Latest news with #Writers'Trust
CBC
02-05-2025
- Entertainment
- CBC
How writing helps Iryn Tushabe recover what she's left behind
It's been almost 20 years since Iryn Tushabe left Uganda to live in Regina, and she says that she writes to recover things she's left behind. Tushabe was a finalist for the Caine Prize for African Writing in 2021. In 2023, she won the Writers' Trust McClelland & Stewart Journey Prize. Tushabe was longlisted for the CBC Nonfiction Prize in 2016. The 2025 CBC Poetry Prize is accepting submissions! If you're interested in the CBC Literary Prizes, the 2025 CBC Poetry Prize is accepting submissions until June 1. You can submit an original, unpublished poem or collection of poems of a maximum of 600 words (including titles). The traditional stories of spiteful gods and triumphant heroes were one of the ways she and her family connected with each other. "I grew up next to a forest. When I was born, my neighbours were baboons and monkeys and just all kinds of wild animals," she said on Bookends with Mattea Roach. "On any given day, I might see more chimpanzees and baboons than human beings. So after supper, all we ever had for company were each other. And I had a big family. So we told each other these stories." Her latest book, Everything is Fine Here is inspired by one of those Ugandan folk tales and tells the story of two sisters. Aine is the younger sister and her world is turned upside down when she begins to suspect that her beloved older sister is gay. This is Uganda, where homosexuality is illegal. And as happy as Aine is to see her sister Mbabazi find love, she's caught between disapproving parents, a hostile culture and a desire to see her sister blossom and incorporate some kind of new and fresh ideas into Aine's world. Tushabe joined Mattea Roach on Bookends to discuss why for her, writing is an act of reclamation and recovery. Mattea Roach: Why did you choose to tell a queer love story through the perspective of an observer? Iryn Tushabe: The first draft that I wrote was actually first person. It turned into this long rambling diatribe of a thing that was unreadable at the end of it. It was full of anger because a lot of it was my own experience of growing up bisexual in Uganda. What that draft did is it helped me purge all of that frustration and anger, and now I could tell it from the perspective of someone else and still include those experiences - Iryn Tushabe I think what that draft did is it helped me purge all of that frustration and anger; now I could tell it from the perspective of someone else and still include those experiences, but not make it so personal to myself. Once I stepped out of the way and let the younger sister be the one to tell the story, then it became more real. It became more of a story that includes everything — not just the idea of just being gay and queer in Uganda. What is it like for Aine to grow up with a sister who is kind of that gold star sibling, someone that you want to emulate in a lot of ways? I think that sibling dynamic where the older sister is really much older; they kind of take on the role of a mother too. So she has nurtured Aine since she was very small. So they are quite close Family can be a site for a lot of hurt, a lot of heartbreak and disappointments. It can be a site for healing too. Aine, I think, has a pedestal in her heart for her sister. Just really adores her. It just seemed to me that it would be a good story to tell from the family level because family can be a site for a lot of hurt, a lot of heartbreak and disappointments. It can be a site for healing too. Can you describe what the relationship between religion and queerness was like for you growing up in Uganda and how that has affected your journey as a queer person and as a writer? There's an influx of evangelists from the United States. They come and they hold these massive crusades, and they convert people from whatever religions they're in and they turn them into born again Christians. These are the sorts of people who actually have influenced the Anti-Homosexuality Act in Uganda before it was ever tabled in parliament. I didn't want to inflict any further violences on the queer characters in the book. So religion plays a massive role. But it seems to me that, when you know what you know about Uganda through the news, you don't get the whole picture. You just think that perhaps Ugandan queers are just sitting there waiting to be saved by outsiders. But the way they live their lives is actually — they're resisting. They're moving forward in the world with turmoil for sure. It's hard, but they're happy. I think that's part of the reason why I made the book that way. I didn't want to have to repeat what everyone in the news-reading world already knows about the Anti-Homosexuality Act. I didn't want to inflict any further violence on the queer characters in the book. What is