Tartan Turban Secret Readings #46
Featuring Michael Mirolla, Jovan Shadd, Irene Marques and Koom Kankesan. Curated by Gavin Barrett.
About the featured writers
Michael Mirolla is a champion of diverse Canadian Literature at Guernica Editions. But Michael is also the author of more than two dozen novels, plays, film scripts and short story and poetry collections. His novella, The Last News Vendor was winner of the 2020 Hamilton Literary Award. He has won three Bressani Prizes for the novel Berlin; the poetry collection The House on 14th Avenue; and the short story collection Lessons in Relationship Dyads. Michael's latest poetry collection, At the End of the World, was short-listed for the 2022 Hamilton Literary Award and took second prize for the Di Cicco Poetry Award. A symposium on Michael’s writing was held in Toronto on May 25, 2023. What's next for Michael? His novella, How About This …?, will be published in September 2025. From September 2024-June 2025, Michael served as the Writer In Residence for the Regina Public Library. Born in Molise, Italy, Michael makes his home (along with five dogs, a cat and sundry humans) on a farm outside the town of Gananoque in the Thousand Islands area of Ontario. Come and hear Michael read this Friday at Barrett and Welsh. (Free) Tickets are still available at https://lu.ma/7e4o4bok
Jovan Shadd is a Black queer poet residing in North York. Lately their poetry tends to revolve around the politics of the imagination in contrast with the politics of the real world.
Irene Marques is a bilingual writer (writing in English and Portuguese) and Lecturer at Toronto Metropolitan University in the Department of English. She holds a PhD in Comparative Literature, a Master's in French Literature and Comparative Literature, a BA in French Language and Literature from the University of Toronto, and a Social Work degree from Toronto Metropolitan University. Her creative writing publications include the poetry collections The Bare Bones of Our Alphabet (Mawenzi House, 2024), The Circular Incantation: An Exercise in Loss and Findings (Guernica Editions, 2013), The Perfect Unravelling of the Spirit (Mawenzi House, 2012) and Wearing Glasses of Water (Mawenzi House, 2007), the novels Uma Casa no Mundo (Imprensa Nacional, 2021) and Daria (Inanna Publications, 2021), and the collection of short stories Habitando na Metáfora do Tempo (Edium Editores, 2009). Uma Casa no Mundo won Imprensa Nacional/Ferreira de Castro Prize in Portugal. She is also the author of the academic manuscript Transnational Discourses on Class, Gender and Cultural Identity (Purdue University Press, 2011) and numerous academic articles in international journals or scholarly collectives. Irene Marques was born and raised in Portugal and moved to Canada at the age of 20. For more information about her work, visit https://www.irenemarques.net/
Koom Kankesan is the author of The Panic Button, The Rajapaksa Stories, and The Tamil Dream. His other interests include film and comics, about which he writes in Comicon.com. He has interviewed comics practitioners for The Deconstructing Comics Podcast. He spoke briefly to Global TV Vancouver about Killing Shakespeare in a four minute segment here: https://globalnews.ca/video/11329056/palmas-picks-travelling-back-in-time/
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About The Tartan Turban Secret Readings
In good weather, Barrett and Welsh hosts a (not so) “secret" reading series on its rather lovely open-air office rooftop deck or in its large open-concept studio space in Toronto. In winter, our readings migrate online in a virtual reading format that accepts writers from across the country and can be attended from anywhere in the world.
The Tartan Turban Secret Readings feature poetry, drama and prose readings and celebrate Canadian multicultural writing created by multicultural, minority and IBPOC writers. The idea is to provide a platform for IBPOC writers with few such platforms. At the same time, all writers who want to celebrate Canada’s multiculturalism, literary diversity and Indigenous heritage and have talent to share are welcomed.
Curators change from reading to reading. If you would like to curate an evening, contact Gavin Barrett, who is the series curator.
The sessions are photographed, filmed and streamed on FB/YouTube live and recordings will eventually be posted on YouTube and the series website. Please be aware that by attending this event, you agree to be photographed and/or filmed and give permission to use your likeness in promotional and/or marketing materials.
https://tartanturbansecretreadings.org/
Tartan Turban Secret Readings are variously supported by the Canada Council for the Arts, the League of Canadian Poets, The Writers’ Union of Canada and Barrett and Welsh.
Barrett and Welsh is a minority-owned, creativity-powered, change-making advertising and branding agency that puts ideas first to make ideas last. A certified B Corporation, it uses design and advertising to create access and inclusion for racialized minorities and persons with disabilities.
Accessibility Barrett and Welsh donates its beautiful open-concept office space as a venue for the readings, but the offices are on the top floor of an old townhouse that was converted, pre-AODA, into the more modern office building it is today. Unfortunately, this means the office is not wheelchair-accessible as there is no elevator and the stairs are fairly steep. We do our best to accommodate anyone with mobility needs, but this is mainly limited to helping them up the stairs or carrying assistive devices up for them. If anyone attending is hearing impaired, and lets us know in advance, we can arrange for the pieces being read by the featured writers (if they assent) to be projected. We also live-stream each reading to make each session accessible for audience members who cannot be present in person.
About the series co-curators
Gavin Barrett is the series curator of the Tartan Turban Secret Readings, which he co-founded with the late Mayank Bhatt in 2017.
Mayank Bhatt's novel Belief was published in 2016 by Mawenzi House. The novel explores youth radicalization and alienation and the impact of terrorism on a family in the context of the failure of the immigration and settlement framework in Canada. Mayank Bhatt immigrated to Toronto in 2008 from Mumbai (Bombay), where he worked as a journalist. His short stories have been published in TOK 5: Writing the New Toronto and Canadian Voices II. In Canada, he worked as a security guard, as the Chief Administrative Officer of the Indo-Canada Chamber of Commerce and as an organizer for the Festive of South Asian Literature and Art. He lived in Toronto with his family and passed away after a courageous battle with pancreatic cancer in the summer of 2022.
Gavin Barrett is a poet, creative entrepreneur, and the author of a collection of poems titled Understan (Mawenzi House, 2020), a CBC Books recommendation. He was born in Bombay and lived in Hong Kong for several years before immigrating to Canada. Gavin’s poetry has been published in Reasons for Belonging (Viking Penguin India), an anthology of 14 Indian poets; The Joao Roque Literary Journal; the Pen India journal; The Folio; The Independent (Bombay); The Toronto Review of Contemporary Writing Abroad; and Poiesis, the Bombay Poetry Circle journal. He was a contributing writer to This|ability, a book on Canada’s art brut and outsider artists. He is the founder and Chief Creative Officer of idea consultancy and brand advertising agency Barrett and Welsh. He is a member of the Advisory Board of the Canadian Authors Association (Toronto), PEN Canada and is EDI co-chair of The League of Canadian Poets.