Book Launch of “Reconciling: A Lifelong Struggle to Belong” by Larry Grant and Scott Steedman at the Chinese Cultural Centre Museum on Saturday, September 14, 2025

ACWW and Chinatown Wonders present the launch of Larry Grant’s personal and historical story of identity, place, and belonging, as told by a Musqueam-Chinese Elder caught between cultures.

It’s taken most of Larry Grant’s long life for his extraordinary heritage to be appreciated. He was born in a hop field outside Vancouver in 1936, the son of a Musqueam cultural leader and an immigrant from a village in Guangdong, China. In 1940, when the Indian agent discovered that their mother had married a non-status man, Larry and his two siblings were stripped of their status, suddenly labeled “bastard children.” With one stroke of the pen, they were no longer recognized as Indigenous.

In Reconciling, Larry tells the story of his life, including his thoughts on reconciliation and the path forward for First Nations and Canada. His life echoes the barely known story of Vancouver — and most cities in the Americas, from Cusco to Mexico City, from New York to Toronto. It combines Indigenous traditions with key events of the last two centuries, including Chinese immigration and the Head Tax, the ravages of residential schools, and now Indigenous revival and the accompanying change in worldview. Each chapter takes the form of a series of conversations between Larry and writer Scott Steedman and is built around one pivotal geographical place and its themes, including the Musqueam reserve, Chinatown, the site of the Mission Residential School, the Vancouver docks, and the University of British Columbia.

When Larry talks about reconciliation, he uses the verb reconciling, an ongoing, unfinished process we’re all going through, Indigenous and settler, immigrant and Canadian-born. “I have been reconciling my whole life, with my inner self,” he explains. “To not belong was forced upon me by the colonial society that surrounded me. But reconciling with myself is part of all that.”

Location: Chinese Cultural Centre Museum (555 Columbia Street, Vancouver).

Please RSVP: bit.ly/reconcilingsept14

Pre-order your copy here. Net proceeds from book sales will go towards Musqueam language projects, including a multilingual children's book on Larry Grant's childhood.

LiterASIAN 2025 Presents "Ink and Identity: Narratives from the Chinese Diasporic Experience"

This session explored the intersections of identity, storytelling, and belonging within the Chinese diaspora. Acclaimed writers Rachel Phan, JF Garrard, and Eddy Boudel Tan discuss how their personal and collective histories shape their work across genres, sharing their experiences navigating the complexities of representation in their writing journeys. Whether through fiction, journalism, or speculative storytelling, each writer offers a distinct perspective on what it means to be a Chinese Canadian writer in a rapidly changing world. 

This event was held at the Chinatown Storytelling Centre on Saturday, June 28, 2025.
The featured speakers included: JF Garrard, Eddy Boudel Tan, Rachel Phan, and moderator Wiley Wei-Chiun Ho.

Food and the Chinese Diaspora on Tuesday, September 16, 2025 at VPL

Author Cheuk Kwan (Have you Eaten Yet?) interviewed members of the Chinese diaspora for his book. He then asked these Chinese transplants about what drove them to their new homes and what they like to eat and cook. Kwan will be in conversation with Kevin Chong, author of The Double Life of Benson Yu and Associate Professor of the University of British Columbia Okanagan and Judy Lam Maxwell, culinary-heritage tourism entrepreneur, will lead with introductory remarks.


Speakers
Cheuk Kwan grew up in Singapore, Hong Kong and Japan. He co-founded in 1978 The Asianadian, a magazine dedicated to promoting Asian Canadian arts, culture and politics. Kwan’s fifteen-part Chinese Restaurants (2005) documentary braids his personal experiences with his love of travel and appreciation for Chinese culture worldwide. His personal memoir, Have You Eaten Yet? (2002), draws out a global narrative of the Chinese diaspora by linking together personal stories of chefs, entrepreneurs, labourers and dreamers who populate Chinese kitchens worldwide.

Kevin Chong is the author of seven books of fiction and nonfiction, most recently the novel The Double Life of Benson Yu, which was a finalist for the 2023 Giller Prize and named a Best Book of Canadian Fiction by the CBC. His creative nonfiction and journalism have recently appeared in Time Magazine, Literary Hub, Montecristo, and The Globe and Mail. An associate professor at the University of British Columbia, he lives in Vancouver with his family.

Judy Lam Maxwell is a culinary-heritage tourism entrepreneur based in Vancouver. She is the owner of Historical Chinatown Tours, which offers guided walking tours and traditional dumpling classes. Ms. Lam Maxwell, who is of mixed Chinese and European heritage and has a UBC Master’s degree in History, also specializes in Chinatowns around the world. She is currently on the City of Vancouver Chinatown Advisory Committee and is a City Heritage Commissioner.

