A former long-time resident Vancouver will launch her debut novel on UBC’s Point Grey campus. Diasporic writer Otoniya J. Okot Bitek begins We, the Kindling with three friends in their late 20s—Miriam, Helen, and Maggie—whose childhoods were torn asunder in northern Uganda. The trio managed to survive being held by the Lord’s Resistance Army, whose internationally notorious leader, Josephy Kony, recruited child soldiers.
“In We, the Kindling, Okot Bitek insistently refuses to turn away or to spectacularize tragedy, shaping a chorus of women’s voices into a hauntingly beautiful novel, suffused with care and humanity,” Penguin Random House states on its website.
Okot Bitek is a Kenyan-born writer, poet, and academic who grew up in Uganda. She moved to Vancouver in 1990 and went on to earn a bachelor of fine arts degree in creative writing and master of arts degree in English from UBC. In 2020, she graduated with a PhD in interdisciplinary studies from UBC’s Liu Institute for Global Issues.
Her book launch will take place from 5 to 7 p.m. on Wednesday (March 26) at the Liu Institute. Okot Bitek will join UBC professor and Cherokee Nation citizen Daniel Heath Justice and SFU settler scholar of Indigenous literatures Sophie McCall in conversation. There are still a few tickets left for this free event.
Okot Bitek honoured for poetry collections
Okot Bitek will also speak about her novel at another free public event at 7 p.m. on Thursday (March 27). At that time, she will join SFU professor and celebrated author David Chariandy in conversation in the Montalbano Family Theatre at the Vancouver Central Library. People can register for this free event on the VPL website.
Even though We, the Kindling is her first novel, Okot Bitek is no newcomer to writing. She has contributed to many anthologies, literary magazines, and journals over the years. Her 2016 poetry collection, 100 Days, won the IndieFab Book of the Year Award for poetry and the Glenna Luschei Prize for African Poetry. Literary juries also nominated 100 Days for the BC Book Prize, Pat Lowther Award, and Canadian Authors Award for Poetry. Her more recent poetry collection, A Is for Acholi, won the 2023 Dorothy Livesay Prize.
After living in B.C. for decades, Okot Bitek has moved to the Kingston. She is now an assistant professor in the Queen’s University department of English literature and creative writing.
Update
Below, you can see the video of Otoniya J. Okot Bitek’s conversation with David Chariandy.
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