About
Tawhida Tanya Evanson is a poet, author, performer, producer and Ashik. Her poetry collections include Bothism (Ekstasis Editions 2017) and Nouveau Griot (Frontenac House 2018). Her debut novel Book of Wings (Véhicule Press 2021) was one of Quill & Quire’s 2021 Books of the Year, was on the 2022 CBC Canada Reads Longlist, and won the 2022 CAM/Blue Metropolis New Contribution Literary Prize. Her latest work is the French autotranslation Livre des ailes (Marchand de feuilles 2023). Evanson has also published in literary journals and anthologies, most recently When We Exhale (Black Freighter Press 2023); and has edited editions for ARC Poetry and Write Bloody North.
With a twenty-five-year practice in oral poetry, she has performed in over a dozen countries and self-produced four studio albums of poetry and music: ZENSHIP (2016), Language for Gods (2012), the memorists (2008) and Invisible World (2004). She has directed six short films and featured in the award-winning Almost Forgot my Bones (2004). In 2013, she was Poet of Honour at the Canadian Festival of Spoken Word and received the Golden Beret Award for her contribution to the genre. She is director of the Banff Centre Spoken Word program, president of The Quebec Writers’ Federation and member of the avant-jazz band FYEAR.
As Mother Tongue Media, she produces interarts projects such as ANU (2010-2015), Sema Space (est. 2014) and the upcoming Afrofuturist concert film CYANO SUN SUITE. Born and based in Tiohtià:ke/Montréal, unceded Kanien’kehá:ka territory, she moonlights as a whirling dervish.