Local author Cassie Beacham unveils new book Friday at Oxygen Art Centre
By Nelson Daily Staff
Cassie Beacham took to writing in her late teens, but admits to being captivated by written word during an Introduction to Creative Writing during year one at the University of Victoria.
Nearly a decade later the L.V. Rogers High School grad has gone one step further with the publication of The Modern World (Oberon Press, $19.95), a collection of seven literary short stories.
“The stories focus on self-destructive girls facing various crossroads and dilemmas,” Beacham told The Nelson Daily recently.
“As my mom (Gloria) likes to describe it, “It’s about young women who make very poor decisions with their lives”,’ Beacham adds.
Beacham will be front and center at Nelson’s Oxygen Art Centre Friday at 7:30 p.m. as part of Oxygen’s Presentation Series.
Following year one of the Creative Writing Class, the Beasley native enrolled in a playwriting course instructed by the inspiring and talented playwright Joan McLeod.
It was after completing McLeod’s class that Beacham decided to pursue a career in writing, later completing a Masters in Fine Arts in Creative Writing at the University of Guelph.
Her first play The Saddest Girl in the World was produced as part of Toronto’s SummerWorks Theatre Festival in 2010.
In 2011 her short story Fedor was a finalist for a CBC literary award before The Modern World was published.
“I’m a little bit nomadic,” Beacham explained.
“In the past five years I’ve spent time living in Victoria, Toronto, Nelson, Vancouver and Dublin, Ireland (with exception of Vancouver, there’s a story in the book set at every one of these locations).”
“I still consider Nelson to be my permanent address,” she adds. “For the past two years I’ve been splitting my time between here and Dublin.”
The daughter of Gloria and Tim Beacham, who attended Blewett Elementary, Trafalgar before graduating from LVR in 2002, still considers Nelson to be her permanent address.
Beacham, 28, said she doesn’t find many stories about females, which is why the focus on women in The Modern World.
“I like the idea of intelligent, artistically inclined girls, who are mentally weak, and allow themselves to wallow in their misery when life doesn’t go their way,” said Beacham, who recently had a review in the National Post.
“I’m also interested in current gender politics. These girls spend a lot of time trying to stifle their personal feelings in order to use casual sex to their advantage. They are largely unsuccessful at this.”
