Kim Thúy

Kim Thúy Ly Thanh, CQ (born 1968 in Saigon, South Vietnam) is a Vietnamese-born Canadian writer, whose debut novel Ru won the Governor General's Award for French-language fiction at the 2010 Governor General's Awards.

Life and career
At the age of ten, Thúy left Vietnam with her parents and two brothers, joining more than one million Vietnamese boat people fleeing the country's communist regime after the fall of Saigon in 1975. Her family arrived at a refugee camp in Malaysia, run by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, where they spent four months before a Canadian delegation selected her parents for refugee status on account of their French-language proficiency. In late 1979, Thúy and her family arrived in Granby, in the Eastern Townships of Quebec, and later settled in Montreal.

Thúy earned a bachelor's degree from the Université de Montréal in linguistics and translation (1990), and later earned a law degree from the same school (1993). In her early career, Thúy worked as a translator and interpreter and was later recruited by the Montreal-based law firm Stikeman Elliott to help with a Vietnam-based project. In this capacity, she returned to Vietnam as one of a group of Canadian experts advising the country's Communist leadership on their tentative steps toward capitalism. She met her husband while working at the same firm, and the couple had their first child while on assignment in Vietnam. Their second child was born after the couple relocated to Bangkok, Thailand on account of her husband's work.

After moving back to Montreal, Thúy opened a restaurant called Ru de Nam, where she introduced modern Vietnamese cuisine to Montrealers. She worked as a restaurateur for five years, after which she dedicated one full year to creative writing, and landed a publishing contract for her first book thanks to a former patron of Ru de Nam.

In 2015, Thúy was one of the recipients of the Top 25 Canadian Immigrant Awards presented by Canadian Immigrant Magazine.

In 2017, Thúy was the recipient of an Honorary Doctorate from Concordia University.

She was nominated for the New Academy Prize in Literature in 2018.

Work
Thúy's debut novel Ru won the Governor General's Award for French-language fiction at the 2010 Governor General's Awards. An English edition, translated by Sheila Fischman, was published in 2012. The novel was a shortlisted nominee for the 2012 Scotiabank Giller Prize and the 2013 Amazon.ca First Novel Award. The novel won the 2015 edition of Canada Reads, where it was championed by Cameron Bailey.

In 2016, Thúy published her third novel, Vi. An English translation, again by Fischman, was published in 2018. The book was named as a longlisted nominee for the 2018 Scotiabank Giller Prize.

Ru, a film adaptation of Thúy's novel, was directed by Charles-Olivier Michaud and was released in 2023.

Awards and honours

 * 2010 : RTL-Lire Grand Prize for Ru
 * 2010 : La Presse General Public Award, Montréal Book Fair, Essay category
 * 2010 : Governor-general's Award, novels category for Ru
 * 2011 : Premio Mondello Award for Multiculturalism
 * 2011 : Archambault Grand Literary Award for the novel Ru


 * 2013 : Award for Tolerance Paul-Gérin-Lajoie, awarded in 2013 by the Committee for Respect for Diversity
 * 2015 : Knightess of the National Order of Québec, Government of Québec
 * 2016 : Spokesperson for Petit Robert between 2016 and 2018, Kim Thúy was featured in the 2018 edition of the Robert illustré
 * 2017 : Honorary Doctorate from Concordia University for the use of her eloquent voice to highlight the experience of refugees
 * 2017 : Medal of Honour from the National Assembly of Québec


 * 2018 : Women's Merit Award from the Women's Y Foundation of Montréal


 * 2018 : Finalist for the alternate Nobel Prize for Literature
 * 2019 : Companion of the Order of Arts and Letters of Québec


 * 2019 : Honorary Doctorate from Bishop's University for significant civic and community contributions
 * 2022: President of the Selection Committee for the Ulrick-Chérubin Award