It's not where you're going but how you get there ...

Everyone's got a good story to tell about cars: a funny fender-bender, a bad cab ride, awkward amorous acrobatics. But the stories we tell about cars tell even more about ourselves. You'll see what we mean in Cars.

George Bowering, one of Canada's Grand Prix writers, and Ryan Knighton, a young writer just entering the race, realized that they could tellthe stories of their lives and friendship through the automobiles that have driven them.

Now, these aren't your ordinary boys-and-cars stories. There's no drag racing or cruising for chicks. In fact, George likes to drive pretty slowly, and Ryan, who is now blind, doesn't drive at all. But they take turns in the literary driver's seat, bantering and fender-nudging so their stories curve and tangle like a BC highway, until what emerges is a poignant, hilarious conversation.

Boiling fish in the radiator, jousting with a forklift, cabbing with Doris Lessing: in one hundred panels (that's fifty each), George and Ryan tell the tales of their friendship, families, friends and loves - all illuminated by the dashboard light. Cars is an auto biography that'll chauffeur you through the intersection of the lives of two of Canada's most exciting writers.

George Bowering, Canada’s first Poet Laureate, was born in the Okanagan Valley.After serving as an aerial photographer in the Royal Canadian Air Force, Bowering earned a BA in English and an MA in history at the University of British Columbia, where he became one of the co-founders of the avant-garde poetry magazine TISH. He has taught literature at the University of Calgary, the University of Western Ontario, and Simon Fraser University, and he continues to act as a Canadian literary ambassador at international conferences and readings.A distinguished novelist, poet, editor, professor, historian, and tireless supporter of fellow writers, Bowering has authored more than eighty books, including works of poetry, fiction, autobiography, biography, and youth fiction. His writing has been translated into French, Spanish, Italian, German, Chinese, and Romanian.Bowering has twice won the Governor General’s Award, Canada’s top literary prize. In 2019 he received the George Woodcock Lifetime Achievement for an outstanding literary career in British Columbia.

George Bowering's profile page

Ryan Knighton's most recent book is Cockeyed: A Memoir (Penguin Books, 2006). He is also the co-author of Cars with George Bowering (Coach House, 2002). His journalism and satirical essays have appeared in such magazines as Utne and Saturday Night, and in such newspapers as The Globe and Mail, The Vancouver Sun, and The Montreal Gazette. He is presently undertaking a documentary film with director Scott Smith (Falling Angels) called As Slow As Possible. It involves a pipe organ and over six hundred years of hope.

Ryan Knighton's profile page