Author Archives: Rachel Corder

P. Johanson – Tower in the Crooked Wood, rev’d ed.

Each year UVic faculty, staff, students, alumni, and retirees produce an incredible amount of intellectual content reflecting their breadth and diversity of research, teaching, personal, and professional interests. A list of these works is available here.

tower-in-the-crooked-woodPaula Johanson’s foray into the realm of fantasy is given new life in the revised edition of Tower in the Crooked Wood. In Johanson’s own words, this book is “one story, as seen by one person, learning about her world.” (2015 interview)

About the Book

They were stolen in the dark to work for a night and a day, building a tower for the wizard Krummholz on faraway Copper Island, in a place where the trees grow twisted in a poisoned bog.

Some of the unwilling workers were returned bewildered, bruised and marked by whips—others died as the uncaring wizard called new workers to his tower. Now Jenia is the only one left of her family willing to leave her orchards and walk five hundred miles in search of her abductor, and the answers to questions burning inside her.

Why was she stolen out of the dark? What is wrong at the heart of the tower? And why does the magic twisting the very trees strike a strangely familiar note? All Jenia knows for sure is that she will not let herself be made a prisoner again, not by magic nor by force of arms. When a soldier tries to trap her in a lord’s garden, and a village of gentle people tell her to give up her hopeless quest, Jenia has to choose where to place her trust: in friends, in strength, or in the cunning in her own two hands.

And then the wizard Krummholz sends his call out again….

Paula-Johanson-200x300About the Author

For over twenty-five years, Paula Johanson has worked as a writer, teacher, and editor. Among her twenty-nine books on science, health, and literature the most recent are Love Poetry: How Do I Love Thee? (Enslow Publishers), What Is Energy? from the series Let’s Find Out! (Rosen Publishing), and the science fiction anthology Opus 6 (Reality Skimming Press).  She also recently completed an MA in Canadian Literature at the University of Victoria.

Praise for the Book

“A wealth of realistic detail lends authenticity to this engrossing tale of a young arborist, ‘a scholar of trees.’ Paula Johanson has created a magical alternative world both mythic in feel, and hauntingly evocative of our own.” – Eileen Kernaghan

P. MacRae – Business and Professional Writing: A Basic Guide

Each year UVic faculty, staff, students, alumni, and retirees produce an incredible amount of intellectual content reflecting their breadth and diversity of research, teaching, personal, and professional interests. A list of these works is available here.

business-and-professional-writingFrom UVic English Instructor Paul MacRae comes the essential new book Business and Professional Writing: A Basic Guide. This book is a pragmatic look at all of the elements of strong professional writing – including language, grammar, document design, correspondence, cover letters, reports, and much more.

About the Book

Straightforward, practical, and focused on realistic examples, Business and Professional Writing: A Basic Guide is an introduction to the fundamentals of professional writing. The book emphasizes clarity, conciseness, and plain language. Guidelines and templates for business correspondence, formal and informal reports, brochures and press releases, and oral presentations are included.

Exercises guide readers through the process of creating and revising each genre, with helpful tips, reminders, and suggested resources provided throughout.

About the Author

Paul McCrae is an instructor with the English department at the University of Victoria, as well as teaching online courses at the University of Athatbasca. His teaching areas are temacraechnical and professional writing; writing for government; objective journalism; and writing creative non-fiction. He brings a wealth of experience to his teaching, having worked for more than 30 years as an editor, reporter, editorial writer, and columnist for The Canadian Press, Toronto Star, Bangkok Post, Toronto Globe and Mail, and Victoria Times Colonist.

Paul MacRae has received a BA in Sociology from the University of Toronto and an MA in English from the University of Victoria. He is the author of numerous columns, editorials, features, reviews, and articles; co-author of the University of Victoria Writer’s Guide; and sole author of three books.

