By Melanie Jackson

Welcome to this Canada Day, well, -ish, edition of WestWords, The Writers’ Union of Canada newsletter with updates about British Columbia and Yukon members. I’m confident you’ll find some promising ideas herein for your summer reading!

If you’ll indulge me, I’ll share a news item of my own: a new appreciation for the classic 1961 Canadian kids’ novel The Incredible Journey, by Sheila Burnford. After decades, I picked it up a week or so ago for a reread.

As you may know, the journey in question is by three animals: an old box terrier, a young Lab, and a sapphire-eyed Siamese cat. Their humans being away in England, the trio is staying with a family friend. They like him well enough, but when he takes off on a trip, they decide to trek 300 miles through Northwestern Ontario back to their regular home.

Scary adventures abound, including a raging river that hurtles one of them off, and an attack by a porcupine that leaves another with a faceful of fast-infecting quills. Needless to say, I found the story just as unputdownable now as before.

What older me noticed this time around was Burnford’s brilliant plot device early in the story. I won’t give the device away, except to say that it leads to a misunderstanding by the woman hired to look after the animals. She thinks the man has taken the dogs and cat with him. So, no one tries to find them.

This device is akin, in my view, to that of Desdemona’s handkerchief in Othello. Fortunately no tragedies occur in The Incredible Journey — though a few come close.

Like all outstanding authors, Sheila Burnford (1916-1984) is proof that good writing lasts. As will, I’m betting, the creative achievements we share here in WestWords.

As always, my thanks to our regional rep Rhona McAdam, and to TWUC staff. Happy summer season, and happy reading!

Sad, shocking, and truthful, Growing My Way Home chronicles one woman’s struggle through events all too common among a people who have been separated from their culture and their language. From abuse to early involvement in the criminal justice system, from her experiences as a 13-year-old drug dealer, a 15-year-old parent, and finally an award-winning writer, artist, and filmmaker, Jenn Ashton has survived it all. Based on her teenage journals and 50 years of lived experience, Growing My Way Home documents a long journey to acceptance and understanding. (Talonbooks, 2026.)

Michelle Barker and David Griffin Brown have published Fake Query Letters by Dead Authors. Don’t make agents cry for all the wrong reasons. Fake Query Letters by Dead Authors offers new strategies to ditch the heartache, headaches, and frustration of querying. The authors step into an agent’s shoes to review five fake query letters and synopses of classic novels, along with their (not fake) opening pages, and then discuss strategies for finding an agent and/or publisher. Join them in the Fake Dead universe for some hilariously awful submissions and find joy in the process of querying.

Thanks to the staff at the Dunbar branch of the Vancouver Public Library, the Canada Council for the Arts, and The Writers’ Union of Canada, 30 folks were able to hear historical fiction author J.C. Corry on May 30 answer the question, “Was Geoffrey Chaucer a spy working for King Edward III?” John described finding his own answers via his journey following the legendary poet’s footsteps from London to Bordeaux to northern Spain. 

John also shared stories and images from his research trips, as well as his publishing journey and the importance of his writing community.

Marian’s book Tizita — A Memoir of Perseverance and Enchantment, has been longlisted for the Off Topic Publishing First Chapter Award for Memoir.

Michael’s novel The Gate will be re-issued this fall by Rocks Mills Press, with a foreword by historian Ted Barris, and an epilogue about the real-life, “collateral” damage suffered by the child of the English captain who was captured by the German Schutzstaffel (SS) in the Special Operations Executive operation that inspired this work.

Accurate in historical detail, with input and observations from the late Queen Elizabeth’s dressmaker Sir Hardy Amies and Oxford historian Professor M.R.D. Foot, The Gate is a story of resistance and resilience in the last winter of the Second World War, in the Franco-Belgian Ardennes.

Photo Credit: Marilyn Bowering.

Daniela’s sixth poetry collection Scar/city (McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2025) was shortlisted for the 2026 George Ryga Award for work showing outstanding social awareness. Daniela will be reading in Gibsons at the “Art & Words Festival” on August 21, 11 am, Gibsons Public Art Gallery; and August 22, 1:30-3 pm she will give a workshop on memoir at Gibsons Public Art Gallery. Daniela will also read in Vancouver at the “Mad Pride Cabaret Connection Salon” on July 25, 3 pm-5 pm at the Gathering Place, 609 Helmcken Street. Do say hi, if you happen to be there!

