Renée Sarojini Saklikar Class of 1989-1990 After being called to the bar in 1991, Renée practiced law for a number of years before realizing that a poet’s life was for her. Here’s to the Class of 1990.
Fascinated by artistic collaboration, Renée’s work has been made into opera and song cycles (air india [redacted], Turning Point Ensemble, 2015) and visual art (Chris Turnbull, see thecanadaproject on wordpress for images from Turnbull’s outdoor eco-installation featuring Renée’s poetry). From these three, I discovered I had a story to tell: difficult, controversial, painful. Trained as a lawyer at the University of British Columbia, with a degree in English Literature, Renée teaches creative writing for Simon Fraser University and Vancouver Community College. The more I resisted, the more I couldn’t write at all. Yes, I’m an incurable romantic. She had been trained as a barrister and solicitor.
A gynecologist and surgeon, the two were Indians visiting relatives in the Vancouver area. She describes the transition from lawyer to poet as both “difficult and marvelous” at the same time. Her family lived in many parts of Canada. Saklikar was awarded the Canadian Authors Association Award for Poetry in 2014.
Excerpts from an interview with UBC’s Allard School of Law: A great desire to learn more about how things work, legislatively, historically. In the studio, I had the great fortune of being mentored by three exceptional writers: Wayde Compton, (he’s now the director of the Studio and he and I recently released an anthology together, which features several UBC poets: The Revolving City : 51 Poems and the Stories Behind Them, Anvil Press/SFU Public Square, 2015); Rachel Rose, the current poet laureate of Vancouver, and acclaimed author, Betsy Warland. Any particular moments in law school that stood out for you?
I had this idea, still have it, despite all the cynical comments about lawyers, that in a democracy, the rule of law means something, however one might deconstruct it. In 2010 she graduated from Simon Fraser University’s The Writer’s Studio. How did the book "Children of Air India, un/authorized exhibits and interjections" come about? Renée Sarojini Saklikar is an Indian-born Canadian lawyer, poet and author. CWILA: Canadian Women In The Literary Arts. About bees, ecology, and language.
in English literature and an LL.B. I’ve kept all my journals from my law school days.
She is the 2019 Surrey English Teachers’ Association Writer-In-Residence. It took me a long time to understand how much those two events connected.”, Difficult and marvellous, all at the same time, of course. Renée is working on an epic sci-fi journey poem, THOT-J-BAP, parts of which appear in literary journals (The Capilano Review, Dusie, The Rusty Toque, Tripwire) and chapbooks (above/ground, Nous-zot and Nomados presses) and her chapbook, After the Battle of Kingsway, the bees, was a finalist for the 2017 bpNichol chapbook award. She then moved to New Westminster. Moore. In 2010, she graduated from the Writers Studio of the Continuing Studies Department at Simon Fraser University; she stated that the Writers Studio had revealed to the world that she was a poet.
In 1985, my aunt and uncle died in the Air India bombing. I’ve never let my membership in good standing in the Law Society of British Columbia lapse, since my call in ’91. Zebunnisa Jethwa and Umar Jethwa, Saklikar’s aunt and uncle, perished on Air India Flight 182. She attended the University of British Columbia, getting a Bachelor of Arts in English literature, and then an LL.B. That my cousin Irfan, orphaned by the Air India bombing, supports and encourages my poetry; and that, I’ve been given this opportunity to be a creative: I’ve a very supportive husband without whom I could not give so much time to writing; and the support of readers, friends, family and other poets: that’s the biggest accomplishment: staying on the path of a writing practice, despite obstacles or obscurity (writing long poems!).
As of October 2015, Saklikar was named the Poet Laureate for the City of Surrey, British Columbia, Canada. Saklikar was the inaugural poet laureate of Surrey, B.C. Finally, the desire to write over-powered anxiety, at least enough to embark on a journey: I delved into the archive of the saga of the bombing and its after-math, and the more I read documents, court transcripts, newspaper clippings, personal diaries, the voices of the dead just sort of claimed me. Many! As I ruefully say to relatives and friends: no corner office with the partners!
Simon Fraser University Alumni Appreciation Project.
My new book written with co-author, Dr. Mark Winston. And, a professor I’ll never forget, Professor J.C. Smith, and his textbook, The Western Idea of Law. Learn more about Renée and her current project by visiting https://thecanadaproject.wordpress.com/. None of this would have come together, however, without my publisher, Nightwood Editions, a very fine independent literary press in B.C., and my editor, Silas White: he encouraged me to go even deeper with the work. The project will end when I end. In terms of my studies, the opportunity to write a long paper for Professor Lynn Smith on the history of marriage: that was fascinating. I had this idea, still have it, despite all the cynical comments about lawyers, that in a democracy, the rule of law means something, however one might deconstruct it. In 1985, my aunt and uncle died in the Air India bombing. Rob Taylor of Prism International wrote in 2013: If you’ve spent much time in Vancouver’s literary community, you’ve probably heard of, or run into, Renée Saklikar. I didn’t want to write about the bombing of Air India Flight 182.
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