Hon Lai-chu (, born 1978) is a Hong Kong writer. She has authored eight books in Chinese and won numerous awards, including the Hong Kong Biennial Award for Chinese Literature for fiction, Taiwan’s Unitas New Writer’s Novella first prize, and the Hong Kong Book Prize. Her books have twice been named to the list of Top Ten Chinese Novels Worldwide, in 2008 and 2009. Hon's clean, absurd and abstract style has been compared to

Franz Kafka Franz Kafka (3 July 1883 – 3 June 1924) was a novelist and writer from Prague who was Jewish, Austrian, and Czech and wrote in German. He is widely regarded as a major figure of 20th-century literature. His work fuses elements of Litera ...

, and her intensely psychological stories often reflect her characters’ inner struggles for freedom, against the futility of attempts to find meaning in everyday existence; to Hon’s characters, the “way out” lies in transformation that comes from overturning established identities.

Writing career

Hon's 2006 story ''The Kite Family'' (《風箏家族》), first published as a novella, won the New Writer’s Novella first prize from Taiwan’s Unitas Literary Association and the extended version was named one of 2008’s Books of the Year by

China Times The ''China Times'' (, abbr. ) is a daily Chinese-language newspaper published in Taiwan and one of the most widely circulated newspapers in Taiwan. Founded in 1950, the China Times Group was acquired by food and media conglomerate Want Want, whi ...

in Taiwan. ''The Kite Family'', and Hon's next work, ''Gray Flower'' (《灰花》), were selected as Top 10 Chinese Novels World-wide for the years 2008 and 2009 respectively. ''A Dictionary of Two Cities'' (《雙城辭典》), which she co-authored with Dorothy Tse Hiu-hung (謝曉虹), another Hong Kong writer, was published in 2013. Hon and Tse were awarded the 2013 Hong Kong Book Prize for ''A Dictionary of Two Cities''. Her first full-length book in English, ''The Kite Family'', will be published in 2015 by Hong Kong publisher

Muse In ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, mythology, the Muses (, ) were the Artistic inspiration, inspirational goddesses of literature, science, and the arts. They were considered the source of the knowledge embodied in the poetry, lyric p ...

. It is a translation of her earlier Chinese book 《風箏家族》, translated by Andrea Lingenfelter. and was awarded a translation grant from the U.S.

National Endowment for the Arts The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created in 1965 as an independent agency of the feder ...

. Hon Lai-chu was a 2010 resident at The University of Iowa's International Writing Program in 2011. She was a participant in the 2009 Shenzhen & Hong Kong Bi-city Biennale Special Project "Odyssey: Architecture and Literature", organised by

Ou Ning Ou Ning (; born 1969) is a Chinese artist, film maker, curator, writer, publisher and activist. He is the director of two films San Yuan Li (2003) and Meishi Street (2005), chief curator of Shenzhen and Hong Kong Bi-city Biennale of Urbanism ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hon, Lai-chu 1978 births Living people Hong Kong novelists Hong Kong women writers Chinese women novelists 21st-century Hong Kong women writers International Writing Program alumni