Alice Poon

Alice Poon is a Hong Kong-born Canadian author whose fiction draws on Chinese history, literature and popular storytelling traditions. Raised with a bilingual education in English and Chinese, she developed an enduring interest in historical narratives through classical sources, opera, film, television and the wuxia novels of Jin Yong. She now lives in Greater Vancouver and writes for an international readership, combining historical research with an interest in women who challenged political and social restrictions. Her influences also include Chinese martial-arts fiction and French and Russian realist literature.

Her historical novels include The Green Phoenix, centred on Empress Dowager Xiaozhuang during the establishment of Qing rule, and Tales of Ming Courtesans, which follows three women associated with the courtesan culture of late Ming China. Poon later moved further into historical fantasy with The Heavenly Sword and The Earthly Blaze, a wuxia-inspired duology featuring a female rebel leader confronting tyranny. Across these works, she gives particular attention to women whose political, artistic or social influence was exercised within strongly patriarchal societies, while using dynastic conflict, folklore and martial adventure to introduce readers to Chinese history and culture.