With an emphasis on topics like relationships and family, Lau’s work often delves into past personal experiences and raw emotions. When reflecting on her debut book, written when she was 18, Lau shared that Runaway offers a more unrestrained view of the often heightened emotions of being a teenager.
“It captured that adolescent mindset … it’s one thing to write about your teenage years 30 years later, and you can do it brilliantly, but you still don’t capture all that turmoil, the grand emotions, the ups and downs.”
In her most recent poetry book, Parade of Storms (2025), Lau explores the concept of weather and environmental disasters. When sharing how the book came to be, Lau explained that she did not originally plan to write about climate change.
“I’m always a bit wary of poetry that makes political statements because sometimes the political message can override the craft of the poem … [but] I was drawn to the language around climate change … and I’m also really interested in emotional weather, so the balancing act in this book was balancing the interior emotional storms with the external ones.”
Lau has experience writing in many genres including fiction, non-fiction, short fiction, and poetry; however, she shared that she has always been more interested in writing shorter pieces instead of longer works. Having shifted her focus to writing poems, Lau believes poetry allows for more contemplation into the everyday aspects of life, considering it a form of meditation.
“You’re thinking deeply about one thing, maybe it’s a moment, or it could be a mood or an experience … and you sit with it, repeat the words to yourself, and think about the rhythm and the imagery and marvel at it.”
Still, Lau admitted that since pivoting toward poetry, she does sometimes miss the cultural perceptions that can come with being a prose writer. She shared that, in her experience, people responded with more eagerness when she said she wrote novels compared to the reaction she often receives now when she says that she’s a poet.
“If you say you write poetry, [there’s often] a dead silence.”
Nonetheless, Lau is grateful for the liberties that can come with writing for a smaller, more intimate audience.
“In a way, it’s very freeing to write poetry because you don’t have all the trappings that go with writing a novel where … there’s all these demands on you in terms of sales. There’s none of that for poetry, you’re just completely alone with your art.”
Lau’s work has won the Milton Acorn Award, the Pat Lowther Award, a National Magazine Award, the Fred Cogswell Award, and has been nominated for the BC Book Prize and the Governor General’s Award. When asked about the role of awards in a poet’s life, Lau shared that their value extends beyond pure monetary gain.
“To see that your peers recognize what you’re doing as being valuable [and] that you’re making some kind of contribution to the art that is worthy of being recognized is huge … I think poets definitely deserve every acknowledgement that they can get in order to give them the energy to keep going.”
When asked what advice she has for new writers, Lau said that they should avoid writing too large too fast, believing that doing so can distract from a writer’s attention to language. Instead, Lau encourages writers to start with a smaller concept and then expand on it.
“What I tell students is to go through a side door. So if you want to write about a relationship, write about it through something small, like an object the person gave you … and let the reader access the big emotion through that.”
Readers who want to hear more from Lau can listen to her keynote address on Nov. 7 in room B101 at the 2025 FVWF. Tickets are free, but visitors must secure their seat through Eventbrite beforehand.
“To hear a writer talk about their work is an inside look into [their] process and craft. If you’re interested in writing yourself, that can be really relevant to your own work.”
Interview has been edited for length and clarity.
