The Kates reading together

Please join us for the Comma reading series the second Wednesday of most months at 7 pm at Broadway Books. This unique regional author series, hosted and curated by writer Kirsten Rian, combines voices from different literary genres, with writers having the freedom to read from new projects, established pieces, or ongoing works in progress. The two authors read from their work and then engage in conversation with each other and the audience.

On Wednesday, September 12^th, at 7 pm, Kate Carroll de Gutes and Kate Gray will read.

Kate Carroll de Gutes lives in Portland in a house with lots of light, wood floors, and a view of the best bridge in the city. In the evenings, she sits at her great-grandparents’ quarter-sawn oak table and writes long-hand about grief, the drama of dating at midlife, riding bikes, and the joys and challenges of authentic living. Kate is the author of two memoirs: Objects In Mirror Are Closer Than They Appear, which won the Oregon Book Award for Creative Nonfiction, and The Authenticity Experiment: Lessons from the Best & Worst Year of My Life. She will be reading from a new collection of essays that looks at cultural standards of beauty, how women — even masculine-of-center women — internalize these mores, and what happens when one’s gender presentation doesn’t conform to norms.

Kate Gray never meant to write a novel. She is the author of three poetry collections. But then a story pushed through her and became Carry the Sky, which stares at bullying without blinking. Now she is writing through Sylvia Plath in a novel-in-progress, narrating what led to The Bell Jar and her suicide attempt. Her passion stems from teaching, coaching writers, and volunteering as a writing facilitator with women inmates. She and her partner live in a purple house in Portland with their two very patient dogs.