Book Launch: Hilda Hoy reads from Mother Tongue
When: May 13, 2026 - 19.30
About Mother Tongue
Mother Tongue is a collection of interlinked essays on the cultural and linguistic disorientation of being multiracial and multilingual. The child of a Taiwanese mother and Canadian father, Hilda Hoy spent most of her early life in Taiwan, where her appearance marked her out as a foreigner and English gradually became her dominant language over Mandarin. When her mother was diagnosed with dementia, gradually losing the ability to speak, Hoy began probing the repercussions of her own language loss.
About Hilda Hoy (金邦琳)
Hilda Hoy (金邦琳) is a Taiwanese Canadian writer, editor, and translator. In addition to working as a reporter for the Toronto Star and the Prague Post, she has published narrative non-fiction in Roads & Kingdoms, Slate, and Narratively, as well as a travel guidebook titled The HUNT: Berlin. Her newest book, Mother Tongue, was begun while serving as writer in residence at the Taiwan Literature Base in Taipei. The diaspora experience and examinations of identity are central themes in her writing.
