Wayson Choy is a novelist and memoirist. Born and raised in Vancouver, he graduated from the University of British Columbia and went on to teach English at Humber College and creative writing at the Humber School for Writers in Toronto. In 2005, Choy was made a member of the Order of Canada.

His first novel, The Jade Peony, received the Trillium Book Award in 1995 and was a finalist in Canada Reads 2010, when it was defended by Samantha Nutt. His memoir Paper Shadows: A Chinatown Childhood, inspired by his discovery at the age of 56 that he was adopted, was nominated for a Governor General's Literary Award in 1999. His novel All That Matters won the Trillium Book Award in 2005 and was nominated for a Scotiabank Giller Prize 2004. He wrote a second memoir entitled Not Yet: A Memoir of Living and Almost Dying in 2009.