As part of its new series, Koreh: Writers in the Sanctuary, Vancouver's East-Side Shul is pleased to welcome four talented writers this November. In exploring the connection between artistic expression and identity, our intention is to honour the writing and story-telling talent in the greater Or Shalom community and to open Or Shalom as a space where artistic practice is celebrated.

Karen X. Tulchinsky a.k.a Aren, Leah Horlick, Rhea Tregebov, and Amal Rana will each read from newly published works and works-in-progress on the topic of roots and family.

Refreshments will be served and a selection of books by each writer will be available for purchase (cash only). This is a free event.


Karen X. Tulchinsky (a.k.a. Aren), is a writer, director and video editor. Tulchinsky’s novel, The Five Books Of Moses Lapinsky, was a Toronto Book Award Finalist and won the One Book One Vancouver Prize. Tulchinsky’s short film, Ms. Thing, has screened at 55 film festivals internationally and won Audience Choice Award at QueerFruits Australia. Tulchinsky works as a video editor on Canadian television series and is currently writing a new novel set in 1930’s Berlin.

Leah Horlick is a writer who grew up as a settler on Treaty Six Cree territory in Saskatoon. She is the author of two books of poetry: Riot Lung (Thistledown Press, 2012), and For Your Own Good (2015, Caitlin Press), which was named a Stonewall Honor Book by the American Library Association in 2016. She is a past winner of the Dayne Ogilvie Prize for Emerging LGBT Writers and this year, she was lucky enough to win ARC Magazine's Poem of the Year prize. She spent the last five years working with Estlin McPhee to run REVERB, Vancouver's only queer and anti-oppressive literary reading series.

Rhea Tregebov’s seventh collection of poetry, All Souls’, was published in 2012. Her poetry has received the Pat Lowther Memorial Award, The Malahat Review’s Long Poem Prize, Honorable Mention for the National Magazine Awards, and the Readers’ Choice Award for Poetry from Prairie Schooner. Her work is characterized by a strong poetic voice, intellectual honesty, and a compassionate engagement with the extraordinary lived experience of “ordinary” life. Tregebov is also the author of an award-winning historical novel, The Knife-Sharpener’s Bell, and five children’s picture books. Having retired from teaching in June 2017, she is now an Associate Professor Emerita in the Creative Writing Program at University of British Columbia.

Amal Rana is a mixed race, South Asian Muslim Performance Poet, Storyteller and Educator specializing in art projects weaving together community narratives across cultures, languages and generations.