Poetry Workshops / Chasing The Poem – 4th Edition / All Queer Mentorship
2023-08-01 18:00 - 20:00 (America/Vancouver) | Massy Arts, 23 East Pender, Vancouver, B.C., Canada
From July 11th to August 1st, Massy Arts and Massy Books host, Chasing The Poem – Fourth Edition, an online poetry workshop marathon for emerging writers, in three courses created by queer poets to demystify poetry writing, to present useful writing prompts, to incite imagination, and to address political and poetic points of view through poetic literature.
The classes – conducted by published poets David Ly + Eli Tareq El Bechelany-Lynch + Isabella Wang, will be held through Zoom in an exclusively online method, with 2-hours long experimental courses that will mix literary theory + artistic expression.
By the end of this writing marathon, attendees will have received feedback about their writing by authors in production, aware of the market’s demands – but also aware of poetry’s potential.
The event will be hosted at Massy Arts’ Zoom room.
Tickets are limited, and registration is mandatory + required for participation.
This project has been made possible by the Government of Canada. Ce projet a été rendu possible grâce au gouvernement du Canada.
: :
Chasing The Poem – A unique opportunity for emerging writers
Whether an emerging poet, unpublished author, poetry enthusiast, or someone searching for new ways of expressing their creativity – Chasing The Poem will connect our creative community in three courses:
July 11 – Tue – 6pm to 8pm PST
David Ly
Re-imagining Your Mythologies
July 18 – Tue – 6pm to 8pm PST
Eli Tareq El Bechelany-Lynch
Form as the container for the personal and the political
August 1 – Tue – 6pm to 8pm PST
Isabella Wang
Poetry Lab: Form’s Experimental Roots
: :
The Workshops
: :
“Re-imagining Your Mythologies: Writing to See Yourself in Imagistic Poetry” by David Ly
A workshop for emerging and established poets to practice flexing their imagination in composing poetry with vivid imagery that pushes a narrative of the self forward.
Whether you love to write with imagery, or would want to imbue more of it into your poems, this workshop will be guide you through discussions, close-readings, and a series of writing exercises an imagistic poem. While strongly imbuing your poem with images that speak to you, the other purpose of this workshop will be refining your poem so that it reflects your identity, and re-imagines ideas (“mythologies”) that you have about yourself.
As poets, we often explore our sense(s) of self in our work, and by the end of this workshop, you will leave inspired to explore what other images you can include in future poems, that resonate with you and speak to your identity.
David Ly is the author of Mythical Man (2020), which was shortlisted for the 2021 ReLit Poetry Award, and Dream of Me as Water (2022), both published under the Anstruther Books imprint of Palimpsest Press. He is also co-editor (with Daniel Zomparelli) of Queer Little Nightmares: An Anthology of Monstrous Fiction and Poetry (Arsenal Pulp Press, 2022). David’s poems have appeared in publications such as Arc Poetry Magazine, Best Canadian Poetry, PRISM International, and The Ex-Puritan, where he won the inaugural Austin Clarke Prize in Literary Excellence. David is the Poetry Editor at This Magazine.
: :
“Form as the container for the personal and the political: How to write non-didactic political poetry” by Eli Tareq El Bechelany-Lynch
How can writing about the daily minutia, the sounds you like to hear, the images you can’t get out of your head, the construction in your city, the long bus ride to work, open up space to look at broader political, social, or interpersonal trials and difficulties?
Writing poetry with a political or social “message” is difficult when trying to make sure it doesn’t come off as didactic or overbearing. One way of pushing through this difficulty is to lean on craft, form, and hybrid genres/forms in order to help shape your poetry, the same way you would mold clay with your hands to create pottery.
This workshop will try to help workshop attendees to think about multiplicity as a strength in order to give their poems texture, layers, feeling, energy, elasticity, and to avoid flatness or didacticism. We are working here with the everything, the too much, the big feelings, the tiny little images stored in the back of ones head, the gross, the weird, the strange, and we’ll try to whittle it all down to a poem.
Other ideas we’ll be thinking about: the personal vs. the political, ways to create lenses through which we can write difficult subject matter, caring about the self through the writing practice and also the impact on the reader.
Eli Tareq El Bechelany-Lynch is a writer living in Tio’tia:ke. Their work has appeared in The Best
Canadian Poetry 2018 anthology, The New Quarterly, Arc Poetry Magazine, and elsewhere. They were longlisted for the CBC poetry prize in 2019. Their book, knot body (2020), published by Metatron Press, was shortlisted for the QWF Concordia First Book Award, and their second book, The Good Arabs, published by Metonymy Press in 2021, was granted the honorary mention for poetry by the Arab American Book Awards and won the Grand Prix du Livre de Montreal. They are an acquisitions editor at Metonymy Press. Their translation of Gabrielle Boulianne-Tremblay’s La fille d’elle-même from the French is forthcoming Spring 2023. With co-editor Samia Marshy, they are editing El Ghourabaa, an anthology of weird and experimental queer and trans writing by Arab and Arabophone writers, forthcoming Spring 2024.
: :
“Poetry Lab: Form’s Experimental Roots” by Isabella Wang
Focused on experimentation as a synaptic device in poetry. This workshop leads participants on an exploration of the experimental foundation of traditional poetic forms, as well as the synergy from which new, experimental forms arises from experimentation to shoulder the immediate, aesthetic, personal, environmental, and political visions of writers today.
We will journey with the term poiesis—a beloved term by poets—which translates loosely to mean ’the making of something out of nothing.’ Together, participants will be encouraged to consider not only language’s ability to bring into being new feelings, perspectives, and original metaphors, but equally how such perspectives are found in the unearthing of new experimental or hybrid forms.
What is the relationship to form and poetic language? How do pre-existing forms or free-verse stanzas assist or hinder a poet’s intended creative representation? Is experimental poetry empowering? Political? An act of refusal and resistance?
We will begin by engaging in a series of writing exercises ranging from experimental prose poetry to diptych and triptych forms. Exercises will followed by periods of collaborative sharing. Breaks will be interspersed with sample poems by contemporary poets, artists, and activists whose works engage with experimentation, new, and found forms.
We will end with a fun and artsy individual project to take home, commemorate our writing in our time together.
Isabella Wang is the author of the chapbook, On Forgetting a Language, and her full-length debut, Pebble Swing, shortlisted for the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize. Among other recognitions, she has been shortlisted for Arc’s Poem of the Year Contest, The Malahat Review’s Far Horizons Contest and Long Poem Contest, and was the youngest writer to be shortlisted twice for The New Quarterly’s Edna Staebler Essay Contest. She is completing a double-major in English and World Literature at SFU. She works in freelance editing, is a youth mentor with Vancouver Poetry House, and web coordinator for Poetry In Canada.

Ever-Arriving Openings: An Evening with Adeena Karasick
2023-08-02 18:00 | Massy Arts, 23 East Pender, Vancouver, B.C., Canada
On Thurs. Aug. 3 at 6pm, join Massy Arts and Dialogos / Lavender Ink for the double launch of Adeena Karasick’s latest poetry books: Ærotomania: The Book of Lumenations and Ouvert Oeuvre: Openings .
Through a poetics of politically engaged aesthetic resistance, Ærotomania negotiates turbulence, loss, nostalgia and hope, while the poems in Ouvert Oeuvre speak-sing to re-entering the world after a long period in quarantine. Adeena will be joined by special guest Jim Andrews, who will be screening some of their recent vispo collaborations: Lorem Ipsum, Checking In 1, Checking In 2, Touching in the Wake of the Virus.
This project has been made possible by the Government of Canada. Ce projet a été rendu possible grâce au gouvernement du Canada.
Venue & Accessibility
The event will be hosted at the Massy Arts Gallery, at 23 East Pender Street in Chinatown, Vancouver.
Registration is free and required for entrance.
The gallery is wheelchair accessible and a gender-neutral washroom is on-site. Please refrain from wearing scents or heavy perfumes.
For more on accessibility including parking, seating, venue measurements and floor plan, and how to request ASL interpretation please visit: massyarts.com/accessibility
Covid Protocols: Masks keep our community safe and are mandatory (N95 masks are recommended as they offer the best protection). We ask if you are showing symptoms, that you stay home. Thank you kindly.
About the books
Ærotomania: The Book of LumenationsLavender Ink, 2023)
A lyrically explosive mix of pathos, comedy, and wit, and a visual feast in full color.
Marked by a playful “cognitive dissidence” and a lyrically and visually explosive mix of pathos, comedy, and wit, Ærotomania: The Book of Lumenations is Karasick’s twelfth volume of poetry. Through a poetics of politically engaged aesthetic resistance, this work negotiates turbulence, loss, nostalgia and hope, inscribing a prescient “present” ever-arriving through jubilation and bereavement, in immanence and irruption, exposing how the airplane as an erotic theater functions like a language.
Ouvert Oeuvre: Openings (Lavender Ink, 2023)
An ecstatically wrought, never quite post-Covid celebration/trepidation of openings.
Inscribing what Levinas might call “espace vital” (the space we can survive), Ouvert Oeuvre: Openings is an ecstatically wrought, never quite post-Covid celebration/trepidation of openings. Written by Adeena Karasick and visualized by Warren Lehrer, the two poems track the pain of openings read through socio-economic, geographic and bodily space. They explore a range of intralingual etymologies of the word opening, laced with post-consumerist and erotic language, theoretical discourse, philosophical and Kabbalistic aphorisms. The poems foreground language as an organism of hope–highlighting the concept of opening as an ever-swirling palimpsest of spectral voices, textures, whispers and codes transported through passion, politics and pleasure as we negotiate loss and light. This book is the first collaboration between poet, performer, cultural theorist and media artist Adeena Karasick, and pioneer designer/author and vis lit practitioner Warren Lehrer. The poems, written by Karasick, speak-sing to re-entering the world after a long period in quarantine. Lehrer choreographs Karasick’s words on the stage of the page and through the pages of this volume. His typographic compositions give form to the interior, emotional, metaphorical, historical and performative underpinnings of the poems. Together, the writing and visuals create a new whole that engages the reader to become an active participant in the experience/performance of the poems. View the book’s website here.
About the author
Adeena Karasick, Ph.D, is a New York based Canadian poet, performer, cultural theorist and media artist and the author of 14 books of poetry and poetics. Her Kabbalistically inflected, urban, Jewish feminist mashups have been described as “electricity in language” (Nicole Brossard), “proto-ecstatic jet-propulsive word torsion” (George Quasha), noted for their “cross-fertilization of punning and knowing, theatre and theory” (Charles Bernstein) “a twined virtuosity of mind and ear which leaves the reader deliciously lost in Karasick’s signature ‘syllabic labyrinth’” (Craig Dworkin); “demonstrating how desire flows through language, an unstoppable flood of allusion (both literary and pop-cultural), word-play, and extravagant and outrageous sound-work.” (Mark Scroggins). Most recently is Massaging the Medium: 7 Pechakuchas, (The Institute of General Semantics Press: 2022), shortlisted for Outstanding Book of the Year Award (ICA, 2023) and winner of the 2023 Susanne K. Langer Award for Outstanding Scholarship in the Ecology of Symbolic Form. (MEA), Checking In (Talonbooks, 2018) and Salomé: Woman of Valor (University of Padova Press, Italy, 2017), the libretto for her Spoken Word opera; Salomé: Woman of Valor CD, (NuJu Records, 2020), and Salomé Birangona, translation into Bengali (Boibhashik Prokashoni Press, Kolkata, 2020). Karasick teaches Literature and Critical Theory for the Humanities and Media Studies Dept. at Pratt Institute, is Poetry Editor for Explorations in Media Ecology, Associate International Editor of New Explorations: Studies in Culture and Communication, 2021 Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Award recipient and winner of the Voce Donna Italia award for her contributions to feminist thinking, and has just been appointed Poet Laureate of the Institute of General Semantics. The “Adeena Karasick Archive” is established at Special Collections, Simon Fraser University. Hot off the press is Ærotomania: The Book of Lumenations, and Ouvert: Oeuvre: Openings, (Lavender Ink Press, 2023).
Also featuring:
Jim Andrews has been publishing https://vispo.com since 1996. It’s the centre of his work as a poet, visual artist, audio artist, theoretician and programmer. Vispo.com is a site of interactive, multimedia poetry.

