"The Local Authors" table at the Square One Mississauga Chapters/Indgo Mega-Bookstore
[Photo By: KPA]
My neighborhood mega-bookstore, the Square One Chapters/Indigo, is now displaying the beginnings of its Fall collection. It has various tables set up with specialized themes. One that intrigued me was the "Local Authors" table, and after I did a brief tour of the store, I settled down to studying the table's displays. Perhaps I can find something to buy toward my collection of fast-growing books, to which I add every couple of months.
The running theme in all these "Local Authors" (seven of whom I have profiled below) is that they are all "from somewhere else," literally, psychologically, psychically, or in any other way to enhance their stories. And each uses Mississauga, or a nearby suburb, as a springboard to accentuate this "somewhere elseness." Most of these "somewhere elses" are Third World countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America. But some are right here in Canada, in ethnic ghettos from Toronto to Mississauga to Montreal.
Camilla Gibb, one of two white writers in the list that I've put together below (two out of seven is a very low odd, for a country which is still majority white), may not have been born in the Third World, but she is certainly "foreign-born" and her "somewhere else" is England. As she states in the interview below, "I find resonance in stories of upheaval and dislocation. I find myself in them." Even though she came as a young girl from England, and even though Canada has strong cultural and historical affiliation with Britain, and even though there is a large body of Britons in Canada, especially in Toronto where she settled, she still managed to find "upheaval and dislocation" with this move.
The fascinating information I found about her is that she is a lesbian, whose "wife" (yes, they were "married") left her while Gibb was ten months "pregnant." So, her "somewhere else" is truly a psychic displacement, where she doesn't belong anywhere, even in those African villages where she briefly lived as an anthropology doctoral student, villages who would have no sympathy at all for her lesbianism, and about which she wrote her first book Sweetness in the Belly.
Her book Sweetness in the Belly is set in the Muslim region of Ethiopia, a country which is predominantly Christian. Why did she chose this outpost as the center of her tale? She has a spiritually rebellious reason for this choice. The novel's main character Lilly, who is clearly some form of autobiographical representation of Gibb
...has anything but a stable childhood. The daughter of English/Irish hippies, she was "born in Yugoslavia, breast-fed in the Ukraine, weaned in Corsica, freed from nappies in Sicily and walking by the time [they] got to the Algarve..." The family's nomadic adventure ends in Tangier when Lilly's parents are killed in a drug deal gone awry. Orphaned at eight, Lilly is left in the care of a Sufi sheikh, who shows her the way of Islam through the Qur'an. When political turmoil erupts, Lilly, now sixteen, is sent to the ancient walled city of Harar, Ethiopia, where she stays in a dirt-floored compound with an impoverished widow named Nouria and her four children.Was it the glittering headscarves the women in Harar wore which tugged at Gibb's/Lilly's heart? Was it the exotic of scent of incense and coffee? It is more basic, more fundamental, than that. "I was not always a Muslim," says Lilly, "but once I was led into the absorption of prayer and the mysteries of the Qur’an, something troubled in me became still [Source]."
In Harar, Lilly earns her keep by helping with the household chores and teaching local children the Qur'an. Ignoring the cries of "farenji" (foreigner), she slowly begins to put down roots, learning the language and immersing herself in a culture rich in customs and rituals and lush with glittering bright headscarves, the chorus of muezzins and the scent of incense and coffee[Source].
Gibb/Lilly is no different from the hundreds of white European Western women who find this stillness through Islam. Their own cultures had failed them spiritually, destroying or demeaning Christianity. Lilly filled this abyss with Allah.
Gibb never defines her religious affiliations, despite her overt sympathy for Islam. Rather, she seems to fill her spiritual void, as this Toronto Star article states, "by the mentally salubrious effects of companionship." Hence her incessant search for "community."
Although Sweetness in the Belly is not a particularly outstanding book (I have read several of the beginning chapters), I'm sure Gibb's personal story is much more interesting. It would provide an intriguing lens into the lives of modern (postmodern) white women who hate their own cultures and try to find salvation in other remote and exotic ones.
