Opening Doors Through Stories: Home Chapbook Launch

Celebrate with us! This chapbook showcases the diverse experiences of newcomers to Canada and this launch allows us to hear the power of their stories through their own voices.

The Saskatchewan Writers’ Guild (SWG) and the Regina Open Door Society are pleased to launch our chapbook, Opening Doors Through Stories: Home, hosted at Regina Public Library. Participants in the Opening Doors Through Stories series met in-person at the Regina Open Door Society throughout October and November 2023 to develop creative writing for inclusion in this chapbook. These writers worked hard to refine their writing for publication with workshop facilitator and chapbook editor, Marie Powell.

This collection showcases the diverse identities and experiences of newcomers to Canada through creative writing and this launch allows us to hear the power of their stories through their own voices. Celebrate with us and these talented chapbook contributors: Alina Shylan, Ananta, Marwa Abu Eita, and Munit Vikram. This event is hosted by Marie Powell.

Read the current chapbook here: https://skwriter.com/programs-and-services/publications/other-publications/opening-doors-through-stories 

Join us in-person in Regina or online from anywhere in the world. This event will be livestreamed, recorded, and posted for 30 days to the SWG’s YouTube channel in the week following the event: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRAIIcrpQW0NcY6ZM0GGSzw  

In-person: Regina Public Library – Central Branch, 1st floor, Community Commons Room, 2311 12 Ave, Regina

Online: To register for the online event, please visit https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_ykqybEn8TjSlKXy9cruuYw  

Contributors:

Alina Shylan was born in Lviv, Western Ukraine and arrived in Regina, Saskatchewan on July 4, 2022. Alina holds a Master’s of Business Administration Degree from Lviv Institute of Management and is a business professional with over 10 years of experience in customer service, marketing and business development. Alina has working experience in several industries including Banking, IT and Media Business. Now Alina works at the City of Regina.

Marwa Abu Eita was born in Cairo, Egypt. She is an architect with more than twenty years of experience in the design of villas and buildings. She had been working in Dubai and arrived recently in Regina working as a designer in an architectural firm. She is taking steps towards being a registered architect in Canada. She is passionate about reading and writing fictional stories and likes swimming.

Munit Vikram was born in Allahabad, a small city in Uttar Pradesh, India. She currently lives in Regina, Canada and loves the quietness and calmness of the place. She has a Master’s in Human Resources and Psychology with huge experience in Human Resources. She has an innate interest in human behavior which motivated her to write her first book, Embrace Yourself about human behavior within the corporate world. Apart from writing, she enjoys baking and crocheting.

Ananta (Dimple Mehta) hails from India and calls Canada home now. Writing, for her, was an escape into a different world as a very shy teenager. Soon after joining law school, she stopped writing. She speaks Gujarati, English, Hindi, and bit of Marathi. She enjoys furniture painting, dancing, and procrastinates by tending to her plants when not working. She thanks Marie for her guidance which allowed her to tap into lost creativity after two decades. This first publication will make one person the happiest – her 19-year-old self.

Editor and Host:

Marie Powell’s castle-hopping adventures across North Wales resulted in her medieval fantasy series Last of the Gifted: Spirit Sight and Water Sight, set in 13th C Wales. Marie is also the author of 40+ children’s books with such publishers as Scholastic Education and Amicus. Her short stories and poetry appear in such literary magazines as Room, subTerrain, and Sunlight Press. She has served in SWG’s mentorship program as a mentor and as Virtual Writer-in-Residence, Sage Hill Teen Writing Experience instructor, and Opening Doors anthology editor. She holds a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in Creative Writing from UBC, among other degrees. Marie lives on Treaty 4 land in Regina, where she experiments in gardening and medieval cooking. Find more at https://mariepowell.ca 

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