Tawhida Tanya Evanson is a poet, novelist, artist and Ashiq whose work blends orality, music and film within currents of African diaspora, Sufi mysticism, and decolonial praxis. Born and based in Tiohtià:ke/Montréal with roots in Antigua, West Indies, her award-winning 2021 novel Book of Wings and its French companion Livre des ailes join her poetry collections Nouveau Griot and Bothism. A longstanding voice in spoken word, film and sound, her multi-award-winning Afrofuturist concert film CYANO SUN SUITE (2024) continues to cross continents, as does her performance practice. She has served as Poet Ambassador in Residence at the League of Canadian Poets, president of the Quebec Writers’ Federation, and director of the Banff Centre Spoken Word Program. She moonlights as a whirling dervish.