Holi: Spring Festival of Colours March 8, 2023 – Posted in: Readings & Excerpts

From Mattress Makers, by Sasenarine Persaud. May there always be spring in our eyesand fingers, feet: pink ixoras, red hibiscusmauve madar—green buds everywhere Even live oaks’ allergenic dust coating everythingyellow, golden gainda, daddy said, not marigoldspani re pani tera rang kaisa—is it rain—or Water what is your colour? Or plucked stingsMukesh mixing easily with jhaals chimingfrom UP: Holi Khele Raghuvira Awadh Mein May we sing for a thousand years—more—chowtals, olaras—Mamas crafting coconut gojiasdholaks in arteries, hearts,…

Thanksgiving November 24, 2022 – Posted in: Readings & Excerpts

From Mattress Makers by Sasenarine Persaud, forthcoming from Mawenzi House. Sun dances through clear-glass doorflagged by palm fronds wavingwebbed arms to bladed bananaLeaf-shadows lounging on fence—a morning thief dropping red petalson clipped lawn Indian orchid heartsrolling wind circumambulatingmy south and yours warm jamunleaves gyrating on weathered paling

Listening to Lata February 10, 2022 – Posted in: Readings & Excerpts

From Love in a Time of Technology, by Sasenarine Persaud.

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People of Pathology Podcast July 5, 2021 – Posted in: Interviews

Zul Premji, author of Malaria Memoirs, was interviewed by the People of Pathology Podcast. They discuss: His early years and education in Tanzania; His personal experience with malaria and how that helped to inspire his interest in parasitology; Studying at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and at the Karolinska Institute; The relationship between malaria and poverty; Public health challenges in Sub-Saharan Africa; The influence of politics on the fight against malaria; Some…

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5 CARIBBEAN CANADIAN AUTHORS TO KNOW February 25, 2021 – Posted in: Highlights

Olive Senior is the Toronto-based Jamaican author of 18 works of fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and children’s literature. Her widely taught, widely translated works have won her many awards, including the Matt Cohen Award, the Musgrave Medal, and the OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature. Her stories, set in rural and urban Jamaica, are celebrated for their humour and musicality, haunting use of history and folklore, and rich characters, many of them children coming to terms with…

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5 AFRICAN CANADIAN AUTHORS TO KNOW February 20, 2021 – Posted in: Highlights

Kagiso Lesego Molope is a South African writer who lives in Ottawa. Her novels, set in the South Africa of the 1990s and afterwards, bear witness to the legacies of apartheid and are studied in schools across South Africa. Her best-known book, the young adult novel This Book Betrays My Brother, won a Percy FitzPatrick Award and an Ottawa Book Award. and was named to best-of lists by Kirkus Reviews, the Globe and Mail, CBC, and the Chicago Public Library. WHAT TO READ: Awumey is a Togolese-Canadian writer…

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Black History Month Features February 16, 2021 – Posted in: Highlights, Holidays & Observances

To mark Black History Month, we highlight a selection of Mawenzi House titles that play with the anthology form to celebrate the plurality and polyphony of Black culture, Black creativity, and Black lives.

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I Was a Teenage Beauty Pageant Loser February 15, 2021 – Posted in: Readings & Excerpts

Natasha Ramoutar, author of Bittersweet, recently wrote for The Walrus about her experience participating in a beauty pageant as a teenager. Here’s a short excerpt of the piece.

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The question we all should really be asking this February February 9, 2021 – Posted in: Readings & Excerpts

Elizabeth Vaah, author of Maame, wrote a blog post for TD Stories, discussing how we should approach Black History Month in 2021. Here’s a short excerpt of the piece.

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A Message from the Publishers January 8, 2021 – Posted in: From the Publisher, Roundup

For the 40 years they have been active in the Canadian literary scene, the publishers behind Mawenzi House have sought to bring you, our cherished readers here in Canada and beyond, a world of diverse books that speak to the full range of human experience. In 2021, too, we continue to be dedicated to filling your year with rich, delightful, indelibly different books. We at Mawenzi House send our sincere best wishes for the new…