Off the Map: Vancouver Writers with Lived Experience of Mental Health Issues
Review by Bryn Robinson
Trigger warning: mentions of mental health issues and suicide.
The revered and quirky American poet Emily Dickinson knew this. She wrote: "Tell all the truth but tell it slant." - Betsy Warland (editor, “Off the Map”)
Although we may be limited to a small sample size in our lives, there are infinite truths to the human condition. In the pages of Off the Map, we find a varied and relatable anthology of stories, poems, and essays that cover a range of lived or living experiences (from past histories with depression, anxiety, and substance use, to the otherworldly departures afforded by the grip of psychoses and post-traumatic stresses). Released during Mental Health Awareness Month, the editors provide the reader with a good selection of truths told creatively, from standard short stories to experimental poems and essays.
You will, no doubt, recognize yourself or someone you love in at least one of these offerings; at the risk of self-disclosure, pieces that stood out to me include:
Some Techniques for Telling Your Story - When You Don’t Want to Talk About Your Story by Tove Black: An enlightening account of one’s experience in sharing trauma through narrative, written under the veil of instructional manual, Black illustrates different trauma story structures with doodles (e.g., “circle around the things you can’t say”, starbursts that “establish a safe centre and stay there for most of the story, only occasionally and very briefly referring to something outside of it”).
True Blue by Sandra Yuen talks about the therapeutic value found in upcycling and painting an old chair in shades of blue following personal loss. Working with one’s hands can be calming as one is “stranded in an ocean of drowned souls” and your only choice is to navigate the stormy blue waters.
Linus by Venge Dixon feels familiar as a tale of person being chosen by the “cat distribution system”, but is grounded in the reality that a depressed person was saved from their plans for suicide by having an elderly person’s rehomed pet foisted upon them. We can ride the waveform of narrative here from the depths of darkness to increasing lightness found in animal companionship.
It Is Ordered by Angela J. Gray wields excerpts from her actual adoption order and blackout poetry techniques to weave an essay of recurring dreams that are, in reality, repeated trauma (“I have always found the weight of being chosen to be oppressive…I felt obligated to behave in a way that I did not understand, because of a contract that I did not participate in creating.”).
Inside Screaming by Crisi Corby shares how she discloses depression - and the cutting that self-regulates the pain - to her sister, and how having this opportunity to share these secrets “could be the start of my journey out of darkness”.
And, indeed, this is what is important to remember and what Off the Map reminds the reader: that, buried under the weight of the grey, is hunger and light in each of us. So while it is difficult to say that I enjoyed Off the Map, it is only because I cannot find joy in the pain that the 33 contributors generously share slant with us. But if one approaches this anthology from a place of openness and curiosity, you will find a satisfying and eye-opening foray into others’ truths that will nurture your humanity.
it is our hunger that saves us to be hungry is to be awake. to live without hunger is to sleep as if the world did not exist Bruce Ray, “The Children of the Damned”
About the Authors
Edited by Betsy Warland, Seema Shah, and Kate Bird. Contributors (Read Their Bios): Kate Bird, Tove Black, James Boutin-Crawford, Jessica Cole, Crisi Corby, Gilles Cyrenne, Venge Dixon, Jaki Eisman, Christy Frisken, Merle Ginsburg, Angela J. Gray, Adishi Gupta, Jean Kavanagh, Yong Nan Kim, Justyna Krol, jerry LaFaery, Danica Longair, Harry McKeown, Neven Marelj, Quin Martins, Pari Mokradi, Ronan Nanning-Watson, Rye Orrange, Mary Phyllis O’Toole, Bruce Ray, Ingrid Rose, Beth Rowntree, Lenore Rowntree, Kim Seary, Seema Shah, Neko Smart, Amy Wang, Sandra Yuen.
About the Reviewer
Bryn Robinson (she/her) lives in New Brunswick, Canada, where she uses her PhD in experimental psychology to help her support mental health research in the province. She prefers contemporary fiction, narrative non-fiction, graphic novels and poetry that is emotional, reflective, and if it can do it with humour, all the better. Bryn shares her own work on her website, Campfire Notebook.
Book Details
Publisher : bell press (May 2025)
Language : English
Paperback : 286 pages
ISBN-13 : 978-1-7387167-8-4 (Paperback)