POT SHOPS P.42 • YOUR FREE GUIDE TO BOOKS & AUTHORS DOUG COUPLAND ON GENERATION X PAGE 22 BC MARI SWINGLE ON TECHNOLOGY OVERLOAD BOOKWORLD PAGE 17 DOUG COUPLAND

VOL. 30 • NO. 3 • AUTUMN 2016

VIGOUR

AnAn overridingoverriding

PUBLICATION MAIL AGREEMENT #40010086 themetheme ofof tolerance,tolerance, ofof notnot judgingjudging byby appearances,appearances, runsruns throughoutthroughout AshleyAshley Little’sLittle’s NiagaraNiagara Motel.Motel.

ASHLEYASHLEYDOUBLEDOUBLE BOOKBOOK PRIZEPRIZE WINNERWINNER LITTLELITTLE

In her transcontinental novel, an eleven-year-old encounters misfits who are all too real. Autumn FICTION ROUND-UP,ROUND-UP, pages 21-31 CHRIS BOWERMAN PHOTO THE WORLD ACCORDING TO LAWRENCE PAUL YUXWELUPTUN P.33 READ LOCAL BC

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* TOPSELLERS Kelp farmer Louis Druehl has also written a novel set in Bamfield during the 1970s, Cedar, Salmon and Weed (Granville Island $22.95). Jennifer Manuel BCThe Heaviness of Things That Float (D&M $22.95) Barrie Farrell Boats in My Blood (Harbour $24.95) J.L. Granatstein The Weight of Command: Voices of Canada’s Second World War Gener- als and Those Who Knew Them (UBC Press $34.95)

Top Ten Derek von Essen Top Ten & Phil Saunders No Flash, Please! Underground Music in Toronto 1987-92 ThingsThings YouYou Don’tDon’t (Anvil Press $28) Fraser Nixon Straight to the Head KnowKnow AboutAbout (Arsenal Pulp Press $17.95) Darcy Matheson Greening Your Pet Care: Reduce Your Animal’s Environmental Paw Print (Self-Counsel Press $14.95) James Hoggan I’m Right and You’re an Idiot: The Toxic State of Public Discourse and How to Clean it Up (New Society $19.95) Robin Stevenson Pride: Celebrating Diversity and Forget kale. KELP Community (Orca $24.95) KELP Yes, gourmands, it’s time 1. The female kelp produces a perfume Lynn McCarron British Columbia Lullaby to embrace a new trend— that attracts the sperm. This substance (Sandhill Book Marketing $12.95) sea vegetables. Specifically smells like gin. 2. Kelp is the source of umami, a flavour Ruth Daniell, editor kelp. And who better to Boobs: Women Explore What it Means enhancer. The new scientific discipline to have Breasts (Caitlin Press $24.95) give you kelp-help than a of gastrophysics was partly started to man who has had a genus understand “savory taste,” one of the five of kelp named after him? basic tastes (including sweetness, sour- ness, bitterness, and saltiness). Heidi Marine botanist Louis Druehl, 3. The brown pigment of kelp, fucoxan- Waechltler who lives south of Long Beach at thin, is a strong antioxidant. Bamfield, has revised and expanded 4. The slime of kelp, fucoidan, is thought his guide, Pacific Seaweeds (Harbour to hold off the diseases associated with Heidi at the helm $28.95), co-written with Bridgette aging (hypertension, diabetes, stroke, E. Clarkston, as the authoritative Heidi Waechltler has returned to etc.). guide to over 100 common species of the▼ West Coast to take over from 5. Iodine, as an element, was first dis- seaweeds in the Pacific Northwest. So Margaret Reynolds as the execu- covered in kelp. The concentration of we asked Louis for his Top Ten Things tive director of the Association of iodine in kelp is up to 20,000 greater than You Don’t Know About Kelp. This way, Book Publishers of B.C. She pre- Norma Charles in seawater. when you chow down on sea vegetables viously worked for McClelland & at a high-end restaurant, you can be 6. The San Francisco Philharmonic fea- Stewart and Coach House Books. Norma Charles more knowledgeable than the waiter. tured kelp horns on one occasion. Reynolds worked tirelessly and Last Chance Island ✫ 7. In case of nuclear war or meltdown of (Ronsdale $11.95) effectively for 28 years, playing LOUIS DRUEHL AND HIS WIFE RAE OPERATE a nuclear plant, eat some kelp and load an essential role in the evolution Canadian Kelp Resources Ltd., a up your thyroid gland with the good cold Jon Bartlett & of the most stable and efficient company that produces a line of sea stuff and not the radioactive iodine that Rika Ruebsaat vegetables (Barkley Sound Kelp). A publishing community in Canada. Soviet Princeton: Slim Evans can be lethal. kelp genus called Druehlii was named and the 1932-33 Miners’ Strike 8. Kelp are not plants or animals but (New Star Books $19) after him, but when an older name re- plantamials. They are sessile and photo- surfaced, the accreditation had to be synthetic but when it comes to microscop- Richard Cannings, Tom dropped. Subsequently a kelp species Aversa & Hal Opperman restricted to Haida Gwaii was named ic structure, egg and sperm sex and not Birds of British Columbia and the Saccharina druehlii. The Japanese pollen and stigma sex, they are animals. Pacific Northwest: A Complete Guide (Heritage House $26.95) have long eaten kelp. 9. Kelp is considered an excellent source Restaurants in B.C. that serve “sea of biofuel. It can be easily grown, does not Bev Sellars vegetables” include Tojo’s Japanese compete with corn and the like for valu- Price Paid: The Fight for Restaurant, Wickinninish Inn and First Nations Survival able agricultural land. I call the potential (Talon Books $19.95) The Wolf in the Fog featuring Bamfield alcohol derived from kelp, kelpanol. Seaweed Salad. The Tofino Brewey 10. Kelp brownies are substituted for * The current topselling titles from major makes Kelp Stout. Margaret dope confections by matured hippies. BC publishing companies, in no particular order. Pacific Seaweeds: 978-1550172409 Reynolds Cedar, Salmon: 978-1-926991-61-0

Publication Mail Agreement #40010086 Contributors: John Moore, Return undeliverable Canadian addresses to: Joan Givner, Mark Forsythe, Alex Van Tol, BC BookWorld, 3516 W. 13th Ave., Cherie Thiessen, Keven Drews, BC Vancouver, BC, Canada V6R 2S3 Caroline Woodward, James Paley Writing not otherwise credited is by staff. We gratefully acknowledge the unobtrusive BOOKWORLD Produced with the sponsorship of Design: Get-to-the-Point Graphics assistance of Canada Council, a continuous partner since Pacific BookWorld News Society. 1988, and creativeBC, a provincial partner since 2014. Publications Mail Registration No. 7800. Consultants: Autumn 2016 • Vol. 30 • No. 3 BC BookWorld ISSN: 1701-5405 Christine Rondeau, Sharon Jackson Publisher/Writer: Alan Twigg Advertising & editorial: Photographers: Barry Peterson, Laura Sawchuk BC BookWorld, 3516 W. 13th Ave., Proofreaders: Wendy Atkinson, Tara Twigg Editor/Production: David Lester Vancouver, B.C., Canada V6R 2S3 Deliveries: Ken Reid, Acculogix Tel/Fax: 604-736-4011 Associate Editor: Beverly Cramp In-Kind Supporters: Email: [email protected] All BC BookWorld reviews are posted at Simon Fraser University Library; Associate Editor: Jaiden Dembo Annual subscription: $25 www.abcbookworld.com Vancouver Public Library; UBC Library.

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N APRIL OF 1975, AFTER FIVE years of civil war, Cam- Where the bodia fell to the brutal 25-YEARS regime of the com- munist Khmer Rouge. IN SECLUSION IDemocratic Kampuchea, as people say it was then called, was cut n Reading Sveva (Talonbooks off from the world as Pol Pot, SOK SABAY $17.95), Daphne Marlatt re- the revolutionary leader of the Isponds to the life and paintings Khmer Rouge, imposed his of Sveva Caetani, born in Rome in four-year reign of terror. 1917. When Mussolini’s fascism The death toll reached close to two was on the rise in 1921, her parents million people, one quarter of the coun- were opposed, choosing to take ref- try’s population. By 1979, thousands of uge in Canada, settling in the Okan- Cambodians were fleeing to the border agan where she was raised as an of Thailand, escaping famine and the only child in a conflict between the Khmer Rouge sophisticated, and Vietnamese forces occupying the multilingual country. Humanitarian organizations household. poured in to the border areas, mount- Her father Le- ing one of the largest international relief one Caetani, operations of the twentieth century. an Islamic Without hesitation, B.C. nurse scholar, spoke Elaine Harvey signed up with the twelve lan- Canadian Red Cross for service on the guages. When war-torn Cambodian border, arriving he died in Sveva Caetani for a six-month tour of nursing duty 1935, seven- in 1980. And that’s how she came to teen-year-old Sveva and her invalid write her memoir, Encounters on the mother Ophelia entered a 25-year Front Line, Cambodia: A Memoir home-seclusion out of grief. It (Promontory $19.99). wasn’t until her mother died that “Face to face with the aftermath of Sveva re-entered the community genocide, famine, torture and terror, I Elaine Harvey tends to of Vernon and flourished with her met a people as gracious as the lotus a boy named Lirat at a artistic skill as a painter and a high refugee camp called Nong blooming in muddy waters,” she writes. school teacher. “…Cambodia was my teacher; my Samet on the Thai-Cam- bodian border in 1980. Caetani began her best-known encounter as hard as shrapnel embed- series of paintings, The Recapitula- ded in flesh, as soft as the fragrance of tion, in 1978, mainly as a tribute jasmine, and as perplexing as the be- to her idealized father. This led to guiling smile of its people, the Khmer, a coffeetable book, Recapitulaton: A offered so freely to foreigners, that Journey, in 1995, made possible by seemed to say ‘I am fine, sok sabay, de- editor Heidi Thompson, as well as spite all that befell our cherished land.” a book/exhibit for the Greater Ver- 978-1-927559-66-6 non Museum and Archives, Caetani di Sermoneta: An Italian family in A different kind of Vernon, 1921-1994, in 2003. Sveva Caetani died in 1994. 978-1-77201-016-9 HOCKEY LEGEND A whale, harpooned by a THE FIRST Japanese whaling ship in t 92, Balbir Singh Sr. of Southern Ocean in 2005. GREENPEACE SHIP Vancouver has become the From Rainbow Warriors: IN 1971 was the Phyllis Cor- subject of a wide-ranging A Legendary Stories from mack, a converted fishing vessel biography by Patrick Blenner- Greenpeace Ships. hassett, A Forgotten Legend: that was sent to protest the Balbir Singh Sr., Triple Olympic American bomb testing near Am- Gold & Modi’s New India (Now chitka, Alaska. or Never Publishing $24.95), that The second draws attention to his status as a triple gold medalist for field hockey, Greenpeace part of a team that earned India ship, the Vega, its first Olympic gold medal at the sailed with the 1948 Olympics GREENPEACE Phyllis Cormack, in London, dur- ing which the to protest whal- new nation of Maite ing in 1975. Mompó India beat its Eventually the former colonial Voyages green-hulled, rainbow-adorned masters in the final. Rainbow Warrior, launched Balbir Singh from Vancouver, became the Sr. subsequent- flagship of Greenpeace. ly led India’s Since then there have been Balbir Singh Sr. team for gold three Greenpeace vessels called medals in 1952 in Helsinki—as both team captain Rainbow Warrior, as outlined in and India’s flag bearer—and in 1956 Rainbow Warriors: Legend- at Melbourne—again as India’s flag ary Stories from Greenpeace bearer. Ships (Between the Lines His five goals against the Neth- erlands in the 1952 final remain an $24.95) by Maite Mompó. Olympic record. Only racist politics The first Rainbow Warrior prevented him from competing in was famously bombed and sunk a fourth Olympic Games in 1960. by French intelligence agents in Singh Sr. first visited Canada in 1972; he coached and managed Auckland, New Zealand, in 1985. India to a World Cup field hockey A second Rainbow Warrior, title in 1975. His scoring prowess on which Mompó sailed, was finally earned him a belated Lifetime retired from service in 2011; a Achievement Award at the Hockey India annual festivities in 2015. third set sail in October of 2011. 978-1-988098-10-4 978-1-77113-167-4

5 BC BOOKWORLD AUTUMN 2016 Talonbooks Fall 2016

Entering Time Price Paid The Fungus Man Platters of Charles Edenshaw The Fight for First Nations Survival COLIN BROWNE BEV SELLARS Every good story is an origin story – and a mystery story. Price Paid untangles truth from some of the myths In Entering Time: The Fungus Man Platters of Charles about First Nations and addresses misconceptions Edenshaw, Browne ranges through the fields of art his- still widely believed today. tory, literature, ethnology, and myth to discover a parallel 978-0-88922-972-3 • $19.95 • 240 pages • Non-fiction history of modernism within one of the world’s most subtle and sophisticated artistic and literary cultures. 978-1-77201-039-8 • $17.95 • 128 pages • Non-fiction

U Girl Scree (paperback) MEREDITH QUARTERMAIN The Collected Earlier Poems, 1962 – 1990 Award-winning author Meredith Quartermain’s second novel and seventh book, U Girl, is a coming- FRED WAH of-age story set in Vancouver in 1972, a city crossed Fred Wah’s career has spanned six decades and a between love-in hip and forest-corp square. range of formal styles and preoccupations. Scree 978-1-77201-040-4 • $19.95 • 272 pages • Fiction collects Wah’s concrete and sound poetry of the 1960s, his landscape-centric work of the 1970s, and his ethnicity-oriented poems of the 1980s – most of which is out of print. This collection allows readers to (re)discover Wah’s groundbreaking work. The Days 978-0-88922-948-8 • $29.95 • 648 pages • Poetry M.A.C. FARRANT Let yourself be excited and delighted. Farrant’s artfully spare stories – averaging a couple of The Envelope paragraphs each – offer enough food for thought VITTORIO ROSSI (and mood) to keep you going for months. This comedy-drama skewers the film world when a 978-1-77201-007-7 • $14.95 • 128 pages • Fiction playwright must choose between accepting govern- ment funds to turn his play into a Canadian feature film, or accept an American producer’s offer of total artistic control and less money. Will Moretti stand firm in his artistic integrity or take the cash and roll? Reading Sveva 978-1-77201-031-2 • $17.95 • 112 pages • Drama DAPHNE MARLATT Reading Sveva is award-winning author Daphne Marlatt’s response to the life and paintings of Sveva In A Blue Moon Caetani, an Italian émigré who grew up in Vernon, B.C. and struggled to make her art her life. LUCIA FRANGIONE 978-1-77201-016-9 • $19.95 • 96 pages • Poetry When Frankie’s dad dies, her mom, Ava, can’t afford to live in the city anymore. The only asset they’re left with is a farmhouse and twenty acres outside of town. Ava decides to move there and start an Ayurveda clinic on the property, providing her pre- Once in Blockadia cocious and grieving daughter a new start. The only problem is a squatter who won’t leave. STEPHEN COLLIS 978-1-77201-035-0 • $17.95 • 128 pages • Drama Hailed as “the most dangerous poet in Canada,” Stephen Collis returns to the commons and his ongoing argument with Wordsworth, bringing protest, resistance, and poetry together at long last. You Will Remember Me 978-1-77201-015-2 • $18.95 • 144 pages • Poetry FRANCOIS ARCHAMBAULT TRANSLATED BY BOBBY THEODORE

A well-respected historian and professor begins to suffer from dementia as his family and friends struggle for love and autonomy to care for him. Cast of 2 men and 3 women. ANAHITA JAMALI RAD 978-1-77201-019-0 • $17.95 • 112 pages • Drama Anahita Jamali Rad deals with the stuff of everyday life: work and sex, friendship and love. Her critical attention to the structure of these social relations cre- ates a poetics of trial and failure, questioning the very Yours Forever, Marie-Lou “culture” responsible for its making as she forges a way MICHEL TREMBLAY for the possibility of radical resistance in language. TRANSLATED BY LINDA GABORIAU 978-1-77201-017-6 • $16.95 • 96 pages • Poetry Carmen returns home to convince Manon, her sister, to end ten years of mourning the death of their parents, Léopold and Marie-Louise. Past and present Friendly + Fire mingle as the two daughters struggle to DANIELLE LAFRANCE reconcile events preceding the fatal car crash. Cast of 3 women and 1 man. Friendly + Fire is poetry and prose that provokes as it unravels all the ways that military violence 978-1-77201-023-7 • $16.95 • 96 pages • Drama trickles into daily life. These poems show us how a friend turns into a foe when the body is controlled by the invasive logic of weapons, automation, and beureaucracy. 978-1-77201-018-3 • $17.95 • 112 pages • Poetry

Talonbooks www.talonbooks.com

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to apprentice in a printer’s shop. He Y HUSBAND JIM HAD worked in countless printing shops been in town (Nel- before serving in World War II. There- son) running er- after he opened Morriss Printing on rands,” says Sono Victoria’s Fort Street. Nis publisher Di- Morriss Printing in Victoria and ane Morriss, “and Mitchell Press in Vancouver became Mwhen he was driving home he saw thick the two leading producers of books black smoke up on the mountain where in B.C. prior to the rise of five new we live and knew it was our shop. imprints that formed the Association “He tore home and managed to get of Book Publishers of B.C. in the early our two dogs out of the shop, rescue a 1970s. The first couple of computers, take files out of book printed by my filing cabinet, and save the beauti- Morriss Printing ful Myfanwy Pavelic portraits of my was Who’s Who dad and grandfather. in British Co- “Everything else is gone including lumbia, in 1953. my beautiful orange cat Caber who The record of was always with me day and night. I the hundreds of am in shock.” books produced Dick Morriss Founded in 1968 by poet J. Michael by Morriss Print- Yates and operated with his wife Ann, ing has now been lost. Sono Nis Press was bought by Diane Dick Morriss learned the printing Morriss’ father, Dick Morriss, in 1976 trade and semi-reluctantly acquired when the literary press couldn’t pay Sono Nis Press in 1976. That odd name its bills to Morriss Printing. For almost is derived from a character named Sono twenty years the imprint received con- Nis in the first book published by the siderable input from Victoria’s resident press in 1968, Man in the Glass Octo- literary maven, Robin Skelton. pus, by founder J. Michael Yates. Sono When Dick Morriss died in 1994, in modern Italian means “I am”; Nis in Morriss Printing was sold to a former Anglo-Saxon means “are not.” employee (Keijo Diane Morriss was traveling with Isokmaa) and one of her authors, Sylvia Olsen, in Morriss’ daugh- Vermont and New Hampshire, when ter Diane made she received the news of the fire. The a deal with her GUTS SONO NIS cause of the fire has yet to be deter- siblings to con- FIREmined. Sono Nis has more than 150 tinue the Sono Diane Morriss’ family-owned Sono titles in print. Nis book pub- The office and Nis Press operates from Winlaw. ✫ lishing company THE OFFICES OF ANOTHER OF B.C.’S OLDEST Diane Morriss even though she warehouse of one dealing with insurance and waiting for publishing imprints, New Star Books, was divorced with two young children of B.C.’s most the office phone, fax and internet to be was firebombed on March 7, 2012. and knew very little about running a moved to our little house near the office “Some sort of Molotov cocktail device publishing company. venerable pub- where we were internet and computer was, um, introduced into the office She operated the company from her lishing imprints, free by choice. environment, causing minor fire dam- home in Rockland, Victoria, until she “We’re also trying to salvage what age but leading to significant water married book designer Jim Brennan Sono Nis Press, we can from the building although not damage, said publisher Rolf Maurer. in 2002, at which time they moved to a single book remains. Sadly all of the “Nobody was hurt.” his home on 33 acres in Winlaw, near were completely Morriss Printing archives were lost in Two years later, Vancouver police Nelson. Using the money from the destroyed by a the fire.” investigated an arson attempt at Mau- sale of her Victoria house, they built Diane Morriss is the granddaughter rer’s home after a Molotov cocktail was an office and a large warehouse with a West Kootenay of book printer Charles Morriss who thrown onto his front porch at 4 a.m. guestroom for visiting authors. fire on August 4. was born in Winnipeg in 1907. He on October 10, 2014 while he slept in- “We are in shock and disbelief,” says moved with his family to Victoria in side. This incident was the fifth attack Diane Morriss. “We’re up to our ears 1910. At 14, Charles Morriss began on New Star or Maurer since 2012.

