FOLD 2024 Educator Guide

E D U C AT O R ’S GUIDE

PRESENTED BY

THE FESTIVAL OF LITERARY DIVERSITY APRIL 28— MAY 5, 2024 >> VIRTUAL + IN-PERSON

GETTING STARTED This guide was created to help educators engage with their students while attending the festival events. The pre- and post-activities below can be used for all our events. The exercises that explore specific events, and the author profiles are meant to provide you with more information about the creatives participating in this year’s festival.

NEW! Curriculum Feature: Included with the event descriptions are specific course connections to Secondary School themes and some Ontario Secondary School Courses.

PRE-EVENT ACTIVITY Before watching a festival event, look up the authors. Make note of the books they’ve written and discover a little bit about them.

1. What made you choose this writer?

2. What was the most interesting thing you learned about them?

3. Share why you chose the author and what you learned about them with your classmates and teacher. Prepare one question that you would ask them if you got the chance.

POST-EVENT ACTIVITY After listening to the session, identify: 1. three things you learned, 2. two things you found interesting, and 3. one question you still have about writing or about one of the authors

SCHOOL GROUP SESSIONS + EXERCISES

In this panel conversation for high school students, three young adult authors—Maya Ameyaw, Sarah Mughal Rana and Emily Pohl-Weary—discuss how they navigate realistic subjects with care and sensitivity and how they create in-depth characters which allow teens to see themselves and their peers on the page.

*Freedom to Read week is an annual event that encourages Canadians to think about and reaffirm their commitment to intellectual freedom: www.freedomtoread.ca

CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS:

QUESTIONS: 1.

Which book have you read that had a realistic character you related to? What did the author include about the character or situations that made it relatable?

2.

What are some themes you look for when choosing a book? (eg. friendship, family, addiction, mental health). Is it important to you to have a book that reflects real life and difficult issues or do you prefer books that offer escape from reality?

3.

Research “Freedom to Read*” week. In Canada, it was Feb 18–24, 2024. What are the consequences of banning books? What factors should be considered when sharing a book with children or teens?

4.

Do you know of any banned or challenged books? As a class make a list (research some titles if you need to). What were the reasons they were banned or challenged?

• NBSE – BLACK STUDIES COURSES • NBE – INDIGENOUS STUDIES COURSES

• DE-STREAMED ENGLISH COURSES

In this edition of The Writer’s Life series, young adult author and lawyer Brian G. Buckmire discusses how his life as a criminal defense attorney influenced the creation of his debut novel, Come Home Safe, in conversation with fellow author and educator, Matthew R. Morris. Learn about Buckmire’s experience as a public defender, his writing routine and more.

*”The Talk” is a conversation Black parents have with their children about the risks associated with being Black in our society. Learn More: “How Do Parents Talk to Black Children About Racism?” (TVO) www.tvo.org/video/how-do -parents-talk-to-black-children-about-racism

CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS:

QUESTIONS: 1.

What do you know about “the talk”?*

2.

How does your lived experience contribute to your opinion of the role of police in society? (i.e., protectors or persecutors)

3.

What should the police know about young people today?

If you could influence a police officer to challenge the way they do their job, what would you say?

• NBSE – BLACK STUDIES COURSES • NBE – INDIGENOUS STUDIES COURSES

• MENTAL HEALTH & STUDENT WELLBEING

What goes into making monsters? For readers of the fantastical or the horrific, monsters can be easy to spot but how does someone write an iconic creature? Three young adult authors of speculative and horror novels — Matteo L. Cerilli, Clara Kumagai and Teen Writer-in-Residence Nafiza Azad —breakdown the monsters in their most recent work and discuss how teens can create (and defeat) their own.

CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS:

QUESTIONS: 1.

Who are the iconic monsters that come to mind whether in books or on screen? What is it about these monsters that make them so memorable?

2.

After listening to Matteo, Clara and Nafiza discuss writing their monsters, what did you learn about how genre impacts the kinds of monsters a writer creates and how they’re used within a story? (eg. monsters in horror vs fantasy)

3.

How are monsters used as symbols in stories to represent an abstract concept?

• DE-STREAMED ENGLISH COURSES

• MENTAL HEALTH & STUDENT WELLBEING

Building on the success of his novel, Moon of the Crusted Snow, Anishinaabe author Waubgeshig Rice returns to the FOLD with his sequel, Moon of the Turning Leaves. In this in-person event geared towards high school students, fellow dystopian author Jael Richardson, interviews Rice on exploring the process of writing a sequel and creating an apocalypse story with an Indigenous lens.

