short story
A short story is a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the oldest ...
writer and
novelist
A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living writing novels and other fiction, while others aspire ...
. ''The Oxford Handbook of Canadian Literature'' has considered her work as reflecting the increasingly trans-cultural nature of Canadian literature, exploring art, expression and politics inside Cambodia and China, as well as within diasporic East Asian communities. Thien's critically acclaimed novel, ''
Do Not Say We Have Nothing
''Do Not Say We Have Nothing'' is a novel by Madeleine Thien published in 2016 in Canada. It follows a 10-year-old girl and her mother who invite a Chinese refugee into their home. Critically acclaimed, in 2016 the author was awarded both the Sco ...
Edward Stanford Travel Writing Awards
The Edward Stanford Travel Writing Awards celebrate the best travel writing and travel writers in the world. The awards include the Stanford Dolman Travel Book of the Year and the Edward Stanford Award for Outstanding Contribution to Travel Writing ...
for Fiction. It was shortlisted for the 2016
Man Booker Prize
The Booker Prize, formerly known as the Booker Prize for Fiction (1969–2001) and the Man Booker Prize (2002–2019), is a literary prize awarded each year for the best novel written in English and published in the United Kingdom or Ireland. ...
languages
Language is a structured system of communication. The structure of a language is its grammar and the free components are its vocabulary. Languages are the primary means by which humans communicate, and may be conveyed through a variety of met ...
.
Early life and education
Thien was born in Vancouver, British Columbia, in 1974 to a Malaysian Chinese father and a Hong Kong Chinese mother. She studied contemporary dance at
Simon Fraser University
Simon Fraser University (SFU) is a public research university in British Columbia, Canada, with three campuses, all in Greater Vancouver: Burnaby (main campus), Surrey, and Vancouver. The main Burnaby campus on Burnaby Mountain, located ...
and a earned Master's degree in Fine Arts specializing in Creative Writing from the
University of British Columbia
The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a public research university with campuses near Vancouver and in Kelowna, British Columbia. Established in 1908, it is British Columbia's oldest university. The university ranks among the top thr ...
. Thien made the decision to switch from dance to creative writing for a few reasons, but mainly due to the fact that she felt inadequate in talent, despite her passion for the art. Prior to working as an editor to the Rice Paper Magazine, she worked, from an early age in clerical, retail and restaurant jobs. Thien was a finalist for Writers' Trust of Canada's RBC Bronwen Wallace Award for Emerging Writers in 1999, and in 2001 she was awarded the Emerging Writers Award from the Asian Canadian Writers’ Workshop for her short story collection ''Simple Recipes''.
Career
Many of Thien's works focus on the theme of time in connection to place and human emotion. In an interview with
Granta
''Granta'' is a literary magazine and publisher in the United Kingdom whose mission centres on its "belief in the power and urgency of the story, both in fiction and non-fiction, and the story’s supreme ability to describe, illuminate and ma ...
from 2016, she states that she is thinking about "the way that women’s lives are expressed in literature at this moment," and that she is interested in writing about nonwhite women and sexuality.
Publications
In 2001, her first book titled ''Simple Recipes'' was published. The book is a collection of short fiction pieces exploring conflicts within intergenerational and, in two stories, intercultural relationships. In the same year, Thien adapted artist Joe Chang's National Film Board short film, ''The Chinese Violin'' (2001), into a children's book. The story follows a young Chinese girl's journey as she and her musician father adjust to life in Vancouver.
Thien's debut novel, ''Certainty'' (Toronto: M&S, 2006; New York: Little, Brown, 2007; London: Faber, 2007), follows a documentary producer as she searches for the truth about her father's experience living in Japanese-occupied Malaysia. The novel has been published internationally and translated into 16 languages.
Her second novel, ''Dogs at the Perimeter'' (Toronto: M&S, 2011; London: Granta Books, 2012), is about associates at Montreal's Brain Research Centre, and their traumatic ties to the Cambodian genocide. The novel has been translated into nine languages.
Her latest novel, ''
Do Not Say We Have Nothing
''Do Not Say We Have Nothing'' is a novel by Madeleine Thien published in 2016 in Canada. It follows a 10-year-old girl and her mother who invite a Chinese refugee into their home. Critically acclaimed, in 2016 the author was awarded both the Sco ...
'' (2016), follows the life of Li-Ling, the daughter of a Chinese immigrant, as she becomes the keeper of a mysterious work, the Book of Records, following her father's suicide. The story also focuses on her father and his friends’ lives as young musicians growing up in China during the
Cultural Revolution
The Cultural Revolution, formally known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, was a sociopolitical movement in the People's Republic of China (PRC) launched by Mao Zedong in 1966, and lasting until his death in 1976. Its stated goa ...
University of Iowa
The University of Iowa (UI, U of I, UIowa, or simply Iowa) is a public research university in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest and largest university in the state. The University of Iowa is organized into 12 co ...
, and the IWP
State Department
The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs of other na ...
-funded 2010 study tour of the United States, which invited eight international writers, including Kei Miller, Eduardo Halfon, Billy Kahora and Khet Mar, to explore the unresolved legacies of American history. Her essay "The Grand Tour: In the Shadow of James Baldwin" concludes the 2015 essay collection, ''Fall and Rise, American Style: Eight International Writers Between Gettysburg and the Gulf''. The study tour was the subject of filmmaker Sahar Sarshar's documentary, ''Writing in Motion: A Nation Divided''.
