the list

David Gilmour is a Canadian author and lecturer at the University of Toronto. As you may have heard, he doesn’t seem to like fiction written by women, Canadians, or the Chinese. As a Chinese-Canadian woman writer, I don’t like David Gilmour.

Inspired by his diverse and generous spirit, I researched this list of Canadian women writers of East/Southeast Asian descent. I had originally intended for it to be a list of Chinese-Canadian women novelists, but there are shockingly/depressingly few of those, and I had to broaden the scope considerably in order to come up with the respectable number of 52 – a year’s worth of reading.

The works below range from poetry to short story collections to novels, and they differ widely in tone, content, and intended audience. Where I was familiar with an author, I chose my favourite work of hers. Where I wasn’t familiar with an author, I chose what appeared to be her most prominent (or in many cases, only) work. I have liked some of those I’ve read and not others, but I make no representations about the quality of any of them – obviously, caveat emptor.

I hope that this list is helpful when you are a)searching for ways in your life to be less like David Gilmour and more like someone who is not an asshole, and/or b)you are looking to read some fiction that is not written by a contemplative white person about some other contemplative white people. Enjoy.

Louise Bak, Tulpa	Judy Fong Bates, Midnight at the Dragon Cafe	Janie Chang, Three Souls	Lien Chao, The Chinese Knot and Other Stories

Ying Chen, L’ingratitude	Corinna Chong, Belinda’s Rings	Deanna Fong, Butcher’s Block	Kim Fu, For Today I Am a Boy

Hiromi Goto, Chorus of Mushrooms	Huamei Han, Transfer	Sally Ito, Alert to Glory	Lydia Kwa, The Walking Boy

Julia Kwong (& Ivy Huffman), The Dream of Gold Mountain	Larissa Lai, Salt Fish Girl	Fiona Tinwei Lam, Enter the Chrysanthemum	Evelyn Lau, Other Women

Jen Sookfong Lee, The End of East	Sky Lee, Disappearing Moon Cafe	Suki Lee, Sapphic Traffic	Y. S. Lee, A Spy in the House

Carrianne Leung, The Wondrous Woo	Kwai-Yun Li, The Palm Leaf Fan & other stories	Yan Li, Daughters of the Red Land	Thea Lim, The Same Woman

Julia Lin, Miah	Kyo Maclear, Stray Love	Kim Moritsugu, The Glenwood Treasure	Sachiko Murakami, The Invisibility Exhibit

Ruth Ozeki, A Tale for the Time Being	Anna Quon, Low	Zoë S. Roy, The Long March Home	Michelle Sagara, Silence

Kerri Sakamoto, The Electrical Field	Aki Shimazaki, Hotaru	Ann Shin, The Family China	Elsie Sze, Hui Gui: A Chinese Story

Gillian Sze, Fish Bones	Mariko Tamaki, Skim	Darcy Tamayose, Odori	Shelley Tanaka, Nobody Knows

Yasuko Thanh, Floating Like the Dead	Madeleine Thien, Certainty	Kim Thúy, Ru	Meg Tilly, Singing Songs

Souvankham Thammavongsa, Light	Phoebe Tsang, Contents of a Mermaid’s Purse	Yi-Mei Tsiang, Sweet Devilry	Michelle Wan, When I Kill You

Rita Wong, Forage	Yuen-Fong Woon, The Excluded Wife	Ting-xing Ye, Mountain Girl, River Girl	Ling Zhang, Gold Mountain Blues

Bonus (forthcoming)

Nancy Lee, The Age

If you have comments, thoughts, or additions, please feel free to share them in the comments.