Pivot on May 23rd- Islam, Arkorful, Mooney + Mutonji

Game of Thrones who??? It’s the PIVOT season finale this Thursday, May 23rd! We’re thrilled to have Doyali Islam, Faith Arkorful, Jacob McArthur Mooney and Téa Mutonji reading for this very special Pivot. It will be Michelle and Canisia’s last time hosting (😭) so you don’t want to miss this one!

Doyali Islam read at Pivot in September 2016. She had no books to sell, but gave away hugs. Now, her second poetry book, ‘heft’ (https://amzn.to/2JkkP8x), is finally available through McClelland & Stewart. The hugs are still free.

Faith Arkorful has had her work published in Peach Magazine, PRISM International, Hobart, without/pretend, Canthius, The Puritan, and the Hart House Review, among other places. This year, she was a semi-finalist in the 2019 92Y Discovery Poetry Contest. She was born in Toronto, where she still resides.

Jacob McArthur Mooney’s three books are The New Layman’s Almanac, Folk, and Don’t Be Interesting all from McClelland & Stewart, plus he was the Guest Editor for the 2015 edition of Best Canadian Poetry from Tightrope Books. From 2012 to 2017, he served as Pivot’s Director and Host.

Téa Mutonji is an author of poetry, prose, and essays. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Feel Ways: An anthology of Scarborough writing, Joyland Magazine, Unpublished City II, The Puritan, Bad Nudes, Minola Review, The Temz Teview, Train Poetry Journal and The Scarborough Fair. Mutonji’s debut collection of short fiction, Shut Up You’re Pretty (Spring, 2019) is the first title published under Vivek Shraya’s newest imprint, VS. Books, in association with Arsenal Pulp Press. Téa lives, writes, and gets lost in Toronto, Ontario.

Meet us in the Tiki Room of the Tranzac Club (an inclusive & accessible venue!). Doors at 8, words at ~8:30. Pivot is generously funded by the Toronto Arts Council and Viewers Like You, so please PWYC (suggested donation $5). One last time, Pivot is hosted by Canisia Lubrin and Michelle Brown Colistro.

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Pivot on May 9th- Kamara, Mohammadi, Walsh + Shafi

If you caught Pivot in April, you’ll be happy to know that Khashayar Mohammadi will be BACK this Thursday, May 9th to read with the brilliant Yalie Kamara, Matthew Walsh and Hana Shafi!

 

Khashayar Mohammadi is an Iranian-born writer, editor and translator currently living in Toronto and working with the independent publisher Inspiritus Press.

 

Yalie Kamara is a Sierra Leonean-American writer and a native of Oakland, California. She is currently an MFA candidate at Indiana University where she serves as Assistant Editor of Black Camera: An International Journal and is an educator. She holds Bachelors of Arts degrees in Languages and Creative Writing from UC Riverside and a Masters of Arts degree in French from Middlebury College. Kamara is the author of When The Living Sing (Ledge Mule Press, 2017) and A Brief Biography of My Name (Akashic Books/African Poetry Book Fund) to be included in the 2018 New-Generation African Poets: A Chapbook Box Set (Tano). Among her publications, her poetry, fiction, interviews and translations can be found in Vinyl Poetry and Prose, Puerto del Sol, The Blueshift Journal, and Indiana University Press. She was a 2017 Brunel International African Poetry Prize finalist and is a Callaloo Fellow. She will begin her doctoral studies in Creative Writing and Literature at the University of Cincinnati in Fall, 2018. For more: www.yaylala.com  

 

Matthew Walsh has work published in Arc, OAR, The Antigonish Review, Carousel, The Found Poetry Review, and Matrix magazine, among others. Follow Matthew on Twitter at @croonjuice.

 

Hana Shafi is a writer and artist who illustrates under the name Frizz Kid. Both her visual art and writing frequently explore themes such as feminism, body politics, racism, and pop culture with an affinity to horror. A graduate of Ryerson University’s Journalism Program, she has published articles in publications such as The Walrus, Hazlitt, This Magazine, Torontoist, Huffington Post, and has been featured on Buzzfeed India, Buzzfeed Canada, CBC, Flare Magazine, Mashable, and Shameless, Known on Instagram for her weekly affirmation series, she is also the recipient of the Women Who Inspire Award, from the Canadian Council for Muslim Women. Born in Dubai, Shafi’s family immigrated to Mississauga, Ontario in 1996, and she currently lives and works in Toronto. It Begins With The Body is her first book.

 

Meet us in the Tiki Room of the Tranzac Club (an inclusive & accessible venue!). Doors at 8, words at ~8:30. Pivot is generously funded by the Toronto Arts Council and Viewers Like You, so please PWYC (suggested donation $5). Pivot is hosted by Canisia Lubrin and Michelle Brown Colistro.

Pivot on April 25th- Calhoun, Dalton and Osman

It finally feels like spring, and to celebrate we’re bringing you three fresh voices (and one fabulous guest host!) Join us and guest host Light Zachary this Thursday, April 25th as we welcome Simone Dalton, Craig Calhoun and Oubah Osman!

Simone Dalton is a writer and social change communicator. She holds an MFA from the University of Guelph, where she received the Constance Rooke and Board of Graduate Studies Research Scholarships. As a memoirist, she explores themes of grief, sense of belonging and place, race, class, and inherited histories. Her work has been published in The Unpublished City: Volume I, a 2018 Toronto Book Awards finalist curated by Dionne Brand, and in Black Writing Matters, edited by Whitney French. For two years, she was the co-host of Guelph’s Speakeasy Reading Series and completed a residency with Firefly Creative Writing studio in 2018. Her play Vows in Welcome to My Underworld is her first foray into theatre. Simone lives in Toronto and was born and raised in Trinidad and Tobago.

Craig Calhoun is originally from a remote patch of Arizona desert but has been living in Canada since 2008. His work has appeared in several North American and European publications. He is also the winner of the Broken Pencil Literary Deathmatch (where he easily defeated the creator of the hit ABC sitcom, “Boy Meets World,” among others) as well as the Maisonneuve Genre Fiction Contest for Mystery. He currently resides in Toronto.

Oubah Osman is a Somali-Canadian writer from Toronto whose chapbook Hereditary Blue was recently published by Anstruther Press. She has been published in Room Magazine, The Puritan, and Unpublished City Volume II. She is an MFA candidate at the University of Guelph.

Meet us in the Tiki Room of the Tranzac Club (an inclusive & accessible venue!). Doors at 8, words at ~8:30. Pivot is generously funded by the Toronto Arts Council and Viewers Like You, so please PWYC (suggested donation $5).