Iron Dog Books

We are Cliff and Hilary Atleo, a Nuu-Chah-Nulth/Tsimsian academic and an Anishinaabe/Settler bookseller and the owners of Iron Dog Books. We moved to Vancouver in 2016, but before that we were a grad student and a bookshop clerk in a mid sized Canadian city. We were students and readers which meant that books were essential to our lives, but as Indigenous people we rarely saw ourselves reflected in the shops we visited. More often than not we struggled to source books we needed, or to convince the folks around us that Indigenous stories were important to the literary canon. Our experiences taught us that if we wanted our dream bookstore to exist, we would have to build it ourselves.

We are Cliff and Hilary Atleo, a Nuu-Chah-Nulth/Tsimsian academic and an Anishinaabe/Settler bookseller and the owners of Iron Dog Books. We moved to Vancouver in 2016, but before that we were a grad student and a bookshop clerk in a mid sized Canadian city. We were students and readers which meant that books were essential to our lives, but as Indigenous people we rarely saw ourselves reflected in the shops we visited. More often than not we struggled to source books we needed, or to convince the folks around us that Indigenous stories were important to the literary canon. Our experiences taught us that if we wanted our dream bookstore to exist, we would have to build it ourselves.

Website Instagram