About

DONNA SETO

SHOP

About Donna

Donna Seto is a writer, self-taught artist, and occasional academic. Growing up, Donna accompanied her parents on regular ventures through the bustling streets of Vancouver’s Chinatown, where they bought groceries, ate dim sum, purchased newspapers, and visited her poh-poh. During the pandemic, she revisited her long-lost passion for art and started drawing buildings in Chinatown.

Chinatown Vancouver: An Illustrated History (House of Anansi, 2025) is Donna’s tribute to the neighbourhood and the perseverance of the Chinese in Canada, whose stories have helped her better understand her own identity as a Canadian of Chinese heritage. She is currently working on a novel, a children’s book, and her next illustrated history book on Chinatowns of Canada. Her non-fiction piece, Generation Congee, about her struggle to communicate with her father when he was diagnosed with cancer, was long-listed for the 2019 CBC Nonfiction Prize and shortlisted for the 2020 Edna Straebler Personal Essay Prize.

Donna has a PhD in Politics and International Relations (ANU), a MA in Political Science (York), and a BA Honours in Political Science and a Minor in History (SFU). Her academic research focuses on human rights and intersectional violence in war. She is the author of No Place for a War Baby: The Global Politics of Children born of Wartime Sexual Violence (Routledge). When not chasing her creative dreams, Donna works at the University of British Columbia.

Donna lives in Vancouver with her husband, their sock-thieving dog, and a growing collection of art supplies.  

Books

Selected Publications

  • “A Guide to Dim Sum,” Geist Magazine, Number 130, Fall 2025.
  • Illustrations, words by Madeleine Thien, Brick: A Literary Journal, 115, Summer 2025.
  • “Contrasts” in Infusion: Ricepaper Magazine Anthologies Book 4, edited by Allan Cho, JF Garrard, and Sophie Munk. Dark Helix Press, 2025.  
  • Illustrations for “Could Vancouver’s Historic Corner Markets Make a Comeback?” Montecristo Magazine, Winter 2023. Words by Kevin Chong.
  • “Vietnamese Amerasian Children and the Limits of Sovereignty,” in Challenging Conceptions: Children Born of Wartime Rape and Sexual Exploitation. Oxford University Press, 2023.
  • “Generation Congee,” The New Quarterly, Issue 158, 2021.
  • “Secondary Trauma: Reconciling Children born of Wartime Sexual Violence and the Children’s Rights Regime,” in Rape Cultures and Survivors: An International Perspective. Praeger Publishing, 2018.
  • “Children born of Wartime Sexual Violence: Searching for Emancipatory Possibilities in Marginalized Spaces,” Peacebuilding: Special Issue on Everyday Peace and Youth, 3.2, 2015.

Literary Honours and Awards

Media/Interviews

Past Events

  • Communities of Resilience, University of British Columbia, November 4, 2025
  • Vancouver Writers Fest, Visions of Chinatown, October 24, 2025
  • Chinatown Vancouver: An Illustrated History, Brock House Society, October 14, 2025
  • Chinatown Vancouver: An Illustrated History, Richmond Public Library – Writer for Readers Festival, October 7, 2025.
  • Watercolour Workshop and Book Talk, Light Up Chinatown, August 16, 2025
  • In Conversation with Ingrid Hu Dahl, Sun Shining on Morning Snow, August 16, 2025
  • Chinatown Vancouver Book Launch, Chinatown Storytelling Centre, May 25, 2025.
  • Donna Seto in conversation with Andy Yan, Vancouver Public Library, May 24, 2025.
  • Chinatown Vancouver: An Illustrated History, Friends of the Vancouver Archives AGM, March 19, 2025.
  • Painting Chinatown with Donna Seto, Family Saturdays at the Chinatown Storytelling Centre, October 19, 2024.
  • Re-Imagining Chinatown (solo exhibition), THIS Gallery, February 2-10, 2024.