*Examples of dystopian novels: www.goodreads.com/genres/dystopia

CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS:

QUESTIONS: 1.

What is a dystopian novel? What examples* of dystopian novels have you read?

2.

What elements of society would you alter or focus on if you were to create a dystopian setting for a story? (consider: environmental, social hierarchy, gender roles)

3.

How does a dystopian novel allow us to hold a mirror to our own society in a different way than other genres of literature?

Additional Resource: Listen to some Anishinaabe vocabulary before you read, use the pronunciation guide (13:35)

• NBE – INDIGENOUS STUDIES COURSES

• INDIGENOUS HERITAGE MONTH

In our annual teen spoken word showcase, three poets will take the mic and present incredible poetry. This event is geared towards high school students and will feature a Q&A with the poets!

Discuss as a class the difference between reading poetry and watching it performed. (Predict what the differences may be if your group doesn’t have experience watching performances.)

ACTIVITIES/QUESTIONS:

CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS:

1.

What is the difference between reading poetry and performing poetry? Pick a poem, read it to yourself and then read it aloud. How does the poem change when performed versus read silently?

2.

What are some skills spoken word poets need to perform for an audience? How could these skills transfer to other areas of your life?

• DE-STREAMED ENGLISH COURSES

OTHER

VIRTUAL EVENTS

TO CHECK OUT >>>

Writing involves constantly re-working and revising words. In this panel of writers from Audible’s Indigenous Writers’ Circle, emerging writers discuss how writing groups and various writing habits help them hone their craft and learn new skills.

CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS:

• NBE – INDIGENOUS STUDIES COURSES

• DE-STREAMED ENGLISH COURSES

To write believably, writers need to know their characters as well as they know their real-life BFFs—from the way they speak, move, dress, and argue, to the way they fall in love and decorate their bedrooms, details are critically important. In this workshop for teens, author Emily Pohl-Weary explores how to develop great characters by determining their big secrets and everyday habits.

CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS:

• NBSE – BLACK STUDIES DE-STREAMED ENGLISHCOURSES COURSES • NBE – INDIGENOUS STUDIES COURSES

• DE-STREAMED ENGLISH COURSES

WRITER & PERFORMER BIOS + SOCIALS

MAYA AMEYAW

TORONTO, ONTARIO Maya Ameyaw was born and raised in Toronto by a family of voracious readers in a cozy little house bursting with books. A former bookseller, she currently works as a community arts writing group facilitator and has edited several mental health themed anthologies. In her free time, she interviews writers about their journeys toward publication for her blog and YouTube channel. Her contemporary YA debut When It All Syncs Up (Annick Press, June 2023) received starred reviews from Kirkus and School Library Journal.

FEATURED AT THE FESTIVAL

website: mayaameyaw.com x: @MayaAmeyaw instagram: mayaameyaw

When It All Syncs Up (2023) • Ages 14+ • ISBN-13: 9781773217819 • Available as: hardcover, paperback, ebook OTHER BOOKS • Under All the Lights (2024)

NAFIZA AZAD

BRITISH COLUMBIA Nafiza Azad is a self-identified island girl. She has hurricanes in her blood and dreams of a time she can exist solely on mangoes and pineapple. Born in Lautoka, Fiji, she currently resides in British Columbia, Canada, where she reads too many books, watches too many K-dramas, and writes stories about girls taking over the world. Nafiza is the coeditor of the young adult anthology Writing in Color and author of The Candle and the Flame, which was nominated for the William C. Morris Award, The Wild Ones, and Road of the Lost. She is currently the Teen Writer-in-Residence for the FOLD.

FEATURED AT THE FESTIVAL

website: nafizaazad.com x: @nafizaa instagram: nafizaaz

Writing in Color (2023) • Ages 9+ • ISBN-13: 9781665925648 • Available as: hardcover, paperback, ebook Road of the Lost (2022) • Ages 9+ • ISBN-13: 9781534484993 • Available as: hardcover, paperback, ebook OTHER BOOKS • The Candle and the Flame (2019), The Wild Ones (2021)

BRIAN G. BUCKMIRE BROOKLYN, NY

Brian G. Buckmire is a former NYC public defender in the Criminal Defense Practice and Homicide Defense Task Force of the Legal Aid Society, where he represented indigent clients in Brooklyn, NY. Currently, he is a trial counsel for Hamilton Clarke LLP, where he represents clients in federal civil rights and federal criminal cases. Buckmire is also an ABC legal contributor appearing on GMA, ABC News Live, Nightline, and GMA3’s “Better Call Brian,” as well as a legal analyst on the Law & Crime Network and a host on CBS Sports Golazo. In addition, he serves on the board of trustees for Coney Island Prep, a charter school in South Brooklyn. Born in Toronto, of Caribbean heritage, Brian, his wife Victoria, and their son Reid live in New York.

