• Winner: “Slow Clap” for Joyland’s
  Open Border Fiction Prize (2023)

• Periplus Writing Fellow (2022)

• FORGE Artist Fellow (2022)

• IFP Screen Forward Lab Fellow (2017)

• VONA Voices Fellow (2016)
  

I’m a creative entrepreneur, multi-disciplinary storyteller, and design thinker building systems for people to thrive.

From my work across the page, stage, and screen; to designing solutions for civic issues with and for the marginalized, I love creating for impact.

A trained design-thinker and facilitator, my Master’s Project “The LinkedThru Project” was featured in Wired.com as an innovative solution to the problem of stigma experienced by returning citizens. New frontiers call to me: I started an online community and writing class, Sandbox, for Asian diasporic writers; created campaigns; led design sprint projects for community organisations. I love a wicked problem, and leaning in with curiousity and empathy to build systemic solutions with an entrepreneurial streak.

Previously, I was a Segment Producer at Netflix’s Peabody-award-winning Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj, pitching and producing episodes about groundbreaking issues from Chinese feminism to Indian cricket scandals. I started out at Ping Chong + Company, an experimental documentary theater company in New York City, capturing intimate stories from Alaskan migrants to Muslim youth in NYC.

I’m also a Pushcart Prize nominated writer, with essays and reportage in The Dial, AFAR Magazine, Atlas Obscura, The New York Times, and The Atlantic. My short story “Slow Clap” won Joyland Magazine’s 2023 Open Border Fiction Prize.

Born in Beijing, I’ve worked and lived in Virginia, Hong Kong, New York City, and Cambridge, Mass. You’ll find me happiest at the lamb skewer street stall, sitting on a flimsy plastic stool, chatting up the hawker.

• June 2023: Filmed an elderly neighbor introducing me to the secrets of my Taipei neighborhood
  

• March 2023: Curated reading and facilitated dialogue on writing, craft, and Asian diasporic identity with Karissa Chen, Michelle Kuo, Daniel Yo-Ling at New Bloom/Daybreak in Taipei, Taiwan 📚
  

• March 2023: Organised a 48 Hour Monologue Jam for emerging playwrights and actors in Taipei, Taiwan to showcase new works 🎭

WRITING

FICTION

Slow Clap, Joyland Magazine, January 2023 (Winner of the Open Border Fiction Prize)
Watch List, Jellyfish Review, March 2020 (Nominated for Best Small Fictions 2020)

NON-FICTION + REPORTAGE

The Underrated Joy of Asking Directions, AFAR Magazine, August 2023
On the AAPI Narrative Lab x Harmony Labs, Narrative Initiative, December 2022
This Brooklyn Restaurant Has a Brilliant Model for Hiring and Supporting Immigrant Workers,
Back of House, February 2022
Whitney Hu’s Favorite Spots in Sunset Park, Curbed, April 2021
I Joined America at Its Worst, The Atlantic, November 2020
I’m 10 Minutes Away From Becoming a U.S. Citizen, The New York Times, July 2020
The 90-Year-Old Virtuoso Keeping Naxi Music Alive in China, Atlas Obscura, July 2020 
Lotus Pods and Jambalaya in Jianguomen: Memory and Change in Our Beijing Neighborhood,
Catapult, November 2016
Death, Beauty, and Bling: Ebony G. Paterson’s Dead Trees, No Home Journal, March 2016

PODCAST

”Chinese Cinderella” Episode, Spotify x Wonder Media Network, February 2022

CHAPBOOK

Informant
a collection of essays, prose, and illustrations,
published through Wesleyan University's student-run press. May 2012

THEATER

“Ascend!” is a play inspired from interviews and surveys with East Asian and AAPI women, centering on their (in)visibilities, joys, and traumas during the last two years of the pandemic. The play asks: what do you do when your art form stops giving you joy? How does one feel good in a body during a pandemic? The play premiered at The Tank in October 2021 and was supported by a City Artist Corps grant. Written, co-directed, and starring Amy Zhang with an ensemble, including drummer Wen-Ting Wu. Pictures: Joel Lee (IG: joellayy_)

“I certainly wanted to do something for Asian women on stage—and for our visibility in general—that I hadn’t seen before, and I wanted people to experience that.” —Amy Zhang

—Howlround Interview: Creating a Play from Real Asian Women’s Desires, Dreams, and Heartaches

FILM
 

Teaching and facilitating spaces of care + empowerment for youth and adults is a passion of mine. I’ve managed summer literature programs at Great Books Summer Program at Stanford University and their inaugural Asia program at Beijing University, creating cross-cultural activities for student immersion. I mentor students one-on-one, oversee and lead teams of volunteers and teachers, as well as create curriculums and spaces for creative writing, media-making, and civic engagement.

At Ping Chong + Company, a National Medal of Arts winning theater company, I worked closely with the Education Director to teach workshops and train teaching artists, and empowered kids to own their own life stories and tell them on stage.

Classes and workshops include:

• Sandbox (2022- ongoing): a six session intensive writing class and community for Asian diasporic writers, teaching craft tools from film and theater for prose writing. (Sign up for mailing list to be updated of upcoming classes!)

• Breathe + Bloom (2020-2021): a nourishing creative non-fiction workshop for Asian Americans to recharge during the pandemic.

• The Personal Is Political (2020): a week-long documentary intensive for Dalton School high school orientation, to help students process the current political and social climate

• Poetry and Prose for Socio-Emotional Learning (2020): I volunteered to create and lead a summer writing program for ESL third graders, for immigrant youth non-profit APEX For Youth

• Literary Journalism Workshop (2018): a week-long intensive on the craft of literary journalism for Great Books Summer Program at Stanford University

• Multicultural Voices in American Literature (2017): a literature and writing workshop for Great Books Summer Program at Beijing University