New Mar 09
Do you have a great story about a BC woman pioneer? We want to hear
about it.
We are also collecting stories about women travelling alone for an upcoming anthology. If you have an adventure story of "Going Alone" please share it.
Women Writers of Northern and North-Central BC
on going call for submissions.
Details
Caitlin Press is always looking for new stories.
We continue to search for great stories from BC's Central Interior, but we are also on the lookout for stories about and by BC women.
See our Writer's info page for more information.
Caitlin Press
8100 Alderwood Road
Halfmoon Bay, BC,
V0N 1Y1
604 885 9194
1 877 964 4953
Forthcoming, Spring 2010 |
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In 1971 Tor Forsberg was twenty-three and her life was at a crossroads. Having returned to Watson Lake in the Yukon after five years in Montreal, she found her art career at a standstill and the party life of a small town much too alluring. One day after a particularly wild night, she bumped into Lynch Callison, the father of an old boyfriend. Lynch invited her to his lodge at the LV ranch to “get her head straight.” The next morning she found herself bumping along Highway 37 in an old pickup, heading south to Iskut. Tor soon fell in love with the bush and vowed to create a life in the wilds of Northern BC. She stayed in a cabin on the LV Ranch that summer, where she worked on paintings for an art show in Vancouver and learned about life in the bush. The following year Tor staked some land and built a log cabin to live at year-round with a menagerie of dogs, cats, a weasel named Casper and four packhorses. In the years that followed she learned to hunt, trap, skin beaver, field dress moose, make bannock and beaver stew and scent a grizzly on the wind. She also learned to live with herself in the pure solitude of life in the wilderness. North of Iskut is a funny and heartwarming story of a young woman’s quest to discover herself, her spirit and her connection with nature. |
Memoir / Local interest Available from Harbour Publishing |
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The story of the railway has never been told in a more charming voice as in these letters by Bernice Medbury Martin who married railroader Leslie Martin in 1912 and arrived in Prince Rupert at the height of rock blasting and railroad building. Lonely for her family in Wisconsin, Bernice wrote frequent letters home in which she described in striking detail the machinery and mudslides, the weather and the wilderness, the local characters and the outrageous cost of supplies. She wrote of her frustration at the slow pace of the railway work and her happiness at an invitation to a social event many miles away. She lived in a tent at Kitselas, a hotel in Hazelton, a shack in the Bulkley Valley and a hand-hewn log cabin at Decker Lake. Bernice’s letters span the two final years of Grand Trunk Pacific Railway track building and are neatly woven together by Jane Stevenson’s well-researched narration. A -stunning collection of photographs illustrates the enormous task of constructing a railway along the Skeena River, through the Bulkley Valley and on to Burns Lake. |
History / Local Interest Available from Harbour Publishing |
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In his second book, Wake-Up Call, Sterling Haynes begins by telling us that at the age of seventy a left hemisphere stroke rearranged his brain. “My right creative side took over and I started to write poetry and humour. I was left with a partially paralyzed right foot, but a writer’s creative right brain. I think I got the better of the deal, a new brain in trade for a foot. The funny episodes in my medical practice became hilarious. The sad, melancholy parts of my life’s memories looked less bleak.” Haynes shares the humorous and sometimes bizarre tales of his life as a doctor: a man shoots off his big toe in a drunken binge and then begs the doc to get him to Sunday Mass on time; an inmate swallows a spoon to avoid solitary confinement; an accident with a Murphy bed leaves a man hanging for more than ten hours. “I worked long hours, made house calls, went out with the ambulance and flew to remote accident areas, sometimes receiving payment in kind: hinds of beef, lamb and moose, bags of potatoes and turnips and, on one occasion, a big game guide brought me a four-point buck in payment for delivering his first son, leaving the dressed carcass in the centre of my waiting room. ” Haynes tells it like it was in these tales of a frontier doctor, from Williams Lake to Alabama. |
Memoir / Local Interest Available from Harbour Publishing |
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Understories explores the meeting of the natural, suburban and inner-city experiences of Prince George. These poems look beneath the daily observations of a place jostled between strip-malls and pubs, the university and the mill, and a landscape that presses in at every corner, revealing a sometimes gritty underside. Al Rempel’s poetry kicks the snow off alleyways, tramps around a fallen-in trapper’s cabin, or sneaks onto the neighbour’s front lawn—all with a wink and a nod. |
Poetry Available
from Harbour
Publishing |
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| NOW AVAILABLE FROM CAITLIN PRESS  |
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Poetry ISBN 13: 978-1-894759-45-8 ISBN 10: 1-894759-45-1 6" x 9", 96 pages, paper $16.95 April, 2010 Available from Harbour Publishing |
