Biography
Royston Tester immigrated to Canada from England in 1978. He has lived in Barcelona and Beijing. His work has appeared in Asian, Canadian and U.S. journals and anthologies. Two pieces, ‘Seriously’ and ‘Face’ were shortlisted for the 2006 CBC Literary Awards. Since the early 90’s he has been a freelance editor and between 1993-5 co-edited Kairos, a Canadian literary journal. Tester has been jury member for the Commonwealth Fiction Prize and first reader for the Writers’ Union of Canada’s ‘Short Prose Competition for Developing Writers.’ In Canada, he is a professor of creative writing and communications at Mohawk College—and has also taught ‘English as a Second Language’ at McMaster University and fiction-writing at the School for Writers, Humber College, Toronto. He has travelled in the Brazilian Amazon, Middle East, and North Africa-and, supported by the Canada Council for the Arts, Ontario and Toronto Arts Councils, has been writer-in-residence at various international locations: Hawthornden Castle, Scotland; the Danish Cultural Institute, Damascus; Fundacion Valparaiso, Almeria, Spain; CAMAC, Marnay-sur-Seine, France; and Denkmalschmiede Hofgen, near Leipzig, Germany. Throughout 2007-8—and at periods between 2008-2012—-he was writer-in-residence with Beijing’s Red Gate Gallery. In August 2008, he published a China travel memoir and guide, Qingdao: Wind in its Sails (Beijing Matric) and in September was awarded the title “City Promotional Ambassador” to Qingdao, at a public ceremony hosted by the area government. Part of Fatty Goes To China, his most recent collection of stories, is set in a Beijing railway station.