Praise for the Book

“This is a practical, no-nonsense approach to professional writing. What the reader will find here is everything he or she needs to know to be an effective communicator, from a foundation in grammar and basic precepts, including the importance of document design, to how to write in specific professional genres, including persuasive letters, résumés, and reports. Rather than being relegated to an appendix, grammar is foregrounded, along with the ‘seven Cs of good professional communication.’ The coverage is thorough yet concise, and even experienced writers will find the text to be a valuable resource.” — Michael Fox, Western University

“Paul MacRae’s Business and Professional Writing delivers on its promise to provide a basic bread-and-butter guide to workplace writing. […] This book practices what it teaches. Concepts are explained and illustrated clearly and efficiently. The strong section on grammar clearly explains the basics that need to be in every professional writer’s toolkit. The book’s brevity, conciseness, and to-the-point approach make it a practical, accessible textbook that would be a great resource for any student.” — Kelly Belanger, Virginia Tech

“What makes this book stand out from the competition is its focus on news releases, brochures, and promotion on the web. Detailed instructions on how to construct an effective brochure is especially helpful to students who often struggle with this format.” — Precious McKenzie, Rocky Mountain College

W. Magnusson – Local Self-Government and the Right to the City

Each year UVic faculty, staff, students, alumni, and retirees produce an incredible amount of intellectual content reflecting their breadth and diversity of research, teaching, personal, and professional interests. A list of these works is available here.

Local Self-GovernmentThe culmination of a life’s work by Canada’s leading political theorist in the field and UVic Professor Emeritus, Doug Magnusson, Local Self-Government and the Right to the City ranges across topics such as local government, social movements, constitutional law, urban political economy, and democratic theory.

About the Book

Despite decades of talk about globalization, democracy still depends on local self-government. In Local Self-Government and the Right to the City, Warren Magnusson argues that it is the principle behind claims to personal autonomy, community control, and national self-determination that holds the promise of more peaceful politics. Unfortunately, state-centered thinking has obscured understanding of what local self-government can mean and hindered efforts to make good on what activists have called the “right to the city.”

In this collection of essays, Magnusson reflects on his own efforts to make sense of what local self-government can actually mean, using the old ideal of the town meeting as a touchstone. Why cannot communities govern themselves? Why fear direct democracy? As he suggests, putting more trust in the proliferating practices of government and self-government will actually make cities work better, and enable us to see how to localize democracy appropriately. He shows that doing so will require citizens and governments to come to terms with the multiplicity, indeterminacy, and uncertainty implicit in politics and steer clear of sovereign solutions.

About the Author

Warren Magnusson is a political theorist and UVic Professor Emeritus (Political Science) with a particular interest in the urban and the local as sites of politics and government.

MagnussonHis most recent book, Local Self-Government and the Right to the City, completes a trilogy that began with The Search for Political Space (1996) and Politics of Urbanism: Seeing Like a City (2011). Magnusson has always had a particular interest in politics in Canada, as is reflected in the influential volume he edited with Andrew Sancton on City Politics in Canada (1983), two co-edited volumes on BC politics, The New Reality (1983) and After Bennett (1986), various articles and book chapters he published in the subsequent decades, and another edited volume, with Karena Shaw, A Political Space: Reading the Global through Clayoquot Sound (2002).

He is a founding member of the Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Cultural, Social, and Political Thought (CSPT) at UVic, as well as of the Urban Studies Committee, which organizes the CityTalks in Victoria. Having taught many different courses on urban politics and political theory over the years, he offered his last course as a regular faculty member – a seminar on self-government  – in January 2016. He continues to advise graduate students interested in contemporary political theory and/or urban politics.

Praise for the Book

“Local Self-Government and the Right to the City reveals the intellectual development of one of the most creative and incisive, yet perhaps underappreciated, political theorists Canada has ever produced.” Zack Taylor, University of Toronto

“…it does a remarkable job in raising and framing crucial questions, in critiquing prevailing disciplinary assumptions, and in mapping the landscape for a new urban-focused, community-based worldview.” W.F. Garrett-Petts, BC Studies, 2016.

M. Maftei & L. Tansley – Writing Creative Non-fiction

Each year UVic faculty, staff, students, alumni, and retirees produce an incredible amount of intellectual content reflecting their breadth and diversity of research, teaching, personal, and professional interests. A list of these works is available here.

Writing Creative Non-FictionWriting Creative Non-Fiction: Determining the Form, from UVic English instructor Micaela Maftei, explores the purpose and potential of non-fiction, along with the formats and styles it encompasses.  It is a worthwhile addition to the library of any writer, scholar, or lover of non-fiction writing.

About the Book

Writers of creative non-fiction are often expected to be able to recreate reality, to deal with, or even access, a singular truth. But the author, like any human, is not an automaton remotely tasked with capturing a life or an event.

