Author Q & A with Jiahui Wu

This week’s Author Q&A is with Jiahui Wu. Jiahui lives in the middle of nowhere and pays respect to the Kaurna people and their elders past, present, and future. She has work published in Plumwood Mountain, Cordite, Rabbit, SFPJ, and elsewhere. Her two flash fiction stories, “The Eternal Dead” and “The Couple” appear in our Winter 2022 issue. We asked Jiahui twelve questions and her answers to each were brief and to the point, much like her flash stories. 

1. What unique or surprising detail can you tell us about the origin, drafting, and/or final version of your piece appearing in this issue?

The table and chair really are separated now. They will never find each other again.

2. What did you learn (about yourself or craft or life in general) through writing and revising this piece?

I learned the superfluous must be abandoned, and the true will only come through in prized solitude.

3. How do you know when a piece of writing is finished?

When I have no more to add, and there is none to take away.

4. What part of the artistic process is the most difficult for you and why?

When I am not creating. Because I become unbearable and unhappy, it hurts the people closest to me.

5. What part of the artistic process is the most satisfying for you and why?

When a piece is at its completion and I know it is a good piece. The reason is plain to see. Who doesn’t enjoy a moment of pure ecstasy?

6. What is your biggest fear as a writer?

That one day I may lose the ability to think, and hence be unable to write.

7. What fuels your desire to write?

The gods gave me a gift. I shall not waste it.

8. What are your thoughts on the practice of writing under a pseudonym?

Each to his or her own.

9. Do you have any projects or upcoming events you would like to promote?

I am putting together my first collection of poems. Stay tuned.

10. If you could tell your younger writing self anything, what would it be?

Read ceaselessly. Read selectively, since you are a slow reader. Throw all the writers you dislike out the window. I mean, their books.

11. How did the pandemic affect your writing?

Since without death everything loses meaning, the pandemic, with its innumerable deaths as a daily reminder that our time is limited, spurs me on.

12. What do you think of when you hear the phrase “The Good Life?” 

This life I live. Bees in the trees. Freedom.

We would like to thank Jiahui Wu for participating in our Q&A and for allowing us to publish her stories. 

Cheers,
~The Good Life Review Team