March 6, 2026
Almost Paradise!
The last movie I saw before the world shut down in 2020 was PONYO at Paradise Theatre and movie theatres (along with EVERYTHING) were one of those parts of community and city life that I missed so much in the months and years that followed, especially listening to doomsayers who droned that we’d never get them back again.
I started writing DEFINITELY THRIVING in 2021 because I wanted to write a book that would make me happy, to find a way out of such a dark and scary time, and that we all gathered last night at Paradise Theatre, the very place I was dreaming of as I was writing, only underlines how we never knew how the story might unfold, that sometimes things work out rather beautifully in the end.
And how particularly beautiful that I got to launch this book in conversation with the NYT-bestselling Marissa Stapley whose novel LUCKY has become an AppleTV series hitting screens this summer starring ACTUAL Annette Bening and Anya Taylor-Joy. (!!)
Thank you to all the beautiful people who filled the room last night!! It was such a joyful celebration and so much fun to revisit BRIDGET JONES’S DIARY on its 25th anniversary. Thank you for booing Daniel Cleaver, as you should, and being a terrifically engaged audience.
Thank you for helping Type Books sell SO MANY BOOKS last night! Thanks to the family and friends who keep showing up for these things. Thanks to people who showed up who didn’t know me at all—what a thing!! Thank you to Emma Rhodes for her calm, reassuring and awesome presence, and all her hard work to make the night happen. Thank you to House of Anansi who’ve shown this book so much support. And thank you to universe for granting us an event that did not require me to carry a sheet cake across town—WOULD RECOMMEND.
The only disappointment was that nobody crashed through a plate glass window. And that Salman Rushdie could not be there.
DEFINITELY THRIVING is officially out March 17, but slowly creeping into bookstores already! Hope you get your copy soon. And I hope you love it.
March 4, 2026
Mysteries of Pittsburgh
Due to a winter storm, my short trip to Pittsburgh for the American Booksellers Association Winter Institute was even shorter than scheduled, but oh, we made the most of it. My publisher House of Anansi Press set up meetings with delightful and inspiring booksellers across the US doing inspiring and life changing work everyday, standing up for the kind of world they believe in. Meeting so many booksellers at the Authors Reception was exciting and I was thrilled to be able to tell them about the fictional bookshop in my book.
I also loved exploring this gorgeous city, being awed by its beautiful rivers and so many bridges. (I got to cross the Rachel Carson Bridge TWICE last Wednesday!). Pittsburgh is even more stunning than it is during the opening scenes of FLASHDANCE, which is saying something because that was a tremendous promise.
And best of all: Pittsburgh booksellers. I got to visit Posman Books, White Whale Books, and City Books, which is pretty good coverage for a single day in town. I loved each store so much and the suitcase I brought home was SO HEAVY.
The most surprising and wonderful thing about all of it, particularly for an event that was so massive, was how intimate and human it all was. From my cab driver from the airport, an immigrant from Cote D’Ivoire, who talked to me about how much he loved Pittsburgh, the bookseller from Kentucky I had dinner with whose colleague was someone I’d been chatting with on Substack, to the friends-of-friends who I met at the Authors Reception, and the bookseller I’d met that afternoon who popped into the reception to pick up a copy of my book—it was all so magical and affirming.
Best whirlwind ever. Thank you, Pittsburgh!
March 1, 2026
Definitely Thriving on Tour!
Tuesday March 3 in Stratford
Tuesday Night Book Release Party at the Bruce Hotel
- Free to attend, RSVP required
Thursday March 5 in Toronto
Bridget Jones’s Diary at the Paradise Theatre, and a conversation with Marissa Stapley
Wednesday March 18 in Etobicoke
Meet and Greet at A Novel Spot Books (Thorncrest Plaza, 1500 Islington Ave., Unit 4)
- Free event, details to come!
Sunday March 22 in Uxbridge
Book Drunkard Festival Brunch with Kerry Clare and Bianca Marais, Wooden Sticks Golf Club, 11-1pm
Thursday March 26 in Peterborough
In conversation with Megan Murphy at Take Cover Books, 59 Hunter Street East
- Free event, details to come!
Saturday March 28 in East Gwillimbury
Event with the East Gwillimbury Public Library
- Details to come!
