Souvankham Thammavongsa is a writer and poet. Her debut short story collection How to Pronounce Knife won the 2020 Scotiabank Giller Prize. The title story was a finalist for the Commonwealth Short Story Prize. Her stories have won an O. Henry Award and appeared in Harper's Magazine, The Paris Review, The Atlantic and Granta. She is also the author of four poetry books: Light, winner of the Trillium Book Award for Poetry; Found; Small Arguments, winner of the ReLit Award; and, most recently, Cluster.

Born in the Lao refugee camp in Nong Khai, Thailand, she was raised and educated in Toronto, where she is at work on her first novel. CBC Books named her a 2020 writer to watch.

Thammavongsa is a juror for the 2021 CBC Short Story Prize.