Canada Reads is back! Join Jamie Chai Yun Liew, author of the shortlisted novel Dandelion, and chef Saïd M’Dahoma for a thought-provoking conversation leading up to CBC’s Canada Reads. In this intimate exchange, Saïd and Jamie will “break bread” together over a story that nourishes both the heart and the mind, weaving through personal narratives, shared experiences, and the universal power of food to bring people together.
Known as The Pastry Nerd by his 200,000+ social media followers, Saïd M’Dahoma chose Dandelion by Jamie Chai Yun Liew as the one book all Canadians should read in 2025. Also the winner of the Jim Wong-Chu Emerging Writers Award, Dandelion is a deeply affecting novel in which an Asian woman and new mother named Lily traces the journey of her own mother—who disappeared when Lily was eleven—from a small British Columbia mining town to Southeast Asia, seeking to learn who she really is and where she belongs.
“What Dandelion brilliantly does is that it shows that there’s not just one immigrant story,” M’Dahoma shared on CBC Radio’s Commotion. “There are so many different stories, so many different dreams and aspirations that immigrants can have when they come… I think it just changes the perspective that some people might have about immigrants and how diverse immigrants can be.”
Hear them in conversation on Monday, March 3 at the Revue Stage (1601 Johnston St, Vancouver).
We do our best to make our events low-barrier, accessible experiences for our community. A limited number of accessibly priced tickets are available for purchase. To discuss other ways we can make these events more accessible to you, please reach out to us at boxoffice@writersfest.bc.ca or 604-681-6330.
About Books & Ideas
Launched in January 2025, Books & Ideas is a new event series from the Vancouver Writers Fest on Granville Island, home of the Writers Fest’s celebrated annual literary festival. With an intimate theatre venue and a pop-up bar for socializing, attendees are invited to connect more deeply with other members of the local literary community—and meet the esteemed authors who grace the stage—in a modern space for exchanging ideas.
Participants and Speakers
Jamie Chai Yun Liew
JAMIE CHAI YUN LIEW is the recipient of the Jim Wong-Chu Emerging Writers Award from the Asian Canadian Writers’ Workshop. She is a lawyer and law professor specializing in immigration, refugee, and citizenship law and the creator of the award-winning podcast Migration Conversations. Her non-fiction book, Ghost Citizens: Decolonial Apparitions of Stateless, Foreign and Wayward Figures in Law explores how the colonial and legal condition of statelessness is created and maintained. Dandelion is her first novel. She lives in Ottawa, Algonquin Anishinaabe territory, with her family.
Said M’Dahoma
SAÏD M’DAHOMA is a French-Comorian-Canadian pastry chef living in Calgary. Born and raised in Paris where he earned his PhD in neuroscience, Saïd moved to Alberta to work at the University of Calgary. Fueled by nostalgia, in his free time, he started recreating French and Comorian dishes. Over time his passion for food overcame the one for science which led him to switch careers and become a full-time pastry chef. Saïd now teaches French pastry on TV and to an online community of more than 200,000 students across the world. He is one of the Top 20 Compelling Calgarians of 2025.