Canadian
Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...
Teen Vogue
''Teen Vogue'' is an American online publication, formerly in print, launched in January 2003, as a sister publication to ''Vogue (magazine), Vogue'', targeted at teenagers. Like ''Vogue'', it included stories about fashion and celebrities. Since ...
'', April 15, 2017. and former social worker. Thom, a
non-binary
Non-binary and genderqueer are umbrella terms for gender identities that are not solely male or femaleidentities that are outside the gender binary. Non-binary identities fall under the transgender umbrella, since non-binary people typically ...
trans woman
A trans woman or a transgender woman is a woman who was assigned male at birth. Trans women have a female gender identity, may experience gender dysphoria, and may transition; this process commonly includes hormone replacement therapy and so ...
, has published four books, including the novel '' Fierce Femmes and Notorious Liars: A Dangerous Trans Girl's Confabulous Memoir'' (2016), the poetry collection ''a place called No Homeland'' (2017), a children's book, ''From the Stars in The Sky to the Fish in the Sea'' (2017), and ''I Hope We Choose Love: A Trans Girl's Notes from the End of the World'' (2019), a book of essays centered on
transformative justice
Transformative justice is a series of practices and philosophies designed to create change in social systems. Mostly, they are alternatives to criminal justice in cases of interpersonal violence, or are used for dealing with socioeconomic issues in ...
Vice
A vice is a practice, behaviour, or habit generally considered immoral, sinful, criminal, rude, taboo, depraved, degrading, deviant or perverted in the associated society. In more minor usage, vice can refer to a fault, a negative character tra ...
'', February 14, 2020.
Thom is also a performance artist and community healer that writes advice columns entitled,
" Ask Kai: Advice for the Apocalypse” for ''Xtra''. Thom's work has been published in ''Buzzfeed'', ''
Autostraddle
Autostraddle is an independently owned online magazine and social network for lesbian, bisexual, and queer women ( cis and trans), as well as non-binary people and trans people of all genders. The website is a "politically progressive queer femin ...
Lambda Literary Award for Transgender Fiction
The Lambda Literary Award for Transgender Literature is an annual literary award, presented by the Lambda Literary Foundation, that awards books with transgender content. Awards are granted based on literary merit and transgender content, and ther ...
Quill & Quire
''Quill & Quire'' is a Canadian magazine about the book and publishing industry. The magazine was launched in 1935 and has an average circulation of 5,000 copies per issue, with a publisher-claimed readership of 25,000. ''Quill & Quire'' reviews ...
'', March 14, 2017. and the year after it was published Thom won the 2017
Dayne Ogilvie Prize
The Dayne Ogilvie Prize for LGBTQ Emerging Writers is a Canadian literary award, presented annually by the Writers' Trust of Canada to an emerging Canadian writer who is part of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or queer community. Origina ...
for
LGBTQ
' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity.
The LGBT term is a ...
Emerging writers."Toronto's Kai Cheng Thom wins Ogilvie Prize for LGBTQ Emerging Writers" ''
National Post
The ''National Post'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet newspaper available in several cities in central and western Canada. The paper is the flagship publication of Postmedia Network and is published Mondays through Saturdays, with ...
'', June 5, 2017. The Dayne Ogilvie jury, consisting of writers
Jane Eaton Hamilton
Eaton Hamilton (born July 19, 1954) is a Canadian short story writer, novelist, essayist and poet, who goes by "Hamilton", 2021 legal name “Eaton Hamilton" and uses they/their pronouns.
Hamilton has published the novel ''Weekend'' (Arsenal P ...
Trish Salah
Trish Salah is an Arab Canadian poet, activist, and academic. She is the author of the poetry collections, ''Wanting in Arabic'', published in 2002 by TSAR Publications and ''Lyric Sexology Vol. 1'', published by Roof Books in 2014. An expanded Can ...
, cited Thom's work as "sheer joyful exuberance, creativity, and talent", calling ''Fierce Femmes'' "a delicious and fabulist refashioning of a trans memoir as fiction" and "a genre-breaking refusal of the idea that the only stories trans people have to tell are their autobiographies." In 2019, ''Fierce Femmes and Notorious Liars'' was chosen by
Emma Watson
Emma Charlotte Duerre Watson (born 15 April 1990) is an English actress and activist. Known for her roles in both blockbusters and independent films, as well as for her women's rights work, she has received a selection of accolades, includi ...
for her online feminist book club Our Shared Shelf.
