Doretta Lau is a journalist and writer who was born in Burnaby, B.C. but now lives in Hong Kong. Her journalism covers arts and culture. Her fiction and poetry have appeared in a number of literary magazines and she is now working on a screenplay. Her short story “How Does a Single Blade of Grass Thank the Sun?” originally published in the magazine Event was a finalist for the Writers’ Trust of Canada / McClelland & Stewart Journey Prize for 2013. Lau studied at the University of British Columbia and completed an MFA in creative writing from Columbia University.
Fiction (Short stories)
How Does a Single Blade of Grass Say Thanks to the Sun?
Gibsons, BC: Nightwood Editions, 2014.
PS8623 .A8165 H69 2014
Publisher’s Synopsis (From its website)
Building on the success of the Journey Prize-shortlisted title story, the stories of How Does a Single Blade of Grass Thank the Sun? present an updated and whimsical new take on what it means to be Canadian. Lau alludes to the personal and political histories of a number of young Asian Canadian characters to explain their unique perspectives of the world, artfully fusing pure delusion and abstract perception with heartbreaking reality.
Correspondingly, the book’s title refers to an interview with Chinese basketball star Yao Ming, who when asked about the Shanghai Sharks, the team that shaped his formative sporting years, responded, “How does a single blade of grass thank the sun?” Lau’s stories feature the children and grandchildren of immigrants, transnational adoptees and multiracial adults who came of age in the 1990s—all struggling to find a place in the Western world and using the only language they know to express their hopes, fears and expectations.
Fiction
We Are Underlings
Toronto: House of Anansi Press, 2026.
forthcoming October 2026
Publisher’s Synopsis (From its website)
Zita Chang’s job—marketing death for the twenty-first century—is just like everyone else’s entry-level position in a corporate machine. While she’s grinding away, she’s determined not to let her grief over the death of her father interfere with her work. But being a Nine Circles employee comes with perks: she can ask the Afterlife team to replace Siri with her dead dad’s voice so that he can give her the advice she never wanted when he was alive.
Just when Zita feels the drudgery can’t get any worse, the Nine Circles calls an emergency meeting nine weeks before the park’s grand opening to drop a shocking bomb: not only has their executive director died under mysterious circumstances, but Zita and her coworkers are charged with programming his reanimated body to keep the launch on schedule. Can Zita pull this off? Why have a few other colleagues recently dropped dead too? And couldn’t this meeting have been an email?
Anthology
Changing the Face of Canadian Literature
Lau, Doretta. “At Core We Think They Will Kill Us.” In Changing the Face of Canadian Literature, edited by Dane Swan. Toronto: Guernica Editions, 2020.
Links
Doretta Lau personal website
Doretta Lau Facebook page
Publisher House of Anansi Press
Publisher Nightwood Editions