maynard, taking place in the Arctic as it warms on an issue of fundamental importance author of Policing Black Lives: State Violence and the implications for the rest of to Indigenous people. It is intrinsically in Canada from Slavery to the Present the planet.” –Bob McDonald, host a work of art and reconciliation.” of CBC Radio’s Quirks & Quarks –Ken Coates, co-author of Land of the Midnight Sun: A History of the Yukon

McG ILL-Q U EEN ’S UNIV ERSITY P RESS mqup.ca @McGillQueensUP

11 BC BOOKWORLD • SPRING 2021 MEMOIR MEMOIR NONFICTION POETRY POETRY FICTION PERSONAL STORIES LOCAL HISTORY UNIQUE PERSPECTIVES

Available at your local independent /caitlinbooks @caitlinpress bookstore or online at caitlin-press.com @caitlinpress.daggereditions

New from Ronsdale Press St. Michael’s Tainted Amber ST. MICHAEL’S RESIDENTIAL Gabriele Goldstone SCHOOL Residential School LAMENT& LEGACY Nancy Dyson & Dan Rubenstein When her best friend flees Germany because she is Jewish and the boy she loves is deemed a threat One of the very few accounts of life in a residential to Aryan purity, Katya sees the cruel parallels school by caregivers who witness the shocking between breeding perfect horses and breeding discipline, poor food and harsh punishment for Tainted perfect people. the children’s use of their native language. Amber GABRIELE GOLDSTONE NANCY DYSON JONATHON JACOBS 978-1-55380-614-1 (PRINT) & DAN RUBENSTEIN 978-1-55380-623-3 (PRINT) 978-1-55380-615-8 (EBOOK) 320 pp $14.95 978-1-55380-624-2 (EBOOK) 220 pp $24.95 Solidarity Awesome Wildlife WESOME

A

SOLIDARITY David Spaner Defenders Canada’s Unknown Revolution of 1983

Wildlife In 1983, B.C. Premier Bill Bennett unleashed DEFENDERS Martha Attema an avalanche of anti-union, anti-human rights When Rebecca and Cedar, an Indigenous student, legislation. The Solidarity movement erupted, are paired up for a project with the endangered uniting the province’s labourers and leftist northern spotted owl, their partnership could activists for the first time. help Rebecca and Cedar’s complicated family life. 978-1-55380-638-7 (PRINT) martha attema 978-1-55380-647-9 (PRINT) DAVID SPANER 978-1-55380-639-4 (EBOOK) 220 pp $24.95 978-1-55380-648-6 (EBOOK) 280 pp $12.95

Service on the Skeena Lost Lost in Barkerville Geoff Mynett in Bitten Acherman Service on the Skeena describes the life of Horace BARKERVILLE Zach, Kyle and Miss Reid, their eccentric teacher, Wrinch, who served as the first resident doctor are transported back to 1866 at the height of at Hazelton in the northern interior of BC, where the Cariboo gold rush in Barkerville. There, they he helped build a hospital with his own hands. have to save their friend Theo from hanging at the hands of Judge Matthew Begbie. Service on the With 50 photos and maps. Skeena 978-1-55380-611-0 (PRINT) Horace Wrinch, Frontier Physician 978-1-55380-575-5 (PRINT) 978-1-55380-612-7 (EBOOK) 438 pp $12.95 GEOFF MYNETT 978-1-55380-576-2 (EBOOK) 450 pp $21.95 BITTEN ACHERMAN

Available at your favourite bookstore or order from PGC/Raincoast Ronsdale Press www.ronsdalepress.com

12 BC BOOKWORLD • SPRING 2021 FEMINISM REVIEW photo

roundy

starla

Whatever Mary Jayne Blackmore t happened to

MARYBalancing Bountiful: JAYNEwould assume were complex and dif- about her church-assigned marriage at MARYWhat I Learned about Feminism JAYNEficult circumstances, has triumphed sixteen, moving to Alberta and giving from My Polygamist Grandmothers Memoir over a constrained father-daughter birth to her first child, being whisked by Mary Jayne Blackmore relationship. away to live with her husband’s family (Caitlin Press $24.95) asserts The background of Blackmore’s in Colorado City, Arizona, and moving BY JANE CURRY narrative is shrouded by events that back home after realizing she can’t threatened her community’s survival raise children in Warren Jeffs’ oppres- ary Jayne Black- feminism over the last twenty years as her Mor- sive church. She completes her high more is the fifth mon enclave was instructed to prepare school education and teaching degree, child of Winston for the prophesied, millennial apoca- suffers a miscarriage and divorces her Blackmore—the can arise lypse or ‘Great Destruction.’ After her husband. former Mormon father’s official leadership status was WANDERING BUT NOT LOST 2011 – Bishop of Bounti- revoked, half of Bountiful chose to re- 2018 includes Arrested Again, Families M ful in Creston Val- from main loyal to her father while the other not Felons and I am Not a Mormon. ley, B.C. who was convicted of po- half followed Warren Jeffs in Utah. These entries document personal lygamy in 2017, who married 27 times, We learn more about Warren Jeffs’ growth as she travels to Mexico and and who fathered at least 150 children polygamy. oppressive hold on his followers, both Turkey, follows a boy she meets at the (as of 2019)—and his first wife, Jane in Canada and the U.S; the Texas raids Shambhala Music Festival to New York (different spelling) Blackmore. on the Yearning for Zion Ranch in April City, New Zealand and attends Burning Mary Jayne Blackmore still lives the beautiful, powerful young women 3, 2008, where 400 children were taken Man (festival). Just prior to the pandem- on the farm where her grandparents who come through this proud legacy into state custody; and the arrest of ic lockdown, she also travels to India. settled in 1946, outside of Lister, of mothers and grandmothers…. Em- Warren Jeffs on August 28, 2006 and This is not the cloistered lifestyle B.C. Her memoir, Balancing Bounti- powering my own feminist voice and his sentencing on August 9, 2011 to that one assumes would be de rigueur ful: What I Learned about Feminism adding to the voice for women life in prison on two counts of sexual for the daughter of Canada’s most re- from My Polygamist Grandmothers has compelled me to keep asking the assault of a child. nowned polygamist. revisits and explores growing-up in big questions of womanhood and hu- Balancing Bountiful is written in Blackmore now puts her faith in a closed-off, fundamentalist Mormon manity: the first person, through differing people, community and nature. She community. “What is the right kind of woman, viewpoints in accordance with the nar- dreams of a world peace where we live “I grew up in the glory days of Boun- the right kind of family and the right rator’s age as events unravel. With 65 in balance, creativity and abundance. tiful,” she proudly states. She sets out kind of feminism?” diary entries, spanning life from age She lives in a cabin, on her father’s to explain how the guidance of her po- Underlying Blackmore’s personal six in 1989 to thirty-seven in 2020, land, with her two teenage children. lygamous grandmothers, as well as her journey are the stories of her father and the narrative is tied together with a She is vice-principal of Mormon Hills education and travel, have influenced mother. It is well-known in the news prologue written in April 2020 and an School where she also teaches. She her understanding of faith, community, that Winston Blackmore was sentenced epilogue completed in July 2020. There ran for mayor of Creston in 2018. And family and—wait for it—feminism. on July 24, 2017 to serve six months are three sections: she claims to now have an improved In the prologue, Blackmore ex- house arrest for his bountiful unions. It CHILDHOOD 1989 – 2000 includes relationship with her father due to plains, “Writing this book has never is far less known that Jane Blackmore, passages: Baptism, Keep Sweet, Ten her redefined faith and a shared love felt optional. Claiming this narrative a registered nurse and midwife, left Weddings, Perverts, Awaiting Place- of writing. has been an essential part of my heal- Bountiful with her youngest daughter ment Marriage and The End is Near. You can’t judge a book by its cover. ing and growth and stepping into my in 2003, moved to nearby Cranbrook, These chronicle her idyllic childhood, And you can’t judge an author by own story as a woman on the planet. and divorced her husband. as well as strict grooming customs, their father. 9781773860046 This book is about me. It’s my story Jane Blackmore is the only wife who hints of abuse and worry about the and I speak only for myself, but my testified against him. Her influence apocalypse. Jane Curry is one of the senior branch motivation in writing it has never been on her daughter is clear in the text: MARRIAGE 2000 – 2011 includes managers within the Vancouver Public about me. encouraging education, providing a God Gives Life (And Takes it Away), A Library system, currently at Joe Fortes “I wrote this book for the ones who strong, compassionate role model and Round Belly and Troubled Heart, Dad’s branch in Vancouver’s West End. She don’t remember the story… for those support. Clearly, the mother-daughter Arrest, Feminist Fire and I’m Broken. is also one of the judges for the George dearest loves in my life, especially bond, forged under what most people These passages detail her feelings Ryga Award for Social Awareness.

13 BC BOOKWORLD • SPRING 2021 MEMOIR REVIEW to use social media to attract world- wide attention to his plight and get refuge in another country while man- Man at the Airport: aging to survive in the airport (a feat How Social Media Saved My Life – unto itself). One Syrian’s Story by Hassan Al Kontar On March 11, 2018, Al Kontar (Tidewater Press $23.95) tweets for the first time: “What does it mean to be a Syrian? My name is Hassan and this is my rapped without travel- story. I am from Syria. I just want to ling documents by explain to people what it means to be war and geopoli- Syrian. To be lonely, weak, unwanted,

tics, a man gets rejected. No one is accepting us.”

stranded in an air- At first, there are few Twitter follow- T port lounge for six t ers. But soon, his tweets gain momen- months. tum and go viral. BBC TV does a news It all started when Hassan Al Kon- feature on him. The Washington Post tar left his home country, Syria, for Hassan Al Kontar, during his six months in the arrivals zone at Kuala Lumpur Airport. and The Guardian newspapers pick up well-paying work in the United Arab his story as do other media. Emirates in 2006. When the Syrian A vlogger, Nuseir (Nas) Yassin, civil war broke out five years later, he with 33 million followers, who travels did not want to be part of it. Escape by Twitter the world making videos, discovers Al “I did not exist in this life to kill Kontar. “I read this crazy story of a anyone, no matter what,” he says in man living in an airport for six months his memoir Man at the Airport: How Refusing to fight in Syria,Hassan Al Kontar and facing arrest in his own country Social Media Saved My Life —One because he refused to participate in Syrian’s Story, due out this June. “If was trapped in an airport with only a cellphone. a war,” writes Yassin in the introduc- I could not stop it, I will not be part tion to Man at the Airport. “I thought to of it. As simple as that, I thought at “So I know how hell smells and what it After many months and several jails, myself, ‘Wow, I have to make a video the time.” feels like—it’s a closed car on a sum- Al Kontar manages to get some of the about him.’” It meant Al Kontar could not renew mer night in Abu Dhabi with a human charges dropped and travels to Malay- Yassin’s video about Al Kontar his passport, leading to problems ob- being inside it.” sia believing he can get legal status in gets 18 million views the first day it’s taining work legally in the UAE. The Eventually, Al Kontar is arrested that country. But upon arriving there, posted. The video reaches the Canadian decision to be a conscientious objector in 2016 and kept in jail on trumped he is denied entry. Next, he tries to government and Al Kontar’s refugee came with dire consequences, which up charges. Here, his hope begins to gain access to, first Ecuador and then application is expedited in two months Al Kontar acknowledges. “I had sur- fade. “I was no longer the young guy Cambodia. No success. Sent back to rather than the two years claims usu- rendered myself to the desert sands who wanted to travel the world and Kuala Lumpur International Airport, ally take. and opened the gates of hell for years meet people, could no longer pretend the authorities keep his passport and Living in Canada, Al Kontar decides to come.” I was the professional in a nice suit, he is trapped in the arrivals zone with to write his story. “I am once again a Without regular work, he lived meeting customers, with big dreams no official papers. man with a purpose,” he says. “To tell homeless for several years, which in- and a bright future. I was a criminal Not one to give up, Al Kontar still the story and show the world who the cluded living in his car for long periods. in handcuffs.” has his cell phone. He concocts a plan real Syrians are.” 9781777010188 NEW STAR BOOKS MICHAEL TREGEBOV SEAN MCCAMMON THE RENTER OUTSIDE A NOVEL

The sentimental and Tense and emotionally financial education of a gripping, Outside is the young Jewish Winnipegger story of a teacher’s escape in and around 1968, The to Japan from classroom, Renter is Tregebov’s fourth country, and self in the wake entry in his comédie of a small-town Ontario humaine. tragedy.

$18 | 176pp $24 | 352pp 978-1-55420-163-1 978-1-55420-168-6 FEB 25 MARCH 11

JANET GALLANT & GEORGE BOWERING SHARON THESEN SOFT ZIPPER THE WIG-MAKER OBJECTS, FOOD, ROOMS

A chronicle of violence Georga Bowering returns and transformation, The to Oliver, and his South Wig-Maker gives voice to a Okanagan childhood in woman’s childhood trauma, this homage to his literary her quest after identity, and influencers. the healing in between.

