Thank you, donors!
2024 donors to the British Columbia Review, a thank you from Richard Mackie.
Author: Richard Mackie
BC Review Annual Fundraiser, 2024
A note from Richard Mackie, publisher, The British Columbia Review. * Dear friends, supporters, and readers, On behalf of the Board of Directors and Advisory Board of The British Columbia Review, I must mention our pressing need for continuing financial support from our reading community. We make this request for private donations annually to keep the…
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Thank you, donors!
Happy new year! I’m pleased to report that, so far, 113 donors have responded to the annual fundraiser we kicked off in November 2023.
No. 2000 for the BC Review!
When we launched The British Columbia Review — then The Ormsby Review — in September 2016, little did we expect that seven years later we’d post our 2000th review. I’m grateful to everyone — reviewers, publishers, authors, booksellers, and readers — for making it such a success and promoting BC writers, writing, and culture. It…
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BC Review Annual Fundraiser, 2023
BC Review Annual Fundraiser A note from Richard Mackie * Dear friends, supporters, and readers of The British Columbia Review: On behalf of the Board of Directors and Advisory Board of The British Columbia Review, I must remind readers of our continuing need for financial support. This request for private donations is done annually to keep…
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1970 Calling Graduate Liberal Studies
Attention students in Graduate Liberal Studies at Simon Fraser University! * Since 2018, students in the Graduate Liberal Studies programme at Simon Fraser University have contributed numerous essays, memoirs, poems, and book reviews to The British Columbia Review. We at the BC Review are delighted to maintain a productive collaboration with the GLS community, as…
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1841 BC Review interviews update
Interview channel update by Richard Mackie * Since January 2023 Trevor Hughes, interim non-fiction editor of The British Columbia Review, has branched out as Video Segment Producer and curator of our new Interview Channel, hosted by YouTube. So far, Trevor has uploaded thirteen interviews that capture in words a broad spectrum of British Columbian authors,…
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1813 Welcome Trevor and Brett
Welcome Trevor and Brett by Richard Mackie * On behalf of the Board of the Ormsby Literary Society and our Advisory Board I’d like to welcome Trevor Marc Hughes and Brett Josef Grubisic as interim editors of The British Columbia Review for the year May 1, 2023 to May 1, 2024. The position was made possible…
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1807 A worthwhile anecdotage
Well Aged: Making the Most of Your Platinum Years by Ralph Milton Madeira Park: Douglas and McIntyre, 2021 $24.95 / 9781771623100 Reviewed by Lee Reid * “Why did I wait until age eighty before I grew up?” quips author and retired publisher of Kelowna’s Wood Lake Books Ralph Milton, now aged 89. Growing old means…
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1806 All the world’s a harbour
Workboats for the World: The Robert Allan Story by Robert G. Allan, with Peter A. Robson, and with a foreword by Peter G. Noble Madeira Park: Harbour Publishing, 2022 $99.95 / 9781550179873 Reviewed by Phyllis Reeve * The ferry George Black has plied the waters of the Yukon River between Dawson City and Alaska since…
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1805 Nêhiyawêwin: being Cree
Indigiqueerness: A Conversation About Storytelling by Joshua Whitehead, in dialogue with Angie Abdou Athabasca, Alberta: Athabasca University Press, 2023 $19.99 / 9781771993913 Reviewed by Mary Ann Moore * Joshua Whitehead doesn’t feel ashamed writing about sex he says. When he went home to “the rez,” he’d prefer helping the women in the kitchen where all…
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1804 A purrfectly useful guide
Purr: The Science of Making Your Cat Happy by Zazie Todd, with a foreword by Pam Johnson-Bennett Vancouver: Greystone Books, 2022 $32.95 / 9781771648141 Reviewed by Kirsten Bell * Mark Twain once said that ‘If man could be crossed with the cat, it would improve man, but it would deteriorate the cat’. This quote highlights…
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1802 Return of the matriarchs
Kamloopa: An Indigenous Matriarch Story by Kim Senklip Harvey with the Fire Company Vancouver: Talonbooks, 2020 $16.95 / 9781772012422 Reviewed by Amanda Wandler * This story, this ceremony is for our Indigenous Peoples, it is to give voice and illuminate the power of Indigenous womxn. It is about our unwielded power and unsuppressed Settler supremacy…
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1800 A mother’s love
Min Hayati by Rayya Liebich Toronto: Inanna Publications, 2021 $18.95 / 9781771338714 Reviewed by Harold Rhenisch * In Arabic, Rayya Liebich explains, Hayat means life, Hayati playfully means “my beloved” or “darling,” and Min Hayati means “Who is my life?” and “Who is my darling?” With these two words, we are introduced into the love and…
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1798 Under Mount Macdonald
Canadian Pacific Railway on the Revelstoke Division. Volume Six. The Connaught Tunnel — 106 Years of Service by Douglas R. Mayer Revelstoke: Revelstoke Heritage Railway Society, 2022 $40.00 / 9781999416850 Reviewed by Robert D. Turner Available from the Revelstoke Railway Museum, P.O. Box 3018, 719 Track Street West, Revelstoke, BC, V0E 2S0 (railwaymuseum.com) for $40.00…
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1797 Choosing to speak
Last Winter by Carrie Mac Toronto: Penguin Random House Canada (Random House), 2023 $24.95 / 9781039005198 Reviewed by W.H. New * Readers who finish Carrie Mac’s Last Winter and then turn to her biographical note will recognize that many of the themes of her novel arise from lived experience: a declared identity as queer and…
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1796 Rock ’n’ roll trans recall
Any Other City by Hazel Jane Plante Vancouver: Arsenal Pulp Press, 2023 $22.95 / 9781551529110 Reviewed by Brett Josef Grubisic * Whenever film critics gripe about pop music biopics, “cliché-ridden” is standard fare. Considering a pop star’s ready-made chapters — juvenile precocity, discovery, rise and fall, triumphs and tragedies, and so on — over-reliance on…
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1795 Move over, Miss Marple
Crime Wave: Women of a Certain Age. A Canada West Anthology by Elizabeth Bass, Karen L. Abrahamson, and J.E. Barnard (editors), with a foreword by Gail Bowen Vancouver: Sisters in Crime (Canada West Chapter), 2022 $24.27 / 9781777246655 Reviewed by Ginny Ratsoy * Stories are not chapters of novels. They should not be read one…
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1793 When archetypes have flesh
Poetry omnibus: Linda Rogers reviews ten new books by BC poets: * When archetypes have flesh by Linda Rogers Every Chinese Emperor/ Empress chose a note to indicate the tone of his or her time. The sound of now would seem to be rust or dislocation, the squeaking doors signified by books in this omnibus…
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1792 The 164,000-year classroom
Dig Deep: Connecting Archaeology, Oceans and Us by Nicole F. Smith, with photographs by Alexander Mackie and others Victoria: Orca Book Publishers, 2023 $21.95 / 9781459826083 Reviewed by Grant Keddie * Over my 50 years as a curator in Archaeology at the British Columbia Provincial Museum-Royal British Columbia Museum I received numerous requests from teachers…
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