Angela Liu

A Story About A Poem: “A Body Without a Name”

In college, I used to churn out 5,000 word short stories two-hours before class in a burst of god-like arrogance and never look at them again. Now I can spend thirty minutes or more just staring at single line, questioning if I even know how to write anymore. For me, over-editing is a product of…
A Story About A Poem: “there are no taxis for the dead

Obon is one of the biggest holidays in Japan. Celebrated in mid-August for several days, it’s one of the most crowded and expensive travel times of the year. Similar to the Ghost Festival in China, it’s a time where deceased ancestors are believed to return home—a time to honor the dead. Many neighborhoods hold their…
A Story About A Story: “Another Girl Under the Iron Bell”

When it comes to stories inspired by historical settings, I’m always eager to know more about the real places/people behind them. What real places inspired the impossibly spectacular Daguanyuan (the Grand View Garden) in the classic Chinese novel Dream of the Red Chamber? Who was Mary Boleyn, the sister who inspired The Other Boleyn Girl,…
My Poetry 2024

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…
A Story About A Story: “Ppaka”

from a Tokyo bar to a name-stealing frog-man Every month in my newsletter (already three-months late…), I’d like to give a Behind-The-Scenes (inspirations, writing process and all) look at one of the stories or poems I’ve written. Last time I talked about “Imagine: Purple-Haired Girl Shooting Down The Moon,” my Nebula- and Ignyte-nominated novelette, published…
A Story About A Story: “Imagine: Purple-Haired Girl”

I’ve always been obsessed with Behind-The-Scenes looks at my favorite stories, from books to movies to comics. It’s so interesting knowing that Akira Toriyama had no intention of writing a fighting series when he started Dragon Ball (he was encouraged by his editor to go in this direction) or how Naoko Takeuchi was an avid…

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