Description
Join us for the Vancouver launch of Bloom: Letters on Girlhood, a timely new memoir exploring how societal expectations shape identity, and how we can continue, at any age, to release the past. This is a free event, but please RSVP for your spot here, as capacity is limited. Books will be on hand for sale and signing!
A raw, searching and intimate memoir, Bloom: Letters on Girlhood is a conversation between two acclaimed writers about silence and shame and what it means to come of age as young women. Over 2.5 years, authors Claire Sicherman (Imprint: A Memoir of Trauma in the Third Generation) and Nicole Breit, an award-winning poet and essayist, exchanged letters chronicling their coming-of-age in the suburbs of late 1980s Vancouver.
Bloom: Letters on Girlhood is a candid memoir-in-letters in which Claire and Nicole explore the awkwardness and confusion of adolescence, delving into everything from periods, first bras and body hair to desire, sexuality and consent. As they reflect on their silent struggles as girls, women and mothers from the perspective of mid-life, the true impact of patriarchy and misogyny on their lives becomes increasingly apparent.
More about Upstart & Crow:
Upstart & Crow is a not-for-profit creative studio and literary incubator that champions writers, readers and stories, and the role they play in shaping our lives. We develop original programs, support artists and revel in creative projects focused on Literature In Translation / Climate Solutions / Poetry / Civic Dialogue / Community & Skills Building … all with the aim of elevating the role of literature and storytelling in our lives. Find us on Granville Island, Gibsons and online at upstartandcrow.com.
Accessibility:
The main studio of our shop is accessible for folks with mobility aids. There is a washroom on the main floor available for attendees.
Questions: hello[at]upstartandcrow.com.
Endorsements
Hilarious, heartbreaking, intimate, and authentic, Bloom is the conversation you wish you could have risked with your best friend back when you were 13, 15, 17, or 21 — except back then, you didn’t have the insight or the words. Read this book, muse on it, revel in it, share it. Feel your heart unfold along with its stories.
—Susan Olding, author of Big Reader
Bloom is a powerful new addition to the growing list of books that help us understand who we are, especially as women. Through the nostalgic, tender act of letter writing between two powerfully self-aware women, Bloom becomes a balm: fluid, nourishing, and intuitive. Their combined voice reads like a sixth sense—a space where our inner voice is finally safe to ask questions we’ve held onto for a lifetime. In a world where shame and silence crash over us like relentless waves, Bloom offers something rare: a place to pause, reflect, and simply be. Nicole and Claire remind us that identity is never fixed, that our past holds wisdom, and that becoming more is always within reach. Rooted in body wisdom and a fierce desire to grow, Bloom is the calm, grounding guide we all need when navigating life’s biggest transitions because it essentially leads us back to ourselves. Bloom is a book I will come back to again and again.
—Chelene Knight, award-winning author of Dear Current Occupant, Junie, and Let It Go: Free Yourself From Old Beliefs and Find a New Path To Joy
