photo credit: Liz Cooper Photography

Y. S. Lee’s poems have won Contemporary Verse 2’s 2022 Foster Prize and been anthologized in Best Canadian Poetry 2025. Her first full-length collection, Rebuke the Ghosts, is forthcoming from Brick Books and her lyric essay, “Tek tek”, was shortlisted for the 2022 CBC Nonfiction Prize. She’s also the author of two poetry chapbooks, Exit Permit (Anstruther Press, 2023) and care (Alfred Gustav Press, 2027).

Ying’s fiction includes the critically acclaimed YA mystery series The Agency (Candlewick Press/Walker Books UK), which was translated into six languages, won the Canadian Children’s Book Centre’s inaugural John Spray Mystery Award, and will be re-issued in 2027. Her picture book, Mrs. Nobody, is published by Groundwood Books.

Her friends call her Ying. You should, too.

A note on place: I’m an immigrant and settler living in Kingston, Ontario. Here’s a telling of its pre-settler history, related by Zoogipon Ikwe. English speakers on this land often spell its Mohawk name as “Katarokwi”, but there’s some ambiguity around the translation. Laura Murray digs into its naming and meaning in this blog post.