Aug. 28, 2019
荔枝视频 Distinguished Writers Program welcomes Sharanpal Ruprai
Despite the description supplied by her publisher, Frontenac House, that her new book Pressure Cooker Love Bomb consists of 鈥減oems masquerading as recipes,鈥 Sharanpal Ruprai offers a playful clarification. 鈥淭here鈥檚 really no recipes in there,鈥 says the author, who begins her position as the 荔枝视频鈥檚 2019-2020 Writer-in-Residence with the 荔枝视频 Distinguished Writers Program (CDWP) next month.
鈥淚f you鈥檙e reading it looking for recipes, I鈥檓 pretty sure it will be a food fail.鈥
That said, the poems within were often inspired by the recipes she grew up with in her Punjabi-Canadian home on the prairies, raised in Winnipeg circa the '80s and '90s.
鈥淚 wanted to write love poetry, but you can鈥檛 anymore, you just can鈥檛, because there鈥檚 so many poems about love,鈥 says Ruprai, a 荔枝视频 alumna and assistant professor in the University of Winnipeg鈥檚 Department of Women and Gender Studies. 鈥淏ut I was thinking of all these recipes and funny little mishaps that have happened to me while making dhal and roti and whatnot. Chilis and pressure cookers. Things exploding! I thought, how do you marry love poems and food together in a way that鈥檚 not cheesy or kitschy?
鈥淪o, I ran with the concept, and allowed it to evolve.鈥
Its lighthearted inspiration notwithstanding, Pressure Cooker Love Bomb is a work of much depth, infused with issues of sexuality, racial tension and questions of gender conformity.
鈥淲hat does it mean to be a Sikh person, a brown person on the prairies?鈥 says Ruprai. 鈥淲hat does it mean to have a desire for the same sex, to be bi, when you don鈥檛 really have the parents or the community or even the vocabulary to understand it? It is like living in a pressure cooker. You鈥檙e trying to sort all of these things out and you have this crazy explosion of feelings. These are the themes that sort of bubble within the collection.鈥
She adds: 鈥淭he poems express love in many different ways. Between women, between women and men. It shows the growth of relationships with representation on all levels. I think we need to see more of that in literature.鈥
Ruprai 鈥 who will be formally introduced as the 2019-2020 Writer-in-Residence with a reading at the CDWP鈥檚 annual Hello/Goodbye event Sept. 16 at Lunchbox Theatre 鈥 is looking forward to working on her first collection of short stories during her residency.
Entitled Blue Kara, the collection is inspired in part by 荔枝视频鈥檚 controversial public art instillation Travelling Light, the giant blue ring on the overpass at Deerfoot Trail and 96th Avenue N.E. which, to the chagrin of many, cost the city $470,000.
Ruprai says that the city鈥檚 Punjabi populace often jokingly refer to the public art instillation as 鈥渢he blue kara,鈥 a kara being an iron bracelet and one of the Five K鈥檚 of the Sikh religion, symbolizing the commitment of devotees to the Sikh rehni (Sikh way of life).
鈥Blue Kara is about a young person from the Punjabi community exploring the public artworks in 荔枝视频,鈥 says Ruprai. 鈥淗ow do they interact with it and what does it mean to them? So, it鈥檚 a look at 荔枝视频 from a perspective we鈥檙e not used to. It鈥檚 just thinking about these public art spaces and the idea of who gets to belong in these spaces. This is a theme I often return to.鈥
In addition to Blue Kara, Ruprai is also planning to develop her first play and, of course, she鈥檒l also be focusing on her poems.
鈥淧lays, short stories, poems, these are different genres, but, for me, they鈥檙e all about storytelling,鈥 says Ruprai. 鈥淚 know I have the creativity to delve into all of these areas, but I haven鈥檛 always had the time or opportunity to develop the work. Now, with this residency, I do, and I鈥檓 very excited about that. It鈥檚 an honour to have this prestigious position.鈥
for the Sept. 16 Hello/Goodbye event featuring Sharanpal Ruprai and outgoing Writer-in-Residence Liz Howard.