Presented in partnership with the North Vancouver City Library, the North Vancouver District Public Library, and the West Vancouver Memorial Library.
Theodora Armstrong
Theodora Armstrong is a fiction writer, poet, and photographer. Her collection of short fiction, Clear Skies, No Wind, 100% Visibility, set against the landscape of British Columbia, was a finalist for the Danuta Gleed Literary Award for Fiction and the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize. Her stories have appeared in numerous literary magazines and won awards across Canada, and have also been included in both The Journey Prize Anthology 20 and Coming Attractions 10. Most recently, her story The Spider in the Jar was translated into Spanish and Hebrew and included in The Short Story Project, an online Israeli publication of short fiction from around the world. Currently, she lives in North Vancouver with her husband and two children and teaches fiction in the School of Creative Writing at the University of British Columbia. www.theodoraarmstrong.ca
Titles in the 2022/2023 Collection: Clear Skies, No Wind, 100% Visibility
Ken Ashley, co-author Fernando Lessa
Ken received his B.Sc. and M.Sc. at UBC in the Zoology Department, specializing in aquatic ecology, and an M.A.Sc. and Ph.D. at UBC in the Faculty of Applied Sciences in Civil and Environmental Engineering. He worked for the Ministry of Environment in the Fisheries Research and Development Section on the UBC campus from 1979 to 2005, initially as a project biologist, and eventually as Section Head for Fisheries Restoration and Bioengineering. While in this position he conducted a set of large-scale adaptive management experiments, and is internationally recognized for his research in the design, operation and effects of hypolimnetic aeration systems, lake/reservoir fertilization, and stream/river enrichment. Ken received the Murray A. Newman Award for Significant Achievement in Aquatic Research in 1997, Fisheries Professional of the Year from the BC Ministry of Environment in 1999 and the Seth Diamond Award for Interdisciplinary Conservation Research from the University of Idaho-Moscow and University of Montana-Missoula in 2001. Ken transferred to the Greater Vancouver Regional District from 2005 to 2007 and was the project lead for the Environmental Management team, with responsibility for raw drinking water quality, and monitoring the environmental effects of wastewater discharges from the regions five wastewater treatment plants and municipal water withdrawals from the Capilano, Seymour and Coquitlam rivers. Dr. Ashley is currently Director of the Rivers Institute at BCIT, an instructor in BCIT's Ecological Restoration Program and is an Adjunct Professor at SFU.
Titles in the 2022/2023 Collection: The Heart of the Fraser, The Soul of the Fraser
Cathi AG
Cathi Atmadjaja-Geraghty has taken the memories from all her students she has worked with in public schools and with private clients to let these characters shine. Her four year old daughter brings much inspiration as her inquisitive mind meets daily colourful personalities in her pre school.
Titles in the 2022/2023 Collection: A Beautiful Woodland Swish Swish Fish Fish
Jackie Bateman
Jackie Bateman is an author, screenwriter and filmmaker based in North Vancouver. She wrote an award-winning trilogy of psychological suspense novels set in Scotland: Nondescript Rambunctious, Savour, and Straight Circles. Her YA novel Beauty and the Freak was a finalist for Screencraft Cinematic Book and shortlisted for the Int. Yeovil Literary prize. Jackie is the writer and director of two short films: Property and A Parallel Life screened at festivals around the world, including Cannes, Berlin and Austin. www.jacbateman.com
Titles in the 2022/2023 Collection: Beauty and the Freak
Patricia Bowles
Patricia Bowles is a retired public relations executive living in West Vancouver and Bowen Island BC, Canada.
Titles in the 2022/2023 Collection: Butternut Island - Rose
David Bowra
A retired senior partner from a big 4 accounting firm, David has spent his career dealing with troubled companies throughout Western Canada and the US. Handling airlines, real estate construction, pulp mills, wineries, and even book publishers, he found running a small family business just as challenging as a company with 500 employees, but not as challenging as writing a book. He moved from London, England in the late seventies and lives in West Vancouver. davidbowra.com
Titles in the 2022/2023 Collection: Banking on Murder
Nicki Boyd
Nicki grew up in Northern Ontario. After a rewarding career in teaching, she now lives in North Vancouver, BC with her husband David. After her retirement, Amanda Todd's tragic bullying inspired her to take writing courses and write her story, Rattled. She first applied and was accepted to the Institute of Children's Literature. For ten years, she continued taking a variety of writing courses, too numerous to mention, the latest being with Caroline Adderson from SFU where this author encouraged writers through Alice Munro's short stories to start with a short story instead of a full length novel. With that in mind, Nicki applied to Dani and Steve Alcorn's Writing Academy and took a 'short story writing bootcamp' where she completed this short story. It was published in April 2021. Rattled is her first publication dedicated to her four grandchildren, Scarlett, Sam, Sawyer and Kole. Her second book, a full-length sequel to the upper middle grade short story, is completed and undergoing revision. She hopes to publish with Writing Academy again by next year.
