Who’s Who
Alyssa Hall
A is for Alyssa
What if the past refused to stay behind? Alyssa Hall returns to her recurring investigator in You Can Never Go Back (FriesenPress $17.99), a mystery that follows Joe Parrott as he grapples with the aftermath of a case that continues to unsettle both him and those around him. Based in Langley, BC, Hall has built a steady body of work earning multiple Literary Titan and Readers’ Choice awards. In this latest novel, she weaves psychological tension with shifting relationships, as characters confront trauma, change and the possibility that revisiting the past may come at a cost. 9781038357977
Louise Bradford
B is for Bradford
Sage and the Snowshoe Express (Kids Can Press $21.99) follows a young girl who joins her father on a dogsled mail run between remote communities, only to face wolves, harsh weather and an approaching storm. Written by Louise Bradford and illustrated by Maya McKibbin, the picture book is intended for readers ages 4–8. A member of Batchewana First Nation, Louise Bradford was born and raised in Baawaating and now lives in Vancouver. Along with writing children’s books, she works as a speechwriter for the Government of Canada and her stories have also been produced by CBC Radio and CBC Television. Inspired by winter travel and northern landscapes, Sage and the Snowshoe Express celebrates courage, family and community while introducing young readers to an adventure rooted in Indigenous experiences and traditions. 9781525312960
Calvin White
C is for Calvin
What does it mean to exist, fully and attentively, in a fragile and shifting world? Calvin White’s Existence In All Its Uncoverable Beauty (Now or Never Publishing $19.95) continues his exploration of human experience through poetry that engages with nature, consciousness and the complexities of being. A Salmon Arm–based writer with more than 130 essays published in major Canadian newspapers, White brings a journalistic sensitivity to observation alongside a poetic lens shaped by earlier collections such as Facing the Sweating Horse (Now or Never Publishing, 2022). In this latest work, he reflects on both the natural world and inner life, inviting readers to consider the interplay between perception, identity and connection. 9781989689981
John D’Eathe
D is for D’Eathe
The third novel of West Vancouver’s John D’Eathe, Broadway Corridor: The Great Social Divide (Adagio Media $21.99), is set in the not‑so‑distant future of Vancouver’s Broadway Corridor, which has become a symbol of technological progress and a stage for deep social division. High‑speed rail and lavish glass towers dominate the skyline—but behind the gleaming façades lies an unseen world of financial inequality, clandestine medical services and rising unrest. Maddie, a brilliant but conflicted surgeon, is drawn into the Corridor’s underground “Medical Police” when she discovers an illegal private clinic run by wealthy elites. Torn between duty and conscience, she forms a bond with Ivern, the principled, justice‑driven police chief tasked with restoring order. As protest simmers into violent resistance, Maddie must choose: maintain her hidden life or stand against the oppressive systems she once served. The book explores themes of gentrification, urban planning, healthcare access and the human costs behind financial ambition. 9780991993079
Eliza Gordon
E is for Eliza
Love doesn’t arrive neatly—it crashes in when everything else falls apart. Writing as Eliza Gordon, Jennifer Sommersby returns with Wish Upon a Rosie (SGA Books $23.99), a novel that follows a woman rebuilding her life while helping others face loss, only to confront the secrets she’s been avoiding herself. A bestselling author with more than a dozen titles across genres, Sommersby has seen her work top charts on major platforms including a #1 debut for this release in Amazon’s Hot New Releases. Alongside her fiction, she works as an editor and mentor to writers through her publishing ventures in British Columbia, bringing an insider’s understanding of storytelling to a book that explores grief, trust and the difficult act of choosing oneself. 9781989908082
Julie Flett
F is for Flett
Following on from her first book in the We Do Too! Series, We All Play (Kids Greystone, 2021), which landed on Best Children’s Book of the Year in newspapers such as New York Times, The Washington Post and The Globe & Mail, Cree-Métis author and illustrator, Julie Flett has released Book 2 in the series, We All Love (Kids Greystone $23.95), for kids up to age 7. In this poetic story with Cree words, Flett celebrates the ways people and other creatures show love. There are little ducklings, foxes, otters, bears, turtles and more, reflecting the interconnectedness of the natural world. 9781778403279
