Against the stark and haunting landscape of Canada's Far North, Trista chronicles the events of her life from her room in the Polar Girls' Prison in Jackfish Bay, Northwest Territories. At age fifteen, she's already caught up in sexual abuse, drunkenness, and failed motherhood and is trying to make sense of her past, especially the events that led her to jail. Her salvation comes from the unexpected kindness of prison counsellors, visits from her best friend, and her love for her baby. With heartfelt compassion and rare insight, With lends light to the hardships and suffering of lives lived amid the clash of cultures in this remote region and contends that out of brokenness can come forgiveness and hope.

Cathleen With is a graduate of the University of British Columbia MFA program in Creative Writing. She is the author of the story collection Skids (Arsenal, 2006) and the novel Having Faith in the Polar Girls” Prison (Penguin, 2009), winner of the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize (BC Book Prizes). She has travelled extensively throughout Asia, and has lived in Siem Reap and Seoul. She currently lives in Vancouver.

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