"The Drive" in the Adroit Journal & 2025 Veasna So Fiction Scholar

Thank you Adroit Journal for making me one of the 2025 Veasna So Fiction Scholars, and for publishing "The Drive!" Read here.

This story starts in DC the night of the 2016 U.S. elections and ends a decade later in Iceland.

I was inspired by the marriage of Clara Immerwahr and Fritz Haber. Haber had invented both the synthesis of ammonia which saved countless people from famine, and gas warfare in WWI. Clara was one of the first women to receive a doctorate in chemistry, but had devoted herself to supporting her husband's career, and was known as a pacifist. I tried to imagine what that relationship would look like today, with all its collisions, comforts and misunderstandings.

Finally, you can watch a reading of the Fiction Scholars on YouTube.

Unfortunately, I had connectivity issues joining from China, so I didn't quite finish what I intended to read, but luckily it's all available to read online, both the story in Adroit and "How to Catch the Sun" which first appeared in Wigleaf.

Poem "旦 [dan] daybreak" featured in Poetry Daily

Did you know there are 13 words for 'dawn' in Mandarin? This poem is part of a series where present each word as an experience, a landscape to traverse. I've always found dictionary translations of my mother tongue to be unsatisfying and limited, and so, I imagine a world where dictionaries are made of poems. Read here.

Thank you Poetry Daily for featuring this poem, and to Boulevard for first publishing it!

Runner up in Boulevard Magazine's Poetry Contest

Seems like just yesterday I was in high school, sitting on the floor of Barnes & Noble, reading Boulevard Magazine for the first time and dreaming of seeing my name in its pages one day. Now Boulevard has selected me as runner up to their 2022 Poetry Contest. My poems will be in the next issue. Thank you Boulevard for this privilege and for sowing the seeds in my fifteen-year old heart!

Poem Collaboration "Slant / Diptych" in Brooklyn Rail Magazine

Ever since I first picked up a copy of the Brooklyn Rail at McNally Jackson years ago, I wanted to be a part of it. Now thanks to Dr. Michelle Yee, this poem written in dialogue to her brilliant work on contemporary Asian-American Art is now out in Brooklyn Rail! I loved writing from Michelle's ideas of "in-betweenness," how to create and break boundaries within the "master's language," and how to celebrate the joys of being an Asian-American woman.

Read the poem collaboration here.

So inspired by Amy Sadao and Suzette Min's introduction to the series: "Abolition of a Category" featuring Asian-American scholars and artists. Let's remake the canon!

If you happen to be in NYC, please do pick up a print copy and send me a pic! Would love to see how it looks in real ink and paper.

Dogs! Revenge! 1st Person Plural! Story "Geraldine Foggs" published in Identity Theory

There's revenge! Dogs! Mysterious illness! Yuppies! Small town crimes! Revenge by dogs! "Geraldine Foggs" is now out with Identity Theory. It only takes 12 minutes and no cost at all to read here.

This story about a cleaning woman with a crooked son and an unexplained blindness is told from the perspective of the town. I've always loved the first person plural. Anthony Doerr's "For A Long Time, This was Griselda's Story" and Jeffrey Eugenides' Virgin Suicides are gorgeous examples. It took me several drafts over the years to get the point-of-view and magical realism atmosphere right. A good reminder to keep editing and don't give up on your favorite stories. 

Can't thank enough editor extraordinaire Sophie Newman who helped me land the ending, and Matt Borondy for bringing me into the Identity Theory community, and who found the perfect photo to go with this piece.

Story "It Was A Watermelon Love" in The Boiler!

New story about young love, old regrets and lots of bad-good art now out with The Boiler ! What would you do if you had a chance to see a past love after decades? Would you meet them or run the other way so that you can freeze those perfect memories? Would you even recognize each other?

Inspired by sunny days in Provence and lots of tipsy gallery openings in NYC, this story took me a year to perfect... and it's less than 5 minutes to read! Don't know about you but sounds like a good deal to me.

Poem "Sky Burial" in Poetry Northwest's 60th Anniversary

A slice of Tibet in the great Northwest. Check out my poem "Sky Burial" in the 60th anniversary issue of Poetry Northwest. Can't believe my name is on that gorgeous cover, and in awe of all the amazing poems mine is wedged between. I kept reading it weeks after, in the tram, by the lake, at the Vevey wine festival (left). Because what is wine without poetry?

www.poetrynw.org/summer-fall-2019-2/

Story in "Forward: 21st Century Flash Fiction"

My story "How to Catch a Sun" is now out in a new anthology, Forward: 21st-Century Flash Fiction. This story about a woman blinded by a solar eclipse and how she lived through two wars and one revolution first appeared in my favorite flash fiction journal, Wigleaf.

