“Liz Hammond-Kaarremaa is a co-author, along with many Coast Salish people who added illustrations, writing, and oral history to do with the Coast Salish woolly dog Mutton. The Teachings of Mutton: A Coast Salish Woolly Dog is the result, and it has been a very successful book, selling well for weeks at BC bookstores.” Trevor Marc Hughes presents an interview segment with author Liz Hammond-Kaarremaa, filmed on Protection Island.
“With a new book scheduled to be released in the fall, author and curator emeritus at the Royal British Columbia Museum Robert D. Turner is continuing his chronicling of British Columbia’s history of rail and steam. The Steamer SS Moyie: The Biography of the Sweetheart of Kootenay Lake, A Continuing Story Beginning in 1898 is being assembled by Harbour Publishing…” Trevor Marc Hughes presents an interview segment with historian Robert D. Turner.
“The title of the book, Reconciling, demonstrates the ongoing process of reconciliation and meaning of Larry’s journey through life. The book opens with a description by co-author Scott Steedman of Larry Grant, ‘…a short, weathered man of eighty-five years… an Elder of both the Vancouver Chinese community and the Musqueam Indian Band.’ Steedman asked Larry if he was interested in writing his life story one day. It took eight years, starting in 2017.” Kenneth Favrholdt reviews Reconciling: A Lifelong Struggle to Belong, by Larry Grant, in conversation with Scott Steedman (Toronto: ECW Press, 2025) $26.95 / 9781770417984
“Nancy J. Turner has spent a career working with Indigenous teachers who have shared their traditional knowledge with her, but as she tells The British Columbia Review, not all is shared, some is private, but one thing is clear: that she is grateful for the teachings.” Trevor Marc Hughes presents an interview segment with ethnobotanist and author Nancy J. Turner.
“Wiley Wei-Chiun Ho’s new memoir… is The Astronaut Children of Dunbar Street. She tells The British Columbia Review her book may have, in its early days, turned out to be a mystery, travel writing, or fiction, before she settled on memoir.” Trevor Marc Hughes presents an interview segment featuring North Vancouver writer Wiley Wei-Chiun Ho.
“First-hand accounts are a wonderful way to experience history. These women were able to answer all sorts of questions that many of the interviewers and magazines from back in the day would never have thought to ask them, allowing Porter the privilege of discovering their stories. Though their stories always were valid, having them recorded as part of the larger narrative is an even more validating experience.” Myshara McMyn reviews Girl Gangs, Zines and Powerslides, by Natalie Porter (Toronto: ECW Press, 2025) $26.95 / 9781770417922
“’The quest for a new child-centred and humanistic education in Canada was born in British Columbia in the first years of the 1960s, significantly earlier than in the rest of the country,” Dr. Rothstein writes. “Alternative schools in BC were also more prolific and varied than in any other province.’” Patrick A. Dunae reviews Alternative Schools in British Columbia 1960-1975: A Social and Cultural History, by Harley Rothstein (Victoria: Friesen Press, 2024) $30.99 / 9781039135574
“Our interviewees have been many and varied: from seasoned poet George Bowering to newcomer, Giller Prize-shortlisted author, Eddy Boudel Tan, from bestselling history author Nancy Marguerite Anderson, to acclaimed memoirist Marion McKinnon Crook. It has been a privilege for me to shake the hands of all of the interviewees of 2025, sometimes in their own homes and workspaces, and ask them about their creative process.” Interview segment producer Trevor Marc Hughes looks back on a year of The British Columbia Review Interview Series.
“The strength of Martin’s book, and its value as an analysis of the Canadian experience in Afghanistan, is in the way that he personifies the political experience of the Afghan war through his anecdotes. There is a point where he elucidates the three circles of power in Afghanistan – the first being the local power brokers and warlords, the second being the government of the democratic regime, and the third being the international forces.” Matthew Downey reviews Unwinnable Peace: Untold Stories of Canada’s Mission in Afghanistan, by Tim Martin (New Westminster: Tidewater Press, 2024) $24.95 / 9781990160349
In a free-wheeling interview, Cathalynn Labonté-Smith and PP Wong touch on an array of topics, from book-banning and British comedies to inspiration and the meaning of “elephant-anus” in the fictitious nation of Mahana.
