Kim Fu
Kim Fu was born in Vancouver, British Columbia to immigrant parents from Hong Kong, Fu studied creative writing at the University of British Columbia.
Kim Fu

Daniel Harasymchuk · File:Kim Fu - EMWF 2018 - DanH-0460.jpg · CC BY-SA 4.0
- Name
- Kim Fu
- Born
- 1987
- Birthplace
- Vancouver, British Columbia
- Occupation
- novelist
- Nationality
- Canadian
- Fields
- creative and professional writing · poetry
- Education
- University of British Columbia
- Known for
- For Today I Am a Boy · Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century
- Honours
- Danuta Gleed Literary Award
- Languages
- English
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Kim Fu was born in Vancouver, British Columbia to immigrant parents from Hong Kong, Fu studied creative writing at the University of British Columbia.
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Documentary evidence
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Authority files
wikidata · Q21931846 · wikipedia · Kim Fu
In this article
Biography
Biography
Kim Fu studied at University of British Columbia. The recorded working language is English. The field of work recorded is creative and professional writing and poetry. Places of work recorded in the authority are Seattle. Works named in the authority record are For Today I Am a Boy and Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century. Distinctions recorded are Danuta Gleed Literary Award.

2022 National Book Festival
Frypie
Key facts
Key facts
• Name — Kim Fu • Born — 1987 • Birthplace — Vancouver, British Columbia • Occupation — novelist • Period — 2010s–present • Nationality — Canadian • Notableworks — For Today I Am a Boy • Website — https: kim-fu.com/
Writing
Writing
Her first novel For Today I Am a Boy was released in 2014. The book follows a Chinese Canadian transgender girl's realization of her identity through her adolescence adulthood. It went on to win the Edmund White Award for Debut Fiction and was a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Award. It was also a New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice and long-listed for CBC's Canada Reads. Writing for the Harvard Review, A. Naomi Jackson said that it was "refreshing to read a novel that illustrates the harrowing choices transgender people face alongside hope." Fu's debut poetry collection How Festive the Ambulance received a starred review from Publishers Weekly, which called it a "playful, lyrical, and cutting, debut poetry collection" with a "dizzying display of styles and scope." It was also a 2017 National Magazine Awards Silver Medal winner and a Best Canadian Poetry 2016 selection. Spenser Smith, for Prairie Fire, wrote that it was a "sombre, engrossing read" and, regarding Fu's writing: "her bluntness holds a level of complexity and metaphor that makes each reread of a poem very rewarding." Her second novel, The Lost Girls of Camp Forevermore, which follows the lives of young girls on a camping trip, was published in 2018. Reviewing it for The New York Times, Lisa Ko said the book was "multilayered exploration of how class and culture inform the girls' actions and alliances during the trip, and how the trip then affects their relationships and choices in adulthood." In Shondaland, Nicole Chung interviewed Fu regarding her second novel, in which she said, of the novel's linked-story structure: "I think a lot of it was that I knew these characters were not easy-to-like people. They're not the kind of characters you immediately understand and root for. So for each one, we needed to sit with them for a long time in order to know who they were." Her short story collection Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century was published in 2022. Gabino Iglesias, writing for NPR, stated that it was "a wildly imaginative collection in which elements of science fiction, fantasy, and even crime fiction blend together." Melissa Darcey Hall, writing for The Adroit Journal, compared Fu's take on horror to that of Carmen Maria Machado and Mariana Enríquez, stating that "one of Fu's greatest strengths is her ability to turn horror on its head, focusing less on the terror the modern-day monsters incite, but what they reveal about ourselves." Fu's writing has appeared in Granta, The Atlantic, The New York Times, Hazlitt, and The Times Literary Supplement. She has received residency fellowships from the Ucross Foundation, Berton House, Wildacres, and the Wallace Stegner Grant for the Arts.
Published works
• Title — Year Published — Publisher — ISBN — Notes • For Today I Am a Boy — 2014 — Houghton Mifflin Harcourt — * Finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Award * Winner of the Edmund White Award * The New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice * Longlisted for Canada Reads * Shortlisted for the Lambda Literary Award for Transgender Fiction • How Festive the Ambulance: Poems — 2016 — Nightwood Editions — * 2017 National Magazine Awards Silver Medal winner * Best Canadian Poetry 2016 selection • The Lost Girls of Camp Forevermore — 2018 — Houghton Mifflin Harcourt • Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century — 2022 — Tin House — * Shortlisted for the 2022 Giller Prize * Winner of the 2023 Danuta Gleed Literary Award • The Valley of Vengeful Ghosts — 2026 — Tin House
Primary material
Documents and archives
Institutional database
- Wikidata, structured authority record Q21931846: Kim Fu
Scholarly · Wikimedia Foundation
reference work
- “Kim Fu”, English Wikipedia, consulted as further reading
Reputable secondary · Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1."Gender a 'universal' tale; Author explores struggles of transgender character in first novel". Vancouver Sun, January 18, 2014.
- 2.For Today I Am a Boy. Harvard Review.
- 3.Van Koeverden, Jane. Kim Fu on why she envies teenage poets. cbc.ca. March 31, 2017.
- 4.How Festive the Ambulance by Kim Fu. www.publishersweekly.com.
- 5.prfire. How Festive the Ambulance by Kim Fu – Prairie Fire: a Canadian Magazine of New Writing. Prairie Fire. 2017-09-21.
- 6.Seattle author Kim Fu talks about her haunting second novel, 'The Lost Girls of Camp Forevermore'. The Seattle Times. 2018-02-01.
- 7.Ko, Lisa. After a Camping Trip, Five Girls' Lives Are No Longer the Same. The New York Times. 2018-03-30. 0362-4331.
- 8.Kim Fu's Lost Girls. Shondaland. 2018-02-13.
- 9."66 works of Canadian fiction to watch for in spring 2022". CBC Books, January 11, 2022.
- 10.Iglesias, Gabino. Sci-fi, fantasy, crime fiction blend in 'Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century'. NPR. February 2, 2022.
- 11.Hall, Melissa Darcey. A Review of Kim Fu's Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century - The Adroit Journal. 2022-05-05.
- 12.Issue Forty: Kim Fu - The Adroit Journal. 2022-01-20.
- 13.Mag, Seattle. Writer Kim Fu Discusses Her Debut Novel 'For Today I Am A Boy'. Seattle magazine. 2022-07-08.
- 14.Deborah Dundas, "Rawi Hage, Suzette Mayr among five finalists for the 2022 Giller Prize worth $100,000". Toronto Star, September 27, 2022.
- 15.Cassandra Drudi, "Kim Fu wins $10K Danuta Gleed Literary Award". Quill & Quire, May 25, 2023.
- 16.The Valley of Vengeful Ghosts by Kim Fu: 9781963108699. PenguinRandomhouse.com.
- 17.White, Kiersten. A Woman's Dream House Turns Into a Nightmare. The New York Times. 2026-03-03. 0362-4331.
References
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
Institutional database
Wikidata, structured authority record Q21931846: Kim FuWikimedia Foundation
Institutional witnessreference work
Secondary witness
People, houses and institutions
Knowledge graph
People, houses and institutions
Teachers, collaborators, publishers and institutions recorded against this person, each on a stated basis.
Studied at
1- University of British ColumbiaOrganisation
Established from a fact already recorded on a verified source.
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 19 August 2026.
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