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CURRENT PROJECTS Click here for more authors represented by Carolyn Swayze Literary Agency
Frances
Backhouse www.backhouse.ca
is a biologist and freelance journalist who has
written for Audubon, New Scientist, Canadian
Geographic and numerous other magazines. She
has also conducted field research, worked in parks,
served as a biology teacher in Africa, and studied
grizzly bears, raccoons and sea birds. Her first
two books were born of her fascination with
Klondike history. She now mainly writes about
wildlife and ecology. WOMEN
OF THE KLONDIKE (Whitecap Books, 1995)
HIKING
WITH GHOSTS: The Chilkoot Trail, Then and Now
(Raincoast Books, 1999: rights have
reverted.) WOODPECKERS
OF NORTH AMERICA (Firefly Books,
2005) OWLS
OF NORTH AMERICA, (Firefly Books,
2008) KLONDIKE CHILDREN, (Whitecap Books,
2009) Arthur
Black www.basicblack.com
was the popular host of CBC - Radio's Basic
Black for 19 years. His live broadcasts
filled auditoriums across Canada. Arthur continues
to host Weird Homes and Weird Wheels
on the Life Channel and writes a column for
Fifty Plus. His syndicated columns run in
more than 50 Canadian newspapers. He is three-time winner of the Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour. PITCH
BLACK A new collection of essays (Harbour
Publishing, spring, 2005). Winner of the Leacock Medal FLASH
BLACK Arthur's humorous collection of laughter
(Harbour Publishing, spring, 2004) BLACK
AND WHITE AND READ ALL OVER a collection of new
comical essays (Harbour Publishing, fall
2004) ARTHUR
BLACK'S AUDIO FAVOURITES (Harbour Publishing,
2007) PITCH BLACK: THE
BEST OF ARTHUR BLACK: selections from the
award-winning backlist (Harbour Publishing, fall
2005, audio fall 2007) BLACK GOLD: Nuggets from a Lifetime of Laughs BLACK TO THE GRINDSTONE (Harbour Publishing, 2008)
Kathy
Buckworth www.kathybuckworth.com,
a former marketing director, is a contributor to
CanadianLiving.com and Today's
Parent. She is the author of THE SECRET LIFE
OF SUPERMOM: The Tricks and Truths About Having It
All (Sourcebooks 2005), which launched a new
comic voice for busy moms. SuperMom
EveryDay, giftbook and calendar, 2006,
Sourcebooks. JOURNEY
TO THE DARK SIDE: Supermom Goes Home The
woman who had it all (children, a busy corporate
and domestic life, a good salary and lots of guilt)
makes the transition to being at home in the
suburbs. THE BLACKBERRY DIARIES. The BlackBerry is a fantastic example of how we can stay linked to a world which involves mostly us, while living in a reality of playdough, tantrums and judgement (that’d be from the other “challenged” Modern Mummies). Like children, however, all is not sunshine and roses with the BlackBerry.
OH BABY... birth, babies & motherhood uncensored, by Kathy Fray (Random House, New Zealand). 480 pp .
kc dyer (www.kcdyer.com) has published four novels for young adults (Dundurn).