“After Andrew gestured to the foyer table where I placed my helmet, I shook his hand and he offered me a glass of water in his kitchen. I fumbled for my questions as I took the glass from him with thanks. At seventy, he still had the kind, calm, and wise visage I knew from his ‘About the Author’ photos. The lines on his face marked a man who had travelled the outdoors, exposed to the elements, and spent a lot of time in the sun.” Non-fiction editor Trevor Marc Hughes contributes a chapter to his motorcycling travelogue about meeting dedicated kayaker and writer, the late Andrew Scott, and their time talking about modes of travel that connect.
“I don’t think of myself as an author,” begins acclaimed curator Catherine Clement, “I think of myself as a street historian or community historian first, and the only reason I create books is to solidify those memories, to lock them in for future generations to find.” Trevor Marc Hughes presents an interview segment featuring Vancouver curator and historian Catherine Clement.
“Although he isn’t related to George Vancouver’s former botanist and surgeon aboard the HMS Discovery, Archibald Menzies experienced extraordinary times, times that Graeme Menzies felt had to be shared. The result was the book Bones: The Life and Adventures of Doctor Archibald Menzies, in which Graeme Menzies tells of how the doctor used reason and his senses, as well as his familiarity of the Scottish clan system, to understand what he found as the lone scientist on board that British vessel of exploration.” Trevor Marc Hughes presents an interview segment featuring Vancouver author and historian Graeme Menzies.
“Henry Yu is a history professor at The University of British Columbia. He tells The British Columbia Review about how his path to becoming an historian was shaped by the exclusion and challenges of his Chinese Canadian ancestors in BC.” Trevor Marc Hughes presents an interview segment with historian and UBC professor Henry Yu
“Many might think of Rodger Touchie as the publisher at Heritage House based in Victoria, but he is also a published history writer. Some of his titles include Bear Child: The Life and Times of Jerry Potts, Edward S. Curtis: Above the Medicine Line, and Vancouver Island: Portrait of a Past…” Trevor Marc Hughes presents an interview segment with publisher, and writer of BC history titles, Rodger Touchie.
“In this interview segment, Vanessa Winn tells The British Columbia Review about how her research into British Columbia’s historical characters, such as Catherine Work and Charles Wentworth Wallace, and more famed figures in the fur trade such as William Fraser Tolmie, makes vibrant and energizes aspects of Victoria’s early colonial and settler history.” Trevor Marc Hughes presents an interview with Victoria author Vanessa Winn
How did Victoria-based writer, artist, and art historian Robert Amos become the person responsible for chronicling one of Western Canada’s greatest artists? In this candid interview, Robert Amos tells The British Columbia Review the story of his meeting Hughes before his death in 2007 and getting to know the man behind the extraordinary paintings. Interview segment producer Trevor Marc Hughes presents “Becoming the biographer of E. J. Hughes.”
In their wide-ranging interview Lorna Crozier and Laurence Hutchman discuss the grasslands of southwest Saskatchewan, Carl Jung, the poet’s early inspirations (and later ones), Adrienne Rich, a feminist “vow to to live differently,” and Sinclair Ross.
“At 60 years old, the Comox Valley Writers Society (CVWS) might just be the oldest writing society in the province. To celebrate the milestone, Terrance James decided to document this niche history…before memory of the early days was lost forever.” Dave Flawse interviews author Terrance James, author of History of the Comox Valley Writers Society: 60th Anniversary 1964-2024
Over the course of 18 questions, recent Writers’ Trust fiction prize winner Sheung-King discusses influences, ideal literary dinner companions, Sakamoto Ryūichi, autofiction, McDonald’s, Hong Kong, and QR codes.
—Interview by Jessica Poon.