Michael "Mike" Poole was a Canadian film maker and author. He began his career as a copy runner for the Vancouver Sun before becoming a reporter. He earned a journalism degree in Virginia, USA, started in the film business in the 1960s and went on to be a television producer for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation for ten years. He then worked as a freelance filmmaker, spending two decades producing documentaries with the well-known Canadian environmentalist, David Suzuki. His books are Romancing Mary Jane: A Year in the Life of a Failed Marijuana Grower, Ragged Islands: A Journey by Canoe Through the Inside Passage and Rain Before Morning, a novel about Canadian draft dodgers during World War I. In his retirement Poole lived full-time on the Sunshine Coast, British Columbia, Canada with his wife Carole and his two beloved Labradors. He won the Edna Staebler Award, a Canadian literary award for creative nonfiction, in 1999 for Romancing Mary Jane: A Year in the Life of a Failed Marijuana Grower. He died of prostate cancer at the age of 74 in 2010. [1]
Wayson Choy was a Canadian novelist. Publishing two novels and two memoirs in his lifetime, he is considered both one of the most important pioneers of Asian Canadian literature in Canada, and an important figure in LGBT literature as one of Canada's first openly gay writers of colour to achieve widespread mainstream success.
This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1998.
This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1995.
This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1992.
Alfred Wellington Purdy was a 20th-century Canadian free verse poet. Purdy's writing career spanned fifty-six years. His works include thirty-nine books of poetry; a novel; two volumes of memoirs and four books of correspondence, in addition to his posthumous works. He has been called the nation's "unofficial poet laureate" and "a national poet in a way that you only find occasionally in the life of a culture."
Tom Allen is a Canadian public radio broadcaster, concert host, trombonist and author.
The Edna Staebler Award for Creative Non-Fiction is an annual literary award recognizing the previous year's best creative nonfiction book with a "Canadian locale and/or significance" that is a Canadian writer's "first or second published book of any type or genre". It was established by an endowment from Edna Staebler, a literary journalist best known for cookbooks, and was inaugurated in 1991 for publication year 1990. The award is administered by Wilfrid Laurier University's Faculty of Arts. Only submitted books are considered.
Alison Watt is a Canadian writer, and painter born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Watt grew up in Victoria, British Columbia. She studied biology (BSC) at Simon Fraser University and Creative Writing (MFA) at the University of British Columbia. She has worked as Education Coordinator at the VanDusen Botanical Garden in Vancouver, a tour leader in Central and South America, and a naturalist aboard the west coast schooner Maple Leaf, sailing among British Columbia's Gulf Islands, Haida Gwaii, the Great Bear Rainforest, and Alaska. She has taught art to adults since 1995, in her studio on Protection Island, Nanaimo, BC, in other venues. Since 2020 she has offered courses online, through her business ARTWORK ARTPLAY.
Anne Vallée, born 26 July 1958 in Quebec City and deceased at Triangle Island, British Columbia, 31 July 1982, was one of the first biologists to observe the impact of climate change on animal populations.
Adventures in Solitude: What Not to Wear to a Nude Potluck and Other Stories from Desolation Sound is a non-fiction book by musician and broadcaster Grant Lawrence, first published in October 2010 by Harbour Publishing. In the book, the author chronicles his upbringing, focusing on annual summer vacations spent on a land parcel his father had purchased in the 1970s on British Columbia's Desolation Sound.
Burning Down the House: Fighting Fires and Losing Myself is a non-fiction memoir, written by Canadian writer Russell Wangersky, first published in April 2009 by Thomas Allen Publishers. In the book, the author chronicles his experiences as a volunteer firefighter in Nova Scotia and Newfoundland.
The Darien Gap: Travels in the Rainforest of Panama is a non-fiction book, written by Canadian writer Martin Mitchinson, first published in August 2008 by Harbour Publishing. In the book, the author chronicles his 18-month expedition traveling the province of the Darién Gap, an area dangerous for human sojourns; a haven for Colombian guerrillas and drug-trafficking. The jungle is dense and teeming with caimans, boa constrictors, and jaguars. Mitchinson sailed into the province aboard his 36-foot ketch. He then moved in with a native family who also served as his guide.
The Red Wall: A Woman in the RCMP is a non-fiction book, written by Canadian writer Jane Hall, first published in July 2007 by General Store Publishing. In the book, the author chronicles her personal experiences as the first woman accepted in the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP).
Ginger: The Life and Death of Albert Goodwin is a non-fiction book written by Canadian writer, Susan Mayse; first published in January 1990, by Harbour Publishing. In the book, the author gives a narrative account of the life and "untimely" death of Albert "Ginger" Goodwin; a migrant coal miner from Treeton, England. In 1910, Goodwin arrived on Vancouver Island to work in the Cumberland mines. He became an active labour leader, organizing local unions for collective bargaining.
Mrs. King: The Life and Times of Isabel Mackenzie King is a non-fiction book, written by Canadian writer Charlotte Gray, first published in 1997 by Penguin Books. In the book, the author chronicles the life of William Lyon Mackenzie's daughter; the mother of Canada's longest serving prime minister, William Lyon Mackenzie King. Her son portrayed her as the "ideal woman, the epitome of motherhood and an angel of goodness and light." His biographers have her portrayed as "an ambitious, grasping manipulator who pushed her eldest son into politics and then contrived to keep him a bachelor so that he could support the rest of his family." Wilfrid Laurier University's Faculty of Arts panel called Mrs. King an "outstanding example of creative non-fiction", further stating, "Charlotte Gray has written a biography with the narrative power of a fine novel."
Romancing Mary Jane: A Year in the Life of a Failed Marijuana Grower is a non-fiction book, written by Canadian writer Michael Poole, first published in 1998 by Greystone Books. In the book, the author chronicles the regrettable consequences of his decision to cultivate marijuana on a commercial level. Goodreads called the book, an "engaging blend of metaphysics, marijuana, and midlife crisis." A panel of Wilfrid Laurier University judges called Poole's writing, "sheer competence".
The Last Island: A Naturalist's Sojourn on Triangle Island is a non-fiction memoir, written by Canadian writer Alison Watt, first published in September 2002 by Harbour Publishing. In the book, the author chronicles her return to Triangle Island, a bird sanctuary off the northern tip of Vancouver Island. Watt spent four months studying tufted puffins with her mentor Anne Vallee, returning 16 years later after Vallee's death. The Last Island is written in "beautiful language combined with watercolour paintings" with the power to "transport the reader to the island".
After is a non-fiction book, written by Canadian writer Francis Chalifour, first published in October 2005 by Tundra Books. In the book, the author narrates his pain and confusion as he grieved his father's death by suicide. Judith Miller, an award judge for the Edna Staebler Award called After, "deeply moving" saying, "We enjoyed the lyricism of his language and his strong sense of character."
Life on the Ground Floor: Letters from the Edge of Emergency Medicine is an autobiographical book by Canadian doctor James Maskalyk about his work and reflections on working in emergency departments in St Michael's Hospital in Toronto, Canada, and Black Lion Hospital in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, as well as work in Cambodia and Bolivia.