$18 | 104pp $19 | 160pp 978-1-55420-171-6 978-1-55420-172-3 MARCH 11 MARCH 25

14 BC BOOKWORLD • SPRING 2021 ECOLOGY REVIEW Watermelon snow, also called snow algae, pink snow, red snow, or blood snow, is a phenomenon caused by unicellular algae. RED SNOWFIELDS & MELTING ICE CAPS photo

esterle

eric

Lynne Quarmby holding camera.

Watermelon Snow: Lone Polar Bear. Chapters alternate Green Party. This followed her arrest by her scientific inquiries in lay language, Science, Art, and a Lone Polar Bear between reports on Quarmby’s odys- the RCMP during the well-publicized she addresses gender issues in science, by Lynne Quarmby sey, her academic reflections and her Burnaby Mountain protests against the relating that recently she’d spent an (McGill-Queen’s University Press $24.95) own inner turbulence. She plays on Trans-Mountain Pipeline project owned hour venting to her therapist about BY TREVOR CAROLAN the Buddha’s words in The Dhamma- by Kinder Morgan. the bias and misogyny she encounters pada, declaring “everything we perceive Disclosure: she ran in the riding in her work. Quarmby also offers her n the summer of with our senses, and our responses to where I live. We planted her campaign account of what it’s like to stand up 2017, SFU prof those perceptions, has been honed by sign out front. on the front lines in a confrontation Lynne Quarmby billions of years of natural selection.” When ‘Golden Boy’ Justin Trudeau with “Big Authority,” Kinder Morgan, took a sea journey It’s a subtle echo concerning intercon- won, Quarmby confesses that she was the company whose bullying tactics with 28 artists and nectedness, yet she knows there is “crushed.” She’d believed the public and legal threats were thrown out in I one other fellow so much that we still don’t were ready for real change court. Still, she declares bluntly, “I scientist to a remote sense, concluding, “climate on climate action; they’d learned how the cheaters have broken area, the western Svalbard archipelago, change is happening so fast simply wanted Harper out. our political system.” which is far north of Norway and east it should be terrifying.” “By the time I lost the Once back home, Quarmby the of Greenland. Daily expeditions allow election,” she recalls, “I was dedicated scientist shakes her head at Aboard the tall ship Antigua, participants to explore, work burned out from activism how “Prime Minister Justin Trudeau Quarmby and her fellow travellers were at their projects ashore and and the negativity of pol- and [the environment minister] are tell- photo part of the Arctic Circle Expeditionary stay alert for polar bears, itics.” In her fifties, and ing Canadians, ‘If this pipeline doesn’t laity Residency. It was an unusual trip for even as a huge chunk of searching for answers, why, get built, we can’t meet our climate the academic, being Quarmby’s first glacier shatters into the sea adam she asks, is our democratic targets.’ The truth is that we cannot residency after 30 years of attending nearby, calving a new iceberg. Lynne Quarmby government not pulling its meet climate targets if it does get built.” science conferences. She describes Quarmby searches for her red snow un- share of the weight against climate What’s the takeaway message here? washing up on shore with “nothing but successfully, but takes pleasure in the change? Mistrust of our political lead- Quarmby writes intelligently in a wilderness between me and the next creative discoveries of others. ership leaves her bilious. style that, for the most part, lay readers polar bear.” Readers not conversant with the na- Wondering if her scientific knowledge will find accessible. Her voyage crys- She’s there, she explains, to find ture of RNA, DNA and cell biology may could be applied to an Arctic eco-system tallizes her own inner contradictions. “watermelon snow”—micro-algae find some challenges when Quarmby on the frontline of global warming, she There’s acclaim for the eco-warrior blooms “that turn snowfields red.” expounds on photosynthesis and cellu- embarks on her Arctic pilgrimage. In academic, but heroism often comes at There’s total daylight here, midnight lar boogie-woogie—how cells divide and meditating on the nature of microbes, a cost. Compassion fatigue is part of walks under sunny skies, but global replicate. However, she also relates how she reflects how they, “tie all life on the script: she comes to understand warming is already causing problems. she became a climate systems activist: Earth together...we are all functionally that most battles aren’t clearly won, A late-career convert to climate change at a biology seminar she saw photo- connected.” Quixotically, the same long the brawling gets ugly and it’s a long science, Quarmby must also confront graphs of the violently-suppressed streak of evolutionary fortune that led game. Self-justification, well-deserved her own inadequacy in facing up to the protests during Copenhagen’s 2011 cli- to polar bears and to us, she proposes, renown for standing up and making enormity of the global warming crisis. mate summit. In response, she began “may be broken” by the end of this a difference, an existential search for Arriving travel weary, she mourns the writing letters, signing petitions and at- century: “Pollution, habitat fragmenta- answers, it’s all in here. 978-0-2280-0359-5 situation she has come to investigate: tending marches. Her federal research tion and degradation, and now, climate metaphorically, the house is on fire and funding soon evaporated. During the change...Extinction is nothing new.” Trevor Carolan has a Ph.D. in Interna- she stands at the interface of planetary Stephen Harper years, the Feds played When Quarmby and a photographer tional Relations and has advocated for crisis and melting polar ice-caps. hard ball. spot a distant polar bear that appears conservation issues and Indigenous Quarmby recounts this trip in Wa- By 2015, instead of re-applying for emaciated or old, it’s a lonely, disturb- land claims. He taught for years at the termelon Snow: Science, Art, and a funding, Quarmby ran federally for the ing image. Later, challenged to explain University of the Fraser Valley.

15 BC BOOKWORLD • SPRING 2021 REVIEW Barkerville, 1865

HISTORY t people’s side, who—already decimated by smallpox—had sought to defend themselves from a hostile nation of Gold in British Columbia: invaders. (Both Justin Trudeau’s and Discovery to Confederation Christy Clark’s governments have by Marie Elliott (Ronsdale Press $24.95) offered apologies and pardons to the BY MIKE SELBY Tsilhqot’in.) There is frustratingly little judge- any remarkable as ment in Elliott’s writings on this well as discreditable topic—just a factual account of one of characters from the darkest events in British Colum- British Columbia’s bia’s history. past are to be found Besides keeping Americans out, M in Marie Elliott’s the other challenge was attempting Gold in British Co- to police those Americans who were lumbia: Discovery to Confederation. already in. After (wrongly) believing It’s a thick, exhaustively researched, some Yale miners had been decapitated yet quite readable and oftentimes fun by Indigenous people, an American look at how the Fraser River and Cari- named Snyder rounded up a large boo gold rushes created our province. group of miners to confront the local One of the early settlers to Brit- Indigenous people. News of a Fraser ish Columbia was Fanny Bendixen, Canyon War with deaths on both sides originally from France via the United reached Douglas, and he marched with States. Bendixen (her married name) a host of Royal Marines to Yale, to find was expelled from France in the 1850s that only two of Snyder’s men had been as part of Napoleon III’s purge of his killed—not by Indigenous people but country’s undesirables. She arrived accidentally shot by fellow miners. with thousands of others in San Fran- Also in Yale was San Francisco cisco, making a home in that city’s judge and would-be bombmaker Ned growing French District. She quickly McGowan. Believing B.C. to be an- became a mistress to a county judge other Wild West, McGowan was setting named Ned McGowan, whose jealousy himself up as the law: challenging legal of her resulted in a failed bombing at- claims, remanding prisoners and trying tempt of her house. She fled to New Or- to assert a United States claim on B.C. leans, where she met and married her When news of McGowan’s War husband, only to have the American reached Douglas, he again showed up Civil War break out. The newlyweds BIRTH at Yale with the Royal Marines to show left New Orleans (which was now part McGowan “clear and visible proof of of the Confederacy) and arrived in the BY GOLD AND GUNS British law and order.” small city of Victoria in 1862 where Elliott has taken by far the most they opened a high-end hotel named tediously boring facts from social the St. George. How the lure of gold drew settlers studies classes and turned them into History doesn’t record her reasons, a complex story filled with high drama but in 1865 Fanny leaves the St. to inadvertently create British and gripping immediacy. None of the George and her husband, making her hundreds of individuals she profiles way towards the gritty town of Barker- Columbia, often in ignoble ways. had any idea how their actions would ville in the interior. turn out; or that their choices would It wasn’t an easy journey as de- while never learning to speak much fully quelled it on the Queen Charlotte continue to have far-reaching implica- scribed by Elliott and included: “travel- English. Islands (now called Haida Gwaii) by tions for all Canadians. That the pull ling by steamer to Yale, stagecoach to While many new to B.C., like Ben- declaring “Crown ownership.” of gold birthed British Columbia is an Soda Creek, steamer to Quesnelmouth, dixen, came from the U.S., there is a As thousands more began to pour amazing story. Gold in British Colum- stagecoach again to Cottonwood and good argument to be made, and Elliott in again, he sought the same solution bia: Discovery to Confederation is an saddlehorse the last forty miles to Wil- alludes to this quite well in the book’s to protect the future province’s gold insightful and valuable contribution liams Creek.” first part, that British Columbia was resources from the American invaders. to an understanding of it. 9781553805175 Once in Barkerville, Bendixen was formed as a way to keep Americans Speaking of invaders, Elliott shines one of the first and only women to oper- out of it. an historian’s light on what she calls Cranbrook public librarian, Mike Selby’s ate a business. She opened a variety of News of gold rushes in the Fraser the “Tsilhqot’in Uprising.” Sometime in Freedom Libraries: The Untold Story saloons, invested in numerous mining and Cariboo brought tens of thousands the late spring of 1864, conflict erupted of Libraries for African Americans claims, and appeared unfazed by law- of Americans into what is now known between a road crew and the Tsilhqot’in in the South won Outstanding Aca- suits, robberies and fires. She earned as B.C., but which at the time was di- people, resulting in the deaths of 21 demic Title of the Year by the Associa- enough money to spend her downtime vided into two separate colonies. This road workers. After a large manhunt, tion of College and Research Libraries crisscrossing the United States as a “American aggression” was foremost on six Tsilhqot’in chiefs were arrested in the United States, which represents tourist. the mind of B.C.’s first governor, James and executed. Elliot is one of the first more than 10,000 individuals and Bendixen accomplished all this Douglas. He had already success- to explore events from the Tsilhqot’in libraries.

TIDEWATER PRESS How social media saved my life

“A dreamy, gentle triad of tales about rural veterinarian life in Northern B.C.” – Chatelaine

Hassan Al Kontar @kontar81 #One Syrian’s Story @invisibooks | invisiblepublishing.com Non-fi ction: lost in the dark world of white supremacy Non-fi ction: his only weapon was his cellphone ISBN 978-1-990160-00-4 ISBN 978-1-7770101-8-8

16 BC BOOKWORLD • SPRING 2021 “Indigenomics is the path for the future …” —Winona LaDuke, executive director, Honor the Earth

Indigenomics Taking a Seat at the Economic Table Carol Anne HIlton $19.99

It is time. It is time to increase the visibility, role, and responsibility of the emerging modern Indigenous economy and the people involved. This is the foundation for economic reconciliation. This is Indigenomics.

See Carol Anne Hilton’s profile in this issue of BC Bookworld

LET’S TALK RACE THE WEB OF MEANING TRANSFORMATIVE LEARNING A Guide for White People Integrating Science and Traditional Wisdom to Reflections on 30 Years of Head, Heart, and Hands FERN L. JOHNSON AND MARLENE G. FINE Find our Place in the Universe at Schumacher College $19.99 JEREMY LENT SATISH KUMAR AND PAVEL CENKL $34.99 $22.99

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17 BC BOOKWORLD • SPRING 2021

PRINTED FISHING REVIEW A GILLY WHO AIN’T GIRLY

David Giblin introduces a woman into the 1980s bastion of male fishing guides that populate his fictionalized tales.

