Session Description
In an era shaped by public reckoning and digital call-outs, how do we navigate the work of a problematic creator or work of art? Can art be separated from the artist — and should it be? In this virtual panel discussion, Sharon Bala, Elamin Abdelmahmoud, and Farzana Doctor join moderator Jael Richardson for a nuanced conversation about ethics, consumption, and responsibility in contemporary culture.
Sponsored by ECW Press.
Featured Speaker(s)
Elamin Abdelmahmoud
Elamin Abdelmahmoud (he/him) is the host of CBC’s daily arts, entertainment, and pop culture show Commotion. He is an award-winning culture writer who has written for the New York Times, BuzzFeed News, the Globe and Mail, and others. Elamin is the author of the No. 1 best-selling memoir, Son of Elsewhere, a New York Times notable book and a Globe and Mail 100 book. He is the recipient of the 2025 Max Wyman Award for Critical Writing.
Sharon Bala
Sharon Bala’s (she/her) second novel, Good Guys, was published in January. Publishers Weekly calls it “quietly profound” and a “blackly comic tale.” Her best-selling debut novel, The Boat People, won a Newfoundland & Labrador Book Award and the Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction. It was shortlisted for several awards and is in translation in four languages. Sharon is the Creative Non-Fiction editor at Riddle Fence and a member of The Port Authority, a St. John’s writing group.
Farzana Doctor
Farzana Doctor (she/her) is an author, activist and psychotherapist. She’s written five novels: Stealing Nasreen, Six Metres of Pavement, All Inclusive, Seven, and The Beauty of Us, a poetry collection, You Still Look The Same and a workbook for helpers and activists, 52 Weeks to a Sweeter Life.
In 2023, Farzana received the Freedom To Read Award. In 2020, Seven was chosen as an Amnesty International Reader’s Choice Pick and was shortlisted for the Trillium and Evergreen awards. Six Metres of Pavement won the Lambda and Writers’ Trust Dayne Oglivie prizes and was shortlisted for the Toronto Book Award in 2012.
Jael Richardson
Jael Richardson (she/her) is the founder and Executive Director of FOLD and the co-host of Into the FOLD: A Book and Lit Fest podcast. She has written a memoir, a novel and three children’s picture books. Her debut novel, Gutter Child, was a finalist for the Amazon First Novel Award and the White Pine Award, and her middle grade anthology Today I Am: 10 Stories of Belonging was a finalist for the Ruth and Sylvia Schwartz Children’s Book Award. Richardson holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Guelph and lives in Brampton, Ontario.