of the publishers whose imagination and passion MEL HURTIG helped create the golden age of Canadian litera- MEL HURTIG ture from the 1970s to the 1990s,” says publisher Howard White, who produced The Encyclopedia 1932-20161932-2016 of British Columbia in 2000. “The country owes ▼ a lot to his uncompromising vision of Canadian independence.” Fiery, self-centred and Mel Hurtig also co-founded the Council of Ca- nadians and The National Party. After supporting charismatic, Mel Hurtig Pierre Elliott Trudeau’s rise, he ran unsuccessfully for the federal Liberals in 1972. spent his final ten years in He joined fellow, disenchanted nationalists Wal- B.C. largely under the radar. ter Gordon, Jack McClelland and Claude Ryan to establish the Committee for an Independent Canada RDENT CANADIAN NATIONALIST AND FOR- (CIC) in 1973, serving as its first chair, lobbying merly prominent Western Canadian against foreign ownership. Five years after its de- book publisher and bookseller Mel mise, he helped to create the Council of Canadians Hurtig lived in Vancouver for ten in 1985, a similar organization that has remained years from 2006 until his death on vibrant and vital. August 3, 2016. Along the way he also served as president of the AHe published the ground-breaking Canadian Edmonton Art Gallery and was inducted into the Encyclopedia when he operated Hurtig Publishing Mel Hurtig started in the book business Order of Canada. He had six honorary doctorates from Edmonton, having started in the book trade as as a bookseller in Edmonton. from Canadian universities and was a recipient of one of the country’s foremost independent bookstore the Lester B. Pearson Man of the Year Peace Award. owners, opening the first of his three outlets in 1956. The Calgary Herald’s political columnist Don Braid Mel Hurtig’s seventh and final book, The Arrogant He sold his stores in 1972 to start his own imprint, called it “the single greatest publishing feat in the Autocrat: Stephen Harper’s Takeover of Canada Hurtig Publishers, in 1980. history of Canadian publishing.” Soon after Hertig (2015), was self-published. Launched in 1985 at an estimated (by Hurtig) also launched an unprecedented, five-volume Junior Mel Hurtig was a gallant, provocative and es- cost of $12 million, The Canadian Encyclopedia Encyclopedia of Canada in 1990. He sold his publish- sential figure from the pre-internet era whose voice was a massive and risky project that none of the ing company to McClelland & Stewart in May of 1991. as an elder was too seldom heard considering all he larger publishers in Canada dared to undertake. “Mel Hurtig stands beside Jack McClelland as one did for his country.

7 BC BOOKWORLD AUTUMN 2016 PEOPLE My Divorce: A Coloring Diary by Self-Counsel Press • From the folks who launched BC’s first divorce guide back in 1971 Emily Carr, comes the world’s first divorce coloring book! • Color out your emotions safely with Baboo & Wolfgang this therapeutic, stress-relieving diary. • Makes a great gift item for anyone who recently ended a long-term relationship. Two obscure friendships are brought to light. $16.95 Paperback MILY CARR WAS the reprint claims to reveal Emily Carr’s personality more fully than any other still mostly un- source. Start & Run a Marijuana Dispensary or Pot Shop: known in 1916 ✫ Where It Is Legal! when she met COINCIDENTALLY, COLIN BROWNE HAS by Jay Currie examined another little-known Emily seven-year-old Carr acquaintance—recalling how the • Start and run a legal, viable ECarol Pearson—arguably Parisian surrealist painter Wolfgang marijuana dispensary. the love of her life. Paalen met Carr in 1939 when she • Develop a sustainable business was 67, living at 316 Beckley Street Pearson became her student com- in Victoria. model and operating plan to panion, moving in with Carr at age “I can’t get the surrealist point of dispense marijuana and its related fourteen. Carr nicknamed her Baboo; view,” Carr confided in a letter to a products. she called the painter Mom. friend, “most of their subjects revolt • Avoid legal problems. For more than two decades they were me.” like a mother and daughter, sharing the Paalen nevertheless saw similarities $22.95 Paperback + Download Kit same roof for the better part of a decade. between Carr’s paintings and surreal- Later, in 1954, after Pearson had ism. married and moved east, she published Influenced by Carr and already Move or Die: How the Sedentary Life is Killing Us Emily Carr As I Knew Her (Touchwood keenly interested in the art of indig- and How Movement, Not Exercise, Can Save Us $19.95) to recall idyllic picnics and enous peoples of North America, Paalen by Tim Sitt painting trips with Carr, caring for their left Victoria to further pursue the in- beloved pets, and lounging for hours in tegration of “the enormous treasure of • Address the negative effects of Beacon Hill Park. Amerindian forms into the conscious- being sedentary. As recounted in the newly reprinted ness of modern art.” memoir, Pearson buried a box of Carr’s It’s all investigated in Browne’s I • Introduce movement as a mindset treasures in Beacon Hill Park, as in- Had An Interesting French Artist To and focus on becoming aware of structed, in 1942, its contents have See Me This Summer: Emily Carr and rigid and unhealthy patterns. still yet to be recovered. Wolfgang Paalen in British Colum- • Integrate movement to create a “She was like a fairy godmother,” bia, (Figure1 $24.95), a book-length wrote Pearson, “complete with ani- catalogue for a new exhibit of the same healthier work culture. mals.” name at the Vancouver Art Gallery $19.95 Paperback With a foreword by Robert Amos, (July 1 to November 13). 978-1-927958-78-0

The Content Planner: A Com- Emily Carr plete Guide to at Haida Gwaii Organize and Share Your Ideas Online in 1912 with by Angela Crocker her dog Billie. • Helps business writers plan, create and publish content to a website ▼ or blog. • Develop an editorial calendar to organize your ideas into a viable publishing schedule. • Save time and write more profes- sionally while delivering a consis- tent message for your brand. $19.95 Paperback + Download Kit

Learning to Commit Workbook: Becoming Your Best Self to Find Your Best Match by Avrum Nadigel,MSW and Aliza Israel,MD,FRCPC • Thrive in the relationships you have, or hope to find. • Navigate the highs and lows of emotionally-committed relation- ships. • Build a partnership that is far bet- ter than the ones you’ve seen. $19.95 Paperback + Download Kit Also in 2015, Laurie Carter published the first of her three-part series on Em- ily Carr’s travels in B.C., Emily Carr’s B.C. (Book One): Vancouver Island (Little www.self-counsel.com White $24.95) that covers Carr’s life and travels from Victoria to Quatsino Sound. Now Emily Carr’s B.C. (Book Two): Northern B.C. & Haida Gwaii (Little 1-800-663-3007 White $24.95) explores Carr’s expeditions to the Skeena and Naas Rivers of Northern B.C. and the islands of Haida Gwaii. 978-1-927878-03-3

8 BC BOOKWORLD AUTUMN 2016 • FRESH FROM THE FORGE •

www.anvilpress.com • [email protected]

Cretacea & Other As If Stories from the ALBAN GOULDEN Badlands As If is a collection of stories MARTIN WEST that—as its title suggests— Two-time Journey Prize finalist points at an indubitable truth: all Martin West unearths a stratum literature is speculative. These of Alberta that we rarely imagine. stories rail against the industrial Clear, comic, and concrete, these and digital mechanisms of our stories are as sharp as a pick age and, in the great fabulist and shovel as they excavate the tradition, call upon their coulees of the soul. characters to take action.

Stories • 978-1-77214-049-1 • $20 Stories • 978-1-77214-048-4 • $18

Jettison NATHANIEL G. MOORE

Garage Criticism Chalk Nathaniel G. Moore follows up PETER BABIAK DOUG DIACZUK his 2014 ReLit Award win for Savage with a diverse debut In Garage Criticism Peter Babiak “You” and L, a mysterious third collection of short fiction— eviscerates and deflates some of gender runaway, hit the road on Jettison, featuring stories which the cultural hot topics of our a mission to find the meaning of dangle somewhere between time. Babiak deconstructs our life. Traveling by plane, bus and horror and romance. Jettison is fascination with internet culture, car, You runs into trouble with an all-you-can-eat buffet of devolves the rhetorical hallucina- the cops, mourns a family literary invention: you’ll be so tions of economics and market- tragedy, comes to terms with a glad you got an invite. ing, and reasserts the supremacy broken heart, and discovers that Stories • 978-1-77214-047-7 • $20 of linguistic thinking in everyday all roads lead back to where You cultural affairs. started—in the flowers drawn by two little girls in coloured chalk Cultural Criticism • 978-1-77214-050-7 • $20 Winner – 38th Annual 3-Day on the sidewalk. Novel Writing Contest! Novella • 978-1-77214-078-1 • $16

• available to the trade from pgc/raincoast •

9 BC BOOKWORLD AUTUMN 2016 10 BC BOOKWORLD AUTUMN 2016 PEOPLE

T IS NOT YET ILLEGAL TO PROTECT our planet, says Alexandra Morton. As an independent biologist, Morton, one of B.C.’s Alexandra Morton joins Musgamagw most vital authors, has ac- cepted support from Paul IWatson’s Sea Shepherd Conservation Society for Operation Virus Hunter and recently witnessed an eviction notice Dzawada’enuxw to evict fish farmers proferred by a West Coast First Nation to a Japanese/Norwegian consortium. The joint venture with Sea Shepherd has been envisioned to track farm- ▼ salmon viruses and audit the salmon farms along Canada’s big- gest wild salmon migration route. Investigative voy- ages will be undertaken aboard Sea Shepherd’s re- search vessel the R/V Mar- tin Sheen. In 2015, Alexandra Mor- ton won a federal court case that prohibits the transfer of piscine reovirus-infected farmed salmon into marine net pens unless the salmon farmers “Who decided that wild have ministerial permission. Her work salmon would go the will help to show if this legal decision way of the buffalo?” —Alexandra Morton is being followed. She will be joined by First Nations leaders and journalists. In early August, Morton participated in a gathering at the Big House in Tsaxis (Fort Rupert) when the crew of the Sea Shepherd were dressed in re- galia and honoured by Hereditary Chief Paul Willie and his sons Charles and Stephan. Attendees joined in dancing with the crew, as a symbol of solidarity. Sea Shepherd’s research vessel the R/V Martin Sheen. According to Morton’s research, up to 80% of farmed salmon in B.C. Canadian Liberal government, granted contains approximately one-third of appear to be infected with piscine reo- this industry long-term licenses. That the B.C. salmon farming industry virus (PRV). benefits shareholders in Norway and despite 29 years of opposition to that “This is a dirty industry,” she says. Europe; it doesn’t benefit the people industry. According to Musgamagw “It pours all of its waste into the big- of this coast. Dzawada’enuxw, the salmon farming gest wild salmon migration routes in “So, how do we get rid of this indus- industry does not have permission to Canada, one of the last great fisheries try? How do we move on? You have to operate in their territory. left on earth. Who decided that wild be visible to government. You have to Consequently, on August 15, 2016, salmon would go the way of the buf- stand alongside all of us who are fight- three traditional leaders served an falo? Who made that decision? ing this. We can do this. Governments eviction notice to Cermaq/Mitsubishi Musgamagw Dzawada’enuxw “Everyone knew that bringing At- leaders serve an eviction notice to will change their minds if enough fish farms, accompanied by Alexandra lantic salmon into British Columbia Cermaq/Mitsubishi fi sh farm. people say no. Morton. After being advised they were was a bad idea. Scientists and the “Places on earth that still make not allowed to stand on the floating fish Ministry of Environment and the DFO showed up, and it was decided.’ clean water, air and food have to be farm premises, they read an eviction [Fisheries and Oceans Canada] fought “I have been studying viruses in protected. Covenants need to be put on notice to the fish farm staff. hard, they called it Russian Roulette. farmed and wild salmon for the last them. Otherwise our children are sim- According to Morton, last spring We’re playing Russian Roulette with five years and 95% of the salmon in ply not going to survive. Wild salmon up to 40% of the young salmon leav- the wild salmon. supermarkets are infected with the feed the trees, they make the oxygen ing their territory were killed by sea “The director-general of DFO sci- piscine reovirus, which is a virus that we breathe. They’ve built cultures, they lice from Cermaq and Marine Harvest ence, Pacific Region, Pat Chamut, said is associated with a disease that dam- built the soil of this province. salmon farms. Hence the Norwegian/ we would be guaranteed to get an exotic ages the hearts of salmon. “We can fix this. It is not yet illegal Japanese salmon farming operation virus, probably one that we had never “So, a wild salmon with a dam- to protect life on earth.” was told to vacate their territory. even heard of, if we kept importing aged heart is a dead salmon. What I The Musgamagw Dzawada’enuxw Atlantic salmon. The people who were see today in the management in the First Nations are a group of four For a complete list of books by trying to stop Atlantic salmon from salmon-farming industry is corrup- tribes whose traditional territory in Alexandra Morton see her en- coming into B.C. said ‘Men in suits tion and fraud. Our government, the the Broughton Archipelago currently try on ABCBookWorld.com

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12 BC BOOKWORLD AUTUMN 016 review NATURE

WHENWHEN EMPATHYEMPATHY INTERVENEDINTERVENED

Vince Penfold, assistant curator, Vancouver Aquarium, at Jericho Beach, 1964, How Moby Doll changed listening to Moby Doll’s vocalizations the way we see one of nature’s most using a hydrophone. intimidatingintimidating mammals.mammals.

The Killer Whale multuous history, from when Aquarium’s proposed expan- “had launched the first anti- Moby Doll’s story changed Who Changed the World they were feared as monsters sion in 1963. Commissioned captivity activists.” the way we see these animals by Mark Leiren-Young (Greystone $29.95) to their new-found veneration to kill a killer whale, sculptor Months after her capture, forever. An obituary in The as endangered sea hunters. Samuel Burich harpooned and Moby Doll died in captivity, Times of London stated, “the It was long assumed there shot at one but it did not die. drowning in the brackish wa- widespread publicity—some of were thousands of murderous In The Killer Whale Who ters due to exhaustion and it the first positive press ever BY JAIDEN DEMBO whales roaming off the coast of Changed the World, Leiren- low salinity in the harbour, about killer whales—marked OWADAYS EVERYONE B.C. until Michael Bigg, a ma- Young recalls there was a at which time Moby Doll was the beginning of an important accepts orcas rine mammal research scien- moment when the Vancou- determined to be masculine. change in the public attitude as beloved sym- tist for Canada’s Department ver Public Aquarium’s team His death broke the hearts toward the species.” bols of the Pa- of Fisheries, closely studied could have killed the orca of those he had played with, ✫ cific Northwest, the behaviour of orcas in the but empathy in- splashing them THIS IS AN IMPORTANT B.C. STORY Nbeautiful and intelligent ani- 1970s and discovered there tervened. Leading and eating out of and publisher Rob Sanders mals that capture the public’s were only hundreds. the orca back to their hands. Sam- (in partnership with the David imagination and adoration. Thanks to Bigg and others, Vancouver like a uel Burich, the Suzuki Institute) was right to When a B.C. Ferries captain the ‘southern residents,’ an dog on a leash, the man who had tried ask Leiren-Young for a book announces there are orcas off ecotype of the killer whales, team nicknamed it to kill Moby Doll, after watching him receive a the starboard bow, an entire were eventually placed on Hound Dog, prob- had sung back to Best Feature Story prize at the ferry tilts in their direction due the endangered species list ably after the Elvis him and whistled 2014 Jack Webster Awards for to a herd of giddy, camera- in Canada in 2001 and in Presley song. to mimic his chirps his documentary called Moby toting passengers. the U.S. in 2005. As of today Once in Van- and squeals. Doll: The Whale that Changed But not so long ago orcas “the southern residents are couver the only The city of Van- the World that aired on CBC were maritime public en- considered one of the most place they could couver and the Radio’s Ideas. He also wrote emy number one—feared and endangered populations of any keep it was the Mark Leiren-Young world mourned an article called Moby Doll for hunted as killer whales. species on the planet.” Burrard Yarrows the whale’s death. The Walrus. The Haida called them Killer whales are not man- Dry Dock. On the one day the Leiren-Young recounts how A versatile playwright, crit- skana or “killer demon.” They eating pests that need to be public was allowed to see the Moby Doll’s death sparked ic, documentary filmmaker ruled the ocean just as hu- eradicated. They are highly whale, crowds flocked to see a desire to learn more about and humourist, the Leacock mans were rulers of the land. sensitive and intelligent crea- the ferocious beast and soon these creatures and a global Medal winning Mark Leiren- Their scientific classification tures that need to be pro- realized that this apex preda- desire to favour conservation Young is currently working Orcinus orca can be trans- tected. The story of how this tor was not the monster they over killing. on a feature-length film on the lated as “of or belonging to the change in attitude towards had originally thought it to be. Equally witty and enter- subject of Moby Doll. The film, kingdom of the dead,” “bringer orcas took place begins with The captors mistakenly taining as it is informative, The like this book, will be one more of death” or “devil whale.” the inadvertent capture of one decided the orca was female. Killer Whale Who Changed the step towards a greater under- Up until the mid 1960s or- young, 15-foot male near East Renamed Moby Doll, he/she World is a captivating captiv- standing of these creatures in cas were regarded as ruthless Point, Saturna Island in 1964. galvanized the attention of ity story of adventure, heart- the hope that whaling on the wolves of the sea, as danger- ✫ the world. When he/she was warming moments between planet will finally be ended ous to men as they were to any AFTER HE WAS APPOINTED HEAD OF eventually moved to a pen at mammals, and ultimately and the slaughter of these other marine creature. In The the Vancouver Public Aquari- Jericho, some local citizens heartbreak. An array of news- noble animals will only be a Killer Whale Who Changed um in 1955, Murray Newman and the SPCA pleaded for the paper articles, reports and an- distant memory.978-1-77164-193-7 the World, Mark Leiren- hatched plans to hunt and whale to be released. “The ecdotes from important figures Young dispels myths about kill an orca in order to create first killer whale in captiv- of the time are supplied to help Jaiden Dembo is an associate orcas and shares their tu- a perfect model replica for the ity,” Leiren-Young writes, take the reader back in time. editor of BC BookWorld.