Published in February 2026, M.A.C.’s Seventy-Two Seasons: A Memoir About Noticing has been on the BC Bestseller List since early March 2026.

“M.A.C. Farrant names the world for us in such a way that the ordinary becomes profound and the profound ordinary.” — Eve Joseph

“When I grow up, I hope to write even half as well.” — rob mclennan

“Throughout these seventy-two ‘deep breaths,’ we marvel with pleasure at Farrant’s marveling.” — Stuart Ross

Pauline’s new collection of short fiction, What Endures, will be released in August by Biblioasis. Pauline will be launching the book in Vancouver and Victoria along with Biblioasis author Richard Kelly Kemick and his book, Decadence.

What does it mean to find words that endure across generations, cultures, and profound change? In her fourth book, Words That Last (Caitlin Press, September 2026), author and epidemiologist Keiko explores this question through a book-length zuihitsu.

Drawing on the classical traditions of Bashō and Sei Shōnagon, the text beautifully weaves Japanese aesthetics, family memoir, and civic imagination to trace how deep attention makes language stay. Look out for its official release on September 18, and stay tuned for upcoming local launch events!

The 2026 Galiano Island Literary Festival, featuring a number of TWUC members, is taking place on July 18-19, 2026. Learn more: www.galianolit.ca/galiano-island-literary-festival-2026.

Fiona’s memoir in essays, Playing by Heart (Caitlin Press, March 2027) features new work plus work published in The Globe & Mail, The Tyee, anthologies and literary magazines.

Her poem “Angel” is included in Sublime: Poems for Vanishing Ice, an anthology edited by Yvonne Blomer. 

A short poetry video that Fiona produced and directed, “Drunken Laundry Day with Charles Bukowski: A Poem by Henry Doyle,” was awarded the prize for Best Poetic Narrative at Delta’s Composed Short Film Festival this June (poetry videos free to watch on fionalam.net).

Photo: Screenshot from poetry video.

“Blooming,” a poem from Pauline’s most recent collection Becoming the Harvest (Caitlin Press), is on the move! It’s been chosen by Poems in Passage to ride the buses, streetcars and subway in Toronto. Pauline is finding it a real treat to receive emails and cards from Torontonians she has never met. She is now working on a book of essays on the power of singing.

Poet David’s debut novel, Not All Dragons, is out now. In the magical land of Lanilia, Rhys awakens with no memory of his past and strange wounds on his back. Rescued by a mermaid named Delia, he sets out to uncover his identity and the truth behind the prophecies surrounding him. Together, they embark on a perilous journey through a world of myth and magic, where the stories people believe may be as powerful as fate itself.

Sharon reports that 2026 has been a good year so far. Her memoir Walking Each Other Home was published in the spring by BWL Publishing, and the response has been gratifying. Also, her short story “Through the Fog” was published in The New Quarterly, and her essay “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door” has been accepted by Months to Years, a digital magazine in San Francisco. sharonmcinnes.com.

Launched May 2026, The Rhino’s Horn, primarily set in Tanzania and Kenya, is Book 5 in the Dyed In The Green fiction series about Canada’s national parks. The Rhino’s Horn highlights the challenges facing park rangers in some of our planet’s most iconic wild spaces. 

Now available at independent bookstores across Canada, and from www.georgemercer.com.

Janet is pleased to share news of recent publications of her work. A poem, “Three Rooms,” appeared in The Sunlight Press, May 12, 2026. Two book reviews were also published: a review of Ashraf Zaghal’s Seven Heavens Away appeared in The British Columbia Review on May 20, 2026; and a review of Margaret Sweatman’s Night Birds appeared in Prairie Fire on June 3, 2026.

Photo Credit: University of Victoria.

Cynthia has re-released her award-winning How to Write Poetry workshop materials as The Zen of Poetry: For Beginner to Intermediate Writers, and created an accompanying Substack profile, The Zen of Writing, with extra tips and discussion. The book can be found in libraries and on Amazon. Happy summer reading and writing!

Janet’s first novel, A Corner of the Earth, launched from Pegasus Publishers, Cambridge UK, June 25, 2026.

Robin’s new middle-grade novel, The Book of Jupiter, was released June 2, 2026. Published by Kids Can Press, it is the story of Ara, a 13-year-old girl who has lived her whole life in a cult. The Book of Jupiter is a Junior Library Guild selection and has received starred reviews from Kirkus and ALA Booklist.