FEATURED AT THE FESTIVAL

Come Home Safe (2023)

x: @BrianGBuckmire

• Ages 12+

instagram: thebuckesq

• ISBN-13: 9780310142188 • Available as: hardcover, paperback, ebook, audiobook

MATTEO L. CERILLI

TORONTO, ONTARIO O Matteo L. Cerilli is a transmasc author and activist who helped found Students for Queer Liberation (Toronto) and works with the No Pride in Policing Coalition. He writes widely across genres and age categories. Lockjaw is his debut book.

FEATURED AT THE FESTIVAL

x: @MattLCerilli instagram: matteolcerilli

Lockjaw (2024) • Ages 14+ • ISBN-13: 9781774882306 • Available as: hardcover, ebook

CLARA KUMAGAI IRELAND

Clara Kumagai is from Canada, Japan and Ireland.

Her fiction and non-fiction for children and adults has been published in The Stinging Fly, The Irish Times, Banshee, Room, The Kyoto Journal and Cicada, among others. She is a recipient of a We Need Diverse Books Mentorship, and was a finalist for the 2020 Jim Wong-Chu Emerging Writers Award. Catfish Rolling is her debut novel.

FEATURED AT THE FESTIVAL

x: @clarakiyoko instagram: clarakiyoko

Catfish Rolling (2023) • Ages 14+ • ISBN-13: 9781803288048 • Available as: print, ebook, audiobook

SARAH MUGHAL RANA UNITED KINGDOM

Sarah Mughal Rana is a Muslim author and student who completed her bachelors with honours at the University of Toronto and is now at Oxford University, pursuing her career at the intersection of human rights and policy. She is a BookTok personality and the co-host of On the Write Track Podcast where she enjoys spilling tea with her favourite authors about the book world. Outside of school, she falls down history rabbit holes and trains in traditional martial arts.

FEATURED AT THE FESTIVAL

website: sarahmughalrana.net x: @sarahmughal769 instagram: sarahmughal769

Hope Ablaze (2024) • Ages 14+ • ISBN-13: 9781250899316 • Available as: print, ebook, audiobook

EMILY POHL-WEARY VANCOUVER, BC

Emily Pohl-Weary is the author of eight books, a play, and a girl pirate comic. Her new young adult novel, How to Be Found, features a “darker, grittier Nancy Drew” (Toronto Star). The Witch’s Circle, her 40-minute play, can be streamed via Odyssey Theatre’s website. Previous books include Not Your Ordinary Wolf Girl (YA), Ghost Sick (poetry), and Better to Have Loved: The Life of Judith Merril (non-fiction).

FEATURED AT THE FESTIVAL

website: emilypohlweary.com x: @emilypohlweary instagram: kissmachine

How to Be Found (2023) • Ages 13+ • ISBN-13: 978-0593482339 • Available as: print, ebook OTHER BOOKS • Not Your Ordinary Wolf Girl (2013), Strange Times at Western High (2006), and more…

WAUBGESHIG RICE SUDBURY, ON

Waubgeshig Rice grew up in Wasauksing First Nation on the shores of Georgian Bay, in the southeast of Robinson-Huron Treaty territory. He’s a writer, listener, speaker, language learner, and a martial artist, holding a brown belt in Brazilian JiuJitsu. He is the author of the short story collection Midnight Sweatlodge (2011), and the novels Legacy (2014) and Moon of the Crusted Snow (2018). He appreciates loud music and the four seasons. He lives in N’Swakamok—also known as Sudbury, Ontario—with his wife and three sons.

FEATURED AT THE FESTIVAL

website: waub.ca x: @waub instagram: waub

Moon of the Turning Leaves (2023) • Ages 18+ • ISBN-13: 9780358673255 • Available as: print, ebook, audiobook OTHER BOOKS • Moon of the Crusted Snow (2018), Legacy (2014), Midnight Sweatlodge (2011), and more…

AFRAKAREN ONTARIO

afrakaren is a critical thinker and contemporary philosopher who is deeply invested in claiming spaces of healing and rest for #theblackbodypolitic. With a mission to be on stage who she is off stage, afrakaren’s work/words/art/thought is embodied in the life she lives, the child she raises and the community that requires her to be her unapologetic and authentic self. Forever spiralling through this life, guided by the force of her ancestors, afrakaren believes “the artistic creation of anything can be the birth of an everything” and it is her personal mandate to midwife as many revolutions as is possible through this personal philosophy.

