Kevin Van Tighem’s Featured Book

Wild Roses Are Worth It

A timely collection of provocative, personal, and thoughtful essays for an Alberta in transition.

This selection of works by naturalist, hunter, conservation activist, and outdoors journalist Kevin Van Tighem will both inspire and provoke, because it offers an unflinching challenge to cherished myths and conventional wisdom in a troubled province beset with profound questions about its future. Even at their most provocative, however, these writings remind us of what is best about the Alberta spirit, and offer the possibility of a more sustaining relationship with our place and with one another.

The rich imagery in these writings is drawn from the author’s intimate relationship with the streams, forests, grasslands, and mountains of the Canadian West. There may be no sacred cows in Van Tighem’s prose, but even the most unblinkingly critical of his writings resonate with a love of place and an abiding respect for the people whose lives he shares. He reminds us that Alberta’s stories were always meant to be about much more than oil. At a time when social, economic, and environmental changes confront and confound what is still one of Canada’s greatest provinces, we need better ways of remembering our past, knowing our present, and imagining our future. That’s what this inspiring body of work offers — just in time for tomorrow.

Buy the Book:
Owl’s Nest Books | Shelf Life Books

Borrow the Book from the Library:
Calgary Public Library

Kevin Van Tighem’s Other Book

Our Place: Changing the Nature of Alberta

A collection of essays and articles that reflect upon the ecology, conservation history, missed opportunities and emerging possibilities of a place that could have been about so much more than oil.

Naturalist, hunter, conservation activist, and recovering bureaucrat Kevin Van Tighem explores the landscapes and wildlife of one of Canada’s most diverse and beautiful provinces and the ways in which Albertans have often failed – and sometimes succeeded – at the challenge of sustaining their home place.

Previously published writings are mixed with current reflections on the streams, forests, grasslands, and mountains of a Canadian province whose ambivalence about the nature of place, the responsibilities of citizens, and the temptations of resource-based prosperity continues to mar the landscape and raise questions about the future. Challenging, eye-opening, instructive, and soul-searching, this collection nonetheless delivers an overriding message of hope and possibilities. Alberta is our place now; we can still sustain the best of it, and bring out the best in ourselves, if we choose to know it well and care for it better.

Buy the Book:
Owl’s Nest Books | Shelf Life Books

Borrow the Book from the Library:
Calgary Public Library