2nd Annual Sunshine Coast Art & Words Festival
2023-08-10 - 2023-08-11 | Gibsons Public Market, 473 Gower Point Rd, Gibsons, BC, V0N 1V0, Canada
Come to the Gibsons Public Market on the Sunshine Coast August 10-14 to enjoy literary readings paired with an art exhibit, writers’ and artists workshops and more.

SCWES Book Awards for BC Authors 2023
2023-08-12 13:00 - 15:00 | Gibsons Public Market, 473 Gower Point Rd, Gibsons, BC, V0N 1V0, Canada
The winners of the first Sunshine Coast Writers and Editors Society Book Awards for BC Authors will be announced at the Gibsons Public Market. The emcee is Vince R. Ditrich of Spirit of the West fame and author of the hilarious Liquor Vicar Series. Many of the finalists for the contest will be in attendance. The bookmobile from the Little Bookshop from Squamish will be present to sell the finalists books.

Francine Cunningham with Guests
2023-08-15 18:00 | BC
On Tuesday, August 15th at 6pm, join Massy Arts, Massy Books and Invisible Publishing for Francine Cunningham with Guests: Jónína Kirton, Nadine Bachan & Jennifer B.S. Williams.
“The stories in God Isn’t Here Today reveal Francine Cunningham as a gimlet eye observer of humanity, with boundless empathy and a searing sense of humour.” — Doretta Lau, author of How Does a Single Blade of Grass Thank the Sun?
This project has been made possible by the Government of Canada. Ce projet a été rendu possible grâce au gouvernement du Canada.
Venue & Accessibility
The event will be hosted at the Massy Arts Gallery, at 23 East Pender Street in Chinatown, Vancouver.
Registration is free and required for entrance.
The gallery is wheelchair accessible and a gender-neutral washroom is on-site. Please refrain from wearing scents or heavy perfumes.
For more on accessibility including parking, seating, venue measurements and floor plan, and how to request ASL interpretation please visit: massyarts.com/accessibility
Covid Protocols: Masks keep our community safe and are mandatory (N95 masks are recommended as they offer the best protection). We ask if you are showing symptoms, that you stay home. Thank you kindly.
About the Book:
God Isn’t Here Today ricochets between form and genre, taking readers on a dark, irreverent, yet poignant journey led by a unique and powerful new voice.
Driven by desperation into moments of transformation, Cunningham’s characters are presented with moments of choice—some for the better and some for the worse. A young man goes to God’s office downtown for advice; a woman discovers she is the last human on Earth; an ice cream vendor is driven insane by his truck’s song; an ageing stripper uses undergarments to enact her escape plan; an incubus tires of his professional grind; and a young woman inherits a power that has survived genocide, but comes with a burden of its own.
Even as they flirt with the fantastic, Cunningham’s stories unfold with the innate elegance of a spring fern, reminding us of the inherent dualities in human nature—and that redemption can arise where we least expect it.
About the Authors
Francine Cunningham is an award-winning writer, artist, and educator who spends her summer days writing on the Prairies and her winter months teaching in the north. Francine is a member of the Saddle Lake Cree Nation in Alberta but grew up in Calgary, Edmonton, and 100 Mile House, BC. Francine is also Metis and has settler family roots stretching from as far away as Ireland and Belgium. She currently resides in Alberta and previously spent over a decade calling Vancouver her home.
Her debut book of poems On/Me (Caitlin Press) was nominated for The BC and Yukon Book Prize, The Indigenous Voices Award, and The Vancouver Book Award. Her debut book of short stories God Isn’t Here Today (Invisible Publishing) was longlisted for the inaugural Carol Shields Prize for Fiction. Francine also writes for television with credits including the teen reality show THAT’S AWSM! among others and was a recipient of a Telus StoryHive grant. Her fiction, non-fiction, and poetry have also appeared in The Best Canadian Short Stories, The Best Canadian Non-Fiction, in Grain Magazine as the 2018 Short Prose Award winner, on The Malahat Review’s Far Horizons Prose shortlist, and on the 2022 CBC Poetry Prize longlist, among others.
You can find out more about her at www.francinecunningham.ca.
Jónína Kirton, an Icelandic and Red River Métis poet and citizen of the Métis Nation of BC currently lives in New Westminster BC, the unceded territory of the Halkomelem speaking peoples. She was born in Portage la Prairie, Manitoba, Treaty 1, the traditional lands of the Anishinaabe, Cree, Oji-Cree, Dakota, Dene peoples and the homeland of the Métis. She was sixty-one when she received the 2016 Vancouver’s Mayor’s Arts Award for an Emerging Artist in the Literary Arts category. Her second collection of poetry, An Honest Woman, was a finalist in the 2018 Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize. Her third book, Standing in a River of Time, merges poetry and lyrical memoir to take us on a journey exposing the intergenerational effects of colonization on her Métis family.
Nadine Bachan was born in Trinidad and raised in the suburbs of Toronto. Her essays about culture, family, and identity have appeared in print and digital publications across North America including Maisonneuve, Hazlitt, Canthius, The New Quarterly, and Catapult. She has been anthologized in The Best Canadian Essays series and The Broadview Anthology of Expository Prose. Her debut in true-crime writing was published in the “Partners in Crime” edition of The Best New True Crime Stories series. When not at her desk, Nadine can usually be found crocheting or knitting.
Nadine lives with her partner on the west coast near Jericho Beach. She is currently developing a memoir and a collection of linked short stories. You can learn more at www.linktr.ee/nadinebachan.
Jennifer B.S. Williams (Yes, those are her middle initials) is a Gitksan/Sekani author and mother currently living in Chilliwack, BC. Jennifer’s writing takes the form of creative nonfiction, flash fiction, scriptwriting and poetry. Her writing evokes the culture she represents, giving a new voice to the ancestors she carries with her. With an Associates Degree in Aboriginal Studies from Langara College and a Bachelor’s Degree in Creative Writing from Kwantlen Polytechnic University, Jennifer’s writing is immersed in her life experiences as an Indigenous woman. Each piece she creates represents an intentional move forward on her journey of cultural reclamation. In 2021, Jennifer produced a manuscript of poetry, including 25 distinct pieces, titled “Disconnected Existence”. She is currently working on extending this collection of poetry under the mentorship of the N’we Jinan ArtWorks Emerging Artist program.

