Welcome to May Didis!

May marks South Asian Heritage Month and we will be announcing the winners of the Didi Creative Fund grant recipients in a few weeks. Thank you to our partners South Asian and Tamil Women’s Collective (SATWC) and Tamil Women Rising for making this grant program possible every year!

Meet the Didi

This month we are meeting author Taniya Gupta in this newsletter—and in person at our event on May 9 in Toronto! Taniya writes emotionally rooted and accessible poetry that explores feminism, mental health, and patriarchal traditions.

Taniya will be joining us at The Flamingo on Queen Street East for a reading and Q&A on Thursday. There are a few spots left, get your tickets here!

 What inspired you to pursue creative writing?

Writing has been my way of processing and expressing for as long as I can remember. I love connecting with others through words, so you can say, that's what led me to becoming an author.

Tell us about the path you took to get to where you are.

My path here has actually been quite interesting. Just like a lot of other brown kids, my options for a career that were approved by my family were to be a doctor or an engineer. I did consider becoming a doctor but the thought of potentially having to see blood everyday was a bit scary for the 15-year-old me, so I dropped biology and went the route of math and engineering instead. Poetry, is something I have loved reading and writing since I was a kid, I am glad it has stayed with me through the years, and is now a second career.

Your debut collection of poems — What Will People Say — is now available. How did this opportunity to be published come about?

For a long time, I never really shared my poems, other than with a handful of close friends and family. I started a blog about a decade ago where I would share some life musings and poems. Once a friend who read one of my blog-posts wrote back to me saying, "you should write a book," and I think back then the idea seemed so far-fetched that I just laughed. Now when I think back, it had planted a seed in my head. Within a few months, I was starting to think about what I would want my first book to be about and how I would structure it. I was dreaming up this wild wild dream of being a published author! Now years later, you and I both get to hold What Will People Say in our hands.

What obstacles have you faced along the way?

Well, the world of publishing is quite mysterious. There was so much I had to learn along the way. Every author's journey is so unique that there isn't exactly a template I could follow to the finish line. In addition, it took some time to find the right publishing partner. I really wanted to make sure that the importance of the story I was trying to publish, around the struggles of being a daughter and a daughter-in-law in South Asian cultures, was well understood within my publishing team.

What has the publishing experience been like, and have you been participating in events to promote your book now that it's out?

The experience has been a mix of excitement, connection, learning, and at times, frustration, too. I love this current phase of being able to connect with readers in-person at events!

What is some of the feedback you've received from readers, especially South Asian women, as they read your work?

I love when readers reach out and say things like "I feel seen," "I felt like you were telling my story," "Every young woman should read this" — it makes this long process of putting a book out there totally worth it!

Do you have any other projects in the works that you'd like to share with us? 

I am currently fully occupied with connecting with people through this book and very excited for the upcoming event with Flamingo and Didihood on May 9. I am also continuing to do some workshops for mindfulness through tea & poetry that I absolutely love. And we shall see what the universe has in store for me next! 

What advice do you have for younger Didis that are looking to pursue a similar path? 

My two pieces of advice would be: firstly, if this is a path that speaks to you, do it and keep at it. Remind yourself of why it is important to you. Secondly, connect with others around you and find your support system. It can be a lonely process so you want to make sure you have others who can understand what you are going through whether it is while querying agents, meeting your manuscript deadlines, or picking your dream cover!

What we’re reading:

Simone Ashley in Vogue India: “Representing Indian women has been such a joy” by Anoushka Shankar

The Avantika Rapunzel backlash is part of a toxic trend for POC actors in Fashion Magazine by Katherine Singh

Alia Bhatt in Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People of 2024

What we’re watching / listening to:

Not Your Butter Chicken: A four-part docu-series hosted by Shiva Reddy 

Get Up, Aisha: A short form digital series about a Pakistani-Canadian perfectionist who, after being diagnosed with clinical depression, takes a checklist approach to curing the incurable, starring Sana Asad.

Smita’s Eats: Loving these YouTube cooking videos by Didi Shetu Modi’s mom Smita. Check it out!

Upcoming event

— Nikkjit Gill

Issue 72
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