Liz Worth's Toronto punk study "Treat Me Like Dirt" back in print

Liz Worth's Treat Me Like Dirt: An Oral History of Punk in Toronto and Beyond, 1977-81 is back in print thanks to ECW Press.

Writes Liz Worth...

Hello, it's Liz! Some of you have been in touch with me in the last couple of months to ask if Treat Me Like Dirt is in stock anywhere. The last print run sold out. I'm excited to share that it has been reprinted again through ECW Press. I just received some fresh copies this week, so hopefully you'll be able to find this book again through your favourite booksellers. 

In 2006 I took on a project that would change my life in all kinds of ways. I was always chasing different histories and the story of punk was one of them. In high school I was obsessed with bands like the Clash and the Damned. When I learned that my city, Toronto, had a punk movement of its own in the late '70s I became obsessed with learning more. How could punk have happened here, too, and we knew so little about it?

A thing you have to understand about growing up in Canada is that you always feel the shadows of American and British culture overpowering so much of our own stories. As a punk fan I knew so much about the London and New York and L.A. scenes but nothing about Toronto punk. When I graduated journalism school in 2006 I had a lot of time on my hands and decided to locate the people who were part of punk history here in southern Ontario. Those interviews became my first book, Treat Me Like Dirt, published in 2009.

Almost 15 years later this book is still here. I am aware that it's not a small thing for a book to remain in print this long, especially a Canadian book about such a specific subject. I am so grateful to everyone who has supported this book over the years and helped to keep this part of punk history alive. It is not an easy thing to prop up Canadian culture so every little step on this journey feels like a win.

Follow your obsessions and curiosities. Pay tribute to what excites you. Chances are that the thing you really love is someone else's passion, too.  – Liz Worth

You can get a copy of Treat Me Like Dirt in the format of your choice directly from ECW Press right here here.  

Check out an interview with Liz Worth conducted by Fucked Up's Damien Abraham as part of the This Is Not A Reading Series at the Gladstone Hotel back in 2010. Watch for a cameo by Chris Houston of Hamilton's Forgotten Rebels.