Who’s Who
Natalie Appleton
A is for Appleton
Misfits searching for belonging lie at the heart of Mad Hell-Rush of Days (NeWest Press $25.95), Natalie Appleton’s historical novel set on the untamed plains of 19th-century Saskatchewan. Drawing on meticulous historical research, the novel follows two outsiders as they navigate hardship, friendship and the struggle for acceptance in a frontier community, weaving fictional lives with real historical figures. Natalie Appleton is an award-winning writer, a journalist for Prairie newspapers before turning to fiction and creative nonfiction. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times and other publications and she has won the Room Magazine Creative Non-fiction Contest and Prairie Fire’s Banff Centre Bliss Carman Poetry Contest. 9781774391440
Avis Blackbird
B is for Blackbird
The impact of colonization, enduring ties to the land and the resilience of Indigenous communities shape Lightning in Our Roots (Brick Books $24.95). In her debut poetry collection, Avis Blackbird traces a personal journey from an urban childhood disconnected from Indigenous traditions to a renewed relationship with her Secwepemc and Stóō heritage. Rooted in the landscapes of the Pacific Northwest, the lyric poems explore ancestry, healing, identity and hope while imagining a future grounded in cultural resurgence. Avis Blackbird is a Secwepemc and Stóō writer, visual artist and photographer of mixed European heritage who lives in Coast Salish territory in British Columbia. A member of the Indigenous Arts Collective of Canada, she is completing graduate studies in counselling. 9781771316798
Laurel Corona
C is for Corona
Idris Hall (1906–1996), aka Aloha Wanderwell, was a statuesque explorer and film star raised in North Vancouver, Duncan and Qualicum, who has been dubbed the first woman to travel around the world by car, which she did from 1922–25. She faced a firing squad in Russia; drove across Africa and China; briefly lived with Amazon tribes; shook hands with Mussolini and flirted with Hollywood royalty. Her husband Walter Wanderwell, a WW1 spy, the man behind the car trip adventure, was mysteriously murdered on their yacht. Others have written about Aloha and now Victoria-based Laurel Corona has released her take on the adventuress in the creative non-fiction title, Aloha Wanderwell Takes the Wheel (Sibylline $20). 9798897409426
David J. Dogterom
D is for Dogterom
Kamloops plumber, poet and kidlit aspirant David J. Dogterom has plunged into the murky waterworks of memory, retrieving a set of children’s rhymes misplaced 36 years ago during a move from Lethbridge. They turned up in his late mother’s attic. Dogterom showed them to his nephew, Greg Ferguson, who took a whack at illustrating them. Together, they produced the beguiling My Friends in the Alphabet Zoo (self-published $32.99). Its playful verses introduce young readers to an alphabet’s worth of outlandish animals, while Ferguson’s illustrations give Dogterom’s long-lost menagerie new life. 9798996579808
Eddy Savage
E is for Edward
There’s no shortage of bears in BC and naturalist and wildlife photographer Edward “Eddy” Savage counts a fair number of them among his acquaintances. His new book, Wild Bears of Canada: Photographs and Stories (Harbour $49.95), visits up close with a range of ursine creatures, including black bears, grizzlies and yes, polar bears. He treats them all not as spectacles of nature but as intelligent individuals whose behaviour develops through experience, not interchangeable representatives of a species. The book draws on more than 15 years of experience of bear-watching and holds BC’s Commercial Bear Viewing Association Level 3 certification, its highest guide designation. 9781998526871
David Levy
F is for Fish
When it comes to fish stories, few trump David Levy. The North Vancouverite fisheries biologist, environmental consultant and lifelong angler has authored more than 100 scientific reports. To these he now adds Swimming Upstream: A Fish Biologist’s Journey (BookBaby $35.07). Swimming is an independently published memoir, engaging the reader with fisheries science, conservation battles, fishing tales and international fieldwork. Notably, Levy the McGill and UBC-educated scientist was, among other things, director of the 2009-2012 Cohen Commission Inquiry into the Decline of Sockeye Salmon in the Fraser River. 9798317812454
Neil Griffin
G is for Griffin
Endings: Encounters with Extinction (House of Anansi Press $29.99) examines what extinction means in an era of accelerating biodiversity loss. Blending natural history, science and memoir, Neil Griffin travels from Belize and Honduras to Kenya and the Canadian Prairies, exploring endangered species, ancient mass extinctions and humanity’s relationship with the natural world. Along the way, he argues that even amid environmental loss, wonder and hope endure. Neil Griffin is a writer, naturalist and wildlife biologist based in Victoria. He is also the author of two forthcoming children’s books on natural science. 9781487014261
Crystal Hurdle
H is for Hurdle
