First published April 30, 2019. The Co-op Revolution: Vancouver’s Search For Food Alternatives by Jan DeGrass, with a foreword by Rick Scott Halfmoon Bay: Caitlin Press, 2019 $24.95 / 9781987915952 Grocery Story: The Promise of Food Co-ops in the Age of Grocery Giants by Jon Steinman Gabriola: New Society Publishers, 2019 $19.99 / 9780865719071…
Read more #541 Co-opting the food chain
First published April 29, 2019 Wayson Choy (1939-2019) An obituary by Alan Twigg * At age 80, Wayson Choy died at home on April 28, 2019. Wayson Choy was born on April 20, 1939 in Vancouver as the only son of two working parents. His mother was a meat-cutter and sausage stuffer; he was told…
Read more #540 Wayson Choy (1939-2019)
Ryga Award acceptance speech by Rod Mickleburgh * The notion that workers should collectivize to support one another and prevent exploitation is increasingly viewed as arcane in the Age of Tweets. The Winnipeg General Strike happened 100 years—and few Canadians can tell you what it was, and what happened. Society barely bats an eye as…
Read more #539 Ryga Award acceptance
The Canadian Short Story by John Metcalf Windsor, Ontario: Biblioasis, 2018 $28.95 / 9781771960847 * Best Canadian Stories 2018 by Russell Smith (editor) Windsor, Ontario: Biblioasis, 2018 $19.95 / 9781771962490 Both books reviewed by Paul Headrick First published April 28, 2019 * …
Read more #538 Two short story critics
Homeless Memorial: Poems from the Streets of Vernon by John La Greca Victoria: Ekstasis Editions, 2018 $23.95 / 9781771712750 Reviewed by Phyllis Reeve First published April 26, 2019 * John La Greca would have been still in high school but already troubled and sensing his outsider status, at the time I spent a summer in…
Read more #537 From Tim Hortons to Swan Lake
The Birds of Vancouver Island’s West Coast by Adrian Dorst Vancouver: UBC Press, 2018 $39.95 / 9780774890106 Reviewed by Caroline Fox First published April 24, 2019 * With a cover adorned by a stunning Short-tailed Albatross — a deep-sea wanderer and visitor to British Columbia’s rich coastal waters — The Birds of Vancouver Island’s West…
Read more #536 A bird man named Adrian
Rain Shadow by Nicholas Bradley Edmonton: University of Alberta Press, 2018 $19.95 / 9781772123708 Reviewed by Christopher Levenson First published April 24, 2019 * What should a poet know? Far more than with ornithology or the myths of ancient Greece, poets need to be obsessed with, and knowledgeable about, language itself, in all its multiplicities,…
Read more #535 What a poet should know
Rocks, Ridges, and Rivers: Geological Wonders of Banff, Yoho, and Jasper National Parks. A Roadside Tour Guide by Dale Leckie Calgary: Broken Poplars Press, 2017 Distributed by Sandhill Book Marketing, Kelowna $27.95 / 9780995908208 Reviewed by Syd Cannings * Dale Leckie’s Rocks, Ridges, and Rivers was a 2018 finalist in the High Plains Book Awards…
Read more #534 Geological splendours of Yoho
From the Heart of it All: Ten Years of Writing from Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside by Heidi Greco (editor) Vancouver: Otter Press, 2018 $18.00 / 9780994821942 Reviewed by Yvonne Blomer First published April 20, 2019 * For ten years (2008-2018), the Thursdays Writing Collective was an important part of Vancouver’s literary scene. At its goodbye party…
Read more #533 Downtown Eastside Scribes
Blamed and Broken: The Mounties and the Death of Robert Dziekanski by Curt Petrovich Toronto: Dundurn, 2019 $20.99 / 9781459742932 Reviewed by Bonnie Reilly Schmidt First published April 19, 2019 * On October 14, 2007, Robert Dziekanski arrived in Vancouver on a flight from Poland to begin a new life in Canada. In Blamed and…
Read more #532 The death of Robert Dziekanski