13 BC BOOKWORLD AUTUMN 2016 POLITICS

AISED ON THE PRAIRIES and in the Okana- gan, Donna Mac- donald fell in love in 1972—with the town of Nelson—and then Rbecame a technician for the Forest Service. That led to forestry work in Mozam- bique with her partner and daughter, as well as being a co-founder of the Nelson & District Women’s Centre, working for an MP and an MLA, editing a weekly newspaper and freelancing. In 1988 she ran for Nelson City council and began her longest job ever—19 years as a Nelson City coun- cillor—until December of 2014. Now her memoir offers stories and reflections that explore both the me- chanics of local government and the humanity of that work. As Hillary Clinton tries to become the first female president of the United States, here’s an excerpt from Surviv- ing City Hall (Nightwood $22.95) about a memorable conversation Donna Macdonald had with her mother when Macdonald decided to run for mayor of Nelson. Not getting Mum’s vote

THE FIRST TIME I CONSIDERED RUNNING FOR Donna Macdonald was a forestry advisor in Mozambique prior to becoming a city councillor in Nelson. mayor, I had driven to the Okanagan to visit my mother in the care home where she lived. Whispering Pines was an old family home in an orchard, now modified to house the frail elderly. I up thought maybe Blossoming Apples or Chattering Cherries might have been Why women run hill a more appropriate name. Mum’s room was institutional pastel blue, small and Donna Macdonald recalls her bid to be elected mayor. hot. Single bed, bureau, chair, TV. The stifling air was deadening. for eight years now, and I “Well, she’s a nice person “You are ‘on’ every hour of every For the most part, Mum’s mind had think I could do a good job and all, and she works day. People stop to talk, ask questions already departed for greener pastures, as mayor. Or at least way hard, but I’m not sure she’s or complain at the grocery store, at and our conversation was usually a better than he has.” tough enough. She’s a really the hair dresser or at the theatre. It is repetition of, “Why did it take you so “But why would you run good councillor, but I think hard not to be on the defensive and to long to get here? Who’s your brother for mayor?” she persevered. it takes a man to be mayor. really listen. married to now? Why doesn’t your sister “That’s a man’s job.” Oh, A businessman.” “I think this book should be required ever visit?” Et cetera. But sometimes I see. Well, no approval or ✫ reading for every aspiring councillor, she was sharp as a pine needle. As she encouragement forthcoming LONGTIME DUNCAN TOWN mayor or regional director, because it lay in her bed that day, I tried to make here. I can understand how councillor Sharon Jackson is precisely what you can expect. more interesting conversation. “Guess this generally life-frustrat- doesn’t know Macdonald “For those who do not plan to run what, Mum? I’m going to run for mayor. ed eighty-year old woman but she knows full well for office, it is a very interesting glimpse I think.” would say and believe that. Donna Macdonald: some of the problems of into how municipalities work and why “Why would you do that?” Her ques- It turns out, however, she’s “Being a city coun- small-town politics after things are done the way they are.” tion was not lovingly and gently put, but far from alone. cillor is like doing a twenty years on Duncan’s ✫ more like an interrogation. I’m not saying I lost two dozen different jobs.” council. DONNA MACDONALD HAS RECEIVED THE 2016 “Well, the mayor we’ve got right now mayoral elections just be- After reading Surviving Richard Carver Award for Emerg- has got everybody fighting with every- cause I didn’t have the right genitalia City Hall, Jackson wrote, “She hits ing Writers for Surviving City Hall, body else. We need a different style, a (and the cultural training that goes with the nail on the head, every time. What sharing the award with Koote- different kind of mayor.” them) and if things had been different was especially true for me was the nay Bay novelist Alanda Greene. “But why would you run for mayor?” (for example, three-piece suits hanging response of citizens, some of whom It’s sponsored by the Nelson and Uh oh, I thought, here comes the repeti- in my closet), I would have been mayor. she had known for years, turning on District Arts Council and the El- tion. I can’t say for sure. But I got some hints. her because of a council decision, even ephant Mountain Literary Festival. “Well, you know, I’ve been on council My phone canvassers were hearing this: if she had not supported the motion. 978-0-88971-320-8 CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS

Seven prize categories for fiction, poetry, children, illustrated, non-fiction, regional, and booksellers’ choice. Submission deadline is December 1, 2016. 33rd annual April 2017 Nominations open for lifetime achievement award, The Lieutenant Governor’s Award for Literary Excellence. Submission deadline is January 31, 2017. For submission details visit www.bcbookprizes.ca

14 BC BOOKWORLD AUTUMN 2016 FESTIVITIES Prostate of the union address Thien gets Booker nod NE OF THE MORE UNUSUAL BOOKS TO BE FEATURED AT THIS orn in Vancouver, Madeleine Thien, the daugh- year’s Cherie Smith JCC Jewish Book Festival, ter of Malaysian-Chinese immigrants, was taught Nov. 27 – Dec. 1, will be Sima Elizabeth She- Ofrin The Embroidered Cancer to read at age three by her older sister. Shy and ’s self-illustrated inarticulate, she retreated into literature while Comic (UBC Press $14.95) because it graphically recounts growing up in an immigrant family. Now her third her daily life with her husband, musician Bob Bossin, after Bnovel, Do Not Say We Have Nothing (Knopf $35), is one he was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2011. of thirteen to be longlisted for this year’s Man Booker Prize. “Every time something made us laugh,” she says, “one In the novel, ten-year-old Marie and her mother invite a of us would say, ‘That goes in the comic.’ As it turns out, a guest into their Canadian home in 1991. Ai-Ming is a young lot of the jokes in the comic are about sex. This is because woman from China who has fled following the aftermath of Bob’s surgery included cutting the erectile nerves. Little of the Tiananmen Square incident. The narrative proceeds to the cancer literature talks about this from the partner’s point reveal inter-genera- of view, or about its effect on the relationship. Yet that loss tional struggles of Madeleine Thien became a part of our daily lives.” a group of musi- will be at the Having been a fabric artist for forty-four years, Shefrin cians studying Whistler Writers stitched the sixty embroidered line drawings that appear in Western clas- Festival, the book, making hers one of the most unusual manuscripts sical music at Oct. 13-16 and at the 29th in B.C. literary history. the Shanghai Vancouver Intended for adult readers, The Embroidered Cancer Comic Conservatory Writers is distributed in Canada through UBC Press but was first in the 1960s Festival, published in London under the Singing Dragon imprint, and the re- Oct. 18-23 Jessica Kingsley Publishers. Shefrin has primarily worked sulting impact of as a fabric artist and a book illustrator, describing herself the 1989 Tianan- as someone who is stitching for social change. men demonstrations. In conjunction with his one-man musical, Songs and Sto- 9780345810427 ries of Davy the Punk, Bob Bossin will also be at the JCC fest having released Davy the Punk (Porcupine’s Quill $22.95), the hitherto untold story of his father’s life in the gambling underworld of To- ronto during the 1930s and ’40s. Embroidered: 978-1-84819-289-8 Punk: 978-0-88984-369-1

Stitched panels on fabric from The Embroidered Cancer Comic.

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15 BC BOOKWORLD AUTUMN 2016

The Defiant Mind MIND Living Inside a Stroke Ron Smith

An arresting memoir of a stroke survivor that takes us through the carpet bombing of the brain: the frustrations of being misunderstood and written off, the barriers to treatment, the painful recovery process, and the passionate will to live.

978-1-55380-464-2 (PB) / $22.95 978-1-55380-480-2 (HC) / $29.95 978-1-55380-465-9 (EBOOK) 316 pp

RON SMITH

Is This Who We Are? Sand 14 Questions about Quebec Luanne Armstrong Alain Dubuc / Translated by Nigel Spencer A teenage girl involved in a car accident battles This translation into English of Alain Dubuc’s paralysis and depression with therapeutic horseback Portrait de famille questions our national identity — riding, and a deep bond develops with Sand, a if there is one — and how it may be more in flux spirited rescue horse who has also been injured. than ever before. 978-1-55380-473-4 (PRINT) 978-1-55380-474-1 (EBOOK) 978-1-55380-467-3 (PRINT) 210 pp $11.95 978-1-55380-468-0 (EBOOK) 230 pp $21.95

Defending Darkness Heart Like a Wing defending Pamela Porter Dan Paxton Dunaway darkness poems Searing and lyrical, these poems explore the An edgy coming-of-age story about an adopted wisdom in starting over and moving on while girl’s fight to discover her identity and the truth enduring adversity — with a kind of singing behind the scar on her face, while learning to fly that can defend darkness itself. a bush plane in the remote reaches of northern 978-1-55380-470-3 (PRINT) Saskatchewan. 978-1-55380-471-0 (EBOOK) 978-1-55380-476-5 (PRINT) PAMELA PORTER 86 pp $15.95 978-1-55380-477-2 (EBOOK) 240 pp $11.95

Wordplay Last Chance Island Arranged & Deranged Wit Norma Charles Howard Richler Last Fleeing their village after it was torched by Laugh out loud as Howard Richler takes us Chance rebels, two African children are taken on board through the audaciously funny English language island a smuggler’s boat and later abandoned on an at its most creative. With 12 illustrations. island off Ireland, where a Canadian girl must find a way to save them. 978-1-55380-452-9 (PRINT) 978-1-55380-458-1 (PRINT) 978-1-55380-453-6 (EBOOK) Norma Charles 978-1-55380-459-8 (EBOOK) 228 pp $11.95 160 pp $19.95

Deaf Heaven Taking a Chance on Love Garry Gottfriedson Mary Razzell Poetry that takes us inside present-day First Can a teenage girl on the Sunshine Coast during Nations reality to reveal the wounds of history WWII find both love and an education when the POEMS and the possible healing to come. adult expectations promise so little? And when the 978-1-55380-449-9 (PRINT) marriages she encounters carry such dark shadows? 978-1-55380-450-5 (EBOOK) 978-1-55380-455-0 (PRINT) 104 pp $15.95 978-1-55380-456-7 (EBOOK)

Garry Gottfriedson 154 pp $11.95

Live Souls Mouse Vacation Citizens and Volunteers of Civil War Spain Story: Philip Roy / Art: Andrea Torrey Balsara Serge Alternês & Alec Wainman In the fourth volume of the “Happy the Pocket Mouse” series, Happy’s dreams of a vacation This memoir by a medical volunteer in the Spanish include the Taj Mahal and New Zealand, but John Civil War (later a professor at UBC), along with 210 LIVE SOULS offers only the woods and river. How’s a poor Citizens andnd VVoolunteers oof Civil War Spain of his b&w photos, was long thought to be lost. SERGEE ALLTTERNÊS & ALECC WWAAINMAN mouse to have any fun? Now recovered, it gives a stirring account of the opening act of WWII. 978-1-55380-479-6 (HC) FULL COLOUR 978-1-55380-437-6 (PRINT) / 978-1-55380-438-3 (EBOOK) 32 pp 9 X 9 $12.95 325 pp 7-3/4 X 8-7/8 $24.95

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

16 BC BOOKWORLD AUTUMN 2016 review TECHNOLOGY

i-Minds by Mari Swingle (New Society $19.95)

HE PROLIFERATION of the Internet and digital de- vices, such as cell phones and Tcomputers, is radically alter- ing ways we communicate, socialize and make love. Our behaviour is being af- fected because these technolo- gies are changing the ways our brains function. Such changes are the sub- ject of neurotherapist Mari Swingle in i-Minds: How Cell Phones, Computers, Gaming and Social Media Are Chang- ing Our Brains, Our Behav- iour, and the Evolution of Our Species. Swingle takes pains not to turn her observations into a generational divide wherein, “...the older complain of the younger becoming progres- sively stupid, rude, and isolat- ing with i-tech at the expense of interper- sonal or face-to-face relation- ships. “The young, like any genera- Mari Swingle tion before, equally find their pre-i-tech elders ignorant of advancement, judgmental, invasive, and abrasive in their YORKER view, feeling they should stop NEW pontificating and get with the times.” THE Technological advance- much more, than what oc- ments affect all our brains—or curs in the average person’s i-Minds—in good and bad SMART PHONE-Y life in an average week... ways. What we need to do, more positions, more orifices, Swingle advises, is to arm our- more people, more locations, selves with information about more objects, more toys... just how we want to manage these plain more visual everything. changes. She wants us to The resulting effect for many move towards “what we wish individuals is they now need to become in this new, and this ‘more’ to become sexually yes, wonderful, i-mediated AROUSALS interested and, equally impor- world.” Excessive use of technology can lead to depression, tant, sexually responsive.” i-Minds nonetheless mostly Swingle says the result is examines the dark side of insomnia and anxiety according to Mari Swingle that many people prefer what’s technology. After two decades online over actual real-life of studying the impacts of in- that disrupts the life of users increased anxiety, agitation, rates of anxious depression, prospects. Consequently she creasingly more screen time, as well as those close to them. general restlessness, and anxiety, and insomnia are devotes a whole chapter to sex Swingle says we now know Swingle writes that i-addiction related boredom when not skyrocketing as can be seen and sexuality. that for children, and youth, is now viewed like all other ad- ‘connected’.” by pharmaceutical sales and Swingle’s ultimate advice is excessive usage of digital me- dictions, “...a problem involv- Other problems involve rates of prevalence in the gen- that if you like i-tech in your dia is associated with learning ing impulse control regulation hyper-arousal due to the con- eral population.” personal and professional disabilities, emotional dys- and an obsessive-compulsive stant availability of incoming In short, the impact of new world, keep using it. If you regulation (meaning malfunc- behaviour.” information. This leads to technology can be egregious. don’t like what it is doing to tion), as well as conduct and For those chil- problems reaching Bullying has always been your world, disengage. behavioural disorders. dren and adults a quiet state, so around but with social media, The arousal born of screen In adults, excessive use exhibiting mental necessary for re- the problem is immensely time is like a brain drug. Over- (of screens) is highly corre- health problems booting our brains compounded. “Bullying of dose at your own risk. lated with anxiety, depression, and social dys- and being creative yesteryear cannot approach Dr. Mari Swingle is a be- sexual dysfunction and sexual function, Swingle’s and innovative. what bullying can today,” she havioural specialist at the deviation, insomnia, social recommended ap- Some people are writes. “Cyber bullying has Swingle Clinic in Vancouver. isolation and compromised proach is to limit BEVERLY more prone geneti- a reach and resulting power She holds a BA in Visual Arts, work performance. time spent on so- CRAMP cally to being nega- that bullying in the past did an MA in Language Education, “I am also starting to note cial media, gam- tively impacted by not... In the past, the bullied and a MA and PhD in Clinical some rather frightening con- ing and other screen-related the dangers of technology. could usually find refuge, for Psychology. In 2015, she won nections with thwarted emo- technology. “NO i-media or “Anxiety and its little buddy example, at home or in a dif- the prestigious FABBS Early tional and cognitive develop- screens whatsoever before stress are on the rise in adults ferent social circle. Today they Career Impact Award for her ment in the very young,” she the age of two,” she writes, and, most troubling, increas- cannot.” contribution to Brain and Be- notes. “For most this is now four... ingly in children, adolescents The wide reach that tech- havioural Sciences. Social media and gaming For older children and adults, and youth,” she writes. “It ap- nology has given pornography 9780865718258 can be addictive, like alcohol- the healthy cut-off appears pears all of us are functioning is another area where overkill ism or gambling. Addictions to be one hour per day. More in significantly higher states is causing negative changes. Beverly Cramp is a BCBW lead to obsessive behaviour than this is connected with of arousal. Accordingly, the “The Internet shows us more, associate editor.

17 BC BOOKWORLD AUTUMN 2016  into a   with

Available in bookstores this autumn www.douglas-mcintyre.com

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18 BC BOOKWORLD AUTUMN 2016 review POPULAR CULTURE

Garage Criticism: Missives in the early Seventies and in the Age of Distraction seeing all this insight and by Peter Babiak (Anvil $20) intellectual brilliance delib- erately hidden behind masks of discipline-specific critical Y DAY, PETER BA- jargon concocted to exclude biak is a mild- non-speakers from participat- mannered Lan- ing in “the discourse.” gara professor At a time when our culture of English lit- is not only communicated but Berature. Come sundown, he actually composed of digital morphs into Garage Critic— media, so easily manipulated the scourge of empty-headed, by political and corporate in- feeble-minded purveyors of terests, we desperately need what passes for post-Modern critics who aren’t afraid to call thought. The Discourse a SnapChat. Free of any curriculum It should be noted that but his own, Garage Critic Peter Babiak is an editor of romps down the main drag of Sub-terrain, Canada’s most contemporary global culture enduring and inclusive liter- with the irrepressible bravado ary journal and one of the very of a teenage vandal on Friday few that enjoys no academic night, tagging over the digital sponsorship, thus kisses no avatars many people have creative writing or English de- come to prefer to their real partment ass. When Babiak’s selves. mini-essays preface an issue, Garage Critic quotes the they’re invariably the first of illiterate stupidity of A-list many refreshing kicks to the celebs like synapses. Kanye RAGERAGE My personal favourite West with AGAINST THE called “But my ideas are good, mocking right?” features the professor glee, riffing (displaying all respect due to on Cover- racial, religious, gender and GirlTM’s sexual orientations) patiently missed- NONSENSE trying to explain to a student Kanye West message that since thinking is a func- sponsor- tion of language, if you can’t ship of an episode of The In Garage Criticism, Peter Babiak speak and write coherently, Hunger Games—(would the then you simply can’t think, so makers of Prozac have spon- romps over contemporary global culture no, your ideas are totally crap. sored a film of Huxley’s Brave with the bravado of a teenage vandal. Imperfectly expressed ideas New World?)—and trying to are worse than worthless; figure out how lame “soccer- meaningless at best, and as mom porn” like Fifty Shades of people are supposed to do— you haven’t heard nificance and she many demagogues of recent Gray, whose theme is the mas- question the real meaning and of any of these peo- had trouble con- history have demonstrated, ochistic joy of female sexual implications of elements of the ple, well, I’m sorry. veying her sense of also often dangerous because submission, could become a larger culture that permeate Garage Criti- humour in writing. they allow raging idiots to at- best-seller after five decades our lives and to a large extent cism recalls Son- Like Fawcett, tach any meaning they want of feminist activism. determine who we are, with tag’s eclectic now- Babiak dares to to them. Fifty Shades is just a strip- or without our permission or classic Against address popular We need Garage Critic. mall cover of Pauline Reage’s, connivance. Interpretation, pub- JOHN culture in language He is a ruthless wrangler of The Story of O, which enjoyed As Garage Critic, he’s tak- lished in the early MOORE it can understand. sacred cows of contemporary a brief vogue as an under- ing up the scalpel wielded by Sixties, in which Colloquial and re- culture, a destroyer of digital ground cult classic in the the likes of Walter Benjamin, she stunned the intellectual lentlessly funny, Babiak uses worlds, unconstrained by aca- Sixties due to its identical sub- Susan Sontag, William Safire community by taking a critical personal anecdotal hooks demic discipline or exclusive ject, but faded fast due to lack and Cana- approach that paid lip service to draw the reader to more elitist jargon. Garage Critic is of enduring literary quality or da’s own to academic (serious) dis- serious issues. His academ- a man who calls an ergonomi- intellectual merit. Gray will culture course, but applied it to the ic colleagues will probably cally-designed, artisan-crafted fade to off-white even faster in vultures, analysis of popular (trivial) scorn him for interdisciplinary spade a frigging shovel. today’s faster spin-cycle. Mark Kin- culture phenomena. The trick cross-dressing or “dumbing 978-1-77214-050-7 ✫ gwell and didn’t always fly; Sontag’s down the discourse.” IN HIS GARAGE CRITICISM: MISSIVES the inimi- style sometimes invested sub- I remember being very dis- John Moore writes from in the Age of Distraction, Susan table Brian jects with an importance out of illusioned at meeting many Garibaldi Highlands, Sontag Peter Babiak does what smart Fawcett. If proportion to their actual sig- Very Smart People at UBC near Squamish.

