Kirjahaku

As a child she was "contrary,"as a young woman she defied convention to choose art over marriage, and as a middle-aged woman she was considered a full-blown eccentric. Listening to her own inner voice, Emily Carr created an art unique to British Columbia. Kate Braid has published three poetry books. She lives in Burnaby, British Columbia.

In the long-awaited follow-up to her 2012 memoir, Journeywoman, Kate Braid returns with an honest and thought-provoking collection of essays reflecting on her career in a male-dominated profession and on the changes female tradespeople have witnessed. In 1977, Kate Braid began work as one of the first women to stumble (literally) into construction. Since then, feminism, the #MeToo movement, pay equity legislation and other efforts have led to more women in a wider variety of careers. Yet, the number of women in blue-collar trades has barely shifted--from three percent to a mere four. In Journeywoman, Braid told a personal story of working almost exclusively with all-male construction crews. In Hammer & Nail: Notes of a Journeywoman, Braid returns to the trades with courage, compassion, and humour. Connecting her lifetime of experiences as a construction worker, as well as an educator and writer, Braid reflects on the culture of labour and recalls the thrill of realizing her own skill and capabilities. Through stories, articles and speeches, Hammer & Nail sheds new light on our ideas of traditional gender roles--and how those ideas change in small but profound moments of gentleness, strength, humility and clarity on the job. Hammer & Nail is a thought-provoking collection of the highs and lows, the laughs, the heartaches and some of the lessons of Braid's journey.

Kate Braid has never been one to follow the beaten path. In 1977, she broke barriers by stepping-- or rather, stumbling-- into the male-dominated world of construction. With two beloved memoirs, Journeywoman and Hammer & Nail, and a number of award-winning poetry collections, she's shared her journey as a trailblazer in the trades. Now, Kate is back with her signature blend of guts, wit, and warmth, tackling the fresh territory of women, bodies, and aging. The Erotics of Cutting Grass is a celebration of life's later chapters, written with the same unique mix of humour, frankness, and vulnerability Kate's readers have come to know and love. Travel with Kate as she adventures through France, still gets " checked out" on the street, picks up a new instrument, and has a secret love-affair with a ride-on Husqvarna grass cutter. In these love stories to life--from weightlifting in her senior years to questioning why older people in love are seen as " cute," but not " hot," and even delving into the mysteries of "remembering" past lives--Kate's essays are a refreshing take on what it means to age with audacity.

Selected for Poetry in Transit 2009 A Well-Mannered Storm is an exploration of loose correspondence between one of Canada's greatest musicians, Glenn Gould, and "K," an admiring fan. Braid weaves an intimate dynamic as K struggles with the loss of her hearing in one ear, finding her greatest comfort in Gould's music--particularly when he plays Bach. Gould's poems don't directly reply, but they do echo a response as he struggles with his own difficult life; his family, his health, his strong beliefs in how music should be presented and his personal habits considered "eccentric" by an ever-watchful press. K starts to accept her changing world, just as Gould begins a downward spiral into disintegration. In his final reflection, Gould acknowledges that in spite of his personal trials, his music now circles the world in the spacecraft Voyager as Earth's example to other possible life forms of what is most beautiful in this civilization. A Well-Mannered Storm is a striking and masterful volume of poems that does justice to Gould's brilliance, offering insights into his personal life and art, even as it showcases Braid's own virtuosity.

Emily Carr recorded the experience of the West Coast soul in her living landscapes and her portraits of BCs towering firs. Kate Braid, in To This Cedar Fountain, engages Carr in conversation as only a kindred spirit could: a West Coaster, an artist, a woman with an affinity for timber. In these poems Carrs sensual paintings envelop Braid; Emily romances the trees while Kate bears witness.To This Cedar Fountain is a dialogue between two BC legends, each a distinct voice for her own generation but both indisputably coastal souls. The first edition of this book was nominated for a Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize.

Since women started working in the trades in the 1970s, very little has been published about their experiences. In this provocative and important book, Kate Braid tells the story of how she became a carpenter in the face of scepticism and discouragement. In 1977 when Braid was broke and out of work, her male friends encouraged her to apply as a labourer on a construction site on Pender Island, off the coast of British Columbia. She'd never heard of a woman doing this kind of work, but she was hired because (she later found out) the boss hoped that a woman onsite would improve the men's performance. For the next fifteen years Braid worked as a labourer, apprentice and journeywoman carpenter, building houses, bridges and high-rises. She was one of the first qualified women carpenters in British Columbia, the first woman to join the Vancouver local of the Carpenters' Union, the first to teach construction full-time at the BC Institute of Technology and one of the first women to run her own construction company.Though she loved the work, it was not an easy career choice but slowly she carved a role for herself, asking first herself, then those who would challenge her, why shouldn't a woman be a carpenter? Told with humour, compassion and courage, this is the true story of a groundbreaking woman finding success in a male-dominated field.

COVERING ROUGH GROUND, Kate Braid's first book, was published in 1991 and awarded the Pat Lowther Award for Best Book of Poetry by a Canadian Woman. Since then Kate has written extensively in prose, poetry and on CBC Radio about her and other women's experiences in the construction trades. Her work has been highly praised by women in almost every line of male-dominated work including lawyers, accountants and engineers, and she is in wide demand as a speaker and writer on the subject of women in non-traditional work. After publishing her memoir, JOURNEYWOMAN: SWINGING A HAMMER IN A MAN'S WORLD, in 2012, it seemed appropriate to return to the first poems with the release of a second edition, ROUGH GROUND REVISITED. In this new edition, some of the original poems have been replaced with new ones that explore-in slightly more gritty fashion but still with humour, compassion and a wise eye-her experiences and the impact of that crucial time in her life.

Usually, we take for granted or plain ignore the Earth we walk on, the Sky above, the Water we drink and bathe in or that falls as rain, the Fire we assume for heat, and the Wood that makes up our landscape and building materials. But over fifteen years as a construction carpenter, Kate Braid began to pay more attention to the materials she worked with and depended upon. Out of these she has crafted an intimate picture of what it is like to be wholly engaged with the elemental materials of earth, sky, water, fire and wood that we depend upon every day. Elemental is a poignant, intelligent collection that asks us to look more closely at ourselves and the details that construct our rich and delicate world.