Krista Bridge comes to Humber

Krista Bridge

Krista Bridge is coming to Humber college Wednesday to discuss her work with students.

Bridge will be the next author to participate in the Humber Literary Series, a program that allows students to meet the authors of the text they read in class. The former Humber teacher will give a short reading and discuss her short series, “The Virgin Spy”, with students. Former colleague and organizer Ben Labovitch is excited for her to return.

“The police students, [in my English class], will tell you up front if they don’t like a book.” said Labovitch remembering the first time he wrote Bridge’s series into his class. “They really liked the ‘Great One’ by Krista, I felt safe putting her back on with the Virgin Spy.”

Labovitch said meeting the author is one of the best ways to get his students excited about what they are reading.

“When I started teaching, my chair man told me I don’t care what you do, just inspire the students.” said Labovitch, now 35 years into the Literary Series. “So when I came to the literary centre in Toronto I said we should get the authors to come in so they can meet them. They write essays on the text and I show samples of those to the authors.”

Bridge was first published in 2002. She recently published her first novel, “The Eliot Girls”, which is nominated for the Rogers’ Writers Trust Fiction Award at the International Festival of Authors. She said she is still in the beginning of her career and is still getting used to talking with her readers.

“My husband is always surprised when I don’t do a lot of preparation,” said Bridge after explaining large crowds make her uncomfortable. “But there is always something to learn from talking with the author.”