News

On the weekend of November 6-8, the Canadian literary magazine The New Quartley (TNQ) hosted its fourth annual Wild Writer’s Literary Festival in its birthplace Waterloo, Ontario. As an emerging writer, a Wilfrid Laurier University alumna, and resident of Brampton, this was an important event for me worth travelling for. It was empowering to witness...

From publishers to writers, teachers to librarians: resoundingly, people we have met with are overwhelmingly supportive of the FOLD. These are people that have been generous with their resources, thoughtful in their discussions, and, most importantly, candid about their experiences that confirm the need for a long-overdue initiative that addresses diversity in Canadian literature. One...

A little over a year ago, when the FOLD team began meeting with publishers to talk about diverse authors, we had a hypothesis that few diverse books were being published: however, we were glad to be proven wrong.  Some of the most exciting moments for us have been with eager publicists, working their way through...

I have grown up believing that there are certain spaces for certain kinds of people. My father was a black quarterback and he was told on many occasions, in many different ways, at the height of the civil rights movement that quarterback was not a position for him. As a writer, I have never heard...

Amongst all the talk about Diversity in Books in 2014, the hashtag #DiverseCanLit became popular, spearheaded by Léonicka of Léonicka.com. Canada is a hugely multicultural nation, our beginnings and history firmly planted in Aboriginal culture and now in 2014 representing all races, cultures, and religions. And yet, our literature does not look like that. Canada...

In June of 2014, the amazing Jael Richardson (author of The Stone Thrower) contacted me to discuss her big idea for a literary festival dedicated completely to celebrating diversity in publishing and literature. Her vision was brilliant and I was thrilled to join the team. Less than a year later, I am consistently blown away...