Leonarda Carranza is a Central American born writer who now calls Brampton home. She holds a PhD from the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education where her research examined humiliation and shaming practices in the classroom. In her writing, she draws on experiences of migration, loss and unbelonging. Her writing has been published in Room, The New Quarterly, Briarpatch magazine and Best Canadian Essays 2017. Her essay “Tongues” is part of Room Magazine’s first women of colour edition. She is the winner of Briarpatch magazine’s seventh annual Writing in the Margins contest for her piece, “The McGill Experiments.”