Download or read book Dear Current Occupant written by Chelene Knight and published by Book Thug. This book was released on 2018-03 with total page 132 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Literary Nonfiction. From Vancouver-based writer Chelene Knight, DEAR CURRENT OCCUPANT is a creative nonfiction memoir about home and belonging set in the 80s and 90s of Vancouver's Downtown Eastside. Using a variety of forms including letters, essays and poems, Knight reflects on her childhood through a series of letters addressed to all of the current occupants now living in the twenty different houses she moved in and out of with her mother and brother. From blurry and fragmented non-chronological memories of trying to fit in with her own family as the only mixed East Indian/Black child, to crystal clear recollections of parental drug use, Knight draws a vivid portrait of memory that still longs for a place and a home. Peering through windows and doors into intimate, remembered spaces now occupied by strangers, Knight writes to them in order to deconstruct her own past. From the rubble of memory she then builds a real place in order to bring herself back home. "Knight is a poet at heart, somewhat disinclined to follow the dusty rules of prose writing, and we are all richer for it. This memoir is built from shards of pure resilience, expertly pieced together into a compelling--and at times devastating--chronicle of youth, family, and sense of place. From Clark Drive to Commercial and Broadway, DEAR CURRENT OCCUPANT is a love song to East Vancouver--it is a map of scars, and as everyone knows, scars make for good storytelling."--Carleigh Baker "I want to thank Chelene Knight for not forcing her memoir into a point 'a' to 'b' narrative. Too often complex and stigmatized stories are dumbed-down, but Knight elevates! She uplifts both her her experiences and the poetic prose and hybrid forms used to share these experiences. DEAR CURRENT OCCUPANT will surely become a nuanced creative touchstone that shows us how our stories of survival can and should be told."--Amber Dawn "DEAR CURRENT OCCUPANT is an astonishing book: haunting, intimate, and deeply rendered. A lyrical memoir set against the backdrop of Vancouver's gritty East Side, it triumphantly melds together prose, poetry, letters and imagery, to illuminate the pain of un-belonging, the search for a home, and the power of words to heal and transform us. It is a book that boldly takes risks, unafraid and brimming with raw energy, tenderness, and heartbreaking beauty. Chelene Knight emerges as a fierce new voice in Canadian literature, deserving of our full attention."--Ayelet Tsabari

Download or read book Breaking the Ocean written by Annahid Dashtgard and published by House of Anansi. This book was released on 2019-08-20 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Breaking the Ocean, diversity and inclusion specialist Annahid Dashtgard addresses the long-term impacts of exile, immigration, and racism by offering a vulnerable, deeply personal account of her life and work. Annahid Dashtgard was born into a supportive mixed-race family in 1970s Iran. Then came the 1979 Revolution, which ushered in a powerful and orthodox religious regime. Her family was forced to flee their homeland, immigrating to a small town in Alberta, Canada. As a young girl, Dashtgard was bullied, shunned, and ostracized both by her peers at school and adults in the community. Home offered little respite, with her parents embroiled in their own struggles, exposing the sharp contrasts between her British mother and Persian father. Determined to break free from her past, Dashtgard created a new identity for herself as a driven young woman who found strength through political activism, eventually becoming a leader in the anti–corporate globalization movement of the late 1990s. But her unhealed trauma was re-activated following the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Suffering burnout, Dashtgard checked out of her life and took the first steps towards personal healing, a journey that continues to this day. Breaking the Ocean introduces a unique perspective on how racism and systemic discrimination result in emotional scarring and ongoing PTSD. It is a wake-up call to acknowledge our differences, addressing the universal questions of what it means to belong and ultimately what is required to create change in ourselves and in society.

Download or read book Dear Oval Office Occupant written by Kathy Hayes and published by . This book was released on 2020-12 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When Donald Trump was elected president, Kathy Hayes was stunned. He didn't have relevant experience or qualifications. He mocked women, immigrants veterans and the disabled. He had presided over a string of bankruptcies, lawsuits and a bogus university. She knew she couldn't remain silent. On Dec. 1, 2016, she wrote him an old-fashioned paper letter, put it in an envelope with a stamp and mailed it. Then she wrote another, and another. Beginning on Inauguration Day, the letters became a daily discipline. What began as a simple act of protest morphed into much more: a chronicle of current events and presidential misdeeds; a journal of her frustrations and fears; and the birth story of an unlikely activist. With flashes of humor, poignancy and righteous anger, Hayes's letters document the struggles of an ordinary citizen trying to make sense of a presidency like no other. Entertaining and inspiring, Oval Office Occupant challenges readers to find within themselves the courage to speak truth to power.

