There are three short words you’re often told when you first walk into a nail salon – and they form the title of award-winning Laotian Canadian poet and author Souvankham Thammavongsa’s new novel Pick a Colour. In this episode, Souvankham explains how the novel came about, its unusual inspiration and timeframe as well as the cultural and power dynamics it explores.
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Links mentioned in this episode
- WIN Staged by John M. Green
- Buy So You Want to be a Writer – the book!
- Facebook group for So You Want to be a Writer
Writer in residence: Souvankham Thammavongsa
Souvankham Thammavongsa was born in the Lao refugee camp in Nong Khai, Thailand, and raised and educated in Toronto. She is the award-winning author of four books of poetry; her fiction has appeared in Harper’s, Granta, the Paris Review, Ploughshares, Best American Non-Required Reading 2018, and the O. Henry Prize Stories 2019.
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This podcast is brought to you by the Australian Writers' Centre and our course Creative Writing Stage 1.
Find out more about your host, Valerie Khoo (@valeriekhoo on Twitter and @valeriekhoo on Instagram).
