Latest news with #JamieChaiYunLiew
CBC
10-03-2025
- Entertainment
- CBC
Jamie Chai Yun Liew writes while she waits — at the soccer field, the passport office, wherever
Social Sharing Leading up to Canada Reads, CBC Arts is bringing you daily essays about where this year's authors write for our series Where I Write. This edition features Dandelion author Jamie Chai Yun Liew. As I am writing this piece, I am in a classroom where my son's strings ensemble is rehearsing. The music, when they are in sync, is stunning, and I find myself pausing to take in the harmony. I write in predictable places like my office, coffee shops, libraries, archives and at vacation cottages. I have written in transit, in hotel rooms, airports, on ferries, planes and trains. My laptop and notebooks come with me to beaches, ski lodges, on the sidelines of a soccer pitch, on the sidewalk waiting to get into a Passport Canada office and in hospital waiting rooms. My favourite places to write have been in kopitiams and open-air hawker markets, on the balcony of a chilli crab restaurant on stilts in the water, at a picnic table in Kapi'olani Park in Honolulu where a bird landed next to my laptop, and my mother's dining room table. My least favourite places are the air-conditioned malls in Southeast Asia, freezing without a sweater. I write wherever I find myself. I didn't always write like this and longed for a desk with a nice ambience. My research, however, takes me on the road. Even when I am home, I have a family with a busy schedule, and the opportunity to write does not always present itself when I am in an ideal location. My day job jealously covets my time at my desk and pulls me from it to teach, into meetings, and sparingly, to court. The desk is not always a creative space. Increasingly, I find myself writing where I am waiting, in between the places my family and I need to be. I like immersing my writing in places. Certain spaces — with their aesthetics, smells and temperature — find themselves into my narratives. I write with bowls of curry laksa next to me, listening to the sound of gossiping aunties, complaining uncles and the sirens of cicadas. When I was writing Dandelion, I didn't know my early reflections would become a novel. It started as a journal to creatively document how I felt about the research I was conducting about statelessness. I wanted to collect and store the emotional aspects of the stories I heard from stateless people, their families and advocates because I could not neatly fit them into my legal or academic writing. Their sentiments felt familiar and echoed what I thought was an unusual story my father told me about why he immigrated to Canada. I was grappling with questions of why statelessness is pervasive, common and largely unknown. I began to write with the hope of bringing the varied felt experiences migrants as well as stateless and racialized people endure — both the joys when risks taken work out and the grief when something lost is longed for. In Dandelion, I was attuned to the traditional Indigenous territories the story was situated in and I was sojourning in. Within the pages, I tried to pay homage to these Indigenous communities in small ways. Wherever I was writing, I revisited in my mind some favourite locales from my childhood and the places where I have found community, especially those I frequented on maternity leave. As I connected the vignettes and rewrote my drafts, I found myself wanting to steal time to jot down a thread or connection. When I was in Ottawa, I grew tired of writing in one place, agitated and restless, and would move to different establishments west on Somerset Street in Chinatown, then I would keep going as it became Wellington Street. I met friends in their writing spots in Old Ottawa South. I rotated among the local haunts that tolerated me. When I was in Southeast Asia, I succumbed to sunset views, sitting on patios and balconies, while my spouse put the kids to bed. While my children were in daycare or school there, I frequented outdoor establishments during the slow peaks of their day, sometimes slapping my ankles where mosquitos found me. I have written in the dark while my children were sleeping in the same hotel room, tucking a knitted shawl under my arms, with the light from my laptop as my only guide. I have also written while sweating, drinking a piping hot, extra sweet teh tarik in a café that only had ceiling fans, getting angry at a pen that leaked across my notebook. Writing is a lonely experience and I seek accompaniment: leaves rustling in the trees, people laughing next to me, the strange playlists in coffee shops and the shuffling of snow pants. I am grateful for the times I can steal a moment in between writing, when I like to pause and take in light passing through different windows, appreciate a good conclusion to a piece of music being played and sip my tea.
