The West Coast Women and Words Society was incorporated in 1982 with the goal of supporting women's writing. The society held an influential conference for women in literary and related fields in Vancouver from June 30 to July 3, 1983; participants included Canadian women writers, editors, publishers, critics, printers, typesetters, academics, playwrights, librarians, distributors, booksellers, translators, and educational and cultural organizers. The conference featured presentations of papers, panel discussions, workshops and interviews relevant to such themes as: feminism, power and alternative structures doing it (i.e. developing work strategies), traditions and new directions. The proceedings of the 1983 conference in Vancouver were published by Longspoon Press as IN THE FEMININE in 1985.
Following the conference, the West Coast Women and Words Society continued to fulfill their mandate by organizing poetry competitions, hosting readings and events, editing and compiling anthologies of women's writing, and running a mentorship program designed to connect young women writers with more established ones. IN 1984, the Society published WOMEN AND WORDS: THE ANTHOLOGY/ LES FEMMES ET LET MOTS: UNE ANTHOLOGIE with Harbour Publishing.
From 1985-1994, the Society held an annual summer school and retreat for women writers, WEST WORD. They also sponsored weekend workshops, writing contests, and book discussion groups. The society was officially dissolved in 1998, after prolonged financial difficulties.
Terry Hunter and Savannah Walling have been collaborating creatively since early 1971 while studying at the Simon Fraser University. Savannah Walling (Savannah Tennessee Elain Walling) emigrated to Canada in 1968 as Elaine Walling Bryan. In the early years at SFU her work was credited as Elaine Bryan or Elain Walling Bryan. From 1972 she became known as Savannah Walling and legally changed it in 1975 to Savannah Tennessee Elaine Walling. In 1968, Savannah began working at the Simon Fraser University library as a clerk and began attending dance programs and workshops. She contributed choreography and performed at the SFU theatre productions. In 1969, Terry Hunter enrolled at SFU and began studying political science and geography as well as he participated in the SFU theatre productions and began working backstage. In 1971, Terry and Savannah paths met while they were both employed by the Simon Fraser Mime Troup that toured Burnaby parks. The couple married and have been collaborating since.
They worked and performed for various art companies: Vancouver Lab Theatre (1972), co-founded The Mime Caravan (1973-1974) and Terminal City Dance (1975-1982).
In 1983, Hunter and Walling co-founded the art company in Downtown Eastside named Special Delivery/Music/Theatre Society. In 1987, the name was changed to Special Delivery Moving Theatre Society and subsequently in 1992 to Vancouver Moving Theatre Society (VMT). Over three decades this art company produced, adapted, choreographed and performed various projects including: Festival Characters (1983-1985), Samarambi: Pounding of the Heart (1986), Ab audire, Blood Music (1987-1997), The House of Memory (1989-1990), Strathcona Artist at Home Festival (1999-2004), Wak (1993), Rhythm in Theatre (1995), Luigi’s Kitchen (1996-2002), The Good Person of Setzuan (1998), Awake (2000), Sucker Falls (2001), Tales of the Ramayana (2002), Hot Music/ Cool Takes (2003), In the Heart of the City: The Downtown Eastside Community Play (2003) Heart of the City Festival (2003-2022), Bah Hambug (2010-2019) and many others.
Vancouver Moving Theatre company performed at various events and festivals in Canada and worldwide, including Expo 86 in British Columbia and Expo 88 in Australia. The VMT collaborated with many local, regional and national partners in art and non-art environments. The collaboration with multicultural communities of Downtown Eastside resulted in creation of Strathcona Artists at Home Festival and Downtown Eastside Heart of the City Festival.
The VMT was involved in creating resources and educational programs, and in providing leadership and training for community-engaged arts programs and community symposiums as well as in organizing arts and dance workshops for children and adults.
The Reid family lived variously in Scotland, Canada, the United States of America, and New Zealand. John Dunlop Reid, Jr. (1865-1917) and Roberta Reid (1879-1969); their children Fergus Reid (1903-1987) and Kenneth Dunlop Reid (1901-?).
