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.

Kate Braid worked as a receptionist, secretary, teacher’s 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). She is the author of A Well-Mannered Storm: The Glenn Gould Poems, Covering Rough Ground, To This Cedar Fountain and Inward to the Bones: Georgia O’Keeffe’s Journey with Emily Carr. In 2005 she co-edited, with Sandy Shreve, In Fine Form: The Canadian Book of Form Poetry. Braid’s second book of poems about her carpentry experiences, Turning Left to the Ladies, was published by Palimpsest Press. She lives in Burnaby, BC, with her partner.

Kate Braid's profile page

• Winner, Pat Lowther Award for Best Book of Poetry by a Canadian Woman