Download or read book Burning Sugar written by Cicely Belle Blain and published by arsenal pulp press. This book was released on 2020-10-27 with total page 113 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this incendiary debut collection, activist and poet Cicely Belle Blain intimately revisits familiar spaces in geography, in the arts, and in personal history to expose the legacy of colonization and its impact on Black bodies. They use poetry to illuminate their activist work: exposing racism, especially anti-Blackness, and helping people see the connections between history and systemic oppression that show up in every human interaction, space, and community. Their poems demonstrate how the world is both beautiful and cruel, a truth that inspires overwhelming anger and awe -- all of which spills out onto the page to tell the story of a challenging, complex, nuanced, and joyful life. In Burning Sugar, verse and epistolary, racism and resilience, pain and precarity are flawlessly sewn together by the mighty hands of a Black, queer femme. This book is the second title to be published under the VS. Books imprint, a series curated and edited by writer-musician Vivek Shraya, featuring work by new and emerging Indigenous or Black writers, or writers of color. This publication meets the EPUB Accessibility requirements and it also meets the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG-AA). It is screen-reader friendly and is accessible to persons with disabilities. A Simple book with few images, which is defined with accessible structural markup. This book contains various accessibility features such as alternative text for images, table of contents, page-list, landmark, reading order and semantic structure.

Download or read book Braided Skin written by Chelene Knight and published by . This book was released on 2015 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Braided Skinis the vibrant telling of experiences of mixed ethnicity, urban childhood, poverty and youthful dreams through various voices. Knight writes a confident rhythm of poetry, prose and erasure by using the recurring image of braiding-a different metaphor than "mixing," our default when speaking the language of race. In the title poem "Braided Skin," this terminology shifts, to entwining and crossing, holding together but always displaying the promise or threat of unravelling. This is just as all tellings of family, history and relationships must be-"Skin that carries stories of missing middles." When speaking about race, Knight raises the question, then drops it, and the image becomes other objects, then abstraction, and memory-finally becoming something "she breathes in" actively.

Download or read book Junie written by Chelene Knight and published by Book*hug Press. This book was released on 2022-09-13 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Longlisted for the 2023 Carol Shields Prize for Fiction A riveting exploration of the complexity within mother-daughter relationships and the dynamic vitality of Vancouver's former Hogan's Alley neighbourhood. 1930s, Hogan's Alley--a thriving Black and immigrant community located in Vancouver's East End. Junie is a creative, observant child who moves to the alley with her mother, Maddie: a jazz singer with a growing alcohol dependency. Junie quickly makes meaningful relationships with two mentors and a girl her own age, Estelle, whose resilient and entrepreneurial mother is grappling with white scrutiny and the fact that she never really wanted a child. As Junie finds adulthood, exploring her artistic talents and burgeoning sexuality, her mother sinks further into the bottle while the thriving neighbourhood--once gushing with potential--begins to change. As her world opens, Junie intuits the opposite for the community she loves. Told through the fascinating lens of a bright woman in an oft-disquieting world, this book is intimate and urgent--not just an unflinching look at the destruction of a vibrant community, but a celebration of the Black lives within.

Download or read book Double Melancholy written by C.E. Gatchalian and published by arsenal pulp press. This book was released on 2019-06-18 with total page 121 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: According to Didier Eribon, melancholy is where it all starts and where it also ends: the lifelong process of mourning that each homosexual experiences, and through which they construct their own identity. In this beguiling book, an introverted, anxious, ambitious, artistically gifted queer Filipino-Canadian boy finds solace, inspiration, and a “syllabus for living” in art—works of literature and music, from the children’s literary classic Anne of Green Gables to the music of Maria Callas. But their contribution to his intellectual, emotional, and spiritual edification belies the fact that they were largely heteronormative and white, which had the effect of invisibilizing him as a queer person of color. Part memoir, part cultural commentary, and a hybrid of besotted aesthetic appreciation and unsparing critique, Double Melancholy is by turns a passionate love letter to art and an embattled examination of its oppressive complicity with the society that produces it, and the depths to which art both enriches and colonizes us. This publication meets the EPUB Accessibility requirements and it also meets the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG-AA). It is screen-reader friendly and is accessible to persons with disabilities. A Simple book with few images, which is defined with accessible structural markup. This book contains various accessibility features such as alternative text for images, table of contents, page-list, landmark, reading order and semantic structure.