| Fall 2009 |
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In the spring of
2007 the Canadian Forces and the Canadian Rangers, the regiment responsible
for providing a military presence in isolated communities, set out on
a treacherous journey across jagged sea ice and over steep and hostile
terrain. Their mission was to travel over two thousand kilometres by
snowmobile from Resolute to the Canadian Forces Station Alert, and plant
a Canadian flag enroute at Ward Hunt Island. Author, photographer and
filmmaker Dianne Whelan is the first woman to accompany the Rangers
on this never before patrolled route of the northwestern coast of Ellesmere
Island. In This Vanishing Land Whelan shares her personal journey
and explores the tumultuous political history and global significance
of the Canadian High Arctic. |
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Travel • Adventure Available from Harbour Publishing |
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Trappers
and Trailblazers In 1934 international entrepreneur and filmmaker Charles Bedeaux hired a team of Canadian men to trail blaze from Edmonton, Alberta, to Telegraph Creek, BC. What started out as adventure for Carl Davidson and Bob Beattie soon became a treacherous and heartbreaking journey. While Bedeaux hob-nobbed with Europe’s elite in Paris, Beattie and Davidson suffered impossible challenges and near starvation in BC’s harshest country. After five years of misadventure and virtually no communication from Bedeaux, Beattie and Davidson were informed that the mission had been called off, just before Bedeaux was arrrested for espionage. The ill-fated trip is just one of many stories gleaned from the memories of pioneers who settled the interior of British Columbia during the first half of the twentieth century. In Trappers and Trailblazers Boudreau has preserved stories in danger of disappearing, and his extraordinary research has also uncovered a collection of intriguing and previously unpublished photographs. |
| Local
Interest • History Available from Harbour Publishing |
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Extraordinary Women: Volume 1 is the first in a brand new series being introduced by Caitlin Press, which will showcase women of BC: their lives, their successes, their history. In 2005 the Williams Lake Women’s Contact Society posted a request the Williams Lake Women’s
Contact Society posted a request for pioneer stories of the women of
the Cariboo Chilcotin. What they received was an overwhelming number
of tales of hard-ship, faith, adversity, endurance and accomplishment.
These women were mothers, trappers, schoolteachers, outfitters, ranchers
and homesteaders. Gumption & Grit contains more than 35
heartfelt and honest stories, which will resonate with the experiences
of all women of this land. |
| History
• Local Interest Available from Harbour Publishing |
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Memorials and the yearning to re-create the past permeate Valley Sutra, award-winning poet Kuldip Gill’s new collection. The voices of East Indian communities and families speak up, reminding us that history is not just what is recorded in documents and ledgers, but is a mixture of smells, tastes and textures: the steam of hot rotis rising from metal lunchboxes at a mid-day break at a mill, the lush flesh of a mango offered by a gentle grandfather, the silvered bark of a log waiting to be processed, and the soft touch of sari silk and green grass. In the last section of the book, Gill invokes the ghost of Bill Miner—Canada’s first train robber—to speak from beyond the grave, reworking memories and documents and revealing history from his point of view. |
| Poetry
Available
from Harbour
Publishing |
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Wax Boats By Sarah Roberts In Sarah Robert’s debut collection Wax Boats, a rural island community comes to life in action-packed, evocative tales. Cougar ladies fight the BC wilderness and the inevitable extinction of their peaceful island lives. An expectant mother turns to Native traditions to guide her through a safe delivery. A Boy Scout troupe rescues their own leader, and learns to welcome someone “from away.” Wax Boats introduces thought-provoking characters caught between the encroaching modern, industrial world and the hard truths of lives lived at the edge of everything. |
Short Fiction ISBN 10: 1-894759-40-0 ISBN 13: 978-1-894759-40-3 5.5 x 8, 176 pages, paper $17.95 October 2009 Available from Harbour Publishing |
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Spring
2009
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Enter the Chrysanthemum is a luminous collection of poems about family, love and loss. Employing precise imagery and concise language, Lam plumbs and mines ordinary events and experiences to find a central core of poetic insight and sometimes harrowing truth. Whether written from the vantage point of a young child observing her parents, a parent struggling to raise a child, or a daughter watching a parent's decline and death, these poems delve into the complexities and power of human connection. Enter the Chrysanthemum, is Lam's second book of poetry. She is donating her royalties from the sale of this book to the YWCA's Single Mothers' Services in Vancouver. "Fiona Lam's
poems are beautifully written, wise, tender, and very moving. There's
a sense throughout of a heart that is deeply human and eloquently authentic."
