Veteran broadcaster Terry David Mulligan takes readers on a galloping romp down the roads he’s travelled, from busting bad guys as a Mountie to spinning records as a DJ to sampling fine wines around the world. He reminisces about growing up in the North Vancouver neighbourhood known as Skunk Hollow, and about the hard price he paid to leave the M …

Bankrupt, homeless and with only an old Toyota Tercel to her name, Barbara Stewart has taken a job as a camp attendant at Trinidad 11, an oil-rig camp in northwestern Alberta. She was told it’s a “dry” camp—good news for a person hoping to stay sober—but she soon finds out this isn’t true. During the day, she mops floors, scrubs bathroo …

It’s 1981, and Sylvia Taylor has signed on as rookie deckhand on a wallowy 40-foot salmon troller. Looking forward to making money for university, she is determined to master the ins and outs of fishing some of the most dangerous waters in the world: the Graveyard of the Pacific. For four months, she helps navigate the waters off northern Vancouv …

Winner of a 2015 Independent Publisher Book Awards Bronze Medal

One size fits all does not apply to pregnancy and childbirth. Each one is different, unique, and comes with its share of pleasure and pain. But how does one prepare for an unexpected loss of a pregnancy or hoped-for baby? In How to Expect What You’re Not Expecting, writers share their …

After retiring from HBC to Yellowknife, Seagrave decided to write down his tales of northern adventure. It was time to record what he witnessed as the fur trade collapsed, as electricity and television found their way into the remotest of communities, and as a revolution in transportation was occurring.

Life on a farm at the edge of the wilderness was filled with hard work and danger, but there was also laughter, adventure, and the love of family and friends. In The Edge of the Wilderness, Lee Updike tells of growing up in northern Saskatchewan in the 1930s and 1940s. From the heartwarming story of his beloved dog, Shorty, to the tale of a terrify …

In this lively autobiography, popular historian Paul O’Neill looks back on his salad days in the 1940s and early 50s. O’Neill’s childhood in the small outport of Bay de Verde was filled with ‘outharbour delights’ while his star-struck teen years were spent in wartime St. John’s, a city he grew to love like no other. At nineteen O’Neil …

In this sequel to the national bestseller The Man in the Red Suit, we continue our journey with readers as we explore the true meaning of Christmas. Santa invites us along for his visits with the young and the old, the healthy and those in medical need – including the infants in the Children’s Hospital on Christmas Eve. These are heartwarming s …

During the past 33 years, St. John's businessman Bruce Templeton has devoted the month of December to visiting children and assisting Santa Claus. In his memoir of three decades he shares some of the most unforgettable questions.

On a June night in 1980, the Linehan household in North Harbour went up in flames. In moments the fire consumed the family’s ordinary, loving lives and innocent, human faith that life would always be as it was. Ida, the middle of three girls and one of ten siblings, survived the blaze only to endure weeks and months of treatment and recovery. Her …

Writing with remarkable openness and passion, T.A. Loeffler recounts her powerful story of preparing for, and attempting to scale, the mighty summit of Mount Everest. With gripping descriptions and spectacular photos, she invites readers into the extreme world of high-altitude climbing

This is a lively, readable, and informative account of life in Moscow by the wife of a Canadian military attach� who witnessed the last days of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War

Janice Cowan was trained by the Canadian government for her role in Moscow. She and her husband went to spy school in Canada to learn how to gather intelligenc …

Passing Stranger is a memoir in verse of one woman’s life. Poems weave through a marriage, a desire for motherhood, considerations of fertility and infertility, an eventual divorce and a woman finding herself in late middle age, ready to experience life to the full. Its themes will speak to all women who have experienced the joys and the tribulat …

At first you will think this book is a travel memoir about Australia, and so it may surprise you when it reveals itself as a tale of self-discovery and personal awakening. These twists are revealed when the subject turns to dropping out of law school, flirting with anorexia and getting dumped by a string of wildly inappropriate men. Hold steady whe …

Mary Seacole: The Making of the Myth is the first book to challenge the popular misconceptions that surround Mary Seacole’s iconic status as a “pioneer nurse” and battlefield heroine, intended, by some, to replace Florence Nightingale in those roles. McDonald masterfully disentangles reality from the myths, both those that exaggerate Seacole� …

Jeff Croonen was a force, both on and off the field. As a player for six years with the Canadian Football League, he was determined and unyielding. As a pharmaceutical sales representative, he was a sales award winner many times over and a personality no client could resist. As an inspirational speaker and coach, he was full of wisdom gained from t …

Family mysteries often remain tangled for decades, just waiting for someone to pick up the thread and begin to unravel the web. Filled with questions, the author puzzles over her family history. What was life like for her father growing up in the Galician shtetl of Borchov at the turn of the last century? Why did her Grandpa leave for New York so s …

