Work by writers of Chinese-Canadian heritage have achieved international success: this includes books by Wayson Choy, SKY Lee, and Denise Chong, as well as the acclaimed anthology of Chinese-Canadian fiction, Many Mouthed Birds. Swallowing Clouds collects the work of some of the most vibrant and exciting Chinese-Canadian poets working today, being the first poetic anthology ever published in book form. The collection evokes the spirit and sentiment of the Chinese-Canadian community, representing a diversity of language and style that speak to issues of ethnicity and culture while forging new and exciting paths of their own.
Swallowing Clouds includes poems by a number of well-known writers as well as fresh new poetic voices,forming an eloquent and fiery portrait of the Chinese-Canadian experience.
CONTRIBUTORS: Marisa AnLin Alps, Louise Bak, Lien Chao, Ritz Chow, Glenn Deer, Sean Gunn, Jamila Ismail, Gaik Cheng Khoo, Lydia Kwa, Larissa Lai, Laiwan, Fiona Lam, Jen Lam, Evelyn Lau, Pei Hsien Lim, P.K. Leung, Andy Quan, Goh Poh Seng, Thuong Vuong-Riddick, Fred Wah, Rita Wong, Jim Wong-Chu, Kam Sein Yee, Paul Yee.

Andy Quan is the author of four books: Calendar Boy, Slant, Bowling Pin Fire, and Six Positions, and the co-editor of the Arsenal Pulp Press anthology Swallowing Clouds with Jim Wong-Chu. He was born in 1969 in Vancouver, BC, a third-generation Chinese-Canadian and fifth generation Chinese-American with roots in the villages of Canton. His short fiction has appeared in the Arsenal Pulp Fiction anthologies Queeries, Queer View Mirror, Contra/Diction, Carnal Nation, the Quickies series and I Like It Like That.

Other short fiction, poetry and non-fiction has appeared widely in anthologies and magazines in Canada, the USA, the UK and Australia.

He is also a singer-songwriter, and had a featured role in Canadian video-maker Richard Fung's Dirty Laundry, an exploration of sexuality among early Chinese immigrants to Canada.

After living in Toronto, London, and Brussels, Andy has lived in Sydney, Australia since 1999 where he works on regional HIV/AIDS issues.

Andy Quan's profile page

Jim Wong-Chu was a poet, author, editor, and historian, and the founder of the Asian Canadian Writers' Workshop and Ricepaper magazine. His groundbreaking 1986 poetry book Chinatown Ghosts was reissued in a new edition in 2018. He co-edited the anthologies Many-Mouthed Birds: Contemporary Writing by Chinese Canadians (Douglas & McIntyre), Swallowing Clouds: An Anthology of Chinese-Canadian Poetry (Arsenal Pulp), and AlliterAsian: Twenty Years of Ricepaper Magazine (Arsenal Pulp). Jim Wong-Chu passed away in 2017.

Jim Wong-Chu's profile page

Expertly edited . . . an important and timely book.
-This Magazine

This Magazine