Author Wayson Choy Wins Harbourfront Prize

Harbourfront Past Winners Include Ondaatje, Findley, Vassanji

Dec 19, 2008

Author Wayson Choy has been honoured for his work in the literary world.

Acclaimed author Wayson Choy is the 2008 winner of the Harbourfront Festival Prize in Toronto. The 10-thousand dollar annual award honours writers who have made a substantial contribution to the world of books.

Choy is Honoured for his Writing

Choy says he was surprised when he was got word of his win. The phone call came from Geoffrey Taylor, the Director of the Authors Festival at Harbourfront and one of the jury members. Taylor told Choy he was being recognized for his contribution to the writing community and for mentoring new generations of writers. Choy is Professor Emeritus at Humber College where he has been teaching for 39 years.

Harbourfront Past Winners Include Findley, Ondaatje and Vassanji

Choy joins a long list of award-winning authors of the Harbourfront Festival prize, including Timothy Findley, Michael Ondaatje, M.G. Vassanji and Jane Urquhart. Choy says he felt very honoured.

“I was being acknowledged for my teaching and mentoring which I have done of course, because I love it and thank God, I love what I’m doing and to be rewarded for it is really wonderful. And of course, it made feel very lucky because I was looking for a sign. Chinese people are always looking for a sign when I was growing up in Chinatown and here I am the sign came to me and the sign said to keep writing.”

Choy Plans Research Trip to China

Choy hopes to use the prize money for an upcoming trip to China to research another novel. He’s trying to delve more into the background of Poh-Poh (Grandmother), one of the most memorable characters from his novels, The Jade Peony and All That Matters.

“There’s great interest in her because she only gives you glimpses into her life in China and how difficult it was. All those elders I did research on when I did those two other books told me some of their secrets and what it was like growing up in China during the late 1890’s and all the way to the 1920’s. So I have a whole history to put into the life of one woman.”

His memoir titled Not Yet will be released in the spring by Doubleday. The memoir explores Choy’s journey back from two near brushes with death.

Over the years, Choy’s novels have won numerous awards. His first novel, The Jade Peony, shared the Trillium award (a leading literary award given by the Ontario provincial government) with Margaret Atwood. His first memoir, Paper Shadows chronicling his discovery about his adoption at the age of 55, picked up the Edna Staebler award for creative non-fiction. All That Matters, a follow-up to The Jade Peony won the Trillium prize and was short listed for the Giller Prize in 2004.

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