Gilly the Ghillie: The Codfish Dream distilled all More Chronicles of a West Coast those years into one memorable sum- Fishing Guide by David Giblin mer—names, dates and places were (Heritage $19.95) changed to protect the guilty. Various BY MARK FORSYTHE people can reside in one character, or as Giblin says, all can be “treated with he customer is always a certain artistic license.” right, but in David A self-described ‘world class’ fisher- Giblin’s case, the man ignores Giblin’s advice about local fishing guide gets fishing methods, only to watch his wife the last word. The (who was paying attention) haul in a author of The Cod- T boatload of salmon. fish Dream: Chron- We meet Americans enthralled with icles of a West Coast Fishing Guide the emblem of their nation perched on (Heritage, 2018), Giblin began guid- nearby branches. American eagles...in ing in the summer of 1978 at Stuart Canadian trees? Island, one of the Discovery Islands Meanwhile, an enterprising dock- between northern Vancouver Island hand named finds clever and the mainland, about 40 miles east Troutbreath ways to separate cash, caviar and ex- of Campbell River. otic wines from hotshot clients. Fellow Giblin worked fifteen summers as guides include , a freelance guide for area lodges; Wet Lenny Big Jake and who compete for clients and some of his high-rolling clients ar- Vop tips, but each is quick to assist the rived aboard luxury yachts with other in an emergency—an un- helicopters on the back deck. spoken rule on coastal waters. Many clients didn’t know what they were in for, as Gilly the Ghillie: More Stuart Island is surround- Chronicles of a West Coast is a new ed by some of B.C.’s most Fishing Guide collection of tales (42 of dangerous tidal rap- them) laced with wry ob- ids, whirlpools and servations. Gilly is the currents. In 1972, first woman to enter the four Americans at- bastion of male guides in tempted to run the the 1980s. Arran Rapids in an “Gilly’s boat was much outrigger canoe cleaner and more orga- and write about it nized. It even smelled for Life magazine. better,” writes Giblin. They didn’t Gilly is a whiz at survive. running her boat. It requires She catches fish; she great skill to consoles a multi-mil- stay afloat, lionaire who loses hook salmon a trophy-sized tyee and keep cli- to dogfish; and she ents smiling. “It deftly saves the life was quite useful of another arrogant to know how to know-it-all who change bait with manages to one hand while get his boat you steered the sucked into a boat with the massive whirl- other,” writes pool. Giblin. Chinook Salmon

18 BC BOOKWORLD • SPRING 2021 Navigate the Process With Confidence

Mediation can be used by people to settle disputes in family law, estates cases, car crashes, EI claims, land- lord/tenant disputes, small claims court, and more. However, most books about the mediation process are for the mediators - not the participants who may not know anything about mediation. This book will help them understand the process in Canada. $19.95 | Paperback | 104 pgs | Updates Link

Build Your Business - Manage the Pain t David Giblin worked for 15 years as a salmon fishing guide — a fertile environment for the incubation of good fishing stories.

By summer’s end almost everyone a little time travel. One episode sees wants to be aboard Gilly’s boat. The Troutbreath encounter Captain Van- other guides are wising up, hosing couver’s Royal Navy crew. “The man down their blood-stained boats. stood there with his hands on his Troutbreath returns with a snorkel hips. He was used to issuing orders to and mask to retrieve high-end fishing people. Troutbreath understood this gear, expensive watches and designer guy at once. He had just spent the sunglasses that have vanished over- summer dealing with people like him.” board from boats and docks. After Giblin’s second chronicle is less cleaning them, he sells them back to about chasing fish and more about clients. Resourcefulness personified. colourful characters who inhabit the Placing himself in the story as nar- islands or work at the lodges. They How are you supposed to “hustle” when you hurt all the rator, Giblin is an experienced guide include friends that live aboard a float time? If you’re struggling to run a business while deal- who is often paired with the most dif- home who ask visitors to wear gum- ing with pain, you’re not alone. Living with chronic pain ficult and demanding clients. But he boots because their home is slowly wisely holds his tongue. Better to be sinking. An elaborate plan is hatched can be a challenge, but it doesn’t mean you can’t be tipped, than not. to lift and reposition the house on a successful. Chronic Profit teaches a simple but effective Then again, some folks do pose odd new float. A hair-raising finale has framework to help grow your business even when pain questions, like: “What’s the altitude neighbours coming to the rescue. persists. There’s a better way and this book will help! here, anyways?” After being told they’re Indeed, these sparsely populated actually floating on the ocean, a cigar- islands do have an abiding sense of $26.95 | Paperback | 128 pgs | Updates Link chomping blowhard (nicknamed Heck) community, which is clearly at the says it looks more like a lake. heart of many of Giblin’s stories. “I knew from experience that guys Ultimately though, any attempts to like Heck never really cared about the sift truth from these tales or uncover answers once they had their minds identities would be a waste of good made up,” writes Giblin. It also explains fishing time. 9781772033359 why some people piloted yachts using gas station road maps and wondered Mark Forsythe is co-author with www.self-counsel.com why the “river” flowed in both directions. Greg Dickson of From the West Coast Giblin also dabbles in dreams and to the Western Front (Harbour, 2014). 1-800-663-3007

19 BC BOOKWORLD • SPRING 2021 ART REVIEW

Chalice, 1998. Lithium compound, raku, by Mary Fox Surviving chronic fatigue syndrome, Mary Fox triumphs with a life of art and TURN OF THE a memoir. POTTER’S

WHEELMy Life as a Potter: Stories and Techniques by Mary Fox (Harbour $44.95)

BY PORTIA PRIEGERT

ancouver Island potter Mary t Fox is known for her tex- tured glazes and the el- egant chalices and vases Mary Fox uses a needle tool to slowly angle cut through the clay to the wheelhead. Before removing this excess clay, she runs her cut wire under the bottom of the piece to release it. she has made for decades in her Ladysmith studio. The full-page photographs V of her exquisite creations are a highlight of her memoir, My Life as a Potter: Stories and Techniques. Another strength is her frank, matter-of-fact voice as she recounts her story—discovering clay in 1973 as a 13-year-old student in Victoria and finding the love of her life, Heather Vaughan, only to be felled in 1989 by myalgic encephalomyelitis, a mysterious illness that can cause severe chronic fatigue. Fortunately, Fox recovered enough after five years to continue her work at a reduced and care- fully managed pace. Vaughan, a social worker, had more virulent symptoms. Bedridden for years, she relied on Fox as her main caregiver until her death in 2007 ended their 25-year relationship. The couple’s 1991 relocation from Vancouver to

an old coal miner’s cabin in Ladysmith, an hour’s

drive north of Victoria, was a survival strategy—it t provided an affordable place to live and, eventu- ally, a way for Fox to resume work in her own Mary Fox examines her latest pieces as she removes them from the kiln. studio and pottery shop.

20 BC BOOKWORLD • SPRING 2021 Ng, Amos, Kluckner

Meichi Ng

eichi Ng created the comic, Barely Functional Adult,

Mwhich she began posting on Instagram from her Vancouver

apartment in 2015. The comic t caught on and Ng built a following of 130,000 fans. Now she has released a collection of short stories for a

graphic novel of the same name,

Glass Bottle Vase, 2016 (above) by Mary Fox; Chalice, 2016 (at left), Barely Functional Adult: It’ll All t layered glazes, oxidation, mounted Make Sense (Harper Collins $35).

t in rock, by Mary Fox. “I had never identified as an Mary Fox (with her dog Amy) uses the adult, despite having an ID that pugmill to mix fresh clay. proved otherwise,” Ng writes. “The notion of being an adult just seemed My Life as a Potter allows Fox to pass on her like such a dreary badge to slap on. hard-won wisdom. She discusses things she It also carried this connotation of wishes she had known when she was starting being someone immutably stuffy out, offers a list of “disciplines” she follows in her and incapable of having fun, neither studio, and sets out some of the techniques she of which I was inclined to relate to.” developed over the years. Ng’s newly-published stories are In the book’s foreword, Carol E. Mayer, head about exes, murder, friendship, of the curatorial department at the UBC Museum therapy, anxiety, sucking at things, of Anthropology, notes the dwindling number of freaking out about things, calming senior potters in British Columbia, many of whom down momentarily, wrinkles, petti- have not left written records. ness and other topics that speak to “There is a dearth of autobiographies by pot- a wide audience. 9780062945594 ters that cover the scope reached in this book,” says Mayer. “Some do provide useful technical information, but the pickings are slim.” In recent years, Fox has turned her mind to mentoring a new generation of potters. She has F launched what she calls her “legacy project”—a residency program in her home that helps emerg- ing potters develop practical skills as studio pot- ters. A charitable society has been established to oversee the house after her death, along with Watercolour by Michael Kluckner

an endowment fund that welcomes donations best known for vanishing vancouver through the Vancouver Foundation and the Craft (Whitecap 1990, 2012), Michael Council of British Columbia. Kluckner has published his first set “I have been a potter all my working life, earning of new watercolours and drawings my living from what I create with my hands,” Fox in nine years, Here & Gone (Mid- writes. “Although I have never regretted my career town $19.95), along with musings choice and all the challenges that came with it, I about the images of the people and would like to make it a bit easier for future young places he has captured. “Why am I potters if I can. It is so hard to get started in this still painting and drawing the city field without help: there is the costly equipment after 35 years?” Kluckner asks. “I needed to do the work, and it is increasingly dif- see myself as a witness, certainly

ficult to find a living space that can accommodate not an activist anymore or a seri-

a studio, never mind a landlord willing to let you ous historian… but I am still a moth install a kiln.” t drawn to a candle flame when I see My Life as a Potter does much to demystify the Mary Fox, circa 1996, trims a torn edge, and works to a place about to disappear.” Some challenges that face creative people of all casts. protect the delicate edge of a tall bottle vase. of the locales in the “Here” section, While it brings together many elements, it hangs are already gone. The “Gone” section together because of its structure—multiple chap- Studio Disciplines of Mary Fox includes paintings from places Kluck- ters with bite-sized sidebars—as well as effective ner travelled to in Europe, Australia • Change positions: Get up what you did last time. design and imagery. In many ways, it reflects a and Japan. 9781988242385 potter’s practical mentality—it’s a serial produc- and move every 20 minutes or • Clean daily: You will tion that comes together as a greater whole, just so to minimize body fatigue. feel better when you start O continuing with a series of books • Break Things Up: Do work the next day. as individual cups, plates and bowls are laid out about one of B.C.’s quintessential to create a welcoming, homespun table setting. heavy work for only part • Take your time: Life is not painters, Victoria’s Robert Amos’ 9781550179385 of the day, then turn to a race. Enjoy the moment. latest is The E. J. Hughes Book other lighter tasks. • There is joy in repeti- of Boats (TouchWood $22). If the Victoria-based Portia Priegert is the editor • Keep studio notes: Track- tion: Growth can happen by work of Emily Carr summons to for Galleries West and a former reporter for ing helps you remember refining serial work. mind images of B.C.’s lush forests, the Ottawa bureau of the Canadian Press. Hughes does the same for maritime scenes. Not surprising then, boats were frequently featured in Hughes’s “Beauty is everywhere in the act of creation, work. Although not much of a sailor himself (he couldn’t swim and often got seasick), Hughes was aware that and it is humbling to be embraced by it. It fills these pictures were well-liked, writ- ing to his sister in 1966, “Perhaps I m a r y f o x am being noted for my boats.” me with surges of joy and delight.” 9781771513364

21 BC BOOKWORLD • SPRING 2021 è

INTERVIEW AMANDA WATSON FIRST NATIONS A MOTHER’S WORK IS WILDFIRE NEVER EVACUATIONS DONE A GUIDE FOR Despite decades of fighting for equality, women continue to be expected to handle the bulk of unpaid work at home COMMUNITIES while striving in the workplace.

The Juggling Mother: when things clearly aren’t (with respect Coming Undone in the Age of Anxiety to climate change, the economy, global by Amanda Watson conflict, racism, Covid-19) is the sort (UBC Press $27.95) AND EXTERNAL of glue that sticks women to all of this work. BCBW: Do we take it for granted that SFU lecturer, Amanda Watson’s mothers not only take on responsibility for most of the chores in the household, The Juggling Mother: Coming they can also do paid work on top of AGENCIES Undone in the Age of Anxi- everything? AW: That’s a helpful way to think ety is a deep dive into the mythol- about it. We take for granted the fact that women will pivot to fill whatever ogy of the contemporary “respect- gaps in labour emerge, paid or unpaid. able” mother in Western media. Even though most women work for pay in Western societies, it is still the BC BookWorld interviewed Watson default expectation of women and girls about the central ideas of her book. to provide for the needs of family and community with their unwaged labour. While we now take many of our care BC BookWorld: In simple terms, what needs to market, relying on low-waged do you mean by ‘the juggling mother’? workers who are disproportionately Amanda Watson: By the juggling women of colour and immigrant wom- mother, I mean the mother who is busy en, we still hold gendered expectations keeping up with her many responsibili- of family and household management. ties. She is also busy with good deeds When Covid-19 hit, women made that demonstrate both her service as themselves economically vulnerable a productive and efficient paid worker when they left the paid workforce to and her respectable devotion to her care for and educate children. We take family. She is striving in both realms: for granted that women and girls will her job as a professional or entre- comport themselves in such a way that preneur seeking to climb the ladder families and communities thrive, even and break glass ceilings, and doing if they themselves are feeling over- everything possible to set her kids up whelmed or sad. for financial success and happiness. Amanda So, I’m arguing that Watson there’s a performative ele- ment to the juggling mother as she keeps herself and her family together. She may be unfairly burdened with work, and she may even be burnt out and depressed as a result, but she is also complicit in how labour is organized. She is willing to be overworked and she is unwilling to disrupt the way work and family life are organized unfairly. The juggling mother is not an MARCH 2021 activist. Mothers also have the 978-0-7748-8066-4 emotional responsibility to keep their families feeling ubcpress.ca good in the face of highly uncertain futures. I argue that the responsibility to make things feel all better

22 BC BOOKWORLD • SPRING 2021

978-1-989467-32-9 978-1-989467-30-5 Art/Ceramics/Memoir Memoir/Essays t

Amanda Watson working at home with her children.

