Holiday Gifts from UVic's Home Hearth

The UVic campus is filled with gift ideas for the holiday season.

• If you have a drama king or queen in your life, the Phoenix theatre offers half-price subscription packages of three plays for $30. Custom gift packages are also available, call Sandra Guerreiro at 721-8003 before Dec. 9 to customize your ideas for the New Year.

• Spread the learning around by taking advantage of continuing education’s gift certificates. Sold in denominations of $20 and $50, they can be purchased in the office on the second floor of the continuing studies building. Certificates are good for two years.

• For the map aficionado there’s the Community Green Map of Victoria and Region. Linked to the International Green Map system, it’s the 179th map published worldwide.

• The Finnerty Gardens fundraising calendar is also a thoughtful way to give a gift and support a worthwhile cause. Featuring the photography of UVic staff member Daphne Donaldson, the calendar’s net sale proceeds go toward improvements in the gardens.

• Check out some recent publications by UVic authors. In poetry, the anthology Canada’s New Poets: Breathing Fire 2 edited by Lorna Crozier and Patrick Lane, contains the work of 33 emerging Canadian poets in one volume. Tim Lilburn’s Kill-site won the Governor General’s Literary Award for poetry in 2003. Set in the sand hills of Saskatchewan and Alberta, the book-length poem explores the relationship between European settlers and their descendants in the natural world. Jan Zwicky’s Robinson’s Crossing, a 2004 Governor General’s award nominee, and Bones in their Wings by Lorna Crozier are new collections by acclaimed writers.

• Fiction offerings include Damage Done by the Storm by Jack Hodgins, Sointula by Bill Gaston, There is a Season: A Memoir in a Garden, by Patrick Lane and A Game to Play on the Tracks by Lorna Jackson.

• In the non-fiction arena, Karen Finlay’s The Force of Culture: Vincent Massey and Canadian Sovereignty, and From Witches to Crack Moms: Women, Drug Law, and Policy by Susan C. Boyd are also available.

• For a taste of the land try Plants of Haida Gwaii by Nancy Turner. This book is an intricate chronicle of the use and importance of native plant species. Paddling To Where I Stand, by Martine Reid and UVic linguistics professor Daisy Sewid-Smith, provides another glimpse into First Nations culture. The book tells the story of Sewid-Smith’s grandmother Agnes Alfred, a Kwakwaka’wakw noblewoman, who lived from 1890-1992.

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