Kai Cheng Thom

Kai Cheng Thom is a Canadian writer and social worker,[1] As of 2019, she has published four books, including the novel Fierce Femmes and Notorious Liars: A Dangerous Trans Girl's Confabulous Memoir (2016),[2] the poetry collection a place called No Homeland (2017),[3] a children's book, From the Stars in The Sky to the Fish in the Sea (2017),[4] and I Hope We Choose Love: A Trans Girl's Notes from the End of the World (2019), a book of essays centered on transformative justice.[5]

Career

Thom's first book, Fierce Femmes and Notorious Liars: A Dangerous Trans Girl's Confabulous Memoir, was published by Metonymy Press in 2016.[1] It was shortlisted for the Lambda Literary Award for Transgender Fiction at the 29th Lambda Literary Awards,[6] and the year after it was published Thom won the 2017 Dayne Ogilvie Prize for LGBTQ Emerging writers.[7] The Dayne Ogilvie jury, consisting of writers Jane Eaton Hamilton, Elio Iannacci and Trish Salah, cited Thom's work as "sheer joyful exuberance, creativity, and talent", calling Fierce Femmes "a delicious and fabulist refashioning of a trans memoir as fiction" and "a genre-breaking refusal of the idea that the only stories trans people have to tell are their autobiographies."[7] In 2019, Fierce Femmes and Notorious Liars was chosen by Emma Watson for her online feminist book club Our Shared Shelf.[8]

Thom's debut children's picture book, From the Stars in the Sky to the Fish in the Sea was published in 2017 by Arsenal Pulp Press.[9]

In 2018, Arsenal Pulp Press published Thom's debut poetry collection a place called No Homeland. The book was an American Library Association Stonewall Honor Book in 2018,[10] and was a shortlisted finalist for the Publishing Triangle Award for Trans and Gender-Variant Literature.[11] Room Magazine called the book a "vulnerable, shimmering debut."[12] Further in the Room Magazine review, the reviewer Adele Barclay writes "Many of Thom’s poems deploy this bold, storytelling voice, foregrounding the wisdom of what is said, experienced, lived, rumoured, and gossiped in lieu of traditional history with its myopia of normativity. a place called No Homeland consistently examines the collisions that marginalized identities encounter. And through this, Thom finds, 'there is a poem waiting deep below.'"[12]

In 2019, Thom published her non-fiction debut, I Hope We Choose Love: A Trans Girl's Notes from the End of the World.[5] It was a 2020 American Library Association Stonewall Honor Book, and won the Publishing Triangle Award for Trans and Gender-Variant Literature.[13]

In 2020, From the Stars in the Sky to the Fish in the Sea was selected by Julie Andrews for inclusion in her Julie's Library podcast.[14]

Education

Thom has dual master's degrees in social work and couple and family therapy from McGill University.[15]

References
  1. Britni de la Cretaz, "Author Kai Cheng Thom on Writing a New Kind of Transgender Memoir". Teen Vogue, April 15, 2017.
  2. "A Creation Story for Trans Girls, a Review of Kai Cheng’s Fierce Femmes and Notorious Liars: A Dangerous Trans Girl’s Confabulous Memoir". Plenitude, December 7, 2016.
  3. "Between the World and Poetry: A Review of Kai Cheng Thom’s a place called No Homeland". Plenitude, April 18, 2017.
  4. "From the Stars in the Sky to the Fish in the Sea". Quill & Quire, November 2017.
  5. Harron Walker, "How to Choose Love at the End of the World". Vice, February 14, 2020.
  6. "M.E. Girard, Vivek Shraya among 13 Canadians nominated for 2017 Lambda Literary Awards". Quill & Quire, March 14, 2017.
  7. "Toronto’s Kai Cheng Thom wins Ogilvie Prize for LGBTQ Emerging Writers". National Post, June 5, 2017.
  8. "Kai Cheng Thom's Fierce Femmes named next title of Emma Watson's feminist bookclub; Metonymy Press prepares for the demand". Quill & Quire. March 7, 2019. Retrieved March 6, 2020.
  9. Charis Cotter, "From the Stars in the Sky to the Fish in the Sea". Quill & Quire, November 2017.
  10. Dory Cerny (February 15, 2018). "Canadians Casey Plett, Kai Cheng Thom honoured by Stonewall Literature Awards". Quill & Quire. Retrieved May 22, 2020.
  11. "Catherine Hernandez, Kai Cheng Thom up for Triangle Awards". Quill & Quire, March 12, 2018.
  12. Adèle Barclay. "a place called No Homeland". Room. Retrieved March 6, 2020.
  13. Samraweet Yohannes, "Téa Mutonji and Kai Cheng Thom among winners of 2020 Publishing Triangle Awards for LGBTQ literature". CBC Books, May 1, 2020.
  14. Ryan Porter, "Julie Andrews chooses Canadian author Kai Cheng Thom’s book for storytelling podcast". Quill & Quire, May 14, 2020.
  15. "The (trans) kids are all right: What gender-affirming health care really means". The Globe and Mail. October 26, 2018. Retrieved May 22, 2020.
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