Siel Ju's Blog, page 11

Get to know your local literary journals, and you’ll get to know your local literary community. Literary journals not only publish the work of local writers, but also hold readings where you can meet the readers, authors, and editors — as well as offer opportunities to get involved. Here are fifteen literary journals for Angelenos to watch:

Faultline. Published by UC Irvine’s English department since 1992, Faultline comes out annually, thanks to the MFA students who put it together. A sizabl...

Which contemporary authors are overrated? I got into a conversation about this with a couple other writers at a recent Pen Center USA event. Joan Didion’s name came up — and though I haven’t read enough of her oeuvre to come down on a side on this question, I do very much feel the heft of her reputation weigh on me whenever I pick up one of her books.

Meaning: When I read a book by Joan Didion, I find I’m less interested in diving into the subject matter of the book than into the thoughts a...

Every month, I interview an author I admire on her literary firsts.

Gina Sorell’s made a lot of bold choices in her life, switching creative careers, swapping literary agents, and shaking up her life to move across ��countries and continents.

Her debut novel,��Mothers and Other Strangers,��is equally bold.��Part psychological thriller, part coming-of-age story, and part redemption narrative, the story follows Elsie, a thirty-something woman in Los Angeles who learns her estranged mother ���...

Is it really August already? Last night I had a nightmare that stores were already selling Halloween-themed��tchotchkes. I woke up to a happier world, if rather anxious to really make the most of the rest of this summer —

And I hope you’ll be part of it. I have a couple readings coming up in Los Angeles — both free and open to the public — so please come on by and hear me read from my novel-in-stories, Cake Time!

First, up, the latest Roar Shack reading (more about the series here) happens S...

If your Korean mother was like my Korean mother, you grew up eating lots of fresh veggie dishes made from scratch — with a shitload of MSG sprinkled in for flavor. Seriously, MSG was my mother’s favorite seasoning. Eating the stuff now makes me feel instantly ill and irritable — which perhaps explains why I was an angry little girl!

I still love Korean food though — and while many mom and pop Korean places still love MSG as much as my mother did, many health-conscious places are embracing Kor...

“My father proposed to my mother at gunpoint when she was nineteen, and knowing that she was already pregnant with a dead man���s child, she accepted.”

How can you read that first sentence and not read on? This tiny tidbit of Gina Sorell’s debut novel Mothers and Other Strangers gripped me when I first read it nine months ago and kept me in anticipation until the book finally came out in May — after which I devoured it in two days!

The story follows Elsie, a thirty-something woman in Los Ange...

Brief reviews of books by contemporary authors I read this month ��� along with photos of what I ate while reading. The list is ordered by the level my enjoyment:

The Sarah Book by Scott McClannahan (Tyrant Books, 2017)

“Perhaps we love what we never know most of all.”
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This novel is a crazy ride ��� a mostly true story about Scott and his relationship (and the end thereof) with one Sarah ��� starting off with his alcoholism and her bulimia and related chaotic antics ��� like living for day...

Picky writers can���t just go to any coffee shop. We need good working spaces with comfy chairs and tables. We need decent wifi and electric outlets for our laptops. We (or at least I) need good reading light. And we like to be able to hang for a few hours without feeling like we���re overstaying our welcome.

Which is to say ��� I���m really putting together this best coffee shops list for me.

I often find myself stuck in a part of town I don���t know very well ��� usually before or after som...

Ever wondered about my thoughts on religion, AA, and the Midwest? Okay, maybe you haven’t — but tune in to the latest episode of Otherppl with Brad Listi, my favorite literary podcast, to hear me ramble about all of those topics and more!

I’ve listened to so many authors I admire on Otherppl, so it was an honor and a treat to get to be part of the podcast myself —

And I talked about a lot of things I don’t usually talk about. Religion, AA, and the Midwest are three of these topics, but the e...

If you long to discuss books you love — in real life, outside the confines of Amazon reviews and Goodreads comments — make joining a local book club a resolution. Here are five to check out —

For girls who brunch: L.A. Girly Book Club

With most of the regulars in their twenties and thirties, this book club usually reads novels by female authors, ranging from the more literary to chick-lit-ish to thrillers. The L.A. chapter���s organized by Janie, who picks out a different fun bar or restaura...