One of Canada’s bright new literary stars is Chinese Canadian Jen Sookfong Lee.

She wrote her first short story at the age of 10, a horror tale featuring a witch, a scrappy little girl and a casserole dish. She hasn’t stopped writing since.

Her first novel, The End of East (Knopf Canada, New Face of Fiction, 2007), explores themes of isolation, immigration, romance and sanity through the eyes of its narrator, Sammy Chan, a Chinese-Canadian woman in her early 20s, and through the experiences of her parents and grandparents, which she creates through memory and fantasy. The End of East is a novel with poetry at its heart, mixing character study, history, place and sexuality for a story that is both edgy and evocative.

The End of East, which spans almost the entire 20th century, delves into the underside of Chinese Canadian history, exploring the repercussions of the infamous Head Tax, the Chinatown bachelor society and the years of separation between men and their wives and children.

Recently, the Canadian government made an official apology to the Chinese Canadian community for the Head Tax, which was collected from Chinese immigrants from 1885 to 1923.

Redress payments are being offered to survivors and surviving partners.

In March 2007, Knopf Canada published The End of East as part of its New Face of Fiction program.

Publishing debut novels for over 10 years, the New Face of Fiction has launched the careers of Yann Martel, Gail Anderson-Dargatz, Dionne Brand, Ann-Marie MacDonald, Eden Robinson, Timothy Taylor and Shauna Singh Baldwin, among others.

Jen is currently working on her second novel.

Born and raised in East Vancouver, Jen always knew she would be a writer despite her father’s comment that she should become a lawyer because “she likes to talk back” and her mother’s lingering disappointment that none of her bookish daughters entered the Miss Chinese Vancouver beauty pageant.

Jen and her husband lived for several years in a downtown apartment, only to move back to the east side where they now live with their dog near the Fraser River. She is a member of the writing group SPiN and is represented by the Carolyn Swayze Literary Agency.

She reads from her debut novel, The End of East on  Jan 31 at the Vancouver Public Library, Central Branch 350 W. Georgia St., Alice MacKay room. The novel is a moving portrait of three generations of the Chan family living in Vancouver’s  Chinatown.  Free admission. Co-sponsored by Public Library Services Branch, Ministry of Education.

 

Contact (604) 331-4044. For more info about The End of East novel visit her website at www.sookfong.com.