Sheng Xue, a poet, writer, journalist, and political commentator, is one of Canada’s leading democratic rights activists. Sheng Xue grew up in Beijing but moved to Canada after the Tiananmen Square Massacre in 1989. Vice-president of the Federation for a Democratic China and a member of PEN Canada’s Writers in Exile Committee, Xue is also the co-founder of the China Rights Network. In 2000, Sheng Xue won the Canadian Association for Journalists Award for investigative journalism, and the National Magazine Award – the first Chinese Canadian so honoured. Xue has served as writer-in-residence at Carlton and McMaster universities, and as writer-in-exile for the city of Edmonton. She co-authored the play The Taxi Project, along with Goran Simic, Emma Beltran, and Martha Kuwee Kumsa.