About Pearl LukE
I have had the pleasure of writing and editing professionally for over 30 years. I taught writing and literature for many years and have worked, mostly editing, for five Canadian publishers, including two university presses.
For the past several years I've been editing for MotherTongue Publishing, a small Canadian press named 2018 top publisher in Canada by The Writers' Union of Canada annual report card.
Reading and writing have been the mainstays of my life for as long as I can remember. When it finally occurred to me that I, too, might become a writer, I enrolled in university and went on to acquire a master's degree in English Literature.
I am the author of two award winning literary novels and hundreds of articles, columns, web pages, and business documents.
My experience writing, editing, teaching, and publishing has put me in a unique position to advise aspiring authors, and I now coach a few select writers on a retainer basis.
My first novel, Burning Ground was published in 2000 by HarperCollins. It won the 2001 Commonwealth Writers Prize for Best First Book (Caribbean and Canada Region), and was a finalist for the George Bugnet Award, the Chapters/Robertson Davies First Novel Award and the Libris Booksellers Award. Burning Ground was based in part on my experiences working summers on various fire towers while I wrote my Masters thesis.
The historical novel Madame Zee, published in 2006 (HarperCollins), was larger in scope. I spent hours sifting through archival materials, examining personal letters, poetry, and newspaper clippings during some of the most pleasurable hours of the writing process.
I traveled to Accra, Ghana, for the Commonwealth Prize ceremonies and spent three weeks in Taiwan, as writer-in-residence for the city of Taipei.
Home is Vancouver, Canada.
Literary Awards
Present
- Listed in Who's Who in Canada 2001 - present
2007
- Madame Zee a long-list nominee for the 2008 IMPAC Dublin International Literary Award
2006
- Madame Zee a Canadian Living Book Club Pick (July)
- Madame Zee a Chatelaine Book Club Pick
- Madame Zee awarded the Sun Times Golden Slipper Award as a pick in their Top Ten Canadian works of fiction
2001
- Burning Ground wins Commonwealth Writers' Prize for best first book in Canada and the Caribbean
- Burning Ground short-listed for the Georges Bugnes award for best novel
- Burning Ground short-listed for Canadian Booksellers' Libris award for first time author of the year
- Listed in Who's Who in Canada 2001 - present
2000
- City of Taipei writer-in-residence, December
- Burning Ground named a Globe & Mail notable book of the year
1999
- Burning Ground short-listed for the Chapters/Robertson Davies prize for best unpublished first novel (Under the title: Black & White Like Smoke)
Read about My Books
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