A WALK THROUGH THE WINDOW. Darby Christopher is one cranky teenager. She’s stuck in a one-lobster town for the summer with a pair of weird grandparents and not much to do. A chance encounter with a boy at the end of the street brings some mysterious changes into Darby’s summer. When Darby walks with Gabe through the stone window of an old ruin she finds herself in another world. The window lets Darby look in on the stories of a number of different families as they made their way to Canada - via the Underground Railroad; the coffin ships of the Irish Potato famine; and even the Bering land bridge into North America. Rights
sold: Canada, Doubleday Canada, 2008 Mark
Frutkin www.markfrutkin.com
is the author of six books of fiction and three of
poetry. His work has been published in Canada, UK,
US, Holland, and India. FABRIZIO'S
RETURN is a literary novel set in the 17th and
18th-century Italy, in which the Devil's Advocate,
a hard-eyed Jesuit, investigates a candidate for
sainthood. FABRIZIO'S RETURN is described by Alan
Cumyn as "a grand novel full of ossuaries and
telescopes, gargoyles and magic potions,
apocalyptic paintings, angels, comets, violins, of
murmurations of starlings and characters -- such
characters! -- to make you fall in
love." Rights
sold: Knopf Canada (h/c) 2006, Vintage Canada (p/b)
2007; Proszynski, Poland; Inostranka, Russia; Narae, Korea. Will
Ferguson www.willferguson.ca
has been a regular columnist for Maclean's
Magazine and a frequent contributor to
Flare, Globe and Mail and other
publications. He is a popular humourist, chronicler
of Canadian history, politics, and pop culture and
winner of the 2005 Pierre Berton Award for
Popularizing Canadian History. His published books
include HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO JAPAN (Tuttle
1998), and HOKKAIDO
HIGHWAY BLUES (published in Canada and China as
HITCHING RIDES WITH BUDDHA) an insightful
and witty travel memoir. Rights
sold: USA, Soho, 1998; UK, Canongate, 1999, United
States, Grove Press 2005; Canada, Knopf Canada,
2005 (published as Hitching Rides With
Buddha in Canada and China), complex Chinese
rights sold to Taiwan's Marco Polo Press; Portugese
rights to Companhia das Letras; Italian rights to
Feltrinelli SPANISH FLY, THE
PENGUIN BOOK OF CANADIAN HUMOUR (editor),
Penguin Canada, March 2006 WHY
I HATE CANADIANS (220 pp), Canada, Douglas
& McIntyre, 1997, Re-issued 2007 I
WAS A TEENAGE KATIMA-VICTIM (259 pp),
Canada, Douglas & McIntyre,
1998 BASTARDS
AND BONEHEADS: Our Glorious Leaders Past and
Present (336 pp), Canada, Douglas &
McIntyre, 1999 GIRLFRIEND'S
GUIDE TO HOCKEY by Teena Spencer, with Will
Ferguson and Bruce Spencer, (185 pp), Canada,
Key Porter, 1999, new edition 2008 CANADIAN
HIST0RY FOR DUMMIES 2nd edition, Wiley 2005.
Won the Canadian Authors Association Prize for
History. HOW
TO BE A CANADIAN (even if you already are one)
with Ian Ferguson (225 pp), Won the CBA Libris
Award for Non-Fiction Book of the Year. Nominated
for the Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour, and the
Bill Duthie, BC Booksellers' Choice Prize. 175,000
cc sold. Canada, Douglas & McIntyre,
2001, 2007. HAPPINESS™
is a satirical first novel about a self-help book
that works. When people begin to lose weight, get
rich, quit smoking and have fabulous sex lives, it
causes Apocalypse Nice. Winner of the Stephen
Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour, and the Canadian
Authors Association Fiction Prize. Shortlisted for
the Commonwealth Region Prize
(Canada/Caribbean) Rights
sold: Canada, Penguin, 2001 (first published under
the title, GENERICA); Audio,
Canada, Gooselane (as
GENERICA);
Canongate;
USA h/c Canongate; USA p/b HarperPerennial;
Finland, Otava; Sweden, Bonniers; Germany, List;
Portugal, Asa; Spain (Spanish), Emece; Spain
(Catalan) Columna Edicions; Italy, Feltrinelli;
Korea, Cho-Dang; Greece, Empiria; Israel, Hed Arzi;
Brazil, Luis Schwarcz; Slovenia, Zalozba Mlodinska
Knijiga; Netherlands, Uitgeverij Atlas; France,
Belfond; Denmark, Aschehoug Dansk Forlag; Russia,
Eskmo; Japan, Artist House; Estonia, Pegasus;
Poland, Musa; Agora Yayincilik, Turkey; Chinese
simple rights, Jiuzhou Publishing House, Beijing;
Latvian, Atena; Norwegian, Schibsted
Forlag BEAUTY
TIPS FROM MOOSE JAW: Travels in Search of
Canada Winner of the Leacock Medal for
Humour. Rights
sold: Knopf Canada fall 2004, Canongate UK,
Canongate US, Text Publishing Aus/NZ Steven
Galloway www.stevengalloway.com
is a young rising star. A 1999 graduate of
UBC's MFA program, he has studied radio drama and
screenwriting. He is a sessional instructor in
creative writing. FINNIE
WALSH (166 pp) A debut novel about boyhood
friends and their unforgettable families from
street hockey days through to the major league.
