September Creator of the Month: Kathy

Written By Kaicheng Lu

Kathy Page, who has been living in Canada since 2001, was born in the UK and grew up in an interesting family setup. She is the youngest of three daughters, born in 1958, with her sisters being born in 1941 and 1946. The large age gap meant Kathy’s childhood was very different from her siblings’, and she often felt as though they lived in separate worlds. Although she didn’t spend much time with her older sisters, she admired them, particularly her middle sister, whose artistic side and daring fashion made a lasting impression. And while Kathy’s relationship with her mother was not always easy, in her childhood, her mother encouraged imaginative play and often joined in. Hence, art and creativity were always respected in their household and her parents never dismissed it as a waste of time.

Kathy learned to read at a young age thanks to her middle sister and her father’s passion for books. At school, she even began writing stories and was encouraged to enter contests, which sometimes led to unusual rewards such as winning a trip on a cruise around the Adriatic Sea. Reading became an escape into other worlds, while writing gave her a way to express what was otherwise difficult to say. Language became her bridge to others, whether through books or conversation. In other words, writing and art became two parallel strands in her life.

She went to university to study English Literature, though at the time she didn’t think of herself as a writer as she was also actively painting, selling some and even having one stolen. It was not until after university that Kathy started to take writing more seriously. This time in her life was a semi-free, exploratory time as back then, a career wasn’t something young women were necessarily encouraged to plan for, so she drifted. Kathy worked various part-time jobs and she once even responded to an ad for women to train as woodworkers and became a three-year carpentry apprentice. Though she struggled with the physical work and dealt with sexism from male colleagues, she persisted. All the while, she was writing. 

She eventually returned to university and pursued a Master’s degree, by which time she had written her first novel, Back in the First Person (1986) which was then followed by The Unborn Dreams of Clara Riley (1987). After her MA in Creative Writing, Kathy was juggling both writing and teaching. She taught courses in universities across Europe, from the UK to Finland as well as Estonia. At this time, two more of her novels have been published. However, the publishing industry was changing rapidly as publishers became increasingly profit driven and focused their energies on the hunt for international best sellers. Feeling her writing was not of this kind, Kathy withdrew from writing novels and focused on short stories as well as experimenting with some television script, while looking for other career to pursue. She also undertook training as a psychotherapist and counsellor.

It was only after meeting and settling down with her husband that she again found herself drawn to write a novel again. In 2001, they decided to move to Canada. Later, when diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, she had to rethink her creative practice. As her coordination declined and typing became difficult, she tried voice-to-text software and hired someone to help edit. But the disease also made it harder to sustain the executive function needed to plan and construct novels. She lost interest in some of the passions that had once driven her. Instead, she began observing and documenting her own experience of change, keeping notes on her progress and reflections. 

Gradually, she realized she had become a different person and needed to find a new way of being creative. Her focus shifted toward sharing what it is like to live in her present condition, aiming to connect with others through honesty and curiosity. Curiosity became her survival tool: by turning her attention outward, she was able to create meaning again and continue communicating. This eventually led to her writing a memoir, In This Faulty Machine (2025), documenting and sharing her own experience living with a neurodegenerative disease. 

Kathy, who is the author of a total of eleven acclaimed works of fiction and a memoir, looks back on her career, and reflects on the persistence required for any creative life. It doesn’t always mean seeking fame; sometimes it’s about carving out a protected space for your practice. Stability, whether housing or financial, can be crucial to sustaining creativity. She warns against romantic myths of the starving artist, emphasizing instead the importance of security, routine, and persistence. Persistence must be paired with openness where the willingness to receive criticism, adapt, and accept that your work may change into something radically different than what you first imagined.

“Be open to resistance, comments and questions and things might end up radically different than what you thought.”

You can find Chapter 3, “The Man in the Red Light Hat”, in her new memoir, In This Faulty Machine below:

Kaicheng Lu
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May Creator of the Month: Avneet