Reading Den

Anna Qu is a Chinese American writer. She writes personal essays on identity and growing up in New York as an immigrant. She is the author of the memoir Made in China: A Memoir of Love and Labor.

Her work has appeared in Poets & Writers, Lithub, Threepenny Review, Lumina, Kartika, Kweli, Vol.1 Brooklyn, and Jezebel, among others. She holds an MFA in Creative Nonfiction from Sarah Lawrence College. Sh serves as the Nonfiction Editor at Kweli Journal, and teaches at Catapult, Monmouth University and the low res MFA program at New England College. Awarded the 2023 BMI Shearing Fellowship, she’ll be in Vegas in the Spring.

What’s the best writing advice you ever received?

I studied under JoAnn Beard, and she said, sometimes the solution to a piece is starting over. It’s simple and yet hard to follow. We’re often too precious about our work, about “killing our darlings,” and I think a good perspective to have is your best work is ahead of you. If something isn’t working, maybe it’s time to look at another writing project or start this project over. As an emerging writer, you may not have the tools to solve the problem on the page, but if you start over, it’ll be a completely different set of problems. 

How have you found the Colorado writing community?

I recently moved to Denver from NYC, and I’ve been incredibly grateful for the growing community here. There’s a big difference in the quantity of events and writers in the area, but the quality of the community is warm and generous.

What have you loved about moving to Colorado?

I love the pace, and the way I have time to walk, contemplate, and write. The outdoor culture and sunshine are also great for my mental health!

What are some recent reads that have impacted your work?

I’m reading Jane Alison’s Meander, Spiral, Explode, and a translation called The Hole by Hye-Young Pyun, and thinking about alternative story structures. I’m fascinated by the four-act structure common in Eastern storytelling, and how that structure may influence my novel-in-progress, We All Have Mouths to Feed.  

What will we hear from you at Reading DEN on February 28?

I plan to read a nonfiction essay about estrangement called Broken Free. It will be in an anthology and is edited by Jenny Bartoy. It’s a piece I’ve been musing over since 2018, and I feel grateful it’s finally found a home. 

---