Dr. Shumaila Hemani — Shifting Systems through Storytelling & Sounds

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Writing in the Wound Crossed a Threshold

Writing in the Wound crossed a threshold.

I had been anxious about taking this step for so many months. Yesterday, almost eight months after Writing in the Wound was first published, I finally walked into Shelf Life Books with copies of my memoir.

There is a different kind of beauty in carrying your own book into a bookstore. Without the machinery of a traditional publishing house, every conversation, every shelf, and every placement is personal. It’s tactile, relational, and deeply human.

I am deeply grateful to the wonderful team at Shelf Life Books for welcoming Writing in the Wound and honoured that they chose to place it in their memoir section. Seeing my book on those shelves, alongside so many remarkable memoirs, was a moment I will carry with me for a long time.

Now I’m spending a quiet evening reflecting on the quiet, improbable journey of this memoir. Eight months ago, it was released into the world. Today, I carried it into an independent bookstore with my own hands. Somehow, that feels like the beginning of a new chapter.

If you’re in #Calgary, you can now find Writing in the Wound at Shelf Life Books. Thank you to everyone who has walked alongside this journey.

❤️

#storytelling #memoir #bookstores #localauthors @systemschange #socialjustice #trauma #mentalhealth #wellbeing #wellness

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Music, Writing, & Movement

4 weeks | Saturdays | Begins Jul 4, 2026 9:00am-10:30am MT | 8:00am-9:30am PT | 11:00 am-1:00am ET

This four-week online course is inspired by the musical and personal insights I have gained through years of listening, singing, and riyaaz in this raag. Together, we will explore the foundations of Raag Bairagi Bhairon and gradually move into alaap, tarana, and taans. Each session will include approximately 45 minutes of guided musical practice, followed by reflective journaling to explore whatever emotions, memories, or insights emerge through the music. We will conclude with gentle movement to help integrate the experience into the body. This course is ideal for singers, writers, artists, changemakers, and anyone seeking creative rest, focus, inspiration, and a deeper connection with themselves through sound.

Send your Expression of Interest

In Collaboration with Alexandra Writing Centre Society (AWCS)

Writing the Soundscapes of Cities

A train passing at dawn. Footsteps in an alleyway. The call of street vendors. Rain against apartment windows. Traffic, silence, music drifting from distant rooms. In this 4-week online course, Writing the Soundscapes of Cities, we will explore how sound shapes memory, emotion, migration, and our relationship to place. Through deep listening exercises and creative nonfiction techniques, participants will learn to transform everyday listening into vivid personal essays. Together, we will write about:

• the cities we were born into

• the cities we migrated to

• the cities we travelled through

• and the cities that continue to echo within us

This course emerges from my long-standing fascination with urban soundscapes across the places I have lived and travelled around the world. I first taught this course from an ethnomusicological perspective for Semester at Sea, and I am excited to now offer it through the lens of creative nonfiction and sensory storytelling. Open to writers of all levels, especially those interested in sound, music, memory, migration, and storytelling.

This workshop is held online via Zoom.

Register

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Writing in the Wound

What happens when your scars begin to speak?
In this memoir-focused course, writers will explore how to transform lived experience, trauma, and uncertainty into crafted narrative — with care for both the story and the nervous system. Drawing on her memoir Writing in the Wound, Dr. Shumaila Hemani offers a compassionate, structured space for writers ready to bring their deepest stories onto the page with courage and intention.

Archived

Dr. Shumaila Hemani — Shifting Systems through Storytelling & Sounds

As an author and artist living and working in Mohkinstsis (Calgary), I acknowledge that this work unfolds on the traditional and ancestral lands of the peoples of Treaty 7, including the Blackfoot Confederacy (Siksika, Kainai, and Piikani), the Tsuut’ina Nation, and the Îyârhe Nakoda Nations (Bearspaw, Chiniki, and Goodstoney). This territory is also home to the Métis Nation of Alberta, Region 3. As a guest on these lands, I approach my work with humility and with a commitment to listening—to the land, to the stories that precede my own, and to the communities who have cared for these territories across generations.

Your support for this work not only nurtures your own creative and emotional well-being, but also helps sustain an independent space for collective listening and care. If this work resonates with you, I invite you to join our newsletter for reflections, resources, and gatherings rooted in deep listening and collective healing.

Contact

Email:shumaila@

writinginthewound.com

Hours: Monday—Friday
8am — 6pm

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Writing in the Wound Crossed a Threshold

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Discover more from Dr. Shumaila Hemani — Shifting Systems through Storytelling & Sounds