Colours of Heroines, The [Paperback]

"The poetry in The Colours of Heroines is vital in its measure of articulating the literal movement of a life. Lydia Kwa's detailed composition of family, language, and love is a beautifully accurate response to the caves of hunger and desire she locates as so insistent in the mouth." (Fred Wah 20100223)

"Lydia Kwa's voice is drenched in memory. Speaking at several junctures, both Singapore-born and Vancouver-habituated, her poetry carries the pain and historic wealth of her passage. It murmurs stories, laconic, profound, stories that tell whole shapes of lives in a few lines. Family anecdotes, fragments of intimacy, life stories of friends - these poems open windows onto the compulsions that form inner landscapes. Equally at hom ein a finely cadenced erotic lyric or candid and multi-layered prose, her writing resonates well beyond the edge of the page."- Daphne Marlatt (20100223)

Lydia Kwa was born in Singapore and came to Canada in 1980. She has lived in Toronto, Kingston, and Calgary. She now makes her home in Vancouver, working as a writer and a therapist. Her work has appeared in various literary journals and anthologies including Many-Mouthed Birds: Contemporary Writing by Chinese Canadians. The Colours of Heroines is her first book. (20100223)