Angela Liu
@liu_angela
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Writer/poet. Nebula, Ignyte, Rhysling finalist. (2x) Pushcart nom. Member of: SFWA, Codex, SFPA. Recent words: Clarkesworld, Strange Horizons, Uncanny, Logic(s)
New York, NY
Joined October 2009
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I never, ever thought I’d get to say this: "Imagine: Purple-Haired Girl Shooting Down The Moon" is a NEBULA FINALIST! 2 years ago, I was drowning in rejections + couldn't sell a single story. Thank you to everyone who showed me it's always worth pursuing something you love doing.
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No poem better captures that overwhelming melancholy I've felt every new year's eve since my late-20s.
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I only discovered the term "speculative fiction" a few years ago, and I wish I could explain how LIBERATING it felt as a writer to find a term that didn't have to mean fantasy or sci-fi or horror, but welcomed this whole new space that broke free of conventional genre—
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I wish there was more room for quiet, speculative fiction. Not exactly cozy, but more everyday life stories with spec elements. Life discussions over weird tea, grocery shopping with alien visitors. I want to un-mundane the mundane.
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My husband always orders the print version of any magazine I have a story in and makes me sign them. Then he displays them in the living room (which is horrifically embarrassing) and reminds me to look at them whenever I’m feeling awful about my writing.
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Literally teared up when I got this from my dad. I rarely tell my parents anything about my writing because I’m always afraid they’re disappointed I didn’t end up a doctor/lawyer/banker, but definitely didn’t expect this after I told them I have a book coming out next year…😭
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Ok, about to submit my most-rejected short story to a dream pub that almost never opens just because I really love this story😭 Go little words, go~
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For all the novel-writing folks: how do you get back into writing a book you haven't looked at in weeks/months? Fighting the urge to just start something new.
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Thrilled to announce my debut short story collection, BEAUTIFUL WAYS WE BREAK EACH OTHER OPEN, is coming out in Sep 2024 with
@dark_matter_ink
!
A bit of horror, sci-fi, fantasy, and all the ugly-beautiful feelings we show each other. Hope you’ll join me for this journey! 🖤
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Ahhhhhh, just sold a story to a market I never, ever thought I’d get into 😭
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Just got my 300th rejection! They say to celebrate every little win, but growing enough mental armor to let most rejections just slide right off is an achievement in itself.
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Honestly, I get the need for optimistic fiction, particularly in sci-fi, but I wish stories about grim realities, desperation, and the awful way people can treat each other weren’t so often just brushed off as "yet another dystopia story"
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Contract signed (ahhhhhh!)! Been low-key screaming about this one for weeks. My time traveler love story, “Time Is An Ocean,” will be in a future issue of
@strangehorizons
!
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Perfectly captures that NYE melancholy I've had ever since my late-20s.
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Contract signed! So excited that my weird sci-fi story “An Incomplete Body Has No Answers” will be in a future issue of
@LightspeedMag
! 🚀
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Still in absolute shock, but my story “Salt Girl” was nominated for a Pushcart! This is the first time my writing’s been nominated for anything, so feeling very emotional. Huge thank you to
@uncharted_mag
for believing in my little story.
Congratulations to our Pushcart Nominations! Cheers to genre stories taking over this anthology! Find all of these stories on our website!
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I used to think that the longer you work on a story, the better it gets, but I’m starting to realize it’s more like a diminishing returns chart and that there’s def a point where a story loses something very crucial due to over-editing
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Be more self-indulgent. Spend time on that story you love writing but are worried won’t sell. Put in those references you don’t know if anyone will get. In the end, you can’t control what other people think about your work, but it’ll still be worth it if you enjoyed creating it.
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Being a writer’s the only job I’ve ever had where I am literally jumping for joy one hour and seriously regretting all my life decisions the next 💀
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Contract signed! My cyberpunk novelette “Imagine: Purple-Haired Girl Shooting Down The Moon” will be in a future issue of
@Clarkesworld
! This was the most fun I’ve had writing in a long, long while, so overjoyed it found the perfect home.