Titles in the 2022/2023 Collection: Rattled
Dylan Brooks
Dylan is a Canadian author of poetry. Born October 24, 1992 he grew up in Burlington, Ontario with his parents and younger sister. In his poems he engages themes of society and self, relationships and mental health; enigmas of the spirit. His debut collection Sip Slow and Prosper is introspective and lyrical in form. A medium for his current style of writing. Dylan has been living in British Columbia since 2014. www.brooksdylan.com
Titles in the 2022/2023 Collection: Sip Slow and Prosper
Andrew Cawood
Andrew Cawood has written Monsters of Feyland, Monsters of the Underworld, Monsters of the Wilderness, the World of Myrr, and many other bestselling RPG books. Andrew lives with his wife and daughter in North Vancouver. worldofmyrr.com
Titles in the 2022/2023 Collection: Monsters of the City: Sins and Virtues
Marlene Cheng
Marlene Cheng was prairie-born, farm-raised, and now lives among old-growth pine and cedar, overlooking the Pacific Ocean, on the West Coast of Canada—a haven that stimulates creativity. "As with any worthy story," she says, "my biography, independent of its author, has its own inner destiny. I sense this and strive to have the poise, integrity, and courage to go with the flow." www.marlenecheng.com
Titles in the 2022/2023 Collection: Shifting to Freedom
Hilary Clark
Hilary Yates Clark, an only child of older parents, spent a lot of time listening to her father's anecdotes, and learning from his "survival" stories. He was truly a loving, self made man with little formal education, but a lot of practical life experience. Hilary is a UBC graduate who spent 26 years teaching at Capilano College/University. During this time, she was elected to the board of Lions Gate Hospital where she became the first female board chair. At the same time, as an amateur musician she founded the Ambleside Orchestra of West Vancouver. For her public service, she was awarded the Queen's Jubilee Medal in 2012. Hilary has written and published all her adult life. All she needed was the gift of time to document both her mother's and her father's stories.
Titles in the 2022/2023 Collection: Home from Sea and Hill: a memoir of my father, Thomas Yates
Penney Clark, co-author Alan Sears
Penney Clark is a resident of the North Shore and a Professor of Social Studies Education in the Department of Curriculum and Pedagogy at the University of British Columbia. She loves to read historical fiction. www.edcp.educ.ubc.ca/faculty/penney-clark
Titles in the 2022/2023 Collection: The Arts and the Teaching of History: Historical F(r)ictions
Evelyn Cohoon Dreiling
Evelyn Cohoon Dreiling is the author of several historical fiction books. Since her retirement from a public service administration position in Ottawa, she has self-published on smashwords.com. She joined the North Shore Writers Association and polished her skills from many professional writers and journalists. Evelyn studied Commercial Art at Concordia University in Montreal and enjoys producing her book covers. She makes her home in North Vancouver, close to her small family. edreiling.typepad.com/blog/cohoon-ancestry-.html
Titles in the 2022/2023 Collection: Henri's Quest
Rod Day
Rod Day writes from the inside, drawing on his 16 years lived experience as municipal councillor and member of advisory commissions and working groups for another 15 years, and from the outside, as professional historian (Stanford B.A.; Harvard, M.A. Ph.D.) and professor emeritus in History at Simon Fraser University. He consulted documents which he had kept over the years and did extensive research in the West Vancouver Archives.
Titles in the 2022/2023 Collection: Inside West Vancouver, People, Politics, and Planning since 1912
John D'Eathe
John D'Eathe was educated in the UK in urban land economics and law. After training in the City of London he set off blithely for an adventurous business life in Colonial Hong Kong and Asia. A decade later he moved on to Canada, commencing a long career in property investment throughout North America and in various parts of the world. He travelled extensively and witnessed the various cultural subtleties of getting things. He and his wife Lane live actively in West Vancouver and enjoy visiting their widely located family and friends. launderingthedragon.com
Titles in the 2022/2023 Collection: Laundering the Dragon. Black Renminbi.
Safia Dhalla
Safia (Sophie) was diagnosed with acute lymphocytic leukemia at the age of 4 and has been in remission since August 1994. Safia always says, "It's because of BC Children's Hospital that I am alive." Safia wrote this book to help other children who are fighting the same battle she was at a young age. Proceeds from this book will be donated to The Michael Cuccione Childhood Cancer Research Program at BC Children's Hospital. www.sophiesstorybooks.com
Titles in the 2022/2023 Collection: Sophie's Story: I Have Cancer
Sarah Dosanjh
Dr. Dosanjh is a Family Physician and mother to a toddler and newborn in Vancouver, BC, Canada. She was inspired to create this story at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic and hopes it will encourage parents/caregivers to continue nurturing their children's imagination. This is her first children's book.
Titles in the 2022/2023 Collection: What Should We Do Today?
Steve Douglas
Steve was born in New York City during WW2 and grew up in a home filled with Oz books, Burrough's Martian stories, and Tolkien's Hobbit. In his childhood, his father Don, sipping a beer and puffing on his pipe, told bedtime tales to Steve and his brother Dwight, creating characters that later inspired Steve's fiction. In grade school, Steve attended the NYC St. John's the Divine Cathedral School as a choir boy, moved to high school in the suburbs, then drifted through three years of university at Yale and Bishop's. He pushed his draft into the U.S. Army, spending two years of service in Germany as part of NATO. After returning to NYC, Steve worked at Harcourt, Brace Publishers for eight years, married Pam (a Canadian), and with their two children moved to Pam's birthplace in Vancouver, BC, where Steve became a Canadian Citizen. During his working career at the City of Vancouver, Steve was constantly imagining fantasy epics in the back of his mind and these stories began to take shape on paper. (While riding the bus to work, Steve might have been heard muttering {How the heck am I going to get rid of that ugly, rotten Sorcerer!?}) After thirty years, Steve retired in 2008 as Assistant General Manager with Vancouver Fire and Rescue Services. During evenings, weekends and holidays he finished his series. Family support, including wild comments from his beloved grandchildren, provided editorial and publishing suggestions essential to the completion and publication of The Mid-World of the Truce. Steve feels tremendously grateful for their heroic efforts. amazon.ca/dp/B09NY87ZBZ
Titles in the 2022/2023 Collection: The Mid-World of the Truce (a five book fantasy series): The Wild Time, The Game of the Masters, The Grey Witch of the North, The Sorcerers and the Marids, The Isle of the Demons
Shahrzad Esmaeili
Shahrzad Esmaeili (PhD) is a Professor Emerita of Materials Engineering at the University of Waterloo (Canada). In 2014, she embarked on a new life journey in the path of poetry to celebrate life, love, nature, and humanity. Tales of Existence is a collection of some of her poems spanning the period of 2014-2016.
