West by Northwest: British Columbia Short Stories

Lori A. Dunn is a ESL teacher, instructional designer, and freelance
writer in New Westminster, B.C.

British Columbia’s mixture of mountains, valleys, islands, and wild
ocean beaches influences the character of the province’s people.
Through this collection of short stories, nonresidents of British
Columbia can share in such experiences as taking the ferry over to
Nanaimo or beachcombing on a rocky ocean beach.

The collection begins with Haida artist Bill Reid’s classic tale of
how Raven birthed the First Peoples out of a clamshell. A random
sampling of the remaining 28 stories shows that a general
characterization of the collection is impossible—their only connection
is their geography. Howard O’Hogan’s story, “The Woman Who Got On
at Jasper Station,” is about a tensely sensual encounter. “Was That
Malcolm Lowry?” by Sandy Frances Duncan concerns a woman’s memory of
a child’s summer at the beach, while Evelyn Lau’s story of the
“other woman” in “Marriage” showcases the ferry trip to the
Island. The story of a young woman on a reserve is recounted in Eden
Robinson’s “Queen of the North.” Caroline Woodward’s “Summer
Wages” describes a worried mother’s experiences as a truck-stop
waitress, while Emily Carr describes her stay in an abandoned Native
village in the midst of the rainforested coast.

Each story in this fine collection was chosen not only for its
representation of the province but also for the sheer exuberance of the
writing.