—Don Domanski |
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Poetry Available from Harbour Publishing |
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(flood
basement Jeremy Stewart's first book, (flood basement, is a young poet's search for and discovery of his place in the local landscape. The poet is haunted by the legacy of colonialism and propelled by the struggles of a community seeking its own identity. (flood basement is the raw, shocking and innocent journey of an emerging artist in a seemingly inflexible world. In this collection Stewart shares a collage of fragments that amount to a portrait of the Prince George of his youth, a transcription of a midnight audio journey, and an introspection of the fluctuating and sometimes fragile identity of the writer. Stewart's work pushes the boundaries of innovative and experimental poetry while weaving a visual narrative of the world in which he lives. “Finally! Lyrics of outrageous displacements! Stewart’s experimental narrative text will bust up your tedious humdrum ideas! Poetry as subversion! (flood basement—buy this book, muthaflippas!” —Jake Kennedy |
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Poetry Available from Harbour Publishing |
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In 1974 Lorne Dufour
moved to Alkali Lake Reserve, a Shuswap community near Williams Lake
in British Columbia, to help reopen the local elementary school. Like
many First Nation communities across Canada, Alkali Lake had been ravaged
by decades of residential schools and forced religion. Colonialism had
robbed them of their language and culture and had left a legacy of abuse
and alcoholism. But in 1972, Chief Andy Chelsea and his wife Phyllis
took it upon themselves to lead their community on a long and painful
road to sobriety and what ensued was a dramatic transformation of a
people enslaved by a seemingly unstoppable plague. By 1985, Alkali Lake
was almost a hundred percent dry and had become a role model for many
other communities in BC. Jacob's Prayer takes place during this time
of transformation and it speaks to the unexpected existence of resiliency
in the most unassuming of characters. It centres around one tragic Halloween
evening in 1975 when two men lose their lives and another is saved by
a friend who chooses not to be destroyed by his own tragedy and devastating
loss. Jacob's Prayer is the haunting and poetic story of a community's
suffering, loss and eventual healing. |
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Memoir Available from Harbour Publishing |
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This is the definitive fly fisher's guide to BC's Central Interior. Brian Smith writes about the allure of BC's wild rainbow trout that attracts fly fishers from all over the world. He describes in extraordinary detail the fabled Blackwater, Stellako and Crooked rivers and the still waters of the Dragon, Hobson, Hart and Wicheeda, renowned trophy lakes that produce rainbow trout weighing up to six kilograms. In this comprehensive guide, Smith shares his award-winning fly tying patterns, his favourite fly techniques and his extensive knowledge of the species, geography, history and fishing lore of the Central Interior and North Cariboo waters. Fly Fishing BC's Interior is a must-have, all-inclusive guide for both novice and advanced fly fishers who want to explore in BC's Interior Plateau.