Published as a literary first novel, it was quickly
embraced by younger readers. It was short-listed
for Amazon/Books in Canada Best First Novel award.
Second edition, 2005. Rights
Sold: Canada, Raincoast Books, 2000 ASCENSION
(279 pp) a dazzling international novel about the
world of a Romany high wire walker. Rights
sold: Canada, Alfred A. Knopf, 2003; Radio,
serialization, CBC; Greece, Livanis; US, Carroll
& Graf (reverted); Poland, Bertelsman Swiat; Denmark,
Cicero (reverted); Italy, Edizionieo; Australia, Text Media;
Turkey, Kariyer Yayinlari, world Spanish rights to
El Aleneo (Argentina); UK, Atlantic. Carla
Gunn www.carlagunn.com
is an educator and writer in Fredericton, N.B. She has written extensively for The Globe and Mail and The National Post and has been heard on CBC radio. In FROG quirky nine-year-old Phineas William Walsh lives in a world of paradox. On the one hand, the adults in his life assure him that everything is just fine while on the other hand, his own steel-trap logic and the Green Channel point to the desperate importance of treating the earth with more respect. Along with the everyday routine of school, playing with his best friend, Bird, sparring with the class bully, and negotiating with his irreverent mother, Phin struggles to convince those around him to consider the evidence of their senses. Much to the chagrin of his teacher, the frustration of his psychologist and the horror of his mother, he stubbornly boycotts products made at the expense of orangutans, talks incessantly about animal welfare and makes saving the class frog his mission.
Rights
sold: Canada, Coach House, 2009. Genni
Gunn www.gennigunn.com
was born in Trieste, Italy. Before turning to
writing full-time, she toured in rock bands (bass
guitar, piano, vocals). Her opera libretto,
"Alternate Visions," was staged in 2004.
A creative writing instructor, she is also a
translator of the works of Italian poet Dacia
Maraini. Genni's THRICE UPON A TIME won the
1990 Commonwealth Prize for the best First Novel
(Canada/Caribbean division). MATING IN
CAPTIVITY won the Gerald Lampert Prize for
Poetry. She is also the author of TRAVELLING IN
THE GAIT OF A FOX and ON THE
ROAD. TRACING
IRIS (268 pp) is a complex and exciting
literary novel in which a social anthropologist
searches for her mother. Rights
sold: Canada, Raincoast Books, 2001 (rights reverted); optioned for
film, 2007 HUNGERS
(234 pp) is a mesmerizing collection about
yearning, vice and the dark side of
love. Rights
sold: Canada, Raincoast Books, 2002 (rights reverted). ALTERNATE VISIONS: http://www.chantslibres.org/site.html
an opera libretto half in French and half in English. Spring 2007 FACELESS
a new poetry collection explores landscapes that are fascinating and treacherous, haunted by faces that are obsessively worn and shed, torn off and replaced. Rights
sold: Canada, Signature Editions, 2007 Aislinn
Hunter www.aislinnhunter.com
is a personable Vancouver-based teacher of creative
writing, with a wealth of experience in arts
broadcasting. Her poetry and fiction reflect her
fascination with Ireland. WHAT'S
LEFT US a collection of six stories and a
novella (200 pp) was nominated for the Danuta Gleed
Award and received the 2003 Foreword
Magazine Silver Medal for Fiction. The book was
also shortlisted for the Re-Lit prizes. Rights
sold: Canada, Polestar Books, 2001; French language
for the novella Les Allusifs, 2004; Finland,
Karisto Oy 2001 INTO
THE EARLY HOURS a poetry collection, won the
Gerald Lampert Award and was shortlisted for the
Dorothy Livesay Award. Rights
sold: Canada, Polestar Books, 2001. Rights will revert 2008. STAY
(269 pp), a dazzling first literary novel in
which a young Canadian woman has a love affair with
an older disgraced Irish academic, was shortlisted
for the Books in Canada/Amazon.ca Best First Novel
Prize. Rights
sold: Canada, Polestar Books, 2002 (rights will revert 2008); UK/Irish
rights, New Island Press, 2003; film rights
optioned by Bright Lights Pictures THE
POSSIBLE PAST a poetry collection of great
poise and insight, looks at actual historical
events and people through a post-modern lens.