Whether we tell stories and understand them as fiction or non-fiction, or whether we draw away from these classifications, writers craft and shape writing, all writing. No experience exists on a flat plane, and recounting or interpreting events will always involve some element of artistic manipulation: every instance, exchange, discussion, and event is open to multiple interpretations and can be described in many ways, all of which are potentially truthful.

Writing Creative Non-Fiction: Determining the Form contains essays and original writing from novelists, poets, songwriters, musicians, and academics. The book covers topics that range from explorations of the role of the author, definitions and representations of the form, self and illness, to the spectral elements of non-fiction and its role in historical narratives. The essays included in this volume address everything from memoir, biography, and autobiography to a discussion of musical approaches to criticism and a non-fiction interview.

The book identifies key writers including Christopher Isherwood, David Shields, James Frey, Åsne Seierstad, John D’Agata, W. G. Sebald, Jonathan Coe, Hilary Mantel, James Kelman, Liz Lochhead, and Arthur Frank and is essential reading for students, researchers and writers of creative non-fiction.

About the Editors

Micaela Maftei holds a Ph.D from the University of Glasgow. Her book The Fiction of Autobiography: Reading and Writing Identity was published with Bloomsbury in 2013 and her fiction has appeared online and in print in the UK and North America.

Laura Tansley‘s creative and critical writing has appeared in a variety of places including ‘Short Fiction in Theory and Practice’, ‘New Writing’, ‘Versal’ and ‘The Island Review’ (with Amy Mackelden), ‘Kenyon Review Online’ (with Micaela Maftei), ‘New Writing Scotland’ and ‘NANO Fiction.’  She lives and works in Glasgow.

J.C.Y. Liew & D. Galloway – Immigration Law, 2e

Each year UVic faculty, staff, students, alumni, and retirees produce an incredible amount of intellectual content reflecting their breadth and diversity of research, teaching, personal, and professional interests. A list of these works is available here.

Immigration LawImmigration Law, 2nd edition is a new title from UVic Faculty member Donald Galloway. It explores the history, status, process, and issues of immigration in Canadian law. Anyone interested in the general shape and sense of Canada’s immigration law and policy, in its evolution, and in the issues that will dominate the field in the future, will want to read this book.

About the Book

Canadian immigration and citizenship law has been subject to frequent and seemingly frenzied revision and reformulation by the government of the day as it attempts to identify the country’s social, economic, and demographic needs and to respond to perceived threats to its sovereign control over Canada’s borders.

This book builds upon the first edition as an introductory guide to immigration, refugee, and citizenship law. Its aim is to provide an overview, or a starting point, both for those who want to investigate the mechanics of Canada’s immigration regime and for those who want to assess, critique, or question the aims and impacts of the law.

The book is divided into four parts. Part 1 provides context and delves into the sources and evolution of Canadian immigration law. Part 2 examines status in Canada, identifying how persons may obtain, keep, and lose temporary or permanent status. Part 3 discusses the devices that the Canadian government uses to enforce immigration law. Part 4 examines judicial supervision of government action under the immigration regime, and in particular judicial review and constitutional challenges.

About the Authors

galloway-profileDonald Galloway is a professor of law at the University of Victoria, where he teaches Immigration and Citizenship Law, Refugee Law, and Torts. Professor Galloway has degrees in law and philosophy from the University of Edinburgh and Harvard University. He has served as a member of the Refugee Division of the Immigration and Refugee Board and as a member of the executive of the Canadian Association of Refugee Lawyers. Professor Galloway has appeared as an expert before House of Commons and Senate committees, and is the recipient of the Bora Laskin National Fellowship in Human Rights Research.

Jamie Chai Yun Liew is an immigration and refugee lawyer who has appeared at the Immigration and Refugee Board, Federal Court, Federal Court of Appeal, and the Supreme Court of Canada. She is also an assistant professor at the Faculty of Law at the University of Ottawa, where she teaches Immigration and Refugee Law, Advanced Refugee Law, and Administrative Law. Professor Liew holds degrees in political science and commerce from the University of Calgary, international affairs from Carleton University, and law from the University of Ottawa and Columbia University. She is a member of litigation committees for the Canadian Council for Refugees and the Canadian Association of Refugee Lawyers, and her research focuses on the performative and consequential aspects of how Canadian law is affecting refugees and immigrants.

P. Johanson – King Kwong the China Clipper

Each year UVic faculty, staff, students, alumni, and retirees produce an incredible amount of intellectual content reflecting their breadth and diversity of research, teaching, personal, and professional interests. A list of these works is available here.