John Dunlop Reid, Jr. was born in Dunlop, East Ayrshire, Scotland on February 21, 1865 to John Dunlop Reid, Sr. (dates unknown) and Helen Muir (died Feb. 1895). He arrived in North America around 1884 and worked as a sheep farmer in Rock Springs and Salt Wells in Wyoming, prior to moving to Metchosin, British Columbia. In 1895 he bought land in British Columbia and named the area Glenrosa Farm. Here he continued to work as a sheep breeder and as a fruit grower. He married his cousin, Roberta Reid (nee Reid) on December 15, 1897 in Victoria, British Columbia. She was born on December 10, 1879 in Owensboro, Daviess County Kentucky, USA and died on January 16, 1969 in Victoria, British Columbia. John and Roberta corresponded with his siblings, Thomas Reid and Jessie Reid, and with her parents, Anne Marie Reid (nee Jamieson) (d.1900) and Thomas Reid (d. 1919).
John Dunlop Reid, Jr. and Roberta Reid had three children: Robert Reid (1900-1900), who died at only a few months of age; Fergus Reid (1903-1987) and Kenneth Dunlop Reid (1901 - ?).
Roberta Reid married her second husband, Robert Duggan Young, in 1925. Robert Young passed away in 1947.
Kenneth Dunlop Reid married Margaret Harriet Cullum in 1926. They had one child, Ronald Dunlop Reid (1931-2021).
Rick McGrath is a Canadian writer, editor, designer, and publisher. He was born in New Westminster, BC on July 4, 1946. McGrath was a charter student of Simon Fraser University, graduating with an Honours Bachelor of English, first class, in 1970. He stayed another two years at SFU working towards a Master's degree, which he ultimately did not complete. During his time at SFU, he was editor of The S.F. View in 1965, was the sports editor of The Peak from 1965-1966, and from 1968-1969 he edited Canadian University Press news releases, was an editorial page columnist, and music/book reviewer. He was elected both undergraduate (1969) and graduate (1970) student representative in the English Department. As an alumnus, he was the editor of Afterthoughts alumni magazine from 1975-1979.
McGrath's reporting career continued well past SFU. Concurrent to his academic career, McGrath was the entertainment editor and rock critic at The Georgia Straight from 1969-1972 and the Terminal City Express from 1972-1974. In September 1972, he became a reporter for the Richmond Review, then Canada’s largest twice weekly suburban newspaper, becoming assistant editor in 1974. From 1975-1977 he was the west coast correspondent for the Ottawa-based magazine, Science Forum. From 1977-1978 he wrote and hosted a bi-weekly satirical television show for Richmond community television (Cable 10). From 1975-1978 he contributed and performed short stories for DNA Magazine, an audio publication produced by Lawrence Russell of the University of Victoria.
In 1976 he met his life partner — and a fellow alumnus — Catherine Johnston, who was working as Assistant Curator of the SFU Art Gallery.
He left the Richmond Review in 1978 to begin his advertising career by co-founding McGrath Dunn Advertising, and over the next nine years became co-owner and/or partner in three Vancouver ad agencies, finally as the Creative Director for the western office of Grey Canada. In 1987 he left Grey and became the in-house creative resource for Pemberton Securities in Vancouver, which was purchased by RBC Dominion Securities in 1989. After the merger he moved to their head office in Toronto and was named VP, Creative Services. He retired on December 31, 1999.
McGrath continued his writing and publishing after his retirement, contributing to SFU's AQ Magazine as a columnist from 2000-2004. From 2000-2009 he contributed over 100 reviews to the Culture Court website, and from 2008-2012 he wrote 60 movie reviews for the subscription website Quiet Earth as their Toronto correspondent.
In 1976 he discovered the writings of the late British author, J.G. Ballard, and began acquiring his works, now generally regarded as the world’s largest private collection.
In 2013 he started his own publishing company, The Terminal Press, and has produced 17 books as of May 2024. Books McGrath authored include Straight Man: Rock Star Interviews, Reviews and Photos from Vancouver’s Underground Press, and The Disenchanted Forest. He has published 10 annual anthologies dedicated to the works of J.G. Ballard — the Deep Ends series — and one Ballard critical study — Grave New World. In 2023 he co-edited a collection of Ballardian stories for Titan Books of London called Reports From The Deep End, and in 2024 he published Unauthorised Departures, an anthology of short stories from writers around the world.
Barry McKinnon was a B.C. poet and editor who founded and edited the Caledonia Writing Series, which was an independent forum for B.C. poets in the 1970s. His interviews with B.C. poets were published in the journal "Open Letter" in 1988.
