Dear current occupant : a memoir / Chelene Knight.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Knight, Chelene, 1981- author.

Contributor:

Sabin W. Colton, Jr., Memorial Fund.

Series:

Essais ; No. 5.

Essais ; No. 5

Standardized Title:

Works. Selections

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Knight, Chelene, 1981-.

Knight, Chelene.

Creative nonfiction, Canadian.

Genre:

Fictional autobiographies.

Autobiographical fiction.

Physical Description:

131 pages : illustrations (some color), map, portrait ; 21 cm.

regular print

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Toronto : Book*hug, [2018]

Summary:

"From Vancouver-based writer Chelene Knight, Dear Current Occupant is a creative nonfiction memoir about home and belonging set in the 80s and 90s of Vancouver's Downtown Eastside. Using a variety of forms including letters, essays and poems, Knight reflects on her childhood through a series of letters addressed to all of the current occupants now living in the twenty different houses she moved in and out of with her mother and brother. From blurry non-chronological memories of trying to fit in with her own family as the only mixed East Indian/Black child, to crystal clear recollections of parental drug use, Knight draws a vivid portrait of memory that still longs for a place and a home. Peering through windows and doors into intimate, remembered spaces now occupied by strangers, Knight writes to them in order to deconstruct her own past. From the rubble of memory she then builds a real place in order to bring herself back home."-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

I think about all the houses 15

This is for the teachers 17

Grade six 19

Waiting out front of the school to be picked up was torture 20

When the smoke cleared 21

Mama 22

Dear Current Occupant: Part One

House with the sign in the window 27

Origami house with the handmade roof 29

Duplex near Fraser Street with the picture books in the closet 30

Letter to Santa 31

House with the green door on East 12th Avenue 32

Basement suite on Earles Street 33

Apartment above the East Indian sweet shop just off 49th 35

Palms Motel, Kingsway 36

House we all shared on Forgotten Street 37

Two-toned red-and-white brick house on 41st behind the church 38

Witness Statements

I didn't have a father 43

Pack your things 44

Apartment 301 near the low track 45

White house where some family lived upstairs 46

Most holidays 47

Like a lion in the trees 48

Of the last house I remember 49

Cracks in the sidewalk

Walking tour, a map 53

Broadway and Commercial 54

41st Avenue between Victoria and Elliott, back 54

Clark Drive 2 55

Clark Drive 3 55

East 12th Avenue (off Commercial) 56

41st Avenue between Wales and Clarendon 57

East 12th between Windsor and Fraser, back alley 58

East 12th between Windsor and Fraser, back alley 59

Clark Drive traffic 60

East 12th between Windsor and Fraser, front door 60

East 13th Avenue, attic 61

East 13th Avenue, front 62

East 41st between Victoria and Elliott 63

Broadway and Commercial, back 64

East 41st between Victoria and Elliott, roof 64

Fraser and 13th 65

Kingsway and Fraser 65

Kingsway Hotel 66

Kingsway Hotel, side view 66

View from front window of East 12th 67

Gate, white house 68

Clark Drive intersection 69

Mailboxes 70

Dear Current Occupant: Part Two

She's at the recovery house for the third time 73

Apartment on Clark Drive above the convenience store 74

For Uncle Eugene 75

Owl House Women and Children's Shelter 76

The room in the attic of the oldest place we've stayed 77

Pink building, Broadway and 12th 78

House with the attic apartment where kittens disappear 79

Neighbour, this is for your daughter 80

One-room apartment above the grocery store 81

Third-floor corner unit apartment, East Broadway 82

House where I accidentally dyed my hair blond 83

Of every yard I didn't have 84

Mirror Talk

Let your hair down 87

The eyes have it 88

These hands 89

These lips taste water 90

Notices of Termination

The occupants of these suites must adhere to the following rules 93

Damage noted 94

I broke the rules on purpose 95

Someone slashed the tops off coconuts so we could drink the milk 96

Miss Parker 97

Lay your head on my pillow 104.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Sabin W. Colton, Jr., Memorial Fund.

Other Format:

Knight, Chelene, 1981-, author. Dear current occupant.

ISBN:

9781771663908

1771663901

OCLC:

1027027899

Publisher Number:

99976867180