Still - Paperback

by Joanna Cockerline (Author)

Still is the story of Kayla, who lives and works on the streets of Kelowna, Canada, and of Little Zoe, a woman working in the sex trade who is missing. Set in a vibrant and diverse community of people living unhoused, the novel explores sex work, street life, the opioid crisis, what it means to survive, and what it means to find a home-especially in one's self.

As Kayla-whose past is darker than she tells-searches for her missing friend, she also uncovers much about her own life. The novel delves into both the pain and resiliency of childhood, with flashbacks to Kayla's past with horses and how she came to be on the streets. Kayla also becomes friends with an outreach volunteer struggling with postpartum depression, alcohol abuse, and bipolar-yet who yearns to rekindle her passion for photography and share it with Kayla.

The book considers what home means, how picture-perfect lives are not always what they seem, how different forms of community are possible, and how we can tell the stories that are ourselves. It asks what it means to be missing and what we can-and cannot-go back to. Ultimately, Still is a story of community, friendship, resilience, and hope.

Author Biography

Joanna Cockerline is a a CBC Literary Awards prizewinner who has been published in national and international journals and magazines such as Room, The Fiddlehead, En Route, and International Human Rights Arts. She was nominated for the Pushcart Prize in 2022.

Joanna earned her BA and MA in Literature at the University of Guelph and completed a graduate program at the Humber School for Writers with two-time Booker Prize winner Peter Carey.

She co-authored the short story collection Seeing Our Sisters alongside Kenyan authors in The Girlship collective in 2024. She is actively at work on her next novel.

A long-time street outreach volunteer with an organization that won the City of Kelowna Volunteer Organization of the Year Award, Joanna has recently co-founded a street outreach organization dedicated to the unhoused community and, particularly, street-level sex workers.

Joanna lives with her family in the traditional, unceded Syilx Okanagan Territory of Kelowna, BC, where she teaches literature, communications, and creative writing at the University of British Columbia (UBC) Okanagan.