The theatre artist and writer Emelia Symington-Fedy discusses her new memoir Skid Dogs (Douglas & McIntyre, 2023), with Joseph Planta.

Skid Dogs by Emelia Symington-Fedy (Douglas & McIntyre, 2023). Click to buy this book from Amazon.ca: Skid Dogs

Text of the introduction by Joseph Planta:

I am Planta: On the Line, in Vancouver, British Columbia, at TheCommentary.ca.

Emelia Symington-Fedy joins me again. This past fall she published Skid Dogs, a memoir that has sold well and gotten good notices. In the book, she recounts what it was like growing up in a small farming town, Armstrong, British Columbia. And how she’s drawn back to it in 2011, when a girl, Taylor Van Diest, is murdered on the railroad tracks. Now, an adult, she goes home to comfort her terrified mother, and at the same time she realises her own coming of age was not what she thought it to be. Told alternating between the 2011, 2012 period and the early 1990s, the book looks at the bonds forged in those formative years of high school, and what friendship is like for girls. It also looks at the complications in mother/daughter relationships. Emelia looks critically and honestly at her high school years, amid the 1990s rape culture. As she comes to terms with friendship, assault, and violence, we see a clearer picture of her life and how that has affected her now as a wife, a parent and an artist. Emelia Symington-Fedy is an international theatre creator, and the founding co-artistic director of The Chop. She is a graduate of Studio 58 at Langara College, and The Writers Studio at Simon Fraser University. She is a frequent contributor to CBC Radio. Visit www.emeliasymingtonfedy.com, and her Instagram: @emeliasf. This book is published by Douglas & McIntyre. She lives in the Shuswap, but joined me from here in Vancouver two weeks ago. Please welcome back to the Planta: On the Line program, Emelia Symington-Fedy; Ms. Symington-Fedy, good morning.

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