Chinese-Canadian poet, author, and 2011 Poet Laureate of the city of Vancouver. Her award-winning poetry collections include You are Not Who You Claim, Oedipal Dreams, and Living Under Plastic.
She ran away from home at age fourteen and suffered through a period of homelessness, drug addiction, and prostitution.
Her destructive relationship with her parents was rooted in their demand that she study Medicine rather than pursue a literary career.
She had a relationship with W.P. Kinsella, a writing professor, and was charged with libel after she published an essay detailing the affair.
Her 1989 memoir, Runaway: Diary of a Street Kid, was made into a 1993 film starring Sandra Oh.
