All In Together Girls

Like I said in my previous post, Sunday night I headed over to Clinton's Tavern to see Kate Sutherland read from her collection of short stories All In Together Girls. Also reading that night was the poet Stuart Ross, who read a selection of poems from his new collection, I Cut My Finger.

As expected, it was a great turnout. So crowded, in fact, that it got pretty damn hot pretty damn fast. But that's ok – I had some gin and tonics to cool me off. At first I thought I wouldn't know anyone there other than Kate, but was very fortunate to run into quite a few familiar faces I hadn't seen in quite a while. Here's a pic of Kate signing one of her books:

Kate gave an amazing reading. She read the story Checking Out, a rather wry look at addiction – specifically the addiction to alcohol and certain types of people.  What was really impressive about Kate's reading was that for the most part, she read the entire story (nine pages) by memory. When I asked her about it later in the evening, she explained that she had the story pretty much memorized because as she wrote it, she would read it aloud over and over again. And, smart girl that she is, she practised beforehand.

Sorry, this pic of her just about to start her reading is really dark – and I did use a flash, go figure.

Here's a shot of Stuart Ross chatting with friends after the reading. I've seen Stuart read from some of his writings at various book events in the past, but I'm still not really familiar with his work. He's got a great sense of humour which often shows up in many of his poems. And he just seems like a really warm and friendly guy. Must make an effort to explore more of his writing. Unbeknownst to me, at one point early on in the evening I had been standing next to the very gifted cartoonist Gary Clement. Gary had illustrated the cover of Stuart's book, which looks pretty cool. I had seen this guy standing next to me, and thought he looked like an interesting person, but only found out from reading Stuart's blog post about the reading who that interesting guy truly was! Bummer. I would have loved to talk to him – I think the guy is brilliant.

And of course, a pic of me and Kate together. (Thanks to Paul Vermeersch, for taking this one!)

And what did I think of Kate's collection of short stories? Beautiful. Delightful. Clever. Funny. Sometimes a little too close to home!  The stories (14 in total) are all quite brief (averaging about eight pages), but they pack a lot of quiet strength and keen observation about women's lives – childhood rivalries, teenage angst, struggling for one's independence and self discovery, not to mention the joys of purchasing that life-altering bra. I highly recommend All In Together Girls. And now I must get a copy of her earlier work, Summer Reading.

Congrats, Kate!!

Comments

[Kailana]

Very nice! I plan to pick this book up.