Siel Ju's Blog, page 9

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 of my enjoyment:

The Gravedigger’s Daughter by Joyce Carol Oates (Ecco, 2007)

“That sensation of things-falling-away. Once the ice begins to crack, it will happen swiftly.”
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This 500+ page time by Joyce Carol Oates follows a good little girl who grows up in a Jewish family who escaped the holocaust — only to be exploited as low-wage workers and v...

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

If you’re plugged into the L.A. literary community, you know about Roar Shack, the eclectic monthly reading series in Echo Park with its impromptu live write competitions. And if you’ve been to Roar Shack, you know its host David Rocklin, the energetic writer who’s been putting the monthly series together for five years now.

I first met David when I first read at Roar Shack in 2013 — after which, out of curiosity, I picked u...

Political drama. False identities. Forbidden romance. David Rocklin’s new novel, The Night Language, contains all of these, but is at its heart a quiet — and unexpected — love story. After all, there aren’t too many novels starring black men in the court of Queen Victoria — let alone two black men who fall in love.

The Night Language brings together Prince Alamayou of Abyssinia (Ethiopia today) with his ad hoc guardian, Philip Layard. Plucked from his home and brought to England, Alamayou slo...

November is one of my favorite months — because my birthday falls in it (My wishlist is here, just FYI).

But I’m especially looking forward to it this year because it’s going to be a month of firsts: First time leading a National Writing Month workshop, first time judging a short story contest for Prism Review, first time getting to do a reading in San Diego, and first time visiting Florida for the Miami Book Festival. Help me celebrate my birthday all month by taking part in one or all of...

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 Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood (McClelland and Stewart, 1985)

“I hunger to commit the act of touch.”
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For those who still aren’t familiar with the story, here’s a summary: The U.S. has been taken over by a religious regime — that has subjugated women into servile, domestic roles. The story’s told by Offred, a “handmaid,” aka...

If you want to read more international writers, but don’t know where to start, try a Boxwalla Book Box. This subscription box service promises to send you two new reads at a time — featuring writers from all over the world.

Boxwalla’s picks seem pretty idiosyncratic and, in general, lesser known. “All of them are must-read but not as widely read as they deserve to be,” claims the website. A recent Boxwalla Instagram post highlighted the writers from Asia featured so far, ranging “from the cl...

Every month, I interview an author I admire on his literary firsts–except this month, I’m interviewing an editor.

Editing a literary journal, I think, requires a certain level of masochism. We’re talking, after all, about publications with teeny tiny readerships that nonetheless get deluged with thousands of submissions from would-be contributors, most of whom haven’t bothered to pick up a single issue of the journal. Editors have to slog through this massive slush pile day after day — usual...

Santa Monica Review celebrates its 30th anniversary next year — and as part of the celebration, one lucky reader will win a 4-issue prize package from the literary journal!

But first, a bit about Santa Monica Review: Founded by Jim Krusoe back in 1988, this well-established and respected national literary magazine published some of Aimee Bender’s earliest works. The all-fiction print zine is published twice a year out of Santa Monica College.

I’m excited to be giving away a Santa Monica Revie...

Siel Ju and Lisa Locascio, a few Halloweens ago

One of my first fiction publications was in the west coast lit journal ZYZZYVA a few years ago. That story’s included in my novel-in-stories Cake Time published a few months ago, and a few days ago, ZZYZZYVA reviewed Cake Time so I feel like the world’s come full circle:

For Siel Ju’s narrator, there are no easy answers or tidy morals to unpack after a relationship fizzles—that’s just life…. Cake Time is a great story collection for our present...

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:

Sour Heart by Jenny Zhang (Lenny, 2017)

“All I had wanted for so long was to be part of a family that wasn’t mine.”
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You guys, this book is so good. Sour Heart tells interconnected stories of girlhood as Chinese immigrants in NYC — the raw, unvarnished, gritty stories completely unlike, say, The Joy Luck Club. Four families packed...