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.
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) and Once in a Blue Moon (BookThug, 2018). She is the Associate Fiction Editor at Broken Pencil Magazine. 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.
Rooftop Reading Series: Roomie Edition November 18, 2016
We've had so much fun with all you fine folks the last two months, that we just want to keep all this rooftop revelry going . . . so join us on November 18th for a Roomie edition of the Rooftop Reading Series!
50 Books Written By 50 Canadian Women of Colour
More often than not, when Roomies gather, we talk about books. Books we can't put down, books we couldn't put up with, and books that make us talk. For this reading list, eleven of us got together and discussed novels, short story collections, poetry, memoirs, and comics that we have read and loved which happen to be written by Canadian Women of Colour. A few of these are well-known classics, a few are upcoming releases. There are stories set locally and abroad, and also include one in dystopian Toronto. Writing from the Women of Colour perspective is not a genre, but instead a multitude of voices, stories, and experiences coming together. And even though we are honoured to feature a handful of these writers are in our upcoming anthology, we know that this is just a starting point, and by no means a comprehensive list of books written by Canadian WOCs. At Room, we recognize that there is work to do, and we are already working on a part two.
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Currently on Newsstands
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Room 41.1, Family Secrets
Edited by Rachel ThompsonIn this issue:
Jennifer Amos, Fenn Archdekin-Leung, Jenn Ashton, Jamelie Bachaalani, Colleen Baran, Jenny Bartoy, Alexandra Chang, Kristina Corre, Maggie de Vries, Shirley Harshenin, Jia Hwang, Sharon Jinkerson-Brass, Elizabeth Johnston, Tamara Jong, Manal Kamran, Carrianne Leung, Lily Leung, Mary MacDonald, Alissa McArthur, Cosi Nayovitz, Margaret Nowaczyk, Deanna Partridge-David, Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, Rebekah Rempel
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