Utopic Impulses: Contemporary Ceramics Practice brings together ten essays and twenty artist projects to explore ceramics as a socially responsible practice. By framing particular ceramics practices as "utopic impulses," this anthology envisions new and stimulating conceptions of how studio ceramics contribute to the social and political fabric of …

In his fifth book about language, Howard Richler moves from A to Z with a specifically chosen word for every letter of the alphabet. What especially intrigues him is how words come to mean what they mean, how they lose some meanings and gain others. Always humorous, Richler invites readers into the intimacy of language and allows us to delight in t …

"BackBench" has appeared daily for almost twenty years in The Globe & Mail, both as a comic strip and as a panel cartoon. With his witty, irreverent humour, Graham Harrop has satirized most of Canada's major political figures. He has commented on government scandals, the cosy connection of politicians and pop idols, and the continuing battles betwe …

This young adult historical novel focuses on Charlotte and her family, Loyalists who are forced to flee their home in the Mohawk Valley as a result of the violence of the "Sons of Liberty" during the American Revolution. At the beginning, fifteen-year-old Charlotte Hooper is separated from her sweetheart, Nick, who sympathizes with the Revolutionar …

To Harold Rhenisch, poetry is a wisdom path equal to Zen, or a pilgrimage on the holy road from Seville to Minsk. Here is a breadth of musicality ranging from solo piano improvisations to jazz quartets, klezmer music, music hall, and even operatic arias. In this spirited celebration of the creative spirit, Rhenisch presents a vision of the world th …

When sixteen-year-old Sarah from Toronto learns that she is to spend the summer with her grandparents in Nova Scotia, she is convinced that it will be the most tedious summer ever. She gets off to a rough start when she meets Luke, the nephew of her grandmother's friend, and one unfortunate event leads to another. Just when she thinks her summer ca …

This home-grown history of a Vancouver neighbourhood speaks to the need people still have, in a time of infinite possibilities, to connect deeply with the place they call home. The Story of Dunbar is a celebration of community roots and a sense of place. The documentation of Dunbar's history, complete with archival photos from private collections, …

After reading this collection, you will never look at mothers - at the playground, at the elementary school, or across the kitchen table - in quite the same way again. Beginning with a poem of pregnancy, written by her twenty-five year old self, Joanne Arnott leads us through a span of twenty years of inward- and outward-facing struggles, centred f …

In this new collection of stories, F.B. André explores what it means to "belong." Frequently his stories portray individuals involved in mixed relationships, of different cultures and races or backgrounds - of people struggling to feel at home with themselves and their situations. André depicts characters newly arrived in Canada as well as those …

In this unusual Holocaust memoir, Rhodea Shandler gives a woman's view of life under the Nazis in Holland. She begins by describing her early life in a closely knit Jewish family in northern Holland. There was anti-Semitism, she explains, but it was of a low level, and the Jews with their strong ties to community managed to live relatively normal l …

The Story of Dunbar: Voices of a Vancouver Neighbourhood draws on interviews with more than 350 local residents, including recent arrivals, descendants of pioneer settlers and the aboriginal inhabitants. Their personal accounts are woven together with information from diaries, records in the City of Vancouver Archives and carefully chosen published …

When sixteen-year-old Sarah from Toronto learns that she is to spend the summer with her grandparents in Nova Scotia, she is convinced that it will be the most tedious summer ever. She gets off to a rough start when she meets Luke, the nephew of her grandmother’s friend, and one unfortunate event leads to another. Just when she thinks her summer …

For his third volume about BC literary history, Alan Twigg traces the writings of David Thompson, Alexander Mackenzie, Simon Fraser and thirty of their peers, mainly Scotsmen, who founded and managed more than fifty forts west of the Rockies prior to 1850.

This lively and unprecedented panorama introduces remarkable but little-known characters such …

In recent years Mennonites have become one of the most visible ethnic literary communities in Canada. With the publication of Half in the Sun, BC writers of Mennonite heritage claim their place in this community. The authors represented in Half in the Sun are West Coast writers who share a history rooted in a dark region littered with stories of re …

This historical time-travel novel, for children ten and up, is the third volume in Cathy Beveridge's ongoing series on Canadian disasters. Once again we meet Jolene and her twin brother Michael, this time in an RV on the shores of the Great Lakes, where her father and grandfather are conducting research into the Great Storm of 1913. When Grandpa di …

Eloquent, poignant and witty, Garry Gottfriedson's new collection of poetry, Whiskey Bullets, approaches an old genre with a new flare that will challenge your expectations of cowboy poetry. This edgy collection explores themes of duality that exist in the parallel worlds of cowboys and Indians.

Often satirical, Whiskey Bullets is a testament to ada …

Marya Fiamengo's first collection of poems, The Quality of Halves, was published in 1958 when the poet was thirty-one. Subsequent volumes, including Overheard at the Oracle (1969). Silt of Iron (1971), In Praise of Old Women (1976), North of the Cold Star (1978), Patience After Compline (1989) and White Linen Remembered (1996), have developed an in …

In this highly personal essay, Ted Chamberlin asks some old, old questions such as "why do we need stories and songs?" Turning frequently to First Nations people, he looks at their culture and asks what it means to listen. In response, he notes that we take great pleasure in the comforts of narration, of finding our way within a story, a kind of "d …

This warm-hearted memoir tells the story of the dream of many North Americans: to throw up a dull job and journey into the wilderness to live off the land. Sunny Wright does exactly that when she decides at age twenty-eight to quit working at a "man-sized job for a female wage" in a Vancouver sawmill. With her young daughter Lisa and friend Betty, …

