Award Eligibility Post for 2023


The year is drawing to its close, and it’s that time when writers make posts about their award eligibilities for the year. I had three pieces published in 2023. I would be honored if you took a look at any of them.

 

Nonfiction essay

“Hungry Ghosts in America,” published in the anthology Unquiet Spirits: Essays by Asian Women in Horror, edited by Lee Murray and Angela Yuriko Smith. 

This is my first published foray into the personal essay form, and in truth it was one of the hardest, most nerve-wracking things I’ve ever written. Still, I am honored to be published alongside this group of brilliant, brilliant women. Unquiet Spirits revolves around myths, monsters, and spirits of Asian culture, and the personal meaning that these spirits have for their contributors. These pieces are fearless, heartbreaking, brilliant, and moving. The final product is gorgeous, and I’m so proud to be part of this unquiet sisterhood

  • Review from Horror World: “Unquiet Spirits is an intimate, emotional read. . . Unquiet Spirits does the important work of providing voice and agency to the mothers and grandmothers who have stories that must be told but were never permitted to tell them. Readers are doing themselves a disservice by not picking up a copy and paying heed to those voices.”
  • Review from Midwest Book Review: “Each essay is a powerhouse of cultural revelation that examines not just the perception and presence of horror in Asian culture, but how these elements are transformed by women’s experiences, through women’s eyes, and by feminist thought that would make monsters out of ordinary progressive thinkers.”


Available in hardcover, paperback, and e-book from Amazon and other retailers.


Novelette

“How to Travel Safely in Faerieland” (fantasy, 14903 words). Fusion Fragment, Issue 15, January 2023. 

Published in Fusion Fragment’s special all-novelette issue, this is my longest story to date. It’s also one of my favorite pieces so far, and dear to my heart. It’s about modern tourists in a modern-day Faerieland, in way over their heads. It’s also about the distance within families, Asian diaspora feels, and what it means (what does it mean?) to fall in love with a culture and world that’s not your own.

“How to Travel Safely In Faerieland” appears alongside beautiful stories by Angela Liu and Octavia Cade. You can download it for free or pay what you like by going to the link above.

Short story

“Microseasons of the Dead” (fantasy/genre-slipping, 1489 words) in The Future Fire. October 31, 2023.

Finally, toward the end of the year this just-over-flash-length story appeared. It’s a lightly experimental, dreamy piece inspired by the microseasons of the traditional Japanese calendar.

Thank you to everyone who reads or has read any of my work this year!


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