Out On Campus (OOC) was established in 1972 as a student group to support and advocate for LGBTQIA2S+ members of the SFU community, as well as provide a space for social and cultural events. Out On Campus supports undergraduate, graduate, and Fraser International College (FIC) students. At the time of writing (2024), OOC is a department of the Simon Fraser Student Society (SFSS), with a referendum passed in 2012 (SFSS Space Expansion Fund - Reallocation) assigning $0.50 per full time student per year to OOC, and is partially funded by the Graduate Student Society (GSS). Originally named Gays of SFU (occasionally written as SFU Gay People), it was re-named Gay and Lesbian People of SFU (GLPSFU) in 1982. The group was then on-hold until 1988, when it was re-established as the Gay and Lesbian Association of SFU (GALA), before being re-named as Out on Campus in 1994. A new constitution was created for each name change, and OOC remains a safe space for people of all genders and sexualities at SFU.
Out On Campus joined the Rotunda groups in 1996, opening the Rainbow Room (now the Out On Campus Centre) after a successful proposal for an LGBTQ+ centre to the SFSS. It further joined the Rotunda libraries in 1997, with the Out On Campus Library focused on LGBTQ+ materials. The Rotunda groups, after years of negotiation with SFU and the SFSS for space as the Student Union Building (SUB) was being built, are now housed in the SUB.
While occasionally being referred to as a collective in previous structures of the organization, the Out On Campus constitution established the Out On Campus Collective, the official governing body of OOC. Largely and historically volunteer-run, the Collective continues this trend, and while not all volunteers are Collective members, any volunteer can be. A part-time staff position was added in 1999, and a second in 2005, now known as the Coordinator and Programming Assistant. In 2018, the Coordinator role was turned into a full-time position.
Out On Campus provides a number of services, including the Out On Campus Centre which in addition to being a safe space for LGBTQ+ community members and allies, has free safer sex resources, free gender affirming products (including chest binders, breast forms, packers, and tucking gaff), sanitary products, razors, refreshments, and kitchen facilities. OOC also offers peer support and crisis referrals, informational resources such as their Resource Guide for 2SLGBTQIA+ students, allies, and community at SFU, an LGBTQ+ library as part of the Rotunda libraries, and regular social, cultural, and educational programming.
An editor and reviewer for the LA Weekly and publisher of the Edgewise Café, one of Canada’s first electronic literary magazines, Heather Haley’s writing has appeared in numerous print journals and anthologies. In addition to publishing Rattler, a critically acclaimed multimedia arts and literary journal, she is the author of the poetry collections Sideways (Anvil Press), Three Blocks West of Wonderland (Ekstasis Editions), and Skookum Raven (Ekstasis Editions) and the novel The Town Slut’s Daughter, set in Vancouver British Columbia's early underground punk rock scene. Haley has directed numerous videopoems (Dying for the Pleasure, Purple Lipstick and Bushwhack) and official selections at dozens of international film festivals. She also has released collections of spoken word song, Princess Nut, and Surfing Season, under the name AURAL Heather.
Haley was a member of one of Vancouver’s first all-female punk rock bands, the Zellots in the late 1970’s. Following their dissolution, she formed the ‘45s with Randy Rampage of DOA, Brad Kent of the Avengers, and Karla Duplantier of the Controllers and relocated to San Francisco. Later, she formed HHZ—Heather Haley & the Zellots—praised by music critic Craig Lee as one of "Ten Great LA Bands". She has played the Smilin' Buddha Cabaret, Mabuhay Gardens, and Geary Street Theatre (People's Temple) in San Francisco, the Hong Kong Cafe, the Palomino Club, Blackies, Club 88, Club Lingerie and the John Anson Ford Theatre in Los Angeles. Haley currently performs in the indie folk duo, The Pluviophiles, with Keir Nicoll.
Ruth Emerson (Wortis) was a dancer, choreographer, dance educator, and a pioneer of postmodern dance. She was born in Palo Alto, California on March 16, 1938.
Ruth had her first exposure to dance under the inspiring mentorship of Mim Rosen at University High School in Urbana, Illinois. She was an undergraduate at Radcliffe College, where she spent all her spare time dancing and studied summers at the American Dance Festival in New London, Conneticut with Louis Horst and José Limon. She graduated from Radcliffe in 1958 with a BA in Mathematics. After college, she supported herself by writing school math texts while taking dance classes at the Martha Graham School, the Merce Cunningham Studio, and the Robert Joffrey School of Ballet in New York and performing with the Dancemakers in Boston. In New York she danced with the Pearl Lang Company. She was a founding member in 1962 of the Judson Dance Theatre, pioneers of the formal, minimalist movement style now known as Postmodern Dance.
