Vietnamese-born Canadian novelist
Kim Thúy Ly Thanh ,
CQ (born 1968 in
Saigon ,
South Vietnam )
[1] is a Vietnamese-born Canadian writer, whose
debut novel
Ru won the
Governor General's Award for French-language fiction at the
2010 Governor General's Awards .
[2]
Life and career
At the age of ten, Thúy left Vietnam with her parents and two brothers, joining more than one million Vietnamese
boat people fleeing the country's communist regime after the
fall of Saigon in 1975.
[3] Her family arrived at a refugee camp in Malaysia,
[4] run by the
United Nations High Commission for Refugees, where they spent four months
[5] before a Canadian delegation selected her parents for refugee status on account of their French-language proficiency.
[6] In late 1979, Thúy and her family arrived in
Granby , in the
Eastern Townships of
Quebec , and later settled in
Montreal .
[7]
Thúy earned a bachelor's degree from the
Université de Montréal in linguistics and translation (1990), and later earned a law degree from the same school (1993).
[8] In her early career, Thúy worked as a translator and interpreter and was later recruited by the Montreal-based law firm Stikeman Elliott to help with a Vietnam-based project.
[9] In this capacity, she returned to Vietnam as one of a group of Canadian experts advising the country's Communist leadership on their tentative steps toward capitalism.
[9] She met her husband while working at the same firm, and the couple had their first child while on assignment in Vietnam.
[6] Their second child was born after the couple relocated to Bangkok, Thailand on account of her husband's work.
[6]
After moving back to Montreal, Thúy opened a restaurant called Ru de Nam,
[8] where she introduced modern Vietnamese cuisine to Montrealers.
[6] She worked as a restaurateur for five years, after which she dedicated one full year to creative writing, and landed a publishing contract for her first book thanks to a former patron of Ru de Nam.
[6]
In 2015, Thúy was one of the recipients of the Top 25 Canadian Immigrant Awards presented by
Canadian Immigrant Magazine .
[10]
In 2017, Thúy was the recipient of an Honorary Doctorate
[11] from
Concordia University .
She was nominated for the
New Academy Prize in Literature in 2018.
[12]
[13]
Work
Thúy's debut novel Ru won the Governor General's Award for French-language fiction at the 2010 Governor General's Awards.
[2] An English edition, translated by
Sheila Fischman ,
[14] was published in 2012. The novel was a shortlisted nominee for the 2012
Scotiabank Giller Prize
[15] and the 2013
Amazon.ca First Novel Award . The novel won the 2015 edition of
Canada Reads ,
[16] where it was championed by
Cameron Bailey .
In 2016, Thúy published her third novel, Vi . An English translation, again by Fischman, was published in 2018.
[17] The book was named as a longlisted nominee for the 2018 Scotiabank Giller Prize.
[18]
Ru , a film adaptation of Thúy's novel, was directed by
Charles-Olivier Michaud and was released in 2023.
[19]
Bibliography
Ru (Libre Expression, 2009)
À toi (Libre Expression, 2011), co-written with
Pascal Janovjak
Mãn (Libre Expression, 2013)
Translated by Sheila Fischman (Random House Canada, 2014)
Vi (Libre Expression, 2016)
Translated by Sheila Fischman (Random House Canada, 2018)
L’Autisme expliqué aux non-autistes (2017), by
Brigitte Harrisson and
Lise St-Charles with Kim Thúy
New Ways of Understanding Autism , trans. Juliet Sutcliffe (2019)
Le secret des Vietnamiennes (Trécarré, 2017)
Secrets from My Vietnamese Kitchen , trans. Sheila Fischman and Marie Asselin (2019)
Le poisson et l'oiseau (2019)
Em (Libre Expression, 2020)
Translated by Sheila Fischman (Penguin Random House Canada, 2021)
Awards and honours
2010 : RTL-Lire Grand Prize for Ru
2010 : La Presse General Public Award, Montréal Book Fair, Essay category
2010 : Governor-general's Award, novels category for Ru
2011 :
Premio Mondello Award for Multiculturalism
2011 : Archambault Grand Literary Award for the novel Ru
2018 : Women's Merit Award from the Women's Y Foundation of Montréal
2019 : Honorary Doctorate from
Bishop's University for significant civic and community contributions
2022: President of the Selection Committee for the
Ulrick-Chérubin Award
References
^
"From lawyer to novelist: an alumna's amazing journey"
Archived 2014-10-12 at the
Wayback Machine .
