Kevin Chong (born 1975) is a Canadian author. Born in Hong Kong, Chong studied at the University of British Columbia and Columbia University, where he received an MFA in fiction writing.
His first novel, Baroque-a-Nova, was published in Canada by Penguin in 2001, in the United States by Putnam in 2002, and in France by Ballard in 2002. The New York Times Book Review describes the book as "a readable, if slightly gray, coming-of-age novel." [1] The Quill and Quire described the book as "compact, clear-sighted, and nervy. Chong's grasp of suburban tackiness is laugh-out-loud awesome, right down to the ubiquitous copies of Maclean's magazine on parental coffee tables and trick or treaters dressed as Orville Redenbacher." [2]
His second book Neil Young Nation (2005), a non-fiction work, traces the steps of Neil Young's 1970 trip across Canada and the United States. New York Times Book Review of compared the book to "watching an endless home movie in which a not very close friend visits all the houses he grew up in." [3] The Georgia Straight suggested that "Still looking for happiness, community, and fulfillment, Chong is a genuine seeker-and his journey is a ride worth taking." [4]
Chong works extensively as a freelance journalist. [5] His creative nonfiction and journalism have appeared in the Guardian, the Times Literary Supplement, the Rumpus, and the South China Morning Post. [6]
His 2023 novel The Double Life of Benson Yu was shortlisted for the Giller Prize. [7] [8]
Chong lives in Vancouver, British Columbia.
The Giller Prize is a literary award given to a Canadian author of a novel or short story collection published in English the previous year, after an annual juried competition between publishers who submit entries. The prize was established in 1994 by Toronto businessman Jack Rabinovitch in honour of his late wife Doris Giller, a former literary editor at the Toronto Star, and is awarded in November of each year along with a cash reward with the winner being presented by the previous year's winning author.
Lynn Coady is a Canadian novelist and journalist.
David Bergen is a Canadian novelist. He has published eleven novels and two collections of short stories since 1993 and is currently based in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. His 2005 novel The Time in Between won the Scotiabank Giller Prize and he was a finalist again in 2010 and 2020, making the long list in 2008.
Billie Livingston is a Canadian novelist, short story writer, essayist, and poet. Born in Hamilton, Ontario, Livingston grew up in Toronto and Vancouver, British Columbia. She lives in Vancouver.
Rawi Hage is a Lebanese-Canadian journalist, novelist, and photographer based in Montreal, Quebec, in Canada.
Gillian "Gil" Adamson is a Canadian writer. She won the Books in Canada First Novel Award in 2008 for her 2007 novel The Outlander.
Kaie Kellough is a Canadian poet and novelist. He was born in Vancouver, British Columbia, raised in Calgary, Alberta, and in 1998 moved to Montreal, Quebec, where he lives.
Ian Williams is a Canadian poet and fiction writer. His collection of short stories, Not Anyone's Anything, won the Danuta Gleed Literary Award, and his debut novel, Reproduction, was awarded the 2019 Giller Prize. His work has been shortlisted for various awards, as well.
Charles Scott Richardson is a Canadian novelist and book designer, whose novel The End of the Alphabet won the 2008 Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best First Book, Canada & the Caribbean.
Patrick deWitt is a Canadian novelist and screenwriter. Born on Vancouver Island, deWitt lives in Portland, Oregon and has acquired American citizenship. As of 2023, he has written five novels: Ablutions (2009), The Sisters Brothers (2011), Undermajordomo Minor (2015), French Exit (2018) and The Librarianist (2023).
Esi Edugyan is a Canadian novelist. She has twice won the Giller Prize, for her novels Half-Blood Blues (2011) and Washington Black (2018).
Michael Christie is a Canadian writer, whose debut story collection The Beggar's Garden was a longlisted nominee for the 2011 Scotiabank Giller Prize and a shortlisted nominee for the 2011 Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize.
Anakana Schofield is an Irish-Canadian author, who won the 2012 Amazon.ca First Novel Award and the Debut-Litzer Prize for Fiction in 2013 for her debut novel Malarky. Born in England to an Irish mother, she lived in London and in Dublin, Ireland until moving to Vancouver, British Columbia in 1999. The novel was also a shortlisted nominee for the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize.
Indians on Vacation is a novel by Canadian writer Thomas King, published in 2020 by HarperCollins. The novel focuses on Bird and Mimi, a First Nations couple who are travelling in Europe following the discovery of a trove of old postcards from Mimi's late uncle Leroy, who absconded with a valuable family heirloom 100 years earlier but never returned.
What Strange Paradise is a novel by Canadian writer Omar El Akkad, published in 2021 by Penguin Random House. The novel centres on Amir, a young boy from Syria who has survived the sinking of a ship that was carrying him and other refugees, and his developing bond with Vänna, a teenage girl who resides on the island where Amir washed up after the shipwreck.
Conor Kerr is a Canadian writer from Edmonton, Alberta. His debut novel Avenue of Champions, published in 2021, was the winner of the ReLit Award for Fiction in 2022, and was shortlisted for the 2022 Amazon.ca First Novel Award and longlisted for the 2022 Giller Prize. Named for the ceremonial name of 118 Avenue in Edmonton as the "Avenue of Champions" due to the location of the Northlands Coliseum, the novel focuses on the coming of age of a young Métis man.
Dimitri Nasrallah is a Lebanese Canadian writer and academic. He is most noted for his 2022 novel Hotline, which was longlisted for the 2022 Giller Prize.
André Forget is a Canadian writer, whose debut novel In the City of Pigs was longlisted for the 2022 Giller Prize and shortlisted for the 2023 Amazon.ca First Novel Award.
Fawn Parker is a Canadian writer.
Kasia Van Schaik is a Canadian writer, whose debut short story collection We Have Never Lived on Earth was longlisted for the 2023 Giller Prize and the 2023 ReLit Award for short fiction. The book was also a shortlisted finalist for the Concordia University First Book Prize at the 2022 Quebec Writers' Federation Awards.