Shortlisted for the Dorothy Livesay and Pat Lowther
Prizes for Poetry. Rights
sold: Canada, Polestar Books, 2004. Rights will revert 2008. Jen
Sookfong Lee, www.sookfong.com
a Vancouver poet and food writer
who attended UBC's Booming Ground Summer Writing
Program.
TRACEY LINDBERG is of Cree-Metis ancestry. She has a doctoral degree in law as well as law degrees from the University of Ottawa, Harvard Law School and the University of Saskatchewan. She has published on numerous academic subjects.
BUFFALO GAL is Bernice Meetoos, a big Cree woman from northern Saskatchewan. When a tragedy occurs in her family home, she begins to travel to B.C. on a vision quest. The Frugal Gourmet has been coming to her in dreams and telling her ingredients. Paired with this is her desire to meet Pat Johns (Jesse from The Beachcombers), who is, as Bernice says, a working, healthy Indian man. Part road trip, dream quest and travelogue, the novel touches on the universality of women's experience, regardless of culture or race.
To be published by HarperCollins Canada, 2009. All other rights Catherine.Macgregor@harpercollins.com. Andrea
MacPherson www.andreamacpherson.com
is a UBC MFA graduate. Her fiction and poetry have
been widely published in literary magazines. She is
a past editor of Prism International. She teaches Creative Writing and English with University College of the Fraser Valley, and has taught at Malaspina University College, Douglas College and SFU's Writing & Publishing Program. BEYOND
THE BLUE spans the years 1879-1918 in Dundee,
Scotland, as the lives of Morag, her two daughers
and a fey young niece, echo seminal events of their
times -- the Tay Bridge disaster, WW I, the
suffragette movement, the Easter Uprising, and the
influenza scourge. Morag, a worker in the Bowbridge
Jute Mill tries to keep her family intact. Rights
sold: Random House Canada, spring
2007 WHEN
SHE WAS ELECTRIC (251 pp) is an intensely
passionate first novel which takes place on a small
BC farm during the heat wave of 1939. Three
generations of women and the neighbouring Indians
mix echoes of the past, secrets, and the impending
threat of war. Rights
sold: Canada, Polestar Books, 2003 NATURAL
DISASTERS a collection of poetry. " Andrea
MacPherson knows where desire and grief, inextricably bound, lodge in the
body, and she knows that language can awaken memory to make "wings beat
against the chest." In Natural Disasters, the chest is pulled open to show
the wings, inside." Rights
sold: Canada, Palimpsest Press, 2007
AWAY a second collection of poetry. Rights
sold: Canada, Signature Editions, 2007
Teresa
McWhirter www.teresamcwhirter.com has a BA in creative writing from the
University of Victoria. Her gritty, articles and
short fictions have been published in Geist,
Smoking Lung, Bust, The Nerve, sub-Terrain, Sassy,
Filling Station and Vice. SOME
GIRLS DO (196 pp) is a rare kind of novel: a
"genuinely revelatory portrait of a generation and
an alternative community rarely described in
fiction. In sharp and ragged prose, Teresa, unlocks
the sub-culture of the young and poor,
almost-adults in a chaotic urban
setting. Rights
sold: Canada, Polestar Books, 2002. Rights will revert in 2008 due to discontinuation of Raincoast's publishing program. DIRTBAGS is a coming-of-age novel about Spider, a girl with a messy life on the fringe, who likes to shoplift expensive cheese. McWhirter creates a cast of eccentric and compelling characters and produces a fresh, vibrant voice with a unique take on the world. Rights
sold: Canada, Anvil Press, 2007 LISA PASOLD (www.lisapasold.com) is a freelance journalist and Paris-based tour guide who writes about travel, architecture and culture. She has two books of poetry published by Frontenac House. She also explores North America in her 1967 Buick Skylark.
