Bio

"The Letter Opener by Kyo Maclear. This first novel came out in 2007, and deserves wider attention. A fabulous premise, and written with lyricism, intelligence and heart, about a Japanese-Canadian woman working in the Undeliverable Mail Office (for orphaned letters and keepsakes) and trying to track down the Romanian refugee who has disappeared from her life after befriending her at work."

—Canada Reads 2009 Winner Lawrence Hill selects The Letter Opener as one of his 'Book Picks'.

Kyo Maclear is a visual arts writer and novelist based in Toronto. She was born in London, England and moved to Toronto at the age of four with her father (a foreign correspondent and documentary filmmaker) and mother (a painter and art dealer).

Kyo holds an Honours B.A. in Fine Art and Art History and an M.A. in Cultural Studies from the University of Toronto, and has several scholarly publications to her credit.

Her short fiction, essays and art criticism have been widely published and anthologized in North America, Europe and Asia/Australia.

Her debut novel, The Letter Opener (HarperCollins), was a finalist for the 2008 Ontario Library Association Evergreen Award and the 2007 Amazon.ca/Books in Canada First Novel Award. In 2009, she was awarded the K.M. Hunter Artist Award in Literature.

Kyo is currently completing her second novel with the support of a Chalmers Arts Fellowship from the Ontario Arts Council. Her first children's book is forthcoming with Kids Can Press in the Fall of 2010.

She is represented by Jackie Kaiser of Westwood Creative Artists.