Thursday April 16 in New York City
Humor, Self-Discovery, & Love – A Totally Booked: Live! Event at the Whitby Hotel (18 West 56th Street)
April 17/18 in Hamilton
Part of the 2026 gritLIT: Hamilton Readers and Writers Festival
- Details to Come!
Saturday April 25 in Uxbridge
Canadian Independent Bookstore Day at Book Heron Books
- Details to come!
Wednesday April 28 in Waterloo
Waterloo Public Library Event in Partnership with Words Worth Books, Eastside Branch (2001 University Avenue East), 7-8pm
Thursday April 29 in Toronto
Flying Books Author Social at 371 Queen Street West, in conversation with Julia Zarankin
- Details to come!
Saturday May 2 in Port Hope
Reading at Port Hope Public Library in partnership with Furby House Books.
- Details to come!
Sunday May 3 in Toronto
Junction Reads in-person with Liz Johnston and Alice Fitzpatrick. TYPE Books Junction, 2887 Dundas Street West. 6:30pm ET.
February 6, 2026
Big Book Launch News!
(This is a pinned post! Scroll down for updates)
🎉 Celebrate the launch of DEFINITELY THRIVING, with a special 25th-anniversary showing of BRIDGET JONES’S DIARY, the iconic film starring Renée Zellweger, Colin Firth, and Hugh Grant, at Paradise Theatre in Toronto on Thursday March 5. 🎉
Following the film, enjoy a conversation between Kerry Clare and Marissa Stapley, New York Times-bestselling author of LUCKY, about why Bridget Jones still resonates, and the film’s connections to DEFINITELY THRIVING, a novel about people who are perfectly imperfect, and all the love and support that’s required for one woman to make it on her own.
A night out at @paradiseonbloor, Toronto’s prime cinema venue, with books on sale from the good people at @typebooks? DING DONG. 🎥 📖 🎉
Pick up your tickets today at https://paradiseonbloor.com/movies/bridget-joness-diary-definitely-thriving-book-launch-with-kerry-clare/
January 30, 2026
some things you need to know…
Click through for a fun slide show about my upcoming novel (including news about my book launch!).
-Grateful to Quill & Quire for including Definitely Thriving on their 2026 Spring Preview!
January 13, 2026
DEFINITELY THRIVING in PEOPLE
This cool news today! Read it here.
And reviews are coming in:
“…a bravado blend of Barbara Pym and Bridget Jones.” —Library Journal
November 10, 2025
A Stack of Pym
Did you know my forthcoming novel, DEFINITELY THRIVING, began with my intention to write a Barbara Pym story, but in a contemporary setting? Which means that my book indeed features a tea brewed with water boiled on a hot plate, church committees, considerations about what it means to be an unmarried woman without children, unsuitable attachments, some questions of indexing, a jumble sale, and many more wondrous things, including a protagonist with a name like Clemence Lathbury.
Rereading all of Barbara Pym has been one of my many 2025 reading projects, one I’m not going to complete before the year is out, but luckily most reading projects don’t have a deadline, and I’d actually be disappointed if I were finished. I’ve finally read up to Quartet in Autumn, her first novel published after 16 years in the literary wilderness and her discovery via recommendations of her by Phillip Larkin and David Cecil as one of the most underrated authors of the 20th century. I’ve never read her in sequence before and it’s interesting to consider what a different book this is than those that came before it—but the continuities as well, the things that make a novel a Barbara Pym novel (nosy people looking up clergymen in Crockford Clerical Directory for certain, a forerunner of Google!) and all the complexity that lies beneath these books’ deceptively simple surfaces.
September 8, 2025
Preorder Rewards
Thanks to everyone who helped celebrate the cover reveal for my novel DEFINITELY THRIVING, coming to Canadian and US readers from House of Anansi on March 17, 2026.
We have created the most adorable reward for everyone who places a preorder… (Preordering=heading to your favourite bookselling place—online or IRL—and ordering the book in advance of publication.)
If you preorder today, you’ll be securing something lovely for future-you(the novel itself!), but I will sweeten the deal for you-right-now with these adorable DEFINITELY THRIVING stickers (based on @melanielambrick’s cover illustrations) to express my thanks for your support.
