Thank you, donors!

Thank you, donors to the British Columbia Review
by Richard Mackie

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Happy new year! I’m pleased to report that, so far, 112 donors have responded to the annual fundraiser we kicked off in November 2023. Donations, which are still arriving, now total $10,166.93. Thank you everyone on behalf of our Board of Directors, our Advisory Board, interim editors Trevor Marc Hughes and Brett Josef Grubisic, social media manager Myshara Herbert-McMyn, and bibliographer Lee Cadwallader.

I know that it was a difficult time to contribute for some of you. If you promised to consider again after Christmas, donations may be made here at any time.

A few details. Donations ranged in size from $10 to $1,000 — thank you Glinda Sutherland for that most magnificent gift. We also had significant donations of $600 (one), $500 (two), $250 (one), and $200 (eight). Four donors chose to make monthly payments for the upcoming year. Two donors transferred every penny of loose change from their PayPal accounts! Five publishers donated personally in addition to buying banner ads (see the 25 sparkling ads on the right-hand sidebar, which rotate frequently if you hit refresh).

Finally, I’d like to thank my father George Mackie who, for two years before his death in August 2023 at the age of 93, donated $400 a month to The British Columbia Review. In 2023 he donated a total of $4,400. He was by far our major donor and his contribution will be missed.

Born in England in 1929, George Owen Mackie came to Canada in 1940 in a North Atlantic convoy as a war evacuee. He spent the war years with his Mackie and Marle uncles, aunts, and cousins at their school, the Vernon Preparatory School, in the Coldstream Valley. He returned to England for high school, national service, and university. He met my mother Gillian Vallance Faulkner of Somerville College in a zoology class at the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford. My parents came to Canada in 1955 when George got a job in the Zoology Department at the University of Alberta. In 1968 he joined the Biology Department at the University of Victoria, a natural move for an expert in marine invertebrate neurophysiology. My parents brought us up — three boys and two girls — on Shoal Bay (Tsehum Harbour) in North Saanich. My parents were proud and supportive of my career as an editor at BC Studies (2011-2016), The Ormsby Review (2016-2022), and The British Columbia Review (2022-).

Running the British Columbia Review is not cheap. We pay our reviewers $100 per review — unless they choose to donate that amount back to the review. In 2022 we paid $24,000 to our reviewers in honoraria, and in 2023 we surpassed that figure. A special thanks to all our book reviewers whose expertise and passion it’s a privilege to tap.

We couldn’t keep up this work of promoting BC authors, reviewers, publishers, advertisers, booksellers, and readers without your donations.

Please subscribe here to The British Columbia Review. About twice a week — with every third post — you will receive a free email notification of the latest posts from The British Columbia Review.

Thank you again, generous donors, on behalf of our two boards:

Ormsby Literary Society board: Byron Sheardown (president), Eldon Yellowhorn (treasurer), Trevor Marc Hughes (secretary), Joanne Arnott, Daniel Francis, John O’Brian, Renee Sarojini Saklikar, and LiLynn Wan.

Advisory Board of The British Columbia Review: Jean Barman, Wade Davis, Robin Fisher, Barry Gough, Hugh Johnston, Kathy Mezei, Patricia Roy, Maria Tippett, and Graeme Wynn.

Here again is the link for donations.

Thank you,
Richard Somerset Mackie

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The British Columbia Review

Editor and Publisher: Richard Mackie (on leave, 2023-24)
Non-fiction Editor, 2023-24: Trevor Marc Hughes
Fiction and Poetry Editor, 2023-24: Brett Josef Grubisic
Social Media Manager: Myshara Herbert-McMyn
Bibliographer: Lee Cadwallader

Formerly The Ormsby Review, The British Columbia Review is an on-line book review and journal service for BC writers and readers. The Advisory Board consists of Jean Barman, Wade Davis, Robin Fisher, Barry Gough, Hugh Johnston, Kathy Mezei, Patricia Roy, Maria Tippett, and Graeme Wynn. Provincial Government Patron (since September 2018): Creative BC. Honorary Patron: Yosef Wosk. Scholarly Patron: SFU Graduate Liberal Studies. The British Columbia Review was founded in 2016 by Richard Mackie and Alan Twigg.

“Only connect.” – E.M. Forster