Great to see this story sandwiched between the work of so many brilliant fiction writers of color. The anthology is available to order here.

Want to hear my serious just-getting-over-a-cold voice reading "How to Catch a Sun"? Of course you do! Listen on Soundcloud.

Story "The Lady Clock" Nominated for Best Small Fictions 2018

Must be writers nomination season because here's another from Decomp Magazine for "The Lady Clock" - a story about a boy, a girl and a bouncing orchid in Geneva. OK now I can go home, eat a whole bag of chips AND chocolate almond bar, and dance like I've been drinking. Wait, I am drinking.

Read at: http://www.decompmagazine.com/theladyclock.htm

Poem in European Space Agency's "Rosetta Art Tribute"

This little poem about the Philae comet lander first showed up in Maudlin House then traveled to Brooklyn Poets and it’s finally home with mama on the Rosetta Art Tribute site. Thank you European Space Agency for inspiring so many artists and writers around the world!

Pushcart Nomination from Writers Resist

A skyscraper-sized thank you to Writers Resist for nominating my poem "Market Value" for the Pushcart. I wrote this poem two years ago and workshopped it in Jamie McKendrick's class with Geneva Writers Group, and now it has been made part of a resistance. Feeling a wave of light just thinking about it.

People of words, of art, of strength, whatever form your resistance takes, please submit to the Writers Resist collective. We need your voice.

Read the poem here.

Poem "Market Value" in Writers Resist

On a fall day in 2015, the Chinese stock market dropped, which triggered a fall in all the other markets. I started thinking about the over financialization of our global economy. I started thinking about vegetable markets. I started thinking about what I knew then and how little I know now. Then this poem came.

Read "Market Value" on Writers Resist.

Poem "We The People Who March" in Writers Resist

Since I moved back to the US on November 8th, I have been searching for the right forms of resistance in this Upside-Down. Writers Resist is one form that has brought me motivation, enlightenment and a sense of unity. It's such a honor for me then to have my poem "We The People Who March" written for the Women's March on Washington as part of Writers Resist's 100 Days issue.

Especially after yesterday when the House of Representatives chose cruelty over humanity, putting millions of vulnerable Americans' health at risk, I needed a reminder of the hope and energy of the march, a first congregation of compassion and iron determination, back when the horrors ahead were still vague and uncertain. Now that so many have taken very certain forms, I need to, have to remember why we marched and why we'll be marching for the next four years. One of the protest signs that day said: "Rich White Man Rights for EVERYONE." Ok let's get that done. 1355 days of resistance left.

Story "The Sudden" in Wigleaf's 2017 Longlist

Last night I had the writerly blues. After a whole day of being at a standstill with my novel, feeling like I didn’t know anything about anything, and couldn’t write a single sentence worth a damn - I ended up binge watching Forensic Files on Netflix because there’s nothing like disturbing true crime stories to make you feel even worse. Then this morning, woke up to surprising better-than-bacon news: my Icelandic short story “The Sudden” made it on this year’s Wigleaf Longlist!

When it was first published with apt Magazine, it was already a joy to be alongside such beautiful and brilliant work, plus Carissa and Randolph are two of the loveliest, most compassionate and dedicated writers/editors/justice-fighters you’ll ever meet. I’m lucky that my bout of creative pessimism was disproved so quickly (thank you Wigleaf!) but it’s a nice reminder to work through the darkness,  to withhold judgment while holding yourself to a high standard. And make your Netflix choices wisely.

Congratulations to all the Wigleaf Top 50 winners!

Story "The Lady Clock" in decomP Magazine

My story “The Lady Clock” is out with decomP Magazine! I wrote this after I went to pick up my orchid from a friend who kindly took care of it during the holidays, and discovered the difficulties of walking down the street with a potted plant. Now that orchid has a home with another dear friend and Granita the cat. Super excited because I’ve been a big fan of decomP for years, they’ve won Best of the Net and other awards and are just perpetually awesome. And how cool is this "time lapse" cover art for the February issue?

Read the story at decomP

Poem "Philadelphia" in Offshoots Journal

My poem “Philadelphia” has just appeared in Offshoots Journal! I wrote this on a scrap of paper when my train broke down in Philadelphia, and I was waiting for my Dad to drive up from DC and rescue me. I started thinking of the long drive ahead for him, and about how he has spent so much time over the years driving me to school, piano lessons, to the airport when I left home, picking me up when I come home. All my life he has been rescuing me. He always seemed a giant to me.

Read more in Offshoots Journal 13, goes great with a cup of joe: http://www.genevawritersgroup.org/offshoots/offshoots-13/