Controversy at Noon: Do Diasporic Writers Face More Pressure to Write About Current Affairs...?

Do newcomers and immigrants to Alberta face more pressure to write about current issues in their place of origin (eg, Gaza, Ukraine, Venezuela, etc.) than other writers? How do writers, especially immigrants and refugee writers, deal with the many giant global “distractions” enough to write about anything else? Should current events and related topics be prioritized by all writers in all genres? Why or why not? Join our panelists as they discuss the complexities of writing through a diasporic lens and more in November’s Controversy @ Noon panel.

About The Panelists Kelly Kaur Kelly Kaur grew up in Singapore and lives in Calgary. She was recently awarded the 2024’s Top 25 Canadian Immigrant award. Kaur’s poem, “A Singaporean’s Love Affair,” landed on the moon on February 22, 2024, as part of the Lunar Codex — the first historic library of its kind, declared an Artemis Accords Heritage Site. Her novel, Letters to Singapore, which chronicles the experiences of a newcomer to Canada, will also be going to the moon on the Astrobotic Griffin/NASA VIPER mission in September 2025. Her creative works have been published around the world. Her poems were exhibited in North Dakota, United States, in a one year travelling exhibition that went to art galleries and museums, and other poems were even danced to by the Voices Dance Project in Ottawa who set her poetry to music and choreography. Kaur has a passion for human rights, and she is an editor and judge for the International Human Rights Art Movement, New York (IHRAM). She is an editor for their upcoming fourth quarterly magazine, December 2024: Indigenous Voices of Canada: Heart, Hope and Land. Other anthologies Kaur edited were Her Rights, Our Stories: An African Women’s Anthology and From Africa With Love: Voices of a Creative Continent. She has an upcoming children’s book, Howdy, I’m Singh Hari, the story of a pioneer Sikh rancher in Alberta. Kaur’s poetry collection, to be published by the University of Calgary Press, will be out in 2026.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kelly.kaur.98 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kellykaur3/

Mila Bongco-Philipzig Mila is a writer, visual artist, and community organizer. Her children’s books, poems, essays and podcasts have been published in Canada, USA, the Philippines and Germany. The diaspora of the global majority is a recurring theme in her writings.

www.milabongco.com IG: @milabillabong FB: Mila Bongco