Women in BC

Until recently, hepatitis C—which infects 170 million people throughout the world—was always fatal. But today there is finally a remarkable cure.

Elizabeth Rains describes how she was likely infected with hepatitis C during her wild hippie days, how she was diagnosed more than four decades later, and how she became one of the early patients to be cured, including the obstacles she encountered in gaining access to the $100,000 drugs. She describes the symptoms—and non-symptoms—of hep C, the st …

Since its original publication in 2004, Maria Mahoi of the Islands has become a classic in its field, and an important document on the history of Indigenous Hawaiians known as Kanakas, who had an early presence across the Pacific Northwest and are now part of the broader Hawaiian diaspora across North America. Born in the mid-1850s on Vancouver Island to an Indigenous Hawaiian father and an Indigenous British Columbian mother, Maria (pronounced Ma‐RYE‐ah) moved as a young woman to Salt Sprin …

Sixteen-year-old Sydney hates to talk (or even think) about sex. She's also fighting a secret battle against depression, and she's sure she'll never have a boyfriend. When her classmate Paul starts texting and sending her nature photos, she is caught off guard by his interest. Always uncomfortable with any talk about sex, Sydney is shocked when her extroverted sister, Abby, announces that she is going to put on The Vagina Monologues at school. Despite her discomfort, Sydney starts to reexamine h …

In August 1989, Jane Rule – novelist, essayist, and the first widely recognized “public lesbian” in North America – summed up the first eight years of her correspondence with Rick Bébout, journalist and editor with the Toronto-based Body Politic: “It seems to me that what has concerned us is richly human and significantly focused on the concerns of our time and our tribe.”

Rule lived in a remote rural community on Galiano Island in British Columbia but wrote a column for the magazin …

A Queer Love Story presents the first fifteen years of letters between Jane Rule – novelist and the first widely recognized “public lesbian” in North America – and Rick Bébout, journalist and editor with the Toronto-based Body Politic, an important incubator of LGBT thought and activism. Rule lived in a remote rural community on Galiano Island in British Columbia but wrote a column for the magazine. Bébout resided in and was devoted to Toronto’s gay village. At turns poignant, scinti …

The time is the early 1980s. Judith Plant and her new partner, Kip, are ready for a change. Inspired by the charismatic Fred Brown, their communications professor at Simon Fraser University, they join a commune in a remote valley near the Yalakom River, deep in BC's Coast Mountains. Culture Gap: Towards a New World in the Yalakom Valley tells the story of that sojourn. The challenges and privations, the joys and adventures of rural communal living, form the backdrop to the human drama the author …

A stunning collection of powerful and whimsical photo collages celebrating supernatural female beings rooted in Haida culture.

Out of Concealment presents the oral narratives of the Haida Nation through the vibrant depiction of its female supernatural beings. Passed on from generation to generation through oral tradition, these stories are important historical narratives that illustrate the Haida’s values, customs, laws, and relationships with the earthly and metaphysical realms.

This book fea …

A rich and diverse tapestry weaving together the many voices, narratives, skills, and talents of women up and down the coastal Pacific Northwest who devote their lives and careers to the sea.

Beckoned by the Sea celebrates coastal women from northern BC to northern California who work on or with the sea. The twenty-four women featured in this inspiring and fascinating book represent a variety of industries—from conservation, commercial fishing, and marine biology to safety and rescue, tourism, …