your relationship to spirituality these days? I think for a lot of people who grew up religious and who are queer, it's a complicated thing to navigate. I'm envious of people who are queer who still are able to hold onto their faiths. But for me, I cannot. I cannot reconcile the two because I just feel like growing up a Christian it's, to use a tired word, traumatizing. It's traumatizing on a psychological level to sort of be told that the only way to be in the world is to pray this thing away. But now I find it in meditation. I find it in sitting in silence. And it's very hard, so infinitely harder than prayer. Because in prayer you can just say all these things and unburden yourself in whatever way. But it's hard to sit in silence for 30 minutes because it feels like an eternity. There's some incorporation of Ugandan folk tales in a really beautiful way and the characters in your novel find great meaning in some of these stories that they were told as children. There's this one story in particular about two loyal sisters. Can you tell that story? I feel that this story truly encapsulates what the novel is about. It was the first thing that came to my mind. So basically the story is that these two siblings are tested, their family is tested by this goddess Nabinji, the goddess of plenty. And she comes to the home of the two sisters, and their mother is unkind to her, so she puts this curse on her, so that she's suspended between life and death. And the girls pursue the goddess to the forest so that she will give them their mother back. She subjects them to all these difficult phantasmagoric illusions to break their spirits. But every day they sing to each other and they persist and persevere through all these trials. At the end of it, she just grows bored because she can't break their spirits and she sends them back with this candle that they can burn next to their mother. And hopefully when the candle burns out, then their mother will arrive. Is there a name for a mother whose children have outgrown her? - Iryn Tushabe But when they get back, their mom is still young. That's just the most beautiful thing I like about that story is that she's still suspended at the age where the curse was put on her. And they've grown older than her and part of it is just, 'Ok so is she still our mom if we're older than her? And is there a name for a mother whose children have outgrown her?' I think that's kind of what Mbabazi and Aine are doing. Their mom is stuck in these old colonial Christian ways and they just want to get her unstuck. And they're burning this candle, but who knows how long this candle is going to burn and does it burn out? Does she wake up? I think that's the tragedy of it. They're not knowing if mama gets unstuck. I'm wondering what your hopes are for queer people in Uganda looking ahead? We have a phrase that I have in my acknowledgements and it's in my language, but translated I guess with context would be, "May love always prevail." I think that is my hope — that many people will walk this path towards embracing everybody.
CBC
16-04-2025
- Entertainment
- CBC
5 Canadian emerging writers named 2025 Writers' Trust rising stars
Social Sharing Allison Graves, Zilla Jones, Dilan Qadir, Liz Stewart and Isabella Wang have been named the 2025 Writers' Trust of Canada's Rising Stars. Launched in 2019, the Writers' Trust Rising Stars program is an initiative supporting Canadian writers early in their careers. Each year, five talented emerging writers are chosen and mentored by prominent Canadian authors. The recipients also receive $5,000 and attend a two-week self-directed writing residency at Gibraltar Point Centre for the Arts on the Toronto Islands. Graves is a Newfoundland-based writer and musician. Soft Serve, her debut fiction collection, was shortlisted for an Atlantic Book Award. Her work has appeared in The Antigonish Review, Riddle Fence Magazine and Room Magazine. Her fiction has been longlisted for prizes in Prism, The Fiddlehead and The Newfoundland Quarterly. She is completing her PhD in Irish Literature and teaches at Memorial University. Graves will be mentored by Michael Crummey. Crummey is the Newfoundland-based author of The Adversary, which is nominated for the 2025 Dublin Literary Award, The Innocents, Sweetland, Galore and Arguments with Gravity and Passengers. Three of Crummey's novels have been shortlisted for the Governor General's Literary Award for fiction — Sweetland, Galore and The Innocents. "Allison Graves' writing is generous even when it bites, and it's hilarious as often as it is sobering, which makes her a joy to read," said Crummey in a press statement. Jones is an author based in Winnipeg. She's won many literary awards including the Journey Prize, the Malahat Review Open Season Award, the Jacob Zilber Prize for Short Fiction and the FreeFall short fiction award. Her debut novel, The