Vancouver Launches in September
Posted by Daniela Elza on Sep 03 2025 | Comment now »
First up:
- Sept 9th 6-8pm VPL, Montalbano Theatre, 350 West Georgia St.,Vancouver – Main launch for SCAR/CITY poetry book in Vancouver. Reading with Daniel Cowper. Renee Sarojini Saklikar will be our moderator. See attached event poster below for more information. To reserve a seat, ckick here.
Next:
- September 17, 6-8pm, Twisted Poets Literary Salon, 1661 Napier St, Vancouver, Reading from SCAR/CITY alongside Evelyn Lau, and Rahat Kurd who are also launching their latest books. Se attached event poster for more details. Here is the website link for more on the the event and bios.
Then:
- September 20, 11am, WORD Vancouver – Poetry InkWellTold – in conversation with Rahad Kurd. For more details on this event click here.
- Sept. 20 – 3:30pm, WORD Vancouver, UBC Robson Square, MEMOIR – Is this an illness or an accident? with Taslim Jaffer editor of Back Where I Came From. With Moderator Esmeralda Cabral, Author of How to Clean a Fish and Other Adventures in Portugal. Click here for more information on this event.
And next after that will be the main lauch for my debut memoir Is this an illness or an accident? Save the date – poster coming soon.
- Sept. 24th – 7pm, SFU TECK GALLERY, SFU Harbour Centre, 515 W Hastings St, Vancouver.
Northern and Vancouver Island Tour Update
Posted by Daniela Elza on Sep 02 2025 | Comment now »
It was quite the feat to do 10 events in 13 days. I was on the road for fifteen days. Now back home, and getting the fall schedules together, getting ready for the Vancouver launches.
I left Vancouver on August 15, drove all day to Prince George. The tour began on Aug. 16th with a writing workshop during the day and a reading that evening. Next we, a group of four writers, stopped in Fort St. James, and then we went on to Smithers, where the library also hosted us royally.
We were joined in Terrace by one more poet. Then we were off to Prince Rupert, where we read in a distillery and young and old showed up for the event. Thank you all who came to support the readings and bought books.
Two of us took the inside passage ferry and we ended up on Quadra Island the next day for a most inspiring music and poetry event on the land, among the trees and among people who work hard to build community through growing food, sharing arts, and thinking of affordable housing.
We had to make it the next day to Tofino and after Tofino, we stopped for readings in Nanaimo and Victoria where I launched the memoir with Kate Braid who also has a new memoir with Caitlin Press.
It was intense and busy and a test to my stamina and resilience. Part of what made this such a survivable feat is the people who welcomed us and hosted us and fed us on the ground. I am sending each of them a thank you, but also wnated to say it here. This was a community effort and everyone did a bit and many just jumped in to make our stays more pleasant with feeding us delicious food and providing a bed to sleep on. Thank you.
What is next? Next post will be about the upcoming launches in Vancouver in the month of September.
Vancouver Island Tour
Posted by Daniela Elza on Aug 13 2025 | Comment now »
After the Northern Tour (which will go through Prince Geroge, Fort St. James, Smithers, Terrace & Prince Rupert) we will be taking the ferry down to Vancouver Island and stopping for readings on Quadra, in Tofino, Nanaimo and Victoria, before getting back to Vancouver for the big launches here. See previous post for Northern Tour and see the posters below for more information on the Vancouver Island tour.
First up is Quadra Island where poet Leanne Boschman and I will be part of an afternoon of poetry and music in collaboration with the local band Willow. Please spread the word to those who are near and dear and would be interested in joining us for a 4pm afternoon soiree at Leecroft Haven on 129 Joyce Road. I hope you will come out to this event.
Then we are off to Tofino the next day, where Leanne Boschman and I will be reading on Aug. 25th at the Community Hall. We will likely have some open mic spots on the theme of the evening for which people can sign up on a first come first serve basis. Thank you to Tofino Poet Laureate Janice Lore and former poet laureate Christine Lowther for making this possible. Please help us spread the word to those who might be interested in this event.
