Masks are required for this event.
(By which we mean PPE to aid in the prevention of COVID-19; monster accessories are totally optional!)
Help celebrate the launch of the anthology Queer Little Nighmares with an evening of stories, poetry, and performances about your favourite monsters: Medusa, Freddy Krueger, zombies, and werewolves. This night will feature LGBTQ+ writers taking on the most notorious villains. Dress up as your favourite monster and join in on the fun for prizes, games, and more. Readings and performances will be shared by jaye simpson, Amber Dawn, Eddy Boudel Tan, Tin Lorica, Ben Rawluk, Jane Shi, Cicely Belle Blain, and beni xiao, with a drag performance by Persephone. Hosted by David Ly and Daniel Zomparelli.
Presented in collaboration with Arsenal Pulp Press.
Event Participants:
AMBER DAWN is a white queer femme survivor living on unceded Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh Territories. She is the author of five books and the editor of two anthologies. Her memoir How Poetry Saved My Life: A Hustler's Memoir (2013) won the Vancouver Book Award and was a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award for LGBT Memoir. She teaches creative writing at Douglas College and guest mentors at drop-in, queer and sex work-driven community spaces.
CICELY BELLE BLAIN (they/them) is a Black, mixed, queer non-binary femme from London, United Kingdom now living on the lands of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh people.Cicely Belle is noted for founding Black Lives Matter Vancouver and subsequently being listed as one of Vancouver's 50 most powerful people by Vancouver Magazine twice, BC Business's 30 under 30, and one of Refinery29's Powerhouses of 2020. Cicely Belle founded Bakau Consulting Inc. in 2018. They are the author of Burning Sugar.
TIN LORICA is a comedian and writer based in Vancouver on the unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh. Tin has recently been featured on CBC Gem's The New Wave of Stand-up Season 2. They co-host Millennial Line, a live comedy and poetry series, as well as Yellow Fever: An All-Asian Comedy Show, which has been featured at JFL Vancouver.
DAVID LY is the author of the poetry collections Mythical Man (shortlisted for the 2021 ReLit Poetry Award) and Dream of Me as Water, and co-edited Queer Little Nightmares with Daniel Zomparelli. He is the poetry editor at This Magazine. (BRITISH COLUMBIA)
BEN RAWLUK is a fiction writer and poet living in Vancouver, British Columbia. He is a graduate of the University of British Columbia’s MFA in Creative Writing, and has worked at PRISM international, Geist Magazine and Adbusters. Currently, he is Co-Editor-in-Chief of Poetry is Dead. His first poetry chapbook, I Have Never Been to Manila, was published in 2012.
JANE SHI is a queer Chinese settler living on the stolen and occupied lands of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and səlil̓ilw̓ətaʔɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) nations. She is a graduate of The Writer's Studio program at Simon Fraser University, and an alumni of English Honours and Asian Canadian and Asian Migration studies at the University of British Columbia. She is currently a submissions editor at Room and a board member at Canthius magazine.
jaye simpson is an Oji-Cree Saulteaux Indigiqueer from the Sapotaweyak Cree Nation. simpson is a writer, advocate and activist sharing their knowledge and lived experiences in hope of creating utopia. Their first poetry collection, it was never going to be okay (Nightwood Ed.) was shortlisted for the 2021 ReLit Award and a 2021 Dayne Ogilvie Prize Finalist while also winning the 2021 Indigenous Voices Award for Published Poetry in English. they are a displaced Indigenous person resisting, ruminating and residing on xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), səl̓ilwətaɁɬ (Tsleil-waututh), and sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) First Nations territories, colonially known as Vancouver.
EDDY BOUDEL TAN is the author of two novels: After Elias, a finalist for the ReLit Awards and the Edmund White Award, and The Rebellious Tide, a finalist for the Ferro-Grumley Award. In 2021, he was named a Rising Star by the Writers’ Trust of Canada.
beni xiao is a QTPOC writer based in Vancouver, BC. They are the author of the chapbook Bad Egg, and their work has been featured by Room Magazine, Sad Magazine, The Real Vancouver Writers’ Series, and Can’t Lit.
DANIEL ZOMPARELLI is the Editor-in-Chief of Poetry Is Dead magazine and co-podcaster at Can't Lit. He’s the author of the poetry collections Davie Street Translations and (with Dina Del Bucchia) Rom Com, and the short story collections Everything Is Awful and You're a Terrible Person and Queer Little Nightmares. (BRITISH COLUMBIA)