World So Wide, was released in March 2025. Jones made the 2020 CBC Short Story Prize long list for Our Father and has longlisted twice for her story How to Make a Friend, in 2022 and 2023; in 2024, Jones was included on the CBC Short Story Prize shortlist. The same year, Jones made the long list for the CBC Nonfiction Prize. She was also named a writer to watch by CBC Books in 2024. Zilla Jones' debut novel explores a mixed-race woman's search for identity and belonging The CBC Poetry Prize is open now until June 1. The winner receives $6,000 from the Canada Council for the Arts, a two-week writing residency at Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity and their work will be published on CBC Books. You can learn more here. Jones will be mentored by Charlotte Gill, a B.C.-based writer of Indian and English descent. She is the author of memoirs Almost Brown and Eating Dirt, which won the B.C. National Award for Canadian Nonfiction. Her short story collection, Ladykiller, was nominated for a Governor General's Literary Award. She currently teaches writing at the University of King's College. She lives in British Columbia. "Zilla Jones' scenes are ingeniously imagined and beautifully written with rewards that endure long after the last page has turned," said Gill a press statement. Qadir is a Kurdish-Canadian writer based in Vancouver. His work, which spans poetry, fiction and nonfiction, has been published in Wax Poetry and Art, Quae Nocent Docent Anthology and The Fiddlehead. He was longlisted for the Vera Manuel Award for Poetry and received the PEN Canada-Humber College Writers-in-Exile Scholarship. Quadir will be mentored by Rabindranath Mahara, the author of several novels and short story collections. His latest is the short story collection A Quiet Disappearance. His novel The Amazing Absorbing Boy won both the Toronto Book Award and the Trillium Book Award. He has previously been nominated for the Commonwealth Writers' Prize, The Chapters First Novel Award and the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize. In January 2013, he was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal. His work has also appeared in The Washington Post, The Globe and Mail and The Toronto Star. "Dilan Qadir's keen observational eye, his ability to blend humour and trauma, his understanding of the historical forces that shape our world, and the authenticity of his writing all evoke admiration," said Qadir in a press statement. Stewart is a writer from Manitoba who currently lives in B.C. She won the This Side of West 2021 Prose and Poetry Contest and has been published in Best Canadian Stories 2025, Plenitude Magazine, carte blanche and Camas Magazine. Stewart will be mentored by Casey Plett, the author of A Dream of a Woman, Little Fish, A Safe Girl to Love. She is a winner of the Amazon First Novel Award, the Firecracker Award for Fiction and a two-time winner of the Lambda Literary Award. Her work has also been nominated for the Scotiabank Giller Prize. Plett splits her time between New York City and Windsor, Ont. "Liz Stewart's work is honest and beautiful — real, singular, and urgent," said Plett in a press statement. "Stewart is making something intimate that anyone can believe and see." Wang is the writer of chapbook On Forgetting a Language and Pebble Swing, which was a finalist for the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize. She was shortlisted for Arc's Poem of the year Content, The Malahat Review's Far Horizons Awards for Poetry and Long Poem Contest, Minola Review's Inaugural Poetry Contest and twice for the New Quarterly's Edna Staebler Personal Essay Contest. She lives in B.C. and directs Revise-Revision Street, a nonprofit editing and mentorship program. Wang will be mentored by Joseph Dandurand, a poet from the Kwantlen First Nation. His collections include The East Side of It All, which was a finalist for the Griffin Poetry Prize, The Rumour, SH:LAM (The Doctor) and I Will Be Corrupted. He is the director of the Kwantlen Cultural Centre and the artistic director of the Vancouver Poetry House. In 2019, he won the Latner Writers' Trust Poetry Prize. "Isabella Wang demonstrates immense promise as she constructs more of herself," said Dandurand in a press statement. "There will be great poetry created by such creativity and resourcefulness." The Writers' Trust of Canada is an organization that supports Canadian writers through literary awards, fellowships, financial grants, mentorships and more. It gives out 11 prizes in recognition of the year's best in fiction, nonfiction and short story, as well as mid-career and lifetime achievement awards. The Writers' Trust Rising Stars program is supported by presenting sponsor BMO Financial Group, Clair Duff in memory of Catherine Shepard, Deb MacLeod and Ward Sellers, as well as John Terry and Lisa Rochon and the T.R. Meighen Family Foundation.