J. Michael Yates (1938-2019) An obituary by Alan Twigg * Creator and manager of Sono Nis Press from 1966 to 1976, J. Michael Yates has died in Vancouver General Hospital on April 17, 2019 from a variety of ailments. He was one of the most influential literary figures in British Columbia during the 1970s when…
Read more #531 J. Michael Yates (1938-2019)
MEMOIR: My Private Italy by Grahame Ware * We are delighted to present “My Private Italy,” the second instalment of Grahame Ware’s social history memoir, a larger project with the working title In the Moonshadows of My iMac. The first instalment, “My Private Chinatown,” was published in the Ormsby Review #501 (March 08th, 2019). In “My Private…
Read more #530 My private Italy
Chinatown Ghosts: The Poems and Photographs of Jim Wong-Chu by Jim Wong-Chu Vancouver: Arsenal Pulp Press, 2018 $19.95 / 9781551527482 Reviewed by LiLynn Wan First published April 13, 2019 * When Chinatown Ghosts was first published in 1986, Jim Wong-Chu broke a silence in Canadian literature. This slim volume of poetry was one of the…
Read more #529 Poems & portraits of Chinatown
Quarrels by Eve Joseph Vancouver: Anvil Press, 2018 $18.00 / 9781772141191 Reviewed by Paul Falardeau First published April 11, 2019 * On April 9, 2019, Victoria poet Eve Joseph, for her book Quarrels, was announced as one of three Canadian finalists for the handsomely-endowed 2018 Griffin Poetry Prize, along with Ontario poets Sarah Tolmie and…
Read more #528 Fleeting moments that matter
Graffiti, Canadian Style by Ernest Hekkanen First published in The Ormsby Review, April 9, 2019 * It was twenty years ago, in 1999, that Ernest Hekkanen wrote this diatribe about why Vancouver public art is so godawful, why Canada’s granting agencies can be foolish or corrupt, and why he rejected a contract from a respected…
Read more #527 Canadian graffiti
Black Star by Maureen Medved Vancouver: Anvil Press, 2018 $20.00 / 9781772141122 Reviewed by Theo Dombrowski First published Apr. 7, 2019 * Encountering the barbed and dazzling shards that make up the word world of Black Star, a reader might feel on uneven ground. And for good reason. This is a novel that jolts, jars,…
Read more #526 Lies, tenure, and dark energy
All the Oceans: Designing by the Seat of My Pants by Ron Holland, with a foreword by Rupert Murdoch Vancouver: Ron Holland Design, 2018 $45.00 / 9781775096801 Reviewed by Marianne Scott First published Apr. 6, 2019 * Eminent yacht designer Ron Holland, born in Auckland, New Zealand, in 1947, moved to San Francisco in 1969,…
Read more #525 Ron Holland makes a splash
James Cook: The Voyages by William Frame with Laura Walker Montreal & Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2018 $49.95 / 9780773552869 Reviewed by Robin Fisher First published April 5, 2019 * Every time I receive a new “cook book” to review I open it up in the hope that the author(s) will have something new to…
Read more #524 Just another Cook book?
Inner Ranges: An Anthology of Mountain Thoughts and Mountain People by Geoff Powter, with a foreword by Chris Bonnington Victoria: Rocky Mountain Books, 2018 $22.00 / 9781771602877 Reviewed by Stephen Slemon First published April 4, 2019 * Canadian mountaineering writing would have struggled to find its public voice, were it not for Geoff Powter. For…
Read more #523 Powter’s alpine passages
Upend by Kevin Spenst Victoria: Frog Hollow Press, 2018 $15.00 / 9781926948652 Reviewed by David Stouck First published April 1, 2019 * In Vancouver’s poetry scene Kevin Spenst was probably first noted for his inventive forms of self-advertising. To promote an early chapbook titled Fast Fictions (2007) he printed and distributed a map of where…
Read more #522 Nurse log and a Great Blue Heron