In This Issue:
Table of Contents
Click headings for book details
Spring 2003
First we celebrate
feature
First we celebrate: In praise of Aboriginal culture:
Innovative Métis and First Nations people are celebrating their culture through life and literature. This spring sees the release of several books that promote Aboriginal culture by way of music, drama, community and communion, health, political change and good old storytelling.
Don’t fiddle with the legend: Meilleur’s music a testimony to Métis musical heritage
Red River Echoes
Edited by David Dandeneau
Translated by Marcien Ferland
Pemmican Publications
$19.95 pb, 160 pages
ISBN 1-894717-17-1
Literature is for the people: First nations scholars create community
“Truth comes from a variety of sources, not just one corner of the universe.”
Creating Community: A Roundtable on Canadian Aboriginal Literature
Edited by Renate Eigenbrod & Jo-Ann Episkenew
Bearpaw/Theytus Books
$22.95 pb, 297 pages
ISBN 1-894778-08-1
Show and tell: Modern plays emerge from oral tradition
“The theatre involves all the same things that an indigenous storyteller would employ . . . Storytelling at its best is as animated as the actors are on stage.”
The Great Gift of Tears
Heather Hodgson
Coteau Books
$16.95 pb, 160 pages
ISBN 1-55050-192-5
Telling a healthy story: Books combine Aboriginal healing with Western medicine
“In the Aboriginal tradition, teaching was often done through stories . . . I did not want to create a ‘recipe book’ for good health or a book of lists.”
Ningwakwe’s Healthy Life Series
Dr. Gilles Pinette
Ningwakwe Learning Press
Each book, $10.00 pb
Choosing Life: Bobby’s Story
16 pages, ISBN 1-896832-33-4
Healthy Pregnancy: Jenny’s Story
23 pages, ISBN 1-896832-32-6
Diabetes and Diet: Ivan’s Story
28 pages, ISBN 1-896832-34-2
Not good for our constitution: Book urges Aboriginals to define themselves
“The Constitution is a creative document; it does nothing by itself. Its evolution and meaning is decided by people, human actors.”
Who Are Canada’s Aboriginal Peoples? Recognition, Definition, and Jurisdiction
Edited by Paul Chartrand
Purich Publishing Ltd.
$37.00 pb, 319 pages
ISBN 1-895830-20-6
Life imitates art: Novelist draws on life experience for Final Season
“The key to writing good fiction isn’t whether every detail is true or accurate but having a good story with good characters.”
Final Season
Wayne Arthurson
Thistledown Press
$18.95 pb, 253 pages
ISBN 1-894345-48-7
fiction
Mercy! York’s star rising
“The phrase ‘word of mouth’ has taken on a whole new meaning in the digital age.”
Mercy
Alissa York
Random House Canada
$32.95 hc, 332 pages
ISBN 0-679-31164-5
No man is an island: Margoshes spins mystery around a journalist
“Journalists - and I’m speaking as a former one myself - have a very ironic view toward what they write and often harbour a desire to produce something that will be more lasting.”
The Drowning Man
Dave Margoshes
NeWest Press
$22.95 pb, 246 pages
ISBN 1-896300-57-X
Ignore the elephant in the room: Doctor’s poems reflect the age of anxiety
“It occurred to me that these poems spoke to our post-9/11 age of anxiety . . . including those that dealt with the fears of aging and illness-the body’s own versions of ‘internal terrorism.’”
Elephant Street
Ron Charach
Signature Editions
$12.95 pb, 96 pages
ISBN 0-921833-89-X
Landlovers celebrated: A Prairie picture book series continues
“I was trying to establish things about the people who come to the Prairies and choose it as their home and remain here. What is it about us? What is it we like? What are the things that we identity with, or are part of our being?”
Heartland: A Prairie Sampler
Jo Bannatyne-Cugnet with art by Yvette Moore
Tundra Books
$22.99 hc, 40 pages
ISBN 0-88776-567-X
non-fiction
Biography of a monument: Saskatchewan Legislature story told in pictures
“I continually saw new carvings in the wood or marble or plaster. I was amazed at the forethought and planning that went into the buildings.”
Building for the Future: A Photo Journal of Saskatchewan’s Legislative Building
Gordon Barnhart
Canadian Plains Research Centre
$29.95 pb, 122 pages
ISBN 0-88977-145-6
Far away home: Undelivered letters reveal a personal history of western Canada
“It was such an effort to read them. Some had locks of hair, a bookmark. It just grabbed me.”
Undelivered Letters to Hudson’s Bay Company Men on the Northwest Coast of America, 1830-57
Edited by Judith Hudson Beattie and Helen Buss
UBC Press
407 pages
$29.95 pb, ISBN 0-7748097-44
$85.00 hc, ISBN 0-7748097-36
The earth won’t quake, but you will: Author finds stories in the Canadian Shield
“There is amazing lore out there and it drives me crazy that these stories will blow away like dust in the wind.”
Houseboat Chronicles: Notes From a Life in Shield Country
Jake MacDonald
McClelland & Stewart
$34.99 hc, 291 pages
ISBN 0-7710-5403-3
History more bizarre than fiction: Collection reveals 125 years of documents and speeches
“It shows you a very different kind of Canadian. Canadians think they tend to be self-effacing; but I think that in the 19th century, lots of Canadians were pretty aggressive.”
A Thousand Miles of Prairie: The Manitoba Historical Society and the History of Western Canada
Edited by Jim Blanchard
University of Manitoba Press
$19.99 pb, 280 pages
ISBN 0-88755-665-5
Digging in the dirt: Gardening expert loves to grow
“When I was a little girl we always had a vegetable garden and beautiful flowerbeds, so I grew up with a heightened appreciation of nature.
Hort Hints lV: Even More Practical Tips for Prairie Gardeners
Edited by Patricia Hanbidge
University Extension Press, University of Saskatoon
$19.95 pb, 224 pages
ISBN 0-8880-461-X
Who says it ain’t natural? Lesbian field guide more than just survival tips
“The bass that change gender during their life cycles or the toads that default to femaleness if their reproductive organs are damaged are two great examples of the fact that . . . nature herself is very queer.”
The Lesbian National Parks and Services Field Guide to North America: Flora, Fauna & Survival Skills
Ranger Shawna Dempsey and Ranger Lorri Millan
Pedlar Press
$28.00 pb, 271 pages
ISBN 0-9686522-6-3
Learning from our mistakes: Dustbowl history offers lessons for the future
“Albertans don’t know their own history. This disaster was the worst farm abandonment in Canadian history.”
Empire of Dust: Settling and Abandoning the Prairie Dry Belt
David C. Jones
University of Calgary Press
$29.95 pb, 316 pages, with photos and maps
ISBN 1-55238-085-8
