That tiny detail which holds insight into the most expansive of experiences; the crisp focus of an event that unfurls across time: despite their spare canvases, short stories are often profound. This is certainly the case for these three, deeply creative collections. Jamaluddin Aram’s Nothing Good Happens in Wazirabad on Wednesday shares the colourful lives of people in a small town in 1990s Afghanistan through a novel constructed with interwoven short stories. Two-time Lambda Literary Award winner Casey Plett returns with a new edition of her acclaimed debut story collection, A Safe Girl to Love. Canada Reads-shortlisted Lindsay Wong returns to our stages with a darkly hilarious, and poignant collection of immigrant horror stories, Tell Me Pleasant Things about Immortality. Moderated by Shirarose Wilensky.

Event Participants:

Jamaluddin Aram

JAMALUDDIN ARAM is a documentary filmmaker, producer, and writer from Kabul, Afghanistan. Jamaluddin’s short story “This Hard Easy Life” was a finalist for RBC Bronwen Wallace Award for Emerging Writers in 2020. He was mentored by Michael Christie for the Writers’ Trust of Canada Mentorship program, and lives in Toronto.

Emerging Authors presented thanks to the support of RBC

Casey Plett

CASEY PLETT is the author of A Dream of a Woman, Little Fish, A Safe Girl to Love, the co-editor of Meanwhile, Elsewhere: Science Fiction and Fantasy From Transgender Writers, and the Publisher at LittlePuss Press. She has written for the New York Times, Harper’s Bazaar, The Guardian, Globe and Mail, McSweeney’sInternet Tendency, and other publications. A winner of the Amazon First Novel Award, the Firecracker Award for Fiction, and a two-time winner of the Lambda Literary Award, her work has also been nominated for the Scotiabank Giller Prize. She splits her time between New York City and Windsor, Ontario.

Shirarose Wilensky

SHIRAROSE WILENSKY is an editor at House of Anansi Press, where she specializes in literary upmarket fiction and narrative non-fiction by BIPOC, LGBTQ2S+, and emerging writers. A winner of the Editors Canada Tom Fairley Award, she has worked for Arsenal Pulp Press, Greystone Books, Douglas & McIntyre, and Harbour Publishing.

Lindsay Wong

LINDSAY WONG is the author of the critically acclaimed, award-winning, and bestselling memoir The Woo-Woo, which was a finalist for Canada Reads 2019. She has written a YA novel entitled My Summer of Love and Misfortune. Wong holds a BFA in creative writing from the University of British Columbia and an MFA in literary nonfiction from Columbia University. She currently teaches creative writing at the University of Winnipeg.