Surrey's inaugural Poet Laureate doesn't live in Surrey, but she has some roots in the community.
"I have so many connections to Surrey, having grown up in New Westminster, just across the river," said Renée Sarojini Saklikar, who now lives in East Vancouver with her husband, former provincial NDP leader Adrian Dix.
On Tuesday, Saklikar was introduced to Surrey city council as the city's first poet laureate, the search for which began last spring.
Saklikar's task will be to serve as an ambassador for the City of Surrey and its people while "advocating for literacy and the literary arts and helping to raise the status of poetry, language and the arts in the everyday consciousness of Surrey residents," according to the job description.
The lawyer-turned-writer found poetry through trauma. Her aunt and uncle, both doctors who lived in India, were killed along with everyone else aboard the infamous Air India flight 182.
"I didn't know them as well as I'd have liked," Saklikar explained. "They came to Canada for the first time and, sadly, it was their last time.
"They were in the States for a conference, and they came to visit," she continued. "My aunt was extremely close to my mom, and because of the distance and all kinds of family stories, we hadn't seen a lot of them. They had a young son, my cousin, and they were anxious to get back to him in India. He survived them, and he became an orphan. It was all so, so sad . . . . They weren't in North America for very long, and they stayed with us for awhile, more than a few weeks, because they wanted to be part of the family here, and then they left and we never saw them again, of course."
The act of terrorism eventually led Saklikar to write a book of poetry, called "children of air india: un/authorized exhibits and interjections," which was published in 2013 and has since won several awards and nominations.
21/10/15 Tom Zillich/Surrey Now/Vancouver Sun
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"I have so many connections to Surrey, having grown up in New Westminster, just across the river," said Renée Sarojini Saklikar, who now lives in East Vancouver with her husband, former provincial NDP leader Adrian Dix.
On Tuesday, Saklikar was introduced to Surrey city council as the city's first poet laureate, the search for which began last spring.
Saklikar's task will be to serve as an ambassador for the City of Surrey and its people while "advocating for literacy and the literary arts and helping to raise the status of poetry, language and the arts in the everyday consciousness of Surrey residents," according to the job description.
The lawyer-turned-writer found poetry through trauma. Her aunt and uncle, both doctors who lived in India, were killed along with everyone else aboard the infamous Air India flight 182.
"I didn't know them as well as I'd have liked," Saklikar explained. "They came to Canada for the first time and, sadly, it was their last time.
"They were in the States for a conference, and they came to visit," she continued. "My aunt was extremely close to my mom, and because of the distance and all kinds of family stories, we hadn't seen a lot of them. They had a young son, my cousin, and they were anxious to get back to him in India. He survived them, and he became an orphan. It was all so, so sad . . . . They weren't in North America for very long, and they stayed with us for awhile, more than a few weeks, because they wanted to be part of the family here, and then they left and we never saw them again, of course."
The act of terrorism eventually led Saklikar to write a book of poetry, called "children of air india: un/authorized exhibits and interjections," which was published in 2013 and has since won several awards and nominations.
21/10/15 Tom Zillich/Surrey Now/Vancouver Sun
