Spring 2008 Volume 22 - No. 1 - BC BookWorld

34 BC BOOKWORLD SPRING 2008Find it hereHas media concentration gone too far? Marc Edge’s hard-hittingcritique of Canada’s dominant media conglomerate asks the questionsthey don’t want you to think about.Asper NationCanada’s Most DangerousMedia CompanyDuthie Books, West 4th Av. • People’s Co-op Bookstore32 Books, North Vancouver • Magpie Books & MagsBlackberry Books • Munro’s Books, VictoriaTanners Books • Sorensen Books • Abraxas BooksChapters • Indigo Books + Musicchapters.indigo.ca • amazon.comPublished by New Star BooksShort storiesA Heart in Portby Emily Givner“There is awonderful shock —a real charge in these stories.”— ALICE MUNROAvailable fromThistledown PressISBN 978-1-897235-32-4 • $16.95LETTERSTHE PERFECT BOOKWe visited family in Victoria for theChristmas holidays. I picked up the Winteredition of your publication on theferry from Vancouver. The article aboutDerek Evans, and the excerpt from hisbook, were so compelling that Ipurchased Dispatches from theGlobal Village at Munro’s in Victoriaon Christmas eve and readit from cover to cover that afternoon.It was the perfect book forthe season, as Evans writes eloquentlyabout the goals we espouse,but rarely achieve, evenin a time when we proclaimpeace and goodwill to others. By the way,I obtained the last copy that Munro’shad in stock, so I hope the publisher replenishesthe supply for 2008.Philip E. CarrCalgary, ABWHITEHORSE CALLINGI always read your newspaper wheneverI am on the ferries going to visit mygrandchildren. I enjoy it so much that Iknow my friend Carol would like a giftsubscription. We are both avid readersand book buyers but living inWhitehorse, Yukon, so we don’t havemany bookstores to choose from. A Coleshas opened in the city and I fear it isundermining the only independentbookseller in town. Might I suggest youapproach Mac’s Fireweed Books onMain Street about carrying the paper? Ithink making your paper available toreaders in Whitehorse would be goodfor authors and for sales at Mac’s FirewoodBooks. Keep up the good work.Spence HillWhitehorseMALASPINA REPLIESDerek EvansAs an admirer of Anne Cameron, Iwas sorry to see in your last issue thatshe had somehow got the idea thatMalaspina University-College is anythingother than a major supporter ofwriters and writing in British Columbia.Even before the creation of the Departmentof Creative Writing and Journalismin 1990, Malaspina regularly hostedreadings by myriad writers, includingEarle Birney, Michael Ondaatje, bpnichol, Jack Hodgins, Gary Geddes,Alice Munro, and, yes, Anne Cameron.As Randy Fred noted at your recentReckoning 07 conference, Malaspinafaculty assisted with the creation ofTheytus Books, the first aboriginal pressin Canada. Malaspina has presentedhonorary doctorates to Jack Hodginsand Carol Shields, and administers theRalph Gustafson Distinguished Chair ofPoetry, which in recent years hasbrought BC poets PatriciaYoung, Susan Musgrave, GaryGeddes, Patrick Lane, RobertBringhurst and Tom Wayman toour community, among others.Each year, at the launch ofPortal, our annual literary magazine,we welcome a guest reader;these have included ChristianBök, Wayde Compton, Sheri-d Wilson,and bill bissett. And then, of course,there’s the fact that Malaspina currentlyhas 15 BC writers on its staff, deliveringone of the most comprehensive, fouryearundergraduate creative writing programsin Canada. In addition to thework they do with the most importantwriters we support — our students —Malaspina’s Creative Writing and Journalismfaculty supervise the Poets onCampus reading series in Nanaimo, theCowichan Campus Reading Series inDuncan, the New Waves Festival of newplays, the Institute for Coastal Researchchapbook series, and Incline, an onlinemagazine written by our journalism students,among other ongoing projects.I’d like to invite Anne Cameron toattend the launch of the 2008 editionof Portal on April 8, at which Vancouverpoet and MC Baba Brinkman willperform his Rap Canterbury Tales. Iexpect that event alone might give herreason to reconsider her remarks.Frank MoherChair, Department of CreativeWriting and Journalism,Malaspina University-CollegeIT’S A KEEPERI loved your editorial about the name“British Columbia” so much that I amcompelled to fire off a response!I think we should keep the name.Like British Columbia my name also hasdubious connotations. My late fatherwas a career criminal from Alabama whowent under several aliases, one of thembeing Jay Anthony Christopher.This was the name he used when Iwas born; I inherited it by default. Thiswas not always a good thing.Dirtbagsa novel by Teresa McWhirterDirtbags is a novel about reckoning—with one’spast, one’s choices, and one’s expectations for thefuture. This noveldeals with the bondsbetween women, thecycle of poverty, selfdestruction,loss offamily, the outlawcode, and the fragilebeauty of the humancondition.IN BETTERBOOKSTORESACROSS THENATION!“Dirtbags is an easyand addictive read . . .honest dialogue andgrungy dream-likedetails”— The Globe & MailISBN: 1-895636-88-4 • $20