Evelyn Lau Explained

Evelyn Lau
Birth Date:2 July 1971
Birth Place:Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Occupation:Novelist, poet, short story writer
Employer:Simon Fraser University
Education:Templeton Secondary School
Works:Runaway: Diary of a Street Kid
Nationality:Canadian
Module:
Embed:yes
Office:Poet Laureate of Vancouver
Term Start:2011
Term End:2014
Predecessor:Brad Cran
Successor:Rachel Rose

Evelyn Lau (; born July 2, 1971) is a Canadian novelist, poet, and short story writer.[1]

Biography

Evelyn Lau was born in Vancouver, British Columbia, on July 2, 1971, to Chinese-Canadian parents from Hong Kong. Lau attended Templeton Secondary School in Vancouver.

Evelyn Lau began publishing poetry at the age of 12. At the age of 13 she won a essay writing contest hosted by the Vancouver Sun, she was awarded a meeting with Pope John Paul II. In March 1986, at age 14, Lau left home due to parental objection to her pursuit of poetry. She spent the next two years living itinerantly in Vancouver as a homeless person living in group homes, friends' houses, and apartments. She also became involved with drug abuse during this time and supported herself through prostitution. She also attempted suicide twice.

A diary she kept from March 22nd, 1986 to January 20th, 1988 was published in 1989 as Runaway: Diary of a Street Kid The book was a critical and commercial success; Lau received praise for frankly chronicling her relationships with manipulative older men, the life and habits of a group of anarchists with whom she stayed immediately after leaving home, her experiences with a couple from Boston who smuggled her into the United States, her abuse of various drugs, and her relationship with British Columbia's child support services. The diary was adapted as a film The Diary of Evelyn Lau (1993), starring Canadian actress Sandra Oh.

Lau had a well-publicized romantic relationship with W. P. Kinsella, a University of Victoria creative writing professor and poet more than 30 years her senior. After she published a personal essay in 1997 about the relationship, Kinsella sued her for libel. ("Me and W.P." won a Western Magazine Award for Human Experience, and was shortlisted for the Gold Award for Best Article).[2]

Her work in magazines has won four Western Magazine Awards and a National Magazine Award; she also received the Air Canada Award, the Vantage Women of Originality Award, the ACWW Community Builders Award, and the Mayor's Arts Award for Literary Arts. Her poems were selected for inclusion in Best American Poetry (1992) and Best Canadian Poetry (2009, 2010, 2011, 2016). Lau has also worked as writer-in-residence at the University of British Columbia, Kwantlen University, and Vancouver Community College, and was Distinguished Visiting Writer at the University of Calgary.

Lau lives in Vancouver, where she is a manuscript consultant in Simon Fraser University's Writing and Publishing Program. On Oct. 14, 2011, Lau was named the poet laureate for the city of Vancouver. She is the third poet to hold this honorary position; her plan is to offer 'poet-in-residence consultations with aspiring poets'.[3] As of fall 2023, Lau is the writer in residence at Langara College in Vancouver, BC.[4]

Bibliography

Memoirs

Poetry

Short stories

Significant essays and short pieces

Novels

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Evelyn Lau . 2009-05-12. . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20080820031211/http://www.geist.com/author/lau-evelyn . 2008-08-20 .
  2. http://www.athabascau.ca/writers/elau.html biography
  3. Web site: Evelyn Lau named Vancouver poet laureate. Lederman, Marsha. The Globe and Mail. October 14, 2011. January 31, 2012. December 30, 2011. https://web.archive.org/web/20111230121956/http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/evelyn-lau-named-vancouver-poet-laureate/article2201310/. dead.
  4. Web site: Langara College welcomes former Vancouver Poet Laureate Evelyn Lau as Writer in Residence. November 29, 2023. February 3, 2024.
  5. Web site: Evelyn Lau . 2020-06-04 . Canadian Encyclopedia.
  6. Web site: Winners of the Pat Lowther & Gerald Lampert Memorial Awards Announced. Open Book: Toronto. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20120324102640/http://www.openbooktoronto.com/news/winners_pat_lowther_gerald_lampert_memorial_awards_announced. 2012-03-24.