Jan 21, 2026
Host Nathan Maharaj spoke with poet and novelist Souvankham Thammavongsa. Her first poetry collection Small Arguments was published in 2003, and in 2020 her first short story collection How to Pronounce Knife won Canada’s Giller Prize. Her latest book is a novel called Pick a Colour. It’s a story set in a nail salon run by a retired boxer, and it won the Giller Prize in 2025.
Souvankham Thammavongsa on writing a woman at the centre of her own story