For that reason alone, Gibb's book and background is the most interesting of the lot, which induced my long analysis of her and her world.
Liz Worth is another such prime example in my list of a white woman who once again uses a counter (or anti) cultural affiliation to guide her story-telling style, and whose book (this time a non-fiction book about punk rock) tells us more about her inner workings than would have a straight autobiography. Worth's punk rock cultural focus is a masochistic, sadistic, misogynistic culture, and was no haven for women. When asked why she chose Treat me Like Dirt as the main title for her book she gave a roundabout answer with nothing left for us but to psychoanalyze:
I was thinking ‘yeah, treat me like dirt - what a great title.’It's provocative and defiant, and captures a lot of the sentiment in the book. [Source]But is it provocative and defiant to say over and over again, as do the lyrics to the song Bullet Proof Nothing by the Toronto "proto-punk" band Simply Saucer?
Treat me like dirt, drive me insane,
Treat me like dirt now, tear out my brain,
Treat me like dirt, I'm losin' my mind,
I said treat me like dirt now, cause you're so fine.
Simply Saucer
"Bullet Proof Nothing"
Perhaps Worth also likes this song (these lyrics) because of the mild pleasant melody that connects the words to song. They don't mean "treat me like dirt, surely. They mean "love me!!!" Simply Saucer is a male group (at least the singer is male). It is a woman he is singing to, which in the world of competitive men, the worse a woman treats a man (in the dance of courtship) the more interested in her the man gets. But how badly can she treat him, other than to ignore him or not answer his text messages? And how seriously will she take his treatment with that bouncy melody?
But men treat women differently than do women men. Treating a woman like dirt is a serious activity. It could lead to physical or verbal, injuries, or even death.
And such is the thought process of women who think abuse (physical injury?) has something to do with love.
Treat Me Like Dirt is about the ultimate fringe of society: The violent, abrasive, loud subculture which deliberately aims to be on the outside of white civilized society, forever with a chip on its shoulder. Anything that would find fault with (or even hate) this white civilized society is welcomed.
All these writers have no desire, interest, or a sense of obligation to make Canada the main "character" in their books, using it merely as a springboard to travel back into their psyches and memories to those lands they abandoned in search of greener pastures. They rushed eagerly into the haven of Canada's towns and cities, escaping whatever financial, political or psychological woes they have suffered. But, once safely here, they show no (or little) thanks for the country that opened its hands out and helped them at their time of trouble. In fact, they persistently and continuously demonize it, as though it should have given them more, and more and more. Their dissatisfaction becomes a raging anger (however quietly some may express it), which is woven into their stories.
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List of books
List of books from the image above:
1 Could You Please, Please Stop Singing
By: Sabyasachi Nag
In Could You Please, Please Stop Singing?, Sabyasachi (Sachi) Nag takes a step away from skepticism, blending humour with shock and surprise, seeking a return to childhood in “Mamuda’s Fries,” innocence in “Conversations with the Country Activist” and fractals for the future in the yet to be invented “Seedless Avocado.” In attempting what Tomas Transromer calls “walking through walls,” Nag hurts and sickens himself with awe and rage. The title poem “Could You Please, Please Stop Singing?” purposely evokes the famous Hemingway line from Men Without Women and is central to the overall tonality of this collection, that straddles a path alternately mocking and dead serious, and that occasionally yields to contrary pulls between the banal and the sublime.2 13 Ways of Looking at a Fat Girl
Sabyasachi Nag...lives in Mississauga with his wife and son. Nag immigrated to Canada from Calcutta, where he was born, and many of the poems in this collection are about this city.[Source]
By: Mona Awad
