Rukhsana Khan

Readings

Picture the Story presentation (Grades K – 3)
This presentation combines some of Rukhsana's picture books with humourous personal stories to give children a vivid image of South Asian and Islamic culture.

The Roses in My Carpets presentation (Grades 3 – 12)
Go behind the scenes and meet the inspiration for an international award-winning story. Take a visual tour of an Afghan refugee camp in Peshawar, Pakistan. Rukhsana uses warmth and humour to tackle such serious subjects as child poverty and war in this popular presentation for children and adults.

From ESL to Author (Grades 6 – 9)
Rukhsana relates her experiences growing up as an immigrant in a small town and how she coped with discrimination. Then focusing on peer pressure, she reveals how an incident in her youth became the climactic scene of her award-winning novel, Dahling, If You Luv Me, Would You Please, Please Smile.

Special Equipment:

LCD projector and screen.

Book Sales:

Copies of books can be brought to be sold and autographed.

Workshops

Creative Writing Workshop
Using her own stories as examples, Rukhsana explores how structure applies to story. She gets students writing with a variety of creativity exercises followed by tips on editing.

Special Equipment:

Chalkboard or note paper.

Book Sales:

Copies of books can be brought to be sold and autographed.

Biography

Rukhsana Khan is an award winning author and storyteller. She was born in Lahore, Pakistan and immigrated to Canada, with her family, at the age of three. She grew up in the small town of Dundas, Ontario.

Rukhsana has a down-to-earth, humourous style of presentation. Some of her presentations tackle serious subject matter such as child refugees, but she does so with a light touch that engages listeners without trivializing the situation. With her years of storytelling experience and wide repertoire of stories, her presentations work well for various age groups and audience types. She has presented at schools and communities all across Canada and in many parts of the US. She has also presented at the 2006 American Library Association conference in New Orleans, and the 2004 IBBY congress in Capetown. She has toured South Africa, the Northwest Territories and been invited to tour the Yukon. She will be a featured artist at the 2007 Universal Forum of Cultures in Monterrey, Mexico, and has been invited to be a plenary speaker at 2008 IBBY congress in Denmark.

Rukhsana began by writing for community magazines and went on to write songs and stories for the “Adam's World” children's videos. She currently has seven books published and others under contract. She tells tales of India, Persia, the Middle East, as well as her own stories. She has four children: three girls and a boy. Two of her daughters are married and she has one granddaughter. She lives in Toronto with her husband and family.

OTHER PRESENTATIONS:
Storymaking in the Classroom
This workshop picks up where the Universality in Folktales presentation leaves off. It involves practical exercises for teachers to conduct with their students that will tap into creativity followed by editing exercises that make the piece they’ve written, stronger. Also included are tips to get students excited about writing.

The Importance of Inclusive Literature in the Classroom
A healthy inclusive environment in the classroom is the ideal environment to foster learning and acceptance. Using her own experiences growing up as an ESL student as well as her experiences as an author/storyteller presenting in the classroom, Rukhsana discusses practical ways teachers can create an inclusive environment for all their students. Resources include a list of multicultural authors and websites that will facilitate this task.

Bringing Oral Cultural Stories to the Page
Students from predominantly oral cultures face particular challenges when trying to express themselves in literary form. This workshop focuses on strategies to bridge the gap between oral tradition and the written page. (This workshop was developed for the 2004 International Board on Books for Young People South Africa Congress.)