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This year’s Tam Fam Lit Jam event ‘Home/Safe’ takes on TIFA’s theme of ‘Writing Home’ with authors Padma Viswanathan and Catherine Hernandez, whose respective works The Charterhouse of Padma and Behind You delve into deep layers of what it means to be ‘at home’. Their women protagonists confront racism, sexism, homophobia and daily microaggressions even as their home lives are shaken by external forces. These novels reveal that for racialized women writing home is not merely wallowing in nostalgia but taking a dangerous and convoluted journey that can only be navigated with community.

The interview with Viswananthan and Hernandez will be followed by our emerging Tamil voices segment, featuring local and global writers and filmmakers.

Moderator: Nedra Rodrigo

The Charterhouse of Padma

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Behind You

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Padma Viswanathan

Padma Viswanathan's books have been published in eight countries and shortlisted for the PEN USA Prize, the Scotiabank Giller Prize and others. Her most recent books are Like Every Form of Love: A Memoir of Friendship and True Crime and The Charterhouse of Padma: A Novel.

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Photo credit: Alex Tran.

Catherine Hernandez

Catherine Hernandez (she/her) is a queer woman of Filipino, Spanish, Chinese and Indian descent who married into the Navajo Nation. Her first novel, Scarborough, was a finalist for Canada Reads 2022, and the film adaptation, for which she wrote the screenplay, won eight Canadian Screen Awards.

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Photo credit: Noor Khan.