My new story about a haunting, “Hot Spring Ghost Story,” is up in a dream publication, The Offing, today. Think: thermal baths, hot spring sulfur eggs, seduction, and intrigue in the aftermath of the Cultural Revolution. You can read the whole piece here!
I announced this on social media back in August, but haven’t yet on my website. I am absolutely thrilled to join Viking and Penguin Books as a debut fiction author. To see the project I’ve been working on since 2016, Ninetails take shape under the guidance of a dream editor Nidhi Pugalia — truly, I am grateful and exhilarated. This book is truly one that I have grown attached to—I had so much fun reading about the tales of ghosts and fox spirits through Chinese lore—especially the mysterious, shapeshifting huxian and hulijing—and hope you will too! Stayed tuned for Ninetails, coming soon from Penguin Books, and also my debut novel following its release.
My poem “Loquats” from The Paris Review is included in the upcoming anthology The Pushcart Prize XLVII: Best of The Small Presses 2023 Edition, which comes out December 6th, 2022. I am so excited to share space this year with so many incredible writers.
From the Publishers Weekly review:
This rich anthology of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry—the product of hundreds of small press nominations—runs broad and deep. For every familiar name like Alice McDermott and Rita Dove, there are relatively new voices like Amanda Gunn and Joseph Sigurdson. Speaking of McDermott: her droll story “Half Spent,” about a withering middle-aged man who reckons with memories of his late “frugal” father and frustrations with his “silly” mother, who sends him a birthday card that reads “Dude, You’re Fifty,” is not to be missed. Other highlights include Katrina Vandenberg’s lyric essay “Remembrance Poppy,” Elizabeth Tallent’s arch story “Poet,” Kate Osana Simonian’s comic story “The Kiss,” Sally Wen Mao’s evocative poem “Loquats,” Molly Giles’ kinetic essay “Bad Dog,” and Elizabeth Robinson’s haunting poem “Confession.” The list of small presses that made nominations for this volume runs to 21 pages, and a lengthy index lists every work reprinted in previous editions since 1976, alphabetized by author, lending the feel of a supersized literary journal and reference book. This annual volume is both a treasure and a treasury. (Nov.)
Pushcart Prize XLVII: Best of the Small Presses
Sally Wen Mao, Poet & Author
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