Strength in Storytelling

Option 1: $22.50 (single evening) Option 2: Gold Pass $40 (Access to both evening events) Option 3: Student Gold Pass $25 (Access to both evening events)

*Gold Passes must be purchased at the Box Office either in person or by phone/email.

Strength in Storytelling: Reading & Discussion Saturday, September 14th, 7:00PM

On the heels of Friday evening’s discussion of the unknown/uncertainty, on Saturday evening the festival turns to themes of belonging, knowing, and connection. Through readings and a panel discussion, this event will explore how storytelling links us across time and space, offering solace in the face of both personal and universal turbulence. Participants will share readings from their works, followed by a discussion of storytelling’s role in facing the world’s complexities. The Richard Carver Award will also be announced at this event.

About the presenters: Shashi Bhat (she/her)is the author of the story collection Death by a Thousand Cuts (McClelland & Stewart), and the novels The Most Precious Substance on Earth (M&S, Grand Central), a finalist for the 2022 Governor General’s Award for fiction, and The Family Took Shape (Cormorant), a finalist for the Thomas Raddall Atlantic Fiction Award. Her fiction has won the Writers’ Trust/McClelland & Stewart Journey Prize and been shortlisted for a National Magazine Award and the RBC Bronwen Wallace Award and has appeared in such publications as Hazlitt, The Fiddlehead, The Malahat Review, Best Canadian Stories, and The Journey Prize Stories. Shashi is the editor of EVENT magazine and teaches creative writing at Douglas College.

Zaynab Mohammed (she/her) is a Performance Poet and Multi-Disciplinary Artist. She won the Richard Carver Award in 2022, the same year that she was a BC Culture Days Ambassador. Her career as a poet began in 2014 when she came across the idea of writing poems for people on the street, on a typewriter. She has written hundreds of poems over the past decade for strangers across Canada, the US and Australia. Over the past decade, she has completed many projects to elevate her career to new heights. From performance poetry, to teaching written and spoken word, to painting a mural (with another on the way), to having art shows with visual framed poems and to her poem booth, where she continues to write folks custom poems. As a child of immigrants, born on the coast of BC Canada, Zaynab’s art is how she reckons with identity whilst living in rural and white Nelson BC. Zaynab is Lebanese, Iraqi and Palestinian. She is her culture personified. Since she lives out of context from her origins, Zaynab relies on stories and perspectives inherited from those who came before her. Her current project, a spoken word series and a memoir, are anchors to soothe her longing to belong, to her people, from afar.

Emma Noyes (Sinixt and Colville tribes of the Confederated Tribes of Colville Reservation) is an author, artist, and researcher based in Spokane, WA. She views each of these roles as an extension of her responsibilities as a Sinixt person and parent. Her works are an expression of love for storied landscapes, first foods, language learning, cultural continuity and justice. Emma has kept daily illustrated journals for nearly 20 years and this practice has become both a refuge and a starting place for many creative projects, including zines, books, murals, and poems. Her book, Baby Speaks Salish, was published in 2020 by Scablands books. Her writing can be found in a variety of publications and her public art can be seen in a growing number of locations around Nelson, BC.

Elephant Mountain Lit Fest is celebrating its 13th anniversary with a weekend packed with workshops, readings, discussions, mentorship sessions, and a book fair! Through a wide spectrum of literary experiences, join us in exploring the work of talented writers who push boundaries, bend genres, and write from their hearts. This year’s festival line-up promises to inspire, challenge, and uplift. For a full schedule of events, visit emlfestival.com