And then we are off to Nanaimo and Victoria. I will be launching my hot-off-the-press essay/memoir collection “Is this an Illness or an Accident?’ with the wonderful Kate Braid and her new memoir in Victoria on August 27th at Caffè Fantastico Specialty Coffees (965 Kings Road, Victoria) Leanne Boschman will be our moderator in Nanaimo. (Thank you, Leanne). Please help us spread the word.
Thank you to Caffè Fantastico for hosting the Victoria event. Thank you to the Harbourfront Library for hosting the event in Nanaimo. Thank you Caitlin Press for believing in this book and for helping deliver it into the world. See for more details the poster below.
I will have books for sale at all the readings and some sweet deals too.
I will be back in Victoria on October 3rd for the launch of SCAR/CITY at Planet Earth Poetry.
Phew. That seems like a lot of events and many back to back readings. And next post will be about the Vancouver and lower mainland launches.
Is This an Illness or an Accident? has arrived
Posted by Daniela Elza on Aug 05 2025 | Comment now »
My debut essay/memoir collection is here. And she is beautiful. It only took 10 years to write since the first essay I was asked to write for a book. I kept going. I love the cover – my younger son designed it. The photo has accompanied me for years in these fractured and fragmented times.
Suddenly the essays on immigration, on where one is from, on work, and housing, on making sense of war stories in my family, or occupying universities and banning words became relevant all over again. Travel, and food, and family all came forward to be wrangled with and made sense of. And then, how does one sustain hope in all this? or How do we dream up a better future? Much of this came together in the book.
Thank you, Caitlin Press and the whole hard working team there, for getting this baby out into the world. 
The MAIN launch will be on September 24th, at the Teck Gallery, SFU downtown. More info to come soon.
Description and Pre-order link: Order directly from the publisher or click on the “Shop Local” button, enter your postal code, and pre-order from a bookstore near you.
SCAR/CITY has arrived
Posted by Daniela Elza on Jul 24 2025 | Comments Off on SCAR/CITY has arrived
SCAR/CITY arrived this week. She is a beauty. Each book has its own unique signature and emotion that accompanies the arrival. Usually an unexpected and strange feeling. This one is unlike any books prior to it. It took me four years to research, two years to write, and two years to publish. The two years to write it are part of the 4 research years. Long story. But I do tell the genesis of it in the Under Construction section at the back. It is the fasted book I have published and I am glad it is out as the urgency of the moment and the topic propelled it forward. This book is made and printed in Canada and is 100% human made.
I love the size: smaller than I expected. That explains why it was so hard to fit some poems on one page and wrangle the poems that had shapes and had to fit on one page and did not. I had to re-arrange and re-imagine some to live up to their best impact and form. I love the way the cover feels and how elegant the design. Thank you, Hugh MacLennan Poetry Series and all the staff for their dedication and patience that got this challenging book to the end of the publication and printing process.
For those who have wondered how to say or write the title: It is one word but also a play on that word. So SCARCITY and then a slash through it that creates the SCAR/CITY. As long as you use all lower case or all caps you are good. But please do not make it two words. Sorry, I keep challenging myself with language and keep messing with it to the point where I cannot really read all I put on the page and there are echoes and visuals you can only appreciate on the page.
The size makes SCAR/CITY a book that easily fits in a purse. I would have preferred the blurbs on the back not centred, but can live with it. The blurbs themselves are very special and close to my heart. Much gratitude goes out to Leilani Farha and Renée Sarojini Saklikar. These busy and politically engaged women took the time to read and think about the book and lend it some words and thoughts, which now live on the back cover.
A couple of days in, and SCAR/CITY already getting antsy and wants me to take her out to play.
You can order your copy here directly from the publisher to be sent directly to you:
Or order from your favourite local bookstore. I know that Massy Books has it up on their website here. Order from them if you are not sure who to order from.
But most of all i want to say: HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my beautiful, kind and full of love mom today.
Northern BC Book Tour + dates for Vancouver Island
Posted by Daniela Elza on Jul 11 2025 | Comments Off on Northern BC Book Tour + dates for Vancouver Island
In August I will be coming up North to launch both SCAR/CITY (MQUP, 2025) and my debut prose/essay/memior book: Is This an Illness or an Accident? (Caitlin Press, 2025).
And then we keep going till we get to the ferry.
When we land on Vancouver Island, we will read in four places, including Tofino, Nanaimo, and Victoria. More info to come as posters come together. But for now you can save the date/s. And it will be great to see you at any of these.