RATS OF LAS VEGAS is a confident novel about Millard Lacouvy, an unusual young woman whose quick hands and flair for poker take her from Depression-Era Vancouver to the post-war mob town of Las Vegas. Millard is a kid playing for dimes at the local saloon and washing laundry at the Hotel Vancouver when an offer from an accomplished gambler sets her star rising. From rags to riches, her life is haunted by childhood friend and sometimes lover Teddy Ahern, a bad boy who always turns up at the worst time and usually needs Millard to bail him out of trouble. Rights
sold: Canada, Enfield & Wizenty,
2009. Karen
Rivers www.karenrivers.com
is the author of books that have been nominated for
national and regional prizes. Her essays for teens
have been included in two anthologies for teens
published by Annick Press (2001, 2002). She published DREAM WATER a juvenile novel in 1999 (Orca) and SURVIVING
SAM (Polestar, Canada and US) in 2001 THE
TREE TATTOO (300 pp) is an adult literary novel
which leads to sudden moments of insight where
language opens unexpected doors. "This is a book
full of passion and restraint in which people try
to make bargains with God but are draw by passion
and need toward dangerous, defiant
acts." Rights
sold: Canada, published by Cormorant Books, 1999,
rights have reverted The Carly Series (middle-grade fiction):
The
Haley Harmony series (teen fiction): THE
HEALING TIME OF HICKEYS (2003) THE
CURE FOR CRUSHES (AND OTHER DEADLY PLAGUES)
(Polestar, 2005) THE
QUIRKY GIRLS' GUIDE to REST STOPS and ROAD TRIPS
(Polestar, 2006) XYZ Trilogy (teen fiction, Raincoast Books, Canada and US):
Brett Alexander Savory www.brettsavory.com is the Bram Stoker
Award-winning Editor-in-Chief of ChiZine: Treatments of Light and Shade in
Words, is a Developmental Editor at Scholastic Canada and writes for Rue Morgue Magazine. His horror-comedy
novel THE DISTANCE TRAVELLED was published by Necro Publications. He is at
work on three novels: The Soul Projectionists, Running Beneath the Skin, and
Bottom Drawer.
IN AND DOWN ( inanddown.com)is the story of brothers Michael and Stephen. When their mother leaves the family their father teaches them that women do not truly exist. One of the brothers descends into himself looking for answers about what happened to his mother and when he emerges from this inner journey, he is forced to confront a secret that’s been buried deep inside for over 30 years.
Rights Sold:
Brindle and Glass, Canada, 2007. Michael
V. Smith www.michaelvsmith.com
is a young UBC MFA grad, who is a screenwriter,
poet and cabaret performer known as Miss Cookie
LaWhore. WHAT
YOU CAN'T HAVE, a collection of poetry
exploring desire and longing in its many forms.
Signature Editions, spring 2006. CUMBERLAND
(295 pp) is a literary novel in which set in a
dying mill town where lonely people look for love
and some form of family. With highly favorable
reviews (see author's web site), this sophisticated
work was shortlisted for the books in
Canada/amazon.ca Best First Novel Award. Rights
sold: Canada, Cormorant books, 2002 Richard
Van Camp www.richardvancamp.org
is an aboriginal writer from the North. He has
an MFA in creative writing from UBC. His stories
have been widely anthologized. In 1996 he won the
Air Canada/Canadian Authors Association for Most
Promising Young Author under 30. He has had two
picture books, illustrated by George Littlechild,
published by Children's Book Press (US), A MAN
CALLED RAVEN, and WHAT'S THE MOST BEAUTIFUL
THING YOU KNOW ABOUT HORSES? Stories selected
from ANGEL WING SPLASH PATTERN (Kegedonce,
2002), was published in 2004 by Aufbau
Taschenbuch Verlag of Berlin. THE
LESSER BLESSED (119 pp), a bravura first novel,
is a hyperkinetic look at the harsh realities of
teen life is a small northern town. It won the
prestigious German Jugendlitteraturpreis,
2001. Rights
sold: Canada, Douglas & McIntyre, 1996,
2004;
Germany,
Ravensburger, 2000, re-publication 2008;
France,
Gaia, 2003; 10/18 French language pocketbook
rights; optioned by First Generation
Films Mark
Zuehlke www.zuehlke.ca
is a career author with numerous guide books and
fact books to his credit. He is best known for his
meticulously researched and accessible military
histories. He is the recipient of the 2007 Thompson Rivers University Distinguished Alumni Award.
