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Research & Publications

 

Work in Progress...

 

Invader Species

in collaboration with Mike Healey, Earth and Ocean Sciences

Abstract

 

A series of short field-essays on twenty invader species with emphasis on their impact in the Pacific Northwest. Each section fuses ecology and biology with reflections on the imagining of each species, some familiar, some obscure. We ask how a particular plant or animal connects--to the varied intricacies of its habitat, and through its appearances in the verbal, visual and musical arts, to the ways we relate to place. We ask what role a species plays in the native environment, and what ecological benefits it may bring.

Some invader species seem benign. Some invader species seem pernicious. Some introduced species have come to be understood as native. We will contemplate the crossovers in those views. The book looks for origin narratives, for the best zoological field work, for eco-poems, and for the opinions of botanists. In some cases, we look for the extirpation narratives (the stories of guerilla action to eliminate the introduced species); in others, we ponder the historical changes in attitude toward invader species.

The book will be prepared in collaboration with graduate and senior undergraduate students who have worked on aspects of the project. We hope the book will be intelligent and scholarly but written to interest an audience beyond those with a scientific or professional commitment to conservation.

 

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Selected Publications

Listed below are some of the books and articles that I have either written or co-authored.

BOOKS  |  JOURNAL ARTICLES  |   CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS  | CHAPTERS/SECTIONS OF BOOKS

Books



Salal: Northwest Understory

 


Salal: Listening for the Northwest Understory. Published by NeWest Press, Fall 2007.

Listen to a conversation with Sheryl MacKay, host of CBC Radio's North by Northwest

The Arbutus/Madrone Files

 

 The Arbutus/Madrone Files: Reading the Pacific Northwest. Published by NeWest Press, May 2002. US Edition from Oregon State University Pres, September 2002.  Click on the image to find out more about this book.

dungeness spit -- click here

 

  

A Field Guide to "A Guide to Dungeness Spit" (Lantzville, BC: Oolichan Books, 1997).  Click on the image to find out more about this book.

EverydayMagic -- click here

 

  

Everyday Magic: Child Languages in Canadian Literature (University of British Columbia Press, 1991).  Click on the image to find out more about this book.


Vertical Man/Horizontal World -- click here

 

Vertical Man/Horizontal World: Man and Landscape in Canadian Prairie Fiction (University of British Columbia Press, 1973).  Click on the image to find out more about this book.

 

Journal Articles

  • "Twin Misunderstandings: The Structure of Patricia Blondal's A Candle to Light the Sun," Canadian Literature 84 (Spring 1980): 58-71.

  • "Never Cry Wolfe: Benjamin West's The Death of Wolfe in Prochain Episode and The Diviners," Essays on Canadian Writing 20 (Winter 1980-81): 171-85.

  • "Field Notes and Notes in a Field: Forms of the West in Robert Kroetsch and Tom Robbins," Journal of Canadian Studies 17.3 (Fall 1982): 117-23.

  • "Dumb Talk: Echoes of the Indigenous Voice in the Literature of British Columbia," BC Studies 65 (Spring 1985): 34-47.

  • "The Writing of British Columbia Writing," BC Studies No. 100 (Winter 1993-94): 106-120.

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Conference Proceedings

  • "Articulating Ecotopia," To See Ourselves/To Save Ourselves: Ecology and Culture in Canada Canadian Issues Vol. 12 (Montréal: Association for Canadian Studies, 1991) 51-62.

  • "Obscured by Violence: Timothy Findley's The Wars," Violence in the Canadian Novel Since 1960, eds. Terry Goldie and Virginia Harger-Grinling (St. John's: Memorial University, 1981) 125-37.

  • "The Majesty of His Loyal Apposition," A Likely Story: The Writing of Robert Kroetsch New Quarterly 18:1 (Spring 1998): 61-69.

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Chapters or Sections of Books

  • "Phyllis Webb, Daphne Marlatt and Simultitude," Shirley Neuman & Smaro Kamoureli, eds. A Mazing Space: Writing Canadian Women Writing (Edmonton: Longspoon/Ne West Press, 1987) 205-215.

  • "Poetry," Literary History of Canada, ed. W.H. New, 2nd ed., vol. 4, (Toronto: U Toronto Press, 1990): 3-45.

  • "Crossing Borders in the Literature of the Pacific Northwest," Borderlands: Essays in Canadian-American Relations (Toronto: ECW Press, 1991): 286-308.

  • "Two Nations Own Three Islands: Border and Region in Pacific-Northwest Writing," Camille R. La Bossière ed. Context North America: Canadian/US Literary Relations (Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press, 1994): 49-62.

  • (with Robert Bringhurst) "Robert Bringhurst's 'Sunday Morning': A Dialogue, "Inside the Poem: Essays and Poems in Honour of Donald Stephes, ed. W.H. New (Toronto: Oxfor University Press, 1992): 88-100.

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Last updated: 26-Sep-2008