By Atika Ume Fazal

How many of us get the opportunity to meet people doing things that inspire us? Not enough of us. Dawson Reads, a yearly event that happens in our very own Campus, is trying to change that. By being offered the rare opportunity to meet authors and expand their knowledge in the literary world, Dawson students get to have the flame of literary passion passed on to them.

This year’s iteration, spearheaded by one of Dawson’s very own English teachers, Sarah  Burgoyne, featured Kenyan author Gladwell Pamba. 

Pamba is a decorated author of numerous short stories while also being an English PhD student at Concordia. Her pieces have won numerous awards throughout her career. Amongst others, she is the recipient of the Ibua Manuscript Prize 2025, as well as the 2025 Malahat Review Far Horizons Award for her short story titled “Little Paradiso,” which she read to the audience during the event.

The short fiction piece, narrated by the hauntingly entrancing voice of Pamba, follows a young girl, Cheche, as she tries to make sense of her world at Little Paradiso, an orphanage in a rural part of Kenya. Through her young and naive vision of the world, we get an unfiltered version of life in her rather peculiar circumstances.

What the main character lacks in experience, she makes up for by her childish yet utterly aware critique of the world that surrounds her, whether that be in the orphanage or beyond. Cheche sees injustice all around her and isn’t afraid to speak about taboo subjects – whether it be the looks of other people or the problem with religion in her community. 

The depiction of injustice is immediate. Cheche gets told she has been selected to be a child bride to a grown man. The Sisters at Little Paradiso contribute to Cheche’s helplessness by telling her women cannot be strong and worthy of protagonist roles in stories. Even fiction holds no place for her tenacious personality. Her well-being is not entirely accounted for as well, neither by the orphanage personnel nor by the “philantropists” that visit them. Cheche claims that people give them more bibles than food, being selfish even in an action they believe to be altruistic. 

Pamba mentioned, in the questioning period that followed the reading, that she likes using child narrators in her stories. She explained that it allowed her to remove herself fully from the story, while also allowing her to “get away with so much” in terms of characterization and plot building.

Pamba says, when offering advice for aspiring authors, that she never selected her way of life, instead she “found herself an author.” Similarly, she encouraged the Dawsonites present to “just write.”  To write even when the idea isn’t entirely clear. To write ignoring the judgment that may come with it. To write even if that writing never sees the light of day.