Dance Me to the End
A profoundly honest and intensely personal story of a woman who cares for her husband after the devastating terminal diagnosis of ALS.
Marty, age 57, was given a preliminary diagnosis of ALS by his family doctor. Seven weeks later, the diagnosis was confirmed by a neurologist. Ten months and ten days later, Marty passed away.
From day one, Alison, Ma …
Let ’Em Howl
Patricia Sorbara has been a political operative for more than forty years—a mainstay in the background of both federal and provincial politics in Ontario, dedicating her career to the Liberal Party. She’s worked for and with Liberal Opposition Leaders, Premiers, Members of Parliament, Members of Provincial Parliament and more candidates than an …
The Way Home
David Neel was an infant when his father, a traditional Kwakiutl artist, returned to the ancestors, triggering a series of events that would separate David from his homeland and its rich cultural traditions for twenty-five years. When the aspiring photographer saw a mask carved by an ancestor in a Texas museum twenty-five years later, the encounter …
A World without Martha
Victoria Freeman was only four when her parents followed medical advice and sent her sister away to a distant, overcrowded institution. Martha was not yet two, but in 1960s Ontario there was little community acceptance or support for raising children with intellectual disabilities at home. In this frank and moving memoir, Victoria describes growing …
The Way Home
David Neel was an infant when his father, a Kwakwa_ka_’wakw artist, died, triggering events that would separate him from the traditions of his homeland on Vancouver Island. When the aspiring photographer saw a mask carved by an ancestor in a Texas museum twenty-five years later, the encounter inspired him to return home and follow in his father …
The Cure for Hate
How does an affluent, middle-class, private-school-attending son of a doctor end up at the Aryan Nations compound in Idaho, falling in with and then recruiting for some of the most notorious neo-Nazi groups in Canada and the United States?
The Cure for Hate paints a very human picture of a young man who craved attention, acceptance, and approval and …
Driving to Treblinka
An intimate memoir recounting a woman’s quest to solve the mystery of her Holocaust survivor father’s death.
As a child growing up in Vancouver in the 1950s and early ’60s, Diana Wichtel knew there was something different about her family. Her parents were far from forthcoming about the harrowing details of her Jewish father’s journey from P …
Mountain Man
Life was one big adventure for Hiram Cody Tegart. At times unbelievable and others just downright impressive, Mountain Man is the celebration of a legend of a man and a legendary way of life that is quickly disappearing.
Cody was born in 1950 on a ranch in BC's Columbia Valley. The bush that surrounded his family's farm was the best playground any k …
Against Death
Montaigne Medal Finalist, Eric Hoffer Awards Against Death is an anthology of creative non-fiction exploring the psychological shifts that occur when we prematurely or unexpectedly confront death.
Against Death is a natural outgrowth of the editor's experience of surviving a vertebral artery dissection and stroke and the subsequent writing of a long …
Highballer
In 1983, at nineteen, Greg Nolan was hired (reluctantly) by his older sister’s boyfriend—a treeplanting contractor based in Northern British Columbia. His crewmates didn’t know what to think of the wide-eyed kid whose mom drove him the 750 kilometres to hook up with his first job. But within a week, Nolan was hitting the thousand-trees-a-day …
Free to a Good Home
The German word ZUGUNRUHE translates as the ''stirring before moving.'' It's used to describe birds and herds of animals, like wildebeests, before the great migration. Though Jules Torti is neither German nor a wildebeest, she understands this marrow-deep anxiousness all too well; she is just someone looking for a home.
FREE TO A GOOD HOME is evide …
From Bear Rock Mountain
In this poetic, poignant memoir, Dene artist and social activist Antoine Mountain paints an unforgettable picture of his journey from residential school to art school—and his path to healing.
In 1949, Antoine Mountain was born on the land near Radelie Koe, Fort Good Hope, Northwest Territories. At the tender age of seven, he was stolen away from h …
New Ground
In the late fifties, Ann Kujundzic, her husband and artist Zeljko, and three children--with a fourth on the way--packed up their lives in post-war Edinburgh and emigrated to the Kootenays in BC, seeking adventure and opportunity. In Nelson, Ann was involved in establishing the Kootenay School of Art in 1960, a remarkable institution whose history h …
DrawBridge
How do you establish trust and meaningful connection with a sibling who suffers from schizophrenia? In an attempt to rekindle her relationship with her estranged brother Steve, Joan meets him at the Art Studios in Vancouver, where he takes part in art classes for individuals with a mental illness in a safe, supportive environment. This marks the be …
When Trains Ruled the Rockies
When Trains Ruled the Rockies is a personal history of the Banff train station from 1948 through 1962.