BCBW: What does this mean for women individual choices and individual striv- who want to have children and have a ing. This approach only causes harm. 978-1-926991-94-8 978-1-989467-33-6 Given free to patients Photography/Personal Growth professional life? And is this related It creates the conditions for women’s across Canada to the second part of your book title: work and family decisions to be scru- Coming Undone in the Age of Anxiety? tinized, no matter what they do. New authors are always welcome! AW: This means that most women BCBW: What about the divide between will be taking on an enormous load of high-earning mothers and blue-collar Publisher and Distributor work. We expect so much of mothers. mothers? Being able to pay for child- granvilleislandpublishing.com While women can of course resist their care makes it easier to focus on a career Toll-free: 1-877-688-0320 distribution of unpaid work if they are but not everyone has that luxury. partnered, they have little power to AW: The fact that childcare is a luxury resist pressures like workplace stigma good is what is holding us back. It is and pay inequity. I think it is sadness that simple. Childcare needs to be that I am describing in the second high-quality, accessible, affordable, part of the title. How sad that we have and inclusive of the needs of diverse designed family life to be impossible, communities, children, and families. A mind-bending psychological especially in the midst of widespread Not only does accessible childcare popular feminism. narrow the class gap thriller set in the glistening BCBW: Ultimately, is “Rather than between mothers, it streets of Vancouver it really possible for narrows all kinds of women to ‘have it all’? aiming to have social hierarchies be- Does having a family it all, we might tween children and come at the sacrifice families. It is so simple, of a career for women? consider fight- and so poorly under- AW: We have organized stood in our society. society in such a way ing for shorter I think we are getting that career and family workweeks, there by making the come at the sacrifice economic case that of each other, one way accessible childcare is a good or another. As I say in investment. I really the book, I don’t think childcare and hope feminist social we want to have it all pay equity.” scientists can turn our anymore. It’s too much! attention to making Certainly, a balance of another case at some both is more accessible to families with point in the near future! financial privilege, but even affluent BCBW: Where do you look for answers professional women, and women of co- and what gives you hope? lour in particular, face extra demands AW: Even though I’m critical of the on their work and behaviour in order systemic barriers that mothers face, I’m to be valued as competent. Rather than optimistic when I am talking to other aiming to have it all, we might consider mothers and parents. Instead of the fighting for shorter workweeks, acces- competitiveness between mothers and sible childcare and pay equity. families that we see satirized in media, I BCBW: Certain high-earning women see solidarity and empathy. Witnessing with families (e.g., Facebook CEO, that sense of allyship gives me hope. Sheryl Sandberg) put the onus on in- I really feel that women are thirsty for dividuals to “lean in” to be successful. a collective break from shouldering so Is this a reasonable approach? much work and worry, and I am hope- AW: This approach is to be expected ful that with enough solidarity and ally- Available from your favourite bookseller in a society that puts ultimate value ship across genders and races, this will on individuals pulling themselves up translate to changes in how we organize by working hard and making good, work. I am also heartened when I see responsible choices. In that sense, it what an impact small policy changes is reasonable, but it is unhelpful. I can make on redistributing work and dundurn.com encourage my students to understand resources. The task of shifting labour @dundurnpress that this is what it looks like when in- across genders and classes seems infi- dividualism has its claws in feminism. nite, but there is a lot we can do. We have made gender equality about 978-0-7748-6462-6

23 BC BOOKWORLD • SPRING 2021 SHORTSTORIES REVIEW Madeline Sonik

Fontainebleau: Stories by Madeline Sonik (Anvil Press $20) BY HEIDI GRECO ontainebleau should come with a warn- ing—not the one we so often see at the start of a tv show, F though violence and coarse language cer- tainly play a part in these stories. The warning should be a caution that you won’t be able to put this book down, because these characters and photo their complicated lives will get into your head and won’t go away.

We’ve become familiar with volumes henderson - of linked stories, though it’s rare to find sonik one where the links are as unconven- tional as these. And it’s worth noting dyana FRIGHTENED that this book works best by reading it from front to back, something that isn’t always the case with such collections. Dropping in on a story in the middle of GIRLS, DEVIANTS the book could leave you gasping, or at O least confused, though some will likely madeline sonik’s writing is textured leave you gasping anyway. as nubbed corduroy, with visuals that Victoria-based Madeline Sonik has & ROGUES sparkle: “A stoplight beats through his a raft of degrees: an MFA in Creative frenzied wipers, a simple streak of red.” Writing, a PhD in Education, and no Sounds also reverberate throughout less than two distinct MAs. But that Madeline Sonik’s new collection these pages: a metal trolley clatters, doesn’t keep her from writing charac- trains rattle past; these are echoed ters who speak in a down-home ver- of short stories is peopled with a by a girl dragging herself along with a nacular, like Hal, in Transition. walker. Voices of the dead intrude, of- “‘Yeah,’ Hal says… ‘It was real fun fering advice or a scolding or sometimes ‘til this dip-stick got on my case for raft of troubled characters in the even love. jumping the line at Space Mountain.’ This book has much in common ‘Y’all know where the end of the line fictional city of Fontainebleau on with Winesburg, Ohio, the classic col- is?’ he asked. ‘Sure do,’ I said and lection of short stories by Sherwood showed him. the banks of the River. Anderson in 1919. Both are non-linear “Everyone knew Hal had a spur- in nature and offer a raft of troubled of-the-moment temper. He never let dirty secrets in its swirling brown cur- rides an attractive distraction. When characters. Those in Fontainebleau on what he might do next. Even way rents. “Margaret waded out from the children experience the death of a peer, experience problems that are magnified back in grade school, he scared all the grainy shore and set the boat afloat. the pain and confusion long endure, and more brutal, often complicated by teachers.” The water was sticky and opaque with leaving a distinctive scar. stolen cars and steaming wrecks. Hal isn’t the only character in the effluent, and although Margaret at- The people in these stories bear Anderson’s book was considered fictional town of Fontainebleau who tempted to scrutinize its depths, her such scars, left by their experience with an early example of Modernist writing can get hot under the collar. Violence feet inevitably scraped against sharp the hardships of the world. There’s a when it came out. It’s hard not to think and abuse seem to be the standard way metal and other vestiges of life’s wreck- woman who takes refuge in a metal of Sonik’s book as a kind of homage to of life there. age, deposited in the river’s bed.” cup filled with booze—a talisman, her his. Even the style of the map on the Sonik offers a disclaimer at the Like so many subdivisions that link with small possibilities. These are inside of the book’s covers looks to be beginning of the book, explaining that sprang up in the mid-twentieth cen- people who argue about crop circles patterned after the one in the Wines- this creation is not the subdivision tury, this one seems to have been built and UFOs—men who hide in darkness, burg stories. As at least one character in Windsor where she grew up, even in a hurry, with projects and houses or hoot at topless dancers. Crows with in Fontainebleau points out, “Nothing though like that place, it’s situated on popping up helter-skelter. Fields and shining wings abound and are often ever really disappears.” I suspect that the banks of Detroit River not far from wild spots still prevail—hiding places the only witnesses to crimes. the characters in these stories are the Ambassador Bridge with the city of for frightened girls, dreamers, deviants Characters we’ve met in one story much like that, in that they too will Detroit just across the water. or rogues. will show up in another, disjointed as never disappear. 978-1-77214-148-1 Even the river plays a role in these Fountainbleau is a town where itin- broken Barbie dolls, yet recognizable— stories, carrying some of the town’s erant carnivals stop, their ill-tended andhare ad.qxp_Layoutabove all, interconnected. 1 12/02/2021 15:21 Page 1Heidi Greco lives and writes in Surrey.

Hopping your way this spring Hare B&B by Bill Richardson & Bill Pechet

“A hare-raising spectacle” ~ Michael Winter, author

“An amusing and very relevant cautionary tale” ~ Kirkus 9781927917381 $22.95Cdn $19.95USD

Ask for it at your local independent bookseller. For more information, visit www.runningthegoat.com

24 BC BOOKWORLD • SPRING 2021

PRINTED FICTION REVIEW w h e n i s t a n b u l w a s Constantinople

A witch time-travels identities in Norse sagas and other documents. It’s fascinating stuff. with her midwife The bereft family, with the two wise- niece and their woman and their cats (which, of course, also have certain magical abilities), two cats to solve petition the local Viking King Eiric BloodAxe and his two wives for help. a mystery There is a wealth of authentic de- tail about the rigours of the sea and river voyage which takes the group of Sailing to Byzantium would-be rescuers from York, England by Maureen Thorpe to Birka, an island near Sweden, with (Ekstasis $25.95) its busy trading town and active slave BY CAROLINE WOODWARD market. Then the group carries on across the Baltic Sea and then down ontemporary York- major rivers in shallow lightweight river shire lass, Annie boats to get to Kiev and finally across Thornton sudden- the Black Sea to Byzantium. There, ly finds herself in an eccentric and very wealthy man is the middle of a rumoured to have bought the exotic stinking garbage blonde twins for his collection. C heap with her cat in her lap. It’s not Annie’s home, not even her century. Her great-great (many times great) Aunt Meg from eons ago is running toward her, apologizing for the odiferous botched landing. Turns out, Meg has summoned Annie back in time to help her solve a terrible crime which has just happened in Jorvik. (It’s so far back in time that the Vikings are in charge, so York is called by its Norse name.) Meg and Annie’s mission to solve the crime takes them on a time-travelling adventure in Maureen Thorpe’s Sail- Maureen Thorpe: “Yorkshire grit has , the second title ing to Byzantium allowed me to stay sane.” in her planned trilogy with the same characters. The description of the running of Thorpe, herself born in Yorkshire, rapids or portaging around them, the trained as a nurse, worked on two constraints of campfire cooking and continents, travelled the world and now cautious dealings or bloody skirmishes lives in a log house near Invermere. t with other tribes in the lands they are She does talks with slide-shows passing through all make for a gripping about medieval life and writes with Witch Riding Backwards On A Goat by Albrecht Dürer , circa 1500 page-turner. authority about her characters: time- This ‘day-in-the-life’ of sheer surviv- travelling Aunt Meg, a respected witch grandfather was outside with the twins abducted girls and other trustworthy al on the dangerous waterway journey or wise-woman in 15th century York- but, in one of many deft examples of companions took to follow the kidnap- is later enriched when we meet Princess shire; and her 21st century niece, a Thorpe’s storytelling combined with her pers. She also provides an interesting Olga who supports their efforts and trained midwife. Plus, their two cats. medical background, he was caught list of the main characters that pin- mentions her wish to bring Christian- Time-travel fans of Diana Gabal- short with what the modern reader points which ones were actual histori- ity to Russia, which she eventually don’s mega-selling Outlander series can tell is a troublesome prostate and cal figures and those Thorpe invented does in ‘real life.’ We also go to the and historical mystery readers devoted had bolted for the outdoor toilet. The but some of whom just might be real, great bazaars of Constantinople and to the 16th century perils of the Henry three supervising adults are wracked as there are traces of those names and practically touch the fabrics and soft VIII-era lawyer Matthew Shardlake, with grief and guilt at letting the girls leather shoes and smell the spices and by C.J. Sansom, will enjoy Thorpe’s out of their sight at exactly the wrong delicious foods there. novel set in Yorkshire en route to the moment. They dread the arrival of the The action ramps up even more as great kingdom known as Byzantium, father, who doted on his little girls. Annie must work a major feat of magic with its grand city of Constantinople, Aunt Meg is fully capable of magic, in front of a crowd of thousands and the now Istanbul. of shapeshifting and time travelling rulers… and two hungry lions. Sailing to Byzantium follows the as well as having an extensive knowl- So, if you’d love to escape the woes first book in Thorpe’s trilogy, Tangle edge of using herbs and other healing of the present day and enjoy histori- of Time (Ekstasis, 2018). A third title, practices of the Middle Ages. She also cal mysteries and archeological de- Coventina’s Well set in Roman Britain, knows that Annie has inherited her tective work, you’ll have come to the is planned for release in 2021. maternal line of ‘witchy’ abilities in right place and time with Sailing to O addition to having modern-day medi- Byzantium. 978-1-77171-384-9 the crime involves twin girls, platinum cal training. blonde seven-year-olds who have been Annie is quickly dressed in ap- Caroline Woodward is the author of kidnapped while playing right outside propriate linen and wool clothing and nine books in five genres for adults and the door of their own home. footwear and her T-shirt, jeans and children. She writes from the Lennard Their father is a Viking fisher- slippers are left behind to baffle the Island Lightstation. man still out at sea and their English archaeologists of the future. mother and grandmother were inside Thorpe includes a useful glossary Artist’s rendering of Constantinople, the house weaving wool cloth at the of Yorkshire dialect and a map of the the capital city of Byzantium, circa 11th century. time of the abduction. The elderly route the two women, the father of the t

