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Katie Bickell

Katie Bickell

Author, Instructor, Manuscript Consultant

Reader Reviews

“This is a beautiful, character-driven exploration of contemporary life in Alberta. Katie Bickell shows her sophisticated skill as a writer by writing convincingly from multiple points-of-view and in constructing chapters that work as a novel and can be read as stand-alone stories. The prose itself sings. Always Brave, Sometimes Kind is a gritty love letter to the province as a place to call home.” —Jury for the Georges Bugnet Award for Fiction

“Always Brave, Sometimes Kind is forever beautiful. Bickell’s debut is a loving portrait of the people that you think you know, but don’t really, and who feel even more familiar thanks to her accurate map of one city’s past, politics, and pulse.” —Omar Mouallem, award-winning author, journalist, filmmaker

“Vivid and compelling . . . We need writers like Bickell to remind us of the injustices that lie outside our personal experience, and to prod us to take action to remedy them.” —Orca

“Richly textured and absorbing.” —Prairie Books NOW

“A jigsaw puzzle of a novel that appeals to my social justice warrior self. . . Righting historic wrongs is a theme that left me with a hopeful feeling after I finished reading Always Brave, Sometimes Kind.” —Lindy Pratch, Shadow Giller reviewer

“You know when you see a beautiful painting filled with colour, light and shadow, every intricacy a carefully considered piece of the whole picture? I love books with the same rich tones and purposeful choices, like Always Brave, Sometimes Kind. The novel is a series of character-driven interconnected stories that will leave you with the familiar feeling of serendipity that comes with the strange and sometimes turbulent connections we experience in our own lives. With snapshots of the cultural realities of Northern Alberta from the past three decades, it’s a Canadian must-read. I devoured it like a Tim Horton’s maple-glazed.” —Heidi Klassen, @hyde_in_plain_sight

“In the tradition of Jennifer Egan’s A Visit from the Goon Squad, Katie Bickell presents Always Brave, Sometimes Kind—a collection of tight and insightful short stories that come together with the impact of a fully realized novel. The city of Edmonton works to unite the diverse characters and narratives as Bickell offers a deep meditation on the theme of loss, particularly in relation to 60s scoop, missing and murdered Indigenous women, homelessness, drug addiction, and heartbreak. Readers will fall in love with these beautifully written characters as they persist in their attempts to be brave and kind in the face of harrowing obstacles. Always Brave, Sometimes Kind is a stirring call to courage from a bright new talent.” —Angie Abdou, as reviewed on Daybreak Alberta

“Evoking empathy in readers, many of Always Brave, Sometimes Kind’s nuanced stories feature caregivers who are forced to make difficult decisions to protect or support those they love. It traces the experiences of characters, who appear again and again in multiple stories over multiple decades, revealing an intricate network of Albertans simply trying to do their best despite great loss. There’s little extraordinary about the stories that populate Always Brave, Sometimes Kind, and that’s what makes it powerful. It reminds of us of the interconnectedness of our lives and the ordinary people lost to government inaction. Above all, it’s a book about the resilience of people and communities, bringing to life the age-old adage that “the personal is political.” —Room

“Looking for some light entertainment reading with a smash of unusual characters in a somehow familiar setting? Then look no further because you will find that and more in Katie Bickell’s debut novel: Always Brave, Sometimes Kind. . . I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys the nostalgia of the past couple of decades that is directly related to Alberta, and to anyone who enjoys stories of a personal nature. I should also note that this book addresses some issues that Albertans, both government and citizens, need to work on. I believe that the writing is a clever way to bring attention to those issues. Even though this is a work of fiction, it is also a set of parables for our province.” —Brutal Reality Digest

“[Reminiscent] of the recent CBC Reads contender Small Game Hunting at the Local Coward Gun Club by Megan Gail Coles, but blunter in tone.” —Broken Pencil

“An excellent collection of linked short stories . . . Bickell treats all her characters, regardless of their imperfections, with respect, and shows us ways—big, small, barely perceptible—that humans are capable of being brave and kind. And also, not so much.” —Alberta Views

“Always Brave, Sometimes Kind by Katie Bickell is a poignant collection of interconnected snapshots of northern Alberta life. It sucks the reader into a world both familiar and alien, depending on the reader’s lived experience . . . addictive.” —Lakeside Leader

“A wonderful collection of connected short stories about people and the community around them.” —Audrey’s Books, Edmonton

Read more Reviews (or Leave Your Own) on Goodreads.

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katiebickell
Chloe’s first soccer game ⚽️ For those of yo Chloe’s first soccer game ⚽️ For those of you without preteens at home, this look means “stop embarrassing me, Mom.” 

