Deborah Dundas at Kingston WritersFest
Kingston
ON
Canada
Deborah Dundas, author of On Class (May 12, 2023), will be appearing at Kingston WritersFest for the event We Don’t Talk About Class. Deborah will be reading and joined in conversation by Ricardo Tranjan to talk about class: who controls the narrative, and why this must change. Rich, poor, working class, tenant class. We know these phrases, but North Americans often discount how class, and the inherent machinations of capitalism impact the lives people can live. When we ignore these realities, what, and who, are we omitting?
The event will take place on Thursday, September 28 at 3:30 PM ET.
More details and tickets on the Kingston WritersFest site here.
Get your copy of On Class here!
Deborah Dundas is a journalist who grew up poor and almost didn’t make it to university. In On Class, she talks to writers, activists, those who work with the poor and those who are poor about what happens when we don’t talk about poverty or class—and what will happen when we do.
Growing up poor, Deborah Dundas knew what it meant to want, to be hungry, and to long for social and economic dignity; she understood the crushing weight of having nothing much expected of you. But even after overcoming many of the usual barriers faced by lower- and working-class people, she still felt anxious about her place, and even in relatively safe spaces reluctant to broach the subject of class. While new social movements have generated open conversation about gender and racism, discussions of class rarely include the voices of those most deeply affected: the working class and poor.
On Class is an exploration of the ways in which we talk about class: of who tells the stories, and who doesn’t, which ones tend to be repeated most often, and why this has to change. It asks the question: What don’t we talk about when we don’t talk about class? And what might happen if, finally, we did?
Deborah Dundas grew up poor in the west end of Toronto. She is now a writer and journalist, has worked as a television producer and is currently an editor at the Toronto Star. Her work has appeared in numerous publications in Canada, the UK and Ireland including Maclean’s, The Globe and Mail, The National Post, Canadian Notes and Queries, The Belfast Telegraph and The Sunday Independent. She attended York University for English and Political Science and has an MFA in Creative Non-fiction from the University of King’s College. She lives in Toronto with her husband and daughter and their loving, grumpy cat Jumper.