Drawn from Terry Gainer’s personal memories and experiences from his years living and working at the legendary Banff Railway Station, this entertaining memoir and important historical record beckons the reader into the golden age of railway trave …
Riding the Continent
Hamilton Mack Laing was an illustrious early British Columbia writer and naturalist. But few know him as how he described himself in his mid-thirties: a motorcycle-naturalist. For several years beginning in 1914, Laing used the motorcycle to access the natural world, believing it gave him a distinct advantage over other forms of transportation. Dur …
Visual Inspection
Composed over a period of profound illness, Visual Inspection is a searching reflection on poetry, power and our embodied lives. Shaped by matching elements of literary history, poetic practice, contemporary art, politics and ecology with Rader’s own experience of chronic illness and pain, Visual Inspection writes into and through what is accessi …
Breaking Boundaries
An anthology of fiction, memoir, and poetry by LGBTQ2 writers (Canada-born, immigrated or refugee). The common thread throughout is that for LGBTQ2 people, Canada is the place to be. Nominated for the 2019 GEORGE RYGA AWARD - an annual literary prize for social awareness. Authors: Teryl Berg, Kyle Chen, Wendy J. Cutler, Corrie H. Furst, Kevin Henry …
Double Melancholy
According to Didier Eribon, melancholy is where it all starts and where it also ends: the lifelong process of mourning that each homosexual experiences, and through which they construct their own identity. In this beguiling book, an introverted, anxious, ambitious, artistically gifted queer Filipino-Canadian boy finds solace, inspiration, and a "sy …
Dear Scarlet
Longlisted for Canada Reads; Finalist, City of Calgary W.O. Mitchell Book Prize
In this intimate and moving graphic memoir, Teresa Wong writes and illustrates the story of her struggle with postpartum depression in the form of a letter to her daughter Scarlet. Equal parts heartbreaking and funny, Dear Scarlet perfectly captures the quiet desperation …
This One Looks Like a Boy
Inspiring and honest, this unique memoir of gender transition and coming-of-age proves it’s never too late to find your true identity.
Since he was a small child, Lorimer Shenher knew something for certain: he was a boy. The problem was, he was growing up in a girl’s body.
In this candid and thoughtful memoir, Shenher shares the story of his gend …
Body & Soul
Body & Soul: Stories for Skeptics and Seekers is a spiritual journey through experiences that can be liberating but also awkward and sometimes even dangerous, because women are so often excluded from conversations about spirituality. Liberation comes with breaking that age-old code of silence to talk about the messiness of faith, practice, religion …
The Co-op Revolution
"We were undercapitalized, inexperienced, practiced democratic decision-making and some of us smoked dope occasionally. All elements that would make us grow as human beings and as business people. We ran a helluva show.''
In the spring of 1975, a free-spirited Jan DeGrass backpacked across Canada in search of adventure and greater meaning in life. W …
Being Chinese in Canada
After the Canadian Pacific Railway was completed in 1885—construction of the western stretch was largely built by Chinese workers—the Canadian government imposed a punitive head tax to deter Chinese citizens from coming to Canada. The exorbitant tax strongly discouraged those who had already emigrated from sending for wives and children left in …
George Garrett
“George Garrett is one of the most remarkable reporters of news that I have ever known. He has always had the ability to smell a good story and to report on it honestly and accurately.”
—Jim Pattison, Canadian business magnate
Starting from humble beginnings as a farm boy in Saskatchewan, George Garrett rose through the ranks of journalism and …
Trauma Head
Raymond Souster Award nominee. Finalist for the Fred Cogswell Award. In 2012, poet Elee Kraljii Gardiner precipitously lost feeling in, and use of, her left side. The mini-stroke passed quickly but was symptomatic of something larger: a tear in the lining of an artery known as the tunica intima. This long-poem memoir tracks the author's experiences …
He Speaks Volumes
This biography of George Bowering, first Canadian Parliamentary Poet Laureate, reveals the intimate, intellectual, and artistic life of one of Canada’s most prolific authors, offering an inside look at the people and events at the centre of the country’s literary and artistic avant-garde from the 1960s to the present.
A distinguished novelist, p …
The Codfish Dream
"You'll meet eccentric shore workers, wealthy guests who arrive by yacht and floatplane, as well as essential guides Big Jake, Lucky Petersen, Vop and Wet Lenny. . . . A deadpan narrative keeps the absurdity coming as earnest RCMP, FBI and Fisheries officers encounter the salmon-obsessed denizens of the island resort. This book is a keeper." —Wes …
Take the Torch
Take the Torch is a compelling memoir from one of BC’s most widely accomplished and animated politicians, Ian Waddell, QC. Waddell takes us on a journey through his life and career as a storefront lawyer, an NDP Member of Parliament, a Minister of Culture, a writer, a teacher, a film producer and more—delivering a smart, humorous, endearing and …
Kubrick Red
Stanley Kubrick’s film The Shining was released in 1980 and has been fascinating viewers ever since. It is a psychological thriller about a writer with writer’s block (along with his wife and their young son) who takes a job as caretaker of an isolated hotel in the Colorado mountains during the winter off-season. The boy, Danny, is gifted with …
Gently to Nagasaki
Gently to Nagasaki is a spiritual pilgrimage, an exploration both communal and intensely personal. Set in Vancouver and Toronto, the outposts of Slocan and Coaldale, the streets of Nagasaki and the high mountains of Shikoku, Japan, it is also an account of a remarkable life. As a child during WWII, Joy Kogawa was interned with her family and thousa …
A Bright and Steady Flame
In 1974, after escaping an abusive marriage, Luanne Armstrong struggled with poverty and caring for four small children. During this time, the author and Sam Moore began their friendship; they were both young single parents in crisis, and needed to change their lives. They supported each other through the child-rearing years, careers and environmen …
Beyond Forgetting
“... without a doubt the greatest poet English Canada has ever produced.”
