I'm quite starstruck about this upcoming event, and hope you'll come join me to write in the woods! The excellent staff at the Writers' Guild of Alberta have invited me to co-facilitate their annual retreat with World Fantasy Award-winning author C.L. Polk from September 20th to 22nd, and we still have a few spots available if you'd like to sign up. This venue is fully wheelchair-accessible and has access to multiple single-stall gender neutral washrooms, plus lots of windows for air flow and outdoor space. I can also almost 100% guarantee you that the retreat location will be absolutely gorgeous this time of year. Hope to see you there! Can't make it because you're in Vancouver? Check out this fantastic mask-mandatory reading featuring my bestie Estlin McPhee and other beloved pals at Massy Arts Society on the night of the 20th! A glorious fall book season awaits us! 

I hope you'll join me next week and consider reading at this virtual open mic hosted by Under The Table! I'm really grateful to Kay, Divya, and the team for all their thoughtful organizing and how they're celebrating and prioritizing access for queer and/or disabled writers. Also, Divya (@softkaur) took this top-notch mossy photo of me at Queen Elizabeth Park, which remains one of my favourite spots in Vancouver. How's that for a lovely connection? You can find all the access info for the reading and register for free here. See you soon! 

If you're in Saskatoon or passing through, please join me on April 12th to celebrate the launch of Cassidy McFadzean's new collection of poems! We'll be at my favourite hometown haunt and one of our wonderful independent bookstores, McNally Robinson. Full details can be found here. Hope to see you there, and happy National Poetry Month! 

Very lucky to be moving from one great event with the Saskatchewan Writers' Guild to the next! Hope to see you online on February 6th from 12-1pm CST for this free discussion on coping with rejection for writers. Auto-captions and accurate transcript available! Meredith and I completed our MFAs together; she's now a celebrated TV writer and novelist, as well as the Saskatoon Public Library's Writer-in-Residence. I've learned so much from her even just while preparing for our conversation, so I know there's more to come! Register and get more information here. 

What an excruciatingly painful few months, my friends. Before I tell you about the events I have coming up this weekend, I wanted to share with you a bit about why the image above is important to me. In November, I joined a group of many, many writers and cultural workers in signing this excellent open letter. Months have now passed and we have only seen continued genocide committed against Palestinians in their occupied territories, like Gaza--as well as humiliating, litigious invective directed against Palestinians and their allies living in the diaspora. If you've read Moldovan Hotel, it shouldn't be a surprise to you that I'm a longtime anti-zionist who feels strongly about Palestinian freedom and self-determination, and about separating the critique of states from antisemitism. I don't believe that the horrific atrocities committed against my ancestors justify or require horrific colonial violence. I won't say much more here, because you don't need to hear this from me; Palestinians themselves have been saying this for over 75 years, and they don't need Jewish approval to be heard, respected, and believed. In a small act of (ongoing) solidarity, all my 2023 royalties & Access Copyright funds from Moldovan Hotel have been donated to the Palestinian Children's Relief Fund, Doctors Without Borders, and the Toronto Community Defence Fund for Palestinian Organizing. Thank you for reading, buying the book, and for helping me make this very small contribution to something so important.

If you're in Saskatoon on Saturday and can fit it in between (meaningful and authentic and accessible) participation in the global strike for Gaza, I hope to see you at one or both of the events below. Huge thanks to the Saskatchewan Writers' Guild for the invitation to participate! The fantastic SWG organizers have done a tremendous job centering care in an event all about care. All the weekend's events are free; please consider wearing a mask if you're attending the workshop or panel in person. For more information and to se the full list of events on Friday and Saturday, take a peek at the SWG website here. 

By now I'm sure you've heard of the Saskatchewan government's attempt to implement a policy that would jeopardize the safety of trans and genderqueer students in schools. Here is a letter I wrote to an MLA about it. If any part of this text is useful to you and you are similarly motivated, please consider it a template and make it your own. I am not a trained political organizer and I may well have made mistakes in describing the legislative process. Any errors or omissions are my own and you are welcome to correct or change them as the situation shifts. I know we are all hurting after the nonsense of that hateful march a few weeks ago, and this is one more thing. I'm very angry about it. 

October 4, 2023
To: [email protected]
Dear Nathaniel Teed, 

I am writing in grateful response to your call for letters, in the event that a filibuster is required to stop the use of the "notwithstanding clause" to implement the ludicrously-named "Parental Inclusion and Consent Policy" on October 10th. It is my sincere hope that this letter will contribute to the protection of transgender, gender-diverse, and Two-Spirit youth in this province. Should it serve your efforts, you are more than welcome to read this letter in full, with attribution. 

I am a Saskatchewan resident, cisgender lesbian, and writer whose work on gender-based violence against queer and trans young people has been recognized by the American Library Association. In 2016, I won Canada's only prize for emerging LGBTQ2S+ writers. I am deeply concerned about the use of the "notwithstanding clause" to implement Premier Moe's policy for the following reasons: 

- it poses, as Justice Megaw has recently suggested, an attack on Charter rights that will enact serious harm;

- it directly contradicts a number of the Truth and Reconciliation Calls to Action, including #10 iii, which calls for "culturally appropriate curricula in education;" and #62 i, "Make age-appropriate curriculum on residential schools, Treaties, and Aboriginal peoples’ historical and contemporary contributions to Canada a mandatory education requirement for Kindergarten to Grade Twelve students";

- it demonstrates an alignment with far-right trans-antaognist movements on the rise in the United States and the United Kingdom, which often tacitly or overtly intersect with additional conspiracy theories that threaten the safety of the general public, such as antisemitism, and anti-vaccination; 

