DEADLINE TO REGISTER: Supporting Equity, Diversity & Anti-Racism in Literary Communities with Phoebe Wang 

We are so pleased to announce that WANL will be offering a two-hour diversity workshop at 5:30 p.m. NST (4 p.m. EDT) on August 24 with Toronto-based poet and educator Phoebe Wang (bio below).

“Supporting Equity, Diversity and Anti-Racism in Literary Communities” with Phoebe Wang is open to both WANL Members and the general public!

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER VIA EVENTBRITE.

“In this workshop for writers, editors and those working in publishing, we will be sharing ways of supporting writers who self-identify as Black, Indigenous and People of Colour. We will challenge and explore how these categories and identities relate to creating and writing through an intersectional lens, so to better understand how to further practices of equity anti-racist within your communities, networks, publications, and organizations.

This workshop will discuss BIPOC special issues, anthologies and calls for submission, creating safe spaces, working with BIPOC editors, consultants, and sensitivity readers, addressing discomfort, fragility and privilege, and success stories. Discussion, activities, and tools such as diversity audits and scenarios will also be provided so that participants see the value of their own role, power and autonomy in enacting change and sparking more inclusive literary communities.”

WANL note: “Supporting Equity, Diversity and Anti-Racism in Literary Communities” with Phoebe Wang is presented in response to our Creative Sector Solidarity with Black Lives Matter letter. WANL continues to make strive to create more content that highlights talented BIPOC writers in Canada and beyond, and we are excited work with Phoebe to continue to educate our current membership base regarding diversity in writing.

ABOUT PHOEBE WANG:

Phoebe Wang is a writer and educator whose first book of poetry, Admissions Requirement (McClelland and Stewart, 2017) was nominated for the Trillium Book Award. Her second collection, Waking Occupations, is due out in Spring 2022. She works at OCAD University and will serve as Writer-In-Residence at the University of New Brunswick in Fredericton.

In 2014 Phoebe began organizing meetings with BIPOC writers in Toronto and writing about diversity in writing and publishing on her blog, resulting in her co-coordinating Fuel for Fire, a mini-conference on supporting emerging BIPOC writers, in partnership with the Ontario Arts Council. She also co-edited The Unpublished City: Volume II, The Lived City, and written about how to mentor writers of colour in Refuse: CanLit in Ruins. Since joining OCAD University in 2017, she has coordinated The Mighty Pen, a speaker series and student initiative fund for BIPOC students and writers, and taken part in coordinating GROUNDINGS: BIPOC Poets gatherings with Lillian Allen. She recently was a short-form mentor with Diaspora Dialogues and continues to advocate for inclusive, equity and anti-racism within Canadian literary practices.

Further reading:
www.alittleprint.com
www.poetryinvoice.com/poems/poets/phoebe-wang
www.roommagazine.com/phoebe-wang-on-publishing-in-lit-mags…