Paperback
978-1-77212-605-1Size: 5¼" x 9"
Pages: 64
epub
978-1-77212-608-2Pages: 56
Pages: 56
Next Time There's a Pandemic
CLC Kreisel Lecture Series
By Vivek Shraya
"During my first post-lockdown massage, I willingly engaged in the requisite chit chat about lockdown experiences with my therapist. He gushed behind his mask: ‘Oh man. It was so great. Every day I woke up, drank coffee, read, rode my bike…’
My therapist’s description did sound pretty great. But it was nothing like my own anxiety-ridden ordeal…
Had I done the lockdown wrong?”
In Next Time There’s a Pandemic, artist Vivek Shraya reflects on how she might have approached 2020 and the COVID-19 pandemic differently, and how challenging and changing pervasive expressions, attitudes, and behaviours might transform our experiences of life in—and after—the pandemic. What might happen if, rather than urging one another to “stay safe,” we focused instead on being caring? What if, instead of striving to “make the best of it” by doing something, we sometimes chose to do nothing? With generosity, Shraya captures the dissonances of this moment, urging us to keep showing up for each other so we are better prepared for the next time...and for all times.
Book details
Publication date: March 2022Features: Foreword/liminaire, joint afterword with J.R. Carpenter
Series: CLC Kreisel Lecture Series
Keywords: Pandemic; COVID-19; lockdown; care; collective action; mental health; art; creative practice; writing; art; transgender; gender
Subject(s): BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / LGBTQ+, BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Literary Figures, LITERARY COLLECTIONS / Essays, HEALTH & FITNESS / Diseases / Contagious (incl. Pandemics), Literary essays, Coping with physical impairments / disability, Pandemic; COVID-19; lockdown; care; collective action; mental health; art; creative practice; writing; art; transgender; gender, Essays, Literary Nonfiction, Canadian Literature, Health and Medicine, Canadian Literature / Pandemic, Relating to LGBTQ+ people, Autobiography: writers, Social impact of disasters, Bestseller, Creative Writing, Creative Writing / Literary Nonfiction, Creative Writing, Creative Writing / Essays
Publisher(s): The University of Alberta Press, Canadian Literature Centre / Centre de littérature canadienne
Book details
Publication date: March 2022Features: Foreword/liminaire, joint afterword with J.R. Carpenter
Series: CLC Kreisel Lecture Series
Keywords: Pandemic; COVID-19; lockdown; care; collective action; mental health; art; creative practice; writing; art; transgender; gender
Subject(s): BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / LGBTQ+, BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Literary Figures, LITERARY COLLECTIONS / Essays, HEALTH & FITNESS / Diseases / Contagious (incl. Pandemics), Literary essays, Coping with physical impairments / disability, Pandemic; COVID-19; lockdown; care; collective action; mental health; art; creative practice; writing; art; transgender; gender, Essays, Literary Nonfiction, Canadian Literature, Health and Medicine, Canadian Literature / Pandemic, Relating to LGBTQ+ people, Autobiography: writers, Social impact of disasters, Bestseller, Creative Writing, Creative Writing / Literary Nonfiction, Creative Writing, Creative Writing / Essays
Publisher(s): The University of Alberta Press, Canadian Literature Centre / Centre de littérature canadienne
Vivek Shraya. Vivek Shraya is an artist whose body of work crosses the boundaries of music, literature, visual art, theatre, and film. Her best-selling book I’m Afraid of Men was heralded by Vanity Fair as “cultural rocket fuel.” She is the founder of the award-winning publishing imprint VS. Books that supports emerging BIPOC writers. A seven-time Lambda Literary Award finalist, Shraya lives in Treaty 7 territory, where she is Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Calgary.
J.R. Carpenter. J.R. Carpenter works across performance, print, and digital media. The Gathering Cloud won the New Media Writing Prize 2016. An Ocean of Static was highly commended by the Forward Prizes 2018 and was longlisted for the 2021 CBC Poetry Prize. This is a Picture of Wind was one of The Guardian’s best poetry books of 2020. J.R. Carpenter was the Writer-in-Residence at the University of Alberta in 2020-21. She lives in Plymouth, UK.
