Anvil Press is please to invite you to the Vancouver Vanishes book launch and discussion of Vancouver’s vanishing heritage hosted by Caroline Adderson:
WHEN: Monday, November 23, 2015 – 7pm
WHERE: Book Warehouse, 4118 Main Street
ADMISSION: Free. Refreshments will be served
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VANCOUVER VANISHES by Caroline Adderson, et al.
Caroline Adderson’s first collection of stories, Bad Imaginings, was published in 1993; stories from it have appeared in 19 anthologies worldwide. She has gone on to write internationally published novels (A History of Forgetting, Sitting Practice, The Sky Is Falling, Ellen in Pieces), another collection of short stories (Pleased To Meet You), as well as books for young readers. Her work has received numerous prize nominations including the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, the Commonwealth Writers’ Prizes, the Scotiabank Giller Prize longlist, the and the Governor General’s Literary Award. She lives in Vancouver.
Since 2005, nearly 9,000 demo permits for residential buildings have been issued in Vancouver. An average of three houses a day are torn down, many of them original homes built for the middle and working class in the 1920s, ’30s and ’40s. Very few are deemed significant enough to earn the protection of a heritage designation, but they are part of our heritage nonetheless and their demolition is not only an architectural loss.
When these old homes come down, a whole history goes with them—the materials that were used to build them, the gardens, the successive owners and their secrets. These old houses and apartments are repositories of narrative. The story of our city is diminished every time one disappears. Based on the popular Facebook Page, Vancouver Vanishes is a collection of essays and photographs that together form a lament for, and celebration of, the vanishing character homes and apartments in the city.
Vancouver Vanishes includes essays from Caroline Adderson, Kerry Gold, John Atkin, Elise & Stephen Partridge, John Mackie, and Eve Lazarus as well as poems from Evelyn Lau and Bren Simmers. The majority of photographs included are by Tracey Ayton and Caroline Adderson.
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