Small Beneath the Sky is a tender, unsparing portrait of a family. It is also a book about place. Growing up in a small prairie city, where the local heroes were hockey players and curlers, Lorna Crozier never once dreamed of becoming a writer. Nonetheless, the grace, wisdom, and wit of her poetry have won her international acclaim. In this marvell …

Winner, SFU Writer's Studio's First Book Competition (2010)

Winner, Canadian Authors Association Exporting Alberta Award (2011)

Unmarried and pregnant in 1968 Winnipeg, teenager Myrl Coulter found herself at a loss. Unable (and perhaps unwilling) to support her child, Myrl’s parents forced her to give the baby up for adoption. After being sent to a …

Winner, SFU Writer's Studio's First Book Competition (2010)

Winner, Canadian Authors Association Exporting Alberta Award (2011)

Unmarried and pregnant in 1968 Winnipeg, teenager Myrl Coulter found herself at a loss. Unable (and perhaps unwilling) to support her child, Myrl's parents forced her to give the baby up for adoption. After being sent to a …

A witty, brightly-written memoir of childhood in the Yukon, The Cinnamon Mine traces the adventures of the Porsild family from Denmark to Greenland, through Arctic Canada, and finally to remote Johnson's Crossing , where they operated one of the first tourist lodges on the Alaska Highway.

Author Ellen Davignon recalls the early years when three kids …

In this courageous memoir, Fawzia Koofi, Afghanistan's most popular female politician, gives us her first-hand account of Afghan history through the rule of the Mujahedeen and Taliban, her experiences of the Afghanistan War, and the effects of these events on the lives of women in Afghanistan. In writing Letters to My Daughters, Fawzia has created …

"p class=""book_description"">""A touching -- if decidedly and deliberately offbeat -- family memoir...Expect to encounter laughs and tugs on the heartstrings in pretty much equal amounts."" -- Booklist

""Burgess has written not only the funniest book published this year, but one of the most moving memoirs Canada's prairies have offered up."" -- The …

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""If Raymond Chandler had written a memoir, I could imagine it reading like this."" -- Mary Roach

First published in hardcover in 2008, In the Land of Long Fingernails was shortlisted for the Trillium Book Prize, the Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour, and the Toronto Book Awards.

During the hazy summer of 1969, Charles Wilkins, then a univer …

Victoria, BC, July 11th 191. . . . With red eyes and a body guard of sniffing "faithfuls" attending us, we start on our long trip abroad. . . .

So begins Emily Carr's memoir of her trip to England with her sister Alice. They travel across Canada by rail to board an ocean liner in Quebec City, meeting interesting characters and having many adventure …

"The short pieces in One Story, One Song remind us of human beings� place in the world: We are a part of it, not masters of it. And by sharing our stories we share ourselves. By listening to others� stories, we share their lives and perhaps gain connections. One Story, One Song is all about connections, something we all need."
—Globe an …

Beginning naked in the darkness Brian Brett takes us on a journey through a summer’s day that also tells the story of his affectionately named Trauma Farm—exploring the garden, orchards, fields, the mysteries of live-stock and poultry, and the social intricacies of rural communities.

Both a memoir and a natural history of the small mixed farm, th …

Chosen as a Globe 100 Best Book of the year in 2011! Chosen as the Best Memoir of 2011 by Library Journal! Chosen as a Best Book (non-fiction) for 2011 by Publishers Weekly!

"With Tiger, Tiger, Fragoso has created from the ashes of her childhood a stunning, brave, personal book." -- Edmonton Journal

"It is at once beautiful and appalling, a true-life …

In 1959 Ray and Daisy Cook and their five children were brutally slain in their modest home in the central Alberta town of Stettler. Robert Raymond Cook, Ray Cook's son from his first marriage, was convicted of the crime, and had the infamy of becoming the last man hanged in Alberta. Forty-six years later, a troublesome character named Louise in a …

A Year of Living Generously follows award-winning journalist Lawrence Scanlan as he volunteers with 12 different charities, among them well-known institutions Habitat for Humanity, the St. Vincent de Paul Society and Canadian Crossroads.

Drawing from first-hand experiences -- serving in a soup kitchen at "Vinnie's," the St. Vincent de Paul drop-in …

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Armed with wit and humour, an internationally acclaimed cycling writer tackles the longest mountain bike race in the world.

