Our Grandmothers Ourselves
This is a book that was many years in the making. I began working on it before the era of e-mails and cell phones and for many of the contributors, it was their first time writing a creative non-fiction piece on their life.  As I often would say, ‘life got in the way’ and by that I meant that at any given time, one or more of the nineteen contributors was facing a new job, illness, pregnancy, divorce, a move or death of a loved one and thereby pushing back the finish line.  I did not mind too much.  I had read the stories and they were worth waiting for.  Once the manuscript was complete, I began looking for a publisher.  When I had received forty rejection letters from publishers, I told myself that I would walk away from the project when I would receive a total of fifty letters.  I didn’t have to walk away.  Shortly after, I signed on with Raincoast Books from Vancouver and was able to get Joy Kogawa to write the book’s Foreword.  The book has now been republished with Fitzhenry & Whiteside and is in its third printing.
 

Our Grandmothers Ourselves is a retrospective look at our heritage through the eyes of our grandmothers. The stories are funny, sad, humiliating, reflective and very representative of what it means for many of us to be Canadian, living proudly and sometimes awkwardly with two cultures and languages in our minds, hearts and souls.
 
I hope you enjoy reading the stories. I am proud of the women who are in this book.  They gave it their all and it shows.

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