Luanne Armstrong and Zoë Landale have put together a thorough survey of the growing body of Canadian creative non-fiction, covering the areas of memoir, personal essay, cultural journalism, lyric essay and nature or place essays. These works are only a sampling of the diversity of Canadian writing, but together they create the best possible beginning for the exploration of this intriguing genre.

Luanne Armstrong, MFA, Ph.D, is a novelist, freelance writer, editor, and publisher. She is deeply interested in writing about place and nature. Her research interests also include the ethics of autobiographical writing, ecological identity, and writing as inquiry. She has published over fifty stories and essays in magazines and journals, and is the author of fourteen books, including poetry, novels, and children’s books. She has been nominated for numerous prizes and awards. Her first novel, Annie, was a best-seller in Germany. Her YA novel, Jeannie and the Gentle Giants, was nominated for Canadian Library Association’s Book of the Year, the Sheila Egoff BC Book Prize Award and the Red Cedar Award. It placed second in the Silver Birch Award. It was also named by McNally Robinson Booksellers in Winnipeg as one of their top ten all time best children’s books. Luanne has taught Creative Writing for many years at the college level including at Langara College, and at summer schools in BC and Alberta. She is a popular speaker and workshop leader at writing conferences. She is presently working on a book about the ethics of autobiographical writing for Pacific Educational Press as well as a book of essays about environmental ethics. She is an adjunct professor of Creative Writing at the University of British Columbia. Luanne currently lives on her organic heritage farm in the Kootenay region of BC.

Luanne Armstrong's profile page

Born in Toronto, Zoe Landale went fishing at the age of 18 off the coast of BC, which she has been doing every year since. Now a veteran of 6 seasons, she admits to becoming cross when well-intentioned people ask if it is her first time out. Commercial fishing is not the easiest job, Zoe agrees, but says that she and her husband Conde work well together as a team. Zoe enjoys living on a boat and having the feeling that wherever you spend the night, you are spending it at home. And fishing? Sometimes I get tired of it and wish that we could be home in the summer, and I miss my cat and my garden, but then I look out at the clean grey sea, feel the cool breeze on my face and feel the boat heave under my feet.

Zoë Landale's profile page

"This collection contains samples of the memoir, personal essay, cultural journalism, travel pieces, a lyric or segmented essay, musings on nature and place, and, finally, cross genre writing." - Feminist Caucus