The Festival of Words continued the Lunch Is Lit series with readings from authors Lindsay Wong and Farah Heron, who shared some insight into how they feel about the representation of Asian culture in both their works during the question and answer session.
Heron read a chapter from her debut romantic comedy novel The Chai Factor, before sharing some of the details of why she decided to write the story.
Wong shared two selections from her award-winning memoir The Woo-Woo: How I Survived Ice Hockey, Drug Raids, Demons, and My Crazy Chinese Family and her new young adult fiction novel My Summer of Love and Misfortune.
Following the live readings, both Heron and Wong spoke to the importance of writing characters of Asian-Canadian and Asian-American backgrounds, in terms of diverse representation for both themselves and for their audiences.
“I’m always writing stories for myself and growing up there wasn’t a lot of Asian representation. I didn’t see myself reflected in YA literature or even memoirs. There were very few,” said Wong. “I think for me it was all about trying different genres and seeing what I can do with Asian representation.”
Heron agreed, later sharing that she wrote her novel’s main character as strong-willed and brash — and sometimes not nice — to push back against some of the stereotypes that Asian characters are often typecast into, such as submissive, meek, and shy.
“Some people have called her ‘an unlikeable heroine,’ which is weird to me because I think she’s very likeable, but she is very strong-willed,” said Heron. “For other Asian women who read [The Chai Factor], I wanted to give the idea that even if you are ‘unlikeable,’ you are also still entitled to a happily ever after and a big shiny joyful romance and also that it’s okay to be angry at the world, to sometimes snap at people, and that doesn’t mean you aren’t a good person inside.”
Heron shared that the idea for her debut novel came from a workshop prompt that evolved into something more. She also admitted that many of her characters feature aspects of herself, including her culture, upbringing and hometown of Toronto.
“I like setting my books in Canada [because] I think the rest of the world needs to see what it's like here,” said Heron. “It's a very unique place and I feel like if I were to set my stories somewhere [other than Toronto], I would be pigeon-holing some parts there, as opposed to this setting feeling organic to the kids of stories I’m telling.”
Both authors are currently working on new manuscripts, with Heron in the developmental stages of her second rom-com fiction set to release in 2021, and Wong writing another YA fiction about a teen with OCD as well as a collection of immigrant horror stories that is currently in revision.
The Lunch Is Lit series will continue through the rest of the week, featuring a new duo of authors each day.
The Festival of Words continues until July 19, with a full schedule of events available here.
Stay tuned for coverage of the festival as it progresses through the week.