King KwongHockey fans will be delighted with King Kwong: Larry Kwong, the China Clipper who broke the NHL Colour Barrier, a marvelous new book from UVic alum Paula Johanson.  This book will appeal to readers of all ages who want to know more about the history of this great Canadian sport.

About the Book

Who broke the colour barrier in the NHL?  A man whose professional hockey career statistics include leading the senior leagues for scoring and for low penalty minutes – and a single shift on the ice in an NHL game. He was scouted three times by NHL teams before that game, and courted away from the NHL to a powerful role in three different leagues before retiring.  He is Larry Kwong, a Canadian of Chinese descent born in Vernon BC in 1923, a hard-working man and World War II serviceman who played hockey most of his life.

Paula Johanson explores the life and accomplishments of the China Clipper, Larry Kwong, whose story is one of an indomitable spirit who triumphed in the face of adversity and social discrimination.

About the AuthorPaula-Johanson-200x300

For over twenty-five years, Paula Johanson has worked as a writer, teacher, and editor. Among her twenty-nine books on science, health, and literature the most recent are Love Poetry: How Do I Love Thee? (Enslow Publishers), What Is Energy? from the series Let’s Find Out! (Rosen Publishing), and the science fiction anthology Opus 6 (Reality Skimming Press).  She also recently completed an MA in Canadian Literature at the University of Victoria.

A lifelong hockey fan, she listened on radio to the first Canada/Russia hockey series, and is proud to have played a pick-up game on a frozen pond.

Praise for the Book

“B.C. writer and self-described lifelong hockey fan Paula Johanson reminds us of the ephemeral nature of sports history in King Kwong, her marvellous little biography of the whirlwind on skates who blew out of the dusty interior 75 years ago. […] Johanson’s book with Five Rivers Publishing is aimed at young adults but I doubt there’s a hockey fan who will be put off any more than Larry Kwong was by his nickname as he dashed up the ice to score the winning goal for the Smoke Eaters in that long-forgotten B.C. Championship of 1946.” Stephen Hume, Vancouver Sun, 2015.

C. Janzen, D. Jeffery & K. Smith – Unravelling Encounters

Each year UVic faculty, staff, students, alumni, and retirees produce an incredible amount of intellectual content reflecting their breadth and diversity of research, teaching, personal, and professional interests. A list of these works is available here.

Unravelling EncountersThe new book Unravelling Encounters: Ethics, Knowledge, and Resistance under Neoliberalism, co-edited by UVic Faculty member Donna Jeffery, is a multidisciplinary book that brings together a series of critical engagements regarding the notion of ethical practice. This interesting text will lead readers into new ways of thinking about the relationship between power and ethics.

About the Book

As a whole, the book explores the question of how the current neo-liberal, socio-political moment and its relationship to the historical legacies of colonialism, white settlement, and racism inform and shape our practices, pedagogies, and understanding of encounters in diverse settings.

The contributors draw largely on the work of Sara Ahmed’s Strange Encounters: Embodied Others in Post-Coloniality, each chapter taking up a particular encounter and unravelling the elements that created that meeting in its specific time and space. Sites of encounters included in this volume range from the classroom to social work practice and from literary to media interactions, both within Canada and internationally. Paramount to the discussions is a consideration of how relations of power and legacies of oppression shape the self and others, and draw boundaries between bodies within an encounter.

From a social justice perspective, Unravelling Encounters exposes the political conditions that configure our meetings with one another and inquires into what it means to care, to respond, and to imagine oneself as an ethical subject.

About the Editorsdonnaj

Donna Jeffery is the acting Director and an associate professor in the School of Social Work at the University of Victoria. Underpinning her work is this question: What explanatory frameworks do we draw on to explain our practice and our professional/personal identities? Jeffery has recently published in Ethics and Social Welfare, The Canadian Geographer, and Journal of Progressive Human Services.

Caitlin Janzen is a Ph.D. student in sociology at York University. Her doctoral research focuses on women’s psychic responses to representations of violence against other(ed) women. Janzen is the co-author of articles that have appeared in Hypatia, Violence Against Women, and Journal of Progressive Human Services.

Kristin Smith is an assistant professor in the School of Social Work at Ryerson University. Her research focuses on neo-liberal restructuring and critical social work practice and she has authored and co-authored articles in Affilia, The Canadian Geographer, and British Journal of Social Work.