Titles in the 2022/2023 Collection: Tales of Existence: A collection of Poems, Tales of Existence: Poems in English and Persian
Lindsay Ford
Lindsay Ford is the author, illustrator and publisher for Bread+Clutter Books, an independent publishing house. Ford creates the Awkward+Awesome reading series celebrating everyday heroes. Her books have been described as next-gen fun for ages one to one hundred. www.breadandclutter.com
Titles in the 2022/2023 Collection: The Granny That Never Got Old
V.R. Friesen
V.R. Friesen has been writing stories since shortly after she learned the alphabet. She grew up on the beautiful East Coast of Canada and now lives on the equally beautiful (but in a different way) West Coast, in Vancouver, BC. She can usually be found drinking chai lattes, playing Dungeons and Dragons, cheering on her favourite basketball team, or reading like it's going out of style. Gravity Shattered is her first series. www.vrfriesen.com
Titles in the 2022/2023 Collection: Gravity Girl, Gravity Curse, Gravity Tower
Lyle Garford
Lyle Garford is the author of several books of historical fiction in The Evan Ross Series and The Owen Spence Series, two children's books in The Stick Bug Stories, and a work of fiction entitled The Christmas Cafe. He lives in North Vancouver, Canada.
Titles in the 2022/2023 Collection: Dockyard Dog
Trish Gauntlett
Trish Gauntlett has made her home in British Columbia for many years. She's a member of the North Shore Writers' Association and the Federation of BC Writers. Having always been a working writer, she has earned awards for short fiction, non-fiction and poetry. She has travelled widely, including to Orkney. Her family is from the borders in Britain, on Hadrian's Wall, which echoes with Pictish, Roman and Viking history. She lives with her husband in North Vancouver, British Columbia, overlooking the mountains and the sea. She enjoys collecting beach stones and sea glass—they tell ancient stories. www.trishgauntlett.ca
Titles in the 2022/2023 Collection: The Gods of Thought and Memory
Joyce Goodwin
Joyce has lived in North Vancouver since immigration from Ireland in 1989. She continued her Social Work career with the Provincial Govt. Ministry. Joyce has been a member of the NSWA since 1999 holding various positions and is a co-founder of Dare to Be Heard literary salon. Some of her words from the 2000 Millennium Anthology are etched in glass at the L.V. Library. This poetry book also contains images of her art. Joyce is an active member of the NSAG and other art groups.
Titles in the 2022/2023 Collection: Fragments: A Poetry Mosaic
Dan Green
Dan Green attained his degree in Dentistry in 1969 from the University of Manitoba. After retiring from his West Vancouver Practice in 2003, he studied creative writing at UBC. He is a member of the Canadian Authors' Association, the Federation of BC Writers and the Palm Springs Writers Guild. His first novel, Blue Saltwater was published in 2010 and his second, Teeth, Lies and Consequences was published in 2016. dangreen.ca
Titles in the 2022/2023 Collection: Teeth, Lies & Consequences
Denis Hachey
Denis Hachey has twenty-five years experience in business, including co-ownership of a successful multimillion dollar venture for over fifteen years. His experiences in the business world have inspired him to share what he has learned and to offer insight into how to change wishing and dreaming into a plan of action to make that dream happen.
Denis is married with two children and lives in North Vancouver BC.
Titles in the 2022/2023 Collection: A Mind to Mind Conversation
Karen Harmon
Karen Harmon is a local North Vancouver author, fitness instructor and Special Needs Teaching Assistant. She has written three books to date, Looking for Normal, Where is My Happy Ending? and Fat and Beautiful - A Story of Love, Pain and Courage. Karen's wit, storytelling abilities, and simplicity in looking at life are evident in her writing, fitness classes and work with the West Vancouver School District. She is married and a mother of three adult children. Her hobbies include cycling, hiking and public speaking engagements. Her goals are to inspire others to write and dig deep into their past and share their story. "Everyone has a story to tell, and everyone can inspire others from their joy and struggles." With over 8000 followers on social media, Karen enjoys interacting with others and sharing her story. karenharmonauthor.com
Titles in the 2022/2023 Collection: Looking for Normal, Where is My Happy Ending, Fat and Beautiful: A Story of Love, Pain and Courage
Graham Harrop
Graham Harrop has served as an editorial cartoonist for The Vancouver Sun since 1996. He also creates the award-winning TEN CATS comic strip, and has a number of colourful cartoon collections and childrens' books to his credit. grahamharropcartoons.com
Titles in the 2022/2023 Collection: SUN SPOTS: A Treasury of Graham Harrop's Editorial Cartoons for The Vancouver Sun 1996-2021, Gardening with Cats: A cat's guide to the flowerbed, So You Won the Lottery! A Look at the Lives of the Suddenly Super-Rich
Lid Hawkins
Holiday, 1909 is the journal of Charles Chapman, an early member of the British Columbia Mountaineering Club. This unique journal is accompanied by his photos. The editor, Lid Hawkins, is one of Charles' grandchildren, and discovered the photos and journal separately; she has carefully packed them together, with notes, into the 108 page book, Holiday 1909. Lid is a long-time north shore resident. This book is the second in a series of three Chappy books about the adventures of Charles Chapman. www.garibaldipublishing.com
Titles in the 2022/2023 Collection: Holiday, 1909
Shelley Hrdlitschka & Rae Schidlo, illustrator Linda Sharp
Shelley Hrdlitschka and Rae Schidlo both volunteered at Grouse Mountain, taking care of the bears and fell in love with these gorgeous animals. Unbeknownst to each other, they both decided the story of Grinder and Coola needed to be told, and they both wrote the story of these two bears. When a third party introduced them, Rae and Shelley found that they had written almost exactly the same book! Rae and Shelley are both beloved local teachers, and Shelley is an award winning children's author. The book was illustrated by local artist Linda Sharp, illustrator of Granville Island ABC.
