Born in Cardiff, Wales to parents of Chinese and Indian descent, Nancy spent her early years in Peterborough, England before immigrating to Vancouver, British Columbia.

Her first book, the collection of short stories Dead Girls (McClelland & Stewart 2002), was hailed by the Globe and Mail as “a masterwork of revelation.” Dead Girls was named a best book of 2002 by the Toronto Star, Vancouver Sun and Globe and Mail and Book of the Year by NOW Magazine. Winner of the 2003 VanCity Book Prize, and finalist for the Ethel Wilson Prize, the Danuta Gleed Literary Award, the Pearson Reader’s Choice Award and the Wordsworthy Award, Dead Girls has been published in the UK, Germany, Italy, France, Holland and Spain.

The Age, a novel, was published in Canada by McClelland & Stewart (2014), as well as in the Netherlands (2014) and France (2016). Part nuclear fantasy, part domestic terror plot, part experimental voicing of the subconscious, the novel was a finalist for the international France-Canada Literary Award. the Montreal Gazette compared The Age to Doris Lessing’s The Good Terrorist and John Le Carré’s Little Drummer Girl; the Vancouver Sun described it as, “Utterly transfixing.”

Her latest book, What Hurts Going Down, a volume of poetry, confronts how socially ingrained sexual violence distorts and dislocates girlhood and womanhood. 31 poems from the book have previously appeared in literary journals, the most recent selected for Ploughshares by guest editor Tracy K. Smith.

Nancy is the recipient of numerous fellowships, residencies and awards, including a Gabriel Award for Radio and a National Magazine Award. An Assistant Professor at the University of British Columbia Creative Writing Program, Nancy has served on numerous prize juries and panels and was selected as the first Visiting Canadian Fellow at the University of East Anglia Writing Program in the UK. She served as Writer-in-Residence for the city of Vincennes, France and the city of Richmond, British Columbia.

Nancy lives in Steveston, BC with her husband, the author, John Vigna (Bull Head, Arsenal Pulp) and their high maintenance cardigan welsh corgi, Rudy.