19 BC BOOKWORLD AUTUMN 2016 www.greystonebooks.com

The Killer Whale Who Changed the World Vancouver in the Seventies  - Photos from a Decade That Changed the City 978-1-77164-193-7 •  • $29.95  , Introduction by   Foreword by   “Mark Leiren-Young lays out the distressing tale of the 978-1-77164-240-8 •  • $29.95 capture of wild orca in the 20th century and how one par- ticular whale, Moby, became a kind of martyr. His book “A family photo album for Vancouver, this book feels like home.” is detailed, edifying, and amazing.” —  — , author of The Whale and The Sea Inside

The Hidden Life of Trees Elliott’s Guide to Let Them Eat Dirt An Intimate Wilderness What They Feel, How Dinosaurs Saving Our Children from an Arctic Voices in a Land They Communicate—Discoveries   Oversanitized World of Vast Horizons from A Secret World 978-1-77164-237-8 •  • $19.95 .  ,  &     - ,  Foreword by  .  Foreword by   978-1-77164-254-5 •  • $19.95 978-1-77164-230-9 •  • $39.95 978-1-77164-248-4 •  • $29.95

The Hockey Song No News is Bad News That Lonely Section of Hell Letters to My Grandchildren ’   Canada’s Media Collapse— The Botched Investigation of a Serial — New in Paperback — Illustrated by   And What Comes Next Killer Who Almost Got Away   978-1-77164-189-0 •  • $21.95   — New in Paperback — 978-1-77164-234-7 •  • $18.95 Foreword by     978-1-77164-268-2 •  • $18.95 978-1-77164-257-6 •  • $19.95

20 BC BOOKWORLD AUTUMN 2016 review FICTION ON THE ROAD AGAIN Ashley Little’s harrowing odyssey across the American continent is full of lively dialogue and humour.

Niagara Motel by Ashley Little Boston and then, after learn- asks why he is go- “You’re the The point is emphasized (Arsenal Pulp Press $17.95) ing that the show was actu- ing there, the man only person who later in this novel when Tuck- ally filmed in Hollywood, they replies, “I could tell knows what I do er, back in Canada, accepts a head west in a futile search for you. But then I’d and doesn’t make ride from an attractive, normal LEVEN- YEAR- OLD Sam Malone or the actor who have to kill you.” me feel like a piece couple. Their names are Paul Tucker Malone, played him. At the other end of shit for doing and Karla. the hero of Ash- When their stolen car of the spectrum are it. You’re the only The climactic scene of the ley Little’s Ni- breaks down, they hitchhike, two benign hippies, JOAN person who doesn’t novel is Tucker and Meredith’s agara Motel is a means of travel that brings so upset by acci- GIVNER judge me,” she arrival in Los Angeles. It co- Ea late twentieth century de- them into contact with a range dentally running said. incides disastrously with the scendent of Huckleberry Finn of quirky and sinister Ameri- over a rabbit that they involve “Why would I judge you? start of the riots that erupted through Holden Caulfield. cans, some of them actual Tucker and Meredith in a It’s just a job.” in Los Angeles in the spring of His story is set in the early characters from the 1990s. ritual burial of the creature. “See, that’s exactly what 1992 after three police officers 1990s, when television had The latter include Timothy, They also introduce Tucker to I’m talking about.” were acquitted in the beating not yet yielded its power over a man with 200 guns in his pot smoking. ✫ of Rodney King. the imagination of the young vehicle, who invokes the 2nd Other drivers include Rel- THE TRIP TAKES TUCKER AND MER- By the time the riots ended, to the internet and smart Amendment of the Constitu- vis, an Elvis impersonator, a edith through various Ameri- fifty-five people had been phones. tion and rails against the U.S. gasoline-sniffing evangelical, can landmarks and places— killed and over 2,000 injured. Tucker’s mother is a strip- government. He can’t believe a transgender woman, a Goth, Dodge City, the wild frontier When Tucker manages to per and sex worker. These that Tucker doesn’t know how and a transport truck driver. towns of the Old West, Las escape from Los Angeles, the jobs, on which their livelihood to handle a gun and under- The model and colour of each Vegas and the Grand Canyon. experience has propelled him depends, are complicated by takes to teach him. car is carefully specified, and When they stand in awe into adulthood. her disability—narcolepsy Tucker, afraid to cross is an extension of its owner’s looking down at the Grand ✫ with cataplexy. The two are Timothy, goes along with the personality. Canyon, Meredith sees in the THIS REVIEW WAS WRITTEN AS THE forced to move constantly lesson, hits a target, and finds Tucker’s salient character- vast crater an image of the news was breaking of the from place to place and from the experience surprisingly istic is his reluctance to judge emptiness in her own heart. shooting of five police officers one motel to another. In this exhilarating. others, a trait established early “I’m almost completely hol- in Dallas following the killing unstable life, the long-running Timothy is on his way to in the novel, when Meredith lowed out,” she says. Tucker of two black men in Louisi- television sitcom, Cheers, Oklahoma City. When Tucker explains why she likes him: is more sanguine. Even though ana and Minnesota by white fills a vacuum, exerting over terrible things have happened police officers. Fictions set in Tucker the seductive power to him too, he counters with an earlier period often take of a religion. the image of Niagara Falls, on a contemporary relevance, Tucker’s yearning for his seeing in the great cascade either intentionally or fortu- absent father, about whom he the restorative and healing itously. Niagara Motel is no knows nothing, is so strong properties of water: “I thought exception. that it overcomes his ratio- about how everyone has little With its references to the nal intelligence. He believes Grand Canyons inside them Los Angeles riot and the Okla- that Sam Malone, the owner but everyone has little Niagara homa City bombing, Niagara of the Cheers bar in Boston, Fallses too.” Motel provides a stark remind- is his father, a belief that is ✫ er of how little has changed in strengthened by the coinci- AN OVERRIDING THEME OF twenty-four years and of the dence of their shared name. acceptance, of tolerance, of ever simmering potential for Tucker and his mother not judging by appearances, violence. find a temporary home in a runs throughout Niagara Mo- In spite of all the harrow- motel in Niagara Falls until tel. When the spiked collar, ing events, the tone of Ni- her narcolepsy causes a black lipstick and fingernails agara Motel is far from dark. serious accident. She falls of one driver make Tucker It is full of lively dialogue and asleep on the highway, gets apprehensive, Meredith reas- humour, and evidence that hit by a car, and ends up in sures him: “It’s just a fashion. nearly everyone has “little Ni- intensive care. Tucker is sent It’s called Goth.” She muses agara Fallses” in them. to a group home for delin- that sometimes the weirdest 978-1551526607 quents and kids without par- looking people are the most ents. When a violent incident normal and the normal look- Joan Givner reviews makes the place unbearable, ing people are the weirdest.” from Victoria. he escapes, setting out on a search for his imagined father, Sam Malone. In 2014, Ashley Little won both the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize for Anatomy of a Girl Gang and the Shelia The companion on his jour- A. Egoff Children’s Prize for her young adult novel, ney is Meredith, a sixteen- The New Normal. She will be at The Vancou- year-old sex worker who is ver Writers Festival, October 17-23. pregnant. From this point Next year she’ll be the Edna Stae- on, Niagara Motel turns into bler Writer in Residence an odyssey across the entire at Wilfrid Laurier University. American continent. First they drive to the Cheers bar in

21 BC BOOKWORLD AUTUMN 2016 FICTION

when I like them more than at other times, but number of, um, unfortunate financial dealings regime was very relaxed, and it was the golden it’s always been love, and I think it’s forever. over the past decade, and Mac had had a number age of freebies. I remember I wanted to go visit Back to Mac Parry. of writers try and cover the story, but none of my cousin in Aberdeen, Scotland, but I couldn’t Mac’s office was at the end of a hall that was them seemed to “get” (for lack of a better verb) afford it. Mac said, “Good God, nobody pays for definitely not mirrored or glamorous. Like almost art, and maybe I could handle it. Using the same travel. Call British Airways.” I did, and ended up any magazine offices anywhere—including all voice used by the teenager who sells French fries in first class to Glasgow with a car and driver the biggies in New York and London—it was a on The Simpsons, I said, “Sure Mr. Parry. I’ll try on the other end to drive me and cousin James cobbled together mess of semi-functional office to write this story.” on a week-long tour of the whiskey distilleries The genesis of of the Spey River Valley. furniture, desecrated mismatched fabric-covered Two days later I was in Beverly Hills and going cubicle baffles, stacking chairs and maybe five to my first real art opening, the opening of the Vanmag’s offices were in a clapped-out two- IBM Selectrics in various degrees of functional- Ace Gallery in what had been the old Bullocks- storey building that even in 1987 had DOOMED ity (and now available on eBay for roughly fifty Wilshire building across the street from the Los stamped all over it. Vanmag was upstairs and bucks a pop). The overall effect? Glamour! It was Angeles County Museum of Art. The next day I Western Living, also a Comac publication, was great! I could sense the anarchy and lack of rules wrote the story, handed it in and received a check downstairs. It sounds so hokey now, but there in the air. I felt like a dog driving past the butcher for—I think—$2,500. Huh? Seriously? I felt like I was this culture of paranoia between the maga- Generation X shop, its snout stuck out the window getting a was looting the place, and boy, that much money zines and nobody from either floor ever visited heady, crack-like burst of sensations: this is life. really made my studio life easier. Then, as now, the other. As well, our particular street corner’s Mac was both terrifying and amusing. He making anything is never cheap. In my mind, sex trade specialty seemed to be boys who liked needles, and we’d show up at work and find rigs t was twenty-five years ago that all over the front alcove. In spite of this, everyone was fairly courteous to each other on the street, and there was a tacit agreement that the boys Douglas Coupland wrote Genera- and girls outside weren’t allowed to use either our bathrooms or our telephones. I ended up spending a lot of time in the office. tion X, completed with considerable Primarily, they had typewriters there and I didn’t own one. More importantly, it was a real treefort of a place. There was Mac’s saxophone playing support from his friend and editor and an endless supply of salty stories, Rick Staehling the art director, was never without a dry quip, and there were cocktails at the end of at Vancouver magazine, Mac Parry. the day. Sometimes there were parties, and if the parties weren’t hopping, Mac would invite up the Here’s Coupland’s reminiscence of how he came to produce his mod- ladies from the corner across the street, which ern classic, Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture (St. Martin’s taught me a very good lesson, that for any party I to hop, you have to have sexy people in the room. Doug Coupland It ended up with me writing a story per is- Press, 1991), one of the most significant books by a B.C. author. As he (above and centre) sue, which annoyed some of the old guard who recorded in Vancouver magazine, Coupland—who had never considered with his Vancouver magazine editor thought I hadn’t “paid my dues” by writing small himself a writer—was designing baby cribs and preparing for an art show Mac Parry (red shirt) hundred-word pieces for the up front City Seen and a colleague section. I thought this was so corny, but even when he got a message on his new answering machine… Meanwhile imitating wind now, two decades later, I meet these people and turbines near Palm they’re still fuming that I never wrote blips for Douglas Coupland has contributed the foreword to Vancouver in the Springs in 1988. City Seen before I began writing features. Seventies: Photos from a Decade That Changed the City (Greystone Following the Reform Party piece, I wrote a $29.95) by Kate Bird and released a new collection of stories and es- series of small fictional vignettes set on Robson Street, then undergoing a resurgence, and this says, Bit Rot (Penguin Random House $32). Vancouver: 978-1771642408 ; Rot: 9780345812148 was my first foray into fiction. Nowadays with everyone visiting dozens of websites daily, and One July afternoon in 1987 triennial Pacific Press strike which, for some rea- with 4,000 different magazines for sale, it needs I was living in a bachelor dump between Gastown son, didn’t happen that year. West Side Weekly to be remembered that magazines were a more and Chinatown. The gals down the hall were lasted only three issues and sank like a stone. dominant cultural influence in the 1980s than moving back to Halifax and held a garage sale I wrote about the art world in a way that now they are now. In the same way that people now at which I bought my first answering machine makes me blush: for example, I was in a stalled discuss the second season of Entourage on DVD, for $15. elevator in a South Granville gallery and I wrote people talked about what they read in Vanmag. In 1987 people still thought “Woo…cool… about that. I mean, that’s all it was. I’d scored I can only wonder at the cultural force of maga- an answering machine.” So I plugged it in at that brief newspaper gig because some months zines in the days before TV. around one in the afternoon, and went down to before I’d been living in Tokyo and had sent its Somewhere that fall I also wrote a little piece Günther’s Deli by the Gassy Jack statue and ate editor’s wife an amusing postcard and the editor called “Generation X” which caused a bit of a stir some perogies. When I got home an hour later, called in and asked if I’d write for them. That’s around the city’s water coolers. It was absolutely the red light was blinking…my first message how life seems to work. the seed of what went on to become the book, ever! And what a message it was: Mac Parry was This West Side Weekly gig led to a brief and though I would like to say here that it was edited calling from Vancouver magazine, and, as accu- amusing stint for the next three months as in such a way as to make Generation X sound rately as I can remember, he said, “Coupland! “Budget Gourmet” at the Vancouver Sun where I like it came from the name of Billy Idol’s band, Mac Parry from Vancouver magazine. Get your received $75 once a week to pay for both my food but it wasn’t—it comes from the final chapter of a ass down here right away. We want to send you and my writing fee. It was a boon to my social book called Class by U.S. social critic, Paul Fus- to Beverly Hills to write a feature story for us!” life, and it taught me a few important lessons sell. There. I hope that’s the last word on that. Beep. about writing. First, getting published is no big Life is Strange, and I look back on those Van- Me write a story? I’d have been no less sur- deal. Get over it. Second, newspapers have to mag years now and marvel at how utterly clue- prised if he’d asked me to come into Vanmag enforce house style and conceal a writer’s voice, less I was about the choices I was making for my and fix the hot water heater. Until then I viewed whereas magazines amplify a writer’s style. I quit future. In the summer of 1987 my job description myself almost exclusively as someone who, to be the Sun job because I described the portions at was “sculptural installation maker.” Within two some long-gone restaurant as being not unlike short years, I quit everything else I was doing and PARRY

specific, made items in three dimensions, either the bronto-ribs that tip over the Flintstones’ moved away to the desert to write experimental MAC

manually or using industrial processes. I shared OF a huge studio space with a death metal band in car during the closing credits of that show. My fiction. It was a total and radical transforma- the neighbourhood now known as Yaletown, in then-editor, Daphne Gray-Grant, crossed that tion of my life that I simply could never have out and wrote, “caveman-like.” Here I learned anticipated that cool July day when I plugged in COURTESY

the space now occupied by Cioppino’s and their $500 bottles of wine. I spent my time in that my third lesson about writing: some people my answering machine. Like anyone, I wonder PHOTO studio making items for a tiny show that opened enjoy irony; some people don’t. I quit after the what would have happened if I didn’t buy the swore like a pirate, he had battle stories, he’d in late 1987 at the Vancouver Art Gallery. Dur- Flintstone edit. then he said to me, “Doug, I don’t know if you’re Upstairs I had to sit in the mirrored lobby and writing was a terrific means of paying studio bills answering machine. I try and create scenarios seen the world, he travelled everywhere and, if ing that summer I also designed baby cribs (I Back to the beep, and Mac Parry’s call… aware of this, but you’ve got a seagull shit the be intimidated by a parade of way-too-attractive with a bonus social life thrown in. in my head, and none of them are very pleasant. he got bored, he went to the window and shouted know) for Storkcraft out in Richmond. That was I had no idea how to handle the offer. I sup- size of a fried egg on your jacket.” I looked and… people clad in the most extreme versions of After that art story, Mac asked if I’d do a story If I was guided by anything back then, it was, a) hello to the transsexual hookers across the street a wonderful job, and some of my designs are for pose I had to get dressed up for a meeting, but voilà, there it was. So I went home to change into 1980s power dressing. The lobby vibe very much for the next issue on the founding of The Reform the protective naïve coating called “youth,” b) my who owned that specific trade territory. They’d sale to this day and I see them in movies and TV I was six-foot-one, weighed about 110 pounds, a backup jacket, and I arrived barely on time at lived up to my preconception of what a magazine Party of Canada at the Hyatt on Burrard. I seem belief that you can only be happy if you pursue flap open their curb-length white fox jackets and shows all over the world and I get an adrenaline had big 80’s hair and a wide selection of Pet Shop the Vanmag office. It was located at the corner of office ought to be like. Only later did I learn it to remember a lot of people in brown suits and a activities that you find genuinely interesting, show Mac a flash of their white panties. It was hit every time. Boys-style raincoats. On the designated morning Davie and Richards—in the warehouse and semi- was the day of the company’s once-a-year annual generalized impression that the average IQ was and, c) the kindness of Mac Parry and the Van- strangely friendly in the neighborhood. There Back to Vanmag and Mac Parry’s call… I decided to wear a nubbly Value Village blazer industrial deadlands that now, 20 years later, ad sales meeting—the rest of the year everybody about 105. I don’t have copies of any of these mag crew who let me experiment, who allowed was a food chain and everyone in it got along Mac had heard of me because I’d written three the colour of 7-Up bottles. It was a cool morn- define the new Vancouver landscape—but back showed up as though dressed for a Grade 10 things. They’re distant memories now. me to find my written voice and who taught with everyone. tiny articles for a long-defunct shopper-type ing, and as I was walking up Water Street to the then it was dirty and semi-abandoned and, after social studies class. But the effect of all those In 1987 Vancouver magazine was owned by me how to throw a mean party. Thanks guys Beverly Hills? There was an art dealer origi- magazine called West Side Weekly. That was a office I bumped into a friend, Allan, who asked a recent zoning change, the throbbing centre of glamorous people never left me. To me, maga- a company called Comac Communications and nally from Vancouver who’d been involved in a paper set up to capitalize on what used to be the me where I was going, and so I told him. And Vancouver’s sex trade. zines = glamour. Sometimes I go through periods has since been sold a few times over. The Comac Copyright, Douglas Coupland, 2007.

