LiterASIAN 2014 comes to Richmond Library

 

Featured writers include Fred Wah, Elaine Woo, Doretta Lau, Yasuko Nguyen Thanh, Souvankham Thammavongsa, Kim Fu, Raymond Nakamura, Corinna Chong, Lily Chow and Edwin Lee

LiterASIAN and the Richmond Public Library are pleased to jointly host a special Asian Canadian book fair on Saturday, October 11, 2014, noon – 4 p.m. at the Richmond Public Library (Brighouse Branch) 7700 Minoru Boulevard, Richmond BC.

 

LiterASIAN: a Festival of Pacific Rim Asian Canadian Writing is a community-building initiative by the Asian Canadian Writers’ Workshop and Ricepaper Magazine. LiterASIAN celebrates the appreciation and readership of works produced by Pacific Rim Asian Canadian writers and is dedicated to the nurturing and development of emerging writers from the Pan-Asian Pacific community.

 

This Richmond Book Fair event will feature more than a dozen published authors presenting their works. Their publications will be available for purchase and book signing.

 

This is a unique opportunity for readers to hear new works, mingle and meet their favourite author in person. The featured writers include:

  • Fred Wah – a Governor General Award winner and Canada’s Poet Laureate.
  • Elaine Woo – recipient of the 2014 Empowered Poet Award from World Poetry. She will introduce her new book of poetry, Cycling with the Dragon.
  • Doretta Lau – finalist for the Writers’ Trust of Canada / McClelland & Stewart Journey Prize in 2013. How Does a Single Blade of Grass Thank the Sun? is her debut short story collection,
  • Yasuko Nguyen Thanh – named one of ten CBC Books’ writers to watch in 2013. She has a short story collection, Floating Like the Dead.
  • Souvankham Thammavongsa – an amazing poet born in a Lao refugee camp in Nong Khai, Thailand in 1978.
  • Kim Fu – shortlisted for the Canadian Authors Association Emerging Artist Award and long listed for the Flaherty-Dunnan First Novel Prize for the novel, For Today I Am a Boy
  • Raymond Nakamura – writer, cartoonist, and educator. His story, Peach Girl, was inspired by the Japanese folk tale of Momotaro.
  • Corinna Chong – writer, editor, and graphic designer. Her first novel, Belinda’s Rings, is about growing up in a mixed race family
  • Lily Chow’s – born in Malaysia, but has lived in Canada since the mid-sixties. Her new book is Blood and Sweat Over The Railway Tracks: Chinese Labourers Constructing the Canadian Pacific Railway (1880-1885)
  • Edwin Lee – at the age of 78 years, he self-published a book called Sum Yung Guys about growing up in Vancouver’s Chinatown during the 1930s.

 

Highlighting this event is the newly translated works (in simplified Chinese) of important Chinese Canadian works. Denise Chong’s Concubine’s Children, Wayson Choy’s Jade Peony, SkyLee’s Disappearing Moon Café and Paul Yee’s collected works will be made available in Chinese for the first time in North America at this event.

 

In both Chinese and English text, Joyce Chan’s Rediscover the Fading Memories: The Early Chinese Canadian Christian History chronicles the rich history of its important ground-breaking pioneers and mission among the early Chinese in Canada.

 

Sarah Ling and Elder Larry Grant, who is of mixed Chinese and Musqueam ancestry, and their new multilingual children’s book Let’s Take a Walk, will give a multilingual author reading of this charming book, with an audio CD that includes the Musqueam language, Cantonese, Mandarin and English recordings.

 

The Chinese Canadian History Society will be on hand with their many books of historical importance to Chinese Canadians.  http://www.cchsbc.ca/media/

 

Detailed information available at http://literasian.ricepapermagazine.ca/.

 

For more information and media, contact Jim Wong-Chu at jwongchu@shaw.ca or 604.355.5795