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This doesn't get said nearly enough: if you read something and liked it, let the author know. It will really make their day 😭
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Guys, it's finally arrived. My oldest submission has gotten a response. Hello, 754-day form R from The New Yorker for poetry 😂
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My cyberpunk story “Imagine: Purple-Haired Girl Shooting Down The Moon” is in the new issue of Clarkesworld (😱)! Inspired by the earliest days of Midjourney and imagines what becomes of art in a world where everyone just wants to escape.
Our June 2023 issue is now online at:
and features original fiction by Dominica Phetteplace, Carrie Vaughn, Isabel J. Kim, Angela Liu, David Ebenbach, Jana Bianchi, Bella Han, and Rajeev Prasad. Cover art by Pascal Blanché.
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All I will say, and I’ve said it before: I am so thankful most spec/SFF magazines never charge fees to submit. Nothing feels worse than working hours/days/weeks on something and then having to pay a stranger to take months to read and reject it.
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I did it guys. I feel like a new person. Nothing will be same after this. I finally submitted a story to Taco Bell Quarterly.
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Starting to realize there are many dream pubs that my stories will never mesh with while there are others that just get me. I think I’m a happier writer when I stop trying to write stories that “fit” a mag and focus on finding the mags that love the stories I want to write
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Got my print copy of Clarkesworld! My husband made me sign it because he insists my signature will be worth something when I become a bestselling author, and honestly I was really embarrassed, but also so, so thankful. Support the people you love guys 😭
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Contract signed! My story “The Last Gamemaster In The World” will be in a future issue of
@clarkesworld
! 😱😱
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Contract signed! Absolutely thrilled my dark romantasy novelette “Another Girl Under The Iron Bell,” inspired by the legend of Kiyohime and Chinese gu poison magic, will be in a future issue of
@UncannyMagazine
🐍
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Contracts signed! Thrilled my poems “there are no taxis for the dead” and “Ferry To The Island Of Ghosts,” will be in future issues of
@UncannyMagazine
! ⛴️
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Contract signed (I'm so behind)! My story “Salt Girl,” a dark fantasy about a girl and her dead father’s salt garden, will be published at
@uncharted_mag_
! Many thanks to
@TommyDeanWriter
for giving this story a home.
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My time traveler love story, “Time Is An Ocean,” is out now at
@strangehorizons
, alongside a new poem of mine too!! DOUBLE FEATURE, guys! Will be dancing about this for a while 😭
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So a doctor friend told me we often procrastinate because that's our brain's way of getting the rest we refuse to give it, and nothing has ever made more sense to me💀
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My dad just got out of brain surgery a few hours ago. He was diagnosed with high grade glioma (an aggressive brain tumor) on Friday and the past few days have just been in and out of the hospital from morning to night, translating for my parents and talking to doctors.
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The first time I ever signed a book was on my first Clarkesworld publication (my husband bought a physical copy and asked me to sign it). Today's the first time I signed a book for a complete stranger. Spent twenty minutes just practicing my signature. Absolutely unreal 😭
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Contract signed! My story “The Cursed Universe Inside Your Eye” will be in one of the final issues of
@FantasyMagazine
. I absolutely love this mag, but never ever thought I’d get published in it. Bittersweet, but so, so happy.
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Sharing this again for all my fellow introverts who feel too self-conscious to promote their own work, especially with awards season rolling in. Your readers are waiting to find you.
i used to think self-promotion was a really icky concept & practice, until i realized that the actual self-centered thing is to believe that people will just flock to your work (based on talent/"merit") without you having to say anything about it/support readers in finding it
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One of my best friends in 7th grade, who I haven't seen in nearly two decades, saw my Nebula finalist announcement and messaged “you were always an amazing writer that’s so awesome!” and I swear I almost started crying. I wish I could tell my 12 year old self.
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My new story, “The Last Gamemaster in The World" is out in
@clarkesworld
! It’s one of my shortest stories (my third in Clarkesworld this year! 😱) and is inspired by Conway’s Game of Life, motherhood, and what it means to win. Happy to end 2023 with this.