22 BC BOOKWORLD AUTUMN 2016 23 BC BOOKWORLD AUTMN 2016 review REIMAGINE YOUR WORLD TEEN FICTION Every side of South Africa’s apartheid society is represented in Arushi Raina’s fictional account of the 1976 Soweto Uprising 100+ AUTHORS, 90+ EVENTS OCTOBER 17 – 23, 2016

ROMEO & ZANELE

When Morning Comes loses her fiancé, it comes across as by Arushi Raina inevitable. The characters are accus- (Tradewind $12.95) tomed to death, to losing friends and loved ones for no good reason. BY Raina weaves in real events and JAMES PALEY names to add authenticity to the story. N HER DEBUT NOVEL, WHEN MORNING The route taken by the student pro- Comes, Arushi Raina’s ensem- testors is exactly the one taken in the ble of first person narrators in- actual uprising. The names of the dead Icludes Jack, a white boy from a are taken directly from history. rich English family, whose life is As well, Raina ably captures the changed forever when he meets Zanele, sense of internal mistrust fostered be- a young black woman filling in for her tween citizens. Each character is the sister at a Shebeen (unlicensed bar). centre of a web of connections. Thabo Having snuck into the establishment has a side business selling secrets to with his friends in blackface, Jack is the abo gata. A professor is murdered unable to get Zanele out of his head. by his students for his participation in The Shebeen is run by a tsotsi gang- the Bantu education system. ster named Thabo who shakes down When Zanele is accused of murder, local businesses for protection money. it’s Coetzee who’s sent to find her. When The police maintain their dominance Thabo finds himself short on protection over Soweto as a whole but they don’t money, it’s Meena’s shop he goes to interfere in Thabo’s micro-Mafia co- shake down. One of the regulars at this ercions. shop is paid to drive Coetzee around. Pillay’s All Purpose store is run But it’s the complex relationship by an Indian man and his daughter, between Jack and Zanele, as it un- Meena, who is studying to get into med folds with the uprising, that remains school. Her life is complicated when she the chief focus of the story. As their comes across a collection of subversive romance blossoms, they get more literature, the kind that gets people five embroiled in the struggle against years in prison. apartheid. Jack finds himself doing The abo gata (police) are repre- more and more to help Zanele, without TICKETS: WRITERSFEST.BC.CA OR 604.681.6330 Ext. 111 sented by Coetzee, a plainclothes cop really understanding why. Zanele is who hunts down Zanele and her co- slowly depending more on Jack, equally conspirators. baffled by her continued entanglement All these characters are affected by with him. With both their families and the explosive, game-changing protests the law against their union, it’s more that famously occurred in Soweto in complex than simply the Montagues 1976. Already beaten down at every versus the Capulets. Love is a many turn by apartheid and the Boers, the splintered thing. Black students of Soweto finally rose in Intended for young adults, When defiance at being forced to learn their Morning Comes convincingly conveys studies in Afrikaans. a moment in history as personal and Raina’s novel captures this moment tangible, capturing the way tragedy was in history with unflinching precision. transformed into hope and possibility. When Mankwe, Zanele’s older sister, 9781896580692

24 BC BOOKWORLD AUTUMN 2016 review FICTION HANNAH’S COUPLES The straitjacket of plot can be likened to the straitjacket of marriage.

Piranesi’s Figures dynamics, Piranesi’s Figures also ex- by Hannah Calder (New Star $21) plores the dissatisfaction of unfulfilling employment. Hilda would rather be an artist than a nurse but she lacks the BY JAIDEN DEMBO talent for it. ANNAH CALDER’S DEBUT There are a handful of guidelines novel More House (New that keep the characters in check, and Star, 2009) was praised allow for a loosely maintained structure as “a fusion, a collage, with the use of an all-knowing History a bold endeavor of liter- Book that fact checks for the reality that Hary work, a ‘new’ novel” by Anakana is being written for these characters. Schofield. Meanwhile Piranesi’s Figures bends Her Piranesi’s Figures is another time and jumps from one locale to the experimental novel that strays from a next, from one century to the next, as conventional narrative approach with characters travel from one story into settings in contemporary Rome, 18th another, like passengers visiting dif- century Rome, mid-20th century Mar- ferent countries. They always return gate (England), Heidelberg (Germany) to their original story and await their and the Okanagan. fates. The title refers to 18th century artist If that sounds obtuse, well, that’s Giovanni Battista Piranesi whose ar- what happens when you invent char- chitectural etchings of grand buildings acters who know they are characters, are peopled by decrepit humans in the who have their own ideas and desires foreground. and don’t feel like sticking to the script. Both Piranesi and his hordes of Despite their reluctance to obey the ragged, seemingly homeless figures author, they are bound to act out their (representing humanity at large) appear destinies and the whims of their creator. in Calder’s new novel which began eight The only thing these characters years ago as a story about mentally ill can hope for is that when the novel artists. ends they could be reborn, rewritten, In Calder’s world of fiction there or borrowed and put into another tale is no reality that can be relied on, that better suits their needs. Until then anything is viable—there’s always the you can see them waltzing through opportunity to erase the words on the centuries, returning to ancient Rome page and start the scene over. and then back again to the 1940s in The main characters are three sets Germany and England. of dysfunctional, married couples— Piranesi’s Figures is another bold en- Hilda and Jorgen, Bill and Violet, and deavour. Hannah Calder has explored Florence and Stephen. No one appears the limitations of the modern family, content in their current romantic ar- and the painful longing for one. Like rangement. This leads to frequent marriage, it’s not for the faint of heart. affairs, unplanned pregnancies, abor- 9781554201129 tions and miscarriages. As Calder twists our traditional BCBW associate editor concepts of sexual practices and family Jaiden Dembo lives in Surrey.

Hannah Calder teaches English at Okanagan College in Vernon.

25 BC BOOKWORLD AUTUMN 2016 WWW.LIBROSLIBERTAD.CA ★ WWW.LIBROSLIBERTAD.CA ★ WWW.LIBROSLIBERTAD.CA ★ WWW.LIBROSLIBERTAD.CA ★ ★ CARESSING HEAR ME MYTHS OUT NEW BC FICTION Poems by Poems by FROM THISTLEDOWN PRESS Dina Tzoutzi Georgantopoulos Mantzourani Translated by Translated by Manolis Manolis $20 $20 Hanne and Her Brother ISBN: 9781926763378 ISBN: 9781926763408 Bill Stenson

978-1-77187-114-3 CHTHONIAN $19.95 CAD BODIES Belgian clock repairman Arthur Lemmons moves his teenage daughter Hanne to the Poems by Cowichan Valley, but her journey of hardships Manolis and personal growth takes her across western Paintings by Canada in this irresistibly charming, dynamic Ken Kirkby tale by Victoria-based Bill Stenson.

ISBN: 9781926763408 $48 HOURS Cluck OF Lenore Rowntree THE STARS 978-1-77187-108-2 EROTOKRITOS Poetry by $19.95 CAD [FOR COLLECTORS OF RARE BOOKS] Dimitris Liantinis Poetry by Vitsentzos Kornaros. Transcribed by Manolis Translated by Set in Vancouver’s Kitsilano neighbourhood, ISBN: 9781926763361 Manolis this heartwarming and quirky novel looks into the life of Henry, a man discovering his own $20 identity affected by social awkwardness, sexual repression, and his mother’s mental illness. ISBN: 9781926763415

LIBROS LIBERTAD CANADA'S TRULY INDEPENDENT • www.thistledownpress.com $20 $18 PUBLISHER ISBN: 9781926763439 ISBN: 9781926763385 Available October 1 • Distributed by University of Toronto Press • Represented by Ampersand Inc. WWW.LIBROSLIBERTAD.CA ★ WWW.LIBROSLIBERTAD.CA ★ WWW.LIBROSLIBERTAD.CA ★ WWW.LIBROSLIBERTAD.CA

26 BC BOOKWORLD AUTUMN 2016 review FICTION

find herself again and pick up her struggles WELCOME TO THE and triumphs.” A great deal of Hotel Abundancia recalls Sara’s complicated but very sexy relation- HOTEL ABUNDANCIA ship with a much older lover, Saul, who seduces her with his storytelling abilities. “I think my book is primarily about Haunting stories of healing past hurts in Mexico. storytelling and memory,” says Arrand. “How storytelling connects us, heals Hotel Abundancia by ible, leaving their only child a substitute teacher, us, and transforms us. And how we Ellen Arrand (Ekstasis $29.95) vulnerable to any signs of love Sara has allowed her- make stories out of memory. or attention. When she had self to be convinced “Sara’s past is both a story finally found a circle of friends that she needs to that haunts her and a story FTER DINNER AND at her school in the Okanagan, get away, to get of liberation. She heals many tequilas at her parents’ decision to move back to her po- herself from that huge, the Hotel Abun- to Victoria was devastating. etry, to return to romantic, mystical love dancia, Sara and By the time Sara met her Mexico for a third of Saul because of the A politicization from the her new friend first love, Harley, her self time. Her biggest Julie amuse themselves by esteem was so low that she encouragement Trutch Street wom- wondering how settled for an un- has come from en’s group. In the their hotel in Real savory, abusive her beloved end, she gains her- del Catorce, Mex- relationship, tell- daughter, Elk, self.” ico, got its name. ing herself things the only good Also a play- They make up a would get better thing that wright, Arrand has story about a little and Harley would came out of Ellen Arrand written The Trutch earned her Bachelor girl named Abun- change. Wishful her union with Street Women and Degree in Creative CHERIE a one-act play, dancia. thinking can be Harley. Writing and English Bear Me Stiffly Up “Then they THIESSEN deadly. “I divided from the University , make up another It was her friend the book into of Victoria. that was published by one about their separate pos- Claire who had the solution. three parts,” Ekstasis Editions and sible futures,” says Ellen Claire introduced her to the says Arrand, produced in Victoria Arrand, author of Hotel Abun- Trutch Street women, a group “because Sara by Theatre Inconnu. dancia. “Sharing stories is the of mainly single mothers, liv- makes three, Her first novel, Public essence of countering the ef- ing in apartments in a few of separate ex- Works Private Souls, fects of oppression and healing Victoria’s converted mansions. tended journeys was published by past hurts. The past must be Sara found a home and a to Mexico. The Beach Holme in 1994. dealt with.” refuge among a circle of sup- first as a novice, 978-1-77171-170-8 And Sara, we will learn, has portive, strong women. But the second for had her share of hurts. then Claire died. pure joy to be Cherie Thiessen First, her unaffectionate Into middle age and liv- with her lover, reviews fiction from parents made her feel invis- ing on the edge of poverty as and the third to Pender Island.

HIGHLIGHTS

B.A. SHAPIRO IRVIN YALOM

GLENDA LEZNOFF - Winner: TOM WAYMAN - Winner: 2016 Western Canada Jewish Book 2016 Western Canada Jewish HELEN KIYONG KIM and Award - Children & Youth Book Award - Fiction NOAH SAMUEL LEAVITT

27 BC BOOKWORLD AUTUMN 2016 BEAUTIFUL FALL BOOKS! The Life and Art of Mary Filer The Unheralded Artists of BC #9 Christina Johnson-Dean Introduction by Robert Held 978-1-896949-55-0 | 130 colour images | 156 pgs | $35.95

“Painter and sculptor have merged, transforming Filer into one of most innovative artists of her time.” – RICHARD MARCUS, PRESIDENT-SCULPTORS’ SOCIETY OF BC

“Her importance in the Canadian and international glass art movement is monumental.” – SYLVIA TAIT, CANADIAN ARTIST

Mary Filer (1920-2016) nurse, artist and art teacher, lived a vibrant life creating dazzling pioneer work in ‘cold’ glass art sculpture in Victoria and Vancouver. In the 1950s, Filer studied under Group of Seven artist Arthur Lismer in Montreal and renown art educator Viktor Lowenfeld in the USA. She completed a 142’ mural, The Advance of Neurology in 1954, at the Montreal Neurological Institute. Her involvement with DUFKLWHFWVDQGKHUSDUWQHUVKLSZLWK+DUROG6SHQFH6DOHVZKRVWDUWHGWKHÀUVW6FKRRORI 8UEDQ3ODQQLQJ in Canada, led to a honourary doctorate from Simon Fraser University and an Allied Arts Silver Medal from the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada. Major examples of her sculpture are at SFU Harbour Centre and the Vancouver General Hospital. Her work is in numerous collections, including the National Gallery of Canada, the Toronto Art Gallery, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Burnaby Art Gallery, CLOTHES CAN MAKE A STATEMENT, Canadian Clay and Glass Museum, Art Gallery of Ontario and the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria. M MOTHER TONGUE Creating a Legacy BE A WORK OF ART PT PUBLISHING LIMITED of Art and Literature —OR EVEN A WEAPON. SHAKESPEAREAN BLUES new poems Shirley Graham 978-1-896949-56-7 | 96 pgs | $19.95

“Richly detailed and engagingly written …” “Graham has the virtuosic skill of rendering a moment eternal.” —Kirkus Reviews, *starred review – DON DOMANSKI, AUTHOR OF ALL OUR WONDER UNAVENGED Celebrating the 400th anniversary of William Shakespeare’s Ages 12+ / 978-1-55451-785-5 paper / 978-1-55451-786-2 hardcover death, Shakespearean Blues is a modern romp through the state of mankind, at turns joyous, tragic, witty and wry. Here, Graham returns to the blue world of prior volumes, and uses the bard as a springboard to explore our human condition, seeing us somewhere between Puck’s “Lord what fools these mortals be” Sample chapter available at www.annickpress.com and Miranda’s “How beauteous mankind is!”

| annick press | www.annickpress.com | available from your favourite bookseller mothertonguepublishing.com Heritage Group Distribution 1- 800-665-3302

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with our northern lights series co-published with the arctic institute of north america

Jack D. Ives BAFFIN ISLAND: Field research & High Arctic Adventure

978-1-55238-829-7(Paperback) 248pp, $39.95 CAD

emil bessels: william Barr, ed & trans. Polaris: The Chief Scientist’s Recollections of the American North pole Expedition, 1871-73

978-1-55238-875-4(Paperback) 512pp, $44.95 cad

Smith & Lackenbauer A Historical & Legal Study of Sovereignty in the Canadian North: Terrestrial Sovereignty, 1870-1939

978-1-55238-720-7(Paperback) 248pp, $39.95 CAD

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28 BC BOOKWORLD AUTUMN 2016 reviews FICTION

Book of Sands by Karim Alrawi (HarperAvenue $29.99) THE PERILS OF

BY JAMES PALEY THE PERILS OF AFGHANISTAN

ARIM ALRAWI’ S Kevin Patterson’s Book of Sands non-fiction investigation revisits the pro- of the war in Afghani- tests and the stan in 2008 has now demonstrations TAHRIRTAHRIR SQUARESQUARE led to his novel News Kthat erupted in Cairo that From the Red Desert led to the ousting of Hosni Mubarak. (Random House $32). Alrawi, now a Vancou- Beginning at the Kanda- verite, was born in Alexandria, har Airfield, he introduces Egypt but his descriptions of an American war corre- the lingering acrid smell of spondent embedded with tear gas can only mean he Canadian infantry, Deirdre has been inspired by events O’Malley, “who has come to at Tahrir Square. love the soldiers she covers In Book of Sands we meet Tarek, a puppeteer, who is try- so much that she’s sliding ing to keep his family together. toward feeling like a mem- The protests are frequently ber of the mission herself.” mentioned, but the novel’s Deirdre’s ex-lover is focus is always on the imme- the American general in diate entanglements of family charge, making her in- and obligation. creasingly uncomfortable Tarek only visits Tahrir Square, the central protest with her growing aware- location, once for less than one ness of civilian casualties hour, searching for a friend’s and the use of torture. son, but it turns out to be his Karim Alrawi won UBC’s Best New Fiction Prize in 2015 Patterson lives on Salt undoing. Spring Island and works at Tarek must flee the city as for his novel about a mathematician who becomes a the Nanaimo General Hospi- the political struggle for de- tal as a specialist in internal mocracy fades to white noise. puppeteer during Egypt’s Arab Spring uprising. medicine. 9780345815040 Tarek tells his daughter fables which, unbeknownst to city square. He simply wants Halfway through the novel, ✫ her, are based on real events, survival. Neda wakes from a nightmare EVERY SETTING IN BOOK OF SANDS in the real world. We never ✫ to see swarms of birds flying carries the fresh imprint of know the extent to which SOME CHARACTERS IN BOOK OF out of the mouths of mourn- violence. The novel succeeds Tarek has embellished his Sands grip God too tight, such ers. in capturing the beauty and tales. as his brother-in-law, Omar; Similarly, while drinking violence of a whole movement Gradually we learn that others favour science and arak and smoking bango, in one family’s story. You fear the birth of his daughter and rationalism. Corporal Aboud hallucinates for these people’s safety, yet meeting his wife—events that Tarek was originally a while looking at a fire. The you believe in their ability to occurred in that order—would mathematician, but after hav- flames and smoke coalesce succeed. not have happened without ing been wrongfully impris- into hyenas. The pack of hy- Alrawi has also written for his youthful dissonance and oned for attending a protest, enas proceed to obliterate an BBC radio. 978-1-44343-445-4 rebellion. he has switched to being a entire household. Tarek’s personal struggle puppeteer, chiefly in order to We never learn whether James Paley is a Douglas Kevin Patterson will be never gets grandiose or analo- cement the bonds of love with these fantastic events were College student in Profes- at the Whistler Writers gous to the fighters in the his daughter, Neda. imagined or experienced. sional Communication. Festival, Oct. 13-16.

immediate family of her own, Bernie must simul- WHAT A TEACHER taneously come to terms with her middle ground status on the Tawakin reserve in The Heaviness of Things that Float (D&M $22.95) while searching for her own identity. There is very little privacy on Tawakin. Everyone LEARNS uses the VHF radio to talk to one another, with one open channel serving as the phone system. Gossip on the island travels at the speed of light. And yet Kyuquot becomes Tawakin in secrets persist. The missing man’s father is Frank Jennifer Manuel’s debut novel Charlie. But there’s also Jimmy Charlie, whom Ber- nie’s medical records list as Chase’s father. Maybe it’s the size of the island, maybe it’s the The Heaviness of Things that Float tides. But be it bottles or old wounds or bodies, by Jennifer Manuel (D&M $22.95) everything comes back eventually. Bernie’s replacement is a young woman named Wren. Like many who came before her to the island, BY JAMES PALEY she is convinced the residents need saving. She’s OR THREE YEARS JENNIFER MANUEL WORKED Jennifer Manuel published her fi rst short ready to rally for the cause. But do the people of alongside non-profit Aboriginal groups story in Room Magazine. Tawakin need saving? More importantly, do they in Vancouver’s Eastside to develop and need saving by some outsider? deliver education to vulnerable adults, Manuel has now fashioned a debut novel about a Ultimately Manuel’s novel succeeds in revealing later expanding this work to include the woman who has lived for forty years on the periphery a tiny, beautiful world that’s dense with secrets FNative Women’s Association of Canada. of a First Nations community as a nurse, thereby and stories. Manuel’s activities in Vancouver led her to work gaining intimate knowledge of local secrets. Manuel has since done graduate work in Ab- as a teacher of Aboriginal children in Kyuquot, a Weeks from retirement, Bernadette, or “Bernie,” original education. Much of her fiction examines small boat-in-only community on the northwest hears the news over VHF radio that Chase Charlie, the relationship between Aboriginal students and a corner of Vancouver Island where she was adopted the young man she has loved like a son, has been non-Aboriginal teacher. by the John family. The elder Kelly John gave her missing for a full day. The whole reserve comes A mother of three, she is the daughter of Lynn the name aa ap wa iick which means, “Always together for the search. Manuel (1948-2010), who wrote books for children. speaks wisely.” In a world “too small for secrets,” without any 978-1-77162-087-1

29 BC BOOKWORLD AUTUMN 2016 THE STORY WE ALL NEED TO KNOW

The Highway of Tears is a lonely seven hundred kilometer stretch of road that winds through the Coast Mountains wilderness of British Columbia.