Brandi Bird + Friends Celebrate the Launch of The All + Flesh
2023-08-16 08:00 - 17:00, 2023-09-06 18:00 | BC
On Wednesday, September 6th at 6pm, join Massy Arts, Massy Books and House of Anansi Press to celebrate the launch of The All + Flesh by Brandi Bird.
Brandi Bird will be joined by Samantha Nock, Mallory Tater, Heather Saluti and host Selina Boan at this celebration of Brandi’s long-anticipated debut poetry collection.
“I … will be reading these poems for the rest of my life.” — Billy-Ray Belcourt, author of A Minor Chorus
“These poems are tender and surprising; they are holes travelling through time and space. They are able to shapeshift God into pills, prayers, seeds, and stars. The All + Flesh has taken root in my mind and I’m happy to let it grow there.” —Jessica Johns, author of Bad Cree
The All + Flesh will be available for purchase at the event, care of Massy Books.
Venue & Accessibility
The event will be hosted at the Massy Arts Gallery, at 23 East Pender Street in Chinatown, Vancouver.
Registration is free and required for entrance.
The gallery is wheelchair accessible and a gender-neutral washroom is on-site. Please refrain from wearing scents or heavy perfumes.
For more on accessibility including parking, seating, venue measurements and floor plan, and how to request ASL interpretation please visit: massyarts.com/accessibility
Covid Protocols: Masks keep our community safe and are mandatory (N95 masks are recommended as they offer the best protection). We ask if you are showing symptoms, that you stay home. Thank you kindly.
About the book:
The All + Flesh (House of Anansi Press, 2023)
Brandi Bird’s long-anticipated debut poetry collection, The All + Flesh, explores the concepts of health, place, and memory. These frank, transcendent poems expose binaries that exist inside those relationships, then teases them apart in the hope of moving toward a decolonial future. Bird’s work is highly concerned with how outer and inner landscapes move and change within the confines language, a tradition of movement that has been lost for many who don’t speak their Indigenous languages or live on their homelands. Bird ultimately writes poetry for their kin, whether they be ancestral or chosen.
About the author & readers:
Brandi Bird is an Indigiqueer Saulteaux, Cree and Métis writer from Treaty 1 territory. They currently live and learn on the land of the Squamish, Tsleil-Waututh & Musqueam peoples. Their chapbook I Am Still Too Much was published by Rahila’s Ghost Press in Spring 2019. Their first full-length poetry collection The All + Flesh was published in August 2023 by House of Anansi Press. Their work can also be found in Poetry is Dead, Room Magazine, Brick Magazine, and others.
Samantha Nock is an apihtaw’kos’an iskwew who grew up in Treaty 8 territory in Northeast BC. Her family is originally from Ile-a-la-Crosse (Sakitawak), SK. Her debut book of poetry A Family of Dreamers will be available Fall 2024 with Talon Books.
Mallory Tater is the author of the poetry collection This Will Be Good (Book*Hug Press 2018) and a novel, The Birth Yard (HarperCollins Canada 2020). She is the publisher of Rahila’s Ghost Press, a recently retired poetry chapbook press.
Heather Saluti is an Italian/Ukrainian poet, visual artist, and expressive arts therapist based on the unceded ancestral lands of the Musqueam, Squamish, & Tsleil-Waututh peoples. Their poems have appeared in Canthius, Beyond the Veil Press, CV2, LBRNTH and others. They probably want to talk to you about their fandoms and enjoy making lists.
About the host:
Selina Boan is a white settler-nehiyaw (Cree) writer living on the traditional, unceded territories of thexʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), səl̓ilwətaɁɬ (Tsleil-waututh), and sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) peoples. Her debut poetry collection, Undoing Hours, was published in Spring 2021 by Nightwood Editions which won the 2022 Pat Lowther Memorial Award and the Indigenous Voices Award for Published Poetry in English. Her work has been published widely, including The Best Canadian Poetry 2018 and 2020. She is a poetry editor for CV2.
This project has been made possible by the Government of Canada. Ce projet a été rendu possible grâce au gouvernement du Canada.

Sunshine Coast Festival of the Written Arts
2023-08-17 - 2023-08-21 | Rockwood Pavilion, 5511 Shorncliffe Ave, Sechelt, BC, Canada
Join Canada’s longest running summer gathering of Canadian writers and readers, featuring established literary stars and exciting, new voices… with opportunities for writers and readers to mingle amidst Rockwood’s heritage gardens.

Seaside Art, Photography & Book Fair
2023-08-18 13:00 - 2023-08-20 15:00 | BC
Sunshine Coast artists, photography and authors will be showcasing and selling their work at this free event at the Seaside Centre, 5790 Teredo Street, Sechelt, BC. There will be literary readings and art workshops.
Artists and Photographers include:
Roger Handling
Kasia Krolikowska
Paula O’Brien
Paddy Meade
Kevin Wells
Vash Step and his Sunshine Coast photography group
Paddy Meade
Charmaine Bayntun
Authors, include:
Heather Conn
Marion Crook
Cathalynn Labonte-Smith
SCWES Members’ chapbook table
Sharon Eastwood
Kylie Hutchinson
Cat Mac
Holly Talbot (eight-year-old author of two published books)

From Queer to Asian to Publication: Aaron Chan, CA Tanaka & Catherine Lewis
2023-08-18 18:00 - 20:00 | BC
On Friday, August 18th from 6-8pm, join Massy Arts, Massy Books, Signal 8 Press, Orca Book Publishers, and 845 Press for “From Queer to Asian to Publication”, a reading and workshop with Aaron Chan, Candie Tanaka, and Catherine Lewis.
In celebration of Pride, we are excited to host talented writers from the Queer Asian literary community in Vancouver for this hybrid reading and conversational workshop.
This project has been made possible by the Government of Canada. Ce projet a été rendu possible grâce au gouvernement du Canada.
Venue & Accessibility
The event will be hosted at the Massy Arts Gallery, at 23 East Pender Street in Chinatown, Vancouver.
Registration is free, open to all and required for entrance.
The gallery is wheelchair accessible and a gender-neutral washroom is on-site. Please refrain from wearing scents or heavy perfumes.
For more on accessibility including parking, seating, venue measurements and floor plan, visit: massyarts.com/accessibility
This event will have ASL interpretation.
Covid Protocols: Masks keep our community safe and are mandatory (N95 masks are recommended as they offer the best protection). We ask if you are showing symptoms, that you stay home. Thank you kindly.
About the books:
Aaron Chan’s This City is a Minefield
This City is a Minefield is a collection of reflective memoir and personal essays told from a genuine and unique voice about growing up and coming of age as a young gay Chinese man in Vancouver. Thoughtful and honest, the stories and essays recounted are unafraid of analyzing and criticizing the status quo, whether it be Chinese culture’s unfavourable view of homosexuality, or the gay community’s ill-addressed, rampant sexual racism. At the same time an intimate, tender love letter to Vancouver filled with mixed emotions – joy, nostalgia, sadness – Chan weaves together poignant, heartbreaking experiences of navigating and reconciling conflicting cultural and queer identities, complicated romantic relationships, sex and trauma, and overwhelming loneliness that coalesce to form a rounded portrait of a quiet soul on a search for love and belonging. This City is a Minefield serves as a marker of life as a young queer person of colour in this modern age.
C.A. Tanaka’s Baby Drag Queen
Transgender teen Ichiro enters a drag contest in hopes of earning enough money to live off the grid.
Ichiro is a transgender youth in his final year of high school. He has a job as a dishwasher to earn money to help support his single mother. But it’s not enough. Ichiro dreams of buying a camper van for the two of them so they can escape and live off the grid and not have to worry about money anymore. A budding drag queen, he takes a second job performing drag at a local club and learns of an upcoming contest where the prize money would be enough to pay for a camper van. But nobody knows he does drag. So when some of his friends find out what he’s really doing in the evenings, Ichiro is worried about what they will think of him. Will they still accept him?
Catherine Lewis’ Zipless
“Catherine Lewis’ Zipless wears femme armour. These poems are fortified by Valentino stilettos and sundresses in August’s heat. The thick-skinned and vivid voice firmly leads the reader to fertility clinics, first dates and Pride parties. Zipless leads us further still—into the complex positionality of a mature polyamorous Asian bisexual navigating a queer world that is often too narrowly-focused to see her multitudes. Lewis widens the landscape of queer poetics, punching 4-inch-deep heel marks into the ground as she goes.” — Amber Dawn
About the authors:
Aaron Chan is a writer born and raised on unceded Coast Salish territories (Vancouver, BC). He is the author of This City Is a Minefield (Signal 8 Press), a collection of memoir and personal essays about growing up gay and Asian in Vancouver. Currently, Aaron is currently a Creative Writing MFA candidate at the University of California Riverside and is the recipient of the L.M. and Marcia McQuern Endowed Graduate Award in Non-fiction Writing. The Broken Heart, his debut children’s picture book, is forthcoming in June 2024 with Rocky Pond Books.
Candie Tanaka is a multiracial trans writer, artist and librarian challenging the binaries continually reconstructed between self and other while exploring archive and memory in a socio-political context. They are a creative writing graduate of The Writer’s Studio program at Simon Fraser University and have a BFA in Intermedia from Emily Carr Institute of Art + Design. Their first YA book, Baby Drag Queen was published with Orca Books in April 2023. They’ve also published work in Resonance: Essays on the Craft of Life and Writing with Anvil Press and This Will Only Take A Minute: Canadian Flash Fiction with Guernica Editions.
Catherine Lewis (she/her) is a Chinese Canadian writer and poet. Her debut poetry chapbook Zipless (845 Press, 2021) is a finalist for two Bisexual Book Awards, for Poetry and for Bi Writer of the Year. Her work has been published in PRISM international, The Humber Literary Review, and Plenitude Magazine. First runner-up for Pulp Literature’s 2023 Magpie Award for Poetry and longlisted for Surrey Muse’s 2022 Joy Kogawa Award for Fiction, she has been shortlisted in creative nonfiction contests at Room Magazine and The Fiddlehead. She lives in Vancouver on the unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh peoples.

