Island Writers
Local literature and lore in book form on islands
Arthur Black of Salt Spring signs a copy
of his latest book
The Gulf Islands are home to many renowned poets, and authors of both fiction and non-fiction works.
The winner of this year's Writers' Trust of Canada Non-Fiction Prize, for example, is long-time Salt Spring resident Brian Brett. His book, called Trauma Farm - A Rebel History of Rural Life, documents the happenings in an "18-year-long day" in the life of his farm.
Salt Spring is also home base for an ambitious new publishing company specializing in B.C. art history, fine art and literature titles. Mother Tongue Publishing Limited released its first books in the fall of 2008, including The Life and Art of David Marshall, by Monika Ullmann, the first book in a series called The Unheralded Artists of B.C. The second book showcases Frank Molnar, Jack Hardman and LeRoy Jensen.
Nick Bantock, of Griffin and Sabine fame, has his own gallery in the Merchants' Mews complex just outside of Ganges.
The latest book from award-winning humour writer and broadcaster Arthur Black, also of Salt Spring Island, is Black is the New Green.
Other Salt Spring literary names to watch for include Ron Wright, Kathy Page, Robert Hilles, Kevin Patterson, George Sipos, Derek Lundy, Peter Levitt, Roger Brunt and Anthony Bruce.
Mayne Island writers include novelists Robert Harlow and Grant Buday.
One of the grand women of Canadian literature, Audrey Thomas, lives on Galiano Island, as does up-and-coming writer Linda Richards. Galiano Island Books hosted the first Galiano Literary Festival in February of 2010.
Pender Island's authors include crime novelist and Dashiell Hammett award-winner William Deverell, and Andrea and David Spalding.
Bill Schermbrucker, a winner of the Ethel Wilson Prize for Fiction, is Saturna's best-known fiction writer.
Gabriola Island's Katherine Gordon won the Roderick Haig-Brown Regional Prize in 2007 for her book Made to Measure: A History of Land Surveying in British Columbia, while Iain Lawrence of Gabriola won the 2007 Governor General's Literary Award for Children's Literature for his book called Gemini Summer.
Books by Gulf Islands authors are available at local bookstores and other retail outlets.
As well, watch for free or by-donation literary events put on by groups such as Theatre Alive! or ArtSpring on Salt Spring, Poetry Gabriola on Gabriola Island, or various bookstores on the islands.