Titles in the 2022/2023 Collection: The Grizzlies of Grouse Mountain: the True Adventures of Coola and Grinder
Georgia Hunter
Georgia Hunter is a Canadian author/artist residing in North Vancouver, Canada. She lives in a sweet house she calls a bush-bungalow, which is shrouded by four huge evergreens. She likes living in harmony with the forest. Although she was born in Winnipeg and she lived for a few years with her husband and young son on their dairy farm in Alberta, her formative years were on the west coast. She taught school for the Vancouver School Board. Georgia is a multi-talented and gifted visual artist working in a variety of mediums. She holds a degree from the University of British Columbia majoring in Fine Arts. She did further studies in sculpture at the University of Lethbridge and Visual Communications in the Medicine Hat College. She received the Board of Governors' Award for Art and was twice awarded a bursary for high grade point average for Visual Communications. georgiahunterbooks.com
Titles in the 2022/2023 Collection: Tabhi
Jalal Jaffer
The author, born in 1945 in Kenya but brought up in Uganda, went to London England for his university education, where he obtained his Bachelor and Master of Science in Economics. After migrating to Canada he earned his Law Degree from UBC Law School, and was named Queen's Counsel by the Government of BC in 2015. Today he lives with his wife, Shamshad, in a lovely home along a river in North Vancouver. www.jalaljaffer.com
Titles in the 2022/2023 Collection: Memories of a Ugandan Refugee: Encounters of Hope from Kampala to Vancouver
Azim Jiwani
Dr. Azim Jiwani worked in health care and global health development for several decades, holding various leadership positions in academic, hospital, and community settings. His work included teaching, research, medical administration, strategic planning, advocacy, consultancies, and advisory roles. Dr. Jiwani held senior faculty positions with the Aga Khan University (AKU) and at the University of British Columbia in the Faculty of Medicine as a clinical professor. He interacted with many local, national, and multilateral organizations, including the World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations, universities, and global health institutions and he continues to play a consulting and voluntary advisory role in health care, education and international development. As an avid traveller, Dr. Jiwani's journeys have taken him to locales in Europe, Asia, the Americas, Africa, the Middle East, Central Asia, Australia and New Zealand. He explored local cultures, traditions, and social, historical and environmental aspects of life and development. He has lectured at many higher learning institutions, professional organizations, civil society groups, and community groups. His interests include natural sciences, moral philosophy, architecture, civilizational histories, and anthropology. Dr. Jiwani lives in West Vancouver, British Columbia, with Nilu, his wife of 45 years.
Titles in the 2022/2023 Collection: Humanizing Medicine: Making Health Tangible
Jiwen
Jiwen is a female Canadian-Chinese writer. English is her third language after Chinese and Japanese. She has received many prestigious awards for her Chinese historical fiction, and her published work includes 13 novels, some of which have been adapted for television or opera. She's worked hard to fulfill her dream to write novels in English and received a lot of help from the community. www.writerjiwen.com
Titles in the 2022/2023 Collection: FanGong Seawall, Changganli
Pauline Johansen, illustrator Dianne Elizabeth Nelson
Pauline Johansen is a retired elementary school principal living in North Vancouver. She loves the life of a float home in Mosquito Creek with her husband and cat Lucy.
She is the author of a memoir, Objects in Mirror Are Closer Than They Appear (iuniverse 2011) and is currently writing on the on-line platform Wattpad.com under the title Olivia Always.
Titles in the 2022/2023 Collection: My Daddy's Voice
Dietrich Kalteis
Dietrich Kalteis is the critically acclaimed author of ten novels and winner of the 2022 Crime Writers of Canada Award of Excellence for Best Crime Novel for Under an Outlaw Moon. He enjoys life with his family on Canada's West Coast. dietrichkalteis.com
Titles in the 2022/2023 Collection: Nobody From Somewhere, Under an Outlaw Moon, Cradle of the Deep, Call Down the Thunder
Alison Kelly, illustrator Linda Sharp
Alison Kelly is an actor and playwright best known as one of the creators/performers of the internationally acclaimed, award-winning Mom's The Word and sequels. The latest in the series, Mom's The Word: Talk'n Turkey, will premiere in the fall of 2022 at the Arts Club Theatre.
Titles in the 2022/2023 Collection: Granville Island ABC A Family Adventure
Christopher Key
Christopher Key was born in San Francisco, Terra, and currently lives in North Vancouver, Cascadia, with his wife, the oft-mentioned Reiko. Like many writers, he has had more day jobs than he can recall, but the mainstay was always journalism and that may have impacted the format of the book. Thanks for reading it! Contact: ckey2048@gmail.com.
Titles in the 2022/2023 Collection: Report on Planetbase D73
Betty (Hyeonyu) Kim
Betty Kim is a writer who was born in Korea and moved to Canada in 2019. She attends Chartwell Elementary School and she likes to swim, golf, and chat with her friends in her free time. She has finally published her first book, The Game World! She is a very amazing writer but she doesn't love to read. She really likes the writer Chris Grabenstein and his book the Mr.Lemoncello's Library series. She is trying to find what she likes to do and what she is good at.
Titles in the 2022/2023 Collection: The Game World
Justin (Hyeonho) Kim
Justin Kim attends Chartwell Elementary School, and loves to play with his friends. When Justin isn't writing, he plays baseball with his friends or watches TV. He was born in Seoul, South Korea, which is home to one of the most famous singing groups, BTS. He was inspired to write by his favourite author, Chris Grabstein. After reading Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library, he was inspired to write a mystery novel. He also plays the flute!
