The Writers’ Trust Rising Stars program is a dynamic career development initiative that recognizes five Canadian authors at the onset of their careers who are poised to produce exceptional and enduring creative work. Rising Stars are selected, endorsed, and mentored by five prominent Canadian authors. The program is generously supported by presenting sponsor BMO Financial Group and five founding program sponsors: Margaret Atwood, Jim Balsillie, Kari Cullen and William Bonnell, Clair Duff in memory of Catherine Shepard, and Deb MacLeod and Ward Sellers.
In addition to the mentorship opportunity with their selector, each Rising Star receives $5,000 and access to a series of career development and networking events. Thanks to Writers’ Trust’s partnership with Artscape Gibraltar Point, 2023 Rising Stars will attend a two-week, self-directed writing residency.
Writers’ Trust Rising Stars mentorships are tailored to each pair of writers and can take many forms, including manuscript review, in-depth conversations on the craft of writing, concept consultation on works in development, and important introductions to agents and editors. Rising Stars and their mentors have the flexibility to negotiate how to allot their mentorship hours, taking into consideration individual needs, the status of current works-in-progress, and mentors’ strengths and experience.
Manahil Bandukwala
Biography
Manahil Bandukwala is a writer, visual artist, and editor who works for Arc Poetry Magazine and Canthius. Her project, Reth aur Reghistan, is a multidisciplinary exploration of folklore from Pakistan interpreted through poetry and sculpture. Bandukwala’s debut poetry collection, MONUMENT, is a conversation with Mughal Empress Mumtaz Mahal that interrogates concepts of love, monumentalism, and empire. In 2021, she was shortlisted for the bpNichol Chapbook Award. Originally from Pakistan, she now lives on the unceded territory of the Mississaugas of the Credit River (Mississauga).
Citation
“In her poetry Manahil Bandukwala gives us what we perennially yearn for, but always anew, in literature: the exposition and understanding of the human heart. With enviable assuredness through pinpoint lyricism, powerful imagery and symbolism, and visual artwork, Bandukwala speaks to us breathtakingly and knowledgeably of the messiness of a variety of empiricisms that affect us today. Thoughtful and arresting, her poetic explorations of desire — the kinds that are all about love and all about power — illuminate how this multi-faceted intention has created and destroyed individuals and nations. ‘Page-turning’ and ‘storytelling’ are not words usually associated with works of poetry, and yet they are apt descriptors of Bandukwala’s impressive offerings to date.”
