KATE BRAID was born in Calgary, raised in Montreal, went to university in the Maritimes but has lived in British Columbia since 1970. She worked as a secretary, a child care worker, a receptionist and a bunch of other "female" jobs but wasn't happy until she discovered construction.

In 1977, when she was living in a small rural place where they were desperate for a labourer to work on a new school they were building -- so desperate they'd even take a woman -- she worked as a labourer. To everyone's amazement (especially her's) she loved it. She trained as an apprentice and then worked as a qualified carpenter for fifteen years building high rises, bridges and parts of Vancouver's Sky Train system for the union. When there was no union work, she ran her own construction company, Sisters Construction, doing renovations and building new houses.

Although she never planned to be a "writer," Kate always kept a journal and would write down things that were on her mind, including what was happening to her as one of the few women carpenters in Canada. She wrote articles and essays about being a woman in the trades and between those also began writing poetry.

She has now published three poetry books. A second non-fiction book, a biography of Emily Carr, will be published this fall.

Kate currently lives in Burnaby, near Vancouver, and only does construction for herself, by building her own house on the island where she first started work as a carpenter. She also loves teaching and is an instructor in creative writing at Malaspina University-College in Nanaimo.