Jen Sookfong Lee

My guest on this episode is Jen Sookfong Lee. Jen is the author of three acclaimed novels, four works for children, a collection of poetry, and two works of non-fiction, including Gentlemen Of The Shade, about the movie My Own Private Idaho, and her most recent book, Superfan: How Pop Culture Broke my Heart, which was published by McClelland and Stewart in 2023. Jen is also works as an acquiring editor for ECW Press, and is the co-editor, with Stacey May Fowles, of two essay anthologies, Whatever Gets You Through and Good Mom on Paper.

Superfan is finalist for the 2024 Forest of Reading Evergreen Book Award, was named a Best Book of 2023 by the Globe and Mail and Apple Books Canada, and was a TODAY Show Recommended Read. The Toronto Star called Superfan “heady, thought-provoking, and emotionally fraught stuff, and a singular reading experience.”

Jen and I talk about how she had never intended Superfan to be a personal memoir, how the relative failure of her second novel almost made her stop writing altogether, why you should never wear faux leather pants while appearing on TV, and why she is still just a little bit disappointed to have never been crowned Miss Chinese Vancouver.

 

Jen Sookfong Lee: sookfong.com

Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission.

Contact Nathan Whitlock at nathanwhitlock.ca/contact