Carole Gerson
G is for Gerson
In Literary Life After Death (Concordia U. Press $34.95), SFU professor emerita, Carole Gerson considers the ways in which Canadian writers have been commemorated. She looks at the serious and official, as well as the commercial and tourist kitsch, and also the literary forms of commemoration—where writers commemorate past writers. Coins, stamps, trinkets and the public art of statues, or named streets, parks and writers’ houses/history museums are all discussed. Includes E. Pauline Johnson’s grave marker in Stanley Park, Historic Joy Kogawa House, the house museum and statues of Emily Carr, and awards like the George Woodcock Lifetime Achievement Award that is administered by BC BookWorld and VPL staff. 9781988111667
Hayden Stone
H is for Hayden
Victoria-based author Hayden Stone writes LGBTQ romantic comedies inspired by his experiences living in both Canada and the UK. A trans queer writer, Stone is known for feel-good romances including An Unexpected Kind of Love (self-published, 2021) and Handle with Care (self-published, 2025). In How to Love a Prince (self-published $24.99), Danish Prince Theodor and exiled Greek Prince Stefanos collide in a London nightclub and quickly become tabloid headlines as scandal, secret encounters and royal expectations complicate their growing relationship. Blending humour, romance and royal drama, How to Love a Prince is a light-hearted queer romcom set between Britain and Greece. 9781069490179
Roy Innes
I is for Innes
Crime returns to Vancouver’s waterfront in The False Creek Murder: An Inspector Coswell Mystery (NeWest $23.95), the fifth instalment in Roy Innes’s long-running series. In The False Creek Murder, a routine drug bust ends in tragedy when a young constable is killed, pushing Sergeant Janet Bostock into leadership of the narcotics squad. Reunited with RCMP homicide division head Inspector Mark Coswell, the pair must unravel three seemingly unrelated murders. As Coswell navigates shifting alliances and mounting pressure, Innes once again explores the human dimensions of crime through characters praised by Louise Penny as “alive, likable, and flawed.” Now based on Gabriola Island, BC, he balances city life and the outdoors, drawing on his varied interests—from classical music to hunting—to shape the texture and setting of his fiction. 9781774391389
Janet Nicol
J is for Janet
Janet Nicol is an author and educator whose work focuses on history and social justice and she is the author of On the Curve: The Life and Art of Sybil Andrews (Caitlin Press, 2019) as well as more than 400 articles published in magazines and journals. Her novel A Cause To Fight For (Heritage House $16.95) is set in World War I era British Columbia and follows fifteen-year-old Jess Goldie as she joins her sister in the women’s suffrage campaign in Vancouver’s Mount Pleasant neighbourhood during the 1916 provincial referendum on women’s franchise while navigating family pressures, labour conditions in a steam laundry and differing views on women’s political rights among friends and community members as the suffrage movement and the Great War reshape her world. 9781772035988
Marty Kramer. Photo by Jason Payne.
K is for Kramer
He has photos with his arm around Ringo Starr (of The Beatles fame) and holding boots given to him by John Entwistle (bass player for The Who). They are just two of the many famous rock & roll musicians from the 1960s into the 21st century that Richmond-based Marty Kramer worked for as a tour manager and “fixer.” Now 78, Kramer shares his stories in his memoir Road Boss (Mosaic $24.95) written with David Wolinsky. This backstage glimpse into music history includes Frank Sinatra, Roy Orbison, Tina Turna, Neil Young and Kramer’s good buddies, Burton Cummings and Randy Bachman (The Guess Who). 9781771618083
Linda Brierly
L is for Linda
“I not only lost track of where I was, but I lost track of time. I don’t remember being afraid or worried.” A sense of curiosity and trust runs through Linda Brierly’s Edge of the Ledge: A Memoir of Adventures Lived and Lessons Learned (Friesen $25.99), a reflective account of a life shaped by travel, faith and cross-cultural experience. A nurse and longtime globetrotter, Brierly recounts journeys alongside her husband Bill, from remote living in British Columbia to community development work in Guatemala, where they co-founded a non-profit supporting the Pokomchi people. Blending personal narrative with spiritual reflection, Edge of the Ledge explores risk, resilience and the search for purpose across cultures and landscapes. 9781038340641
Susan Musgrave. Photo: Bertrand Lemeunier.
