Alison Wong is a New Zealand poet and novelist of Chinese heritage. Her background in mathematics comes across in her poetry, not as a subject, but in the careful formulation of words to white space and precision. She has a half-Chinese son with New Zealand poet Linzy Forbes.
Wong’s first novel As the Earth Turns Silver was published in late June 2009 by Penguin NZ and won the fiction award at the 2010 New Zealand Post Book Awards, and was shortlisted for the Australian Prime Minister’s Literary Awards.
Wong has received various other awards for her fiction and poetry including the 2002 Robert Burns Fellowship at the University of Otago, a Reader’s Digest – New Zealand Society of Authors Fellowship at the Stout Research Centre, and an NZ Founders Society Research Award. She has been a finalist in several poetry competitions and received grants from Creative NZ and the Willi Fels Memorial Trust.
Who is Alison Wong?
Wong was also a cast member on the ABC show American Housewife and has previously appeared on Inside Amy Schumer, Black Box, and Are You There, Chelsea? She was a writer for the first three seasons of the sitcom Fresh Off the Boat. She voices the title character Roberta “Bertie” Songthrush on the animated series Tuca & Bertie and Ali on the animated series Big Mouth.
