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Annahid Dashtgard

@annahid_reads

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šŸ“š3x author, occasional book jurist, champion of under published voices (day job @animaleadership)
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The Migrant Rain Falls in Reverse by @cousinvinnhy is a moving memoir connected to a lost period of history- the mass refugee crisis after the US war in Vietnam ended. Vinh Nguyen flees by boat with his family, in the process becoming separated from his father who mysteriously vanishes. As@an adult approaching 40, he embarks on a journey to uncover and reconcile the past, attempting to fill the hole left by his fatherā€™s absence. The prose is both profound and poetic: ā€œI decided I would write about his life, or more precisely, his living. Iā€™d imagine what I didnā€™t know into existence, as I did in my made up history. Writing how my father had lived, how he might have lived, how I wanted him to have lived, gave me a sense of control, which is the next best thing to having answers. So, I found myself migrating through the fog of what might have beenā€. For anyone who has been forced to leave their country of birth (as I was)- for reasons of war or other crises- this book will echo. So many of us have to pull lives from the rubble of a fractured past, and this book lends grace to the journey of re-membering and reconciling. #readmorebooks by @annahid_reads
5
5 days ago
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Sometimes I come across a review like this of #FireandSilence and it makes the whole laborious journey of writing, editing and publishing worthwhile. I started writing this book in earnest after Trump got elected the second time because I knew what it would mean for the lot of us already struggling to be recognized for our brilliance alongside our differences, not in spite of them. I wanted to give all the outsider leaders the confidence and will courage to keep going because new ways of thinking and being are what our tired, broken systems need to be reimagined. #booksmatter šŸ™šŸ½ by @annahid_reads
0
9 days ago
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I couldnā€™t help match this fabulous book to my newly completed quilt! Free Food for Millionaires is @lee_minjin ā€˜s first book, on par with @chimamanda_adichie ā€˜s book Americanah in exploring the nuances of race, class and gender for first gen American immigrants. Although her novel Pachinko is much better known, Lee describes this as a modern equivalent of the Victorian novel in reflecting common societal conventions. Centering the newly graduated Econ major Casey Han as she struggles between her traditional Korean parents in Queens and the get rich quick Wall Street set, the book is an exploration of the uniquely Korean diaspora community, reflecting truths common to many other immigrant diaspora communities as well: Pressure to become doctor, lawyer or engineer, intrafamily tensions, struggle to understand oneā€™s place especially as an artist, and constant gossip about looks, weight and worth. The characters are still with me, Casey and her audacious hats, and all. A truly lovable cast by an underrepresented literary voice. #books #readmorebooks by @annahid_reads
0
13 days ago
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I first met Mohamed at the Vancouver Writerā€™s Fest in the authorā€™s lounge, when we were both there for our first memoirs. It was one of those awkward ā€˜letā€™s introduce these two writers of color because of course they must have affinity with each otherā€™ moments which kind of stifles that very possibility. But we did exchange books. It took me a few years to pick it up. It takes a lot of courage to write with the kind of honest and vulnerable (yet never sentimalizing or over- pitying) tone which Mohamed does here. He well paints the impact of the broader forces of colonialism, dislocation and xenophobia and how this translates into violence toward other Somalians as well as to oneself. ā€œViolence was commonplace. We were wounded people. It was assumed we had the wherewithal to pick up where we left off. The rage of becoming dependents and the obscuring of our pain taxed our collective sanity. Violence was the expression of our frustrations. We were proud people brought low by historical circumstance. No one had the time to figure out what went wrong because life had to go on. We had to thrive in this alien land and jealously guard whatever we had left of our culture.ā€ Being queer AND Somalian worsens the impact, resulting in depression, addiction, and self harm behaviorsā€” in a community where such struggles are unnamable, never mind treatable. The book ends with Mohamed confronting his addiction to alcohol, but it left me wanting more- more details of the process to reach this decision, more about how he worked through it and what, if any, changes happened in his life as a result. Good thing he published his second work of non-fiction this August called #Edgelands. A voice in #Canlit to follow. #bookstagram #books #somali by @annahid_reads