In 1964, she married theoretical physicist, Michael Wortis, moving first to Berkeley, California, where she danced with Ann Halprin and then to Paris, France, where she performed and choreographed at the Theatre d’Essai de la Dance. From 1968 to 1973, she held a part-time faculty position in the Dance Department at the University of Illinois. She completed an MA in Dance at the University in 1973 under Margaret Erlanger and Jan Stockman Simonds. She founded a dance company, Somedancers, Inc., which performed in Champaign/Urbana from 1974 to 1978. From 1981 to 1987, she taught dance and choreographed musicals at University High School; during this time, she also held a residency at the Radcliffe Institute from 1986-1987.
In the fall of 1987, Ruth, Michael and their two daughters moved to Vancouver, B.C.. She helped to develop the first Provincial Dance Curriculum for B.C. schools under the Provincial Ministry of Education. As a Sessional Instructor at the Centre for the Arts and an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Education at Simon Fraser University, she developed and taught a program for student teachers. She also continued to perform and to choreograph locally, offering dance courses at local community centres. She served nationally on the grant selection committee of the Canada Council, Dance Section.
Ruth passed away on September 13, 2015.
bill bissett (born William Frederick Bissett, November 23, 1939) is a Canadian poet known for his anti-conventional style. Born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, bissett (who deliberately does not capitalize his name) attended Dalhousie University (1956) and the University of British Columbia (1963-1965) but dropped out of both universities because of his desire to live as a free agent, writer and painter unencumbered by academic constraints. He did complete course requirements for his two majors in English and Philosophy. He moved to Vancouver, British Columbia in 1958. In 1963 he started the blew ointment magazine and later launched blewointment press, which has published volumes by Cathy Ford, Maxine Gadd, Michael Coutts, Hart Broudy, Rosemary Hollingshead, Beth Jankola, Carolyn Zonailo, bpNichol, Ken West, Lionel Kearns and D. A. Levy. bissett is based in Vancouver and Toronto, Ontario, alternating between the two cities. He is known for his use of a unique orthography and incorporating visual elements in his printed poetry, and his performance of "concrete sound" poetry, sound effects, chanting, and barefoot dancing during his poetry readings. He has also had large exhibits of his paintings and made audio recordings. He was the lyricist and vocalist in the Ontario band, Luddites. His work typically ranges from the mystical to the mundane, incorporating humour, a sense of wonder and sentimentality, and political commentary.
Alan Twigg was born in North Vancouver, British Columbia in 1952. Since 1987, he has owned and published the newspaper, B.C. BookWorld, Canada’s largest circulation publication about books. In 1985, Twigg co-founded the B.C. Book Prizes, and he was its executive director and
chief fundraiser in the 1990s. He also created the Van City Women’s Book Prize, and coordinated it between 1992 and 2005. Twigg was a representative of the Writers Union of Canada, on the original Board of Directors for the Canadian Centre for Studies in Publishing at Simon Fraser University. He also served on the boards of the City of Vancouver’s Public Art Committee and the Vancouver Cultural Alliance. He is a founder of British Columbia’s annual Lifetime Achievement Award for an outstanding literary career in British Columbia, which he has also coordinated since 1995. In 1994, he organized events aiming to honor George Woodcock, who was British Columbia’s most prolific man of letters.
In the 1970s and 1980s, Alan Twigg worked as a freelance writer. From 1995 to 1998, he wrote a weekly editorial column for The Province newspaper. He has written for The Quill & Quire, BC Historical News, as a theatre critic for The Georgia Straight, Globe & Mail, Toronto Star, Ottawa Citizen, Maclean’s, Vancouver Sun, Step and Pacific Northwest Review of Books. Alan Twigg appears frequently as a guest on CBC Radio, and he has been the host of a CBC television series about B.C. authors.
Al Neil was born in Vancouver, BC in 1924. In 1941, he worked as a surveyor with the Department of Transport, helping to build the wartime airfield at Port Hardy, Vancouver Island. He served in Normandy during the Second World War. After the war Neil worked at a variety of jobs, including clothing salesman, postal clerk, roof tarrer, lighthouse keeper and jazz musician. Neil passed away in Vancouver on November 16, 2017
Al Neil co-founded Vancouver's Cellar Jazz Club in 1952 and performed with artists such as Art Pepper, Conte Candoli and Kenneth Patchen. He married Marguerite Sanders circa 1964; they separated in the early 1970s. During the 1960s and 1970s Neil became known for solo and ensemble performances which combined music with texts, art assemblages, slides and prepared tapes. He performed regularly at the Western Front in the early 1980s, and his collage works were exhibited in galleries such as the Vancouver Art Gallery, Coburg Gallery, and Atelier Gallery.
