“I want people to be able to picture queer Africans living with authenticity, with agency and moving through the world happily,” Tushabe says. “There’s a world for them to realize their dream and celebrate being alive.”

“Sometimes it’s nice to read a story about queer characters that is not just focused on the queer struggle,” Saadi adds. “There needs to be a broader range of stories from a broader range of voices.”

The panel will be moderated by Toronto-based writer, Hudson Lin. Vancouver Writers Fest returns Oct. 20 to 26 with over 85 events, all celebrating the power of literature to spark curiosity and reflection.

Finding solidarity

Do not let anyone change your story – write what you want to write, however you want to write it, says Tushabe. Her novel Everything Is Fine Here portrays a Ugandan family’s treatment of their gay daughter and sister in the face of anti-homosexuality legislation.

“[I wanted] to focus on one family and see what happens when a country tries to legislate morality,” she shares. “To have a younger sister be the narrator made it more meaningful and applicable to everybody, and in that way, it can be a humanizing angle.”

The novel was inspired by Tushabe’s experience growing up as a bisexual woman in Uganda. The author now resides in Regina, Saskatchewan. She moved to the Canadian prairies nearly 20 years ago for university. She recalls spending many hours at the library reading – an experience she refers to as a “conversion” away from her religious upbringing.

“Queer literature that comes out of countries where morality is legislated…tends to have a lot of violence,” she shares. “[I wanted to] focus on how resisting all these dichotomies of violence is a beautiful thing.”

Tushabe sees her novel as exploring interpersonal relationships from “a solidarity angle.” The intention was to emphasize how anti-homosexuality laws impact everybody living in the society, not just those who are queer.

Everything Is Fine Here also reflects the author’s work with Ugandan folktales. Tushabe started translating these stories to English to stay connected with her heritage. She included her first translated folktale, which features a goddess testing people’s kindness, in the novel.

“The literature I love most of all is one where the story ends, [and] I am able to picture how life might continue beyond reading the word ‘end,’” she shares. “That’s the kind of literature that allows all different kinds of people to exist.”

Expanding the genre

In Saadi’s Three Parties, Firas Dareer, a queer Palestinian refugee, plans a birthday dinner that will also serve as his coming out party. The novelist was initially hesitant to write a coming out story – hoping that there was no longer a need for such narratives.

“There are a lot more facets to the queer experience and the queer coming out experience than have previously been depicted,” he says. “I told myself that if you can find a hook, something that would make this particular coming out story stand out, then go for it.”

That hook came inspired by Virginia Woolf’s 1925 novel Mrs Dalloway and Stephen Daldry’s 2002 film The Hours. Saadi saw a connection between the themes of Mrs Dalloway – ”repressed sexuality, post-war trauma, and power of time” – and the queer Palestinian identity.

He designed the novel to take place during the course of a single day, using time as a narrative device to highlight the protagonist’s connection to the past and future. The past refers to both Dareer’s lived experience as a Palestinian refugee and the history of Palestine itself.

“The future plays a big role: What is going to happen after this night?” Saadi asks. “Where will he go once he comes out and becomes his true self, or this version of his true self that he thinks he is supposed to attain?”

Three Parties also balances humour and heartbreak. For Saadi, the humour is a way into his protagonist’s inner world: Dareer’s care for the party’s details at times overshadows his attention to major life changes, creating a “coping mechanism” that is comically tragic.

The novelist adds that Dareer’s Palestinian identity is “almost incidental” – appearing sporadically – throughout the novel. In contrast, the character’s queer identity takes center stage. This decision was deliberate to highlight the misconception that queer and Palestinian identities are unrelated.

“The more [Dareer] focuses strictly on the queer identity, the more this Palestinian identity starts popping up in unexpected ways,” Saadi shares. “Because he is so disconnected from that part of himself, he doesn’t really see how it relates to being queer and how it affects his coming out identity.”

Reading beyond identity

Communities are not just defined by their traumatic experiences, says Lin. She hopes to see more holistic writing of queer characters – narratives that do not reduce the queer experience to only struggles with transphobia, homophobia or other forms of discrimination.

“The person’s queerness is not their whole identity; it’s just one part of their identity,” she explains. “I am bisexual, but also a woman and a person of colour; I’m also an author, a daughter, and a sister.”

Lin decided to write romance novels after noticing “a big push” for diversity in the genre. Her newest novel Dragon Boats & Doctor’s Notes is a sapphic romance featuring a workaholic obstetrician and the captain of a dragon boat team.

“What I love about romance is that you always know where the end point is going to be,” she shares, emphasizing the genre’s commitment to happy endings. “But the exciting thing is you don’t know how they will get there.”

At the upcoming panel, Lin hopes to spark conversation about the intersectionality of queer and racialized identities. Her lived experience suggests that queer people of colour – often from conservative backgrounds – may feel isolated from both their cultural and queer communities.

“I’ve always found that intersection really interesting: how queer people of colour find each other or navigate those challenges,” she adds.

Lin is also the program coordinator at The Festival of Literary Diversity. Held in Brampton, Ontario, the festival celebrates underrepresented voices. Her work considers how to encourage mainstream audiences to “read outside their identity.”

“How do we get over this hurdle of ‘is something too diverse for someone to be able to understand and want to consume?’” Lin reflects. “I hope [the panel] brings up questions that the audience didn’t realize is a thing, an issue or a question.”

For more information on Vancouver Writers Fest, see www.writersfest.bc.ca