This wonderful article appeared about last night’s production of The Abortion Monologues in Pittsburgh. Thank you to the National Council of Jewish Women, Pittsburgh section, and all of the volunteers for doing such a fine job with my work. I appreciate you.
It has been a joy to tour around Canada with Patterson House. Thank you to everyone who came out to events and a special thank you to everyone who joined me as a presenter including Aritha Van Herk, Rayanne Haines, Sandra S.G. Wong, Fran Kimmel, Katherine Taylor (twice!), Elizabeth Adilman, Judy Rebick, Sally McLean and Theresa Kishkan. What a wonderful experience to be with you all! And thank you to the venues and hosts — Shelf Life Books in Calgary, Glass Bookshop in Edmonton, Studio 106 in Victoria, Another Story Book Shop in Toronto, The Beaches Branch of the Toronto Public Library, Flying Squirrel Motorcycle Club in Toronto and Massy Arts/Massy Books in Vancouver. You were all so welcoming and helpful!
Talking with readers about Patterson House has been a real treat for me. The characters have been in my own head for such a long time that talking about them now feels gossipy and fun. I love it when people tell me they couldn’t put the book down and stayed up way too late to finish it. What a compliment!
Although the book tour is over, I’ll continue to talk about Patterson House at book clubs and with whoever else wants to talk to me about it! I have a couple of interviews coming soon with Women Writers, Women’s Books and one that will be out soon in the Beaches Metro Community News. These are my people! When people from the Beach tell me I got it right, I feel very complimented.
Here are a few photos from the tour.
Save the date! September 13 at 7pm, Tracy Wai de Boer and I will be at Books and Shenanigans 347 Cook Street, Victoria BC in conversation with Susan Olding about Impact: Women Writing After Concussion.
Tracy and I will both be reading from our work in the anthology and we are looking forward to a great conversation with both Susan Olding and the audience! Susan is a wonderful memoirist and non-fiction writer—a perfect person to talk about this anthology.
Coincidentally, Susan Olding’s most recent book, Big Reader, is short-listed along with Impact for the Book Publishers Association of Alberta’s Trade Non Fiction Book of the Year.
The awards will be given out September 16 in Calgary, just a few days after our event.
Please join us. Many thanks to Books and Shenanigans for hosting.
It’s a big day. Impact is going out into the world after years of work. It carries with it the hearts of 21 writers who share what their lives are like after their concussions and traumatic brain injuries. I am so grateful to each and every writer who made this book possible and offer special thanks to my co-editor, E. D. Morin. I could not have a better partner in this work.
Our thanks also go out to the Canada Council for the Arts for supporting the creation of this work and the University of Alberta Press who believed in it and have done so much to make this dream come true.
Join us for our launch tonight if you can. It will be recorded and available on the University of Alberta Press website.
Also please view and share our videos about the project. They are amazing and another labour of love by the participating writers and by our film editor, Junyeong Kim.
The wonderful people at SHORE (Sexual Health Options Resource Education, formerly Planned Parenthood) put on a production of The Abortion Monologues and were kind enough to send me a report. This is from Carrie McNabb, who signs off her notes with “Yours in Choice,” which I just cannot tell you how much I love.
“Jane, I just wanted to share the results of our recent production of your show! We raised $1800 in ticket sales from this production and donations of $700 at the door, for a total of $2500 raised for SHORE Centre. Thank you so so much. There was a woman who was also honoured that evening with a “Champion of Choice” award. She spent every single day of the anti-choice campaign “40 Days for Life” standing outside of our local abortion clinic holding up signs like ‘We support your choice,’ ‘We respect you,’ ‘Pro-choice,’ ‘[and] I don’t regret my abortion.’ So I wanted to say thank you for writing such a beautiful piece. Every single one of the cast walked away from this production permanently changed. And we received such kind feedback the evening of our show of people telling us how balanced and thoughtful the stories were. It truly was a remarkable evening of theatre and we raised a lot of money for a good cause. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.”
No, thank YOU Carrie and all of the people at SHORE and all of your volunteers for all the fine work you do. It’s not too late to donate.
The fine folks at SHORE (that is Sexual Health Options Resource Education) in Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario are producing The Abortion Monologues to raise funds for their good work.
The show will be November 4, 2017 at the Little Theatre in Kitchener-Waterloo. Contact SHORE for tickets or more information and if you are in the area, please support this work.
Cover Image from Print Copy of The Abortion Monologues by Teresa Posyniak