CBC
14-03-2025
- Entertainment
- CBC
5 'transformative' books that shaped Zoe Whittall's life and work
The power of a book is immense — it can entertain, comfort and help guide the course of a person's life. For Canadian author, poet and screenwriter Zoe Whittall, the books she has read have done just that. She spoke to The Next Chapter' s Antonio Michael Downing about the literary works that first inspired her to become a writer, pushed her to explore different forms of writing and informed her sense of self as a queer femme. Whittall is the author of several books, including the memoir No Credit River, novels The Fake, The Best Kind of People and Bottle Rocket Hearts, short story collection Wild Failure and poetry collections The Emily Valentine Poems and The Best Ten Minutes of Your Life. She has received the Writers' Trust Dayne Ogilvie Award, a Lambda Literary Award and been shortlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize. Whittall is also a juror for the 2025 CBC Nonfiction Prize alongside Danny Ramadan and Helen Knott. Here are the books that have shaped Zoe Whittall's personal and professional life. The Passion by Jeannette Winterson The Passion follows Henri, a humble French soldier who leaves his quiet rural life to fight for Napoleon, and his fateful encounter with the enigmatic Villanelle, who was born web-footed and disguises herself as a man to work in the casino. There, she pursues an affair with a married woman. When Henri and Villanelle's paths cross, they become entangled in tremendous love and loss. Jeannette Winterson is a writer from Manchester, England. She is the author of more than a dozen books, including Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit and Why be happy when you could be normal? She has won several awards for her fiction and film adaptations, including the Whitbread Prize, UK and the Prix d'argent, Cannes Film Festival. Zoe Whittall says:"The reason that I think the book spoke to me, at the time, was because it was very butch femme coded, like the woman who is dressed as a man for work ends up falling for a married woman. When they finally get together, she confesses that she's just been dressing as a man, and the woman somehow intuitively knows. "This kind of romance was really hard to find in literature at that time." Heroine by Gail Scott Set in the 1980s, Heroine follows a woman as she seeks to create a new life after being in an affair with a man while also falling in love with another woman. Amidst the turmoil of Quebec's seventies, she finds a sense of purpose through her deep involvement in far-left politics. Gail Scott is a Montreal-based writer and translator. Her previous works include The Obituary, which was a 2011 finalist for Le Grand Prix du Livre de la Ville de Montréal and My Paris. Scott's translation of Michael Delisle's Le Déasarroi du matelot was shortlisted for the Governor General's award. She is also co-founder of the French-language journal Spirale. Zoe Whittall says: "I was a poet at the time. I had never considered writing a novel. When I was introduced to her experimental — it was like a long poem — 200 pages of a crazy, weird poem, and I could not understand it, it was very challenging. But it made me rethink how narrative works. "It also made me think about, 'How do we write as feminists?' Like 'How do we write about politics?' 'How do we write about love in a certain political context?'" Rat Bohemia by Sarah Schulman Rat Bohemia is written from the epicenter of the AIDS crisis, telling the story of Rita Mae Weems and her friends who gather in a part of New York City known as the "rat bohemia." In this space, gay men and lesbians forge deep bonds as they cope with the profound loss of their friends and the enduring pain caused by their parents' lack of acceptance. Sarah Schulman is a writer living in New York City. She is the author of 20 books, including the novels Maggie Terry and The Cosmopolitans and nonfiction works A Political History of ACT UP New York 1987-1993 and Ties That Bind: Familial Homophobia and Its Consequences. She has won many awards, including the 2009 Kessler Award for "Sustained Contribution to LGBT Studies" from the Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies. Zoe Whittall says: "It sort of felt like a primer for what queer life had been. For my peers who came out five, ten years before I did — I came out in 1995 — it was right as all the new drugs for HIV were starting to work, and were coming on the market. "But everybody just a few years older than me, who were teaching me what it was to be queer, had all just lost dozens of their friends, and they were living in this reality of grief. They were in this 'live for today' moment." The Argonauts by Maggie Nelson In her memoir The Argonauts, Maggie Nelson reflects on her love for the gender fluid artist Harry Dodge and shares the story of their relationship as they navigate the complexities and joys of creating a queer family. Maggie Nelson is a poet, critic and nonfiction author living in Los Angeles. Her previous works include The Art of Cruelty: A Reckoning, Bluets and Jane: A Murder. She teaches in the School of Critical Studies at CalArts. Zoe Whittall says: "I happened to come across it as I was falling in love with a trans guy and I was also utterly obsessed with trying to have a baby in my late 30s. "There were thematic links to the memoir, but I was also transformed by the fearlessness of her writing and her lack of concern for form, while also being formal in a scholarly sense, like having footnotes and such." Two eyes are you sleeping by Heather O'Neill Packed with personal and political lyrics, Two Eyes Are You Sleeping is a collection of poems that capture the rawness of urban life. From poems of drug addicts to con-men, they reflect the journey of growing up human amid the gritty beauty of the city. Heather O'Neill is a Montreal-based author. She won Canada Reads 2024, championing The Future by Catherine Leroux, translated by Susan Ouriou. Her debut novel Lullabies for Little Criminals won Canada Reads 2007. Her other books include The Girl Who Was Saturday Night, Daydreams of Angels, When We Lost our Heads and The Lonely Hearts Hotel.
