Join moderator Tāriq Malik and author Keiko Honda for a rich conversation about Words That Last (Catlin Press), a work that explores the enduring relationship between language, memory, and identity. Through personal stories and reflections, Honda considers how words carry histories across generations, preserve what might otherwise be lost, and help us navigate experiences of displacement, belonging, love, and loss. Together, Malik and Honda will delve into the ways storytelling shapes both individual and collective memory, examining what remains when time passes and how language can become an act of witness, resilience, and connection. This conversation invites readers to reflect on the stories we inherit, the stories we tell and the words that continue to resonate long after they are spoken.

Location: HSBC Hall, UBC Robson Square

Moderator: Tāriq Malik 

Reader: Keiko Honda, Words That Last (Catlin Press)

About The Moderator

Tāriq Malik

Pakistani-born Vancouver-based Desi-POC, Tāriq* Malik, has worked across poetry, fiction, non-fiction, and visual arts for the past four decades to distill immersive and original narratives. As a marginalized creator, he writes intensely in response to the world in flux around him and his place in its shadows. He claims to have come reluctantly late to these shores, having to first survive three wars, two migrations, and two decades of slaving in the Kuwaiti desert before landing here.

His publications include the short story collection Rainsongs of Kotli and a novel, Chanting Denied Shores. His recent poetry publications by Caitlin Press include Exit Wounds and Blood of Stone. Malik’s writing has been published widely, most recently appeared in Salzburg Poetry Review, The Polyglot magazine, The Aleph Review, and Verbal Art, among others. He has been a recent Writer-in-Residence at the Historic Joy Kogawa House, and currently at The Polyglot magazine. He is the Canadian Editor of the online Haiku magazine Espacio Luna Alfanje and also the current poetry editor for the Ricepaper Magazine. Malik’s poetry book Blood of Stone is the 2025 BC Book Award Winner from the Sunshine Coast Writers and Editors Society. *Tāriq is pronounced as Thaa-rik.

About The Readers

Keiko Honda

Dr. Keiko Honda is an epidemiologist, writer, and founder of the Vancouver Arts Colloquium Society. She holds a Ph.D. in International Community Health from NYU and worked as a cancer epidemiologist at Columbia University before returning to Vancouver, where she transformed her home into a cultural salon space for artists and intergenerational dialogue. At 40, she began using a wheelchair permanently — an experience that deepened her focus on social connection and community health. This work earned her the City of Vancouver's 2014 Remarkable Women Award and the King Charles III Coronation Medal in 2025. She teaches aesthetics of co-creation and arts-based problem-solving at SFU's Continuing Studies.

Born and raised in Japan, Honda brings a cross-cultural perspective to her writing, bridging Japanese and Canadian literary traditions. Her books include the memoirs Accidental Blooms (Caitlin Press, 2023), Hidden Flowers (Heritage House, 2025), and Words That Last (Caitlin Press, 2026), and the translation The Broken Map Home (Caitlin Press, 2025). She lives in Vancouver, where she paints in watercolour and continues her salon tradition. ---