Xiaolu Guo

Xiaolu Guo (b 1973, China) is a filmmaker and author. She has created a large number of documentaries and feature films, and published novels as well as poetry collections and essays. Her books have been translated into 28 languages.

Guo is a member of the jury for the 2019 Man Booker prize. She grew up with her illiterate grandparents in a fishing village in the Chinese province of Zhehiang, and moved in 1993 to Beijing to study film. Guo moved to London in 2002 and writes today in English. Linguistic, cultural and gender identity is a central theme in her writing.

Her latest book, Once upon a Time in the East, looks back on her own history with a gaze which leads to reflections on origins, meaning and artistic freedom.