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Whoa, whoa, my novelette, "Imagine: Purple-Haired Girl Shooting Down The Moon" finished 3rd in the Clarkesworld Readers' Poll! Insane~ huge thank you to everyone who read and voted!
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Ok, finally watched that sudowrite demo and honestly, my main issue is that it assumes you don't want to write...at all. At each stage, I kept thinking "...you want the AI to generate the CHARACTERS? ...and the OUTLINE? and the BEATS? OMG NOW IT'S JUST WRITING THE SENTENCES??"
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Contract signed! Thrilled my poem, “Mnemonic Burning,” will be in a future issue of
@NightmareMag
! One of my first poem acceptances was from Nightmare, back in 2022! You can check out “Three Symptoms of a Disaster” here 🐦⬛
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Nothing like a swift and efficient Clarkesworld rejection to help me feel something again 😂
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Contract signed! My story “You Will Be You Again,” inspired by the horrors of dystonia and a quasi-prequel to my story “Imagine: Purple-Haired Girl Shooting Down The Moon” in Clarkesworld, will be in a future issue of Interzone Digital!
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stories that encompassed the weird everyday, unconventional storytelling techniques, and pushed the possibilities of cross-genre narratives. Moreover, the term finally gave me a way to find my own readers and fellow writers.
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Contract signed! A bit late sharing, but really happy my poem, “The Final Trick,” inspired by my parents’ fragmented stories of the Cultural Revolution, will be in a future issue of
@strangehorizons
!
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Contract signed! My story "Pinocchio Photography" will be in a future issue of
@clarkesworld
! 😱
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Sending a copy of the latest Clarkesworld to a penpal I started exchanging letters with at the start of the pandemic. I remember showing her an early draft of "The Last Gamemaster in the World" back when I didn’t have a single story published and her telling me to keep writing.
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My new weird sci-fi story, “An Incomplete Body Has No Answers,” is now available free-to-read in the latest issue of
@LightspeedMag
!
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I’m tired of seeing “I don’t understand why this was a speculative story. It could have been written without the scifi/fantasy elements.” Nothing /needs/ to be anything—spec fiction is liberating precisely because of its broad range. Write whatever you want.
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The writer’s dilemma: thinking when you fail that it’s your lack of skill/talent and that when you succeed it was mostly just good luck 💀
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Ahhh, I have three stories on the Nebula Reading List!!!! Would be honored if you read any of them. Thank you so much to everyone who suggested them! 😭
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One thing I learned from subbing a lot is that you eventually forget how to take a break. You start feeling like every free moment needs to tie back to the writing. Every minute on the train, every conversation, every beautiful thing you see—it all needs to feed into the writing.
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The headline that still gets me through the bad writing days.
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So I’ve reached a writer milestone that I never thought I would: my poem "Dow Jones Dream" was plagiarized by John Kucera 💀 Huge thanks to
@cb_auder
for the heads-up.
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I don't think this gets said enough, but I am so thankful that most submissions at SFF mags are FREE.
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As someone who is self-doubting about 99% of the time, I want to say (during a rare moment of lucidity) that if you judge your ability and achievements on what other people say (or don’t say) about your work, you will forever feel inadequate.
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Chronophobia: an extreme fear of the passage of time
Anyways, it’s my birthday guys 💀
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Contract signed! My poem “An Interrogation About A Monster During Sleep Paralysis” will be in a future issue of
@strangehorizons
! Thanks
@thevanessajae
for giving my most experimental poem a home!
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Just submitted my Strange Horizons story. Goodnight 💀(They're still open, so go go go if you've got something!)
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One of my greatest writer achievements in 2023 was having 4 poems + a story out in
@strangehorizons
. I’m overjoyed “The witches are without work," inspired by the women who raised me, was nominated for a Pushcart (my first ever in poetry). Still dancing 🙏
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Been thinking about the lifespan of a story and why it often feels like a never-ending grind for the next new work, the next sale. Why it often feels like we have 1-2 weeks to promote a story/poem/essay/etc. and then it goes into the bibliography never to be mentioned again.
