Mimi Lok

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Mimi Lok
Born
Essex, England
Occupationauthor, editor, educator
Alma mater San Francisco State University
Notable works Last of Her Name
Voice of Witness
Notable awards PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize
California Book Award
Smithsonian American Ingenuity Award
Website
www.mimilok.com

Mimi Lok is a British-Chinese author, editor, and educator. She is the recipient of a Smithsonian Ingenuity Award, A PEN America Award, and a California Book Award for Fiction. She is also the founder of Voice of Witness, an award-winning human rights and oral history nonprofit organization focused on amplifying marginalized voices through a book series and a national education program. [1]

Her debut short story collection, Last of Her Name (Kaya Press, 2019) is the winner of the 2020 PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize, [2] and a California Book Award silver medal for first fiction, [3] and was a finalist for The California Independent Bookseller Alliance ‘Golden Poppy’ Book Awards 2020, [4] and CLMP Firecracker Award. [1] The novella from the collection, "The Woman in the Closet" was a finalist for the 2020 National Magazine Award, [5] Some of the key themes that the author contemplates are human connection, the Asian diaspora, and empathy. [6] [7] Her work has been published in McSweeney's, Electric Literature, Nimrod, Lucky Peach, Hyphen, and the South China Morning Post. [8]

Biography

Mimi Lok grew up in Essex, in a small town outside of London. [6] Her parents were immigrants from Hong Kong. Lok's father worked in restaurants and in a glass recycling factory, and her mother worked as a farmer, construction worker, and later for high street fashion companies as a garment worker. She got involved in journalism after a post-university visit to Hong Kong when the sovereignty of Hong Kong transferred from the United Kingdom to China.

Lok studied visual arts before enrolling in a MFA in creative writing at San Francisco State University. [9] After graduate school, in 2007, she volunteered as a researcher and interviewer with Voice of Witness, a book series started by Dave Eggers and Lola vollen, and collected oral histories for an anthology "Underground America: Narratives of Undocumented Lives". In 2009, Lok transitioned the series to a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, becoming its founding executive director and launching an education program. [6]

She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area, California. [10]

References

  1. 1 2 "ABOUT". MIMI LOK. Retrieved 19 May 2020.
  2. ↑ "PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize for Debut Short Story Collection". PEN America. 26 February 2020. Retrieved 19 May 2020.
  3. ↑ "California Book Awards". Commonwealth Club. Retrieved 29 June 2022.
  4. ↑ "Golden Poppy Awards". California Independent Booksellers Alliance. Retrieved 19 May 2020.
  5. ↑ "National Magazine Awards". ASME The American Society of Magazine Editors. Retrieved 29 June 2022.
  6. 1 2 3 Das, Kavita (12 June 2017). "This Group Shares Oral Histories to Help Readers 'Better Understand the World'". NBC News Asian America. NBC Universal. Retrieved 20 May 2020.
  7. ↑ "Upending the Narrative of the Great Man of History". Smithsonian Magazine. Retrieved 22 January 2021.
  8. ↑ "Mimi Lok |". Kaya Press. Retrieved 19 May 2020.
  9. ↑ "Creative Writing Grad Mimi Lok is Executive Director of Voice of Witness | College of Liberal & Creative Arts". lca.sfsu.edu. Retrieved 19 May 2020.
  10. ↑ "Mimi Lok". Electric Literature. Retrieved 8 October 2024.


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