The politics of space and place are never neutral. Though many would like us to believe otherwise, the authors who have contributed to The Art of Trespassing know that geographies are always contested. They take the ancient art of trespassing to new levels by questioning and transgressing not only personal boundaries, but society's as well.

What happens when a woman with "dykey clothes" confronts a man with a bushy beard about the lesbian book he's reading? Is life easier for a butch or a lipstick lesbian? Is it better to be queer in Whitehorse, where you're subjected to direct questions, or in Vancouver, where PC politeness masks embarrassed confusion? Missed Her, a collection by Vancouver writer and performer Ivan E. Coyote of her Xtra! West columns, conveys these lifestyle collisions with thoughtful humour.

A drug dealer with a conscience, straight boys who jog naked at night in a group, and a hit-man who finds himself in a life changing ceremony; yes, there's everything under the sun (and moon) in Richard Van Camp's new collection of short fiction The Moon of Letting Go.

A member of the Dogrib Nation of North West Territories, Van Camp is one of Turtle Island's (Canada's) premier writers. Published in The Walrus, Descant and Up Here Magazine, Van Camp brings stories from the North to the rest of Turtle Island.

Henry Chow is an unlikeable character. He is the embodiment of the clichéd high-school student: A class clown with a crush on Charlene, a "close-lip smiler, always trying to conceal her lavender braces," who Henry doesn't even think is "hot" because she's flat chested. He's that guy -- the one who concludes a love interest is a "bitch" when he realizes his affection is unrequited.

SOLIDLY ROOTED IN the everyday, the twelve stories of Ryerson University assistant professor (of digital media and design) Laurie Petrouâe(TM)s first book, Between, skillfully explore the complicated inner terrains of its various narrators: an aged man who suspects his independent life is about to end; a young woman adapting to suburban domestic life; an older woman with a bed-ridden husband and a son about to marry.

Each story reads like a private, interior scene that finds characters existing âeoebetweenâe one stage of life and another, each oneâe(TM)s life about to change in a quiet way âe" the end of summer, an expected death, or the simple utterance of a name.

A few stories âe" âeoeWedding Day,âe âeoeWith Love Fromâe an

ONE OF THE MOST EXCITING concepts to emerge in the fields of Black/African Studies over the past 15 years is sociologist Paul Gilroyâe(TM)s Black Atlantic.  Anchoring the shared experiences of the black diaspora in trans-Atlantic culture, travel, labour (especially slavery) and other experiences, the framework offered by Gilroy is helpful not only in illuminating his chosen subject matter, but also in drawing attention to one of our many deficits in understanding black experience âe" namely, here: Is there a Black Pacific?

Post-slavery black pioneers to the West were drawn by the same social and economic factors as other, white settlers (the Gold Rush, for instance).  Unlike the r

MY UNCLE, who is an Elder and a Healer, is fond of the phrase, “In darkness there is light, and in light there is darkness.” He usually pulls this out with a smile just before he leads sweat lodge. On one level, it is meant to explain part of the mystery and beauty of the sweat lodge, where those who are trained can see the spirits who cross over to visit the living as points of light. It is also meant to indicate that relying only on what we can see in daylight may obscure the deeper relationships that lie under the surface.

The night I began reading Thomas King's short-story collection A Short History of Indians in Canada, I had a detailed and bizarre dream.