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My novelette “Imagine: Purple-Haired Girl Shooting Down The Moon” made the Clarkesworld Reader Poll finals! WHAAAT. Go check out all the finalists and don’t forget to vote by February 15th!
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My new poem, “there are no taxis for the dead” is out today in
@UncannyMagazine
! It’s inspired by shouryouma, the spirit animals made from eggplants/cucumbers that carry the dead to and from home during Obon in Japan.
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Contract signed! My horror sci-fi story with Kill la Kill vibes, “The Specimens of Red Hill,” will be in a future issue of
@dark_matter_mag
! 🩸☠️🩸
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Telling myself + anyone who needs it: it's ok to be unproductive. To have days/weeks/months where the words don't come or every sentence looks/feels awful. To shelve a project you've worked on forever that just doesn't feel right anymore. It's ok to just look outside and breathe.
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AHHH, shocked to see “Imagine: Purple-Haired Girl Shooting Down The Moon” and “The Time Traveler’s Cookbook” both on the BFSA longlist! First time making any writing award longlist. So thankful to
@clarkesworld
+
@castofwonders
and everyone who’s read and shared 🙏😭
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AHHHH, my poem got a Rhysling nomination!! What is this life?? 😭
We’re also thrilled that
@liu_angela
’s poem “The Beauty of Monsters” from issue 1 has been nominated for a Rhysling Award! You can read it here:
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Seems like a good time to repost this as I start looking at cover ideas 👀 Show me some of your favorite artwork/artists!
Thrilled to announce my debut short story collection, BEAUTIFUL WAYS WE BREAK EACH OTHER OPEN, is coming out in Sep 2024 with
@dark_matter_ink
!
A bit of horror, sci-fi, fantasy, and all the ugly-beautiful feelings we show each other. Hope you’ll join me for this journey! 🖤
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As someone who just a few years ago was too afraid to show anyone my writing, I’ve been blown away by all the kind words and time given to my story. Printing all of these so I can remember when things get hard. Thank you all so much 🙏
I have read all of
@liu_angela
’s stories this year and this one and The Time Traveler’s Cookbook are my favorite. 💙
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Contract signed! A bit late sharing, but so excited my micro “Tiny Fires on the Toyoko Line,” inspired by the strange things I encountered during my daily commute in Tokyo, will be in a future issue of
@paranoidxtree
. Absolutely in love with this gorgeous hybrid lit mag/art zine!
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Ahh, my poem, “there are no taxis for the dead,” will be in the upcoming issue of
@UncannyMagazine
! So excited to be sharing a TOC with so many writers I adore 🖤
Behold, Space Unicorns! The
@UncannyMagazine
Issue 58 Table of Contents and Zara Alfonso cover!
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Ahh, my new flash story “A Contract of Ink and Skin,” about cursed ink and tattoos, is out now in the new issue of
@UncannyMagazine
!
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“Imagine: “Purple-Haired Girl Shooting Down The Moon” was described as “too depressing” and “so relentlessly grim it flirts with absurdity.” It also just got nominated for a Nebula Award. Write the stories that feel true to you and don’t let anyone ever tell you they’re too dark.
Honestly, I get the need for optimistic fiction, particularly in sci-fi, but I wish stories about grim realities, desperation, and the awful way people can treat each other weren’t so often just brushed off as "yet another dystopia story"
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Excited to have my story “A Contract of Ink and Skin,” about cursed ink and tattoos, coming out next week in the new issue of
@UncannyMagazine
! 😱
Space Unicorns! Behold the
@UncannyMagazine
Issue 56 Table of Contents and
@galendara
cover!!!
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The main thing I'm learning from
#stalkerpit
is that everyone (not just writers) is tired of all the hoops and walls around publishing. It's like we've all just been waiting for an excuse to circumvent the system and talk honestly (and excitedly) to each other about books again.
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My new dark fantasy story, “Salt Girl” is out at
@uncharted_mag_
! My first attempt at a folktale-ish short, about a girl obsessed with her father’s eerie salt garden
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Getting contributor copies is one of my favorite parts of submitting short stories, and
@dark_matter_mag
always makes some of the prettiest magazines ☺️ Check out my Van Gogh horror-fantasy, “Devouring The Starry Night” on the pages of Issue
#17
.
