Vancouver Island Authors | The PULSE Community Podcast
Vancouver Island has always been a place where stories take root. From celebrated novelists and award-winning children’s book authors to sports historians and science storytellers, the writers connected to this island — and to communities across British Columbia — bring voices that matter to conversations that last.
The PULSE Community Podcast has been proud to sit down with authors from across Vancouver Island and beyond since 2024. Below you’ll find every writer who has joined hosts Peter McCully and Dave Graham on The PULSE, with a link to each episode.
Whether you’re a lifelong reader or discovering these authors for the first time, there’s a conversation here worth your time.
Nationally & Internationally Recognized
Steve Burgess
Steve Burgess is a Vancouver-based writer, broadcaster, and two-time Canadian National Magazine Award winner with bylines in Maclean’s, The Globe and Mail, Reader’s Digest, and as a longtime contributing editor at The Tyee. His latest book, Cheapskate in Lotusland: The Philosophy and Practice of Living Well on a Small Budget (Douglas & McIntyre, 2026), is a wry, deeply personal memoir blending economics, frugality, and sharp social observation.
Read More & Listen →Brent Butt
Brent Butt grew up the youngest of seven kids in Tisdale, Saskatchewan, before building a nearly four-decade career in stand-up comedy that included creating and starring in Corner Gas, one of the most-watched sitcoms in Canadian television history. Brent is also a published author: his debut novel, Huge, a dark psychological thriller set in the world of touring comedians, became a number one bestseller in Canada, and he is currently at work on a second thriller set in the world of television. His newest release, the comedy album Easily Distracted, was recorded live at Calgary’s Bella Concert Hall. Brent joined The PULSE Community Podcast ahead of his September 2026 Vancouver Island tour dates in Courtenay, Duncan, Campbell River and Sidney.
Read More & Listen →Vince Ditrich
Errington-based author and former Spirit of the West drummer Vince Ditrich is the creator of the beloved Agatha Award-nominated Tony Vicar mystery series, including Jacqueline Hyde, The Liquor Vicar, and The Vicar’s Knickers. His novels blend sharp comic timing with surprisingly moving storytelling, earning him a devoted following across Canada. Vince also bridges the Vancouver Island Musicians page — a rare guest who belongs on both lists.
Read More & Listen →Aaron Cully Drake
Aaron Cully Drake is a BC-based author, former newspaper reporter, and editor whose debut novel was longlisted for the Leacock Medal for Humour Writing. His new novel, When the World Was Twice as Big, is now available. Aaron talks about using AI as a structural editor in the writing process — not to write the story, but to catch contradictions, push past creative blocks, and sharpen what’s already there.
Read More & Listen →C.C. Humphreys
Born in Toronto and raised in London, Chris C.C. Humphreys spent thirteen years living on Salt Spring Island before moving back to England, where he now calls Devon home. A playwright, actor and award-winning author of more than twenty novels, his work includes the Arthur Ellis Award-winning Plague and the international bestseller Vlad: The Last Confession. His latest releases, One London Day and The Double Life of Eve Sinclair, mark the start of a new spy thriller trilogy and the second in his World War II series, respectively.
Read More & Listen →Monique Gray Smith
Victoria-based Monique Gray Smith is an award-winning, bestselling Indigenous author of Cree, Lakota and Scottish ancestry whose books span picture books, young adult fiction, and reflective non-fiction. Her work includes the Christie Harris Prize-winning My Heart Fills With Happiness, the Burt Award-winning Tilly: A Story of Hope and Resilience, and her most recent title, Sharing the Light: Stories and Reflections (2026). She joined The PULSE to discuss Sharing the Light and the belief that storytelling is medicine.
Read More & Listen →Bob McDonald
Bob McDonald is one of Canada’s best-known science journalists — host of CBC Radio’s Quirks & Quarks since 1992, an Officer of the Order of Canada, and the namesake of an asteroid. He is the author of seven books, most recently Just Say Yes (Douglas & McIntyre, 2024), a memoir tracing his path from a blue-collar upbringing and university dropout to becoming Canada’s foremost science communicator. His PULSE episode was a fascinating window into curiosity, imposter syndrome, and saying yes to every opportunity.
Read More & Listen →Adrian Raeside
Adrian Raeside is a Qualicum Beach-based editorial cartoonist, the creator of the internationally syndicated The Other Coast comic strip (200+ newspapers worldwide), and the author of more than twenty books — including The Canada Handbook, the beloved Tails Don’t Lie collections, and The Rainbow Bridge: A Visit to Pet Paradise. He has served as editorial cartoonist for the Victoria Times Colonist for over four decades. His PULSE episode was sharp, funny, and full of the wit that’s made him a beloved BC institution.
