June Readings

June 11, 2014, 7:15-9:00pm
Gibson Room, Green College

For the June meeting of the Lucid Book Club and Reading Series, we will be featuring a diverse group of writers and mental health practitioners from the local communities, presenting their writing projects. The event will showcase a variety of work, ranging from memoir to poetry, fiction and self-help.

reclaim-quinn thedolphin_canadian harbour_cover broken-word-alan-hill when-quietness-came

Francine Cunningham is an Aboriginal writer originally from Calgary Alberta. She has a Visual and Performing arts diploma from Keyano College with a specialization in acting, a Bachelors of Arts degree in theatre from UBC and will be graduating in the fall from UBC with an MFA in creative writing. Teenage Asylums is the thesis novel Francine has been working on during her time at UBC and it focuses on Sage, an Aboriginal girl from Calgary who is dealing with mental illness, her parents’ divorce and first love.

Having grown up in a small university town in the Maritimes, Erin Emiru excelled at school and was pursuing undergrad Honours when she was overwhelmed by mental illness. Her memoir, When Quietness Came: A Neuroscientist’s Personal Journey with Schizophrenia, was published nine years later, in 2012, and details the years of turbulence, terror, and sorrow she endured through numerous hospitalizations and drug trial-and-errors. Nevertheless, she completed her Master’s in Neuroscience at UBC in 2005 and worked for a time in that field. She is now a Peer Care Coordinator with one of VCH’s ACT outreach mental health and addictions teams, seeking to help others towards recovery and hope.

Alan Hill has published two books of poetry, The Broken Word (2013) and The Upstairs Country (2012). His poetry has appeared in Canada in CV2, Canadian Literature, Vancouver Review, The Antigonish Review, Quills, Sub-Terrain, Poetry is Dead; in the UK in South, Brittle Star, The Wolf, and Turbulence; and in the United States in The Dallas Review and Cascadia Review. He has also been published in a number of international and Canadian anthologies. He is currently editing a manuscript of new work, still untitled, that he hopes to present to publishers this summer.  He will be reading poetry that explores issues and experiences encountered growing up with an older brother who had been diagnosed with schizophrenia.

Dr. Shimi Kang is an award-winning, Harvard-trained doctor, researcher, media expert, and lecturer on human motivation. She is the Medical Director for Child and Youth Mental Health for Vancouver community, a Clinical Associate Professor at the University of British Columbia. As a writer, her articles appear in major media outlets including the Huffington PostPsychology Today and TIME Magazine. Dr. Kang has helped thousands of people move toward positive behaviors and better health. She will be reading from her new book The Dolphin Way: A Parent’s Guide to Raising Healthy, Happy, and Motivated Kids Without Turning Into A Tiger (Penguin Books 2014). The Dolphin Way is currently one of Indigo/ Chapters top 10 bestselling parenting books–it provides insight and tools for not just parents, but for all humans!

Miranda Pearson is the author of three books of poetry, Prime (2001), The Aviary (2007) and Harbour (2009). Her poems have also appeared in numerous journals and anthologies, most recently Forcefield, Women Poets of BC, and The Bright Well, Canadian Poets Write about Cancer. Her next collection, The Fire Extinguisher, is forthcoming in Spring 2015 from Oolichan Books.  Miranda holds an MFA in Creative Writing from UBC, and has taught both at UBC and at SFU, where she taught in Women’s Studies and then spent 4 years as the Poetry Mentor for The Writer’s Studio. She is also a Registered Psychiatric Nurse and has worked in Community Mental Health Care for Vancouver Coastal Health since moving to Canada from England in 1991.  Miranda will be reading from Harbour, particularly the first section, which addresses her work in psychiatry.  Harbour was nominated for the BC Book Prize for poetry in 2010.

Alyson Quinn was born in Zimbabwe to Irish parents and spent her childhood years in Southern Africa. She trained as a social worker and has spent twenty-five years working in Psychiatry as a group therapist and individual and couples counselor.  She has been writing for the past seven years and has published two nonfiction books to date. Her first novel is coming out this July. She will be reading from Reclaim your soul; your path to healing. This book was written to address the barriers to healing and build awareness of what helps us change.