Firecracker!
Stories told through comedy from an all-women perspective … it’s genius and super relevant!
Chelene Knight
20 Black Writers to Read All Year Round
Each year when February rolls around there is a sudden influx of content, online, in libraries and elsewhere, featuring black writers, artists, activists and historical moments and figures. Much of the focus looks to the past and while that’s important, we at Room want to also centre writers in the here and now, and also look to the future. Here is a list of some of our most beloved black Canadian women and non-binary writers to enjoy all year round, compiled by some of the Room collective. Our list is certainly not an exhaustive one but these are some of our favourites.
5 Feminist Events at the Vancouver Writers Festival
Though the act of writing can be a solitary process, it has the power to transform communities. Vancouver will welcome more than eighty authors from October 15-21, 2018, each invested in societal change. These five events will galvanize anyone interested in knowledgeable, feminist, and principled conversations that fearlessly engage with issues of representation, equality, and more.
Room's 2018 Subscription Drive
To ease some of our imminent growing pains, we are hoping to raise $10,000 through new and returning subscribers, merchandise sales, and donations by September 30, 2018 to help keep some of our new projects afloat and free or financially accessible to all, including the Growing Room literary festival, Indigenous Brilliance reading series, our new online response-poem series, Turtle Island Responds, and our two podcasts, Lit Mag Love and Fainting Couch Feminists. These projects and the Roomies who spearhead them are important to us, and your help will make sure they are able to continue doing this work.
30 Books by 30 Queer Canadian Writers
Whether you’re building a New Year’s resolution reading list or hoping to renew your faith in #CanLit, we at Room are here to help. This list of some of our most beloved fiction, poetry, and non-fiction books by queer Canadian writers, compiled by fourteen members of the Room collective, is a great place to start.
We Need Your Help
As a small, independent literary organization that has operated for over forty years on a shoestring budget, passion, and volunteer labour, every subscription is vital to our existence. We’re hoping to raise at least $5,000 from new (or renewing) subscribers by September 30, 2017.
Whose Story is it? In Conversation with Alicia Elliott
Our managing editor Chelene Knight spoke with Alicia Elliott about what it’s like being an Indigenous writer in the CanLit world, and her thoughts on authenticity when telling an experience that isn’t your own.
Rooftop Reading and 39.4 Launch: January 20, 2017
Join us for the launch of our December 2016 issue, 39.4 "This Body's Map", edited by Chelene Knight. There will be readings by Jen Sookfong Lee, Chantal Gibson, Beni Xiao, and Nefertiti, as well as an artist talk by cover artist Samantha deVries-Hofman. Entry by donation.
Our Bodies & Other Fine Machines: An Interview with Natalie Wee
Natalie Wee is the author of Our Bodies & Other Fine Machines (Words Dance Publishing, 2016). Her first book is now available at Amazon and on Goodreads. Room’s Chelene Knight spoke with her about her putting together her first book, and her experience publishing in both the US and in Canada.
White house, where some family lived upstairs
Fear the caging of birds. Strangled and brown.
Moving here was like crossing a river,
debriefings, scaling back. Clay pots clogged,
awkward like an ingrown hair, browning down
in the sun. Staring at walls draws a crowd,
like a hardened nipple, a tear-streaked thigh.
Pages
Currently on Newsstands
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Room 41.4, Emergence
Edited by Alissa McArthurIn this issue:
Tharuna Abbu, Farah Ali, Kristin Bjornerud, Michelle Chen, Nomi Chi, Morgan Christie, Kim Fu, Hannah Graff, nancy viva davis halifax, Ceilidh Isadore, Liz Kellebrew, Jo Lee, Kris Ly, Melanie Mah, Sara Mang, Katie McGarry, Estlin McPhee, Triin Paja, Loghan Paylor, Nagmeh Phelan, Oubah Osman, Lisa Rawn, Yvonne Robertson, Erika Thorkelson, Cara Waterfall
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