Madeleine Thien

Madeleine Thien

Madeleine Thien was born in Vancouver, BC, the youngest of three children of Malaysian-Chinese immigrants. Her first work of fiction, Simple Recipes, won the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize in 2001 and was named a Kiriyama Prize notable book. That same year she published a children’s book, The Chinese Violin, based on the true story of a young girl who emigrated from China with her father. Certainty, Thien’s first novel, was named a Kiriyama Prize finalist in the spring of 2007, just before it was published in the United States. Thien has also received the Canadian Author’s Association/Air Canada Award for the most promising writer under the age of 30.

Madeleine Thien read at the Lillooet Room of the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre on Thursday July 17th, 2008.