Siel Ju

Category: Siel

Siel Ju’s publications and events

  • I’m Reading at Villain’s Tavern on March 31

    The AWP Conference is coming to Los Angeles in a couple weeks, along with a crush of literary panels, readings, and other shenanigans happening both on and offsite. I’m on a panel at the actual conference (more on that later) but the night before that happens, I hope you’ll come hear me read some of my new fiction at an offsite reading:

    What: Best of the West Reading (AWP Conference offsite event)
    When: Thursday, March 31, 2016, 6 pm – 7:30 pm
    Where: Villain’s Tavern, 1356 Palmetto St, Los Angeles

    The event’s presented by The Los Angeles Review, Pacifica Literary Review, and Cutbank! I’ll be reading with Corinne Manning (founding editor of The James Franco Review), Madgalawit Makonnen, Jeff Walt, William Camponovo, Catherine Pond, Daniel Riddle Rodriguez, and Caleb Tankersley.

    Hope to see you there — and say hello when I see you at AWP!

  • A Story in an anthology — Nothing to Declare

    Nothing to Declare: A Guide to the Flash Sequence.What is a flash sequence? Imagine a series of flash fiction pieces that connect and build on each other — though really, you could also imagine a string of prose poems too, or a sequence of tiny creative non fiction pieces, or a regular short story broken up into little sections —

    Whatever your definition, I recommend that you pick up a new anthology — Nothing to Declare: A Guide to the Flash Sequence. New from White Pine Press, this handsome anthology imagines and reimagines tiny prose pieces and their connections and disjunctions.

    Plus — one of my pieces is in the anthology! The story, “The Locust of Desire,” was originally published in ZYZZYVA.

    And don’t miss all the other wonderful work. There are too many great pieces to mention them all, but here are lines from a few to whet your appetite:

    >> Nin Andrews: “As if snow were falling inside each one of us, and no one would make it stop.”

    >> Jim Ruland: “We’re going to need Cuban cigars and Italian espresso. Definitely champagne. Possibly lube.”

    >> Jenn Koiter: “There was always a good Ken and a bad Ken. Always a bad Ken. The bad Ken is necessary.”

    >> Bob Thurber: “She had a wide mouth overcrowded with perfectly straight teeth and a tongue like an angry snake.”

    Thank you to Robert Alexander, Eric Braun, and Debra Marquart, editors of the anthology.

    Pick up Nothing to Declare at Perseus — and come to our flash sequence panel at AWP! More about that soon —

  • Vermin on the Mount reading in Highland Park, Feb. 19

    Thanks to everyone who came out to Highland Park for Vermin on the Mount!

    From left to right: Rebecca Gonzales, Josh Stallings, Scot Sothern, Kevin Moffett, and Siel Ju at Vermin on the Mount at Book Show, Highland Park, Los Angeles, Feb. 19, 2016
    From left to right: Rebecca Gonzales, Josh Stallings, Scot Sothern, Kevin Moffett, and Siel Ju at Vermin on the Mount at Book Show, Highland Park, Los Angeles, Feb. 19, 2016

    Special thanks to Jim Ruland for hosting — and to photographer and writer Scot Sothern, Kevin Moffett (Permanent Visitors), Josh Stallings (Young Americans), and Rebecca Gonzales for sharing their work —

    Jim Ruland and Siel Ju at Vermin on the Mount at Book Show, Highland Park, Los Angeles, Feb. 19, 2016
    Jim Ruland and Siel Ju at Vermin on the Mount at Book Show, Highland Park, Los Angeles, Feb. 19, 2016

    Happy belated Valentine’s Day!

  • I’m Reading at Vermin on the Mount on Feb. 19

    Celebrate Valentine’s Day a few days late at a Vermin on the Mount reading!

    16 Feb VOTM LA

    What: Vermin on the Mount Reading at Book Show
    When: Friday, February 19 at 7:30 pm
    Where: Book Show, 5503 N Figueroa St, Los Angeles

    I’m psyched to be reading with photographer and writer Scot Sothern, Kevin Moffett (Permanent Visitors), Josh Stallings (Young Americans), and Rebecca Gonzales. Jim Ruland (Forest of Fortune) will host!

    Hope to see you there —

    Poster design by Keith Rosson

  • My novel-in-stories Cake Time to be published by Red Hen Press

    redhenpressI’m excited and honored to announce my novel-in-stories Cake Time won the Red Hen Fiction Manuscript Award!

    The book will come out in spring 2017 if all goes according to plan.

    Thank you to everyone who read, critiqued, and listened to the stories in this work the last few years — including Peter Steinberg, Edan Lepucki, Paul Mandelbaum, Chris Corning, Travis Koplow, Tanya Knox, Shilpa Argawal, Katherine Motoike, and Carolyn Peters for your valuable feedback and Lauren Eggert-Crowe, David Rocklin, and Zoë Ruiz for giving me opportunities to share pieces of Cake Time at readings.

    I’m so grateful to have you all in my life! Looking forward to working with everyone at Red Hen Press! And thank you in advance to the future readers who will pick up Cake Time —

  • Book review in Los Angeles Review: Not Dark Yet by Berit Ellingsen

    BeritMy first publication of 2016 is a book review of Berit Ellingsen‘s post-apocalyptic novel, Not Dark Yet:

    Bombs. Strikes. Hate crimes. Droughts. Every nightly news broadcast seems catastrophic enough to require a visceral reaction from us—but what should that reaction be, exactly? In Berit Ellingsen’s novel Not Dark Yet, Brandon, the introspective protagonist, finds himself teetering between two extreme responses: a complete withdrawal from society, and a violent push to revolutionize it.

    Read the rest at the Los Angeles Review. You can also pick up a copy of Not Dark Yet at Two Dollar Radio, one of my favorite indie publishers!