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Sorry guys, it was a no. Gonna keep trying.
Ok, about to submit my most-rejected short story to a dream pub that almost never opens just because I really love this story😭 Go little words, go~
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Contract signed! My poem “If I Had A Time Machine” will be in a future issue of
@SmallwondersSFF
! So excited to be among these worlds again 🌊
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Ahh, got a second Rhysling Award nomination for my long poem “An Interrogation About A Monster During Sleep Paralysis” in
@strangehorizons
! Wish I could tell my college self that someone would like this poem enough to nominate it for something 😭
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Awards Eligibility Post!
I had 12 stories published this year, but would be honored if you considered either of these two for Nebula/Locus/Hugo/etc. 1) For NOVELETTE: "Imagine: Purple-Haired Girl Shooting Down The Moon," in Clarkesworld
#201
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My new story, “The Time Traveler’s Cookbook,” about a time traveler journeying throughout history in search of her mother’s favorite foods, is out at
@CastOfWonders
! Thank you
@maysays
for narrating!
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Overjoyed to see “Pinocchio Photography” (
@clarkesworld
) + “Kwong’s Bath” (
@khoreomag
) on the Locus Recommended Reading List! I used to check this list every year for reading recs, so it is SURREAL to see my own name on it with so many writers I adore 😭
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Had a long chat with my dad for the first time in years and the thing he said that will really stick with me is “If you learn to work and live with extreme stress, you won’t know what to do with yourself once the stress is gone.”
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Ahh, I can't believe I missed it. Happy belated-anniversary to my very first publication ever, the one that kept me going: “Dow Jones Dream”
@strangehorizons
😊
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Contract signed! My first non-speculative poem, “Summer Camp, 1994” is coming out at
@DoorIsAJarMag
this fall! First time I’ll be able to buy something with my writing in it at a B&N! 😱
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So excited to share this story inspired by my life-long fear of mannequins, increasing existential dread, and of course, Lain 👯♀️
Meet the mall book authors: Angela Liu (
@liu_angela
)! Angela's favorite mall store is the Ghibli Store, and her story "The Philosophical Quandaries of Meeting Your Doppelgänger in Moonshine City" recounts a trip to a secret all-mannequin mall floor. Check out some links below!
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Really excited to announce that I’ll be on two panels at the Nebula Conference: 1) “Welcome to Speculative Poetry” and 2) “Navigating Death and Dying in SFF”!
This will be my first time at a writers conference (cue the imposter syndrome), so feeling terrified but so grateful 🙏
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While writing up an awards eligibility post, I found this blog post I wrote in January (~1 year after I started subbing) that I was too embarrassed to share at the time. If you always feel “too late” as a writer or never good enough, know you're not alone.
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Just submitted a poem I wrote nearly 15 years ago. Wishing young me good luck~
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Contract signed! Thrilled my poem “The Beauty of Monsters,” inspired by Hokusai’s 100 Ghost Stories, will be in a future issue of
@SmallwondersSFF
👹
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My new story “Pinocchio Photography” is out at Clarkesworld! (Never thought I’d get to say that!! 😭)
Inspired by the B&W photo album my parents brought with them when they immigrated to the US, and all the untold stories inside them.
The March issue of Clarkesworld Magazine is now available.
Subscriptions at:
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Nothing like the intoxicating relief of giving up on a submission call deadline 💀
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Nebula nominations are open now!
If you read just one story by me this year for award consideration, please check out my cyberpunk novelette, "Imagine: Purple-Haired Girl Shooting Down The Moon" in Clarkesworld 🙏💜 (audio version available too!)
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Completely forgot with everything that’s been going on, but happy anniversary to the first story I ever had published, “Ppaka” in
@thedarkmagazine
. Can’t believe it’s already been two years 🐸
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Contract signed! Thrilled that my poem "Stone Kingdom" will be published in
@UncannyMagazine
! This one is a very special one to me.
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