Authors Among Us

History Writes: Inspired and Remembered

May 9 (Saturday), 2:00 - 4:00 PM
City Centre Library, Readability Lounge (L1)
Call 604-598-7426 to save your spot

Meet authors who use historical events to create fictional worlds or share narrative experiences.

The Authors Panel

Sumi Kinoshita is the author of Shikataganai: It Can’t Be Helped which traces one Japanese-Canadian family’s experience of evacuation and internment during World War II. Sumi is a retired public health nurse. A second-generation Canadian, she was born in Victoria, BC in 1938. In 1942, when all people of Japanese ancestry became “enemy aliens” in Canada, her family was forced to move to the interior of British Columbia. Now a widow, Mrs. Kinoshita lives in Coquitlam, BC, and has two daughters and five grandchildren. The story, Shikataganai, was born out of a heartfelt desire to record her family story for future generations.

Robert W. Mackay is the author of Terror on the Alert and Soldier of the Horse. Robert spent ten years in the Royal Canadian Navy, three of which were in British and Canadian submarines. Later, he taught school and practised law. His first book, Soldier of the Horse, won a Gold Medal Award from Independent Publishers in the category of wartime/historical fiction and tells the story of his father’s time in the WW I Canadian Cavalry Brigade.. His second novel, Terror on the Alert, is a thriller set in a Canadian submarine during the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962.

Roger R. Blenman is the author of Dead’er. Roger is a Barbadian-born, Afro-Caribbean Canadian. He loves athletics, literature, and travel. He teaches mathematics and science. His work is infused with rhythms from Caribbean, Afro-American, and mainstream Canadian cultures. Urbanity, social causes, race, sexuality, spirituality, rhyme, and politics infect his writing. He’s from Toronto and lives in Vancouver.

Sabina Khan is the author of Realm of the Goddess, the first in a series of YA Paranormal Fantasy books based on the gods and goddesses of India. She is an educational consultant and a karaoke enthusiast. After living in Germany, Bangladesh, Macao, Illinois and Texas, she has finally settled down in beautiful British Columbia, Canada, with her husband and three daughters, one of whom is a fur baby. She is passionate about the empowerment of girls and women, hoping to inspire them with the strong female characters in her novel.