Tofino, BC, August 25th reading with Leanne Boschman at Community Hall is 351 Arnet Road. Event hosted by Tofino’s Poet Laureate Janice Lore.
Nanaimo, BC, August 26th, at the Harbourfront Library, launching with Kate Braid our hot off-the-press memoirs, The Erotics of Cutting Grass and Is This an Illness or an Accident?
Victoria, BC, August 27th, at Caffe Fantastico, reading with Kate Braid launching with Kate Braid our hot off-the-press memoirs, The Erotics of Cutting Grass and Is This an Illness or an Accident?
Victoria, BC, October 3rd, reading at Planet Earth Poetry reading series at Russell Books, 747 Fort Street, Victoria, British Columbia V8W 3E9
Click here to pre-order Is This an Illness or an Accident? from my publisher, Caitlin Press & bookstores near you. For a bookstore just click on the “shop local” button to pre-order the book from a bookstore near you.
Click here to pre-order SCAR/CITY from my publisher McGill-Queen’s University Press.
cover reveal and pre-orders
Posted by Daniela Elza on Jul 04 2025 | Comments Off on cover reveal and pre-orders
Here she is: my debut essay/memoir collection Is This an Illness or an Accident? The image is by Weston Fuller, and has lived with me for years. Cover design was done by my son. Thank you Caitlin Press for having faith in this book and getting out into the world.
Pre-orders are so important for small publishers. Click here to get to order Is This an Illness or an Accident?. The book will arrive in your hands, and in my hands, in August.
When asked, “But where are you really from?” Daniela Elza responds with a challenge: “How much time do you have?”
Is This an Illness or an Accident? is a timely and necessary read for anyone grappling with the notions of belonging, identity and symbiosis in an increasingly divided world.
You can also preorder directly from a local bookstore – When you go to the link for preorders, click on “shop local” button, enter your postal code, and pre-order from a bookstore near you.
Careful/Care-full Collaboration
Posted by Daniela Elza on Jun 10 2025 | Comments Off on Careful/Care-full Collaboration
About Place Journal published my essay On the Impossible Possibility of Collaborations in their Careful/Care-full Collaboration issue in May, 2025. Along side that they also featured three poem in collaboration with Leanne Boschman, Bonnie Nish, and Michelle Barker. Here is the link to them – scroll down to get to the poems.
Collab/orations: Three Poems-Between-Two
(three poems)
- the frame (written between Daniela Elza & Leanne Boschman)
- Echoes (written between Daniela Elza & Bonnie Nish)
- confessions (written between Daniela Elza & Michelle Barker)
Thank you to the editors to featuring this work. It is part of a long project which I have been working on slowly for over 16 years now. And one of these days will be delighted to see come together and find its permanent home in a book.
blurbs for SCAR/CITY are in:
Posted by Daniela Elza on Mar 22 2025 | Comments Off on blurbs for SCAR/CITY are in:
I am thrilled to share these blurbs for the book. Thank you Leilani Farha, and Renée Sarojini Saklikar for spending time with this book, and for lending your words to it.
“In SCAR/CITY, Daniela Elza creates a disturbing and very real portrait of urban displacement. Through fractured words and the use of space itself, she allows her readers to physically experience urban life as so many of us know it: the destabilization of community, nature, home, and human dignity in the face of greed-driven, relentless development. This is a work for our times, revealing the heavy human and natural toll exacted by the financialization of housing, documenting not just the physical erasure of neighbourhoods but also the deeper spiritual costs. Elza’s poetry will move you to reflect deeply, to mourn loss, and, through poetic persuasion, to defend what’s left.” Leilani Farha, The Shift
“A riveting collection, precisely right for this cultural moment: Daniela Elza’s assemblage of grief and rage is transmuted onto the page into beautiful lines that break, unfold, and then re-inhabit space. Shivers of recognition accompanied my reading. This is poetry as an invitation to both action and contemplation: What is home and how will it endure for us? How will we live in our cities, in places we can afford? These poems serve as way-finders for anyone passionate about land use, urban planning, and community survival.” Renée Sarojini Saklikar, author of Children of Air India
For more on the book and Preorders – click here.