Publishing Multilingual & Hyphenated Authors
We asked four publishers championing multilingual, multicultural, and hyphenated voices — The Polyglot, Laberinto Press, Living Hyphen, and Hungry Zine — to share one thing they wish everyone understood about multilingual writing and publishing. Here’s what they said.
“Language is not only what is spoken or written. It is also what is felt, sung, moved, shared through presence. Even those who believe they ‘don’t speak another language’ already do. We understand music, a shared glance, a hand reaching out. We understand silence. We understand laughter. These are primordial tongues, older than any nation-state and beyond any border.
This is why multilingual writing and publishing matters. We’re immersed in rich worlds of meaning and seeing the world. And comprehension is not limited to knowing that literal language. In this age, if we are open, we can always find ways to understand a glimpse. A quick translation, even if imperfect, still reveals meaning. We can imagine, play with the shape of words in our mouths, find someone who speaks the language, connect with the artist. Art compounds through these gestures.
The language of love does not demand fluency, only attention. When we encounter a language that is not our own and choose to stay with it, we say, your story matters even if I do not fully grasp its shape. That listening becomes part of the multilingual mosaic, too. Borders have been drawn and redrawn, yet languages live on. One language, the oldest of all, endures: love. We can all choose to speak it with each other.”
—Maria Teodora Barbu, Innovation & Development Coordinator at The Polyglot
“Language is not only what is spoken or written. It is also what is felt, sung, moved, shared through presence. Even those who believe they ‘don’t speak another language’ already do. We understand music, a shared glance, a hand reaching out. We understand silence. We understand laughter. These are primordial tongues, older than any nation-state and beyond any border.
This is why multilingual writing and publishing matters. We’re immersed in rich worlds of meaning and seeing the world. And comprehension is not limited to knowing that literal language. In this age, if we are open, we can always find ways to understand a glimpse. A quick translation, even if imperfect, still reveals meaning. We can imagine, play with the shape of words in our mouths, find someone who speaks the language, connect with the artist. Art compounds through these gestures.
The language of love does not demand fluency, only attention. When we encounter a language that is not our own and choose to stay with it, we say, your story matters even if I do not fully grasp its shape. That listening becomes part of the multilingual mosaic, too. Borders have been drawn and redrawn, yet languages live on. One language, the oldest of all, endures: love. We can all choose to speak it with each other.”
—Maria Teodora Barbu, Innovation & Development Coordinator at The Polyglot
“I wish people and publishers knew their own potential for being multilingual forces. Being multilingual is not a 0 or a 100 proposition but a spectrum ranging from reading labels in French and English to reading or understanding lyrics in other languages or reading works in translation. Being multilingual is literacy in the widest sense, it spills from the page straight into life.“
—Luciana Erregue-Sacchi, Founder of Laberinto press
“At Living Hyphen, we encourage all our storytellers to share their stories in their mother tongue(s)—if they are able and if they are called to - because we know that there are certain emotions and experiences that can only be expressed in that specific language. Each and every single language contains a unique and powerful cognitive universe and when we dare to write, think, speak, publish, and honour them, we invite expansiveness and the opening of more possibilities. I think our world could do a lot more of that these days!
—Justine Abigail Yu, Founder of Living Hyphen
I wish people knew that multilingual writing can often be intergenerational and collaborative—as writers, we often need to reach out to other family members or friends to confirm the spelling or meaning of words, phrases, memories. As editors, we often reach out to double-check layout or that the correct script has been used. It makes it a very rich process, and also means that we need to build in extra time and care and attention.
—Kathryn Lennon, Co-founder of Hungry Zine
Catch these four amazing publishers at LitFest on Saturday, October 18!
This panel discussion brings together the founders of The Polyglot, Laberinto Press, Hungry Zine and Living Hyphen to discuss the need for and the challenges of publishing multicultural, multilingual, and hyphenated authors in the ever-evolving landscape of Canadian publishing. This panel will be moderated by translator and Edmonton’s 11th Poet Laureate, Medgine Mathurin.