In 2013, Thien was the
Simon Fraser University
Simon Fraser University (SFU) is a public research university in British Columbia, Canada, with three campuses, all in Greater Vancouver: Burnaby (main campus), Surrey, and Vancouver. The main Burnaby campus on Burnaby Mountain, located ...
Writer-in-Residence. From 2010 to 2015, she was part of the International Faculty in the MFA Program in Creative Writing at
City University of Hong Kong
City University of Hong Kong (CityU) is a world-class public research university located in Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong. It was founded in 1984 as City Polytechnic of Hong Kong and became a fully accredited university in 1994. Currently, CityU is ...
. She wrote about the program's abrupt closure, and
Hong Kong
Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a List of cities in China, city and Special administrative regions of China, special ...
's crackdown on freedom of speech, in an essay for ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers '' The Observer'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the ...
''. In 2016, Thien objected to the University of British Columbia's handling of complaints made against
Steven Galloway
Steven Galloway (born July 13, 1975) ''Sydney Morning Herald'', Andrew Riemer, r ...
, a professor in the Creative Writing department until he was fired. In a five-page letter, she stressed the importance of
due process
Due process of law is application by state of all legal rules and principles pertaining to the case so all legal rights that are owed to the person are respected. Due process balances the power of law of the land and protects the individual per ...
and asked that her name be removed from all of UBC's promotional materials. She currently teaches in the
Brooklyn College
, mottoeng = Nothing without great effort
, established =
, parent = CUNY
, type = Public university
, endowment = $98.0 million (2019)
, budget = $123.96 m ...
MFA Program.
Awards and nominations
Thien's first book, ''Simple Recipes'' (Toronto: M&S, 2001; New York: Little, Brown, 2002), a collection of short stories, won the
City of Vancouver Book Award
The City of Vancouver Book Award is a Canadian literary award, that has been presented annually by the city of Vancouver, British Columbia to one or more works of literature judged as the year's best fiction, non-fiction, poetry or drama work abou ...
Nobel Prize
The Nobel Prizes ( ; sv, Nobelpriset ; no, Nobelprisen ) are five separate prizes that, according to Alfred Nobel's will of 1895, are awarded to "those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind." Alfr ...
laureate
Alice Munro
Alice Ann Munro (; ; born 10 July 1931) is a Canadian short story writer who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2013. Munro's work has been described as revolutionizing the architecture of short stories, especially in its tendency to move f ...
, who wrote: "This is surely the debut of a splendid writer. I am astonished by the clarity and ease of the writing, and a kind of emotional purity."
Her novel, ''Certainty'' (Toronto: M&S, 2006; New York: Little, Brown, 2007; London: Faber, 2007), won the Amazon.ca/Books in Canada First Novel Award, the Ovid Festival Prize and was a finalist for the
Kiriyama Prize
The Kiriyama Prize was an international literary award awarded to books about the Pacific Rim and South Asia. Its goal was to encourage greater understanding among the peoples and nations of the region. Established in 1996, the prize was last awa ...
for Fiction.
Her second novel, ''Dogs at the Perimeter'' (Toronto: M&S, 2011; London: Granta Books, 2012), was a finalist for the Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction and the 2014
International Literature Award
International Literature Award (''German'': Internationaler Literaturpreis – Haus der Kulturen der Welt) is a German literary award for international prose translated into German for the first time.Haus der Kulturen der Welt
The Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW), in English House of the World's Cultures, in Berlin is Germany's national center for the presentation and discussion of international contemporary arts, with a special focus on non-European cultures and so ...
Do Not Say We Have Nothing
''Do Not Say We Have Nothing'' is a novel by Madeleine Thien published in 2016 in Canada. It follows a 10-year-old girl and her mother who invite a Chinese refugee into their home. Critically acclaimed, in 2016 the author was awarded both the Sco ...
Man Booker Prize
The Booker Prize, formerly known as the Booker Prize for Fiction (1969–2001) and the Man Booker Prize (2002–2019), is a literary prize awarded each year for the best novel written in English and published in the United Kingdom or Ireland. ...
Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction
__NOTOC__
The Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction were established in 2012 to recognize the best fiction and nonfiction books for adult readers published in the U.S. in the previous year. They are named in honor of ni ...
. It has been translated into 17 languages.
Personal life
Thien lives in Montreal and is the common-law partner of novelist
Rawi Hage
Rawi Hage (Arabic: راوي الحاج, romanized: Rāwī Ḥāj; born 1964) is a Lebanese-Canadian journalist, novelist, and photographer based in Canada.
Writing
Hage has published journalism and fiction in Canadian and American magazines, and ...
* ''Simple Recipes'' — 2001
* ''The Chinese Violin'' Vancouver : Whitecap Books, 2001.
* ''Certainty'' Toronto : McClelland & Stewart, 2006.
* ''Dogs at the Perimeter'' Toronto, Ont. : McClelland & Stewart, 2011.
*''
Do Not Say We Have Nothing
''Do Not Say We Have Nothing'' is a novel by Madeleine Thien published in 2016 in Canada. It follows a 10-year-old girl and her mother who invite a Chinese refugee into their home. Critically acclaimed, in 2016 the author was awarded both the Sco ...