—Dennis Lee
“A hundred years from now, one of the few Canadian poets whose work will still be read will be Al Purdy.”
—Maclean’s
Al Purdy (1918–2000), known as Canada’s unofficial poet laureate, wrote poetry that anyone could read. Having come from working-class …
Sound
A profound, beautifully written exploration of sound by a woman who lost her hearing, then regained it.
In this surprising and moving book, award-winning writer Bella Bathurst shares the extraordinary true story of how she lost her hearing and eventually regained it and what she learned from her twelve years of deafness. Diving into a wide-ranging e …
The Woo-Woo
2019 CANADA READS FINALIST
Shortlisted for the Hilary Weston Writers' Trust of Canada Prize for Nonfiction; Winner, Hubert Evans Nonfiction Prize; Longlisted for the Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour
In this jaw-dropping, darkly comedic memoir, a young woman comes of age in a dysfunctional Asian family who blame their woes on ghosts and demons when t …
Dancing in Gumboots
After the extraordinary success of GUMBOOT GIRLS comes the sequel anthology, DANCING IN GUMBOOTS. Having relocated to Comox, Jane encountered a new group of women who travelled to the Comox Valley in the 1970s. Fascinated by their stories, Lou Allison and Jane Wilde return to their dynamic partnership to bring us an anthology that shines a light on …
Mamaskatch
Growing up in the tiny village of Smith, Alberta, Darrel J. McLeod was surrounded by his Cree family’s history. In shifting and unpredictable stories, his mother, Bertha, shared narratives of their culture, their family and the cruelty that she and her sisters endured in residential school. McLeod was comforted by her presence and that of his man …
The Cowkeeper's Wish
In the 1840s, a young cowkeeper and his wife arrive in London, England, having walked from coastal Wales with their cattle. They hope to escape poverty, but instead they plunge deeper into it, and the family, ensconced in one of London’s “black holes,” remains mired there for generations. The Cowkeeper’s Wish follows the couple’s descenda …
Food Was Her Country
The follow-up to Independent Publisher Award winner, Comfort Food for Breakups: The Memoir of a Hungry Girl, reflects on the tenious relationship between a queer daughter and her terminal mother. At turns tender, dark and funny, FOOD WAS HER COUNTRY tracks a tempestuous mother-daughter relationship and the life-long culinary journey that leads them …
The Suitcase and the Jar
When a brain tumour takes the life of Becky Livingston's twenty-three-year-old daughter Rachel, her life makes an unconventional turn. Rachel, an avid traveller, had one wish: to keep exploring the world.
So, for twenty-six months Livingston travels -- untethered and alone -- to Italy, Spain, Switzerland, Australia, India, England, Ireland and Nort …
Almost Islands
Almost Islands is a powerfully introspective memoir of the author’s friendship with legendary Canadian poet Phyllis Webb – now in her nineties and long enveloped in silence – and his regular trips to see her. It is an extended meditation on literary ambition and failure, poetry and politics, choice and chance, location, colonization, and clim …
The Call of the World
Bill Graham – Canada’s minister of foreign affairs and minister of defence during the tumultuous years following 9/11 – takes us on a personal journey from his Vancouver childhood to important behind-the-scenes moments in recent global history. With candour and wit, he recounts meetings with world leaders, contextualizes important geopolitica …
Tuco and the Scattershot World
For thirty years, Brian Brett shared his office and his life with Tuco, a remarkable parrot given to asking such questions as Whaddya know?” and announcing Party time!” when guests showed up at Brett’s farm. Although Brett bought Tuco on a whim as a pet, he gradually realizes the enormous obligation he has to the bird and learns that the …
Finding Mr. Wong
Susan Crean’s memoir Finding Mr. Wong chronicles her effort to piece together the life of the man she knew as Mr. Wong, cook and housekeeper to her Irish Canadian family for two generations. Reminiscing, Crean writes, “I grew up in Mr. Wong’s kitchen …”
A Chinese Head Tax payer hired by Crean’s grandfather in 1928, Wong Dong Wong remaine …
Quarrels
Winner of the Griffin Poetry Prize. The acclaimed author of the memoir, In the Slender Margin, turns her focus back to poetry in this amazing and condensed work of prose poetry.
The poems in this collection reach for something other than truth, the marvelous. Leaves fall out of coat sleeves, Gandhi swims in Burrard Inlet. The poems are like empty co …