M is for Musgrave
Gathering selected works from Susan Musgrave’s last four books, Hunger: The Poetry of Susan Musgrave (Wilfrid Laurier Univ. Press $23.99) features poems written since the death of her husband, the award-winning memoirist Stephen Reid. Includes an after-essay by Musgrave about the breadth of her literary career. With all her barebones honesty and wit, Musgrave reflects on love, rebellion and aging. Author of more than 35 books, Musgrave has collected many honours and awards including the 2023 George Woodcock Lifetime Achievement Award for an outstanding literary career in BC. Her publisher says “this selected volume is a tribute to Musgrave’s long career and literary wisdom.” 9781771126953
Carolyn Nakagawa
N is for Nakagawa
Fourth-generation Anglo-Japanese Canadian writer Carolyn Nakagawa has written books, museum exhibits, poetry and plays exploring Japanese Canadian history and culture. A graduate of UBC in English Literature and Asian Canadian and Asian Migration Studies, Nakagawa previously worked at the Nikkei National Museum & Cultural Centre, where she introduced thousands of students to Japanese Canadian history through educational tours. In Asahi: Japanese-Canadian Baseball Heroes (Heritage House Publishing $22.95), illustrated by Erica Isomura, Nakagawa traces the history of the Vancouver Asahi baseball team from its founding in 1914 through its rise as a championship-winning team and cultural symbol for Japanese Canadians. The book examines racism, internment during the Second World War and the lasting legacy of the Asahi spirit through contemporary youth baseball programs inspired by the team. 9781772035926
Cathalynn Labonté-Smith
O is for Outsider
As an atheist teenager growing up in a Mormon community, Cathalynn Labonté-Smith was an outsider. Then she fell in love with a Mormon boy. What’s a lovelorn girl to do but join the Mormon church, a decision Labonté-Smith recounts in I’m Not a Mormon (Anymore): An Outsider’s Journey in Loving & Leaving the Church (Caitlin $26). She draws from the journals of her youth and includes conversations and interviews with former schoolmates, including Mormons, ex-Mormons and non-Mormons—some of whom were bullied. Labonté-Smith, who now lives in Gibsons, also explores why she ultimately left Mormonism. 9781773861814
Phil Nealy
P is for Phil
“The biggest change in my life came in June of 1988 when a dive into a swimming pool crushed my spinal chord and paralyzed me in all four limbs,” writes Phil Nealy in I Won’t Stand for This! Embracing my Disability to Empower Others (Granville Island Pub. $34.95). Previously, Nealy led a fast life, “working hard, partying hard and making some bad decisions.” But the accident didn’t defeat Nealy, rather it made him “a better man” he says. Nealy went on to have an active, independent lifestyle (including snorkelling in the Caribbean) and productive employment as a career counsellor. 9781989467855
Christine Quintana
Q is for Quintana
Set in a Mexican resort, the lives of Sarah, a cynical Canadian wedding guest, and Adriana, a perfectionist hotel floor manager, intersect in unexpected ways in Christine Quintana’s latest play, Espejos: Clean (Playwrights Canada Press $19.99). Sarah’s pessimism and Adriana’s quest for order mask deeper anxieties, which come to light as their parallel realities collide. Through poignant and often humorous monologues, the bilingual play delves into themes of female strength, solidarity, and the struggles each woman faces in navigating her world. Speaking directly to the audience, their stories reveal both contrasts and commonalities, magnifying their shared pain and resilience. The play was adapted and translated into Spanish by Paula Zelaya-Cervantes. 9780369104588
Harley Rothstein
R is for Rothstein
Author, historian and retired educator, Harley Rothstein has studied alternative education for half a century. His title, Alternative Schools in British Columbia 1960-1975: A Social and Cultural History (FriesenPress $30.99) tells of BC’s burgeoning alternative school movement by profiling ten schools—from downtown Vancouver to remote communities. Challenging then-dominant educational approaches, these schools went about it in different ways. A few flourished while others struggled, but collectively they helped reshape mainstream education. Rothstein examines the emergence of alternative schools with insights from more than 350 interviews he conducted with students, parents and teachers. Includes images from news articles of the day and traces the movement’s origins back to the late 18th century. 9781039135574
Michael Schauch
S is for Schauch
Award-winning author, alpinist and Buddhist practitioner Michael Schauch explores the connections between nature, spirituality and human experience in his writing. His first book, A Story of Karma: Finding Love and Truth in the Lost Valley of the Himalaya (Rocky Moutain Books, 2020), earned praise from writers and reviewers including Wade Davis and Kirkus Reviews. A longtime mentor to Tibetan Buddhist youth in Nepal and a member of the Explorers Club, Schauch lives with his wife in Squamish, BC. In Anattā: Heart of Wisdom (Hohm Press $21.95), he combines contemplative essays and poetry to examine the Buddhist concept of non-self, drawing on experiences in the Himalaya and the natural world to explore compassion, conflict, belonging and the stories that connect us across time and place. 9781963433173.
