The Things We Carry: Storytelling at Joy Kogawa House - June 15, 2019

This is the third set of "The Things We Carry’’ storytelling circles that features three published authors: Joy Kogawa (from Ontario), Victoria Kuttainen (from Australia) and May Q. Wong (from Victoria).

Each author will share her family migration story and reflections on migration. The size of the circles is designed to enable participants to interact with the featured storytellers in an intimate environment in the historic Joy Kogawa House, where acclaimed writer Joy Kogawa grew up. After the presentation by each author/storyteller, there will be time for questions and sharing among members of the circle.

Circle A (1:30pm-2:30pm): Joy Kogawa

Refreshment break (2:30pm -3pm): mix & mingle with authors; book-signing

Circle B1 (3:00pm-3:45pm): Victoria Kuttainen

Circle B2 (3:00pm-3:35pm): May Q. Wong

Circle C1 (3:50pm-4:35pm): Victoria Kuttainen

Circle C2 (3:50pm-4:35pm): May Q. Wong

Brought to you in partnership with Historic Joy Kogawa House, Asian Canadian Writers' Workshop, UBC Asian Canadian and Asian Migration Studies

Wayson Choy (1939-2019)

Our dear advisor and mentor Wayson Choy passed away today. This literary giant will be missed. Our world has been better because of him. We honoured Wayson in 2012 with a special tribute dinner.

Write On Vancouver: Writing and Publishing Fair with Cynda Yeasting and Vincent Ternida on May 11, 2019

---

As part of Write On Vancouver, be sure to visit us at the writing and publishing fair in the promenade to chat with local publishers and writing groups.  Come find us at the Ricepaper booth with authors Cynda Yeasting and Vincent Ternida on May 11, 11.00am to 4.00pm.

New Book by Anna Wang - Inconvenient Memories A Personal Account of the Tiananmen Square Incident and the China Before and After

Immigrant and survivor Anna Wang offers a unique glimpse into the Tiananmen Square Incident and the China surrounding it in her powerful new book Inconvenient Memories: A Personal Account of the Tiananmen Square Incident and the China Before and After.  From her childhood account of living in an oppressed government system, to the activities during her college-age years that led to the protests in the Square and beyond, Wang’s revealing personal account is both gripping and terrifying. It’s a story that will never be allowed to be told in her home country.

“When the protests started, I was sent to the square on a daily basis to take photos for my Japanese boss to analyze for evidence of turning tides in the economy,” says Wang, who worked for Canon. “That’s why after almost thirty years I can still recall the details graphically.”  

Having experienced students’ protests while studying at Peking University, Wang naturally felt for the cause of the students. However, as an employee of a foreign enterprise, she observed the protests with mixed feelings.

“I felt sympathy for the students’ fight for democracy and freedom, but when I crossed the Tiananmen Square, hearing them sing “The Internationale will be the human race,” I became wary of them. What if the students succeeded and they took everything I owned and would own in the future? As the very few who worked for foreign enterprises at the time, I cared about the market economy, private property, and anything like that.”

Then the massacre occurred and Wang lived through the terrifying time when tanks were in the streets and people were dying. Every relationship around her was challenged.

Sampaguita Perspectives: A Celebration of Filipino-Canadian Writers at the Vancouver Public Library

Join the Vancouver Filipino-Canadian Writers Collective for a lively and intimate literary evening with some of the city’s best emerging Canadian writers of the Filipino diaspora.   From short stories to spoken word, Sampaguita Perspectives promises to be an engaging, cross-cultural and introspective event for all ages.

Readings by Moses CC, Nathalie De Los Santos, Raphael Diangkinay, Carlo Javier, IJssel Jacob Ruiz and Tiffany Tarampi.  This event takes place in the new Montalbano Family Theatre.

Jamie Chai Yun Liew the winner of the 2018 Jim Wong-Chu Emerging Writers Award for fiction

The Asian Canadian Writers’ Workshop is pleased to announce Jamie Chai Yun Liew the winner of the 2018 Jim Wong-Chu Emerging Writers Award for fiction. Her manuscript DANDELION ROOTS revolves around one Chinese family in a small mining town in British Columbia struggling to fit in the Canadian Chinese community, revealing class struggles, discrimination, and questions of belonging for Chinese people that don’t speak or resemble the majority Chinese. Telling the untold story about conflict and diversity within Canadian Chinese communities, Liew's elegant prose and storytelling evoke a "literary reflection of Canadian migration, identity, and statelessness."

The Jim Wong-Chu Emerging Writers Award is a community building initiative of the Asian Canadian Writers’ Workshop named in recognition of Jim Wong-Chu, a pioneer of Asian Canadian writing and mentor to many writers. The award continues his lifelong passion to encourage and develop quality manuscripts and finished works by new writers in the community. Originally established in 1999, the JWC Emerging Writer Award encourages and promotes authors of Pacific Rim Asian heritage to be published with an established publishing house. Previous award winners include Rita Wong's Monkeypuzzle, published by Press Gang; Madeleine Thien’s Simple Recipes (McClelland & Stewart), Catherine Hernandez, Scarborough (Arsenal Pulp Press), and Philip Huynh’s The Purple Forbidden City (Goose Lane Editions).

Jamie Chai Yun Liew is a Chinese Canadian writer who has Hakka, Hainanese, and Nyonya roots in Southeast Asia and is a student of Hokkien and Mandarin Chinese. She is also a lawyer and a law professor who teaches immigration, refugee and citizenship law in Ottawa.