25 BC BOOKWORLD • SPRING 2021 FICTION REVIEW A coffee shop waitress raises two daughters after being abandoned by her

Fake It So Real punk rock partner by Susan Sanford Blades . (Nightwood Editions $21.95) BY ALEXANDER VARTY

lthough most of its action takes place in a downbeat world of dingy clubs, cramped apartments, and A squalid camper vans, Susan San- ford Blades’s Fake It So Real, ends on a strangely upbeat note. At a wake. A wake, more specifically, for former punk-rock singer Damian Costello, whose disembodied foot has washed up on a beach somewhere in the Sal- ish Sea. And at this wake the mother of Costello’s children, Gwen, has unchar- acteristically taken control. Snapping out of her book-long trance of agora- phobia, alcoholism and need, she’s climbed to the stage where her late partner’s band has been shambling through its pre-show rituals and cor- rals the microphone. “I am punk rock,” she declares—and so she is, in this glorious but long-de- layed moment of sonic self-affirmation. And although Gwen’s creator down- plays her own instrumental talents—“I tried to play bass, or I did play bass for a bit in high school, but I don’t think I’m a very musical person,” says San- ford Blades in a telephone interview from her Victoria home—music cer- tainly played a major role in her own creative awakening. “For me,” Sanford Blades explains, “it’s been about listening to music, and about feeling, and about the broader social messages with music. I came of age in the ’90s, so for me it was riot grrrl. That was my big thing, and it meant a lot to me, especially as a teen- age girl—just how these women who urre?? were just screaming about everything, u e all these things that you encounter and N Nt o tt you don’t know how to react to. Like o uu older men staring at you in the street… All these things that are just starting Susan Sanford Blades’s debut book is not a punk rock novel, rather it’s a story about family dysfunction. to happen now that you’re becoming a ff woman. So, to have all of these women shop waitress’s income, self-medicates ries for sure. What I like to say is that Kill, and following the shocking revela- older than me who’d dealt with it and with vodka while the kids find their own the actual events that take place in the tions about sex killers Paul Bernardo were screaming about it, that was re- means of escape: Sara by splitting town book are not real, but all the feelings in and Karla Homolka. ally empowering for me. without looking back, and Meg through the book come from real feelings that I “I want it to be about female friend- “For me, music is definitely a way of education, as she pursues a degree was experiencing or working through.” ship, so it’s about these two girls who connecting with the world, and of feel- in gender studies. Both repeat their She allows, too, that she’s had to are 18,” she says, noting that she’s al- ing your own power,” she adds. “Like mother’s romantic mistakes by hooking clarify that point with her own parents. ready finished a first draft but will likely reading books, too: it’s a way of feeling up with feckless men—but for them, “A lot of these chapters were published discard most of it. “As I was writing a connection with somebody else who’s at least, there is some future. Gwen, first as short stories, and I remember it,” she continues, “I wanted the main going through the same thing as you, however, takes the “no future” ethos [my mother] thinking that Gwen was character’s mother to be absent in or connecting with a character that you of punk rock literally—not as a call to inspired by her, and I was like ‘How some way, and I thought ‘Oh, she’ll be can see yourself in.” shape one’s own life outside society’s can you think that?’” Sanford Blades adopted.’ And now, as I write the sec- Although the power of music to both lines, but as an excuse for surrender. says, laughing. “Like, my mother is ond draft, it’s becoming a novel about liberate and seduce animates Fake It So Sanford Blades’s unflinching treat- completely the opposite; she’s very con- a girl trying to find her birth mother.” Real, which takes its title from grunge ment of her older protagonist might servative, the opposite of Gwen. And I Zine culture, toxic masculinity, sex- icon Courtney Love’s song Doll Parts, suggest that she’s working out some think my dad was kind of offended by ual awakening and the cult TV show My it would be a mistake to consider it a of her own mother-daughter issues in the fact that the whole book is about an So-Called Life also figure in the as-yet- “punk rock novel.” It’s more a novel of her fiction, but the author says that’s absent father. So, um… There’s noth- untitled book, Sanford Blades reveals, family dysfunction centred around the not entirely the case. ing of my mother in this book.” suggesting that even if there really is always contentious mother-daughter “People always ask if it’s 100 percent There may be more of Sanford no future, the past can still be mined relationship, and it also touches on my real life, and no,” says the mother of Blades and her family in her next book, for fresh revelations. 978-0889713888 the psychologically crippling effects of three. “But yes, for sure, I started writ- which takes place in her hometown of economic precarity and addiction. ing this book after I separated from my Edmonton, Alberta, during the very Alexander Varty is a musician Gwen, who’s trying to raise her husband, which was almost ten years years that she was coming of age, lis- and writer living on unceded daughters Sara and Meg on a coffee- ago, so a lot of that went into these sto- tening to the riot grrrl sounds of Bikini Snuneymuxw territory.

26 BC BOOKWORLD • SPRING 2021 PAGE COUNT PRESS POETRY REVIEW Verses for a departed mother

Linda Gane wrote poems out of necessity, an integral part of grieving a parent’s death.

Arc of Light by Lorraine Gane (Raven Chapbooks $20)

hey say I don’t have long to live,” Lor- raine Gane’s mother tells her in the poem Death Dream. T “What can you say to the voice of death,” Gane wonders, which is answered with “I love you and a hug,” before her mother “sits down to cereal, milk, and her seven morn- ing pills.” Gane’s collection of poems, Arc A third collection of raw, unflinching, and darkly of Light, an elegy to her mother, are comedic neo-noir from the two-time Mary Gane (nee Kurylo) age 17 in 1941 bound together in an exquisitely pro- Commonwealth Short Story Prize contender duced chapbook by Salt Spring Island- blue sky.” Her mother is relieved that and Pushcart Prize nominee. 265 pages. based Raven Chapbooks. At times Gane can also see the figure. “I’m glad, Can$20 plus postage. Orders at donmclellan.com emotive, Gane’s writing is elegantly you say. I didn’t want you to think I minimal and brutally honest. was seeing things,” writes Gane of her “Every story packs a punch.” We learn that Gane’s mother came mother’s response. Sheryl Salloum, B.C. Book Prize finalist for to Canada as a poor émigré from East- Back and forth between home and The Life and Art of Mildred Valley Thornton. ern Europe in The Girl from Poland. the hospital, Gane engages with her “Despite the strangeness of it all, you mother. Some of these moments are set were happy,” writes Gane. When her against metaphors of animals as in The mother comes of age, she marries at White Heron in which Gane watches 23 and hides the “little girl” inside her a heron and its hatchling “lift off to- heart along with “all her hopes that gether” and “vanish into the blue air.” blossomed and withered there.” Gane describes her mother’s last Often, end-of-life stories include bad breath: “a final wisp of air that disap- health—in this case a stroke. While pears into the silence she becomes.” visiting her mother in the hospital, The last poem, which gives the book Gane is alarmed when Mary points at its title, is about a photo of her dead the window and says, “Look at that mother’s body in a bed over which reindeer.” At first Gane doesn’t see the Gane sees a white arc floating above. reindeer. Then, Gane bends down so “Yesterday I looked at the photo again that her face is next to her mother’s five years after her death,” writes Gane. and sees etched in the glass, “a small “The arc was still floating above her—all new titles by bc writers figure with antlers flying into the light softness and light.” 978-0-9734408-4-3

tLinda Thompson

Where 978-1773240-80-0 • $19.95 978-1773240-69-5 • $18.95 the enni unn anessa arnsworth piano G G V F has mildew

Linda Thompson grew up on a farm in the Pemberton Valley, later moving to Vancouver Island where she still lives on a farm. Her writing has been published widely in Canada, the U.S. and the U.K. and now her debut poetry collection, Black Bears in the Carrot Field (Mother Tongue $19.95) celebrating small town characters, will be released this July. There’s Eddie, who rolled his skidder in ’68, Kirk buying a house on a Visa credit card, Verna who sneaks back from the dead and Ethyl Peach hammer- ing out tunes on a mildewed piano. There’s plenty of farm imagery with cows, horses and old cars, and dreaming about black bears in the carrot field. There’s even Jesus, come to town driving a Chevy Chevelle (or was it a Dodge Dart?) 978-1773240-83-1 • $19.95 978-1773240-86-2 • $17.95 later spotted at the Stawamus Chief looking way up. Described as country aija ePPer aroline onG songs crossed with dark lyricism and wit, Thompson’s poems humorously tell www.signature-editions.comK P C w of people full of imperfection and guts. 978-1-896949-84-0

27 BC BOOKWORLD • SPRING 2021 New from Aevo UTP POETRY REVIEW Junie Désil

AA CURECURE FORFOR THETHE HAITIANHAITIAN

Junie Désil explores what it means to ZOMBIEbe a descendant of enslaved people.

eat salt | gaze at the ocean “feel but not too much / don’t look by Junie Désil up” writes Désil in the poem, zom-bie (Talon $17.95) | / ’zambi /. “don’t feel [because] we “The Gatherings brings together voices and perspectives, can’t feel [ourselves] / hearts eyes / dulled do/what/we’re/told/to so we rarely shared so openly and bluntly, on the long road and orn in Montreal and do / what we’re told.” commitment needed to cultivate understanding across raised in Winnipeg Désil weaves in historical docu- by parents who ments, newspaper articles and other cultures, and particularly across Native/non-Native immigrated from ephemera as she probes the lives of Haiti, Junie Désil Black slaves in Haiti and their fight for communities.” B came to Vancouver freedom, including a newspaper report at the age of nineteen of a slave revolt on March 13, 1792. HOLLY WILKINSON to attend the University of British Co- She writes of America’s occupation of Executive Director, WholeHeart, Inc. lumbia. As a student, she says she was Haiti from 1915—1934 and links it to “unused to a thirty-two-thousand-plus an American company that exploits student body, isolated, and one of the Haitian workers. few Black students.” “bring bodies / more / bodies / har- She struggled and a fellow student in vest bitter / sugar” she writes in gon-zo “The Gatherings calls me back to the deepest roots of my own an African American history class who, | / ’ganzou /. “those dead folks work- “noticing my struggle (sobbing openly ing the sugar-cane fields like it’s 1820.” faith tradition. Several times it brought me to tears. There is in class, etc.),” facilitated a connection Désil continues up to the pres- deep healing here, and truth, and an even deeper Love.” with their professor. That led to Désil ent times and the Black Lives Matter being hired as a research assistant and movement. In one extended poem she sparked her interest in “examining and writes, using lower case letters: “i took NOAH MERRILL following the ‘colonial trace.’” a snapshot of 2016. i counted, over two Secretary, New England Yearly Meeting of the While still at UBC, Désil became hundred deaths in one year. if we’re Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) involved with a group called Colour being comprehensive, this right here Connected Against Racism UBC. It does not include the dead from the was through this association that she transatlantic slave voyage, those who was encouraged to publish a poem in a leapt to their deaths, who died beneath special race issue in The Ubyssey and the cargo hold, once stolen from their started “what looks to be a lifelong pas- ancestral lands. those who died in sion for writing angry and impassioned violent capitalist servitude, who died in poetry,” says Désil. violent encounters with white holders It all culminated in a debut collec- of enslaved Black people… Black trans tion of poems, eat salt | gaze at the folks. they will need another page… this ocean exploring Désil’s experiences list is a list of names of Black people growing up “Black on stolen Indigenous who have died south of this ‘border,’ so lands” combined with her personal nar- you might almost want to say this list rative about slavery, Black sovereignty is not Canada – i dare you… this is a @utpress and contemporary Black lives. piece that will go on for a while till you Désil probes the meaning of a zom- feel as paralyzed as i continue to be.” bie, often used as a metaphor for the Her last verse is poignant: “i look at treatment of Black bodies. Indeed, the the ocean / it breathes loudly / i stare book’s title is a reference to a supposed at the ocean and wonder / when will i cure for zombification. feel alive” 9781772012651

28 BC BOOKWORLD • SPRING 2021 KIDLIT REVIEW When Meg met Greg How two sisters came together to write a series of books for children with reading difficulties.

