Tint October Recap
Haven’t heard from us in a while? Here’s what you may have missed in the past month! Follow us on Instagram @tintjournal to stay updated on tinted content.
Piece Teasers
“Stitched” by Anna Pedko
Anna Pedko is a Ukrainian immigrant living in Toronto, Ontario. She holds a degree in English literature and works at a fintech startup. This is her first publication in a literary journal, a milestone she’s very proud of. She is currently working on a contemporary romance novel and pursuing her long-held dream of becoming a published author. Read her short story “Stitched” at tintjournal.com/short-story/stitched.
Art: “Fragmented” by Haley Cole
“I’m from Elsewhere” by Shaira Sultana
Shaira Sultana is a writer from Scarborough who was born and raised in Dhaka for the first eight years of her life. Her writing mostly explores topics of culture, religion, and belonging — all subjects that reflect on her complex lived experience as a Muslim immigrant woman of colour. Her hobbies include befriending stray cats, crocheting, and trying new things. Read her poem “I’m from Elsewhere” at tintjournal.com/poetry/im-from-elsewhere.
Art: “The Adorned Woman” by Maheshwar N. Sinha
“The End of Endings” by Anneliz Marie Erese
Anneliz Marie Erese is a writer of fiction, personal essays and poetry, and her works have appeared in various print and online publications including Going Down Swinging, The Saturday Paper, Meanjin, Island and elsewhere. Her debut novel is forthcoming in 2027 through Black Inc. Born. Raised in the Philippines, she is currently living on stolen lands in Naarm/Melbourne, Australia. Read her essay “The End of Endings” at tintjournal.com/essay/the-end-of-endings.
Art: “Novalis” by Milena Makani
”Rooms :: Under Siege” by Elina Kumra
Elina Kumra is the author of Extant and Ash and Olive. A Scholastic Gold Medalist, she has received numerous literary awards and has been featured in over fifteen poetry and literary magazines. Her primary mission is to give voice to human suffering and combat illiteracy by promoting equity and accessibility in education. Read her poem “Rooms :: Under Siege” at tintjournal.com/poetry/rooms-under-siege.
Art: “Gnomic” by Kim Suttell
Author Q&As
Niels Bekkema
After Niels Bekkema’s graduation, he returned to social work with refugees. He later began working as a reader, advisor, and editor for The Geographical Open Atlas for the Polity of Literature (www.thegoatpol.org), which is a shared territory of reading and writing. This project is also where he feels most politically engaged, because what could be more political than publishing the stories we’d normally never read? Learn more about Niels Bekkema, author of “Cloth” (Tint Fall ‘25 “Patchwork”), at tintjournal.com/about/writers/niels-bekkema.
Galina Itskovich
Galina Itskovich, author of “Flyers” (Tint Fall ‘25 “Patchwork”), has done a lot of traveling, so there are many amazing places on her list. The most adventurous one would probably be her 2011 trip through Jammu and Kashmir. And as a returning writer at the age of 30, she started to write prose and to write in English because she made new, absolutely real friends. Somehow, she always has a story or two to share with the world. Read more about Galina Itskovich at tintjournal.com/about/writers/galina-itskovich.
Alina Zollfrank
Although she mostly writes in English now, a lot of Alina Zollfrank’s work is grounded in ancestral stories and the immigrant experience. Moreover, her favorite childhood book would have to be Walter Krumbach’s “Meine Puppenkinder” with its glorious rhymes and vibrant illustrations. It was a hand-me-down from her mom, and when she sent it to her years later, the smell of the pages took her right back to her childhood home. Learn more about Alina Zollfrank, author of “New Words, New Worlds” (Tint Fall ‘25 “Patchwork”), at tintjournal.com/about/writers/alina-zollfrank.
Sarp Sozdinler
Sarp Sozdinler’s favorite book is any book in the children’s book series, “The Knickerbocker Gang” by the Austrian writer Thomas Brezina. The most adventurous experience they had was from their time as an exchange student in Vienna where they accidentally got locked in a cemetery for a night. Learn more about Sarp Sozdinler, author of “False Positives” (Tint Fall ‘25 “Patchwork”), at tintjournal.com/about/writers/sarp-sozdinler.
Chelsea Allen
Chelsea Allen first started writing creatively as a way to escape her reality. She never wrote about what bothered her, in fear that it wouldn’t bother anybody else. Creating other sorts of pains for the characters instead was a relief. Learn more about the author of “Dovetail” (Tint Fall ‘25 “Patchwork”) at tintjournal.com/about/writers/chelsea-allen.
In Conversation
Author Profile: Amitav Ghosh
Sabyasachi Roy writes that if you’re picking up Amitav Ghosh for the first time, here’s a tip: Forget your genre expectations. Pack snacks. Bring a notebook. And if you find yourself suddenly wondering how saltpeter affected 19th-century Bengal agriculture, don’t panic. You’re just where he wants you. Read his author profile “The Historian Who Forgot to Stay in His Lane” at tintjournal.com/profile/amitav-ghosh-the-historian-who-forgot-to-stay-in-his-lane.
Interview: Vaishali Shroff
“When the book says we need to leave the rivers alone, it means that we must not interfere with its natural flow. We don’t need to dredge rivers to make them deeper, build tunnels to divert them, clear forests and submerge villages to construct dams. We don’t need to dump our untreated domestic and industrial waste in the rivers, pollute it with religious offerings. We don’t need to break their flow, divert them or interconnect them. The floods that are rocking the world today are not an overnight phenomenon. They are a result of years and years of abuse and neglect.” - Vaishali Shroff. Read Preeti Kathuria’s full interview with Vaishali Shroff— author of the recently published non-fiction book, “Submerged Worlds and Other Amazing Stories of India’s Mighty Rivers” (India Penguin, 2025) on our In Conversation section at https://tintjournal.com/interview/stirring-the-waters-to-reclaim-the-flow-in-conversation-with-vaishali-shroff.