Mary Trainer (born 1948) has been writing about B.C.'s people, places and history for more than 40 years. She is a graduate of BCIT and SFU, and enjoyed a career in communications at SFU and Metro Vancouver.

In 2018, she self-published Trout Creek: Celebrating History, Land and Neighbourhood. (This book is not available in bookstores, but is available at the Okanagan Regional Library.)

Books co-authored by Mary are Whistle Posts West: Railway Tales from British Columbia, Alberta, and Yukon, with co-authors Brian Antonson and Rick Antonson (Heritage House, 2015), and Slumach's Gold: In Search of a Legend with Brian Antonson and Rick Antonson (Heritage House, 2007). The latter was preceded by the co-authors' 1972 edition, Slumach's Gold: In Search of a Legend under the imprint: In Search of a Legend.

Mary was commissioned to write Tales of a B.C. Trucker for Bert Wise, self-published, 1988. She was also commissioned to write The Edge of the Centre: Celebrating Naramata Centre (Wood Lake Books, 2009). 978-1-55145-574-7

For the RCMP Centennial in 1973, Mary wrote A History of Policing in Burnaby for the Burnaby Detachment of the RCMP.

Her articles have appeared in a wide range of magazines and newspapers, including Beautiful BC, BC Woman, BC Outdoors, BC Recreation Reporter, BC & Yukon Hotelman, Trucking Canada, Maturity and Discover magazines. Still more have appeared in such publications as Travel Vision Voyage, SFU Alumni Journal, The Vancouver Province, Calgary Herald, Bank of Hong Kong's Pioneer News, Flag and Banner, North of 50, Okanagan Sunday, and the Okanagan Historical Society annual reports. She was a columnist with TriCity News.

She is an enthusiastic crossword puzzle solver, and has created many acrostic puzzles that have been published in: SFU, UBC and UMan Alumni Journals, The Vancouver Sun, and Books in Canada.

Mary Trainer is the recipient of the 2004 International Business Communicators Association's Blue Wave Award of Excellence in Features and Editorial Writing.

For several years in the 1970s, Mary Trainer and her co-authors owned Nunaga Publishing, later known as Antonson Publishing, producing approximately two dozen books.

[Photo Rick Atonson, Mary Trainer, Brian Atonson]

[BCBW 2020]