Download or read book Gold Pours written by Aurore Gatwenzi and published by Latitude 46. This book was released on 2021-10-16 with total page 142 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this debut collection by emerging poet Aurore Gatwenzi, a stunning new voice emerges as she shares the experience of being young and Black in northern Ontario. Gold Pours is a collection of poems that talk about God, identity, heartbreak and passion. Gatwenzi's honest approach to writing exposes readers to humility, surrender and lessons learned from courageous acts of vulnerability.

Download or read book The Shell Game written by Kim Adrian and published by U of Nebraska Press. This book was released on 2018-04-01 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Within the recent explosion of creative nonfiction, a new type of form is quietly emerging, what Brenda Miller calls "hermit crab essays." The Shell Game is an anthology of these intriguing essays that borrow their structures from ordinary, everyday sources: a recipe, a crossword puzzle, a Craig's List ad. Like their zoological namesake, these essays do not simply wear their borrowed "shells" but inhabit them so perfectly that the borrowed structures are wholly integral rather than contrived, both shaping the work and illuminating and exemplifying its subject. The Shell Game contains a carefully chosen selection of beautifully written, thought-provoking hybrid essays tackling a broad range of subjects, including the secrets of the human genome, the intractable pain of growing up black in America, and the gorgeous glow residing at the edges of the autism spectrum. Surprising, delightful, and lyric, these essays are destined to become classics of this new and increasingly popular hybrid form.

Download or read book Heroes Proved written by Oliver North and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2013-09-17 with total page 464 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the year 2032, America is supposedly safe from terror, Iranian nuclear weaponry is no longer a threat, and the United Nations' treaties and technologies are keeping the peace. Then a suicide bomber targets Houston, Texas and a famous physicist is kidnapped. The ensuing search by a decorated U.S. Marine war hero and veteran of special ops, not only places the physicist's family in grave danger, but exposes an even more ominous threat to the country, moreso than any threat in its history.

Download or read book Dear Pr sident A clown written by Aldous J Pennyfarthing and published by . This book was released on 2019-12 with total page 220 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When his doctor told him medical ethics proscribed four-year-long induced comas, Aldous J. Pennyfarthing decided to get woke and pen a series of letters to the ocher abomination squatting in the White House. He's dogged President Goofus through numerous scandals, countless brain farts, and loads of unbelievable boobery. In this third installment of his acclaimed series, Pennyfarthing picks up where he left off with the Amazon best-selling books "Dear F*cking Lunatic" and "Dear F*cking Moron," skewering Trump's boundless ego, bottomless stupidity, and brazen incompetence.

Download or read book Resilience Is Futile written by Julie S. Lalonde and published by Between the Lines. This book was released on 2020-02-27 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For over a decade, Julie Lalonde, an award-winning advocate for women’s rights, kept a secret. She crisscrossed the country, denouncing violence against women and giving hundreds of media interviews along the way. Her work made national headlines for challenging universities and taking on Canada’s top military brass. Appearing fearless on the surface, Julie met every interview and event with the same fear in her gut: was he there? Fleeing intimate partner violence at age 20, Julie was stalked by her ex-partner for over ten years, rarely mentioning it to friends, let alone addressing it publicly. The contrast between her public career as a brave champion for women with her own private life of violence and fear meant a shaky and exhausting balancing act. Resilience sounds like a positive thing, so why do we often use it against women? Tenacity and bravery might help us survive unimaginable horrors, but where are the spaces for anger and vulnerability? Resilience is Futile is a story of survival, courage and ultimately, hope. But it’s also a challenge to the ways we understand trauma and resilience. It’s the story of one survivor who won’t give up and refuses to shut up.