Neil lives in Vancouver, BC, with his partner and collaborator, Carole Itter. Their Dollarton beach cabin was the last remaining of a number of beach shacks in North Vancouver, and was removed from the waterfront in 2015. As of 2016, a collaboration of grunt gallery, Creative Cultural Collaborations (C3) and Other Sights is working to remediate and repurpose the cabin as a studio for a floating artist residency program.
Neil’s published writings include “West Coast Lokas” (Intermedia 1972), “Changes” (Coach House Press 1975; reprinted by Nightwood Editions in 1989), and “Slammer” (Pulp Press 1981). In 2003, Neil was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Letters from Emily Carr University of Art & Design. His work was the subject of a retrospective entitled The Al Neil Project, in 2005, organized in part by grunt gallery. Al Neil’s artwork was featured on the poster for the 2008 Vancouver International Jazz Festival, which included a concert called Homage Collage: Improv for Al Neil. In 2014, Neil received the Vancouver Mayor's Arts Award for Lifetime Achievement.
Eli A. Popoff (1921-2014) was born on a farm near the town of Blaine Lake, Saskatchewan and as an adult he moved to Grand Forks in the interior of British Columbia. He was a farmer, carpenter, bookkeeper, writer, community worker, Doukhobor historian, educator, translator, editor of Iskra newsletter, member of the USCC and a family man. Popoff’s contribution includes working as an administrator of the USCC, as a secretary of John J. Verigin and as a primary correspondent of the USCC with individuals or organizations dealing with the Doukhobors from 1970s to 2010s. In 1957, Popoff was a first Doukhobor to hold public office in BC as School Board Trustee in Grand Forks. In 1968, Popoff became a secretary of the Association of Canadians of Russian Descent and helped organized 70th Anniversary of Doukhobors in Canada. Besides being editor of Iskra for two years, Popoff published numerous works on the Doukhobor beliefs and translated various Doukhobor writings, including psalms, hymns, songs, letters and speeches from Russian to English. In relation to Doukhobor songs translation, Popoff collaborated with Kenneth Peacock of the National Museum of Man in Ottawa in order to preserve musical tradition of the Doukhobors. In addition, from 1970s to 1980s Popoff was involved with Selkirk College, BC and gave series of lectures and facilitated discussions on the Doukhobor philosophy and history. Moreover, Popoff edited and translated the proceeding of the Joint Doukhobor Research Committee Symposiums Meetings, 1974-1982 that were published by Selkirk College in 1997. In 1992, he complied and published a collection called Stories From Doukhobor History containing translated articles about the Doukhobors meant to be used as teaching curriculum for children at the Sunday school meetings of the USCC. In 1999, during the Conference on the Doukhobor Centenary at the University of Ottawa, Popoff was awarded with the Institute of Canadian Studies Award for Outstanding Achievement in Canadian Studies.
Ajaib (Jab) Sidhoo was born on January 8, 1923 in the Punjab, India, when it was still ruled by Britain. Due to his father’s protestation against high British taxes on farmland in India, Jab’s father relocated to Vancouver Island in 1927, where he worked in the Kapoor sawmill. Jab was sent to join him in 1929, accompanied not by family but by another couple from his village.
After a number of years residing amongst the Island’s lumber mills, the Sidhoo family moved to Kitsilano in the late 1930s and Jab attended Kitsilano High School in 1939, where he played on the school rugby team. In 1941, he transferred to Vancouver Technical High School to learn a trade. In 1943 he was one of three students from his class recruited by the Canadian Air Force, becoming one of the first South-Asian Canadians to serve in World War II. He was trained in aircraft maintenance and worked as a fleet mechanic at bases in Caron, Saskatchewan and in the Yukon.
After the war Jab founded East India Traders in Vancouver as a wholesaler for imported carpets and goods. He spent time in India training in the profession, and it was there that he met his future wife Nirmal Dutt (also known as Munni [ca. 1933]). They married in India in 1950 then returned to Vancouver, eventually having two children, Asha and Ravi. Jab’s business also expanded as his client base grew to include hotel chains, banks and other successful professionals. He renamed his business East India Carpets and opened a retail location at 1606 West 2nd Avenue in 1962, where it remains a fixture in the community.
An avid sports fan, Jab was one of the original 100 investors of the BC Lions in 1953 and became a lifelong season ticket holder. He also amassed a considerable collection of football-themed newspapers and magazines, as well as souvenir programs from games in the 1950s and 1960s.
