Novelist Kathy Page gives reading at UPEI on January 24
Fiction writer Kathy Page will give a public reading on January 24, at 7:30 p.m. in the UPEI Faculty Lounge, Main Building, during her tour of the Maritime provinces this month.
Born in London, England, Page was a rising British literary star when she moved to Salt Spring Island, B.C., in the 1990s. She is best-known for her recent novels, The Story of My Face, long-listed for the 2002 Orange Prize for fiction, and Alphabet, nominated for the 2005 Governor General’s Award.
The Story of My Face gives us Natalie, a teenage girl looking for someone or something to latch on to. Her seemingly innocent involvement with a religious sect leads to the revelation of a long-kept secret and devastating events which change not only her face but also the course of her life. This novel is a psychological thriller and the archaeology of an accident which shaped a life.
In Alphabet, Simon Austen is serving a life sentence for murder. Intelligent and charming, but damaged and manipulative, he admits to what he's done but his motives are far from clear, even to himself. From his prison he begins an illicit correspondence with a series of women. The more he learns - about them and himself - the higher the stakes become. Simon finds himself on a perilous and unpredictable journey, stumbling towards self-knowledge and redemption.
In addition to her numerous posts as a writer-in-residence (including in a prison setting) and creative writing teacher, Page was a counsellor and psychotherapist earlier in her career. This experience contributes to the compelling reality of her characters, and to her fiction’s faith in personal transformation: “the magic by which a bad hand becomes a good chance.”
Page’s reading is sponsored by the UPEI English Department, with support from the Canada Council of the Arts. Admission is free. For further information, call (902) 566-0389.
