Five Years a Writer

Thick Skin: Field Notes from a Sister in the Brotherhood* by Hilary Peach Anvil Press (2022) *winner of Wilfrid Laurier University's 2023 Edna Staebler Award for creative non-fiction   Review  by Amanda Le Rougetel In short:  Five stars; h ighly recommended.  Buy the physical book; its weight (451 grams/15.9 ounces) belies the deftness of the prose contained within A FINELY OBSERVED , beautifully written account of a woman’s experience as the oft lone female welder on the job site. Crusty characters, foul language, sexist treatment, and good pay just about tell the tale. Without ever overtly teaching about welding or laying blame for her often less-than-honourable treatment, Hilary Peach brings the reader in to her trade and describes through story and characters what she saw on the worksites, how she experienced it, dealt with it — and survived it. Whether the worksite is in Peach’s home province of BC, across the US border, or down East in the Maritimes, her work t...

Four scenarios, three books and a few thoughts about how bloody slow some progress is...  SCENARIO ONE: It’s four a.m. and I am up for the day, having been woken by 17-year-old Holly, the cat who feels she needs fresh food *now*. I am too far gone by the time the tin is opened and the food served, so I just stay up, put the kettle on and tune in to CBC Radio to see if the episode of IDEAS catches my interest. This particular morning it does. Hilary Peach is giving a talk on her award-winning memoir Thick Skin: Field Notes from a Sister in the Brotherhood , about her career in welding. I am drawn in by her stories from the front line of her trade. SCENARIO TWO:  While I have never held a welding torch or cut, ground, and shaped metal pieces using immense heat, I have been in a classroom of pre-employment welding students who tested my mettle and almost caused me to run screaming from teaching as a job. That particular class was unruly and uninterested in learning anything I mi...