Université de Montréal , February 9, 2010.
^
a
b
"Eight Quebec writers win Governor General's prizes" [
permanent dead link ] .
The Gazette , November 17, 2010.
^
“Kim Thúy” , by Myriam Fontaine, Maude-Emmanuelle Lambert, at the
Canadian Encyclopedia ; published February 27, 2012; last edited January 18, 2018; retrieved May 28, 2018
^
“Kim Thúy on how ‘refugee literature’ differs from immigrant literature“ , by Brian Bethune, at
Maclean's ; published April 11, 2018, retrieved May 28, 2018
^
“A Refugee's Multilayered Experience In 'Ru'” , interview by Scott Simon, at
National Public Radio , on Weekend Edition Saturday; aired on November 24, 2012; retrieved May 28, 2018
^
a
b
c
d
e
“Q&A with Kim Thúy” , interview by Terry Hong, at
BLOOM ; published September 18, 2013, retrieved May 28, 2018
^
“RBC Top 25 Canadian Immigrants: Canada's Top 25 Immigrants: Kim Thúy” , by Lisa Evans, at
Canadian Immigrant ; retrieved May 28, 2018
^
a
b
“Asian Heritage in Canada: Kim Thúy” at
Ryerson Library , Library and Archives; retrieved May 28, 2018
^
a
b
“Kim Thúy's river of life” , by John Barber, at
The Globe and Mail ; published February 5, 2012; updated April 30, 2018; retrieved May 28, 2018
^
"Canadas Top 25 Immigrants 2015" . Canadian Immigrant . Retrieved 2021-06-18 .
^
"Honorary degree citation - Kim Thúy" . www.concordia.ca . Retrieved 2021-01-12 .
^
"Canadian writer Kim Thuy among finalists for New Academy Prize in Literature" .
Calgary Herald . 29 August 2018. Retrieved 11 September 2018 .
^ Löfgren, Emma (29 August 2018).
"Four writers shortlisted for 'the new Nobel Literature Prize' " .
The Local . Retrieved 11 September 2018 .
^
"Kim Thuy's novel Ru draws on refugee past" .
CBC News , March 9, 2012.
^
"Scotiabank Giller Prize short list announced" .
Toronto Star , October 1, 2012.
^
"'Ru' by Montreal's Kim Thuy wins CBC's 'Canada Reads' competition" .
Brandon Sun , March 19, 2015.
^
"6 new Canadian books to watch for in April" .
CBC Books , April 4, 2018.
^
"Esi Edugyan, Patrick deWitt, Tanya Tagaq among 12 authors longlisted for 2018 Scotiabank Giller Prize" .
CBC Books , September 17, 2018.
^ Maxime Demers,
"Une bande-annonce prometteuse pour «Ru», le film adapté du roman à succès de Kim Thúy" .
Le Journal de Montréal , July 12, 2023.
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to
Kim Thúy .