Preorder DEFINITELY THRIVING wherever books are sold, and then email me a proof of purchase AND your mailing address to klclare AT gmail DOT com, and I will pop these beauties into the post for you. Those books! That cat! That declaration, ironic or otherwise, that you are DEFINITELY THRIVING. You know you want it…
About DEFINITELY THRIVING: The heartening and hilarious story of a woman who doesn’t have it all figured out just yet.
After accidentally-on-purpose exploding her listless marriage by being discovered in bed with the next-door neighbours, Clemence Lathbury returns to her hometown resolved to build a life for herself that is good and substantial, to become the kind of sensible woman who won’t be distracted by frippery and romance. It’s supposed to be Eat, Pray, Love, without the love part. But no woman is an island, and soon Clemence finds herself embroiled in neighbourhood drama; beginning a crusade at the local bookshop; becoming adopted by a well-groomed, one-eyed cat; and being forced to admit her attraction to two very different men—each a romantic lead in his own right. But how to choose? And never mind the complications of her quirky family …
A novel about friendship, community, and church jumble sales, Definitely Thriving is a celebration of people who are perfectly imperfect, and all the love and support that’s required for one woman to make it on her own.
*Thanks to @stuart.lawler for sticker design!
April 14, 2025
Back for More!
The hardest working shirt in my drawer is the House of Anansi 45th anniversary tee that I’ve been wearing since 2012, including through an entire pregnancy, which means it’s stretched and misshapen and these days mainly gets worn to bed, but it’s a great shirt, and now that I’m a House of Anansi author (hooray!), I’m awfully glad that I held onto it. I’ve always been partial to House of Anansi, especially since they moved their office into a former pickle factory, which absolutely on par with my sensibilities.
Definitely Thriving, my fourth novel (!), will arrive in the North America in March 17. It’s a novel I started writing in 2021 when the world was bleak and scary and I was desperate for a diversion. It’s an ode to friendship, community, and unsuitable attachments, in addition to being a tribute to Barbara Pym, with my protagonist, Clemence Lathbury, imagined as a modern day Pym heroine. The story begins when Clemence blows up her marriage and returns to her hometown determined to redeem herself by building a sensible life from scratch. Not for her will be the scrapes and schemes of a Bridget Jones-era heroine, instead she resolves to be a stalwart, one of the excellent women of Pym’s mid-century novels. But no woman is an island, and soon Clemence is tied up in all kinds of neighbourhood shenanigans, and drama ensues. There’s a book shop, a church jumble sale, and a one-eyed cat named Bailey who is actually a real cat belonging to my friend Erin. I’m so excited for readers to meet Clemence and her people (and the cat).
If you’ve been paying attention, you will know I struggled a lot after the publication of my previous novel, and that this whole newsletter/podcast project was born out of my desire to climb out of the creative low in which I’d found myself at that point. I’m interested in what it will be like now to head into publication with the new awareness I’ve acquired since working through some of these issues (who knew that my literary success does not actually hedge on making everybody love me, or that loving me is actually an unreasonable thing to ask of everybody) and avoiding the trap of imagining that now that I’ve got no expectations, this is the moment where all the success I’ve been hoping for will finally unfold.
All along I’ve been looking for redemption. It took me ten years after completing my Creative Writing Masters Degree to finally publish my first novel—and here, I imagined, was the moment where the magic would begin. But that novel was not a success. And then I got a second chance—aha, my heroic sophomore book! But that book didn’t do well either, and neither did my next book, and I started to understand that maybe the story wasn’t going to go like that. That in publishing there’s never a happy-ever-after (alas, the one good thing about never having achieved great success is that at least no one expects the impossible task of replicating it! Phew!). I even started to wonder what the point was in publishing books after all, because it certainly wasn’t doing anything like making me happy or feel good about myself. When I wasn’t sure I’d be able to publish another novel, I started to consider a possible upside to not having my self-esteem decimated every couple of years.
But oooh boy, I’m back for more. And I’m even grateful and lucky to be able to say that, I know, and I’m looking forward to sharing this novel with you, and I’m also anticipating an interesting experiment in releasing a book and not losing my mind.
Is it possible? I will keep you posted!
This post was first published in my Enthusiasms Newsletter. If you’re not signed up yet, please subscribe!
April 3, 2025
New Book News!
This is my big news! It even made Publisher’s Lunch! I’m really really happy and looking forward to sharing this book with you.
