Update: We are thrilled to welcome Kathy Page to the Festival and to this event with her stunning new memoir. Susan Swan, who was scheduled to appear in this event, is regrettably no longer able to join.
With age comes experience and wisdom that can sometimes be overlooked by society—particularly when the holder of such insight is a woman. Three authors boldly defy erasure with expansive stories that celebrate resilience, share daring writing across genres, and challenge the notion that invention and self-reinvention could be restricted by age. Margaret’s New Look is a page-turning mystery from career chameleon Katherine Ashenburg, who published her first fiction book at the age of 72. After turning 70 herself, Merilyn Simonds began to take weekly walks with her centenarian friend; the result is Walking with Beth, a heartfelt meditation that delves into rarely seen corners of older women’s lives, passions, and friendships. And Kathy Page offers a candid and gripping glimpse into her creative process as an acclaimed, life-long novelist now facing down Parkinson’s Disease, in her memoir, In This Faulty Machine. Moderated by Marian Botsford Fraser.
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KATHERINE ASHENBURG’s nonfiction books include The Mourner's Dance: What We Do When People Die, and The Dirt on Clean: An Unsanitized History. In 2018, she published her acclaimed debut novel, Sofie & Cecilia, and in 2021 she followed that work with the delightfully tart novel Her Turn.
MARIAN BOTSFORD FRASER is an award-winning writer, broadcaster, critic, author of four nonfiction books, writer for Globe and Mail, The Walrus, Literary Review of Canada, and GRANTA; Books Editor, MORE magazine. In Vancouver in the 80s, freelance documentarian and host: CBC Radio, notably for IDEAS and Testament, and “casual temporary summer relief” announcer! PEN Canada president, 1994-95; PEN International board member and Writers in Prison Committee chair, 1999-2015. In 2022, Marian wisely moved back from Toronto to Vancouver.
KATHY PAGE is the author of eleven acclaimed works of fiction. Her books have been twice nominated for the Scotiabank Giller Prize, once for the Orange Prize, and shortlisted for the Governor General's Award and the ReLit Award. Her most recent novel, Dear Evelyn, won the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize, the City of Victoria Butler Prize, and was a Best Book of the year for The Globe and Mail, Kirkus, Quill & Quire, Toronto Star, and Winnipeg Free Press. Born in the UK, Kathy has lived on Salt Spring Island, BC, since 2001.
MERILYN SIMONDS is author of twenty books, including Woman, Watching: Louise de Kiriline Lawrence and the Songbirds of Pimisi Bay. She writes in a wide variety of genres—personal essay, memoir, travel, literary fiction and creative nonfiction, including The Convict Lover, which was a finalist for the Governor General's Literary Award for Non-fiction.