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Guidebook/ Fishing Available from Harbour Publishing |
| Fall
2008 |
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Seeking Balance Conversations with BC Women in Politics By Anne Edwards Many Canadians say that British Columbia is the zaniest political province. It's too diverse, too polarized-geographically, demographically and ideologically. But the BC poltical arena is lively, and it has often led the way in electing women to parliaments-as respected spokespeople for the public-as equal people. In these conversations, women who served as members of the provincial legislature or the Canadian parliament, reveal their ambitions and their reactions to serving in a political system designed and still dominated by men. They reach decisions in ways that do not fit; they bring ideas to groups ill-suited to respond; and they clearly see the jagged edges that should be smoothed in order to create a vibrant democratic state. These women-of many ages, across party lines and from all parts of the province-share attitudes and insights into the lively world of BC politics, at home and across our nation. |
| Political
Non-Fiction Available from Harbour Publishing |
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Betsy Trumpener's raw fiction hits quickly, cuts deeply and lingers on in the imagination. Her urgent, unique voice pushes fiction north of what's real. The Butcher of Penetang carves up rare slices of savory stories that are both tough and delicious. A child missing in a dangerous part of town; a draft dodger with bloody hands; a robber armed with a hairbrush; a refugee who rescues poetry from his prison cell; moose hunters chasing snow flakes. The people in these edgy stories cut cocaine into comfort food, push sex into the snow, and chase speeding ambulances in the dead of winter. Trumpener's debut collection is aching, funny, powerful and sharp. |
| Short
fiction Available from Harbour Publishing |
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In Ken Belford's fifth book of poetry he takes us on a journey through Canada's roadless north where he has discovered a third world gaze, looking out at industrialism and its impact on a region rich in resources and natural beauty. Lan(d)guage is an unsentimental and non-reactionary perspective, a deep investigation of the psychology of both the electronic revolution and postmodernism. It is also a collective conversation having to do with the mobile geographies of inequality. The poems are a study in the social cost of privilege and what it means to have access to power, surveillance and identity. |
| Poetry
Available from Harbour Publishing |
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A
Well-Mannered Storm A Well-Mannered Storm is an exploration of correspondence between one of Canada's greatest musicians, Glenn Gould and "K" an admiring fan. Braid weaves an intimate dynamic as K struggles with the loss of her hearing in one ear, finding her greatest comfort in Gould's music-particularly as he plays Bach. Gould's poems don't directly reply, but echo a response as he struggles with his own difficult life; his family, his health, his strong beliefs in how music should be presented and his personal habits considered "eccentric" by an ever-watchful press. K starts to accept her changing world, just as Gould begins a personal spiral downward into disintegration. In his final reflection, Gould acknowledges that in spite of his personal trials, his music now circles the world in the spacecraft, Voyager, as earth's example to other possible life forms of what is most beautiful in this civilization. A Well-Mannered Storm is a striking and masterful volume of poems that does justice to Gould's brilliance, offering insights into his personal life and art, even as it showcases Braid's own virtuosity. Kate
is also working on a
collection of poetry
that is an autobiographical account of the fifteen years she worked
as a labourer, apprentice and journey carpenter.
Turning Left at the Ladies
will be released by Palimpsest
Press in Summer 2009. |
| Poetry Available from Harbour Publishing
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| Spring
2008 |
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Flylines
& Fishtales In 1981, John Grain's passion for the outdoors led him to create a consortium that purchased Glimpse Lake Lodge, a neglected fishing camp near Merritt, BC. The discovery of a tattered diary inspired him to write Flylines & Fishtales before time and age erased the events completely or exaggerated them beyond belief. It combines a brief history of the homestead that became Glimpse Lake Lodge, with the hilarious, tender and sometimes heartbreaking events that marked the group's years of ownership from 1981 to 1987. Each day was a new adventure marked by unexpected encounters with wildlife, intriguing people and even ghosts. Flylines & Fishtales weaves a stirring and remarkable journey of a young family who abandoned the urban frenzy and embraced the tranquility and serenity of a rural lifestyle. In so doing, they learned those family values and precious life lessons that will be passed on for generations. |
| Non-Fiction Available from Harbour Publishing
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Finding Ft. George is the poetic record of Rob Budde's growing love of Prince George and the Cariboo north-central region of BC. The poems are an act of discovery and they describe the various social, political, historical and environmental systems that Budde encounters with the eye of a patient, astute observer. Engaging in the language of location, each poem explores a place, a time and the process of building a relationship between the two. Sometimes gritty, sometimes ironic, sometimes barely able to see the place at all, the poems are all love poems to a new home—gifts of arrival.
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| Poetry Available for $15.95 from Harbour Publishing
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2006-2007
Backlist
Soft Geography by Gillian
Wigmore
All
Things Said & Done by Marita
Dachsel
Disaster on Mount
Slesse by Betty
O'Keefe & Ian
Macdonald
Sternwheelers
and Canyon Cats by Jack
Boudreau
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