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About Kathryn Kuitenbrouwer Writing has something to do with redefining the space I had in my youth from outer to inner. I grew up on a lolling fifty-acre farm in Ontario, where I had inordinate amounts of freedom and independence. I believe this has essentially formed the core of my personality. As a writer, and in my writing, I am unbounded in a way it is difficult to attain in my day-to-day circumstances. People are sometimes alarmed that I wrote and also had children. I think I might have written in the children’s early years in spite of them, in order to keep a-hold of some small freehold of myself. I like to take risks in my work. I like to write what I know and what I haven’t a clue about. I like to research and I like to make things up. I like to tell stories. I like to reel you in, and interest you in the tiniest things I might be interested in. I like to make you laugh and wonder at the world. A woman came up to me once and told me she had cried when she read one of my stories. She thanked me. I guess all writers want to leave a mark, affect people, and I am not exempt. Way Up is my first published book. Many of the stories appeared in literary periodicals across Canada. Smoke, Prism international, Blood & Aphorisms, Prairie Fire and Descant have all supported my work over the years. The collection of short stories won a Danuta Gleed 3rd and was shortlisted for the ReLit Prize. Open Book gave it an overlooked book status ( I think this is a good thing!) The Nettle Spinner is my first novel. It was shortlisted for the Amazon.ca/Book in Canada First Novel Award and was a notable book of 2005 in various journals. It is about treeplanting, weaving and storytelling. It has been said in reviews of this book, that I write sex well. I’ll take that. Perfecting is my new novel. It is only a baby. Please buy it and treat it nicely. It hopes to thrive. If you would like to come to the launch, be at the Gladstone on April 15, 2009 at 7:30. Everyone is welcome! I am an award winning instructor at The University of Toronto School for Continuing Studies. I also teach online through The New York Times Knowledge Network. |