Books published by University of Alberta Press

"The book is an exhibition catalogue of rare angling books, which are housed in the University of Alberta's Bruce Peel Special Collections."--

After assignments as a Canadian diplomat in Mexico, Colombia, Sudan, and South Africa, Nicholas Coghlan and his wife Jenny unwind by sailing Bosun Bird, a 27-foot sailboat, from Cape Town across the South Atlantic and into the stormy winter waters of the Beagle Channel, Tierra del Fuego, and the Strait of Magellan. Coghlan recalls earlier adventures in Patagonia during the late seventies when he and his wife explored the region over three successive summers. Now, as they negotiate the labyrinth of channels and inlets around snow-covered Fireland, he reflects on the voyages of past explorers: Magellan, Cook, Darwin, Slocum, and others. Sailing enthusiasts and readers of true adventures will want to add Coghlan's world-wise narrative to their libraries.

Explores the challenges and opportunities for advancing human, Indigenous, housing, property, and various other forms of rights in the neoliberal city.

A perfect guide for those curious about recent forces and events that have shaped modern Canada.

This catalogue documents a multi-year art-science project called Immune Nations, produced on the occasion of its exhibition at the McMaster Museum of Art in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. Initiated in 2014 and co-led by Steven Hoffman (York University), Sean Caulfield (University of Alberta), and Natalie Loveless (University of Alberta), Immune Nations brought together scientists, policy experts, academic scholars, and artists to work on an interdisciplinary and collaborative research-creation project tackling complex issues related to the use and distribution of vaccines in the world today. The project launched at the Trondheim Academy of Fine Art's Galeri KiT (2017), moved to the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) headquarters building in Geneva, Switzerland (2017), and concluded at the McMaster Museum of Art at McMaster University (2021).Contributors: Jesper Alvær, Sean Caulfield, Timothy Caulfield, Susan Colberg, Patrick Fafard, Caitlin Fisher, Steven Hoffman, Johan Holst, Annemarie Hou, Alison Humphrey, Jude Kang Hwirin, Rachelle Viader Knowles, Kaisu Koski, Vicki Sung-yeon Kwon, Natalie Loveless, Patrick Mahon, Tegan Moore, Carol Podedworny, Sergio Serrano, Florian Schneider, Lathika Sritharan, Mkrtich Tonoyan, Lalaine Ulit-Destajo, Susan Rogers Van Katwyk, Morgan Wedderspoon, Arman Yeritsyan

Arborophobia, the latest collection by award-winning poet Nancy Holmes, is a poetic spiritual reckoning. Its elegies, litanies, and indictments concern wonder, guilt, and grief about the journey of human life and the state of the natural world. When a child attempts suicide and western North America burns and the creep of mortality closes in, is spiritual and emotional solace possible or even desirable? Answers abound in measured, texturally intimate, and often surprising ways. The title sequence, named for a word that means "hatred of trees," sassily blurs the boundaries between human beings and Ponderosa pines, reminding us how fragile our conceptual frameworks really are. Another sequence responds to Julian of Norwich's writing and call "to practise the art / of letting things happen." Saints' lives interlace with our quotidian experience, smudging connections between the spiritual and the earthly. Taking a hard look at what we have done to this beautiful planet and to those we love, Arborophobia is a companion for all who grapple with the problem of hope in times of crisis.

Thirteen contributors examine Indigenous peoples' negotiations with different cosmologies in today's globalized world.

"In A Short History of the Blockade, award-winning writer Leanne Betasamosake Simpson uses Michi Saagiig Nishnaabeg stories, storytelling aesthetics, and practices to explore the generative nature of Indigenous blockades through our relative, the beaver--or in Nishnaabemowin, Amik. Moving through genres, shifting through time, amikwag stories become a lens for the life-giving possibilities of dams and the world-building possibilities of blockades, deepening our understanding of Indigenous resistance, as both a negation and an affirmation. Widely recognized as one of the most compelling Indigenous voices of her generation, Simpson's work breaks open the intersections between politics, story, and song, bringing audiences into a rich and layered world of sound, light, and sovereign creativity. A Short History of the Blockade reveals how the practice of telling stories is also a culture of listening, "a thinking through together," and ultimately, like the dam or the blockade, an affirmation of life."--

Memory and reality, homeland and settlement, life and death-uncovering sacrifices, secrets, and forgiveness.

