EDI Speaker Series
In her introduction to Playing in the Dark, Toni Morrison reminds: “Writing and reading are not all that distinct for a writer. Both exercises require being alert and ready for unaccountable beauty, for the intricateness or simple elegance of the writer’s imagination, for the world that imagination evokes. Both require being mindful of the places where imagination sabotages itself, locks its own gates, pollutes its vision. Writing and reading mean being aware of the writer’s notions of risk and safety, the serene achievement of, or sweaty fight for, meaning and response-ability.” In the context of that groundbreaking work of literary criticism by one of the most recognized Black writers to ever live, it is not difficult to recognize the subtext to this statement:
The relationship between writer and reader is important. When that relationship crosses colour lines the writer writes (trusts, reveals, sacrifices) differently. A writer of colour, and here specifically a Black writer, is in constant consideration of this fact.
This workshop explores the ways BIPoC authors write for readers within and beyond their own racial communities. To be clear, this conversation focuses on readers of colour and celebrates the unique ways a writer might signal to them (as opposed to the double conscious ways they might anticipate white readership). We may think through Matthew Salesses’ Craft in the Real World and Mark Jerng’s Racial Worldmaking. We will discuss the paradox of thriving within the PWI of publishing in Canada, learning what to give and what to hold back
Please note that everyone is invited from 1:00-2:00 PM PST. The last half hour (2:00-2:30 PM PST) will be for BiPOC students, staff, and faculty to ask questions about the PWI of publishing in Canada. The session will be recorded. Zoom link is below.
About Dr. Jenny Heijun Wills
Dr. Jenny Heijun Wills the author of Older Sister. Not Necessarily Related: A Memoir (McClelland & Stewart, Penguin Random House Canada, 2019) and co-editor of Adoption & Multiculturalism (University of Michigan Press, 2020). She is the University of Winnipeg’s 2020-2023 Chancellor’s Research Chair.
Hosted by the EDI Committee
Co-chairs: Lindsay Wong, Taylor Brown-Evans
Faculty and Staff Members: Tania De Rozario, Maureen Medved, Alix Ohlin, Christine Palka
Student Representatives: Meagan Black, Roshni Riar, Gabrielle Rutman
