Celebrating the depth and diversity of BC publishing
On Thursday, March 7th at 6pm, join Massy Arts, Massy Books and Harper Perennial in celebrating the launch of Dinner on Monster Island by Tania De Rozario with guests Lydia Kwa and Joanne Leow, moderated by Kanksha Chawla.
“In Dinner on Monster Island, Tania De Rozario brilliantly exorcises the demons of her upbringing—an evangelical mother, homophobic policies and culturally pervasive fatphobia—using horror films as an outlet and metaphor for her estrangement. As a writer, De Rozario is searing, stirring, and soaring.” — Kevin Chong, Author of The Double Life of Benson Yu.
This project has been made possible by the Government of Canada. Ce projet a été rendu possible grâce au gouvernement du Canada.
Venue & Accessibility
The event will be hosted at the Massy Arts Gallery, at 23 East Pender Street in Chinatown, Vancouver. We are located in the former MING WO building.
Registration is free and required for entrance.
The gallery is wheelchair accessible and a gender-neutral washroom is on-site.
Please refrain from wearing scents or heavy perfumes.
For more on accessibility including parking, seating, venue measurements and floor plan, and how to request ASL interpretation please visit: massyarts.com/accessibility
Covid Protocols: Masks keep our community safe and are mandatory (N95 masks are recommended as they offer the best protection). We ask if you are showing symptoms, that you stay home. Thank you kindly.
About the book:
Dinner on Monster Island (Harper Perennial, 2024)
Tania De Rozario was just twelve when she was gay-exorcised. That day, the young girl realized that monsters weren’t just found in horror tales. They could lurk anywhere—including your own family and community—and look just like you. Dinner on Monster Island is a collection of essays that examines De Rozario’s experiences growing up a queer, Brown, fat girl in Singapore, intertwined with analyses of women in horror films. Moving and lyrical, it is a deeply personal examination of one woman’s experience grappling with identity and a fantastic analysis of monsters, monstrous women and the worlds in which they live.
About the author:
Tania De Rozario is a writer, visual artist and the author of four books. Her work has won the New Ohio Review Nonfiction Contest (2020), the Muriel Craft Bailey Memorial Poetry Contest (2021), Singapore’s Golden Point Award (2011) and was a finalist for a 2021 Lambda Literary Award. Her visual art has been showcased in galleries and art spaces in Singapore, Amsterdam, London, Spain and San Francisco. Born in Singapore, she lives on the traditional unceded territories of xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations.
About the guests:
Lydia Kwa has published two books of poetry (The Colours of Heroines, 1992; sinuous, 2013) and five novels (This Place Called Absence, 2000; The Walking Boy, 2005 and 2019; Pulse, 2010 and 2014; Oracle Bone, 2017; A Dream Wants Waking, 2023). A third book of poetry from time to new will be published by Gordon Hill Press in Fall 2024. (Headshot credit: Joshua Paul)
Joanne Leow grew up in Singapore and lives on the unceded traditional territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. She is Associate Professor and Canada Research Chair of Transnational and Decolonial Digital Humanities in the Department of English at Simon Fraser University. She is also a poet and writer with a debut collection of poetry, Seas Move Away (2022), published by Turnstone Press. (Headshot credit: Sweetmoon photography)
About the moderator:
Kanksha Chawla (she/they) is an Indian immigrant who grew up in Singapore and lives on the unceded traditional territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. She is an organizer, writer, and student of English Literature at Simon Fraser University. Her work has appeared in anthologies and zines including Crazy Little Pyromaniacs: 35 Poets Under 35 (Math Paper Press) and We are the Fossil Free Future (S4F).