VERSeFest attracts some of the best poets form Canada and around the world to its annual poetry festival in Ottawa. This year, three Nightwood Editions poets will be reading at the festival that takes place between February 28 and March 4.

Gregory Scofield’s most recent book is Louis: The Heretic Poems, which reveals a different side of Louis Riel. This collection juxtaposes historical events and quotes with poetic narrative, drawing attention to the side of the Metis leader that most Canadians have never contemplated: that of husband, father, friend and lover, poet and visionary. Gregory will be at the Arts Court Theatre (2 Daly Avenue, Ottawa) on Wednesday, February 29 at 9:00pm.

Tim Bowling is the author of a number of poetry collections, his latest being Tenderman. As always, his verse is stunning in its haunting portrayal of west coast imagery. In exploring the tenderman (a crewman on a salmon packing boat), Bowling outlines the tension between the sensitive poetic observer and the tough, working-class subject.

Err is the latest collection from innovative and accomplished poet Shane Rhodes, who will be reading with Tim Bowling. It is a collision of sex, booze, war and wordplay that makes for an engaging, unusual and delightful read. Bowling and Rhodes will be at the Arts Court Theatre on Saturday, March 3 at 5:00pm.

For more information about this VERSeFest, or any of the authors who will be reading or performing, go to www.versefest.com.

Harbour Publishing and ERAC have partnered, once again, to include KnowBC.com in this year’s ERAC bundle. Member schools across British Columbia will have access to the new and expanded edition of KnowBC.

KnowBC.com was launched in 2001 as the online edition of Harbour Publishing’s Encyclopedia of British Columbia. In 2010, KnowBC underwent expansive changes to include, not just a new design, but the addition of major reference works from Harbour Publishing:

·     Marine Life of the Pacific Northwest: A Photographic Encyclopedia of Invertebrates, Seaweeds and Selected  Fishes

·     The Encyclopedia of Raincoast Place Names: A Complete Reference to Coastal British Columbia

·     Far West: The Story of British Columbia

·     Raincoast Chronicles 20: Lilies and Fireweed: Frontier Women of British Columbia

·     Where Mountains Meet the Sea: A History of Coastal BC

Other features of the expanded edition include quizzes, fact pages, French language articles, resources for students and curriculum-based resources for teachers, such as lesson plans and handouts.

“This has been a major redevelopment of the KnowBC website. Our aim is to make KnowBC the main vehicle for delivering Harbour’s continually expanding library of BC reference and history texts online. We intend this site to be a must-have product for every BC school, library and public institution.”
                                                                                                                                                                     — Howard White, publisher

KnowBC.com continues to evolve—videos, maps, feature articles, and related online and print resources are added weekly, and the KnowBC blog is updated regularly by the Encyclopedia of BC editors with, among other things, installments of a major new historical work, Where Mountains Meet the Sea: The History of Coastal BC.

The redevelopment of KnowBC.com has succeeded in making the website an essential resource for the province’s educational institutions, and represents a commitment to teaching our children their own unique local history, culture and geography. To confirm your school or library’s membership, please visit www.knowbc.com. For technical inquiries, please email knowbc@harbourpublishing.com.

ERAC is a member based association of BC public school districts and many independent schools. ERAC evaluates resources such as novels, educational software and print, and shares the results with its members through its online collection.

KnowBC.com is also available for subscription by individuals. With reference books valuing nearly $300 in printed form, and more information added regularly, KnowBC.com is an affordable and convenient medium for accessing this expansive collection. Please email knowbc@harbourpublishing.com or call 1.800.667.2988 to subscribe.

Happy New Year! Now that Christmas is over, it’s time to look forward to spring. From gardening, children’s and history books to poetry, humour and even an audiobook, Harbour Publishing and Nightwood Editions have a field of colourful titles for the shelf.

It’s our biggest season of gardening books to date, so planters get ready! The Book of Kale: The Easy-to-Grow Superfood by Sharon Hanna, Sow Simple: 100+ Green and Easy Projects to Make Your Garden Awesome by Everyday Eden authors John Gillespie and Christina Symons, The Northern Gardener: Perennials that Survive and Thrive by Barbara Rayment and Edible Landscaping: Urban Food Gardens that Look Great by Senga Lindsay will spruce up gardens in all sorts of environments.

Our history buffs will enjoy sagas of West Coast shipping, the Klondike gold rush and details about Deep Cove.

A few authors with a history at Harbour will return this spring, including Arthur Black, Tom Wayman and Grant Lawrence with his audiobook version of Adventures in Solitude.

We’re looking forward to Nightwood Editions’ impressive roster of poets this season. Expect new poems from Gillian Wigmore, Chris Hutchinson, Darren Bifford and Chris Jennings.

See the “New Titles” page on our website for the complete list of spring books.

