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.
Kate Braid worked as a receptionist, secretary, teachers aide, lumber piler, construction labourer, apprentice and journey-carpenter before finally settling down as a teacher. She has taught construction and creative writing, the latter in workshops and also at SFU, UBC and for ten years at Vancouver Island University (previously Malaspina University-College). In 2015 she was awarded the Mayor of Vancouvers Award for the Literary Arts for showing leadership and support for Vancouvers cultural community, and in 2016 she received the Pandoras Collective BC Writers Mentor Award. She lives in Victoria and on Pender Island with her partner. See www.katebraid.com for further information.
Kate Braids new collection, Elemental, is artistically and conceptually very tightan impressive feat considering the poems were written over several decades and therefore likely not, originally, composed with this present collection in mind. And yet they work so well together: while the parts are accomplished, the whole is even stronger. [
] Braid is so good at what she does: the line one luminous black eye holds you slows the reader right down and fixes their attention on that singular eye, just like the speakers experience
Amy Mitchell, The Temz Review
Braid knows exactly what she is doing as a poet
Christopher Levenson , The Ormsby Review
