Alberta's 2025 Favourite ReadsWhat happens when your scars begin to speak?For Dr. Shumaila Hemani, music began as a calling. It unfolded into a life path through a rare human connection with eminent ethnomusicologist Professor Regula Burckhardt Qureshi, whose faith in her awakened the courage to risk everything for the artist’s path.
Drawing upon intuitive deep listening to the soundscapes of diverse musical cultures and the author’s own trauma, Writing in the Wound tells the story of an ethnomusicologist’s resilience and fragility amid systemic erasure.
Spanning travels across diverse musical cultures and settings, Dr. Hemani shares her testament to truth and vulnerability in the face of institutional silencing, immigration precarity, and the long endurance toward belonging in Canada.
"Shumaila Hemani 's work is multifaceted, beautifully lyrical, and crystal clear."
— Barb Howard, author of Happy Sands, University of Calgary Press.
“Writing in the Wound contributes to collective human strength to heal the planet— in such a loving, powerful way.”
— Norine Braun, award-winning Indigenous singer-songwriter
Dr. Shumaila Hemani is a writer, ethnomusicologist, musician, and public advocate whose work advances freedom of expression for artists and communities affected by censorship, displacement, and structural silencing. She is a PEN Canada Writer in Exile, working at the intersection of cultural rights, migration, mental health, and artistic freedom.Addressing freedom of expression under authoritarian regimes, Hemani published a global call to support Afghan musicians facing death threats by the Taliban in The Conversation (2021) and Arts Desk UK (2021). Her essays and creative writing similarly interrogate the silencing and appropriation of artists. Her short story Catabasis received a jury commendation in the International Human Rights Arts Movement's special issue on Hannah Arendt (forthcoming).Her memoir, Writing in the Wound, opens public discourse on the mental-health impacts of immigration precarity amongst former post-graduate work permit holders-an issue that remains suppressed within Canadian media.Hemani's public leadership has also brought global issues-including climate justice in the Global South, immigrant mental health, and cultural silencing-into Canadian civic and artistic forums, including Music Declares Emergency, University of Hawaii's Climate Change and South Asia Conference, Map the Systems Canada Finals.Her work has been recognized with several awards, including the Cultural Diversity Award (2016) and inclusion in the Women in Music Canada Honour Roll (2023), and she has been nominated for the Ken Filkow Prize for extending freedom of expression in Canada (2026)."Dr. Hemani is a really fine writer." Professor Michael Frishkopf, University of Alberta"Shumaila Hemani's work is multifaceted, beautifully lyrical, and crystal clear. She's a gem in the Canadian arts community. " Barb Howard, author of Happy Sands (University of Calgary Press)