# 5 on Edmonton Non-Fiction Bestsellers list, March 13, 2022
"Vivek came out as transgender five years ago, and since then, has been a leading activist and changemaker in Canada and around the world, empowering others through her pop music, visual art, and award-winning books." Sean Loughran, Daily Hive, March 31, 2022
# 5 on Edmonton Non-Fiction Bestsellers list, April 10, 2022
# 8 on Edmonton Non-Fiction Bestsellers list, April 24, 2022
# 6 on Edmonton Non-Fiction Bestsellers list, May 8, 2022
# 10 on Edmonton Non-Fiction Bestsellers list, May 15, 2022
"Indeed, these essays test a variety of ideas and genres including memoir writing (taking a first-person retrospective approach); trans writing (infusing her essay with a gender-non-conforming perspective); autotheory (mixing personal experiences with theoretical reflections about language, politics, and economics), and Covid-19 witnessing (detailing the surveillance put into place by local and national governments).... In these deeply personal and embodied reflections, Shraya offers a cultural critique on care, emotion, and labour for a time of crisis.... In the end, Shraya’s writing constitutes an act of creative resilience in the face of the difficulties and pain wrought by the pandemic." Irene Gammel and Jason Wang, Canadian Literature, August 21, 2023 [Full article at https://canlit.ca/article/how-to-value-artists-and-people-in-the-pandemic]
“In these deeply personal and embodied reflections, Shraya offers a cultural critique on care, emotion, and labour for a time of crisis.”Irene Gammel and Jason Wang, Canadian Literature, August 21, 2023 [Read full review at https://canlit.ca/article/how-to-value-artists-and-people-in-the-pandemic/]
Introduction
1. Stay Caring
2. Skip the Gratitude and Say What You Feel
3. Nothing Is Better than Something
4. Value Artists
5. Less Surveillance, Less Judgement, More Grace
Afterword
Vivek Shraya. Vivek Shraya is an artist whose body of work crosses the boundaries of music, literature, visual art, theatre, and film. Her best-selling book I’m Afraid of Men was heralded by Vanity Fair as “cultural rocket fuel.” She is the founder of the award-winning publishing imprint VS. Books that supports emerging BIPOC writers. A seven-time Lambda Literary Award finalist, Shraya lives in Treaty 7 territory, where she is Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Calgary.
J.R. Carpenter. J.R. Carpenter works across performance, print, and digital media. The Gathering Cloud won the New Media Writing Prize 2016. An Ocean of Static was highly commended by the Forward Prizes 2018 and was longlisted for the 2021 CBC Poetry Prize. This is a Picture of Wind was one of The Guardian’s best poetry books of 2020. J.R. Carpenter was the Writer-in-Residence at the University of Alberta in 2020-21. She lives in Plymouth, UK.
# 5 on Edmonton Non-Fiction Bestsellers list, March 13, 2022
"Vivek came out as transgender five years ago, and since then, has been a leading activist and changemaker in Canada and around the world, empowering others through her pop music, visual art, and award-winning books." Sean Loughran, Daily Hive, March 31, 2022
# 5 on Edmonton Non-Fiction Bestsellers list, April 10, 2022
# 8 on Edmonton Non-Fiction Bestsellers list, April 24, 2022
# 6 on Edmonton Non-Fiction Bestsellers list, May 8, 2022
# 10 on Edmonton Non-Fiction Bestsellers list, May 15, 2022
"Indeed, these essays test a variety of ideas and genres including memoir writing (taking a first-person retrospective approach); trans writing (infusing her essay with a gender-non-conforming perspective); autotheory (mixing personal experiences with theoretical reflections about language, politics, and economics), and Covid-19 witnessing (detailing the surveillance put into place by local and national governments).... In these deeply personal and embodied reflections, Shraya offers a cultural critique on care, emotion, and labour for a time of crisis.... In the end, Shraya’s writing constitutes an act of creative resilience in the face of the difficulties and pain wrought by the pandemic." Irene Gammel and Jason Wang, Canadian Literature, August 21, 2023 [Full article at https://canlit.ca/article/how-to-value-artists-and-people-in-the-pandemic]
“In these deeply personal and embodied reflections, Shraya offers a cultural critique on care, emotion, and labour for a time of crisis.”Irene Gammel and Jason Wang, Canadian Literature, August 21, 2023 [Read full review at https://canlit.ca/article/how-to-value-artists-and-people-in-the-pandemic/]
Introduction
1. Stay Caring
2. Skip the Gratitude and Say What You Feel
3. Nothing Is Better than Something
4. Value Artists
5. Less Surveillance, Less Judgement, More Grace
Afterword
