Cathy Ostlere

Readings

-description of 'Karma - a novel in verse':

On October 31, 1984, Indira Gandhi is gunned down by her two Sikh bodyguards. The murder sparks riots in Delhi and for three days Sikh men are targeted and killed in retribution for the Prime Minister’s death. It is into this chaos that fifteen-year-old Maya and her Sikh father, Amar, arrive from their home in Canada with the ashes of Maya’s mother. The father and daughter become separated during the riots, neither one knowing if the other is alive. Maya’s flight to safety takes her into the Thar Desert, the empty region that borders Pakistan. There she meets seventeen-year-old Sandeep and the slightly older Akbar who both vie for her attentions while trying to figure out who she is. Tormented by the disappearance of her father and a murder she has witnessed, Maya almost gives up on her own life. But in a bold escape across the desert, she and Sandeep race to Delhi to look for Amar and find a way to get Maya home.
India’s political instability is a backdrop and a catalyst for Maya’s awakening to her Indian roots and first stirrings of love. The narrative balances the weight of Mrs. Gandhi’s murder and its aftermath of terror, destruction and revenge killings with the emotional life of a displaced girl.

-origin of Karma

-discussion on why I chose to write the novel in poetry

-brief recap of the political situation in India in 1984

Book Sales:

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Biography

Cathy Ostlere was born in Portage La Prairie, Manitoba. She and her three siblings grew up as air force brats moving between Manitoba and Ontario military bases. Her family eventually settled in Winnipeg, the home of her Ukrainian grandparents, where Cathy completed high school and a degree in English at the University of Manitoba. At the age of 26, she left Canada and began a journey that would take her through sixteen countries in eighteen months. A chance encounter with a sailing crew allowed her to visit thirteen of the Greek islands and cruise the coastline of Turkey. The following year she continued traveling, going east to India, South East Asia, Australia, New Zealand and the South Pacific. Upon her return to Canada, she settled in Calgary and embarked on a new endeavor as co-publisher and editor of a lifestyle tabloid. Over the next ten years she was an at-home parent for three children.

Cathy Ostlere’s first book, LOST: A Memoir (2008), began as a series of poems but grew into creative non-fiction essays. Essays excerpted from LOST have been short-listed for the National Magazine Awards, Western Magazine Awards, and the CBC Literary Awards. LOST was a finalist for the 2009 Edna Staebler Creative Non-fiction Award. In 2010, LOST: A Memoir was developed into a 90 minute one-woman play for Theatre Calgary playing to rave reviews for three weeks.