Featuring: Justine Abigail Yu (Living Hyphen), Maria Barbu (The Polyglot), Luciana Erregue-Sacchi (Laberinto Press), and Kathryn Lennon (Hungry Zine)
Moderator: Medgine Mathurin
Tickets: $5 (student/low income), $15 (regular), Available HERE (Use promo code “LITFEST2025” to access student rate)
JUSTINE ABIGAIL YU (she/her) is the founder of Living Hyphen, a community and multimedia platform that explores what it means to live in between cultures as a hyphenated Canadian – that is, an individual who calls Canada home but who has roots elsewhere. She is an award-winning workshop facilitator whose work with Living Hyphen has been featured on national and local media outlets including the Globe & Mail, the Toronto Star, CTV National News, and the CBC. She was also named a “Changemaker” by the Toronto Star in October 2021. Justine Abigail is a fierce advocate for equity and anti-oppression. Her mission is to stir the conscience and spur social change. Learn more at www.justineabigail.com and www.livinghyphen.ca.
Social Media: You can find Justine across all social media platforms at @justineabigail and/or Living Hyphen at @livinghyphen.
MARIA BARBU (ARTISTA) is a multidisciplinary artist and poet who weaves language, sound, and performance into living experiences of consciousness exploration and homecoming. As an Innovation Catalyst with The Polyglot, she is part of a volunteer-led team imagining a collective future that uplifts international, multilingual, and cross-cultural creativity through publications, programs, and community-rooted events. Author of the chapbook The Circle’s Cycle, her work has been published in The Polyglot Magazine and Stroll of Poets Anthologies, featured at the Edmonton Poetry Festival, and supported through a partial scholarship to the Disquiet International Literary Program in Lisbon, Portugal.
Web: ThePolyglotMagazine.com IG: @the.polyglot.magazine
LUCIANA ERREGUE-SACCHI is an award winning publisher (Laberinto Press), art historian, translator, author (Of Mothers and Madonna, Polyglot 2023) and cultural worker. Luciana has presented at LitFest, Edmonton Poetry Fest, and Banff Centre. Her work and translations have appeared in academic publications, Polyglot Magazine, AGNI, and others and she has been featured on CBC Edmonton, Radio Canada, Quill and Quire, Literary Review of Canada, Westword, and Edmonton Journal. She is an activist for freedom to read and an advocate for hyphened Canadian literature.
KATHRYN LENNON 君妍 is a poet, community planner, and the co-founder and co-editor of Hungry Zine. She was born and raised, and resides in Edmonton/Amiskwacîwâskahikan. Her poetry has been published in Canthius, Polyglot Magazine, Living Hyphen, and the Globe and Mail, and included in anthologies: Reimagining Fire: the Future of Energy (Durvile & UpRoute), Back Where I Came From (Book*hug Press), and Beyond Touch Sites (Laberinto Press).
MEDGINE MATHURIN (Moderator): Haitian-born spoken word artist and advocate, Medgine is someone for whom the love of language and the alchemy of words comes naturally. Her multilingual upbringing (French, Creole, and English) not only encouraged her to explore the potential and magic of language but also nurtured a deep love of poetry.
Over the years, Medgine has been diagnosed with Lupus (SLE), CIDP, Polymyositis, and Raynaud’s — experiences that have fueled her commitment to merge storytelling with patient advocacy, particularly for those living with chronic illnesses. She currently serves as Chair of the Patient and Family Advisory Committee with Health Quality Alberta, a provincial committee that promotes patient-centered care across the health system.
Her work has been featured on CBC, Global TV, at SkirtsAfire Festival, and the Edmonton Poetry Festival. Medgine is a two-time recipient of awards from the National Black Coalition of Canada (NBCC), having received the Fil Fraser Award for outstanding contributions to the literary and performing arts, and the Dr. John Akabutu Award for demonstrating resilience in the face of significant challenges.
Medgine was selected as a participant in the 2022 Mentorship Program with the Writers’ Guild of Alberta and became a mentor in the 2022 Horizon Writers Circle, a mentorship program for Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour (BIPOC), ESL, and underrepresented writers living in Edmonton.
In 2023, she received the Edmonton Artist Trust Fund Award from the Edmonton Arts Council and the Edmonton Community Foundation — an award granted to exceptional local artists to support their creative work and encourage their continued presence in the community.She is the author of the multilingual chapbook Waiting in the Land of the Living / Attendre dans le monde des vivants. She has recently been named the Edmonton 11th Poet Laureate.