Not That Kind of Place by Michael Melgaard with Guests
2023-08-22 18:00 - 20:00, 2023-08-26 18:00 - 20:00 | BC
On Saturday, August 26th at 6pm, join Massy Arts, Massy Books, and House of Anansi Press, ECW Press, and Atria Press for the launch of Not That Kind of Place by Michael Melgaard with guests Curtis LeBlanc and Scott Alexander Howard.
Provocative and haunting, Not That Kind of Place is a literary anti-mystery, a compelling exploration of our obsession with true-crime stories and the devastating effects of systemic violence on our most vulnerable populations.
This project has been made possible by the Government of Canada. Ce projet a été rendu possible grâce au gouvernement du Canada.
Venue & Accessibility
The event will be hosted at the Massy Arts Gallery, at 23 East Pender Street in Chinatown, Vancouver.
Registration is free and required for entrance.
The gallery is wheelchair accessible and a gender-neutral washroom is on-site. Please refrain from wearing scents or heavy perfumes.
For more on accessibility including parking, seating, venue measurements and floor plan, and how to request ASL interpretation please visit: massyarts.com/accessibility
Covid Protocols: Masks keep our community safe and are mandatory (N95 masks are recommended as they offer the best protection). We ask if you are showing symptoms, that you stay home. Thank you kindly.
About the books
Not That Kind of Place (House of Anansi Press, 2023)
In May 1997, eighteen-year-old Laura McPherson left her house for a run and didn’t return. Twenty years later, a reporter arrives in the small town of Griffiths to write an article about the unsolved murder of Laura McPherson. He is the most recent in a long line of journalists, podcasters, and amateur sleuths seeking new insights into what really happened to Laura.
Laura’s younger brother, David, a repressed and stuck thirty-something, is dealing with the recent death of his mother when the reporter comes knocking. The last surviving family member, David has lived a sheltered life, protected from the prying eyes of the media by his mother. But David cannot escape the past forever, and soon finds himself confronting the lasting impact of his sister’s death. As David learns more about his sister and the history of Griffiths, his eyes are opened to the casual violence, misogyny, and racism that lurk just below the surface of his seemingly placid community.
Provocative and haunting, Not That Kind of Place is a literary anti-mystery, a compelling exploration of our obsession with true-crime stories and the devastating effects of systemic violence on our most vulnerable populations.
Sunsetter (ECW Press, 2023)
When two teens, Dallan and Hannah, attend the opening night of the infamous Sunsetter rodeo, they find themselves entangled in the suspicious deaths of their two closest loved ones. Driven by loss, rage, and their gut instincts for justice, they channel their grief and confusion into uncovering the criminal truth about their small town of Perron, a prairie community that has been long deserted by industry, leaving a ghostly emptiness of abandoned gravel pits, golf courses, and storefronts. They soon discover that Perron — with its population of bored and discontented youth, as well as police officers who are only looking out for themselves — is the ideal place for a mysterious and omnipresent drug trade to flourish. Soon enough, Dallan and Hannah are being tailed by Deputy Arnason, who has been tasked with protecting the reputation of the local police, even as his conscience screams in protest with every move he makes.
Equal parts crime novel and literary fiction, Sunsetter is an unflinching story about the opioid crisis, teen isolation, police brutality, and the fickleness of late-stage capitalism.
The Other Valley (Simon & Schuster, 2024)
Sixteen-year-old Odile vies for a coveted seat on the Conseil. If she earns the position, she’ll decide who may cross her town’s heavily guarded borders. On either side, it’s the same valley, the same town. To the east, the town is twenty years ahead in time. To the west, it’s twenty years behind. The towns repeat in an endless sequence across the wilderness.
When Odile recognizes two visitors she wasn’t supposed to see, she realizes that the grieving parents of her friend Edme have been escorted across the border, on a mourning tour, to view their son while he’s still alive in Odile’s present.
Edme––who is brilliant, funny, and the only person to truly know Odile––is about to die. Sworn to secrecy, Odile now becomes the Conseil’s top candidate. Yet she finds herself drawing closer to the doomed boy, imperiling her entire future.
About the authors:
Michael Melgaard is the author of the short story collection, Pallbearing, and the novel Not That Kind of Place. His writing has appeared in Best Canadian Stories, LitHub and Joyland. He is a former book critic for the National Post and lives in Toronto.
Curtis LeBlanc (he/him) is the author of two poetry collections, Little Wild and Birding in the Glass Age of Isolation (Nightwood Editions). His debut novel, Sunsetter, was published in Spring 2023 with ECW Press. He is the co-founder of Rahila’s Ghost Press.
Scott Alexander Howard lives in Vancouver, British Columbia. He has a PhD in philosophy from the University of Toronto and was a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard, where his work focused on the relationship between memory, emotion, and literature. The Other Valley is his first novel.

Ink Slinger Sampler: Local Writers at the Night Market
2023-08-24 17:00 - 19:00 | Vancouver Island Regional Library, Nanaimo Harbourfront Branch, 90 Commercial Street, Nanaimo, BC, V9R 5G4, Canada
Wordstorm members will be showcasing their poetry, fiction, and creative non-fiction at a free family-friendly public event open to all ages on August 24th from 5 pm to 7 pm. The event happens in the atrium of the Harbourfront Library during Nanaimo’s Commercial Street Night Market.
You’ll be treated to twelve local poets and authors presenting excerpts of their work with a new presentation every ten minutes. You’ll get to meet and chat with poets and writers who will also have poetry chapbooks, novels and other literary delights on display and available for purchase.

Wild Prose Readings Presents: Troubled Towns and Waters with Curtis LeBlanc, Michael Melgaard and Mike Sadava
2023-08-24 18:30 - 22:00 | Paul Phillips Hall, 1923 Fernwood Road, Victoria, BC, V8T 0A5, Canada
Please join us for an evening of small-town and watery crime literature! The evening will begin with an open mic at 7 – bring your writing to share! Featured readers will begin at 7:30 p.m.: Vancouver-based poet and novelist Curtis LeBlanc will read from his debut novel, Sunsetter, which is about crime and drugs at a small-town rodeo; Toronto-based, island-raised author Michael Melgaard will read from his debut novel, Not That Kind of Place, which is about the aftermath of a murder in a small town on Vancouver Island; and local author Mike Sadava will read from his debut novel, Troubled Waters, which is about a potential earth-changing experiment gone horribly wrong and the international crime behind it.
Please bring cash for admission and authors’ books.

Imperial Currents with Fareh Malik, Hasan Namir, Brandon Wint, & Ivan Zarin
2023-08-27 14:00 - 16:00 | BC
On Sunday, August 27th at 2pm, join Massy Arts, Massy Books, Book*hug Press, Mawenzi House Publishers, Write Bloody North, and Talonbooks in presenting the poetry reading Imperial Currents with Fareh Malik, Hasan Namir, Brandon Wint, and Ivan Drury Zarin.
Imperial Currents brings together four dynamic poets navigating colonialism, racism, masculinity and their overlaps. Join us for an exploration of collectivity and the power of story to breathe hope into being.
This project has been made possible by the Government of Canada. Ce projet a été rendu possible grâce au gouvernement du Canada.
Venue & Accessibility
The event will be hosted at the Massy Arts Gallery, at 23 East Pender Street in Chinatown, Vancouver.
Registration is free and required for entrance.
The gallery is wheelchair accessible and a gender-neutral washroom is on-site.
Please refrain from wearing scents or heavy perfumes.
For more on accessibility including parking, seating, venue measurements and floor plan, and how to request ASL interpretation please visit: massyarts.com/accessibility
Covid Protocols: Masks keep our community safe and are mandatory (N95 masks are recommended as they offer the best protection). We ask if you are showing symptoms, that you stay home. Thank you kindly.
About the books:
Streams That Lead Somewhere (Mawenzi House Publishers Ltd., 2022)
Fareh Malik’s debut collection, Streams That Lead Somewhere, aims to explore the intersection between mental illness and social racialization. The poet dives deep into his long history with Islamophobia, racism, and other forms of discrimination. The book focuses on perseverance and the silver lining that is ever on the horizon with the expectation that you can make it out of any trial or tribulation, if you just follow your dream to wherever it leads.
War / Torn (Book*hug Press, 2019)
Lambda Literary Award-winner Hasan Namir’s debut collection of poetry, War / Torn, is a brazen and lyrical interrogation of religion and masculinity—the performance and sense of belonging they delineate and draw together. Namir summons prayer, violence, and the sensuality of love, revisiting tenets of Islam and dictates of war to break the barriers between the profane and the sacred.
Divine Animal (Write Bloody North, 2020)
Divine Animal is the debut poetry book by celebrated, Ontario-born poet and spoken word performer Brandon Wint. The collection is an elegant, expansive mapping of Brandon Wint’s relationship to the legacy and wake of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade, as one of its living, Black descendants. The Atlantic ocean is figured as both a historical site and diasporic metaphor from which to explore the complex journeys and negotiations that brought his family to Canada from Jamaica and Barbados.
Divine Animal reckons with the ways the logic of colonialism has brought humankind into an era of ecological devastation, climate change catastrophe and eco-grief. In this way, Brandon Wint offers a thoughtful, empathetic poetics that seeks to re-connect the human world with the natural world. Above all, Divine Animal is a work that lives powerfully at the intersection of celebration and grief. These poems testify to the realities of beauty on Earth, while casting a necessary eye upon the human proclivity to invent sophisticated, resilient modes of violence and inequity.
Un (Talonbooks, 2022)
Against a backdrop of moderate gains and terrible defeats, Un laments socialism’s failure to deliver formerly colonized peoples out of imperialism’s terrible grasp. Drawing on the US War on Terror and the disappearances of people extrajudicially apprehended from the Middle East and North Africa, this collection of poetry interrogates the subjectivity of Western revolutionary socialism in the early twenty-first century. Absence, negation, and unbeing echo throughout the text: the negativity of a global class struggle now forty years in retreat. But because Un’s philosophical method is dialectical, negation does not mean hopelessness or final defeat. Instead, Un hints at new revolutionary possibilities – the emergence of old, tidal syntheses – through the combination of historical difficulty with the arrival of unknown days ahead.
About the authors
Iraqi-Canadian author Hasan Namir graduated from Simon Fraser University with a BA in English and received the Ying Chen Creative Writing Student Award. He is the author of God in Pink (2015), which won the Lambda Literary Award for Best Gay Fiction and was chosen as one of the Top 100 Books of 2015 by The Globe and Mail. His work has also been featured on Huffington Post, Shaw TV, Airbnb, in the film God in Pink: A Documentary, Breakfast Television Toronto, CTV Morning Live Saskatoon. He was recently named a writer to watch by CBC books. He is also the author of poetry book War/Torn (2019, Book*Hug Press), children’s book The Name I Call Myself (2020, Arsenal Pulp Press), Umbilical Cord (Book*Hug Press) and Banana Dream (2023, Neal Porter Books). Hasan was the 2021 LGBTQ2s+ guest curator for Word Vancouver. He lives on the unceded territories of the Kwantlen, Katzie, Semiahmoo and Tsawwassen First Nations with his husband and their child.
Fareh Malik is an author and artist from the Greater Toronto Area. Originally a spoken word poet, he has been recognized internationally by many literary presses and has won several poetry awards in his emerging career. Recently, he was named the 2022 PEN Canada New Voices Award winner, and his book Streams That Lead Somewhere was longlisted for the Gerald Lampert Memorial Award.
Brandon Wint is an Ontario-born poet, spoken word artist, educator and multi-disciplinary storyteller based in western Canada. For more than a decade, Brandon has been a sought-after touring performance poet, having shared his work all over Canada, and internationally at festivals and showcases in the United States, Australia, Jamaica, Latvia and Lithuania. Brandon is ever-grateful for the power of poetry as a spiritual technology and social force. He is devoted to using poetry as a tool for refining his sense of justice, love, and intimacy. Brandon Wint’s poems and essays have been published in The Ex Puritan, Event Magazine, Arc Poetry Magazine, and Black Writers Matter, among other places. Divine Animal (Write Bloody North, 2020) is his debut collection of poetry. His debut film, My Body Is A Poem/The World Makes With Me screened at DOXA documentary film festival in 2023.
Ivan Drury Zarin is a long time socialist organizer, writer, and publisher, who lives on the unceded territories of the Squamish, Musqeam, and Tsleil Waututh nations, in Vancouver. He is a new parent with family around Vancouver, central Saskatchewan, and western Belarus. He teaches history and labour studies at Fraser International College at SFU and drives a paratransit bus as a member of the Amalgamated Transit Union. He is the author of Un, a book of poems published by Talon Books in 2022, and is editor and contributor to Red Braid Alliance’s book of essays, A Separate Star: Politics and Strategy for Anti-Capitalist, Anti-Colonial, and Anti-Imperialist Struggle, published by ARP Books in 2023.

