The Geist Atlas of Canada

Oh, Canada: a nation of hockey players, trailer park boys, and doughnut shop habitues; a nation that can claim Marshall McLuhan, Pamela Anderson, and Mr Dressup as among their own. Canada is one complex country all right, and what better way to document its character than an atlas of Canadian place names as compiled by Geist, the magazine of Canadian ideas and culture?

This offbeat yet erudite collection of full-colour maps--many (but not all) of which have appeared in the magazine since 1995--includes a wide range of clearly Canadian subject matter from all points far and wide. The Meat Map of Canada features T-Bone Glacier, Yukon, Pork and Bean Point, Manitoba, and Burgerville, Ontario; the Angst Map of Canada locates Doom Mountain, BC, Dismal Creek, Alberta, and Port Disappointment, Newfoundland; and the Money Map of Canada lists Success, Saskatchewan, Silver Lake, Ontario, and Lac Spendet, Quebec.

Each map is accompanied by the stories behind specific place names as well as fast and furious Canadian facts and trivia. The net result is a tongue-in-cheek snapshot of the essential Canadian character, in all its quirky glory.

Other map subjects include: Apocalypse; Art; Atwood (Margaret); Automotive; Beer; Body Parts; Condiments; Doughnuts; Erotica; Gay and Lesbian; Hockey; International; Kitchen Implements; Literary; Loudmouths; Malls; Menstrual; Pets; Retail; Sartorial; and World's Largest.

With an introduction by Geist editor Stephen Osborne.

Melissa Edwards is a writer and a former associate editor of Geist; she has been involved in the creation of the Geist maps since 1999. She lives in Vancouver.

Stephen Osborne is the founder of Arsenal Pulp Press and the co-founder of Geist magazine. His written work has received multiple awards, including the National Magazine Foundation Special Achievement Award, a CBC Creative Non-Fiction Award, the first Event magazine creative non-fiction award, and the inaugural Vancouver Arts Award for Writing and Publishing. He is the author of The Coincidence Problem: Selected Dispatches 1999-2022 and Ice and Fire: Dispatches from the New World, 1988-1998. He lives in Vancouver, BC.