For Paul Howard, who has ridden the entire Tour de France route during the race itself -- setting off at 4 am each day to avoid being caught by the pros -- riding an adventure cycling race should hold little fear. Still, this …

"[Patriot Hearts] is a story about sticking to one's vision, no matter what other people say...by the end, it is clear Furlong's particular brand of zeal, perseverance, and focus is required to put on such a complicated and successful spectacle." -- Quill & Quire

"Patriot Hearts is a gossipy gallop across the emotional arc of the Games, from heroics …

Like many other pioneering North West Mounted Police officers, Cecil Denny was a colourful, independent man with a career full of conquest and controversy. He and his comrades played key roles in the taming of Canada's wild and woolly west, and in this compilation of selected writings from his books The Law Marches West and The Riders of the Plains …

Best known for his original series of Arthurian novels, A Dream of Eagles (called The Camulod Chronicles in the US), and his Knights Templar trilogy, Jack Whyte has authored 10 international bestsellers in the past 15 years. Jack's imagination and his passion for observing human nature shine through in both his prose and his verse in this uniquely …

Winner of the 2009 Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour

The cops wanted to shoot me, my bosses thought I was a Bolshevik, and a local lawyer warned me that some people I was writing about might try to test the strength of my skull with a steel pipe. What more could any young reporter hope for from his first real job?

The night Mark Leiren-Young drove …

Charming, humorous and utterly engaging, this is a book that will make readers laugh and cry. Written from the point of view and in the voice of the author’s dog, Lonesome, its observations of life in the wilds reveal a dog with great character, charm and attitude.

Named for her first home, remote Lonesome Lake in British Columbia’s Tweedsmuir …

Widely recognized as a classic of northern-exploration literature, A Journey to the Northern Ocean is Samuel Hearne's story of his three-year trek to seek a trade route across the Barrens in the Northwest Territories. Hearne was a superb reporter, from his anguished description of the massacre of helpless Eskimos by his Indian companions to his met …

In British Columbia's remote and exotic Cariboo Plateau, "Everything is slow. Everything is happening at the same speed, which is no speed at all." Harold Rhenisch has spent eleven years watching birds every day from his house on the shore of 108 Lake—at this speed, but you wouldn’t know it from reading Winging Home. Known as "one of Canada's m …

At once a memoir, a work of philosophy, a story of European immigration to Canada's dark places of the earth, and an exploration of the roots and effects of colonialism, The Wolves At Evelyn: Journeys Through a Dark Century is a stylistic and rhetorical tour de force from one of Canada's master prose stylists.

Dissident communists fleeing 1920s Germ …

In this lyrical memoir, Lily Hoy Price writes with moving detail about her childhood and adolescence in a large Chinese Canadian family in the Cariboo country of northern British Columbia. The ninth daughter in a family of 12 children, Lily is an observant child who tucks away every image of life in rugged Quesnel during the 1930s for one unforgett …

Set partially in Vancouver, partially on a farm in rural Ontario and partially in West Africa, Sweetness from Ashes is a novel about family in its various forms. When Sheila, Jenny and Chris decide to respect a deceased relative’s wishes, and return the ashes to the family farm, the three begin a journey that takes them from their present-day liv …

It was 1862 and the Cariboo Gold Rush was in full swing. Sophia Cameron, the Beauty of Barkerville, lay dying of typhoid when her husband, John Cariboo Cameron, made one last promise to his fading young wife. The Promise is a compelling story of a great love and an epic struggle to honour a dying wife's final request: to take her body home to easte …

"Her book is a gift to all of us."— Patrick Lane, author of There is a Season

Following the lead of her earlier bestselling books, Anny Scoones once again charms and inspires readers with her insights and observations. Using her experiences on a farm as a backdrop, Anny muses on the environment, fate, time and aging.

In this collection of personal …

The tragic murder of Reena Virk—which inspired the major television series Under the Bridge—and its aftermath are recounted in heart-wrenching detail by her grieving father.

