Us, Now roves from Indonesia to the Middle East, Taiwan, Mexico, China, Africa, Jamaica, Barbados, India, Pakistan, and points in between, converging in Newfoundland. These stories by racialized Newfoundlanders are by turns joyous, tender, hilarious, and heart-wrenching. They confront racism and celebrate the act of enduring. They are about settling and getting unsettled, about parents and their children, about language, about facing down the horrors of homophobia, about the joy of love, about lifelong relationships or the glee of a magnificent crush. Here social and domestic violence are countered with tenderness and the penetrating power of narrative. This is a book about distance and coming together, about what it means to be seen and understood, or—devastatingly—to be seen and judged, or to be invisible and misunderstood. What it means to belong. These are new writers and new visions of an in-the-present-moment Newfoundland, stories shaped by powerful voices, stories urgent, radical, and sparking with beauty.

Lisa Moore is the acclaimed author of the novels Caught, February, and Alligator. Caught was a finalist for the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize and the Scotiabank Giller Prize and is now a major CBC television series starring Allan Hawco. February won CBC’s Canada Reads competition, was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize, and was named a New Yorker Best Book of the Year and a Globe and Mail Top 100 Book. Alligator was a finalist for the Scotia Bank Giller Prize, won the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize (Canada and the Caribbean region), and was a national bestseller. Her story collection Open was a finalist for the Scotia Bank Giller Prize and a national bestseller. Her most recent work is a collection of short stories called Something for Everyone. Lisa lives in St. John’s, Newfoundland.

Lisa Moore's profile page

AYSE SULE AKINTURK was born and raised in Istanbul. She holds a doctoral degree in political science and lives in St. John’s.

 

Ayse Sule Akinturk's profile page

ZAY NOVA is originally from Bangka, Indonesia, and currently lives in Paradise, NL.

 

Zay Nova's profile page

XAIVER CAMPBELL is a writer, actor, statistician, political scientist, and baker. He is originally from Jamaica and now lives in St. John’s.

 

Xavier Michael Campbell's profile page

WILLIAM PING is from St. John’s. His work has been previously featured on CBC Radio and in Riddle Fence.

 

William Ping's profile page

Santiago Guzman (he/they) is an award-winning playwright, dramaturge, performer, and director originally from Metepec, Mexico, now based in St. John's, NL. He is the Founder and Artistic Director of TODOS Productions, and Artistic Director for Playwrights Atlantic Resource Centre. Their work has been supported, developed and/or produced by theatre companies and festivals such as TODOS Productions (NL), Resource Centre for the Arts Theatre Company (NL), White Rooster Theatre (NL), Artistic Fraud of Newfoundland (NL), Poverty Cove Theatre Company (NL), Rising Tide Theatre (NL), Neighbourhood Dance Works (NL), Theatre Newfoundland and Labrador (NL), Eastern Front Theatre (NS), PARC (pan-Atlantic), Ship's Company Theatre (NS), Theatre New Brunswick (NB), Boca Del Lupo (BC), Paprika Festival (ON), Stratford Festival (ON), Lemontree Creations (ON), Banff Playwrights Lab (AB) and the National Theatre School of Canada's Art Apart Program (QC). Santiago's work is very gay, very brown, and very real.

Santiago Guzmán's profile page

TZU-HAO HSU was born in Taiwan and raised in Newfoundland. A proud Taiwanese Townie, living is St. John’s, she is a business manager having earned her Bachelor of Commerce and Masters of Business Administration from Memorial University.

 

Tzu-Hao Hsu's profile page

 

Sobia Shaheen Shaikh is a faculty member at the School of Social Work, Memorial University of Newfoundland. Dr. Shaikh’s community-engaged scholarship works to redress racisms, Islamophobia, sexism, ableism, environmental degradation and other interlocking relations of oppression within universities, non-profit organizations and local communities. Dr. Shaikh brings a critical lens to a range of scholarship which explores the subjectivity and motherwork of women and girls who have experienced intimate partner violence; relocation in northern and rural communities; and the everyday work of parents vis-à-vis individualized education plans in K-12 schools.

 

Sobia Shaheen Shaikh's profile page

Prajwala Dixit, a journalist/columnist, playwright, documentary filmmaker and author is an award-winning community catalyst. With bylines in CBC, SaltWire Network and the Globe and Mail, she's had creative pieces featured in respected publications such as the Newfoundland Quarterly. Her annual fundraiser, Diyas for Diversity, highlights diversity within the public libraries of Newfoundland and Labrador. A mother, wife, and daughter, she makes sure to catch up on Hindi cinema when she has a free minute!

 

Prajwala Dixit's profile page

Richard Elcock's profile page

Kyekue Mweemba currently lives in Halifax, Nova Scotia. She grew up in Scotland (by way of Zambia) but suspiciously doesn’t have an accent.

 

Kyekue Mweemba's profile page

Nabila Qureshi is an arts & humanities, and social justice enthusiast. Us, Now is her first publication in creative writing. She lives in St. John’s, Canada.

 

Nabila Qureshi's profile page

“By presenting a diversity of stories and experiences from writers who have moved into, out of, and through […] Newfoundland, […] Us, Now capture[s] the plurality of [this place].”

Quill & Quire

“[Something] these well-crafted pieces share is voice, not just the overarching-author-perspective but in the words spoken within, what they convey and how they chime off the page.”

The Telegram