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Biography

The Writer

I was born in Taipei, Taiwan, but moved to Canada when I was eight. I am a Canadian citizen. I enjoy reading, gaming, and writing. It was inevitable that my love of language would intersect with the joys of writing fiction and poetry, specifically in the genres of science fiction, fantasy, and mystery. I am a member of SFWA, SF Canada, Crime Writers of Canada and the Codex Writers' Group, as well as a neo-pro speculative fiction critique group in Toronto.

The Linguist

I hold a Ph.D. in Linguistics from McGill University, Montreal, Canada. I completed my B.A. and M.A. in Linguistics at University of Toronto.

My areas of expertise are Semantics and Sociolinguistics, which means I pay a lot of attention to the meaning of words and the people who use them. I'm interested in how verbs and prepositions work, and how Canadian English varies from region to region. While I am not currently conducting active linguistics research, I enjoy incorporating linguistics into my writing.

I have taught Linguistics at the undergraduate level at University of Toronto, and University of Waterloo, Simon Fraser University. I was the Regional Director for Greater Vancouver in the Dialect Topography of Canada project, for which I was also Webmaster. As a linguist, I have also done freelance web and database design, product branding, company naming, and discourse analysis in both private and educational sectors. I also taught Canadian English at Queen's University in Fall 2007.

The Administrator

I currently work in the Cinema Studies Institute at Innis College in the University of Toronto.