DESI DIARY
IS THIS YOUR STORY?
Alka Kumar.
Neil Gonsalves.
The Immigrant Writers Association’s recently-released new anthology, Finding The Way, was co-authored by thirteen of its members, first-time or published immigrant authors that have come from Ghana, Ukraine, Romania, USA, India, Cuba, Senegal, United Arab Emirates, Trinidad and Tobago. These include, among others, Rachel Lawerh, Neil Gonsalves, Gabriela Casineanu, Alka Kumar and Brian Sankarsingh.
Neil Gonsalves has been a college professor since 2006, teaching in the area of law enforcement and justice studies. As the arena of teaching has changed, he has embraced teaching and learning in this tech era. Gonsalves has been a guest speaker at several public events, from project management conferences to regional municipal headquarters, for a wide array of professionals as well as in public libraries with community partnership initiatives. Using previous vocational experience and blending it with his passion for teaching, he enjoys training dogs and their owners, helping them build good K9 citizen behaviours.
Alka Kumar (PhD), currently a Research Affiliate at the CERC in Migration and Integration Program at Toronto Metropolitan University, works as a researcher and a practitioner in migration. Her areas of expertise and work include supporting immigrants and organizations in the context of career transition and labour market integration for racialized skilled immigrants; she also teaches Business English, Communication Skills and Conflict Resolution in Bridging Programs; and she writes op-eds and blogs, reports and articles on related topics. With expertise in building capacity for racialized communities across sectors, Kumar works at the intersection of equity, diversity, inclusion and social justice. As a member of the senior leadership team at the Coalition for Manitoba Cultural Communities for Families (CMCCF), she works in a strategic role, helping to envision, design, and facilitate a range of community engagements and learning events, including conducting research and writing content for the organization’s website.
Finding The Way is a collection of fiction and non-fiction stories and poetry that portrays hope, courage, resilience, and grit rekindled in difficult situations. Unexpectedly sometimes. United by the common thread “finding the way”.
Whether it’s about life’s signs that forged trailblazers, understanding that “home” is not a place, self-realization and courage to stand up triggered by Grandma’s haunting words, a quest to find alternative ways for mental health and well-being, enlightening transitions or a wake-up call for humanity, there are deep universal themes woven into this book.
This is the fourth annual anthology published by the IWA and all proceeds go to supporting IWA’s programming and publishing its next anthologies.
The Immigrant Writers Association (IWA) is an incorporated non-profit organization that provides programs, activities, and services that empower and support immigrant writers on their journeys.
Its mission is to encourage Canadian immigrants to express themselves more through writing, to bring more awareness, compassion, and peace into the world.