Summer Issue Book Club: In(ter)ventions in the Archive
2023-08-30 12:00 - 13:30 | Zoom
Wednesday, August 30, 2023
12:00pm PST / 3:00pm EST
Free Admission
Virtual attendance by Zoom (Register on Eventbrite)
To celebrate the summer launch of Issue 3.50: In(ter)ventions in the Archive, The Capilano Review invites readers to join us for an open “book club”-style discussion of the issue alongside co-editors Deanna Fong and Jacquelyn Zong-Li Ross. The event will open with an informal discussion of how the issue’s archival concept and contents materialized. We will then open the floor to readers. Which pieces spoke to you and why? What is your own experience working in archives, and how did the issue reflect (or not reflect) that experience? What connections did you find between pieces? Bring your thoughts and questions for discussion. We value your engagement and are excited to connect with you in this new forum!
Accessibility and joining information:
The event will be held over Zoom. Attendees are invited to pre-register through Eventbrite. If you have trouble accessing the Zoom link through Eventbrite, email us at contact@thecapilanoreview.com for access.
The Capilano Review is committed to ensuring an inclusive and respectful environment for all that is free of harassment, violence, and discrimination. We will not tolerate any disrespectful conduct at the event, and are committed to preventing and eliminating inappropriate behaviour through active moderation.

Storied: Turning memories and personal experiences into stories and art with Harrison Mooney, Kim Spencer, and Sheryda Warrener
2023-08-30 19:00 - 20:30 | Zoom
Join the BC and Yukon Book Prizes for Storied: Discussions on Books, Publishing, and the Creative Process.
On Wednesday, August 30th, Harrison Mooney, Kim Spencer, and Sheryda Warrener will be offering mini-lectures on taking personal experiences and memories and turning them into art and stories for an audience. Harrison Mooney’s book Invisible Boy: A memoir of self-discovery is a finalist for the 2023 Jim Deva Prize for Writing that Provokes and the Hubert Evans Non-Fiction Prize. Kim Spencer’s book Weird Rules to Follow is a finalist for the 2023 Sheila A. Egoff Children’s Literature Prize. Sheryda Warrener’s book Test Piece is a finalist for the 2023 Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize.

It Stops Here with Rueben George and Guests
2023-08-30 19:00 - 21:00 | BC
On Wednesday, August 30th at 7pm, join Massy Arts Society, Massy Books, SFU Library, and SFU Public Square for a special evening with prominent environmental activist, spiritual leader, and Sundance Chief, Rueben George, for the launch of his book, It Stops Here: Standing up for Our Lands, Our Waters, and Our People. The event will be moderated by Andrea Crossan and feature co-author Michael Simpson and special guests.
It Stops Here is a healing, personal account of one man’s confrontation with colonization that illuminates the philosophy and values of a First Nation on the front lines of the fight against an extractive industry, colonial government, and the threat to the life-giving Salish Sea.
“Rueben George is a force of nature—literally. He is carrying on his family’s long history protecting nature in all its forms. Devastating extractive practices in the form of pipelines, mining, clearcutting, and overfishing threatens the health, safety, and wellbeing to Indigenous lands, waters, and all of nature. Rueben’s book is a powerful call to action rooted in the teachings of his ancestors, to gather warriors from all nations and take back control over our collective futures.” —Dr. Pamela Palmater, Mi’kmaw lawyer, professor, and Indigenous rights advocate from Eel River Bar First Nation
Registration is free/by donation, open to all and required for entrance.
It Stops Here: Standing up for Our Lands, Our Waters, and Our People will be available to purchase before and after the event. There will be an opportunity for book-signing following the moderated portion of this event.
Venue & Accessibility
The event will be hosted at the Djavad Mowafaghian Cinema at 149 West Hastings Street at the Downtown SFU campus.
We will reserve 20 seats for elderly community members who do not operate computers/ are otherwise unable to register.
Covid Protocols: Masks keep our community safe and although not mandatory at SFU, they are recommended (N95 masks are best as they offer the best protection). We ask if you are showing symptoms, that you stay home. Thank you kindly.
About the book
It Stops Here: Standing up for Our Lands, Our Waters, and Our People
It Stops Here is the story of the spiritual, cultural and political resurgence of a nation taking action to reclaim their lands, waters, law, and food systems in the face of colonization. It recounts the intergenerational struggle of the Tsleil-Waututh Nation to overcome the harms of colonization and the powerful stance they have taken alongside allies and other Indigenous nations across Turtle Island against the development of the Trans Mountain Pipeline—a fossil fuel megaproject on their unceded territories.
The book provides a firsthand account of this resurgence as told by Rueben George, one of the most prominent leaders of the widespread opposition to the Trans Mountain Pipeline expansion. He has devoted more than a decade of his life to fighting the project and shares stories about his family’s deep ancestral connections to their unceded lands and waters, which are today more commonly known as Vancouver, British Columbia and the Burrard Inlet. Despite the systematic attempts at cultural genocide enacted by the colonial state, Rueben recounts how key leaders of his community, such as his grandfather, Chief Dan George, always taught the younger generations to be proud of who they were and to remember the importance of their connection to the inlet.
Part memoir, part call to action, It Stops Here urges us to prioritize the sacred over oil and extractive industries, while insisting that settler society honour Indigenous law and jurisdiction over unceded territories rather than seeing lands as natural resources to be exploited.
About the authors
RUEBEN GEORGE is Sundance Chief and a member of the Tsleil-Waututh Nation (TWN). After working as a family counsellor for twenty years, he became manager of the TWN’s Sacred Trust initiative to protect the unceded Tsleil-Waututh lands and waters from the proposed Trans Mountain Pipeline expansion. Over the past decade, he has travelled across the world and built alliances with Indigenous people fighting for water, land, and human rights, and has become an internationally renowned voice for such issues. Rueben has been adopted and made a Sun Dance Chief by two Lakota families, and incorporates his cultural and spiritual teachings in all aspects of his life and work.
MICHAEL SIMPSON is Lecturer in the School of Geography & Sustainable Development at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland.
About the moderator
ANDREA CROSSAN is a member of the Tsleil-Waututh Nation. She is an award-winning radio journalist with over 30 years of experience, reporting from over a dozen countries, including Afghanistan, Pakistan, Ukraine, South Africa, Uganda, and Brazil. She is currently the executive editor of the Global Reporting Centre (GRC), an independent news organization based out of UBC.
This project has been made possible by the Government of Canada. Ce projet a été rendu possible grâce au gouvernement du Canada.

