(M)other
Encounter between Sanita Fejzić & Alain Boisvert

As part of Pride Month celebrations 🌈, the Canadian Cultural Centre explores the subject of parenthood through the youth album (M)other of the Canadian-Bosnian author Sanita Fejzić. 

Join us for an encounter on Facebook on Thursday, June 18 at 7 pm with Sanita Fejzić and Alain Boisvert, author of Mépapasonlà (Editions David). 

Taken from the poem (M)other, finalist of the CBC Poetry Prize in 2018, the youth album (M)other is the author’s cry from the heart as the non-biological mother of a boy born to a same-sex couple. 

Between incidents at the doctor’s office and at school, Sanita Fejzić speaks out against the institutionalized heteronormativity of civil society and denounces the obstacles faced by same-sex families.

Summary:
No, my son doesn’t have a father!
From the delivery room where her son was born, to the school benches, a woman who is denied the status of mother says: no, her son has no father, but he has two mothers. She is his other mother. There is no box for that in the forms. There is no room for it in the minds of her peers, nor of the children playing with her son in the schoolyard.
This story, translated from a 2018 CBC Poetry Prize finalist poem, is a tender and accurate account of how difficult it is for same-sex families to be accepted for what they are: loving families.

Biographies:
Sanita Fejzić is an award-winning Bosnian-Canadian author. Her first book, Psychomachia, in Latin “fight of the soul”, was a finalist for the Ken Klonsky short story contest as well as for the Canada ReLit 2018 Award. Fejzić has published her poems and short stories in various Canadian literary journals. In 2018, her poem “(M)other” was a finalist in the Poetry Prize Radio-Canada. Fejzić is currently completing her PhD at the University of Queen in Cultural Studies.

Director of the CCNB (Acadian Peninsula Campus), Alain Boisvert is best known for his work as an arts and entertainment reporterwith Radio-Canada in Toronto. Executive Director of La Nouvelle Scène (Ottawa), then Director of Communications at the National Gallery of Canada, he has worked in some 15 countries on international tours with Up with People. After managing the Kings Landing Historical Village, he also worked in the provincial civil service (Department of Wellness, Culture and Sports).
His first novel, Mépapasonlà (Éditions David, 2016) was enthusiastically received by critics. In June 2016, Alain Boisvert was awarded the Prix Ambassadeur (Huguette Éva-Desjardins) by the Conseil provincial des sociétés culturelles (CPSC), given to an organization or individual who has shown great sensitivity to cultural development in New Brunswick.

Further information: Bouton d’or Acadie / Writer’s website