Over the last four decades, nine young women have been murdered or gone missing from this remote highway.

All but one were Aboriginal.

To date, not one case has been solved.

Ex-RCMP turned private eye, Ray Michalko embarks on a life-altering journey to unlock the secrets of these cases.

Obstruction of Justice is a gritty, unconventional, and often infuriating, account of Canada’s murdered and missing women tragedy in microcosm.

ISBN: 978-0-88995-545-5 6 x 9 • 272 Pages Available now www.reddeerpress.com

30 BC BOOKWORLD AUTUMN 2016 review TEEN FICTION

North Vancouver’s Shelley Hrdlitschka on Grouse Mountain.

THE Dancing in the Rain by Shelley Hrdlitschka (Orca $14.95) FRIDA HELLEY HRDLITSCHKA FREEDOM hit it out of the park with Danc- Grind Everybody hurts, and nobody’s life ennifer Croll’s Fashion That ing Naked (Orca JChanged the World (Prestel, 2002), a YA novel is perfect—not even in the end. FINALE 2014) has been followed by a Sabout a young girl’s course lighter treatment of similar ma- through pregnancy and her the bottom of the mately persuaded Although Ryan returns to terial for Bad Girls of Fashion: eventual decision to adopt her hill to the grizzly her to give her baby Australia when his mother is Style Rebels from Cleopatra child to another family. Fans bear enclosure to another family to discharged from rehab, he and to Lady Gaga (Annick $16.95) wrote and asked, What hap- every Saturday, raise. Brenna maintain their con- for mainly teen readers. pened to the baby? followed she gets to know Alerted to Jo- nection, with him encourag- by, What happened to the a friendly Austra- anna’s death by ing her to take part in a relay BABY?? but Hrdlitschka had lian tram operator a mutual friend on Grouse to raise funds for no intention of following it up named Ryan, who ALEX (the minister, Jus- breast cancer research. with a sequel adored Joanna as VAN TOL tin, for those who We can’t reveal what hap- Then, four years ago, a a sort of surrogate know the charac- pens next, whether the past young woman wrote to mother while he was away ters from the first book), Kia’s can be reconciled with the fu- Hrdlitschka saying she had from home. sister Angie reaches out via ture. Suffice to say Hrdlitschka been moved by Dancing Na- As part of his own heal- Facebook. It rattles Brenna to is once again trotting around ked as a teenager and had ing in the wake of his own have her birth aunt suddenly all four bases. faithfully been combing the mother’s struggle with drugs be in touch after all these Dancing in the Rain is an shelves ever since, looking for and alcohol, and his brother’s years, but Angie is Brenna’s uplifting, heartwarming book the next book. “She was in her death in a car accident, Ryan only link to Kia, who isn’t yet that reminds young readers Frida Kahlo twenties!” says Hrdlitschka. takes Brenna under his wing, ready to reconnect with her to look outside themselves for “She had kept waiting for ten convincing her to hike the daughter. support when times get hard. Illustrated by Polish artist years.” Grouse Grind as a way of Angie gradually becomes a Adoption is an issue close Ada Buchholc, it looks at 43 That has given rise to Danc- dealing with the grief. Brenna source of support for Brenna, to Hrdlitschka’s heart because women through the ages who ing in the Rain, the story of accepts; a friendship turns helping to stabilize Naysa and she has three adopted sib- have made an impression by that baby, sixteen years later, romantic. drawing the aching family lings. “In my extended family, dressing or looking differently— when Brenna, her adoptive Ryan provides strong sup- back together. there are all kinds of adop- from the likes of Black Panther father and adoptive sister are port for Brenna as she watch- tions,” she says, “and many intellectual Angela Davis to trying to pick up the pieces af- es her younger sister, Naysa, across race lines.” Cleopatra and her intentional ter Brenna’s adoptive mother, try to drink and party the Hrdlitschka sprinkles some mimicry of the Goddess Isis. Joanna, has succumbed to pain away. Brenna’s hurdles good guidance around, show- Other fashion standouts in- fast-moving breast cancer. include navigating a new life ing her characters making clude Frida Kahlo, Marlene Before and after her moth- with an empty chair at the good and not-so-good choices Dietrich. Coco Chanel, de- er’s illness, Brenna volun- dining room table and read- from which they learn. Every- signer Rei Kawakubo, Björk, Rihanna, Nicki Minaj, Vogue teers at the wildlife refuge on ing the journal that her birth body hurts, and nobody’s life editor Anna Wintour, riot Grouse Mountain, where her mother, Kia, had kept during is perfect—not even in the end. grrrl Kathleen Hanna and, of mother used to work. This the time she was pregnant But it’s real. And there’s a real course, Madonna and Marilyn job grounds her; it keeps her with Brenna. beauty in that. 978-1-4598-1065-5 Monroe. putting one foot in front of the The journal is tougher than Jennifer Croll of Vancouver the Grouse Grind. Brenna Alex Van Tol is the author of other, as she moves through reviews books for the Georgia tries to understand the forces Aliens Among Us: Invasive grief. Straight. 978-1-55451-785-5 As Brenna commutes from at work in Kia’s life that ulti- Shelley Hrdlitschka Animals and Plants in B.C.

31 BC BOOKWORLD AUTUMN 2016 by ELAINE HARVEY Th e journey continues ... “Powerful and poignant, intimate and With Emily Carr insightful.” as her guide, —Bill Herod, journalist Laurie Human Rights Carter takes Worker, Cambodia readers on an epic trek through the ENCOUNTERS history, culture, When his mother moves the family and landscape of from the reserve to inner city, an on the Front Line British Columbia artistically gifted First Nation youth struggles with poverty, peer pres- Cambodia: A Memoir sure, discrimination, drugs and alcohol while trying to save his www.elaine-harvey.com sister from the lure of prostitution. 978-0-9921246-0-1 • $19.95 Promontory Press • $19.99 At bookstores and online retailers 978- 1- 927559-66-6 Distributed by Heritage Group Amazon • Barnes & Noble • Chapters Verniceshostal.com

21 compelling stories about Asian child workers, by 19 writers. Age 12 and up. ISBN 978-0993700446

THIS IS A COLD, CLEAR, PRECISE PIECE OF Life and Bronze A Sculptor’s Journal “WRITING THAT DESERVES DISTINCTION: Ruth Abernethy Life and Bronze is a photo journal of ITS EXAMINATION OF ISOLATION STANDS Ruth Abernethy’s bronze installations and portraits featured in streetscapes APART FROM THE CROWD.” across Canada. They celebrate the lives of Glenn Gould, Oscar Peterson, —ADAM NAYMAN, QUILL & QUIRE John McCrae, Norman Bethune, John A. Macdonald, Anthony Quinn, Tanya Moiseiwitsch, James Till and Ernest McCulloch, among others.

Hardcover — Full colour In his debut ISBN: 978-1-926991-73-3 10.25 x 10.25 in. – 180 pages novel HARSHLY PURRING, The Intelligent Patient Guide

5 to Breast Cancer Michael Knox Ivo Olivotto MD, Karen Gelmon MD

19.9 David McCready MD and Urve Kuusk MD $

evokes, in | Granville Island Publishing is very proud cinematic prose, to be distributing the sixth edition of the Intelligent Patient Guide to Breast Cancer. a glimpse of the It is said that this BC-published book is the definitive authority on the subject. It is complexity of considered the best book on breast cancer the suburban, in the world. French and e-book editions will be available in 2017. and a meditation Trade Paperback — Sixth Edition

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32 BC BOOKWORLD AUTUMN 2016 ART

“I don’t kai-yai around,” a genocide, to try to abolish my culture, says the artist—whose my language… name is pronounced Yux I suffer from colonial stress-disorder WAY lup tun. “I don’t kai-yai syndrome every day, not being able to By that, Lawrence Paul Yux- speak my language. How do you rectify these things? It’s weluptun means he won’t ap- not easy, I’ve been watching our plight pear in First Nations regalia to in this country, and what I want to do simplistically beat a drum for is talk to the world. That’s why I paint. genteel greetings at civic events around.” I just happen to be part of the mod- dominated by white liberals who ernist movement in the Native com- like to congratulate themselves munity that is taking the translation of for being progressive enough to Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun our cultures in new directions. Just like the originators of pointil- admit they have co-opted un- wants to change the name of lism, cubism, and expressionism, I ceded territories—but do nothing British Columbia — and with his art he have created visionism, and I am the about restitution. originator of the contemporary art form Instead Yuxweluptun, who wants to change the way you think. of ovoidism. Like those contemporary prefers the word Indian, says he artists before me, I felt the need to was educated at break from tradi- the University tional art forms, and of Knowledge of have been at the forefront of amal- the Cedar Tree gamating the past and he wears t- with the present. shirts that tell I’m not always white folks, B.C. dealing with Indian YOUR BACK issues. I’m look- RENT IS DUE! or ing at global issues I AM HAVING A as well. My Super BAD COLONIAL Predator series is dealing with the one DAY. As a mod- percent of the planet ernist painter (a that tells the rest of self-described the world what to visionist) and a do – the new world polemicist, he is order that is in a po- not interested in sition to say, “Well, being polite. we just want to get richer and you’re An artist since going to get poorer, 1985, the Van- and we want to de- couver-raised stroy whatever we activist received want and take what- his hereditary ever we want and do name Yuxwelup- whatever we want, tun (Man Who because there are Possesses Many no rules… Immigrants are Masks) when, “Immigrants are my hobby,” says Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun. my hobby. I want them to understand as a teenager, he was ceremo- “I want them to understand who they are.” who they are. nially initiated as a longhouse Having treaties is not the answer to dancer among the Cowichan RITISH COLUMBIA JOINED THE not always good Indian men: Indian the Indian problem in this province. Coast Salish people (His father Dominion of Canada men killing Indian women, brown on It’s our land, and we don’t have to sell is Cowichan). More recently, he without the written brown. It’s disheartening. Where does it. Some Indians are very poor, and I received the name Let’lo:ts’teltun, consent of Aboriginal that violence come from? There’s this don’t blame them for wanting money meaning Man of Many Colours. people. This is a non- whole world of clashes of culture and right now. But in the meantime, why treaty province. Your time, and it’s not something you see on don’t we just go after back rent rather He is no relation to the out- Bback rent is due, British Columbia! a totem pole… than land claims? spoken North Vancouver activist Let us formally change the name of It’s been my life’s goal to portray I was the first generation of Indian Andrew Paull who was active in British Columbia, because this land is the negative and positive realities of kids to go to public school. I really the 1950s, but his cutting edge not your land, Canada. This land is not this world. I’m interested in record- liked it. I got European training. All rhetoric is reminiscent of how your land, B.C. ing history: residential schools; global my friends were non-Native; I grew up far ahead of the curve Paull was. I suggest that we call this province warming, deforestation, and pollution; with them, I understood them, we got Yuxweluptun’s mother, Ev- what it truly is: the Northwest Coast worldwide concerns such as the hole in along. I played hockey in a municipal Territory, or NWCT. My other title the ozone layer; environmentalism, hu- league with the children of the Rich- elyn Paul, was an executive proposal is the Traditional Native Ter- manities, humour, and existentialism. mond community; I didn’t play on an director of the first provincial ritories, or TNT… If you allow only the colonialists to Indian hockey team, though later in Aboriginal women’s organiza- If they want to go the distance on record history, they record it to their life I played for about two years for the tion, the B.C. Indian Homemak- land claims, then I’m claiming the own glorification. I wanted to take that Native B.C. all-star team. I have chosen ers’ Association, and his father, sky. I’m going to count every cloud of position of power, of historical painting, to integrate freely as a person with my Benjamin Paul, was active in the day and you can buy those clouds. and put it into my own hands – take own will and in my own way, as a free the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs, They’re not free. I’m going to count ev- possession of history. human being. Native American Indian Brother- ery tree, I’m going to count every bird, We as Native people exist in a Ca- I’m a very assimilated person, but I’m going to count every worm, I’m nadian apartheid, imprisoned under not as Pierre Elliott Trudeau wanted me hood and the Confederation of going to count every raindrop. We’re the Indian Act. to be. I understand his dream. There’s Native Indians of B.C. going to count how many raindrops fall Quit hiding behind names, Canada. nothing wrong with assimilation; it’s Here are edited excerpts from per square inch, and you can buy the Let’s call the Indian Act what it is: The just a matter of a person choosing to do Yuxweluptun’s much larger art- rain – you can have the rain then, but White Supremacy Act. so in their own way, and I think that’s ist’s statement in Unceded Ter- it’s not going to be free… If we can celebrate Canada Day and what Natives are saying. We don’t have ritories (MOA/Figure.1 $45), I’m not a traditionalist, though I the Queen’s birthday, even Thanks- to be segregated anymore. a catalogue with text by Karen did my Black Face dancing, I did my giving, we have to include Aboriginal Yes, abolish all reservations and let Duffek and Tania Willard that masked dancing, and I have traditional Day as a national holiday for Natives us embark on this journey into this philosophy. But my work is for the and non-Natives alike, to start a new country. The chiefs may not like that coincided with the opening of his world. Natives already know what it relationship. idea, those who say you have to keep exhibition (on until October) of feels like having a bad colonial day. We We have to get along at some the reservations and treaties intact. No, the same name at UBC’s Museum wake up to it. Reading the paper again, point, so how do you deal with post- turn the reservations into municipali- of Anthropology, a place he has reading about some Indian woman residential school, colonization, and ties. We can grow. referred to as the Indian morgue. being killed or some Indian man be- stress-disorder syndrome? I want the The Berlin Wall came down: why 978-1-927958-51-3 ing slashed up and beat up – there’s pope to apologize and pay for the sins can’t you take down the colonial res- always something there. And they’re of all his priests. It was a sin to create ervations globally?

33 BC BOOKWORLD AUTUMN 2016 CAPTURING HISTORY VISITING OUR ROOTS

Capturing Hill 70 The Weight of Command Canada’s Forgotten Battle of the First World War Voices of Canada’s Second World War Generals and EDITED BY DOUGLAS E. DELANEY AND Those Who Knew Them SERGE DURFLINGER J.L. GRANATSTEIN Capturing Hill 70 tells the long-forgotten story Edited and introduced by one of the foremost of a spectacularly successful but shockingly military historians of our time, the carefully curated costly battle that helped forge the character LQWHUYLHZVLQWKLVERRNEULQJ&DQDGDȇV6HFRQG:RUOG of the famed Canadian Corps. :DUJHQHUDOVWROLIHUHYHDOLQJWKDWIRUDOORIWKHP October 2016 | hardcover | 978-0-7748-3359-2 the weight of command was a burden to be borne.

August 2016 | hardcover | 978-0-7748-3299-1

Trudeaumania PAUL LITT Trudeaumania was not just a sixties crazy moment. It was a passionate quest for a new &DQDGD7KLVLVWKHGHȴQLWLYHDFFRXQW

October 2016 | hardcover | 978-0-7748-3404-9

www.ubcpress.ca thought that counts

PIRANESI’S FIGURES A Series of Dogs john armstrong

A hilarious, perceptive and moving new memoir from the author of Guilty of HANNAH CALDER Everything and Wages. A Series of Dogs is about the dogs that have added texture and meaning to Armstrong’s own journey, and introduces the reader to a cast of some of the most memorable characters to come along in Canadian literature in some time—all of them dogs.