Together, Jab and Munni were active in their community and involved in philanthropic ventures, such as the Ajaib (Jab) and Nirmal (Munni) Sidhoo Charities Fund which sponsors medical scholarships and schools. Munni died on November 14, 2001. Jab passed away on February 22, 2016 at the age of 93. His archive, recently donated to Special Collections and Rare Books by his family, consists of photographs, documents, sports memorabilia, ephemera and objects detailing all aspects of his life as a first generation Canadian, and the communities in which he lived and worked.
Koozma J. Tarasoff was born in Saskatoon. He is a writer and scholar creating works related to Doukhobor history and culture.
The Nunaga Publishing Company was formed in 1972 by Rick Antonson, Brian Antonson and Mary Trainer upon the publication of a book they co-wrote, entitled "In Search of a Legend: Slumach’s Gold." Nunaga went on to publish books by other British Columbia authors, including "New Westminster: The Early Years" by Alan Woodland, "British Columbia Canoe Routes" by Canoe Sport BC, and "Highrise Horticulture: A Guide to Gardening in Small Spaces" by David Tarrant. Nunaga became a registered limited company in 1974. Rick Antonson was director and president, Mary Trainer was director and treasurer, and Brian Antonson was director and secretary. Nunaga purchased the rights to "Canadian Frontier Magazine" in 1974, and published the "Canadian Frontier Annual" from 1976-1978. The company’s Canadian sales representatives were McIntyre and Stanton in the West, and Belford Books in the East.
Nunaga changed its name to Antonson Publishing in 1977; that same year, Mary Trainer resigned as director. Under the name Antonson Publishing, the company continued to publish nonfiction books including "Vancouver Defended: History of the Men and Guns of the Lower Mainland Defences, 1859-1949" by Peter Moogk, and "Prison Doctor" by Guy Richmond. Over eight years, Nunaga/Antonson published twenty-five titles. In 1980, Antonson Publishing sold the rights to and backlist stock of its books to Douglas & McIntyre (D&M) and wound up its publishing activities. After the sale, Rick Antonson became Vice President and General Manager of Douglas & McIntyre. He left publishing to work in BC’s tourism industry in the mid-1980s, but remained a member of D&M’s board of directors into the mid-2000s.
Rattler was an experimental multimedia and poetry zine published between 1982 and 1987 in Hollywood, California. Heather Haley was the editor and publisher for all four issues, along with Peter Haskell, who is listed as associate editor for the first issue, and co-editor for the second and fourth issue. Haley stated that she wanted to produce a zine with presence and style, something that would make poetry accessible and readable.
Valhalla Wilderness Society (VWS) was founded in 1975, in New Denver, British Columbia; it achieved park status for what is now Valhalla Provincial Park in 1983. VWS went on to successfully spearhead campaigns for the Khutzeymateen Grizzly Bear Sanctuary, Goat Range Provincial Park, and the Spirit Bear Conservancies on Princess Royal Island. VWS also played one of the key roles in the protection of South Moresby National Park Reserve (Gwaii Haanas National Park Reserve on Haida Gwaii). Its Endangered Wilderness Map of 1988 helped to spark the movement to double BC’s park system to 12% of the province. Valhalla has led park campaigns for over 560,000 hectares of now protected land.
Mother Tongue Publishing is a small independent Canadian publishing company located on Salt Spring Island, British Columbia, run by Mona Fertig and Peter Haase. Mother Tongue publishes books of B.C. fiction, poetry, and creative non-fiction, and the series, The Unheralded Artists of BC, dedicated to recognizing forgotten 20th century B.C. artists (1900s-1960s). Mother Tongue started as a small international literary periodical. From 1994 until around 2008, Mother Tongue Press published letterpress limited edition books and broadsides of poetry by Stephanie Bolster, Lorna Crozier, Kate Braid, Cathy Ford, Maxine Gadd, Shirley Graham, Penn Kemp, Robert Kroetsch, Sylvia Legris, Peter Levitt, Sandi Frances Duncan, Patricia Young, Daphne Marlatt, Susan McCaslin, P.K. Page, Murray Reiss, Nadine Shelly, Peter Such and Phyllis Webb. The publications employed handmade endpaper, beautiful cover stock, recycled paper, embossing, letterpress printing, handsewing, non-adhesive binding, and tipped in photographs of paintings. Mother Tongue Press also held book art, letter press and writing workshops, and organized book launches and readings. In 2008, Mother Tongue Press expanded and entered trade publishing as Mother Tongue Publishing.