With Billie Eilish starring in Sarah Polley’s forthcoming adaptation of The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath is returning to popular prominence. Vancouver poet Crystal Hurdle, however, never really left her. In Syl-Lo-Therapy (Guernica $22.95), she pairs the oft-bedevilled author with Nabokov’s troublesome fictional adolescent, Lolita Haze. The two “react, redact, reclaim” their stories through poetry, biography, art, sexuality, fashion, food and bibliotherapy (the use of books to help people work through emotional or psychological difficulties). Syl-Lo-Therapy is also a literary jape: Hurdle commits Plath and Haze to therapy so they can examine and reclaim the narratives imposed upon them. 9781778490422
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
Leslie Howard
L is for Leslie
Her interest in history and the lives of extraordinary women continues in Shades of Emily (Douglas & McIntyre $26.95), Leslie Howard’s latest historical novel. Inspired by the life of pioneering Canadian artist Emily Carr, the novel follows a contemporary New York lawyer investigating the mystery behind one of Carr’s paintings and a cryptic dedication, weaving together two timelines more than a century apart. Blending meticulous historical research with imagined lives, the novel explores ambition, love, artistic legacy and the challenges faced by generations of women determined to forge their own paths. 9781771625005
Megan Carey
M is for Megan
When last some of us discussed the moon with our wee folk, the conversation may have ended with “Good Night!” In the age of Artemis flybys, smart telescopes and bedroom glow-globes, our lunar back yard has become, well, domesticated. Enter Fraser Valley, writer Megan Carey, who is on a mission to reignite our collective senses of wonder. The result is A Perfect Word to Gift the Moon (Heritage House, $24.95), which chronicles one boy’s search for the “perfect word” of gratitude to our selenic satellite. Carey, a mother of two, may give a certain kid-lit classic a run for its money. 9781772035964
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
Pippa Scott
P is for Pippa
The literary world is awash with woeful tales of British boys sliced, diced and otherwise mangled by the public-school system. Girls, not so much. Vancouver-based writer, singer and award-winning documentary photographer Pippa Scott strives to rebalance the ledger with Paper Girls Burn: A Borderline Personality Disorder Memoir (Caitlin $26). Born in Canada but schooled in the U.K., Scott chronicles the years before her borderline personality disorder diagnosis and her search for love, understanding and identity. Her story takes in a rigid British boarding school, a London rock star, Broadway training, Hollywood film offices and Vancouver’s drag world. 9781773861944
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
Richard Kelly Kemick
R is for Richard
Rejecting the conventions of traditional memoir, Decadence (Biblioasis $24.95) sees Richard Kelly Kemick assemble an “accidental memoir” through a series of essays on subjects as varied as volleyball, dogs, municipal landfills, Christmas villages and love. Blending wit, vulnerability and philosophical reflection, the collection reveals a life shaped less by grand narratives than by the ordinary moments that give modern existence meaning. Richard Kelly Kemick is an award-winning poet, journalist and fiction writer. 9781771967136
Colleen Sullivan
S is for Sullivan
Cats are having a cultural moment. This year, Cats: The Jellicle Ball, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s three-time Tony-winning Broadway revival, opened—and closed after 142 performances. Now Victoria-area artist Colleen Sullivan joins her sister, acclaimed writer Rosemary Sullivan, in Fierce Attachments: A Life with Cats (Douglas & McIntyre $24.95). Colleen’s fifteen black-and-white illustrations accompany Rosemary’s affectionate account of Ensueño and Negrito. Part memoir, part natural history, the book explores feline senses, memory and homing instincts while considering the mysterious bond between cats, humans and the natural world. 9781771624923
Tessa Barbosa
T is for Tessa
Frankenstein meets anti-colonial fantasy in Isle of Teeth (Simon & Schuster $19.99), Tessa Barbosa’s second young adult novel. Set in a world where empire, magic and death collide, the story follows a mixed-heritage soldier and a revenant struggling to survive as their fates become entwined under the watch of Lady Death. Inspired by Frankenstein and These Violent Delights, the novel explores identity, resistance and what it means to be labelled a monster. Filipina Canadian author Tessa Barbosa lives in Vancouver, where she writes fantasy fiction alongside her work in software documentation. 9781668217184
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
Kallie Van Stone
V is for Van Stone
Many poets have used bird imagery in their work. In her debut collection welík’t (Nightwood $24.95), Kalli Van Stone—whose name Spyu7 means “bird” in Secwepemctsín—gives that image an Interior Salish voice. welík’t means “sparkle,” and Van Stone does so here in abundance. From nkm̓aplqs, the Okanagan Indian Band community at the north end of Okanagan Lake, she is a syilx Okanagan and Secwépemc poet and interdisciplinary artist. Organized in nsyilxcən, Secwepemctsín and English, with translations and Van Stone’s artwork throughout, the collection draws upon Interior Salish song, dance and music to explore cultural revitalization and intergenerational healing. 9780889715165
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