Special Jury Prize:
Denise McSmith (1975) •
Stefano D'Arrigo (1977) •
Yury Trifonov (1978) •
Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz (1979) •
Pietro Consagra (1980) •
Ignazio Buttitta ,
Angelo Maria e Ela Ripellino (1983) •
Leonardo Sciascia (1985) •
Wang Meng (1987) •
Mikhail Gorbachev (1988) •
Peter Carey ,
José Donoso ,
Northrop Frye ,
Jorge Semprún ,
Wole Soyinka ,
Lu Tongliu (1990) •
Fernanda Pivano (1992) •
Associazione Scrittori Cinesi (1993) •
Dong Baoucum ,
Fan Boaci ,
Wang Huanbao ,
Shi Peide ,
Chen Yuanbin (1995) •
Xu Huainzhong ,
Xiao Xue ,
Yu Yougqnan ,
Qin Weinjung (1996) •
Khushwant Singh (1997) •
Javier Marías (1998) •
Francesco Burdin (2001) •
Luciano Erba (2002) •
Isabella Quarantotti De Filippo (2003) •
Marina Rullo (2006) •
Andrea Ceccherini (2007) •
Enrique Vila-Matas (2009) •
Francesco Forgione (2010)
First work:
Valerio Magrelli (1980) •
Ferruccio Benzoni , Stefano Simoncelli,
Walter Valeri ,
Laura Mancinelli (1981) •
Jolanda Insana (1982) •
Daniele Del Giudice (1983) •
Aldo Busi (1984) •
Elisabetta Rasy ,
Dario Villa (1985) •
Marco Lodoli ,
Angelo Mainardi (1986) •
Marco Ceriani ,
Giovanni Giudice (1987) •
Edoardo Albinati ,
Silvana La Spina (1988) •
Andrea Canobbio ,
Romana Petri (1990) •
Anna Cascella (1991) •
Marco Caporali ,
Nelida Milani (1992) •
Silvana Grasso ,
Giulio Mozzi (1993) •
Ernesto Franco (1994) •
Roberto Deidier (1995) •
Giuseppe Quatriglio ,
Tiziano Scarpa (1996) •
Fabrizio Rondolino (1997) •
Alba Donati (1998) •
Paolo Febbraro (1999) •
Evelina Santangelo (2000) •
Giuseppe Lupo (2001) •
Giovanni Bergamini ,
Simona Corso (2003) •
Adriano Lo Monaco (2004) •
Piercarlo Rizzi (2005) •
Francesco Fontana (2006) •
Paolo Fallai (2007) •
Luca Giachi (2008) •
Carlo Carabba (2009) •
Gabriele Pedullà (2010)
Italian Author:
Alberto Moravia (1982) •
Vittorio Sereni alla memoria (1983) •
Italo Calvino (1984) •
Mario Luzi (1985) •
Paolo Volponi (1986) •
Luigi Malerba (1987) •
Oreste del Buono (1988) •
Giovanni Macchia (1989) •
Gianni Celati ,
Emilio Villa (1990) •
Andrea Zanzotto (1991) •
Ottiero Ottieri (1992) •
Attilio Bertolucci (1993) •
Luigi Meneghello (1994) •
Fernando Bandini ,
Michele Perriera (1995) •
Nico Orengo (1996) •
Giuseppe Bonaviri ,
Giovanni Raboni (1997) •
Carlo Ginzburg (1998) •
Alessandro Parronchi (1999) •
Elio Bartolini (2000) •
Roberto Alajmo (2001) •
Andrea Camilleri (2002) •
Andrea Carraro , Antonio Franchini,
Giorgio Pressburger (2003) •
Maurizio Bettini ,
Giorgio Montefoschi ,
Nelo Risi (2004) •
pr.
Raffaele Nigro ,
sec.
Maurizio Cucchi ,
ter.
Giuseppe Conte (2005) •
pr.
Paolo Di Stefano ,
sec.
Giulio Angioni (2006) •
pr.
Mario Fortunato ,
sec.
Toni Maraini ,
ter.
Andrea Di Consoli (2007) •
pr.
Andrea Bajani ,
sec.
Antonio Scurati ,
ter.
Flavio Soriga (2008) •
pr.
Mario Desiati ,
sec.
Osvaldo Guerrieri ,
ter.
Gregorio Scalise (2009) •
pr.
Lorenzo Pavolini ,
sec.
Roberto Cazzola ,
ter. (2010) •
pr.
Eugenio Baroncelli ,
sec.
Milo De Angelis ,
ter.
Igiaba Scego (2011) •
pr.
Edoardo Albinati ,
sec.
Paolo Di Paolo ,
ter.
Davide Orecchio (2012) •
pr.
Andrea Canobbio ,
sec.
Valerio Magrelli ,
ter.
Walter Siti (2013) •
pr.
Irene Chias ,
sec.
Giorgio Falco ,
ter.
Francesco Pecoraro (2014) •
pr.
Nicola Lagioia ,
sec.
Letizia Muratori ,
ter.
Marco Missiroli (2015) •
pr.
Marcello Fois ,
sec.
Emanuele Tonon ,
ter.
Romana Petri (2016) •
pr.
Stefano Massini ,
sec.
Alessandro Zaccuri ,
ter.
Alessandra Sarchi (2017)
Mondello for Multiculturality Award:
Kim Thúy (2011)
"Targa Archimede", Premio all'Intelligenza d'Impresa:
Enzo Sellerio (2011)
Special Award 40 Years of Mondello:
Gipi (2014)
International National Academics Artists Other