Acclaimed Canadian poet and short story writer Souvankham Thammavongsa is UWinnipeg’s 2021 Carol Shields Writer-in-Residence. Thammavongsa is also a recent winner of the esteemed 2020 Scotiabank Giller Prize for her short story collection, How To Pronounce Knife.
Thammavongsa’s Inaugural Reading takes place on Thursday, February 4 at 4:00 pm.
To register, please visit the Inaugral Reading webinar registration site.
Her Distinguished Lecture takes place on Wednesday, February 24 at 7:00 pm.
To register, please visit the Distinguished Lecture webinar registration site.
As the Carol Shields Writer in Residence, Thammavongsa be available for fellow writers online from Monday, February 1 to Friday, March 5 (excluding Reading Week, February 14-20). To arrange a consultation please email her at s.thammavongsa@uwinnipeg.ca.
I am excited to meet students and members in the community.
Souvankham Thammavongsa
Thammavongsa is the author of four acclaimed poetry books. Her short story collection, How to Pronounce Knife, was also a New York Times Editors’ Choice and a TIME 100 Must-Read Books of 2020. Her stories have won an O. Henry Award and appeared in Harper’s Magazine, The Paris Review, The Atlantic, Granta, NOON, Journey Prize Stories 2016, Best American Nonrequired Reading 2018, O. Henry Prize Stories 2019, and Best Canadian Stories 2020. She was born in the Lao refugee camp in Nong Khai, Thailand, and was raised and educated in Toronto where she now lives.
The Carol Shields Writer in Residence Program at the University of Winnipeg was made possible by a generous donation from the Shields family. The program’s name honours the memory of Carol Shields, Pulitzer-prize winning novelist and Chancellor of the University of Winnipeg from 1996 to 2000.
Past writers in this program include Margaret Sweatman, Sandra Birdsell, John Weier, Maria Campbell, David Bergen, Ivan Coyote, Debbie Paterson, Gregory Scofield, Chandra Mayor, Jennifer Still, Rick Chafe, GMB Chomichuk, Katherena Vermette, Méira Cook, and Garry Thomas Morse.