Speaking of Kevin Roberts, the Australian writer Nigel Krauth says, "Roberts takes the common man's point of view and proves that humanity is still connected to the great turning of the universe." Certainly this "New and Selected" provides ample evidence of Roberts' sense of connectedness, as he selects the best from his previous eleven books of po …

John Wilson has created a compelling story based on the folk hero, Albert "Ginger" Goodwin, also known as "Red" Goodwin from the colour of his hair and his radical social ideas. Goodwin was originally a miner from the north of England, who came to Canada and took up the cause of the working man during the Trail smelter strike and at the coal mines …

Seeking Shelter, a novel for readers nine and up, is a sensitive and moving story of a young girl's struggle to recover from the death of her mother. When her dad lands an assignment in the States, thirteen-year-old Marcie Chisholm is sent to the Crieffs, friends and former neighbours in Montreal, for the summer. Armed with a backpack, the violin h …

This historical biography – based on the life of British Columbia pioneer John Muir – tells the amazing story of a family from Scotland who came out to Canada in the late 1840s to work as "consignee" labourers for the Hudson's Bay Company. Daryl Ashby recreates the story of the Muirs' struggle to develop a place for themselves in the hierarchic c …

In his autobiography, John Koerner explores the underpinnings of his long life as a painter in a lavishly illustrated art book with full-page colour prints of his paintings and many black and white photos and drawings. Koerner describes his early life in Czechoslovakia, his art and philosophy studies at the Sorbonne, and his life as a student in th …

Since Canada may be faced with a period of minority governments, it has become increasingly important to understand the role of the Head-of-State?the Governor General?in facing the challenge of dysfunctionality. Edward McWhinney clearly lays out the present powers and responsibilities of the office, advising the country on what to expect from the G …

This third and final volume in the Craft Perception and Practice series features 21 essays and critical commentaries by acclaimed Canadian practitioners, educators and curators, demonstrating the range of critical thought about craft as presented in symposiums, exhibition catalogues and art journals. Over 40 full-colour photographs of works in craf …

The result of a cross-Canada contest for the best short stories about young people's experience of loss and grief, Dark Times is a superb anthology about a topic that often remains hidden but is crucial in the development of a child's sense of identity.

Following the success of First Invaders, Alan Twigg turns his attention to First Nations writers, unearthing more than 300 books by more than 170 mostly unheralded aboriginal authors.

Taking the reader from residential schools to art galleries, this lively and unprecedented panorama of British Columbia includes trailblazer Pauline Johnson, political …

Based on a true story, this charming juvenile novel tells of how eleven-year-old Rosie and her grandmother Bubba Sarah arrive in Toronto from Russia after fleeing one of the purges that carried away Rosie's mother, a famous Russian dancer. To help make ends meet, Rosie works in Yitzy's factory sewing velvet capes for Eatons, all the while dreaming …

Jean Coulthard demonstrated that a Canadian woman could be a successful professional composer, whose music was, and still is, played extensively in concert halls across Canada and internationally. Through her seven-decade career she composed in every genre of traditional classical music: opera, symphonies, concerti, chamber music, keyboard, voice, …

With a precise eye for form and a clear love for the tone and timbre of language, Steven Laird creates a profound and surreal sense of place and time, upending it all with brilliant irony. Running through this collection is a disturbing sense that even the clearest perceptions - shaped by habits of speech and thought - can be treacherous, and stand …

The late poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926) is one of the summits of European poetry in the twentieth century. Completed in 1922, as were T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land and James Joyce’s Ulysses, Duino Elegies ranks with them as a classic of literary Modernism and as an inquiry into the spiritual crisis of modernity. The ten long poems grapp …

The late poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926) is one of the summits of European poetry in the twentieth century. Completed in 1922, as were T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land and James Joyce's Ulysses, Duino Elegies ranks with them as a classic of literary Modernism and as an inquiry into the spiritual crisis of modernity. The ten long poems grapple w …

Join the children in this delightful picture book, children who dream of skateboarding through the galaxy, of meeting a guitar-playing hippopotamus, of feeding a baby brother who eats EXPLOSIVELY! Find the knock-kneed knight! Travel to Saskatchewan "without your socks and sandals on" - and by the end of the book you'll be walking with an elephant a …

Does drug prohibition work? There are many governments, police forces, jailers and drug testers who say it does. Prohibition is the favoured choice in dealing with intoxicants in the world today. But how well does it stand up to the test of history - in particular, our own history in British Columbia? The province has seen two harsh liquor prohibit …

The names Cook and Quadra ring a bell for most of us, as do Bering and Vancouver, but how much do we know about the Greek-born navigator, Juan de Fuca or the Machiavelli of the maritime fur trade, John Meares? British Columbia's earliest authors and explorers are skilfully introduced, for the first time collectively, by Alan Twigg. This is a compel …

This fascinating history of alcohol consumption in British Columbia focuses on two periods of harsh liquor prohibitions: first on its Native population from 1854 to 1962, and second, on the entire population, during the 1917 to 1921 period. Using formerly closed police files, Douglas Hamilton traces the scandals, corruption and crime that resulted …

In this Garnett Sedgewick lecture given to the Department of English at the University of British Columbia in 2004, Angela Esterhammer introduces us to the art of the nineteeth-century Italian improvvisatori, who created spontaneous verses on topics chosen by their audiences.

English Romantic poets such as Shelley and Byron witnessed some of these p …