The Courtney Park Collection

There’s a story behind the scenes of the launch of the new title, The Courtneypark Connection published by In Our Words Inc. www.inourwords.ca.

The Courtneypark literary circle is a writers’ group that was formed five years ago and meet once a month in Mississauga. During the Fall/Winter months, the group meets at the Courtneypark Library in Mississauga.

As the story goes, the group began meeting once a month at the Courtneypark Library in Mississauga. As the group continued to grow so did the individual writers’ confidence.

Originally the group focused on poetry alone, but later challenged themselves by writing in different genres. There are now short story writers, novelists, artists and musicians attending on a regular basis.

The common bond was a love of writing. The group’s connections have spread across the GTA.

All 18 contributors to the anthology are Ontario writers. Brandon Pitts has edited the anthology.  The Courtneypark Library is to be thanked for providing the space to host the group every month for the past four years.

Contributing writers are:

·         Lindsay W. Albert

·         Rashmee Karnad-Jani

·         Pratap Reddy

·         Peta-Gaye Nash

·         John Ambury

·         Beverlee Blampied

·         Kim Cayer

·         Janine Georgiou-Zeck

·         Tasnim Jivaji

·         P.I. Kapllani

·         Cheryl Antao-Xavier

·         Mary Ellen Koroscil

·         Marlene S. Leighton

·         Brandon Pitts

·         Kumkum Ramchandani

·         Ivy Reiss

·         Trevor Trower

·         Zohra Zoberi

Here’s an excerpt from Kumkum Ramchandani’s story The Holy Man from the anthology. It’s about a burnt out Indo-American whose life is changed by his encounter with a sadhu on a train from Delhi to Chennai.

I quickly located my train compartment - air-conditioned first class as I had requested and paid for. I slung my overnight bag onto the overhead locker and with a sigh of relief sank down into my comfortable well upholstered seat. I had only one other person with me in the compartment but he or she hadn’t arrived yet. So, I told myself, here I am - embarking on a journey which was to be a final marker to where my life was heading. “What am I doing here?” I asked myself. “A US born Indian from Silicon Valley - the MD of one of the most successful start-ups, one that was destined to give Apple and Google a run for their money!” To put it in a nutshell - I was burnt out. A former workaholic who spent eighteen hours a day working for a six digit salary, with a palatial home in Palo Alto and a sleek Ferrari Sports, and all before the age of thirty five! But I was tired, I wanted a change, I knew my life was destined for transition. I wanted something else but I didn’t know what. So here I was, in the comforting lap of the country I should have been born in but had only learned about from my first generation parents, books and newspapers.

Read Sunil Rao’s (South Asian Focus) excellent news report on the book here: The Story Behind The Courtney Park Collection.