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This Grownup Read Things She Wrote as a Kid

There is nothing funnier and more heartwarming than listening to grown adults of all shapes and sizes and styles read their childhood or adolescent words.

And there is nothing more terrifying than deciding to take part yourself.

Dan Misener has been hosting Grownups Read Things They Wrote as Kids events across the country since 2007. The podcast ran for a season on CBC last summer, and new podcast episodes are coming soon!

One of them features yours truly... **

It was a total whim, signing up to read my awful adolescent poetry. And of course, when the day arrived, the event was sold out, and NONE of my friends had purchased tickets, I was NOT feeling very excited to bare my teenage soul to an audience of strangers.
Thanks, Karen, for being my cheering squad & photographer!

Thankfully, Twitter provided a ticket for the lovely K-Ho, and I met her in a dark space that slowly filled to capacity... As I listened to other readers, I was both reassured and further terrified. Everyone was so funny! So lovely! There wasn't a dud among the bunch.

When I was on deck, I made my way backstage, listening to a guy about my age betray his mid-puberty self, who had attempted to avoid just such a disaster by throwing away the lock to his journal when he was still young...

And then it was my turn, and I stood in the spotlight, and I saw absolutely nothing except Dan's encouraging and excited face, and I opened my little book, and I confessed that I was a late-bloomer to love, and unlike some of the other stories we had heard, these poor little poems were written before I had any experiential knowledge of dating, kissing, or anything close to love. And then I read them.

And the more I read, the happier I felt. Fear faded, and I felt a mix of deep fondness and love for Young-Beth, who wrote these ditties in full earnestness and with deep distress. And yet I could also laugh at her, at her youth, her naïveté, and her complete inexperience at love and loss.


GRTTWaK is coming back to Toronto on Feb. 9. And I'm thinking of making a return appearance. I'd love to have you join me - in the audience and on stage. Think you can come?


**here's a special preview offer: take a listen to my reading here, and then subscribe to the whole podcast on iTunes, or come with me on Feb. 9th!!!
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