LiterASIAN Toronto 2026: Re-Generation

Farzana Doctor is a Tkaronto-based author, activist, and psychotherapist. She has written five critically acclaimed novels: Stealing Nasreen, Six Metres of Pavement, All Inclusive, Seven, and The Beauty of Us; a poetry collection, You Still Look the Same; and a workbook, 52 Weeks to a Sweeter Life.

In 2023, Farzana received the prestigious Freedom To Read Award. In 2020, Seven was chosen as an Amnesty International Book Club Reader’s Choice Pick and was shortlisted for the Trillium and Evergreen Awards. Six Metres of Pavement won the Lambda and Writers’ Trust Dayne Ogilvie Prizes and was shortlisted for the Toronto Book Award in 2012.

Jack Wang - The Riveter 

June Hur - Behind Five Willows 

As the dutiful second-eldest daughter of a poor family, society would have Haewon believe that her only hope of a decent life is to marry well. But during a time of rampant government censorship and book banning, she instead works as an illegal book transcriber to make a little extra money. It’s dangerous work, but she loves it—especially when she gets to transcribe the work of her favorite author, known as Black Lotus. 
 
When her older sister becomes smitten with a wealthy young gentleman, Haewon is roped into chaperoning them during their courtship. Which wouldn’t be so terrible... if it weren’t for the young man’s uptight and annoying best friend who also accompanies them. 
 
As the only son of a noble, Seojun has a lot expected of him. Wealth. Status. Respectability. Certainly not frivolous and often illicit activities such as reading fiction. But Seojun loves to do something even more scandalous: writing. He’s kept his work secret from his father and friends, but with each passing day, the pressure of being his father’s son and the dispiriting actions of the government make Seojun question the purpose of it all. The only thing keeping him going are the encouraging letters he receives from his transcriber, known only as Magpie. 
 
When his best friend falls hard for a girl of lower social status, Seojun finds himself forced to act as chaperone to the infatuated couple—along with the girl's younger sister, who is as irritating as she is judgmental. But as Haewon and Seojun spend more time together, they begin to suspect they may have judged each other too quickly... 

Larissa Lai – The Lost Century 

On the eve of the return of the British Crown Colony of Hong Kong to China in 1997, young Ophelia asks her peculiar great-aunt Violet about the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong during World War II, the disappearance of her uncle Raymond, and whether her grandmother, Emily Mah, was a murderer. 

Emily’s marriage—not once but three times—to her father’s mortal enemy causes a stir among three very different Hong Kong Chinese families, as well as among the young cricketers at the Hong Kong Cricket Club, who’ve just witnessed King Edward VIII’s abdication to marry Wallis Simpson. But the bickering around the scandal of 

Emily’s marriage is violently disrupted by the Japanese Imperial Army’s invasion of Hong Kong on Christmas Day, 1941, which plunges the colony into a landscape of violence none of its inhabitants escape from unscathed, least of all Emily. When her sister’s situation becomes dire, Violet, along with a crew of unlikely cosmopolitans, hatches a plan to rescue Emily from the wrath of the person she thought loved her the most—her husband, Tak-Wing. In the middle of it all, a strange match of timeless Test cricket unfolds in which the ball has an agency all its own. 

By turns tragic and inspiring, The Lost Century reveals the devastating impact of the Japanese and British occupation on the Hong Kong people, all the while centering the particular strength and resilience of its women. In The Lost Century, readers will find tangled machinations of power in a world that is stunningly alive. Lai masterfully balances an exploration of Asian relations, queer Asian history, underground resistance, the violence of war, and the rise of modern China with an intense and exhilarating story of passion, heartbreak, and violence.