An award-winning B.C. author has chosen to visit New Westminster in the new year to launch her fourth book.
Chelene Knight, who won the City of Vancouver Book Award in 2018, will be at Wildfires Bookshop (712 B 12th St.) in January 2024 to introduce the world to Let it Go, a self-help novel for creatives through her own personal experiences.
In a release sent to the Record, Harper Collins Canada explained Knight's reflective examination of Black self-love and joy draws the reader to advice from leaders of various Black communities that aim to discover and redefine joy.
This includes "hard-won tools" for creatives to ditch old beliefs and find a spark that's sustainably "unique to their own" while maintaining boundaries and balance in life.
"My own path to joy has been blurred by hardship, but part of my journey is that I refuse to believe that all of my negative experiences are tethered to being a Black woman, even though it can feel like this, even when some people want me to feel like this," said Knight.
"And when I feel it, it's a pain that swells and refuses to subside. I didn't learn this on my own and I don't think I can unlearn it on my own. But I'm willing to do the work.
"I want my joy as I find it; I want my joy as it comes," she noted. "I’m willing to let the wind push me backwards through the difficult moments."
Knight added while Let it Go is written from the perspective of her Black and South Asian heritage, her latest work is meant to appeal to creatives of all backgrounds.
"Creatives need to know when to listen to the clamour around them and when to just push people out of our ear."
Known as an "esteemed figure" in the Canadian literary community, Knight is a graduate of The Writers' Studio at Simon Fraser University (SFU).
Her fourth book follows Braided Skin (2015), Dear Current Occupant (2018) and Junie (2022) — the last two were awarded the Vancouver Book Award and a longlist mention for the Carol Shields Piza for Fiction respectively.
Knight was also a poetry professor at UBC and University of Toronto, and founded the Breathing Space Creative, an online studio for creatives and "anyone who wants a more balanced way of living and being creative."
For more information, you can visit Knight's website.
Let it Go will be published publicly on Jan. 2, 2024.
Knight will be at Wildfires Bookshop in New Westminster on Jan. 28 for the launch, which will begin at 2 p.m. and hosted by Harrison Mooney.
The event is a partnership between Wildfires Bookshop, Unbound Reading Series and Breathing Space Creative.
