Hide and Sikh: Letters from a Life in Brown Skin is Sunny Dhillon’s debut memoir, published by Wolsak & Wynn in November 2025. Through letters to his firstborn daughter, Jaya, Dhillon shares his experiences as a brown-skinned Canadian breaking through an industry that still cries for more diversity and inclusion. Touching memories from his past growing up as a first-generation immigrant, ready to discover the world, who finds many simple tasks filled with roadblocks just because of the color of his skin.
Later in his life, he went back and called his mom to teach him how to cook a traditional meal he loved, sharing his learning along the way.
Sunny was born in Canada after his parents immigrated from Punjab. Although he was born Canadian, he actively tries to explore and enjoy his Punjabi background and culture. Hide and Sikh shares intimate moments of Dhillon’s life, such as straying away from Indian foods his household would typically have in rotation, just because the smell would stick to his clothes and other kids would notice. Later in his life, he went back and called his mom to teach him how to cook a traditional meal he loved, sharing his learning along the way. Dhillon shares his knowledge and past experiences like these through letters for his daughter, so she can share his experience and reflect on the deeper meaning these hold as a brown skin women in a white milieu society.
Dhillon’s journalist-style writing is so compelling and real in each letter. Giving the reader the full scope of his story and experience with no sugar coating in it. This memoir complements his famous journalism piece featured in the book “Journalism While Brown and When to Walk Away.” His story sheds light on many issues that still linger in the world and the journalism industry, with the intention of helping people reflect on these and keep growing from them. He opens up questions that we should all be asking ourselves: where we stand, and how to make this society better.
He opens up questions that we should all be asking ourselves: where we stand, and how to make this society better.
Each letter brings new experiences and topics to the table, filled with love and desire for his daughter’s story to be better than his. Navigating the world with new and better perspectives through learning of his own, Dhillon keeps his passion for racial equality close to his heart and will continue to speak on it in the hopes that more people care about the subject. After all, knowledge is power, and opening up the conversation on topics that should’ve been left behind years ago is important if we want the change to be meaningful.
Dhillon is raising his voice loud and clear, respectfully but truthfully, and we should all go and hear him out in Hide and Sikh: Letters from a Life in Brown Skin.
Sunny Dhillon is a former news reporter whose viral essay “Journalism While Brown and When to Walk Away” highlighted the significant challenges that journalists of colour can face. Sunny worked as a print reporter for ten years. He has also appeared on television and radio and has spoken at conferences. He is passionate about racial justice and continues to write on that theme. He holds a master’s degree in journalism from the University of British Columbia. He and his young family now live in Ontario, where Sunny attends law school. This is his first book.
Publisher: Wolsak & Wynn Publishers (November 4, 2025)
Paperback 8″ x 5″ | 142 pages
ISBN: 9781998408320
Micaela Carcamo is a Writer and Editor in her 3rd year of Creative Writing and Publishing at Sheridan College. As an editor, she has worked on a memoir and translated for Grafos y Maquinaciones S.A.C. in Peru, and is currently working as Prose Editor for B222 Journal in Canada. As a writer, Micaela focuses on nonfiction, exploring themes of her Peruvian heritage, her upbringing, and her newfound cultural exchanges and experiences as an international student living in Canada.
