Yolanda T. Marshall is a Canadian author of children's books.
Yolanda T. Marshall is a Canadian author of children's books.
Marshall, the oldest of three sisters, was born in Guyana and grew up in Scarborough, Toronto. [1] [2] Her family moved to Canada when she was 14. Her father is a jazz musician. [3]
Marshall's first children's book, Keman’s First Carnival, was published in 2016. Her children's books generally center around children partaking in elements of Caribbean culture, such as food and music. [3] Her books include:
She has also written two books of poetry, Obayifo (2008) and Messages on Dried Leaves (2017). [12]
Marshall lives in Scarborough, Toronto. She has a son, [4] [6] who inspired several of her books. [13] As of 2020, she works in academic publishing. [3]
The Toronto Caribbean Carnival, formerly known as Caribana, is a festival of Caribbean culture and traditions held each summer in the city of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is a pan-Caribbean Carnival event and has been billed as North America's largest street festival, frequented by over 1.3 million visitors each year for the festival's final parade and an overall attendance of 2 million.
Toronto Public Library is a public library system in Toronto, Ontario. It is the largest public library system in Canada, and in 2008 had averaged a higher circulation per capita than any other public library system internationally, making it the largest neighbourhood-based library system in the world. Within North America, it also had the highest circulation and visitors when compared to other large urban systems. Established as the library of the Mechanics' Institute in 1830, the Toronto Public Library now consists of 100 branch libraries and has over 12 million items in its collection.
Indo-Guyanese or Indian-Guyanese, are Guyanese nationals of Indian origin who trace their ancestry to India and the wider subcontinent. They are the descendants of indentured servants and settlers who migrated from India beginning in 1838, and continuing during the British Raj.
Guyanese literature covers works including novels, poetry, plays and others written by people born or strongly-affiliated with Guyana. Formerly British Guiana, British language and style has an enduring impact on the writings from Guyana, which are done in English language and utilizing Guyanese Creole. Emigration has contributed to a large body of work relating the Guyanese diaspora experience.
David John Chariandy is a Canadian writer and academic, presently working as a professor of English literature at Simon Fraser University. His 2017 novel Brother won the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize, Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize, and Toronto Book Award.
South Asian Canadians in the Greater Toronto Area form 19% of the region's population, numbering 1.1 million as of 2021. Comprising the largest visible minority group in the region, Toronto is the destination of over half of the immigrants coming from India to Canada, and India is the single largest source of immigrants in the Greater Toronto Area. South Asian Canadians in the region also include significant Pakistanis, Bangladeshis, Sri Lankans, and Nepalis, all representing several different ethnolinguistic backgrounds.
Julie Flett is a Cree-Métis author and illustrator, known for her work in children's literature centered around the life and cultures of Indigenous Canadians. Flett is best known for her illustrations in books such as Little You, and When We were Alone, as well as for her written work in books such as Birdsong. Many of Flett's books are bilingual, and written in a combination of English, Michif, and Cree, and serve as an introduction to Michif and Cree for English-speaking readers. Flett's works are critically successful and have been awarded the Governor General's Literary Award and the TD Canadian Children's Literature Award.
Hasan Namir is an Iraqi-Canadian writer.
Ahmad Danny Ramadan is a Syrian–Canadian novelist, public speaker, and LGBTQ-refugee activist who was born in Damascus, Syria. Ramadan's work focuses on themes of immigration, identity, diaspora and belonging. His debut novel, The Clothesline Swing, won multiple awards. The Foghorn Echoes won the 2023 Lambda Literary Award for Gay Fiction.
Bertram Israel Augustus Charles was an influential Caribbean playwright who, with the theatre company he founded, Related Arts Group, wrote and produced plays in Georgetown, Guyana. Between 1963 and 1971 he produced sixteen one act and full-length plays at The Theatre Guild of Guyana Playhouse, including The End of the Affair (1968), The Alexin of Our Cure (1969) and Within Our Narrow Walls (1971). Today, in print, there are five Bertram Charles plays in 10 publications held by 42 libraries around the world, including The Library of Congress, Washington, D.C., The British Library and the University of Toronto.
Catherine Hernandez is a Canadian writer, whose debut novel Scarborough was a shortlisted finalist for the 2017 Toronto Book Awards and the 2018 Edmund White Award.
Téa Mutonji is a Canadian writer and poet, whose debut short story collection Shut Up You're Pretty was published in 2019.
Nadia L. Hohn is a Canadian educator and children's book author. She has earned critical acclaim for her books for young readers, including her debut picture book, Malaika's Costume.
Charrandas Persaud is a Canadian-Guyanese lawyer and politician, who was Guyana's High Commissioner to India from March 2021 to October 2022. He was a member of the Guyanese National Assembly from 2015 to 2018, representing the Alliance for Change party in the East Berbice-Corentyne region.
Anique Jordan is a Canadian multi-disciplinary artist, writer, curator and entrepreneur known for her work in photography, sculpture, and performance. Her artwork challenges historical narratives, reinterpreting the past in order to develop a vision of the future. Among her themes are black history in Canada, working-class communities, the relationship between the country's black and Indigenous peoples, and the work black people have put into explaining and fighting against racism.
A Place Inside of Me: A Poem to Heal the Heart is a 2020 picture book written by Zetta Elliott and illustrated by Noa Denmon. Written in verse, it explores the emotions of a young Black boy after a girl in his community is killed by police. The book was published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux on July 21, 2020. Critics praised its accessible approach to serious topics including police brutality and Black Lives Matter, as well as its illustrations, for which Denmon received a 2021 Caldecott Honor.
Five Little Indians is the debut novel by Cree Canadian writer Michelle Good, published in 2020 by Harper Perennial. The novel focuses on five survivors of the Canadian Indian residential school system, struggling with varying degrees of success to rebuild their lives in Vancouver, British Columbia after the end of their time in the residential schools. It also explores the love and strength that can emerge after trauma.
Scarborough is the debut novel by Canadian writer Catherine Hernandez, published in 2017. Set in the Toronto district of Scarborough, the novel centres on the coming-of-age of three young children living in the low-income Galloway Road neighbourhood — Bing, a boy struggling with his sexual identity; Laura, a girl who longs for stability as she is continually being shuffled back and forth between her mother's and her father's separate homes; and Sylvie, a girl whose family is living in a homeless shelter — as well as Hina, a community literacy worker who strives to be an oasis of support and guidance for underprivileged children in her community.
Kamala Kempadoo is a British-Guyanese author and sexology professor who lives in Barbados and Canada. She has written multiple books about sex work and sex trafficking and won awards from the Caribbean Studies Association and the Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality for her distinguished and lifetime achievement in the sexology field.