Writing
Staring into the Sun
A short story collection
Staring into the Sun links memoir and narrative nonfiction about my Chinese American family’s tragedies and triumphs since 1895. It will be published in paperback and ebook by Ten16 Press in May 2026 (Asian American and Pacific Islanders month). I will independently publish the audio book with production by Mercury Calling.
Staring into the Sun is a semifinalist of the 2025 Autumn House Nonfiction Prize.
I am serializing the whole manuscript. Find out more and sign up here to get about 2,000 words sent for free to your inbox every Saturday morning through the end of 2025.
The first story of the collection, “Things My Dad Told Me,” was shortlisted for the inaugural Hope Prize, published in the anthology Tomorrow There Will Be Sun by Simon & Schuster Australia, with all royalties going to mental health charity Beyond Blue. Available in the US and Australia as a paperback now, and in the UK from 13th February 2025. Also available worldwide as an ebook.
ABC Radio Melbourne’s The Conversation Hour episode “How do we find hope?” covered The Hope Prize anthology launch. I had the opportunity to talk about my short story and my work in sustainability, starting at 46:20.
Another story from my collection, “Gold Mountain Diggers,” features in Livina Press Issue 10. It’s about a visit I had with my grandfather in Beverly Hills in 1995.
My speculative story “His Bones,” also based on my family history, is published in the Oxford Flash Fiction Prize anthology, Transformations.
Two of my stories were longlisted in Flash 500 Short Stories 2024 and “Data Double” was featured on The Failing Writers’ Podcast.
An earlier version of the collection, then called Sixteen Stories and including the Eastern European Jewish half of my family, was critiqued on The Shit No One Tells You About Writing podcast in August 2023.