CBC
20-02-2025
- Entertainment
- CBC
Celebrate Canada Reads 2025 in your community!
If you're looking for a way to participate in Canada Reads, we've got you covered. Below is a roundup of community events taking place through March to discuss, celebrate and listen to the Canada Reads 2025 debates. All times are local. The 2025 contenders are: Canada Reads 2025 will be hosted by Ali Hassan and takes place from March 17-20, 2025. The debates will be broadcast on CBC Radio One, CBC TV, CBC Gem, CBC Listen and on CBC Books. Canada Reads airs at 10 a.m. ET (11 a.m. AT, 1:30 p.m. NT) on CBC Radio One and 1 p.m. ET (2 p.m. AT, 2:30 p.m. NT) on CBC TV. You can tune in live or catch a replay on the platform of your choice. Canada Reads that you think we left out, let us know by emailing cbcbooks@ Alberta Join Canada Reads 2025 contender Saïd M'Dahoma with conversation with Dandelion author Jamie Chai Yun Liew at Wordfest Calgary's Canada Reads celebration. Tickets include access to an audience Q&A and book signing. Location: Memorial Park Library, 2nd floor, 1221 2 St SW, Calgary. Date: March 10 at 7:00 p.m. Cost: $25 St. Albert Reads Join 5 local St. Albert celebrities as they take up the Canada Reads 2025 debate! Location: Forsyth Hall, St. Albert Public Library, 5 St. Anne Street, St. Albert, Alta. Date: March 14 at 7 p.m. Pigeon Lake Public Library Book Club Pick your favourite Canada Reads book and join the Pigeon Lake Public Library book club discussion! Location: Pigeon Lake Public Library, 603-2 Ave., Ma-Me-O Beach, Alta. Date: March 14 at 4 p.m. British Columbia Vancouver Writers Fest presents Canada Reads with Jamie Chai Yun Liew and Saïd M'Dahoma Join Canada Reads panellist Saïd M'Dahoma in conversation with Dandelion author Jamie Chai Yun Liew at Vancouver's 2025 Writers Festival! Location: The Revue Stage, 1601 Johnston St., Vancouver. Date: March 3 at 7:30 p.m. Cost: $27 More Info: Buy tickets and learn more about Vancouver Writers Fest here Manitoba UM Reads The University of Manitoba and its Press are thrilled to celebrate and cheer on author Ma-Nee Chacaby's book A Two-Spirit Journey at their week-long Canada Reads watch party! Debates will be screened daily in the Fireside Lounge with free coffee and raffle prizes. Location: 65 Chancellors Cir 3rd floor, Winnipeg. Date: March 17-20 at 12:00 p.m. Ontario Temagami Public Library Book Club Read and champion your favourite Canada Reads selection with the Temagami Library book club! Cast your vote and see how it compares with this year's winning title. Location: Temagami Public Library, 7 Lakeshore Dr., Temagami, Ont. Date: March 6 at 6:00 p.m. Wordstock Sudbury Literary Festival Join CBC Sudbury's own Jonathan Pinto as he hosts Wordstock's annual Sudbury Reads event! Watch five panelists defend their chosen Canada Reads shortlist pick with audience giveaways to be won. Location: Main Branch Public Library, 74 Mackenzie St., Sudbury, Ont. Date: March 15 at 1 p.m. Quebec Join five local panellists in person or online as they defend the five Canada Reads 2025 selections in what's sure to be a lively discussion and debate. Location: Hope Community Church, 102 Queen St., Sherbrooke, Que. Date: March 12 at 7 p.m. Côte Saint-Luc Reads Five Côte Saint-Luc librarians will battle it out to defend their chosen Canada Reads 2025 selections at this in-person and virtual event! Join them for light refreshments and a prize raffle. Location: Harold Greenspon Auditorium, Côte Saint-Luc Library, 5851 boul. Cavendish., Côte Saint-Luc, Que. Date: Wednesday March 26 at 2:00 p.m.