"The poems in Ghosts Still Linger explore the past and present of the prairies, juxtaposing contemporary responses to grief and environmental issues with musings about iconic historical figures such as Buffalo Bill Cody and Annie Oakley. Kat Cameron's engaging and lyrical voice illuminates the unsung perspectives of the women of the West, creating a compelling narrative that reflects on her own struggles with sorrow. She conjures ghosts, weaves together insights on notable individuals with wit and irony, and interrogates prairie sensibilities, loss, memory, and the impacts of boom and bust."--

"Dissonant Methods is an innovative collection that probes how, by teaching inventively, postsecondary instructors can resist the constrictions of neoliberalism. Taking up the call in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning to understand teaching as scholarship, these essays offer concrete and practical meditations on resistant and sustainable teaching. The contributors seek to undermine forms of oppression frequently practised in higher education, and instead advance a vision of the university that upholds ideals such as critical thinking, creativity, and inclusivity. Essential reading for faculty and graduate students in the humanities, Dissonant Methods offers urgent, galvanizing ideas for anyone currently teaching in a college or university. Contributors: Kathy Cawsey, Kit Dobson, Ada S. Jaarsma, Rachel Jones, Kyle Kinaschuk, Namrata Mitra, Guy Obrecht, Katja Pettinen, Kaitlin Rothberger, Ely Shipley, Martin Shuster"--

Essays in French or English use affect as a lens for reading contemporary Canadian literatures.

"With Masters and Servants, Scott P. Stephen has revealed startling truths about the men of the Hudson's Bay Company. Rather than dedicating themselves body and soul to the Company's interests, these workers hired out like domestic servants, joining a 'household' with its attendant norms of duty and loyalty. Through painstaking documentary research, Stephen shines welcome light on the lives of these largely overlooked historical actors. The household system produced a remarkably stable political-economic entity, connecting early Canadian resource extraction to larger trends in British imperialism and its emerging social relations. An essential book for labour historians, Masters and Servants will appeal to scholars of early modern Britain, the North American fur trade, Western social history, or business history, and anyone intrigued by the reach of the HBC."--

This book makes available a unique set of little known hide paintings that offer valuable insights into one of the lesser-studied Plains Indian societies.

Is there a limit to the liberties a writer can take with the real world?

"The poems in E. Alex Pierce's new collection invite readers to meditate upon language embedded in landscape, and trace the formation of a young artist who begins in music, arrives at theatre, and ends in poetry. From striking individual poems such as "The fetch of the wind" and "The sky full of empty rooms" to the stunning stretched sonnet sequence "The Stanzas. Rooms."--Which searches a passionate relationship with a photographer for the beginnings of a poet's voice--the collection moves from the fragmented textures of childhood memory in an East Coast village to the complex juxtaposition of art museums, performance, opera, and string quartets. These fiercely poised poems are layered and rich, with a sensuous attention to line and breath; a major new volume from an accomplished poet."--

Through a fusion of personal experience and art, the contributors help us understand the lived realities of individuals with head and neck cancer. Featuring original art from Ingrid Bachmann, Sean Caulfield, Jude Griebel, Jill Ho-You, Heather Huston, and Bradley Necyk, this collaborative, interdisciplinary exploration draws together the voices of patients, health care practitioners, researchers, and artists to offer a more holistic--more human--understanding of cancer treatment and its aftermath. Art-Medicine Collaborative Practice will resonate with people with head or neck cancer as well as medical practitioners who aid in their healing process. It is an important book for all those in the health professions and medical humanities, as well as artists, arts-based researchers, and those interested in the areas of health and visual communication and knowledge translation. Contributors: Ingrid Bachmann, Pamela Brett-MacLean, Sean Caulfield, Kimberly Flowers, Jude Griebel, Bahaa Harmouche, Jill Ho-You, Heather Huston, Bernie Krewski, Lianne McTavish, Suresh Nayar, Bradley Necyk, Leslie O''Connor-Parsons, Kyle Terrence, Helen Vallianatos, Minn N. Yoon

This exhibition catalogue features over 100 highlights of a large and extraordinary collection of Canadian little magazines and Canadian small press and micro-press imprints assembled by David McKnight. As a determined collector/librarian imbued with remarkable passion and resolve, McKnight invested 30 years developing a private collection that has considerable potential for literary research in the areas of Canadian Modernist poetry, avant-garde literature, and the production of small magazines in Canada. McKnight generously donated the collection to the University of Alberta Libraries in 2012, and this publication unveils the collection publicly for the first time.

"Sam Steele, "the man who tamed the Gold Rush," had a glittering, high-profile public career, yet his private life has been closely protected. Sam Steele: A Biography follows Steele's rise from farm boy in backwoods Ontario to the much-lauded Major General Sir Samuel Benfield Steele. Drawing on the vast Steele archive at the University of Alberta, this comprehensive biography vividly recounts some of the most significant events of the first fifty years of Canadian Confederation--including the founding of the North-West Mounted Police, the opening of the North through the Klondike, and Canada's participation in the South African War--from the perspective of a military leader. Impeccably researched and accessibly written, Sam Steele is perfect for anyone interested in Canada's early decades."--