Join authors Lydia Kwa, Carrie Mac and Candie Tanaka as they discuss their own unique processes for "Writing the Queer" in Literature. The event will be followed by a few short fun creativity exercises to get your imagination gaily motivated.

Optional: Bring a pen and a notebook (or your) phone to generate a few short sentences or phrases to use as writing prompts.

Post-event baked goods from Chinatown + conversation graciously donated by the Queer Patron Saints of Storytelling!

Location: Cross & Crows Books, 2836 Commercial Drive

Candie Tanaka

Candie Tanaka is a multiracial trans writer, artist and librarian challenging the binaries continually reconstructed between self and other while exploring archive and memory in a socio-political context. They are a creative writing graduate of The Writer’s Studio program at Simon Fraser University and have a BFA in Intermedia from Emily Carr Institute of Art + Design. Their first YA book, Baby Drag Queen was published with Orca Books in April 2023 and was a finalist for the City of Vancouver Book Award. They’ve also published work in Resonance: Essays on the Craft of Life and Writing with Anvil Press and This Will Only Take A Minute: Canadian Flash Fiction with Guernica Editions. Forthcoming publications include an essay in the Queer Country Crossroads Anthology with Caitlin Press in October 2025.