My Writing Life: A Conversation with Joy Kogawa

Joy Kogawa, one of Canada’s most revered authors and a passionate advocate for Japanese-Canadians, in conversation with Dr. Joanne Leow (PhD) of the Department of English. Hosted by the University of Saskatchewan MFA in Writing Program and the Department of English.

Date: Wednesday, Nov. 25
Time: 4–5 pm
Location: Online via Zoom | Register through Eventbrite

Free and open to the public

A Zoom webinar link will be distributed to registrants two hours prior to the event (at 2 pm on Nov. 25).

About this Event

Joy Kogawa

Joy Kogawa received an Honorary Doctor of Letters at this year's USask Fall Convocation.

One of the country’s most revered authors and a passionate advocate for Japanese-Canadians, Joy Kogawa began her celebrated career as a writer while studying at the University of Saskatchewan in the 1960s. Although she began as a poet, her best-known work is the 1981 novel Obasan, which was adapted for the children’s book Naomi’s Road (1986). Her contributions to Canadian society were celebrated when she was invested into the Order of Canada in 1986, earning one of the country’s highest honours.

Joanne Leow

Dr. Joanne Leow (PhD) lives as a guest on Treaty Six Territory and the homeland of the Métis. She is assistant professor of decolonizing, diasporic, and transnational literatures in the Department of English at the University of Saskatchewan. Her most recent research is in positions: asia critique, Verge: Studies in Global Asias, University of Toronto Quarterly, and Journal of Asian American Studies. Her first book manuscript theorizes the relationship between cultural dissidence and urban planning in Singapore. Her essays, fiction, and poetry have been published in Brick, Catapult, The Goose, Isle, The Kindling, The Town Crier, QLRS, and Ricepaper Magazine. Her ecocritical SSHRC-funded project “Intertidal Polyphonies” is archived at intertidal.usask.ca.

Upcoming Events