{"id":6941,"date":"2016-02-12T12:58:19","date_gmt":"2016-02-12T17:58:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/library.ryerson.ca\/asianheritage\/?page_id=6941"},"modified":"2025-04-06T17:11:40","modified_gmt":"2025-04-06T21:11:40","slug":"jean-marc-ah-sen","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/library.torontomu.ca\/asianheritage\/authors\/jean-marc-ah-sen\/","title":{"rendered":"Jean Marc Ah-Sen"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Jean Marc Ah-Sen was born in East York, Toronto, Ontario and continues to live in Toronto. He is descended from a family of winemakers on the island nation Mauritius located in the Indian Ocean.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Fiction<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Grand Menteur<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Toronto: Book Thug, 2015.<\/p>\n\n\n

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

Ma misses the sun, warmth and colors of their faraway homeland, but her daughter sees magic in everything \u2014 the clouds in the winter sky, the \u201cfirework\u201d display when she throws an armful of snow into the air, making snow angels, tasting snowflakes. And in the end, her joy is contagious. Home is where family is, after all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The secret world of Mauritian street gangs is not for the faint of heart. Fraught with peril and mischief, its inner workings are a mystery to the daughter of one of its most valued members: Serge, the Grand Menteur. A liar of exceptional caliber whose sole responsibility is to purposefully confuse police with alibis, the Menteur fears for the criminal future he has unwittingly introduced into his daughter\u2019s life, when her clear knack for violence attracts the notice of senior gang members.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mauritian Kreol, English, and French blend together into a heady brew of language in Grand Menteur<\/em>. Written in a nuanced style reflecting the island-nation\u2019s convoluted history of colonialism, this debut novel by Jean Marc Ah-Sen sheds an unflinching light on the poverty and down-and-out hardship of a shadow class of immigrants from the 1940s to the \u201980s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Awards and Honours<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

2015 Globe and Mail Top 100 Books<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Fiction<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In the Beggarly Style of Imitation<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Gibsons, BC: Nightwood Editions, 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n

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

Ma misses the sun, warmth and colors of their faraway homeland, but her daughter sees magic in everything \u2014 the clouds in the winter sky, the \u201cfirework\u201d display when she throws an armful of snow into the air, making snow angels, tasting snowflakes. And in the end, her joy is contagious. Home is where family is, after all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Born on the twin backs of torpidity and obsession, In the Beggarly Style of Imitation<\/em> is a voyage into the mind of one of the Canadian literary underground\u2019s most unruly writers. Equal parts tribute to the historical genesis of the novel and the well-trodden subject of love, the exercises of imitation contained in this collection offer a brief survey through the illustrious forms and genres of literary expression: epistolary, aphorism, essay, picaresque, romance and satire culminate in a celebratory brand of fiction that proves with finality that imitation is truly the vilest form of flattery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Awards and Honours<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

2020 Toronto Book Awards<\/a> (Finalist)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Fiction<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Kilworthy Tanner: A Novel<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Montreal: Esplanade Books, 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Fresh-faced Jonno is looking to make a splash in the literary scene when he encounters celebrated novelist Kilworthy Tanner at a party. Having sold first editions of her works to Toronto\u2019s book dealers, he\u2019s immediately star-struck and more than a little surprised when she takes an interest in him. Could this be the break he\u2019s after? It\u2019s not long before the controlling and aloof Kilworthy is casually letting young Jonno move in with her, and they begin co-authoring sensational and unruly fictions together. But who\u2019ll get the credit for these collaborations, and why does he constantly feel like he must fend off rival authors? Fuelled by outrageousness and hell-bent on literary self-annihilation, Kilworthy Tanner<\/em> is Jonno\u2019s tell-all \u2018pseudobiography\u2019 of their entanglement, and he doesn\u2019t withhold any details of the sexual degeneracy, prodigious drug use, and vendettas of the era.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Anthology (Fiction, Novellas)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Dead Writers: Stories<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Co-authors: Michael LaPointe, Cassidy McFadzean, & Naben Ruthnum
Picton, ON: Invisible Publishers, 2025.
E-book<\/a> (Access restricted to members of the university community)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

In this collaborative fiction project, four writers navigate the protean concept of the \u201cbargain\u201d in novella-length stories. A biographer surveying the career of a \u201chaunted\u201d literary figure, a lovelorn journalist entering into a diabolic covenant, a tourist attempting to stay sober through her holiday travels, and a doctor\u2019s complicity in a colonial scandal: These horror-inflected offerings of existential dread, tainted pasts, and uncertain futures serve as an unbalancing reminder that there is always a high price to pay for the corruption of the soul.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Anthology (Fiction, Novellas)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Disintegration in Four Parts<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Co-authors: Emily Anglin, Devon Code, Lee Henderson.
Toronto: Coach House Books, 2021.
E-book<\/a> (Access restricted to members of the university community)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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

Jean Marc Ah-Sen Facebook page<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Publisher Book*hug Press<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Publisher Coach House Books<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Publisher Esplanade Books, an imprint of V\u00e9hicule Press<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Publisher Invisible Publishing<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Publisher Nightwood Editions<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jean Marc Ah-Sen was born in East York, Toronto, Ontario and continues to live in Toronto. He is descended from a family of winemakers on the island nation Mauritius located in the Indian Ocean. Fiction Grand Menteur Toronto: Book Thug, … 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-6941","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.torontomu.ca\/asianheritage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6941","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=6941"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/library.torontomu.ca\/asianheritage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6941\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19851,"href":"https:\/\/library.torontomu.ca\/asianheritage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6941\/revisions\/19851"}],"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=6941"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}