This classic of Canadian art biography, which won the Governor General's Award for Nonfiction, is a remarkable portrait of one of Canada's greatest artists.

Emily Carr's life was filled with tension, between the conventions of society and her own originality, between her relationships with others and her often lonely struggle to overcome obstacles, between happiness and despair. Acclaimed writer and historian Maria Tippett has captured the essence of this complex life, weaving a narrative that is …

Originally published in 1852, Mary A. Shadd's A Plea for Emigration; or, Notes of Canada West appears here for the first time in print since the 1850s. Many emigrant guides have been accorded classic status in the realm of early Canadian literature, among them Susanna Moodie's Roughing It in the Bush and Catherine Parr Trail's The Canadian Settler's Guide. Shadd's document sheds new, intriguing light on Canadian history and African-Canadian realities in the nineteenth century.

Standing Up with G_a’ax_sta’las tells the remarkable story of Jane Constance Cook (1870-1951), a controversial Kwakwa_ka_’wakw leader and activist who lived during a period of enormous colonial upheaval. Working collaboratively, Robertson and Cook’s descendants draw on oral histories and textual records to create a nuanced portrait of a high-ranked woman, a cultural mediator, devout Christian, and Aboriginal rights activist who criticized potlatch practices for surprising reasons. This p …

Anne Hébert made Quebec literature internationally known. Her poems, stories and novels brought the passion and mysteries of rural Quebec to wider audiences and forced English Canada to translate the French literature of North America. We can never forget the stories in Le Torrent or the poems in Le Tombeau des rois. We meet our sisters and brothers face-to-face on every page. These essays are a tribute to Hébert's literary grace and power as an author.

Adelaide Hunter Hoodless, lifelong crusader for the recognition of the domestic sciences (cooking, sewing, childcare and housework) and an early proponent of home economics in Canada, was considered one of the radical new woman of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. She helped turn the Canadian YWCA into a national organization. She founded the Women’s Institute, assisted in the founding of the Victorian Order of Nurses and represented Canada on numerous International Councils o …

Finalist for the 2011 Norma Fleck Award for Canadian Children's Non-Fiction

"On behalf of the Nova Scotia government, I sincerely apologize to Mrs. Viola Desmond’s family and to all African Nova Scotians for the racial discrimination she was subjected to by the justice system … We recognize today that the act for which Viola Desmond was arrested, was an act of courage, not an offence." -- Darrell Dexter, Premier of Nova Scotia, April 15, 2010

In Nova Scotia, in 1946, an usher in a movie theatr …

Brought up in a strict and sheltered household, the daughter of a Mohawk chief and a non-native woman, Pauline Johnson struggled to make an independent life for herself.

She found it as a poet and performer whose dramatic recitals skirted the boundaries of what was acceptable to "respectable" Canadian society. Her performances took her from the backwoods of British Columbia's gold country to the drawing rooms of England. Onstage she assumed the role of an Indian princess, while in her personal li …

The magnificent and long-awaited biography of the beloved writer who gave us the Manawaka novels, including The Diviners and The Stone Angel.