Reviewed by Christine Hearn

At first glance this seems like a book about fishing; the subtitle is “in the wild with Ted Hughes.” But it is also a book about a remarkable friendship between British poet laureate Hughes, considered one of the best poets of his generation, and SFU criminologist and author Ehor Boyanowsky, and about the passion they shared to save threatened environments.

The two men first meet in 1986 at a poetry reading in Vancouver. Boyanowsky has sent Hughes, an avid fisherman, a cycle of his own poems about the steelhead, “the mystical fighting salmon of British Columbia,” and Hughes responds with a request to meet. Over dinner Boyanowsky regales Hughes with stories of steelhead fishing on the Dean River near Tweedsmuir Park in the Chilcotin.

Five months later Hughes joins Boyanowsky and friends on the Dean and falls in love with both the B.C. landscape and the fishing. In a later year they fish on Blue Earth Lake near Spences Bridge, and Hughes “wonders out loud whether this was the place he dreamed about with his brother when they were boys: a land of cowboys and Indians and giant salmon.”

A highlight of the friendship is Hughes’ 1993 appearance at a black-tie fundraiser at SFU Harbour Centre on behalf of the Steelhead Society of B.C. Volumes of Hughes’ poetry are sold, he gives a talk, and he reads several poems, including “The Bear,” the story of that first fishing trip to the Dean.

The friendship deepens. Hughes provides support to Boyanowsky when his marriage fails. Inevitably the talk turns to Hughes’ ex-wife, American poet and novelist Sylvia Plath, who committed suicide in 1963. Hughes has had little to say about his relationship with Plath but confides in Boyanowsky that he is writing a book of poetry called Birthday Letters that explores their complex relationship.

The conversation about Plath takes place on their last trip to the Dean in 1995. While sitting around the campfire Hughes says, “You know Ehor, you have done so much for me. Opened up doors and experiences that have been closed for years. In some ways, though your interests are different, you remind me a great deal of my brother. I hope in some small way I have done something for you.”
Although they talk again on the phone, that is the last time they see each other before Hughes’ death in 1998.

Controlling Cannabis
Health Sciences professor Benedikt Fischer is one of five co-authors of Cannabis Policy: Moving Beyond Stalemate. The book reviews the health and psychological effects of marijuana, evaluates the effectiveness of current prohibition systems, and looks at alternative options for controlling use.

Banner Year
Talonbooks, with Outstanding Alumni Award winner Karl Siegler (BA’70, MA’75) as publisher, celebrates 2009 in style. Talon author Kevin Loring wins the Governor General’s Award for Drama (Where the Blood Mixes), Michel Tremblay’s The Fat Woman Next Door is Pregnant competes in CBC Canada Reads, and the company also gets the Canadian Book Association Libris Award nomination for Small Publisher of the Year. Majority owners of the press are now Kevin (BA’07) and Vicki Williams whose son Spencer attends SFU.

Back in Time
The Box is George Bowering’s loving look at the glory days of 1960s Vancouver. The former poet laureate and SFU English professor links together 10 short stories, each introduced by an archival photo. He takes us from Bunny Watson, star pitcher for the 1962 Vancouver Mounties, to Drew, a 14-year-old from the Okanagan who spends the summer picking prunes. Bowering’s new book of poetry, My Darling Nellie Grey, is just out.

A Summer’s Day
Former SFU student Brian Brett offers up the beautiful Trauma Farm, a memoir and a history of his small mixed farm on Saltspring Island, and wins the Writers’ Trust Non-Fiction Prize. Brett is a poet and author of many books, including Uproar’s Your Only Music, a Globe and Mail Book of the Year.

Icing
In Woman on Ice: The Early Years of Women’s Hockey in Western Canada, Wayne Norton (BA’72, PDP’75), tells an almost forgotten story. Women’s hockey teams thrived and were fiercely competitive during the First World War and into the 1920s. Women on Ice follows the Vancouver Amazons, plus teams from the Kootenays, the heart of women’s hockey.

Amelia Revisited
Heidi Greco (BGS’75, PDP’75), reimagines the life story of aviatrix Amelia Earhart in her chapbook A: The Amelia Poems. Critics describe it as “dainty, but ambitious.” Greco speculates that Earhart was
captured by the Japanese, imprisoned on Saipan Island, and then returned to the U.S. where she lived out her days in an asylum in New Jersey.

Wisdom in Age
Lillian Zimmerman (BA’71), at 85, says that old age should not be dreaded. In Bag Lady or Powerhouse? A Roadmap for Midlife (Boomer) Women, the research associate at SFU’s Gerontology Research Centre discusses the pleasures and negatives of aging. She would like the word “senior” to disappear because she says it simply means “old.” Profits from the sale of the book will fund a scholarship in gerontology at SFU.

A stunning book contains a garden of culinary delights.

Yummy
Evaleen Jaager Roy (BBA’84) is an Outstanding Alumni Award winner and former chair of the Board of Governors who has held a series of senior finance and human resources positions. Now she has written the beautiful Four Chefs One Garden, which offers gardening tips and meals to suit each of the seasons. The chefs are Umberto Menghi, Michel Jacob, Vikram Vij, and Hidekazu Tojo; the gardener is Brian Minter. One dollar from the sale of each book goes to the YWCA’s Crabtree Corner Family Resource Centre to feed women and children living in the Downtown Eastside.
<www.fourchefsonegarden.com>

A Helping Connection
Former SFU writer-in-residence Alan Twigg explores the private lives of writer George Woodcock and his wife, Ingeborg, in Tibetans in Exile: The Dalai Lama & the Woodcocks. The Woodcocks met the Dalai Lama in 1961 and that led to a life-long friendship and ongoing efforts to assist Tibetans in Canada and Asia.

Death Rites
George Bowering and his wife, Jean Baird, edit The Heart Does Break, a collection of personal pieces on grieving by 20 Canadian authors. Writers include SFU alumni Brian Fawcett and Brian Brett; the deaths include parents, children, a literal partner in crime, and writers bpNichol and June Callwood.

Space and Technology
Jody Berland (BA’73, MAS’78) has written North of Empire, a collection of 10 essays exploring the links between culture and space. Berland argues that Canada offers a unique perspective for understanding the power that media technologies have to shape everyday lives. She also provides a useful overview of the assumptions driving communications research on both sides of the Canada-U.S. border. Berland is associate professor of Humanities at York University and editor of TOPIA: Canadian Journal of Cultural Studies.

Is There a Solution?
A Thousand Dreams: Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside and the Fight for its Future, by SFU criminologist Neil Boyd, Senator Larry Campbell, and Vancouver Sun journalist Lori Culbert, looks at the community at risk. It raises questions and calls for solutions including continued support for Insite, the safe injection site; decriminalization of prostitution and drugs; transferring of addiction services to the Ministry of Health; and more affordable housing.

A Writer’s Life Well Lived
When P.K. Page (LLD’90) died in January at 93 her literary career spanned more than 60 years. She wrote poetry, non-fiction, novels, librettos, and children’s books. She was also an accomplished artist and was the first recipient of the Lieutenant Governor’s Literary Lifetime Achievement Award in 2004.

Remembering Robin
Robin Blaser is a tribute from two men who knew the late poet and teacher for more than 40 years: writer Stan Persky and Outstanding Alumni Award Winner Brian Fawcett (BA’70). Persky’s essay offers a cohesive guide to Blaser’s poetry, while Fawcett writes about how Blaser inspired and guided him at SFU.
<http://newstarbooks.com/book.php? book_id=1554200520>

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