Taslim Jaffer is a writer, editor and writing instructor with an MFA in Creative Nonfiction from the University of King’s College. Her bylines appear in Maclean’s, CBC, WestCoast Families, Peace Arch News and more. She is the winner of the 2022 Creative Nonfiction Collective/Humber Literary Review contest and recipient of a 2021 Silver Canadian Online Publishing Award. She is co-editor of the anthology, Back Where I Came From: On Culture, Identity and Home (Bookhug*Press, 2024), which won a Gold Foreword INDIE award. Taslim has been teaching memoir and expressive writing in community and rehabilitative settings for over a decade and was the 2025 City of Richmond Writer-in-Residence. Her work-in-progress is an essay collection that explores themes of identity, cultural inheritance, liminal spaces, and parenting.
You co-edited the anthology, Back Where I Came From: On Culture, Identity and Home. What did you look for in each piece of writing?
Curating this collection of travel stories by diasporic writers was such a rewarding experience. There was a huge response to our call for stories on the themes of culture, identity, and home, and there were many deserving pieces. It was an exciting challenge to select 24 from over 100 that were submitted. In addition to the theme criteria, we looked for writing that was elevated and literary, for stories that were packaged beautifully and that exposed something about the writer that made them even more relatable to the reader. So, alongside the travel and the confrontation with culture, identity, and home, our narrators invite us into their full and complicated lives of health issues, family struggles, loss and love. We also hoped for, and were lucky to find, brilliant pieces that represent much of our globe.
You teach classes in creative writing, memoir, and self-healing. What can a participant expect from one of your workshops?
They can expect to write a lot! Whether I’m teaching memoir, poetry or therapeutic writing, I always plan for the workshop to be generative. I want participants to come away with a few pages of their own writing, a starting point for maybe a longer piece or notes they can elaborate on later. I utilize prompts and other constraints (time, form) to stimulate creativity. At the same time, participants gain tips and ideas for generating writing outside the workshop, when there isn’t someone around throwing out prompts. There’s generally a lot packed into a workshop and I try to keep the right balance of instruction, writing and discussion.
What are the most important lessons you have learned throughout your career?
My writing career, which is actually my second career, has been a windy road. When I first started writing, I didn’t know where the road would lead. I dabbled in everything from lifestyle magazine-writing to copywriting to personal essays. I tried every form I could to see which ones would stick. So, my first lesson was really “try everything once.” It taught me which craft I wanted to develop and where I wanted to spend my time. This is also true of teaching. I first started teaching in rehabilitative settings and then expanded to arts organizations and now post-secondary institutions. Each teaching experience was also a learning opportunity for me to discover more about myself as an instructor and the needs of writers from all walks of life.
Another important lesson I have learned is to keep learning. I went back to school in 2020 in my early 40s for a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Nonfiction. Outside of that I continue to take workshops, tune in to webinars, read craft books and of course, all kinds of books, for inspiration.
Finally, a couple of years ago I came across the saying, “shoot your shot” and I quickly learned that the more I did that – submitted my work, sent in applications – the more things would happen for me. I love the feeling of working really hard on an essay or an application for a residency and then clicking “send”! Honestly, that feeling itself is a win. It feels like I’m cheering myself on, that I believe in my own work.
LiterASIAN 2026 