Award-winning authors Lindsay Wong and Chris Humphreys bring double the star power as VPL’s Writers in Residence
VANCOUVER, B.C. – Vancouver Public Library is pleased to announce two Writers in Residence – authors Lindsay Wong and Chris Humphreys – will be bringing their talents to the library in back-to-back residencies this summer and fall.
Starting May, Lindsay Wong will begin her residency. She’s known for her fearless writing and askew sense of humour as she chronicles adventures and disasters with copious amounts of playfulness and generosity. Her bestselling debut memoir, The Woo-Woo: How I Survived Ice Hockey, Drug Raids, Demons, and My Crazy Chinese Family, won the 2019 Hubert Evans Nonfiction Prize and was named one of the Best Books of 2018 by Newsweek, CBC Books, Globe and Mail, and Quill and Quire. Her recently released novel, My Summer of Love and Misfortune, is set in the decadent world of high-society Beijing and has been called Confessions of a Shopaholic meets Crazy Rich Asians.
“Sharing my knowledge and insight with aspiring writers and the community is something I’m deeply committed to,” says Wong. “During my residency, I invite prose writers of all levels and experiences to consult with me in the genres of YA, memoir, and fiction in one-on-one manuscript consultations via Zoom. New voices, especially from BIPOC, immigrant, and marginalized groups, are especially welcome. I’ll also be working on a collection of short stories that blends magical realism and absurd comedy into stories of immigration.”
Chris Humphreys will begin his residency in September. He’s published numerous historical fiction books including The French Executioner, The Jack Absolute Trilogy, Vlad, A Place Called Armageddon, and Shakespeare’s Rebel. His novel, Plague, won the Arthur Ellis Award for Best Crime Novel in Canada in 2015, and he is now writing the fantasy series, Immortals’ Blood Trilogy. When Humphreys is not creating new fantasy worlds through his writing, he’s been found on film sets and theatre stages all over the world. He’s portrayed Hamlet in Calgary, a gladiator in Tunisia, and a dead immortal in Highlander. He’s even waltzed in London’s West End, conned the landlord of the Rovers Return in Coronation Street, commanded a starfleet in Andromeda, and voiced Salem the cat in the original Sabrina.
“Fantasy is such a wide-ranging genre marked by its diversity and complexity and limited only by one’s imagination,” says Humphreys. “One of the most exciting aspects of the current fantasy scene is the racial, cultural and gender diversity of its authors and the subjects they address. I’m excited to share this with both writers and readers by helping them discover great and diverse works (especially Canadian) and examine it for its details, construction and joys.”
Throughout the summer, Wong is planning a number of online programs such as author readings, panel discussions, writing workshops, special events and more. Fall programming with Humphreys will be announced late-summer.
VPL’s Writer in Residence program was created in 2005 and is in its 17th year promoting Canadian writing and literature to Vancouverites. The 2020 program was postponed due to COVID-19, resulting in two residencies for 2021. For more details, see vpl.ca/writer.
Lindsay Wong’s first online event on June 10 at 7 p.m. will be a gathering of Asian-Canadian authors Doretta Lau, Jen Sookfong Lee and Roselle Lim, as they share from their latest books. The panel will discuss Asian representation in Canadian literature and what it means to create art amidst a global crisis and escalating anti-Asian sentiment. The event is free. Access the event at vpl.ca/events.
VPL’s 2020/2021 Writer in Residence program is supported by the Friends of The Vancouver Public Library, a community of library lovers who volunteer, fundraise, and advocate in support of the Vancouver Public Library. The Friends also operate book’mark, The Library Store, on the main level of Central Branch of the Vancouver Public Library.
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