Wherever I Find Myself: Stories by Canadian Immigrant Women

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In their own words, Wherever I Find Myself holds the diverse and personal stories of immigrant women from all types of ethnicity and intersecting identities, exploring how their personal history have brought them closer to, or farther from, the feeling of belonging.

Miriam Matejova is a writer and researcher, currently pursuing a PhD in Political Science at the University of British Columbia. Her creative writing has appeared in The Globe and Mail, Her Circle, and several travel magazines. She is one of the contributors to Caitlin Press’ This Place a Stranger: Canadian Women Travelling Alone, and an editor of the Project Nightingale literary journal. She is the editor of Wherever I Find Myself.

Sarah Munawar is a Muslim scholar and writer who is completing her PhD in Political Science at the University of British Columbia. Her family emigrated from Lahore, Pakistan, to Toronto, Canada in 1998 and are now living in Brampton, ON. She wrote How to Emerge from the Belly of the Whale as a testimony of miracle, in celebration of her father’s resilience in the face of struggle.

Jianna Faner is a grateful guest on Musqueam territory, currently studying English at the University of British Columbia and managing social media for Canadian Women in the Literary Arts. Like many Vancouverites, she loves figure skating, yoga pants and coffee, and like many Filipinos, she loves adobo, karaoke and her family.

Jasmine Sealy was born in the UK and raised on the island of Barbados. She is a graduate of the UofT's Development Studies program and the Writer’s Studio at Simon Fraser University. In 2014 she was shortlisted for the CBC Quebec short story competition. Her work can be found in the Quebec Writer’s Federation anthology of New English Writing from Quebec (2014) and the Emerge Anthology (2016).

Kaija Pepper’s criticism and essays on dance have appeared in The Globe and Mail, The Walrus, Queen’s Quarterly and other publications. Dance Collection Danse published her trio of books on Vancouver dance history, and co-edited anthology Renegade Bodies: Canadian Dance in the 1970s. Kaija has been editor of Dance International magazine since 2013.

Book Description:

In this third anthology in the Canadian women series by Caitlin Press, Canadian immigrant women from a variety of ethnicity and intersecting identities share their diverse and personal stories.

A woman takes on the complex and often baffling nuances of the English language, a Ugandan refugee and her family settle in Canada only to find their father is forever changed, a Portuguese woman recalls her fear when her parents are forced to leave her and her sister alone in a dangerous situation, and a woman from Thailand re-discovers her history and culture in spite of being told that “There was no room for the past in the bright worlds to come.”— these are portraits of women attempting to navigate unfamiliar landscapes, and their desire to be accepted despite differences in accent, sexuality, skin colour, or taste in food. Whether home is a place they long to return, desire to create, or hope to preserve in the language of their families, each writer reveals how pieces of their history have brought them closer to, or farther from the feeling of belonging.

In Wherever I Find Myself, edited by Miriam Matejova, the authors are both critical and grateful for being able to call Canada home. Together their stories present a mosaic of emotions and worldviews that underline the plurality of immigrant experiences for women.
www.caitlin-press.com

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