BC Books From the Mainland/Southwest

The only comprehensive handbook to Vancouver's architecture -- from the modest to the monumental Vancouver is still a young city, and its streetscapes and neighbourhoods reflect the city's constant state of reinvention. New buildings adapt the latest global architectural trends to the regional context or express the distinct local West Coast style; heritage buildings stand for earlier eras and continuity. The result is a dynamic urban landscape. Highly readable and authoritative, this entirely u …

Winner of the City of Vancouver Book Award

Shortlisted for the Roderick Haig-Brown Regional Prize (BC Book Prizes)

Longlisted for the George Ryga Book Award for Social Issues

Excerpted in The Globe and Mail and The Vancouver Sun and on TheTyee.ca

Residents of Vancouver's Downtown Eastside are not bound by poverty or addiction but rather driven by a sense of community, kinship, and above all, hope. For each of the past five years, Pivot Legal Society's annual Hope in Shadows photography contest ha …

At the 1928 Amsterdam Olympics an unknown Vancouver runner named Percy Williams shocked the sports world by capturing the 100- and 200-metre gold medals. Some said the feat was a fluke. It wasn't. In 1929 Percy silenced naysayers by sweeping the US indoor track circuit, then he went on to set a world record in the 100 metres that would stand until the arrival of Jesse Owens. And in between he waged a speed duel with the fleetest men on the planet, a battle for track supremacy and the title “Wo …

Joe Keithley, aka Joey Shithead, founded legendary punk pioneers D.O.A. in 1978. Punk kings who spread counterculture around the world, they've been cited as influences by Red Hot Chili Peppers, Green Day, Rancid, and The Offspring, and have toured with The Clash, The Ramones, The Dead Kennedys, Black Flag, Nirvana, PiL, Minor Threat, and others, and are the subject of two tribute albums.

But punk is more than a style of music: it's a political act, and D.O.A. have always had a social conscience, …

In early December 2006, a powerful windstorm ripped through Vancouver’s Stanley Park. The storm transformed the city’s most treasured landmark into a tangle of splintered trees and shattered a decades-old vision of the park as timeless virgin wilderness. In Inventing Stanley Park, Sean Kheraj traces how the tension between popular expectations of idealized nature and the volatility of complex ecosystems helped transform the landscape of one of the world’s most famous urban parks. This beau …

In The Only Poetry That Matters, novelist and poet Clint Burnham offers the first book-length examination of the Kootenay School of Writing, the notorious group of poets who came to international attention in Vancouver during the 1980s. Founded in 1984 after the closure of David Thompson University Centre in Nelson, the KSW offered writing and publishing courses and hosted colloquia, critical talks, and a reading series featuring local, Canadian, and international writers (which continue to this …

A riveting behind-the-scenes account of the transformative Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games -- an extraordinary story of visionary leadership, love of country and the ability to dream boldly.

When John Furlong emigrated from Ireland in 1974, the customs officer greeted him with "Welcome to Canada. Make us better" -- an imperative that has defined Furlong's life ever since. A passionate, accomplished athlete with a track record of community service, Furlong was a volunteer for Vancouve …

"Reading the Riot Act" is a phrase that has entered the popular lexicon, meaning the action taken by authority figures when they perceive that their "charges" are getting out of hand. The act itself is a seldom-used piece of legislation actually designed to prevent a riot from taking place. Supposedly, the mere mention of the Riot Act is enough to bring hardened miscreants bent on destruction to their collective senses. But if a riot has started, it's already too late to read the Riot Act. Every …