Angela Liu

I’ll say again what I said last year: through all the ups and downs of writing, submitting, and publishing, I think poetry is the only form of writing that has retained that child-like sense of wonder and discovery that got me writing in the first place. I still write most poems with the same stream of consciousness that I did when I was a high school student. Poetry is what I always go back to whenever the other writing starts feeling too heavy and bogged down, a little like coming home.

I had six poems published in 2024. Check ’em out below!

Full List of Rhysling/Hugo Award Eligible Poems

LONG POEM

1. “The Final Trick” (Strange Horizons)
   – inspired by my parents’ fragmented stories of the Cultural Revolution
   – nominated for 2024 Rhysling Award

SHORT POEM

1. “there are no taxis for the dead” (Uncanny Magazine)
   – inspired by shouryouma, the spirit animals made from cucumbers/eggplants that carry the dead to and from home during Obon in Japan
   – nominated for 2024 Rhysling Award
2. “3,000 Year Love Confession” (Heartlines Spec)
   – inspired by a girl I saw crying in a cafe while reading a book of poetry
3. “If I Had a Time Machine” (Small Wonders)
   – inspired by my son’s obsession with mosasaurs and my own fascination with exclamation marks
4. “A Wall of Keyholes” (Worlds of Possibility)
   – from my love of collecting vintage-looking keys and dreaming up where each one might lead
5. “Mnemonic Burning” (Nightmare Magazine)
   – inspired by a family history of memory loss