Under the Table Masks4EastVan Fundraiser Ft. Jane Shi & Kay Kassirer
2023-09-05 18:00 | BC
On Tuesday, Sept 5th at 6pm PDT, join Massy Arts Society and a collective of brilliant poet organizers for Under The Table Masks4EastVan Fundraiser featuring Jane Shi & Kay Kassirer.
There is a suggested donation of $10 to support Masks4EastVan, but this event is PWYC.
Doors and sign-up at 5:45, show starts at 6
(we run on crip time with the understanding that bodies and brains aren’t always on schedule)
We invite you to sign up for the open mic as Under The Table welcomes us to laugh, cry, celebrate and sit in the richness of queer and disabled life, writing and poetics. This month’s open mic will only have 5 spots to leave time for our wonderful DOUBLE FEATURE!
If you’re signing up for the open mic, when possible please come with a physical or electronic copy of the poem that can be shared with the ASL interpreters, to provide better access for d/Deaf & hard of hearing audiences.
We will have books for sale by our feature artists and organizers with all proceeds going to Masks4EastVan. Grab a copy of A Whore’s Manifesto, Leaving Chang’e on Read, and HIR: an LGBTQIA+ South Asian Zine.
Under the Table is an open mic series centering disabled and/or queer poets. This series was dreamed up out of a desire to share work, experience art, and connect with community in a covid safer, more accessible, and anti-oppressive space. Partnering with Massy Voices and Kickstart Disability Arts & Culture, Under the Table Open Mic Series will be on the first Tuesday of each month with some events in person at Massy Arts Society and others virtually on zoom.
Venue & Accessibility
The event will be hosted at the Massy Arts Gallery, at 23 East Pender Street in Chinatown, Vancouver.
Massy Arts Gallery is a single-level space, in one single room. The entryway to the building is 38″ wide, with a transition less than 0.5″. The front door is a push door that swings inward to the left. There is no automatic opening door or switch but the door will stay open until the show starts. There is one gender inclusive bathroom in the space. The door is not automatic. Pull to enter, push to exit. The width of the doorway is 90cm / 35.5in. The bathroom is 45sq ft. There are two sets of grab bars located behind and to the right of the toilet.The space is a scent-free space. We kindly ask that event attendees refrain from wearing scented products in the space. The venue has a scent free soap and uses scent free cleaning products.
ASL interpretation is confirmed for the event. Please note that there may be some hiccups in interpretation for poems they are not able to read beforehand. For more info on accessibility including transit and parking, seating, and venue measurements and floor plan, please visit: massyarts.com/accessibility. If you have questions about accessibility at this event please email us at patricia@massybooks.com or underthetablepoetry@gmail.com
COVID-19 SAFETY
Masks are required for this event (N95 masks are recommended as they offer the best protection) and will be provided for anyone who does not bring one. There will be an air purifier in the space as well as antibacterial microphone covers. The host and feature poet will rapid test before the event and we encourage attendees to rapid test before coming as well. We ask that you stay home if you are showing symptoms or had a recent exposure.
About Under The Table:
Under the Table is a space where the richness that is queer and disabled life and art, flourishes and finds a home. It’s a space to share work that’s asking to be told, but might not be welcomed in other spaces, if you are able to access those spaces at all. It’s a space where being queer and/or disabled (whether or not those specific words resonate for you) makes your work a brilliant fit, regardless of how queer or disabled you think the poetry you wish to share is, how connected you are to disabled and/or queer community, and whether you feel disabled and/or queer “enough” to participate. It’s a space to witness and engage with the work of incredible artists, anywhere on their path of sharing their work–from the person who has never shared in front of an audience, to artists who have read or performed work many times. It’s a space where there’s room to be scared, and choose to be in community, share, and engage with others’ work. It’s a space where we don’t claim to know all the answers, but are willing to be in the messy, nuanced space of learning together. Come to “Under the Table” to laugh, cry, celebrate, sit in discomfort, feel understood, and be together.
About Masks4EastVan
Masks4EastVan is a grassroots mutual aid project that distributes N95 or equivalent masks to neighbours in East Van that began in May 2022. We aim to make information about the importance of high quality pandemic protections accessible to the general public. We conduct home deliveries and have pop-up distribution events. Masks4EastVan was founded by two disabled and neurodivergent queer trans people of colour, and has expanded to be now run by a small group of volunteers. https://linktr.ee/masks4eastvan
This event has been made possible by Massy Voices, the Government of Canada, and Kickstart Disability Arts and Culture.
With Featured Poets
Jane Shi lives on the occupied, stolen, and unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and səlil̓ilw̓ətaʔɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) peoples. Her writing has appeared in the Disability Visibility Blog, The Offing, and Queer Little Nightmares: An Anthology of Monstrous Fiction and Poetry (Arsenal Pulp Press), among others. She is the author of the chapbook Leaving Chang’e on Read (Rahila’s Ghost Press, 2022) and the winner of The Capilano Review’s 2022 In(ter)ventions in the Archive Contest. Her debut poetry collection echolalia echolalia comes out Fall 2024 with Brick Books. She wants to live in a world where love is not a limited resource, land is not mined, hearts are not filched, and bodies are not violated.
Kay Kassirer (they/them) is a spoken word poet whose autobiographical poetry focuses on gender & sexuality, grief, disability, and sex work. Kay has toured internationally performing at venues like Buddies in Bad Times Theatre, Busboys and Poets, and the Bowery Poetry Club. They have competed at over a dozen national and international poetry slam festivals earning their place on several competitive final stages. Kay curated and edited A Whore’s Manifesto: An Anthology of Writing and Artwork by Sex Workers published by Thornapple Press. Their work has been featured in numerous places, including Button Poetry, Slamfind, Write About Now, and Voicemail Poems.

ELIXIR OF LIFE—Free Verse Poetry: A workshop with Tawhida Tanya Evanson
2023-09-05 18:00 - 20:00 | The Western Front, 303 East 8th Avenue, Vancouver, British Columbia, V5T 1S1, Canada
Time: Tuesday, September 5, 2023 | 6-8pm
Location: Grand Luxe Hall, Western Front (303 East 8th Avenue, Vancouver)
Registration: $25 CAD* / Free for Indigenous participants
Workshop Description:
The human being is both stream and tsunami, yet we have difficulty flowing around obstacles. Engage with a free verse poetry that taps into the conscious and subconscious using a basic unifying substance as our guide: water. We will use text, videopoetry and tonal sound therapy to contemplate, meditate, write, edit, experiment, question, share, give and receive feedback, co-create safe space and predict the future of humankind.
There are a total of 15 in-person workshop spaces available. Participants should bring along a pen or pencil and some paper for the writing exercises.
Indigenous registrants: Please email us at contact@thecapilanoreview.com to register directly.
No one will be turned away for lack of funds. If the registration fee presents a barrier to you, please contact us at contact@thecapilanoreview.com.
*Workshop registration includes a complimentary one-year print subscription to The Capilano Review.

Reviving RIOT FOOD HERE
2023-09-07 18:00 | BC
In commemoration of the 116th anniversary of the 1907 Anti-Asian Riots in Vancouver, artist and author Henry Tsang will be reviving his RIOT FOOD HERE pop-up food art project. Chef Kris Barnholden will be recreating the original menu that reflects five cuisines of the people in the area at the time of the riot: European, Chinese, Japanese, Indigenous and Punjabi.
RIOT FOOD HERE was installed in 4 locations over 4 weekends in May and June 2018. These sites track the route taken by the Asiatic Exclusion League’s parade and demonstration demanding a White Canada, inciting a mob that attacked Chinatown and Powell Street for the following two days. The project launched with a walking tour led by Michael Barnholden, author of Reading the Riot Act: A Brief History of Riots in Vancouver, which inspired Henry to create 360 Riot Walk, a 360 video walking tour of the 1907 riots, which in turn further developed and expanded into the recently released book, WHITE RIOT: The 1907 Anti-Asian Riots in Vancouver (Arsenal Pulp Press).
Henry will reflect on his motivations and experiences in creating and presenting RIOT FOOD HERE, as well as 360 Riot Walk and White Riot, accompanied by the food offerings. Larger portions will be served because it will be dinnertime.
This is a ticketed event, tickets are extremely limited and cost $40 + fees.
Menu:
Candied salmon with pickled spruce tips
Sweet corn congee with bbq pork
Lentil daal with naan
Roast beef, Yorkshire pudding, with horseradish
Sweet red bean mochi
RIOT FOOD HERE stimulates dialogue and awareness of this historic event as a way to reflect upon the ongoing struggle since colonial times about who has the right to live and eat here. Join us for a taste of the times and lively conversation.
WHITE RIOT: The 1907 Anti-Asian Riots will be available for sale and signing by the author.
About the book White Riot:
WHITE RIOT: The 1907 Anti-Asian Riots in Vancouver explores the conditions leading up to and the impact of a demonstration and parade in Vancouver, Canada, organized by the Asiatic Exclusion League and the ensuing mob attack on the city’s Chinese Canadian and Japanese Canadian communities. Emblematic of a systemically racist era, White Riot reveals the social and political environment of the time, when racialized communities were targeted through legislated as well as physical acts of exclusion and violence.
Based on 360 Riot Walk, a 360-degree video walking tour by artist and author Henry Tsang, White Riot offers an intersectional approach to this pivotal moment in the history of racialized communities and a cultural and social context for understanding for the current wave of anti-Asian sentiment. It features photographs of the riots colourized by Tsang as well as those of contemporary Vancouver where the riots took place. Essays by Tsang and others speak to the colonial times that preceded and followed the 1907 riots, as well as issues that Chinese, Japanese and other racialized communities in North America are facing today. White Riot poses the question: in the current ethos of anti-racism and decolonization, what does it take to reconcile our collective histories within the legacy of white supremacy?
Includes essays by the Asian Canadian Labour Alliance, Paul Englesberg, Melody Ma, Angela May and Nicole Yakashiro, Jeffery R. Masuda, Aaron Franks, Audrey Kobayashi and Trevor Wideman, and Andy Yan, with a foreword by Patricia E. Roy.
About the author and chef:
Henry Tsang is an artist and occasional curator who explores the spatial politics of history, cultural translation, community-building and food in relationship to place. His projects employ video, photography, interactive media, convivial events, and language, in particular, the west coast trade language Chinook Jargon. Presentations take the form of gallery exhibitions, pop-up street food offerings, 360 video walking tours, curated dinners, ephemeral and permanent public art. Henry is a past recipient of the VIVA Award and is Associate Dean at Emily Carr University of Art & Design.
Kris Barnholden is … (bio coming soon)
Venue & Accessibility
The event will be hosted at the Massy Arts Gallery, at 23 East Pender Street in Chinatown, Vancouver.
The gallery is wheelchair accessible and a gender-neutral washroom is on-site. Please refrain from wearing scents or heavy perfumes.
For more on accessibility including parking, seating, venue measurements and floor plan, and how to request ASL interpretation please visit: massyarts.com/accessibility
Covid Protocols: Masks keep our community safe and are mandatory (N95 masks are recommended as they offer the best protection), except when eating and drinking. We ask if you are showing symptoms, that you stay home. Thank you kindly.