Iluminated by lyricism and deep human COMING OCTOBER 2016 wisdom . . . A work of serious literary ambition and substantial achievement. Soviet Princeton Reading Calder is to move through the Slim Evans and the 1932–33 Miners’ Strike world barefoot over asphalt, grass, sand jon bartlett & rika ruebsaat and water.This is sensual, insightful writing. Finalist, BC Book Prizes — Michael Turner, author of — Finalist, BC Lieutenant Governor’s Vancouver Sun Medal for Historical Writing When mine owners slashed wages in Princeton, B.C., the miners called in Now available at newstarbooks.com8 X 10 notorious labour activist Slim Evans, who and led the newly formed union in a dramatic The Pornographer’s Poem months-long battle against the owners, the police, the local board of trade, and the KKK. Also available as a Kobo or Kindle ebook

new star books Incendiary Poetry & Prose Since 1974 newstarbooks.com | [email protected] | @newstarbooks

34 BC BOOKWORLD AUTUMN 016 Who’s Who BRITISH•COLUMBIA

Images of the circus are essential to Kerry Gilbert’s prose poems in Tight Wire (Mother Tongue).

high-altitude aircraft. and talented pianist who develops a A is for Ace After losing all of his fingers, and friendship with Jacqueline, a homeless one thumb, Bjarnason re-trained and D is for D’Agostino woman who collects empty bottles and re-qualified as a North Vancouver fire- cans to buy tickets to attend Hana’s CATHY ACE HAS BEEN ELECTED HEAD OF THE TEN YEARS CANCER-FREE, Crime Writers of Canada for a two-year fighter. Just thirteen months after his Susan D’Agostino concerts. 978-1-77162-125-0 term. She previously won the 2015 rescue from Mount Logan, he climbed of White Rock recalls Bony Blithe Award for Light Fiction at to the summit of Europe’s highest her experiences with the Bloody Words gala in Toronto. Born peak, Mount Elbrus, in Russia. healing in Guided to F is for Farrant and raised in Wales, she immigrated to 9781771601924 Wisdom: The Jour- Canada in 2000. Her Cait Morgan Mys- ney to Emotional IN 2014, THE MUCH-NOMINATED M.A.C. teries are published by TouchWood; her Healing (Promonto- (Marion) Farrant received the $5,000 City of Victoria Butler Prize for her WISE Enquiries Agency Mysteries are C is for Cogswell Susan D’Agostino ry $14.95). Inspired published by Severn House, UK. Her by Brandon Bays’ fiction collection, The World Afloat: Miniatures. She’s keeping it small most recent mystery is The Corpse THE CO-FOUNDER OF The Journey, D’Agostino decided in- with the Ruby Lips (TouchWood The Fiddlehead lit- tuitively that invasive medical tech- with The Days: Forecasts, Warnings, Advice (Talonbooks $14.95), her new $14.95). 9781771511957 erary journal and niques wouldn’t save her, instead Fiddlehead Poetry she “unlocked her own inner power absurdist guidebook made up of 90 Books (now Goose and resolved not only the cancer, but short stories collected into three sec- is for Bjarnason Lane Editions), New her life-long battle with depression, tions that delve into the mundanity of B life as well as what makes life special Brunswicker Fred and a failing marriage.” 9781927559963 day after day. Farrant captures the CATHI SHAW HAS CO-AUTHORED ERIK BJAR- Cogswell died in ordinary moment in an average day nason’s Surviving Logan (Rocky George Fetherling New Westminster in Mountain $28), the survival story of 2004 at age 86. Like E is for Eriksson and brings overwhelming truths to the Erik Bjarnason’s rescue after he and poets Pauline Johnson and Al Purdy, readers’ attention. 978-1-77201-007-7 two companions were stuck in a fro- and novelist Sinclair Ross, Cogswell FORMERLY A BIOLOGIST AND THE FOUNDING zen wasteland atop Mount Logan, the was not born a British Columbian, but director of the Thetis Island Nature second-highest peak in North America, he came west in his old age. Conservancy, Ann Eriksson will soon G is for Gilbert during an extra-tropical cyclone in The Royal City Literary Arts Society release her fifth novel, The Perfor- 2005. Hypothermia, severe frostbite has managed an annual Fred Cogswell mance (D&M $22.95) in which she THE COVER OF KERRY GILBERT’S PROSE and three feet of new snow prevented Award for Excellence in Poetry since explores inequality by contrasting the poems, Tight Wire (Mother Tongue a retreat from the mountain. The three 2014. This year’s judge is George worlds of elite classical piano and ur- $18.95) features an act of tightrope experienced climbers were eventually Fetherling, newly elected chair of the ban homelessness as they coexist with- walking known as funambulism. “The airlifted off the mountain by a Lama Writers Union of Canada. in a city. Hana Knight is a privileged continued on page 36

35 BC BOOKWORLD AUTUMN 2016 AN AMERICAN IN ST. PETERSBURG

by Michael Bickerton

Afghanistan combat veteran Geoff Mathers travels to St. Petersburg where he falls in love with civil engineering student, Tatyana—but the violence Jordan Mounteer is a graduate of the of Putin’s regime University of Victoria’s overwhelms them. Creative Writing Department.

ISBN: 9780991952427 Available: iBooks, Amazon, Barnes and Noble and Kobo.

continued from page 35 2016. It’s about an Ojibway man who theme of ‘life is circus’ surfaced,” she reviews his life while he’s a reluctant told the Vernon Morning Star, “and the inmate of an alcohol treatment cen- beautifully grotesque images of ‘trying tre. In 2014, Screen Siren made the After All the Scissor to balance it all’ fit perfectly.” Gilbert comedy-drama Hector and the Search references the documentary called for Happiness. Work is Done Miss Representation in which media Indian Horse was selected as a final- commentator and feminist Jennifer ist for the 2013 CBC Canada Reads David Fraser Pozner says women these days are: competition and won the First Nations “expected to look like Miss U.S.A., have Communities Reads Award. These poems scrape at the sex like Samantha on Sex and the City dark of human experience— and think like June Cleaver.” is for Jordan David Fraser sorts through 978-1896949536 J memory with a raw clarity. PERHAPS THE BEST WAY TO INTRODUCE 64 pp $16.95 H is for Hancox nomad-poet Jordan Mounteer’s first poetry collection, liminal (Sono Nis www.leafpress.ca $15.95), is to report that one’s initial RALPH HANCOX’S THIRD NOVEL IN TWO YEARS, publishing poetry only The Ape and the Peacock (Fictive Press response could likely be, “Hey, this guy $17.99), emanates from his social con- can really write!” Intensity shimmers science. Set in the fictional Canadian in nearly every line, “As if a hammer province of Superior, his story spans over and over / has bent my need to a few days in November of 1957, fol- be alone / upon itself.” lowing the paths of two miscreants Mounteer , a world traveller (Japan, and their differing fates. As the lives of East Asia, East Africa, South America, several high-level government officials New Zealand) currently lives in the and a colourful cast of “destitutes” are Slocan Valley. He is also a veteran forever altered, Hancox explores un- tree planter who has been shortlisted equal consequences for the privileged for the CBC Poetry Prize, the Mon- treal International Poetry Prize and the and the dispossessed. 1927663334 Malahat Review’s Open Season Award. 978-1-55039-247-0 I is for Indian Horse

FILM PRODUCERS TRISH DOLMAN AND CHRIS- K is for Keane tine Haebler of Screen Siren Pictures have commenced casting for a movie ALSO KNOWN AS ROOTWOMAN, VANCOUVER version of Richard Wagamese’s novel Island herbalist Kahlee Keane has Indian Horse (D&M, 2012) with shoot- gathered information about more than ing slated for Sudbury (Ontario), Oka 100 medicinal plants from ‘medicine (Quebec) and Kamloops in the fall of people’ and healers for The Standing People: Wild Medicinal Plants of Brit- ish Columbia (Sandhill $29.95). Each plant is featured on two pages which, in addition to text and photographs, also include common names, folk names, First Nations names, French names, the Latin binomial and tips for quick identification. She has a similar title for the Prairies. 978-0994076311 L is for Lee

IN JEN SOOKFONG LEE’S THE CONJOINED (ECW $18.95), Jessica Campbell sorts through her dead mother’s belongings and makes a shocking discovery—two dead girls curled Jen Sookfong Lee into the bottom of her mother’s was born and raised chest freezers. These girls were in East Vancouver. Casey and Jamie Cheng, two She now lives in North Burnaby. troubled teenaged sisters from Vancouver’s Chinatown who lived with the family as foster A Town Bewitched children in 1988. Everyone Tales Our Enemies Tell had simply assumed they had by Suzanne de Montigny by Dan Biggs run away. Jessica unearths dark truths that force her to con- www.bookswelove.net www.bookswelove.net front her own life and who her mother really was. 978-1-77041-284-2

36 BC BOOKWORLD AUTUMN 2016 WHO’S WHO

two violists. Nobody knows the full sexual score. M is for Manolis Richard Ouzounian, a longtime reviewer of Canadian theatre, called INDEFATIGABLE GREEK-BORN POET AND Sextet “the best script Morris Panych White Rock publisher Manolis contin- has ever written.” ues to proliferate his own poetry in the Born in Calgary in 1952, Morris realm of European letters. His 2014 Panych grew up mostly in Edmonton. collection Autumn Leaves (Ekstasis Upon completing his Fine Arts degree $23.95) has been translated into Roma- at UBC in creative writing and theatre, nian by Lucia Gorea and republished he spent two years studying acting in in Romanian as Frunze de Toamna. London, England, then returned to 978-1-77171-033-6 Vancouver in 1980 where he became artistic director of Tamahnous Theatre. He has since become possibly Canada’s N is for Nexus most prolific and successful modern playwright. 9780889229846 THE PEMBINA INSTITUTE FOR ENERGY EXPERTS has predicted B.C. will fail to meet its 2020 climate and energy legislative Q is for Quelemia targets (renewable energy, emission reduction, Emissions trading) due to QUELEMIA SPARROW IS A FIRST NATIONS ACTOR its promotion of LNG plants. It’s just and writer from the Musqueam Na- one of a myriad of concerns raised in tion who created an autobiographical, a remarkably concise analysis of the one-woman play, Ow’et / Lost Lagoon, need to counteract climate and hydro- described as a visceral, spiritual canoe logical change, The Climate Nexus: journey of healing. It explores intergen- Water, Food, Energy and Biodiversity erational trauma through the life of a in a Changing World (Rocky Mountain mixed race Aboriginal woman who has $16), by Jon O’Riordan and Robert had an international modeling career William Sandford. but has been equally influenced by O’Riordan is a policy and research fishing trips with her father. The work 20 plus advisor for SFU’s ACT (Adaptation to Cli- premiered at the Firehall Arts Centre in mate Change Team) and a former B.C. Vancouver, directed by Marisa Emma varieties enviornment minister. 978-1-77160-142-9 Smith. Yoka, the beekeeper, is engrossed in Mark Winston’s Bee Time: Lessons From the Hive (Harvard U Press).

Designed for transporting liquefied natural gas (LNG), these tankers’ compartments hold 98.5% of their capacity in order to allow for expansion. O is for Orchard #5 - 1046 Mason St. Victoria, B.C. V8T 1A3 WITH AN M.A. IN HISTORY, ROBERT BUDD scoured through CBC researcher Im- (just off Cook Street) • Tel: 1-250-384-0905 bert Orchard’s invaluable collection Hand sorted for premium quality • Full selection of exotic teas of recordings to prepare Voices of Brit- • B.C. honey and Belgian chocolates • Mail orders welcome ish Columbia: Stories from our Frontier Rick (D&M, 2010). He’s followed that book Rajala www.yokascoffee.com up with Echoes of British Columbia: Voices from the Frontier (Harbour $35), recently nominated for a B.C. Book Prize. The books combine archival photos and sound recordings on DVDs Give the gift of history to represent one of the largest oral his- R is for Rajala tory collections in the world, totalling Humourous, tragic, personal, 2,700 hours of material about B.C. RICK RAJALA AND BOB GRIFFIN’S THE and engaging pioneers. 9781550176780 Sustainability Dilemma (Royal B.C. This is your chance to share British Museum $34.95) examines issues that Columbia’s stories. Every issue of arose for the Forest Service, the forest British Columbia History magazine is P is for Panych industry and British Columbians in general over a roughly 60-year period, full of photos, illustrations, book SEXTET (TALONBOOKS $18.95) BY MORRIS starting from 1930s. Chiefly it presents reviews, and more. Panych has been heralded as “a dark different viewpoints as to how the BC and steamy comedy” that presents Forest Service managed forests before the harmonies and dysfunctions of six the word ecology gave rise to sustain- sexually entangled musicians on an ability concerns. Subscribe today! ill-fated winter tour. The authors seek to highlight his- Order online at When a blizzard strands this sextet torical events that have been largely for an extra night, they have only their forgotten by the public and mostly www.bchistory.ca instruments, each other, and their unexamined by scholars. In doing so, Call 604–688–1175 secrets to keep them warm. Compli- they unveil some of the larger power cations arise because there are only dynamics beyond the efforts to prac- four rooms. Four men and two women tice sustained-yield and multiple-use portray two cellists, two violinists and forestry methods. 978-0-7726-6974-2

37 BC BOOKWORLD AUTUMN 2016 who’s who BRITISH COLUMBIA

Farming in the Okanagan, from Out of the Orchard: Recipes for Fresh Fruit from the Sunny Okanagan (Touchwood).

career in Hollywood, as outlined in her is for Smith disturbing memoir, The Hope in Leav- S ing (Penguin Random House $24.95). Y is for Yakuglas “Through this painful, riveting jour- RON SMITH’S THE DEFIANT MIND: LIVING In- ney,” says her pal Jane Fonda, “the YAKUGLAS’ LEGACY (UTP $85) BY RONALD side a Stroke (Ronsdale $22.95) is a bright, curious child manages to grow W. Hawker examines the life and personal account of what it’s like to into a resilient, hopeful artist.” There’s times of Charlie James (1867-1937), have a massive ischemic stroke to the also an endorsement from Helen Hunt. also known by his ceremonial name brain stem. Smith recounts struggles It all began with her five years as an Yakuglas, who was a premier carver with communication, the frustrations actor for Tamahnous Theatre. and painter from the Kwakwaka’wakw of being written off, the role of memory 9781609806729 First Nation. Hawker examines James’ in recovering identity, the value of ther- transition from art that was primarily apy and, above all, his passion to live. ceremonial to more contemporary art Including suggestions for improvement X is for Xinjiang in the 1920s, which allowed James of care for stroke victims, The Defiant to make critical statements about the

Mind, also available in hardcover, is AS A SESSIONAL LECTURER AT UBC, KIM TRAINOR vitality of the Kwakwaka’wakw culture for stroke survivors, caregivers and has released Karyotype (Brick $20), a during a time of widespread oppres- medical professionals. 978-1-55380-464-2 poetry collection about a woman who sion. The son of a Kwakwaka’wakw mother and an American father, he is In 1974, Ron Smith founded lived four thousand years ago. Dubbed Oolichan Books. Loulan, her body has been preserved often cited for playing a key role in the T is for Townsley in the sands of the Taklamakan Des- revival of totem pole carving among his ert—the largest desert in China, in the people. 978-1-4426-4940-8 FRANK TOWNSLEY STARTED TAKING PHOTOS southwest Xinjiang Uyghur Autono- at age seven and has never stopped. David V is for Van Rosendaal mous Region. The word karyotype, we Zimmerman Robert Bateman provides the fore- are told, is “the characteristic chromo- word for Townsley’s British Columbia: WITH MORE THAN 85 RECIPES FOR MUFFINS, some complement of a species.” Trainor Graced by Nature’s Palette (Sandhill mains, pastries and preserves, Julie has worked in a biomedical library and $49.95). “Like his watercolours, each of Van Rosendaal features “the heady for the Department of Fisheries and his photos is a work of art which not sensuousness of the peaches and Oceans. Previously her poetry won only captures the subject, but captures plums, the sweet crispness of the ap- the Ralph Gustafson Prize from The a moment. In art, it is the idea that ples and pears, and the zesty sweetness Fiddlehead and the Long Poem Prize counts. Early 20th century author of the cherries and apricots” grown by from The Malahat Review. Willa Cather describes art as captur- the 500 farmer families of B.C. Tree 978-1-77131-379-7 ing that ‘shining elusive element which Fruits Association for her seventh is life itself—life hurrying past us, too cookbook, Out of the Orchard: Reci- Z is for Zimmerman strong to stop, too sweet to lose.’ This pes for Fresh Fruits from the Sunny is what Townsley does.” 978-1-4602-7771-3 Okanagan (Touchwood $29.95). She’s UVIC MILITARY HISTORIAN DAVID ZIMMERMAN a food editor of Parents Canada maga- reveals the intense rivalry between east zine and a contributing food editor at and west coast navy crews in Maritime U is for Uncharted Western Living. 9781771511322 Command Pacific: The Royal Cana- dian Navy’s West Coast Fleet in the JIM MCDOWELL’S STUDY OF THE FIRST EURO- Early Cold War (UBC Press $32.95). pean to reach what became greater W is for Williams As early as the Second World War, the Vancouver, Uncharted Waters: The East Coasters derisively referred to Explorations of José Narváez (1768- AFTER HEADLINING IN VANCOUVER THEATRE the Pacific fleet as the “Yacht Club”. 1840) (Ronsdale, 2015), received a productions, Barbara Williams moved It was a criticism of the supposedly silver medal for Best Western Cana- to Toronto, then to Los Angeles and easy life enjoyed by West Coast sailors. dian Regional Non-Fiction title at the married counter-culture spokesman Zimmerman argues that nothing could Independent Publisher Book Awards Tom Hayden of Chicago 8 fame. She be further from the truth as the Pa- (IPPY) that honour the best indepen- has starred in TV series and films cific Command faced drifting Japanese dently published titles from around directed by Richard Pryor and John mines, Soviet submarines and later the world. Another Ronsdale title, Live Sayles, and frequently appears in Ca- went through brutal post WWII down- Souls: Citizens and Volunteers of Civil nadian films. sizing, only to have to rapidly expand War Spain by Serge Alternes and Alec Her name is not memorable. But again in the wake of the Korean War Wainman, received a bronze medal for this B.C.-born actor, raised in logging Barbara Williams appeared in the as Cold War fears took hold. best European Regional Non-Fiction. camps, has had a long and respected 1991 John Sayles film City of Hope. 978-0-7748-3035-5

38 BC BOOKWORLD AUTUMN 2016

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39 BC BOOKWORLD AUTUMN 2016 LETTERS QUICKIES A COMMUNITY BULLETIN BOARD FOR INDEPENDENTS

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Rented Silence Captain Joe & To Give Voice, You Must First Survive Grateful Jake by Lucia Mann by Emily Madill The horrors of slavery spanning over fifty Confidence boosting years of African and books for kids. international history. 978-0981257907 • $11.95 each 978-0973153156 • $23.42 AVAILABLE: Amazon AVAILABLE: www.luciamann.com Chapters, Amazon, Barnes & Noble Published by Grassroots www.emilymadill.com Publishing Group KIDLIT NOVEL