Taryn Hubbard
T is for Taryn
Following on from her debut poetry collection Desire Path (Talon, 2022) about life in the suburbs from girlhood to motherhood, and her novel The Very Good Best Friend (Now or Never, 2025), Taryn Hubbard’s second poetry collection, Beautiful Unknown Future (Talon $19.95) examines parenting in times of uncertainty. Written while Hubbard’s children were young, the new poems describe messy feelings about motherhood and care, the climate crisis, family ghosts and office dynamics. Hubbard layers domestic life chaos with corporate world detachment to examine the joys and complexities of these competing spaces while looking to a future centred around tenderness, resilience and love. 9781772016482
Udayana Lugo
U is for Udayana
Richmond-based illustrator, Udayana Lugo is self-taught. She worked as a designer (jewelry, auto parts, furniture and interiors) and then discovered children’s books, which became her passion. Previous books Lugo has illustrated with Orca Book Publishers include Jungle Cat (2023), Pink is for Everybody (2023), When You Meet a Dragon (2024) and No Huddles for Heloise (2025). Lugo has now illustrated Gotcha Day (Orca, 2026) for ages 3 to 5 by Deborah Kerbel, the story of a stray dog on its path to being adopted into its “fur-ever home.” Not knowing its birthday, the family celebrates “Gotcha Day,” which is when a pet is adopted. 9781459839663
Veronique Darwin. Photo: credit: Antoine Marcheterre.
V is for Veronique
Veronique Darwin makes her debut with Mom Camp (Assembly Press $23.95), a collection of interconnected fiction that philosophically explores modern female archetypes and divided selves. Framed through parallel narratives and a novella, Mom Camp follows women of different ages negotiating the roles they inhabit—sister, friend, server, lover and the tension between who they have been and who they are becoming. A runner-up for the 2024 Austin Clarke Prize in Literary Excellence, Darwin lives in Rossland, BC, where she writes, teaches and make theatre. 9781998336319
Wendy Proverbs
W is for Wendy
Letti in Progress (Wandering Fox $14.95) illustrated by Alyssa Koski, follows eleven-year-old Letti, an adopted Indigenous girl who begins to question her identity after a racist incident at school leads her to search for information about her birth family and cultural roots. With the support of her adoptive parents and school counsellor, she travels north to Kaska Dena territory, where she begins to reconnect with her ancestry and understand her place within both her past and present. Wendy Proverbs is an award-winning Indigenous author of Kaska Dena descent whose writing focuses on identity, adoption and Indigenous history and holds degrees in anthropology from the University of Victoria while also working as a community liaison supporting Indigenous education and cultural connection. 9781772035940
Mary Fox
X is for Fox
Renowned potter Mary Fox shares her knowledge of glazing in Developing Glazes: Low-Fire Reduction and Oxidation (Harbour Publishing $44.95), a guide that encourages ceramic artists to experiment with confidence. Rather than relying on ready-made glazes, Fox invites potters to explore the use of minerals and clay slips, offering step-by-step instructions and techniques for low-temperature firing. All royalties are donated to the endowment fund for the Legacy Project, which supports the careers of emerging potters through apprenticeships, residencies, studio space and a library of instructional videos. A self-taught exploratory potter, Fox moved with her family to British Columbia in 1966. She has worked exclusively as an artist since then, developing an international reputation for her sculptural ceramic vessels. In Developing Glazes, she extends this mentorship to readers, blending her creative philosophy with practical techniques to help others discover joy and freedom in the glazing process. 9781998526253
Monica Yuzak
Y is for Yuzak
Her first love, travel, carried Monica Yuzak far beyond her childhood in a small northern Saskatchewan town and into a life shaped by movement, medicine and motherhood. Yuzak traces her journey from newly minted doctor and young mother to a woman living and working across Papua New Guinea, the Northwest Territories and New Zealand, always chasing experience and perspective in Never Still (Tellwell $19.99). When her daughter became a teenager, Yuzak kept a promise to settle in Vancouver, discovering that restlessness can evolve into a deeper way of seeing—one rooted as much in attention as in geography. Part memoir, part reflection on belonging, Never Still captures a life defined by curiosity, courage and continual motion. 9781779620644
Zoe Dickinson
Z is for Zoe
Poet, Zoe Dickinson lives in Victoria where she manages Russell Books and is the Artistic Director emerita of the Planet Earth Poetry Reading Series. This lived experience is reflected in her debut full-length poetry book, Staff Picks for Invertebrates (Guernica $22.95). Dickinson’s nature imagery and bookstore tales creates a world where the divisions between bookstores, books, staff and sentient beings falls away to create, as her publisher blurbs, “the same family” that dwells “in the same fragile, radiant world.” This love letter to bookstores and the Earth mingles humour and compassion. 9781778490286
