The Community EditionPARENTHOOD AFTER LOSS: ELLIE ANGLIN’S FIRST MEMOIR
On Mar. 14, 2026, local art space and small-scale risograph print shop, Dirty Work Studio, hosted a book launch event for Kitchener artist and writer, Ellie Anglin, for her first book, Reproduction: Death, Birth & the Turkey Baster, published by Publication Studio Guelph.
The book is a graphic memoir and practical guide that traces Anglin’s pursuit of parenthood in the shadow of profound loss.
Anglin describes her attempts to conceive a child with her wife, while navigating the fertility industry, which is interrupted by overwhelming grief after losing her parents. The couple’s struggles push them away from institutional practice and toward home insemination, affectionately known as the Turkey Baster Method.
While the subject matter is heavy, Anglin emphasizes the underlying warmth of the work.
“Although death and birth are very painful and dark subjects… there’s a lot of joy and humour in it as well,” Anglin said. “All of these things are only so important to us because they’re all about love.”
Anglin is a multi-media visual artist and writer based in Kitchener. She takes inspiration from feminist and queer art traditions, and her works blend different motifs and elements such as collage, memoir and self-publishing practices that explore identity, magic, pop culture and the collective imagination.
The publication of her book marks a major milestone for Anglin, who has long been a staple of the local do-it-yourself (DIY) scene.
“I have been making zines for probably over 20 years now, and I’ve self-published 35 zines,” she said. “So, to have my first official book publication is a big honour.”
Shalaka Jadhav, Kitchener-based curator, writer, cultural strategist, co-founder of Dirty Work Studio and a long-time collaborator of Anglin’s, noted that independent spaces are crucial for first-time authors who often face significant barriers in the Canadian publishing industry.
“It can be really intimidating,” Jadhav said. “So, it’s really important to have the space where you can invite family and the general public and allow for people to mix.”
The book launch was hosted at Dirty Work Studio, which is located at 100 Park St.
“I’m so, so excited to have a studio like this in downtown Kitchener,” Anglin said. “Such an awesome arts community here, and then this studio is just like the cherry on top with so much celebration of DIY queer and women’s art.”
The event transformed the studio into an immersive gallery, featuring Anglin’s surrealistic collage work and looping video remixes of the book’s illustrations.
Jadhav explained that the goal of the night was to help the work burst out of Anglin’s book.
“We want to be a space where artists can realize all kinds of projects and to sort of experiment,” Jadhav said. “Having a DIY space where things can be a little bit more experimental and loose means that Ellie can try new things and expand her practice.”
The highlight of the evening was a live performance involving costumes and props, a project Anglin developed over the final weeks of her three-year journey to bring the book to life.
Anglin said that the visual components from the event were a natural extension of the book’s creation.
“I kind of took the collage fragments but then reassembled them into different collages to create new meanings,” she said.
The reach of the project extends far beyond Kitchener due to Publication Studio’s unique open source model. As Jadhav explained, any of the studio’s sister locations worldwide, from Guelph to Brazil, can download, print and bind Anglin’s work locally.
Ultimately, the launch served as a testament to the resilience of the local creative scene.
“This is a total labour of love,” Jadhav said, noting that the studio is a self-funded effort by its members. “The more people show up to our events, the more we see it as a show of support that this space should exist.”
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Sam Nabi
CBC Kitchener-Waterloo
Ken Everett (Ken's Blogspot)
Ontario Outbreak Information