The horrifying killing of fourteen-year-old Reena Virk at the hands of her peers in 1997 shocked and stunned the public. This callous act of violence drew nation-wide atten …

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""[Hayley Wickenheiser's] memories are more than just an array of hockey games, shifts good and bad and practices filled with the drudgery of constant drills. Wickenheiser is more than just a hockey player, and that's a good thing, because her complicated life outside the rink is more fascinating."" -- Winnipeg Free Press

A behind-the-scenes view o …

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Life has always been a bit of a gamble for Darcy Christensen. Born in Ocean Falls in 1929, he was raised in Bella Coola Valley and Anahim Lake on the Chilcotin Plateau. The Christensen family were among the earliest white settlers on the Central Coast and West Chilcotin and his maternal grandfather, John Clayton, was the Hudson's Bay Company's last …

Rumble Seat is an evocative, poetically-written memoir of artist Helen Piddington's childhood in the Victoria suburb of Esquimalt--and what a childhood it was! The Piddingtons arrived from Quebec in 1924, and settled into a life that in many ways typified well-off Victoria families of the period. Helen's father, Major Arthur Grosvenor Piddington, w …

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""A layered, rambling, deceptively casual mixture of music history, coming-of-age inarrative and reflection on mortality."" -- Globe and Mail

A musician and writer's memoir looks death in the face and reminisces about a life in song.

As a kid, Paul Quarrington had a favourite song. In it, a boy fashions a banjo from a cigar box, pluckily sets off fo …

Now an approved curriculum resource for grade 9–12 students in British Columbia and Manitoba.

Theodore (Ted) Fontaine lost his family and freedom just after his seventh birthday, when his parents were forced to leave him at an Indian residential school by order of the Roman Catholic Church and the Government of Canada. Twelve years later, he lef …

“Too many survivors of Canada’s Indian residential schools live to forget. Theodore Fontaine writes to remember.”
– Hana Gartner, CBC’s The Fifth Estate

Bestselling Memoir, McNally Robinson Booksellers

Approved curriculum resource for grade 9–12 students in British Columbia and Manitoba.

Theodore Niizhotay Fontaine lost his family and fre …

When 25-year-old Jo climbed down the ramp of the freighter Canadian Star to set foot in Vancouver, BC, in the summer of 1967, she'd never heard of log salvaging. But within two-and-a-half years, the immigrant from England would quit her teaching job and join forces with one of the most enigmatic salvagers of the Sunshine Coast. Dick and Jo Hammond …

"p class=""book_description"">""Whether it's the sign of a symbiotic marriage or of seasoned writers crafting a seamless travel collage, the narrative in this road trip through America flows as easily as a new car on an empty highway."" -- Globe & Mail

Part travelogue, part exploration-a road trip into the reality behind the cultural myth that is Am …

Now available in paperback, The Legacy represents the culmination of David Suzuki's knowledge and wisdom and his legacy for generations to come.

If he had to sum up all that he has learned in one last lecture, what would David Suzuki say? In this expanded version of the lecture that he delivered in December 2009 and that will be released as a film i …

In early 1963, with the world on the cusp of innocence forever lost, a young and carefree Lawrence Crowley journeyed across Europe and Africa in pursuit of his passion for falconry - and a bit of fun and adventure. Money was scarce, but enthusiasm abundant. Sleeping arrangements were unused jail cells, the decks of ships, or sides of roads; the foo …

When my mother was a little girl she would sneak up to the attic where, in the far corner under the dusty window, she would open a steamer trunk that held a feather boa -- a horrid black and grey thing that to a child looked just like a real boa constrictor. With her heart beating madly she would grab the loathsome thing by one end and shake it fur …

With astonishing detail, Albert Canadien fondly recounts his boyhood years in Lishamie, a traditional Dene camp north of the Mackenzie River, and reflects on the devastating and long-lasting impact residential schooling had on him, his family and his people. Separated at a young age from his parents and forced to attend a strict Catholic boarding s …

About thirty kilometres south of Vancouver, just over the Alex Fraser Bridge and bordering Surrey and Ladner, lies North Delta, a suburb replete with strip malls, single detached family homes, and every-half-hour bus service. It was a sleepy suburb, one considered the boonies, until 1986, when as part of the Expo city-wide upgrades, the Alex Fraser …

Divided into two parts, Robin Blaser consists of two essays by people who knew Blaser intimately, as a life-long friend, a mentor, and intellectual influence. In part one, award-winning author Stan Persky offers a cohesive guide to reading Robin Blaser's poetry and the ways in which Blaser's work was "an attempted rescue or defense of poetry". In p …