Kathryn Kuitenbrouwer, Our Writer is Residence, at Urban Abby

It was wonderful to finally meet Kathryn Kuitenbrouwer last Friday night at the Urban Abby. She talked about her writing process and read from her amazing novel "All the Broken Things."She described how two images followed her about: the knowledge that Canada manufactured Agent Orange for the American war machine in Vietnam and her interest in the former bear wrestling circuit. For a long time she did not know how to put the two disparate concepts together to make a novel. Somehow she did it and also found the perfect title as well.  (Amazon review below)

A novel of exceptional heart and imagination about the ties that bind us to each other, broken and whole, from one of the most exciting voices in Canadian fiction. 
     September, 1983. Fourteen-year-old Bo, a boat person from Vietnam, lives in a small house in the Junction neighbourhood of Toronto with his mother, Thao, and his four-year-old sister, who was born severely disfigured from the effects of Agent Orange. Named Orange, she is the family secret; Thao keeps her hidden away, and when Bo's not at school or getting into fights on the street, he cares for her.
     One day a carnival worker and bear trainer, Gerry, sees Bo in a streetfight, and recruits him for the bear wrestling circuit, eventually giving him his own cub to train. This opens up a new world for Bo--but then Gerry's boss, Max, begins pursuing Thao with an eye on Orange for his travelling freak show. When Bo wakes up one night to find the house empty, he knows he and his cub, Bear, are truly alone. Together they set off on an extraordinary journey through the streets of Toronto and High Park. Awake at night, boy and bear form a unique and powerful bond. When Bo emerges from the park to search for his sister, he discovers a new way of seeing Orange, himself and the world around them.
   All the Broken Things is a spellbinding novel, at once melancholy and hopeful, about the peculiarities that divide us and bring us together, and the human capacity for love and acceptance. (Amazon)

Kathryn shared so much with the audience. She told us about her editor who sent dozens of pages listing required changes and once they were done, sent another ten pages asking for further revision. A chilling story. She gave lots of time for questions from the audience and answered them carefully and fully, 

Earlier in the year, Kathryn, as NOWW writer in residence, offered to critique the first twenty- five pages of a manuscript for free! I jumped at this and sent the first pages of the novel I was working on called The Canadian Suffragette. (1908. Lara Erickson, a young woman from Port Arthur, Canada, is hounded out of town, arrives in England, joins the Suffragettes and ends up in jail but eventually returns to Canada to face the issues she left behind.) Kathryn asked me to read a couple of pages at the Urban Abby Event and so I wore my Suffragette costume to add to the fun.