'A lot of the time, people engage with puppet versions of the place,' Beaton said in an interview with Mattea Roach and CBC Books, 'I hope that by reading my book, they will get under the surface a bit, because you want to get to know a place deeply in order to bring about change.

Kate Beaton's Ducks recounts life in the Alberta oil sands on Canada Reads.

The graphic memoir describes an intimate period of Beaton's life, still she intended for Ducks to also reflect the story of her wider Cape Breton community and the harsh working conditions in places like Fort McMurray. In Ducks, Beaton leaves her tight-knit seaside Nova Scotia community to pay off her student debt working in the Albertan oil sands where she encounters harsh realities, including the everyday trauma that no one discusses.

Canada Reads winners Mattea Roach, Kate Beaton chat about comics & Cape Breton at Toronto Comic Arts Festival.

Beaton launched her career by publishing the historical webcomic strip Hark! A Vagrant which previously won both the DWA best book award in 2012. The Doug Wright Awards annually celebrates excellence in comics across Canada, awarding four prizes - the best book award, the Nipper Award, the Pigskin Peters Award and the best kids' book.īeaton's latest book Ducks became the first graphic memoir to win Canada Reads in 2023 when it was championed by Jeopardy! star Mattea Roach.

(Drawn & Quarterly)ĭucks by Cape Breton comic artist Kate Beaton has won the 2023 Doug Wright Award for best book.

Kate beaton oil sands