Denise Chong (born Vancouver, British Columbia) is a Canadian writer and former economist.

Raised in Prince George, British Columbia, she was once an economics advisor to late Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau in the Prime Minister's Office from 1980-84. Before that, she was an economist with the Department of Finance.

Her career in writing began with the discovery of her family's roots in China, which led to her memoir, The Concubine's Children: Portrait of a Family Divided, which won the City of Vancouver Book Award in 1994, the Edna Staebler Creative Non-Fiction prize, and the VanCity Book Prize, and was on the Globe and Mail's bestseller list for 93 weeks. Her adaptation of her memoir for the stage premiered at Nanaimo's Port Theatre in 2004. Her second book is The Girl in the Picture: The Story of Kim Phuc, the Photograph, and the Vietnam War. Both books were finalists for the Governor-General's Literary Non-Fiction Award, and are translated into several languages.

Chong lives in Ottawa and is married to CTV reporter Roger Smith with 2 children.

External links

• Interview with Author Denise Chong
• Cancity Women's Book Award

Chinese Canadians | Canadian non-fiction writers | Vancouverites | Ottawans | Women writers | Living people