Victoria is home to a marvel of diverse voices in literature—from first journal publications to fully established writers with multiple awards, there’s creativity around every corner.
In honour of Women’s History Month and having just celebrated International Women’s Day on March 8th, we’ve decided to compile a list of some local authors worth adding to your book club reading list.
Included are a mix of emerging and award-winning authors, all sharing their unique angle on storytelling across an array of genres such as mystery, memoir and poetry.
The five we have chosen are only the tip of the iceberg—Victoria truly is a wonderous pocket of literary inspiration and we recommend taking some time to dig your heels in and uncover more on your own!
For now, here’s five books written by Victoria-based authors worth celebrating:
Dog Flowers by Danielle Geller
Danielle Geller is a creative writing professor at the University of Victoria and has had multiple essays published in prestigious journals such as The Paris Review, Brevity and the New Yorker.
As described, her debut memoir, Dog Flowers, published with One World/Penguin Random House in 2021, follows her return home to the Navajo reservation to confront her family’s history and retrace her mother’s life after her passing.
Using both her archival research and incredible storytelling, this arresting memoir depicts experiences with grief, reshaping one’s destiny and the struggles to unpack familial pain.
“Geller’s mix of archival research and personal memoir allows readers to see a refreshing variety of perspectives and layers, resulting in an eye-opening, moving narrative. A deftly rendered, powerful story of family, grief, and the search for self,” said Kirkus magazine in a review.
Quarrels by Eve Joseph
Eve Joseph is both a poet and a memoirist living in Victoria—having won several awards in both genres, this recognition is a true testament to the impact her writing will have on your everyday life.
Quarrels is a book of poetry published with Anvil Press in 2018 and is the winner of the Griffin Poetry Award 2019 and was shortlisted for the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Award 2019.
“Perhaps these poems are crystallisations of a deeply human, spiritual knowledge, gathered over decades working in a hospice. Joseph’s previous book, the exceptional memoir, In the Slender Margin, renders this experience. Certainly, without gravity, poems wouldn’t be able to sing,” Joseph’s website reads.
Blood on the Breakwater by Jean Paetkau
Not only is Jean Paetkau a Victoria-based author and award-winning journalist (including a Leo Award for her work with APTN and a 2022 Jack Webster award), her first mystery novel, Blood on the Breakwater, is inspired by places in and around the city.
In fact, the idea for the novel blossomed with each daily walk along the Ogden Point breakwater, where she would capture stunning photographs at sunrise or sunset.
Her story begins with a journalist finding a body washed up on the lower pathway of the breakwater. The journalist recognizes the corpse and begins diving into the possible motive behind murdering a museum curator for a 19th century Victoria painter.
Through the Garden by Lorna Crozier
Lorna Crozier is a Canadian treasure and an inspiration for writers everywhere. Her books have received numerous national awards, including the Governor-General’s Award for Poetry, her novels have been translated into many languages and she’s even performed for Queen Elizabeth II.
Her newest memoir, Through the Garden, is a stunning portrait of her marriage with late husband Patrick Lane and has been dubbed as the greatest love story of our time.
After Lane’s death, she turned to writing as a consolation—revisiting her poems, tracing her own path as a poet along with the evolution of her relationship with Patrick.
“The result is an intimate and intensely moving memoir about the difficulties and joys of creating a life with someone and the risks and immense rewards of partnership,” Crozier’s website reads.
Washington Black by Esi Edugyan
If you haven’t already read this novel, you’re going to want to add it to your list. Victoria-based Esi Edugyan is one of the most celebrated voices in literature, and for good reason.
Her historical fiction novel, Washington Black, was shortlisted for the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize, the Man Booker Prize and won the 2018 Scotiabank Giller Prize, to name a few.
It follows the story of Washington Black, an eleven year-old field slave working under his new masters, one of which is the eccentric Christopher Wilde. But circumstances change, and Black’s journey takes an unexpected turn when a man is killed and he must flee.
The New Yorker describes it as a novel that depicts the bonds between cruelty and compassion, detailing a tormented friendship and the complicated path to freedom.
