Creator
Kim Echlin
Canadian novelist whose novel The Disappeared is set in Cambodia after the Khmer Rouge period.
Kim Echlin is a Canadian novelist, translator, editor and teacher whose novel The Disappeared (2009) is set in Cambodia after the Khmer Rouge years.[1][2] She lives in Toronto.[1]
Career
Echlin studied at McGill University in Montreal and at the Sorbonne in Paris, and she earned a PhD in English literature at York University with a thesis on translating the Ojibway Nanabush myths.[2][3][4] She traveled through the Marshall Islands, China, France and Zimbabwe in search of stories.[5] In 1984 and 1985 she taught English in Dalian, China, and she gathered and translated Chinese myths there.[6] Back in Canada, she worked as an arts documentary producer for CBC Television's The Journal.[2][5]
Echlin has taught creative writing at several universities. She teaches at the University of Toronto School of Continuing Studies, and in 2021 she also taught at the Vermont College of Fine Arts.[3][4] Her research, writing and translation have taken her to Cambodia, as well as to Europe, Zimbabwe, Malawi, South Africa, Honduras, Pakistan, Bosnia, Egypt, Japan, Korea and Iceland.[1] In 2024 she was elected to the board of PEN International, where she works on freedom of speech.[1][7]
Writing
Echlin's first novels, Elephant Winter (1997) and Dagmar's Daughter (2001), explore women's creativity and language.[1][2] Dagmar's Daughter draws on ancient myths to tell the story of three generations of women on an island in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.[3] With mentorship from the poet W. S. Merwin, she translated Sumerian myths into free verse, published as Inanna: A New English Version (2015).[6][2] Under the Visible Life (2015) follows two musicians from different backgrounds who connect through jazz.[2][8] Speak, Silence (2021) is based on the testimony of Bosnian women at the war-crimes trials in The Hague.[6][4] Her later books include Tell Others (2026).[2][7]
The Disappeared
Penguin Canada published The Disappeared, her third novel, in March 2009.[5][3] The Toronto edition from Hamish Hamilton Canada has 235 pages.[9] It links the Cambodian genocide with Canadian history.[2] Anne, a 16-year-old in Montreal, meets Serey, a Cambodian musician living in exile from the Khmer Rouge. When the borders reopen, he returns to Cambodia to find his family. Eleven years later, she travels to Phnom Penh to look for him.[10][9] The novel follows the genocide and its aftermath through Anne's eyes.[9] Echlin has said the first seeds of the book were planted on a trip to Cambodia six or seven years before it appeared.[3]
By its publication, the novel had sold in 16 foreign territories, including Spain, China, Greece, Romania and Germany.[3] It has since been translated into 20 languages; Penguin Random House gives the figure as 20 countries.[1][7]
Recognition
- Torgi Award, for Elephant Winter (1997)
- Shortlist, Chapters/Books in Canada First Novel Award, for Elephant Winter (1997)[2][5]
- Shortlist, Scotiabank Giller Prize, for The Disappeared (2009)[1][6]
- Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Award, for The Disappeared[1][7]
- Toronto Book Award, for Speak, Silence (2021)
- Finalist, Evergreen Award, for Speak, Silence (2022)[1][2]
Works
- The Disappeared (Book)
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 Kim Echlin, official site
- ↑ 2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 Kim Echlin, Wikipedia
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 Quill & Quire, Kim Echlin's Cambodian connection (September 4, 2009)
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Rain Taxi, To Break the Silence: An Interview with Kim Echlin (August 18, 2021)
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 Academic Matters, The Disappeared
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 Canadian Writers Abroad, Kim Echlin (June 9, 2021)
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 Penguin Random House, Kim Echlin author page
- ↑ The Globe and Mail, Author Kim Echlin on why she wrote her new novel (March 13, 2015)
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 Inroads, Canada on the World Stage (September 5, 2010)
- ↑ Goodreads, The Disappeared