Dear Friends &: A reading with Junie Désil, Tawhida Tanya Evanson, and Isabella Wang
2023-09-07 19:00 - 21:00 | The Western Front, 303 East 8th Avenue, Vancouver, British Columbia, V5T 1S1, Canada
Thursday, September 7, 2023
Doors at 7 pm / Readings at 7:30 pm
Free admission
In-person at Western Front + Virtual attendance by livestream
Dear Friends,
The Capilano Review and Western Front are pleased to invite you to the next event in our monthly reading series, Dear Friends &. Please join us at 7:30 pm on Thursday, September 7th, 2023 at Western Front for an evening of poetry by Junie Désil, Tawhida Tanya Evanson, and Isabella Wang. The evening will be hosted by Deanna Fong.
The event will celebrate the close of Tawhida Tanya Evanson’s week-long Vancouver residency. Come celebrate with us!
Admission is free, but registration is required for in-person attendance. The event will also be available to virtual audiences by livestream.
Special thanks to Western Front for collaborating with us on this programming and to the Kootenay School of Writing for its additional support.
We can’t wait to see you,
The Capilano Review

WORD Vancouver
2023-09-08 - 2023-09-24 | BC
WORD VANCOUVER READING & WRITING FESTIVAL
SEPT 8TH – 23RD 2023 ONLINE AND IN PERSON
MAIN HYBRID EVENT AT UBC ROBSON SQUARE
SEPT 16TH 2023, 10AM-5PM

Kids Book Launch: More Than Words by Roz MacLean
2023-09-09 14:00 - 17:00 | BC
On Saturday, September 9th from 2-4pm, join Massy Arts, Massy Books and Henry Holt and Co. for the launch of More Than Words: So Many Ways to Say What We Mean by Roz MacLean.
This tender, stunningly illustrated picture book explores and celebrates the many forms of expression—signing, speaking, singing, smiling, among others— and culminates in a poignant story about connection and understanding.
This project has been made possible by the Government of Canada. Ce projet a été rendu possible grâce au gouvernement du Canada.
Venue & Accessibility
The event will be hosted at the Massy Arts Gallery, at 23 East Pender Street in Chinatown, Vancouver.
Registration is free and required for entrance.
This event will include ASL interpretation.
The gallery is wheelchair accessible and a gender-neutral washroom is on-site.
Please refrain from wearing scents or heavy perfumes.
For more on accessibility including parking, seating, venue measurements and floor plan, please visit: massyarts.com/accessibility
Covid Protocols: Masks keep our community safe and are mandatory (N95 masks are recommended as they offer the best protection). We ask if you are showing symptoms, that you stay home. Thank you kindly.
About the book:
In the tradition of All Are Welcome and The Day You Begin comes a touching picture book about the many unique ways we communicate, and how we can better listen to and respect these different modes of expression.
Nathan doesn’t say much.
He sure has a lot on his mind, though.
At school, Nathan quietly observes the ways his peers communicate. Even when they’re not talking, they’re expressing themselves in all sorts of ways!
By witnessing the beauty of communication diversity, Nathan learns and shows his classmates the essential Not only does everyone have something to say, but seeking to understand one another can be the greatest bridge to friendship and belonging.
This tender, stunningly illustrated picture book explores and celebrates the many forms of expression—signing, speaking, singing, smiling, among others— and culminates in a poignant story about connection and understanding.
About the author
Roz MacLean lives on beautiful Vancouver Island where she loves to make art, spend as much time as possible in the forest and near the ocean. While she now spends all her time writing and illustrating, she worked for over a decade supporting students with disabilities and diverse needs in public schools. Roz incorporates her passion for inclusion and promoting positive mental health in her books.

Becoming a Matriarch by Helen Knott with Troy Sebastian
2023-09-09 18:00 | BC
On Saturday, September 9th at 6:00pm, join Massy Arts Society, Massy Books, and Knopf Canada for the launch of Helen Knott’s Becoming a Matriarch with host Troy Sebastian.
“Becoming a Matriarch is a feast of remarkable, colourful, deep and profoundly raw storytelling. Helen Knott is one of the greatest Indigenous literary artists of our time.” —Brandi Morin, author of Our Voice of Fire: A Memoir of a Warrior Rising.
This project has been made possible by the Government of Canada. Ce projet a été rendu possible grâce au gouvernement du Canada.
Registration is free/by donation, open to all and required for entrance.
Purchase Becoming a Matriarch at Massy Books in advance or in person at the event.
Venue & Accessibility
The event will be hosted at the Museum of Vancouver’s Joyce Walley Room, 1100 Chestnut St, Vancouver, BC.
Registrants can enjoy free admission to the museum all day, at any time before the event [10am to 6pm]. Just show your ticket to the event at the front desk. To see which exhibitions are currently on view, check out this link: https://museumofvancouver.ca/current-exhibitions
Please refrain from wearing scents or heavy perfumes.
Covid Protocols: Masks keep our community safe and are mandatory (N95 masks are recommended as they offer the best protection). We ask if you are showing symptoms, that you stay home. Thank you kindly.
Parking & Directions
The Museum of Vancouver website has detailed descriptions of how to reach the museum by bus, ferry, on foot or by car. Note that the MOV parking lot is an Easy park lot with Easy park rates and is strictly monitored by Easypark. A parking violation ticket can cost $80!
Please visit their site to find out how best to arrive.
About The Book:
Becoming a Matriarch (Knopf Canada, 2023)
When matriarchs begin to disappear, there is a choice to either step into the places they left behind, or to craft a new space.
Helen Knott’s debut memoir, In My Own Moccasins, wowed reviewers, award juries, and readers alike with its profoundly honest and moving account of addiction, intergenerational trauma, resilience, and survival. Now, in her highly anticipated second book, Knott returns with a chronicle of grief, love, and legacy.
Having lost both her mom and grandmother in just over six months, forced to navigate the fine lines between matriarchy, martyrdom, and codependency, Knott realizes she must let go, not just of the women who raised her, but of the woman she thought she was.
Woven into the pages are themes of mourning, sobriety through loss, and generational dreaming. Becoming a Matriarch is charted with poetic insights, sass, humour, and heart, taking the reader over the rivers and mountains of Dane Zaa territory in Northeastern British Columbia, along the cobbled streets of Antigua, Guatemala, and straight to the heart of what matriarchy truly means. This is a journey through pain, on the way to becoming.
About the author:
Helen Knott is a Dane Zaa, Cree, Metis and mixed Euro-descent woman from Prophet River First Nations living in Fort St. John, B.C. She is the author of the nationally best-selling book, In My Own Moccasins. Her second book, Becoming a Matriarch, has been released through Knopf Doubleday Publishing. Helen has a bachelor’s degree in social work and has worked in advocacy and wellness with Indigenous communities for almost a decade. Helen has pieces published ranging from poetry to academic articles that focus on the connection between violence against Indigenous lands and violence against Indigenous bodies. She is currently taking time to work on her third book, a fiction, whose story will be rooted in her peoples territory.
About the host:
Troy Sebastian |nupqu ʔak·ǂam̓ is a writer from the Ktunaxa community of ʔaq̓am. He is a doctoral student, Vanier Scholar and Sessional Instructor in the University of Victoria’s Department of Writing. His story tax niʔ pikak̓— a long time ago- was longlisted for the 2018 CBC Short Story Prize and the 2019 Writers’ Trust Journey Prize. In 2020 he was selected as a Writer’s Trust Rising Star by Lynn Coady and was longlisted for the CBC Poetry Prize. His story The Mission won the 2022 National Magazine Award Gold Prize for Fiction. His writing has appeared in Brick, the Globe and Mail, Toronto Star and The Walrus. He is represented by Rachel Letofsky at CookeMcDermid.

Dead Poets Reading Series
2023-09-10 15:00 - 17:00 | BC
Join Massy Arts Society on Sunday, September 10th at 3pm for the next Dead Poets Reading Series, as deep threads of connection and solidarity are drawn between local, contemporary poets and a diverse array of poets from the past.
We welcome you to an afternoon reflection and celebration, as poetic conversation and recitation travel through time.
Registration is free/by donation, open to all and required for entrance.
Venue & Accessibility
The event will be hosted at the Massy Arts Gallery, at 23 East Pender Street in Chinatown, Vancouver.
The gallery is wheelchair accessible and a gender-neutral washroom is on-site. Please refrain from wearing scents or heavy perfumes.
For more on accessibility including parking, seating, venue measurements and floor plan, and how to request ASL interpretation please visit: massyarts.com/accessibility
Covid Protocols: Masks keep our community safe and are mandatory (N95 masks are recommended as they offer the best protection). We ask if you are showing symptoms, that you stay home. Thank you kindly.
Featured readers and poets include:
Natalie Lim reading Jason Shinder
Natalie Lim is a Chinese-Canadian poet living on the unceded, traditional territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh Peoples (Vancouver, B.C.). She is the winner of the 2018 CBC Poetry Prize and Room Magazine’s 2020 Emerging Writer Award, with work published in Arc Poetry Magazine, Best Canadian Poetry 2020, and elsewhere. Her debut chapbook, arrhythmia, was published in 2022 by Rahila’s Ghost Press.
Jason Shinder (1955–2008) was an American poet who authored three books and founded the YMCA National Writer’s Voice, a network of independent literary arts centers at YMCAs across the U.S. The network is dedicated to giving voice to people through accessible, quality-based, community-driven, innovative literary arts programming and is currently the U.S.’s largest network of literary arts centers.
Alongside his three books of poetry, Shinder also edited numerous anthologies, served as director of the Sundance Institute Writing Program, and was a Poet Laureate of Provincetown.
Shinder passed away in 2008 from non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and leukemia. His final book, Stupid Hope, was published posthumously.
Kim Trainor reading Nadia Anjuman
Kim Trainor is the granddaughter of an Irish banjo player and a Polish faller who worked in logging camps around Port Alberni in the 1930s. Ledi(Bookhug, 2018) was a finalist for the Raymond Souster Award. A thin fire runs through me (icehouse / Goose Lane) appeared in Spring 2023 and A blueprint for survival will appear with Guernica Editions in the spring of 2024. She lives in Vancouver, ancestral, unceded homelands of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, Skwxwú7mesh, and səlil̓ilw̓ətaʔɬ Nations. www.kimtrainor.ca
Nadia Anjuman (1980-2005) was born in Herat, Afghanistan in 1980. In 1996, she joined the underground Golden Needle Sewing School where young women students studied literature under the mentorship of Muhammad Ali Rahyab, using the guise of learning to sew in order to avoid detection by the Taliban government. Her first and only book of poetry was published in 2005, under the title گل دودی (“Gul-e-dodi,” literally, “Flower of Smoke,” translated as Smoke Bloom or Dark Flower.) She was beaten to death by her husband in November 2005, with whom she had a six-month-old son. The husband was given a five-year sentence but was freed after a few months.
Bronwen Tate reading Mina Loy
Bronwen Tate is the author of the poetry collection The Silk the Moths Ignore and a contributor to a collaborative book-length poem in homage to Bernadette Mayer called Midwinter Constellation. She teaches poetry, nonfiction, translation, and creative writing pedagogy at UBC, where she is also Undergraduate Chair. Her Substack newsletter Ok, But How? goes deep on process and includes snacks.
Mina Loy (1882-1966) was a poet, painter, and tireless experimenter, who has been called Futurist, Dadaist, Surrealist, feminist, conceptualist, Modernist and Postmodernist. Born in London, Loy studied painting in Munich and Paris, wrote about sex, childbirth, and art, and argued with Gertrude Stein, Filippo Marinetti, and other major avant-garde figures. Described by Ezra Pound as a poet of logopoeia (“a dance of the intelligence among words and ideas”), Loy published a poetry collection called Lunar Baedeker in 1923. Much of her most daring writing, including a feminist manifesto written in 1914, remained unpublished during her lifetime.
Brandon Wint reading Derek Walcott
Brandon Wint is an Ontario-born poet, spoken word artist, educator and multi-disciplinary storyteller based in western Canada. For more than a decade, Brandon has been a sought-after touring performance poet, having shared his work all over Canada, and internationally at festivals and showcases in the United States, Australia, Jamaica, Latvia and Lithuania. Brandon is ever-grateful for the power of poetry as a spiritual technology and social force. He is devoted to using poetry as a tool for refining his sense of justice, love, and intimacy. Brandon Wint’s poems and essays have been published in The Ex Puritan, Event Magazine, Arc Poetry Magazine, and Black Writers Matter, among other places. Divine Animal (Write Bloody North, 2020) is his debut collection of poetry. His debut film, My Body Is A Poem/The World Makes With Me screened at DOXA documentary film festival in 2023.
Derek Walcott (1930-2017) was born in Castries, Saint Lucia, the West Indies in 1930. He published numerous poetry collections throughout his lifetime that dealt with the complexities of his African, Dutch, and English ancestry. A noted playwright, Walcott also founded the Trinidad Theater Workshop and wrote several plays. Walcott’s honors include a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, the T. S. Eliot Prize, the Griffin Trust for Excellence in Poetry’s Lifetime Achievement Award, and he became the first Caribbean writer to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature, in 1992. About Walcott’s work, the poet Joseph Brodsky said: He gives us more than himself or “a world”; he gives us a sense of infinity embodied in the language.

