This was Wiley's situation from the age of twelve, when her parents returned to Taiwan to work, leaving her to grow up with her siblings in Canada. They were to study hard, stay out of trouble, and not tell “outsiders” about their family.
In her memoir The Astronaut Children of Dunbar Street, Wiley Wei-Chiun Ho traces the emotional fault lines of a family divided by an ocean amid shifting global powers, and her struggles against silence and ambiguous loss to find a sense of home – between places, cultural norms, and identities.
Join us for a conversation between Wiley Wei-Chiun Ho and former Vancouver Poet Laureate Fiona Tinwei Lam, as they discuss what it takes to uncover and write difficult family stories.
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Wiley Wei-Chiun Ho has published short stories and personal essays in PRISM international, Ricepaper Magazine, River Teeth, Room and several anthologies, and was a finalist for the 2021 Jim Wong-Chu Award for Emerging Writers (presented by the Asian Canadian Writers’ Workshop). She lives in North Vancouver, BC, where she likes to grow Asian vegetables in her front yard. The Astronaut Children of Dunbar Street is her first book.
Fiona Tinwei Lam is a poet, nonfiction writer, teacher, editor, and anthologist. She has authored three books of poetry, Intimate Distances, Enter the Chrysanthemum, and Odes & Laments and a children’s book, The Rainbow Rocket. Her work has been included in over 45 anthologies, including Best Canadian Poetry and Best Canadian Essays. Besides editing or coediting 3 anthologies of poetry and nonfiction, her award-winning poetry videos made in collaboration with animators and filmmakers have been screened at festivals internationally. She teaches at Simon Fraser University (Continuing Studies) and was Vancouver's Poet Laureate for three years from 2022-24. Her forthcoming collection of nonfiction, Playing for Time, will be coming out in 2027 with Caitlin Press.
Wednesday, May 27, 2026
7:00 pm – 8:00 pm
Central Library. Montalbano Theatre