Titles in the 2022/2023 Collection: The Missing Diamond
Romana King
Romana King is an award-winning personal finance columnist, former Senior Editor at Moneysense, former Director of Content at Zolo (one of the most popular online real estate companies in Canada) and the woman behind RKHomeowner. For over two decades, she's advised homebuyers, sellers, and investors on how to make strategic, smart real estate decisions. www.romanaking.com
Titles in the 2022/2023 Collection: House Poor No More: 9 Steps that Grow the Value of Your Home and Net Worth
Erich Kunz
Erich was born as a result of a cancer experiment in 1937. He experienced W.W.2 like the children you see today on TV in the Ukraine. His father was killed on the last day of the war. He became a freedom fighter in Germany. At 18 he emigrated to Canada. He became active in Reconciliation work with the Native community, became an advisor to BC government and very instrumental in avoiding a general strike before Expo 86. He became a businessman employing 35 people.
Titles in the 2022/2023 Collection: Why
Mackenzie Kyle
Mackenzie Kyle is the Managing Partner for Advisory Services in British Columbia for MNP and the Vice President of Client Service for the firm. He has more than 25 years' experience in operations improvement and restructuring, and has provided specific assistance in everything from strategic planning to performance management to managing projects. He has hands-on experience in a wide variety of industries, and his services are frequently of use in situations requiring the application of more than a single specialty. Mackenzie has worked in a variety of industries including manufacturing, transportation, telecommunications, as well as the public sector and internationally in the United States, Australia, New Zealand and Asia. His book Making It Happen: A Non-Technical Guide to Project Management is published by John Wiley & Sons in 1998. www.mackenziekyle.com
Titles in the 2022/2023 Collection: The Performance Principle, Making It Happen: A Non-Technical Guide to Project Management
Me-An Laceste
Feeling Isolated? EXPLORE! is Me-An Laceste's 4th poetry book. She's never written Haiku before and its discovery was her way of escaping what seemed to be a never ending bombardment of Covid-19's horrific news. While others filled their "quarantined" time with cooking, cleaning, baking, gardening, she read about and challenged herself to write Haiku to match the photos she's taken during her walks in the neighbourhood. Me-An has been a resident of the North Shore since 1991.
Titles in the 2022/2023 Collection: Feeling Isolated? EXPLORE!, Feeling Red? BLUSH!
M. Ali Lakhani
M. Ali Lakhani, QC, graduated from Cambridge University and has been practising as a barrister in Vancouver for over forty years. Interested in applying metaphysics to modern world issues, he in 1998 founded Sacred Web: A Journal of Tradition and Modernity, a leading journal in the field that has published articles by the Prince of Wales, the Dalai Lama, Karen Armstrong, Huston Smith, Seyyed Hossein Nasr and William C. Chittick, among others. The author's other publications include The Timeless Relevance of Traditional Wisdom (2010), The Sacred Foundations of Justice in Islam (2006) and his first prize-winning essay The Metaphysics of Human Governance: Imam Ali, Truth and Justice, and When The Rose Blooms (2021). www.sacredweb.com
Titles in the 2022/2023 Collection: When The Rose Blooms: Spiritual Aphorisms, Faith and Ethics: The Vision of the Ismaili Imamat
Peter K. P. Lee
I have lived and worked on the North Shore since 1976. After working as a Public Health Inspector for about 37 years, I retired in 2012. After retirement, I realized that there weren't many books about the Public Health Inspector profession so I decided to write a memoir about my experience. My memoir was self-published in 2015. On January 23, 2016, I received a very good book review by Tom Sandborn of the Vancouver Sun. Tom also introduced my book at the Ian Jessop CFAX Radio in Victoria on January 19, 2016.
Titles in the 2022/2023 Collection: Health Inspector, Eh?
Dr. Mandy Lee et al.
Dr. Mandy Lee is a North Vancouver Chiropractor currently practicing in Edgemont Village and one of 15 co-authors in the book Handling Hard Stuff (Like a Boss). In this book, she shares her journey of receiving an out of the blue, life altering diagnosis and the trials, tribulations and triumph that make up her story.
Titles in the 2022/2023 Collection: Handling Hard Stuff (Like a #Boss)
Diane Christine Lund
Diane Lund has always had two loves in her life: being a creative writer/producer and studying spirituality. Working as a Creative Director in her company Creative Wonders Communications, Diane has written and produced for corporate clients for over 30 years. (You can see her portfolio: http://www.creativewonders.ca) Finally, she decided it was time to write and produce the spiritual books and creative projects that were renting space in her head. Right alongside her creative passion, Diane has been leading Course in Miracle study groups in her home for decades. In 2018, she became a Reverend specialized in A Course in Miracles through the Canadian International Metaphysical Ministries (CIMM). Her two #1 Amazon bestselling books focus on looking at life from a different perspective—a point of view that is often 180 degrees or completely reversed from conventional western thought. On a personal note, Diane shares her light and love with her family, friends and amazing husband in beautiful West Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Where she says life is indeed, "super-natural." dianelundmiracles.com
Titles in the 2022/2023 Collection: Turn Your World UPSIDE DOWN To Get Your World RIGHT SIDE UP: Reverse Thinking Based on A Course in Miracles. Book I: Life's Big Questions, Relationships, Work and Money, Turn Your World UPSIDE DOWN to Get Your Life RIGHT SIDE UP: Reverse Thinking Based on A Course in Miracles Book II: Health, Conflict, Fear and Happiness
Mama Lyza
Mama Lyza is. Triplet mother, artist, illustrator and story teller. Her children's book ideas and illustration all started with her three babies the same age. Mama Lyza and her family live on the West Coast, North Vancouver, B.C. Canada. Her favorite thing to do is to swim in the ocean with dolphins and seals. www.lyzaart.com
Titles in the 2022/2023 Collection: I Wish Mom Was An Octopus
Angela Mackie, co-author Sophie Lazarou
Angie resides in North Vancouver an is a nurse and mother of three daughters and two girl cats. She is an avid outdoors woman and has recently taken up the sport of pickleball- on the courts is where you will often find her. Angie has always been a poet at heart and was thrilled to collaborate on this children's book to spread the important message that beauty comes from the inside.
