While in residency, our writers share their thoughts on our blog, give out valuable writing advice, and engage with the community via different programs of writing-focused activities. Read all about it here and don’t forget to subscribe to our newsletter, so you don’t ever miss a new blog post or event!
Historic Joy Kogawa House Recent News

Blog #2 | Guest Post by Karen Parrish
“In […] haiku I felt my grief was opening into something else and that something was love due to grief, because of grief. Perhaps I’d felt this love all along, with my husband, with our children, our families and friends, but it didn’t feel like just love-love, as beautiful and profound as that is. It felt like a love that was as big as it was because there had been loss, that only through loss could this love be completely seen.”
Historic Joy Kogawa House Previous Blog Posts

Upcoming Events at Kogawa House this November
Discover beauty and transformation in grief poetry, explore identity and home through poetry, music, and photography, and celebrate a memoir launch with us this November.

Transforming Trauma Mail Art Project by Effie Pow
Transforming Trauma mail art submissions were received between April and May 2023. The
writer-in-residence project explored themes of family, identity, immigrant experiences, healing,
and reconciliation.

From the Lost and Found Department with Joy Kogawa
Launch of a career-spanning volume that brings together new and selected works by an iconic voice in Canadian literature

Haiku on the Journey to Healing | New WIR and Fall Events
A poet and grief group facilitator with the Lower Mainland Grief Recovery Society, Karen Parrish will edit to publishable size more than 1,500 grief haikus while in residence at Historic Joy Kogawa House from October 1 to November 30, 2023, and will present two public programs during the residency.

QueerAsian 6 and Other Events at Kogawa House
Exciting week ahead: register for QueerAsian 6 & a book publishing workshop this Wednesday!

New Writer, New Events at Kogawa House
Please welcome our new Writer-in-Residence and join us for these literary events in September.

Arrivals and departures: A fun social literary evening
The first known use of the words arrival and departure were in the 14th and 15th centuries respectively, but do they denote beginnings or endings or both?
Join us for a fun literary social with writers Christine Hayvice, Aaron Chan, Jennifer Zilm, Cynthia Sharp, Christina Myers, and Candie Tanaka as they explore this notion and state of place in different ways.

Poetry Masterclass with Tāriq Malik
On July 20, join Tāriq Malik for an energizing workshop on tapping into the alchemy of visual art and the poetic voice (and other unleashed beasts). Sharing his innovative poems from Exit Wounds, Tāriq will guide you through genre-bending exercises that connect visual and poetic forms and challenge you to push the boundaries of what your words can achieve. You will walk away from this masterclass feeling a sense of empowerment, agency, and openness.