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An Evening with Francesca Ekwuyasi

Author of Butter Honey Pig Bread

VIRTUAL

Francesca Ekwuyasi is an author and artist from Lagos, Nigeria and currently based in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Her work explores themes of faith, family, queerness, consumption, loneliness, and belonging.

Francesca's debut novel, Butter Honey Pig Bread was longlisted for the 2020 Giller Prize, was a finalist for CBC's 2021 Canada Reads competition, the 2021 Lambda Literary Award, the 2021 Governor General's Award, the 2021 Amazon Canada First Novel Award, and the 2021 ReLit Award.

Butter Honey Pig Bread tells the interwoven stories of twin sisters, Kehinde and Taiye, and their mother, Kambirinachi. Kambirinachi is convinced she was born an ogbanje, a spirit that plagues families with misfortune by dying in childhood to cause its mother misery. Kambirinachi and her two daughters become estranged from one another because of a trauma. They come together after more than a decade apart and confront their past and find forgiveness through food from their childhood.

Her writing has been published in Winter Tangerine Review, Brittle Paper, Transition Magazine, the Malahat Review, Visual Art News, Vol. 1 Brooklyn, GUTS magazine, the Puritan, Canadian Art, and elsewhere. Her story Ọrun is Heaven was longlisted for the 2019 Journey Prize.

Interviewing will be Vicky Mochama. Vicky Mochama is a writer and editor. A former national columnist for StarMetro newspapers, she has also written for the Toronto Star, the Globe and Mail, TVO, The Walrus, and The Washington Post. She co-founded Vocal Fry Studios, and hosted and produced podcasts Safe Space and No Little Plans.

Registrants will receive an e-mail 24 hours before the start of the program with an invitation to join.

Programmer: Nancy