Finding Community

Finding Community
Moderator: David Chariandy

You’ll likely recognize Eternity Martis’s They Said This Would Be Fun: the bright cover of this powerful memoir was featured on must-read roundups for months prior to publication and is a frequent feature on bestseller lists since its release. Martis, an award-winning reporter, shares the racism she encountered as a Black student on a predominantly white campus, described as a “beautifully-written account of what it’s like to finally find your people.” Finding belonging is a common theme in Governor General’s Literary Award Winner, David A. Robertson’s, books. In his latest, a memoir, Black Water: Family, Legacy, and Blood Memory, Robertson shares the powerful story of connecting with his Indigenous roots on a trip with his Cree father to the family’s trapline. Author Rachel Giese writes: “At once intimate and expansive, this is a story of healing and home.” In conversation with Brother and I’ve Been Meaning To Tell You author, David Chariandy, they explore the importance of belonging, and finding strength amidst uncertainty and difference.

 With live captions

 

 

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FEATURED IN THIS EVENT

ETERNITY MARTIS is an award-winning Toronto-based journalist and a senior editor at Xtra. She was a 2017 National Magazine Awards finalist for Best New Writer and the 2018 winner of the Canadian Online Publishing Awards for Best Investigative Article. Her work has appeared in Vice, Huffington Post, The Walrus, among others, and in academic syllabuses around the world.
(ONTARIO)
Presented thanks to the support of RBC.

DAVID A. ROBERTSON is the author of numerous books for young readers including When We Were Alone, which won the 2017 Governor General’s Literary Award. Strangers, the first book in his Reckoner trilogy, a young adult supernatural mystery, won the 2018 Michael Van Rooy Award for Genre Fiction at the Manitoba Book Awards. A sought-after speaker and educator, he is a member of the Norway House Cree Nation and currently lives in Winnipeg, MB.
(MANITOBA)

DAVID CHARIANDY’s debut novel, Soucouyant, received stunning reviews and recognition from eleven literary awards juries. Brother, his second novel, was named a Best Book of 2017 on no fewer than eight lists, and won the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize. In 2018 he authored I’ve Been Meaning to Tell You written as a letter to his daughter about history and the experience of growing up a visible minority within the land of one’s birth.

 

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