Events › Skate Lit: Books and Badass Women Skateboarders

Skateboarding can have a profound impact on one's life, and not necessarily of the variety that involves Olympic fame or board sponsors. Cole Nowicki (Laser Quit Smoking Massage) will host a conversation with Amy Mattes (Late September) and Natalie Porter (Girl Gangs, Zines, and Powerslides: a history of badass women skateboarders) to explore the influence of skateboarding on their writing. Amy and Natalie first met in 2001, forming a game-changing girl gang in Montreal called The Skirtboarders with a crew of locals while finding their own unique outlets for writing and research. All three authors continue to skateboard today and live in BC.

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Natalie Porter (she/her) lives with gratitude on the traditional territory of the Tla’amin First Nation. She is the author of Girl Gangs, Zines, and Powerslides (ECW Press). Natalie is a subject expert for the Smithsonian Museum and a columnist for Closer Skateboarding magazine. She was interviewed for the May 2025 issue of Thrasher and Winter 2023 issue of Bust for founding an online archive on the history of women and non-binary skateboarders. Natalie is also a librarian, currently working for the British Columbia Library Association. She worked for the Vancouver Public Library from 2006-2018, including four years as the Branch Head of the Carnegie Branch.

Amy Mattes is inspired by the grit and beauty of human connection, often drawing story out of struggles with identity, sexuality, grief and addiction. She holds an Anti-Oppressive Social Work Degree from the University of Victoria and is enrolled in the Bachelor of Arts School of Creative Writing at Vancouver Island University. Amy is represented by Carolyn Forde of Transatlantic Agency and is currently writing a second novel and raising a son. Her debut fiction novel, Late September (2024 Nightwood Editions) has a girl skater protagonist. Amy has been skating for 26 years and continues into her 40's. She won 3rd place in the 2024 Island Short Fiction Review and 2nd place in 2023. She has previously been published in various skateboard magazines and the Globe and Mail. Her first collection of poetry, Separate Ways, is forthcoming this fall.

Cole Nowicki is a Vancouver-based writer and the author of Laser Quit Smoking Massage and Right, Down + Circle. His work has appeared in Thrasher Magazine, Closer Skateboarding, The Tyee, The Walrus, and elsewhere. He writes Simple Magic, a weekly newsletter about skateboarding, the internet, and other means of escape.

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• Elevator access to level 8 is available with the main elevators on level 2.

• The theatre has three wheelchair accessible spaces in the front row on the right hand side.