{{Short description|American author, editor, and educator}} {{Use dmy dates|date=August 2022}} {{Multiple issues|{{BLP sources|date=May 2020}} {{Unreliable sources|date=May 2020}}}}{{Infobox writer | name = Mimi Lok | birth_place = Essex, England | website = {{URL|https://www.mimilok.com/}} | alma_mater = San Francisco State University | occupation = author, editor, educator | notable_works = Last of Her Name <br /> Voice of Witness | awards = PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize<br /> California Book Award<br /> Smithsonian American Ingenuity Award }}
'''Mimi Lok''' is a British-Chinese author, editor, and educator. She is the recipient of a Smithsonian Ingenuity Award, A PEN America Award, and a California Book Award for Fiction. She is also the founder of Voice of Witness, an award-winning human rights and oral history nonprofit organization focused on amplifying marginalized voices through a book series and a national education program.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|title=ABOUT|url=https://www.mimilok.com/about|website=MIMI LOK|language=en-US|access-date=2020-05-19}}</ref>
Her debut short story collection, ''Last of Her Name'' (Kaya Press, 2019) is the winner of the 2020 PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize,<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|title=PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize for Debut Short Story Collection|url=https://pen.org/pen-bingham-prize/|date=26 February 2020|website=PEN America|language=en|access-date=2020-05-19}}</ref> and a California Book Award silver medal for first fiction,<ref>{{Cite web|title=California Book Awards|url=https://www.commonwealthclub.org/events/2020-08-28/89th-annual-california-book-awards|website=Commonwealth Club|language=en|access-date=2022-06-29}}</ref> and was a finalist for The California Independent Bookseller Alliance ‘Golden Poppy’ Book Awards 2020,<ref>{{Cite web|title=Golden Poppy Awards|url=https://www.caliballiance.org/golden-poppy-awards.html|website=California Independent Booksellers Alliance|language=en|access-date=2020-05-19}}</ref> and CLMP Firecracker Award.<ref name=":1" /> The novella from the collection, "The Woman in the Closet" was a finalist for the 2020 National Magazine Award,<ref>{{Cite web|title=National Magazine Awards|url=https://www.asme.media/the-american-society-of-magazine-editors-announce-finalists-for-2020-national-magazine-awards.html|website=ASME The American Society of Magazine Editors|language=en|access-date=2022-06-29}}</ref> Some of the key themes that the author contemplates are human connection, the Asian diaspora, and empathy.<ref name=":2" /><ref>{{Cite web|title=Upending the Narrative of the Great Man of History|url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/upending-the-narrative-of-the-great-man-of-history-180947636/|access-date=2021-01-22|website=Smithsonian Magazine|language=en}}</ref> Her work has been published in McSweeney's, Electric Literature, Nimrod, Lucky Peach, Hyphen, and the South China Morning Post.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Mimi Lok {{!}}|url=https://kaya.com/authors/mimi-lok/|website=Kaya Press|language=en|access-date=2020-05-19}}</ref>
== Biography == Mimi Lok grew up in Essex, in a small town outside of London.<ref name=":2">{{cite web |last1=Das |first1=Kavita |title=This Group Shares Oral Histories to Help Readers 'Better Understand the World' |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/group-shares-oral-histories-help-readers-better-understand-world-n768786 |website=NBC News Asian America |date=12 June 2017 |publisher=NBC Universal |accessdate=20 May 2020}}</ref> Her parents were immigrants from Hong Kong. Lok's father worked in restaurants and in a glass recycling factory, and her mother worked as a farmer, construction worker, and later for high street fashion companies as a garment worker. She got involved in journalism after a post-university visit to Hong Kong when the sovereignty of Hong Kong transferred from the United Kingdom to China.
Lok studied visual arts before enrolling in a MFA in creative writing at San Francisco State University.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Creative Writing Grad Mimi Lok is Executive Director of Voice of Witness {{!}} College of Liberal & Creative Arts|url=https://lca.sfsu.edu/lcanews/2017/06/12/817007-creative-writing-grad-mimi-lok-executive-director-voice-witness|website=lca.sfsu.edu|access-date=2020-05-19}}</ref> After graduate school, in 2007, she volunteered as a researcher and interviewer with Voice of Witness, a book series started by Dave Eggers and Lola vollen, and collected oral histories for an anthology ''"Underground America: Narratives of Undocumented Lives"''. In 2009, Lok transitioned the series to a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, becoming its founding executive director and launching an education program.<ref name=":2" />
She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area, California.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Mimi Lok |url=https://electricliterature.com/el-author/mimi-lok/ |access-date=2024-10-08 |website=Electric Literature |language=en-US}}</ref>
== References == {{Reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Lok, Mimi}} Category:British expatriates in the United States Category:English people of Chinese descent Category:Living people Category:21st-century British short story writers Category:21st-century English women writers Category:British women short story writers Category:Year of birth missing (living people) Category:21st-century English writers
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