Titles in the 2022/2023 Collection: I am beautiful...and I know it
Douglas MacLeod
Doug MacLeod has worked as a CBC technician, a high school English and Social Studies teacher, an educator of the Deaf and a school administrator. He and his wife Mariette have two grown sons and now live in North Vancouver. Doug is active in the North Shore Writers' Association and the Gulf Yacht Club, splitting time between his passions of sailing and writing.
Titles in the 2022/2023 Collection: On The Edge Of Wilderness
A. Mallarkey
Ann Mallarkey has been a volunteer leader and trainer with Scouts Canada and BSA Scouts for 25 years. She recently retired and has been inspired to open a B&B and to write children's books. Kilimanjaro (Kili) is a Coton de Tulear. "Coton" is the French word for cotton, "de" is French for from, and Tulear is a city in Madagascar. But while the dog breed is from Madagascar, Kili is actually from Atlanta, Georgia.
Titles in the 2022/2023 Collection: New Home: The Adventures of Kili the Coton de Tulear
Bertrand Marfaing
Bertrand Marfaing was born in France, and after a few years in the French West Indies, he moved to Quebec where he spent most of his youth. As an adult, he started out his career first in Montréal, then Sydney, Australia, moved to London, U.K., and now calls North Vancouver his home, for over 10 years now. He studied various artistic fields: French literature, theater, music, cinema, and multimedia, and currently works in the field of computer-generated animated feature films. bertrand.marfaing.net
Titles in the 2022/2023 Collection: Par un beau jour de pluie, Les contes de la Bibliothèque Incendiée, La Quête
Lawrence Matrick
Dr. Lawrence E. Matrick grew up in Winnipeg and later received his degree in Medicine from the Manitoba Medical College. After moving to Vancouver with his wife he worked at the Provincial Mental Hospital at Riverview for one year as a resident in psychiatry. He continued his studies in psychiatry in London, England and received his British degrees in Psychiatry, and later accomplished his Fellowship in the Royal College of Physicians, Canada. As an Assistant Professor in Medicine and Psychiatry at the University of British Columbia he taught medical students and supervised psychiatric residents at the Vancouver General Hospital while running a full time private practice in Vancouver for almost 50 years. lawrencematrick.com
Titles in the 2022/2023 Collection: Misfits: Characters Only a Mother Could Love
Tara McGuire
Tara McGuire is a former broadcaster turned writer
whose essays and poetry have appeared in several magazines and on CBC Radio. She is a graduate of the Writer's Studio at Simon Fraser
University and holds an MFA from the University of British Columbia
School of Creative Writing. Holden After and Before is her first book. She lives in North Vancouver with her family. taramcguire.com
Titles in the 2022/2023 Collection: Holden After and Before - Love Letter for a Son Lost to Overdose
Ashley McIntosh
Ashley McIntosh, BAPsyc Honours, CPC, has led workshops on personal awareness, emotional health, and kindness for over 15 years, working with thousands of children and adults. She is currently studying toward a Master's degree in Counselling Psychology at CityU. With the widely respected educational group led by Saleema Noon Sexual Health Educators, Ashley helped create the iGirl, iGuy and iKid self-development workshops taught in elementary schools across British Columbia. For these workshops, Ashley developed playful metaphors to help students become aware of their emotions, thoughts and hearts. Her children's book, The Girl and The Sun, offers these metaphors in a beautifully endearing story so parents and teachers can have honest conversations with kids about these deeply important subjects. www.ashleyandthesun.com
Titles in the 2022/2023 Collection: The Girl and The Sun
Emma Mendez
Emma Mendez (she/they) is the daughter of Mexican immigrants and a mixed-Indigenous "mestiza," who strives to help create a decolonized world free of oppression and injustice. She uses her creative works as a form of resistance, healing, and magic. Currently an undergraduate student, they live, create, and study on the unceded and ancestral lands of the Squamish, Musqueam and Tsleil-Waututh peoples, so-called Vancouver, Canada. Her work has been published as part of ParkerART Salon's the poetry project and in the literary magazine, The Liar. Wounded Healer, is her first book.
Titles in the 2022/2023 Collection: Wounded Healer
Gary Mussatto
Gary is a musician born and raised in North Vancouver. When he started his family with his wife Misti he developed some characters from his childhood based on his father 'Tookie'. In 1997 these characters became the inspiration for an indoor play centre for kids in Park Royal called the 'Gator Pit'. Birthday parties were the theme of the day which soon led to the creation of a toy store and the Toy Jungle was born. For over 20 years Gary and Misti enjoyed life as retailers with 4 toy stores in greater Vancouver.
