The 12th Annual LiterASIAN Festival spotlights Asian Canadian Literature, History, and Culture

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Vancouver, BC – LiterASIAN returns with established and emerging literary voices coming together for a month of commemoration, celebration, and conversation showcasing the resilience and growth of Asian Canadian voices in CanLit. With this year’s theme of re(dress) 2024, the festival will include book readings, writing workshops, panel discussions, and an afternoon dimsum with the authors. Full events schedule available online at http://literasian.com

This year’s featured authors include trailblazing Canadian writer Joy Kogawa (From the Lost and Found Department); politician-turned-author Ujjal Dosanjh (The Past is Never Dead); bestselling author Lindsay Wong (Tell Me Pleasant Things about Immortality); community worker and mentor Jennilee Austria-Bonifacio (Reuniting with Strangers); author and artist Keiko Honda (Accidental Blooms); and scholar and community researcher Angie Wong(Laughing Back at Empire).

“As one of Canada’s longest-running writers’ festivals, LiterASIAN Festival continues to spotlight Pan-Asian literary voices that have enriched Canadian literary culture,” says Festival Director Allan Cho. “This year’s festival is dedicated to our Ada Con, a founding director of the Asian Canadian Writers’ Workshop (ACWW), who devoted her life to the love of community, literature, and writing.”

LiterASIAN will take place in Vancouver’s historic Chinatown located on the unceded Coast Salish Territories of the Musqueam, Tsleil Waututh, and Squamish people. Events will be held at the Vancouver Japanese Language School & Japanese Hall, Chinatown Storytelling Centre, Centre A International Art Gallery, and Floata Seafood Restaurant.

In collaboration with Word Vancouver Literary Festival, LiterASIAN will host a special fundraiser event, Wine and Words: Dimsum with the Authors, featuring an afternoon of food and festivities with all of the featured writers. This fundraiser will include dim sum, wine tastings, author readings, with live and silent auctions.

Tickets go on sale April 1, 2024, and are available for purchase online at http://literasian.com

About LiterASIAN Festival 

LiterASIAN 2024 marks the 12th annual year the festival will bring Asian Canadian writing to the forefront. Launched in 2013 and the first of its kind within Canada, the festival was created from a desire to promote and celebrate Asian Canadian writing and engage the wider community through readings, workshop events, and panel discussions. The purpose of LiterASIAN is to expand the canon of Asian Canadian writing. But the festival has always been, and will always remain an inclusive event.

LiterASIAN is a community-building initiative of the Asian Canadian Writers’ Workshop (ACWW), a not-for-profit organization founded in the late 1960s to foster a community of Pacific Rim Asian Canadian writers and to encourage and publish new works of literature. In 1994, ACWW launched Ricepaper magazine, a Vancouver-based publication that has showcased and distributed Asian Canadian literature, arts, and culture coast to coast. With chapters in Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal, ACWW has published several literary anthologies, mentored numerous emerging writers, created the Jim Wong-Chu Emerging Writer’s Award, as well as organized writing workshops, book clubs, and one-on-one manuscript development sessions.

For further press information, including interviews and photos, please email info@literasian.com.