Book Launch: This City Is a Minefield by Aaron Chan

Join debut author Aaron Chan for the launch of his memoir This City Is a Minefield, a collection of reflective memoir and personal essays about growing up and coming of age as a young gay Chinese man in Vancouver. With special guests Hiromi Goto and Candie Tanaka!

“In crisp, spare prose, Chan strikes familiar notes in the Asian diasporic narrative while adding his own distinctive counterpoint meditations on the meaning of purpose, desire, and beauty. This is a lasting contribution to the growing canon of Asian queer literature, and a must-read for all of us who have struggled to know the meaning of home.”– Kai Cheng Thom, author of I Hope We Choose Love: A Trans Girl’s Notes From the End of the World

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Aaron Chan is a musician, filmmaker, and writer born and raised on unceded Coast Salish territories (Vancouver). He holds a BFA in Creative Writing from the University of British Columbia, and his writing has been published in literary magazines and publications including Existere, Plenitude, filling Station, Polychrome Ink, and Daily Xtra. His piece “A Case of Jeff” won subTerrain‘s Lush Triumphant Literary Award in Creative Non-Fiction, and he has published a poetry chapbook, Romantic Hopeless. His first book, This City Is a Minefield (Signal 8 Press), is a collection of memoir and personal essays.

Hiromi Goto gratefully acknowledges the privilege of living on the unceded and ancestral territories of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil Waututh Nations. She is the author of numerous books including Chorus of Mushrooms, The Kappa Child, and Half World. Shadow Life, her first graphic novel, with artist Ann Xu, will be out in Fall 2020 with First Second Books.

Candie Tanaka is currently writing their first fiction novel with the working title of Tanaka and Co. and penning a suite of poems about working on the waterfront. Side hustles include wrangling Drag Queens and being the Executive Director at the International Centre of Arts and Technology, a literary focused community makerspace in Vancouver.

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This event is taking place on the unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tseil-Waututh Nations.

Accessibility information: this event takes place upstairs in the Massy Gallery, which is only accessible by a flight of stairs.

Massy Books is easily accessible by transit! Close to the 22, 3, 8 and 19 bus lines at Main and Georgia/Gore and Georgia. There is metered street parking along Georgia, or lot parking at the Sun Wah Centre around the corner (268 Keefer).