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The Importance of Queer Literature

This Pride Month, join Aashay Dalvi and SJ Sindu as they discuss the importance of queer literature, representation and identity.

This program is offered in partnership with Rad Riot Books and Spectrum, Waterloo Region’s Rainbow Community Space.

After moving to Canada less than half a decade, Aashay noticed a lack of representation in bookstores of Black, Indigenous and Racialized books. Aashay started Rad Riot Books as a way to educate readers on anti-racism, Indigenous and Black solidarity and create a space for queer and racialized newcomers to feel validated. Canada is a country of immigrants. Most Canadian migrants are from countries in Asia, Africa and South America. It is time for immigrants to feel represented in the literature we consume in Canada. Rad Riot Books is an intentionally curated collection of books that encourage readers to diversify and decolonize their bookshelves. Aashay is an activist, community advocate and writer. Their work has been featured in InsideWaterloo and Textile: Issue Two. You can learn more about Rad Riot Books by following their Instagram @radriotbooks

SJ Sindu is a Tamil diaspora author of two literary novels, two hybrid chapbooks, and a forthcoming graphic novel. Her first novel, Marriage of a Thousand Lies, won the Publishing Triangle Edmund White Award and was a Stonewall Honor Book and a finalist for a Lambda Literary Award. Sindu’s second novel, Blue-Skinned Gods, published in November 2021 by Soho Press has garnered critical acclaim, and her graphic novel, Shakti, is forthcoming from HarperCollins. Sindu's hybrid fiction and nonfiction chapbook, I Once Met You But You Were Dead, won the Turnbuckle Chapbook contest and was published by Split/Lip Press, and her hybrid nonfiction and poetry chapbook, Dominant Genes, won the Black River Chapbook Competition was just published this February 2022 by Black Lawrence Press. A 2013 Lambda Literary Fellow, Sindu holds an MA in English from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and a PhD in English and Creative Writing from Florida State University. Sindu teaches at the University of Toronto Scarborough.

This is a registered program on zoom. You only need to register once per viewing device.

This program is part of our PRIDE celebration. You can learn more about Spectrum and other community PRIDE events at ourspectrum.com

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