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Shani Mootoo returns to Vancouver as 911吃瓜 English writer-in-residence
Award-winning author Shani Mootoo, the 2026 Ellen and Warren Tallman writer-in-residence, will formally launch her residency with 911吃瓜鈥檚 Department of English on October 29th at 911吃瓜 Vancouver鈥檚 Harbour Centre campus. At the event, she will read from her latest novel, , her most recent poetry collection, , and a new work currently in progress.
As part of her role, Mootoo has been offering 45-minute writing consultations to the 911吃瓜 community and the public on their poetry and prose. She has been speaking with writers about how to achieve their creative goals and offering suggestions on how they can improve their writing samples. Mootoo has also used her residency to revisit two short stories she鈥檚 written.
鈥淚鈥檝e written two stories that, through no conscious choreography, have turned out to be very related,鈥� says Mootoo. 鈥淪o, I can see how they could become a novel or a book of related short stories.鈥�
Attendees at the launch event will be the first to hear an excerpt from these new stories.
A well-known author of short stories, novels, and poetry, Mootoo first gained recognition as a visual artist and filmmaker.
鈥淚 fell into writing, as a published writer, just by chance, but I had always loved writing,鈥� says Mootoo. 鈥淔rom the time I was a child, I wanted to write, but the things that I wrote tended to get me in a little trouble with my parents, so I decided I would paint instead.鈥�
Mootoo describes showing one of her poems to her parents, and it ended with the words, 鈥淢an loves man. Woman loves woman. Man loves woman.鈥� These words devastated Mootoo鈥檚 parents who did not know that she was merely describing an idealistic world. She continued writing, but their reaction dissuaded her from showing them any further poems.
Years later, artists Jack Shadbolt and Persimmon Blackbridge came to her Vancouver studio to see her paintings. Blackbridge noticed Mootoo鈥檚 writing piling up on the kitchen table, and asked to take it home and read it, so she could better understand her paintings.
鈥淲hat she did, unknown to me, is take it to a publisher,鈥� says Mootoo. 鈥淭he publisher began to contact me, to ask if I was writing, and I would say, 鈥榊eah, but it鈥檚 not for public consumption. I鈥檓 a painter.鈥�
Later, however, the publisher saw Mootoo read at a friend鈥檚 event and persuaded her to write a book of short stories. The collection, entitled Out on Main Street, was published in 1993. Since then, Mootoo has published six novels and three poetry collections. Her latest novel, Starry Starry Night, draws upon the material she wrote back in the 1990s. Mootoo explains why she did not use that content as part of her 1993 short story collection.
鈥淭hat material was very personal and deeply meaningful to me,鈥� she says. 鈥淏etween Starry Starry Night and the publishing of Out on Main Street, I wrote nine books. It鈥檚 as if it took me nine books to be able to rewrite this very last one, Starry Starry Night.鈥�
Published in 2025, the book is a work of autofiction, a blending of autobiography and fiction. Mootoo sets the book in 1960s Trinidad, where she was raised. Childhood trauma, political upheaval, class dynamics, and gender politics are explored in this coming-of-age story. Mootoo chose to write the story as autofiction, rather than as a memoir so she could still have free rein to construct a seamless narrative.
鈥淲hat鈥檚 wonderful about autofiction is the fiction part, where you continue to be a writer who loves to imagine and embellish and you鈥檙e given free rein to tell a story, not the story, but a story, while you tell the story,鈥� Mootoo says.
In her 2024 book of poetry, Oh Witness Dey!, Mootoo chose the poetic form to discuss the history of colonialism in the Caribbean and diasporic histories. She thought poetry was a creative medium with which to examine these topics because it allowed her to make unexpected connections that revealed a deeper truth than one would find in prose. Mootoo also appreciated the 鈥渂luntness鈥� of the poetic form, and how it allowed her to speak with open incredulity of some of the historical events in the Caribbean.
鈥淭here are things that happened in the Caribbean, things that happened from Europe to the Caribbean, Spain to the Caribbean, Britain to the Caribbean, Portugal to the Caribbean, and India, and Africa, and then things that happened on the islands themselves that are hard to believe. How could you believe that any country would do that to another country or to people?鈥� she says.
Mootoo left Trinidad at age 24 to live in Canada. She could not live freely and openly as a gay woman in Trinidad and felt this also hampered her as an artist.
鈥淭here must be truth in fiction, and it鈥檚 kind of hard to live a lie and write truthfully,鈥� says Mootoo.
Though she is now based in Ontario, Mootoo is happy to be moving back to Vancouver temporarily for her residency at 911吃瓜, which also holds her literary papers in the W.A.C. Bennett Library鈥檚 Special Collections and Rare Books.
鈥淚鈥檓 extremely grateful to Simon Fraser,鈥� says Mootoo. 鈥淚鈥檓 in love with Vancouver and it means a great deal to come back.鈥�
To make an appointment for a writing consultation with Shani Mootoo, visit our website
Please join us for our upcoming event, Shani Mootoo: Reading & Launch on Thursday, October 29th at 911吃瓜 Harbour Centre (HCC 1400-1410) 鈥