Elias
McCann series, published by Dundurn, Castle
Street Mysteries HANDS
LIKE CLOUDS the first in a mystery series about
lay coroner, Elias McCann, who is learning the
ropes on the west coast of Vancouver Island. Elias
is called in when an environmental warrior is found
hanging from an ancient rainforest cedar
overlooking the destruction of a clear cut logging
tract. This book won the 2000 Arthur Ellis Prize
for first fiction (2000). CARRY
TIGER TO MOUNTAN the second Elias McCann title,
all of which are named for Tai Chi moves, has Elias
involved in the running aground of a rusting hulk
filled with smuggled Asians, causing turmoil and
racism (2002). SWEEP
LOTUS When the body of a woman who was a member
of The Spiral Family, a group of homeless people,
is found wrapped in wire, issues around a
multimillion dollar land development in Clayquot
Sound have an impact on local politics. Shortlisted
for the Arthur Ellis Award for Best Novel of 2004.
(2004)
SCOUNDRELS,
DREAMERS & SECOND SONS: British Remittance Men
in the Canadian West - revised second edition
(229 pp). Rights
sold: Canada, Dundurn Press, 2001 THE
GALLANT CAUSE: Canadians in the Spanish Civil War
1936-39 (280 pp) Personal accounts of those who
fought against facism. Among their numbers were Dr.
Norman Bethune and Jean Watts, one of the few women
to volunteer in the legendary International
Brigades. Passion, rebellion, and despair bring
this stirring history to life. Published
by Whitecap in 1996; Wiley Canada
2007 THE
CANADIAN MILITARY ATLAS: The Nation's Battlefields
from the French and Indian Wars to Kosovo with
cartographer C. Stuart Daniel (228 pp). Published
by Stoddart in 2001, re-published
as: FOUR
CENTURIES OF CONFLICT: FROM NEW FRANCE TO
KOSOVO by Mark Zuehlke and C. Stuart
Daniel Douglas
& McIntyre, fall 2006 TERRIBLE
VICTORY: First Canadian Army and the Scheldt Estuary Campaign
September 13-November 6, 1944
Douglas
& McIntyre, 2007
Canadians
in the Italian Campaign: Published
by Douglas & McIntyre ORTONA:
Canada's Epic World War II Battle
(2003) THE
LIRI VALLEY: Canada's World War II Breakthrough to
Rome (2003) THE
GOTHIC LINE: Canada's Month of Hell in World War II
Italy (2004)
Canadians
in the Normandy Campaign: Published
by Douglas & McIntyre JUNO
BEACH: Canada's D-Day Victory, June 6, 1944
(2004); HOLDING
JUNO: CANADA'S HEROIC DEFENCE OF THE D-DAY BEACHES,
June 7 - 12, 1944 (2005)
FOR
HONOUR'S SAKE: The War of 1812 and the Brokering of
an Uneasy Peace The military, diplomatic and
political history leading to a pivotal event in
Canada-US relations. Rights
sold: Knopf Canada, fall 2006 Winner: Lela Common Canadian Authors Prize for History.
Brave Battalion: The 16th Battalion (Canadian Scottish) in the First World War. Brave Battalion presents the story of four Canadian Scottish regiments that were banded together as the 16th Battalion. Ninety years after the end of WWI, this work honours those soldiers lives and makes their stories a vivid reality. Mark Zuehlke’s focuses on one particular battalion, the Canadian Scottish (Princess Mary’s) Regiment, who suffered the worst of the war, bonded together through their harrowing experience, and came to represent the uniting and rising up of a nation only beginning to realize its potential.
Rights
sold: John Wiley & Sons, fall 2008
Rights
sold: Douglas & McIntyre, November 2008 |
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