FEMINIST CAUCUS MISSION STATEMENT

Adopted November, 2022

The Feminist Caucus of the League of Canadian Poets strongly and uncompromisingly champions the rights of those who identify as women and/or feminists in Canada and worldwide. Our mandate is to celebrate, promote, and support women’s creativity within the League and beyond. We oppose systemic misogyny, anti-feminist traditions, and rights-restrictive cultural relativism and commit to take action against any infringement of women's rights and their creative work. The Feminist Caucus respects and advocates for equality and freedom of expression in its practices and membership.

Poster by Farah Ayaad

Event partially funded by The League of Canadian Poets and the Canada Council for the Arts

READER BIOS

FARAH AYAAD is a Palestinian-Canadian poet and spiritual activist blending poetry, self-help, and spirituality. She is the author of Coming Home, You Are The Sun, Love On Earth, Mañana, Doves & Olives, and Almost Home. Influenced by Rumi, Khalil Gibran, and Osho, her work empowers readers to become their bravest self.

PADMAJA BATTANI, originally from India, lives in Connecticut/Ottawa. She received an MA in English Literature.  Her prose and poetry appeared in Sierra Poetry Festival, Trouvaille Review, New Pages, The Temz Review, Coffee People Magazine, Poetry Pause (League of Canadian Poets), CanLit Magazine and others. Her latest passion is hiking. She is currently working on a Poetry Collection.

ULIANA HLYNCHAK is a Toronto-based journalist, producer, and author. Uliana writes and translates poetry and short stories in Ukrainian and English. She works at the Ukrainian TV Network KONTAKT. She is on the Board of Directors at the Ukrainian Canadian Art Foundation and volunteers for the Toronto Ukrainian Festival. Uliana came to Canada from Ukraine in 1991.

PAMELA MORDECAI is a Jamaican-Canadian poet who lives in Toronto and writes for adults and children. Her nine books for grown-ups include called A Fierce Green Place: new and selected poems (New Directions, 2022) and de book of Joseph (Mawenzi House,

2022), third in her New Testament series in Patwa. See https://mordecai.citl.mun.ca/

MARYANA MUKHA: From the start of the full-scale invasion until March 2024, Maryana lived in Kyiv, Ukraine, before relocating to Vancouver. Her first poem, written on June 27, 2022, responded to a deadly Russian attack. She has since performed at events supporting Ukraine and is starting a new life in Canada, balancing poetry with new beginnings.

ANINDITA MUKHERJEE is a poet and translator. Her literary oeuvre includes How Silkworms Break Their Eggs: Selected Poems of Mridul Dasgupta, and a chapbook titled Nothing and Variations, besides publications in other literary magazines. She is a PhD student in English and Film Studies at the University of Alberta.

GIANNA PATRIARCA: multiple award-winning author of 13 books: poetry, children’s literature, short fiction, essays. Her work is extensively anthologized, adapted for Canada Stage, CBC Radio, numerous documentaries, and on the course lists of universities in Italy, Canada and the USA.

FAUZIA RAFIQUE Fauzia Rafique is a novelist and arts activist who has published three novels: ‘Keerru‘, ‘Skeena‘, and ‘The Adventures of SahebaN: Biography of a Relentless Warrior’. ‘Insects’, the English translation of Keerru is forthcoming from Hachette India. She is a co-founder and the coordinator of Surrey Muse Arts Society.

BARAN SAJADI is a poet and activist from Afghanistan born in Mashhad, Iran. She experienced child labour and was expelled from Ferdowsi University due to the explicit content of her poetry. Baran has been living in Canada ever since. She has published three poetry collections: Stoning, Period, and Blood Bath.

BÄNOO ZAN (reading as translator for Baran) is a poet, translator, and poetry curator, with over 300 published pieces and three books. She is the founder of Shab-e She’r, Canada’s most diverse and brave poetry series. Bänoo is the co-editor of the international poetry anthology: Woman, Life, Freedom: Poems for the Iranian Revolution, Guernica Editions.

DR. NILOFAR SHIDMEHR is a poet, fiction writer, and poetic-inquiry scholar. She is the author of seven books of poetry in English and Persian, and the chief editor and curator of two Iranian Editions of Bombay Review, and the book Rainbows on Rugged Terrains: Poetics of Queer Iranians in Exile.

JUMOKE VERISSIMO is an acclaimed poet and novelist. Her work includes two award-winning poetry collections, i am memory and The Birth of Illusion, and the critically acclaimed novel, A Small Silence, winner of the Aidoo Synder Book Prize. Her latest poetry collection is forthcoming from Coach House in Fall 2025.

ANNA YIN was Mississauga’s Inaugural Poet Laureate (2015-17) and has authored six poetry collections and four books of translations. Anna won poetry awards in both Chinese and English. She teaches Poetry Alive and her 11th book will be published by Frontenac Press in 2025. Her website is annapoetry.com