** Please note: Kim Thúy is unable to attend the 2018 festival, and Iain Reid will be replacing her in the Sunday Brunch reading event Ali Hassan in Conversation.

Born in Saigon in 1968, KIM THÚY left Vietnam with the boat people at the age of 10 and settled with her family in Quebec. A graduate in translation and law, she has worked as a seamstress, interpreter, lawyer, restaurant owner and food commentator on radio and television. She lives in Montreal and devotes herself to writing. In 2013, Kim Thúy was awarded the Paul-Gérin-Lajoie Award for Diversity by the organization ENSEMBLE for the respect of diversity. Kim Thúy has been appointed a Knight of the Ordre national du Québec. In 2017, she was awarded an honorary doctorate by Concordia University, for giving eloquent voice to the refugee experience, and the Medal of Honour of the National Assembly of Québec. Her debut novel Ru won the Governor General’s Award for French-language fiction and the 2015 edition of Canada Reads. Her third and most recent novel, Vi was published in 2018.