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Fall 2024 Author Visit and Lyre Launch
Our Fall 2024 Author Visit and Lyre Magazine Launch took place on the afternoon of October 24. The program included a book reading and discussion by visiting author, Dr. Myriam Chancy. We also celebrated the launch of the 15th edition of World Languages and Literatures publication, The Lyre, accompanied by readings from student authors and a dinner reception.
About the Author: Myriam J. A. Chancy is the author of What Storm, What Thunder, awarded an American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation and named a best book of the year by NPR, Kirkus, Chicago Public Library, New York Public Library, the Boston Globe, and the Globe and Mail. Her past novels include The Loneliness of Angels, winner of the Guyana Prize for Literature Caribbean Award; The Scorpion’s Claw; and Spirit of Haiti, short-listed for the Commonwealth Prize. She is a Fellow of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation and HBA Chair in the Humanities at Scripps College in California.
From award-winning author Myriam J. A. Chancy comes an extraordinary and enduring story of two families—forever joined by country, and by long-held secrets—and two girls with a bond that refuses to be broken.
In 1940s’ Port-au-Prince, Gertie and Sisi become fast childhood friends, despite being on opposite ends of the social and economic ladder. As young girls, they build their unlikely friendship—until a deathbed revelation ripples through their families and tears them apart. After François Duvalier’s rule turns deadly in the 1950s, Sisi moves to Paris, while Gertie marries into a wealthy Dominican family. Across decades and continents, through personal success and failures, they are parted and reunited, slowly learning the truth of their singular relationship. Finally, six decades later, with both women in the United States, a sudden phone call brings them back together once more to reckon with and—perhaps—forgive the past.
Told with power and frankness, Village Weavers confronts the silences around class, race, and nationality, charts the moments when lives are irrevocably forced apart, and envisions two girls—connected their entire lives—who try to break inherited cycles of mistrust and find ways back into each other’s hearts.
The Lyre launched its 15th volume at the Halpern Centre, with live readings of original poetry and a discussion of language in translation. The Lyre is a student-led literary journal supported by SFU's Department of World Languages and Literatures, publishing creative work from a variety of cultures to emphasize the diverse backgrounds of undergraduate students at SFU and around the globe.
Michael Wu is a Communication student at SFU minoring in World Literature and Publishing. He has received SFU's Caledonia Award in World Literature and is Co-Managing Editor of the 15th and 16th volumes of The Lyre. Outside of school, he has been a freelance translator for over 7 years.
Isobel Sinclair is completing her English Honours degree at SFU and is the Co-Editor-In-Chief of the 15th and 16th editions of The Lyre. She is a writer and poet published in Blank Spaces and (of course) The Lyre. After graduation, she intends to become a librarian and support communities through literature and learning.
