Wordfest Presents Teresa Wong

Wordfest Presents Teresa Wong

Hosted by Alice Lam

We’ve been waiting and waiting for the brilliant Teresa Wong to publish her new graphic novel All Our Ordinary Stories. (Fortunately, she’s been busy creating comics for The Believer, The New Yorker, McSweeney’s, and The Walrus.) Thankfullly, we get to celebrate her book’s birthday together in Calgary, in a presentation and conversation hosted by local community builder Alice Lam. This event includes an audience Q & A and book signing, fuelled by Owl’s Nest Books, who will be on site with copies fresh off the presses. (You can also pre-order copies of the book here for pick-up at the show!)

We are grateful to Arsenal Pulp Press for making it possible to connect you with Teresa Wong.

About All Our Ordinary Stories

 "I love this book with my whole heart. Every line, written and drawn, sings. In it, we find grief and tenderness, astonishing escapes, and endless afterlives. All Our Ordinary Stories will pass from hand to hand; it is a treasure, a compass, and a hope." –­Madeleine Thien, author of Do Not Say We Have Nothing

From the author of Dear Scarlet comes a graphic memoir about the obstacles one daughter faces as she attempts to connect with her immigrant parents

Beginning with her mother’s stroke in 2014, Teresa Wong takes us on a moving journey through time and place to locate the beginnings of the disconnection she feels from her parents. Through a series of stories—some epic, like her mother and father’s daring escapes from communes during China’s Cultural Revolution, and some banal, like her quitting Chinese school to watch Saturday morning cartoons—Wong carefully examines the cultural, historical, language, and personality barriers to intimacy in her family, seeking answers to the questions “Where did I come from?” and “Where are we going?” At the same time, she discovers how storytelling can bridge distances and help make sense of a life.

A book for children of immigrants trying to honour their parents’ pasts while also making a different kind of future for themselves, All Our Ordinary Stories is poignant in its understated yet nuanced depictions of complicated family dynamics. Wong’s memoir is a heartfelt exploration of identity and inheritance, as well as a testament to the transformative power of stories both told and untold.

About Teresa Wong 

Teresa Wong is the author of the graphic memoirs All Our Ordinary Stories and Dear Scarlet, which was a finalist for The City of Calgary W.O. Mitchell Book Prize and longlisted for CBC Canada Reads. Her comics have appeared in The Believer, The New Yorker, McSweeney’s, and The Walrus. A teacher of memoir and comics at Gotham Writers Workshop, Wong was the 2021–22 Canadian Writer-in-Residence at the University of Calgary. She lives in Calgary with her family. Visit her website byteresawong.com.

About Host Alice Lam

Alice Lam is an avid volunteer in Calgary's Chinatown, leading historic Chinatown tours through her volunteer-run group, Friends of Chinatown YYC. She was born and raised in Calgary's Chinatown and is passionate about sharing stories about the pioneers that built this community over the past 150 years. 

BE CURIOUSER

• Canada kept vast documents on the Chinese Exclusion Act. So why couldn’t I find my grandpa? –Teresa Wong, CBC First Person
• Interview with Teresa Wong. –Autobiographix