Born to an Egyptian father and French-Canadian mother, Awad grew up in Montreal with a high school stint in Mississauga (or as dubbed in 13, “Misery Saga”). In a predominantly white, protestant school, being an Arab was rare enough. Yet with her mixed heritage, ambiguity made her “an outsider even to outsiders”. Neither fully here nor there, Awad finds respite in the broader identification of ‘Canadian’. Awad affirms that this does not erase the influence of her parents’ culture upon her own identity, but rather allows for its greater complexity.3 Weather Permitting and Other Stories
13 Ways of Looking at a Fat Girl, in the simplest of terms, is about a woman’s body and self. Awad traverses into a thorny landscape of weight anxiety and desire, illustrating it through the particular nature of key relationships - to other bodies, to female friends, to mothers, lovers, clothing, and food. [Source]
By: Pratap Reddy
Indian-born author Pratap Reddy captures the immigrant experience, highlighting all the rewards and frustrations facing a newly arrived immigrant to Canada, in his new book entitled Weather Permitting and Other Stories.4 Treat Me Like Dirt: An Oral History of Punk in Toronto and Beyond, 1977–1981
According to Mississauga-based Reddy, “It was all the new and unexpected challenges I had to face as an immigrant, which both stimulated and inspired me to write these stories. The publication of the book is truly a dream come true, however clichéd as it may sound. Im happy and excited about my first book, a collection of stories woven around fictional characters who are new to Canada[Source].
By: Liz Worth
Full of chaos, betrayal, failure, success, and pure rock 'n' roll energy, this layered history is assembled from interviews with those now recognized as innovators, pioneers, and outright legends in their genre. Their accounts go beyond run-of-the-mill anecdotes, venturing into the uncharted territory of sex, drugs, murder, conspiracy, violence, criminals, and biker gangs. Bold and brazen, this compilation also includes a wealth of previously unpublished photographs as well as one of the last interviews with the late Frankie Venom, lead singer of Teenage Head [Source].Worth herself has contributed to this "noise art" as a performance artist with the duo Salt Circle:
Her website describes Salt Circle:
Salt Circle (feat. Sam Cooper/Liz Worth) is an experiment in frenetic spoken word and haunted, broken sound. Channelling dreams and ethereal invocations, this Toronto duo creates occultish noise and approachable weirdo art that connects poetry, rituals, and hypnotic structures.
Vulgar Ritual
By: Salt Circle
5 Seven Nights with the Chinese Zodiac
By: Anna Yin
In her newest poetry collection, Seven Nights with the Chinese Zodiac, Yin brilliantly takes the reader through the seasons of the zodiac year by intertwining Eastern and Western images. She alludes to Sylvia Plath, Margaret Atwood, and Dante—Western poets that influenced her own work—and incorporates them into pieces inspired by traditional Chinese poetry. The blending of the two worlds is congruent with the immigrant identity she explores in “Accent,” where the negotiation of two cultures should not result in one overtaking the other—like yin and yang, both exist in harmony[Source].
Anna Yin was born in China and immigrated to Canada in 1999. She has authored five poetry books, including Wings Toward Sunlight (2011) and Inhaling the Silence (2013) and Seven Nights with the Chinese Zodiac (2015). Anna has won a number of poetry awards, including the 2005 Ted Plantos Memorial Award, the 2010/2014 MARTY Literary Arts Awards and a 2013 CPAC Professional Achievement Award. Her poems in English & Chinese and ten translations by her were in a Canadian Studies textbook used by Humber College. Anna has been interviewed by CBC Radio, Rogers TV , CCTV and TalentVisionTV etc . Her poem “Still Life” was displayed across Canada for the Poetry In Transit project in 2013/2014. Anna was a “Living book” for the Living Library at the Mississauga Campus of University of Toronto. Anna is Mississauga’s First Poet Laureate (2015-2017) and Ontario representative to the League of Canadian Poets (2013-2016). Her “Poetry Alive” events and workshops are welcomed at schools, colleges and libraries, especially for the Poets in Schools Program. Anna holds a B.Sc. degree from Nanjing University and a Creative Writing Certificate from the University of Toronto. She lives and works in Mississauga, Ontario [Source]
I recently posted (or re-posted) on Anna Yin's accent and my take on her "immigrant" experience here, but I don't think she will be ready any time soon to loose her accent, or her immigrant experience.
