BC Books From the Kootenays

Everybody has a train story. Whether it comes from a distant relative who worked on the railways or from a family train trip that formed a lasting impression of the Canadian landscape, trains inspire a sense of wonder and nostalgia. They are embedded in the history of Canada as a whole and western Canada in particular, and for generations they were how most people travelled and saw the country. Today, trains get the most attention in the context of tragedy, in the aftermath of rare but catastrop …

Everybody has a train story. Whether it comes from a distant relative who worked on the railways or from a family train trip that formed a lasting impression of the Canadian landscape, trains inspire a sense of wonder and nostalgia. They are embedded in the history of Canada as a whole and western Canada in particular, and for generations they were how most people travelled and saw the country. Today, trains get the most attention in the context of tragedy, in the aftermath of rare but catastrop …

Winner of the 2016 Roderick Haig-Brown Regional Prize and the inaugural Mack Laing Literary Prize. Shortlisted for the 2016 Hubert Evans Non-Fiction Prizes.

The Real Thing is the first official biography of Ian McTaggart Cowan (1910–2010), the “father of Canadian ecology.” Authorized by his family and with the research support and participation of the University of Victoria Libraries, Briony Penn provides an unprecedented and accessible window into the story of this remarkable naturalist. …

The Real Thing is the first official biography of Ian McTaggart Cowan (1910–2010), the “father of Canadian ecology.” Authorized by his family and with the research support and participation of the University of Victoria Libraries, Briony Penn provides an unprecedented and accessible window into the story of this remarkable naturalist. From his formative years roaming the mountains around Vancouver looking for venison to his last years finishing the voluminous and authoritative Birds of Bri …

What would you do if you came face to face with a large yellow waxwing, wild turkey or weather loach? Who would you call if common wall lizards or giant hogweed crept into your back yard?

Alex Van Tol can help. In Aliens Among Us, she identifies more than 50 species of alien animals and plants that have established themselves in British Columbia. With the help of colour photographs and Mike Deas's illuminating illustrations, Van Tol exposes the invaders, then explains how they got here and what t …

In 1858, reports of gold found on the Fraser River spurred tens of thousands of people?mostly men?to rush into the territory we now call British Columbia. They came with visions of fortune in their eyes. The lucky ones struck it rich, but most left penniless or died trying for the motherlode. Some stayed behind and helped build the colony and the province of British Columbia.

Trees and Shrubs of British Columbia is the definitive guide to all native and naturalized woody plants in the province. T. Christopher Brayshaw describes almost 300 species of trees and shrubs, as well as many subspecies and varieties. His beautifully detailed illustrations of leaves, flowers, fruits and woody parts are arranged to show the distinguishing traits in similar species. Diagnostic keys, comparative diagrams and a selection of colour photographs help make identification easy.

Fred Wah’s career has spanned six decades and a range of formal styles and preoccupations. Scree collects Wah’s concrete and sound poetry of the 1960s, his landscape-centric work of the 1970s, and his ethnicity-oriented poems of the 1980s. Fred was a founding member of the avant-garde TISH group, which helped turn Canadian poetry, in the West in particular, to a focus on language. He has said that his “writing has been sustained, primarily, by two interests: racial hybridity and the local. …