“The future I yearn for is not one in which we will all be clothed in sameness,” says author David Chariandy, “but is one in which we will finally learn to both read and respectfully discuss our differences.”

David is an author and professor of contemporary literature, creative writing, and cultural studies at Simon Fraser University. His scholarly criticism has been published in numerous journals as well as in academic books such as the Oxford Handbook of Canadian Literature, and Narratives of Citizenship.

His first novel, Soucouyant, was nominated for eleven literary awards and prizes, including the Scotiabank Giller Prize and the Governor General’s Award. His second novel, Brother, was longlisted for Canada Reads and the Scotiabank Giller Prize, named on eight year-end Canadian ‘Best Books’ lists, and won the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize.

His latest work of creative non-fiction, I’ve Been Meaning To Tell You: A Letter To My Daughter, is an intimate meditation on the politics of race, drawn from David’s experiences as the son of Black and South Asian migrants from Trinidad. The Globe and Mail calls it “poetic and moving, a slim but weighty book that excavates things often left unsaid.”

David grew up in Toronto and lives and teaches in Vancouver.

Appearing in: Author! Author!

Website: www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/authors/89746/david-chariandy
Book: www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/574598/ive-been-meaning-tell-you