Understated doesn’t even begin to describe Vancouver writer Kevin Chong; he is soft-spoken, polite, direct, and succinct. He is the kind of guy you could take to any occasion and he would blend right in and quietly charm your acquaintances. Despite his modesty, he is kind of a big deal. I might be sitting across from the writing equivalent of a local rock star, and to prove it he casually mentions, “I’ve never had a real job.”

Chong has published one fiction novel and one non-fiction novel, and in addition has written numerous freelance articles, including a column for The Vancouver Sun about his favourite blogs; however, he will candidly tell you that he is terrible at poetry.

He did his undergraduate degree at The University of British Columbia and his MFA at Columbia, which he simply summarizes with “it’s a very fancy school.” Living in New York allowed him to learn from, and brush shoulders with many of literature’s elite: Michael Cunningham, Philip Roth, Paul Auster and “…a lot of writers who later became bigger writers.”

His debut novel, Baroque-A-Nova, is a coming-of-age story that also served as his graduate thesis, while his second book, Neil Young Nation, is a non-fiction road trip account that follows the Canadian rock hero’s journey through Canada and the U.S. Even though he literally wrote the book on him, Chong has never met Neil Young and dryly explains that he doesn’t plan to, “you have a relationship with a person’s work, you don’t relate to them as people…I don’t think I’d have anything to talk to him about.” Although he also mentions that someone had given Young a copy and he seemed to like it.

Considering Neil Young Nation, I assumed he would have strong opinions on music, but he claims to like the stuff everyone’s listening to, like Wolf Parade: “I like a lot of that kind of bearded guy rock.” No wonder he moved back to Vancouver.

Even though he writes fiction and non-fiction, Chong notes that his original inspiration to write was derived from fiction; “I like fiction, I like to read fiction...it’s not common for guys to read fiction, most guys read textbooks or war books…most guys will read Chuck Klosterman or Chuck Pahlaniuk…or Neil Stephenson or Neil Gaiman, the Neils and the Chucks.” No argument there.

He is currently working on a non-fiction novel and will be teaching at UBC during the year.