Nathan Niigan Noodin Adler, Alex Leslie, and Hasan Namir will give short readings of their work and discuss their experiences as writers who work across genres, including creative non-fiction, new media, poetry, children’s literature, the short story, and the novel.
Location: Room C440
Type: Guest 2SLGBTQIA+ Curator Jen Currin Programming
Moderator: LGBTQIA2S+ Curator Jen Currin
Readers: Nathan Niigan Noodin Adler, Wrist (Kegedonce Press) | Hasan Namir, Banana Dream (Holiday House, Neal Porter Books) | Alex Leslie, Vancouver for Beginners (Book*hug Press)
About The Moderator
Jen Currin
Jen Currin's new collection of stories is Disembark, just published by House of Anansi. Their collection Hider/Seeker: Stories won a Canadian Independent Book Award, was a finalist for a ReLit Award, and was named a 2018 Globe and Mail Best Book. They have also published five collections of poetry, most recently Trinity Street (Anansi, 2023); The Inquisition Yours (Coach House, 2010), which won the 2011 Audre Lorde Award for Lesbian Poetry and was a finalist for a LAMBDA, the Dorothy Livesay Prize, and a ReLit Award; and School (Coach House, 2014), which was a finalist for the Pat Lowther Award, the Dorothy Livesay Prize, and a ReLit Award. A white settler of mixed, mostly Western European ancestry, Currin lives on the unceded ancestral territories of the Halkomelem-speaking peoples, including the Qayqayt, Musqueam, Kwikwetlem, and Kwantlen Nations, in New Westminster, BC and teaches creative writing and English at Kwantlen Polytechnic University
About The Readers
Nathan Niigan Noodin Adler
Nathan Niigan Noodin Adler is the author of Wrist, a windigo story written from the monster's perspective, and Ghost Lake, an inter-connected collection of short stories (Kegedonce Press), and co-editor of Zegaajimo Indigenous Horror Stories (forthcoming Oct. 2024 Kegedonce Press), and co-editor of a dream-themed anthology of Indigenous writers called Bawaajigan ~ Stories of Power (Exile Editions). Nathan has an MFA in Creative Writing from UBC, a BFA in Integrated Media from OCAD, and a BA (Hons) in English Literature and Native Studies from Trent University. He is recipient of an Indigenous Voices Award for prose, a Hnatyshyn Reveal award for literature, and first-place winner of an Aboriginal Writing Challenge for poetry. His writing has also appeared in various magazines, websites, and anthologies (Exile, Bedside Press, Arsenal Pulp Press). He is Jewish and Anishinaabe, Two Spirit, and a member of Lac des Mille Lacs First Nation.
Hasan Namir
Iraqi-Canadian author Hasan Namir graduated from Simon Fraser University with a BA in English and received the Ying Chen Creative Writing Student Award. He is the author of God in Pink (2015), which won the Lambda Literary Award for Best Gay Fiction and was chosen as one of the Top 100 Books of 2015 by The Globe and Mail. His work has also been featured on Huffington Post, Shaw TV, Airbnb, in the film God in Pink: A Documentary, Breakfast Television Toronto, CTV Morning Live Saskatoon. He was recently named a writer to watch by CBC books. He is also the author of poetry book War/Torn (2019, Book*hug Press), children's book The Name I Call Myself (2020, Arsenal Pulp Press), Umbilical Cord (Book*Hug Press) and Banana Dream (2023, Neal Porter Books). Hasan was the 2021 LGBTQ2s+ guest curator for Word Vancouver. He lives on the unceded territories of the Kwantlen, Katzie, Semiahmoo and Tsawwassen First Nations. with his partner and their child.
Alex Leslie
Alex Leslie has published two collections of short stories and two collections of prose poetry, mostly recently Vancouver for Beginners, shortlisted for the City of Vancouver Book Award and winner of the Western Canada Jewish Book prize for poetry. Recent short fiction is published or forthcoming in Event, Plenitude and Isele, where Alex's story Propane Propane won Isele's 2024 story prize for best story published in the journal that year. Video poetry based on Alex's work is currently being screened on the Mount Pleasant Community Art Screen curated by grunt gallery.
