Madeleine
Thien
Madeleine Thien is a novelist and short story writer. Her debut story collection, Simple Recipes, was a Commonwealth Writers’ Prize finalist, a Kiriyama Prize Notable Book, and won the BC Book Prize for Fiction. Her novel Dogs at the Perimeter was shortlisted for Berlin’s International Literature Prize and won the Frankfurt Book Fair’s Liberaturpreis. Her novel Do Not Say We Have Nothing won the Giller Prize, a Governor General’s Literary Award for fiction, and an Edward Stanford Prize and was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, the Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction, and The Folio Prize. Thien’s novels and stories have been translated into 25 languages and her essays have appeared in Granta, The Guardian, and the Financial Times. She lives in Montreal.
Award History
2024 Winner
Writers’ Trust Engel Findley AwardJury Citation
“Madeleine Thien’s acclaimed body of work is nothing short of masterful. Seamlessly blending history and imagination, Thien’s narratives span generations, vast distances, and richly drawn casts of characters. Whether navigating the most intimate moments of love and loss or the dramatic stages of war and political oppression, Thien’s prose brims with sensitivity and compassion, illuminating vivid imagery and sparking insights that continue to resonate long after reading. It’s clear that Thien treats every sentence with the utmost care; the apparent ease with which her writing moves is a striking testament to her extraordinary command of the literary craft. We are in awe of the humanity and generosity that anchors all of her writing thus far, and we are eager to see what she gifts readers next.” —2024 Writers’ Trust Engel Findley Award jury (Wayne Arthurson, Corinna Chong, and Phil Halton)
