Events

Diaspora Dialogues is proud to partner with the Toronto International Festival of Authors (TIFA) for our Women’s History Literary Symposium, bringing together an exciting group of women writers to explore who gets to tell our stories, shape our literary history, and imagine what comes next.

This project has been made possible in part by the Government of Canada.

On the program:

Reframing History: Who Gets to Tell the Story? | 3 PM
A conversation with Su Chang and Patty Krawec , moderated by Marci Sen, exploring whose stories make it into our histories — and what changes when we revisit the past through different perspectives.

The CanLit Canon at 100: Who Gets In, Who Gets Left Out? | 6 PM
Rachel Phan and Therese Estacion, moderated by Aparita Bhandari, look back at 100 years of Canadian literature and consider whose voices have been celebrated, overlooked, and left outside the canon.

Sex, Crime & Happily Ever After: How Women Took Over the Bestseller Lists | 11 AM
Uzma Jalaluddin and Jane Igharo, moderated by Jannie K. Velu, dive into the genres women writers and readers have transformed into cultural and commercial powerhouses — from romance and thrillers to speculative fiction and beyond.

The View from the Future: Who Gets to Write What Comes Next? | 2 PM
Mai Nguyen and Tea Mutonji, moderated by Eternity Martis, explore how a new generation of women writers is reshaping storytelling, representation, and what it means to be a writer today.

September 9, 2026 | Doors open at 5:30

About Meet the Playwrights (6-7PM)
Here’s a chance to meet this year’s young playwrights who are taking part in the DD-TD Black Playwrights Mentoring program. Each of the playwrights will tell you a little about themselves, a little about their process, and a little about the play they have been working on during the program.

And if we’re lucky they may even read a short excerpt! Join us and playwrights Trisha Harlan, Juliet Jones-Rodney, Hayotha and Selectasarah, and a virtual Marcel Stewart in the first half of our Art of Consequence program.

About Art of Consequence (7-8PM)
DD puts a spin on the old parlour game Consequence with 3 of our theatre program alumni playwrights (Kendelle Parks, Lili Robinson, and Alten Wilmot) from last year on-stage for an evening in front of a live audience.

Planted in the audience will be three writers (DD alumni Moez Surani, Bageshree Vaze and Kryslyne-Mai Ancheta) who will act as impresarios with the audience, encouraging and collaborating with you to come up with prompts to add to the Story Board on stage.

On-stage, with the theatre artists, will also be scribe Martin Gomes, a writer and composer based in Toronto who specializes in creating in the moment transcribing on an old fashioned typewriter.

Once the theatre artists receive the clues, like any writer’s room, they will create characters and story beats. These story beats will then be developed into a series of scenes. And then our playwrights will go away and create a short play that they will read two weeks later at Word on the Street!

We’re going to pull back the curtain on the artistic process and interact with you, the audience, (and the writers) in a true collaboration. Please join us for this fun interactive evening.

We would like to acknowledge the Canada Council for the Arts for supporting the Art of Consequence.

July 23, 2026 | 6-7PM | 228 Roncesvalles Avenue, Toronto, ON M6R 2L7

On Thursday, July 23, join Diaspora Dialogues for a Literary Walking Tour through the Roncesvalles Neighbourhood led by author Kerry Clare. Beginning at the iconic House of Anansi, let Kerry take you deeper into the history of one of the Toronto’s most unique and vibrant neighbourhoods—don’t forget your comfortable shoes!

Get tickets here.

About the Author

KERRY CLARE is the author of Definitely Thriving, out now from House of Anansi Press. Her previous novels are Asking for a Friend, Waiting for a Star to Fall, and Mitzi Bytes. A National Magazine Award-nominated essayist and editor of The M Word: Conversations About Motherhood, Kerry also edits the Canadian books website 49thShelf.com, is host of the BOOKSPO podcast, and writes about books and reading at her longtime blog, Pickle Me This. She lives in Toronto with her family.

June 29, 2026 | 12:30PM

In a world filled with constant headlines focused on ongoing wars, genocide, and the destruction and illegal seizing of ancestral land for the creation of new technology and the production of agriculture, many people feel as though their voices are not being heard in North America and abroad. In this workshop, we will learn how to use poetry for advocacy and make our voices heard throughout the world.

Register here.

About the Presenter

JAMILLA KABONGO-BAH (Jah-meal-ah Kah-bon-go-Bah) is a Congolese-Sierra Leonean graduate of the University of Toronto Mississauga, where she earned an Honours Bachelor of Science (HBSc) degree in psychology. In her memoir, poetry, paintings, and public engagements, she combines her passion for critical thinking, advocacy, and sports. Her goal is to inspire and empower individuals, particularly young people, to overcome their childhood traumas so they can lead happier, healthier, and more fulfilling lives.

NEW DATE: Friday July 17, 2026

Are you a writer or translator working with and through languages other than English? As an author, are you being pressured to write or translate your work into English in order to ‘belong’ in Canada? What are the poetics, politics, and practices of translating work from the global South into English? Join Nuzhat Abbas, editor and publisher or trace, an award-winning Tkaronto-based press publishing literature from the global South and diasporas for a thoughtful discussion of the important work of literary translators, current debates in the field, the ethical and publishing risks of AI, and any questions you may have.

Register here.

About the Presenter

Nuzhat Abbas is the founding editor and publisher of trace, an award-winning Tkaronto-based small press focused on literature from the global South and diasporas (tracepress.org). Her former lives have included teaching world literature and film at colleges and universities, facilitating writing workshops for refugees and immigrants, curating events, festivals and radio programs, and working as a nonprofit consultant.