4
24 days ago
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In praise of poet @nayyirah_waheed. Her short poem in #Saltā€” you broke the ocean in half to be here only to meet nothing that wants you. ~immigrant ā€” inspired the title of my memoir Breaking the Ocean. She is oft referred to as the most famous poet on Instagram but what does such a title really mean? Iā€™ll tell you. She writes with the voice of 1000 ancestors, sucking the marrow of what it is to immigrate, to live in exile, to face exclusion, to live in a body deemed less worthy. Her poetry is like licking honey off the side of a blade. Iā€™ve always wondered how Rupi Kaur has occupied the greater public position, noticing early on how similar their styles are. Kaur has her line drawings and some good turns of phrase but she is not quite at the same level as Waheed. Waheed has apparently accused Kaur of plagiarism, attempted to reach out with no response, been battling for recognition of her originality for 15 years now. Sadly, seeing a Black woman take a Brown girl to task is an unfortunate pattern of women of colour competing for limited space in the public eye which they should not be forced to fight one another for, but rather to take up more space in the greater literary pantheon which still continues to uplift and honor white voices, white poets. But sadly, it is also true that Kaurā€™s silence is part of a larger pattern of all racial groups taking and appropriating Black excellence without giving due credit. All I want to say here really is that definitely buy, support and follow Waheed because her fierce truth is medicine. #books #readmore by @annahid_reads
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a month ago
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The Lost Words and its follow up The Lost Spells are the literary equivalent of an ASMR video. A series of nature inspired full page watercolor images depicting animals and plants being dropped out of circulation like dandelion here, and otter, and fern and Heron, they are a visual homage to the spirits they invoke before they travel the way of ghosts. I first was gifted this book by its North American publisher @houseofanansi when I went in to visit for the first time as a newly minted author. Iā€™ve now placed this book in prime location on the top shelf in my living room reminding me of the core purpose of writing: to rescue the lost words and return them to help people find their way back home. And of course, I always adore a a gilded coverā€¦ #books #readmorebooks by @annahid_reads
4
a month ago
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Usually itā€™s word by word but this time it was stitch by stitch, my summer project done by fall equinox and filled with small rivers of gold by @annahid_reads
7
a month ago
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This book by @jessicaknollauthor found its way to me via one of the little libraries in my neighborhood. It reminded me of #Yesteryear, both in tone and subject matter. The book is about a group of five women participating in a feminist reality show called Goal Diggers, supposedly showcasing womenā€™s empowerment but behind the scenes slowly destroying all women involved. Alternating chapters between the five womenā€™s different perspectives, itā€™s a sharply observed look at the gap between reality and representation of that reality, the destructive impacts of race and class differences when left unnamed and unchecked and a final twist at the end which surprised me though I thought I knew what it was. Itā€™s also funny. One of the women runs a vegan Empire, earning the nickname, ā€œGreen Menaceā€. At one point one of the other characters visiting her home, stumbles upon a delivery box at the back door filled with packages of bacon. Front door// back door! A modern Dorian Grey, mirroring how we can sacrifice our souls to sustain a pristine and perfect public image. Not nearly as big as #Yesteryear but also in process of screen adaptation and certainly a female voice to follow. #books #bookstagram #readmore by @annahid_reads
1
a month ago