- it reinforces a deeply outmoded, colonial, and heteronormative model of the family that we know does not and has never represented the norm on these territories;

- it presents a deep misunderstanding of the rights of the child and a gross misuse of the notion of "parental rights;" and

- it perpetuates the myth that trans, Two-Spirit, and genderqueer people are not already present in our education system as exceptionally gifted and valued teachers, medical professionals, administrative staff, and loving parents and guardians.
​
It troubles me deeply that this policy has already come so close to implementation without proper consultation (see the recent response from the Federation of Sovereign Indian Nations), and with zero involvement on the part of the dedicated, hardworking, under-resourced support services that exist in this province for gender-diverse families. Moreover, when so much robust research and documentation already exists on how gender-affirming schools and classrooms save lives, it disturbs me that parents and families of gender-diverse youth may feel required to share their deeply personal, often humiliating and retraumatizing stories of discrimination in public fora to discourage this legislative act of violence. This over-reliance on personal stories of harm puts young people and their families at risk, and is part of why I am motivated to write to you as a cisgender woman who does not experience transphobia.

Nonetheless, in the event that it contributes to our collective struggle, I am motivated to share with you the following: my own experience of the discrimination I faced as a cisgender child, who used pronouns congruent with the sex I was assigned at birth, and was merely suspected to be gay. In the early aughts, my family relocated to Saskatoon from a small town in northeastern Saskatchewan after I experienced repeated acts of homophobic violence in elementary and middle school: the regular use of slurs; physical attacks while alone in the washroom and gym change room; a attempted head injury in full view of adults and other children. This harassment began when I was eight years old, and continued unceasingly. My parents and I relied profoundly on the direct and repeated intervention of teachers to prevent me from permanent bodily harm and alleviate my emotional distress, but ultimately, it was not enough for us to remain in our community. We left when I was thirteen, where I was dismayed to learn that even in the supposedly safer haven of high school in the "big city," there were considerable efforts made among the administration to prevent the formation of our first Gay-Straight Alliance. Nonetheless, our inaugural meeting proceeded thanks to determined and informed educators, and was so well-attended that students had to sit on the floor and on top of desks. Some of those students, and supportive teachers, are no longer alive today, whether by direct or indirect systemic impacts and social determinants of health that will only be emboldened by this proposed policy. I am not interested in losing any more loved ones. Even as a cisgender young person with a supportive family, I think it's also clear that I could have easily been one of those preventable deaths. 

I share this with you to demonstrate the critical stakes for youth who do not benefit from the cis privilege and community support that I have had, and what a silencing of teachers as proposed by this policy could produce. It is my most sincere hope that this province will not revert to this echo of its recent colonial past, and drive other marginalized families to relocation elsewhere. As a child of a Saskatchewan teacher, I must add that I hope the supporters of this policy will one day come to understand their gross underestimation of (and deep insult to) the educators of this province. 

Today is October 4th, the National Day of Action on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, Two-Spirit, and Gender Diverse Peoples. It is my sincere request that on October 10th the official opposition will act in the spirit of this day by urging this province to take tangible action to prevent suicide, abuse, and violence; re-instate and improve comprehensive and culturally appropriate gender-affirming sexual education in the school system (including third-party resources and a robust curriculum on sexual consent); uphold its Treaty responsibilities; and honour our Charter obligations by using any means necessary to resist the implementation of this policy. 

With gratitude, 

Leah Horlick
Treaty Six - Saskatoon, SK 
leahhorlick.com

Coming up! I hope you'll join me online or in-person this Thursday, September 21st in Calgary as I pass the Calgary Distinguished Writers' Program Residency on to the wonderful Francine Cunningham. I'm reading all new work, including (gasp) some fiction! We're going to have a grand time. All the details for both parts of this hybrid event can be found here. 

Earlier this month I was thrilled to learn that Moldovan Hotel has been shortlisted for a 2023 Vine Award for Canadian Jewish Literature. Do take a look at the incredible full list here! All the mazel to my co-listers, especially Adam Sol (of Broken Dawn Blessings) and Aaron Kreuter (of Shifting Baseline Syndrome) in the poetry category! 

L'Shanah Tovah, everybody! May 5784 usher in a safe and sustainable future. Wishing you all a peaceful and sweet year ahead <3

What a whirlwind - I can't believe my residency at the University of Calgary is complete. If I have my numbers right, I offered forty-one manuscript consultations, organized nineteen events, and wrote one novel (novella, maybe? but still) in eight glorious months. Phew! I've learned so much from this experience and have a little thank-you for everyone I met included in the video below. 

In even better news, I'm passing the torch to Francine Cunningham, an award-winning Indigenous writer who was recently longlisted for the Carol Shields Prize. Best of all, Francine and I studied together during our MFA programs at UBC, and so it's going to be an absolute riot to perform together at the Hello/Goodbye event on September 21st.  Tickets and livestream information coming right up! This won't be farewell to Calgary by any stretch of the imagination, and I'm very excited to see you there. (How is next month September already? I'm counting down, but not too fast!)

I'll be in amiskwacîwâskahikan next week as part of an exchange with the University of Alberta's Department of English and Film Studies. It's been ages since I've been to Edmonton so please do come say hello if you're in town! I'm so looking forward to reading with their Writer-in-Residence, Bänoo Zan. I'm guest lecturing for Marilyn Dumont's poetry class today as a teaser, too - what an honour! Find more information about our event next week through this link. If you're planning to attend in person, please scent-reduce and wear a mask. For those of you who would prefer to attend online, we're recording this event for later; I'll have more details on how you can access it soon. Huge thanks to Jessica Leeper and Thomas Wharton for all their work putting this visit together.