{"id":12534,"date":"2020-08-28T17:38:05","date_gmt":"2020-08-28T21:38:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/library.ryerson.ca\/asianheritage\/?page_id=12534"},"modified":"2025-09-25T11:08:43","modified_gmt":"2025-09-25T15:08:43","slug":"isabella-wang","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/library.torontomu.ca\/asianheritage\/authors\/isabella-wang\/","title":{"rendered":"Isabella Wang"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n

Isabella Wang is a an undergraduate student at Simon Fraser University where she is pursuing a double major in English and World Literature. Wang was born in eastern China but immigrated to Canada as an elementary aged child. She lives in Port Moody, BC. Her poems, essays and short stories have been published by many literary journals and a couple of anthologies.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

\n
\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n

Poetry<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

November, November<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Gibsons, BC: Nightwood Editions, 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Publisher’s Synopsis (From its website)<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Dedicated as letters and long epistolary lyrics to those who are missing a loved one, November, November<\/em> acknowledges poetry\u2019s \u201cpalpitating vulnerable form,\u201d and how sometimes a poem might be the only comfort that resides between silence and grief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Isabella Wang\u2019s second collection began as a tribute to the late Phyllis Webb, and was completed in the aftermath of Wang\u2019s cancer diagnosis. The poems respond directly to Webb\u2019s work and collapse the fine landscapes separating death and Wang\u2019s own mortality. Over the course of treatment and \u201cdays [when] we don\u2019t get to rewrite the history of our bodies,\u201d the pace of Wang\u2019s poetry slows down in the complicated recovery from cancer. Entering the cloudless silver of November days, her words tell a story of loss and illness, and her poems linger in the cold air, visible.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n

Poetry (Chapbook)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

On Forgetting a Language<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

London, Ont.: Baseline Press, 2019.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

\n
\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n

Poetry<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Pebble Swing<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Gibsons, BC: Nightwood Editions, 2021.
will be available<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Publisher’s Synopsis (From its website)<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Pebble Swing<\/em> earns its title from the image of stones skipping their way across a body of water, or, in the author\u2019s case, syllables and traces of her mother tongue bouncing back at her from the water\u2019s reflective surface. This collection is about language and family histories. It is the author\u2019s attempt to piece together the resonant aftermath of the Chinese Cultural Revolution, which stole the life of her paternal grandmother. As an immigrant whose grasp of Mandarin is fading, Wang explores absences in her caesuras and fragmentation\u2014that which is unspoken, but endures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The poems in this collection also trace the experiences of a young poet who left home at seventeen to pursue writing; the result is a series of city poetry infused with memory, the small joys of Vancouver\u2019s everyday, environmental politics, grief and notions of home. While the poetics of response are abundant in the collection\u2014with poems written to Natalie Lim and Ashley Hynd\u2014the last section of the book, “Thirteen Ghazals and Anti-Ghazals after Phyllis Webb,” forges a continued response to Phyllis Webb on Salt Spring Island, and innovates within the possibilities of the experimental ghazal form.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Awards and Honours<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

2022 Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize<\/a> (BC and Yukon Book Prizes)(Finalist)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

\n
\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n

Anthology (Short story)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The Spirits Have Nothing to Do with Us<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Wang, Isabella. “Coal Flowers.” In The Spirits Have Nothing to Do with Us: New Chinese Canadian Fiction<\/em>, edited by Dan K. Woo. Hamilton: Buckrider Books, 2023, 71-82.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n

Links<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Isabella Wang personal website<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Publisher Baseline Press<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Publisher Nightwood Editions<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Isabella Wang is a an undergraduate student at Simon Fraser University where she is pursuing a double major in English and World Literature. Wang was born in eastern China but immigrated to Canada as an elementary aged child. She lives … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"parent":16,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-12534","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.torontomu.ca\/asianheritage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/12534","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.torontomu.ca\/asianheritage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.torontomu.ca\/asianheritage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.torontomu.ca\/asianheritage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.torontomu.ca\/asianheritage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12534"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/library.torontomu.ca\/asianheritage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/12534\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20751,"href":"https:\/\/library.torontomu.ca\/asianheritage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/12534\/revisions\/20751"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.torontomu.ca\/asianheritage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/16"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.torontomu.ca\/asianheritage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12534"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}