Incite: Women Forging Trails

Presented in partnership with Vancouver Public Library. 

On International Women’s Day, March 8, hear the gritty, inspiring stories of two women who blazed their own paths in two very different industries, both traditionally dominated by men.

As a whitewater guide navigating some of the most challenging and remote rafting rivers in North America, Tamar Glouberman takes us on a thrilling, vulnerable journey in her memoir, Chasing Rivers: A Whitewater Life. Traversing the highs and lows of the rapids, this is a story that “expertly tackles themes of sexism, mental health, and what it means to trust in yourself in a world that rocks that boat.” (Kelly S. Thompson, author of Girls Need Not Apply)

Thick Skin: Field Notes from a Sister In The Brotherhood is a deep dive into the secret language and hidden culture of one of the most esoteric heavy construction trades—Boilermaking—from Hilary Peach, who worked for over two decades as one of the only women in the Boilermakers Union. By turns tender and hilarious, Peach’s style shines “as brightly as a welder’s torch, seaming disparate pieces of the universe together.” (The British Columbia Review)

They’re joined on-stage by Charmaine de Silva, News Director of CityNews Vancouver and Calgary. A three-time National RTDNA award-winner and one of Vanmag’s 50 most powerful people in Vancouver in 2023, she brings her own perspective as the leader of an innovative and diverse newsroom, to a conversation that promises to be raw and real.

Books will be for sale before and after the event courtesy of Book Warehouse, a division of Black Bond Books.

ABOUT THE BOOKS

Chasing Rivers: A Whitewater Life

When wilderness guide Tamar Glouberman was in her twenties and thirties, rivers were flowing through every aspect of her life. Whitewater and the paddling community brought excitement, friendships, lovers and a connection to the natural world. Driven to guide increasingly dangerous rivers, Tamar overcomes her self-doubt and challenges both on and off the water, using a combination of grit and wit. But when a rafting trip ends in a fatal accident, she is consumed by guilt and exiles herself from the rivers she loves, convinced she can never return. Tamar must eventually decide if being unable to save her passenger’s life means she also must sacrifice her own.

Thick Skin: Field Notes from a Sister in the Brotherhood

For more than two decades, Hilary Peach worked as a transient welder – and one of the only women — in the Boilermakers Union. Distilled from a vast cache of journals, notes, and keen observations, Thick Skin follows Peach from the West Coast shipyards and pulp mills of British Columbia, through the Alberta tar sands and the Ontario rust belt, to the colossal power generating stations of the Eastern Seaboard of the United States. At times edging up to the surreal, Thick Skin is a collection of strange stories carefully told, in tenderness and ferocity, for anyone who has spent time in a trade, or is curious about the unseen world of industrial construction.

Join us for Incite all season, in-person or online! This readings series offers conversations with celebrated authors and emerging talents every two weeks from January to June. Incite is free and open to all.