Writing Across Diasporas, Generations, and Languages with Wiley Wei-Chiun Ho and Alyssa Sy de Jesus
About the event
No matter how far back our first relatives arrived in Canada, we still search for ways to connect back to our cultural heritages and languages. Language is one of the strongest ways we make sense of where we come from and how we see and interpret the world around us. Through writing, we can explore deeper connections to ourselves and our relationship to our culture/s and families past and present. This workshop is intended to be a safe and expressive space. We invite participants to bring a word or phrase from their heritage language/s to the workshop. Maybe something that has haunted, inspired, or been passed down to you. This workshop is suitable for beginners and those looking to draft a new scene or story rather than revision or editing. Participants will be led into a generative writing period to explore their meaningful word or phrase on the page, in poetry or prose. Near the end of the workshop, participants will be invited to share (optional) their work. **Please note that this class takes place at the Dunbar Branch ** This class is supported by the Canadian Poetry Fund, a local donor-advised fund which fosters accessible public education outreach for poetry and other forms of creative writing --- Wiley Wei-Chiun Ho is a Taiwanese Canadian writer, whose award-winning short stories and personal essays have been published in literary journals, magazines, and anthologies. Her first book The Astronaut Children of Dunbar Street (Douglas & McIntyre) debuted on the BC Bestsellers List in April 2026 where it still remains, and is a summer read recommendation by CBC News. A strong champion of writing communities, Wiley founded the Diasporic Writers Salon and is a member of the Asian Canadian Writers’ Workshop, the Federation of BC Writers, and the North Shore Writers’ Association, where she regularly organizes and hosts community reading events and workshops. Alyssa Sy de Jesus is a poet of Chinese heritage in search of the worded artefacts of her family’s five generation settlement in the Philippines and eventual migration to Canada on the unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh Nations. Her work has been featured in: Chinatown Stories, ACAM Tributaries, Living Hyphen, Ginger and Smoke, Liars of Orpheus, Jane’s Walks, Mashed Poetics, and the Jade Music Festival. She was co-editor of de-comp Journal’s “Translate Me Not” issue and is a graduate of the SFU Writers Studio. She was a programmer and community consultant on “Kuwentong Pamamahay”, an oral history project with members of the Filipino Canadian community. This November, she will be doing a writing residency at the Banff Centre for Arts on Treaty 7 Territory, traditional home of the Niitsitapi from the Blackfoot Confederacy. -- Accessibility: VPL is committed to making our programs accessible for all. If you have an access need that we have not addressed here, please email us at programs@vpl.ca. There will be a walking, outdoor component to this program The expected noise level is moderate The Dunbar Branch does not have a meeting room, so this class will take place in the Teens Section of the library