Titles in the 2022/2023 Collection: Tooky and the Toy Jungle: the Adventure Begins
Marilyn Norry, co-author Michelle Hohn
My Mother's Story is a project designed to engage individuals, heal families, build communities and gather women's history by asking people to write the story of their mothers' lives. Gone Too Soon is the result of a collaboration between actor and project founder Marilyn Norry and Registered Therapeutic Counsellor Michelle Hohn to use the writing template as a deliberate tool for healing. Both editors lived on the North Shore when starting this project. Writers of these stories are: Linda Higgins, Susan Teresa Bocchinfuso, Tamara Mercer, Susan Henderson Frank, Colleen Winton, Jin Beom Synn, Kathryn Lannan, Sydell Weiner, Christine Norris, Jennifer Juniper Angeli, Janyne Sinclaire, James Edgington, Soma Keo, Kelsey Weaver, Mandy Gosling, Colleen Rhodes, Jennifer Burgie, Shenan Smith, Amanda McNally, and Michelle Hohn. mymothersstory.org
Titles in the 2022/2023 Collection: My Mother's Story: North Vancouver, My Mother's Story: Gone Too Soon, My Mother's Story: the Originals
Noah Orenfant
She is a mother of two and lives in Canada. All of her books are written and illustrated and are available in English and Japanese; Seeds is also published in French. Her other illustrated books are Leaf and Root, I'MPOSSIBLE, Home, Be yourself, Howdy the spider, and Red Roof. Her first illustrated book, Seeds, was born out of the many hints she received from nature when she began to plant seeds and grow vegetables in her garden. www.blurb.ca/b/6672904-seeds
Titles in the 2022/2023 Collection: Seeds, Leaf and Root, I'mpossible, Be Yourself, Home, Howdy the spider, Red Roof
MJ Parker
Melissa-Jane (MJ) Parker is the pen name of the author of The Nude Detective Trilogy who lives in British Columbia, Canada. MJ loves intricate stories, and approaches writing a novel as if creating a jigsaw puzzle. MJ enjoys cutting the plot into complex shapes that lock together seamlessly and then painting interesting characters across the surface to produce a fun, interesting adventure. The action starts in the beautiful city of Vancouver where the gritty detective team is based and the plot takes the diverse cast of characters to France, the US, the UK, Portugal, and Namibia. When not writing MJ loves flying, researching social trends and behavioral science, quirky historical facts, new scientific discoveries, and craft beer. It's fair to say these interests have found their way into the novels. www.melissajaneparker.com
Titles in the 2022/2023 Collection: The Nude Detective
Frances Peck
Frances Peck wrote fiction and poetry until her early twenties, when the realities of adulthood and rent steered her toward a career as a ghostwriter, editor, and instructor. Known for her writing and workshops on the finer points of language, she's the author of Peck's English Pointers, a co-author of the HyperGrammar website, and an occasional essayist and blogger. Frances returns to her first love, fiction, with her debut novel, The Broken Places (NeWest Press, April 2022). This "intense and absorbing drama" (Vancouver Sun), which takes place largely on Vancouver's North Shore, explores how a major earthquake shakes up the lives and relationships of a group of interrelated characters. francespeck.com
Titles in the 2022/2023 Collection: The Broken Places
Alicia Peters
With a day job in the corporate world and a decade of international capacity building, Alicia is known for more serious writings. She unleashes her creativity in her debut children's picture book Ben and the Big Green Garden. Alicia believes in finding magic hidden in ordinary moments and brings them to life in her writing. Alicia lives and plays on BC's North Shore with her husband and adorable Aussiedoodle. aliciaauthor.weeblysite.com
Titles in the 2022/2023 Collection: Ben and the Big Green Garden
Mladen Plecko, co-author David Plecko
Mladen Adolf Plecko was born in Zagreb, Croatia where he completed his degree in Architectural Engineering. Following his relocation to France, Mladen completed his second degree at the Beaux Arts Paris University of Architecture. During his 10-year stay in France, he participated in many national and international architectural competitions from which he received a number of awards. Mladen then immigrated to Vancouver, Canada, where he settled down to raise his family. During his professional career in Canada he designed and built numerous commercial and residential projects. Mladen is a member of the Architectural Institute of British Columbia and the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada. mladen.plecko.com
Titles in the 2022/2023 Collection: Mladen A. Plecko, Architect Monograph
Jennifer Samson
Jennifer Samson (she/her) is the author of the coming-of-age Sin City series, and co-author of the dark comedy/thriller The Final Cut. She enjoys fine-nibbed pens, Hilroy loose leaf paper, corner store candy, adorable cats, and beating her Goodreads Reading Challenge every year. Being Canadian, a love of hockey goes without saying. Although sometimes the Canucks make that love very, very difficult. She is a member of Gamma Xi Phi, an anti-racist, non-hazing, all-gender professional fraternity for artists and creators. She is currently working on a multi-book Young Adult coming-of-age series set in the '80s and '90s. www.arieswriting.com
Titles in the 2022/2023 Collection: Bayou Bound
Sharon Selby
Registered Clinical Counsellor and Founder of Toddler to Teen® Anxiety Solutions, Sharon Selby is passionate about reducing the high levels of anxiety increasingly impacting children and youth which has led her to be awarded the 2020 Metro Vancouver YWCA Woman of Distinction Award for Connecting the Community. Dedicated to extending her support to as many families as possible, she runs anxiety management groups for children and parents across the Lower Mainland, provides 1:1 counselling and is the author of the innovative children's book, Surfing the Worry Imp's Wave, to teach children and caregivers about anxiety and Cognitive Behavioural Therapy strategies and The Big Feelings Book for Children ~ 16 mindfulness activities to manage anger, excitement, anxiety and sadness. Sharon is a sought-out media personality, from print and radio to television and TEDx. She has been counselling children, teens and families for over 24 years and runs a busy private practice at Sharon Selby Counselling in West Vancouver. In addition, she conducts online support groups for parents and has invested countless hours developing free online resources on anxiety available through her blog and her free ebook: 8 Common Mistakes to Avoid When Your Child Is Anxious, available at www.sharonselby.com.
Titles in the 2022/2023 Collection: Surfing the Worry Imp's Wave, The Big Feelings Book for Children ~ Mindfulness Moments to Manage Anger, Excitement, Anxiety and Sadness
Hannah Seraphim
Hannah Seraphim is a writer, editor, and sound meditation practitioner. In 2019, Hannah quit her corporate job and took the leap of faith to reach her goal of setting foot on all seven continents, and to write about her thyroid cancer diagnosis at the age of twenty-six. She resides on the Coast Salish peoples' traditional, ancestral, and unceded territory—Squamish, Tsleil-Waututh, and Musqueam Nations, also known as North Vancouver, Canada, with her partner Dustin and cats Earl Grey and Lady Willow. Citrine Horizon is her first book. Visit the author's website at hannahseraphim.com.
