On Friday, December 16 at 6pm, join Massy Arts Society, Massy Books and author, librettist, and playwright, Phoebe Tsang for the launch of Setting Fire to Water (Thistledown Press).
This debut collection of stories that illuminates the lives of those who exist inside otherness: shifting restlessly from dark to light and back again, written in lithe, precise prose. Tsang will be joined by poet, editor and professor and emerging songwriter, Sonnet L’Abbé.
This project has been made possible by the Government of Canada / Ce projet a été rendu possible grâce au gouvernement du Canada.
Venue & Accessibility
The event will be hosted at the Massy Arts Gallery, at 23 East Pender Street in Chinatown, Vancouver.
Registration is free, open to all and required for entrance. The gallery is wheelchair accessible and a gender-neutral washroom is on-site.
For more on accessibility including parking, seating, venue measurements and floor plan, and how to request ASL interpretation please visit: massyarts.com/accessibility
Covid Protocols: Masks keep our community safe and are mandatory (N95 masks are recommended as they offer the best protection). We ask if you are showing symptoms, that you stay home. Thank you kindly.
The Book
Setting Fire to Water is Phoebe Tsang’s debut collection of stories that illuminates the lives of those who exist inside otherness: shifting restlessly from dark to light and back again, written in lithe, precise prose. A young Asian woman, an artistic over-achiever turned drifter, endures a mind-bending night of reckoning as she struggles to find her way “home,” careening between flirtation and thievery, dream and memory. A reality TV star obsesses about the real stain that blemishes the set of her fake, made-for-TV life. A modern fairytale is told from the point of view of a fox having an argument with its enemy, hunger. A heart-broken accountant goes on a pilgrimage to India to get his fire back, and his attempt to attain mercy from the most holy of rivers fizzles like his former fiancée’s tepid devotion.
The Author
Phoebe Tsang is a Hong Kong-born Chinese, British, and Canadian poet, author, librettist, and playwright who makes her home in Toronto. She has published a poetry collection, Contents of a Mermaid’s Purse (Tightrope Books, 2009), and her short stories have appeared in Geist, Broken Pencil Magazine, Litro Magazine, Rivet Journal, Asia Literary Review, The Bombay Review, and other places. Her writing is informed by lyricism and rhythmic sense, inherited from her background as a professional classical violinist. Setting Fire to Water is her debut collection of stories.
With Guest Reader
Sonnet L’Abbé is a Canadian poet, editor and professor and emerging songwriter. They are the author of A Strange Relief, Killarnoe, and Sonnet’s Shakespeare. Sonnet’s Shakespeare was a Quill and Quire Book of the Year and their chapbook, Anima Canadensis, won the 2017 Nichol Chapbook Award. They teach Creative Writing and English at Vancouver Island University, and are a poetry editor at Brick Books. They had their first solo performance of songs and poems as part of Nanaimo’s Port Theatre Discovery Series in 2021.
