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Souvankham Thammavongsa

Biography

Souvankham Thammavongsa

Souvankham Thammavongsa is the author of four poetry books; the short story collection HOW TO PRONOUNCE KNIFE, winner of the 2020 Giller Prize and 2021 Trillium Book Award, finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award; and the novel PICK A COLOR.

Her stories have won an O. Henry Award and appeared in The New Yorker, Harper's Magazine, The Paris Review, The Atlantic, Granta and NOON. She also has written book reviews for The New York Times, and edited the anthologies BEST CANADIAN POETRY, THE GRIFFIN POETRY PRIZE, and, with Alexander MacLeod, the special 35th-anniversary edition of THE JOURNEY PRIZE.

Born in the Lao refugee camp in Nong Khai, she was raised, and educated at public schools, in Toronto.

Souvankham Thammavongsa

Books by Souvankham Thammavongsa

by Souvankham Thammavongsa - Fiction

Ning is a retired boxer, but to the customers who visit her nail salon, she is just another worker named Susan. However, beneath this superficial veneer, Ning is a woman of rigorous intellect and profound complexity. A woman enthralled by the intricacy and rhythms of her work, but also haunted by memories of paths not taken and opportunities lost. A woman navigating the complex power dynamics among her fellow Susans, whose greatest fears and desires lie just behind the gossip they exchange. As the day's work grinds on, the friction between Ning's two identities --- as anonymous manicurist and brilliant observer of her own circumstances --- will gather electric and crackling force, and at last demand a reckoning with the way the world of privilege looks at a woman like Ning.

by Souvankham Thammavongsa - Fiction, Short Stories

A failed boxer painting nails at the local salon. A woman plucking feathers at a chicken processing plant. A housewife learning English from daytime soap operas. A mother teaching her daughter the art of worm harvesting. In her debut story collection, O. Henry Award winner Souvankham Thammavongsa focuses on characters struggling to make a living, illuminating their hopes, disappointments, love affairs, acts of defiance and, above all, their pursuit of a place to belong. In spare, intimate prose charged with emotional power and a sly wit, she paints an indelible portrait of watchful children, wounded men and restless women caught between cultures, languages and values.