In celebration of the holiday season and The Chuck Davis History of Metropolitan Vancouver, CBC Radio's North by Northwest is holding a contest about treasured memories. For so many people who grew up in Vancouver and British Columbia, Woodward’s Department Stores were the number one purveyor of retail holiday spirit for decades—their incredible Food Floors, the eagerly anticipated catalogues, the amazing window displays with animated Christmas scenes, and of course, Santa in Toyland. North by Northwest is asking people to send in their favourite holiday memories of, or provided by, Woodward's for a chance to win one of three of these beautiful books from Harbour Publishing. Send your Woodward's holiday memories via email to nxnw@cbc.ca Contest closes on Sunday December 18 at midnight.

After a heart-warming launch with contributors and Vancouver media at the Rosewood Hotel Georgia last Wednesday, The Chuck Davis History of Metropolitan Vancouver has been released onto bookshelves across British Columbia. A host of writers, historians and friends came together to complete Chuck Davis’s final work after his death in November of 2010, and the community continues to push for the success of this important book. On Tuesday, December 6^th at the Vancouver Public Library beginning at 7:00 pm, Vancouver legends Red Robinson and Dal Richards will share stories of Chuck Davis and the city he loved, along with other individuals who were key to the completion of the book.

The Globe and Mail published a feature about this community initiative on Saturday: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/british-columbia/bc-authors-band-together-to-finish-late-historians-magnum-opus/article2242290/.

If you missed it, listen here for the conversation between The Early Edition’s Rick Cluff and journalist Allen Garr, one of the central contributors to The Chuck Davis History of Metropolitan Vancouver: http://www.cbc.ca/earlyedition/podcast/2011/11/21/reaction-to-civic-election-chuck-davis-vancouver/.

CBC Radio One’s North by Northwest will host a contest featuring The Chuck Davis History of Metropolitan Vancouver. Stay tuned this December to find out how you can win a copy of this fascinating book.

The Chuck Davis History of Metropolitan Vancouver is the city’s diary that had, until now, been scattered in archives and memories. At once fascinating, inspiring and hilarious, this monumental last work from the late Chuck Davis is to be enjoyed by all who have experienced this city. The book is, as the author hoped, “fun, fat and filled with facts.”

Meet renowned news reporter and author Mike McCardell at a series of book signings for his new book, Here’s Mike: And Junkyard Granny, Whistling Bernie Smith, the Robertson Screwdriver, Pancakes and Eternal Truth. At the same time you can help raise money for Variety—The Children’s Charity.

Between October 19, 2011 and February 29, 2012, partial proceeds from each sale of Here’s Mike will be donated to Variety—The Children’s Charity. Global BC and Harbour Publishing have joined forces to support the fundraising drive. McCardell’s previous six books have raised over $75,000 for Variety.

By noticing the little things and not the big things, Mike McCardell shows us that everyone has a story to tell—his humour and his eye for the human condition have made him a wizard at finding the magic moments in everyday life. In Here’s Mike, he looks for things you don’t see on a tourist map, shares a super new unbelievable recipe for pancakes, talks about worms and scooters, and delves into Vancouver history.

Starting with his first signing in New Westminster on November 19, Mike will also be appearing in Port Coquitlam, Maple Ridge, Abbotsford, Chilliwack and South Surrey/White Rock! For more information about the events, please visit Mike’s author page or see our Events Calendar!  

Harbour Publishing is pleased to announce that Fishing with Gubby by Kim La Fave and Gary Kent, has received a Governor General’s Literary Award nomination in the category of Children’s Literature—Illustration.

The Governor General’s Literary Awards are national book awards created to celebrate the excellence of Canadian writers, illustrators and translators. The English and French awards are in the categories of fiction, non-fiction, poetry, drama, children’s literature (text and illustration) and translation.

LaFave and Kent’s unique book about a West Coast salmon fisherman has already garnered numerous award nominations, including the Amelia Frances Howard-Gibbon Illustrator’s Award, a Joe Shuster Award, and the Bill Duthie Booksellers’ Choice Award for best book published in British Columbia. The book has also just been awarded a Bronze Medal in the Comic/Graphic Novel category of the Moonbeam Children’s Book Awards, which is open to authors published in the USA and Canada. ...

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  KnowBC was launched in 2001 as the online edition of Harbour Publishing’s Encyclopedia of British Columbia. The encyclopedia remains the cornerstone of KnowBC, but there is much more on the site today.

This new version of KnowBC represents a comprehensive redevelopment that consolidates KnowBC’s standing as British Columbia’s leading general reference site.

We're pleased to announce that as of September 2011, KnowBC users now have full access to the electronic version of Marine Life of the Pacific Northwest: A Photographic Encyclopedia of Invertebrates Seasweeds and Selected Fishes.  ...

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Congratulations to Grant Lawrence, who has just received one of the most prestigious award nominations in Canada for his debut book, Adventures In Solitude: What Not to Wear to a Nude Potluck and Other Stories from Desolation Sound. With prize money of $60,000, the inaugural Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Nonfiction honours the very best in Canadian non-fiction published each year, in the form of personal or journalistic essays, history, biography, memoirs, commentary, and criticism. In addition, each finalist receives $5,000. The prize will be awarded in Toronto at Koerner Hall at the Telus Centre for Performance and Learning on October 25.