Writer and mentor Jay Teitel told me: “Write about swimming, since you love it and there is a lake in your story that is home.” He challenged me to remember swimming in a chlorine YM-YWCA, in a freshwater lake, and saving people as a lifeguard. But I turned my stories into a fictional version about a girl named Grace. The trilogy consists of these three stories: “Grace Under Pressure – 1969”; “Saving Grace – 1977”; and “Grace Full (Swimming, A Love Story) – 2021.” Here is a short video excerpt of me reading from “Swimming Trilogy” in the anthology Front Lines: Courage: Without a Parachute, published by the Writers Collective of Canada (Sonderho Press, Prescott, 2022).
Swimming Trilogy
Published by Karen Joan Watson
Writer and visual artist, former Government of Canada manager in marketing-communications. Current projects on belonging, family genetics (heart), geography and natural cycles of growth and decay. Expressed through eco-art installation, writing fiction, memoir and poetry. Caregivers tale in "Memory and Acceptance: Lessons from my mother" in anthology, Voices of the 21st Century: Conscious Caring Women (22/02/2022 Women Speakers Association, publishers); Heart journey is "The Answer is To Be!" in anthology, Voices of the 21st Century: Resilient Women Who Rise and Make a Difference (2021, Women Speakers Association) - kjwatson.ca View more posts
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