Cop Zero Avenue Page’s Resort & Marina on Gabriola Island has been in business since Forty-Three Years In The Royal Canadian to Peace Park 1943. Originally a fi sh camp on Silva Bay, it now doubles as a bookstore. Mounted Police Confi dence and Collapse by Bill Sharp on the 49th Parallel A memoir of front-line by Trevor Marc Hughes policing in British Columbia. A humorous and honest Also launching books Okanagan lit help 9781460216125 • PB & eBook: exploration of B.C. FriesenPress, Amazon, by motorcycle. I WOULD LIKE TO PROPOSE GABRIOLA ISLAND S I VE HEARD ABOUT THE LITERARY LANDMARKS Chapters-Indigo, iTunes, ’ ’ Barnes&Noble, GooglePlay. 978-0-9918590-3-0 • $21.95 fine little book store at Pages’s Resort program and I’ve talked about it with [email protected] www.trevormarchughes.ca and Marina as a literary landmark in the George Ryga Society people in POLICE MEMOIR TRAVEL BOOK B.C. This cozy space is replete with the Summerland. We’d like to contribute best books by local authors, some of and be associated with an Okanagan Zan and the Erotokritos whom are known across the country as campaign. Our collections person, Bar- Mythical Art of by Vitzentzos revered writers and illustrators. bara Jo May, would likely be our main Miz-Management Komaros Here you can browse and buy books person involved and we were thinking Miserable Management by Gabriola’s Sandy Duncan, Iain of approaching the OK College librar- Behaviour for Smarties Transcribed by Manolis. Lawrence, Dianna Bonder, and Joelle ian as well, as they have campuses by James Alden The only longhand book A tongue-in-cheek of its kind — a long poem Anthony—all award-winning children’s throughout the Okanagan. 500 years old—transcribed “guide” to stopping bad authors. You can also find mysteries Steph Hall management behaviour. by an 11-year-old boy. Available from Friesen Press 978-1-926763-36-1 • $5,000.00 and classic Canadian novels by George Okanagan Regional Library or Amazon.ca www.libroslibertad.ca Szanto, Bill Gaston, Roy Innes, and [George Ryga has a Summerland desig- SELF-HELP EPIC POEM James Hawkins. B.C.’s best in non- nation on the Literary Map of B.C.—Ed.] fiction is here too—represented by Organizational Return of authors like Katherine Palmer Gordon, Excellence the Convict Philip Vannini, and Naomi Wakan. Framework The bookstore at Page’s, and its by William Alan Thomas by Dawn Ringrose MBA, FCMC accompanying Sandstone Studio, A practitioner’s guide to under- A space cadet’s coming has hosted author readings and book standing and implementing the of age in Vancouver B.C., principles and best management in 2143. launches for almost 30 years, bringing practices common to high per- literati in from all over by boat, bicycle forming organizations. Available in paperback & e-book. and vehicle to celebrate some of B.C.’s Download at no charge: 978-1-5192-5508-2 www.organizationalexcellencespecialists.ca williamalanthomas.com finest literary works. The readings are BUSINESS REFERENCE SCI-FI NOVEL now usually held at our local library, but still organized and sponsored by Gloria Hatfield and her family at Page’s Pretty Amazing Etched in Time Resort and Marina bookstore. How I Found Myself in by Jo Manning the Downtown Eastside The first proprietor of Page’s book- An artist’s remarkable life Yvonne Maximchuk by Teresa Pocock over eight decades, delivered store, retired librarian Phyllis Reeve, Exuberant poems and artwork with candour, and wisdom says they began selling marine charts amid tragedies and triumphs, about the Downtown Eastside and sailing guides. through the eyes of an artist successes and setbacks. Echo Bay with Down syndrome. Available: Munro’s Books, Then the writers turned up—from Tanner’s Books, Volume One. 9781367545175 • PB: $29.99 all parts of Gabriola and beyond—with HAVING HEARD ABOUT THE LITERARY MAP OF Kindle: $12.88 • Apple: $11.99 978-1460275887 • $18.95 www.prettyamazing.ca www.jomanning.com books about island and coastal history, B.C., it occurs to me that Bill Proc- POETRY & ART ARTIST MEMOIR geography, culture, recreation, and tor’s homestead near Echo Bay ought mysteries. As long as they promoted lo- to be considered a literary landmark. cal writers and interests, it turned out This is an extremely small community, Drawn To The Listener that books even made economic sense. currently with a year-round population Change by David Lester Susan Yates of about ten individuals, but over the Graphic Histories of Gabriola Island years no less than four authors have Working-Class Struggle “A dense and fiercely This evocative collection... intelligent work... resided here. The first to be published should inspire us to all in a lyrical and Send letters or emails to: was Alexandra Morton and Bill Proctor ‘dream of what might be’ stirring style.” and to act to bring it BC BookWorld, with Heart of the Raincoast (Horsdal & — Publishers Weekly (NY) about.”—NOAM CHOMSKY 3516 W. 13th Ave., Schubart, 1998). 9781771132572 • $29.95 978-1894037488 • $19.95 www.btlbooks.com www.amazon.ca Vancouver, BC V6R 2S3 Yvonne Maximchuk GRAPHIC HISTORY GRAPHIC NOVEL [email protected] Echo Bay [We took this advice. Echo Bay is on the Letters may be edited for clarity & length. Literary Map of B.C.—Ed.]

Aldridge Print & Media...42 Federation of BC Writers...42 Mother Tongue Publishing...28 Shostal, Vernice...32 Annick Press...28 Fictive Press...32 New Society Publishers...12 Sidney Booktown...39 Anvil Press...9 Figure 1...15 New Star Books...34 Stonedrift Press...11 ABPBC...2 Friesens Printers...43 Now Or Never Publishing...32 Talonbooks...6 Arsenal Pulp Press...30 Galiano Island Books...39 Ocean Cruise Guides...11 Theatre in the Raw...32 Banyen Books...39 Granville Island Publishing...32 Orca Books...10 Thistledown Press...26 BC Book Prizes...14 Greystone Books...20 Penguin Random House...9 Tradewind Books...19 BC Historical Federation...37 Harbour Publishing...44 Printorium/Island Blue...43 UBC Press...34 Bickerton, Michael...36 Harvey, Elaine...32 Proud Horse Publishing...36 U of Calgary Press...28 Books We Love...36 The Heritage Group of Publishers...4 Rebel Mountain Press...36 Vancouver Desktop...42 Caitlin Press...26 Houghton Boston...43 Red Deer Press...30 Vancouver Manuscript Intensive...42 Carter, Laurie...32 Jewish Book Festival...27 Renner, Jodie...32 Vancouver Writers Festival...24 AD Cramp, Beverly...42 Leaf Press...36 Ronsdale Press...16 Whistler Writers Festival...25 Douglas & McIntyre...18 Libros Libertad Publishing...26 Rose, Kat...39 Yoka’s Coffee...37 INDEX Douglas College/EVENT...37 Marquis...43 Royal BC Museum...28 Ellis, David...42 Mermaid Tales Bookshop...39 Self-Counsel Press...8

40 BC BOOKWORLD AUTUMN 2016 LETTERS

ment’s official report stated that “a by many reputable military histori- Japanese at the battle of Hong Kong Have mercy Canadian lighthouse had been at- ans, as well as the U.S. and Canadian in December 1941. tacked by a Japanese submarine,” governments, and further rendered By 1942. German submarines were PLEASE TURN IT DOWN JUST A LITTLE, WILLYA? which suggests that they took his incorrect with the recent publication sinking Canadian merchant ships in Throw in some typos, some cheesy pho- report seriously. Then you confuse of the official log of Japanese Type the Gulf of St. Lawrence off the coast tos or so-so graphics to replace the cool things by advocating the conspiracy B-1 submarine I-26 which includes of Quebec. Hesquiat radio station was layout you’ve got goin’ on and for Pete’s theory advanced by “historian” Donald an entry describing the attack on the a prime target for attack because it sake stop loading up pages with such Graham (a lighthouse keeper) that the Hesquiat radio station near Estevan was well known by the Japanese as fascinating people and their books! I “alleged enemy attack at Estevan Point Point lighthouse using the submarine’s a station with good long-range recep- mean, it’s nice but doncha think you’re was bogus,” and was staged by the 140 mm deck gun. tion. During the years before the war kinda overdoing it? Canadian government to justify moving One month earlier the Japanese Japanese Maru ships commonly called I mean I’ve got a literacy gala to help Japanese-Canadians who lived in B.C. navy had attacked Alaska and occu- Hesquiat radio station when they were organize, I’m trying to find an ending into internment camps. pied two islands in the Aleutians, and still miles offshore to announce their for my book about Beauty the cow and That scenario is one of several dis- Japanese submarines had made spo- pending arrival. Also, it was common I’ve got that article about clouds I want credited conspiracy theories about the radic attacks on shipping and coastal knowledge that it also handled all traf- to pitch to... whoever. You’ve gotta help shelling of Estevan Point lighthouse. installations all along the Pacific Coast, fic with the C.P.R. Empress ships. me! I’ve got lots to do and you’re mak- You didn’t mention the other com- including the torpedoing of two ships No wonder it was assumed the at- ing it just impossible to put down your mon one which suggests the Cana- off Cape Flattery and the shelling of a tack was a Japanese submarine, which newspaper. dian government arranged to have two radio direction finding station at Asto- it actually was! American warships shell Estevan Point ria, Oregon. Robert Hess lighthouse so Prime Minister Macken- Six months before the Hesquiat ra- Nanaimo zie King would have extra justification dio station at Estevan Point lighthouse to bring in national conscription, which was attacked 2,000 outnumbered and Cover to cover was widely opposed in Quebec. poorly trained Canadian troops had Both theories have been dismissed fought a bloody battle against the SUMMER GREETINGS FROM DENMAN ISLAND. We really appreciate your publication and read it cover to cover. Then we buy books and put in requests at VIRL. Lots of superb B.C. books all year. Thanks to all of you. Rae Eckel Communication breakdown Denman Island John Harris ar more people in the world now Mining underwritten I thought by avoiding B.C. Ferries, have access to mobile phones I could maybe miss picking up more than to working toilets. MAY I QUOTE YOUR SENTENCE, “EVEN THOUGH issues outside the gift stores, but F mining was once the second-most im- nope—there you are at my favourite “Surfing, clicking, texting, sharing, friending and liking,” says Anton Scam- portant industry in British Columbia, bookstore. vougeras, “have arguably taken the place of looking, seeing, listening, talking, the number of books related to B.C. And this feature on Aboriginal thinking and just plain doing nothing, hanging out or being bored. mining are miniscule compared to the publications like Native Voice and “Are we losing the capacity for quiet solitude? Are we filling all previously- number of books about logging and mentions of Paul St. Pierre and Frank empty spaces in our days with electronic ‘busy-ness’? Have online ‘friends’ fishing.” from your email of June 6? Howard ... well, just cut it out willya taken the place of the other sort? Have second lives replaced our first? And, if It’s such a shame that an important or I’ll never get anything done. this is the case, should it be cause for concern?” and fascinating feature of Canadian Thanks for understanding. His collection of 75 pen and ink illustrations depicting humans isolated by industry and culture has remained so John Harris their personal technology, Dysconnected: Isolated by Our Mobile Devices unwritten. Prince George (Sandhill Book Marketing $19.95) provides matching quotes, opinions and facts, I have assembled (with help from as well as startling stats about phone use. We think it’s easily one of the best you and others) a list of non-technical books of the year. 978-0-9952056-0-4 / www.dysconnected.com books on mineral exploration. Fiction Estevan revisited is the class in short supply. Would you be able to point me to comparable lists RE: ANNALS OF THE LIGHTKEEPERS & THE ESTE- for forestry and fishing? van Controversy in BC BookWorld . The Robert Longe article states Estevan Point lighthouse author of The Nisselinka Claims keeper Robert Lally and two witnesses [Yes, go to the ABCBookWorld.com reported the lighthouse was shelled reference site. You can search there by by a warship 5 km. offshore on June categories among all the books by more 20, 1942. than 11,000 B.C. authors. It states the Canadian government Meanwhile we have append- “discredited [the lighthouse keeper] ed Longe’s list of mining titles Lally,” but goes on to say the govern- to his ABCBookWorld.com entry.—Ed.]

“So, your kids must love the iPad?” I asked Steve Jobs, trying to change the subject. The company’s first tablet was just hitting the shelves. “They haven’t used it,” he told me. “We limit how much technology our kids use at home.” —Nick Bilton, technology journalist

41 BC BOOKWORLD AUTUMN 2016 SERVICES/BOOKS OPINION

M V I Going

VANCOUVER MANUSCRIPT Jay INTENSIVE Currie VMI is a six-month program beginning to in January that pairs you with a We have a professional author to develop your huge inventory of manuscript to its fullest potential. FIRST NATIONS titles, Writers working in English anywhere in the world are welcome. plus virtually every local history written in B.C. 2017 VMI Application Deadline: Please visit me at November 21, 2016 1818 Quebec St. (by appointment only), PHOTO Vancouver, near Main, near the Olympic POT For more details visit POT HOOEY www.vancouvermanuscriptintensive.com Village. Text or email for an appointment [email protected] SUSAN “The medical marijuana regulatory As anyone who has lived in Van- scheme interests me as a grand ex- couver knows, the Vancouver Police ample of government getting something Department has better things to do Self-Publish.ca entirely wrong.” says Jay Currie, than bust dispensaries. Plus, given the Your Story. author of Start & Run a Marijuana injunction halting enforcement of the Dispensary or Pot Shop: Wherever it Health Canada regs, it is not obvious Your Legacy. is Legal! (Self-Counsel Press $21.95). what they would bust the dispensaries Here is Currie’s response to the Health for that would have a chance of getting Canada “boffins” who made sales of past the Crown. But even if they did bust the dispensary and even if the Memoir Publishing marijuana far more complicated than
     Crown brought charges, it is pretty Video Book Trailers sales of booze, which wreak far more   difficult to see how a judge could find havoc on our society. 978-1770402621 Audio & eBooks a person guilty who was selling to a " ' '(  ESPITE THE FACT THAT I DON’T registered user. &)*$+$#,+-
smoke pot—because The problem is that the boffins at if I do I will be asleep Health Canada have not quite figured ./( in approximately three out that their regulations are assum- 
 
 
minutes—I have long ing a world which does not exist. First, Dadvocated complete legalization for they assume that people want to smoke  
 

 
 
libertarian reasons but also because “legal pot.” That might be true if police  
 
 the criminal law is es- forces were in the habit www.aldridgestreet.com sentially unenforceable. Why would Ms. of kicking down doors to  !"#$%& The original medical arrest people smoking marijuana regulations Smith give up pot at home but, I fear, allowed people to buy her little per- that hasn’t happened in from a single supplier or sonal grow-op years. (It may occasion- grow their own or des- ally occur as a means of Memoir Writing Services ignate a grower. While only to buy her harassment but “prob- the system was far from arthritis pain able cause” is usually Your life adds up to a story. perfect, and found to reliever at five sufficient to beat the be unconstitutional, it times the price charges.) had the advantage of Second, the boffins Tell it. regulating with a very from clever assumed that “medical Now you can hire an experienced writer— light hand. But, oh Heav- marketers? marijuana” would some- with more than two decades as a full-time ens, there was “leakage.” how be policed by the freelance writer in Vancouver—to help you: Medical pot was not always only used medical profession. While it is a happy by medical users. Yikes. thought, all that is needed are a few • Record your life stories through an So Health Canada came up with a doctors, nurse practitioners and naturo- extensive interviewing process. regulatory scheme which was going to paths who think pot is just fine for what Conduct research to augment your story. • licence grower/distributors and put the ails you, to render the “policing” func- • Write the story with you. • Manage the book design. users and their growers out of busi- tion meaningless. Given that there is • Provide advice on printing. ness. Enter Big Green and a bunch of very little evidence either way as to pot’s promoters who sold shares in publicly medical efficacy, putting the burden of For more information contact me at listed companies based on the new reg- policing on the medical profession was 604-688-1458 • [email protected] ulations. The promoters made a lot of a non-starter from the get go. Beverly Cramp money using a simple story: there were Third, the idea of centralizing grow- LAURA SAWCHUK PHOTO 45,000 medical pot users in Canada ing and distribution of a relatively easy (projected to grow to 450,000 users in to grow plant in the hands of a group a decade) who each used about 3 grams of entrepreneurs was a forlorn hope. THE FEDERATION OF BC WRITERS a day and who would have no choice The only way that the regulations but to pay between $8 and $15 a gram – if they ever manage to survive ju- IMPROVE | SHARE | CONNECT for their “medicine.” You do the math. dicial scrutiny—will work is if Health To my not very great surprise, Canada can somehow convince the people used to paying $0 to $5.00 a Vancouver (and many other city police gram did not rush to sign up. And, departments) to enforce the Criminal WANT TO WRITE? very quickly, at least in Vancouver, Code in the face of wide spread public pot shops—for registered users only of opposition. course—began to spring up. Becoming Health Canada’s regulations will a registered user was not tough. As only work if the cost of “illegal medical the 5th Estate guy discovered, telling marijuana” is, by draconian enforce- a naturopath a charming story about ment, raised to the point where the le- stress and sleep disturbance over gal alternative is cheaper. Which would Skype gets you your registration. At mean a level of enforcement which far which point you are free to buy. (I note exceeds the scale of enforcement we the 5th Estate did not ask the pot shop saw in the 1990s. Which is not going owners where they were getting their to happen. SEE BENEFITS & GET A DISCOUNT pot—which is a rather good question Health Canada is in way over its because it is certainly not from the li- head. Now the law is in disrepute with BCWRITERS.CA/JOIN cenced growers as they are not allowed the public and, more importantly, the to sell except by mail order.) police, Crown and judges.

42 BC BOOKWORLD AUTUMN 2016 PRINTERS / SERVICES

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43 BC BOOKWORLD AUTUMN 2016 HARBOUR NEW RELEASES FALL 2016 Available in bookstores PUBLISHING this autumn

THE QUEEN OF THE NONE OF THIS NORTH DISASTER WAS PLANNED The Captain’s Story The Stories Behind Colin Henthorne, who the Stories captained the BC Ferry Queen A new collection of uplifting of the North on the night of essays from newscaster and its sinking, reveals a first-hand storyteller Mike McCardell, account of what happened the crafter of human-interest on that ship ten years ago and stories that counteract the doom examines the tragic aftermath. and gloom of conventional HISTORY $24.95 PAPERBACK 6”×9” news programming. 232PP ISBN 978-1-55017-761-9 HUMOUR $29.95 CLOTH 6”×9” 320PP ISBN 978-1-55017-778-7

THE PEACE IN PERIL CROSSING HOME THE PEACE GROUND IN PERIL The Real Cost of The Real Cost of the Site C Dam the Site C Dam A Grassland Odyssey Christopher Pollon has written through Southern Interior an exploration of the Site C British Columbia dam’s location and the pending Notes from naturalist David destruction of an irreplaceable Pitt-Brooke’s epic journey of CHRISTOPHER POLLON with photographs by BEN NELMS stretch of river and land over a thousand kilometres on between Hudson’s Hope foot through the bunchgrass and Fort St. John, BC. With country of southern interior photographs by Ben Nelms. British Columbia. CURRENT AFFAIRS / ENVIRONMENT NATURAL HISTORY / LOCAL INTEREST / TRAVEL $24.95 PAPERBACK 8”×8” 160PP $32.95 CLOTH 6”×9” 320PP ISBN 978-1-55017-780-0 ISBN 978-1-55017-774-9

RED ROBINSON I AM A METIS The Last Deejay The Story of Gerry The entertaining and definitive St. Germain biography of a British Peter O’Neil has written Columbia icon—a celebrated the lively biography of Gerry pioneer of rock and roll— St. Germain, who went written by Robin Brunet. from humble beginnings in BIOGRAPHY $29.95 CLOTH 6”×9” a tiny Metis community to 224PP ISBN 978-1-55017-769-5 become one of Canada’s most influential political insiders. BIOGRAPHY $32.95 CLOTH 6”×9” 240PP ISBN 978-1-55017-784-8

BREWING REVOLUTION COLOUR THE BRITISH Pioneering the Craft COLUMBIA COAST Beer Movement Discover British Columbia’s The inspiring story behind coast—from the grizzlies of today’s craft beer revolution Knight Inlet to the secret beach is the subject of this lively of Half Moon Bay in Pacific memoir by Frank Appleton, Rim National Park—with the English-trained brewmaster hours of colouring fun for who is considered by many all ages. Illustrations by BC Yvonne Maximchuk to be the father of Canada’s artist . COLOURING / LOCAL INTEREST craft-brewing movement. $19.95 PAPERBACK 11”×8” MEMOIR / FOOD AND DRINK 88PP ISBN 978-1-55017-773-2 $24.95 PAPERBACK 6”×9” 224PP ISBN 978-1-55017-782-4

ADDRESS PO Box 219, Madeira Park, BC V0N 2H0 PHONE 604-883-2730 FAX 604-883-9451 TOLL-FREE ORDER LINE 1-800-667-2988 EMAIL [email protected] BOOK AND AUTHOR INFORMATION www.harbourpublishing.com

44 BC BOOKWORLD AUTUMN 2016