Read More & Listen →Roy Henry Vickers
One of Canada’s most celebrated Indigenous artists, Roy Henry Vickers is a Member of the Order of Canada whose work hangs in collections around the world. He is also the author and illustrator of numerous books, including the acclaimed Northwest Coast Legends series (Raven Brings the Light, Cloudwalker, Orca Chief) and Storyteller, a retrospective of his art and life. His honours include the Order of Canada, the Order of BC, the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal, a Grammy nomination and an honorary doctorate. To mark his 80th birthday, Roy has released The Best of Roy Henry Vickers: 80 Selected Works, a retrospective co-created with longtime collaborator Lucky Budd drawing on more than 400 pieces from his career.
Read More & Listen →Iona Whishaw
Iona Whishaw is the Globe and Mail bestselling author of the Lane Winslow Mystery series — now eleven novels deep — beginning with A Killer in King’s Cove. Her heroine, a former British intelligence officer who retreats to the BC Interior after World War II, was inspired in part by Whishaw’s own mother, who carried out espionage for the British government in South Africa. Whishaw’s episode on The PULSE came ahead of the provincial election and touched on her writing life and her Lane Winslow world.
Read More & Listen →Sam Wiebe
Sam Wiebe is one of Canada’s foremost crime fiction writers, based in New Westminster, BC. His Dave Wakeland series – now six novels deep – follows a Vancouver private eye through the city’s real neighbourhoods, real tensions, and real crimes, earning Sam the Crime Writers of Canada Award and the Kobo Emerging Writers Prize. His sixth Wakeland novel, Guns Across the River, is out now, and his nonfiction book Shot in Vancouver – covering the films and TV series made in BC – is forthcoming.
Read More & Listen →Regionally Recognized / BC-Connected
Dave & Kelly Hutchison
Dave and Kelly Hutchison are a Qualicum Beach-based creative partnership whose debut book Vancouver Island: The Art of the Landscape (Two Trees Art Publishing, 2025) brings together more than 150 full-colour photographs by award-winning nature photographer Dave Hutchison and narrative text authored by Kelly Hutchison — a visual artist, writer, and certified Forest Therapy Guide. Organized across seven geographic regions, the hardcover coffee table book is a love letter to the island they call home.
Read More & Listen →Darrell McKay
Darrell McKay is a Vancouver Island volunteer who has made multiple trips to Ukraine since the Russian invasion began in 2022, working with East SOS evacuation crews to bring elderly and vulnerable civilians out of front-line towns. His book My Time With Heroes documents those experiences first-hand, with all proceeds donated directly to Ukraine. Deeply personal and community-minded, it is the account of an ordinary person who decided to do something extraordinary.
Read More & Listen →JP McLean
JP McLean is an Eric Hoffer Award-winning author of urban fantasy and supernatural thrillers, based on Denman Island. She is best known for the Gift Legacy series and the Dark Dreams series, and her eleventh novel, The Never Witch (2025), launches the new Thorne Witch series — set on Canada’s west coast and featuring a witch who inherits a warlock’s powers against his will. A three-time Literary Titan Award winner, JP spoke with Peter and Dave about her writing life and the inspiration behind her books.
Read More & Listen →Rod Mickleburgh
Rod Mickleburgh is a veteran BC journalist and the co-author of John Horgan: In His Own Words (Harbour Publishing, 2025), the candid posthumous memoir of BC’s most popular premier. Mickleburgh conducted his final interviews with Horgan — including from a hospital bed in Germany — capturing reflections on politics, leadership, and legacy that Horgan had never shared publicly. His PULSE conversation was a moving tribute to both the book and the man.
Read More & Listen →Shanon Sinn
Shanon Sinn is a Vancouver Island-based author, infantry veteran, and member of the BC Ghosts & Hauntings Research Society whose BC and Amazon bestseller The Haunting of Vancouver Island (TouchWood Editions, 2017) has become an enduring island classic, now in its sixth printing. Researching hauntings from a journalistic perspective, Sinn tracks 25 supernatural tales across the island — blending folklore, history, and first-hand accounts. He has also published dark fiction and edited Black Cat, a collection of eerie BC tales. In his second appearance on The PULSE, Sinn turned his investigative lens to one of Vancouver Island’s most enduring mysteries: Sasquatch.
Read More & Listen →Brian Wilford
Brian Wilford is a retired print journalist and French Creek author whose debut novel Rise of the Jellies (2025) is a fast-paced climate satire set in Qualicum Beach. When flying jellyfish invade the town, the ensuing media circus serves as Wilford’s sharp lens on corporate greed, small-town politics, and humanity’s baffling failure to take environmental degradation seriously. Irreverent, local, and unexpectedly timely.
Read More & Listen →Ed Willes
Ed Willes spent nearly four decades in Canadian sports journalism — including more than twenty years as a columnist for the Vancouver Province — and is the author of several hockey books, including Never Boring: The Up and Down History of the Vancouver Canucks (Harbour Publishing, 2024), The Rebel League, and Gretzky to Lemieux. His PULSE episode was a lively romp through Canucks history alongside a conversation about Vancouver Island seismology.
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