Hi! I’m Sheniz

Ever since I was a kid, I’ve been in love with stories– telling them, writing them and hearing them.  It was because of this love that I began to explore my own story, leading me to develop my own practice as a  poet, artist educator and nature artist. I had the luck of being part of the first cohort to graduate from MFA in Creative Writing at the University of Guelph, where I learned how to become a more nuanced writer. Since then, I’ve published three collections of poetry: Bleeding Light (Mawenzi House, 2010) Firesmoke (Mawenzi House, 2014) and my most recent collection, Reminders on the Path (Mawenzi House, 2021).

I’ve had the gift of performing my spoken word all over the world, including the Jaipur Literature Festival, Aga Khan Museum, and Vancouver Writers Fest. As artists always seek to evolve, I began to create nature art and sand art as a complementary practice to my writing.  My art has been featured across Turtle Island including the Art Gallery of Mississauga and the National Arts Centre.

After many years of performing and teaching, I received the Birkenshaw-Fleming Creative Teaching Scholarship to complete my Artist Educator Mentor certification at the Royal Conservatory (Toronto). I have the pleasure of teaching poetry and nature art to children, adults and seniors and it’s always a privilege to share in their stories. Earlier this year, I served as UTSC’s 2022 Writer-in-Residence, where I mentored students and facilitated creative writing workshops. At the moment, I am the writing mentor for The Shoe Project (Toronto chapter). The Shoe Project holds writing workshops where Canadian writers exchange skills with newcomer women, enabling them to share their stories of arrival in and adaptation to Canada — through a pair of shoes.

I’m currently working on my next book, which is a hybrid collection of essays about my grandmother’s garden in the highlands of Kenya.

I hope that our stories intertwine and you find a little inspiration here. Thanks for visiting!

Questions? Email me at write@shenizjanmohamed.com