In partnership with the Asian Canadian Writers Workshop.

Tuesday, September 16, 2025
6:30 pm – 8:00 pm
Central Library

Registration

P.P. Wong Book Launch "Slice the Water" at Upstart & Crow on September 18, 2025

 

Born on the lush island nation of Mahana, Fred lives under the tyrannical rule of a book-burning king. Under the king’s rule, Mahanians are controlled by a military dictatorship and threatened with forced starvation, while people with disabilities are exiled. After Fred’s father suddenly disappears, Fred joins an underground movement of dissenters and becomes an unwitting global icon in the fight for Mahanian freedom. When he is recruited and relocated by an organization that appears sympathetic to Fred’s cause, he arrives in a seemingly peaceful foreign nation, where the impact of social media and technology creates a new, stranger struggle.

A dystopian thriller, a speculative fiction, and a coming-of-age story, Wong’s novel thrums with biting bursts of staccato-like prose — a fitting accompaniment to a fascinating exploration of contrasting political systems. As Fred unpeels layers of truth and sees beyond the optics of altruism and the illusion of choice, Slice the Water unpacks the myriad amplifying impacts of technology, addiction, and complacency.

PP Wong is a novelist, screenwriter and editor.​​ Her debut novel, The Life of a Banana, was nominated for the Women's Prize for Fiction and featured in numerous outlets, including The Guardian, The Independent, Corriere Della Sera, The Straits Times, Bangkok Post, Vanity Fair, BBC Radio 4 Women's Hour, Radio Television Hong Kong and BBC World. ​ PP completed an MFA at the University of British Columbia, specializing in TV writing, and received the celebrated Cordula and Gunter Paetzold Fellowship. She has a degree in Anthropology and Law from The London School of Economics. ​ PP has roots in Canada, England and Singapore. ​

Registration Link

Word Vancouver Festival on September 20, 2025, featuring an ACWW-sponsored panel of author

ACWW is a proud sponsor of a session at this year’s Word Vancouver Festival. With a deep vulnerability, Jinwoo Park, K.M. Fajardo, Grace Kwan, and Eddy Boudel Tan offer work that defies genre and expectation. This cross-genre reading brings together memoir, essay, and fiction to explore themes of queerness, diaspora, belonging, and the small absurdities of everyday life. Intimate, inventive, and full of heart.

Authors Jinwoo Park, Oxford Soju Club (Dundurn Press) | Grace Kwan, The Sacred Heart Motel (Metonymy Press) | Eddy Boudel Tan, The Tiger and The Cosmonaut (Penguin Random House Canada). This event will take place at UBC Robson Square, Room C440, on September 20, 2:00-3:00 pm, featuring:

Jinwoo Park is a Korean Canadian writer based in Montreal. Born and raised in Seoul, he has lived in various parts of North America and the UK since the age of 11. He obtained his bachelor’s degree from McGill in 2013, followed by a master’s in political economics from the London School of Economics in 2014, and a master’s in creative writing at the University of Oxford in 2015. In 2021, he won the Jim Wong-Chu Emerging Writers’ Award for his first manuscript, Oxford Soju Club, which Dundurn Press will publish in September 2025. He has also been actively working as a literary translator after winning the Emerging Translator Award from the Literature Translation Institute of Korea in late 2023. He is an editor for Ricepaper Magazine.

Grace Kwan is a Malaysian-born sociologist and writer raised in “Vancouver,” the unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh nations. A Pushcart Prize and Best New Poets nominee, their first full-length book THE SACRED HEART MOTEL, was published by Metonymy Press in November 2024. Find them at grckwn.com or @sleepyfacegrace.

Eddy Boudel Tan has been a finalist for the Edmund White Award, the ReLit Best Novel Award, and the Ferro-Grumley Award for his novels After Elias and The Rebellious Tide. He was named a Rising Star by Writers’ Trust of Canada in 2021. His short stories can be found in Joyland, Yolk, and various literary journals and anthologies. The Tiger and the Cosmonaut is his third novel. He lives in Vancouver with his husband.

LiterASIAN Ottawa Festival 2025

 

LiterASIAN Festival is back by popular demand!  Get ready for an exciting evening of literary exploration at the LiterASIAN Festival in Ottawa on September 15 at Perfect Books! Featuring a stellar lineup of talented writers, this event promises a captivating experience as Wayne Ng, Rachel Phan, Jinwoo Park, and Jennilee Austria-Bonifacio come together to share their voices and stories. Celebrate the rich diversity of Asian Canadian literature through readings, discussions, and opportunities to connect with emerging and established authors. Don’t miss this chance to be part of an inspiring celebration of culture, storytelling, and community. Mark your calendars — we’ll see you there!