Joy Kogawa & Friends Reading (FREE admission)
Saturday, February 11, 2006, 2pm to 4pm
3rd Floor, Chapters Bookstore, 788 Robson St., Vancouver
TLC The Land Conservancy of BC is hosting an up-close and personal reading and book signing with award-winning Canadian author and poet, Joy Kogawa. Kogawa will read from her second novel now retitled Emily Kato. Other guest speakers will include Roy Miki, Governor General Award Winner for Poetry, and Daphne Marlatt, Canadian novelist and poet. Retired school counsellor, Ellen Crowe-Swords will also speak to her family’s experience of being interned at Hastings Park. This event is part of TLC’s awareness and fundraising campaign to save Joy Kogawa’s childhood home in Vancouver. For more information, call (604) 733-2313.
In Obasan, Naomi’s childhood was torn apart by Canada’s betrayal of Japanese Canadian citizens during the 1940s. Years later, living quietly as a schoolteacher in the prairies, Naomi suffers the passing of the dear aunt and uncle who raised her, and her wounds are reopened. But Naomi’s other aunt – the feisty Emily Kato convinces her to move to Toronto and encourages her to become involved in the Japanese Canadian fight for redress. (Penguin Books)