Ai Jiang is a Canadian 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", and in 2023, she won the Ignyte Award for her poem, "We Smoke Pollution". Her long-form writing career began in 2023 with the release of Linghun, published by Dark Matter INK.
Biography
Ai Jiang was born in Fujian, China, emigrating to Canada with her parents when she was four years old.[2] She can speak Mandarin, though she cannot read or write the language.[3]
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. Le Guin, 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 Jiang's background than a conscious authorial decision.[5] Similarly, Jiang's writing features many female characters, exploring political and social issues in her writing.[6] Jiang uses speculative fiction to explore the persistence of current injustices into the future, should they be allowed to continue.[4]
Her work has appeared in a wide variety of speculative venues including Interzone,[7]Uncanny Magazine, The Dark Magazine, Pseudopod, Radon Journal,[8]The Deadlands, Dark Matter, and The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, in which her Nebula Award nominated story, "Give Me English", appeared in 2022,[9] the same year she was the recipient of the Odyssey Workshop’s 2022 Fresh Voices Scholarship. In addition to short fiction and nonfiction, Jiang also has published poetry.[7] When she writes science fiction, it tends toward the "softer", less technical side.[10]
Jiang's first long-form work, the novella Linghun (Dark Matter INK), was published 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),
[11] the novelette, "I AM AI" (June 2023), and a novel-length expansion of "Give Me English".[9] A full member of the SFWA and the HWA, she is currently represented by Lisa Abellera with Kimberley Cameron and Associates,[4] and together they are exploring adaptation of Linghun and I AM AI for film and/or television.[11]
Bibliography
Linghun (Dark Matter INK, 2023)
I AM AI (Shortwave Publishing, 2023)
Ai Jiang’s Smol Tales from Between Worlds (2023)
Awards
She was the recipient of Odyssey Workshop’s Fresh Voices Scholarship (2022).