Download or read book The House of Hidden Mothers written by Meera Syal and published by Sarah Crichton Books. This book was released on 2016-06-14 with total page 433 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Shyama, a forty-eight-year-old London divorcée, already has an unruly teenage daughter, but that doesn't stop her and her younger lover, Toby, from wanting a child together. Their relationship may look like a cliché, but despite the news from her doctor that she no longer has any viable eggs, Shyama's not ready to give up on their dream of having a baby. So they decide to find an Indian surrogate to carry their child, which is how they meet Mala, a young woman trapped in an oppressive marriage in a small Indian town from which she's desperate to escape. But as the pregnancy progresses, they discover that their simple arrangement may be far more complicated than it seems. In The House of Hidden Mothers, Meera Syal, an acclaimed British actress and accomplished novelist, takes on the timely but underexplored issue of India's booming surrogacy industry. Western couples pay a young woman to have their child and then fly home with a baby, an easy narrative that ignores the complex emotions involved in carrying a child. Syal turns this phenomenon into a compelling, thoughtful novel already hailed in the UK as "rumbustious, confrontational and ultimately heartbreaking . . . Turn[s] the standard British-Asian displacement narrative on its head" (The Guardian). Compulsively readable and with a winning voice, The House of Hidden Mothers deftly explores subjects of age, class, and the divide between East and West.

Download or read book Disenchanted Co written by Lynn Viehl and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2014-01-28 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first book in a new paranormal romance series by New York Times bestselling author Lynn Viehl. In the Provincial Union of Victoriana, a steampunk America that lost the Revolutionary War, Charmian “Kit” Kittredge makes her living investigating crimes of magic. While Kit tries to avoid the nobs of high society, she follows mysteries wherever they lead. In the Provincial Union of Victoriana, a steampunk America that lost the Revolutionary War, Charmian “Kit” Kittredge makes her living investigating crimes of magic. While Kit tries to avoid the nobs of high society, she follows mysteries wherever they lead. Unlike most folks, Kit doesn’t believe in magic, but she can’t refuse to help Lady Diana Walsh, who claims a curse is viciously wounding her while she sleeps. As Kit investigates the Walsh family, she becomes convinced that the attacks are part of a more ominous plot—one that may involve the lady’s obnoxious husband. Sleuthing in the city of Rumsen is difficult enough, but soon Kit must also skirt the unwanted attentions of a nefarious deathmage and the unwelcome scrutiny of the police chief inspector. Unwilling to surrender to either man’s passion for her, Kit struggles to remain independent as she draws closer to the heart of the mystery. For the truth promises to ruin her life—and turn Rumsen into a supernatural battleground from which no one will escape alive.

Download or read book Among Silent Echoes written by Phyllis Dyson and published by Caitlin Press. This book was released on 2021-10-08 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Twenty-five years after her mother's traumatic death made news headlines, Phyllis Dyson is finally speaking out, addressing her own silences, and breaking the cycle of abuse.

Download or read book Hearts Amok written by Kevin Spenst and published by . This book was released on 2020-05-22 with total page 128 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Poetry. In language that twists together hobo slang and flights of troubadourish diction, HEARTS AMOK scrutinizes the history of the love sonnet in Surrey, England and simultaneously celebrates the tickings and tollings of one love-struck heart in Surrey, British Columbia. Examining the underpinnings of love, this book journeys from the Middle Ages to the present where Spenst dates his way through Vancouver to finally find the love of his life.

Download or read book Desert Cabal written by Amy Irvine and published by Torrey House Press. This book was released on 2018-11-06 with total page 59 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Amy Irvine implores us to trade in our solitude for solidarity, to recognize ourselves in each other and in the places we love, so that we might come together to save them." —PAM HOUSTON As Edward Abbey’s Desert Solitaire: A Season in the Wilderness turns fifty, its iconic author, who has inspired generations of rebel-rousing advocacy on behalf of the American West, is due for a tribute as well as a talking to. In Desert Cabal: A New Season in the Wilderness, Amy Irvine admires the man who influenced her life and work while challenging all that is dated—offensive, even—between the covers of Abbey’s environmental classic. From Abbey’s quiet notion of solitude to Irvine’s roaring cabal, the desert just got hotter, and its defenders more nuanced and numerous.