Thursday February 6 2025
Monday February 3 2025 at 10:30 | updated at February 4 2025 1:27 Culture

Bajan-Canadian writer Jasmine Sealy’s commitment to mentorship

Jasmine Sealy at the Whistler Writers Festival. | Photo courtesy of Jasmine Sealy
Jasmine Sealy at the Whistler Writers Festival. | Photo courtesy of Jasmine Sealy
A Writer in Residence program may provide a college community with the chance to meet with an established writer; but for Jasmine Sealy, Langara College’s 2025 Writer in Residence, the mentorship ensures that marginalized voices are heard.
Bajan-Canadian writer Jasmine Sealy’s commitment to mentorship
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Jasmine Sealy at the Whistler Writers Festival. | Photo courtesy of Jasmine Sealy 

“The most rewarding part of a residency for me is the connections that I make with people on campus, especially emerging writers, and even more especially [with] emerging writers of colour,” says Sealy, offering insight into her writing journey and her approach to mentorship in the literary world.

The author will participate in a conversation with fellow writer Kevin Chong, Feb. 26, where she will delve into themes from her book, The Island of Forgetting, and her creative writing process.

Grounded in cultural roots

Drawing from her Barbadian roots, The Island of Forgetting takes inspiration from the Greek mythological figure Calypso and reimagines her as a young, precocious teenager from Barbados. Sealy grew up in Barbados, receiving an education focused on Caribbean literature and the history of Indigenous peoples.

“I was raised in a very post-colonial era, where my teachers in Barbados centered our education on the Caribbean experience,” she says. “We read West Indian writers in literature classes, and our history lessons focused on our own story – from Indigenous populations to slave revolts and revolutions.”

She further notes how Barbados, although small in population, is a country that contains an infinite number of stories. For her, the challenge lies in creating space for these stories to be told in their diversity. This strong cultural foundation continues to influence her writing, where women of color, particularly Black and Caribbean women, take centre stage.

“I grew up in a place where my culture and my history were the center of the universe,” Sealy reflects. “Black women have played a really strong role in my life and in this book as well.”

Sealy, at 18, moved to Canada. And while she’d always been drawn to writing, it wasn’t until her early twenties that she started to write through a blog on the social networking site Tumblr.

“I started writing flash fiction, short prose pieces, stories that were happening in my life,” she recalls.

The real-time response on Tumblr from readers further validated her interest in writing. Sealy’s journey continued as she pursued creative writing at Simon Fraser University (SFU) and later at the University of British Columbia (UBC) where she earned her Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing.

“My novel was my master’s thesis,” she adds, noting how writing is now a life-long pursuit. “Writing is something I enjoy and something I’m good at, and so far, it has worked out in my life.”

Her debut novel, The Island of Forgetting, was a Best Book 2022 for CBC, The Globe & Mail and The Sunday Times (UK). It also won the 2023 Amazon Canada First Novel award.

Mentoring storytellers

As UBC School of Creative Writing’s inaugural Writer in Residence in 2023, Sealy found the most rewarding aspect to be connecting with emerging writers, especially those of colour and from marginalized backgrounds. She hopes to bring the same inclusive energy to Langara College, encouraging all students to seek her out.

“I want to make space for everyone,” she says. “I hope that people will come knock on my door, talk to me, and let’s talk about writing.”

It is important for Sealy that marginalized voices are heard and that their stories are not reduced to stereotypes. She emphasizes the need for gatekeepers, such as educators and literary figures, to recognize their influence.

“I’m being given a huge responsibility here because I am now being put into the position of a gatekeeper,” she says. “And everything that I say and do in response to this person’s work could have a huge effect on whether they continue to write at all or what kind of writing they choose to do.”

She believes this responsibility requires open-mindedness, particularly when it comes to unfamiliar topics and cultures. The writer hopes to carry out this responsibility by recognizing the value in everyone’s story and acknowledging the “multitude, infinite stories” that exist in cultures and subcultures around the world.

Sealy will be available Tuesdays and Wednesdays, from mid-January to mid-March. Information on securing an appointment and the format for submitting writings can be found at: https://langara.ca/departments/english/events/writer-in-residence