Souvankham Thammavongsa


Souvankham Thammavongsa is a Canadian poet and short story writer. In 2019, she won an O. Henry Award for her short story, "Slingshot", which was published in Harper's Magazine.

Life

Thammavongsa was born in the Nong Khai refugee camp in Thailand in 1978. She and her parents were sponsored by a family in Canada when she was one year old. She was raised and educated in Toronto, Ontario.
Her first book, Small Arguments, won a ReLit Award in 2004. Her second book, Found, was made into a short film by Paramita Nath. Her third book, Light, won the Trillium Book Award for Poetry in 2014. Her short story "How to Pronounce Knife" was shortlisted for the 2015 Commonwealth Short Story Prize out of 4000 entries. In 2016, two of her stories, "Mani Pedi" and "Paris," were longlisted for the Journey Prize.
Her first short story collection, How to Pronounce Knife, was published in 2020.

Works

Poetry Collections