{"id":4568,"date":"2013-07-21T22:48:39","date_gmt":"2013-07-22T02:48:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/library.ryerson.ca\/asianheritage\/?page_id=4568"},"modified":"2024-08-16T10:18:40","modified_gmt":"2024-08-16T14:18:40","slug":"sheniz-janmohamed","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/library.torontomu.ca\/asianheritage\/authors\/sheniz-janmohamed\/","title":{"rendered":"Sheniz Janmohamed"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Sheniz Janmohamed was born and raised in Tkaronto (Toronto) with ancestral ties to Kenya and India. A poet, artist educator and nature artist, Sheniz is a graduate of the MFA in Creative Writing program at the University of Guelph. Throughout her career, she has had the honour of receiving mentorship and guidance from Janice Kulyk Keefer, Dionne Brand, Kuldip Gill, and M.G Vassanji.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the last 15 years, Sheniz has presented her work nationally and internationally, including the Jaipur Literature Festival, Kenya Literary Association, Aga Khan Museum, Vancouver Writers Fest, Toronto International Festival of Authors and TEDXYouth Toronto. She has three poetry collections published by Mawenzi House.  Her creative nonfiction has been published in a variety of journals and publications including Body & Soul: Stories for Skeptics and Seekers<\/em> (Caitlin Press, 2019), The Willowherb Review<\/em> and The New Quarterly<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2022, Sheniz served as the Writer-in-Residence at the University of Toronto Scarborough Campus, the first writer of South Asian descent to serve in this position. She teaches\u00a0Introduction to Poetry<\/em>\u00a0at the University of Toronto\u2019s School of Continuing Studies, and is\u00a0currently working on her fourth book,\u00a0How to Scare the Birds<\/em>,\u00a0a collection of creative nonfiction essays exploring the intersections of identity, ecological and personal grief, and the language of place across Kenya and Turtle Island.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Photograph courtesy of Sheniz Janmohamed.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Poetry<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Bleeding Light: Poems<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Toronto: TSAR, 2010.
PS8619 .A6763 B54 2010<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Publisher’s Synopsis (From its website)<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Bleeding Light<\/em> is a collection of poems in ghazal form that traces the steps of a woman\u2019s journey through night. She knows that in order to witness dawn, she has to travel through dusk first. Throughout her journey, she is caught between West and East, religion and heresy, love and anti-love, darkness and the knowledge of light. Each couplet is an independent thought and reflection, a pearl strung into a necklace. Bleeding Light<\/em> is fraught with opposing, stark and often violent imagery heavily influenced by Sufi philosophy.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Poetry<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Firesmoke: Poems<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Toronto: TSAR, 2014.
PS8619 .A6764 F57 2014<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Publisher’s Synopsis<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Sheniz Janmohamed’s second collection continues the poet’s journey, tracing the inception and annihilation of sacred fire.  In a series of highly evocative, personal poems, Firesmoke<\/em> explores the meaning of truth and self, finding them both in form and emptiness.  In her unorthodox, broadminded quest for understanding, Sheniz evokes the teachings of Sufism, acknowledges the restorative power of the Mother Goddess and honours the alchemy of nature.  Life and death do not exist without each other, just as fire produces both ash and smoke, one falling to the ground, the other rising into space.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Poetry<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Reminders on the Path<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Toronto: Mawenzi House, 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Publisher’s Synopsis<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Seven years after the publication of Firesmoke<\/em>, Sheniz Janmohamed returns with her third collection of poetry, Reminders on the Path<\/em>. The poet is wayfarer, exploring the path we inherit and seek out, that disappears with every step we take on it. At each step, there are reminders rooted in the ephemeral and the indelible. A companion on the path, a fleeting memory, a broken twig–all serve as guideposts to cross the threshold of one’s self. Grounded in the language of place, these poems become stepping-stones from the author’s past to the present, from forgetfulness to remembrance, and from the unknowing to a deep knowing only found through direct experience.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Links<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Sheniz Janmohamed personal website<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Publisher Mawenzi House<\/a> (formerly TSAR)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Sheniz Janmohamed was born and raised in Tkaronto (Toronto) with ancestral ties to Kenya and India. A poet, artist educator and nature artist, Sheniz is a graduate of the MFA in Creative Writing program at the University of Guelph. Throughout … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"parent":16,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-4568","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.torontomu.ca\/asianheritage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4568","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.torontomu.ca\/asianheritage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.torontomu.ca\/asianheritage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.torontomu.ca\/asianheritage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.torontomu.ca\/asianheritage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4568"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/library.torontomu.ca\/asianheritage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4568\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18945,"href":"https:\/\/library.torontomu.ca\/asianheritage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4568\/revisions\/18945"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.torontomu.ca\/asianheritage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/16"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.torontomu.ca\/asianheritage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4568"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}