Yasuko Thanh is an award-winning writer from Vancouver Island and a Creative Writing instructor at the University of Victoria. She won the 2009 Journey Prize for the title story in her collection Floating Like the Dead. Her debut novel, Mysterious Fragrance of the Yellow Mountains—a historical tale set in Vietnam—won the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize in 2016. Her best-selling memoir, Mistakes to Run With, which traces her journey from sex work to literary success, was nominated for the Jim Deva Prize for Writing that Provokes. Her literary work is profoundly intertwined with social justice themes, aiming to confront existing biases and advocate for significant change. Her most recent novel, To the Bridge, was published by Penguin Random House in 2023. Her next novel, The Falling Maria, is forthcoming with them in 2027.
LiterASIAN 2026 