Just three months after his wife’s death to breast cancer, Jon packs up his infant son, Myles, and they set off on a six-week “Healing Tour” through Canada and the United States. Their journey, set to the soundtrack of the music Jon loves, sees them negotiating rolling mid-western hills, exploring a cave, losing confidence in the prairies, an …

In an age where our kids are helicopter parented and bubble wrapped, this mother of four isn't looking forward to her four talented, artistic children leaving the family home. Bubble after protective bubble bursts as her troupe queues up and flies off to distant places. Candace Allan attempts to iparent from afar through sometimes turbulent, someti …

The Walking Man begins in the deserts of Jordan and explores a year in the life of the main character - someone very similar to the author - and his attempts to make sense of a tumultuous year. Based on many of the author's experiences, The Walking Man mixes reality and fiction in a tale of heartbreak, friendship, and personal history that uses wal …

Into the Mystic is a contemporary spiritual autobiography written from a mystical perspective that introduces the reader to the hidden life of twentieth-century Canadian mystic, Olga Park. The book consists of a series of vignettes and poems written by the author and by Park as well as some illustrations of Park’s own spiritually inspired artisti …

The interrelated stories of this pseudo-memoir introduce readers to Barbara Klein Muskrat, a successful author of fiction and freelance book reviewer. Spanning some thirty years in her personal and professional life, Barbara irreverently acquaints readers with her challenges related to her schizophrenic literary career, divided between writing fict …

Everyone knows someone who has been abused by a doctor and this book, a moving true story, is about the devastating impact of sexual abuse and one woman’s steely determination to recover and find justice. Sky Curtis is a successful writer who goes to her family doctor for anxiety resulting from childhood trauma. Like many vulnerable women in doct …

First in Line: The Incredible Life of Leonard Stick documents the life of Leonard Stick, a distinguished war veteran, lawman and federal politician who was the ‘first’ in many historically significant events throughout his lifetime. Stick was the first man to enlist with the Newfoundland Regiment, regional No. 1, when it was reconstructed at th …

Backwater Mystic Blues is a suite of intimate essays that summon the secret hiding spots, makeshift rafts and uncomplicated childhood joys that lay the foundations for adult philosophy. Lloyd Ratzlaff is in tune with the vivid simplicities of the sensuous world and the honour of unassuming people. These essays assemble the disguises shaped by relig …

Jean-Claude Germain’s second volume of Montreal memoirs chronicles his coming of age: his draconian Jesuit education on the fringes of the city’s Red Light District, followed by his liberating discovery of the city’s fevered bohemian community in the dying days of the Duplessis regime and Quebec’s “grande noirceur.” Here, on the cusp be …

Ghost Pine: All Stories True offers thirteen years worth of sparkling true stories from the life of author Jeff Miller, compiling the best of his long-running zine. From his youth in suburban Ottawa in the late 1990s, to travels across Canada and North America and his current home in Montreal, Miller’s stories are equal measures funny and sad, no …

Spitball literary essays on the off-kilter joys, sorrows and wonder of North America’s national pastime.

A collection of essays for ardent seamheads and casual baseball fans alike, The Utility of Boredom is a book about finding respite and comfort in the order, traditions, and rituals of baseball. It’s a sport that shows us what a human being mi …

With a dozen original songs percolating in his head, bestselling author Eric Siblin had two chance encounters in the same month: one with a real estate agent named Jo, a talented singer with pop star dreams; and the other with a college acquaintance named Morey, a fiery guitarist, record exec turned digital music producer, and manager of his teenag …

To all who knew him, Etienne Morneau lived unremarkably. Raised in an orphanage, his parents unknown, people considered him reserved, unfeeling, and antisocial. His death would have gone unnoticed were it not for his art and writing discovered afterwards. His secret drawings are proof of his artistic genius and his memoir, written in a kaleidoscope …

Night Madness chronicles the incredible story of Ron Pyves, a teenager who fought as a tail-gunner over the wartorn skies of Europe during those last deadly months to eliminate Hitler's hold over Europe. For 35 harrowing nights, Ron and his crew flew out from the Scottish coast, deep into the Rhineland. Despite skies dark with Messerschmitts and de …

This memoir focuses on an experience all of us dread. Pat Lotz was an accomplished author and editor, active in her community, and a loving wife and mother. She succumbed to dementia which was later diagnosed as Alzheimer's at the age of 81. Jim Lotz, her husband, and himself the author of more than 20 books, became her primary caregiver and spent …

In this memoir Jim Bennet introduces us to Halifax of the 1930s and '40s: one full of coal smoke and rival gangs, chuffing freight trains and pine tar soap. He takes the reader along with him ''down the bank'' and off to adventures all over the city's south end and beyond, offering a glimpse of childhood where a young boy had free rein far beyond h …

Takeo Nakano immigrated to Canada from Japan in 1920, later marrying and starting a family in his adopted homeland. Takeo's passion was poetry, and he cultivated the exquisite form known as tanka.

