Souvankham Thammavongsa
Canadian poet and short story writer (born 1978)
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Souvankham Thammavongsa is a Laotian-Canadian poet and author. In 2019, she won an O. Henry Award for her short story "Slingshot",[1] and in 2020 her short story collection How to Pronounce Knife won the Giller Prize.[2]
Souvankham Thammavongsa | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1978 (age 47–48) |
| Occupation | Writer |
| Period | 2000s–present |
| Notable works | How to Pronounce Knife |
| Website | |
| souvankham-thammavongsa | |
Early life and education
Thammavongsa was born in the Lao refugee camp in Nong Khai, Thailand, in 1978.[3] She and her parents were sponsored by a family in Canada when she was one year old.[4] She was raised and educated in Toronto, Ontario.[5] Thammavongsa studied at the University of Toronto, majoring in English literature.[6][7]
Career
Her first book, Small Arguments, won a ReLit Award in 2004.[6] Her second book, Found, was made into a short film by Paramita Nath.[8] Her third book, Light, won the Trillium Book Award for Poetry in 2014.[9] Her short story "How to Pronounce Knife" was a finalist for the 2015 Commonwealth Short Story Prize.[10] In 2016, two of her stories, "Mani Pedi" and "Paris", were longlisted for the Journey Prize.[11]
Her first short story collection, How to Pronounce Knife, was published in 2020.[12] In the book's fourteen stories, she draws upon her childhood as the daughter of Laotian immigrants to explore themes of foreignness and belonging.[13] Writer Kerryn Goldsworthy said of the stories that "their language is economical but they are emotional timebombs."[14] The book won the Giller Prize in November 2020.[2] In 2021, the book was awarded the Trillium Book Award[15] and was a finalist for the Danuta Gleed Literary Award.[16]
Thammavongsa was a judge for the 2021 Griffin Poetry Prize.[17] She was guest editor for Biblioasis' Best Canadian Poetry 2021 anthology[18] and in 2024 was the judge for the inaugural Montreal Fiction Prize.[19]
Her debut novel Pick a Colour won the 2025 Giller Prize.[20][21]
She is a creative writing mentor at the University of Toronto.[5]
Bibliography
Novels
- Pick A Colour (Knopf Canada, 2025)[22]
Poetry collections
- Small Arguments (Pedlar Press, 2003)[23]
- Found (Pedlar Press, 2007)[24]
- Light (Pedlar Press, 2013)[25]
- Cluster (McClelland & Stewart, 2019)[26]
Edited anthologies
- Best Canadian Poetry 2021 (Biblioasis, 2021)[18]
Short story collections
Poems
| Year | Title | First published |
|---|---|---|
| 2000 | "The Weed Woman" | Grain |
| 2002 | "Portrait of a Palm Closing" | The Fiddlehead, no. 211 |
| 2003 | "Water" | Contemporary Verse 2, vol. 25 no. 3 |
| "A Firefly" | Ricepaper, vol. 8 no. 2 | |
| "Poem for the Rain" | The Malahat Review, no. 142 | |
| "the weight of salt on palm" | Prairie Fire, vol. 24, no. 4 | |
| 2006 | "The Turtle" | dANDelion, vol. 32 no. 1 |
| 2007 | "The Heart" | This Magazine |
| 2012 | "Dream" | The Fiddlehead, no. 252 |
| 2013 | "Lightning Storm Seen From the Window of an Airplane" | The Rusty Toque |
| "Perfect" | Event, vol. 41 no. 3 | |
| "Colossal Squid" | Windsor Review, vol. 46 no. 1 | |
| "The Fish in Mammoth Cave" | ||
| "A Sparkle-Scale Sunrise" | ||
| "Fie" | Canadian Literature, no. 216 | |
| 2014 | "Birds, a Description of Them in the Sky" | Contemporary Verse 2, vol. 37 no. 1 |
| "Mountain Ash" | ||
| "Joule" | ||
| "North" | The Goose, vol. 13 no. 1 | |
| "The Venus Flytrap" | ||
| 2015 | "We Have Always Lived With Mice" | Hart House Review |
| "Pregnant" | Room, vol. 38 no. 1 | |
| "Cluster" | The Globe and Mail | |
| "Gayatri" | The Walrus |
Short fiction
| Year | Title | First published |
|---|---|---|
| 2014 | "Bitter Melon" | Columbia |
| "Can I Have That One?" | Grain, vol. 42 no. 1 | |
| 2015 | "Ewwrrrkk" | Joyland |
| "Mani Pedi" | The Puritan, no. 30 | |
| "Rice Paper" | Ricepaper | |
| "Chick-A-Chee!" | Postcolonial Text, vol. 10 no. 3/4 | |
| "The Ajahn" | This Magazine | |
| "Charcoal" | Prairie Fire | |
| 2016 | "The School Bus Driver" | Noon |
| 2017 | "How to Pronounce Knife" | Granta, no. 141 |
| 2018 | "Slingshot" | Harper's Magazine |
| 2019 | "The Gas Station" | The Paris Review, no. 228 |
| 2020 | "Edge of the World" | The Atlantic |
| 2021 | "Good-looking" | The New Yorker, vol. 97 no. 2 |
| 2022 | "Trash" | The New Yorker |
| 2024 | "Bozo" | The New Yorker |
| "Pick a Colour" | The Walrus |