Gowdy back after 10-year absence
Elizabeth Madronich is excited about Barbara Gowdy’s visit to Port Colborne’s Roselawn Centre Thursday for the Canadian Authors Series.
“She’s a very important Canadian author. She’s very edgy and writes very unusual things. She’s not afraid to go out on a limb and make people uncomfortable,” said Madronich, who heads up the series.
She said Gowdy, the author of seven internationally acclaimed books, has read at the series before, but her last visit to Port Colborne was more than a decade ago.
Little Sister marks a comeback for Gowdy after a 10-year absence in releasing a book, said Madronich, which makes her appearance “kind of a big deal.”
The Canadian author is a threetime winner of the Governor General’s Award, a two-time finalist for the Scotiabank Giller Prize, The Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize and The Commonwealth Writers’ Prize, winner of the Marian Engel Award and The Trillium Book Prize and has been long-listed for the Man Booker Prize.
Madronich said Gowdy has undergone hardship in the past dozen years or so, dealing with near-crippling back pain, financial strain due to trying to find a cure for that pain, and dealing with cancer and depression as well.
“She wrote this book on her back because of the pain.”
Gowdy’s latest book, according to her website, is about a girl named Rose Bowan who loses who consciousness and has vivid, realistic dreams about being in another woman’s body.
“Disturbed yet entranced, she sets out to discover what is happening to her, leaving the cocoon of her family’s small repertory cinema for the larger, upended world of someone wildly different from herself. Meanwhile her mother is in the early stages of dementia, and has begun to speak for the first time in decades about another haunting presence: Rose’s younger sister,” the website reads (www.barbaragowdy.com/little-sister).
Madronich said there are still tickets for the reading and they are $30 each and can be purchased at Port Colborne library or by calling 905-788-5345. She said it’s also renewal time for people who want to catch the authors for the 2017-18 season.
The author series evenings start at 7 p.m. and feature a food and wine or craft brewery tasting and a live band before a reading by the author. Afterwards is a book signing and an opportunity to speak with the author.
The last author in the series is Heather O’Neill, who will read from her book The Lonely Hearts
Hotel on May 25. More information about the series is available at thecanadianauthorsseries.ca or facebook. com/thecanadianauthorsseries.