Elephant Mountain Lit Fest
2023-09-11 - 2023-09-18 | BC
Elephant Mountain Lit Fest will be sparking literary flames in Nelson, BC from September 11 – 17, 2023. We are a festival with events for both readers and writers, with workshops, readings, panels, blue pencil sessions and more.
Learn more here.

Book Launch: Lorna Crozier and M.A.C. Farrant
2023-09-13 19:00 - 21:00 | Munro’s Books, 1108 Government Street, Victoria, BC, V8W 1Y2, Canada
Join Munro’s Books in celebrating the newest releases from two incredibly talented local authors!
Lorna Crozier’s After That is a book written from the dark hollow we fall into when we lose those we love. Lorna’s sure poetry engages with the grief that comes from the death of her partner, the writer Patrick Lane, with whom she’d lived for forty years, many of them tumultuous. With grace and precision, she illuminates sorrow. M.A.C Farrant’s Jigsaw comprises ninety-three literary puzzle pieces that mimic the actual practice of assembling a jigsaw puzzle. By turns whimsical, insightful, meditative, funny, and factual, the “pieces” of Jigsaw touch on several themes readers of Farrant have encountered before: existence, love, joy, science, history, aging, roads, and Buddhism – as well as our universal love of jigsaw puzzles.

Erosion: The Inte/ruption of Home
2023-09-14 18:00 | BC
On Thursday, Sept. 14th at 6pm, join Massy Arts, Massy Books, Caitlin Press, Mother Tongue Publishing, and Raven Books in celebrating the work of Adrienne Fitzpatrick, Daniela Elza, and Ian Thomas.
Erosion encompasses the environmental impacts on home, as well as the emotional and spiritual. Erosion can be subtle, not even noticeable and then suddenly devastating. Inte/ruption disrupts the flow, alluding to the breaking apart of the narrative of home.
This project has been made possible by the Government of Canada. Ce projet a été rendu possible grâce au gouvernement du Canada.
Venue & Accessibility
The event will be hosted at the Massy Arts Gallery, at 23 East Pender Street in Chinatown, Vancouver.
Registration is free and required for entrance.
The gallery is wheelchair accessible and a gender-neutral washroom is on-site. Please refrain from wearing scents or heavy perfumes.
For more on accessibility including parking, seating, venue measurements and floor plan, and how to request ASL interpretation please visit: massyarts.com/accessibility
Covid Protocols: Masks keep our community safe and are mandatory (N95 masks are recommended as they offer the best protection). We ask if you are showing symptoms, that you stay home. Thank you kindly.
About the books:
Instructions for a Flood by Adrienne Fitzpatrick
In Instructions for a Flood: Reflections on Story, Geography and Connection, a spare, powerful book, Adrienne Fitzpatrick writes with eloquence and raw honesty about the land that defines her. Taking us to the rivers and lakes that are an integral part of her personal history, she shows us the power and metaphor of water – it’s lurking dangers, how it gives and takes life, what it carries when it floods, what it leaves behind. In stories about her formative years in the ‘rough beauty’ of central and northern BC, and later working with First Nations on the contentious issues of extractive industry, she reveals how humans – and water – have impacted these territories and their ancient cultures.
the broken boat by daniela elza
In her fourth book of poetry, daniela elza deftly builds a raft of questions to stay afloat amidst the breakage of things. The end of a twenty-year marriage mirrors subtler fragmentations in our world. How to survive this loss of meaning, this “wintering through”? The intricacies of light, nature, water, absences glint through grief to astonish and lift the heart into understanding again; transforming and coupling the deeper self with the soulful eros/ions of our world.
Green Islands by Ian Thomas
Written in the unceded territory of the Haíɫzaqv (Heiltsuk) First Nation, this collection of poems focuses on the landscapes and wildlife of BC’s Great Bear Rainforest. These poems explore the ecology of the coastal rainforest and how its living creatures, bears, wolves, whales, birds, and salmon, shape their world and are shaped by it. Green Islands celebrates the complexity, beauty, and mystery of the non-human world.
About the authors:
Adrienne Fitzpatrick grew up in the north and returned to complete her Masters in English at the University of Northern British Columbia; her creative thesis won the John Harris Prize for the best in Northern Fiction. Her fiction and poetry have appeared in Prairie Fire, CV2, subTerrain, The New Quarterly and Thimbleberry. Her art reviews have appeared in Border Crossings, C Magazine and Canadian Art and book reviews in the BC Review. She explores the phenomenological experience of place in her work and her first book, The Earth Remembers Everything is based on her experiences travelling to massacre sites in Europe, Asia, the Central Interior and Northwest Coast of BC; it was also short-listed for the 2014 George Ryga Award for Social Awareness in Literature. Instructions for a Flood, based on her experiences of living and working with Indigenous Nations in the Central Interior and Northwest of BC, is published in the Spring of 2023 by Caitlin Press.
Daniela Elza lived on three continents before immigrating to Canada in 1999. Her latest poetry collections are the broken boat (2020) and slow erosions (2020). In 2021, she became a founding member of the Place Mattering Matters Collective and has been actively involved in preserving the affordable housing in her community in Vancouver, located on the unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. She is also working on a manuscript on the topic.
Ian Thomas, born in Vancouver, is a biologist and poet with a lifelong passion for the ecosystems and wildlife of the BC coast. He currently works for the Ancient Forest Alliance, a non-profit that works to protect BC’s endangered old- growth forests. Green Islands is his first published book.

The Family Code by Wayne Ng + Discussion with Wiley Wei-Chiun Ho
2023-09-15 18:00 | BC
On Friday, September 15th at 6pm, join Massy Arts, Massy Books and Guernica Editions in celebrating the Vancouver launch of Wayne Ng’s The Family Code.
Wayne Ng talks with Wiley Wei-Chiun Ho about his new book, The Family Code, his first work not featuring an Asian protagonist. They will discuss both straying from and remaining within the lane of immigrant tropes.
This project has been made possible by the Government of Canada. Ce projet a été rendu possible grâce au gouvernement du Canada.
Venue & Accessibility
The event will be hosted at the Massy Arts Gallery, at 23 East Pender Street in Chinatown, Vancouver.
Registration is free and required for entrance.
The gallery is wheelchair accessible and a gender-neutral washroom is on-site.
Please refrain from wearing scents or heavy perfumes.
For more on accessibility including parking, seating, venue measurements and floor plan, and how to request ASL interpretation please visit: massyarts.com/accessibility
Covid Protocols: Masks keep our community safe and are mandatory (N95 masks are recommended as they offer the best protection). We ask if you are showing symptoms, that you stay home. Thank you kindly.
About the book:
The Family Code by Wayne Ng
Every family has rituals and routines holding them together. But sometimes they are the very things that tear them apart. The Family Code is a gritty family drama featuring the troubled life of Hannah Belenko, a young single mother dogged by the brutality of past traumas and a code of silence that she must crack in order to be free—or else lose everything. Hannah was raised by this code and rules her own family by it. When she loses her daughter to the state and her boyfriend threatens her, she flees from Ottawa to Halifax with her remaining son, six-year-old Axel. While she bulldozes her way through everything and schemes to protect him, Axel flounders in the chaos. He begins to doubt his mother and her dream of a way out. With her life crashing down, Hannah is driven by desperation to survive yet hangs on to elusive hope. With unvarnished and high-voltage prose, The Family Code unabashedly reveals the power and perils of parenting, but also the longing and vulnerability of children.
About the author
Wayne Ng was born in downtown Toronto to Chinese immigrants who fed him a steady diet of bitter melons and kung fu movies. Ng works as a school social worker in Ottawa but lives to write, travel, eat and play, preferably all at the same time. He is an award-winning author and traveler who continues to push his boundaries from the Arctic to the Antarctic. His previous books are Letters From Johnny, which won Best Crime Novella at the Crime Writers of Canada Excellence Awards, and Finding The Way: A Novel of Lao Tzu. Connect with Wayne at WayneNgWrites.com
About the host
Wiley Wei-Chiun Ho is a freelance technical writer, blogger and creative non-fiction writer. Her short stories and personal essays have won awards and been published in the literary journals PRISM international, Ricepaper, River Teeth, and Room. Wiley is in the throes of completing her first book, a memoir about growing up with parents overseas, in a Taiwanese-Canadian “astronaut” family.