Then came the Second World War. Takeo Nakano was one of thousands of Japanese men forcibly separated from his family in 1942 and interned in labour camps …

Ernie Lyall was born in Labrador in 1910 and joined the Hudson's Bay Company at a time when it was expanding its presence in the Eastern Arctic. He spent many years as a front-line player with the company, building stores and developing trade with the local people. He became part of the Inuit community by marrying an Inuk and together with his wif …

More and more gay teens are speaking out about the realization of their sexuality, and about the consequences -- the reactions of friends and families, schoolmates and society in general. These heartfelt memoirs, originally presented orally in schools, sp

Faye Schulman was a happy teenager learning to become a photographer when the Nazis invaded her small town on the Russian-Polish border. She had a loving family, good friends and neighbours, most of whom were soon lost in the horrors of the Holocaust. But Faye survived, becoming a Partisan and fighting against the Nazis. Her rare and powerful photo …

In his heyday, Jacques Normand was France's Public Enemy Number One, a glamorous rogue who captured the imagination of the entire country. As he led the police on a merry chase, he also made the career of Commissaire Louis Moreau, former head of the Paris Anti-gangs unit...now the commander of a small Police Judiciare force in a sleepy border town. …

6 Essential Questions tells the story of Renata as she travels to Brazil to reunite with the mother who abandoned her when she was just five years old. In Rio, Renata discovers more than she bargained for in her quest to uncover the truth of who abandoned whom. She is continually tossed about by her undead grandmother and a semi-invisible uncle as …

Bill Graham – Canada’s minister of foreign affairs and minister of defence during the tumultuous years following 9/11 – takes us on a personal journey from his Vancouver childhood to important behind-the-scenes moments in recent global history. With candour and wit, he recounts meetings with world leaders, contextualizes important geopolitica …

A colourful memoir of growing up on the south side of St. John’s, Newfoundland, in the 1940s and 1950s. Porter brings to life the lost community of her childhood, and introduces us to the vibrant characters who lived there.

As a longtime pediatrician, Richard Goldbloom placed a high value on connecting with and communicating with his patients and their parents. His ability to reach an audience is evident in this engaging memoir of his life.

Born and raised in a Jewish medical family in Montreal at a time when the gulf between English and French was deep, Goldbloom's ph …

For 100 years, Wood’s Homes has offered a lifeline to children and their families who have nowhere else to turn. A multiservice, non-profit children’s mental health organization based in Calgary, Wood’s Homes serves communities throughout Alberta and in the Northwest Territories. In honour of the 100th anniversary of Wood’s Homes in 2014, t …

Two years ago, Margaret left her Arctic home for the outsiders' school. Now she has returned and can barely contain her excitement as she rushes towards her waiting family -- but her mother stands still as a stone. This strange, skinny child, with her hair cropped short, can't be her daughter. "Not my girl!" she says angrily.

Margaret's years at sch …

Winner, City of Victoria Butler Book Prize

Finalist, Charles Taylor Prize for Literary Non-Fiction

Nominated for the BC National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction

Afflictions & Departures is a collection of first-person experiential essays. However, this is not the realm of traditional memoir—in addition to incidents and feelings recaptured from memory …

Written in his mother’s unique voice, John Leigh Walters pushes the boundaries of memoir in A Very Capable Life, the extraordinary journey of a seemingly ordinary woman.Zarah Petri was a child when her family left Hungary to establish a new life in Canada in the 1920s. With courage and innovation, Zarah and her family survived the Depression?even …

From 1919 to 1970, Olaf Hanson was a trapper, fur trader, prospector, game guardian, fisherman, and road blasting expert in northeastern Saskatchewan. He told his life story to popular Saskatchewan author A. L. Karras, who wrote this historical memoir in the 1980s. In an uncompromising, straightforward style, Karras and Hanson reveal the geography, …

Herbert Schulz gives us an inside''s account of the hardscrabble and often heartless prairie farm politics of the 1950s. The son of a CCF member, Schulz was an early organizer for the Manitoba Federation of Agriculture and later an executive in the Grandview Pool Elevator Association. His compelling memoir offers many humorous and poignant anecdote …

How does the imagination entwine the shreds of memory of family, place and culture to root a self in the fluid experience of the present?

Daughter, wife, mother, teacher, writer and feminist academic, Helen M. Buss / Margaret Clarke has lived in many parts of Canada and writes from a life of multiple perspectives full of contradictory loyalties and …

Pioneers in life writing, Mary Wollstonecraft, author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792), and Mary Shelley, author of Frankenstein (1818 ), are now widely regarded as two of the leading writers of the Romantic period. They are both responsible for opening up new possibilities for women in genres traditionally dominated by men.

This volu …