Meet Shuvanjan!

Hello! I’m Shuvanjan (Shu-vahn-jone) — the new Product Coordinator at BookNet Canada. My pronouns are He/Them.

I’m very excited to work at BookNet and continue working in the publishing industry assisting publishers, libraries, distributors, and bookstores.

A bit about me: I grew up in a family of artists and civil workers who instilled a vigorous reading habit in me. I grew up in Dhaka, Bangladesh — home to “Ekushey Boi Mela”, a book festival that I used to visit every year with my family, and has now become a national cultural festival celebrating the literary achievements of local authors and publishers.

I moved to Halifax, Nova Scotia in 2009 to study International Development Science at Saint Mary’s University where I also worked in the IT department assisting faculty, staff, and students with their IT needs. Over the last 15 years I’ve worked as a Feature Writer for The Independent, Instructor at Apathy is Boring, and Centre For Arts & Tapes and a wide range of arts organizations as part of their programming, technical, production, or outreach teams.

In more recent years I’ve worked as the Digital Marketing Coordinator at Nimbus Publishing Limited. My nickname was “Keeper of Metadata”, which I absolutely loved as it made me feel like a wizard! Maintaining, distributing, and enhancing metadata for Nimbus and their distributed publishers was a big part of my job — something I enjoyed immensely, and I always looked forward to learning more about data flow, databases, and various systems residing within the book industry. Additionally, I worked on marketing strategies and creating trends and digital and print assets to promote Nimbus’ publications and their authors.

I have a deep appreciation for organizations with values and infrastructure like BookNet’s. So, you can imagine how happy I am to be working here.

As a person with a wide variety of interests, I could never pick a genre of book that spoke to me more than others. I simply am a fan of stories, lessons, and humour. Here are some books whose pages inspire my day to day.

• Butter Honey Pig Bread by Francesca Ekwuyasi 🍁

• To Be a Water Protector by Winona LaDuke

• Policing Black Lives by Robyn Maynard 🍁

• Rehearsals for Living by Robyn Maynard 🍁 & Leanne Betasamosake Simpson 🍁

• Tauhou by Kōtuku Titihuia Nuttall

• Jonny Appleseed by Joshua Whitehead 🍁

• I Place You into the Fire by Rebecca Thomas 🍁

• This Is Your Brain on Music by Daniel J. Levitin

• The Tale of the Duelling Neurosurgeons by Sam Kean

• Son of Trickster by Eden Robinson 🍁

• Annaka by Andre Fenton 🍁

• SAGA series by Brian K. Vaughan, Illus. by Fiona Staples 🍁

• Transmetropolitan series by Warren Ellis, Illus. by Darick Robertson

And I will read anything and everything by Humayun Ahmed and Satyajit Ray.

I absolutely love cooking for my peers, going on bike rides or hikes, playing music, eating fresh fruits (mango is my favourite), and finding new spots for dumplings and momos — I can’t get enough of them!

My best friend is a 120lb Newfoundlander dog — a total sweetheart, and a con artist when it comes to treats.

Thanks for reading! I look forward to working with you.