We’re visiting authors in their hometowns and learning about some of their favourite spots all October long.
Find more Homegrown picks here.
Blood Clot Banana Bag by Billeh Nickerson (Anvil Press)
Vancouver, BC
All Lit Up: How does your community feature in your book?
Billeh Nickerson: The Lee Building, at Main and Broadway in Vancouver, built in 1912, was for many years the tallest building in East Vancouver’s Mount Pleasant neighbourhood. It’s seven storeys still loom large in both the historical and present landscapes. Blood Clot Banana Bag features a sequence of poems that explores the building from its opulent roots, to grittier times, to heritage preservation.
Click here to learn more about Blood Clot Banana Bag.
The Warm Land by Jacqueline Pearce (Caitlin Press)
Cowichan Valley and Vancouver Island, BC
in Duncan, BC.
All Lit Up: Does your community feature in your book in some way?
Jacqueline Pearce: The Cowichan Valley and Vancouver Island was a great place to grow up in the 1970s. Nature was at our doorstep or a short walk or bike ride away, and the Dayliner train still ran up and down the island. As an adult, I’ve lived in a few different places, but the island always felt like “home.” Local multicultural history inspired my first novel for children, The Reunion, in 2002, but I never expected that after two decades of writing for kids, my hometown would also inspire my first collection of poetry for adults (although, in hindsight, it seems natural). The book title, The Warm Land, is an affectionate name for the Cowichan Valley and also a reference to the original meaning of the Hul’q’umi’num word “Quw’utsun.” The poems in the collection are haiku, tiny images that draw attention to immediate moments of experience. They’re personal, and there’s a sense of a life unfolding in relationship to a specific place, but also, I hope there’s a broader resonance to the poems that many people can relate to—whether it’s childhood self-discovery, climbing backyard trees, swimming in the river, or exploring human relationships and a widening and changing world. I launched my first book at Volume One Books in downtown Duncan, and it was great to return there for the launch of my latest book. The Dayliner may not run anymore, and the Odeon Theatre, one of my favourite downtown haunts as a teenager, closed years ago, but there is comfort in knowing my favourite local bookstore is still welcoming readers and writers.
Click here to learn more about The Warm Land.
Foxborough by Joe Beller (Renegade Arts Entertainment)
Calgary, AB
All Lit Up: What’s a favourite spot to visit where you live?
Joe Beller: One of my favourite spots to visit in Calgary is The Plaza, an independent single-screen cinema that has been around for decades. The people are amazing, the theatre is historic, and it’s my favourite place to catch a movie—new or classic. It was redesigned a few years ago, and the vibes are fantastic.
Click here to learn more about Foxborough.
Sadi’s Dragon by Beverley Brenna (Thistledown Press)
Saskatoon, SK
Beverley Brenna on the riverbank in Saskatoon, one of her favourite places in the city and an inspiration for the setting of her middle-grade novel Sadi’s Dragons.
All Lit Up: What’s a favourite spot to visit where you live?
Beverley Brenna: One of the most awesome places in Saskatoon is the riverbank. When I was a kid I loved to walk, bike, and ski here. Now that I’m sixty-something, I still walk, bike, and ski here. And sometimes I go to a dance lesson. And sometimes, just like Sadi in my middle-grade novel Sadi’s Dragons, I paint here, as well. There are lots of big houses along the river, and in my imagination, Marguerite, the elderly woman from the novel, lives in one of them, and shoots hoops. And sometimes I join her for a game, perhaps HORSE, and I always win. That’s the fun thing about imagination—you can create a story that makes you happy. And you can insert a real setting into your fiction, from a place you love, to keep it for always, and you can disguise it just enough to fit the story while at the same time carving its important elements into the book.
Click here to learn more about Sadi’s Dragon.
Legendary Allies Book 2: Quest of the Drowned Lands by Linda Trinh (Annick Press)
Winnipeg, MB
All Lit Up: What’s a favourite spot to visit where you live?
Linda Trinh: I’ve lived most of my life in Winnipeg, Manitoba and consider it home. And I will always feel a pull to the land of my ancestors, Vietnam, my birthplace. Both spaces influence the writing of my newest book, Legendary Allies Book 2: Quest of the Drowned Lands. A team of four adventurous kids and their ally animals come together to help their community recover from the flooding of rice fields.
Living on the prairies, we’ve experienced flooding many times. Writing the book, I was thinking about the interaction of humans and our environment. I wanted to explore natural disasters, climate change, and how people support each other through difficult times. The lake featured in the book is inspired by an enchanting location I’ve visited in Hanoi, Vietnam. And while I consider myself a city girl, I’m discovering flowing water and the wide expanse of sky to be nourishing and healing.
Click here to learn more about Legendary Allies Book 2: Quest of the Drowned Lands.
Skin Hunger by Frances Boyle
(Guernica Editions)
Ottawa, ON
in Ottawa.
All Lit Up: What do you love about the arts and culture community where you live?
Frances Boyle: I’ve now lived in Ottawa for more than 30 years, and there are so many things about its arts/culture community that I love! Focusing on the literary scene, I love how a wide range of ages, backgrounds, artistic approaches, and levels of experience coalesce to make a vibrant literary community. Even though the number of reading series that still operate throughout the year fell over the early months of the pandemic (with the notable exception of the cross-disciplinary Riverbed series that started in early Covid, and some surviving slam series), we still have VERSeFest, an international festival that brings together a wide cross-section of the poetry community, both anglophone and francophone, to curate and host events during festival week. (Full disclosure that I’m part of the team that makes VERSeFest happen). And the Ottawa International Writers Festival covers the full gamut of fiction, nonfiction and poetry in English (and in translation), including local writers alongside national and international literary luminaries.
I also love that Ottawa has fabulous bookstores that are well-integrated into the local scene and supportive of local writers. My photo is at one of my very favourite shops, Books on Beechwood, which is my neighbourhood store (dog friendly too!). I’ve been browsing and buying books there ever since I moved to town, back when a creaky set of stairs led to their small store inside an old house. Perfect Books hosts numerous events—owner Jim Sherman even took the risk of expanding the store to create an event space—and they are the bookseller for all the local (and slightly far afield) festivals. Other great bookstores are Spaniel’s Tale, Octopus Book and Singing Pebble. French-language and used bookshops are also well represented. I find it heartening (no pun intended) that a new romance-focused bookshop, Evermore, has recently opened here, as has Love Lyla Books, a modern Islamic bookstore.
And beyond books, Ottawa punches well above its weight for performing and visual arts, in part because it’s the capital but also because local organizations are strong (though the city government could certainly provide even greater support). So, for example, we have The Great Canadian Theatre Company’s fine programming in addition to what’s at the National Arts Centre, and the Ottawa Art Gallery’s collection and exhibitions complementing the National Gallery.
Click here to learn more about Skin Hunger.
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Join us here every Thursday from now until October 29 for more Homegrown reads! Books can be purchased on All Lit Up, or from your local indie bookstore (try our Shop Local button located on every book listing to find copies at your local indie).
