William Ping

Canadian writer

William Ping is a Canadian writer from St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador,^[1] whose debut novel Hollow Bamboo was a shortlisted finalist for the 2023 Amazon.ca First Novel Award.^[2]

Born and raised in St. John's, he is the grandson of William Seto Ping, a Chinese immigrant who became a prominent leader in the city's Chinese-Canadian community.^[3] However, his grandfather died when he was only a child, leaving him with few memories of the man for whom he was named;^[3] the novel is an autofiction in which a ghost named Mo guides a fictionalized version of himself into the past to learn more about his grandfather's life.^[4] The novel was written as his master's thesis in creative writing studies at Memorial University of Newfoundland, under the supervision of Lisa Moore, before being published in early 2023 by HarperCollins Canada.^[1]

He has also contributed short stories to anthologies, including Us, Now: Stories from the Quilted Collective and Hard Ticket: New Writing Made in Newfoundland.^[5]

Ping works as a newsreader for CBN, the CBC Radio One affiliate in St. John's.^[3] He also previously created a radio documentary about his grandfather for CBC's Atlantic Voice documentary program.^[1]

References

^ ^a ^b ^c Andrew Robinson, "St. John's writer and journalist William Ping, author of 'Hollow Bamboo,' answers 20 Questions". SaltWire Network, March 27, 2023.
^ Cassandra Drudi, "Billy-Ray Belcourt, Jessica Johns among 2023 Amazon Canada First Novel finalists". Quill & Quire, May 4, 2023.
^ ^a ^b ^c Joan Sullivan, "‘Hollow Bamboo’ mixes fact and fiction in a search for identity through eyes of a Chinese immigrant to Newfoundland". SaltWire Network, March 2, 2023.
^ "Hollow Bamboo by William Ping". CBC Books, February 3, 2023.
^ "William Ping". Asian Heritage in Canada.