Porcupines, Politicians and Plato

These wildly funny articles, observations of life in the tiny village of Nazko in the Cariboo-Chilcotin, were first published in the Quesnel Cariboo Observer. Just about everyone in the Cariboo started out as babies when they were quite young, which gives Kishkan a lot of material right there. The other subjects of these real-life stories range from thieving packrats, to provincial bureaucrats, to American hunters in fluorescent orange, to fishing yarns, with a bit of homespun philosophy thrown in.

Dan Kishkan started growing up in Victoria, the Fraser Valley and Nova Scotia, and is now trying to complete the process in BC's Nazko Valley, where he lives with his wife Linda and their children. The family shares a farrn with a changing assortment of cows, horses, pigs, sheep, turkeys, chickens, geese and ducks. Kishkan is principal and teacher at Nazko School, and his articles have been published in the Quesnel Cariboo Observer for four years. He enjoys fishing, motorcycle riding, canoeing, quiet contemplation, and "avoiding places farther off the ground than I'd feel comfortable falling from."

Dan Kishkan Dan Kishkan is a popular columnist with the Cariboo Observer. He lives with his wife Linda and their first five children in Nazko, a small community 75 miles west of Quesnel and 75 miles south of Prince George, on the northern fringe of the historic BC Cariboo. His first book is Porcupines, Politicians and Plato.

Judy Lister Through a fortunate accident of birth, Judy Lister is related to the wife of the author. (They are sisters.) She lives in the Nazko Valley because once she went to visit Linda and she never escaped. She is married and has some small sons, and she works as the rural school bus driver - a job which, in the Nazko country, has its ups and downs. Whenever there is some time left over, she squeezes in some art work.