Thom's debut children's picture book, ''From the Stars in the Sky to the Fish in the Sea'' was published in 2017 by Arsenal Pulp Press.
In 2018, Arsenal Pulp Press published Thom's debut poetry collection ''a place called No Homeland''. The book was an American Library Association Stonewall Honor Book in 2018, and was a shortlisted finalist for the
Publishing Triangle Award for Trans and Gender-Variant Literature The Publishing Triangle Award for Trans and Gender-Variant Literature is an annual literary award, presented by Publishing Triangle to honour works of literature on transgender themes. Further in the Room Magazine review, the reviewer Adele Barclay writes "Many of Thom's poems deploy this bold, storytelling voice, foregrounding the wisdom of what is said, experienced, lived, rumoured, and gossiped in lieu of traditional history with its myopia of normativity. ''a place called No Homeland'' consistently examines the collisions that marginalized identities encounter. And through this, Thom finds, 'there is a poem waiting deep below.'"
In 2019, Thom published her non-fiction debut, ''I Hope We Choose Love: A Trans Girl's Notes from the End of the World''. It was a 2020 American Library Association Stonewall Honor Book, and won the
Publishing Triangle Award for Trans and Gender-Variant Literature The Publishing Triangle Award for Trans and Gender-Variant Literature is an annual literary award, presented by Publishing Triangle to honour works of literature on transgender themes.Julie Andrews
Dame Julie Andrews (born Julia Elizabeth Wells; 1 October 1935) is an English actress, singer, and author. She has garnered numerous accolades throughout her career spanning over seven decades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Fi ...
for inclusion in her Julie's Library podcast.
Works
''Fierce Femmes and Notorious Liars: A Dangerous Trans Girl's Confabulous Memoir''
Published in 2017 by Thom, ''Fierce Femmes and Notorious Liars: A Dangerous Trans Girl's Confabulous Memoir'''','' is a story, loosely based on Thom's life, that follows a young Asian trans girl, pathological liar, and kung-fu expert who runs away from her family, consisting of abusive parents, and her hometown of Gloom, a dark rainy city. She finds a true family and sense of belonging in a group of other trans femmes who live in a pleasure district called Street of Miracles. The character becomes the woman she always dreamt of becoming under the influence of her new family. The story takes a dark turn when one of her new sisters is murdered and the sisters all form a vigilante gang to fight back against transphobes and cops that prey on the Street of Miracles. In this coming-of-age novel, the protagonist must find the truth within herself to fight back against the violence and discover the true meaning of growing up and being apart of a family.
Teen Vogue
''Teen Vogue'' is an American online publication, formerly in print, launched in January 2003, as a sister publication to ''Vogue (magazine), Vogue'', targeted at teenagers. Like ''Vogue'', it included stories about fashion and celebrities. Since ...
described the book as "high-energy and full of exciting tension from the outset, and the writing keeps you glued to the page."
The Montreal Review of Books noted that, “ 'Fierce Femmes''effortlessly changes the rules, cracking open a space of freedom.”
The Winnipeg Review says, “Kai Cheng Thom’s fantastical and carefully constructed writing brings the knife blade and the high heel together in an engaging, fast-paced fictional—or is it?—memoir.”
A Place Called No Homeland
Published by
Arsenal Pulp Press
Arsenal Pulp Press is a Canadian independent book publishing company, based in Vancouver, British Columbia. The company publishes a broad range of titles in both fiction and non-fiction, focusing primarily on underrepresented genres such as und ...
in 2017, A Place Called No Homeland is a poetry collection in which Thom works to combine thoughts from memory and mythology to create new maps of gender, race, sexuality, and violence. Descended from the traditions of oral storytelling, spoken word, and queer punk, Thom's debut collection is evocative and unforgettable.
From the Stars in the Sky to the Fish in the Sea
Education
Thom has dual master's degrees in social work and couple and family therapy from
McGill University
McGill University (french: link=no, Université McGill) is an English-language public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1821 by royal charter granted by King George IV,Frost, Stanley Brice. ''McGill Universit ...