Just kidding, all the looks mean that.
For all the truth about how hard mean girl dynamic For all the truth about how hard mean girl dynamics can be (and are) at their age, the best part of being a girl is having that one girl beside you. #girlhood #thisisten #besties
20yrs old: “I sleep in my contact lenses all the 20yrs old: “I sleep in my contact lenses all the time! Just doesn’t affect me! Weird right?”
36yrs old: “I looked at my computer screen for 15 minutes before remembering to switch into glasses and now I can’t blink.” 
#sandpapereyes #amwriting #blindasabat
🎶I want a home with a crowded table, and place 🎶I want a home with a crowded table, and place by the fire for everyone 🎶 

Forgot to take photos of our “home with a crowded table” during a beautiful Easter dinner, but so loved stretching the holiday out over three days dyeing #pysanky with @lisasana, @liv.nich, Brynn, Caily, and Chloe. We used various teas along with beet powder and turmeric to make dye on Friday night and drew with the wax from tea light candles on Saturday and every night girls ran to and from our homes under the warm weekend’s full moon. The kids had such fun blowing the eggs that (thank goodness) we moms didn’t have to 😂 

#easterphotodump #eastereggs #pinkmoon #springsnow #homemadedye #easter2022 #crowdedtable #plantyourgarden #romantisizeyourlife
A surprise gift from my 10 year old niece 🐣🌸 A surprise gift from my 10 year old niece 🐣🌸💞 @lisasana you make pretty sweet kids 🥰
Woke at 3am and couldn’t get back to sleep. Reor Woke at 3am and couldn’t get back to sleep. Reorganized the living room as quietly as possible instead. Willow managed to sleep through it 🐾
I like my hair’s natural texture, but I don’t I like my hair’s natural texture, but I don’t give it enough love. Usually I straighten or blow dry or curl it away before I have to do anything “professional” or “in public” or “normal” but the kids and I call it my witchy hair and when it’s like this I feel most me. Tonight I’m teaching a writing class and students will develop plots as wild as my waves. Death to styling tools (at least today anyway).
It is -12 degrees Celsius, and flurries in the nig It is -12 degrees Celsius, and flurries in the night left snow on the ground. But F’s tomato seedlings have sprouted so, you know, hang in there… 🌱 ❄️ 🍅 🌸
My husband and I own a tiny ancient cabin just off My husband and I own a tiny ancient cabin just off the shores Lesser Slave Lake. At the age of 22, he bought it off his great-grandparents, Lena & Fred (RIP), just a few months before he met me, and who’s to say they don’t visit us still? The cabin is two doors down and across the road from the house I grew up in and the house next door to that one, where my father now lives. A three minute bike ride takes us to Freddy’s grandparent’s home (Wayne and Marcella), and to his mom and dad (Gale and Fred), who live next door to them.

In this cabin, Freddy and I sleep behind a curtain that hangs in the middle of the living room. When he’s not here, Chloe shares my bed. Cailena was conceived in the same bedroom she now fills with art. In the spring, we fall asleep listening to the squeaks of little things between the walls and I make a mental note to bring the cat next time. In the summer we throw open all the windows and doors and seek coolness beneath poplar trees, although in last year’s heat wave the kids and the dog found most comfort with wet blankets on the cool, hard, uneven floor under their beds. There is only space for a fridge in the utility room, which is connected to the bathroom, so you have to knock on the door before grabbing the milk.

This cabin was our first love nest, and now that it’s no longer fit to rent out, it is ours to warm again with children and space heaters and hot water bottles and hand knit blankets (me) and stitched quilts (Gale and Marcella, and some of Lena’s, too). Candles and incense mask the faint smell of the skunk that feuded with Willow and lost the battle but won the war. We decorate the place with antiques unearthed in the outbuildings, and mud new cracks in the walls and ceiling each May. 

This little space, chock-a-block with love and memories and ghosts and stains of what once was - a place where past/present/future feels to collide all at once - is one of my favourite places in the world, and is the setting of my next book, “Alskling,” a romantic, folkloric story that has so far proven to be my favourite tale to pen. I hope these photos show you not just a simple space, but the affection we have for it.
Oh hello, Julia Cameron. I keep hearing it’s pas Oh hello, Julia Cameron. I keep hearing it’s past time we met.
Great question from a @pandemicuniversity “Less Great question from a @pandemicuniversity “Less is More” Student: the difference between Perspective and Point of View. Here’s my condensed-for-instagram answer:

Perspective is the #voice that tells a story. The protagonist is tied to decisions the #author makes around language, symbols, and imagery when writing through their perspective. If your protag is a 5yr old and you are writing from his perspective, your word choices are limited to his experiences. If the protag sees something that is “sophisticated,” the author won’t be able to use that word unless the reader is given a believable reason why the child knows it. Instead, the author might describe the sophisticated thing as “fancy,” or “really grown up” to keep the childish perspective.

Usually stories are written in the perspective of the protag. This allows the reader to connect immediately, as they hear the voice throughout the whole #text. In a short story, this is important as each word should not only provide story details but deepen character development.

Sometimes a story is told from a different perspective. Perhaps the protag is a 5yr old, but the story is told through the perspective of the child’s adult self. Then, the author can use details that the narrator would have access to but the protag would not. An example that comes to mind is the film “A Christmas Story.” The protag is a child, but the perspective belongs to his adult self. Because the adult-self narrates, lines like “faster than a jackrabbit on a date” are appropriate even though the protag wouldn’t know what they meant. 

A story’s perspective can also belong to a secondary #character. In “The Great Gatsby,” the protag is Gatsby but the #story is told through Carroway. Word choices and opinions reflect Carroway’s character – not Gatsby’s.

A story can also be told through a godlike perspective who might sound like the collective voice of society (See: “Pride and Prejudice,” “The Lottery”) or an objective witness who reports without opinion (“Hills Like White Elephants”). 

(Point of view continued in comments)
Starting the day off pink: tulips and a rose incen Starting the day off pink: tulips and a rose incense cone. #sweetstart #rose #tulips #spring #flowers #sunshine #incense #simplepleasures #morningvibes
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