Evelyn Lau (; born July 2, 1971) is a Canadian novelist, poet, and short story writer.

Biography

Evelyn Lau was born in Vancouver, British Columbia, on July 2, 1971, to Chinese-Canadian parents from Hong Kong. Lau attended Templeton Secondary School in Vancouver.

Her work in magazines has won four Western Magazine Awards and a National Magazine Award; she also received the Air Canada Award, the Vantage Women of Originality Award, the ACWW Community Builders Award, and the Mayor's Arts Award for Literary Arts. Her poems were selected for inclusion in Best American Poetry (1992) and Best Canadian Poetry (2009, 2010, 2011, 2016). Lau has also worked as writer-in-residence at the University of British Columbia, Kwantlen University, and Vancouver Community College, and was Distinguished Visiting Writer at the University of Calgary.

Lau lives in Vancouver, where she is a manuscript consultant in Simon Fraser University's Writing and Publishing Program. On October 14, 2011, Lau was named the poet laureate for the city of Vancouver. She is the third poet to hold this honorary position; her plan is to offer 'poet-in-residence consultations with aspiring poets'. As of fall 2023, Lau is the writer in residence at Langara College in Vancouver, British Columbia.

Bibliography

Memoirs

  • Runaway: Diary of a Street Kid - (HarperCollins,1989) (shortlisted for the Periodical Marketers of Canada Award. Translated into French, German, Italian, Polish, Chinese, Japanese, Swedish, Dutch, Portuguese, Korean, Bulgarian, Hungarian)
  • in German: Wie ein Vogel ohne Flügel. Transl. Uschi Gnade. Goldmann, Munich 1993
  • Inside Out: Reflection on a Life So Far - (Doubleday, 2001)

Poetry

  • You Are Not Who You Claim - (Beach Holme, 1990) (winner of the Milton Acorn People's Poetry Award)
  • Oedipal Dreams - (Beach Holme, 1992) (nominated for a Governor General's Award and featured in the Michael Radford film, Dancing at the Blue Iguana )
  • In the House of Slaves - (Coach House, 1994)
  • Treble (Raincoast, 2005)
  • Living Under Plastic (Oolichan, 2010) (winner of the Pat Lowther Award) ....
  • A Grain of Rice (Oolichan, 2012) (shortlisted for the Dorothy Livesay Award and the Pat Lowther Award)
  • Tumour (Oolichan, 2016)
  • Pineapple Express (Anvil Press, 2020)
  • Cactus Gardens (Anvil Press, 2022)

Short stories

  • Fresh Girls and Other Stories. (HarperCollins, 1993) (shortlisted for the QPB Award for Notable New Fiction. Translated into German, Chinese, Dutch, Danish, Japanese, Italian, Hungarian)
  • in German, transl. Angela Stein: Fetisch & andere Stories. Goldmann, Munich 1996
  • Choose Me. (Doubleday, 1999) (translated into Japanese, Swedish)

Significant essays and short pieces

  • "I Sing the Song of my Condo" Globe and Mail (1995)
  • "An Insatiable Emptiness" The Georgia Straight (1995)
  • "On the Road with Family, Friends, and the Usual Questions" Vancouver Sun (1995)
  • "Me and W.P. " Vancouver Magazine (1997)
  • "Lay Off Me and W.P. " Globe and Mail (1998)

Novels

  • Other Women. (Random House, 1995) (translated into Dutch, German, Italian, Chinese, Korean, Portuguese, Danish, Japanese, Greek, Hebrew, Polish)
  • in German, transl. Birgit Moosmüller: Die Frau an seiner Tür. Goldmann, Munich 1996

References

  • Evelyn Lau at Geist.com
  • Evelyn Lau Gets Fresh
  • Evelyn Lau entry at The Canadian Encyclopedia