Real Vancouver Writers’ Series celebrates the turning of the seasons with another stellar line-up of great writing from Vancouver and beyond!

Situated in the accessible and historic Russian Hall in the Strathcona neighbourhood of east Vancouver this event will be great and you’ll love it.

Featuring readings by

Tara Borin
Tanya Boteju
Tolu Oloruntoba
Tania De Rozario
Erika Thorkelson
Rhea Tregebov

Hosted by Dina Del Bucchia and Sean Cranbury

About the readers:

Tara Borin lives and writes in Dawson City, Yukon, in traditional Tr’ondek Hwech’in territory. Their work has recently appeared in Quattro Books’ Best New Poets in Canada 2018 anthology and in Prairie Fire. Tara is currently working on a full-length collection of poems set in a small town dive bar.

Tanya Boteju is an English teacher and writer living on unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations (Vancouver, Canada). Her writing life has mostly consisted of teaching writing for the past eighteen years to teenagers, and she is continually inspired by the brilliant young people in her midst. Her novel, Kings, Queens, and In-Betweens, debuted in 2019 with Simon & Schuster and was named a Top 10 Children’s Book by the American Booksellers Association. Her next YA novel is slated for Spring 2021, also with Simon & Schuster. Tanya is grateful for her patient wife, supportive family and friends, committed educators, sassy students, and hot mugs of tea. She hopes to continue contributing to the ever-growing, positive representation of diverse characters in literature.

Tolu Oloruntoba is the author of the Anstruther Press chapbook Manubrium, and a full length collection forthcoming from Palimpsest Press. He lived in Nigeria and the United States, and practiced medicine before his current work in project management. His poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in Pleiades, Columbia Journal Online, Obsidian, This Magazine, and the CMAJ, and has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize. He lives in Surrey, BC

Tania De Rozario is a writer and visual artist. She is the author of And The Walls Come Crumbling Down and Tender Delirium, both published by Math Paper Press. Her writing can also be found in various ¬journals including Prairie Schooner, Sow’s Ear Poetry Review, carte blanche, Blue Lyra Review, The Laurel Review, Midway Journal, and Margin -The Asian American Writers Workshop Journal.

Erika Thorkelson is a freelance journalist, writing consultant and writer of fiction and creative non-fiction. Her work often explores how personal stories intersect with larger social forces and has recently appeared in the anthology Refuse: Canlit in Ruins as well as many local and national publications including the Walrus, Room Magazine and Chatelaine. She also teaches humanities at Emily Carr University of Art and Design.

Rhea Tregebov’s second novel, Rue des Rosiers, was released by Coteau Books in May, 2019. An award-winning poet and celebrated author of children’s picture books, Tregebov has also edited numerous anthologies. From 2004 to 2017 she was a professor in the Creative Writing Program at UBC; she is now Associate Professor Emerita.

The event will take place in the upstairs venue. There is a ramp to the front entrance, and a mobility lift in the lobby connecting users to the downstairs lobby where there is an accessible gender neutral washroom, as well as all washrooms in the venue. The seating in this venue are small wooden chairs with metal legs.