Emi Sasagawa is a settler, immigrant, and queer woman of colour, living and writing on the traditional, ancestral, and stolen territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh and Selilwitulh Nations.

Her debut novel Atomweight, by Tidewater Press, was selected by CBC Books as one of the 86 works of Canadian fiction to read in the first half of 2023 and dubbed by The Tyee as “a propulsive exploration of growth and becoming.” The novel is an invitation for readers to reflect on their intersectional identity, through privilege and power, and oppression and marginalization, and reimagine how we may take up space and hold space for others.

Emi made the 2024 CBC Nonfiction Prize shortlist for “Dad’s the Word.” Her essay “Selfish Love” was published in emerge 18, The Writer’s Studio (TWS) anthology. Her short story “Half-Word” was featured in Room magazine’s issue on neurodivergence, and her nonfiction essay “Between Word and Mouth,” exploring death and grief, was published by Ricepaper Magazine, and printed in Belief, an anthology with stories by writers of Asian descent.

She is a former fellow of the News21 Fellowship, by Carnegie-Knight Initiative on the Future of Journalism, and the International Reporting Program Fellowship by the Global Reporting Centre. She’s received the Edward R. Murrow Award, the Rafe Mair Award for Excellence in Journalism and the Canadian Online Publishing Award. Her journalistic writing has been published in local, national and international newspapers, from small publications like The Tyee to large and far-reaching media organizations like The Washington Post.

Emi is a graduate of TWS at Simon Fraser University, and has completed MFA in Creative Writing at the University of British Columbia.

Instagram: @emi_writes_words