‘Big Mall’ author Kate Black receives Emerging Artist award

University of Alberta alumna and author Kate Black was recently named a recipient of the Lieutenant Governor of Alberta’s Emerging Artist Awards. Every year ten emerging artists are chosen for this award and receive $10,000 each. 

Raised in St. Albert but currently living in Vancouver, Alberta continues to inspire Black’s writing.  

“To feel acknowledged by my home province and by the art community in my home province means a lot to me.”

For her non-fiction debut, Black chose a topic as Albertan as beef, canola, oil, and gas. Big Mall: Shopping for Meaning is about coming-of-age, late capitalist-dread, and finding hope in the colossal West Edmonton Mall (WEM). 

WEM, which at one point was the biggest mall in the world, is eccentric to the point of absurdity. For regular patrons it’s easy to forget most shopping malls don’t have sea lions, a waterpark, roller coasters, and an indoor ice skating rink. WEM is a destination, unless you’ve lived in Edmonton all your life. Then, it’s just a place to pick up a toothbrush.

When Black released Big Mall in February 2024, she didn’t expect it to resonate with readers outside of Edmonton. Although WEM’s size is unique, its place in the lives of local and regular visitors isn’t.

“Even though many of the people who are resonating with the book are from Edmonton, a lot of us come from sprawling, urban communities where the mall does play a central role in our local identity, whether we like it or not. I think a lot of people — to my surprise — have identified with that.”

For a book that’s “unabashedly about Edmonton,” Big Mall ended up receiving more attention than Black expected. Black has attended multiple events in Vancouver and Alberta, namely her own book launches. The formal book launch was hosted at Edmonton’s own Audrey’s Books. Soon after its release, The Washington Post released a review of Big Mall. 

Although Big Mall is her non-fiction book debut, Black is experienced in writing and publishing short-form fiction and non-fiction essays. In 2020, she was selected as one of Canada’s top emerging voices in non-fiction by the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) Taylor Prize. Despite over a decade of experience, writing Big Mall was a different undertaking altogether. The task required “a lot more endurance.”

“A year or so was about how long it took to write this. It allowed me to get a lot more deep about the ideas that I wanted to explore and research.” 

The year-long writing process also allowed Black time and space for reflection. Big Mall ended up being more personal than Black expected.

“I ended up touching on my relationship to capitalism and materialism, and even mental health. There’s all this stuff I didn’t think would actually end up getting in a book about a mall.”