I wrote about Yin's accent and her migrant experience here and here.
6 This is Happy
By: Camilla Gibb
In 2012, while eight weeks pregnant with her first child, Camilla Gibb was faced with devastating news: her spouse of more than 10 years announced she had fallen out of love and was leaving their relationship. In her new memoir, This Is Happy, Gibb reflects on rebuilding her life as a single mother and creating a new ad-hoc family for herself and her baby. Gibb, who holds a PhD in social anthropology from Oxford, and is author of the novels The Beauty of Humanity Movement and Sweetness in the Belly, says her unexpected situation made her realize her life had become “unrecognizable,” and forced her to face “urgent and imperative” questions about herself.7 Struggles of a Dreamer: The Battle Between a Dream and Tradition
Interviewer: Your work has focused on the idea of the outsider, on belonging and identity. Why?
Gibb: I’ve thought a lot about this question over the years, and given myself, and others, various answers to it. But the truth is, I think it’s constitutional. I find resonance in stories of upheaval and dislocation. I find myself in them [Source].
By: Yahaya Baruwa
In Struggles of a Dreamer: The Battle between a Dream and Tradition, the stories of Tunde, a beggar on the streets of New York City, and Toku'te, the son of a farmer in a faraway land, are woven together in a charming tale full of intriguing characters and adventure. You will encounter the struggles of a dreamer as he faces the challenges of the limiting boundaries of his tradition. You will laugh, cry, experience romance, be frightened, and be held in suspense as you find out how Toku'te manages to remain afloat in a world that requires everyone to fit the same mold[Source].
Yahaya is a Nigerian-Canadian Author and Entrepreneur who was born and raised in Kano city, Nigeria till the age of 13. He migrated to Canada with his family of ten in March of 2001 to pursue greater academic and career opportunities. Upon arrival to Canada, Yahaya resided in both Flemingdon Park and Regent Park for the first three years in Canada; however he now lives in Scarborough, Ontario with his family [Source].
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Some of these books (or recordings) are online and here are excerpts from a couple:
13 Ways of Looking Fat
Mona Awad
Growing up in the suburban hell of Misery Saga (a.k.a. Mississauga), Lizzie has never liked the way she looks—even though her best friend Mel says she’s the pretty one. She starts dating guys online, but she’s afraid to send pictures, even when her skinny friend China does her makeup: she knows no one would want her if they could really see her. So she starts to lose. With punishing drive, she counts almonds consumed, miles logged, pounds dropped. She fights her way into coveted dresses. She grows up and gets thin, navigating double-edged validation from her mother, her friends, her husband, her reflection in the mirror. But no matter how much she loses, will she ever see herself as anything other than a fat girl?
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Liz Worth
Treat Me Like Dirt: An Oral History of Punk in Toronto and Beyond, 1977–1981
Sound recording of "performance art" by Worth
Vulgar Ritual Salt Circle
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Sweetness in the Belly
Camilla Gibb
Prologue------------------------------------------------------------
Harar, Ethiopia
The sun makes its orange way east from Arabia, over a Red Sea, across volcanic fields and desert and over the black hills to the qat- and coffee-shrubbed land of the fertile valley that surrounds our walled city. Night departs on the heels of the hyenas: they hear the sun’s approach as a hostile ringing, perceptible only to their ears, and it drives them back, bloody lipped and panic stricken, to their caves.
In darkness they have feasted on the city’s broken streets: devouring lame dogs in alleyways and licking eggshells and entrails off the ground. The people of the city cannot afford to waste their food, but nor can they neglect to feed the hyenas either. To let them go hungry is to forfeit their role as people on this wild earth, and strain the already tenuous ties that bind God’s creatures.
Anna Yin reciting In Flanders Fields for Remembrance Day celebrations in Mississauga
November 16, 2015
[Photo By: KPA