Meg and Greg: both fiction and non-fiction. Frank and the Skunk It was Elspeth who had the idea by Elspeth Rae and Rowena Rae; to write books for struggling readers illustrated by Elisa Gutiérrez after she became frustrated with the (Orca $14.95) books available for her students. She AGES 6-8 decided that writing her own stories was the best solution for meeting her and owena Elspeth students’ needs. grew up in a Rae As Rowena already had experience house that was full writing books, Elspeth approached her of books. It was Ro- wena and make a mess in the lodge R their moth- with a fresh batch of fudge. er who were These words were chosen the strong readers, as they as they focus on the always had books on the go. phonograms: nk, ng, tch “Going on holiday for two and dge. weeks usually meant bringing More books are already along a separate suitcase dedi- being planned in the Meg cated to books!” says Rowena. and Greg series. All are for While Elspeth and their shared reading between a father loved books and stories child who is learning to read too, they found reading more and a more experienced challenging. Elspeth enjoyed reader. The latter could be being read to, and used to lug a teacher, tutor, reading cassette-taped books around volunteer, parent, grandpar- before the days of Audible. ent, buddy reader or even com. a sibling. Shared reading Eventually, at the age of means the stories have text eight, Elspeth was diagnosed at different levels of difficulty with dyslexia, which led to her and this allows the stories to receiving Orton-Gillingham be more complex and more instruction during her school likely to interest an older years, an approach developed t child, while still giving a by Samuel Torrey Orton learning reader a chance to (1879–1948) and Anna Gill- read part of the story. ingham (1878–1963) for teaching lit- Elspeth Rae and Rowena Rae on Pender Island in 2019 (above) and in 1980 (top right). Other “dyslexia-friendly” design eracy to those for whom reading, writ- elements in the Meg and Greg books ing and spelling does not come easily. with the idea to work collaboratively on self-publish.” include shaded paper to cut down on “Our father was never diagnosed, books for special needs children. They They teamed up with Vancouver- contrast, a font that mimics printed let- probably because testing wasn’t preva- spent nearly three years developing based illustrator Elisa Gutiérrez “who ters, extra spacing between words and lent in the 1930s when he was a their concept, writing stories, testing brought our stories to life on the page,” lines, and illustration labels printed child,” says Rowena. “But I remember them with students, and revising the says Elspeth. “After learning a lot about mainly in lowercase letters. him saying that his mother read his concept, guiding principles, text and book production, we launched our first The stories have graphic novel/ medical textbooks out loud to him in design. The final result was a book with book, A Duck in a Sock, in 2017. We got comic book elements as such features university.” graphic stories featuring the characters a phenomenal response from teachers, are popular with children. Book three But their father did eventually be- Meg and Greg, two ten-year-old best parents and students. in the series is in production and will come a confident reader and he went friends. “One eight-year-old boy told us he be available in fall 2021. Rowena and on to write for his job. “He always had The stories begin at the stage loved the stories so much that he slept Elspeth are currently writing book reading material in his back pocket, where a child reader recognizes the with the book under his pillow; and four. usually a news magazine,” says Ro- individual letters of the alphabet and another girl carted the book all around “We have ideas about future books wena. “Both of our parents wrote exten- knows their most common sounds (all Europe on a family vacation. both in the Meg and Greg series and sively in their healthcare careers and the basic consonant sounds, including “With this type of response, we con- possibly for a “prequel” series for read- our father continued to write articles consonant blends, and the short vowel nected with Liz Kemp, a fiction editor ers who are at the stage of learning the and stories throughout his retirement, sounds). The plan was for a series of at Orca Book Publishers, and signed basic sounds of the individual letters of virtually until the day he died.” books such that each story introduces a contract for Orca to reprint the first the alphabet,” says Elspeth. Elspeth went on to earn a B.Ed. one letter combination or phonogram book and then to continue the book “Apart from the gratification of from Simon Fraser University and (like th or ck) in a particular sequence series with three additional titles.” creating books that are making a real become a certified Orton-Gillingham derived from Orton-Gillingham. Rowena and Elspeth have followed difference for many kids and their teacher for children with dyslexia and “We initially submitted a book pro- up their first book with the publica- families, the best thing about the two other language-learning difficulties in posal to half a dozen Canadian and tion of Meg and Greg: Frank and the of us working together is how much Vancouver. U.S. publishers,” says Rowena. “We Skunk (Orca $14.95), in which Meg closer it’s brought us. We’ve always Rowena worked as a biologist in received rejections across the board, and Greg go to a summer camp and been close as friends and sisters but Canada and New Zealand before but several of the publishers replied to have a run-in with a skunk, sing a silly now we’re business partners and co- becoming a Victoria-based freelance us with encouraging comments about song about a king, go on a canoe trip authors as well, and this has been truly writer, editor and children’s author of our book concept. We then decided to that has one glitch after another, and phenomenal.” 978-1-4598249-3-5

29 BC BOOKWORLD • SPRING 2021 A li le girl uses imagination and inventiveness to spread friendship through her community.

“De Waal’s rhythmic prose and cyclical REVIEW storytelling are delightful, and Medina’s KIDLIT energetic characters and warm pale e are charming. . . . A cute meet-cute.” —Kirkus Reviews Look up, way up

Robert Heidbreder turns his gaze to the sky and what’s up there

Catch the Sky by Robert Heidbreder squirrels, crows, trees and leaves, and with illustrations by Emily Dove elephants as imagined in clouds. (Greystone Kids $22.95) by Sara de Waal This diverse book ends with an in- AGES 3-8 vitation for good dreams in Good Night, art by Erika Medina Sky: Draw the curtains. / Into warm ragonflies, butterflies beds. /Sky’s treasures we shared / will and bees. Kites, dance in our head. balloons and heli- Heidbreder taught school for thirty copters. Stars and years in Vancouver where he developed fireworks in the his love of wordplay. In 2002, he was D night sky. These are awarded the Prime Minister’s Award for the wonders that chil- Teaching Excellence. His books have dren’s poet Robert Heidbreder finds won many prizes including I Wished for when he looks upwards. His picture a Unicorn (Kids Can, 2000) and Croco- book Catch the Sky is full of pocket diles Play (Tradewind, 2008). poems to these delights. It’s his way 9781771646314 of celebrating nature with children around the world. Heidbreder’s morning starts with the poem, Sunrise: Rosy, red arms / ca- “To glimpse this diversity is ress the sky, /smiling sun /waving HI! to feel some of the meaning He carries on through the seasons, starting with autumn when the wind of being Canadian.” blows and leaves fall; then winter when —R. Yorke Edwards the snow flies and northern lights swirl; to summer when hot air balloons float; and spring when rain sprinkles, drizzles and downpours. Heidbreder covers many topics for photo many countries, from the cold north hayes

to the hot equator. He rejoices in Robert Heidbreder

the earth’s creatures—fireflies, bats, ted

Find it at rbcm.ca/books, at the Royal Museum Shop or at your favourite bookstore illustration $24.95 paperback pechet

$11.99 ebook bill Harry the hare & her beastly guest

HELP WANTED? Hare B&B Imagine being an only child by Bill Richardson and then your mom has septuplets? Easy to with illustrations by Bill Pechet do if you are a hare — and a character in one (Running the Goat $22.95) of Bill Richardson’s books for kids. EVENT’s AGES 6-8 Richardson’s new heroine, Harriet, nick- Reading Service named Harry, is pleasantly surprised with the arrival of seven new brothers and sisters. But it’s not all fun and games and one for Writers day when Harry takes her younger siblings for an outing, back home the parent hares are killed and eaten by a coyote marauding as an encyclopedia salesman. Left on their own, the orphaned hare children must now learn to earn a living. They decide to run a bed & breakfast in Richardson’s Hare B&B. Of course, they advertise by twitter and their good bird friends are soon partaking in the hospitality. Other guests arrive, including a skunk and a squirrel. Then an odd-looking, rather uncomely rabbit books a night at the Hare B&B. Harry is suspicious. Peeking through the unseemly guest’s keyhole, the smelly “rabbit” is revealed to be the coyote up to his old tricks by hiding in costume so that he can launch a surprise attack on them too. Harry rallies her siblings and together they make a plan to save themselves. Visit eventmagazine.ca today Will it work? 978-1927917381

30 BC BOOKWORLD • SPRING 2021 WHO’S WHO BRITISH COLUMBIA

“Speak against the coloniality of photo t

the world, against the route of despair it causes, in an always-loud- campbell ening chant. Please keep loving.”

Billy-Ray Belcourt, A History of My Brief Body tenille

Ian Haysom A IS FOR ALEC with his Elaine Alec’s Calling My Spirit Back grandkids (Tellwell $22.99) addresses her views on the current period of Canadian history during which she says “con- versations about systemic racism and abuse of women and the historical and ongoing trauma of First Nations are finally resonating beyond their typical boundaries.” 978-0228830696

Clockwise: Vince R.

Ditrich, Vanessa photography B IS FOR BELCOURT Farnsworth, Michelle UBC prof of Indigenous creative writing, Good, Janie Chang, t Billy-Ray Belcourt’s debut memoir A Elaine Alec, Francesca

Ekwuyasi. picturewest History of My Brief Body (Hamish Hamilton $25) starts with memories of his early life in a small hamlet and expands into a wider, broken world H IS FOR HAYSOM around him. It includes his experience Grandfathered: Dispatches from the of colonialism’s legacy, joys in life, Trenches of Modern Grandparent- sexual exploration and intimacy, and hood (Heritage $22.95) chronicles the act of writing as a survival instinct retired newsman, Ian Haysom’s ad- and way of grieving. 9780735237780 ventures with his grandkids. Through funny anecdotes, Haysom explores the unexpected lessons they have taught C IS FOR CHANG him (and those he has attempted to The Library of Legends (Harper Col- teach them). Haysom also investigates lins $18.99), is SFU Writer’s Studio the changing role of grandparents in graduate, Janie Chang’s third novel. gold and platinum albums, and been released The Haweaters (Signature the 21st century. 9781772033335 Set in 1937 China, as Japan begins enshrined in several Halls of Fame. Editions $18.95) about a real-life bombing Nanking, nineteen-year-old 978145974725-8 double murder in Ontario that pitted a Hu Lian flees with fellow students and wealthy landowner against his impov- I IS FOR ISITT faculty on a thousand-mile walk to erished neighbour, generating gossip, Benjamin Isitt co-authored with Ravi safety. At stake is not only their lives, E IS FOR EKWUYASI innuendo and scandal. 9781773240695 Malhotra, Able to Lead: Disablement, but a priceless five-hundred-year-old Francesca Ekwuyasi’s debut novel Radicalism, and the Political Life of collection of myths and folklore known Butter Honey Pig Bread (Arsenal E.T. Kingsley (UBC Press $89.95) due as the Library of Legends. 9780062851505 $23.95) about a multi-continental G IS FOR GOOD out in May. New York-born, double am- family of Nigerian women dealing with A writer of Cree ancestry, Michelle putee E.T. Kingsley unspeakable tragedy, was longlisted Good has written Five Little In- brought his radical D IS FOR DITRICH for the 2020 Scotiabank Giller Prize. dians (Harper Perennial $22.99), a socialism across Failed musician, Tony Vicar saves a It also made this year’s CBC Canada novel about a group of residential the border when he car accident victim and is suddenly Reads list of finalists. 9781551528236 school survivors released from founded the Social- rocketed from complete unknown to their “detention,” barely out of ist Party of Canada. a legend in mere months in Vince childhood. With no money or sup- Kingsley went on to R. Ditrich’s dark farce, The Liquor F IS FOR FARNSWORTH port, the five end up in the seedy shape a generation Vicar (Dundurn $18.99), due out this Having written a memoir about be- world of Vancouver’s Downtown of Canadian leftists summer. But Vicar finds out fame isn’t ing the first confirmed case of a B.C. Eastside where their paths cross during a time when always positive. Ditrich, the drummer resident with Lyme’s Disease, Van- and re-cross over decades as they it was rare for dis- and manager of the band Spirit of the essa Farnsworth has produced two help each other reinvent their lives. abled men to lead. West has earned more than a dozen more titles, including the recently 9781443459181 9780774865760

31 BC BOOKWORLD • SPRING 2021 WHO’S WHO BC “subTerrain has been essential in

guiding me to some a of the country’s Lushwards most impressive TriumphanT new voices.” — Michael holMes, ediTor ecW Press LiTerary