Titles in the 2022/2023 Collection: Citrine Horizon
Samuel J. Stitchman, co-author James Owen Stitchman
Samuel J. Stitchman and James O. Stitchman have spent several years driving to and from Samuel's school. Together, they created the story of Sam, Rosie, Izzy, Thunder, and their
marvelous and heroic adventures. Building on the story each day between home and school, eventually Samuel asked the question, "Papa, why don't we write a book?" And Thunder and the Werewolves was born.
Titles in the 2022/2023 Collection: Thunder and the Werewolves
Johanna Wagstaffe
Johanna Wagstaffe is the meteorologist and science host for CBC Vancouver and CBC News Network. She is the author of Little Cloud: The Science of a Hurricane and Fault Lines: Understanding the Power of Earthquakes. With a background in seismology and earth science, Johanna has covered a wide range of science stories and has hosted several award-winning science podcasts. She lives in North Vancouver, British Columbia. www.orcabook.com/ContributorInfo?ContribId=193
Titles in the 2022/2023 Collection: Little Pinecone: Wildfires and the Natural World
Gail Watson, co-author Charmaine Hammond
Gail Watson is Founder & CEO of Women Speakers Association (WSA), the go-to place for innovative leaders, change agents, and women with a message. Under Gail's leadership, WSA provides a platform for women to get seen, booked and paid AND be part of a global network reaching women in 120 countries. Gail is dedicated to empowering women to authentically express themselves, build a thriving, prosperous business and transform the lives of their clients, companies, communities and the world.
Titles in the 2022/2023 Collection: Voices of the 21st Century: Powerful, Passionate Women Who Make A Difference, Voices of the 21st Century: Conscious, Caring Women Who Make a Difference, Voices of the 21st Century: Women Who Influence, Inspire and Make a Difference, Voices of the 21st Century: Bold , Brave, and Brilliant Women Who Make A Difference, Voices of the 21st Century: Resilient Women Who Rise
Bill Westwell
Born in 1977 in North Vancouver, Bill Westwell was deeply influenced by the flow of life while growing up in a rainforest on the coastal mountains. This is where he explored and played on rocks, snow and trails, and was deeply influenced by the lush environment full of infinite texture and colour. When he was forced to overcome the challenges resulting from a life-altering spinal injury and fusion, Bill realized that the stories we tell ourselves we make come true. This insight set him onto a new course of becoming a conscious story teller, artist and illustrator. Drawing on creative skills learned working in post production audio for film and television and teaching indoor rock climbing, Bill returned to school as an adult to study illustration and fine art in the continuing studies program at Emily Carr University of Art and Design. The journey to attaining a Certificate of Fine Arts allowed Bill to embrace being the visual storyteller he realized he had long been. Leaning into the concept of visual literacy, Bill uses art to talk about topics that words fail to convey, and believes in making art that is accessible, relevant and speaks a truth we all need to hear. His most recent illustrated work, Bean takes a look at the challenging topic of chronic pain. www.billwestwell.com
Titles in the 2022/2023 Collection: Bean
Kathryn Willcock
Kathryn Willcock was born in Vancouver and spent her early years in logging camps on the coast of B.C., particularly Bute Inlet where she and her sisters spent their days playing on the banks of the Orford River, an area considered one of the world's best locations for viewing grizzly bear.
Titles in the 2022/2023 Collection: Up The Coast
Monique Williamson
Monique Williamson was born and raised on the north shore. She has always received top honours in sales and entrepreneurial ventures such as starting north Vancouver's first Flying Wedge pizza franchise and receiving top honours in real estate sales. Monique always wanted to be a speaker and help others and one day sudden unexplained deafness paved the way for her dreams. Sadly the deafness was just the start of 300 hospital stays, 2 near death gastric bleeds, a renal artery collapse following an emergency C section and so many other health challenges. Monique regained her hearing after a miraculous single sided cochlear implant was given to her and she fought hard through the medical system to find her diagnosis, cure and eventually gained back her health and strength! She now helps others who have severe health challenges and has shared her story across many platforms to help inspire hope. She now enjoys her successful Real Estate career and being a mother to her two children Rachael 17 and son Jack 5.
Titles in the 2022/2023 Collection: Life after Deaf
William Winnett
The fascinating story of William (Bill) W Winnett—businessman, former athlete and chartered accountant. Bill's thorough investigative work and persistence resulted in the owners of the Toronto Maple Leafs in the 1960s and the Vancouver Canucks in 1972 being convicted of fraud, theft and income tax evasion in the Canadian courts. This was referred to by a sports editor as "two of the most fascinating off-ice stories in the history of the NHL." He even tried to sell the Vancouver Canucks, with the approval of the US owner, to a major Canadian company well-known to the NHL that was committed to keeping the team in Vancouver, but this optimistic proposal died due to the unrealistic demands by the owner. This book also reflects the author's lifelong love of hockey and his commitment to preserve the financial integrity of the game he loves. Bill then served as a senior executive of the Vancouver Sun newspaper, BC Hydro and the BC Treaty Commission—as well as chairman of two other public companies. In his later years, he initiated several significant new business and sports projects. Over his 65-year career, Bill was appointed to several government boards and advisory committees. He was awarded the Governor General's Medal in 1992, commemorating the 125th anniversary of the Confederation of Canada. This honour was bestowed for his government work and leadership in pioneering new international business and sports opportunities for Canada.
Titles in the 2022/2023 Collection: Power Play: An NHL History
Peter Woodbridge
An agricultural economist, Peter Woodbridge spent much of his business career travelling and working globally—often visiting places steeped in history and intrigue. He brings to the world of fiction his passion for in-depth research and a knack for storytelling. Readers will enjoy the memorable characters and fascinating plots he creates for his crime and mystery novels. He lives in Vancouver, Canada. peterwoodbridge.com
Titles in the 2022/2023 Collection: Girl On The Run