Registration opens:
April 22nd, 2025 7:00pm

A Discussion with Catherine Bush

in partnership with Words Worth Books

For Adults

About the Event

Join us for an evening with Catherine Bush in conversation about her latest book, Skin. Catherine is the author of five novels, including Blaze Island, a Globe and Mail Best Book and Hamilton Reads 2021 selection; Canada Reads long-listed Accusation; the Trillium Award short-listed Claire’s Head (2004), and the national bestselling The Rules of Engagement (2000), also a New York Times Notable Book and a Globe & Mail Best Book of the Year. Her first novel Minus Time (1993) was shortlisted for the Books in Canada First Novel Award and a City of Toronto Book Award.

Presented in partnership with Words Worth Books.

About the Author

Catherine Bush is the author of five novels, including the widely acclaimed Blaze Island, Accusation, and The Rules of Engagement. Her nonfiction has appeared in numerous publications including The Globe and Mail, The New York Times Magazine, Brick and Canadian Notes & Queries. She is a professor at the University of Guelph and was a 2024 Landhaus Fellow at the Rachel Carson Centre for Environment and Society.

About the Book

In Skin, Catherine Bush plunges into the vortex of all that shapes us. Summoning relationships between the human and more-than-human, she explores a world where touch and intimacy are both desirable and fraught.

Ranging from the realistic to the speculative, Bush’s stories tackle the condition of our restless, unruly world amidst the tumult of viruses, climate change, and ecological crises. Here, she brings to life unusual and perplexing intimacies: a man falls in love with the wind; a substitute teacher’s behaviour with a student brings unforeseen risks; a woman becomes fixated on offering foot washes to strangers.

Bold, vital, and unmistakably of the moment, Skin gives a charged and animating voice to the question of how we face the world and how, in the process, we discover tenderness and allow ourselves to be transformed.

Photography Notice: Please note that photographs and videos may be taken at this event and may be broadcast, reproduced, and/or made available in print or online. For individual or small group photos, staff will make attendees aware of their presence and will ask permission before taking photos. 

For larger public events, please note that by attending, you are consenting to the use of your appearance, image, and voice in print or digital productions created by the Waterloo Public Library for promotional use only. Please speak to library staff at the event if you’d like to be excluded from any photo/video. 

Programmer: Nancy