$ FicTioN 3,000 words 3,000 creaTive NoN-FicTioN 4,000 words Mark Jarman iN cash PriZes PoeTrY [suite of 5 related poems] J IS FOR JARMAN M IS FOR McILWRAITHS eNTrY Fee: $30 (includes a one-year In Czech Techno & Other Stories of The McIlwraiths of Scotland emigrated subscription to Music (Anvil $18) Mark Jarman’s five to North America and Australia in the subTerrain Magazine) tales are built around music and travel. 1850s, becoming politicians, entrepre- His subjects range from a tour through neurs and scholars. Now UBC profes- Napoli to a walk on Victoria’s inner sor emerita, Eva-Marie Kröller has deadliNe harbor; music from ‘gentle Tunisian combed through their letters, diaries For eNTries: techno’ to tunes from Steppenwolf or and other sources to find how genera- The Youngbloods wafting from a car tions of McIlwraiths described being MaY 15, 2021 radio. Woven into each story are ever- subjects of the British Empire and how present matters of the human heart. that changed over time, in Writing iNForMaTioN: 9781772141382 the Empire: The McIlwraiths, 1853 – 1948 (UTP $82.50) with illustrations subterrain.ca K IS FOR KAWATSKI and a map. 9781487507572 Deanna Kawatski’s eighth book, Magda’s Odyssey (Gracesprings Col- lective $21.95) is a YA novel about a 14-year-old girl who sets off across Canada to find the twin sister she was separated from at birth. Magda hitch- hikes, treks through mountains, eludes the law and even JOIN US murderous thugs Deanna Kawatski as she heads east May 7th - 9th, 2021 with her faithful Virtual if mandated by health regulations - dog, Sky. Kawatski’s Clara and Me, please check the website for details The Story of an Unexpected Friendship (Whitecap, 1996) was nominated for a Prestige Harbourfront Resort Rahela Nayebzadah Presenters: Hubert Evan’s award for non-fiction Salmon Arm, BC in 1997 and her first book, Wilderness Faye Arcand Mother (Whitecap, 1994) became a N IS FOR NAYEBZADAH Book of the Month selection in 1994. Whatever level of Arianna Dagnino Monster Child (Wolsak & Wynn 9781777085803 writer you may be, Sarah de Leeuw $20), a novel by Rahela Nayebzadah kc dyer introduces three children of Afghan you’ll want to be part of immigrants trying to find their way in this inspiring weekend Scott Fitzgerald Gray L IS FOR LEBLANC a mostly uncaring society. A sexual on the shores of Blu & Kelly Hopkins Poet Curtis LeBlanc is unusual in that assault causes tragedy and mayhem Richard Kemick he not only writes for artsy journals, for the family. Nayebzadah’s first spectacular he is an occasional hockey columnist David A. Poulsen title Jeegareh Ma was an autobio- Shuswap Lake for NHL Numbers. His second poetry graphical novel based on her family’s Linda Rogers collection Birding in the Glass Age of migration to Canada from Afghanistan. Isolation (Nightwood $18.95) explores Michael Slade 9781989496305 Expect to be Sylvia Taylor the implications encouraged, of social illness Karen Lee White informed and and asks ques- O IS FOR O’BRIAN tions about the thoroughly Through Post-Atomic Eyes (MQUP entertained. Check website for updates effects of anxi- $44.95) co-edited by UBC professor ety on behav- emeritus of art history, John O’Brian iour. 9780889713680 and Claudette Lauzon, assistant professor of contemporary art history, Curtis deals with the answers that photogra- LeBlanc phy and contemporary art offer to the question of what it means to live in a post-atomic world. 978022801393

on the

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Find out what these published authors photo and industry professionals can do for you.ake clamp Register at: www.wordonthelakewritersfestival.comL #wolwriters Claudette Lauzon rossanne

32 BC BOOKWORLD • SPRING 2021 WHO’S WHO BRITISH COLUMBIA

P IS FOR PERRIN W IS FOR WIGMORE UBC law profes- In Night Watch: The sor, Benjamin Vet Suite (Invisible Perrin takes a Publishing $19.95), penetrating look Prince George-based at opioid drug ad- Gillian Wigmore diction in Over- explores the lives dose: Heart- of rural veterinar- break and Hope ians in three no- in Canada’s Gillian Wigmore vellas. Described Opioid Crisis as a cross between Benjamin Perrin (Viking $32). He James Herriot and a “Canadian gothic interviews those sensibility,” Wigmore writes of the lives working on the frontlines such as un- and loves of people in places as varied dercover police officers, healthcare pro- as small-town B.C., southern France fessionals and drug users. His findings and Fiji. 9781988784588 challenge many assumptions about the crisis. 9780735237872 X IS FOR XI Exporting Virtue? China’s Inter- Q IS FOR QUALICUM national Human Rights Activism From Qualicum to Campbell River, in the Age of Xi Jinping (UBC Press never-before-seen historical photos $89.95) by UBC law professor, Pitman showcase the wilderness areas of B. Potter explores the efforts by China Vancouver Island’s Comox Valley as it to export its human rights standards was hiked, skied and enjoyed by new that, although couched in terms of vir- settlers in the early 1900s in Step into tue, are in practice authoritarian and Wilderness: A Pictorial History of oppressive. 9780774865555 Outdoor Exploration in and around the Comox Valley (Harbour $39.95). Illustration by Russ Willms Included is a photo of two men wear- for his children’s book, Y IS FOR YU ing nothing but kelp, cavorting at the Elephants Do Not Belong in Trees UBC history profes- beach. 9781550178937 sor, Henry Yu has compiled the coffee table book Jour- R IS FOR RUSS WILLMS neys of Hope: Chal- Russ Willms has written and illustrat- lenging Discrimi- ed the picture book Elephants Do Not nation & Building Belong in Trees (Orca $19.95) about on Vancouver an elephant who wants to live in a big Henry Yu Chinatown’s Lega- bushy tree despite objections from the cies (UBC Initiative current residents: Bird, Squirrel and for Student Teaching and Research in Monkey. For children aged 3-5, the Chinese Canadian Studies $50) that story is ultimately about acceptance, tells the story of Vancouver’s early making friends and being different. Chinese immigrants and their fight for 9781459825994 justice against the City of Vancouver, which historically supported, and leg- Frolicking islated for, white supremacy. Yu also S IS FOR SCHAUCH at Qualicum Beach with outlines steps for reconciliation. After 20 years work- kelp 9780993659317 ing in global invest- ment, mountaineer Michael Schauch Z IS FOR ZARANKIN turned his atten- The surprising bestseller Field Notes tion to international V IS FOR VARNEY from an Unintentional Birder (D&M mentorship and Long a fervent promoter of Canadian $24.95) by Julia Zarankin is her story girls’ education in poets and artists working from outside of finding meaning through birds when Michael Schauch Nepal, which he de- established and academic venues, Ed- she turned to birdwatching after a scribes in A Story of win Varney has co-edited with Daniel divorce at the age of 35. Zarankin’s Karma: Finding Love and Truth in J. Kirk, Drift: Poems and Poets from writing has appeared in Audubon, Ca- the Lost Valley of the Himalaya (RMB the Comox Valley (The Poem Factory nadian Geographic, The Walrus, Prism $25), due out in September. Schauch $19.95) with poetry by 38 disparate International, Antioch Review, Birding calls Squamish his “ camp.” poets who all have one thing in com- Magazine, and The Globe and Mail. She 9781771604673 mon: they live and work in the Comox was shortlisted for the CBC Short Story Valley. 9781895593563 Prize (2020). 9781771622486 T IS FOR THOMAS-PETER B.A. Thomas-Pe- ter’s debut novel, Linda J. Eversole The Kissing Fence (Caitlin $24.95) be- gins with two sepa- rate stories about U IS FOR UNBUTTONED Doukhobors dealing Following her biography of Victoria with their faith: two bordello owner Stella Carroll, Stella: B.A. Thomas-Peter Russian children Unrepentant Madam (TouchWood, who rely on their 2005), Linda J. Eversole has produced Doukhobor teachings to get them a broader history of the city’s prostitu- through a cruel 1950s residential tion as told through newly found stories photo Julia Zarankin school; and a corrupt businessman of the women who lived it, Unbuttoned who rejects his Doukhobor heritage Victoria: A Red-Light History of BC’s sibboney until a cycling accident sends his life Capital City (TouchWood $20).

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34 BC BOOKWORLD • SPRING 2021 OBITS

David Robinson t

laudable to attack the arts bureaucrats as part of the problem, not part of the David solution. Siegler, among his many ac- complishments, co-founded the Liter- Robinson ary Press Group in 1975. The ‘sensitive’ David Robinson and the ‘aggressive’ Siegler were seemingly an ideal yin/ January 5, 1947- yang duo until power-sharing within November 24, 2020 Talon became problematic and a law- suit ensued as to company ownership, leaving Hay as an outsider. ith the encourage- Having nurtured the career of ment of an excep- caterer-turned-cookbook author Susan tional English Mendelson and having masterminded teacher named bestsellers by restauranteur Umberto Harry Locke (also Menghi—David Robinson married W a formative influ- Zonda Nellis, whose career as a fash- ence on several B.C. ion designer had already taken off be- authors) the precocious David Rob- fore they joined forces. He became the inson co-founded a literary magazine saviour/guide for her business in much called Talon in 1963 while he was a the same way that Siegler had offered student at Magee High School in Van- his managerial chutzpah to him after couver. It operated from his parents’ he was already a success. garage. By 1967, he had published David turned a cold shoulder to Talon’s first book, fireweed, by Ken book publishing and he became a Belford, while attending the University devoted family man, although he re- of British Columbia. In the same year, mained a silent partner in Talonbooks the first issue of The Georgia Straight from 1984 until 1992. With the inte- was produced by a collective. Similarly, gral assistance of Mary Schendlinger, Talonbooks emerged in conjunction Karl and Christy Siegler expanded with bill bissett’s blewointmentpress the mandate of Talonbooks for several and Jim Brown’s Very Stone House. decades, before retiring to Powell River Although he was the son of J. Lewis whereupon Talonbooks underwent Robinson, head of UBC’s geography a reincarnation under the direction department (1953-1968), David was of Kevin Williams, formerly of Rain- motivated by his contacts within the coast Books, who took over majority fields of literature and theatre. More ownership in 2008 with his wife Vicki importantly, he not only esteemed and TALONBOOKS: Theme for Diverse Instruments by Jane Rule (1975); Mrs. Blood by Williams. Siegler remained with Talon Audrey Thomas (1970); The Vision Tree: Selected Poems by Phyllis Webb (1982). respected artists, stroking their egos to until 2011. gain their allegiance to his imprint, he Simply put, David Robinson was publishing house. While many small much for him, David consented to allow was a sublime adjudicator of talent. He integral as one of the province’s first presses reflect the personality of the himself to be rescued by a more asser- prided himself on his judgments as a professional book publishers, in terms printer, in the case of Talonbooks it tive force, Karl Siegler, age 26, who literary impresario—and he proceeded of cultural impact. The publishing was design that dominated. Every book had attended and taught at the caul- to excel at publishing the country’s company he founded now has more expressed an exquisite aesthetic that dron of new-fangled radicalism known foremost playwrights, taking particular than 500 titles in print. Among the came from David, who designed the as Simon Fraser University. Siegler care with the design of their books. For other authors he personally published cover, chose the paper, did the layout, first worked at Talonbooks in 1974. this activity alone, he merits a place were Marie-Claire Blais, George Bow- wrote the press release, and individu- He became president and CEO when in Canada’s Publishing Hall of Fame, ering, Frank Davey, Roy Kiyooka, ally wrapped review copies with meticu- Talon Books Ltd. incorporated in 1975, should there ever be one, although Mary Meigs, bpNichol, Jane Rule and lous attention. His creativity propelled though still operating as Talonbooks. it was actually colleague Peter Hay Audrey Thomas. In various ways, he everything at Talon, and yet he gladly As Siegler took over the business who conceived of a series of Canadian was close to all of them. “I am so glad ceded the limelight to others, and side, leaving David to handle creative plays in 1969 after Hay had published to have been in his world and to have especially to authors he loved. When matters, Siegler became a very forth- Beverley Simons’ Crabdance. had his stylish figure in mine,” says I look on my shelves at the dozens of right and sometimes even intimidating By the time the Association of Book George Bowering. books from Talon’s early period, I still force in cultural politics, not afraid to Publishers of B.C. was founded in “David’s star burned brightly but feel in each one a sensibility that came criticize and berate the powers-that-be. 1973, David was already figuring out briefly in publishing,” says veteran B.C. uniquely from David’s soul.” Cultural bureaucrats of today would the new lay of the cultural land. publisher and author Howard White. “I When the pressures of managing a never tolerate such braggadocio, but in It is seldom cited that David had met David at UBC in 1965 before either growing, national imprint became too those days, it was permissible and even business partners almost from the get- of us published a book and remember go: most importantly Peter Hay (Talon’s him as a theatrical type always gushing mostly unpaid drama editor until 1980) Cecil Paul (1931–2020) Also known by his Xenaksiala name, Wa’xaid, Cecil about his latest passion. He was very and Gordon Fidler (a printer, until Paul is credited with spearheading successful efforts to save much of the Kitlope, conscious of literary fashion and eager an area of rainforest declared off-limits to logging in 1994. He co-authored two 1976) who was a co-owner/proprietor to be part of the in-crowd, or what he books with Briony Penn, Stories from the Magic Canoe of Wa’xaid (RMB, 2019) with David. It was Hay who approached and Following the Good River: The Life and Times of Wa’xaid (RMB, 2020). perceived as the in-crowd. I think it was David and Fidler about publishing only when he teamed up with a local James Reaney (Colours in the Dark) Anton Kolstee (1949–2020) Musician, academic, mentor and teacher who poet named Jim Brown that he got seri- had a deep respect for Indigenous culture. He wrote To Impersonate the Super- and George Ryga (The Ecstasy of Rita ously into books. David turned out to natural: Music, Ceremony and Culture of the Bella Bella (Granville Island, 2019). Joe). Soon Talon started receiving be very good at convincing established orders for hundreds of copies, mainly Gary Steeves (1950–2020) A social and environmental activist, he wrote writers like Jane Rule and Audrey for drama courses at universities. Tranquility Lost: The Occupation of Tranquille & Battle for Community Care in Thomas to take a chance on a fledgling B.C. (Nightwood, 2020). The occupation of the Tranquille residential complex Fidler was keen to continue operating West Coast press but unfortunately in 1983 marked the beginning of a groundswell of activism uniting community a capricious old press that worked groups and labour groups that came to be known as Operation Solidarity. lacked the skill or interest to create a well for a few hundred poetry books. viable business. Ultimately, he had to David became very enthused when Wolfgang George Jilek (1930–2021) Born in Bohemia, Jilek moved to the be rescued by Karl Siegler and Mary Hay also brought Michel Tremblay Vancouver area in 1966. With degrees in Medicine, Social Psychiatry and An- Schendlinger, who put Talonbooks into the fold. thropology, he wrote Salish Indian Mental Health and Culture Change: Psycho- on course to become what it is today. Peter Hay’s crucial role was down- hygienic and Therapeutic Aspects of the Guardian Spirit Ceremonial (1974) and But he was there in the early days of Indian Healing: Shamanic Ceremonialism in the Pacific Northwest Today (1982). played when he left to work in Los the West Coast scene and rates being Angeles. Jill Wade (1942–2020) Jill Wade, a history instructor for the Open Learning remembered as a cultural pioneer.” “During my years with Talon from Agency, published Houses For All: The Struggle for Social Housing in Vancouver, David Robinson is survived by the late 60s to the early 80s,” Hay re- 1919-1950 (UBC Press, 1994) for which she received an award from the City his wife, Zonda Nellis; his daughter calls, “David Robinson was the beating of Vancouver. The book’s title became a rallying cry for a new generation of Alexandra Robinson and son-in-law heart of this small regional enterprise housing activists. She died at Vancouver General Hospital. Madhavan Sridhar, and his two grand- that grew into a nationally recognized daughters Maya and Veda.

