Sam Cheuk immigrated to Canada from Hong Kong when he was in grade four. He has published poems in many Canadian and international literary journals including Ricepaper Magazine (online), Exile, Prism International and Tupelo Quarterly. Cheuk holds an MFA in Creative Writing with a concentration in poetry from New York University (2007) and a BA(Hon.) in English literature from the University of Toronto (2005). Cheuk used to divide his time between Toronto, Vancouver, and Hong Kong but now is based in Vancouver. Cheuk’s poetry and fiction have also been anthologized.
Poetry (Chapbook)
Deus et Machina
London, Ont.: Baseline Press, 2017.
Limited edition of 75 numbered copies.
Poetry
Love Figures
London, Ont.: Insomniac Press, 2008.
PS8605 .H4747 L68 2011
Publisher’s Synopsis
In his debut poetry collection, Sam Cheuk attempts to invent a new way of truth-telling. Borrowing disparate ideas and modes ranging from self-censorship and identity performance, lyric poetry and phenomenology, Cheuk reverse-engineers the parlance of postmodernism in search of the primal motivation behind expression, all the while asking the question: is a lie a lie if the liar shows you how he lies?
Poetry
Postscripts from a City Burning
Windsor, ON: Palimpsest Press, 2021.
PS8605.H4747 P67 2021
Publisher’s Synopsis (From its website)
How does one write a preemptive eulogy for their hometown, a transient metropolis arriving at its last stop? Composed over a span of three months, Postscripts from a City Burning reassembles the embers left behind by the 2019 Hong Kong protests (and ultimately failed coup), weaving nostalgia, loss, and possible redemption into a time capsule of diaristic verse, photographs, dramatic monologues, and historical testimony. At once angry, despondent and unflinching, Sam Cheuk’s second full-length collection offers up a microcosmic prelude of a city’s smouldering ruin among many in a world marching to the heartbeat of increasingly authoritarian impulses.
Anthology (Fiction)
The Spirits Have Nothing to Do With Us
Cheuk, Sam. “The Best Ham and Egg Sandwich on the Island.” In The Spirits Have Nothing to Do with Us: New Chinese Canadian Fiction, edited by Dan K. Woo. Hamilton: Buckrider Books, 2023, 105-107.
Links
Publisher Baseline Press
Publisher Insomniac Press
Publisher Palimpsest Press
Publisher Wolsak & Wynn
Jeremy Luke Hill’s review of Deus et Machina in The Town Crier (Mar. 15, 2018)