New Dimensions
Lakefield College School Bryan Jones Theatre
Sat. July 19 @ 3:30 pm
Contemporary Canadian literature is international, weaving together widely disparate stories and themes to reflect the shifting identities of the new global reality. Sheung-King and Canisia Lubrin are two of the country’s leading voices in this new literature.
Guests: Sheung-King & Canisia Lubrin
Moderator: Charles Foran
Sheung-King
Sheung-King is the pen name of Aaron Tang, a Vancouver-born writer who was raised in Hong Kong and currently divides his time between Toronto and China. His second novel, Batshit Seven, explores the transnational experience of a displaced millenial languishing in Hong Kong and dreaming of Canada. Described by fellow writer Kai Thomas as “a novel of dazzling scope: global and deeply personal, all at once,” Batshit Seven won the 2024 Atwood-Gibson Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize.
Canisia Lubrin
St. Lucia-born Canisia Lubrin made her name as a poet, winning several prestigious awards, before turning to fiction with her first novel, Code Noir. Rooted in the real-life Code Noir, an infamous set of historical decrees governing slavery in the French colonial empire, Lubrin’s novel expands into a dizzying kaleidoscope of stories revolving around black life in the Americas throughout history. Described by The Globe and Mail as “a brilliant, challenging and ecstatic new work,” Code Noir was shortlisted for every major literary award in Canada. Lubrin currently coordinates the Creative Writing MFA at the University of Guelph and is also poetry editor at publisher McClelland and Stewart.
Charles Foran
Charles Foran has published twelve books, and has won awards for his fiction, nonfiction and journalism, including the Hilary Weston Prize and the Governor General’s Literary Award. He lives in Port Hope.