35 BC BOOKWORLD • SPRING 2021 COMMUNITY PROFILE

eyond public view, behind his 5,000-square- foot bookstore at Fourth av- enue and Dun- 1973 B bar in Vancou- ver, there’s a zen garden with a tiny waterfall that owner Kolin Lymworth can look at whenever his task of choosing more new volumes for the 300 subject areas in Banyen Books gets to be burdensome after his fifty consecutive years as an indepen- dent bookseller. “I’m really more of a librarian,” he muses. His voice tapers off. This is not a man who likes to sound off. He’s rarely found in the front of the store, 1978 chatting up the clientele. A far cry from 1985: 2685 West Broadway a business mogul, this is someone who sent his kids to Waldorf School and got into the book business during the hey- days of counter-culturalism, beginning FIFTY YEARS OF BANYEN as a books-and-natural-foods-corner in the Golden Lotus Restaurant at Fourth and Bayswater in 1969. Then he split. He did the India thing. He was interested in meditation. Learn- Independence ing. Healing. He started keeping a list of important books about spiritual en- and really studying. lightenment. At age 21, upon his return “We are stoked to help “I’m gratified and excited to help to Kitsilano, he opened the first Banyen (in our bookstorely way) all us humans more and more folks widen, deepen Bookshop with $1,500 and 10 boxes and brighten their horizons through of books, most of which were acquired to upgrade our nature-and-heart-based reading-reflection, and now through from Bookpeople, a co-operatively- our online author and teaching events, owned wholesaler in Berkeley, Cali- operating systems.”—Kolin Lymworth as well. fornia. It was the tail end of the Peace “While outer travel is largely gone and Love era. In early 1971, he took a stop and think about such things—as are Macleod’s Books on West Pender for most of us, inner exploration and leap of faith and ordered 150 copies of a cultural hero. As Covid-19 pushes us and Banyen Books on West Fourth are embodied learning is alive and flourish- Be Here Now, a still-popular New Age back into the Dark Ages and further like public monasteries that preserve ing—and important—as we gear up for bible by Western spirituality teacher forward into the Digital Ages, the twin wisdom and civilization. the hard work ahead. and yogi Ram Dass, who became a outposts of sanity and learning that To mark his 50 years in “the biz,” “We at Banyen are stoked to help (in friend and mentor. Lymworth hopes to our bookstorely way) all us humans to The rest is post-hippie history: fifty compile and “glorify” upgrade our nature-and-heart-based years of five store locations and envi- a complete list of the operating systems. We and the books able stability in a notoriously difficult hundreds of people are still here.” trade. Owning his own premises since who have worked at 2003, Lymworth outlasted the Duthie Banyen Books since [It’s the independent bookstores in the Books empire and remains impervi- 1970. The future is U.S. and Canada that have kept the ous to the Toronto-based behemoth not gloom ‘n’ doom. book industry alive during the pan- Chapters. “In the midst of demic. Banyen is representative of a Along with antiquarian generalist this extended pan- prevailing spirit of community service and genius Don Stewart of Macleod’s demic moment in hu- that motivates a vibrant network of Books, who is also nearing the 50-year man evolution,” he indie outlets around B.C. We know who mark as a bookseller, Lymworth can be says, “more people they are—and we are grateful for their now viewed—by anyone who wants to 2008: 3608 West 4th Avenue are avidly reading perseverance.—Ed.]

Antiquaria: a guide

or those wishing to tour Metro Dog Books and Tamara Gorin of Western Vancouver’s book culture Sky Books were other cohorts. through secondhand and anti- “It was a group effort,” continues Koch F quarian bookstores, there’s an adding that funding for the graphic design updated guide, Secondhand was contributed by the Association of Book and Antiquarian Bookstores of Metro Publishers of B.C. Vancouver. The guide gives details for 17 book- One of the people behind the project, stores in Metro Vancouver and another 20 Kim Koch, co-owner of The Paper Hound shops and book dealers in the Lower Main- Bookshop says that a similar brochure had land and further afield on Bowen Island and circulated in the past but hadn’t been up- in Gibsons on the Sunshine Coast. Many, dated for a dozen years. “Patricia Massy like The Paper Hound, also sell new books [Massy Books] got the idea to revive the in addition to secondhand and antiquarian brochure and myself and a few others books. Several specialize in specific genres, thought it was a good idea,” says Koch who like People’s Co-op Bookstore with its fo- became a major force behind getting the cus on politics, activism and local presses project completed. Hilary Atleo of Iron and Spartacus Books describes its titles as photo ‘Tools for Social Change.’ Kim Koch holds the updated bookstore

cramp The prize for most original book descrip- guide, available free from The Paper Hound Bookshop, 344 West Pender St., Vancouver tion goes to pulpfiction books and its ‘weird t beverly or any of the other 36 bookstores listed. fiction’ collection. Contact: paperhound.ca

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37 BC BOOKWORLD • SPRING 2021 QUICKIES A COMMUNITY BULLETIN BOARD LETTERS FOR INDEPENDENTS

QUICKIES is an affordable advertising Dukesang Wong vehicle for writers, artists & events. For info on how to be included: is all right t [email protected] Thank you for the compelling review of The Diary of Dukesang Wong (as in I will now buy the book). I clipped it from BC BookWorld [Winter 2020] and Food Floor: put it inside my copy of Tales from My Woodward’s Days Gold Mountain. I read this book aloud, by Margaret along with Ghost Train, to the Grade 7 Cadwaladr class at our school almost every year. Memoir of working as a According to historical notes I grocery cashier at Woodward’s in Vancouver in the 1960s. stuffed inside Ghost Train, more than

$15.95 • ISBN 978-1-9995465-1-9 four men died for every mile of track www.foodfloordays.com & selected bookstores laid on the CPR’s western section. Over 600 men died in total, working MEMOIR photos

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With sincere thanks for all you do gabriola

Goods / A Graphic History of to promote B.C. literature and provoke the Strike in Canada

interest in our culture and history. holmes by The Graphic History Collective Susan Yates Gabriola Island sarah $14.95• 9781771134170 Susan Yates reading outdoors (due to Covid) to grades 2 and 3 Between The Lines www.btlbooks.com students at Gabriola Elementary School, Gabriola Island. GRAPHIC NOVEL Town Fool adventures get one going and also, with the help world. I retired to a smaller, friendly I was a friend of Kim Foikis [The Fool’s of Duthie Books and David Kerfoot, community and nobody knows me, Journey, BC BookWorld winter, 2020] managed to obtain the books people which is the icing on the cake at this Cedar Island and his wife Wendy from 1968 – 69. enjoyed reading. stage in life. I have literally stepped Dreams With Wendy as secretary, we formed Jan Naylor out of the limelight, become an anony- Inner Islands Trilogy, Book I by TJ Radcliffe the Save the Beach committee that Pemberton mous entity doing all the things I love Illustrated by Hilary Farmer organized a “Nude-in.” We stopped to do without distractions. It is bliss Anforth the racoon and his the dumping of landfill on the beach, stepping out of your yesterdays to friends Flutesam the otter and Grateful authors Crow the crow run afoul of which resulted in Canada’s first and discover yourself without a career or pirate wolves in a far-future world where humans made animals largest optional clothing or nude Once again, thanks for taking an its reminders. intelligent, and then vanished. beach. I also drove my Volkswagen interest in my work and giving Notice Pat Christie $10.39 • ISBN 978-0993754340 • siduri.net camper with all The Fool’s company a strong review in the winter issue of Kamloops YOUNG READERS to recreate the Battle of Hastings BC BookWorld. Including Hunter S. by dancing, and giving out oranges Thompson, George Orwell, Kafka in 1919 and joints at Hastings and Carrall. your review—not bad, not bad at all. Subs with benefits A Graphic History Together, we organized many other Dustin Cole Thank you for your incredible support of the Winnipeg 1960s “happenings”. Vancouver of B.C. writers and for producing an General Strike David Boehm O outstanding newspaper. I eagerly look by The Graphic History Gabriola Island Thank you for the review of Harking in forward to my subscription. Collective and David Lester the winter issue of BC Bookworld. As Cathy Converse $19.19 ISBN 9781771134200 always, I love the newspaper and read Victoria Between The Lines The good bookseller it from cover to cover. I also learn tons O www.btlbooks.com In BC BookWorld’s Spring 2020 issue, of new information with every issue. I adore your publication. Now that GRAPHIC NOVEL I saw the obit regarding David Ker- George Mercer I do not take the ferry very much, I foot. Thanks to him (and Bill Duthie) North Saanich am happy to support your wonderful in 1979, I was able to get the books publication with a subscription. No Ordinary needed for our new, little Pemberton Ava Waxman Seaman Public Library. In the early 80s I trav- Bliss and icing Port Coquitlam A Memoir elled down to Duthie Books [where I always look forward to reading the [Back issues are freely available digi- by Gary H. Karlsen David worked] with some cash and latest issue of BC BookWorld. It’s like tally via BCBookLook.com.– Ed.] Beckoned by the sea: tales David helped me so much! For sure, receiving a Christmas present each of a young man shipping out of Vancouver in 1965. he deserved “Bookseller of the Year.” time your magazine is published. Send letters or emails to: $22.95 • ISBN 978-1-7752669-0-7 Having grown up in Vancouver, I Following a move from the Lower noordinaryseaman.com BC BookWorld, eBook at Amazon & Kobo was very familiar with the downtown Mainland, now more than ever, I 926 W. 15th Ave, public library and Duthie Books. After look forward to picking up a copy of SEAFARING MEMOIR Vancouver, BC V5Z 1R9 moving to Pemberton, I couldn’t live your newspaper to keep me apprised [email protected] without a library. We were fortunate to of what is happening in the literary Letters may be edited for clarity & length.

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