Kim Thúy

Born in Saigon in 1968, author Kim Thúy fled Vietnam with her family when she was 10 years old. They came to Canada as refugees and settled in a small town in Quebec. She graduated with degrees in translation and law from the Université de Montréal and has worked as a seamstress, interpreter, lawyer, and restaurant owner.

Thúy dazzled the Canadian and international literary scene with her 2009 debut novel Ru, which echoed her experiences coming to Canada as a refugee, working, studying, starting a family, and discovering life with an autistic child. Ru won the 2010 Governor General’s Literary Award, the Grand Prix RTL-Lire at the Paris Book Fair, and the 2015 CBC Canada Reads competition. It was also shortlisted for the New Academy Prize in Literature (the alternative Nobel) in 2018. Thúy has published several other books, including a children’s book and a cookbook, Le Secret des Vietnamiennes (Secrets from My Vietnamese Kitchen).

She has also contributed to two nonfiction works on autism. Her books have sold more than 850,000 copies around the world and have been translated into 29 languages and distributed across 40 countries and territories. The Government of Quebec knighted Thúy chevalière de l’Ordre national (2013) and appointed her as a Compagne de l’Ordre des arts et des lettres (2019). The Quebec National Assembly awarded her a Medal of Honour in 2017. She is also the recipient of honorary doctorates from Bishop’s University and Concordia University.