CECE/CEDRIC BUSTAMANTE ONTARIO

Cece/Cedric Bustamante is a Queer, Filipino-Canadian, multidisciplinary poet who aims to write poetry that has momentum and vivid imagery, as well as reflect on topics such as Existentialism, Love, Deism, nature, sciences, and enjoyment of the mundane. They also enjoy to abstract the normal into the imagined.

DAVID DELISCA SCARBOROUGH, ONTARIO

Born in Port-Au-Prince, Haiti, and raised in West Palm Beach, Florida residing in Scarborough. David Delisca is a writer, poet, actor and humorist. A versatile artist, he uses stories about the immigrant and diasporic experience, as well as other various human realities, to bridge realms of communication. His works and performances have been featured in Toronto Star, CBC, Netflix.

BOOK LIST 2024 Kazim Ali

Tania De Rozario

Roshan James

RJ McDaniel

Emily Pohl-Weary

Natalie Sue

INDIAN WINTER

DINNER ON MONSTER ISLAND

PINK MOON

ALL THINGS SEEN AND UNSEEN

HOW TO BE FOUND

I HOPE THIS FINDS YOU WELL

978-1552454657 Coach House Books

978-0063299665 HarperCollins Canada

978-1770417625 ECW Press

978-1770417090 ECW Press

978-1551529356 Arsenal Pulp Press

978-0063320369 HarperCollins Canada

Maya Ameyaw

Rodney Diverlus

Jessica Johns

Matthew R. Morris

Adam Pottle

Kim Thúy

WHEN IT ALL SYNCS UP

UNTIL WE ARE FREE

BAD CREE

BLACK BOYS LIKE ME

APPARITIONS

RU

978-1773217819 Annick Press

978-0889776944 University of Regina Press

978-1443465489 HarperCollins Canada

978-0735244580 Penguin Random House Canada

978-1958598184 Dark Matter INK

978-0345816146 Penguin Random House Canada

Nafiza Azad

Farzana Doctor

Balsam Karam

Tiffany Morris

Waubgeshig Rice

Leanne Toshiko Simpson

ROAD OF THE LOST

52 WEEKS TO A SWEETER LIFE

THE SINGULARITY

GREEN FUSE BURNING

NEVER BEEN BETTER

978-1771668897 Book*hug

978-1778092664 Stelliform Press

MOON OF THE TURNING LEAVES

978-1534485006 Simon and Schuster Canada

978-1771624039 Douglas & McIntyre

978-0735281585 Penguin Random House Canada

978-1443465533 HarperCollins Canada

Nafiza Azad

Alicia Elliott

Alina Khawaja

Sarah Mughal Rana

Jael Richardson

Opal Wei

WRITING IN COLOR

AND THEN SHE FELL

MAYA’S LAWS OF LOVE

HOPE ABLAZE

GUTTER CHILD

WILD LIFE

978-1665925648 Simon and Schuster Canada

978-0385684101 Penguin Random House Canada

978-0778305248 HarperCollins Canada

978-1250899316 Macmillan Publishers

978-1443457828 HarperCollins Canada

978-1335475954 Harlequin

Marjorie Beaucage

Christine Estima

Clara Kumagai

Téa Mutonji

Craig Shreve

Christina Wong

LEAVE SOME FOR THE BIRDS

THE SYRIAN LADIES BENEVOLENT SOCIETY

CATFISH ROLLING

SHUT UP YOU’RE PRETTY

THE AFRICAN SAMURAI

DENISON AVENUE

978-1928120360 Kegedonce Press

978-1487012335 House of Anansi

978-1774882764 Penguin Random House Canada

978-1551527550 Arsenal Pulp Press

978-1668002865 Simon and Schuster Canada

978-1770417151 ECW Press

Brian G. Buckmire

Tessa Hulls

Catherine Leroux

Mai Nguyen

Tara Sidhoo Fraser

COME HOME SAFE

FEEDING GHOSTS

THE FUTURE

SUNSHINE NAILS

WHEN MY GHOST SINGS

978-0310142188 HarperCollins Canada

978-0771010682 Penguin Random House Canada

978-1771965606 Biblioasis

978-1668011256 Simon and Schuster Canada

978-1551529271 Arsenal Pulp Press

Matteo L. Cerilli

Salma Hussain

Taj McCoy

Louisa Onomé

LOCKJAW

THE SECRET DIARY OF MONA HASAN

THE GOOD ONES ARE TAKEN

PRIDE AND JOY

978-0735271494 Penguin Random House Canada

978-0778305422 Harlequin

978-1774882306 Penguin Random House Canada

978-1443468787 HarperCollins Canada