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A friend texted me this morning, ā€œremember that meeting you held at city hall after Sept 11/11 to address the racist backlash?ā€ Well, yes I do, that meeting marked a moment where old ghosts lurking from childhood immigration onwards of being ignored, spat on, called names and threatened, surfaced with a vengeance. I felt a stranger in my own body, so many of us did at that time. To survive I had to reclaim, which is why I went from ā€œAnnaā€ back to ā€œAnnahidā€- pronounced Ah-NAH-heed. Encountering this graphic novel two years later in 2003 by Marjane Satrapi (who is sadly no longer with us) was the first book I read and related to as a young Iranian born woman. I watched the movie at TIFF a couple of years after that and it was the first time as an adult I remember being in space with so many other Persians. This is a beautiful book documenting the aftermath of the Iranian revolution, the hope so many of us had for a better more democratic regime. Instead we got the worst dictator of them all. But ultimately, itā€™s a book about a woman finding her way through a threatening time, and having the courage to leave the familiar (family, country, culture) because sacrificing truth for safety was no longer an acceptable trade-off. A relevant story, or parable, for these times no? Somehow, re-visiting this book by this author on this day feels especially fitting. #reclamation by @annahid_reads
3
a month ago
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Over twenty years ago I was locked into activism, separated from many parts of myself I felt ashamed of, with no framework or language to acknowledge them- I just knew there must be more. This book was a vital roadmap to understanding how individual healing and reconciliation of cultural and identity wounds fit into a broader social justice agenda. Marrying her own history and healing journey with reflections on race and class, individualism vs collectivism and how to cultivate liberated societies, Gloria was a trailblazer in her ability to continuously evolve. Few reviewers recognized it at the time: ā€œthere were none that supported, opposed, or even noticedā€¦ its linking of the social justice and self realization movements; and no examination, pro or con, of self-esteem as a practical source of revolution.ā€ Her rally cryā€”ā€œWhat might we become if we were body proud from the beginning?ā€ā€”- meant so much to so many of us, and gave me personally, permission to spend money and time on therapy and other healing modalities. RIP Gloria, thank you for your eldership, for always helping us link the personal to the political. #books #booksthatmatter by @annahid_reads
1
a month ago
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This is a must read by @andreagunraj, an incisive blend of memoir and exposition of indentured labour as the underpinning of our society. What I appreciate about her writing is the way she interrogates herself as well as history, because systems of injustice live inside each of us and itā€™s always harder to examine ways oppression is re-enacted through our own choices than it is to point out where it exists out there. She writes of travel and food, white feminist spaces and even whiter literary spacesā€¦ the brown girlā€™s search to carve out a place and a voice in a country where there are few examples and little recognition or encouragement of the effort of being the generational ā€˜go-betweenā€™. Her words are a dash of cold water on a hot day, a pleasurable wake up call to verbalize lurkings at the edge of consciousness or buried too deep for easy acknowledgment. I recognize this! Or, I had no idea this many people were involved in that historical moment. ā€œIā€™m making a case for greater belonging. But not only the sunny or sweet kind. Iā€™m making allowance for begrudging inter-group belonging. For wearied -eye partnerships where we pull one another in not only with happy hugs, but also with urgent yanks.ā€ We need more voices like this on the shelf- writing of community, democracy and possibility informed by historical and self- interrogation, mining clues of what it will take for us to move forward together from pathways of the past. I know the bravery of writing like this ā€” mapping scars to stars, and it is a gift to all of us. #book #reading #bookstagram by @annahid_reads
5
2 months ago
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I pre-ordered this book #TooSensitive from @thepsychdoctormd ā€” the first one Iā€™ve come across written by a woman of color speaking about an ignored or misdiagnosed aspect of #ADHD, especially in women. If you read any of my previous books (especially the first, #BreakingtheOcean), I have written vulnerably about the intertwining of identity, shame, and mental health. Even this sentence ā€”ā€œfor individuals for marginalized groups, rejection sensitivity isnā€™t just about social interactions ā€“ itā€™s about the systemic, exclusion, discrimination, and the ongoing reality of being treated as ā€œless thanā€ā€” was like sighting water in the desert. Finally! For any of us who have felt too much while not enough, swept under by seemingly minor interactions or overwhelmed by group energy, welcome to the oasis. #books by @annahid_reads
7
2 months ago
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