User:Neopeius/Articles/Leslie What

Ai Jiang is a Canadian/Chinese writer of speculative fiction and poetry. Active since 2021, she was a finalist for the Nebula Award for Best Short Story for her 2022 story, "Give Me English". Her novel-writing career began in 2023 with the release of Linghun, published by Dark Matter INK.

Biography
Ai Jiang was born in Fujian in the People's Republic of China, emigrating to Canada with her parents when she was four years old. She is fluent in Mandarin, though she cannot read or write the language.

Jiang attended University of Toronto as well as Humber School for Writers and the Gotham Writers' Workshop. She received a Creative Writing master's from the University of Edinburgh, completed in 2022. Jiang is married, and she has made writing her full time career. Her hobbies include badminton an Instagram foodie account.

Writing Career
Jiang began writing on Wattpad early in high school, influenced by fantastical romances. She later focused on dark fantasy, science fiction and horror, her current specialties, inspired by movies such as Shutter Island, Us, Parasite, and Get Out, as well as the literary works of Ursula K. LeGuin, Shirley Jackson, Kazuo Ishiguro, and Toni Morrison. In particular, she absorbed their works' focus on atmospheric, character-driven as opposed to fast paced, plot-driven works. The majority of Jiang's characters are Asian diasporas, though this is more a function of the Jiang's background than a conscious authorial decision. Similarly, Jiang features a great many female characters, exploring political and social issues in her writing. Jiang uses speculative fiction to explore the persistence of current injustices into the future, should they be allowed to continue. When she writes science fiction, it tends toward the "softer", less technical side.

Her speculative fiction has appeared in a wide variety of venues including Interzone, Uncanny Magazine, The Dark Magazine, Pseudopod, The Deadlands, Dark Matter, and The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, in which her Nebula-nominated story, "Give Me English" appeared in in 2022. That same year, she was the recipient for the Odyssey Workshop’s 2022 Fresh Voices Scholarship. In addition to short fiction and nonfiction, Jiang also has published poetry.

Jiang's first novel, Linghun, was released April 2023. Other projects slated for release include a collection of Jiang's short stories, Ai Jiang’s Smol Tales From Between Worlds (Spring 2023), the novelette, "I AM AI" (June 2023), and a novel-length expansion of "Give Me English". A full member of the SFWA and the HWA, she is currently represented by Lisa Abellera with Kimberley Cameron and Associates, and together, they are exploring adaptation of Linghun and I AM AI for film and/or television.

Book bibliography

 * Linghun (Dark Matter INK, 2023)


 * Ai Jiang’s Smol Tales From Between Worlds (2023)

Awards

 * Nebula Award for Best Short Story finalist, "Give Me English", The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction (2022)


 * Odyssey Workshop’s Fresh Voices Scholarship (2022)