Lorna Jackson's Cold-cocked: On Hockey is much more than the first book-length appreciation of NHL hockey written by a woman. It is much more than a celebration of the Vancouver Canucks — past and present — and the city they call home. Smart, sassy and sexy, brashly opinionated and original, it offers up an inspiring vision of hockey, an appreciation of the sport as the complex creature it is. Cold-cocked explores hockey as a metaphor, as ritual, as celebration, as bond: between father and daughter, mother and daughter, fan and fan, player and fan. It takes on the subject of violence in hockey — as important and timely today as it was in 2004-2005, the year of the Bertuzzi hit on Steve Moore from which this book takes its name. Cold-cocked looks at the game through a woman's eyes and heart but is written with a sportswriter's energy, with a hip cultural critic's cynicism and wit, and with a fan's passion.

Lorna Jackson spent nine years as a musician on the bar circuit in British Columbia before settling on Southern Vancouver Island. She has been a columnist for Quill and Quire magazine, a contributor to the Georgia Straight, and serves on the editorial board of Malahat Review. She is the author of the acclaimed story collection, Dressing for Hope, and her writing has appeared in such magazines as Brick, The Fiddlehead, The New Quarterly, and Canadian Fiction Magazine. She teaches in the Department of Writing at the University of Victoria and lives in Metchosin.

Lorna Jackson's profile page